by Hickory Mack
“I figured if I’m going to be stuck here for the foreseeable future, I may as well know how to find my way around without an escort. You guys might not always be around if I need to go somewhere. And what if I get tired of your company and decide to give you the slip for an afternoon? Plus, I like people watching. I feel like you can learn a lot about the culture of a place by watching its people as they go about their daily lives,” she answered.
“I’ve known a few women like that,” Hasprey chuckled. “Always into other people’s business.”
Elsie didn’t bother correcting him, though he’d definitely misconstrued what she’d said. Sometimes the old timers were a little more misogynistic than their younger counterparts, but she didn’t often feel like it was her personal responsibility to cure them of their unfortunate views. Those sorts of arguments were simply too much damned work for not enough reward.
She gave him her best ‘I totally don’t agree, but let’s not take it any further’ smile. Cross cleared his throat and took her plate when she was finished, returning it to the counter.
“Shall we?” he asked, his eyes constantly taking in their surroundings. Elsie almost snorted at how unintentionally obvious he was being. The brujo had done his due diligence before, but he was being super security officer now that she’d recognized their bond. It was kind of cute, considering she had complete confidence she could easily kick his ass.
“We may as well start at the top and work our way down, yeah?” Hasprey suggested. “Though you may have seen enough of the top floor already.”
“I think that’s a great idea,” Elsie said immediately. “There was an observation deck in that huge room the gate connects to. I’d like to see what’s up there.”
Hasprey gave her a surprised look but nodded his approval. “They had you so busy I hadn’t thought you’d have the time to notice.”
“Observation is part of the job. Is there any way I can get a map to this place?” Elsie asked as Cross led the way to the nearest elevator. “I’d feel a lot better knowing I have a back-up in case I get lost.”
“Security Chief Rand said we cannot have a complete map that details the facility, just a simplified one that gives the basic access areas of the upper levels,” Cross told her, a sharp edge to his voice.
“Purely for safety issues, I’m sure,” Hasprey said assuredly. “If the blueprints of this place were so easily accessible, there would be far too many security concerns.”
Elsie nodded as she followed the men, wishing Frost would come back. She understood if he needed time to get over the anger at yet another betrayal by the hunters, but damn it, she didn’t like being separated from him. Like it or not, she’d come to depend on the wolf. Even when he was being an asshole, he brought her peace of mind. She felt safer when he was around.
Fifteen minutes later, they entered the observation deck above the warehouse. Elsie stood in front of the massive windows overlooking the vast space with her thumb in her mouth, chewing her nail. Even with the barrier in place, this room was problematic. Something trying to slip in or out of the gate had way too many places to hide. Even from this vantage point, there were blind spots.
She made a mental note of it. Anyone watching this little tour might think she was here to criticize Rand’s job, but really, she was celebrating his oversights. Everything that he and his crew had missed was one more thing she could use to her advantage.
Elsie turned to the screens along the far wall and switched them on, interested to see what was covered from this room. She was unsurprised to find there were only two angles from the warehouse, while the others were of differing spaces on the same floor. The hallways and rooms were covered, but there was nothing on the gate itself. She bit down on her thumb to keep from laughing. The idiots.
“These screens only cover this floor. Is there a room like this for every floor?” Elsie asked. Cross shook his head.
“This floor is considered one of higher security, though it’s only staffed when the gate is scheduled to be opened. There’s no point in having anyone up here at any other time,” he answered. “There are other viewing rooms on the way down.”
“Interesting,” Elsie muttered, taking note of where all the cameras were. “Is there a master room? A single place that can see all the cameras at once? Or at least a place that can switch the screens to view whatever cameras they want?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Hasprey said, giving her a suspicious look, probably wondering why she would ask such a thing.
“I’ll bet there is.” She chewed on the inside of her lip and shared a look with Cross for half a second. He gave her an infinitesimal nod. He’d find out where that room was for her.
“Is there anything else on this level you’d like to see?” Hasprey asked, turning off the screens. Elsie didn’t react since nothing was happening on them anyway, but he was behaving awfully presumptuously for a retired lieutenant. She slowly turned her gaze in his direction and shook her head.
“Not that I can think of. Unless you know of anything of interest?” she said. “If not, let’s head to the next floor.”
They’d just stepped off the elevator when Elsie’s cuff warmed and glowed. She touched the quickly cooling metal expectantly, but the wolf didn’t come bursting out of it. He still needed time to himself, but at least he was with her, in a sense. He’d be able to hear her if she needed him.
The next several floors were pretty standard, with very little of interest. Elsie chose to take the stairs instead of the elevator, which seemed to make Hasprey anxious. She couldn’t say why she’d made the decision, but his reaction told her she’d been right to. It made her wonder if the elevator was perhaps being controlled to keep her off of certain floors. She might be acting like a crazy conspiracy theorist, but she didn’t trust the hunters. Not even likable old man hunters.
Elsie had several opportunities to find more things to take advantage of, but it wasn’t until they reached a medical level that the facility had her complete and undivided attention. This place was every bit as cold as everywhere else, but for some reason it was decorated to look like a children’s hospital. The floor tiles were green, and the ceiling was blue, painted with fluffy white clouds. Someone had even slapped a disturbingly cheery mural on the walls.
