by Nova Drake
“What is your name, child? I will tell them when they ask the name of the unfortunate soul that had hope.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence. My name is Justice.”
The man’s eyes widened and once again he was quiet while he thought it over. “Maybe there is some room for hope in one that sets things right. Be careful of the magic, it’s in the building. It knows, it sees. And don’t forget the man. He is the most dangerous of all.”
Jess nodded. “Just tell me where to go.”
***
The magic building was a simple brick office building five stories high and in good shape. The most magical thing she saw was the employees that went in and out, did so with a small card that they scanned to get the door to unlock. She supposed she could see where the man would get that the building knew things and had eyes if it was reading these electronic keys. She had to admit, she’d never seen anything so fancy in person either.
Her plan was simple and as it was inching into the evening she saw the perfect opportunity. A dark-haired woman exited the building and approached a parked car in the lot next to it.
In the hours that Jess had crouched there watching, no one other than those that worked in the building had come or gone. No outcasts, no residents, no dealers, no muggers, it was strangely isolated. Jess knew she couldn’t pass herself off as a random stranger walking by, so she crept as close as she could in the shadows and once the car door was open, she silently moved in to incapacitate her with a simple chokehold from behind. Jess shoved her into the car and then climbed into the driver seat, quickly reorienting herself on the controls, more than grateful that she’d previously had the opportunity to learn how to operate one of these things.
After swiping her coat, Jess left the woman in the car several blocks from the building before jogging back, sticking to shadows as much as possible. She freed her hair, letting it hang around her injured face and wrapped the lab coat around her to hide her clothes.
The walk to the building was measured and casual, appearing to be in no rush as she scanned the stolen card and pulled the door open. A security guard sat at the desk with his eyes glued to a device. Since she’d scanned a key, he didn’t even look up, enthralled by whatever he was watching. Jess moved quickly over the shiny tiled floor, her steps soft and silent as she made her way through the lobby.
It took her a few moments to locate stairs, and she climbed all the way up, deciding to start at the top and work her way down. If Zain or Ryker were in this building, she was determined to find them.
The top two floors were nothing but dark, empty offices. Whoever normally occupied them was already gone for the day. The third floor was empty labs and record rooms. She hadn’t seen any occupants just yet, but if she could break into the records, maybe she could find out what they were doing.
The key card allowed her into the room, and she’d mistakenly expected to see boxes of files like the operations she’d raided in the past. What she found was a desk with a sleek computer and a single stack of files sitting in a tray on the desk. Jess sat and the screen lit up, a rectangular box appeared requesting a password. Yeah, she wasn’t even going to attempt that. Instead, she picked up the top folder and began scanning the pages inside.
Half of the pages made no sense to her, short hand writing and compounds, long strange words she’d never heard of. She shook her head and flipped to the next page. This one detailed pre-existing conditions. The subject was approximately thirteen, male, malnourished, dehydrated, evidence of various types of abuse. Marked as a good candidate for serum nine. Her eyes scanned the page glossing over height, weight, and various notes until they snagged on a patient number in a familiar format. 829JBT.
She grabbed the next folder, immediately seeking out the number, 830HAL, male, approximate age seventeen, marked for serum six. Scanning through the information, her eyes caught on the final notes on the page. Deceased.
Justice slapped the folder closed and grabbed the next, and the next until she felt sick to her stomach. Half of them were dead. Children, all under nineteen, dead. Several were marked at around fourteen or fifteen, she had no idea which folder, if any, was Zains. Jess needed to find him before there was nothing left to find.
Justice bolted out the door and down the stairs, coming out on the level below, opening every door she came across until she reached another that required the electronic key. Letting herself in, she followed the halls until more locked doors appeared. Her key didn’t work on these doors, but a small window allowed her a peek inside.
The first had a small cot to one side, a toilet and sink on the other, but no occupant. The next room was occupied by a teen. He was curled up in the cot with his back to her, she couldn’t even guess at his age but she tried scanning her key again, and again it didn’t work. Yanking on the handle, she tried to force the door open. That didn’t work either.
The kid didn’t even react to her attempts to break his door down. There was no lock to pick, only smooth metal that refused to budge. Shit, she was going to have to find another key.
Moving to the next door, she pressed her face to the glass and gasped at the small body shaking on the cot.
“No,” the horrified whisper escaped her. Again she tried to force the door open to no avail, but this time the occupant's pained eyes met hers. “Milo.”
He began to speak, but the doors were too solid to hear him and his lips were trembling too much for her to make out his words. His bloodshot eyes moved over her shoulder and his lips continued to move. She followed his gaze and met the smiling gray eyes of a thin older man over her shoulder.
Jess turned, slipping a knife into her hand. She’d been so distracted seeing Milo that she hadn’t even heard the man sneak up on her but based on his build, he wasn’t much of a threat.
“What the fuck did you do to him?” she demanded.
“It’s still early, time will tell with that one. How old are you? We don’t get as many girls here”
Justice held the knife in front of her, she scanned his body for another key but didn’t see one. “Let him out and I’ll let you live.”
“A fighter,” he observed. “Strangely enough, sometimes a strong will helps.” He held up his pen and pointed it at her as if scolding a child. “These doors don’t open with office level keys.”
“Yeah, I figured that out,” she retorted flatly. “How about you give me your key.”
The man scanned her body, the voracious look in his eye was not remotely sexual, but still highly disturbing. He took his time studying her, completely unconcerned with her knife.
What the hell?
Justice lurched forward, intending to press the blade to his throat, but a blinding light flashed from the pen and she saw nothing but colorful spots in front of her. She swung the knife anyway, hitting nothing but air.
A tiny prick pinched the side of her neck and her limbs immediately grew too heavy to hold up. The door smacked into her back and she slowly slid down as her legs failed her. The spots cleared from her vision in time for her to see the man placing the cap back on his pen that was definitely not a pen.
Another man had appeared during her moments of blindness and joined the man standing over her. The new one looked down at her with a frown. “Too old.”
“Not that old. And female. We haven’t run enough trials with female subjects.”
The new man shrugged and grabbed her ankle, dragging her to the first empty room she’d seen. They both bent over her again and she wished she could punch that hungry look off his face. He tucked the not-pen back into his shirt pocket. Magic wand, she realized too late. Always too late.
First, she’d failed Ryker, and now Milo and Zain, too. They would be lost here because she hadn’t even told anyone where she was going. And since she’d purposely alienated the only people that had tried to care about her, she wouldn’t even be missed. They’d just think she disappeared again. Like she always did.
“Strip her gear and prep her. Let
’s start with serum six.”
Justice Lost
The line between life and death was not one that Justice had expected to straddle when her time had finally come. She’d always imagined that she’d go down fighting in some blaze of glory and snarky commentary. She’d been horribly wrong.
It wasn’t the unending pain that fueled the resentment over her drawn-out death. Living was often just as painful as death, Jess knew that as well as anyone. No, this particular hostility came from the fact that it gave her far too much time to re-live her last months, or worse, her last days. Time to highlight everything she’d done wrong and think about how she’d failed her family, not to mention Zain and Milo. It gave her time to think about the people who had somehow put up with her surly attitude and still wanted to be around her even when she pushed them away. It gave her time to regret.
It gave her time to realize she was a fucking coward.
The Cost of Justice
By: Nova Drake
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