Page 15

15

Appearances Were Worth a Steaming, Stinking Pile of Shit

T hough the campus was relatively small compared to many other schools, it was large enough for its roads to snake around and wind up and down hills bordered by the forest. At least Magnum hadn’t used his fortune to level the building site, a blessing which afforded us some discretion as Brady tailed Fanny.

With Don at the helm, the cart sped across the freshly paved roads, taking turns without slowing much, so that the buggy’s wheels caught air several times. Whatever— who ever—Fanny was straining to reach, it was obvious that seconds mattered.

Every time Bonnie popped around a bend and we saw the buggy just about to disappear from sight, I thought Fanny would surely make us.

But she must not have looked back. Too preoccupied with the emergency, too certain we’d follow her barked orders like brainless minions.

“There isn’t supposed to be anything out this way,” Layla said from my right.

Once again, I was in the middle, squeezed between her and Griffin in the back, with a very restless pittie on my lap. Bobo’s claws were digging into my thighs, and I was grateful I’d decided to wear jeans that morning.

We’d already passed the physical training facilities and the staff residential building and were now heading toward what appeared to be undeveloped, densely forested land—with asphalt roads cut through it. Not sus at all.

“Fanny said the buildings she showed us were all there was to the place,” Layla added.

I snorted. “And you thought she’d be straight-up with us? That the team that killed and has practically kidnapped us wouldn’t keep any secrets from us?” Another snort, then, “Also, remember they’re listening to everything we say as we make our way to the lab .”

“Oh,” Layla muttered a bit miserably. “Yeah, right. The lab .”

“We’re so screwed,” Brady said with a glance at us in the rearview mirror. “No way can Lay remember we’re being monitored before she speaks every time. To do that, she’d have to think before she opens her fat mouth, and we all know that ain’t gonna happen anytime soon.”

“Hey,” Layla protested, but then didn’t bother denying it. Even she knew it was the truth: discretion wasn’t in the girl’s vocabulary. We were super screwed, deep-fried and extra crispy.

“It’s gonna be hard for any of us to remember constantly,” Griffin said, looking out the window. “Basically, we can never let our guard down. Nowhere inside anyway. I foresee us going for a lot of long runs.”

“Till they chip our clothes or sneaks or something,” Hunt said with a huff from the passenger seat. “You know they fucking will too. They chipped Fanny’s head .”

I slid Bobo’s foot a little to one side from where it was majorly digging into the flesh of my thigh. “You really think so?”

“From what we just saw in the house, yeah, I do. The advancements in nanotech recently have been totally sick. I won’t even tell you how easy it’d be for them to chip us too and we’d probably never even know it.”

The dread that had been pretty much a constant in the pit of my stomach for the last several weeks grew heavier, churning like indigestion. “Great. Just fucking dandy. If you’re listening to us right now, Magnum, I will fucking murder you if you chip me or my friends without our permission.”

“Which you’ll never have,” Griffin chimed in.

“Never,” I confirmed. “So keep that in mind,” I continued speaking to the invisible microphone and maybe also camera inside the Mustang. “Having more money than God doesn’t actually make you a god. You can still die.”

I grimaced as Griff and I exchanged looks. The whole point of this campus and Magnum’s power play was essentially to buy immortality like ours.

I plunked my head against the back of the seat. “Shit. We’re so fucked.”

“That much we can all agree on,” Griffin grumbled.

“Yup,” Brady commented from up front.

I’d just let my eyes close when I felt the vibration beneath my head. “Please tell me that’s the car humming a little extra right now.”

“No, def not,” Layla said, her pitch strung tight. “I think it’s another shake as we make our way to the lab .”

I rolled my eyes at her and sat up, hugging Bobo close. “What—?”

The car began shaking so intensely that the dashboard rattled and the windows buzzed alarmingly; the seat beneath us vibrated like a massage chair.

Griffin jerked forward to tap Brady on the shoulder. “Pull over, man. We gotta get out of here in case it gets worse and the glass shatters.”

The glass and steel of Bonnie only shuddered all the more violently as Brady guided the car onto the shoulder.

“Keep going,” Hunt said. “Over there. You can park behind those trees and they might not, uh, you know … us so easily.”

They might not spot us immediately with at least a little bit of cover. Then again, they probably had a tracker on the car too. Fuck, it was all too much. If only we could be transported back in time to before the Fischer House party.

By the time Brady parked Bonnie and we tumbled out of the car, the trees surrounding us on all sides of the road were oscillating in a way trees definitely aren’t supposed to.

