All Hell Breaks Loose

by Sharon Hannaford

  “So he discovered your secret,” Margaret said. “He found out about Shifters, and Doppelgangers in particular.”

  Kimberley nodded, sniffing again. “He couldn’t believe his eyes. I think maybe if he’d been alone, I could’ve convinced him it was just a bad trip, he’d been doing coke, but his bodyguards saw me too. I tried,” she let out a small hiccup, “I swear I tried to convince them they were all hallucinating. At first they thought I had a latex mask and wig, but they searched the apartment and couldn’t find anything. Then things got a bit crazy.” Her voice dropped to a whisper again; fear widened her eyes as she recalled the night. “You don’t know him. You haven’t seen the real Jason. He gets mad, real mad. His bodyguards will do anything he tells them to. He was mad that I wouldn’t tell him how I changed my face. He…he said he had a way to change my face too.” She broke off.

  The tears had stopped, and she had her arms wrapped tightly around herself. She was rocking slightly in the chair. The faraway look in her eyes said she was reliving the terrifying situation in her mind. Gabi heard the sharp intake of breath to her left. She dragged her gaze away from the monitor to see the stark terror mirrored on Trish’s face. Trish knew all too well what it was like to be at the mercy of a man prepared to hurt you. Gabi had some experience of that herself, though she wasn’t experiencing the debilitating flashbacks that were affecting Trish and Kimberley. Maybe it was because she had long ago accepted that, as a Hunter, she would be hurt by bad guys at some point, that there would be violence in her life. Or maybe there was just something wrong with her.

  “Derek, why don’t you and Trish go and rustle us up some food?” Gabi suggested.

  She heard him start to speak, but obviously his eyes found Trish’s face in the dim light, and the words died. A barely perceptible growl rumbled through his chest, as he reached for his sister and drew her away from the computer screens.

  “Hope the old dears don’t go all soft on her now,” an acid voice spoke from just behind her right ear.

  Gabi flinched in surprise. “Lord and Lady, Lex,” she spluttered at the unexpected voice. “I wish you’d stop with the creepy Vampire shit.” She turned in the chair to glare at him. “How did you even get here? The sun hasn’t set yet.”

  Alexander waggled his eyebrows mysteriously, but Julius said, “He was asleep in the other bedroom, Lea. He wakes a little earlier than the others,” he told her, spoiling Alexander’s fun.

  Patrick cleared his throat as Irene started to speak. All eyes flew back to the monitor.

  “What happened after he discovered what you could do, Kimberley?” Irene was asking.

  “At first he was still angry. He didn’t believe me. I changed into one of his guards so he could see the truth for himself. After that he changed. Once he wasn’t angry anymore, he was a different person. He apologised for scaring me. He sent the guards away and poured me a drink. We talked for a while, and he asked loads of questions. I tried to answer as few as possible, but I didn’t want to anger him again. I explained that he had to keep the knowledge secret, that we had our own form of police who would come knocking on his door if he started telling people about us. He promised he would keep it secret. He…he said he had his own secrets so he knew what it was like to live life never being able show the world your true nature. I didn’t know what he meant then, but I found out later.

  “That night he showed me he could be the perfect gentleman. He told me I was the woman he’d been searching for his whole life. Someone who could share his world and his life. He told me I was special, and I felt special. When he tries, he can make you feel like the most precious person in the world.” Kimberley’s eyes had the faraway glaze again, but this time it was tinged with the beginnings of self-awareness. It was as though, as she spoke the words, she finally realised how hollow they sounded. As if she was trying to convince herself more than anyone else. Away from the man’s influence, her world, carefully constructed of half-truths and outright lies, was crumbling under the bright glare of reality.

  Contrary to Alexander’s fears, the two older women showed little sympathy and moved on to more pressing questions before she could recover her mental balance.

  “How do the Werewolves fit into all of this, Kimberley?” Margaret asked.

  She unwrapped her arms from her torso and clasped her hands together in front of her, balanced on her knees. She was still rocking back and forth slightly, and her eyes were seeing a different place and time.

