48. Jack
FORTY-EIGHT
JACK
“Why do you think he ran when he saw us?’ Jack asked as he entered the house with Sloan.
“Who knows? That guy is beyond crazy. Let’s make sure he didn’t take anything.”
Jack made his way through the large front room and up the winding staircase. Everything in his room was how he had left it. The bed welcomed him and Jack was debating whether or not he could afford a nap before his father and Aareth arrived.
The question was answered by the sound of the front door opening and his father’s voice. “Anyone home?”
Jack made a mental note to visit his bed very soon and walked back down the stairs. Sloan was already there briefing the men on the peculiar noise they heard in the forest and the lack of tracks to follow.
“It was the same with us. I mean, minus the weird whistling sound. When we lost the tracks just outside Benjamin Clive’s house, we couldn’t find them again,” Marcus said.
“We need to find answers. This is getting ridiculous.” Sloan balled her fist in anger and slammed it against a wooden wall. “That preacher is going to get the entire town to turn on us soon.”
“Speaking of crazy preachers, why was Elijah running from the mansion?” Aareth asked as he lounged in a chair, helping himself to leftovers from the previous night’s dinner.
“You got us,” Jack said joining Aareth at the table.
Soon Marcus and Sloan were munching along with them. Each one of the four members was beyond exhausted. Jack was forcing his brain to form some kind of explanation, but it just wasn’t there.
“Do you think that them not bringing us any more food is a sign?” Aareth asked as he fought to keep his eyes open.
“Who knows? Maybe,” Sloan said.
“No, I don’t think so,” Jack mumbled before he could stop himself. “Abigail wouldn’t do that.”
“Oh, Abigail, huh?” Sloan’s eyebrow rose in disapproval. “Weren’t you already outside last night when we heard the screams? A little late-night visit with Abigail, maybe?”
Jack turned beet red as he felt his face warm.
“Shouldn’t we be concentrating on how to get this thing?” Marcus asked with a wink to his son.
“I agree,” Aareth said, “but we aren’t going to do any good without rest. Running through the forest all night has worn on all of us. Charlotte, what do you think?”
“I think if I wasn’t so tired, I’d take you outside and decapitate you for using my first name.” Sloan shook her head, all her attention taken off Jack and his midnight visits and directed at Aareth.
“But before I take off your head, we do need rest. Have you made any headway into the journal Jack found?”
“I planned on waking up early and going through it this morning.” Aareth stifled a yawn. “With the midnight massacre, we all know how that turned out.”
“We need to get through that book.” Sloan eyed the blood-spattered journal on the table. “There might be something in there. A way to track it, or maybe an explanation of what it is exactly.”
“If you don’t mind, Sloan, I’d like to read through it before I lie down.” Marcus pushed himself to his feet. “I’m not that tired. The sooner we get to the bottom of this, the better.”
The three members of the table all younger than Marcus sat humbled in silence. They were all beyond exhausted. They knew Marcus was too. Despite this, he was offering to be the one to stay up and do the research.
“Thank you, Marcus.” Sloan rubbed at her red eyes. “The rest of us, let’s get some sleep and be ready for tonight. I have a feeling that we’re getting closer to finding the truth and eventually killing this thing.”
To say the bed felt good to Jack would be a huge understatement.
The soft mattress underneath him was amazing.
Jack didn’t even bother with washing up or changing; he just took off his boots, jacket, and wand belt, and fell into bed.
It was one of those sleeps where his head barely hit the pillow before he was out cold.
“Jack. Jack, time to wake up, son.”
Jack opened his eyes to darkness. The sun was high overhead when they arrived back at the mansion. Now a moon took its place in the sky. He rubbed the sleep away as he yawned and sat up in bed. His father gained his full attention when Jack saw a wild look in his eye.
“Dad, are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” Marcus’ eyes were bloodshot. He looked as tired as Jack could ever remember seeing him. “I’ve read the whole journal, and Jack—son—I’m sorry for dragging you into this. I was wrong to come.”
“What are you talking about? It’s okay; you don’t have to apologize. I made the decision too. I’m not a little kid anymore.”
“No, you are definitely not a child anymore.” Marcus placed a hand on his son’s shoulder. “You’re a man your mother would be proud of. A man I am proud to have by my side.”
Jack wasn’t sure what to say or how to respond. A moment passed while Jack looked into his father’s eyes, a moment that told him nothing would ever be the same after this night.
