Before they could leave the room, a blond woman came into the kitchen, a sketchpad tucked under her arm. She was pulling off dirty gardening gloves. She smiled at Liege and went straight over to kiss him, then looked at Selena curiously.
“Summer, this is Selena,” Bastion said. “She is a warrior—and she is my light.”
The woman’s eyes went wide before she gave Selena a big smile. “See?” she said to Liege. “They do exist.”
“So it would appear,” Liege replied. “We’re going to give her a tour of the labs. Want to come?”
“No.” Summer shook her head. “No, thank you.” She shivered. “I just came to get a glass of water.”
Summer came over to Selena and held her hand out. “It’s nice to meet you. I told Liege there were women like you—fighters. I’m glad he got to meet you too.”
Selena was unsure what to make of that, so she just smiled and shook the woman’s hand. The guys started to file out of the kitchen.
Selena looked at Bastion. “Shall I push your chair for you?”
He smiled and shook his head. “There is no need.”
Right. Because this was some parallel universe where the laws of physics were easily manipulated. She followed him out of the kitchen, across the entry tunnel, and into the glass hallway.
At the end of the hallway, they went down another set of short hallways to another elevator. The cab on this one was large enough for all of them to fit, even with Bastion’s chair and its extended leg supports. It was hard to tell how many floors they descended, since the buttons were labeled with text, not numbers.
So these guys had a bunker too. And a lab. What were they up to? She looked at Bastion, wishing she had his ability to read minds. She was blindly following them into an unknown lair. If she’d mistaken their intentions, her team might never find her again.
By now, if they’d discovered she as missing, they had to be either worried sick for her or were doubting her trustworthiness, going AWOL as she had. Maybe both. She couldn’t blame them. So much was at stake right now—it was a bad time to go missing.
We’ll take you back to them after this, Bastion said via their mental link. They will soon know, through you, more about us.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened. The area they walked into didn’t look like the silos Selena had seen from the compounds owned by the White Kingdom Brotherhood or the Omni World Order.
There were two hallways, one in front of the elevator and one that went to the right. They took the one that led off from the elevator. The corridor was wide and sterile. The walls were white. Industrial linoleum tiles covered the floor like in a hospital ward. Big windows looked into long labs—one of which appeared to be a morgue.
Acier opened the door to the morgue and held it for her and Bastion.
Be calm, my warrior, Bastion warned her. What you are about to see is the stuff of nightmares.
I’m not your anything, Selena snapped, glaring at him.
My warning stands, Bastion said.
“We, as you know, have been changed,” Liege said. “I know you’ve encountered other mutants. Your leader’s woman, his father, and the scientists. The Omnis are proceeding at a reckless pace with their experiments. They aren’t just enhancing humans—they’re making monsters. Whether this is by intent or by error, the fact remains that they are setting loose the deviants they’re creating.” He nodded toward Guerre, who clicked open a slide show on the large glass pane.
Selena gasped as the images covered the screen. The monsters were just that: disfigured, gargoyle-like beings come to life.
“What are these things?” she asked.
“Omni lab creations,” Bastion said. “We fight them several times a week.”
“It may only be a matter of time before they come for you and your team,” Acier said. “You guys need to learn how to fight them.”
“This is why we need to connect with the scientists your team is hiding,” Liege said. “If we can find and destroy the labs creating these monsters, everyone will be safer.”
Selena sent a look around the room. “Makes sense. So why all the skulking around our place? Why not just ask for a meetup?”
“Because your team hadn’t yet caught the attention of those we’re hunting,” Liege said.
“The fuck we haven’t. There’s a reason we live together on a compound.”
Liege silently regarded her. “The Omnis are a diverse group.”
Selena’s brows rose. “Yeah. About as diverse as all shades of white.”
“Skin tone isn’t what I’m talking about,” Liege said. “Focus is. The Omni World Order is comprised of dozens of petty autocrats, each holding his own sort of power, each with his own objectives, each seeking to control powerful sectors of science and technology. Beyond that, the OWO contains dissidents, like us, like your team. The scientists we’re after fall in both camps.”
“We’ve learned that.”
“So far it hasn’t been the changed Omnis coming after you. Their focus has been on eradicating other changed beings and building their forces. How long that will be the case, I don’t know.”
“So patch my team in,” Selena said. “You’re wasting your time having this convo with me. I don’t have the authority to sign us up to join forces with you.”
Liege glanced at Bastion, then at Guerre. The looks they exchanged were lengthy, as if they were having a private discussion, which they probably were, given how Bastion had been able to talk to her mentally.
“Out loud, Liege,” Bastion said. “My woman cannot hear you.”
Selena narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m not your woman.”
“Yet.”
Guerre walked to one of the freezer drawers. He rustled through a body bag, then pulled out something that looked like a ball wrapped in clear freezer bags. “When we take you back to your team, you’ll take this.” He put the frozen ball in a small cooler.
What the hell was that?
Liege handed the cooler to Selena. “Take this to anchor your conversation with your team.”
“What is it?” Selena asked.
“Show and tell,” Acier said, then grinned. “The mic-drop kind.”
