“Well,” Marcus said with as little enthusiasm as Jack ever heard in his voice. “There’s only one way to find out. Dig in.”
For the next few hours the unlikely trio of explorers examined book after book. It seemed improbable to Jack that they would find anything: however, other than the condition of the room, the books were the only thing to go on.
Volume after volume was nothing more than textbooks or generic manuals on scientific studies such as genetic engineering and human anatomy. Jack hated complaining, but he felt like he needed to voice his opinion as he tossed yet another book to the side.
“So what exactly are we looking for? We know this is a laboratory. They were obviously doing some kind of secret testing here that didn’t end well.”
“A journal, some kind of record of their findings,” Marcus tossed another book to the side. “There should be something here to tell us what they were doing. Something to put all of these puzzle pieces together.”
“This is like looking for a needle in a haystack of needles,” Jack said.
“Wait! Look at this. Is this something?” Elizabeth lifted a book into the air.
The book she held in her hand was worn and brown. At first Jack thought it was dirty, but as he got closer he could see it too was covered in dried blood.
“Looks like a journal,” Elizabeth handed the book to Jack. “Or a diary if it was a girl. That’s funny, right? How if it’s a boy’s book it’s a journal but if it belongs to a member of the opposite sex it’s a diary. Why can’t they just have one word for both?”
“Fair point, Elizabeth.” Jack accepted the offered book. “Let’s see what’s inside.”
Marcus continued to rummage over the rest of the books while Jack flipped through the blood-crusted pages of the journal. Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. It looked like a day by day account that a scientist made during his stay at the cave laboratory. Jack flipped to the last page that was almost entirely covered by black, dried blood. The entry’s date was covered by the bloodstain but the few sentences that Jack could make out read:
Subject A21 has shown impressive resilience to the treatment. The specimen is both larger than those before and has shown a level of aggression not noted in previous subjects. However we have been ordered to shut down the cave laboratory and head back to New Hope. It seems like what little progress we have made has been too late.
Our plan is to exterminate any current test subjects in this facility. Whatever our sister laboratory in New Hope has been working on must have been accomplished—that is the only way our assignment would be shut down. This will be our last entry as today we take A21 out of its holding container and…
That was it. The rest of the page was impossible to read. Jack was dumbfounded and at the same time shuffling to the front of the book to start from the beginning.
“Son, I think we found out who’s behind all of this.”
Jack looked up at his father, who held a particularly large glass beaker. His father turned it upside down and pointed to a small emblem nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Jack squinted then looked at his father, wide eyed. Stamped into the glass was the same emblem found on the mage powered bicycles, a small gear surrounding an “LI” in the shape of smokestacks, Dr. Oliver Livingstone’s crest.
Sloan
“So demon sent from the Divine, wild canine creature on the loose, or none of the above?” Aareth stared without really seeing anything, too deep in thought.
Sloan and Aareth had thanked Benjamin for his information and left the bar.
They were now walking back to the mayor’s house, hoping to find Jack and Marcus and compare notes.
“I wish I knew. Whatever it is, I think Benjamin was telling the truth. He seemed too scared to be lying.”
“I agree. Whether he has accurate information or not, I feel like he was telling us what he believed the truth was. I think the key to this is finding out who would want those people killed. If it is coordinated attacks, who has the most to gain from having those people out of the picture?”
Sloan shook her head as images if Elijah came to mind. While they walked the town’s main road, people passed with nods and friendly smiles. Sloan was beginning to feel a burden, a burden that rested on her shoulders with each passing hour. These people were looking to her now to help them. They were looking to her to save them from whatever this monster was. Even with the information from Benjamin they were no closer to discovering the truth.
“Oh, there you two are,” Sloan was interrupted from her thoughts by Elijah Ahab’s familiar voice. “I saw you two enter the bar and thought that it would be best to let you finish indulging yourselves. Besides, as a man of the Divine, I wouldn’t set foot inside of that establishment. Was Benjamin a helpful interview for you?”
“How did you know we were speaking with Benjamin?” Sloan asked, ignoring the other comments the preacher made.
“Oh, I noticed him walk out, so I imagined you had a chat with him.”
“Yes, it was great,” Aareth chimed in. “Thanks for the list you left for us. We missed you at dinner last night, and breakfast today. Out trying to help track down the beast as well, huh?”
“Not at all,” Elijah was one of the few men who matched Aareth for height and now he used that ability to look Aareth directly in the eyes. “That creature has been a holy angel from the Divine, cleaning up our town and disposing of the evils of men. I have been out caring for the worried and fearful, and you can imagine without a mayor or sheriff, the town needs someone to turn to.”
“Oh, I can imagine, all right,” Sloan said.
A stressed moment passed between the three before Elijah found his voice again.
“Well, I must be off. We’re having a special meeting at the church this afternoon to pray. You’re more than welcome to join if you’d like.”
“Thank you for the offer,” Sloan said. “But we still have a killer on the loose.”
Elijah nodded a goodbye and walked past them. Sloan and Aareth continued on their path back to the recently deceased mayor’s house.
