Wolfen (28 page)

Her good knee went weak. Squeezing her eyes shut didn’t help
erase the image—her eidetic memory saw to that—so she tried to envision
something else instead. Her mind was hopelessly blank. There was nothing there,
except for the horror of that room.

“You wanna keep moving, Gimpy? We have an appointment to
make.”

A naked body lay strapped on the inclined table, skin pulled
away from its torso with meat hooks and weights. A collection bowl sat
underneath to catch liters of blood, and internal organs had been meticulously
removed, deposited into stainless steel bowls lined up alongside the wall. Long
matted hair hung over the table’s edge, head turned sideways and facial muscles
contorted into a mask of sheer agony the likes of which could only have been
caused by being cut open while still alive and conscious.

She had been vivisected.

Desiree clutched her sturdy wooden crutch for support as the
world shifted beneath her. She swayed, but managed to lock her good knee enough
to keep going without Arik’s assistance.

The disgraced gardener had, apparently, lost much more than
just her hands.

“Just keep walking,” Arik said, though his voice barely
registered. She was getting dizzy. He swore, grabbed her arm, and pulled her
around an abandoned shed. “Look at me,” he ordered.

She grabbed his shirt for balance, but couldn’t raise her
head. “My God…oh, my God. He’s lost it! He’s
snapped
—”

Arik slapped a hand over her mouth, looking around to see if
anyone had heard. “Keep your fucking voice down!”

She couldn’t breathe. Eyes wide, Desiree clawed at his hand,
desperate for air. Arik forced her to look up into his steady, clear brown
eyes. Not the eyes of a crazy person, just an unfeeling one. Desiree sucked in
a deep breath and held it, but when she closed her eyes again, all she saw was
a gaping body cavity. She snapped them open, biting her tongue hard enough to
taste blood.
Get ahold of yourself!
Desiree picked out a pebble on the
ground and stared at it hard, focused with enough intensity to calm her mind
enough to work again.

When he saw she was getting herself back under control, Arik
released her.

“You helped him do that,” she accused.

Arik raised a winged eyebrow. “The hell I did,” he said,
sounding offended. “No way I’d have the stomach for something like that. I’m
just the clean-up crew.”

A gaggle of laughing kids chased each other to the baths.
Behind them, an old woman dragged her feet. She looked tired, worn out, but the
moment she spotted Arik and Desiree, her back straightened and her step turned
light. She raised her chin and smiled in greeting at Arik as if nothing was
wrong.

Arik waited until she passed before he pulled Desiree into
the empty shack. “See, here’s the thing,” he said. “Klaus is so far off the
reservation, he doesn’t even know it ever existed. But you know what? That’s
what keeps the wheels turning around here.”

“Are you insane?”

“How many guns in Haven, Dez? How many carry them? What do
you think will happen if there’s suddenly no one around for them to be scared
of? Yeah, Klaus is fucknuts, and I wish to Christ I could cut his goddamn
throat, along with all of his cronies. But it’s because of him all of these
people in here are safe. They have food, they have water, they go to sleep
every night and have the privilege of waking up in the morning. Because. Of.
Him
.
Because the moment he’s not around anymore? Oh, baby girl, that day comes, you
just fucking pray, ‘cause it’s gonna be a free-for-all.”

“So that justifies torturing that poor woman?”

Arik backed off, and ran a hand through his short brown
hair. He sported a small scar bisecting his eyebrow; a pugilistic trophy he was
quite proud of, considering what the other guy had gotten. “Hard times make for
shitty choices, you know that. Like sneaking off to restricted areas when
everyone else was otherwise occupied,” he added pointedly. “What were you doing
down there with the Wolfen, anyway?”

She glared.

“You can tell me.”

“Yeah, right.”

He shrugged. “Wouldn’t blame you if you did try to make some
kind of deal. We all gotta do what we gotta do, right?”

There was something behind those words, something in his
voice and the way his eyes turned bleak when he said it, that gave Desiree
pause. Because it had nothing to do with Sarah back there, or with Desiree in
the tunnels. This was as much of a tell as Arik was capable of, and she wasn’t
sure whether he’d meant for her to see it at all.

In a blink, he shifted his weight and his expression blanked
to the signature aloof Arik who went about his life without a care in the
world. “Kill or be killed, that’s the only choice worth making anymore.”

“And what would your choice be?”

His mouth twitched in an almost-smile. “Sharing hour’s
over.” He steered her out of the shack.

“Wait!” She pulled free of him.

