“What happened to Whittley’s phone?” he asked as they headed upstairs.
“I tossed the battery. He could’ve gotten another though, stolen it or something. Do you think he called for backup?”
“I think all his backup is laying on the floor of his Shop. Or they’d already be trying to shoot us.”
As soon as they got to the third floor, he stopped her. Even though he wanted Whittley to pay just as much as Eden did, he wouldn’t let it happen at the expense of either of their humanities. He needed to subdue the bastard before she ‘accidentally’ fatally wounded him.
“I’d like you to wait outside,” he said. “I don’t think it will happen, but if he kicks my ass, you’ll be there to stop him. But if you go in first, then the fight will be over before it begins and I won’t ever get a chance to hit him. And I haven’t gotten to do that yet. So…pretty please?”
It didn’t take her long to see his point. And that was slightly depressing. “Two minutes. But leave him conscious.”
“You had hours.” He sighed and then smirked. “And you know I can last a lot longer than two minutes.”
She gaped at him. “Your focus is exceptionally bad.”
“You’re exceptionally distracting.”
They wound through the third floor hallway, always turning left. And what they found was really fucking disappointing. Whittley’s name on the door of an empty office. While Mitch cursed, Eden used one of her safety pins to pick the lock, but all they found was his bloody shirt.
“The wall safe won’t be easy to open,” she said, studying it. “It’ll take some time. Do you think whatever’s in there is more important than finding him?”
“He would’ve taken his meds with him. And, other than a dirty magazine or two, I don’t think he values anything else.”
“Would he go home?”
Mitch shook his head. “I think he’d go check to see if we were hanging out with Landon and Danielle in those pretty cages. Plus, there was a mini-lab set up at the Shop. If I was wrong and he didn’t keep his stash here, it would be there. You up for another car ride?” Preferably a quick one. It was nearing the four-hour mark since he’d been woken up from his big-boy nap.
Chapter XLI
When Ryan heard the short alarm bell, he tossed another handful of files into a large rolling bin and glanced at his watch. Took her long enough.
“Keep going,” he told the zookeeper. “When we’re done with the files, we’ll move on to the Normals.” He brushed his hands down his thighs and went upstairs to get Alex and bring her down to the basement.
He found her in the center room. And the bitch wasn’t alone. Tasting blood as his teeth slammed together, Ryan forced his lips into a smile.
I guess that’s what took her so long to get here.
“What the hell is going on, Whittley?” Dunlap stood with his hands on his hips, dead bodies in front of him and Board members behind him. Three other Board members—D’Apuzzo, someone who looked like he could be Dunlap’s son, and Mary Taylor.
“Who are these people?” D’Apuzzo said, motioning to the bodies.
“What are you all doing here? Alex?” He knew exactly why she brought them—to cover her ass by fucking his. Smart actually. He probably would’ve done the same thing if their roles were reversed. But their roles weren’t reversed, and Ryan didn’t like getting fucked.
Alex kept her gaze averted, pretending she gave a shit about the dead bodies on the floor. Well, she should—hers was going to be there too. As soon as Ryan could make it happen.
“It was an internal issue,” he lied. “We all know how stupid people are. This had something to do with money, I believe. But, as you can see, the problem took care of itself.”
D’Apuzzo looked at Ryan’s face. “Were you involved?”
“No. Somebody jumped me in the parking garage at my office.”
“I hope your clean-up crew is better than your security.”
“It is.” He couldn’t even bring himself to nod. “Why are you all here?”
“While the four of us were having dinner, Alex called and told us there was something we should see.” He raised an eyebrow. “It’s a good thing we didn’t come any earlier, or we might’ve been involved in the fight.”
If only Ryan was that lucky. “Where is Phillips?”
“Heart attack,” D’Apuzzo said. “It’s not looking good for him.”
“I'm sorry to hear that.” Finally, there was something to smile about…inwardly. Phillips was the loudest and most demanding out of all of them.
“It shouldn’t affect this project at all. My son, Gregory”—Dunlap nodded towards the younger man—“will take his place.”
Ryan looked at Gregory, another man to lie to, another ass to kiss. He looked nervous, so maybe he’d be easier to handle. Until Ryan didn’t need to handle any of them.
“Since we’re here anyway and have things to discuss,” Dunlap said, “why don’t you give the others a tour of the basement?”
“Now’s not a good time for me. Why don’t we do it tomorrow?” When I’m in another city.
“My question was rhetorical.” The severity of his voice cut through any residual hope that Ryan had.
So it came down to this—the best day of his life had turned into the worst. And now Eden’s beating was one of the high points.
“Alright, but please excuse the mess. If I’d known you were coming I would’ve made them pick up their rooms.” He was the only one laughing, and even he was faking it. “If you’ll all follow me. Alex, you’re coming too?”
She hesitated until he mouthed, ‘It is what it is.’
“Of course.”
“Great.” Let’s get this over with. He felt the pockets of his coat. On the right, he felt his gun and on the left, the syringe. It was too early to inject himself. He’d do it after the tour was over and the Board was gone. As he led them down to the basement, he fantasized about the time when he didn't need these people's financing and would be free to wrap his hands around Dunlap's fat neck.
