by Sarah Noffke
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Employees should hold their commitment, both in time and in labor, as firstly belonging to Olento Research Corp.”
- Olento Research Employee Manual
“Why is it that twice you’ve had Kaleb Magner cornered and twice you’ve allowed him to slip away?” Mika said, his voice low but full of a heat meant to scorch from the inside out.
“Sir, with all due respect, he’s fast. Much faster than any of my guards, even when he’s not in werewolf form. And you want him unharmed, which means we have to capture him,” Grant said, his eyes low and burdened with shame.
“If I might,” Drake said from his place perched at the back of Mika’s office. He’d been pretending to look over his notes, but he was always eavesdropping because he didn’t know where his place was at Olento Research Corp. Mika would have to fix that. “Allow isn’t the right word. Grant’s team hasn’t allowed Kaleb to slip away, but rather have been foiled each—”
“Shut up, Drake,” Mika said, cutting him off. The old man loved to argue semantics and it was quite possibly going to get him killed if Mika found a scientist to replace him, one that didn’t speak out of turn. He spun his wicked stare on the man standing before his desk. “I spent a sizable sum of money putting on that bogus festival only to lose our chance to grab Kaleb. How do you think that makes me feel, Grant?”
“I’m certain you’re very disappointed but—”
“Disappointed doesn’t even begin to express my feelings on your constant failures,” Mika said, again interrupting one of his employees. He didn’t know why they said as much as they did when most had been told to keep answers brief when in his company.
“But sir, we were able to determine that Kaleb is still in Salt Lake City and I’m certain that information is of value to you, right?” Grant said, hope injected into his tone.
“That’s about like saying if you hadn’t had a car wreck then you wouldn’t have discovered your tire pressure was low,” Mika said, his mouth hardly parting for the words. “You had a car wreck and there is no saving grace in that. I already assumed Kaleb was in Salt Lake City, hence the God damn meat festival.”
“I’m sorry, sir. Do you want me to continue to work this case?” Grant said, his tone careful.
“Yes, until I can engineer replacements. Keep surveillance on all places where Kaleb could possibly show up.” He knew that this wasn’t entirely Grant’s fault, although he wasn’t about to let his director of security off easily for his blunder. He was expecting Middling men to capture a genetically superior machine. One who had incredible speed, senses, endurance, and quite possibly a psychic gift. He refused to recruit Dream Travelers for his security team. They usually didn’t want to be his henchmen anyway, which was the reason he’d been funding ventures like Project Canis Lupus. Dream Travelers had an awful knack for wanting to do great things, rather than be soldiers who followed orders. And honestly, he didn’t trust Dream Travelers. They always had the potential of becoming more powerful than Mika, which was why he surrounded himself with Middlings whom he could intimidate. But he was working on programs to develop guards who were stronger and faster, and who could potentially catch the werewolves.
“Why are you still standing there?” he said to Grant, his voice suddenly loud. This produced a startled expression from the man, who spun around and marched for the exit at once.
“So the Lucidites quite possibly have two of your werewolves,” Drake said, striding forward, taking the place where Grant had stood. It was never acceptable to sit when in Mika’s presence. Mika sat. Others stood. Others served him.
Mika didn’t appreciate that Drake sounded almost patronizing with his statement. “How do I get into their headquarters?” Mika said, choosing to ignore the revolting slight smile on Drake’s face.
“You can’t. It’s more heavily guarded than Olento Research Corp,” Drake said.
“You do know your place here, don’t you?” Mika’s words bolted out of his mouth.
The smile on Drake’s face widened. “When I was invited into the Lucidite Institute to assist with projects I was sedated, blindfolded, and then transported. I don’t remember much of the experience. That’s how serious they take their security.”
“However, you were able to steal research and leave the Institute,” Mika said, so on edge that he was close to violence.
“Yes, the head scientist, Dr. Aiden Livingston, proved to be a very trusting individual, so stealing the research was easy. However, when I left there I had to make a request to the transport department and again they followed the same protocol as when I entered the Institute,” Drake said.
“So you have no idea where the headquarters are located?” Mika said, his voice reeking of displeasure.
“You ordered me to steal research, not to determine the location,” Drake said, with a disinterested shrug.
“And God forbid you take initiative to do anything above what I ask,” Mika said.
“Did you have the girl from the labs followed?” Drake asked.
“That’s none of your concern,” Mika said, anger boiling more wildly now. He had in fact had her followed, which was why he’d let her go at all. Mika had hoped she’d lead him to the werewolves, but so far she hadn’t led his spies anywhere, which was why he was interrogating the old German man.
“It’s unfortunate that we had two werewolves in the lab and they both got away. But even more unfortunate was that one was in the cell all along and we missed it,” Drake said, his tone contradicting his words.