“Quit being difficult, will you? I’m gonna get shit if I
don’t get you to Henry.”

“Just one minute,” Desiree said, mind working overtime. A
dozen decision trees grew and overlapped so fast, she could hardly keep them
straight. One chance. One way out. Did she dare?

Do I have a choice?

She licked her lips nervously. “What if…”
What if, what?

Arik tapped his foot, waiting.

If she miscalculated, it’d be over, and she could kiss her
pulse good bye. But what if it worked? “What if there was another option?”

He rolled his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

Desiree moved closer, lowered her voice, hyperaware of
people going about their daily business on the other side of some very thin
walls. “What if there was a way out.”

Arik shook his head with haughty derision.

“I’m serious. If I had the means to get both of us far from
here, safely and quickly, would you go?”

He chuckled. “Just the two of us?”

“That’s the deal.”

“That’s a shitty deal.”

Desiree smiled. “You don’t know what I’m offering yet.”

“Now you’re just wasting my time. Let’s go. Henry’s
waiting.”

“Wait!” Oh God, she’d have to do it. She had to give him
something solid, or he’d walk. “Klaus has an escape protocol; an emergency exit
strategy.”

“Bullshit.”

“It’s true. How do you think we got here? When everyone
bugged out of the military base, they didn’t walk, they drove. Those cars and
trucks are still there, stashed away and stocked up with supplies. Klaus wanted
a backup plan in case he needed to make a quick getaway again.”

Arik rubbed his chin. “All right, I’ll play. How do you know
about it, when no one else does?”

“I was there when he did it. He and three young soldiers drove
those cars into hiding. Klaus shot them down in front of me and threatened to
cut off my other leg if I ever told anyone. I know exactly where those vehicles
are.”

Arik huffed with annoyance. “And where is that, in the
magical world of Neverland?”

Desiree shook her head. “That’s not how we play this. You
want those cars? You get me out of here with enough supplies to last me a week
on my own. Once we’re free and clear, I’ll take you to them. Not a second
before.”

“Yeah? What if I go to Klaus right now and tell him what you
told me?”

She shrugged. “Then I lose my leg, and you get your head
blown off. Klaus won’t kill me. He may hate me down to my DNA, but I’m still
the closest thing he has to himself. What use does he have for a hired gun?
You’re just one among many.”

Klaus had dedicated his life to his research, and now that
it was gone, he had nothing left but the cornucopia of notes preserved in
Desiree’s memory.

He’d spent years force-feeding her ledgers and manuals from
the Chernobyl den trials; endless days after her amputation, when he’d
sadistically withheld her painkillers until she could recite passages from
memory. He’d seen the collapse coming, knew one day paper would turn to ash and
computers would disintegrate, and he’d used her to preserve the knowledge in
the only way he could.

The genetically flawed and otherwise useless Desiree was his
time capsule. That was why Klaus kept her on a leash. He resented her for being
flawed and for being here, while Helena, his perfect creation, was gone, and
the fact that he needed her more and more as his eyesight worsened only made
his hatred grow. It was the crux of their messed up father-daughter
relationship.

Arik stared for a moment, then swore, stalking to the other
side of the shack and back again. “Those converts the other night… They’re
getting bolder. Every time they push in on us…” He shook his head, and Desiree
shivered, suddenly chilled. So he’d noticed, too. “You’re serious about this?”

She nodded.

After a long moment of silent deliberation, Arik rubbed his
chin thoughtfully. “We’d probably die out there, real quick-like.”

She shrugged. “We could die just as quick in here. You said
it yourself: we won’t be able to keep the converts out much longer. Isn’t it
better to take a chance out there? Two people move faster than a town, even if
one of them’s missing a leg.”

“If we get caught…”

“Best not to do that, then. Don’t you think?”

Another pause while the wheels turned in his head. He still
had the option of ratting her out to Klaus. Kill or be killed, as he’d said.
The fact that he was still standing there gave her hope.

“What do you want from me?” he finally asked.

Footsteps pounded outside; traffic was picking up. It wasn’t
safe to discuss this further. “We’ll talk later,” she said. “For now, pretend
nothing’s changed.”

He scoffed. “Nothing
has
. And nothing will, until I
see those cars.”

“Fair enough,” she allowed, and let him lead her outside.

As she’d thought, there was little Henry could do to repair
her prosthesis. He heated the plastic enough to pop the joint back into its
proper position, but the screw was trashed and he didn’t have anything else to
perform the same function. He rambled on while he worked. “Strange goings-on
between these old walls. Strange—very strange. Wolfen in cages, converts at our
gates. Bit too lively for me, I’ll say. I like the peace and quiet…”

Desiree glanced at Arik as he frowned into space.