  “Jason is a powerful and intelligent man,” she began again. “He has many businesses. Some of the businesses are not exactly legal. His father was a gangster, so he grew up in the kind of environment the rest of us can only imagine. He grew up thinking that dealing drugs and black-market arms was normal. But he’s more ambitious than his father; he didn’t want to spend his life hiding in the shadows, living in amongst the dregs of society. When he took over from his father, he decided to branch out into legitimate business as well, so that he could join the playboy set and have a life befitting his financial success. His businesses did well, the above-board ones as well as the underground ones.

  “One business that is growing increasingly profitable is the trade in mercenaries. With all the wars being fought all over the world, there is a huge demand for soldiers without allegiance to any specific country.” She lifted her clenched fists and dropped her head onto them, rocking more violently than before. The two Elders waited in silence. “I didn’t stop at telling him about Shifters. I also told him about Magi and Werewolves and the SMV. I…I have no excuses, other than that I thought he loved me and cared for me. I wanted to open up to the man I was in love with. I never imagined what he would do with the knowledge. When I told him, I didn’t know about the mercenary business. I wish I had waited, had kept the knowledge from him, but by the time I realised my mistake, it was too late. Jason is a very driven man. Once he sets his eyes on a target, he doesn’t stop until he achieves his goal.”

  Gabi felt the whole room go still around her as the revelation finally began to bring the stray scraps of the puzzle together. In the interrogation room even Irene and Margaret had gone still in shock. Finally Irene broke the silence and put all their fears into words.

  “You mean to say that Jason King is building himself a mercenary army of Werewolves?”

  Chapter 19

  “Yes, a Werewolf army,” Kimberley said in a dead voice. “And Jason is very angry that the SMV and the Vampires are getting in his way. He was very angry with me that I hadn’t told him about the Vampires. But I don’t know very much about Vampires. Only that they exist and can be killed by fire and sunlight. He was almost insane with anger that the Vampires killed two of his soldiers. They are worth a lot of money to him. Each soldier can potentially bring him in millions in revenue. He carries grudges for a long time and is used to getting his own way; he can’t handle being thwarted. He’s set on destroying the SMV and the Vampires of the City. And if the Pack leaders get in his way, he’ll take them down, too, but he’d rather have them work for him. He thinks once the influence of the SMV is removed, they’ll be open to what he can offer them.”

  “We didn’t kill his damn soldiers,” Gabi spat. “They killed themselves. Arrogant prick.” She knew shouting at the monitor was futile, but her patience was vaporising at an alarming rate.

  “What was your part in this?” Irene asked, cool as ice.

  “He told me I was his soul mate. He bought me anything I wanted, spared no expense, showered me with gifts, told me I deserved to be happy and spoilt. To prove my love in return, I only had to do a couple of things for him. The kinds of things only I could do. I was so good I slipped right into the heart of the SMV, and no one had the slightest suspicion. Even before the incident that resulted in the deaths of his soldiers, Jason knew he had to keep the SMV busy with other things, so they wouldn’t become aware of what he was doing. I took to imitating Hazel, as I’d met her when Byron had approached me to work for him. From there I was privy
to most of what was going down in the SMV. We learnt from my mistake when I tried to steal from Jason and started drugging my targets so there was no chance of them unmasking me while I was using their likenesses. If Hazel wasn’t convenient, I used Melinda’s image. She had access to places even Hazel didn’t, though I couldn’t Heal like her, so I had to use her sparingly.”

  Gabi gasped as an image flashed through her mind. “Melinda,” she said, realisation colouring her tone as another puzzle piece clicked into place. “Melinda was in the parking lot near my car the night of the car bomb, and she didn’t offer to heal my bust finger. She wasn’t acting like herself, but I never thought anything of it.”

  Julius nodded, but the rest of them weren’t paying much attention to her epiphany, Kimberley was still speaking.

