Wicked Hunt (Dark Hearts Book 3) (14 page)

Zorie

The moment when the men arrived beside our SUV with smiles and ropes was mind bending. They also carried what I found out was a strait jacket. I wanted this, thought it was right. And my gut instinct was screaming no.

Grimm too, I thought.

He went pale but stood there as they had him push his arms into the sleeves. The way he kept his focus on me, over their heads, sank the responsibility deep. I would have those claws in me until this was done.

If this experimental research, come fuck-up maybe, killed Grimm, I might as well go impale myself on something. I would be that mortified. I’d texted with Rudy since, tried to get more info from him, but only so much could be conveyed.

I had a charged phone, courtesy of a woman Grimm summoned earlier, but had no internet.

I should’ve probed for more on this research guy. If only. I wanted a resume, a list of what he’d achieved and where and when. I wanted to know how often he pruned his toenails and if he believed in fairies. Everything, shit, everything.

The knots in my stomach would have been knitted into a scarf by the time this was over.

At their gestures, I slid into the back seat of this new vehicle, a gray thing that’d seen better days. I was next to Grimm and on his other side was one of our new friends. Their smiles hadn’t waned but I noticed that at least one of them was armed with a pistol.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

Grimm said the doctor smelled bad. These guys, I wondered what they smelled like to Grimm. The ends of the white jacket wrapped around his back and were tied. His hands were in there somewhere.

“It’ll be okay,” I murmured to him. “I promise.” And the cold tension in my jaw made it an effort to talk.

He only nodded. The car took off with a lurch and the driver spun the wheel and set a course eastward up the road.

Rudy hadn’t told me where he was. The secrecy was yet another reason for anxiety. If he even knew I was a millionaire, he could ransom me. Not that I could get my hands on that money easily. The Australian embassy would have a ton of questions for me. Both of us had entered Thailand illegally.

Bang.
Another nail in the coffin of my worries.

I leaned forward and asked the man on the other side of Grimm, “How long? How long before we get there?”

He grinned back and nodded sagely. “Wait. Just wait. You will see.”

Sighing, I settled back into the seat.

This was going to be a very long trip.

Johann

They were coming. I rearranged the instruments on the stainless steel tray for the tenth time.

Packets of scalpel blades – such innocent, little foil-wrapped things. Forceps. CSF tap needles. Swabs. Antiseptic. Swaged-on suture material, also in neat packets. More needles, syringes. IV fluids, IV catheters. Nothing too awesome, but the shininess awoke the scientist in me more thoroughly. We had arranged with Kim for more lights, more power. The pet cages had been lowered, covered to look like benches, and set aside. Nothing so modern as an electron-microscope, but I had promises of access to one. Along one side of the room, we’d cleared and cleaned the benches. I could get the first samples and do preliminary tests, then decide if we should go further.

Nervous as a new bride. I hadn’t done this for years – been any sort of scientist or doctor, apart from some minor stuff Kim had me do. I grabbed the beer and took a pull. Cold and delicious. I burped and wiped my mouth, then summoned Rudy over.

“You only need to pretend for five minutes, tops.”

“Sure. I can do this.” He hitched at the collar of the lab coat. It might not convince this Zorina, who had once been a lecturer in biology, but it impressed me. His blue jeans, T-shirt and greasy hair would never have done the trick.

He was an expert at finding veins, so I’d trust him for that. Even with a strait jacket on, this Grimm might be hard to handle. One kick from a big man might crack my ribs, rupture my spleen. I wasn’t young anymore.

“I’m going. I’ll be watching.” I indicated the line of ultra-clear windows to the left, which had a direct line to another building half a kilometer away across the facility.

“Go! I can do this. I told you. Kim said they’ll be here in ten.”

I jogged out to the Subaru and drove the half a klick.

Inside the weed-engulfed shed was the pet, leashed to a table and waiting patiently. She’d recovered from her illness and we’d found a use for her. The red spots on her arm showed where Rudy had perfected his IV catheterization skills.

When the distant gates opened and a car drove through, stirring up dust, I picked up my binoculars and settled in with my elbows on the window sill. Dusk was creeping in, sending long shadows over the partly mown and cleared road along which I’d driven.