The break-in had triggered the alarms, which was why Mika and the guards had shown up to the lab which he thought would remain abandoned until it was safe to gut it. However, once he was back in the labs he’d had the security review the camera footage and found that Connor Luce had been locked in his cell the entire time. It had gone unnoticed after the breakout and when the forensic team did their work. Everything had been too rushed due to Mika’s fear that the authorities would be brought in by one of the werewolves seeking retribution. The last thing his other corporation, Parantaa Research, needed was bad press. His work at Olento wouldn’t last six months without the funding from the other corporation.
He slammed his fist on the desk. This was unacceptable. Mika was unaccustomed to losing, to making mistakes. And now he was failing at every turn. He swiveled his smoldering gaze up to Drake. “Get back to work. And I don’t want to see you again until you can bring me good news for once!”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“The ‘how’ of any solution will appear if one’s attention is only on the goal.”
- Lucidite Employee Manual
“So is he going to die?” Adelaide said from the far end of the infirmary, her eyes on the only occupied bed.
Dr. Parker turned and glanced at the patient fiddling with the IV wires attached to his hand. “Uhhhh, no. He’s going to be fine,” he said. At the Lucidite Institute there were doctors and also healers. Dr. Parker was recruited by Adelaide’s father a year ago, and still the polite guy didn’t usually get her jokes. Maybe it was because his Dream Traveler gift was quick retention of complex information, also known as super intelligence. Adelaide reasoned that all the information in his brain deprived him of a proper sense of humor.
“I’d like him to stay in the infirmary for one more day for observation and then I’ll release him,” Dr. Parker said, scribbling something on a paper clamped to a clipboard.
She eyed the doctor, who was Korean and always wore his thick hair gelled back. His polished appearance made him stick out in the Institute, which was overly casual due to the Head Official, Trey Underwood’s, hippie style.
“Can I ask him hard questions that might make him cry or is he too emotionally unstable for that? I don’t want him lashing out at me,” Adelaide said, now watching Connor, who was also watching her.
Again there wasn’t a laugh, only a narrowed look behind Dr. Parker’s glasses. “I think it’s always wise to go easy on a
person who has been held captive for such a lengthy period of time. You can question him though. Just use your instinct with how you proceed,” Dr. Parker said.
“Thanks, doc. As always, an interaction with you has left me bored and with a total sense of lack,” Adelaide said, walking past the doctor and over to Connor’s bed.
“I heard you ask him if I was going to die,” Connor said when she paused a few feet from him.
Adelaide had been on the far side of the room when she’d been talking to Dr. Parker. Connor’s senses were already strong, although there had been concern that they wouldn’t operate yet based on his condition.
“Well, unfortunately you’re strong enough to pull through and therefore one day prove to be a drain on the Lucidite Institute and our vast resources. No doubt babysitting you mutts is going to monopolize my life,” Adelaide said, realizing they’d skipped introductions and that was probably for the best.
A subtle smile turned the corners of Connor’s lips up. Even unshaved, Adelaide noticed he had a decent face. The gauge in his right earlobe was a bit of a distraction, but she managed to pull her gaze back to his eyes.
“Where am—”
“You’re at the Lucidite Institute. It’s a place where a society of Dream Travelers live and work. We protect the world from itself using reports of the future from clairvoyants. Dream Travelers are the new race you belong to. You can bet that you have a psychic ability now too, which goes along with the race’s power. When you dream, your consciousness has the choice to go to any place and time using the fabric of the universe. You have also been altered with wolf genes by an organization that we know nothing about. We will protect, feed, and manage you from this point forward. This is for your benefit as well as to keep you out of society at large where you will no doubt be a danger to civilians. I’m your dog trainer while at this cozy place we call the Institute. You should do everything I say and never question it because I know better than you,” Adelaide said in one long rushed series of sentences.
Connor nodded, seeming to integrate all of this information without too much effort. Or maybe he was still in a daze from the trauma.
“You are not to contact people from your past life. Go home. Access old accounts. Connor Luce is dead as far as the world is concerned,” she said.
“That’s not a problem,” he said, his eyes distant. Then he brought them up to meet hers again. “One thing you forgot to mention, though.”
“I never forget a thing,” she said, rolling her eyes which she did too often by most people’s dumb standards.
“What’s your name?”
Adelaide paused. Tilted her chin to the side. Connor wasn’t acting like most, seemingly unsatisfied by her brazen nature and brevity. He actually looked too accepting of the rough orientation she’d given him. “You can call me Adelaide,” she said.
“Because that’s your name?” Connor said.
She shook her head and eyed the tray of half-eaten food. “Did you get enough dog food, because I really need your full attention to answer some questions.”
He pushed the tray away to the side of the bed. “Fire away,” Connor said.
