Destiny

by A D Starrling

  Lucas blinked.

  ‘Did you say…babies?’ Anna murmured.

  The horror in her voice echoed inside Lucas and was reflected in everyone’s eyes.

  ‘You mean, they were designed in a lab, grown in a petri dish, and then thrown inside those life pods until they reached adulthood?’ Madeleine said, anger raising the pitch of her voice.

  Anna placed a hand on her shoulder. Madeleine inhaled shakily, her eyes glittering with rage and disgust.

  Olivia swallowed.

  ‘Yes,’ she said tremulously. ‘The embryos and children are kept in a separate part of the facility until they reach adolescence. That’s when they’re transferred to the main labs, where the most intense phase of their bioengineering takes place. Although the details I grasped were blurry, the entire process from creation to full maturation seems to take about five years.’

  Lucas thought of Tomas and Lily. Of how they had grown up surrounded by people who loved them and had been afforded every basic need and comfort so they could flourish into healthy beings. Although he still despised the super soldiers, he could not help the pity taking root in his heart.

  They had never asked to be made, nor had they wished for the violent, colorless lives that had been thrust upon them.

  ‘How many?’ Conrad asked in a low voice. ‘How many super soldiers did you see, Olivia?’

  Olivia bit her lip. ‘I think there are some six hundred men already operational, a third of them giants like the one you faced in West Virginia.’

  Lucas’s stomach plummeted.

  ‘I believe twice that many may reach the final stage of maturation in the next few weeks,’ Olivia continued. ‘They will have to undergo a two-month-long phase of acclimatization and accelerated learning before they enter final battle-condition testing and training.’ She faltered for a moment. ‘I saw roughly those numbers still in infancy.’

  ‘Shit,’ Reid muttered in the stunned silence that followed.

  ‘You missed the “holy,”’ Anatole said dully.

  ‘I apologize for interrupting,’ Eva said across the video call from Sumava, ‘but Jordan and I just finished analyzing the videos from the Crovir First Council meetings Dimitri attended in October of last year.’

  Victor straightened. ‘And? Did you find anything?’

  Jordan appeared next to Anna and Madeleine.

  ‘No,’ he said, chagrined. ‘They don’t allow cameras in the safe room outside the Council chamber so we only had the feeds from the corridor outside.’ He sighed. ‘The entire Crovir First Council and their bodyguards went inside that safe room before those meetings. It’s impossible to identify who tagged Dimitri’s card without having physically been inside the place or having had eyes in there.’

  Alexa frowned. ‘So, you’re saying every single member of the Crovir First Council is a suspect?’

  ‘Yup,’ Jordan said. ‘Every last one of them.’

  Conrad’s cell rang. He checked the screen and frowned. ‘It’s Connelly.’

  Lucas straightened at the cold light that dawned in the Healer’s eyes when he took the call. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Thanks, Sarah. We’ll be there soon.’ Conrad disconnected. ‘They’ve got Miller.’

  Voices rose in the corridor outside the office. Ivan stilled and frowned.

  ‘I’ll call you back,’ he snapped into the phone before dropping it in its cradle.

  The door opened violently and bounced off its hinges.

  Ivan narrowed his eyes at the two men who stormed inside the room and the group of nervous Crovir and Bastian Hunters on their heels.

  ‘What is the meaning of this?’

  Victor Dvorsky and Dimitri Reznak slowed and stopped on the other side of the desk.

  ‘That’s what I’d like to ask you,’ Victor countered in a deadly voice.

  He pulled an envelope from his suit jacket and emptied it onto the table.

  Ivan stared at the flurry of photographs scattered across the polished-wood surface. Surprise jolted him when he registered what it was he was looking at. He rose to his feet and glared at the Hunters crowding the office.

  ‘Out. All of you. Right now!’

  The men exited the room reluctantly, their posture hostile as they stared at their opposing faction. The door thudded closed behind them.