They wouldn’t suspect a thing. And, if they did, Kim’s men would take care of it. The symbiotic relationship between Rudy, me, and Kim was proving wiser than ever. There would be room at the top for all of us. The world was a big place. I was extrapolating, but I’d seen Wolfe in action.

Five people exited the vehicle and headed for the laboratory. One woman, four men, one of them looked nearly as bulky as Wolfe.
Whoah
. I hadn’t thought of that side effect. I might end up looking like that. “And cue...action,” I whispered, focusing in. Rudy would text me when he was set, once our birds were in the hand, caged, tied up and unable to protest, much. A little squeaking from females was never going to be turned down.

I glanced down at the one at my feet. We could have ourselves a little bacchanalian orgy now we had two. Which reminded me of the beer I’d left behind in the fridge. The lure of that made my mouth feel empty.

First get everything safe and secure, take the first samples,
then
drink. Then orgy. I chuckled and put the binoculars to my face again.

What were they up to?

Zorie

This was not how I’d imagined this. Not at all.

Almost dusk and bats were flying across the sky in a great stream. Darkness was coming. That seemed ominous but I shook it off.

Our two friendly escorts flanked Grimm, and they both now showed guns – dangling from one man’s hand, and slung over the second guy’s shoulder. A Heckler and Koch MP5 and a Beretta M9. My firearms knowledge wasn’t going to be much use today. I’d be best thinking science.

But all these guns... I didn’t like that at all.

If this Rudy tried to inject talcum powder into Grimm, I would remove his head and feed it to one of the wild pigs we’d seen. Guns or no guns.

I hadn’t offered to pay yet, and he didn’t seem in a hurry for that, so what reason would he have for dirty dealings? Ransom? I guess. This seemed a lot of trouble for that, like why not keep us closer to where we’d entered the country?

This place looked like it’d been left to fall apart for many years. Rudy had hinted at this. Maybe he was afraid of scaring us off. Maybe he really wanted to help, had the knowledge, but wasn’t quite ready yet. I’d play it by ear. We had no choice. It was this, or let the mesmer disease turn Grimm into a monster.

There was something I had to do. It gnawed at me. I might look ridiculous but if something went wrong, I at least wanted to have done this. I ran up to Grimm, got up on tiptoes, and whispered, “I love you.”

The gentle grin that came over him made it all worthwhile. I managed a partial hug around the jacket before he had to go.

I drew a steadying breath.
Here we go.

We ascended the concrete steps and one of the men held the door open. I was the second last through, and I found Grimm standing before a smaller man with a white lab coat and ragged black hair. The man needed a better hairdresser.

“Dr. Rudy?” I strolled closer. “I’m Zorina, I spoke to you on the phone.”

“Yes. I’m sorry to see your friend is so affected. I think it best if I give him the first dose of the retardant drug.”

“Can’t we talk some more first?”

“Not wise. This may not be reversible if we wait.” He gestured to Grimm and pointed at a padded table. “There please.”

Reversible? That sounded more like an antidote.

Grimm glowered but obediently sat then lay on the table.

Though his words were fine, I detected a shake now and then in Rudy’s tone. Was he frightened? He sounded different too.

“Are you sure this will help?”

“As I think I said, it worked on Wolfe, but not well enough. He was too far gone. Do you want to give Grimm the best chance?”

One of the escorts plucked at my arm. “Miss? We were told you should not be allowed to interfere.”

I bristled. “If I damn well want to, I will.”

The two other men were applying straps to Grimm’s legs, holding them together above the knee and at the ankle. If he wasn’t already in the jacket I reckon they’d have been smears on the floor. His glare was fierce.

There were leaves and branches on the floor. Cracked windows. Half the lights looked broken. Sure some parts were gleaming, but was this safe? Or had we fallen into the hands of a charlatan?

“I think, I’d like to talk before you do more –”

My guard hefted his gun and shook his head. “No, ma’am.”

I spat out my answer without thinking. “Listen. Fuck off.”

Those must’ve been fighting words. He looked about to burst. Red-face, twitchy hand.

Maybe I’d gone too far. Thai men were probably obsessed with macho-ness.

