Risk Be Damned

by Natalie Grey

  Adrenaline was pumping through her, but even with that, she could feel the cold winter air seeping into the building. She gave another look to where Stoyan was directing the refugees as well, and she felt herself smile.

  She and Stoyan had been as close as twins when they were growing up, and she had left the pack on her own so she wouldn’t get him into trouble. He looked over at her and smiled as well. She was just opening her mouth to speak when she saw a short figure emerge from a room down the hall.

  “Hsu?” Irina pushed her way through the crowd and ran to Hsu’s side. “Did you open the cages?”

  “No. I was going to start letting people out, but before I could, all the cages opened.” Hsu shook her head. “I don’t know who did it. If it wasn’t you….” She frowned at Stoyan. “Who is that?”

  “My cousin,” Irina explained. “I don’t know how he found me here, he said he would explain later. Look, you have to get out. I’ll tell Stoyan he can trust you.”

  Hsu hesitated, and then shook her head. She took a step back. “I’m going to see if I can kill Gerard.”

  “What?” Irina shook her head. “Let us do that.”

  “No. It’s too dangerous.” Hsu had tears in her eyes. “When the cages opened and the wolves came out, they almost killed me because I was one of the scientists. I think they would have been right to. You should all get out, get to safety. I will go upstairs and finish this. Thank you for saving my life in Sofia. I promise you, that act will not be wasted. I’ll tell the people upstairs to come here for safety. You get out, you and your family.”

  A ghostly moan sounded from up the stairs, and Irina looked at Stoyan.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “Come on.” Nathan jerked his head up the stairs.

  “One second. Hsu—”

  But Hsu was gone, white lab coat disappearing around the switchback on the stairs. Irina wavered. Go after the scientist, or stay here? Another moan and a howl decided her. The prisoners were gathering here, and this stairwell was where an attack would do the most harm.

  “Be safe,” she whispered in Hsu’s direction, and she took off after Nathan and Stoyan.

  —

  >>Turn right to get to the staircase,<< ADAM informed Jennifer. The words echoed in her aural implant, and a moment later, he switched to wide broadcast to include Stephen. >>Hugo’s office is on the 8th floor, but you’ll need to go into the 6th floor to get up there. That’s where the stairs end. Stephen, Jennifer will show you which way to go.<<

  Thank you, ADAM.

  “This way!” Jennifer grabbed Stephen’s hand and pulled him down the hallway. “You are going to have to teach me how to talk to ADAM without this implant.”

  “That’s a great idea,” Stephen said conversationally, coming around the turn in the stairs with a snarl and ripping the arms off a security guard that was running down the stairs, “but don’t you think we should wait until we get back to the ship?”

  “I mean, maybe.” Jennifer took a knee as she tracked three more guards one floor up and took out two of them. She swore as the last one scrambled away and began to go up the stairs again, and vaulted up over the railing to take him down with two shots to the back. “But I’m very good at multitasking.”

  Stephen was still laughing when they heard a heavy metallic screech and a sudden moan from above them. The sound resonated in their bones, pain and anger and pure hatred distilled. The two of them exchanged a look and then Jennifer began to tear off her clothes as they both started running up the stairs. Guns and knives were fine for stray guards, but if it was going to turn into a real fight, she was going to transform.

  “Take my guns.” She dropped her coat and passed the guns over.

  “These are nice.”

  “Steal them and you will pay, mister. ADAM, do you have any idea what that noise is?” Jennifer shivered as she looked around herself. “It’s freaking me out.”

  >>Unfortunately, I don’t have all of the data yet, nor have I been able to cross-reference it to assess the exact nature of the experiments. These people did not keep very good records.<<

  It is likely the other Wechselbalg, TOM broke in. And I agree with ADAM’s earlier assessment. I would not assume that they are friendly.

  “But if they’re experiments—”

  It appears that another set of cages was just opened two floors down from Hugo, and that they were not hooked into the main defensive systems. The order to open the cages came from his office.

  Stephen and Jennifer stopped, looking at one another.

  “It’s possible that Arisha turned them off,” Stephen suggested. His mind was racing. If she had gone directly upstairs from the Guard Captain’s office….

  >>Possible, but not likely. Hugo arrived with several bodyguards, and the likelihood of Arisha subduing them all is slim.<<

  “Son of a pus-sucking, ass-licking monkey wanker.” Stephen clenched his hands. “What the hell are we walking into?”

  “We once fought all of China,” Jennifer reminded him. She gave him a last kiss and stepped back, transforming a moment later and shaking her fur reflexively.

  She loved her wolf form. She nodded at the door knob and whined.

  “You should have thought of that before you gave up your thumbs,” Stephen said loftily.

  A growl was Jennifer’s only response and he laughed as he opened the door.

  “All right, let’s—Arisha!”