  Ivan’s gaze swung to the two Immortals opposite him. ‘I just heard about your little mission in Mongolia.’ He crossed his arms and indicated the pictures before him with a jerk of his chin. ‘Is this your confession, Victor? Did you attack the facility and kill our men to get your hands on those tombs?’

  Dimitri frowned. ‘That’s rich coming from the man who raided those vaults in the first place.’

  Ivan blinked. ‘What the devil do you mean by that?’ He scowled. ‘And may I say, the fact that you’re allying yourself with the Bastians on this matter troubles me greatly, Dimitri.’

  ‘This is not about taking sides,’ Dimitri said, his eyes bright with anger. ‘The stakes are far too high for me to worry about the sensibilities of fools who would rather cling to an ancient rivalry than stop the world from burning around them.’

  ‘Someone in the Crovir First Council tagged Dimitri with a highly sophisticated tracking device last October,’ Victor said. ‘That’s how they discovered the location of Balthazar Island.’

  ‘Jonah Krondike was a silent associate of this person,’ Dimitri said. ‘The same person who is currently building an army of even more advanced super soldiers in another facility, one bigger than the underground complex in Yuma. They have amassed enough military hardware and weapons over the last five decades to start a third world war.’

  Ivan’s heart thudded rapidly against his ribs as he stared at the two Immortals.

  ‘Do you take me for a fool?’ he said finally. ‘Do you really think I wouldn’t have knowledge of any of this as the head of the Crovir First Council if it has really taken place?’

  Victor scowled. ‘Lucas Soul and his cousins fought some of those super soldiers in the last two days. Not only are they more powerful than the men Olivia Ashkarov and Ethan Storm faced in Yuma, they possess advanced combat armor the likes of which we have never seen before.’

  Ivan stiffened. ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘Well, believe this,’ Victor snapped. ‘The reason those tombs and hearts are missing is because someone wanted to resurrect the dead kings. And they succeeded.’

  Ivan widened his eyes. ‘What?’

  ‘Crovir and Bastian are alive,’ Dimitri spat out. ‘We think whoever is behind this used the blood of Lily and Tomas Soul to revive them.’

  Shock reverberated through Ivan. He fisted his hands. ‘This is bullshit!’ A bark of laughter escaped his lips. ‘How the hell could you even think something like that is possible? Those men have been dead for thousands of years!’

  ‘Because they’re not the only ones who have come back,’ Victor said.

  Ivan stared at the furious man glaring at him.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘The children of Crovir and Bastian breathe the air of this world once more, thanks to the bodies of the ones who are descended from their bloodlines,’ Dimitri said quietly.

  Ivan sat down heavily in his chair. ‘I—how—?’ He faltered, his nails digging into his palms. A wild thought came to him then. He looked up into the eyes of the two men observing him across the desk. ‘You think it’s me, don’t you?’

  Victor arched an eyebrow. ‘Can you blame us? I find it hard to believe that all the resources that went into building those facilities and the actions taken over the years by someone in this Council could escape the attention of its leader. Especially after what happened in Mongolia.’

  Ivan’s pulse raced wildly as he gazed at the Bastian leader. He looked over at Dimitri. ‘And you believe this too?’

  Dimitri hesitated before dipping his chin.

  Ivan took a ragged breath and rose to his feet once more.

  He leaned his han
ds on the desk and stared unflinchingly at the two Immortals. ‘Then I have nothing more to say to you, gentlemen.’

  He waited until the door closed behind the two men before picking up the phone. ‘Find Vlado.’

  Part Three: Deliverance

  Chapter Thirty

  Bastian leaned his back against the concrete wall behind the bed and inspected the cell’s austere interior with a sigh.

  Over half a day had passed since he had been escorted to his prison by the soldiers who served the man who had revived him and his brother.

  He grimaced wryly. Well, not quite. It was the blood of those children that did that.

  A cynical chuckle escaped him. To be alive again was not something he ever would have wished for. In fact, he could hardly think of anything worse.