“Wait. Please. No fighting. Here’s a simple solution. I will only give him the retardant drug, which is this.” He held up a small box. “See? Fresh from the fridge. They use this in mad cow disease also, to slow the disease. I’ll set up an IV and then we can talk. This looks alarming, but he is a dangerous man. You agreed he’d be restrained.”

I stared to read the expiry date. If it was six years ago...
Two-year’s time. Good.

The drug? I hadn’t a clue what worked on Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Neither had I a clue what worked on the mesmer disease.

I cleared my throat. “Sure. Yes, I did. Okay. Do that.” I nodded at the bottle he’d pulled from the box. He swabbed the top. “Then we can sit down and talk.”

If only the man didn’t look like a double for Tarzan with his wild black hair and red-rimmed eyes. An anorexic Tarzan doing drugs. God, I hoped not. This place would make drug access easy.

No choice. I rocked from foot to foot, shifting balance. We’d come all this way. Grimm had a fiery look in his eyes and was wriggling, as if about to try breaking loose. I knew what he could do.

“Go for it. Don’t hurt him though.” I frowned. “Just don’t.”

Unhappy but resigned, I found a white-topped lab stool and sat, wincing when he probed and found a vein on Grimm’s foot and started an IV running.

“I lied,” the doctor muttered. “Best if I give a sedative too. Okay?”

After what I’d agreed to, with Grimm already restrained? “Is it necessary?”

“This’ll take a while to run in and if he starts struggling, the catheter might come out.”

“Fine.” I rubbed my temple. “Fine. Whatever you need to do.”

A minute later, Grimm’s mouth relaxed and he adopted a glazed look that made my heart almost need defibrillating. “Jesus,” I whispered. “You’d better know what you’re doing.”

Rudy nodded but looked past me.

Arms pulled me backward, dragging me half-off the stool, until I was in a prone position but unbalanced. I kicked away from the stool and fell to my knees. A gun appeared inches from my face and another was pointed at me from a couple of yards away.

“Put your hands behind you.” Rudy grinned. “Do anything stupid and I up the dose and kill your friend.”

I gaped, mouth open, eyes unblinking, trying to think.

What had I done? Lost in a foreign country, with strangers pointing guns at us, and Grimm was strapped down and helpless.

“Now!”

Even without his threat, inviting a bullet was a bad idea. I could do a whole kung fu exhibition, here and now, and still get shot. I put my hands behind me. My stomach sank as the third guy grabbed my wrists and locked them into metal cuffs.

Up shit creek minus paddle.

“You’ll regret this.” I stared, striving to look confident and not like I was about to throw up. Made a mistake, a huge one. Fear oozed and wriggled in my stomach.

“Oh no, I won’t, but you will.” Then he pulled out a phone and tapped on it. “The real doctor is coming.”

So this guy was fake. “Who?”

“Johann.”

Johann.
It took seconds for that name to register. My brain wasn’t working too well. The man who’d had Cherie? Or was this a different man?

“I’m really Rudy but I’m no research guy. I just sell drugs, fuck the women Johann gives me...” His gaze drifted down my body, snail-like and putrescent. I wanted to vomit, on him. Slimeball. “I...act as consultant too.” He waved, grinned. “Stuff.”

So nice to have a talkative criminal.

I tugged at the metal cuffs, testing them, feeling the hardness grind on my wrist bones, feeling more of that ever-present sweat dribble past my eyes and down my arms. They had aircon in here, of sorts, but I’d never been in this dire a situation since at the house of Einar and Kaage.

What terrible things were planned for us? The instruments I could see, the shining steel instruments, what did they mean to do? People cutting on me wasn’t my favorite fantasy.

If I could get Grimm loose, he’d still just lie there. I swallowed an upsurge of bile. I’d delivered him to this trap and now he was limp celery. Such a big man. I shook my head, stifling tears, sniffing.

Fuck helpless. I had to get him free. But his eyes were closed and he was oblivious of what was happening.

A car drove up outside and the engine cut out.

Our nemesis perhaps. This Rudy wasn’t a planner.

The guards strapped a collar around my neck then attached it to a table leg by about a one-foot free length of chain so I was nose down to the floor. The rest of the thin chain spooled away for meters. The door opened and I listened to them walk away and down the steps outside.

Promising. Lost the men with guns, at least.

