43. Jack
FORTY-THREE
JACK
Under the setting sun, Jack led his father and Elizabeth back through the cave tunnel and the forest surrounding Burrow Den.
With the finding of the cave and the journal, Jack had forgotten his own hunger at missing lunch.
The journal was tucked into his long brown leather jacket.
He would give anything to sit down and read the book; however, he knew they had to make it back to the city.
They needed to tell Sloan and Aareth what they found as soon as possible. They needed to warn them something that went beyond the borders of Burrow Den was afoot.
Even with Elizabeth giving directions and the intense speed they traveled, it was still a few hours before the trio saw the first building marking the outline of the city. The sun was all but lost behind the mountains, small lights in the sky marking stars and constellations.
Jack wasn’t sure what he planned to do first as he wiped perspiration from his sun-bronzed forehead. He wanted to read the book, tell Sloan and Aareth what they found, and eat all at the same time.
His decision was made for him as they walked through the deceased mayor’s door. Sloan and Aareth were both hunched over two pieces of paper, an untouched meal between them.
“Oh, she’s mean.” Elizabeth caught sight of Sloan and turned to go. “I have to get back anyway. Abigail will be looking for me. She worries a lot. You know, since I’m crazy and everything.”
“Elizabeth,” Jack’s words stopped the fiery beauty in her tracks, “I just wanted to say thank you. If it wasn’t for you, we would have never found the laboratory or journal.”
Elizabeth brightened and gave an awkward half bow, half curtsy before she ran next door to her own house.
“There you two are.” Sloan looked up from the papers in front of her. “Did you find anything?”
“Tracks that made no sense.” Marcus removed his jacket and sat at the large wooden table. “Tracks belonging to an animal much bigger than has the right to exist, and a secret laboratory in the side of a mountain.”
Sloan and Aareth exchanged bewildered glances and then looked back at Marcus and Jack.
“Why don’t we eat and we can each tell one another what we found?” Marcus suggested as he served himself from the piping hot containers on the table. “And we should probably pay Abigail something for feeding us every day.”
Jack devoured both food and information. Dinner was one of the best he could ever remember. It was a twist on shepherd’s pie with mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables. Abigail even provided a pumpkin tart for dessert.
The information Sloan and Aareth shared was just as tantalizing as the food in front of them. There were moments in the conversation Jack robotically moved fork from plate to mouth without even looking down. Aareth told them about Benjamin Clive while Sloan related the details of the Queen’s note.
Sloan and Aareth were just as mesmerized when Jack and Marcus told them of the tracks and secret laboratory. It was over a second piece of pumpkin tart that Jack started to slow down. His appetite demanded more, while his stomach screamed for a break.
“So,” Sloan said, leaning from the table and looking up at the ceiling, “I think we should ask the inspector what he makes of all of this.”
“There is so much information that we’ve found today, it’s almost impossible to sift through it all in a reasonable amount of time,” Aareth said, wrapping his long black hair behind him in a ponytail.
“What we need to do is make a list of what we know for certain, and Jack—I’d like to spend the night reading that journal to see if there’s anything in there that might help us or give us a definitive answer on exactly what the scientists in the secret mountain laboratory were doing. ”
Jack readily handed over the leather-bound journal. Marcus stood and walked over to a cabinet that held pen and paper. He returned to the group, producing a small pair of glasses he perched on his nose. “Okay, let’s see what we have.”
“We know from the Queen’s note someone is worried about what we’ll find here, someone powerful enough to make an attempt on her life.
” Aareth started the conversation with a balled fist and raised a finger every time he spoke.
“We have to assume the laboratory was set in place to perform experiments of some kind. Benjamin Clive saw the beast in the woods right before the attacks started. If we draw a rough timeline, that’s after the last entry in this journal. ”
“The mage-powered bicycles were stamped with Doctor Oliver Livingston’s emblem and so were the beakers and equipment in the mountain laboratory.
” Sloan rocked forward in her seat as a light bulb clicked in her head.
“Benjamin said he saw Doctor Livingston come to the town just for a day to meet with the mayor, and after that, the mayor hit the jackpot. He built this house and started controlling the law enforcement in the city.”
Marcus was bent over his paper, writing like a madman to keep up with the information that was being related.
He stopped now as he looked into the eyes of his son and the two other members of the party.
“If Benjamin was telling the truth, then all roads lead to Livingston. He would have the financial backing and power to create a laboratory, and he’s one of only a few that has access to mage lights. The cave we found was full of them.”
“So,” Jack picked up the proverbial pause in conversation, “Livingston came to the city, bought the mayor’s secrecy, and set up a lab to do experiments?
” Jack paused as he thought back to the battle on the steam locomotive and the man with the scarred face that moved faster than any human could.
The man that was so strong he could bend Aareth’s large arms in on himself.
Jack also was reminded of the mutated unicorn they found the first night after escaping the desert storm.
“Could Livingston have been doing experiments on animals and people?”
The room was silent.
“It certainly seems like all the evidence points to Doctor Livingston, but before we bring a case against the most powerful man in New Hope, we’ll need solid proof.
Not to mention we still have a bloodthirsty monster on the loose.
” Aareth sighed. “Playing devil’s advocate, whoever was running the experiments could have simply bought Livingston equipment. ”
“Captain? Where do you want us to start?” Marcus asked, setting down his pen.
“Aareth will look into the journal to see if there’s anything useful to our cause.
We rest tonight, start early tomorrow morning.
All four of us will go. We need to track down and end this animal before any more loss of life occurs.
We’ll spilt up tomorrow. I’ll go with Jack and Aareth with Marcus.
The Queen sent us here to do a job. Heaven help the man or animal that gets in our way. ”