Bobo whined as he pressed against my legs, and Layla leaned into one side of me.

“I don’t like this.”

Griffin grabbed my free hand and tugged me toward the road’s shoulder. “Come on. We’re running if we want a chance at figuring out what’s going on.”

Without another word, we set off, the rhythmic pounding of our feet a counterpoint to the thrashing unease of nature reacting to whatever un natural force was disturbing it.

“I really don’t like this,” Layla amended as we crested a hillock. “Something feels majorly off.”

When we reached the top of the incline, we immediately ducked behind the trees, their leaves trembling far above us. Bobo was being an obedient boy; I’d told him to keep “quiet” and “follow” in my command voice, and he was doing exactly that.

The buggy was parked in front of a hill with two thick cement walls lining an entrance leading down into it. Fanny, Don, and half a dozen men in tactical gear swarmed out front, chasing a guy who looked to be about our age as he sprinted back and forth trying to avoid them.

“Damn,” Layla whispered, though we were a good fifty feet from the cart, far enough that no one should be able to hear us, especially not with the constant humming and grumbling of the earth and trees. “You weren’t fucking kidding. They were keeping mega secrets. That entrance looks like it leads to, like, a secret underground lair or something. It’s like a bunker.”

“That’s exactly what it looks like,” Brady muttered, shooting out a hand to steady himself against the trunk of a tree as the ground jerked beneath us. Birds took flight in a sudden flutter of wings. “Fuck them for having something like this.”

Whatever it actually was.

“We don’t know what’s inside it,” Hunt said. “Could be pretty much anything. Though no doubt it’s not anything good.”

“No fucking doubt,” Layla seethed as the guy, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, dodged a couple of the guys in tactical gear, then sprinted up and around the hill—only to be pushed back down to the front by another handful of armed men dressed all in black, with what looked like bulletproof vests and panels along their extremities. They all wore helmets, and Don was in the process of passing one to Fanny while affixing his own.

“Shouldn’t we help him?” I asked.

“How?” Brady said. “It’s not like we have super strength or anything. Plus, if they’re dressed like a fucking bomb squad, who’s to say he won’t destroy us.”

“The whole point of us being here is ’cause we’re indestructible,” Layla pointed out.

Hunt harrumphed. “Maybe, maybe not. We basically don’t know shit about ourselves other than we’ve survived death a bit and we’re part of some lifelong experiment. We still know too little.”

“Magnum’s gonna do his best to kill us anyway,” I said. “Shouldn’t we at least die trying to help this kid?”

From beside me, Griffin tipped his head, a sign he agreed and was considering.

Bobo whimpered softly as he rubbed against my legs, trying to find comfort.

I crouched and hugged him to my chest, kissing his neck. “Sorry, boy. I didn’t mean to drag you into any of this.” Whatever the hell this even was.

The guy was fast, and he took off at a dead run, evading several of the arms reaching for him as he raced off toward the forest.

Before he could vanish into the camouflage of the tree line, Fanny yelled, “Shoot him!”

“Aw, shit,” Hunt growled, standing from where he squatted, observing with squinty eyes. “We can’t let this happen.”

I was already shaking my head. “No, we can’t.”

Shots rang out, but the guy didn’t fall or cry out; he just kept running.

As one unit, with Bobo shadowing my steps, we crept closer at a crouch, taking cover at the final trees that bordered the open clearing in front of us. Once we stepped out from behind their trunks, we’d be exposed. I mentally prepared for Fanny to order us shot too.

My eyes widened as a thought occurred to me. “Oh no,” I breathed. “Oh fuck no.”

Griffin leaned toward me so that his lips brushed against my ear as he whispered urgently, “What is it?”

I just shook my head, grabbing Bobo’s face in my hands and calling on the no-nonsense command tone I’d used to train him, forever grateful I’d had the foresight to train him for a battle I’d had no idea we’d be heading into.

“Bobo,” I whispered sternly. “Danger. Stay. No matter what, you stay .” Then I pointed to the ground behind the fattest tree trunk around us. “ Hide , quiet , and stay .”

There was no way on this green earth I was going to let Bobo get hurt.

More shots sliced the air. The earth shook even more violently beneath our feet. And Bobo looked up at me with dark, desperate, pleading eyes.

“I love you, boy. Now you do as I say. Go.” I tapped the spot behind the tree where he was to hide.

His entire body shaking along with the ground, Bobo moped to the spot and sat to look up at me. His eyes begged me to release him from my commands.

Gulping thickly, I forced myself to look away.

