by Lizzy Ford
She rolled her eyes.
“I believe he has an ulterior motive, but he did not share it with me. I can ascertain from discussions with the Councilmembers that they believe Olivia capable of altering the sex magic the Cambions collect, if not the Cambions themselves, the way they did the Halflings,” the Professor answered. “I believe his problem is that he can’t risk pissing off Olivia if she uncovers what he’s doing.”
“I hate politics.”
“They serve a purpose, but they can become bloated and prevent change from happening.”
“Medical files,” she murmured, eyes on the road. “Hey, Chrissy. What’s on the one hard drive we stole from the Sucubatti compound before everything went to shit? Doesn’t one of them contain data on Team Rogue? Project Sienna?”
“Yes. If we get somewhere where I can have an hour or two alone, I can normalize the data and do some searches.”
“Vikki and I saw some information in one of those hard drives. Olivia basically had every day of our childhoods recorded. I don’t recall locations in the medical records, though, if something’s there, Chrissy can find it,” Zoey explained. “I don’t think anyone knows where this lab is, outside her inner circle.”
“If anyone can find it, it’s you.”
Zoey glanced at Chrissy in the rearview mirror. The genius already had her laptop out and was focused on the screen. “I downloaded everything from Project Sienna onto my laptop. Without better equipment, I may be doing a lot of manual review. Some of the records did have addresses on them. I can pull all the locations for us to scout.”
“You thinking what I’m thinking, Chrissy?” she asked.
“That a location no one knows about is a perfect place to stash Ethan?”
“Bingo. Olivia wanted Aiden, too. She’s looking for something.”
“Okay, I’m working on it.”
“We track the cell phones of Olivia, Heidi and the numbers for anyone else in the upper echelons we can get,” Zoey explained.
The Professor chuckled.
“It’s not like I have to follow rules,” she said.
“Ethan?” The Professor asked.
Zoey took a deep breath. “So here’s the really bad news.” She filled him in about the murder of Heidi and disappearance of Ethan.
When she was done, she waited tensely for the Professor to judge or reprimand her. He appeared concerned, the lines on his face deepened in thought. “Chrissy, dear, can you pull up the Project Sienna file for Vikki?” He twisted to peer back at the woman in back.
“Yeah. What am I looking for?”
“Not what. Who. Sienna O’Connor.”
“O’Connor?” Zoey repeated. “Like from the Enforcer boys?”
“She was their mother, the first Halfling with a natural flaw in her genes that Olivia sought to duplicate with you girls.” The Professor’s features were unusually grave, his warm brown eyes troubled.
“She’s listed with a few other Halflings under blood donors. Pretty much all their contact information is here,” Chrissy reported. “I’ve got an address for her, but it’s gotta be twenty years old and … well, it’s the same address for all ten donors.”
“It’s there,” the Professor said. “Whatever Olivia is hiding, you’ll find it at that address.”
“How do you know?” Zoey asked.
“Olivia’s predecessor killed her. The address isn’t for where she lives, but where her tissue samples and those of other Halflings, are stored,” he said softly.
Zoey glanced at him. “The IAB killed Declan’s mother? Does Ethan know?”
“Yes.” By the sorrow in his voice, there was more to the story.
“How the fuck can you Incubatti even consider dealing with the IAB?” she demanded.
“Because it’s necessary. I imagine there were many similar programs among the Incubatti. Ethan put a stop to them when he became Enforcer chief, the first action of his long-term plan to phase out Cambions, I believe. And possibly, because he was too hurt by what happened to his wife to stomach doing it to others, even Cambions.”
Zoey listened, horrified by the idea of Olivia and her ilk turning Declan’s mother into a medical experiment before killing her. “So whatever Olivia did to us, she modeled us off of Sienna.”
“That’s my guess.”
“Do you know what that was?”
“There was not enough left of Sienna for us to understand what was done or what the IAB was looking for.”
“Oh, god,” Chrissy gasped.
I’m so sorry, Declan, Zoey said to herself. “Do the Enforcer boys know?”