She set the cooler on one of the steel gurneys and looked inside. Staring up at her, through layers of plastic wrap and tape, was the frozen head of one of the monsters they’d just shown her images of.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.
The disfigured thing looked like a prop from a horror flick. Selena slammed the cooler lid down.
It was cruel. I am sorry for that, Bastion said. But words cannot make real the danger your team faces the way this artifact does. That is all we meant by giving this to you. Perhaps it is something that will entice your scientists to come forward.
Selena felt tired suddenly. She’d spent the last several weeks in a holding pattern, always conscious of her thoughts, always worried of revealing something sensitive to Bastion and his hidden forces.
Always missing him—a man she neither knew nor trusted.
“Guerre and Bastion will take you back to your compound,” Liege said. “I’m open to meeting with your team, here, there, or any other place, any time. Sooner the better.”
He nodded at his men, then left the lab.
23
The black cloud that had darkened the northern sky when Selena arrived had now rolled south, bringing with it a snow squall. It was hard to see anything heading straight into the storm as they were.
Guerre was driving. Bastion was in the back, resting his leg across bench seat. The monster head was all the way in the back cargo area of the Escalade they drove.
She looked out the front passenger window, worried about what she was bringing to her team. Truthfully, she wasn’t bringing anything new. Bastion and his guys had already found them. Thank God he hadn’t hurt anyone.
I would only hurt an enemy, he said via their mental link. And do not spare a thought for me. My pain does not matter.
; You invaded our space, she said.
To find you. I was out of my mind with worry.
Selena looked at him in the back. Why?
It is the nature of things. Mutants like me rarely make a connection with regulars, but when we do, we cannot undo it.
Selena stared into the snow slashing toward them. It would be dark before they arrived.
A long while later, she checked her watch as they pulled off the highway and drove around the outskirts of Wolf Creek Bend. It was almost time for dinner. The families at her team’s compound would be gathering in the living room. She didn’t want any of the civilians to see what—and whom—she’d brought home.
Guerre pulled up on the side of the house where the garage was. Wind was whipping the snow into a frenzy as it whistled around the corner of the house. Selena stood outside the closed garage doors, waiting for her team to be alerted. Guerre helped Bastion out of the SUV and into his wheelchair. He set the cooler on Bastion’s lap, then drove off. Selena watched him turn down the driveway. His headlights disappeared. “Did he go? Or is he still here somewhere?”
“He is nearby,” Bastion said.
She took the cooler from him and set it on the ground between them. She knew the motion sensors would alert the team that they were standing there. Unless…Bastion had jammed them again.
“I have not.”
One of the doors opened. Bastion got to his feet and moved slightly in front of Selena, leaning on his crutches.
“Don’t do that,” Selena said. “These are my people.”
“The least I can do is shield you.”
“I don’t need shielding,” she said, stepping out from behind him.
Max, Greer, and Kit came out of the house, but stopped as they noticed Selena’s strange behavior.
“Get Tank,” she said. A moment later, Eddie came out with the dog on a leash. “Send him alone.”
Eddie released her dog. He rushed over and sniffed Bastion, her, the cooler, and its contents, then Bastion’s chair. Selena wondered if he’d scent Guerre in the SUV that was somewhere nearby, but he didn’t. Tank made another circle around them, then hurried back to Eddie.
Selena breathed a sigh of relief. At least she knew there wasn’t a bomb hidden in the gruesome head.
Bastion returned to his wheelchair. Snow was still swirling about them, sending cold and wet flakes inside her collar.
Kit walked in front of Max and Greer, glaring at Bastion. For his part, Bastion gave him a big grin as he said, “Hello.”
“Bastion?” Kit asked.
“Oui. It is I.”
Kit looked from him to Selena. “What’s going on? Jax said you left.”
“I did.” Selena nodded. “We have a lot to talk about. And none of it is fit for civilians.”
Kit looked from her to Bastion. “You want me to invite him in?”
“I believe him when he says he’s not an enemy. I’ve met the rest of his team. Like I said, we have a lot to talk about.”
Kit nodded toward the cooler. “What’s in there?”
Selena couldn’t stop the sigh that broke free. Now came the hard part. “The head of a monster.”
“Fuck. Me.” Max stepped next to Kit. “Since when do we take trophies?”
“It is not a trophy,” Bastion said. “It is a sample we’ve preserved from a mutant. It’s proof of what we’ve come to say.”
Kit glared at Bastion. “And what would that be?”
Owen came out to join them. “In the den. Now.” He nodded at her to go with the others. She stopped on the steps at the garage door and looked back. Owen and Bastion were having a stare-down. Bastion was again on his feet, grasping his crutches. He was a little taller than Owen, but height didn’t seem an issue between the men.
“No tricks,” Owen said. “No headaches. No trances. No fucked-up electronics. No games.”
“The time for games is over,” Bastion said. “But I cannot shield you from what you are about to learn.” He squared his shoulders. “I wish to apologize for the damage I did to your sitting room.”
Owen’s expression didn’t soften. “You think I buy your crap? That you could undo what you did with just an apology? You were a fucking tornado, Bastion. Around my wife and kids, no less.”
