Chasing Shadow (Shadow Puppeteer) (28 page)

Exhausted, I slid to the ground, grateful that Amber let me.

“Now what?” I asked.

My throat was painfully dry and fear made me breathless. I felt old.

Rose’s laugh was on the verge of hysteria. “Something evil must favor us to spare our lives.”

“Why can’t we be favored by something good?” I asked.

With the glass doors covered in red fog and black tape, it felt worse than stuffy. Having the sharp glare of light shooting up towards the ceiling didn’t help.

“Nothing good exists anymore,” Rose said.

“We can’t stay here,” Amber broke the chatter.

“There are no cable wires to climb and no call box. Our only option is to pull the door open and try to find another way out on this floor,” Rex said.

It was good just hearing his voice. It calmed me, but I couldn’t leave until I found D. Where was Katrina? I’d feel so much better if I could feel her again. It made her physical absence easier to stand.

Shadow Puppeteer. What did it mean?

“The light is still on in the computer’s eye, so the system must still be working in some areas,” Rose said.

My attention followed hers to the skeletal contraption. Its red eye was watching me.

The elevator lunged upward and stopped. The lights flickered back on and then the elevator started to descend.

W
ith practiced ease, Rose looted the guard of her weapons, passing off the second rifle and shotgun to me. Loaded and ready, she pointed her guns at Rex and Amber.

I stepped in front of her. “They’re with us.”

“They’re wearing the wrong clothes,” she said.

“We don’t have time to argue,” Rex intervened.

There was a great deal of pressure in my ears that refused to pop. Before the pressure became unbearable, the elevator stopped and the tape ripped from the crevice. Guards outnumbered us.

“Damn,” Rose hissed.

A woman in a lab coat stood in front. “Step off the elevator one at a time.”

Her blond hair was in a tight bun on the top of her head and thin black rimmed glasses framed her sharp face.

“Good idea. Maybe I’ll get a better shot,” I said under my breath.

“We’re in the Control Center. Don’t do anything desperate just yet,” Rex warned.

Like there was occasion to do anything that wasn’t desperate.

The vast room was an amazing entity of large glass boxes that contained huge perfectly formed balls of electricity. Large cylinder tubes were connected to each box and the electricity rolled up the walls and into the open tubes. The room had glass walls that bowled outward, making me feel like I was in a fish bowl.

There were lights on the outside of the glass, but the ocean was too murky. No self respecting fish got close enough to be viewed.

I stepped over the elevator threshold first.

The computer voice startled me. “Belen McKnight. You have helped World Congress locate the leader of the Ardent Berserkers and the leader of the Diablos.”

“Why don’t you come out from behind your computer and thank me in person,” I said.

“You fail to understand,
Belen
McKnight, that I
am
the computer. I am World Congress. I cannot be present. I deeply regret not meeting you on your level, but your atmosphere would not sustain my true life form.”

“Stop screwing with us and tell me what you want,” I said.

I wasn’t going to drop the gun until forced. There was no way to sugar coat this one. Tonight, death was inevitable.

“Take their weapons by any means, but don’t kill Miss McKnight,” the woman said.

Their guns clicked and my heartbeat raced in my temples.

“However, Miss McKnight, if you surrender, I’ll make it easier on your friends,” she said.

Katrina dead in the street flashed through my thoughts. My fingers loosened on the trigger and I lowered the gun. She was stuck in slow motion, replaying in my head. I shouldn’t trust they weren’t going to hurt my group, but I didn’t want to be responsible for their death. Drop the gun and buy time or be the last one standing?

I dropped the gun and two more guns dropped behind me, but Amber wasn’t ready to give up her weapon.

“Amber,” I said.

She didn’t budge.

“Give the beast something to take the edge off,” the lab woman said.

The air cracked and time stopped. My ears rung as I swung around, expecting one of the two werewolves to be bloody. Rex, now standing in front of Amber, yanked a feathered dart from his suit shoulder. It didn’t look like it went deep, but Rex’s fingers were already going lax and his glassy eyes focused on me for the briefest second. Amber dropped her gun and caught him before he fell. He wasn’t passed out; he was down.

