Immortal Brother Where Art Thou (The Immortality Curse Book 4)

by Peter Glenn

  The three of us were standing close to one particular out-of-the-way section of the wall surrounding Delta Fox Australia.

  I glanced down at my wounds from the battle earlier that day. Had it really only been one afternoon? Man, time had ground to a halt lately. At any rate, my wounds had closed up to the point where I could barely feel them anymore, which was great, but came at a bit of a shock. Was it the effect of all the magic that spun around this place? Was the latent power somehow speeding my healing even more than usual?

  Even if it was, I had no desire to stick around long enough to find out. Hopefully, we’d be in and out nice and quick and could put this place far behind us.

  It sucked, really. This place was like a dream come true for me, but now that I knew for sure that they were keeping my nephew hostage, I’d have to consider stopping supporting them.

  Quite the conundrum.

  “Okay,” I said, rubbing my hands and glancing at Taio and LaLuna. “Let’s do this fast and quick. In and out. We find the kid, and then we speed for the exit, got it?”

  Both of them nodded.

  “And keep the talking to a minimum. We don’t want anyone to catch us.”

  Taio rolled his eyes. “You don’t need to tell us, Li. This may be my first underhanded operation, but I know the stakes well enough.”

  The way he said “underhanded” made me want to punch him in the mouth. But I held back. The things we do for family, right?

  “Fine. Just follow me and try not to get tripped up by anything. We’re only going to get one shot at this.”

  More nods from both of them.

  “Good. Let’s go rescue Bao.”

  It felt like one of those moments where everyone puts their hand in the circle and then you all raise them and give a team shout. But we were breaking into the place, so I decided against.

  Turning around, I took a step toward the giant wall. I had been right earlier. It was easily twice as tall as I was. Which wasn’t saying much in reality—I wasn’t exactly tall—but it was still impressive.

  Anyway, I scanned over the section of wall in front of me, looking for some sort of impression or indent that I could use as a hand or foot hold. Most walls had this kind of weak point to them. Even ones that weren’t meant to. Nature had a way of warping things that humans built, and over time, even the sturdiest of structures would start to crumble.

  But not this wall. It was sturdy as all get out.

  “Damn,” I muttered under my breath. They were not going to make this easy on me.

  “Something wrong?” Taio asked from behind me. There was a sneer in his voice.

  “No, no, I’ve got this. Just give me a second to figure it out.”

  I didn’t have this, but once again, that was the last thing I was going to admit to with him back there snickering at me. I figured he probably had some sort of plan in mind, but I wasn’t going to ask him for help.

  A little further down the wall, I saw a spot about halfway up that looked slightly off. A dent, maybe, or a rusted spot. It was hard to tell exactly, but my hopes soared. It was just what I needed to not look like an idiot.

  I made my way over there and inspected the spot further. Indeed, it was a slight imperfection. Just a tiny one, but if I was careful enough, I could use it as a handhold to vault myself up further along the wall.

  Eyeing the distance, I readied myself and jumped. As if by a miracle, I hit the spot right on the first attempt and clamped down with my fingers hard to keep from slipping down off it. It was like watching one of those parkour shows. It was magic.

  I spun around and grinned nice and wide at my brother to say “Ha-ha, I don’t need you after all.” He just nodded at me and said nothing.

  Ugh. When this is over, I’m so never speaking to him again. He even loses gracefully.

  I pulled up on my hand that was gripping onto the wall, lifting my body high into the air with sheer force of will, and looked around for another hand hold further up. Only, there weren’t any. At least none that I could see.

  My efforts had managed to get me maybe two thirds up the wall, but no further. I was stuck.

  “Here,” Taio said in a half-whisper. “Let me push you up further.”

  “No, I got it!” I hissed down at him. I waved him off even as he came over.

  “Don’t be a fool, Damian. You’ll lose your grip soon enough if I don’t help you.”

  “Shush!” I whispered harshly. “I don’t need your help! I’ve got this.” I turned my attention back to the wall, hoping against hope that I’d find a new handhold soon, but there was still nothing. “I don’t need your help!”

  While we were squabbling amongst ourselves, I caught a flash of blue energy swirling in the air a short distance off from both of us, and my blood instantly froze. I almost lost my grip. A feeling in the pit of my stomach told me we’d been caught already.

  But as the source of the disturbance came into view, I realized it was nothing of the sort. It was LaLuna. She was using her guardian magic to fly up to the top of the wall.

  “Humph!” I spat at my brother. “At least someone has some sense.”

  A moment later, LaLuna was crouching at the top of the wall so she wouldn’t hit the barbed wire, holding her hand down toward me.

  “Come on, you louts,” she called down to us. “Stop your pissing match and take my hand so I can help you up.”

  Sheepishly, I reached my free hand up and accepted her grasp. One quick pull, and I was up on the top of the wall, too, staring at the barbed wire that was mere inches from my face.

  Taio repeated my feat rather easily, first hitting the hand hold, and then accepting LaLuna’s help. Soon enough, we were all on top of the wall, looking out across the field.

  “Well that’s all well and good, but we still need to get over the barbed wire without making a fuss,” I whispered.

