Enemies: The Girl in the Box, Book Seven

by Crane, Robert J.

  “So,” Weissman said, looking around at the carnage before us, “it looks like this is it for now.” He gave me a salute with his knife blade. “Don’t try and follow us,” he said with a voice of amused warning. “Because … blah blah blah, gutting, pain, intestines used as party streamers.” He waved the blade at us. “You know. Just don’t. I’ll get creative in ways to make you suffer but not die.” He shrugged. “Til we meet again, Miss Nealon. You keep running, though. You’re like a little hamster on a wheel, trying to stop us. It’s kind of fun to watch—til it gets boring.” He grinned. “Good thing I’m not in charge of deciding your fate, because I think you know what would happen when you got boring.” He turned, and Eleanor followed him, casting nervous looks behind her on their way out, watching to see if any of us followed.

  She needn’t have worried.

  “Dammit,” Reed said as he sagged to the ground, resting on his haunches. He lay back, and I watched him close his eyes as he stared up at the dome above us, the wire-frame ceiling that was holding back the sky from falling on us.

  There was only a moment of silence before Breandan spoke. “I don’t mean to be the downer—not that we need any more of those—but we need to be getting out of here, and fast.” He waved a hand about. There were a few humans left cowering behind displays. I saw one girl quaking as she watched us from behind an overturned table. “I don’t fancy explaining to Scotland Yard how I came to be acquainted and associated with all these bloody corpses.”

  “Who gives a damn?” Reed asked, still tilted toward the ceiling. “We’re done, now.”

  “It’s not over yet,” I said, sounding stronger than I felt. I made my way to my brother’s side, and he sat up to look at me. His eyes were nearly squinted shut. “It’s not over. Call your headquarters, get them to send some more help.” I looked to Kat, then Karthik. “We can rally with Omega, what’s left of it—”

  “Don’t you get it, Sienna?” Reed said, and he let out a hysterical laugh. He bit his lip and sniffed, and I got the feeling he was only centimeters from losing it. “This was Omega.” He waved to indicate the bodies on the floor, and it came to rest with his finger pointing at Hera’s corpse. “And she was Alpha.” He looked ghostly, pained. “Our headquarters in Rome was destroyed by Century three days ago. She was the last of the surviving leaders of Alpha. I’m all that’s left, except for the mercs at our safehouse. Not one of them is a meta.” He rested his hands on his knees, and sat with them in front of him, like I used to sit in the box. I thought maybe he’d rest his head on his legs, but he didn’t. “It’s over. Everyone who had any chance of organizing metakind to fight Century just died in this room.”

  Chapter 31

  “Not quite,” Kat said, her voice soft. She lifted Janus up in her arms. “Close, but he’s not dead yet.”

  “He got stabbed in the back of the head,” Reed said from his sitting position. “You can’t tell me he’s going to be of use to anyone.” His words were bitter, rueful.

  “Maybe,” Kat said, and I caught her hesitancy. She licked her lips as she cradled him. “But I won’t know until we give it some time.” She nodded toward Breandan with her head. “Your criminal friend is right—”

  “Oh, well, thanks for putting it that way,” Breandan said.

  “We need to get out of here,” Kat said. “I suggest we go back to Omega headquarters, since it’s the most well-equipped location to serve as a base of operations.”

  “I really want to go strolling into the heart of enemy territory,” Reed said. “It’s high on my list of priorities, getting murdered.”

  “Reed,” I said gently and then yanked him to his feet, letting the gentleness go. “Get your ass moving.”

  He blinked at me in surprise. “Okay,” he said, and I could hear the chagrin in his tone. “Okay, then.”

  I looked around again, quickly, taking stock of what we had left. “Karthik?” I asked, and the young man seemed to come out of a stupor. “You with us?”

  “Sorry, yes,” Karthik said, nodding. “I am. Let’s regroup.”

  “Maybe you should let Breandan drive,” I said to Reed.

  “We have a van,” Karthik suggested. “Parked in the rear of the building. May I suggest we use that exit? More cover for us, perhaps less likelihood of running into the police on their way in here.”