Aareth bit his bottom lip and sucked in air, making a low whistling noise. “It seems like he has motive but does he have the ability? He doesn’t strike me as a person capable of unleashing the dogs of hell on someone. And all the reports have been of an animal, not a man.”
Sloan was about to offer an alternate hypothesis when the two rounded a corner and she saw a horse and rider waiting at the steps to the mayor’s house. Even from this distance she could see the Queen’s colors worn by the soldier.
Sloan quickened her pace, with Aareth right behind her. When the soldier saw the two approaching, he stood with a respectful salute. “Ma’am, messenger from New Hope directly from the Queen.”
“At ease, Sergeant.” Sloan returned the salute. “What is this all about?”
The Sergeant was young and fit, but from the long ride, Sloan could tell he was spent. He was dirty from the top of his head to the bottom of his boots.
“I have a note, ma’am, from Queen Eckert. I was instructed to ride here as fast as I could and deliver this note only to you.”
Sloan took the offered envelope from the soldier and broke the seal shaped in the royal sigil. Her eyes flew over the words as worry slowly inked its way through her veins like a spreading disease.
Sloan,
I’m writing you now, not to worry you but to warn you. The events in Burrow Den are connected far closer to New Hope than either one of us thought. There are rumors spreading of a revolt among the soldiers and the city’s population is uneasy. There has been an attempt made to assassinate me but at great cost to your own men’s lives, they have kept me safe.
Everything started as soon as you left. It is like someone’s hand is being forced with your presence in that city. Be wary Sloan, and trust no one. Find out what is going on in Burrow Den. Strengthen our bond with the people. We may find ourselves short of allies very soon.
Eleanor
>
Jack
Under the setting sun, Jack led his father and Elizabeth back through the cave tunnel and the forest surrounding Burrow Den. With the finding of the cave and the journal, Jack had forgotten his own hunger at missing lunch. The journal was tucked into his long brown leather jacket. He would give anything to sit down and read the book; however, he knew they had to make it back to the city.
They needed to tell Sloan and Aareth what they found as soon as possible. They needed to warn them something that went beyond the borders of Burrow Den was afoot.
Even with Elizabeth giving directions and the intense speed they traveled, it was still a few hours before the trio saw the first building marking the outline of the city. The sun was all but lost behind the mountains, small lights in the sky marked stars and constellations.
Jack wasn’t sure what he planned on doing first as he wiped perspiration from his sun- bronzed forehead. He wanted to read the book, tell Sloan and Aareth what they found, and eat all at the same time.
His decision was made for him as they walked through the deceased mayor’s door. Sloan and Aareth were both hunched over two pieces of paper, an untouched meal between them.
“Oh, she’s mean,” Elizabeth caught sight of Sloan and turned to go. “I have to get back anyway, Abigail will be looking for me. She worries a lot. You know, since I’m crazy and everything.”
“Elizabeth,” Jack’s words stopped the fiery beauty in her tracks. “I just wanted to say thank you. If it wasn’t for you, we would have never found the laboratory or journal.”
Elizabeth brightened and gave an awkward half bow, half curtsy before she ran next door to her own house.
“There you two are,” Sloan looked up from the papers in front of her. “Did you find anything?”
“Tracks that made no sense.” Marcus removed his jacket and sat at the large wooden table. “Tracks belonging to an animal much bigger than has the right to exist, and a secret laboratory in the side of a mountain.”
Sloan and Aareth exchanged bewildered glances and then looked back at Marcus and Jack.
“Why don’t we eat and we can each tell one another what we found today?” Marcus suggested as he served himself from the piping hot containers on the table. “And we should probably pay Abigail something for feeding us every day.”
Jack devoured food and information both. Dinner was one of the best he could ever remember. It was a twist on shepherd’s pie with mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables. Abigail even provided a pumpkin pie for dessert.
The information Sloan and Aareth shared was just as tantalizing as the food in front of them. There were times as Jack robotically moved fork from plate to mouth without even looking down he was so entranced with what Benjamin Clive had seen in the woods and the note the Queen sent.
Sloan and Aareth were just as mesmerized when Jack and Marcus told them of the tracks and secret laboratory. It was over a second piece of pumpkin pie that Jack started to slow down. His appetite demanded more while his stomach capacity screamed for a break.
“So,” Sloan leaned back from the table and looked at the ceiling. “I think we should ask the inspector what he makes of all of this.”
“There’ is so much information that we’ve found today, it’s almost impossible to sift through it all in a reasonable amount of time.” Aareth shook his head and wrapped his long black hair behind him in a ponytail. “What we need to do is make a list of what we know for certain, and Jack—I’d like to spend the night reading that journal to see if there’s anything in there that might help us or give us a definitive answer on exactly what the scientists in the secret mountain laboratory were doing.”
Jack nodded and handed over the leather bound journal. Marcus stood and walked over to a cabinet that held pen and paper. He returned to the group and produced a small pair of glasses he perched on his nose. “Okay, let’s see what we have.”