  “Leave that to me,” Taio said, brushing us both slightly aside.

  He fished around in one of his pockets and pulled out a small, round device.

  My eyes narrowed. “What the heck is that?”

  “I thought you said no talking?” Taio admonished me.

  Much as I was loath to do it, I shut myself up. He was right, we weren’t supposed to be talking to one another more than necessary.

  Taio placed the small device on the top of the wall by his feet and pressed his thumb into an indentation on the top of it, then inched away. He shoved me a little, and I almost butted up against a piece of the barbed wire, but only almost.

  I watched the device with interest. What looked like an LED light on the top of it flashed once, then the thing whirred to life, flashing a few more times before a column of light exploded upward for a half-second, almost blinding me. Then the light was gone just as fast.

  My heart sank. We’d be caught for sure. But I didn’t see anyone coming over in our direction. It didn’t look like anyone else had noticed. Maybe we’d be okay, after all.

  Either way, a miracle happened before my eyes a second later. The barbed wire metal that had come into contact with the light dissolved. Or rather vaporized. Not even a puddle of metal was left over. It was like the barbed wire had never even existed.

  Did my brother really just use a magical trap? Where had he even gotten one? I desperately wanted to know. Partially to get my own, but also because traps that powerful were highly illegal. Where was all the disdain and disapproval of illegal methods now?

  “What was that?” I pressed, nudging Taio. “Someone could have seen that light, you know.”

  “Then we’d better move fast,” Taio replied with a flat look.

  I wanted to argue further, but he was right. Again. If someone had seen that light, the best possible place for us was nowhere near where it had been.

  Groaning, I resolved to make fun of him for his duplicity later and wormed my way over to the hole in the barbed wire. The little magical device had stopped its whirring, so I assumed it was safe to be on top of it now.

&
nbsp; I grabbed onto the far edge of the wall with both hands and drooped over it as far as I could. I judged the distance between my feet and the ground was four feet. Maybe less. That was doable.

  Without a second’s thought, I let go, falling silently to the ground. I hit with a slight thud, flexing my knees and rolling when I hit to absorb the impact.

  My left ankle hurt just a little from the fall, but it was no big deal. Just a tinge of pain. Nothing I couldn’t handle.

  Taio and LaLuna followed suit. For a moment, I thought LaLuna would use her magic to fly down, but then I remembered that her magic flared blue. Much safer on this side of the wall not to use it, then.

  Once we were all reunited on the far side of the wall, I took stock of our situation. We were about a hundred meters from what I assumed was a side entrance to the building. At the very least, it was a metal door, and it had a handle. Both good things when you wanted to break into somewhere.

  I had no way of knowing where the door would lead exactly, or how far away Bao’s holding place would be from the door, but it was as good a start as any.

  Besides, there were floodlights filling most of the grounds, so we didn’t really have any other options.

  A thin trail in the darkness spread out before me, leading almost all the way to the door in question. If we were careful and moved quickly, I figured we could cover the distance without anyone spotting us. It was the best chance we had, at least.

  I turned to face Taio and LaLuna and made a few hand signals expressing my plan to them. They both nodded assent, so I spun back around and put it into action.

  Inhaling deeply, I bolted through the darkness toward the waiting door. I have no idea why I hold my breath when I’m running in situations like this, but it’s one of those things, you know? Maybe it adds suspense or something.

  Anyway, I sped across the little dark line where the floodlights didn’t hit. Several steps in, I thought about checking for magical traps, but it was a little late for that. I was committed. If there was a trap in the dark area, I’d just have to live content in knowing I sprung it instead of LaLuna. That would have to be enough for me.

  One of the floodlights overhead started to shift, and I saw the light swing in my direction.

  My heart lurched. If it didn’t hit me, it would surely hit Taio or LaLuna, revealing us to whatever guards lurked above and ending our run.

  I let out a slight yelp and jumped, leaping through the air as far as I could. I landed on the gravel with a loud thud as my face scraped across it, leaving me with some fresh scrapes as pain lanced up and down my right side.

  But I’d made it. I was in the darkness once again. The floodlight hadn’t found me.

  With a slight groan, I pushed myself up to my knees and looked behind me. Taio and LaLuna were a ways back still, but at least they were still in darkness. They must have noticed the roving light as well and stopped short of it.

  A moment or two later, the moving floodlight swung back the other way, and their path was in darkness once more. Taio and LaLuna threaded their way through the rest of the trail, and we were reunited once more.

  LaLuna offered me her hand, and I took it, bolting upright with another slight wave of pain. One of these days, I was going to have someone else go first so they could get all the painful bits.

  But alas, that day was not today.

  I dusted myself off and examined the door in front of us. It was locked, which I’d expected, and with a keycard no less. So much for my lockpicking kit. It was good, but it wasn’t that good.

  LaLuna tapped on my shoulder, and I spun to face her, shrugging at the keycard lock. She shoved me out of the way and put her hand on the sensor. A flash of blue magic flared underneath her palm, then the keycard lock’s light switched to green, and I heard the distinctive click of a lock unlatching.

  “How did you…?” I started to ask, but the question died on my lips.