Bastion nodded. Selena knew his regret was real. She wondered what had happened. “I lost my control. I’m afraid the damage would have been far worse had Liege not stopped me.”
“And now you think I can ever trust you?”
“I have never felt such rage. Or fear. You took my woman, Owen. Should any harm befall her, I cannot promise that I won’t lose my control again.”
Wow. What had happened? Selena was going to get the scoop as soon as it was safe to do so. “I am my own woman, Bastion—not yours.”
Her comment brought Owen’s attention to her. He stared at her a long and uncomfortable moment. Was he testing Bastion’s promise of good behavior? She hoped he wasn’t getting a headache being so near her, as he had before.
“Are you hurt?” Owen asked.
“No,” she said.
“Under his influence?”
Selena glared at Owen. “I wouldn’t have brought him here if it wasn’t the right thing to do.”
Owen nodded, gave Bastion a warning glare, then went inside.
She looked at Bastion, relieved they’d gotten over the first hurdle. He grinned at her and spread his arms, leaving his crutches to stand on their own. “See? They love me already.”
Selena shook her head. “What was that all about?”
“The day you left, I went a little crazy. I confronted Owen. He is a good mind talker too. When he refused to tell me where you were—and blocked my compulsion to do so—I blew up his sitting room. I’ve never done anything like that. I didn’t even know that I could, but then I’ve never felt such anguish either.”
Oh, man. Today was going to be harder than she’d expected. Bastion walked toward her, leaving his chair to follow. She carried it up the few steps from the garage into the house, then fetched the cooler. Ace was in the hall waiting for her. Her friend reached out to hug her, a gesture Selena happily accepted.
Ace stepped back, gripping Selena by her arms as she checked her over. “You look good.”
“You too.” Selena nodded at Ace’s aqua ombre. “I like it.” Ace was forever changing something about her hair.
Ace looked behind Selena and narrowed her eyes at Bastion. He smiled at her in a friendly way. “I am Bastion.”
“I’ve heard about you,” Ace said.
“Of course. I am famous.”
Selena grabbed Bastion’s wheelchair, giving him a warning glance. It was best not to let the thing move on its own here—not for a while, anyway. Maybe never. She rolled the chair into the den and parked it near the big mahogany desk.
The whole team was gathered in the room. She looked around at their familiar faces, glad to be back. There were ten on the team, counting Ace. Twelve if she included the two former Red Teamers, Russ and Jim, who now ran the household. Thirteen if she counted herself, but the truth was that she didn’t know where she fit anymore. If Bastion continued to use her, her place on the team was gone.
She took the cooler from the wheelchair and set it on the big desk that Owen was leaning against. Her boss watched her with those icy eyes of his, waiting for her to get the party started.
She looked around at everyone. “I don’t know where to start—”
“So I’ll start,” Max said, glaring at Bastion.
“Non. It is only polite to give the floor to your guest. Moi.” Bastion settled himself in his wheelchair, then looked at Max then Greer. “It was a brilliant trap you set. Brilliant. I apologize for my abrupt behavior that day. I was out of bounds. You were right to stop me.”
“You’re sure doing a lot of apologizing,” Kit said.
Bastion met his hard eyes. “I regret my loss of control, but I regret even more having to bring to you the information I’m about to shar
e. If I could have kept it from you, shielded you from the danger you’re facing, I would have. Forever.”
“You didn’t just overstep that day, Bastion,” Kit said. “You overstepped the whole time you were spying us.”
Bastion shrugged. “That is a matter of perspective. In bounds or out, I have learned what I needed to. You are not working with the Omnis. That is all I care about.”
“You still have some explaining to do,” Kit said.
“Oui.” Bastion exchanged glances with Selena. “I have been watching all of you for some time.”
“We know that,” Max said.
“It is because the war we fight with the Omnis must remain hidden. And until I’d gotten to know you, I couldn’t feel I trusted you.”
“You’re after the scientists,” Angel said. Angel’s girlfriend was the daughter of the two scientists, so Selena wasn’t surprised at his protectiveness.
Kit crossed his arms and spread his legs. “Let’s hear him out, Angel.”
“You have had modified people here.” Bastion looked at Owen. “The scientists, your woman, and your father. I did not know at first if you understood what they were, if they were friends or foes. However, my due diligence is finished. I am confident that you stand on the same side of this Omni war as my team. I have come to request a meeting of our teams.”
Owen sent Kit a hard glance.
“There will be no tricks,” Bastion said. “It is necessary that we share some information we have with you. You need protection from a new threat the Omnis have devised, a tool of terror they are using. And we need help finding and securing Omni scientists. I think there is something we can do for each other.”
“What is this new threat?” Owen asked.
Bastion made a disgusted face. “Monsters.” Selena opened the cooler, but Bastion stopped her before she could lift the head out. “Non. Do not touch it. Hand the cooler to me.”
Bastion hoisted himself to his feet. He leaned his crutches on his wheelchair, then lifted out the head. Limping around the room with one crutch, he showed it to each fighter then set it on the coffee table.
Bastion: O-Men: Liege’s Legion Page 20
