“So what did happen in your meeting?” I asked, not at all optimistic from the tone Evan used.
“In a nutshell, nothing,” he replied with exasperation. “When I agreed to work with the agency, I was under the impression that we were working toward the same end; to keep the population safe by eliminating the ES threat here and in Paris. Which we did here, but as you know, there are still enough unaffiliated mods running around to keep the project in business. While the truth is that the streets are safer now than ever before, the agency sees a different picture. They feel that without a single governing body, the role the ES played, the mods are more dangerous now than ever before.”
“That makes no sense at all.”
“I can see why you would think that, but you’re not thinking like the military,” Evan explained. “The agency may deal specifically with unusual threats, but they are still a branch of the government. The government is used to dealing with instabilities in developing nations or nations torn apart by civil war. I’m sure you understand, you’ve seen on the news what usually follows when a nation’s government falls; chaos usually reigns until a new party line is established. Sometimes a new, better government emerges, and sometimes people get into power that shouldn’t be there. The agency sees the mods as an unorganized threat that could organize at any time, rise up, and become a larger threat than the ES ever was. Unfortunately, what also tends to happen in situations like this is that the general populace of the emerging nation gets painted with the same brush as the extremists who usurp power. And that’s where the agency and I disagree. They believe that the possibility exists that the mods will band together and somehow convince natural vampires to join them.”
“Okay, I was following you right up until the end,” I interrupted, “but that’s just ridiculous! Ninety-nine percent of naturals don’t even know they’re any different than humans!”
“A point that I tried to drive home over and over again,” Evan said with a shake of his head. “Look, Jack Benson has been the head of the agency for as long as we’ve worked with them. You’ve met him, he’s a smart man, and every other decision he’s made up until this one was fair and within the letter of the law. But I get the impression something’s changed. Someone is pulling his strings. The Jack I used to know would never say half the xenophobic bullshit that came out of his mouth yesterday. But therein lies our problem, Lucy. I only know as much as Benson will tell me, and Jack’s in a position that you don’t exactly get to retire from, if you catch my meaning. We may technically be partnered with the US government, but the US government doesn’t know the extent of our partnership with the agency. There is no checks and balances system when you’re this deep into secrecy.”
I got Evan’s meaning all right, but I seriously thought all of that cloak and dagger stuff, with secret agents being killed to keep state secrets, was the exclusive domain of espionage novels. Then again, I once thought vampires were fiction. “So what do we do now?”
“The same thing we’ve always done. We weren’t shut down, just given a warning of the way the winds are shifting. But I think we’re going to need to reassess how the outreach is run. This information makes me think you’re running a bigger risk being out there than ever before.”
Considering how often I’ve been bitten, shot at, attacked, and blown up in the last few weeks, a bigger risk sounded pretty ominous. “I’ll wear a disguise if that’s what it takes, but you aren’t going to get me to stop, especially now, and I’m pretty sure Ida’s going to say the same thing.”
“And I will continue to provide a safe place for those who choose to accept the life that you and Ida are providing,” Evan assured me, “but I’m not going to take risks without knowing all possible outcomes. Believe me, Lucy; I intend to find out where this new line of thinking is coming from even if I have to employ some black ops maneuvers of my own.”
“So how exactly does this complicate the mission Andre’s on right now?”
“Well for one, Jack’s deployed another group of soldiers to the plantation. At least he gave this one warning about the traps they’d encounter. Needless to say, our team isn’t going to be welcome.”
“What?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Why are we even going back then? They had orders to kill us if we got in their way. I don’t think they’re going to have a change of heart now!”
“No, which is why I deployed two teams, one decoy and one that will go into the main structure to see if anyone survived.”
“That’s still dangerous!”
“It’s no more dangerous than what we do every day. Hell, it might be safer. The decoy team showed up and basically offered to guide the troops through the traps. They weren’t too receptive at first, but after they lost a few men, they accepted on grounds that we keep hush-hush on our involvement. The last status update I got was a few minutes before you showed up. Our decoy team is keeping them at the back of the property until our main team finishes their sweep.”
I still saw thousands of ways that could go wrong and I told Evan so. Not only was Andre’s life at risk, but so was my father’s, as well as the entire team of hunters who weren’t currently hospitalized. I had half a mind to steal Andre’s truck and join the search, but while I could be described as impulsive, I was not suicidal.
“Do you actually think they’re going to find him?” I asked. “Or if the military actually did kill Bluebeard, do you think they’d tell you?”
“They didn’t find him, that I do know,” Evan replied grimly. “Jack tried to pin that one on us, but from what little else he told me, I gathered that most of his men died before they got anywhere near the great house.”
“I thought they blew it up?”
“Here’s the thing about that,” Evan said with a frown. “I’m not entirely sure the explosion of the great house was their doing. Yes, they had grenades, and it might have been possible that there were enough chimeras with explosive implants to cause some damage. But the satellite images of the explosion look more to me like the place had been rigged to blow. The explosion happened nearly an hour after the first alarm was tripped, which is more than enough time to plan an escape. Especially for someone who was probably expecting an attack.”