  His last moments in this world, when he had perished on that battlefield all those hundreds of years past with his brother in his arms, flashed before his eyes once more. Sorrow pierced him, the pain overshadowing the dull ache where they had carved his flesh and bones and restored his heart to his body. He blinked and drew a ragged breath.

  That it had been the right thing to do at the time, to surrender to death at the hands of the most powerful Immortal warrior of their time, did not take away from the fact that he had been responsible for his brother’s end. The brother he had loved and looked up to for as long as he had lived.

  Bastian pressed a hand to his chest and shuddered when he felt the strong, steady beat beneath his palm. Abominations. We are both abominations, like those creatures who sleep in boxes made of glass.

  Crovir’s actions the day before had hardly come as a surprise. Bastian knew all too well his brother’s feelings concerning people who were not loyal to him. He only had to remember what he had done to his own daughter to realize this cold truth. Though he was confident Crovir would not hurt him, Bastian could not stem the dread flowing through him at the thought of what the older king and the man responsible for their resurrection could be planning. No doubt, it would be something terrible. Something that would cause death and suffering.

  He recalled the pictures he had seen the day before. The faces that belonged to the ones who resembled their long-dead children. And the man and woman who were mirror images of their father and stepmother. A wave of bitterness threatened to drown him. He closed his eyes.

  So, we stand on opposing sides once more. Are we to repeat the same mistake over and over again? To tear at one another and carve each other’s bodies with swords and knives like we did before? Is there no hope for us to stop this ghastly cycle of hate?

  Something fluttered in his mind then. A soft, warm breeze.

  Bastian blinked.

  The breeze came again and with it an intense pressure that pushed at his skull.

  Bastian winced and raised his hands to his temples. The painful tension gripping his head disappeared just as suddenly as it had materialized. Then, as clear as day, a voice spoke in his mind.

  Don’t be afraid.

  Bastian startled.

  Who—who is this?

  My name is Lily Soul.

  A second voice joined the first one.

  And I am Tomas Soul.

  Miller sat stiffly in the chair, arms handcuffed behind his back and ankles chained to the metal legs. Though his left eye was nearly swollen shut and blood stained his face and clothes from the cuts he’d sustained fighting the men who’d captured him, his expression remained defiant. A bandage peeked out from under the neckline of his shirt where it covered his injured right shoulder.

  Rage surged through Lucas as he stared at the general through the one-way mirror of the interrogation room.

  ‘Easy,’ Reid murmured beside him.

  Lucas took a shallow breath and unclenched his fists, conscious of the guarded stare of the CIA agent in the darkened chamber with them.

  They were in the basement of a government facility in Maryland. Miller had been brought there following his arrest at the Canadian border by the Bastian Hunters and US agents who had been on his tail. It was thanks to Lucas and the others’ experience in Hawthorne that they had managed to defeat the three Immortals and the super soldier who had been with the general, by using an improvised EMP device Jordan and Eva had instructed them to make to disable the men’s liquid-armor suits.

  Connelly had initially been reluctant to give them direct access to Miller when they had arrived at the facility that morning at dawn. She had finally capitulated when Conrad had convinced her they would make the general talk, something the CIA agents had not yet succeeded in doing.

  The door opened presently on Miller’s right. He twisted his head and glared at Conrad and Alexa as they walked in.

  Conrad took the seat opposite the general and crossed his arms on the table. Alexa locked the door and leaned against it, her expression unreadable.

  Tense silence filled the interrogation room. A couple of minutes ticked by.

  The CIA agent frowned at Lucas. ‘What are they doing? Aren’t they going to question him?’

  ‘It’s called setting the scene,’ Anatole murmured where he leaned beside the one-way mirror. ‘He’s had years of practice at it.’

  Miller finally shifted under Conrad’s steady gaze.

  It was another minute before the Immortal spoke. ‘Do you know who we are?’

  Miller’s gaze flashed to the birthmark on Conrad’s arm. He remained silent.