“I knew you would be smart about this Miss McKnight. I’m creative when it comes to prolonging the lives of my experiments,” she said.

“Is that supposed to convince me that I did the right thing?” I asked.

“You are making the right choice,” she said.

Death. Until this week, I’d never seen a dead person. Now, people were falling like flies around me.

“You made your point,” I said.

“I’ll set the rules early,” the lab woman said. “Every time you interfere with a direct order, one of your people will be shot and the next gun to go off does have silver bullets.” She gave the group a calculating stare. “Anyone you wish to go first?”

I didn’t validate that with a comment. The woman gave me a curt nod, and then turned her back. She had nothing to fear with all these guns doing her bidding. I wouldn’t have moved, but her threat about disobedience was hard to retaliate so I lead the group forward.

The back half of the room was closed off with a filmy white screen that shadows danced behind and lights occasionally flickered. From where we stood, I could see another elevator, but there was no buttons to press to get the glass to open.

She had an extensive lab towards the back with three empty cages and one that was occupied, at the bottom. There was a table long enough for a body and beside the table was a tray of daunting tools. Three large computer screens were propped over the table with wires trailing off it like tentacles with more tools. I didn’t want to think where any of this was going, but the knives were suggestive.

My patience was frayed and my nerves were shot. I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to watch another person die. The woman walked to each computer and flipped on the switches. They hummed with electricity, which felt strangely similar to the shadows when they lingered around me. Right now, none were present in this bright, electrical room.

“Welcome to central control, Miss McKnight. The people who get to see this place never live to tell about it,” she said.

A few clicks on a keypad and the computer showed a gray screen that looked like an ultrasound.

“World Congress has done amazing things for this planet. Many people will live their lives never affected by the demands asked in payment for the better of society. Others will serve the general cost, but that’s not what you are doing here,” she said. While she talked, she set about rearranging the knives and two glass bottles of liquid placed beside two syringes. “You are here because your name keeps coming up.”

“It’s a coincidence.”

“That’s very unfortunate for you, but good for us,” the woman laughed. “People were starting to make you sound rather God-like. I’m glad you aren’t so immortal.”

She signaled the two men in white scrubs to get the victim. I knew without a doubt, that it was D, but I couldn’t see him. My fingers twitched. I really wanted to grab the blade from the back of my boots, but I remained still.

With a hard yank, they jerked him free from the cage. He looked trashed. His clothes were ripped, bruises darkened his face and his shirt was drenched in blood. If Draken allowed this, I would kill him. What was one more notch on my soul?

He stopped when he saw me. “Belen?”

The way he held his wrist said it was broken. Darkness fluttered around his aura and I knew Katrina was here with him. All the lights made her weak, but she was holding on. Something more potent came to mind. D wasn’t just working for the Diablos. This glassy eyed, severely traumatized youth was
the
Diablo; the one the Daily Dark wrote about on their front cover.

“Hold on, okay?” It was a promise in itself, but I had no idea what I could do for him or anyone else.

The guard shoved him towards the table. He already looked pretty worked over. Stress was tearing at me. Everything inwardly ached. It felt like someone was scraping their nails over my exposed brain.

“What’s going on? What are you going to do?” I asked.

The woman smiled. “Remember the rules, Belen. You interfere and your friends will die.”

What kind of trade off was that? I had to watch D suffer or my friends get killed. If she was going to peel off any more skin, I’d be forced into action. D stopped short of the table, eyeing the same items that caught my attention. The surgical knives gleamed in the intense light. I couldn’t let this go any further.

I lowered my metaphysical shields ready to push my sway on them. The guards were anxious and the lab woman was an emotionless Free String Walker. Rex was angry, Amber resentful and Rose was calm. It was hard to tell if she accepted her death. D, however, was almost as unreadable as Draken and Starr. He was blocking me.

They grabbed his injured arm and his scream was heart wrenching. I sucked up his pain and fear. It opened floodgates to unwanted memories, but before those memories became overpowering, I forced them at the guards. Not as many doubled over as I had hoped, but I’d never tried this until now.