The guy was staggering up from the ground—he must have tripped—while Fanny was yelling, “How could not one of you hit him? Give me that!” She snatched a gun from Don, who’d been holding it like he knew how to use it. Fanny sighted as their escapee leapt over a fallen log, then she pulled the trigger. Bam , bam , bam .

Boom . Another of the soldiers fired a shot, and this one did hit the kid.

He fell forward with a yelp, arms reaching toward the trees that were just inches away from offering him cover.

Griffin handed Layla and me fallen branches while clutching his own. “It’s now or never, guys.”

Without further confirmation, we rose and emerged from the trees, leaving a trembling Bobo behind. But before our posse could reach him, the guy lifted his head to look behind him at the soldiers, all with guns pointing at him. He skirted across the line of us with a quick jerk of surprise, and then he slammed both fists against the earth.

Once, twice, thrice—with cracking booms that sounded like thunder.

Like a sheet being fluffed, the ground undulated beneath us, knocking our feet out from under us. We landed back on our asses—hard. The air in my lungs was expelled in a loud, grunted exhale.

Then the kid roared , sounding like a trapped and wounded animal many times his size. From far away, the flapping of birds’ wings scattered through the air. Wherever they’d deemed it safe to congregate, they decided it wasn’t far enough away.

The trees behind the kid swayed as if they were enduring a strong gale.

Fanny, Don, and the soldiers were all getting back to their feet, revolvers aiming at the guy. Blood leaked from his right shoulder area.

Again, he slammed his fists against the ground. Again, cracks of thunder threatened to rip apart both earth and sky.

His enemies fell again. Fanny discharged her gun; based on a grunt, she hit one of the soldiers.

The buggy teetered on two tires. The guy knocked the earth again, and the cart slammed onto its side, wheels spinning.

Sitting, unwilling to stand—duh—we watched him from out in the open.

“Shoot him,” Fanny shouted while untangling her flowered skirt to lunge closer to him. “Use the tranqs, dammit.”

With his fists already raised, three tranquilizer darts whistled as they flew and stuck into his skin. Two on his neck, close together. Another on one hand.

His arms dropped heavily to the ground, but only caused a shudder. His head wobbled atop his neck.

“He was supposed to be a level two,” Fanny yelled. “He’s clearly not a level two. Use the suit.”

A soldier popped up and stalked toward the kid, pressing some buttons along either arm of his uniform; he lit up with an arcing blue electrical field that crackled loudly.

With so much focus on their runaway, we hadn’t been spotted yet. A small miracle. Hunt waved us back into the cover of the trees. Without a word, we retreated, stares fixed ahead.

Hunt was right. Our time to intervene had passed. There wasn’t much we could do to save the kid now that wouldn’t lead to us being captured and possibly killed.

Knowledge was power, and at least remaining free meant we stood a chance of helping him later. We stood a chance of figuring out what the ever-loving hell was going on and what exactly the secret underground whatever was being used for.

From the safety of the trees, we watched as the electrified soldier pressed his hands to the drooping kid, whose body was already nearly flat on the ground he seemed to command. His body stiffened as the guard pumped wattage into his body. His extremities went rigid and rose from the earth as blood spurted from the wound in his shoulder.

Then, finally, he lay limp.

“Is he going to stay down?” Fanny asked loudly enough that we heard her clearly.

“I think so,” replied the soldier.

“Then turn off your suit. And where the hell are Fred and Doug?”

Another of the soldiers stood. “On their way. They got held up. A sleepwalker knocked them out.”

“For goodness’ sake,” Fanny muttered. “What, is everyone an amateur now? They should know better! They’re the ones who’re supposed to be dealing with the rogues, not me. Now I’m late to see Magnum, and I have to pop by the lab first to check on the priority cases.”

I swallowed. I’d bet we were said priority cases.

As a few other soldiers joined the one in the suit, now dark and quiet, to drag the kid into the entrance below the earth, and Fanny commanded those who remained to help Don get the buggy upright again, we gathered Bobo and ran.

We were loaded up in Bonnie and rocketing back toward the labs before we heard or saw sign of the cart on our tails.

All too aware we lacked true privacy, we rode in silence till we skidded to a stop outside the science building.

We’d already known we were surrounded by the enemy. But now we also knew we weren’t the only ones coerced into attending Magnum’s little institute for immortals.

On the outside, it might seem like a classy, upscale academy.

Appearances were worth a steaming, stinking pile of shit.

Despite our mansion, cars, and all the fake smiles, we were at war.

As we’d do in war, we’d bide our time—until we struck wherever it would hurt the most.