  “Jason took great delight in doing everything he could to make Byron and Olivia’s work harder on the City Council. It became a game of sorts to him. Part of my mission was to uncover the names and whereabouts of rogue Werewolves before the Society did anything about them. That’s how he found his first few soldiers.”

  “So it was you who released the rogue Werewolf from HQ using Hazel’s image?” Irene confirmed.

  “Yes,” she answered simply. “It was the least violent way I could think of to retrieve him. I have childhood friends who work in that building. I didn’t want to see them hurt.”

  “And the bomb at the Master Vampire’s Estate?”

  “Jason was furious at their constant interference; he wanted me to find out where the Master had his nest, but it isn’t listed anywhere, so I came up with the idea of tracking Gabrielle’s car, it seemed logical that she would go to see him. Jason liked the idea so much he decided to go a step further. Once he knew the location, he found blueprints for the main house and discovered the underground parking. He thought they would stay close together, so he arranged to have the bomb attached to her car and triggered it once the car went underground. He wanted to take out lots of them, or at the very least give them something else to worry about instead of meddling in his affairs.

  “I tried to convince him that it was the wrong thing to do, but when he’s angry, he’s not reasonable, and anyone not agreeing with him is liable to bear the marks of his displeasure.” At that she frowned a little, and it looked as though she was concentrating. In front of their eyes, her face began to change colour, mottled blue and purple bruising appeared on her face, her lip sported a cut in one corner, and finger marks at her throat bore witness to an attempt at strangulation. “I got so used to covering the marks that I do it automatically now.”

  Gabi wasn’t sure whether the marks were real or a Doppelganger trick to elicit some empathy from the Elders. The empathy wasn’t forthcoming.

  “Why did he turn to infecting other humans?”

  “Oh, Lord and Lady, get on with it,” Gabi growled at the screen. “We don’t need to know this right now, we need to know where Kyle is. Dammit, someone give me a fucking phone.” She spun around in the chair impatiently.

  Julius caught her upper arm, holding her in place. “Give them a chance, Lea,” he said quietly, his sapphire eyes boring into hers. “Trust Irene and Margaret. They are very good at this. You were right when you called them Masters. They’re breaking her down slowly, picking out the truth from the subterfuge. By the time they get to the subject of Kyle, she will be telling the truth in its entirety. I don’t think it will be long now.” His gaze went back to the screen, where Kimberley was talking again.

  “It was too difficult to convince Werewolves to join his cause, most were part of a pack, and didn’t want to even listen to his offers,” she said.

  “So then he began sending his loyal Werewolves to start infecting human men?” Irene prodded.

  Kimberley was silent, her mouth suddenly hardening into a stubborn line.

  “Kimberley, dear,” Margaret spoke quietly, but her voice was laced with steel. “There are less pleasant ways to do this. Please don’t make me withdraw my request for leniency for you.”

  Kimberley’s stubborn lip quivered for just a moment before she buried her teeth in it. “Fine,” she said. “Yes, he started sending his own Werewolves to infect others. Their orders were to find males who fitted Jason’s idea of the perfect soldier.”

  “Young, fit and single?” Irene asked.

  Kimberley nodded.

  “Why did they leave the infected men behind after they attacked?”

  Kimberley drew a deep breath; there was a slight hitch in it. “He called it their rite of passage,” she finally began to explain. “In the world Jason grew up in, a guy has to prove his worth before he is accepted into the family, so at first he waited to see if the infected guys made it through the Change before he collected them and brought them into his fold. If they could make it through the Change and through their first few days as a Werewolf, then they were good enough to be one of his.”

  “Is he doing research into what kills or harms Werewolves?” Irene kept the pressure on.

  “I can’t be sure, but I assume so,” she confirmed. Her voice had lost all emotion: she was speaking like an automaton. “I know he experimented on some of his own men, but he accidentally killed one, so then he employed some disgraced bio-geneticist to help him. They’ve set up a laboratory at the facility where the Werewolves are housed. They developed a sedative that works on Werewolves and the suicide capsules.”

  “Why the recent increase in human attacks? He seems to have become impatient.” Irene was relentless.

