10. Darius
DARIUS
Thankfully, Viv let Koit and I take charge of what to buy for her, and indulged us when we needed her to try a few things on.
Finished, we purchased everything with the nearly untraceable bank account I had set up.
Only those who knew what to look for would be able to find it.
Now, it was time to get to the small airport where Chad sent the Gulfstream that my company owned through one of my smaller companies.
We couldn’t use it the last time because it only fit about ten people, which made it feel very crowded, but it was what I planned for us to use while we searched for Viv once we got into America.
“This is going to be… cozy,” Rik muttered as he boarded the plane.
I had to bite back my smile, knowing how much he hated being forced into small spaces with how bulky he was.
Although Tristan was about the same size, if not a little taller, he never once complained about our traveling arrangements.
Tristan was also used to being on the run and doing what you had to in order to survive.
“Darius, do you have a laptop with you?” Viv asked as we settled into our seats.
Cocking a brow at her, I pulled one out of a compartment in the plane.
Rolling her eyes at me, she let out a huff of laughter.
“Fair play. Now what are the chances you can pull up a blueprint of the building we’re going to? ”
“Seeing as we only have the town name, we need to locate the building first,” I explained. “Once I know the address, it will help to locate those records and whatever else we need to find.”
Now it was Viv’s turn to smirk at me, as she wrote something down on a pad of paper and slid it over to me. Glancing at it, I saw it was an address. My gaze snapped up to her in surprise. “How in the world did you get this? You haven’t been out of our sight all day.”
“Maria was able to find it in Tim’s memories and she shared it with me.
I’ve already seen what the inside looks like, but only areas that Tim was in, so I don’t know the entire layout,” she shared.
“There are a ton of security cameras in the place, but I didn’t see guards, so I’m thinking there is a security room that they’re in to keep up appearances.
To get into the real research area, we’ll need to get past a secure set of doors that requires keycard access. ”
“Well damn, babe, look at you going all super spy on us.” Koit chuckled. “This might be easier than we thought it would be.”
I grunted as I typed the information into my database that filtered through the internet and other information networks that might have what we needed.
Soon enough, I got blueprints and the city’s utilities information for the building and surrounding area.
From the looks of things, it didn’t seem they did much more than upgrade the power supply and security, but it wasn’t the top of the line.
My guess was that since there were no live subjects to keep trapped, it was considered a lesser target for those wanting to hurt their efforts.
There was a truth to the whole hiding in plain sight idea.
Why protect something with fancy security if there was nothing worth stealing?
You had to know exactly what you were looking for in a lab like this for it to matter, and unfortunately for them, we knew just what to steal.
Pulling up the plans of the building, I turned the computer around so Viv could see it. “Does this look right? I wouldn’t put it past Jason to have things done off the record or not keep things updated.”
Leaning in closer, her stunning sea-colored eyes took in what the screen was showing her.
There was no doubt that the woman who got taken from us seven months ago was different.
She had the battle scars to prove it. The astounding thing to me though, was to see how empowered she was through it.
Strength and determination showed through, as she took on every aspect of this battle, and it made me even prouder to be her mate.
She had gained confidence in herself throughout the time I’d known her, rescuing her from the monastery in Russia to become the woman I was madly in love with sitting before me—a true queen.
Sure, I used it as a taunt at first, but it had become so true to me and the others of what she would become when we took out these bastards that dared to fuck with our family.
“It’s for sure the same place, but I can tell they’ve done some updating from these plans. Nothing major, but it seemed this at one point had been an open space where now it’s divided into two sections, the front labs and the larger back one,” Viv said, pointing it out to me.
Taking the image, I pulled it into a different program and handed her a stylus. “Go ahead and mark what’s changed and where you saw the cameras. Was there anything else in what you saw that we need to know?”
She paused in her drawing and closed her eyes, drawing a deep breath.
“In the back lab, there are a large amount of… specimens for them to work from. They are all in various stages of growth.” Her jaw clenched as she looked up at me.
“If they have Violet and I find out they’ve done things to her, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep any amount of control. ”
Growling from the others echoed in the plane.
“If that’s the case, then I will do more than wipe that building off the face of the earth,” Orion snarled.
“The suffering I will cause to those who touched a hair on her body will be beyond anything I’ve ever done before in my four hundred plus years of life. ”
After that, we fell into a tense silence as we all became lost in our own thoughts, while I worked on finding out everything I could about this building.
The flight was four and a half hours, which gave us plenty of time to come up with a plan.
With the upgrades they did on the security, I was able to hack into them without having to hardline in physically.
It was the beauty of Jason having so many facilities to keep track of at once.
They needed remote access at any given time, providing me the crack to hack my way into.
The place seemed quiet, and that surprised me until I noticed it was Sunday.
