Extinction Agenda

Chapter Five

“So,” Rico said, “how you been?”

The instant Paige stepped toward him, she was flanked by men on either side. “I’ve been out there fighting. How about you?”

“Unless yer blind, you’d know we’re already losing that fight. All you been doing is riding around with the IRD providing cover fire while the military tries to impress the common folk by blasting a few Half Breeds to hell. Then you show up here and figure we’ll welcome you with open arms? For all we know, you’re settin’ us up to be taken down. Which, by the way, would be a very bad move on your part.”

Paige stood with every muscle in her body tensed and ready to go. “We’re not the only ones fighting with the IRD,” she said.

“Right. You also got that Squam playing scout for ya. How’s that workin’ out?”

“There’s a few other Skinners working with them as well,” she continued. “Two in Texas and a few in Jersey.”

Without missing a beat, Rico said, “The Texas crew is gone. Wiped out when the IRD flew into San Antonio and stirred up all those Half Breeds that were tucked away in the suburbs. Nobody walked out of that cluster fuck. As for the Jersey bunch, I believe Maddy is the only one left there, and she’s locked up by the cops on more of that bullshit from the Nymar frame-up.”

Paige bristled at that but let it slide.

“So that leaves me with the million dollar question,” Rico said. “Why the hell did you decide to drop everything and come here now?”

Cole could see the tension in her neck fading away. It left her looking weary when she said, “You’re right. We’re losing this battle. Cole and I have been fighting alongside the military and all we’ve been seeing is soldiers getting killed.”

“All they want to do is keep firing weapons at things that barely feel a bullet,” Cole said. “And all they want from us is to make them more bullets.”

“Did you give them my Snappers?”

“Yeah. They work great.”

Rico beamed like a proud papa.

“They put down a Half Breed in one shot,” Cole continued. “Doesn’t do much against a Full Blood, though. Slows them down, but not long enough for us to finish them off before they jump away to heal.”

“So put another one into them when they’re runnin’!” Rico snapped. “Jesus, do I have to do everything for you guys?”

“Actually,” Paige said, “we were hoping you might be able to give us some more of those Snappers. They go a long way in helping to keep things under control out there.”

“I can do that.”

“And there’s something else.”

Jessup let out a short, snorting laugh. “Sounds like you made a whole list of demands. Why not save us some time and let us see it?”

“Where’s Cecile?” Cole asked.

That was enough to quiet everyone else in the room. “Why the hell do you wanna know that?” Jessup grunted.

“She’s still new to being a Full Blood, and unless she’s had a complete change of heart in the last few months, she still hasn’t bought in to what they’re doing.”

“She’s one of them,” the older man stated. “Plain and simple. The most she can do for us is stay out of the fighting before more of them Half Breeds decide to rally around her. Unless you ain’t noticed, those things have been getting tougher to kill and better organized. Some packs have more’n thirty sets of fangs in ’em. That’s getting worse every week.”

“And you think she’s behind it?” Cole asked. “She was just a girl trying to get the hell away from all of this.”

“So what makes you think she’s got anything to contribute?” Rico asked.

“Because the other Full Bloods must have approached her by now,” Paige replied. “According to what Cole told me, she’s already been in contact with Randolph Standing Bear. He’s the one that gave her the Jekhibar in the first place. She could know where to find him or at least be able to stand still long enough for him to find her.”

Jessup looked as if he’d just been forced to drink lemon juice when he asked, “And then what? Your friends in the Army shoot at them some more?”

“No. We take care of them the old fashioned way. I would have thought you guys would be into that sort of thing.”

“If we were ready to stand toe-to-toe with Full Bloods, we’d be out there doin’ it by now.”

“We’ve got connections to get some improved weaponry,” Paige said. “Finding Cecile may take some time, and even if it doesn’t, it’ll probably take a little while for her to lead us to another Full Blood. When that develops, we’ll be back with the weapons needed to kill at least a few of those things. Do you know where she is or not?”

“Yeah,” Rico said. “I know just where you can find her.”

“Hey!” snapped the woman sitting near the computers. “We don’t know if we can trust them!”

When Rico swung his gaze toward that other Skinner, it was with an intensity that even Cole could feel. “I been working with Bloodhound well before I ever knew who the fuck any of you guys were. I’m takin’ these two downstairs. Anyone got any objections,” he added while looking primarily at Jessup, “tell me right now.”