“Well if that’s the case then we may never find him.” Unfortunately, what Evan said did make a lot of sense. If Bluebeard implanted explosives into his chimeras to make sure no one could replicate them, it wasn’t much of a stretch to think that he would do the same thing to his base of operations.
“We will find him, Lucy,” Evan said with conviction. “Even if he’s escaped, it’s not like we don’t know where he’ll go next. If he doesn’t stay in the area then I guarantee you, he’s headed for Paris. We may not get him right away, but we won’t stop looking either.”
“You know, we could always lay a trap. He knows where I am,” I suggested.
“Don’t think I haven’t thought of that. Not that I’d put your life in danger,” he added quickly. “But as a last resort with very careful planning it could work. Of course, you realize my nephew and your father would have my head for even suggesting this.”
“Your nephew and my father just took off in the middle of the night to put their own lives in danger,” I reminded him, “so I don’t think they get a say in this. Seriously, Evan, if they come back empty handed then I think we should assume this is the last resort and start coming up with a plan. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for both Bluebeard and the damned government.”
“You don’t have to,” Evan said with a smile and turned his phone so that I could read the text he had just received from Andre.
They found and killed Bluebeard. It was over.
Almost immediately, my own phone chirped with incoming messages. One was from Andre, telling me that he and a few others would be staying behind to sweep the labs for information and a client database, if possible. The other was from my father, saying that he and the rest of the team were re
turning. There was no message from the team of decoys who were working with the government and that worried me, but Evan didn’t seem to think that was an issue. He assumed they would clear out once Andre’s team was clear of the property.
Though I was relieved, I was still on edge and realized I would remain that way until everyone was back and the whole ordeal was truly over. As a distraction, I decided to see if there were any updates on anyone’s condition. Abe had sent an update early in the morning that Hugh had been moved from critical to stable condition, but he didn’t go into detail. When I arrived in medical, I had to do a double take as I found myself face to face with what appeared to be a brightly dressed ninja with light green eyes.
“Is this some Daughters of Darkness ceremonial veil?” I meant it as a joke, but Ingrid’s eyes, the only part of her face visible behind the floral print scarf, narrowed into a frown.
“Funny, Lucy,” she said dryly. “Try having half your face blown off.”
“How about a whole arm?” I countered, pulling back my sleeve. Admittedly, it didn’t look too bad anymore, so the effect was lost. “It grew back, but it’s not developed yet. I know you don’t heal as fast as I do, but it can’t be that bad, can it?”
She looked around to make sure no one else was near and unwound the scarf from her face. I was wrong; it was pretty bad. To be fair, she was exaggerating about having her face blown off, but not by much. Most of the skin over the left side of her face seemed as if it was stretched too tightly, and it was a mottled pink and angry red. She had lost most of both eyebrows and there was a baby fine fuzz of new growth where her hair had burned away. She quickly replaced the scarf.
“That is what I’m hiding. Those kids do not need any more traumas in their lives.”
“Ingrid, I’m sorry. It does look like that must have been painful, and I know you aren’t going to listen to me when I say that you’re still stunningly beautiful even with a few scars, but you are. Those kids though, you weren’t there. Trust me, they’ve seen far worse. The level of disaffection they had toward things like seeing their mothers killed right in front of them is horrifyingly sad. You aren’t going to scare them by looking a little battle-scarred, but you might scare them by avoiding them. Have you been in there at all?”
She shook her head. “No, but really I’ve got a good excuse.” She smiled, or at least her eyes appeared to be smiling. “Angelica’s been released into my care. I’m officially a mother.”
“Who is Angelica?”
“The baby we rescued from Bluebeard?”
“Ah,” I said with a smile, but the reminder of what happened to the child’s real mother reawakened the horror of the day’s tragic events. Whether Ingrid knew or not, I didn’t want to be the one to burden her with the guilt. “That’s wonderful, Ingrid. I take it she doesn’t carry the same enzyme as me and Cynda?”
“Nope! She’s a vampire-human chimera and perfectly safe to be around.”
“You’re going to make a good mother,” I said with a genuine smile, though I felt even more guilt over the fact, I was relieved to find that the child wasn’t, as we expected, another clone of my DNA. “You should really go see the kids though. You’ll be surprised at how well they’re adapting.”
“I don’t know,” she said hesitantly. “Lona’s watching Angelica right now. I don’t want to take up any more of her time.”
“You know, you can bring her down here. Dara said that the exposure to the babies is really helping the kids. Come on, Ingrid,” I said gently, “the only person you’re disappointing is yourself. You love kids. I’m just going to go check in with the staff and see if there’s any more news, and then I’m going in to see them myself. Why don’t you go get Angelica and meet me back here?”
“Okay, fine,” she said after a long moment of deliberation.
Abe was busy, but I spoke with Brad, one of the other doctors on duty. Johnny was apparently doing very well, but became a very difficult patient when he found out that Saba went back to the plantation. Quite understandably, if not rationally, he wanted to be released so that he could catch up. Unfortunately, there was no change in Hugh’s condition. He was stable at the moment, but on a breathing machine until his lung healed enough to work on its own.