“Are—” Elsie paused, closing her eyes. “Are there children here?”
“The officers' families accompany them to wherever they are stationed. That includes the children. Sometimes they have to come down here, and one of the wives thought this would be a nice touch,” Hasprey answered, a grin on his face. “Some of us think it’s kinda cute.”
“It’s so morbid,” Elsie said, wandering through a set of double doors warning people to stay out. “What’s back here?”
“I really couldn’t say. Doctor stuff,” Hasprey answered. “We shouldn’t encroach on other people’s privacy.”
Elsie shoved open a door with the word “auditorium” scrawled across it. It was similar to the observation deck on the first floor, but instead of a huge warehouse, the windows looked down on an operation theater. There was stadium-style seating, with several rows of comfortable chairs, so procedures could be watched.
“This must be a school,” Cross theorized. Elsie shook her head.
“It’s so the researchers can watch the medical crews open up their subjects,” she said bitterly, looking back at Hasprey. “Am I right?”
“I really don’t have the authorization level to know anything about that,” he stammered. Elsie’s hands curled into fists, and she shoved them into her pockets to stop herself from hitting the man.
“My fae half is generally pretty useless, so I don’t get much dark magic out of the deal, but would you like to know one cool little perk? I can tell when people lie to me,” she hissed, rolling her shoulders. “It’s like this itch under my skin that I can’t quite scratch.”
“I’m not important to them anymore. I don’t know anything they’ve been up to.”
&nb
sp; “That’s the first true thing you’ve said in a while,” Elsie sneered. “They experiment on those demons here, don’t they? On the same level they treat little hunter brats with tenderness and care?”
Hasprey couldn’t look her in the eye. He pressed his lips together and gave a single nod. “At least, they used to. I can’t imagine they’ve stopped.”
“What kind of experiments do they focus on?”
“I don’t know. I was never a part of the medical side of things. I’m not a researcher. I did fieldwork.”
That much was true. Hasprey wasn’t refined enough to be admitted into the fold of the good ol’ boys club at the top of the rankings. Elsie stalked out of the auditorium and continued walking around, seeing one sign in particular that sent chills down her spine. Quadruped Theatre. These assholes were operating on demons in their shifted forms as well.
This floor had its own dedicated viewing room, and there were far more cameras here than on previous floors. They wouldn’t want their precious specimens disappearing into a corner somewhere, and Elsie wondered if they had the mental capacity left to fight back and try to escape.
The next few floors were boring administrative office stuff, but then they came to a floor that stopped Elsie cold. Instead of cubicles, there were heavily armored stalls. She walked down one of the rows, clenching her teeth, glad Frost wasn’t here for this.
Each stall was set up similar to the containment cells upstairs, but these had the modifications for each type of demon installed. The doors had no windows, but small screens showed what was happening inside. The first was what looked like a naked little kid, curled up in a ball, chains around his neck and limbs. It wasn’t immediately apparent what kind of magical being this kid was, but the mongoose demon on a chain just out of reach of the kid was a pretty good indicator. The kid was a snake demon, being held with one of its natural enemies.
The next cell was a bird of some kind, large enough to be one of the eagles. His feathers were clipped, and some kind of substance had been applied, possibly to prevent them from growing back? His shackles were around his ankles, and his wings were spread wide, drooping to the floor miserably.
“What exactly is the purpose of this floor?” Elsie asked, gripping the Staff of Sanaia so hard her hand hurt. The purpose was fairly self-evident, but she wanted to hear it from the lips of one who supported it. Hasprey didn’t even have the grace to look uncomfortable.
“This is where the subjects of active experiments are brought for observation. These aren’t the high-security experiments; those are on the floors below us. This is more to find what tools and weapons are most effective against different species,” he said easily.
“And the child back there?” Elsie asked. “What experiment is being done on him?”
“Like I said earlier, Commander Chantraine, I don’t know that sort of thing. I’m here to keep you safe.”
Elsie was beginning to understand how her security team had been chosen. They were the kind of men who knew the facility well enough to answer her most basic questions, but not important enough to give her insight into what she really wanted to know. She supposed Rand was responsible for choosing her team. He’d done well. She’d get no real information out of Hasprey, or Miller, or any of the others.
“I can’t spend any more time on this floor, or I’m going to start a war with the Hunter Clans,” Elsie said. Hasprey gave her a hard look, and Cross ushered her back toward the stairs.
The next floor down was set up with a huge obstacle course. There were boxing rings, mats on the floor, and wooden weapons of every variety against the far wall. Every discipline imaginable was represented in this huge space meant for training. Elsie adjusted her grip on the staff and let out a sigh. Perfect timing.
“I don’t think this is such a great idea,” Cross said quickly.
“Don’t worry, I won’t wound anyone’s ego,” Elsie responded, walking until she found an empty space large enough for work with a stave. Much to the brujo’s relief, she wasn’t deliberately picking out some random hunter to beat the shit out of.