  “Oh, thank God.” Arisha, backing away from a veritable sea of growling Wechselbalg, turned and scrambled through the door as Stephen slammed it shut. He heard it latch and he put a heavy amount of energy into holding it closed as the wolves threw themselves against it.

  The door shuddered.

  Stephen looked at her, calmly, and pointed to the door. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t know!” Arisha gave a little shriek when she saw Jennifer and backed away.

  Jennifer chuffed and sat down, giving Arisha a look.

  “Oh, that’s … Jennifer or is it Nathan?”

  A growl.

  Arisha put up a hand, “Jennifer. Hi, Jennifer.”

  Jennifer nodded her snout.

  “I decided to go to the top floor,” Arisha explained. “I thought … well, if I could kill Hugo, so much the better, right?”

  “Sure,” Stephen wheezed, as the door shuddered again. “A quicker explanation would be better.”

  “Right. I thought these wolves would be friendly, so I explained I was here to help. They seemed to be listening, and then it was like they got hit with some radio wave or something. I didn’t hear or see anything, but they all shook all over and then they started advancing on me, and they did not look friendly. Door opened, I jumped out, you saved my ass.”

  >>She should go down to the ground floor and go to the other stairwell. Stoyan and Nathan are protecting that one. And it sounds like Hugo may be able to control the actions of these Wechselbalg. Speaking of which, if anyone sees any other computer terminals, see what you can find. I’m not able to get as much data from those servers as I thought.<<

  “Thank you, ADAM, and we’ll do what we can. Arisha, you need to run. Go now. The stairwell on the other side of the building is where you’ll be safest. Run. If you hear me yell your name, get out of the stairwell and go through the building. The wolves can’t get through the doors. Go!”

  “Right. Be—safe.” Arisha gave Jennifer a quick hug and started running.

  “What a sweet little puppy dog you are,” Stephen commented to Jennifer.

  Jennifer would like you to know that she has no compunctions about killing you painfully, TOM informed Stephen.

  >>Wolves are really good at insults<< ADAM added.

  “Wow, a little touchy here. What did she say?”

  >>It doesn’t really translate.<<

  “Uh-huh. Alright, you ready for a fight?”

  Jennifer nodded and settled down into a crouch.

  >>It appears some of the wolves ar
e being drawn to the far stairwell, perhaps to fight Stoyan and Nathan.<<

  “Good.” Stephen wrenched open the door and stood back as a much smaller group of wolves piled through, yipping and snarling. They growled when Stephen’s eyes went red. Jennifer launched herself into action. Her jaws snapped as she raked downward with her claws and dragged the first wolf down the stairs. Her opponent was strong and furious, but he was fighting by instinct alone, and the rest of the pack was standing back to let this fight take place. He must have a rank among them. His mistake. Jennifer snarled and pinned him, jaws closing over his face. She held him as he struggled. The rest of the pack whined, and crouched down as the pack leader finally submitted.

  Stephen watched. Part of him doubted that this would work, but he understood why Jennifer had to try. These were prisoners, and she could easily be one of them. He saw the cloud of bloodlust lifting slightly from the pack as Jennifer stalked toward them with a growl. At her yip, the pack surged down the stairs.

  >>She is not their alpha, but they are accepting her authority for now.<<

  “Thank you, ADAM.” Stephen considered. “We’ll lock the door behind us so they can’t change their mind and follow us up.”

  Jennifer gave a yip of agreement and jerked her snout at the door. As Stephen followed her through, he paused and raised his voice. “Arisha, get into the main part of the building.”

  Her call of assent came filtering up the stairwell, and a door opened and closed a moment later.

  Stephen was pulling the door closed behind him when he saw the shudder Arisha had described ripple through the pack again. There was a sudden growl and they leapt up the stairs. Stephen slammed the door with a muttered oath.

  “Come on, we have to get to Hugo.”

  >>There is an elevator if you take the second right off this corridor. I’ll work on getting it unlocked from the remaining security systems.<<

  The sound of a distant fight erupted, yipping and snarling.

  “Nathan?” Stephen called.

  >>Nathan says they are holding. Go for the elevator.<<

  “Come on,” Stephen told Jennifer, and he ran for the elevator with her loping at his side.

  —

  Nathan pounded up the stairs, shedding layers as he went, “ADAM says it’s coming from the sixth floor!”

  “What the hell is it?” Stoyan called. He gave a pained look at Irina, “Do you know? I wouldn’t ask you to talk about this, but—”

  “It’s okay.” Irina shook her head at him. “I don’t know, though. The experiments they did on me were to force me to turn and kill people. I don’t know what’s up here, I was always on the second floor.”

  “They forced you to—”

  “We can’t waste time on that right now,” she told her cousin bluntly. She stopped and looked him in the eyes. “Focus on the fight. Nothing else matters until we’re out of here.”

