I considered telling him that I knew it was more than just a random nightmare, but it was very late, we were both exhausted, and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what any of it meant just yet. Instead, I kissed him and lay back down, wrapping my arms protectively around him. “Don’t be,” I said with a yawn. “I’m the last person you should have to apologize to for waking up because of a nightmare.”
“Lucy,” he murmured, “that alone is all the more reason why I should be sorry.” Seconds later he was again sound asleep.
Chapter 20
Just before dawn, we were jarred out of our slumber by the emergency alarms going off. We each had a message stating that Evan had cancelled the nine thirty meeting and he wanted us in his office immediately. Without a word, Andre and I were out of bed and out the door within five minutes. When we stepped off the elevator on the seventeenth floor, I was surprised to see the entire team of hunters, many of whom had just come off shift, all of the security personnel, and at least half the medical staff crowded into the lobby outside of Evan’s office.
“What’s going on?” I asked the group of hunters closest. They were still in their street disguises, so I wasn’t sure who they were exactly, but I had a vague idea.
“Not too sure, but the feds went in there a few minutes before you showed up,” replied one that I recognized as Michelle when she spoke. The door to Evan’s office was shut and an unfamiliar agent was standing in front of it, chatting with Miles and Mike. I squeezed my way through the crowd to see if I could get any information. Federal agents were a bad sign. Although the Eclipse project was contracted by the government, they were usually hands off.
“Hey, what’s happened?”
“Evan’s on the phone with Hugh,” Miles replied. “I think we’re moving soon. Bluebeard might be-”
“I’m sure we’ll get the details in a moment,” the agent cut in with a nervous glance in my direction that wasn’t lost on me. One of the biggest reasons I hated the government involvement in the project was their attitude towards all vampires. If they had their way, the outreach would be disbanded and all vampires would be treated as criminals. Even though it was painful, I bit my tongue rather than say something that might land me on a watch list.
“Agent Phillips, I don’t think you’ve had the pleasure of meeting Lucy Soriano, have you? You may recognize her as the granddaughter of the late senator Soriano from California.” I hid my smirk at Mike’s not so subtle remark behind a fake cough. Sure enough, Agent Phillips pulled out his phone and started typing something. I would have bet money that he was checking my grandmother’s name in the registry that housed all known vampires and hunters. A few seconds later, I couldn’t help but smile at the look of utter confusion as he looked at me and then back at his screen.
“The enzyme is hereditary, Agent Phillips,” I said tersely before turning back to Miles. “You were saying?” He didn’t get a chance to answer because the door to Evan’s office opened and Dara stepped out.
“Can I have everyone’s attention please?” The room quieted almost immediately. “Thank you. If you would all please come in and quietly find a seat, Evan will explain why he moved up the meeting.”
As we filed into the office, I was relieved to see two higher-ranking agents that I had previously worked with sitting to Evan’s left behind the huge oak desk. Agents Powell and Jorgenson were far more tolerant than the junior jerk they had brought with them. I was surprised to see that in addition to Dara and Abe, my father was also seated with Evan behind the desk. When everyone was settled, Evan spoke.
“I understand that many of you have just come off shift, so I’ll make this brief. As you are all aware, Hugh Dixon and Lance Fields stayed on at the plantation to provide additional security to the women and children, who had previously relied on Isaac Gillman for safety. As I’m sure you are also aware, the attack on Lucy that destroyed the Decatur Street safe house and injured several of us was carried out by Bluebeard, rather, Adam Thorn’s guardsmen.”
So Bluebeard did have a full name. It didn’t matter. I refused to use it. Adam Thorn was a bland name. I knew several Adams including Agent Powell. Calling him anything but Bluebeard, in my opinion, was too humanizing. To me, Bluebeard fit because it was the name of a monster, not a man.
“It appears that their failure has not escaped Adam’s notice,” Evan continued. “I received a call from Lance, just before five this morning, informing me that the dangers have become too much for the two of them to cover alone. They have been spotted on several occasions. Children have gone missing and are presumed dead.”