At the bottom of the stairway, he held the door for them. Dunlap took the lead, heading straight for the observation room. Ryan felt his pocket again, like a child holding onto his security blanket.
This was going to be excruciating.
The observation room was in the center of the building, directly underneath the room that was littered with bodies. Along one side of the room was a holding area, where a very long chain that had thick cuffs on both ends was threaded through numerous O-rings bolted into the wall. On the other side was a row of cabinets and a small fridge.
But the room’s most prominent feature was an enormous glass room, completely closed-in except for the top which was open for ventilation and had I-beams running across it for additional stability. The glass was the kind they used for shark tanks, allowing for unobstructed viewing while able to withstand literally tons of pressure.
“When the Abnormals are brought into this room, they are sedated.”
“They’re too hard to move if they aren’t,” Dunlap added. “They have a mini-fork lift to haul them around.”
“For security purposes,” Ryan said, “they’re never fully conscious and unbound outside of their cages.” He picked up the chain. “In this area, we can hold them or give them additional pharmaceuticals—whatever is needed.” He walked across the room to the fridge, but didn’t open it. These people didn’t need to know how low on supplies they currently were. “We only keep a small stock of the drugs we’re testing on hand.”
“What is that for?” Gregory pointed at the cage.
Ryan’s guilty pleasure. Something he wished no one knew about. But aside from needed help to bring in the Hydes, he’d also acquiesced to Dunlap and Phillips’ nagging and shown them exactly what he used it for.
He chose his words carefully. “The Abnormals have all been medicated for different amounts of time—either in their human form or their Abnormal one. Therefore it’s important to ob
serve any changes as they present themselves.”
“Cut the crap, Whittley,” Dunlap said. “Tell them what it’s really for.”
“Yes, sir.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly but subtly. Control yourself and you can control others. “This is where we watch them fight.” Tear each other apart, more accurately. Unstoppable until one or both were dead. Just how he imagined the fight between Turner and Ian went down.
Dunlap turned toward the group, Alex didn’t lift her eyes off the floor, and the only one who had the decency to look afraid was Gregory. “We watch them fight, rip each other apart with their bare hands. Test the limits of their violence and hatred of each other. Some of them are stronger than others, more violent, but they don’t know why yet.”
But Dunlap wasn’t done talking. “This is an instance of survival of the fittest. And we want to use the absolute fittest for the serum we use on the Normals.” He looked at Ryan with all the excitement of a kid at a carnival. “Right?”
“Yes, sir.” Ryan kept the disgust off his face. He had the right to explore the Hydes’ capabilities, even to take pleasure from watching them kill each other. These people didn’t.
They paid in cash, not in fear and pain and anger. Not like he had.
But it might be time for that to change.
After the group was done gawking at the glass cage and Dunlap promised them a fight later on, Ryan took them to see the contestants. The zookeeper stood wide-eyed in the hallway until, with one look, Ryan told him to buzz off. He punched the code into the keypad and held the door open for them to pass.
As each entered the room, they gasped, mumbled, or cursed. The Hydes responded by growling and rattling the bars of their cages.
When Alex went through the door, Ryan grabbed her arm and whispered, “I understand why you felt the need to cover your ass, but you created more problems for both of us. We need to talk once the tour is over.”
She swallowed but said nothing.
“I’m not angry, Alex.” I’m furious. “But I’m going to need a sincere apology and your help when I ask for it. No questions asked.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would get into any trouble that you couldn’t handle.”
“Well…you were right.” He could handle anything.
“Can I have a second to regroup?” Her voice was annoyingly shaky. If she didn’t pull her shit together soon, he’d do it for her.
“Bathroom’s down there on your right.” He didn’t know if it was an excuse or not. He could force her to stay, but almost every door down here used a keycode. And Alex didn’t know the code. She took off as soon as he released her arm.
“And here they are,” he said loudly, with his hands tucked in his pockets. “The space between each bar is sized so they can’t get their arms through, but I wouldn’t get too close, just in case. If they see an opportunity, they’ll take it.”
He hated being in this room. The Hydes, kept in a perpetual state of transformation, pulled his Hyde—their power feeding the strength of his. Especially right before he took the serum, right before his Hyde would come out if Ryan let it. So he stayed by the open door, breathing deeply. Control yourself. It was getting worse—the more things went wrong, the harder it was to control. And almost everything was going wrong.
Shaking himself off, he addressed the Board. “Now I imagine you’re wondering about the muzzles. Understandable. And the reason is simple—when they speak, it isn’t nice. It is the basest part of humanity, the lowest form. It’s disturbing for their caretakers to listen to, so we muzzle them. It doesn’t hurt them—it just keeps them quiet.”
“Why are there so many empty cages?” someone asked.
“We’ve lost a few and haven’t replaced them yet. And, unfortunately, we also learned a hard lesson on why it’s so important to keep them separated. If they’re next to each other, they’ll fight until one of them gets a good grip on the other or they pick each other apart. It isn’t pretty.” And was hell to clean up.
