A trap? Shit. Did they know we were coming? But how?

  We slowed our approach, and as we reached the lab, I felt something on my foot and a pinging sound. I had just a moment to register I had just hit a trip line, and I spun to push Rin into the other Raven Maids while yelling, “Down!” As some sort of anti-personnel device went off in a deafening, booming roar.

  I was enveloped in heat and pain as shrapnel tore at my side, face, and my back. I was flung into Marina who had sort of crouched to lean into the blast. The part of my brain that was not having me scream in pain noted that I could actually see some shrapnel that made it past... or through me was bouncing off of her. Some seemed to embed just slightly below the surface of her skin. When my body hit hers, I heard my ribs breaking as it felt like I had just struck a telephone pole.

  My ears were ringing as the pain started fading into that dreaded nothingness. I rolled to my feet quickly and held one translucent hand in front of me as I looked down at my shredded clothing. I whispered, “Fuck!” as I saw that I had lost a good third of myself. Virtually my whole left side was gone now.

  The others were scrambling up to get to us, my ears were still ringing as Rin was frantically yelling in Raven form, “Cameron! Are you ok?” She was looking me up and down, eyes full of concern. Didn't she see I was a freak? I was half gone now. I could never even pretend to be just human ever again.

  But that was secondary to my main concern as I checked her over for injury. “Are you hurt?”

  She stopped and just blinked at me. “You're asking if I'm ok? You just took a god damned claymore for us! Why did you do that?” Her big avian eyes were welling with tears.

  Marina was picking out two pieces of shrapnel that had made it past her impossibly dense skin, wincing and saying, “Ouch! Son of a bitch that stung!”

  Everyone else looked ok. We looked at the destroyed door, and I said with no humor in my tone, “Looks like we won't need the card to open this one.”

  Rin slapped the one shoulder I still had.

  The storm redoubled, lighting starting to arch across the sky as Hailey said, “The place seems deserted. Did they leave on that helicopter? How did they know we were coming?”

  We all looked around, unable to answer as the two military types moved to either side of the demolished door to chance a glance down the hall. We could hear voices and rustling around in there.

  Marina suddenly spun and yelled out, “Shit!” Then she looked at us and said, “It was me! This storm isn't natural. I thought it was a result of my cold front. It isn't! Leucosia was here with them. I can feel the storm heading out to sea where the helicopter went.”

  She stared at me, horror in her eyes as she blurted, “I'm so sorry Cam, this is my fault. She felt me coming and warned them!”

  Then she whispered, “What the hell was she doing here at the Lazarus Crucible?”

  It was Sloan who answered, sounding almost sad as she seemed to pull glowing threads out of her very flesh as the other two Fates somehow manipulated them in the air, weaving complex glowing patterns. “The same thing the others are, trying to cheat death. She is wasting her life in pursuit of the immortal life she is taking for granted. She fears the end of the time of the Sirens. She is the only one left besides Marina. But just like the Titans, she has to realize that all things must end.”

  The purple haired youngster was nodding as she seemed to be seeing things in the patterns, “If she would just instead enjoy the time she has left, she would learn it is not as fleeting as she believes unless she forces our hands.”

  Ok, that didn't sound like a smart-mouthed emo girl that time.

  I almost yelped when I saw a strand of light trying to leave me to join the sparkling display they were putting on like it knew it belonged somehow. But it couldn't reach. I realized Sloan was watching me watch it. She shook her head. “You truly are something new. A life not of our weaving, though you have the spark, which was probably your own before it was torn from our tapestry.”

  The man, the Mother, added in his or her deep baritone voice, “We cannot find nor measure your thread, even though it longs to rejoin the tapestry. You are the next evolution, Cameron. Mankind is taking the next steps to take the place of the ancient immortals who came before them.”

  Why did I get a shiver down my spine? I wasn't part of life anymore?

  Hailey whispered loudly, “Come on everyone, get your heads back in the game. We've lost any hope of surprise here. Come on now, on me.”

