I smiled innocently. “New stakes. I even carved a pattern in them for her. I thought she’d appreciate having new ones. She’s used the same ones forever and they were getting worn, not to mention shorter with each sharpening.”
He nodded slowly and gave a plastic smile. “That was very thoughtful of you.”
I grabbed my security tag from my room, but instead of heading outside, made my way to the elevator and took it to the lowest level I could that was allowed by my clearance level. Then I slipped into the shadows and made my way down to Kael’s lab via the maintenance elevator.
The doors opened at the end of a stark white hallway. I’d only been down here a few times, to collect Eve after one of her upgrades. I hated this place. Every acrylic cell held some kind of monster in it. They weren’t people anymore. He’d damaged their DNA to the point where the pitiful creatures were primal. Completely animalistic, all they could do was react. Most were violent. Many were young. All were former Assets who weren’t strong enough to make it to the top.
Thank God Eve was talented. If I had found her in one of these cells, that would have been the day Kael Frost died by my hand.
The day I overheard Victor telling one of his men that he was considering sending an army back in time as a backup plan in case the top three Assets failed in their missions, was the day I wanted to kill Victor. I knew I had to warn Eve, but Victor moved the date up and tightened security on the Assets. If I had said one word, they would have killed us both. So, I slipped her the information, along with some water I had Father Micah bless, tucked into the handles of a set of new stakes.
I wasn’t sure what army he could possibly send. We certainly didn’t have enough troops here to send back, and the lesser Assets were still training, though many of the less-skilled were put on city patrol since so many military men and women had been killed lately.
And now it was clear that whatever force he sent, if he even followed through with the notion, hadn’t made it to the gala either. Every additional failure made me worry more for Eve’s wellbeing.
Their plans, their actions, screamed sloppy and desperate.
My feet were whisper-quiet on the gleaming floor, but my presence upset the subjects as I passed by. They stirred, spinning circles in the small enclosures they occupied, grunting and screaming. Half way down the hall, I came to a halt. A boy stood in the center of his cell. His eyes were a glacial blue, but it wasn’t the color that made the hair on my arms raise. And it wasn’t what he said, but how he said it.
“Doctor Kael,” the boy announced, his lips never moving, the voice resonating through my mind, “you have a visitor.”
A second later, Kael stepped into the hall from the dark, unblemished steel door at the end of the hall. The fluorescent lights buzzed above us as the heels from his respectable loafers rhythmically clicked down the hall. His lab coat fluttered in his wake. “How may I help you, Maru?” he asked politely, tugging on his collar.
“Victor and I just spoke. He said you couldn’t contact Eve or the others. Do you have any way to get word to them? To see if they’re still alive?”
“At this moment, I can assure you that they are all alive, though I cannot testify as to their individual state or circumstance.”
“They’re alive?” I breathed a sigh of relief, eager for details. “Do you have any idea where they are?”
“No, unfortunately.”
“Shouldn’t we mobilize a team to retrieve them? They must be in hiding. What about sending a convoy of other Assets to travel back to escort them from the gala safely?”
Kael pushed his thick eyeglass frames up onto the bridge of his nose. “I’m afraid that’s not possible.”
I looked further down the hall, silently cursing both him and Victor. “What if Eve and the others have been captured? What if the vamps decide to kill them? They could broadcast their executions as propaganda against Victor’s authority! The people who live outside are already beating down this door. They’re terrified. It wouldn’t take much to send them straight over the edge,” I warned.
“I’m well aware of the situation unfolding outside the Compound,” Kael snipped, “but that is neither my area of expertise, nor my concern. You’ll have to speak with Victor about the state of our city. I will say that we must be careful with every move from this point forward to avoid sparking panic,” Kael moved to block my view of the cells to my left. “I appreciate your concern, Maru, and wish there was something more I could do to help you.”
I stepped forward, craning my neck to see what was in the cells that he didn’t want me to know about.
He attempted to brush me off. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m very busy. I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave,” he insisted, walking toward me and trying to herd me back down the hallway.
“Send me back,” I asserted.
“What?” His posture went rigid.
“Send me back for them. I’ll bring them home.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Maru, really. I appreciate that you’ve developed a connection with your charge, but –”
“Why not?”
He kept trying to walk me backward. “Don’t make me call security,” he advised.
I faked left then ran around him on the right, to the cells in the far-left corner. Those cells were empty of subjects, but the back walls were lined with closed circuit screens. All of them held images of dozens and dozens of… Eves, Tituses, and Abrams.
This is the army Victor was talking about! my mind raged.
“You cloned them?” I stabbed an accusing finger at the screens.
Kael stammered, “Think about how strong the top Assets are! An army of them is the only thing that could stand against an army of vampires and you know it. They can protect us. As you know, we can’t protect ourselves any longer. I’m just waiting for Victor to give me the orders to release them. They’re ready to fight and end this war for good.”
My heart pounded. “Where is Eve?”
“What do you mean? I just told you, I have no information—”
“Did you actually send the top Assets back? Or were those clones, too?”
Chapter Twelve
Eve
The sea was calm, and the sky was empty of clouds and full of more twinkling stars than I could count. Some were so far away, I could only see them when I caught them in my periphery. I sat on the railing, my back against the wood that rose with the quarter deck. Enoch had shown me around the ship and tried to help me learn the sailor jargon the crew kept spewing. It was truly a language of its own. There was the foremast, the main mast, and the mizzen mast. Every sail had its own name and purpose. Every rope and shroud. Every cannon was positioned for optimal damage and protection.
Titus scarfed down his dinner and then asked Enoch if he had a spare hammock. Some of the crew kept watch while the rest of them slept, but there were a few hammocks open. Titus was sleeping on the gun deck, which was the floor below the top deck, where all the excitement had happened earlier. There was another deck below that where Terah liked to spend time alone, adjacent to the hold that contained various ship’s supplies: plain cannon balls, pairs of cannon balls chained together to wrap around and break another ship’s mast, and hooks that were wrapped with cloth that could be lit before they were fired so they could burn another ship’s sails.