Adamant (25 page)

Ms Weston, however, raised her hand and threw her stunner to me. I reacted just in time to catch it, and saw that she had another one of her own and was waving it threateningly.

The wyvern clawed its way through the ruins of my car and spread its bat-like wings wide. It was bleeding, I noticed, from several places its thick armoured scales had been knocked off. But it was still eight feet tall, covered in thick armour, and angry as hell.

I instinctively moved in front of Ada.

“Don’t you dare,” she said. “It’s only fair that I get a crack at the monster, too.” She grinned, and ran at the wyvern.

“Get the tail!” I shouted over my shoulder—we needed to cut off the poison barb otherwise odds were, it was game over for at least one of us. I crossed the road in a zigzag to avoid the thrashing tail, which left dents wherever it struck the tarmac. Ms Weston brandished her stunner, but the wyvern seemed undaunted. It screeched, and the claws swiped out. Ada ran for the tail, dagger in hand. And I aimed at the side, stunner at the ready, and jumped. I managed to get a grip on a patch of loose scales and haul myself up, press the stunner to a wound in its side, and brace myself for the backlash.

Magic sizzled through the beast’s skin, and it cried out, tail lashing wildly—behind it, Ada screamed.

Shaken from the backblast, I climbed sideways and peered around, my heart stopping when I spotted Ada splayed on the ground, but she jumped up again and made another lunge for the tail.

The wyvern swiped for Ms Weston. She let out a stifled yell as her hand was tangled in its claw, but the buzz of static warned me she’d used the opportunity to fire the stunner. I knew the drill, I’d done it in simulation a hundred times.
Aim for the weak points, the joints between its armour.
Not that it had many of those. I quickly let go and dropped to the ground, the echo of the magic shock vibrating through my body. Ada, meanwhile, had thrown herself flat on the tarmac to avoid the lashing tail and was stabbing wildly with her dagger. I hoped she knew what she was doing. One wrong move could kill her.

Weakened by the double attack, the wyvern staggered sideways. I had a brief glimpse of terrified faces peering from windows of the occupied houses as I readied myself to fire another shot with the stunner.

And did my best to ignore the answering pulse in my veins, the tug of magic that shouldn’t even be present on Earth.

The wyvern swayed, knees buckling, and I jumped clear as its side smashed into the metal fence. The tail came down again, with Ada clinging to the underside, inches away from the poisonous barb. Cursing, I checked on Ms Weston, who’d drawn a knife and was slashing at the wyvern’s flailing claws, ignoring the blood streaming from her own arm.

“Got a spare?” I ran to her side and joined in the attack, firing another shot with the stunner into the palm of its hand. The beast reared back, its scaly hide trembling, drool and blood dripping from its gaping mouth.

To my surprise, Ms Weston handed me her weapon and backed off, allowing me to take the attack. She’d drawn her communicator instead. Calling for backup. I concentrated on the flailing monster, which was beginning to recover from the double attack.

Then it screeched, a grating cry that cracked the glass in several car windows. There was a heavy
thud,
and its tail struck the ground in a shower of blood. Ada had found her mark. Claws swiped in Ms Weston’s direction, and I slashed back with the knife, severing the end of one claw. I struck again, cutting deep into its arm under the damaged armour. Blood poured from the wound and the wyvern flailed back. Ms Weston rejoined me with another knife in her hand and her face a determined mask.

“Let’s give it hell, Kay,” she said.

Claws swiped, and so did my knife. Several scaled fingers, claws and all, fell to the ground, and before it could rear back, I slammed the stunner into the wounds. This time, the recoil nearly took me off my feet. Magic burned through my veins, and I staggered but kept my balance.

There was a snapping sound, and the wyvern screeched. My eardrums vibrated, and several people screamed inside the houses.

Ada came running around from the spot where the monster’s tail had been. She’d cut it clean off. Blood spattered her dark clothes and streaked her face, but she threw herself back into the fight. The three of us moved to surround the beast. It had nowhere to turn.

