Chapter 40
INSANITY IS INFECTIOUS
There’s blood on the sleeve of my costume. Luckily, harlequin means red is kinda everywhere. I navigated the stairs fine, but the downstairs hallway is difficult. Half the idiot party goers are heading to the front door. The rest, like me, are curious about the smoke and the fuss.
That Hailey and Mister Scary Muscles went out the bedroom window is a slight pity.
Zedder comes over to me. “You’ve blood on your nose.”
The basement stairs are a few yards further along and people are stopping and gawking or going down there.
I wipe my nose with my sleeve again. The coke hits and my vision blurs for a second. I grin at Zedder. “Not a fire?”
“Apparently not. Carlos! What’s happened? Not our house, but we can’t have it getting wrecked.”
Carlos has just emerged from the basement, and he threads past a rubbernecking couple. He’s big and dark-featured with enormous eyebrows and has a gut under his Predator costume. His grim expression intrigues me.
“A man down there is dead. Someone called the cops, and they’re coming.”
Zedder levers himself off the wall. “What the hell. How? Any idea? We should cordon off the room then. Baxter will eat me alive if you all go down and stomp on evidence.”
“He’s got holes in him. Head, neck. He was going to brand a woman, and something happened. Brazier with hot coals was knocked over. She was found tied to a cross down there, ass out, naked, but not hurt. Him, he’s fucking left this Earth. Was the brazier your set-up?”
Typical. This is going to play havoc with the better parties in Revenant and even the Blue Abyss club, for months. I take out my phone and thumb through to the video I took earlier of Hailey. Really though, I should leave now and I only just took that coke. Wasted.
Zedder grimaces. “It was safe to use, if you’re careful.”
“He wasn’t.” Carlos laughs. “Branded his head, maybe, or something.”
“Who died?” I ask Carlos.
“Man named Dawid. Friend of yours, Zedder?”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck. He would. The fucking stupid…”
“Ha! Guess that’s a yes. A night of bad luck. I’m off before this gets complicated.”
Sirens are sounding in the distance.
I smack Zedder’s shoulder. “You should’ve let me bring some of my men after all.
I could have made the party less chaotic.
” And maybe grabbed Kail so I could experiment on that fucker.
And Hailey too…or not. The risks are escalating.
Investors are getting fidgety. “Bye. Say hi to the sheriff for me. Joking. Don’t do that. Don’t mention me, at all.”
As I saunter toward the back door and past the smoky, basement-stairs entry, I hear Zedder still swearing. It’s not his house but he’s going to be sitting making statements for hours. Will Baxter try to pull in Hailey too?
A fluffy white cat brushes past me going in the other direction. “Here, kitty-kitty.” It ignores me. “No pussy for me tonight.” I laugh at my own joke.
There’s an idea. Grab Hailey if Baxter arrests her? If she’s in a jail cell, she’d be documented. Which is not good. I can’t spirit her away from jail easily. A no then.
When my cock is aching for pussy, I tend to get dumb ideas. If this party is any indication, she’ll come to us of her own accord.
I park the Porche a mile from the party house, in the dead dark streets, before I pull out the phone to properly watch the video of Kail fucking little Miss Hailey in every filthy hole she owns. I breathe out in a whoosh. “I am never ever deleting this video.”
Might have to store it somewhere secret. It’s evidence of the frankenstruct existing. And probably other things.
I unzip the fly of the costume and restart the video—scrubbing forward to the time where I have the best close-ups of her on the spider web of ropes, with that deviant spear up her ass. Those orgasms he forces from her…
I gulp and start stroking my fist down my cock.
Going to have to clean up the Porche later.
It’s after two AM when I reach the gates to my house and, lo and behold, fucking Cannon is waiting outside, beside his car. The headlights are off but mine glaze across him. I stop and get out, leaving the gate shut.
I wave at the house. “Does Rebecca know it’s you out here, because the sensors will have detected you.”
“Yes, sir. I told her.”
And chose to remain out here anyway.
“So, what is it?” I have a headache, probably from the snorting, or the nosebleed, or the rise in blood pressure from watching my local porn star. I brush back my hair, check the door is shut and lean on the Porche. “The dead man at the party?”
“I did hear of that.” He straightens his sweater. For once he’s not in a suit, though the colors are drab and dark. “No, though I reminded Zedder to wipe all memory of you from his head, guest list, etcetera.”
“Only you would say etcetera. You should have seen Hailey Tarrant. The sex is etched into my brain. If we could have, I would’ve ordered you to abduct both of them. I gave Kail the USB anyway so let’s see if they take the bait.”
He remains silent.