Evan paused as a gasp went through the crowd. My teeth were clenched so tight I thought my jaw would break. “Lance and Hugh suspect, and I, along with Agents Powell and Jorgenson concur, that this is likely a trap to get us to push up our rescue efforts and that is exactly what we are going to do. I know that we don’t normally work in tandem with the agency, but given the circumstances, they have agreed to help and I for one welcome their assistance. The first team will move out in one hour.” He brought up a map of the area on the huge monitor on the wall.
In theory, it was a simple plan. Andre’s decoy transmitters would be coded to transfer the information from those implanted in the children, who would then be led to the southern edge of the property. The agency was giving us access to two military transport vehicles that had the ability to navigate the swampy terrain. After everyone was safely far away, a second team would be sent in to go after Bluebeard.
There were so many risks that I had serious doubts about our success. The first part of the plan was solid. Hugh and Lance had organized some of the women and older children into teams who would be responsible for getting their groups out. It was the part about going back to kill Bluebeard that was unsettling. From information gathered from both Isaac and Cynda, we had learned that the property closest to the house was rigged with traps and heavily monitored by surveillance. There was also an army of chimeras that regularly patrolled the grounds.
Everyone in attendance was split into four teams. The first team, those who would be going onto the property, consisted of Andre, Johnny, and agents Powell and Jorgenson. I was part of the second team that would stay with the vehicles and make sure that all of the kids were securely on board before leaving. I would have been upset that I couldn’t be part of the first team, but the truth was that with one arm, I was still a liability, and lives were at stake. I was surprised to see that both Anil and Saba Sloan were on my team. Unfortunately, Agent Phillips was also part of my team and I had absolutely no reason to trust him.
The third team was made up of the medical and security staff that would immediately begin removing transmitters from the children. The fourth would go after Bluebeard. This team was made exclusively of hunters and to my dismay, Isaac. I understood that he had the best knowledge of the area, but I wasn’t happy with him going back to the place where he was imprisoned for nearly two years. Andre was also part of this team and I wasn’t terribly happy about that either.
One hour later, we were outfitted in lightweight uniforms that were made of the same titanium alloy matrix that made my wrist holsters impervious to nearly everything. We were then ushered into vans and sent on our way. I was grateful when Saba loaded a basket full of sandwiches and thermoses of coffee into our van and started passing food around. “Thank god for Ida,” she said with a wink.
“No joke!” I agreed and went to work draining half my thermos of coffee before I had a chance to register that it was scalding hot. I glanced from Saba to Anil with curiosity. She picked up on my look and pursed her lips.
“Mom was outnumbered,” she said with an exasperated sigh. I nodded and dropped it. I knew Saba had reservations about Anil’s enthusiasm to join the hunters and I really couldn’t blame her, even though she herself had been only four years older than her son when she had been recruited.
“So you’re a hunter?” Agent Phillips asked me in a voice that was straining to remai
n conversational. Despite already having rudely checked my credentials earlier, I could tell he was disturbed by my appearance.
“I was,” I said with a tight smile, “but I quit when I opted to work for the outreach. Not everyone believes all vampires are inherently evil.” My comments won me a cold glare from the agent. The only comfort I could take was in the fact that the government only had access to the information from my mother’s side.
“Are you coming along to try and rehabilitate Mr. Thorn?”
It was my turn to glare. “Would you kill every Arab person who crossed your path because they could be a terrorist?”
“I fail to see the relevance of your question, Ms. Soriano.”
“That doesn’t surprise me, Agent Phillips,” I said without bothering to hide my disgust. “You’re making two very broad assumptions; one, that all vampires are evil and should be wiped out, and two, that I’m some sort of liberal extremist who would bury her head in the sand rather than face the fact that evil exists in the world. So to answer your question, Agent Phillips; no, I am not going along to rehabilitate the psychopath. I’m here to ensure the safety of the victims who have suffered at the hands of a murdering rapist their entire lives, which is the exact same role you will be playing in this operation. Please try to remember that.”