Since we left Kursar, I couldn’t tell you what date, or the day of the week it was most of the time.
Everything we’d been doing was trying to fly under the radar and that didn’t follow a schedule well.
Viv had been right; each lab had a camera or two so that I could get the feel for the place.
The only area I couldn’t see into was the back lab.
It was on a different looped system that was routed through an on-location server.
That one would have to be dealt with in person, but everything else was at my fingertips.
Part of me wanted to find a way to bring all the staff into the lab so we could burn them all for what they’d been doing, but a small voice told me they could be pawns, just like Tim.
He didn’t know the full extent of what they were doing and when he found out, he got Diane and Nicole out of there as fast as he could and didn’t look back.
From what I could tell on their backup, this place did legitimate business for research and only three men worked in the back lab, while the others stayed out front.
Never once did they exchange items from one area to the other, leaving me to believe the real culprits were those three men.
Seeing that we only had two more hours until we landed, I felt it was time to bring everyone up to speed.
“Alright, this is going to be fairly full of good news. The location isn’t heavily guarded, and at this moment, only two security personnel are there keeping an eye on things.
What we need to do is get into the back, but that won’t be much of a problem if we take out the security and use their badges or unlock it from there.
I’m guessing the server will be in there with them or in the back lab.
We’ll need the building to stay standing long enough for me to download everything they have, so we can look over it back at Christian’s.
Bentley, I’m gonna be counting on you to tell us if there is anything we need to do to ensure nothing can be salvaged from what’s in that lab. ”
“Fire will take out most everything on a research level, but if I see something that needs attention, I’ll let you know,” Bentley assured.
“Before we enter, I’ll loop the footage until we get it to the security room, then I’ll shut it down so we can access the back lab.
Once I do that, we’ll tip off the eye in the sky that something is going down.
My main focus will be getting as much information as I can before sending a virus through the system.
In no way do I want Grayson Industries to have a chance to start over.
My fear is that by doing this, I might infect all the other computers in the network, losing the data on the test subjects,” I warned while watching Viv.
She frowned but nodded. “It’s more important that they can’t use the information. I’m sure when we hit the base in Montana, there will be a backup somewhere of what they’ve been up to. Jason is an absolute control freak and would want his own copy.”
“That is my feelings as well,” I said as I flipped the screen for all the guys to see.
“The layout is simple—Rik and Tristan, you come with me to the security room, while the rest of you check out the labs to make sure there are no hidden surprises. Once we get the lab open, I want you guys to be careful. I can’t see in there from this feed, so who knows what could be waiting for us on the other side.
Be smart, be fast, and let’s make the fuckers pay for what they’ve been doing to us. ”
Tav passed out the clothes and we changed into them, before our final descent into South Dakota.
All of us matched in black cargo pants, t-shirts, hoodies, and black boots, making it as hard as possible to tell the difference between any of us with the hoods up, except for height.
Even though I was sure I had control of the video feed, I couldn’t promise there wasn’t a secondary backup tied to the circuit, watching the back lab.
My motto right now was be overly cautious, rather than pay for our mistakes the hard way.
I’d been communicating with Chad to get us what we needed and waiting for us at the airport in the SUV we were going to use.
It’s amazing how having friends that existed in the gray area of the law was so helpful.
One of the many reasons I didn’t shy away from making deals with them.
“How far is it from the airport to our destination?” Tav asked.
“Roughly an hour, but I suggest we get something to eat along the way,” I answered. “The last thing we need is someone to get shaky because they went all day without food.”
Everyone mumbled their agreement as the wheels of the plane touched down, jostling us at its abruptness.
Anything we didn’t need was left on the plane.
We were going to be flying right out as soon as we finished what we needed to do as it was.
The less time we spent here, the better chances they wouldn’t know what hit them.
True to Chad’s skill, a blacked-out SUV was waiting for us.
I opened the back to check that everything was there before we headed out.
“Wow,” Koit whistled. “It’s actually a little scary that you can get that kind of fire power and explosives with a few phone calls to your assistant.”
Under the floor mat were bricks of C4, along with fuses and triggers to set it off, in addition to some handguns and mini machine guns.
With a grunt of satisfaction, I replaced the mat and headed for the driver’s seat, only to find Tav already there.
“I’ve got this. You’ve been working nonstop on this plan.
Just sit back and relax for the next hour.
I’ll get us there, no worries.” Tav assured me.
Viv took my hand and pulled me in with her, so she was settled between me and Orion.
Although, when you looked at the guy, his eyes were blacked out, letting us all know that Okami was more present.
Whenever this happened, Viv was one of the few people who could keep him calm and controlled until we were ready to unleash him on those who deserved it.
If there was ever a time to have the demi-god of torment on your side, now would be it.