  “Fine,” I said, and Karthik took the lead, Breandan a few steps behind him. They headed to our left, following the courtyard and the curve of the white tower until it opened into a new section of the museum. We tromped through empty halls, Kat carrying Janus in her arms like a baby, and made our way down stairs and through hallways until we reached the back exit. The smell of the place was heavy, almost musty, though I couldn’t shake the sense that there was blood coming with us, blood on everything, filling my nose and mouth like I could taste it.

  Tastes good, Wolfe said.

  “Shut up,” I whispered.

  “What?” Karthik asked, turning back to look at me.

  “Sorry,” I muttered. “Talking to myself.”

  As we burst out the back doors we found a police car waiting. The sirens were flashing in the dimming light of the day, and two police officers were waiting in carefully crouched positions.

  “Look out!” Karthik called, “there are men with guns behind us!”

  I paused for only a second before I realized he was lying. For a moment I actually thought he was telling the truth, enough to get me to look back through the brass doors to see that there were, in fact, men with guns inside, standing just in front of the glass.

  “RUN!” I shouted as I dodged to the right and out of the line of fire. I saw the cops dive behind their car as Reed turned to see what I saw.

  “Keep going!” Karthik shouted, and I felt him come up behind me. He grabbed my collar and pulled me back to a run then did the same to Reed. “Trust me!” he shouted, and took off with us. “They’re just illusions that I created with my power to distract the police while we escape.” This he said at a whisper, low enough the police wouldn’t hear him.

  We cleared the back courtyard and found Kat already opening the doors to a navy blue panel van. She was gingerly sliding Janus into the back with Breandan’s help. As soon as he was in, Breandan jumped into the passenger seat as Karthik slid into the driver’s side. Reed leapt into the back, neatly avoiding landing on Janus, and I followed, managing the same feat. I also managed not to crack Kat in the back of the head with my elbow, but it was a near thing on that one.

  The van’s engine roared to life as the sound of sirens filled the air around us. “We might need to take a detour or two,” Karthik said as he slammed the vehicle into gear and started it forward. “You know, to avoid the police.”

  “They’re gonna have us on surveillance cameras,” Breandan said nervously. “Our pictures will be everywhere, won’t they?”

  “With Omega’s connections, I think we can minimize the fallout,” Karthik said. “At least for now. Possibly not much longer, though, not with the ministers dead.” He ran a hand over his forehead and then through his dark hair before bringing it back to the steering wheel. “They were the power behind Omega. Without them, we’re going to be out in the cold with the government soon. They’ve always managed to keep a lid on these type of incidents before.”

  “Looks like the whole nasty cake is about to collapse on itself,” Reed said with a sneer that vanished quickly. “If this was any other time, I’d be positively ecstatic about it.”

  “Like to glory in the fall of your enemies?” Karthik said from the front seat as he weaved the van through traffic, shaking those of us in the back from side to side. I braced against the wheel well as Karthik eased us into a turn.

  “Omega is a criminal cartel,” Reed said with a laugh. “You people own half the organized crime in Europe, using your metas as muscle to keep the rackets in line. Yeah, forgive me if I don’t weep on a normal day if you guys get kicked over.” His amused smile came to an end. “The fact th
at we’ve come to this, to the point when your organization is basically all that’s left in Europe between us and the end of our species …” He let his voice trail off, but everything he’d said up to that point had been laced with contempt.

  A silence settled over us as we weaved through London’s rush hour. It wasn’t desperately packed; it kept a good flow, save for the few times I heard ambulances go rushing by. I felt the change as we headed down a slope and realized we were entering Omega’s underground garage.

  We pulled to a stop a minute later and I cast Reed a look. “Are you gonna be okay with this?”

  He gave me an inscrutable one in return. “Allying with Omega? No.” He paused and looked over at Kat, who was still ministering to Janus, keeping her hands clear of him. “But I’ll keep my objections to myself, since all I’ve got left at the safehouse are hired guns who will probably be in the wind the moment they find out Hera’s dead and thus their paychecks are at an end.”

