Gods of Blood and Bone (Seeds of Chaos Book 1) (21 page)

He crumpled to the ground, and she dragged him off the side of the road.
 

“Neat trick,” I said.

“Dangerous if you dunno what you’re doing.” She nodded sagely. “Lucky it worked, since I dunno what I’m doing.” She grinned at Sam’s shocked expression.
 

China pulled a small knife with a blue sticker from a sheath wrapped around her waist and pricked the boy’s arm. “Coated with sleeping poison. Chanelle had the idea to collect it in one of our Trials. He won’t wake up for a while.”
 

 
“He’ll be fine to stay here until we’re finished.” I said, nudging his still form with my foot. “If something happens, he’ll be safer here anyway.” I turned to the car. “Sam, you’re going to be our pizza delivery guy. Strip him and take his clothes.”
 

He looked back and forth from the unconscious boy to me. “Really?”

“You’re the most trustworthy-looking out of all of us. Except China. But she looks like she’s twelve. No one would believe she’s old enough to drive.”
 

I laughed under my breath at her protestations against my teasing jibe, and in a few minutes we were pulling up to the mansion’s gate. The rest of us crouched down, out of sight of any cameras that might cause suspicion over a pizza delivery car full of people, while Sam drove.
 

“Pizza delivery?” Sam said.
 

A man’s voice crackled back through the speaker. “Please wait. I will be down shortly.”

* * *

Sam stood at the front door wearing the stolen outfit and a nervous smile on his face. He had a pizza in his hands, but a hat pulled low over his head for the benefit of the cameras. There was a beeping sound as someone on the other side entered a code, and then the door opened. Without giving the man time to react, Sam dropped the pizza, stepped forward, and pushed him backward, clamping his gloved hand over the man’s mouth.
 

We rushed in behind Sam and helped him hold down, tie up, and gag the man.
 

Jacky brought in the pizza box and closed the front door behind us, while Adam made sure the alarm system was disabled, and turned off the home security system, along with NIX’s possible view of the break-in.
 

I looked around curiously. “Wow.” The inside was a modern, open-air design, everything spacious and bright. The air smelled clean–evidence of a carbon filter air purifying system. A small fountain burbled in the middle of the lounge area beneath the stairs to the upper floors, and everything seemed to be made of marble and genuine wood. The place had been professionally decorated, was beautiful, and must have cost a fortune. It was also messy, with empty takeout containers and trash strewn around.
 

Jacky, Adam, and China did a quick recon of the mansion to make sure no one else was there, while Sam and I stayed with the man. I grabbed his ID link, in the shape of a bracelet, and pulled up his information.
 

Dr. Blaine Mendell. He was in his early thirties, wore thick glasses, and had floppy brown hair and a smile that made him look like he sponsored a child in Africa, volunteered at the nearest orphanage, and saved sick puppies in his spare time. If I hadn’t been almost positive he worked for the most evil people in the world, I would have thought he looked like a nice person.

I maneuvered him into a chair and took the gag out of his mouth. “Don’t scream. If you do, I’ll take you over to that fountain and hold your head underwater until you learn to conserve your air for breathing.”
 

He nodded.

“Doctor Blaine Mendell, tell me, who do you work for?”

 
His eyes darted back and forth between me, who wore a black mask, gloves, and sturdy clothing, and Sam, still in the pizza delivery outfit, which was somehow more disturbing.
 

I sighed, steeled myself, and backhanded the doctor across the face, making Sam jump in surprise. “Focus! I’m speaking to you,” I said. I wasn’t as strong as Jacky, but he’d have a bruise. “Let’s try again. Who do you work for?”

He swallowed. “I—I don’t work for anyone. I am unemployed; I just live off my savings and investments. I—I’m truly unsure what is going on here. Who are you people, and what do you want with me?”

Jacky came back into the room, having found no one in her section of the mansion. She opened the pizza box and took a slice, and then came to stand beside us, looking down at him with malice as she took a huge bite.
 

Blaine was looking at the three of us with a lot of confusion, but with much too much curiosity and not nearly enough naked terror.
 