“Well, I’m positive that you won’t be of much help, based on interrogating your alpha wolf. However, anything you can tell me about the people who abducted you will be helpful,” Adelaide said, and it was true. Zephyr hadn’t been able to supply much information about the scientists. It appeared that they kept the men drugged pretty heavily so his memories were somewhat fuzzy.
“Alpha, as in a hierarchy in a wolf pack?” Connor said, almost laughing. “You’ve got to be kidding, right?”
“I never kid,” Adelaide said dryly.
“And who is this supposed alpha wolf?” Connor asked.
“His cell was directly across from yours. You’ll meet him soon. I think he’s licking his emotional wounds right now,” she said.
“The guy with the black and silver hair,” Connor said.
Adelaide paused and regarded him with an edge of disbelief. Zephyr hadn’t been able to identify many of the men or scientists from the labs due to the drugs. She wondered how Connor would have this specific memory.
“Did they keep you drugged with sedatives while in the labs?” she asked.
“Yeah, they tried but I don’t think they realized I have an incredible tolerance,” he said, scratching his scruffy jaw. She noticed the tattoo on his neck, just below his right ear, although she couldn’t make out what it was.
“Do you remember anything about being abducted?” she said.
“That memory is actually not real vivid. It was night. I remember walking down an alley and then the next thing I knew I’d passed out and woke up in the cell in the lab,” he said.
“You’re lying,” Adelaide said.
He flinched from the acute observation. Connor had in fact been lying, but he had no idea how she’d know that. “It doesn’t matter. The point is that I was abducted.”
“You realize I can’t help you unless you fully disclose everything to me,” she said, and she knew the truth, but wanted Connor to say it. Adelaide wanted him to know he couldn’t get away with anything when it came to her.
“Fine. I was asleep in the alley. I was homeless and sleeping beside a dumpster,” he said, trying to fake indifference about how much a loser he’d been… was.
“While you were imprisoned, both before and after the breakout, did you see anything of usefulness?” Adelaide said.
“No, but I heard something. When the scientist and the guy in the silver suit returned after the breakout, I heard them talking,” Connor said.
“They didn’t spot you then, I’m guessing,” she said.
“I hid at the ceiling of my cell,” he said, like hanging out on a ceiling wasn’t extraordinary.
“And?” she said, acting impatient.
“The man in the silver suit, the one who I got the impression was in charge, said, ‘Now Olento Research has to go catch some loose dogs,’” he said.
“Olento Research…” Adelaide said, realizing that they were finally making progress with identifying the mastermind behind all this. And it was thanks to the guy sitting in the bed before her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Metaphysical thinking has zero use at Olento Research Corp. We deal in facts. Science.”
- Olento Research Employee Manual
Zephyr’s gray eyes roamed over the brushed stainless steel walls of the corridor. He’d been exploring the various floors of the Lucidite Institute and it surprised him how all the levels looked the same. There were five and they consisted primarily of hallways with motorized doors, most of which didn’t slide back when he clicked the button beside them. That’s when he learned that buttons lit red meant the door was locked. Buttons that glowed blue opened easily. There was a main hall where the residents of this strange cult place took their daily meals. Adelaide had mentioned the other department rooms and the infirmary. That’s where she was now apparently. She’d said she was going to question the guy they brought in, the one Zephyr had left behind.
Guilt made him lose his breath, then he drew in air only to choke on it. He couldn’t believe he’d run, not checking all the cells. Over and over he told himself there hadn’t been time, but he couldn’t remember if that was true. There had been blood, mouthfuls of warm flesh, and then he’d been summoned to run. This was the beast’s fault. He could never think when the werewolf took over. But the captain in him knew that leaving a man behind was the worst thing he could have possibly done. The wolf was his downfall in every way. It made him murder, made him unreliable. He wasn’t sure which was worse. As a captain in the Special Forces he’d been in positions where he had to defend himself, to kill another human being. It was part of the job. But abandoning a member of his team, that wasn’t something he’d ever had to absolve himself for.
Pausing at a door, Zephyr read the placard next to it. It said:
“Shhh…”
He’d noticed many
of the supposed department rooms were strange like this, with odd names. The strategic department was named Scapes Escapes. There was another room where glassy-eyed people often filed into that was named the Panther Room. More and more he wanted to unlock the secrets inside the Institute. He’d been mutated into a werewolf, but the strangest part of his life was that he was of a new race called Dream Travelers and residing in a strange underwater society of these people. His thumb rested on the blue button for the Shhh room, about to press down.
“Stop what you’re doing,” he heard someone say behind him. Zephyr’s sense of hearing told him that the voice belonged to Adelaide. But also, he could smell her. If he was in werewolf form then he would have been alerted to her presence sooner, but as a human his senses were sharp only when he employed them using intention. Zephyr turned.
“Is this room off limits?” he said, as she approached, her short legs hurrying to catch up with him.