“They do not. Ethan thought it better for them not to.”
“That’s not fair to them at all.”
“It’s part of the greater good, Zoey, the bigger picture. He had begun building the foundation for his plan long before he met Sienna. Her death, while tragic, gave him the motivation to continue in his work, despite the demands of the Enforcer Chief role and raising his boys.”
“It’s not right, though,” she argued with less heat.
“Ethan will have his day, Zoey.”
While she loved the Professor, she couldn’t agree with him about shielding men like Declan from the truth. In his position, Declan needed to know the depths of depravity he was dealing with from the direction of the IAB.
“This place is in the middle of nowhere,” Chrissy said. “Looks like a warehouse from some old Google map pics.”
“What’re the chances we can go in and grab him and the solution to the Halflings issues?” Zoey asked the Professor. “How complicated is her operation?”
“Zoey, it would take much more than a smash and grab operation,” the Professor said. “You’re talking about over fifty years of genetic experimentation. The information would be highly compartmentalized. It’s not something you leave sitting out on your desk.”
She gripped the steering wheel harder. “I’m so sick of bad news. We need to know where to look, and we don’t even know what we’re looking for.”
“Energy drinks,” Chrissy volunteered. “If you can find a couple of those like the ones that put you under, I can experiment on them.”
“It’s a start. What else?” Zoey asked.
“The fastest way to know is to ask Olivia,” the Professor stated.
Zoey started to laugh and stopped when she saw he was serious. “You want me to call her and ask why she wants me?”
“Olivia thinks she has you where she wants you. What better time to play up her ego?”
“She won’t talk to me about anything I want to know, if I don’t agree to work for her.”
“You could let her capture you,” Chrissy suggested.
Zoey glanced at her via the rearview mirror. She relished the idea of facing Olivia, but in her mind, she was beating the shit out of the manipulative woman.
“You’ve got three weeks at most before you don’t wake up from an episode, Zoey.”
“Go big or go home,” Zoey murmured. “Fuck it. I think we can arrange for that. If I don’t find what we need tonight, I stay.”
“That’s not my favorite solution,” the Professor said in disapproval. “Zoey, she may do to you what she’s done to others. Don’t underestimate her.”
Zoey was quiet for a minute. She needed information only Olivia could give her. The IAB chief had issued a challenge by framing her for the operations, and Zoey wasn’t about to back down. They had money but little time, given the fact the Enforcers and IAB were hunting them. It was only a matter of days before someone was either caught or dropped dead from the Halfling curse, and her operation began to crumble from the inside out. The Professor was right. She had to confront Olivia, even if that meant there was a chance she didn’t walk away.
“My Halflings are melting down, Alexander,” she said quietly. “They’re dropping faster and faster. If I don’t help them, and I don’t figure out what’s wrong with me, then this hurricane you want me to be ceases to exist. Things go back to the way t
hey were, except that Olivia wins. And if you think she’s allying with the Cambions for any other reason than to fuck with the Incubatti, you’re fooling yourself.”
“That’s the exact reason she’s doing it. But you are my Zoey. If you weren’t suffering, I’d say to let the Sucubatti implode and I’d take you someplace safe.”
She smiled. “Sounds like I have a plan then. We break in, grab what we can, and I stick around to confront Olivia.”
“I don’t like this plan,” Chrissy said.
“Nor I,” the Professor seconded.
“We need answers.”
Neither objected again, and Zoey took their silence as tacit acceptance. After hearing the story of Declan’s mother, her sense of urgency rose. The IAB had killed Ethan’s wife; it wasn’t right for him to follow in her footsteps, not when Olivia’s whole plan seemed to be to drive Zoey into the open or see her killed.
She was too angry to be afraid of the bitch. Her mind made up, Zoey refocused on where they were going. She had about twelve hours before Chrissy’s EMP bomb, hidden on the corpse of the dead succubus, went off. “Chrissy, I need to see Tiff to do some planning for tonight. Which way am I headed?”