His eyes met mine again, and I smiled calmly. “There are other ways to make you talk, if asking nicely doesn’t work.” I wasn’t bluffing. I would do anything necessary to get the information from him, but I hoped that he saw my resolve and would spare me from having to do anything messy.
 

“I think you should see this!” Adam called from the doorway.
 

China stood behind him, eyes open wide and breathing shallowly, her body almost vibrating.
 

“What is it?”

Adam smiled. “I’m not sure yet. It’s best if you see for yourself, I think. It’s downstairs.”

Blaine’s eyes widened, and I saw the first hint of true fear come into his eyes.
 

“Well, Blaine, let’s see what you’ve got down there, shall we?” I said.

He looked between Adam and me. “How do you know my name? Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

I nodded to Jacky. “Bring him, please.”
 

She drug him by his bound legs, bouncing him painfully behind us down the stairs to the cement and metal basement door, where Adam proceeded to override the electronic locking system.

China was as tense as a coiled spring, ready to shoot toward whatever was on the other side.
 

The door opened into a large lab. It had stone chemist tables and drains in the floor, research equipment and electronics everywhere, half-built gadgets, a wall lined with computers, and vials of strange liquids all laid out haphazardly. There were several other closed cement doors leading through to other basement rooms.
 

I started to walk through the room, examining the pieces of scattered machinery and the samples he’d been working on, while Adam and China started opening the other doors.
 

Jacky bumped Dr. Mendell down the last few stairs, ignoring his loud protests. “You’ve been quite naughty, have you not, Doctor?” she said, her Spanish accent growing strong.
 

Sam grabbed him by the arms and helped him to sit on one of the stools. “Why don’t you tell us all what you’ve been doing here? We’re not here to hurt you, if you’d just talk to us…”

He swallowed, but croaked, “I’m doing medical research. Attempting to find a cure for cancer.”
 

My heart beat faster as adrenaline surged through my veins. He was lying. I knew, because on the table in front of me lay something that definitely didn’t look like cancer research. Pinched between two slides, under one of the microscope lenses, was a fluid that sparkled like a Seed.
 

I looked through the lens and saw wiggling, teeny tiny microscopic organisms, so thickly packed I could barely tell where one ended and the other began. Little bug-like creatures. I snapped my head back, away from the microscope’s eye piece. I unclipped the slide and gently took it out, holding it up to the harsh light above.
 

It shimmered and swirled over and under itself, moving constantly.
 

My breath came hard, and my hands shook. I cradled the slide in my hand and walked back to Blaine, showing it to him.
 

His loud protests, declarations of innocence, and wriggling ceased.
 

I touched him under the chin with the forefinger of my free hand and forced him to look at me, barely holding back my sharp nails from sliding forth. “Do you know what this is?”

He didn’t shake his head this time. He didn’t say anything. He just swallowed and looked into my eyes, desperation growing in his own.
 

“
I
know what it is,” I said. “And I know you do, too. I also know who you work for. You absolutely
are
going to tell us what you know. Because we’re patient, you haven’t been trained to withstand torture, and no one is coming to save you.”
 

I turned to Jacky. “Please pulverize the pinky finger of his left hand from the last knuckle to the tip.” I turned to him. “Oh, and do it slowly, please.”

Sam’s voice came out, almost silent. “Is this really necessary?”

“If he’s going to talk without it, then no.” I raised an eyebrow. “Well, are you? Tell us everything you know and we won’t hurt you, how about it?”

Blaine had stilled, but he said nothing.
 

“So be it. This is my question. What are you working on, down here in your secret lab?”

Jacky had grabbed his left hand already, a vicious, white grin stretching behind her mask. She pressed on the tip of his pinky, pinching it harder and harder until his face grew white with shock.
 

He turned red, and then white again, and started to pant and buck against his restraints.

Sam stepped forward. “This isn’t right. Torturing him makes it like we’re the bad guys.”
 

Jacky looked to me, still pressing, obviously reluctant to quit.
 

I nodded to her and motioned with my hand, and she dropped his bound hands with a disappointed sigh.
 