“I was at the meeting too, Ms. Soriano, there’s no need to remind me what my role is.” His tone was sarcastic and extremely condescending. I cut myself off before I said something even more inflammatory. I did at least understand that picking a fight with a high-level government operative could be dangerous and the last thing I needed was to end up in a secret government prison or interrogation room. Besides, he was probably already mad that he was stuck on the team with the cripple, the teenager, and, gasp, a woman. Little did he know, the woman and the teenager each probably knew twelve different ways to break every bone in his body. He was smart to pick a fight with the cripple, whose only weapon at the moment was the inability to keep her mouth shut.
We reached the wetlands sanctuary with little incident and trudged our way through the jungle-like atmosphere of the swamp in silence. Although, I was smugly satisfied to see that Agent Phillips was having difficulties navigating the spongy terrain. When we reached the barrier, the same place where Andre and I had first discovered Isaac, the first team was already in place alongside two large vehicles that looked like cargo freighters on wide tracks instead of wheels. I was pleased to see Hugh and Lance standing just a few feet away, still within the confines of the barrier, but looking no worse for wear.
Andre motioned us over and pointed to a red line that had been painted on the ground. “That’s the safest distance you can be from the barrier without setting off the alarms. Do not cross that line for any reason.” He pulled out his phone as he spoke. “Now, we can’t rely on the hemograph because the children and the chimeras will both appear as anomalies, but if you see…” He broke off with a horrified look at the transport vehicles and turned sharply on the agents. “What the hell do you think you are doing?” he hissed. Agents Powell and Jorgenson looked confused, but Agent Phillips was completely unfazed.
I pulled up my own hemograph and realized what was wrong immediately. “Oh my god!” I glared at Agent Phillips. “You’re trying to kill us all!” According to the hemograph, the vehicles were both full of humans. Other green dots indicated that the entire plantation was surrounded by what I could only assume was military personnel.
“What is it?” Saba asked, moving closer to her son.
“It seems Agent Phillips has assembled an army,” I said bitterly.
“What?” Agent Jorgenson went over to the first vehicle and opened the door to reveal an entire team of soldiers in combat gear. “What are you doing here? This is a classified mission! Phillips, please explain yourself.”
“I’m afraid you’re outranked, Jorgenson,” Agent Phillips said with a smug smile. “We don’t have time to pussyfoot around saving abominations. We have a confirmed terrorist target and I intend to see it destroyed sooner rather than later. Now, you can leave or stay, but if you stay I can’t guarantee your safety.”
“Get them out of here right now,” Andre barked, “or I’ll murder you myself and face the consequences later!”
“Agent Phillips, I don’t know what rank you are trying to pull, but you are officially removed from this mission,” said Agent Powell in a quiet, but menacing, tone as he drew his gun and trained it on Agent Phillips.
“You’ll be dead before you disengage the safety,” Agent Phillips sneered. As one, the soldiers in both vehicles exited and trained their guns on Agent Powell, who lowered his weapon with a disgusted look. “Execute operation Bayou Blitzkrieg,” Agent Phillips barked into his headset, which sent the soldiers running straight through the barrier. He had barely finished the command before Andre lunged at him with a punch that likely broke his jaw.
Chapter 21
“Andre, we have bigger problems right now!”
I found Saba and Anil pressed up against the side of one of the vehicles. “Get Anil out of here,” I told her. “Go back to the vans and let Evan know what happened. I’m going to get as many of those kids out of here as possible or die trying.” With a nod, she grabbed her son by the arm and ran for the path back to the wetlands.
Lance, Hugh, and Johnny were still standing in a group as I ran up to them. “We have to get to those kids. I don’t think the transmitters matter now!”
“Give them a second to get out of our way,” Lance drawled lazily. “The fuckers are going in the wrong direction anyway. They’ll hit the pits before they find our kids. This is why I hate the military.”