Shouts rang out, and several guards ran up to join us. The message had got through. Knives slashed, stunners sent buzzes of magic through the air, and the wyvern fell.

Ms Weston stepped back to let the guards take care of it and beckoned to me before I could jump into the action again. Ada had moved back too, gasping for breath, her face painted with the wyvern’s blood.

“I need you to run to Central,” said Ms Weston. “My communicator’s damaged, but this was a calculated attack. And they’re planning another one.”

I looked from her to the wyvern. “You think–?”

“This would have seemed like an accident, of course. But there are others in danger, too. I want you to go to the medical division and order an evacuation. I think that’s the next target.”

What the hell was I missing? I shook my head, slightly dazed and breathing heavily from the fight.

“You’re absolutely sure?” I said.

“Better to be safe. Go, now.”

“I’ll stay here,” said Ada quickly. “Go on.”

Ms Weston looked in her direction. Damn. There went my plan to clear her name. I had to trust that Ada would stay calm. If people really were in danger at Central, then that had to take priority.

Thanks, universe,
I thought, running back towards Central. Guards were still coming out the doors and several people stopped to talk to me as I went in.

“What’s going on?” asked Carl. “We got a call, but no orders.”

“Wyvern attack,” I said breathlessly, pointing over the fence. “Mostly taken care of.”

“Damn.”

I headed downstairs, past the room where Ada had been imprisoned, and saw that the door to Saki’s lab was slightly open.

“You again?” she said from behind her desk, as I pushed the door further in. “What this time?”

“Ms Weston’s ordered an evacuation,” I said, in a low voice. “She thinks the labs are the next target. A wyvern attacked us in the road.”

“You’re kidding me,” she said.

I shook my head. “She really believes it. I don’t know why, but I reckon you ought to get out of here.”

Saki made an impatient noise. “If you’re absolutely sure.” She grabbed a handful of papers and came out of the lab to join me. “Ada’s blood,” I said, as we walked quickly towards the other labs. “You didn’t figure out what was wrong with it, did you?”

“Kind of. It’s quite similar to what Mr Clark was asking about just before he was killed. This old research project was abandoned a while ago—thirteen years ago, I think…”

Shit.
I’d suspected, but I hadn’t known for sure. No one in the Alliance was supposed to know about the brief spell of failed experiments. Because the instigator had relocated to London’s West Office immediately afterwards, and had finally disappeared off grid, five years ago, on the closed-off world of Thairon. Leaving his son behind.

His son, who’d also participated in the experiment. Not by choice.

“You have to get out of here,” I said. “Is there anyone else down here?”

“Yeah… hold on.” She rapped on the nearest door, while I pushed open another. Some were locked. One contained Ada’s phone, discarded on the table, and I picked it up.

“Everyone’s out,” said Saki, who was now surrounded by confused-looking doctors.

“What’s happening?” one of them asked.

“Ms Weston’s ordered an evacuation,” I said. “Follow me.”

Though I led the way in silence, the world felt like it was tilting under my feet. Now I had a pretty good idea of the killer’s motives. I hadn’t thought anyone else was involved, that there’d been any other… subjects. But it made sense.

The question was, who was it?

A tense silence followed us upstairs. No one questioned the order, and Saki and I led the group across the entrance hall. Nothing looked out of place, except the unusual lack of people coming into work, and I knew that was down to most of the guards having gone after the wyvern. It still felt wrong.

Outside. I could see the carnage from the battle even from here, a crowd gathering around the hunched, scaly body of the wyvern. It must be dead, or close to. I knew from experience in the Academy’s fight simulations that those bastards were wicked tough to kill. It was probably the same one which had been in the Passages the other day.

Ms Weston crossed the car park towards us. She’d pressed a cloth to her bleeding arm and her usually impeccable uniform was somewhat dishevelled and dust-stained, but she held herself upright. She gave me a tight nod, which I assumed meant “thank you”.