  LaLuna put one finger up to her mouth to remind me to be quiet, then she opened the door, and we all piled in before it could change its mind and close on us again.

  The room beyond was lit well enough, if largely empty. I wasn’t completely sure where we were, but it looked like one of those common work areas we’d passed by on the tour, with several desks and computers strewn about all over the place.

  Thankfully, no one was in here at this hour, which was part of what I’d banked on—that people would have gone home by now. Looks like I’d been right for once. Or just lucky. My luck could be fickle like that.

  One thing was clear, though—Bao wasn’t in here, so we still needed to find him. And fast. So far, our movements had gone unnoticed. But I knew that wouldn’t hold forever.

  There was only one direction to go from where we were, so we went that way, traveling down the lifeless hallway as fast and as quietly as our feet would carry us. I kept my eyes peeled for any sort of diverting hallway or facility map that we might use, but so far, I’d come up empty.

  Before long, we spilled out into what I could only describe as some sort of atrium. The ceiling above us raised at least twenty feet off the ground and became glass. The rows of desks were replaced by rows and rows of vegetation. I couldn’t even recognize most of it, but it all looked to be indigenous to the area.

  Several paths split out ahead of us through the greenery, so I picked one at random and we went down it, marveling at all the growth as we went. Once again, I was forced to wonder what it was all doing inside of an office building instead of out in the forest, but I supposed I’d never find out. Probably some government mandate, anyway.

  The first path dead-ended at a small garden with two benches at the far end, so we went back and tried a second one. This one took us out to the main elevator room we’d been in earlier in the day.

  Light flooded the area, and I could see a security guard along the far wall. He was looking the other way for now, so we crept along the other side of the circular room, staying close to the wall so as to make as little fuss as possible.

  We inched our way over to one of the elevators and I pressed a button on the wall. The elevator opened with a slight ding, and we piled in as fast as we could. Once inside, I pressed the door close button probably a dozen times, willing it to close before the guard saw us.

  He didn’t seem fazed by the noise, though, and the doors closed a moment later.

  “Up or down?” Taio asked in a hushed tone.

  I shrugged. “Down, I guess.”

  He frowned at me. “Why?”

  I bit my lip. “People always hold prisoners in the basement.”

  It wasn’t much of a reason, but it seemed to mollify Taio for the moment. He nodded, and I pressed the lowest button on the elevator. It whirred to life, sending us plummeting into the bowels of the earth faster than I would have thought possible. In about five seconds, it slowed to a stop and the door opened.

  We all spilled out of the elevator, and I marveled at the device. It had taken us twelve stories underground in five seconds. Crazy.

  The room we were in was similarly well lit to the one above it, though there were no guards standing around in this area—or at least none that I could see—so I took my time looking around for a floor plan. I found what I was looking for taped to the far wall behind a piece of plastic.

  “Bao is there,” I whispered, jabbing my finger onto one spot on the map.

  “How do you know?” Taio fired back.

  “The black dot,” I explained. “Mr. Harris said he was on a ‘black’ project.”

  It was a wild guess, but it was the best I could come up with.

  Taio nodded, and I took a mental note of where the black dot room was on the map in relation to us, then we headed down a nearby hallway in that direction.

  The Delta Fox twelve stories underground was a far cry from its lively upstairs neighbor. Everything was illuminated in harsh, artificial light, and there was no sign of anything green or growing anywhere that I could see. The long, open hallways full of desks a
nd tables had been replaced by rows and rows of doors with nary a peep hole to see what was in them. Just a bunch of nondescript metal doors with no inscription other than a number.

  I was so busy looking at the doors, I almost ran face-first into someone walking the other way.

  “Excuse me!” I blurted faster than I could think, giving the stranger a sheepish look.

  The dude shrugged. “It’s all good. Just watch yourself, mate.” Then he went off down the hallway without a second glance.

  We all let out a collective sigh of relief that our cover wasn’t blown and kept going down the hallway. This time, I kept my attention to the path ahead of me. We passed by a few other people. I waved at them, and they’d wave back, then we kept going like it was no big deal.

  A few moments later, we came across a really unusual sight. The hallway opened up, bending around a circular room that I could only describe as some sort of arena. The ground inside was made of dirt, and I could see several reddish-brown stains in it that I could only assume were blood.

  The arena-like room had glass walls that ran all along it, presumably so people could watch what happened in there.

  “What do they do in there?” LaLuna mumbled as we walked along one of the hallways.

  “I don’t know,” I replied, similarly awestruck.

  A shudder interrupted us a moment later as the walls of the arena shook. Two gaping holes formed in the ground as two platforms slowly raised up from the recesses. On one was what I thought was a regular human. On the other stood some sort of tiger-looking thing.

  Everyone around us paused what they were doing and glued their eyes to the arena. I could hear some of them shouting and cheering, though I couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying.

  I looked, too, curious as to what was going on as I kept heading down the hallway. If I was right, the black area was just beyond this bizarre room.

  An air horn went off, and then the human and the tiger-thing went at it in a frenzy. The human was no match for the magnificent beast, and he went down pretty fast. I heard a loud crunch as the tiger’s massive teeth bit through bones, and then it was all over.