Nobody said anything. Reluctantly, Jessup nodded and turned to deal with the other Skinners, who converged around him to speak in harsh whispers.

Rico motioned for Cole and Paige to follow him as he headed to the back of the room. “Things have been pretty hectic since we parted ways in New Mexico,” he said. “Hope you’re not still riled up about that.”

“Riled up?” Cole grunted. “You mean since you told us to get bent for not doing anything right over the last few years?”

“I never said that. I just said it was time to take a harder road.”

“You mean Jonah Lancroft’s road,” Paige pointed out.

Nodding as he tapped a few runes on a wall to uncover a small doorway, he replied, “Yeah. Would you have just come along if I asked nicely?”

Neither Cole nor Paige answered him, but Rico grinned as if he’d heard them loud and clear. “Didn’t think so,” he chuckled.

The stairway was lit by a few bulbs encased in wire frames. They were obviously going down into a basement, and Cole was immediately reminded of when he, Paige, and Rico had descended into Lancroft’s cellar another lifetime ago. There was a small landing at the point where a normal staircase might end. The stairs continued down for another eight feet into a room that looked like it had been freshly chiseled from a single block of concrete. It was a space sealed so tightly that he could hear every breath the three of them took. About three-quarters of the way into the room, a set of iron bars was set into the floor and ceiling to turn the rear portion of the room into a large, long cell.

“This looks familiar,” Cole mused as he approached the bars and studied the runes etched into the iron. “You make these markings?”

Rico glanced at the angular script like a carpenter examining one of his own joists. “Nah, but I did a lot of the rune work upstairs.”

Cole’s attention was so absorbed by the dust-covered writing that he almost didn’t notice what was being kept inside the cage. Paige stepped forward, placed her hands on her hips and looked straight past the bars at the rough stone statue of a cowering Full Blood. Cecile’s features might have been crude, but there was an underlying intricacy to the lines that crossed her body and limbs in a pattern much too complex to be cracks or imperfections in a sculpture. It was fur that had been plastered down and frozen into place.

“She’s in there all right,” Paige said as she brushed her fingers against her palms.

Cole could feel the heat in his scars as well. It wasn’t as strong as when he was usually in the presence of a Full Blood, but it was there. Muted to a dull ache in his bones that he couldn’t feel when he’d been upstairs, the pain snaked beneath his skin as if deftly avoiding the instinctive, probing touches of his fingertips.

“Damn right she’s in there,” Rico said. “Not like that bastard that walked away from New Mexico.”

“You’ve seen Esteban?” Paige asked.

“We’ve all seen him, Bloodhound. The others split apart after the fall of Atoka, and he’s the one that’s been organizing the packs in the States.”

“We didn’t know for sure,” she said, as if hesitant to dispel the hint of pride that had crept into her former trainer’s voice. “It seemed a pretty safe bet that you’d at least have her locked up, even if she did manage to crack out of that magic shell. Or that you’d at least have . . . pieces of her.”

“Whatever you left back in Oklahoma, it’s still in there.”

“Have you heard anything from her?”

“Like what?” Rico scoffed. “A squeaky plea for an oil can?”

“No,” Paige said. “Like a radio frequency.” She looked him straight in the eyes to make sure he wasn’t about to make another bad Wizard of Oz reference. “Or something from your cell phone. Do they even work around her?”

“Why would you even ask that?”

“Just answer the question,” Cole said. “It’s important.”

“No,” Rico grunted. “We’re in a subbasement. It don’t take a tech genius to figure your cell reception might not be so good down here. Why the hell are you so worried about that?”

“Is anyone listening to us down here?” Cole asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure of that?”

Rico drew a deep breath and stepped up to him until he was almost close enough to touch the end of his nose against Cole’s face. As creepy as that might have been, Rico maintained the close quarters as he spoke in a voice that was hardly more than a rustle in the back of his throat. “This place was wired up before I got here. Whoever is in charge of the Vigilant ain’t seen fit to introduce himself to me even after I hooked these jokers up with the runes upstairs.”

“You left us to join up with them and you sound like you barely trust them,” Cole said in a similar whisper.

