Page 1 of Ondine: Vol. 2

1

Extraction

Shadow

The room swarms with Man-ho’s men. It’s too chaotic for me to do anything other than let them pile in, shoulder to shoulder. The lights cut in the hallway, and the emergency lights glow red, flashing on and off. I crouch and elbow my way to the edge of the door. I can barely see them wrestle with my knots on the cords tying their boss to the chair. A siren blares out in a rhythm not matching the lights, so everything feels even more unhinged.

I muscle my way into the hallway where more guards flood the corridor. Suddenly, one guard takes off his tactical helmet and plops it on my head. I meet his eyes and see he’s one of Sebastian’s betas. A Meier Group security agent.

He didn’t send him in here. He’s one of our spies. I strap the helmet on without giving him away. He shoves a walkie talkieinto my hands and pushes me along, guiding me through the crowd.

He abandons me at one point, but it’s fine because if I just lift the walkie to my face, I’ve got it covered, and the helmet makes me look like one of them. Fuck yes.

I come up to the trapdoor that leads back to the pleasure room. I could go back into this thing, crawl up the chute, or take my chances wherever I am now. Eh. I’ll take my chances. I head against the flow of guards, looking annoyed and busy. I yell mandarin into the walkie that basically amounts to, “What the fuck is wrong with you?! That’s not what I asked you to do! I need the report now!”

I try my best not to laugh at how much fun I’m having. It’s like I’m completely invisible. But suddenly I get the feeling I’ve been descending further and further underground. Did I miss a turn?

There are no more guards here.

Just a carpeted hallway leading to a spiral staircase. It only goes down.

Fuck.

I can’t go further down. I’ve only gone down since I got here.

I turn around and join the melee where I’d last left it. I peek over everyone’s heads and see them pull Man-ho’s unconscious body from the little room I’d had him in. I could just blend in and follow the crowd out.

Well, I could, if not for the fact that Man-ho wakes up, sees the knife sticking out of his thigh, and then immediately spots me in the crowd.

Fucking damnit.

I wink at him and then take off back where I came, stumbling down the spiral staircase to the great unknown. There’s no light, so I’m going further and further down in absolute darkness while the sounds of footsteps of men come after me. Terrorstrikes when I hit water. How the fuck did I not hear or smell water?!

I jump back and cling to the grated staircase. Suddenly, the footsteps chasing me stop.

“He’s trapped!” I hear them say. “Close the hatch and keep him down there!”

And that’s exactly what they do.

The trap me down here in what I can only assume is an eel pit of some sort (probably just an old cistern.)

Jake

Sebastian’s team should be in place now. Looks like Shadow got himself locked in some sort of bunker. He hasn’t moved for the last thirty minutes. Our man inside, Creed, gave us an encrypted message that he saw Shadow and he’s ok for now. Man-ho has been stabbed in the thigh.

Ondine is with her new mate. Safe and warm and happy. As she should be. Sebastian is dressed and waiting at Sky Nest with Killer the cat. He’s turned that receiving room at Ondine’s nest into HQ.

I am doing something entirely different. I’m on my own mission. I’ve broken into the Heat Clinic in the Kestrel Burrow where Ondine used to make her heat appointments at. B&Es are usually Shadow’s job, but he’s indisposed.

I stalk through the halls of the quiet Heat Clinic. It’s 24/7, so there are rooms being used. Suites, they call them. I cannot believe Ondine used this service. Regularly. A man in a white coat comes down the low-light hallway, on his way to intercept me.

“Excuse me, sir. What’s your business here?” he asks with some authority. He is in his late 50‘s and does not look like he could chase me if I ran. Not that I need to.

“I’m a private investigator looking into an omega who frequented this clinic. Can I have a moment?”

Ondine probably spoke to this man. Walked down this hall. Used one of these rooms. I’m wracking my brain trying to think of a scenario where I met her earlier, and she used me and my pack for her heats and not this place.

I don’t come up with anything.