Fledgling(67)

“Victor,” Hayden said, “when did all this happen? When were you taken and bitten for the first time?”

He frowned. “More than a month ago? Yeah, it was that long. Maybe six weeks.”

I could see what was coming. I stared at the rug, needing to hear more, needing to hear everything, but not quite wanting to hear it. It was only reasonable that Victor had been one of those used to kill both my families.

“So you’ve done other jobs, then, haven’t you?” Hayden continued.

“Up in Washington State, yeah,” Victor agreed. “We did three jobs up there.”

“How did you get there?”

“They flew us up in private planes with all our gear. Then we rented cars. Followed the maps we were given.”

“So they gave you new identities? Credit cards?”

“Not me. Five of the other guys. And they gave them plenty of cash. They had cell phones, too. They’d call in when we were ready to do a job and tell us to go ahead. Then they’d call in afterward and we’d be told what to do next, which was mostly to get motel rooms and wait for the call to get into position for the next job. The five guys they chose, they were all ex-military. One used to be Special Forces. They told the rest of us what to do.”

So by now, with no phone call, their bosses must have realized that something was wrong. I wondered how long it would take these enemy Ina to collect new human tools and send them out to try again.

“You said you did three jobs,” Preston said. “Where in Washington did you do those … jobs?”

“One a few miles outside a little town called Gold Bar. Another not too far from a town called … Darlington? No, Darrington. That’s it. And one at a house near the town of Arlington. That’s all up in western Washington. Pretty country. Trees, mountains, rivers, waterfalls, little towns. Nothing like L.A.”

“You were successful in Washington?”

“Yeah, mostly. We hit the first two, and everything went the way it was supposed to. Something went wrong at the third. People got killed. The cops almost got us.”

“Weren’t people supposed to get killed?”

“I mean … our people got killed. We didn’t know what happened at first. Later we heard on the radio that two got shot and three had their throats ripped out. The rest of us never saw what did that—a dog, maybe. A big dog. Anyway, the cops were coming, and we had to run.”

I thought about telling him exactly what had killed his friends, then decided not to. None of it was his doing, really. Even so, I didn’t want to be sitting next to him any longer. I didn’t want to know him or ever see him again. But he was not the one who would pay for what had been done to my families. He was not the one I had to stop if I were going to survive.

I took a deep breath and spoke to Preston. “Do you know who’s doing this?”

He looked at Victor. “Who are they, Victor? What’s the name of the family who recruited you and sent you to kill us?”

Victor’s body jerked as though someone had kicked him. He looked at me desperately, confusion and pain in his eyes.

Hayden picked up the question. “Do you know them, Victor? What is their family name?”

Victor nodded quickly, eager to please. “I know, but I can’t say … please, I can’t.”

“Is the name ‘Silk’?”

Victor grabbed his head with both hands and screamed—a long, ragged, tearing shriek. Then he passed out.

I didn’t want to care. It was clear from the Gordons’ expressions that they didn’t care. But I had bitten him twice. I didn’t want him, wouldn’t have kept him as my symbiont, but I did care what happened to him. I couldn’t ignore him. It seemed that the bites made me feel connected to him and at least a little responsible for him.

I listened to his heartbeat, first racing, then slowing to a strong, regular beat. His breathing stuttered to a regular sleeping rhythm. “What can we do with him?” I asked Preston. “I can talk him into forgetting all this and send him home, but what if the Silk family picks him up again?”

“You feel that you need to help him, in spite of everything?” he asked.

I nodded. “I don’t want him. I don’t like him. But none of this really has anything to do with him.”

He looked around at his brother and his sons. Most of them shrugged.

Daniel said, “I don’t think the Silks will bother about him. They won’t know he survived. They probably don’t even know exactly where he lived before they picked him up. He’s just a tool. They might have rewarded him if he survived, but if they think he’s dead, that will be the end of it. We need to check what he’s said with what the other prisoners say. If their stories agree, they can all go home. You can send them back to their families.”

I nodded. “I’ll fix Victor. Do you want me to fix the others, too?”

“Once we’ve questioned them, you might as well. You’ve already bitten them.” He didn’t sound entirely happy about this. I wondered why.

“Is there transportation back to L.A. from somewhere around here?” I asked.

“We’ll get them back.” Daniel looked uncomfortable. “Shori, I think your venom is the reason this man is still alive, the reason he was able to answer as many questions as he did.”