Sam sighed as well, and smiled at me.
 

“Move on to the next finger,” I said.
 

Sam’s eyes widened, and he moved to stand in front of Blaine. “Come on, guys. Just stop!”

I stepped forward and placed a hand on his arm, and murmured so that the scientist couldn’t hear. “I know this is difficult. But you have to understand we’re not the ones in the wrong. He knows about what NIX does. He helps them. Think about the people whose lives he’s had a hand in destroying, how many people he’s helped them kill. He’s part of the people that did this to you, to
us
. He doesn’t deserve your protection.” I pulled gently, and as if the strength to oppose me had left him, Sam stepped away. “If it’s too much for you to watch, why don’t you go explore the other rooms with those two?” I pointed to Adam and China.
 

He swallowed. “No, I’ll stay.”
 

Blaine held his trembling hands in front of his face, and I saw that his left pinky was flattened unnaturally, a white color that was quickly turning purplish red as it filled with blood. Jacky had pulverized it, similar to what she’d demonstrated with the tree limb in China’s backyard.
 

She shook her head ruefully. “That’s gonna be hard to use from now on. You shoulda cooperated from the beginning. There’s no mercy to be found here.”
 

Sam swallowed again, staring at the crushed finger intently. He looked away after a second and took a deep breath, but his own hands were clenched at his sides, and he didn’t try to stop us.
 

“She’s right,” I said. “Now, once again. What exactly are you working on?”

Blaine sputtered and panted. “I’m working on a cure for cancer,” he repeated.
 

Before Jacky could start to press again, China stomped past her, grabbed Blaine by the hair on the back of his head, and held a knife to his throat. She was panting and red-faced. “Where is she?” Her voice cracked.
 

I looked over my shoulder to Adam, who shook his head. All the doors were open, but apparently none of the rooms contained human subjects.
 

When the scientist didn’t respond, her voice morphed into a scream. “Where is she! Where? Tell me, right now!” She pressed the knife forward, and a generous line of blood started to run down his neck.
 

He held himself still to avoid cutting his own neck. “What? I don’t know who you are talking about.”

She screamed again, spit flying into his face. “Don’t.
Lie!
I
know
you took her. NIX took her to do research on. I know you have her. My sister! Where is she?”
 

His shoulders slumped, whatever had been keeping him strong slipping away. “They took your sister?”
 

“Why the hell do you think I’m here? They were supposed to bring her here. You’re doing research on her! I’m going to save her, and if you don’t tell me where she is, I’ll slit your throat, right now.”

He closed his eyes for a second, pain radiating from him. “I’m sorry. She’s not here. I don’t have her.” He looked at me, over her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I was told if I revealed information about them, they would…” he swallowed against the blade. “They took my niece and nephew, too. As hostages.”
 

* * *

 
“What? You have to have her. If she isn’t here…” China stared at him for a few moments, and then slipped away like she’d been de-boned. “Where is she?” She looked to me.
 

I shook my head. “I don’t know. But it’s not the end yet. There’s still hope.”
 

She leaned forward until her head rested against my torso, and wrapped her arms loosely around my waist. “Promise me we’ll find her, Eve. I can’t stand it, imagining what she’s going through. If they haven’t killed her…” Her small body shuddered, and she squeezed tighter.
 

Despite myself, my heart clenched in response. I petted her blonde head and said, “She’s strong. She’s a fighter. You know that better than anyone. We’ll find her. I promise.” The last part felt like it might be a lie, but even I couldn’t tell for sure. I looked up at the doctor. “You’d better start talking, right now.”
 

He nodded quickly as Jacky reached for his bound hands again. “I was a researcher. Before all this. A physicist, an engineer, and I loved it, the work, the respect, the money,” he blurted. “Then, my sister got diagnosed with cancer, and when she died I quit all that because I promised I’d take care of her kids. NIX contacted me, requested I work for them, but I refused. So they took my remaining family to use as blackmail against me. I had no choice but to work for them. They furnished this place with equipment and deposit money into my bank account every month. In return, whenever I’m able to produce something valuable—research, or an invention—for them, they give me proof of life.”