Chapter Thirteen: Frustrated
It was dark, about fifteen minutes from midnight. Zoey settled on her stomach in the forest next to a field with a quiet, white warehouse at its center that Chrissy had identified as a potential site for the secret lab. She prepped herself mentally for what was coming, the potential pain at Olivia’s hands. If she managed to glean even the smallest, new piece to the puzzle of what was happening to the Halflings or why Olivia wanted her, she won.
“Chrissy told me you’d be here.”
Zoey jerked, not sensing Vikki’s approach. She twisted from her hiding spot beneath a bush to look at the dark form of her best friend, squatting beside her. “What’re you doing here, Vikki?” she whispered.
“What I always do. Backing up my best friend.”
“You still pregnant?”
“What the fuck do you think, Zoey?”
“Then no!” Zoey returned to her position with her belly on the cool ground. “Tiff, Gin, Lyd and I have this.”
“You think so?” Vikki grabbed her legs and hauled her out from the undergrowth.
“Vikki!” Zoey hissed. “Stop!”
“No! Do you have any idea how dangerous it was for me at the Incubatti headquarters after those videos surfaced?” Vikki demanded, dropping her legs. “I’m staying, and I don’t give a fuck what you say.”
Zoey said nothing, secretly happy her best friend was back. She always felt more at ease, less distressed, whenever Vikki was close. They were a perfect team and had been for years.
“What are we doing here?” Vikki asked, kneeling.
After another brief hesitation, Zoey returned to her stop under the brush. “We’re waiting for a distraction then going in for a smash and grab.” She checked her watch and glanced at Vikki as her best friend slid under the brush beside her. Knowing Vikki wouldn’t let her surrender, she decided it wasn’t the right time to bring up the backup plan. “Was it bad there?”
“It was chaotic,” Vikki said with a shrug. “Declan gave me a head start. Took me all fucking day to lose the Cambions.”
“Declan did that?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmmm.” Zoey waited for more. Vikki normally had an opinion on everything and half a dozen about Declan after he cheated. She rarely ever failed to deliver it with bullheaded candidness. Thus far, pregnancy had made her delivery more acidic.
She said nothing.
Zoey’s eyes narrowed. “What’s wrong with you? I gave you an opening there to tell me how awful Declan is and you didn’t take it.”
“Nothing’s wrong,” Vikki replied archly. “Aside from the fact my soul-mate doesn’t want kids.”
“Oh.” Zoey’s gaze returned to the warehouse. She wanted to ask how Declan was doing, if he hated her now, but didn’t have the nerve. “He really said that about your baby?”
“Nah. I didn’t tell him.”
Zoey laughed.
“They’re assholes. All of them,” Vikki grumbled. “I bet Declan wouldn’t say something that stupid.”
“What?”
“Just a thought.”
Zoey shook her head. “Don’t you hate him?”
“Meh.”
Holy mood shifts. “It’s gonna be a long nine months.” Zoey gave no thought to children; she had three weeks until she lost control of her mind. There was no room in her life for Declan, let alone children. Or Vikki. Saddened to know she’d never see Vikki’s baby, she checked her watch again.
“Would you ever want kids?” Vikki asked.
“I can’t think that far ahead, V.”
“I know but in a perfect world, if Declan wasn’t an ass and we didn’t have to worry about surviving day to day, would you?”
“What kind of question is that? If you want me to help raise your kid, then yes, of course,” Zoey said. “Assuming I survive. It’d be cool to have a little army of mini-uses, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.”
She’s off her rocker. Zoey glanced at her friend. “You know I love you to death, right?”
“Yeah. Why?” Vikki sounded suspicious.
“I’m just saying I care and am happy to see you and all that shit.”
“Are you trying to make me feel guilty?”
“What is wrong with you? Guilty about what?” Zoey snapped, at her limit with her best friend’s moodiness.
“Distraction hopefully in five … four … three … two …” Chrissy counted down quietly in the earpiece Zoey wore. “One. Fingers crossed!”