After a few more minutes of explanation, Ryan took the key to the cages off the wall.
One shot. Make it a good one. While all four Board members were busy antagonizing and laughing at the Hydes a bit farther down the line, Ryan got as close as he could manage and tossed the key into the closest cage.
As soon as he saw the beast palm it, he whispered, “Have fun,” walked out of the room, and closed the door. He didn’t need to manually lock it. Security protocol meant that a four-digit number code was needed to unlock the door from either side.
He leaned his forehead against the metal—a moment of silence to mourn the loss of so much of his time and energy. But he could take what he needed and start again somewhere else. With another Board.
A few seconds later he heard the first scream.
It melded into multiple, until it sounded almost like music. A four-part harmony of terror. Beautiful in its own way.
A moment after that, he felt the vibration of someone pounding on the door, rattling the knob, scratching to be free.
Aren’t we all?
Chapter XLII
What seemed like a good omen made Eden shiver. One of the side doors was open. Just a crack, but enough for her to grasp with her fingertips. And that meant whatever was behind the door would be very, very bad.
She jumped to the side just in time to avoid getting smacked in the face as it flew open. A guy, no more than twenty-five years old, came barreling out right into Mitch’s chest. He bounced back, stopping when Mitch grabbed him by the shirt and steadied him.
“I…Who…I…” He didn’t look dangerous...
“Who are you?” Mitch asked.
...about to pee his pants, but not dangerous. “It’s…I…”
Mitch looked at her. “Am I what makes everyone under twenty-three stutter?”
She shrugged. “You can be intimidating sometimes.”
“Huh. I’ll work on that as soon as it stops coming in handy.” He turned his attention back to the guy. “What do you do here, and why are you leaving Roadrunner-style?”
He squirmed and tugged against Mitch’s grip. “I…I just watch the animals. That’s all. I don’t know anything.”
The animals. “We were here earlier and we didn’t see any animals. Where are they?”
The guy stopped moving, his eyes wide, scared. But not of them. Or not only of them. He was afraid of whatever was happening inside.
“For once could someone just be a little cooperative?” Mitch looked up for a moment and then adjusted his grip to the guy’s neck and marched him back inside the building. “Tell us what’s going on or I’ll park you right in front of whatever you were running from.”
“Whittley. He’s…” And then the words came pouring out of him. “He locked people in with the animals. They were screaming. Like, dying screams. They were dying. The other lady might still be alive, but I don’t know.”
“Where are they?”
“In the basement.” He kept talking, still referring to the ‘animals’. They were contained in one room, probably with a number of dead bodies by now. And then he said something else.
Something terrifying.
“What did you just say?”
“The Normals,” he repeated. “They’re all still locked in their rooms.”
Normals. Not Abnormals. Normals. “They’re regular people?”
“Not even close. But they’re not like the animals.”
Mitch took a deep, broken breath. “They were given a serum, right? Regular men who were given a serum.” After the guy nodded, Mitch’s eyes darkened and she got it.
Landon. “We can’t deal with that yet,” she told him. “Whittley first. Then we find these…Normals, talk to them, and figure out what to do. We need to help them, Mitch.”
He ignored her, staring at the man in his hands, his grip tightening.
“Mitch, stop! Stop now!” She yanked the guy back and put herself between them. “Freaking out now will do
nothing but cause more trouble. We can’t help Landon if we don’t even know what we’re dealing with.” When he still didn’t respond, she shoved him back a step. There wasn’t time for this. If he couldn’t deal, then she would.
“Show me how to get downstairs,” she said to the guy.
“No way.”
“Look at my eyes.” Her voice never raised or changed pitch, but he listened. “Have you seen that color before?”
He swallowed.
“And do you know what he is?” She flicked her head towards Mitch who was seething so badly she could almost hear him crackle. “He’s a functioning version of what you call the ‘animals’. But he’s not always well-functioning. So show us the way downstairs before either of us get grumpy.”
She kept one hand on him and another on Mitch as the guy led them through the building. They stopped at the only door with a keypad and, as he typed the four-digit code in, Eden memorized it.
“Is it the same for the doors downstairs?”
“Most, but not all. The ones to the fight cage and Whittley’s office are different.”
A tremor went through Mitch at the mention of a fight cage. Not good on many, many levels.
She tightened her grip on both men but spoke to the scared one. “You know the kind of people you work for. So I’d suggest you pack your bag, throw a dart at a map of the world, and head straight to wherever it lands without ever mentioning this to anyone.”
“Nicely said, babe.” Mitch kissed the top of her head. “And handled.”
Before she knew what was happening, he reached around her, took the guy by the neck and slammed him into the wall. He crumbled onto the floor.
“No man left behind,” Mitch grumbled. “Unless they’re dead or unconscious.” She almost wished she had a problem with that.
On the way down the stairs, they heard the echo of a woman’s voice. Whimpering. Crying. Then Ryan cursing. When the crying turned into the sound of running footsteps, Eden and Mitch picked up their pace, still not knowing what they were moving towards.