The Flight of the Silvers (Silvers #1)(75)
The glass doors swung open. Krista could make out the MacDougals. She had to squint to identify the unconscious figure they carried between them. The Motorcycle Man was just one violent incident away from becoming another exile. He’d been such a sweet young boy. But as he grew older—faster—his good nature and sanity withered away. Krista noticed from the freakish way his nose bent that it wasn’t just his mind that had snapped.
“Will he live?”
The brothers replied with a grim stare. She wasn’t sure if that meant yes or no. They weren’t his biggest fans either.
“Well, did you at least kill any of the breachers?”
The freckled twin shook his head. There was no point in asking for details. The MacDougals hadn’t spoken a word since they were eighteen. Their vow. Their sacrifice.
“Damn it! How could this have gone so wrong?” Krista pressed her collar mic. “Ivy?”
No response. Her blond brow furrowed. “Ivy, are you there? Talk to me.”
After attempting to call the other missing teammates—Rebel, Gemma, Slim Tim—Krista read the worry on the brothers’ faces.
“No. No way. Ivy wouldn’t leave us behind.” She wouldn’t leave me, Krista thought.
“Oh, but she did.”
Startled, Krista spun back to the reception desk, where Esis sat atop the polished marble. She dangled her legs off the desk, kicking her feet like a bored child.
“Your friend has departed the premises, along with her niece and the stubborn ape she mates with. Foolish creatures, all of you. I grieve to call you ancestors.”
Krista eyed Esis strangely. The woman wore a damp yellow raincoat over a short and leafy vest dress. It was a hip fashion among the progressive youth in London but utterly alien here in the States.
“Who the hell are you?”
Esis jerked a thumb at the brass Pelletier sign. “You broke into our house with your fearful schemes and wrongful notions. You’ve inconvenienced us greatly. We are not amused.”
She removed an English hippie sandal from her foot and curiously studied it.
“You should be making love, not war.”
Krista and the brothers each raised a hand to attack. Esis dropped her shoe. By the time it hit the floor, the Scottish Twins, the Motorcycle Man, and the Winter Blonde were all brutally slaughtered. Krista didn’t even have a chance to think her daughter’s name.
—
Amanda knew that Czerny shouldn’t talk in his condition. But like the others, she was anxious to learn why the terrifying being known as Azral also happened to own the name on the lobby wall.
The physicist spoke through pained grunts. “When Hannah provided her initial testimony, she told us she received her bracelet from a white-haired man named Azral. We found that highly peculiar considering that just thirty-six hours before, we’d finally been introduced to our organization’s financier, a gentleman who perfectly fit that description.”
David opened his mouth to speak, but Amanda touched his wrist. Wait.
“Upon broaching the matter with Dr. Quint, I was . . . He didn’t take it well. He said I was being an idiot, thinking like a conspiracy theorist instead of a theoretical physicist. He threatened to fire anyone who brought up the subject again, even in jest. So we put it out of our minds. All things considered, coincidence still seemed the likeliest explanation.”
He closed his eyes in pained lament. “I’m sorry, friends. I’m afraid we’ve all been a little misled.”
“Not a little,” Zack hissed. “And not Quint.”
Czerny weakly nodded. “Yes. You’re right. I’m certain now that Dr. Quint knew the truth. I’m sorry for that too. I can’t even begin to guess the reasons behind the deception.”
“What were they planning to do with us?” Mia asked Czerny.
“Not sure. Our only task was to keep you safe and comfortable while we learned as much as we could. Dr. Quint never once said anything to make me believe he wished you harm.”
“And if he had?”
Czerny tilted his gaze at the driver’s seat. “If he had, Zack, there would have been mutiny in his ranks. We may be scientists, but we’re still human beings.”
“I know you are,” Zack replied. “And Quint knew too, which is probably why he kept you in the dark. God only knows what they were planning for us.”
“You think it has anything to do with those killers back there?” Hannah asked.
David shook his head. “I don’t think so. I also question Zack’s view of Azral’s intentions. I mean he had us dead to rights and he let us go.”
“I have no idea what he’s planning, David. I just know that if he set this place up years ago, just for us, then he’s playing a long game. He’s not done with us.”
Mia fixed her anxious stare out the missing back doors, her journal squeezed tightly in her grip. She held a whole book of prophecies in her arms and yet she didn’t even know where she was sleeping tonight. The future had become a fierce, wild creature. And she still had two warnings left about the events of the day.
—
Azral grimaced as he opened the lobby doors. The carnage was unpleasant to look at and even worse to smell. He hailed from a more civilized age, and wasn’t accustomed to the raw scent of blood.
Esis remained barefoot in the center of the lobby, standing among the bits and pieces of her four latest victims. Unlike Azral, she’d adjusted quite well to the savagery of this era. Her hands had become long white scythes. Streaks of gore ran at crossed angles across her coat, her face, her tempic blades.