“I can nail it solid,” Henry said, “but that would be like
having a peg leg.”

“Better than no leg at all, I suppose,” she replied.

“Is it?” Arik asked, watching Henry work. “Seems like a lot
of useless weight to me.”

Henry inspected the joint again. “Hmm… I might be able to…”
His words trailed off into a mutter as he rummaged around his shop for
something. Unless it was a magic wand to regrow her leg, Desiree really didn’t
care. Her mind kept wandering back to her conversation with Arik, and she
studied his profile, wondering whether she’d made a mistake in choosing him as
an ally. Klaus trusted Arik; he was a loyal guard and able fighter. That alone
made him a liability. If he turned on her, Klaus would not question him.

But the same qualities that made him a threat also made him
ideal for this plan. Arik was strong, armed, and most of all, smart enough to
know when to stick to the plan and when to go rogue. Frank liked being Klaus’
right-hand man too much to give it up, and his men hung on Klaus’ every word.
But Arik thought for himself. He was a survivor.

She
wasn’t. What had Alpha called her? A dependant
who couldn’t fend for herself. Desiree’s only redeeming quality was that she
knew it. She had a fine head on her shoulders, true; give her a beaker and
fire, and she could cook up anything from poisons to explosives. But that
wouldn’t mean shit out there if she couldn’t physically defend herself. She was
a liability in battle, and the world had become one big battle when the
converts took over.

Alpha had already washed his hands of her, and Arik would be
an idiot to take her on. He could get so much farther, go so much faster on his
own. But he might take her just far enough—if he needed her to get there.

“Aha! Found it.” Henry returned with a triumphant grin and a
metal stick on the end of a chain. He fiddled with the prosthesis for a few
more minutes, then clapped and laughed. “This will work!”

“Fantastic. Let’s see.”

Henry held up the leg, and swung it back and forth. Yes, the
lower part was securely attached to the socket, but it was too loose. She wouldn’t
be able to put her weight on it without the joint bending and throwing her off
balance. Disappointed, but not wanting to ruin his enthusiasm, she smiled
weakly. “Nice job, Henry.”

He frowned. “Well, wait. I’m not finished.” He picked up the
metal stick on the chain attached to the socket, and threaded it through the
knee joint. Once again, he held up the leg and swung it. The lower part didn’t
move.

“Nice!” Arik said, taking hold of it to test the joint. But
even with force applied, it didn’t bend like a knee. “Or not.”

“It’s like a safety pin,” Henry explained as he helped her
strap the prosthesis on. “Walking, it stays set. To sit, you pull it out a
little to bend the knee.” He eased the pin out a couple of inches. “See?” The
leg bent, artificial foot touching down in a natural sitting position. “And you
push it back in to secure.” He did so, and tried to straighten her leg. It held
steady.

“I suppose it’s as good as it can be,” Desiree said. No good
thing could last forever. Henry had just bought her a little more time, that’s
all. “Thank you, Henry.”

He wrung his hands. “I wish I could do more.”

She pulled the pin, stood up, and pushed it back in to test
out the new knee while walking. Steady, like a peg leg. But at least it was
there. She walked over to Henry without her crutch, no problem, and with a
smile for the good-hearted carpenter, she kissed his cheek. “You’ve done
plenty. I’m grateful.”

“Ready to get to work?” Arik asked.

“Are you?” she returned.

In answer, Arik held her gaze, and if his face wasn’t so
unreadable, Desiree might have taken that as a “yes.”

Crutch in hand, she bid Henry good bye and walked out with
Arik, headed for the lab.

“I’ve been thinking,” Arik said when they were outside. “A
game like yours is probably going to need some kind of distraction.”

“No,” she said. They were not bringing anyone else in on it.
No way.

“Seems to me there’s a recently acquired asset that might
prove useful in more ways than one.”

Desiree scrutinized him. “What are you saying?” He couldn’t
mean Alpha. Wolfen were unpredictable at best, homicidal at worst.

“Nothing, really. Just thinking out loud. I’m going to go
get those darts. Maybe pick up a couple more things while I’m there. You go
straight to the lab, got it? No detours. We’ve got troops up on the walls, and
there’s no one guarding the tunnels.”

Desiree frowned.

“Just saying, don’t go testing that leg on any inclines. I
won’t be there to catch you if you fall.” With a wink, he turned away.