“What’s the problem?” Saki asked. “Why the evacuation—what happened?” Her eyes bugged out at the sight of Ms Weston bleeding, and beyond that, the torn-up street and wrecked cars.

As Ms Weston spoke to them, I spotted Ada just outside the gate. She’d resheathed her dagger and wiped the blood from her face, which relaxed when she saw me. “That’s your boss, right?” she said. “She told me to come back later for questioning.”

“She won’t arrest you again,” I said, pulling her phone from my pocket and handing it to her. “Got this back for you.”

“I—thanks,” she said, a surprised flush lighting her face. She started tapping the touch screen. “Hell. I’ve a ton of messages from Delta.”

“About that,” I said. “This mess is going to take a while to clean up. I can’t promise I’ll be able to help you find the shelter, but I can give you Simon’s details.”

“Sure.” She shook her head, looking a little dazed, and I rattled off Simon’s code number, then mine. She nodded. “Stored. Hang on. There’s a quicker way.” She dug a hand in her pocket and pulled out—nothing. “It’s an earpiece,” she said quickly. “Invisible. My brother invented them. That’s how I talked to him when I was imprisoned.”

I stared at her. “You what?” I’d forgotten all about that, in the wake of everything else. But I reached out and felt something small, metal and solid in my hand. I could see the faint outline if I squinted.

“Clip it to your ear. There’s a switch to activate it on the back.”

I held the tiny object delicately, pushing it into place behind my left ear. “If your brother wants to apply for a job in our tech department, I can ask,” I said.

She smiled grimly. “If we ever get out of this mess, I’ll tell him that.” She glanced at Ms Weston, who was talking urgently to Saki and the medics.

“I don’t understand,” Saki was saying. “What part of our research–?”

“What do you mean, experiments?”
someone else said. “I’ve never heard anything about-”

Voices. Dragging it all out, piece by piece. I froze, unable to move away. Even though I knew what was coming. Like it was inevitable.

“That’s the point. It was confidential. The subjects didn’t have any reaction, so it was judged a failure,” said Ms Weston.

She knew. God help me, she knew. The experiment had been a one-off. Earth didn’t usually go in for magic-based research, for obvious reasons, but from what I’d picked up on through listening to his conversations with other Alliance members on the phone, my father had been fascinated with the notion of people with inbuilt magic sources, a rarity even in high-magic worlds. Fascinated enough to convince a handful of scientists at Central to inject people with—I had no idea. Distilled magic sources, like a jacked-up version of the temporary-boost implants used on some of the east-way worlds. They’d gone along with it, of course, because he was a council member, and half-crazed with grief over losing his wife in a failed Ambassador mission. At least, that’s what everyone thought.

I knew better.

I pressed my clenched fist to my mouth, willing my mind to stop replaying those images.
Stop. Stop that.

I damn near jumped out of my skin when my communicator buzzed in my pocket. I retrieved it and swiped in the code, seeing there was a new message under Markos’s name.

“Lenny’s dead.”

“Shit,” I said, taking a step back. “Oh, shit.”

“What?” said Ada.

“I have to go. Ms Weston—someone else from Office Fifteen has been killed. Lenny.”

“No,” said Ms Weston, the blood draining from her face. “I thought—I thought they’d go for the labs. We have to make sure everyone else gets out.”

She marched towards Central. I turned back to Ada.

“You’re going?”

“I have to. They’re killing people in my department.”

“But—but
you
could be their next target.”

Yeah. I knew that. And was she actually worried about me? “I won’t get killed,” I said.

“You bloody better not,” said Ada. “I’ll wait out here.”

I turned and ran back to Central, the buzz of the communicator becoming a roaring in my ears. I flew upstairs and skidded to a halt outside the office. The grey carpet was soaked in blood.

“Fuck,” I said.