  I nodded at him then turned to find Kat staring at me wide-eyed. “What?” I asked her pointedly.

  She shook her head, as though she wished I hadn’t caught her looking. After a moment or so of thought, she spoke. “I just … was amazed to hear you ask him if he was going to be okay with this since, like … two days ago you killed our leader and crashed through a window to get away from us.”

  I glared at her. “Don’t forget that I broke your nose. Twice.”

  She flinched. “Restraint?”

  “You’ve just about seen the last of it,” I said. “Don’t push me.”

  The van door slid open and Karthik waited outside. Breandan joined him a moment later, studying the parking structure with all the skepticism of a man walking into a jail cell. Kat carried Janus in her arms without help as we passed the glass box where the security guard had been reading the paper only yesterday and got in the elevator. She stopped at the floor below the main level, carrying Janus to their medical facility. I thought about going with them but decided it was pointless.

  When the elevator dinged and opened on the top floor, I walked out onto a quiet cubicle farm. Only a dozen or so people were still here, and when I flashed a questioning look at Karthik, he shrugged. “We furloughed all the non-essential personnel yesterday on Janus’s order. Non-critical operations have been suspended.”

  I led the way past Janus’s office without thinking about it, and burst through the doors of Rick’s old office without stopping. Breandan and Reed followed me, while Karthik peeled off and headed toward the other side of the floor. “Be with you in a moment,” he said, and I trusted he would. I walked through into the space that Rick had begun to convert into modernity, the last vestiges of the old world charm still there in the form of paneled wood and that robust cigar smell that lingered even now.

  “So this is the seat of Omega,” Reed said, taking in the whole room with a sweep of his eyes. “It’s kind of how I always imagined it.”

  “Actually, that was the seat of Omega’s power,” I said, pointing to the wreckage of the chair that still rested behind the desk. I looked over the edge to see smears of blood still there, and I hesitated before I stepped around to look closer. The smell of it was heavy, and I could almost taste it because of how much of it was dried on the floor. “Janitorial must have been furloughed, too,” I muttered to myself.

  “What?” Reed asked.

  “Nothing,” I said, not taking my eyes off the space where I’d last seen Rick, a bloodied mess of flesh and bone splattered all over the floor. I looked back to Reed. “So …”

  He looked back at me then to Breandan, who watched us both uneasily. “So … what?”

  “Well,” I said, “Janus wanted us to go to the cloister in Scotland, try and save them from this Hades-type.”

  He stared at me with a blank look. “Sorry … is that a thought, a suggestion, an order?”

  I frowned at him. “I’m not your boss, Reed. I can’t give you orders. I’m not in charge.”

  Breandan looked from Reed to me. “Really? Then … who is, might I ask?” He looked down at the space behind the desk. “And is that blood?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “Their last leader met a somewhat grisly end.”

  “Ouch,” Breandan said. “Looks messy. When did that happen?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. An hour before I ran into you in King’s Cross Station?”

  He looked at me for a moment before it registered. “Oh! You! You killed him. I get it now.” He let his thumb and forefinger rest on his face. “You really are racking up quite the prodigious body count, aren’t you?”

  I put my fingers over my eyes and rubbed my face, as though I could scrub away all signs of my identity, be someone else for a while. “It’s been a confusing few weeks.”

  “This isn’t like you, Sienna,” Reed said quietly.

  I looked at him through weary eyes. “I’m pretty sure it’s not all me.”

  His eyes widened in slight alarm. “You mean …”

  “Wolfe,” I said calmly. “He used to be able to take control of my body. Now it’s more subtle. He says, ‘Kill them!’ and I’m moving before he’s even done speaking.” I leaned to rest my backside on the desk. “The sad part is, I don’t even disagree with what I’ve done in some of these cases.” I turned my head to look at the bloodstains behind the desk. “Some of them seem to strain the moral compass, though.”

  “Dear God,” Reed whispered. “You say it like it’s nothing. Like you just cracked an egg. ‘Oops, killed a whole bunch of people. Better luck next time.’”