“They’re paranoid and a little crazy. Far as I can tell, that’s just the sort of thing that’s needed since everything’s been going to hell.”

“But can you trust them?”

“Why do you ask? What do you need to say that you can’t just come out and say?”

Paige dropped her right hand onto his shoulder and turned him around. Even though she was strong and that hand was still partially petrified from her injury, she could tell that Rico was allowing himself to be moved. “You may have given up on us, Rico, but that doesn’t mean we’re ready to give up on you.”

“And,” he told her, “just because I’m testing the waters somewhere else, that don’t mean I’m your enemy.”

“Sure seemed that way when you left New Mexico,” Cole pointed out.

“A lot happened that day,” the big man said. “And even more’s happened since. Believe me, if I was your enemy, you woulda gotten a lot more than a gruff tone back at that Army camp in Raton. And speaking of them, and you joining up with the IRD, most of the folks here and plenty more of the Skinners that are still alive think you two are spilling all of our names and everything we ever learned to the government. Look me in the eyes and tell me what you make of that.”

Although Paige was ready to speak for them both, Cole knocked Rico’s shoulder with his fist just hard enough to turn the big man toward him again. “I think that’s just the sort of bullshit that makes working with the IRD seem like such a good idea. What happened when we found Lancroft and that warehouse of Skinner memorabilia in Philadelphia? We contacted everyone else and had a freaking yard sale. And when things got really bad with the Nymar, we drew as much fire as possible so everyone else could pull their own plans together, and when things got even worse, we took the worst fall of anyone. I went to prison, for Christ’s sake! A prison,” he added while extending an arm to point at the bars in front of him, “with cells that looked a hell of a lot like that.”

“I get what you’re sayin’,” Rico said. “I may not know everyone in this operation just yet, but they all respect what you two have done. When you turn your back on them, it rubs ’em the wrong way. Know what I mean?”

“Awww,” Paige said with a mocking sigh. “Is the poor little Skinner militia feeling left out? They can weep about it in their diaries. Right now we need to get a look at what’s inside the cage.”

And just like that the subject was closed. The most pressing matter stood behind bars of charmed iron, pushing seven feet tall and wielding claws that looked deadly even encased in a layer of stone.

“Most of the gargoyles were either shredded or went back into hiding after the feeding frenzy over the fall,” Rico said, “but we pulled together enough of what was left to wrap her up good and tight.”

Cole stood quietly looking at her. Even though the young Full Blood’s eyes were hidden beneath a stone crust, he found it difficult to look into them. “Her name’s Cecile.”

“What?” Rico said, looking surprised.

“She trusted us. Asked for our help. Even fought Esteban to give us a chance in New Mexico, and to repay that, she winds up like this behind bars.”

“So the least we can do is call her by name?” Rico grunted. “Fine. But you should know that any Full Blood is a danger right now. And you know who else has got a name? Randolph Standing Bear. He’s dropped off the map lately, and for something as powerful as him, and considering how visible he used to be, that don’t bode well.”

“I agree,” Paige said. “Bring down the Jekhibar.”

“I doubt Jessup will allow it out of his sight. He was the one to bring it in and he’s real fidgety when anyone else tries to handle it. I’m surprised he let you see that hole in the floor.”

“Just have him bring it down here and stand with it,” she said while holding her phone to her ear. “He can fondle it however he wants from there.”

Sighing, Rico climbed the lower half of the stairs and yelled for Jessup. While those two were engaged in conversation, Cole stood next to Paige and asked, “What are you expecting to hear?”

“Don’t you remember that EVP I caught when I was on the phone with MEG in Atoka?”

“You told me about it. You heard one of the Mongrels talking to you over the cell phone,” Cole recalled. “Kind of like a ghost voice.”

“That’s right. He said he was being controlled by Liam through the power they were all after. It was also through that power that Ben’s voice could be transmitted. Maybe it was a psychic connection or something to do with wavelengths mixing with the Torva’ox. I’m really not the expert in that kind of crap. But I do know that the energy the Full Bloods were after is real, and I was able to tap into it somehow using a phone.”

“Maybe that’s how every other EVP is created,” Cole said. “Maybe haunted places are actually located near sources of the Torva’ox, and when ghost hunters catch voices on their recorders it’s because of that.”