“Pregnant silence, Cannon? I know it would be reckless, disturb the investors, etcetera.” I grin. “But so tempted.”
“And the frankenstruct would resist and possibly kill one or two of us. I have thought about how to overcome that minor detail but trying to grab them in the middle of Revenant is risky. However, why I am here is because the sheriff arrested Rasmus, hours ago, as planned. He confiscated everything he could and put him in jail.”
“Good.” I fold my arms. “Excellent, even. Did you get that phone?”
“We did, and Rasmus had already cracked it and recorded his findings and conclusions. All the files are ours. It is revelatory, Van Kerr says. He has an assistant now. Yes, I vetted him. It was the only way we could expedite this. Rasmus has been released. Esau Wrath turned up and took him home. There is not enough evidence, yet, to charge him with everything we wish to throw at him.”
I nod and try not to look annoyed. “You said revelatory. What is on that phone?”
He inhales audibly. “This may sound crazy, sir. The entire operating system is just ‘off’ according to Van Kerr. The data inside seems like it refers to here, to the institute.” He gestures.
“A Revenant Institute is mentioned. Some info about Kail is in there, and his full name is indeed Kail Stone.
“The data also repeats some things we assumed were errors on the memory card. Such as Hailey’s father being alive and the subject of a hit that was ordered very recently.
Kail was here to kill Simon Tarrant. They listed Kail as very dangerous but trained to obey—citing those priority orders, for example. ”
“Huh. And yeah, we know they had poor intel on Simon Tarrant.”
“We believe he killed his handler in defiance of a priority order. He’s not safe. He’s a loose, ahem, cannon.”
I chuckle at that. “So, the revelation is the errors and the operating system? Where is this institute he came from? It has the same name?”
“Well, brace yourself. It was really this place. He comes from Revenant, but in an alternate timeline. This is the only explanation that fits.”
I groan and drop my head into my hands. “No. Nooo. Don’t do this to me. Dammit, Cannon. It’s late.” I raise my head. “Now tell me the real interpretation.”
He stares. “That…was…it. Rasmus said it. Van Kerr came to the same conclusion after he analyzed a mountain of data. Kail Stone is from an alternate world. He does not exist at all here. If we can trap him, we can do anything to him, and he may be the key to one of the biggest scientific breakthroughs ever. Sir, I would suggest we inform your investors before you choose what to do. I suggest we leave the girl alone for now. Even if she falls into our hands, we need to free her.”
I merely blink at him. What the fuck. Have they all gone mad? It’s too early, too late, and I have a fucking headache.
“I am going to bed, Cannon. Go over that data again, tomorrow, when you’re all less fatigued. Goodnight.”
He turns to the car with disappointment lodged in the rigidity of his mouth and eyes.
“Wait. Cannon. Just…wait. You genuinely see Kail as a target but intend freeing her if she just drops into my hands? No. I want her too. You agreed previously that killing her was doable. Two birds, one stone. That’s a pun, I think?
She’s…a liability.” I wave vaguely. “She threatened to go higher up and expose the institute, and she is willing to try hacking in and getting past our security.”
“Yes. True.”
No sir in there?
I have pissed him off. “Yes, but she hasn’t, yet. That party was her way to get into the institute, even if we did set her up. So, after that ramble, my point is, I want her. I want her in a room, at my mercy. There.” I jab my finger at where the institute building rears into the sky.
“You just said she has nowhere left to go. Rasmus is an amateur. She may not use what we gave her. It was clever of you, sir, but that USB might lead us nowhere. And you have a powerful piece of evidence to use against her if she ever tries to expose you.”
“I do?” I open the Porche door, ready to slide in. Cannon called me clever. Nice. “Which is?”
“That video you made tonight of her being fucked. A long video, I gather.”
“Very long.” I smile. “How the fuck did you know? Forget it. I want her. I want her alive, for a while, until I tire of her.”
“Not advisable. Not necessary. You have her over a barrel with a stick up her ass in a video. Go public with that. She cannot complain if we catch and detain Kail, because he is not a person and never ever existed here.” The man is almost raising his voice.
“Try murdering her and get caught and the institute will suffer. Your investors would disapprove.”
That again? Cannon nearly shouting is unusual.
It’s my turn to stare. I don’t like my staff lecturing me.
My eyes are drooping though, and I need a painkiller.
I settle into the driver’s seat. “To be continued, tomorrow. Get some sleep, Cannon. I want your brain working tomorrow, and working for me, not for the investors.” I shut the door and start the engine, listening to that purr while the gate slides back.
Why has everyone gone insane tonight? Alternate worlds? Jesus, give me a break.