D rolled over the side of the table, but before he could reach me, the patrollers caught him. I took a step forward and was instantly pulled back. A gunshot cracked through the air and Amber immediately released me to hold her shoulder.

Things were happening too fast. D was strapped down to the operating table and blood oozed from Amber’s shoulder. Determination kept her standing. I never gave the cheerleader much accountability, but Amber was brave.

The woman spoke as if nothing happened. “There is no place for science and religion to co-exist. They collide. Science has proven to be far more benefitting then religion, but religion has a strong foothold. The gods are not a myth, Miss McKnight. It’s best if we get rid of the gods’ interference so that science can proceed as the higher goal.”

“Why does it matter what people believe?”

“Religion leads to conquest. It’s difficult to control a fighting population. You creatures kill yourself off before we can. World Congress has a higher purpose for your bodies, one that brings a greater good to our world,” she said.

Rose’s laugh startled me. “You can’t stop religion. There are still many people who worship their gods. Hecate has been reborn. She will come back and she will destroy World Congress’s reign.”

The woman shrugged her shoulders as she dug latex gloves from her pockets and snapped them on. My anger spiraled. My heart was beating so fast that red colored my vision, but I knew better than to respond. Amber surprised me when she remained at my side, though her shoulder had to be in incredible pain.

“There is no place on earth for Reincarta,” Amber snarled at Rose.

“Two gods left and Zeus will not allow Hecate to take over the world. Things will be right again through him,” Rex said.

I was relieved to hear him speak, but their argument was irrelevant. I could feel Rose and Amber’s animosity and it was directed towards each other. We needed to keep ourselves together long enough to get out of here.

“Zeus?” Rose laughed.

“No god will be able to help this planet,” the woman said.

The lab woman turned a switch on the machine that made the wire she held, buzz. I took a step forward to stop her and Amber pulled me back.

“Get me shot again and I’ll kill you myself,” Amber hissed.

“Do you know what I’m doing?” the lab woman asked. Her eyes held mine and I wanted nothing more than to yank them out of her head. “I’m putting your friend into suspended slumber. It’s something we did to an entire realm of entities that we couldn’t kill.”

She shoved it into his temples and he jerked upward, screaming. His body flailed under the high voltage. In echoing response to the tension building in my chest, a bulb over the table exploded. The technician jumped back, glaring from the shattered bulb back to me.

“You aren’t doing him any favors. I can make this last a lot longer than it has to,” the lab woman said.

“You hurt him and I’ll have no reason to comply with your demands,” I said.

After all this, I had no intention of letting her off the hook. I didn’t know how to control the shadows, but I knew they’d come. Even now, bumps rose along my skin in response to their fluttery touch. I was afraid of them, but I was more afraid of losing D, Amber and Rex. Since Rose was with us, I didn’t want to lose her either.

The contained electricity grew erratic inside their glass cases and the light surged brighter for a brief moment, blowing a few bulbs overhead. The lab woman stepped forward.

“Contain her and kill the others,” she ordered.

I
expected bullets to fly. What flew were the guns to the ceiling. The few shots that went off were too high to hit us, but that only bought us a few seconds. The guards were already pulling their second weapons and I stood there frozen, watching as D started to seizure.

“If you’re going to do something, do it,” Rose ordered. With her hand raised, it was clear she was controlling the guns.

“How?”

“You’re the one with the plans,” she answered, misunderstanding my question.

I wanted to know how she got the guns to raise, but there wasn’t time. Amber shredded her clothes, which wasn’t easy with a wounded shoulder, but her large clawed hands helped. She was turning right in front of me. The alpha flashed in my head and I took an involuntary step away from her, but her attention was on the guards.

Rex was doing the same, but at a sluggish pace. Until the guards were moved, I couldn’t get closer to D, so I rushed to help Rex. His skin was burning hot and red as if he’d taken an extremely hot shower. He grunted at me and pulled away. His pride made him temperamental and we didn’t have time for that.