Paige gripped her cell phone tighter and glared at it before smacking it with the palm of her hand. “A phone worked before. This phone, even. It’s not working now. Maybe if Jessup brings us that Jekhibar, I’ll get what I need.”

“Which, again, is what?”

“Weren’t you even listening when we talked about this on the way over here?”

“Yeah. You said you’d try talking to Cecile. You never said what you wanted to say. How did you even know she was here?”

After shaking the phone some more and placing it against her ear again, Paige whispered, “Rico’s been in contact on and off ever since he hooked up with these guys.”

“You mean . . . like a spy?”

“I mean like an old friend who’s no stranger to playing with less reputable teams so long as they’re shooting at the right things. Honestly, I’m surprised he stuck with us for as long as he did without disappearing. He may not be a team player, but his heart’s in the right place. Long as we don’t get on his bad side for too long, he’ll make sure we don’t get hurt.”

“These Vigilant assholes locked me up,” Cole snarled.

“Can you prove that?”

“Not with a paper trail, but I heard more than enough.”

Paige smirked and said, “Well, if you can find some evidence, I’m sure Rico would like to see it. He doesn’t exactly have fond memories of prison cells either, and knowing for sure that these guys not only took you away when you were supposed to be treated for that Nymar bite but also slapped together a secret prison facility for Skinners, he won’t be too happy.”

Shifting his focus to the petrified werewolf, Cole asked, “So what are you going to say to her?”

“Haven’t figured that out yet. I’m surprised we got this far. And don’t look at me like that. Isn’t this better than being carted around by Adderson like just another couple hundred pounds of equipment?”

“Actually, yeah. It is.”

“So just . . . Wait a second. I’m getting something.”

Ashamed that he’d been about to try and listen in on whatever was coming through Paige’s phone instead of listening to his own, Cole fished his from his pocket and asked, “What number did you dial?”

“The old one for Rasa Hill. It’s still connected, but there’s a recording.”

Cole dialed the number from memory and listened to a recorded message that quickly faded out, replaced by static. And then the static was replaced by a voice.

“ . . . kill you,” it said.

Both Paige and Cole looked at the cage. Cecile was still there, etched in stone and unable to move. Two sets of footsteps stomped against the stairs until both Rico and Jessup stood in the room with them. Cole glanced over at the men to see that Jessup was holding the familiar little metal box.

“You try to make a move for this and you’ll regret it,” Jessup warned. “There ain’t no way you’ll make it out.” Before he could say more, he was shushed by Paige. He looked over to Rico, who wore an exasperated look that Cole knew all too well.

“Can you hear us, Cecile?” Paige asked.

“I can hear you and every other filthy hick stinking up the rooms above me,” she replied. Her voice tapered off, then returned like a timid nudge by a hand in the dark. “You can hear me?”

“Yes,” Cole replied. “Can you, Paige?”

“Yes,” she said. “I just didn’t think I’d be able to. Last time, Stu had to record it and play it back. You know . . . like an EVP.”

“What are you two talking about?” Jessup asked. When he stepped forward to get closer to them, the static in Cole’s phone cleared like dirt floating in water that had suddenly been scattered by an outboard motor.

Cecile’s voice was strained and taut. In an attempt to clear it more, Cole approached the bars of her cell. Using the ear that wasn’t flattened against a phone, he could hear a subtle creak similar to what he imagined two tectonic plates might sound like when they rubbed against each other. He backed away from the cage and resisted the urge to back all the way out of the room. “I think she’s breaking loose,” he said.

That brought all the Skinners to the front of the cell.

“You can hear me,” Cecile said through the tinny phone connection. “I can hear you. I can also hear someone else.”

“Someone in the building?” Paige asked.

After a short silence, Cecile replied, “No. One of the other Full Bloods. She’s screaming. Furious. I think . . . far away.”

“That could be Minh,” Cole said to Paige.

Jessup knocked into both of them in his haste to get closer. “The female Full Blood that helped rip apart Atoka? Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” Cole lied. Actually, it was only a partial lie. According to Tristan, Minh had been sent away in the same burst of energy the Dryad had used to transport him, Liam, and Paige to Finland. Tristan told him Minh had been sent to one of the older Dryad temples located somewhere in a Japanese bamboo forest. The nymphs hadn’t been eager to tell the Skinners where the temple was located, and as long as Minh was encased in a similar stone shell hidden away from humans, Cole and Paige were content to leave her there. Others, like the Vigilant, on the other hand, wouldn’t be so willing to let sleeping dogs lie.