  ‘From the look in your eyes, I suspect you do,’ Conrad said. He glanced at Alexa.

  She strode to the table, grabbed Miller by his injured shoulder, and punched him hard in the face. A harsh grunt left Miller’s lips as his head snapped violently sideways. Shock flared across his face.

  The CIA agent swore and took a step toward the mirror.

  ‘What the—?’

  He twisted on his heels and headed for the exit.

  Ethan stepped in his path. ‘Relax. He won’t die from that.’

  The CIA agent scowled at him. ‘That’s beside the point! The man is a serving US general!’

  He moved around Ethan and grabbed the door handle. It didn’t budge. He closed both hands on the metal knob and twisted it again.

  The door remained resolutely closed.

  ‘The hell! Did you guys do something—?’

  ‘It’s locked and it’s going to stay that way until that asshole talks,’ Ethan said in a steely voice. ‘Miller is a traitor and will be prosecuted as such by the US government. He lost all the rights afforded by his position the moment he decided to betray his country.’

  ‘They won’t kill him,’ Reid said gruffly at the agent’s alarmed look. ‘We need answers and he has them.’

  The CIA agent’s face darkened. He reached for his gun. Ethan narrowed his eyes.

  Lucas glanced at the wedding band on the agent’s hand.

  ‘Do you have children?’ he said quietly.

  The man froze, fingers on the butt of his weapon.

  Lucas clenched his jaw. ‘I have two. They’re twins. They just turned six.’ He studied the prisoner in the interrogation room. ‘They were taken in the middle of the night four days ago by a group of masked men who tried to kill me and my wife. Miller works for the person responsible for their disappearance.’ He swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat. ‘We know they’ve hurt my children.’

  The CIA agent hesitated for a timeless moment, a mixture of emotions washing across his face. His shoulders finally drooped.

  He put his gun away with a sigh. ‘Mine are four and seven.’ He looked at Miller through the one-way mirror, his expression stony. ‘I would kill anyone who laid a single finger on them.’

  ‘We know about the super soldier program,’ Conrad said where he sat opposite Miller. ‘We know about the liquid-armor suits.’ He paused. ‘We even know about the nuclear subs and the warships.’

  Miller stiffened for an instant. A bark of laughter escaped him with his next breath. ‘If you knew everything, you and I wouldn’t be in this room
right now!’

  Alexa looked at the mirror. ‘Ethan?’

  Ethan walked over to the glass and pressed a button that allowed two-way communication. ‘Yeah?’

  ‘Lose the cuffs.’

  Ethan smiled faintly. Miller’s handcuffs clattered onto the floor a second later.

  The CIA agent blinked. ‘What just happened?’

  ‘Magic,’ Anatole said solemnly.

  Reid rolled his eyes at the Immortal.

  Anatole shrugged. ‘What? It’s kinda the truth.’

  Inside the interrogation room, Miller rubbed his wrists, his face mutinous. ‘This doesn’t change anything. I’m still not—’

  ‘I didn’t think it would,’ Alexa said.

  She slipped a sai from her back, pinned Miller’s right hand to the table with one hand, and drove the blade through his flesh and the metal beneath it with the other. Miller screamed and grabbed Alexa’s wrist.

  The CIA agent sucked in air. ‘You sure about the not killing him part?’

  Miller’s livid voice came through the speakers.

  ‘You bitch!’ he spat, face red with pain and rage as he glared from his bleeding hand to Alexa.

  She arched an eyebrow. ‘That’s not a nice way to address a lady.’

  She drew the second sai, fixed Miller’s left hand to the table, and stabbed it.

  Miller’s howl of agony echoed around the chamber.

  ‘Did she say “lady?”’ Anatole said dully.

  ‘Seriously, never repeat those words in front of her if you value your life,’ Ethan muttered.

  ‘I concur,’ Reid added wryly.

  Miller cursed viciously as he stared from his bloodied, impaled hands to the two Immortals in the room with him.