  “Honestly,” I said, and felt a tired that had seeped into my very bones, like the London rains, “given what’s going on right now, is anyone even going to notice the drop of blood I’ve put into the bucket?”

  “Well,” Breandan said with excessive cheer, “it’s nice to know that my guardian angel is actually an avenging angel, ready to kill over the slightest offense.” He stiffened and held out his hands peacefully. “Which I am not trying to give. Please don’t be offended, oh murderous angel.”

  I sighed. “It’s not like that.” I looked out the window. “At least I hope it’s not.”

  Reed came to sit beside me. “What happened to the girl who struggled with the fact that she’d killed Wolfe and Gavrikov?”

  I didn’t blink as I looked at the skyscrapers on the horizon, lit in anticipation of the coming night. “I think I left her in the box.”

  “Bad news,” Karthik said, breaking the silence as he re-entered the room, shutting the old wood door behind him with a gentle click.

  “Is there any other kind lately?” Reed asked.

  “There’s the Daily News,” Breandan said. “No, wait, that’s bad too.”

  “We have confirmation from our agents that the cloister in Connacht was wiped out,” Karthik said, reading from a piece of paper in his hand.

  “But finally an Englishman who can pronounce it,” Breandan muttered.

  “In point of fact, I’m from Mumbai originally,” Karthik gently corrected him.

  “I was trying to be culturally sensitive. Inclusive and all that, you know.”

  “Ah,” Karthik said. “So now the last bastion of metakind in the English isles is to be found in Scotland.” He read a thin readout. “Population is only thirty or so.” He pulled a piece of paper from underneath that one. “It looks as though the job is just about done over here.” His dark eyes were tinged with sorrow, and his voice was weighed down with it. “This is the last cloister in Europe. North and South America are all that remain after this. That and whatever stragglers aren’t cloistered that haven’t been swept up yet.”

  “Dear God,” Reed said, letting his hands cover his eyes. “Scotland it is.”

  “The helicopter will be ready in fifteen minutes,” Karthik said. “There is one thing we need to discuss first, though.”

  “What?” I asked. “I mean, we know what we’re dealing with—a Hades-type. We know I’m the only one who stands a chance against it. And we know
that—”

  “We have no one to lead us,” Karthik said. “With the ministers and Bastet dead and Janus out of action, Omega’s line of command is officially finished.”

  “What?” I looked at him in utter disbelief. “Your organization landed something like fifty metas on U.S. shores not two weeks ago when you went to destroy the Directorate. You can’t tell me that there aren’t any field commanders for those metas—”

  “Most of them are dead,” Karthik said quietly. “The toll of Century’s efforts on our continental operations has been quite steep the last two weeks. When the crisis began, we had something on the order of a hundred metas on payroll. We did send fifty to deal with your Directorate, and with the exception of our American operatives, they all returned within a couple days. However, we’ve had major setbacks as our operations were destroyed in every European capital in the last two weeks. It was a blitzkrieg, nothing less. Every single field agent on the continent is now out of contact. The last—an office of five metas in Paris—went quiet this morning. Their last report indicated that the final major cloister in southern France had been destroyed in a blaze of fire.”

  “So …” I said, “for next moves, I guess we can assume that Weissman’s intended return to London is going to include a visit to this location.”

  Karthik gave me a slight nod. “That seems likely. We have about twenty-five metas here, not counting yourselves. Most are young, like Athena, the girl you brought in the other morning. Only a few of us have any offensive power or combat training.”

  I rubbed my forehead. “Dammit,” I said. “Dammit.”

  “What?” Reed asked, growing alarmed.

  “When she gets worried, I prepare to panic, personally,” Breandan said.

  “We can’t go to Scotland,” I said. “We have no idea what method of transport that Hades-type is using. He could be there already, in which case we’ll miss him and he’ll be back here before we can return.” I thumped my hand against the desk. “The only thing I know for sure at this point is that this is his last stop. He’ll kill everyone in this office before he can declare the job done and move on.”