At first, nobody paid much attention to the small woman quietly going through the motions with a plain stave in a corner of the room. With the exception of Cross and Hasprey watching closely, Elsie was alone in her head as she warmed up. She wasn’t doing anything spectacular, just some basic moves that anyone should know.
As soon as she felt limber and loose, she mentally surrounded herself with familiar faces. A sneering Martin, Rand, and Grant, holding useless firearms. Cornick and Eustone. Her grip on the staff changed, and as she swept it sideways, the staff changed as well, sharpening into a war stave. She’d brought the silver out of the Staff of Sanaia, her anger transforming the weapon into something twisted and cruel. If this were a real battle, her enemy would die a slow and gruesome death.
Her intensity picked up, practice strikes becoming sharp and deadly as she added force. She didn’t even feel the eyes on her as her audience grew; she was far too focused on slaughtering the men her imagination had conjured up for her.
Sliding from one form to the next, Elsie didn’t even stay within a single discipline as she fought. Borrowing from one school of training after another, she was unpredictable and wild, and for a moment, she felt invincible. Elsie had every confidence that not even Wren could touch her right now.
She struck down the mental image of Cornick, then whirled to take down Eustone, only to be stopped in her tracks. The fox demon stood there in Eustone’s place, his fiery eyes staring into her soul, his magnificent tails hanging limp to the floor, and his ears drooping to the side. Frozen in fear, Elsie panted, sweat dripping down her face. This wasn’t her imagination. He felt way too real.
The fox didn’t attack or say anything. He simply looked at her with condemnation and anger in those eyes of red and orange and yellow. Elsie didn’t dare look away, but the lack of astonishment in the people around her told her that he wasn’t really standing in front of her. The fox was in her head.
He blinked once then looked to the side, his lips twisting into a frown. Then, he was gone. Elsie relaxed out of her offensive position, standing straight and letting out a deep sigh of relief. It wasn’t until she lowered the staff that she noticed the clapping coming from several sets of hands. She looked around to see nearly a dozen trainees standing around her platform, looking on with admiration. She’d caused a spectacle.
She looked at what had become of the staff. The war stave was an ugly representation of what she was feeling. Shaking herself free from her darkest thoughts, Elsie gave the stave more magic, turning it back into a staff, hiding her thoughts and feelings behind polished wood.
Cross tilted his head at her curiously, but she gave a slight shake of her head. They could discuss this later, but she would be seeing that fox again sometime soon.
“Got it out of your system?” Hasprey laughed.
“Yeah, I’m good for now,” Elsie agreed. “Let’s finish up this tour.”
She found what she was looking for on the very last floor. Cornick wasn’t around, and his people wouldn’t let her into the area their highest-security demons were being kept. But this floor was one of the few that had a security room of its very own. The best part was the pair of men inside that room were instantly enamored with her, going out of their way to show her whatever she wanted to see.
“This whole floor can be locked down and treated as its own fortress separated from the rest of the compound,” the one named Kyle told her.
“Every camera in Worldbase A and B can be viewed from here,” Brian added, not to be outdone. Elsie tilted her head in confusion.
“How is that possible? Isn’t the second compound in a different dimension?” she asked, and they shared a look before Kyle leaned forward.
“The reaper hooked it up. It’s how the guys up at the top can watch drone footage from the gate sites on Earth. She was super clever,” he said.
“One of my favorites,” Brian lamented.
“You knew her personally?” Elsie asked, and they both nodded.
“She spent a lot of time down here. Said the quiet was good for her mind,” Brian said, and Kyle looked at one of the screens.
“Muriel liked watching the screens. She’d sit down here for hours before someone would come drag her out of here to do whatever they needed her for,” he said. “They’d run that woman into the ground.”
Elsie let them keep talking, but she was more interested in what wasn’t being said. She’d been told Worldbase B wasn’t in operation yet. If that were true, why was Muriel interested in it? She looked at Kyle and smiled, almost snorting when she saw Cross tense up out of the corner of her eye.
“Can you show me the fox?” she asked. She’d looked at every screen and hadn’t seen him on any of them. Kyle grinned and pointed to one of the screens she’d thought was turned off.
“They keep him in the dark when they aren’t working with him, to withhold outside stimulation. It’s a tactic they often use, taking away all the demon’s senses while they aren’t in there,” Brian supplied.
“But if we suspect there’s something going on in there,” Kyle started, flipping a switch. “We can watch him on the heat sensors.”
The screen suddenly lit up with bright colors indicating heat. Most of the room was filled with blues and greens, but the demon and the machine holding him in place were highlighted in reds and oranges. The fox was completely motionless.
“He’s actually pretty boring,” Brian complained.
“Yeah, with the way everyone was acting, we’d expected there to be more of a show, but he doesn’t do anything, no matter what they try,” Kyle sighed.
“Are you saying you hoped there would be an incident?” Hasprey asked coldly. Elsie had noticed how closed off he’d been since Kyle and Brian had started talking. He clearly didn’t approve of how talkative they were.
“No, nothing like that,” Kyle said quickly. “It would be cool if, you know, something interesting happened. He doesn’t so much as lift his head. Not much goes on around here.”