  She slipped inside with Andreya to her left. They looked like a well-oiled machine, illustrating that both of them had years of training, deadly as hell, though Hailey seemed the more deadly of the two. Maybe because I've seen what she can do when they had rescued me.

  We followed, Rin distracted as she looked... through me. God. How was I going to live like this... when I was half way in the grave already? I really didn't want to... to cease. I tightened my grip on my damaged bat then looked down. Why could I feel it in both hands? It was like the other parts of me I had lost, I just thought it was like a psychological reaction, that I just thought I felt sensation from my missing parts, though dulled, like background static.

  But I was gripping the bat with both hands, but the tighter my grip, the more my transparent fingers lost their surface tension and sank into the wood of the bat. So I could interact more with the mass of this plane than I believed I could. But really I've never, umm, experimented. I've always avoided my missing parts.

  I caught Rin's questioning gaze, and I shook my head. This wasn't the time to think about this stuff. Her eyes kept going to the left side of my face. Fuck, I had taken more damage there, hadn't I? Just how much of me was left? I fucking hated being so... ghost-ish!

  The walls erupted into plaster and shattering emergency lights as Hai and Drey crouched and started rapid firing the silenced rifles. Ffft-ftt-ftt. The men at an intersection of the corridor went down in sprays of blood. I swallowed the bile in my throat as we moved past them. Then hesitated when I saw a Navy Seals insignia tattooed on one man's exposed arm. It was one of the few I could recognize since it had that trident on it.

  Navy Seals? In Lazarus uniforms and flack jackets? They seemed to recruit from every branch of the service.

  A less squeamish person would have taken note that the men each had three shots center mass, which their body armor stopped, and then kill shots between their eyes. I looked at the backs of the women we followed deeper down the corridor toward a larger room lit by emergency lighting, wondering which one of them made the kill shots.

  We were... killing people here. To what? To stop people dead set on becoming immortal. But all these others just believed it was to make super soldiers for Uncle Sam. We could never go home after this, could we? I looked down at myself. Yeah, as if I could rejoin the world after this.

  The others seemed so sure about this. Was I the only one who was only here because I wanted Lazarus to leave me the hell alone?

  The women stopped and pressed against the walls and motioned to us to do the same. We pressed against the walls, trying to will ourselves to be small or... invisible... transparent. Frack, my inner monologue truly was an asshole. Just hardy har har. I'd kick my own ass later.

  I saw a weapon moving around a corner, it had some sort of screen attached. Oh crap! It was one of those weapons that could see around corners that the special forces and hostage extraction teams had.

  I saw how systematically Hailey aimed at the weapon, then moved her aim to the corner wall and raise it slightly. She was going to take the guard down through the wall! I could see her finger slowly starting to squeeze the trigger, but at the last moment, there was a gurgled scream from his location as he slid into the corridor like he had been hit by a truck.

  My eyes widened in horror and morbid curiosity when we saw Stephanie on his back, her fangs buried deep in his shoulder. Then she looked over at us, winked, then her jaw distended, and she snapped it over his head and with a vicious twist, tore his head from his shoulders. She made a couple gulping motions, and her neck flared as she swallowed.

  Ok, I did vomit that time. The women got over their own revulsion and swung their weapons up at the snake woman, who looked directly at me, licked her lips and literally slithered off almost faster than I could follow. They really had made a monster out of her, hadn't they? I found myself feeling sorry for the woman, even after just watching that horrific scene.

  It wasn't lost on me that she wasn't attacking us though. She was going after Lazarus. I think ultimately that's why Hailey and Andreya didn't pull their triggers.

  Our group leaders slid into the big room and then looked back at us and motioned us forward as they trained their weapons on someone or something. When we came out ready to fight we all hesitated. There were three men and a woman, all in lab coats with their hands in the air, full of equipment and files. They looked terrified as they surrendered. “Don... don't shoot!” one pleaded.