After a moment’s silence, someone entered then shut the door. Another vehicle drove away.

From the sound, this one wore flip-flops. Our nemesis wore flip-flops. I found that hilarious for all of three seconds.

He walked up and squatted off to the side. I still couldn’t see him. Johann. How many could there be? I figured this was the man I’d sought for months. Cherie’s owner. And...he was a mesmer.

“You’re going to die, soon,” I murmured.

He laughed.

“I’m still going to kill you.”

“You won’t find that easy, Zorie.”

Then he tried a swirl of mesmer power on me. I batted it away with a mere smidgon of the rage I’d summoned.

“So! They were right! You can resist. You have a reputation, you know. The spider who consumes her prey.”

I’d forgotten Grimm. A sound made me swivel my eyes in their sockets. The chain prevented me from raising my head.

He groaned and I tried to rise anyway. The leash snapped me short. I cursed, letting out a string of invectives. It helped. My rage boiled.

Which only made Johann laugh some more.

“Easily fucking amused, aren’t you.”

“You’ll find out, soon, what amuses me. It’s often bloody or sexy, or both. Come here, Rudy. Let’s get her caged.”

Getting up from the floor when your neck is pinned and your hands tied at your back...near impossible. They stood on my back until my ankles were also in metal cuffs joined by a chain, then I was forced to a cage, one that was revealed after a cloth was whipped off. I was detached from the chain, shoved into the cage, and the door locked.

I couldn’t stand due to height of the cage but I could finally see this Johann.

He was a lean man with gray hair that stuck up in short spikes. He wore black-rimmed glasses and had a face that was square, creased, and old. Sixty? More? I could take him easily, given a fair chance. And he had flip-flops on his feet. He picked up something shiny from a steel tray then came to the cage and squatted, then ran the tips of a pair of forceps along the cage bars.

“I’ve heard about you, girl. You can resist? I like that, you know? I like fucking the ones who can still say no almost as much as the ones like her.” He indicated a naked woman on her knees over near the entrance. A susceptible. I tried to stop my eyes brightening.

I wondered if Johann knew my
modus operandi
, my method of killing mesmers? Because that woman was my weapon.

“I will kill you, soon,” I whispered, knowing it was stupid, but my rage sometimes made me do stupid things. It hadn’t mattered in the past.

He sneaked closer and whispered back. “No, you won’t. Seeing you’re in a cage and I’m not, bingo, I win. And that friend of yours over there? He is going to be my experiment, until I no longer have a use for him and I kill him. That won’t matter to you, though. You’ll be dead first.”

“You’re an asshole, Johann.”

He chuckled. “Yeah, maybe, but that gives me an idea. Why don’t we find out if you have an asshole?”

“You’re doing her first?” Rudy piped up. “Before we do a CSF tap on him?”

“Hmmm.” He stood. “You’re right. We will suck out some CSF then do her. She can watch us. Business before pleasure. Turn him over. Let me get a beer.”

He took a beer from a small fridge near one wall. The row of windows in the wall beyond the fridge was now fully dark. Nighttime.

They began.

This could be a Frankenstein movie, except for the beer.

Beer and CSF taps. Those shouldn’t mix. At least they’d washed their hands in something.

My gut writhed as they moved Grimm onto his stomach. They had to heave and strain to get him in place due to his weight. Then they shaved the back of his head, swabbed it, and injected what must be local anesthetic.

The girl kneeled a few yards behind Johann, obedient, but free. From her dazed expression, she seemed to have all the brain-power of a plankton. What had they done to her? Johann had a big pistol at his side and I didn’t dare tell her anything, yet.

Watching the CSF needle unsheathed, all of what seemed six feet of it, then having to stay still and do nothing as Johann threaded it into Grimm’s neck...my hands probably wore a shiny place on the thin bars of the cage. Sticking a needle in his neck seemed unsafe. When my fingers began to hurt, I didn’t desist. Hurting was only fair. I should suffer. I’d brought Grimm here. I’d damn well insisted. I’d thought this was his salvation.

I swallowed, trapped in my morbid thoughts.

This would be our deaths.

When they had most of a tube full of the cerebro-spinal fluid from Grimm, Rudy topped up the sedation with some drug via the IV tubing.