“Who’re you talking to on that phone?” Jessup asked as he wedged himself between Cole and Paige. “Tell me!”

“What’s wrong with me?” Cecile asked in a voice becoming sharper with every inch that Jessup closed in on the bars. “Why can’t I move?”

Cole stepped back and stretched out an arm to shove Jessup back. “Get that thing away from her!”

“You’re the ones that wanted me to bring the Jekhibar down here!”

“It’s waking her up!”

The creaking that Cole had heard a little while ago became more defined and then took on the sharp, snapping sound of breaking ice.

“Why the hell would I ever listen to you?” Jessup grumbled as he stomped toward the stairs. Rather than climb back to the first floor, he turned to one of the other Skinners who had followed him down and handed the metal box to him. “Take this up to where it belongs and shut it away.” Then Jessup pulled a small wooden ax from where it hung at his belt. Now, the creaking from the cell mingled with the sound of wood stretching into a new form as the crude ax took on the shape of a tomahawk with sharper, jagged edges.

When Paige moved to shush him again, she swung her arm at Jessup as if she meant to knock him through a wall. “Cecile, listen to me. Can you hear me?”

“I can hear everything!” she screamed through the connection. If it had been a real electronic signal, those words surely would have caused some major feedback. “Those things are still on me. I can feel them. They’re biting me. I’ll kill them and then kill those Skinners who brought them here. Kill them all!”

Even after Cole lowered the phone, he could still hear Cecile’s crackling voice cursing him. “Jessup, how can we put her back to sleep?” he asked.

The older Skinner stepped up to stand with Cole, Paige, and Rico rather than insinuate himself into the group. Where he had been aggressive and suspicious before, he was now plainly one of them. It was the first glimpse Cole had seen of the man who helped him survive the carnage in New Mexico that marked the beginning of this conflict. “That stuff I took from what was left of all them gargoyles back in New Mex wasn’t just the paste that coats their prey in rock. There’s something else. A toxin. From what I’ve been able to piece together, gargoyles inject some sort of paralyzing substance into their prey when they feed. Damn near everything is bigger or stronger than them, so—”

“Real interesting,” Paige snapped. “If we can knock Cecile out again, I’m liking that idea.”

There was another dry creaking sound, followed by a pop that sent a small mist of gray dust away from Cecile’s left shoulder. Little chunks of the stony facade broke away and rolled down her chest, making it obvious just how thin the rock truly was.

“Can this cage hold a Full Blood?” Cole asked.

Rico’s eyes danced beneath the thick ridge of his brow. “The bars should hold, but I don’t know about the rest of the structure. She’ll be able to dig out through any of those other walls without too much effort.”

Cole reached over his shoulder to grab the spear harnessed on his back. Since the phone was only broadcasting dead air now that the metal box was out of the room, he stuffed it back into his pocket. “Anyone have any ideas?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Rico grunted. “Don’t mess with the Full Blood while it’s all wrapped up nice and tidy. Guess the boat’s sailed on that one.”

“What about killing a Full Blood?” Paige asked. “If you Vigilant guys are so great, you must have put something together for that, right?”

“Hey!” Cole shouted. “This isn’t Birkyus or any of those others. This is Cecile! She’s just a kid!”

“Not anymore,” Rico said. “She’s a Full Blood, and once she gets her wits about her, she’ll be a real pissed off Full Blood. I’d rather take my chances jogging into a tornado than being in the same room with one of those without a goddamn weapon in my hand.”

“We don’t have to kill her,” Cole insisted.

Paige stood beside him with a weapon drawn. “We may not have a choice. Jessup, what have you got?”

“Dr. Lancroft created something that allowed him to kill a Full Blood over the course of several weeks,” Jessup replied.

Before Cole could protest, Paige asked, “Do you have it here?”

“Yes, but I’ll need to get real close without a weapon in my hand. Someone’s going to have to keep that thing still.”

Cole smirked. “We may have just the thing.”