Page 105 of Resolve
“No windows,” Kellan drawls after he takes a peek. He fists a hand and grins. “Looks like Iwillbe able to test out my strength on him.”
Aiden starts tapping the keys to send another message. “I want the full picture, first.” A series of musical notes sounds only a minute later as messages flood in at once. He studies the screen, his expression darkening with every click to view the next image. He hands the phone to Reid. “He’s not alone.”
Fuck.
“How many others?” Jackson questions. His tone is the epitome of calm and unbothered. As if Aiden could throw out a crazy number and he’d still take it in stride.
“Too many to count. But they’re all in cages or chained up,” Aiden replies.
“Test subjects,” Tinsley says, her voice low. She looks at Reid. “Be careful. If he’s already messed with their heads...”
Reid doesn’t flinch. “Don’t ask me to save them, Tins.”
She beats her hand against his chest. “Don’t give me that crap, Reid! They’re all worth saving. Like I was.”
He holds her fist to his chest. She tries to yank it back, but he grips it tight. “No one is like you.” He waits a breath, then continues, “I’ll do whatever’s necessary for us to survive, like I’ve always done. If they’re a threat, I’ll kill them.”
She raises her fingertips to his face, tracing them over his hard expression. “I know. Just... try thinking of me.”
“I always do.”
Tinsley smiles, and they release each other.
Reid takes a final look at one of the pictures. “Let’s go.”
Chapter thirty-four
Raegan
Foramoment,Ihave the disorienting feeling that we’ve jumped into one of the photos. Everything sways around me as my brain acclimates to our new location in limited lighting. Jackson steadies me while I help Dane on my other side. Kellan, Reid, and Aiden are in front of us, blocking our view of the board member where we’d seen him sitting at a table in the picture.
“Finally. I was beginning to think you’d never show up,” the doctor’s voice echoes in what sounds like a reprimand. “Charles requested that I join him and run away like a coward, but I told him I’d like to meet you myself.”
We’re standing among rows of tables with scientific equipment and computers on them. It looks like the lab of a mad scientist as liquid flows through tubes and drips into beakers. Another one is giving off an odd smell that makes me scrunch my nose when I first get a whiff of it.
A swift breeze brushes past my arm. Glass shatters, and one of the table’s setups crashes to pieces, spilling its contents across the table and onto the floor. The awful smell dissipates.
The doctor sighs. “That was harmless.”
Aiden flexes his wrist. The diamond blades of his sword separate to form the whip-like structure at his side. “What have you done to the people here?”
Beyond the tables on either side are rows and rows of cages stacked on each other until they disappear into darkness. It reminds me of the warehouse where we’d found Congressman Joe. The cages there had been empty, but these are full.
The prisoners on our right are hunched over or curled up. Silent.
On the left, they’re banging the cages like wild animals.
I shift around the others to get a better look at Dr. James Richer. There’s a single fluorescent light above him and his table, like a spotlight. He’s wearing some sort of goggles on top of his thick white hair. If I didn’t already know he’s in his sixties, I would have guessed he was only in his early to mid-forties based on his appearance. The white lab coat is open to his buttoned and collared dress shirt and slacks.
“That would be a long list that neither of us has time for.”
Kellan roars, lunging at him with his claws.
Something sharp rakes through my mind like talons. I scream and grab my head, dropping to my knees. Then it’s gone, the feeling disappearing just as quickly as it came.
When I come back to my senses, I’m out of breath on the floor. The others are lying around me, and even Kellan is down on one knee.
The doctor is gone.