  “I don’t know all the details. Jason doesn’t tell me much,” she said dully.

  “Tell us what you do know, and what you suspect. You’re a clever girl, Kimberley. You must have worked out some of what he was doing.”

  Kimberley sighed, and the last of the fight went out of her, her body posture slumped in resignation.

  “Most of what I know I got from eavesdropping on conversations and secretly reading his e-mail. What I do know is that somehow one of his most powerful clients became aware that he’s developing super-soldiers. The client has placed an order already, and he’s not a man to mess around with. Even Jason shows this person respect. I think this man is involved in a conflict in the Middle East somewhere. Jason is under pressure to deliver. He hadn’t counted on the fact that Werewolves fight among themselves or that it takes months for them to learn to control themselves. He forced some of them to become Pack leaders even though they aren’t true Alphas. He wouldn’t listen to me about the true nature of Werewolves. He thinks he can control them with fear and pain like he does everyone else.” The last words tumbled out, and desolation filled her voice.

  “Why has he taken Kyle?” Margaret asked softly.

  Gabi sat forward, dread clenching her stomach muscles.

  “He found out that Kyle was special, that he didn’t have the normal Werewolf control issues, and didn’t have to Change at full moon. I swear I didn’t tell him,” her voice suddenly became ardent, she lifted her eyes, begging for them to believe her. “I pretended ignorance on personal details like that. I told him that Shifters and Werewolves don’t mix much, and I think he believed me. It must have been one of his first Werewolves. Or it might have been that shadowy bitch he meets a couple of times a month. He thinks I don’t know about her, but I followed him one night, and I saw them talking.”

  “So he took Kyle because he wants to find out how he is different from the other Werewolves?” Irene asked, bringing Kimberley back on topic, but a look passed between the Magus and the Shifter Elder; they would get back to the matter of the shadowy woman later.

  “Yes, I think he thinks that Kyle has a different strain of the virus. He wants the bio-geek to isolate the virus and replicate it to use on some of his human soldiers. He hadn’t wanted to risk using his other soldiers before, but he is under pressure now and will try just about anything. I also think he was hoping to convince Kyle to work for him. He doesn’t understand that some people aren’t motivated by money. I’m not s
ure what he’ll do if Kyle refuses him; as I’ve said before, Jason doesn’t like to be told no.”

  “Would he be holding Kyle at the facility you spoke of?” Irene asked.

  “Yes, probably. I wasn’t given the details of that side of the operation. I was responsible for getting Derek out of Gabrielle and the Vampire’s clutches and driving him to a meeting point. One of Jason’s soldiers delivered Kyle’s clothes and van to me after they’d taken him.”

  “Kimberley, we need to know where the facility is,” Margaret prodded her.

  “I don’t know,” she almost wailed. “Jason wouldn’t take me with him to the lab. He said it was for my own safety, but I don’t think he ever truly trusted me. He kept the location of the lab and training facility completely secret.”

  “You need to think, Kimberley, stay focussed,” Irene ordered as the younger woman broke down into tears again. “There must have been some clues you could work with. How long was he gone if he went to the lab? Was it in the City, on the outskirts? Did he say anything about it during a phone conversation? Any small detail could help us figure out where it is.”

  Kimberley blew her nose once again and took another sip of water; a small pile of wet tissues was collecting on the table in front of her.

  “It has to be quite a large place,” she said, chewing on her trembling lower lip. Her eyes went distant as she gave the question some serious thought. “He houses all the Werewolves as well as some of the un-deployed mercenaries there, and I think he also stores some weapons and ammunition there, though his main storage depot for arms is not in the City.” She looked up with excitement on her face. “It would probably be close to a private airport, or possibly at a private airport. Jason often spoke of incoming deliveries and aeroplanes. He spoke like once the plane touched down the goods would be secured within minutes, like there wasn’t much of a distance between the two places. There is underground storage at the place; I heard him talking about fixing a leak that was allowing water into the storage area, it was definitely underground. That’s all I can think of.”