Page 55 of Crimson Moon Falling

Bart’s easy, wide grin was gone. “Besides the musty concrete bunker smell, there were other scents down there. Anyone know what it was?”

Cora’s quiet voice came from his left. “Formalin, disinfectant, and medical equipment. It smells like a laboratory.”

Freda turned to me. “The same smells as Roswell?”

“It wasn’t strong enough for me to detect.”

Parker put his hands on his hips. “After Roswell and Austin were taken out, Apex lost two black sites in less than a year.”

Malcolm shook his head. “Apex doesn’t close operations. The wankers just relocate them. The bunker is old as dirt, but the surveillance hardware and those ventilation retrofits are no more than a year or two old.”

Absently, I rubbed the scar from their brand on my clavicle. “I think the Commander or someone from Apex plans to use this location as a backup or replacement. It’s in a remote area of a national park where no one would think to look.”

Freda sighed tiredly. “It makes sense. Alaska has the most untouched acreage, but it doesn’t have the population to conceal shifters and supernatural kidnappings.”

“Yellowstone is also located in one of the most seismically volatile areas on the continent,” I added.

Cora tilted her head. “Why is that important?”

The implant hummed as I searched my memory regarding what I knew about this area. “It produces massive amounts of energy, and Cogs and other supernaturals need energy to use our abilities and magic. That, and the sun, are what essentially power us. The Earth’s core temperature ranges from 4,000 to 7,000 kelvins, and the core pushes heat into the liquid outer core, which then acts as a massive electrical generator, creating our global magnetic field. It’s all energy.”

Cora nodded, but Malcolm and Bart just stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language.

Parker slapped Malcolm on the back. “She’s smart like that. Sometimes she spouts off these scientific facts and makes me feel like a fuckin’ idiot. Don’t be intimidated.”

I ignored them and tried to recall what my father wrote in his journal. Yellowstone sat atop a magma chamber the size of a small state, and the energy moving through the ground was unlike anywhere else he’d measured.

I turned to Parker. “Based on my last encounter with Marlowe, I think he and his people are trying to modify shifters, and even Normals, into high-level Cogs as well as operatives. But they’d need massive amounts of energy to do it. This location makes terrifying, perfect sense.”

Parker and Freda knew this, but the rest of them stared at me in horror, anger and denial bleeding from them.

Malcolm sighed. “I’d say it isn’t possible, except I’ve heard stories about their operatives.”

Parker looked up at the sky. “We’ve got weather coming.”

To the southwest, above the ridgeline, the sky had deepened into dark gray clouds, and the mass was building as the wind shifted. A cold draft carried the warning of a violent storm front moving in fast.

Parker pulled out his satellite phone and checked the weather. “There’s a large cell tracking northeast across the Absaroka Range. It’s due to hit this area in less than an hour.”

Bart whistled. “Looks like a doozy.”

“And an opportunity,” Malcolm murmured.

Freda nodded. “My vote is that we cut the surface power, then infiltrate during the storm. The weather will mask the power disruption if anyone is actively monitoring the site.”

Malcolm grinned. “Lightning surge, downed line. All kinds of explanations that dinnae involve us.”

Parker’s eyes moved systematically through the trees. “I’m going to shift and take a look around before the storm gets here. There has to be another way in.” He stepped back, and that shifter crow magic shimmered around him. Then he disappeared into the forest, Athena following after him.

The implant efficiently and steadily collected and analyzed the data. I let it run. Beneath us lay a buried concrete bunker that the shifters agreed smelled like a laboratory. I settled back against the tree and watched the swollen clouds build over the ridge, dark and heavy with rain.

A storm was coming.

Chapter 16

Riley

Parker materialized from the darkness between the trees, Athena padding silently at his heels. His face was set in grim lines.