AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ben grumbled but surrendered his phone. When Mozley kept his hand out, he rolled his eyes, dug out a second phone, and slapped it in the agent’s hand, along with the first.
I snorted. My first impressions of Ben Hammond were that he wasn’t very impressive, but the more time I spent around him, the more I couldn’t help but like him a little.
“Second,” Mozley said, pocketing the phones, “you’re going to help me establish a secondary base here. I’ve got more people on the way, and they’ll need somewhere to set up triage in case of injury, some tech, and whatever else they need to make this operation a success. Which reminds me… Walker, there’s a set of radios in my Jeep. Grab them for me, would you?” He tossed the keys to Phoenix, who jogged off. “You, what’s your name?” He pointed at Cupid.
Chris groaned and slapped his face. “You’re about to wish you’d never asked that.”
Cupid puffed out his chest. “I am Traijus Sestius Cupidariel, conqueror of the Sleth and slayer of the Beast of Sinthol, former commander of the First Legion, and former right hand to the most high and holy Empress Emellia Ionvinia, Mistress of the Pinnoweth Steppe, Queen of the Dragonkin and of the Ymir, and mate to the most wonderful cook in all the realms.”
“Cupid for short,” Ollie supplied, swishing his tail back and forth with amusement.
“Riiiight.” Mozley adjusted his tie and took one of the radios from Phoenix as he returned. He held it out to Cupid. “You’re my eyes in the sky. I want you to report everything back to me. I need to know what’s happening as it happens. Got it?”
“It would be my honor!” Cupid seized the radio and turned it upside down. Charlie winced and showed him how to hold it properly.
I snorted and climbed back into the trees. This was taking too long. We needed to get to Axelnow. While the others were still chatting and planning, I took off through the trees, swinging from branch to branch. I only meant to go a short distance ahead, knowing they would quickly catch up, but soon they werefar behind me. My lure lit the way, illuminating the tire tracks, and the broken branches that marked the path of the vehicle that’d stolen my mate away. I followed the trail as close as I could until I reached a tall tree.
My claws curled in the bark and I propelled myself higher, climbing above the forest canopy to take in my surroundings. Far to the east, the sky was pink and pale yellow, the first signs of dawn beginning to crawl onto the horizon. It was still black to the west except for the faint glow of some distant human settlement. I picked out the direction of my lake, Axel’s home…
And the huge hole in the trees which housed the crater that had once been a military base.
My heart jumped up into my throat as I drew out the path of the tire tracks, glancing between where I knew they were and the hole in the trees. Dread settled in the pit of my stomach as I realized where they had taken Axel.
Papa had taken him to the ruined base.
I had a lotof kinks, but surprisingly, being a mad scientist’s pushpin wasn’t one of them.
“Ow!” I winced as he jabbed another needle into the crook of my arm, the little plastic vial filling with blood. I would’ve pulled away if I could’ve, but he had me strapped down to a chair.
I felt like I was in a cheesy sci-fi monster movie. Any minute now, there’d be thunder and lightning and someone dramatically declaring, “Eureka!”
Despite the rest of the base being in shambles, Parker’s lab was intact. I didn’t know if he’d rebuilt it or if it had somehow been shielded from the blast that took out the rest of the base. The walls were still pristine white, the stainless steel without a single scuff. He even found himself a bleach white lab coat and a pair of goggles to put on.
A few feet away, dangling over a pit in the floor, was an iron cage with a bunch of wires hooked up to it. I didn’t have to think hard about who that was for. Ghost.
Parker yanked the needle out of my arm and slapped a bandage over the hole left behind. Without a word, he wandered over to a workstation tucked against a wall, leaning over whatever he was doing.
“What are you doing with my blood?” I asked, flexing my fists. The restraints were too tight for me to be able to wiggle through, but I wasn’t just going to sit there and do nothing. I had to try, even if I knew it was pointless.
“Studying it.” He shifted enough that I could see he was sitting in front of a microscope, pen scribbling across a page.
“What for? Say you get everything you’re after. What then? What’s your endgame, Parker?”
He sighed and pushed away from the workstation. “Are you expecting me to say power? Money? World domination? If you are, you’re about to be disappointed, Mr. Rose. None of those things matter. Science is all that matters.”
I wrinkled my nose, feeling nauseous. “You’re doing all this forscience?”
“Worse has been done in the name of scientific advancement.”
I clenched my teeth. “You’re working with people who want to start a war, Parker. People who want to eradicate monsters, or at the very least, use them to hurt others. You can’t stand there and justify potential genocide because of science.”
“Can’t I?” He folded his hands and paced away from the microscope. “Science isn’t good or evil. It’s a tool like a wrench or a gun. Either could kill a man. Ban one, and you won’t eradicate murder. You’ll just make a more creative killer. Restrict access to it, and you’ve created an elite group capable of oppressing the other due to their access. That’s what ethics does when it’s applied to tools. It prohibits. It divides. It impedes. You think I’m a monster because I work with such people. I’m not. They’re the monsters.”
“You can’t dodge the blame. You knew how your research was being used.”
He walked up to me and crossed his arms. “Do you think the military was my first choice? The original Doctor Parker, my progenitor, was no military dog. He was an explorer. A trailblazer with a curious mind. While his contemporaries were opening tombs in the Valley of Kings, or blazing paths through the Arctic, he was studying a portal to another world. I assure you, his first instinct was not to corrupt that world, but to understand it.”
“How do you know? You’re not him. You’re just a clone,” I said.