“Let’s go downstairs,” Marcus said. “It’s better if I tell you all at once. Sloan and Aareth are already awake.”
Jack grabbed his boots, jacket, and wand belt. Jack followed his father downstairs past the wooden hall of rooms and down the spiral staircase. The large front room spread out before them, bathed in candle and lantern light.
Aareth sat in a high-backed leather chair, adjusting the cold steel of the gauntlets that gave him the power of Zeus. Sloan paced back and forth across the carpeted wood floor. Arms crossed, she looked worried.
“All right, sorcerer, what did you find?” Sloan asked as she looked up at Marcus and stopped pacing.
Jack took a seat at the empty table. Aareth stopped tinkering with his gloves and gave Marcus his undivided attention.
Marcus took a deep breath. Jack wondered again what could cause his father to change from the optimistic man he had known his entire life to someone so nervous and paranoid.
Jack didn’t have to wait long. The light played around the room in dancing and swirling shadows as Marcus told a story Jack would have passed off as fiction if it were to come from anyone besides his own father.
“The journal was written by the lead scientist in the cave laboratory. His name was Aaron Jebson. He and a group of researchers and scientists were hired by some kind of secret order. Their contact was Dr. Oliver Livingston. They were tasked with performing a specific set of experiments. These experiments were to be executed on humans and animals alike.”
Marcus paused and took a deep breath. “There were countless failed experiments on both humans and animals, resulting in deformed genetic mutations. I won’t go into detail, but the accounts of these experiments are the most disturbing things I’ve ever read.
Most of the failed experiments they scrapped, but a few animals were released back into the wild.
There’s a list here of unicorns, rabbits, foxes, frogs, etcetera that were abandoned projects. ”
Marcus took a deep breath and prepared himself for what he was about to say next. Once again, Jack was struck by his father’s vexed disposition. “There’s a section here I’d like to read straight from the book about two specific humans that were experimented on.
Subject R-19, code named “Banshee,” actually discovered us in the forest. She was wandering about when our security crew found her.
We took her, and alongside R-10, code named “Night Walker,” started performing the Vampire experiment using the latest tools and resources at our disposal.
They both took to the procedure extremely well but in completely different ways.
Where subject R-10 showed massive improvements in speed, strength, and an insatiable taste for blood, subject R-19 took to the procedure in an unprecedented manner.
She has shown an intellectual capability further than that of any of our staff.
Her brain activity even borders on the telepathic level.
I am not so proud to even say that her brainpower now far surpasses that of my own. We are all eager to see in what other ways her newfound power manifests itself.
“The last portion of the journal mentions another laboratory in New Hope showing huge success in the same ‘Vampire’ experiments. It ends with a new test subject called ‘A-21’ showing rapid development within its cage and then nothing.”
Jack sat stunned, trying to process all the new information. A secret order working in New Hope? Dr. Livingston is connected, there is no doubt about that now, but is he the head of this order? Who were the two human test subjects?
Jack could have gone on and on with the list of questions that needed to be answered, but Sloan’s commanding voice cut in instead.
“Benjamin Clive’s story is true. Dr. Livingston did come to Burrow Den.
He bought off the mayor in exchange for his secrecy and a secure location to perform his experiments in the mountain laboratory. ”
“And whatever this animal is, it’s not an angel of death sent from a divine being. It’s a genetically engineered animal. A killing machine,” Aareth added.
“We know who the male test subject was.” Jack nodded, staring into the past and remembering the battle on the steam locomotive. “It had to be our attacker on the traveling steam engine. Who’s the girl?”
No one had a chance to speak further as the doors to the mayor’s mansion crashed open. A hysterical Abigail raced into the room.
“It’s him—you have to stop him. He’s controlling the animal. He killed all those people.”
“Wow, wow—slow down,” Marcus said.
“It’s okay.” Jack stood up, motioning Abigail to sit in his chair. “Just sit down. Tell us what’s going on. We can help.”
Jack’s heart melted in his chest as he witnessed Abigail trembling. He put a hand on her shoulder and knelt by her seat. “Abigail, it’s okay. I’m not going to let anything happen to you, I promise.”
“No, Jack.” Abigail turned her large teary eyes on Jack and slowly shook her head. “You don’t understand. It’s not me that I’m worried about. It’s you.”