Zoey held her breath. Five seconds passed, then ten. “Anything?” she whispered.
“Not yet.” Chrissy sounded disappointed. “But maybe –”
Silence. The floodlights of the building flashed out, and the van behind them turned off.
Zoey and Vikki exchanged a look. “Weird. You feel that?” Zoey asked. “We can’t hear or feel the power plant next door.”
“What did Chrissy do?”
“Electromagnetic pulse bomb or something. But she set it off across the river in Virginia at Site Y. It can’t be that strong.” Zoey pulled the ear bud free and replaced it. “You got anything?”
“No. If I had to say …” Vikki twisted to look behind them at the dark van. “I’d say she might’ve misjudged the power of her little toy and taken out everything around DC.”
Zoey bit back a laugh, thrilled something was going her way for once.
The door to the facility burst open, and a team of six succubae bolted out, hurrying two women in white lab coats in their midst. The scientists had their arms full, one with a laptop and the other with files. The last of their escort paused to push the door black into place.
Zoey and Vikki watched them dart into the forest.
“Where are they going?” Zoey murmured. The area was isolated, a good two miles from the nearest housing division and five miles from the closest gas station. “Wonder if they know they’re walking.”
“Who gives a shit. That’s the distraction we need, right?” Vikki grunted and shifted forward.
“Yeah.” Zoey low crawled out from under the brush. She and Vikki crept across the moonlit field towards the warehouse. Tiff and Ginny emerged from the forest opposite Zoey’s side of the clearing. She signaled them closer.
On the surface, the warehouse appeared innocuous enough with no visible security aside from cameras at each corner and a keypad entrance.
“Hey, V,” Ginny whispered as they neared the entrance. She and Tiff lined up on one side, weapons in hand, while Zoey and Vikki paused at the other.
Vikki lifted her chin in silent greeting.
The door was open. Zoey eyed the lock. It was electronic. Any other time, she would’ve been suspicious. Whatever Chrissy had done, it knocked out electricity as far as twenty miles outside DC.
Sheathing one k
nife, she opened the door and stepped into the dark interior. She pulled a flashlight with a red lens from the utility belt at her waist and flipped it on, quickly scouring the large bay for attackers.
It was completely empty, aside from a lift platform in the center, surrounded by a white railing.
“This seems too easy,” Tiff muttered.
“This place could be rigged with lasers normally,” Ginny pointed out. “Nothing works after an EMP strike.”
“We probably have less than twenty minutes,” Vikki said, striding towards the platform.
“Tiff, stand guard here,” Zoey said. “We’ll use old school means of warning if someone comes back. Just yell.” She and Ginny joined Vikki on the platform. “Wait a minute. This thing isn’t going to work either.” Disgruntled by the realization, she shone the red light onto the platform. “Vikki, pull that end up.”
Together, they slid titanium blades in the seams of the platform and pried up the cover covering the motor beneath. Setting it off the platform, Zoey assessed the amount of space between the motor and the steel guides beneath.
“We can fit,” she decided and turned off the flashlight. Squeezing between the platform and motor, she paused to glare at her lower belly. She hadn’t been eating frequently enough to gain weight; she also hadn’t been working out like she used to. Running and planning took up most of her time. “Am I getting fat, Vikki?” she complained, pushing the small pooch of her belly down.
“No, but you’re still short.”
Accustomed to being teased for being small compared to every other succubus and half-succubus in their society, Zoey mumbled a retort, focused on finding a landing for her foot and waited until it brushed one of the guards. She crept towards it, her grip secure on the platform. She wrapped her legs around it. Aware they had little time to get in, grab what they could and get out, she released the platform and slid down the metal tube, barely grabbing it with a hand before flipping over backwards.
“I’m good! Next!” she called. Lighting a flare, she dropped it to double check how far down they had to go. “Looks like a thirty feet drop, so don’t slip.”
She scampered down the elevator shaft and landed a moment later at the bottom. Vikki dropped the last eight feet to land beside her. Together, they jammed knives into the elevator doorway and pulled the doors open.