  Stoyan nodded. “Right.”

  The unmistakable sound of growling reached their ears.

  “I don’t like this.” Nathan gave them a look as they climbed the last few steps to his place by the door. He eased it open as quietly as he could and peered down the hall. “Is that Arisha?”

  “What?” Sudden fear coursed through Stoyan. He pushed Nathan out of the way to look, and froze in fear.

  Arisha was cornered as a pack of wolves advanced on her, snarling. One hand was reaching slowly for the doorknob, but she was human. She would never have the speed to open the door and get out before the wolves jumped.

  Just as Stoyan opened his mouth to call the wolves away, the door opened and Arisha was yanked backwards into the stairwell. The door slammed shut, and the wolves, deprived of their prey, threw themselves against it in fury.

  “Who—”

  “Stephen and Jennifer, probably.” Nathan looked at them. “Listen to me. These aren’t our allies. This is a pack fight. Are you with me?”

  Both Irina and Stoyan nodded resolutely. They followed Nathan’s lead, shedding the last of their clothes and transforming.

  Nathan went first along the passageway. He tried to allow instinct to take over as much as he could, but that had never been his strong suit—his reputation derived from his ability to resolve issues with an almost icy logic.

  He maneuvered his opponents into a place where they realized how idiotic it was to go against him. When he fought, which was rarely, he did so decisively and to prove a point. But he wasn’t proving anything here. There was no example he would set, and the people he killed were not choosing to go against him.

  He shook the worries off a moment later. They would be given a chance to back down, and if they didn’t, he could not allow the rest of the prisoners to be hurt. That was how it was, and for every prisoner he took down in this hallway, he promised two lives’ worth of pain to Hugo Marcari.

  His lips curled in a satisfied smile.

  He stopped and howled, full-throated. It was the howl of a beta, full of respect for his Queen:

  You are violating the laws of what you are, and you offend my alpha. As Ecaterina would have said: Knock it. The fuck. Off.

  The wolves rounded on him with a snarl. There was no thought in them, not even the consideration of pack rules. They were like zombies. Whatever they had once been, whoever they had once been, they were not those people now. An idea hit him.

  He crouched low, gave a baiting snarl and snap of his teeth, then turned and set off for the corridor leading away.

  Stephen and Jennifer were no doubt heading for the 8th floor, to Hugo. If Nathan, Stoyan, and Irina could draw the wolves away, Stephen and Jennifer would have a clear shot.

  The wolves pursued them without question. As soon as they were around the corner a few paces, Nathan turned and crouched, getting ready for the assault. He leapt as soon as he saw the first wolf turn the corner.

  He changed and roared his .challenge at the tiny wolves beneath his towering form, yellow eyes flashing

  No longer was there a large wolf, but rather the most advanced form a Wechselbalg could change into.

  “Nathan?” Stephen’s call filtered down the hallway.

  “GOOOoooo!” He called out as he waded into the wolves, tossing them aside to slam into walls. They wouldn’t appreciate the pain, but it would be infinitely better than just grabbing a head and ripping it off.

  Stoyan and Irina had not stopped fighting. Irina was fighting with a desperate fury that Nathan guessed was actually directed toward Hugo. And Stoyan, though clearly reluctant, was not allowing any wolves through his guard.

  Nathan roared at him to fight more aggressively, and launched himself into action again.

  —

  On the flickering video feed, Hugo watched as one of the experiments was pinned to the ground and forced into submission. The wolves watching seemed to lose the will to fight, following their leader’s example and slinking away from the man and wolf.

  Hugo swore. “What the hell was that?”

  “The other woman.” Gerard was frowning. “The one who left before they opened the door. I could swear—”

  “Focus! Release the other set, and make sure the elevator is locked down!”

  Gerard’s hands clenched. If that was Arisha…. he would deal with it later. He knew better than to keep Hugo waiting.

  “I will, sir. I would advise going up to the roof. We will extract the data and meet you there, but you should be ready to leave if the elevator is compromised.”

  Hugo seemed to calm down at that, as Gerard had guessed he would.

  “Of course. Do not fail to get the data, Gerard.”

  “I won’t, sir.” Gerard waited until Hugo had left with his two bodyguards, one of them dragging Sergio’s limp body after them, and then went to the controls to release the second set of primed experiments.

  His lips twisted at the necessity. It had taken years for this facility to break a set of Wechselbalg entirely, and the process was chancy at best. Losing two packs of them was a high cost. How long wo
uld it take for the procedures used here to be applied at the other facilities?

  Hugo would make sure TQB paid for this, Gerard told himself. They had always known that there would be resistance—and losses. That was why they had these Wechselbalg in the first place. He sighed and cast a look around the room as he typed in the commands. His fingers stilled, and his head whipped around.