“We know from the Queen’s note someone is worried about what we’ll find here, someone powerful enough to make an attempt on her life.” Aareth started the conversation with a balled fist and raised a finger every time he spoke. “We have to assume the laboratory was set in place to perform experiments of some kind. Benjamin Clive saw the beast in the woods right before the attacks started, and if we draw a rough timeline, that’s after the last entry in this journal.”
“The mage-powered bicycles were stamped with Doctor Oliver Livingston’s emblem and so were the beakers and equipment in the mountain laboratory.” Sloan rocked forward in her seat as a light bulb clicked in her head. “Benjamin said he saw Doctor Livingston come to the town just for a day to meet with the mayor and after that the mayor hit the jackpot. He built this house and started controlling the law enforcement in the city.”
Marcus was bent over his paper, writing like a madman to keep up with the information that was being related. He stopped now as he looked into the eyes of his son and the two other members of the party. “If Benjamin was telling the truth, then all roads lead to Livingston. He would have the financial backing and power to create a laboratory and he’s one of only a few that has access to mage lights. The cave we found was full of them.”
“So,” Jack picked up the proverbial pass in conversation. “Livingston came to the city, bought the mayor’s secrecy, and set up a lab to do experiments?” Jack paused as he thought back to the battle on the steam locomotive and the man with the scarred face that moved faster than any human could. The man that was so strong he could bend Aareth’s large arms in on himself. Jack also was reminded of the mutated unicorn they found the first night after escaping the desert storm. “Could Livingston have been doing experiments on animals and people?”
The room was silent as all four members thought about the facts and the implications that blaming one of the most powerful men in New Hope would bring.
“It certainly seems like all the evidence points to Doctor Livingston, but before we bring a case against the most powerful man in New Hope, we’ll need solid proof. Not to mention we still have a bloodthirsty monster on the loose,” Aareth sighed.
“Captain? Where do you want us to start?” Marcus set down the pen and looked at Sloan.
“Aareth will look into the journal and see if there’s anything useful to our cause. We rest tonight and start early tomorrow morning. All four of us will go. We need to track down and end this animal before any more loss of life occurs. We’ll spilt up tomorrow. I’ll go with Jack and Aareth with Marcus. The Queen sent us here to do a job and heaven help the man or animal that gets in our way.”
Jack
It was still early but Jack’s body was reminding him, he’d been traveling hard and far all day. It was times like these when Jack was tired beyond all reason he wondered how his father was able to keep up. His father was in excellent shape for a man his age. Still, he endured the pace all day and was more than twice Jack’s age. Jack smiled as he thought of his father being chided by Elizabeth earlier.
The young girl was obviously out of her mind but there were glimpses of intelligence and maybe even genius somewhere deep underneath.
As Jack lay in bed, he stared at the ceiling, replaying the events of the day and all the information they discovered. Was Doctor Livingston the responsible party? Was he the head of the snake or just a pawn in this game? A game? Was this all it was to someone? A game where people’s lives were spent like currency and the playing pieces were advanced killing machines and assassins?
Jack tossed and turned as his body tried to find the sleep his mind wouldn’t allow. It was while in the middle of a dream Jack would later forget that he heard the first tick.
At first he thought it was part of his dream but it came again and this time louder. It was a sharp slapping noise coming from his window. Jack squinted in the dark and threw off the thick cover bringing him warmth in the cool night.
He stood in the dark, making sure he wasn’t hearing things, it came again. Someone was throwing pebbles at his window. Jack’s heart caught
in his throat, not in fear, but at the hope of who it might be. Jack opened his curtains slowly and looked into the dark night.
Just as he had anticipated, Abigail was there with a look on her face somewhere between a cross of happiness to see him and fear that they would be seen. She put a slender finger to her full lips and motioned for him to come down.
Jack gave her a quick nod. He turned and grabbed his boots and jacket. Slowly turning the handle to his room door, Jack gently stepped over the wood floors and down the winding staircase. The room was dark save a single candle blazing near the front door entrance.
Jack tip-toed through the room, praying with each step taken a wooden squeal wouldn’t give him away. His luck held. Jack exited the large manor and escaped into the cool night.
He rounded the house and made his way along the white picket fence separating the Ahab residence from the house where he and his companions now made their headquarters.
Abigail was there waiting for him. She was wearing a tight fitting copper dress with long sleeves that came down and opened up at the bottom. Her dark hair fell beside her face and her lips opened in a greeting. The moon was high in the sky and every curve of her body was accentuated by shadow.
“There he is. I thought you were going to sleep right through my requests for an audience with the famous sorcerer from New Hope.”
“I wish I was from New Hope.” Jack admitted searching her face for any sign of strain. “Are you okay? Is everything all right?”
“I just wanted to thank you for being so kind to my sister.” Abigail took a step closer to Jack. “You and your father were all she could talk about when she got home today.”
Jack bit back his first question. Did Abigail know about the secret laboratory? Jack didn’t think she was involved. Had Elizabeth told her? For her own safety it was best she knew as little as possible. Jack decided to leave the secret cave laboratory alone and instead just accept the gratitude.
House of Wolves: (A Paranormal Urban Fantasy) (The Vampire Project Book 1) Page 15