  They were not alone, there were three bodies, and another woman who was almost robotically boxing up files and grabbing data drives. Almost as one, the Raven Maids all leapt past us in full Raven form. Hissing in rage as they extended their claws. Rin made it there before the others, and tore past the woman, yanking the pouch around her neck off and before the now unanimated body fell. With one eye, I thought I could actually see the soul being torn from her as Rin twisted in the air, grasping the woman with her clawed feet and then they were gone.

  I ran forward, but a few moments later Rin reappeared, looking disoriented for a moment, but shook it off by the time I reached her. I winced at the body at her feet, a desiccated corpse. How long had this zombie been dead? It was sort of disgusting, and they looked so normal up until the bag was torn off.

  I held her by the arm wings to make sure she was ok. She gave me a birdie smile then she was herself again smiling encouragingly at me.

  The women were barking orders at the rest, having them get on their knees. I was relieved that they were zip-tying their hand and feet together instead of killing them. They were no soldiers. Andreya was asking how many more people were in the Crucible when Angel broke radio silence. “I've got movement at the helipad, they have Mouse!” She sounded stressed and angry. We could hear gunfire over the connection.

  Shit! In all the commotion, I hadn't realized that Mouse never came back to us to tell us what she and the ghosts had found.

  Hailey looked at Drey, who just nodded once, she asked the Maids, “You have things here?”

  They nodded, and she inclined her head then said, “Marina, with us.” And the three of them ran toward another corridor toward the east.

  Now my stomach was in knots again. I knew logically that we had been damn lucky so far to not have lost anyone, but... damn it. Mouse had to be ok.

  Kyler slid into a seat at one of the many computers with huge clear glass monitors with test subjects displayed and all sorts of data in the process of being deleted. Her hands flew nimbly across a keyboard and what looked like source code flashed onto a screen, she was mumbling to herself as she looked at the code then changed something and hit enter with a flourish. The progress indicators all stopped. She had hacked a secure government system that fast?

  Adelaide stalked over to watch the prisoners in full Raven form. By the gods, was Trinity's Raven going to get that spectacular when she got older? And menacing? Did I mention menacing?

  Rin stood by the young girl as the Fates started looking through printed files. “Talk to me Squish.”

  The girl was doing some more changes to the code as she said absently, “Only lost about ten percent. Hopefully, there's hardcopies in those files or external drives. Making satellite connection.”

  What was going on? Satellite connection? Just what kind of tech genius had this young girl umm, helped to cross over that she had these skills?

  I asked, “What's she doing?”

  Rin winked at me. “You didn't think we didn't have an exit strategy did you? Nobody can attack a government black ops compound without there being repercussions. There is no way we would ever be safe or free after this. They would hunt us, and they would find us.”

  Then Kyler looked up at me and grinned cheekily. “Unless of course, someone were to dump all the files and research onto the Internet, exposing their human genetic testing to the world. They will be cleaning up their mess for years. And if let's say, the names of the people in the highest branches of government who were involved with Lazurus happened to be encrypted, with us holding the PGP decryption key, we would be safe.”

  Holy shit. I smiled. They would blackmail the ones who organized this whole Frankenstein show into leaving us alone.

  Kyler hit another key with a flourish and said, “And done. Upload commencing, I'm routing through servers all over the world so by the time anyone knows what we are doing, it will be too late to stop it. It should propagate on the dark web and hundreds of torrent sites in minutes.”

  I saw a countdown. In twenty-three minutes all the files would be out there for the world to see.

  Ky grabbed Rin's arm and pulled her over to look at something. She asked, “Delete?”

  Rin started to nod, but my questioning look had her hesitate. “She isolated all files about you, Cam.”

  They had files on me here?

  I slid in beside them and looked at dozens of pictures of me with my full name and “Anomaly X” by it. I was an Anomaly to them. Those fuckers did this to me! Ky whistled. “They've wasted millions tracking you in New York until their dog soldiers led them to you. They have all sorts of conjecture here, but they don't know why the process worked with you and not the others.”