“Those black ops assholes ain’t part of my military,” Hugh spat. “Goddamn cowards. Who’s got the transmitters?”
“I do,” Andre panted as he ran up to join us. His face was streaked with blood, but he didn’t appear to have any injuries. I glanced back and saw Agents Powell and Jorgenson dragging away a battered Agent Phillips and yelling into their headsets. “But there’s no need for the decoy now, just leave them here and I’ll do a mass port to get the kids past the barrier.”
“Alright,” Hugh said with a glance at his hemograph, “let’s move.”
When we reached the first group, they immediately sensed something was wrong and my presence didn’t help. There were two women and three children, none older than twelve at best, all staring at my eyes as if I were Satan himself.
“We got trouble,” said Lance, “but Lucy’s one of us, okay?” The oldest woman, who couldn’t have been much older than me, glanced at Hugh for confirmation. His silent nod seemed to put her at ease. “Okay, we need to get everyone out of here right now,” Lance continued. “There is no time to implement the plan we discussed.” A deafening explosion issued from somewhere to the north east, causing everyone to jump.
“The goons reached the pits,” said Hugh ominously. Johnny, Andre, and I were clueless as to what this meant, but Lance and the others seemed worried.
“Okay, we gotta move,” Lance said tersely. “Everyone pair up with a hunter and take a sector. Jade and I are going to be the fastest, so we’ll take the two groups closest to the pits. Hugh, take Garret and hit the bunkers by the main house. Lucy, go with Mercy to the outer lab, she’ll show you the way.”
“Hold up,” Hugh interrupted. “Send Johnny to the outer lab, Lucy ain’t gonna be able to handle carrying anything and there’s about six infants.” He glanced down at the knotted sleeve of my right hand.
“I’m at a bit of a disadvantage, so give me the quickest group I can grab and I’ll make sure they’re safe until you get back.” Being almost useless in this situation was as frustrating as it was scary.
“I’ll take the lab,” Andre growled and followed the older of the two women.
“Okay, Ben, take Lucy to the rec yard,” Lance ordered a young boy, whose eyes revealed a bitter maturity far beyond what anyone his age should have ever experienced. He nodded curtly at Lance
and motioned for me to follow.
We ran for about a quarter mile through dense foliage until Ben suddenly stopped and grabbed my arm. “Don’t step anywhere I don’t,” he said gravely. He parted the curtain of vines that hung in our way and crept forward, still gripping my arm tightly. Beyond the vines, the forest thinned and revealed a series of twisting wooden paths that snaked over stagnant, algae covered water, like staircases in an Escher piece. He led me toward a path to the right that ascended upwards into the trees, which became a rather precarious looking rope bridge that was about two feet wide and forty across. Now, when I was a child, I loved the rope bridges on the playground at our neighborhood park, but this one was terrifying because not only was it suspended twenty feet above a swamp, but also there were no handrails, only a single line of rough rope that I could barely reach.
Ben pulled a length of rope from one of the nearby branches and handed it to me before grabbing one of his own. “We can only pass one at a time,” he said as he slung his line up over the rope above our heads. “Every third plank is a trap and they get further apart the longer you take. Don’t stand still; it’s not that scary once you get going. Don’t go until I tell you.”
Under any other circumstances, I might have found his seriousness to be adorable, but at that moment, it was frightening. I watched in awe as he rappelled himself across the bridge, his feet barely touching the boards. Less than ten seconds later, he called out that I could pass. Unfortunately, as I slung my line over the rope I realized that without two hands, I was at a massive disadvantage. I wrapped both ends of the rope around my left hand and stepped gingerly onto the bridge, which began to sag as if it was made of elastic. I quickly stepped back and rethought my strategy. With a deep breath I started muttering, “One two, jump! One two, jump!” and stepped back onto the bridge. The tiny steps were a hindrance, but I was making quick progress across the bridge.
One two, jump!
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 51