All of the kids we had rescued had their implants removed and those with injuries had healed nearly as fast as I do. The women on the other hand, were all still recovering from the surgery and being monitored heavily for complications. I found myself feeling guilty about my own abilities. Hugh couldn’t regrow a lung and all four women would have a permanent scar on their necks to remind them of their abduction and slavery.
As I predicted, none of the kids were bothered at all by Ingrid’s appearance, but a few of the older ones did ask her why her face was covered. It flustered her a bit, but with some encouragement, she explained how she was injured while fighting the chimeras. After a rather unscientific explanation of what chimeras were, Ingrid was approached by Trina, who had managed to find a scarf and wanted her own mask because she had fought the ‘cameras’ too.
“Thanks,” Ingrid said to me as she watched over one of the older girls who held Angelica. “You were right. I have been worrying for no reason. Being here and seeing these kids at the start of a new, better life, it’s wonderful. But I still feel so awful about what I did, you know, before. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive myself for that.”
“You were brainwashed,” I stated plainly. “You can’t beat yourself up for it.”
“No, but I can spend the rest of my life as a perfect saint and it won’t change what I did.”
Her words struck a chord with me and I let out a small, mirthless laugh. “You know, I have a list of every life I took as a hunter. Next to that list is one with the names of every one of you that I convinced to change your life. I used to think that once I had saved more lives than I took, somehow I would magically be able to absolve myself of the deaths. It doesn’t work that way. Life isn’t black and white. I’m only just accepting that myself.”
“No, it certainly is not. I spent most of my life believing just that and then those two came along.” She gestured to Kaylee and Layla, who were playing some sort of dancing game with the kids. “If that’s defective, then perfection is highly overrated.”
Perhaps it was the combination of knowing that Bluebeard was dead, the lingering euphoria of Andre’s declaration the night before, and Ingrid’s offhanded, yet beautiful comment, but I suddenly felt very much at peace. Yes, lives still hung in the balance and we were about to face very uncertain times thanks to the government, but I felt as if a large weight had lifted from my shoulders. The heady rush of emotions brought tears to my eyes, yet I couldn’t contain my laughter as I threw my arms around Ingrid and hugged her.
“Screw perfection,” I half-hiccupped. I’m sure I was acting exactly like I did when I drank just enough to start feeling tipsy, but I didn’t care. “We’re defective and proud.”
I spent the rest of the afternoon losing video games, having my nails painted by an eight year old who was clearly inspired by Jackson Pollack, and laughing more than I had in a very long time. The only intense moment was when I had to sit down and have a heart to heart with Anil about jealousy because Jonah had commented on how pretty Cynda’s eyes now were. My teenage relationship advice-giving skills must have been improving, because the altercation ended with the two boys bonding over a sporting game and going off to play basketball in the gym.
Although Cynda was pleased with the outcome, she seemed to be dealing with her own jealousy issues, which was understandable. She had spent the better part of a month forming a bond with Anil and now there were other kids her age around.
“You know there’s no way he’s going to lose interest in you just because there’s other kids to hang out with, right?”
“I know,” she sighed heavily. “It’s just, you know, I was never really part of their groups.”
“True, but I think things are going to be different
now for everyone. They’ll probably stick with the ones who they were most familiar with at first, but you should know better than anyone that life here isn’t dictated by the same warped rules that the farm was. Everyone is going to come into their own personalities and you may be surprised at who may become your best friends. Besides,” I said with a smile, “you have a family now. And speaking of family,” I said as I glanced down at the message on my phone, “our dad’s back. Let’s go find out what happened.”
Chapter 26
The returning team’s meeting with Evan had been brief, but I was still biting my nails as I waited for Isaac and the others to come out. There was still no word from Andre as to when they would be back, but at least no one from the first team was injured. Lona waited, just as nervous as Cynda and I, for Miles, who had also returned. When the door finally opened and everyone streamed out, I was shocked to see that nearly everyone had returned. This meant that other than Andre, the only people left at the plantation were Saba and Carlos. While both were bad asses in their own right, I didn’t like the idea of such a small team being left behind.
Even more shocking was three unfamiliar faces wearing the same military riot gear as the soldiers that had tried to kill us yesterday. I really wanted to know what was up with that, but Isaac had spotted me and came over to where we stood. He opened his arms wide and grabbed both Cynda and myself into a hug.
“My girls,” he said with a big smile. “I’m so happy to see you.”
“We’re happy to see you too,” I said with a grin of my own. “So what happened? Any idea when Andre will be back? What are they still doing there anyway? And why are there soldiers here?”
Isaac laughed as the questions tumbled rapidly from my mouth. “One thing at a time,” he laughed. “Andre and his team are just making sure no stone is left unturned. The property is still very dangerous and the government has made no secret that they’re taking control of the land. He wanted to make sure nothing was left that would fall into the wrong hands.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 55