  I snorted. “Their guess is as good as mine with all those other artifacts that were hitting me as the train derailed.”

  I froze when I saw an entry by Commander Alexander Xerxes himself at the very end of the file. “Subject escaped with the aid of known 'potentials'. Spotters identified retired Captain R. H. Frost of the United States Army Special Operations Command (Airborne) in the area. An attempt will be made to reacquire Anomaly X. Delta Squad has been sent to retrieve Jack Tourvell in an attempt to subdue the subject for testing.”

  I heard myself almost yelling, “What!?”

  I spun on the lab coats and grabbed one man, who squeaked when I yanked him to his feet by the front of his jacket, I think I heard chest hair tearing as I did. I held my bat in the air with my ectoplasmic hand. “Jack Tourvell? You assholes are going after my father?”

  The man looked half ready to wet himself in fear and half intrigued as he seemed to examine me. “You're her. You're the wildcard. Fascinating.” He was looking at my transparent arm wielding the bat.

  I shook him, and that put the fear back into him. “Commander Xerxes thought extricating your... umm... father from prison would convince you to allow us to do further testing on your amazing aberrant makeup. So he brought him here to be the first test subject for Phase Three.”

  Test subject? What the fuck? I started to swing the bat, my entire being was one of rage. They were going to experiment on my father! The bat stopped moving mid-flight, and my hand passed through it just to land a punch on the man's jaw.

  I looked back to see Rin had intercepted the bat. She gave me a look I didn't understand, except for the compassion of it as she shook her head. Then her face elongated as a razor-sharp hooked beak appeared on it, her skin turning ebony as feathers sprouted. She hissed into the man's face, and this time he did wet his pants.

  Then she cocked her head at an inhuman angle, her gold eyes blinking in amusement as she asked, “Where is Jack Tourvell?”

  He stuttered out everything he knew in a rush, his eyes drifting to the headless man by the corridor, likely thinking Rin may eat him, “They took him with them in the Genesis Chamber. They had already started Phase Three so they couldn't stop. They're heading to the off-grid base in Egypt.” Then he pleaded, “P-please don't... please don't eat me. I'm just a biologist, not a soldier.”

  She rolled her eyes then hissed viciously at him again, causing him to scream, then she slammed her head forward to headbutt him. With a hollow thud, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he slumped in my grip. I released him and let him fall to the floor, unconscious.

  I looked down at the man then the other two lab coats who just averted their eyes then almost pleaded with Rin, “They took my dad. They're... doing something to him.” My mind pictured the dog soldiers and Stephanie. Were they turning him into some sort of monster?

  We heard gunshots in the distance in the new silence in the building. My head shot up, tears streaming down my cheeks. I knew I could feel the wetness even on the side that was gone. I growled out, wanting to expend my rage on something, “Mouse!”

  I started running, and I heard Rin curse, “Shit.”

  Then she was running after me yelling back, “Everyone stay there, contact us on the radio if anything happens.”

  She was saying my name, trying to calm me. They had my dad. Sure he wasn't the role model for dads everywhere, and prison was a speed bump, but he was my dad. These sons of bitches were using him like a lab rat, and they were going to pay!

  As we burst outside, we took cover as we landed right in the middle of a gunfight. There were four dead soldiers by the helicopter and one left, firing two pistol looking weapons that sounded like chainsaws as they were slinging so many rounds at Hailey and Andreya it seemed overkill.

  On the other side of the helicopter was a deformed dog soldier holding a pistol to Mouse's side and a strange lizard or bird-ish soldier with one of the control collars on, unloading magazine after magazine of rounds into the air from an automatic rifle. I could see a great bird swooping around up there. Angel!

  Mouse was saying, “Sorry soldier girl, they got some dead bitch with them who could see my ghosts. They had me before Stacy could warn me.”

  Hailey, who normally teased the woman, said with worry and understanding, “Not your fault, Dorian. I'll be with you in just a second ok?”

 

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