Holocaust (The Deadwood Hunter Series Book 3) (16 page)

Chapter 21

For two weeks, Lexia had been patient. She’d kept to her schedule but during the early hours of the morning, she’d been following Lucy. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Lucy used the same route Lexia had to leave the compound. She’d tramp through the forest to the building Lexia had followed her to those few weeks earlier.

Now, Lexia glanced at her watch, waiting for shift change. She was standing by the door waiting to escape into the early evening. It would still be light so she had to get to the fence, under it and reach the cover of the trees in the few minutes it took for the guards to change. Getting back would have to wait until midnight when the skeleton crew took over and the exit was conveniently left unguarded.

When she’d first stumbled across her escape, she’d wondered why no one had noticed a weakness in the compound’s defense, but now she knew, and she wondered just how long Lucy had been making these trips.

Her blood raced with excitement as she dived for the fence, her skin scraping the ground as she rolled beneath the chain mesh. The freedom of the forest sizzled through her veins and for a brief moment, she smiled and fantasized this was just an ordinary day, and she was running through the trails near her home.

The wolves had moved away from the compound since she’d spoken to them. She suspected they didn’t trust her even though she’d delivered Sahara unharmed. Finding them took her more time than she’d have liked. She’d be having no sleep tonight by the time she’d made the trek back to the compound.

Resting for a minute, her hands on her knees, Lexia dragged some much-needed oxygen into her lungs and calmed her thoughts, opening her mind up to the life around her, feeling for the life forces of the alpha pack.

A laugh left her as she felt one nearby. Standing, she peered through the darkness but was unable to see him. “How long have you been watching me try to find you? Does it amuse you wearing me out?”

Grey’s voice spoke from her right but still she couldn’t see him. “I wanted to make sure you were alone.”

“I’m alone. No other hunter would be foolish enough to venture this far into the forest at night.”

“You may have been followed,” he replied from the darkness.

“Unlikely, and even so, they’d have never kept up, and now will be wandering the forest trying to find their way home.”

“So why is it you can run this land, hunter?”

Lexia smiled into the shadows, knowing he could see her. “Because I was trained by a panther, not by a hunter. This is my home as much as yours. I wonder if you could scale the trees as well as me?”

Grey stepped into her view, laughing. “I’m no cat.” He stopped a few feet away. “What is it you need, Lexia?”

“A distraction.”

With the wolves on board, Lexia had only one more person to see, and she knew he’d be very unhappy with her plan.

“You’re going to what?” he hissed, trying to be pissed off and quiet at the same time.

“I’m going to break into her office. Well, technically, I won’t be breaking into anywhere, since I’ll be inside before the door closes.”

“What if she comes back?”

“I’ve watched her for the past two weeks, Derrick. She takes one hour every time, and the wolves are going to keep her busy anyway. She’ll be lucky to make it back before lunch.”

“There are so many more things that could go wrong. Lucy could call for back up. She might not leave the compound at all, and she could have cameras in her office.”

“She won’t have cameras inside and there would be no need for her to check anyway. I won’t take anything. I’m purely there to look.”

“I don’t like it, Lex.”

“You don’t have to like it!” Lexia snapped. “All I need you to do is the morning training, and if shit hits the fan, get Alice out. That’s it. So will you or not?”

With a huge sigh and another glare, Derrick agreed.

Now all Lexia had left to do was wait. Luckily, it was Sunday. By lunch, her sleepless night was catching up to her, so she spent the free afternoon sleeping. It felt like she’d only just dropped off when she was woken by a quick, urgent knock.

“It’s open,” she called, expecting it to be Derrick. “I’m not listening to your protests, Derrick. I’m shattered,” she mumbled her head in the pillow.

The door clicked closed. “It’s not Derrick.”

“Sarah,” Lexia gasped. Feeling suddenly awake, she sat up. “Take a seat,” Lexia gestured toward the sofa and chairs on the other side of the room. Getting off the bed, she continued, “Sorry, I’ve not had much sleep lately. I wasn’t expecting you.”

“I’m leaving this afternoon, but I just found out something very interesting.”

Lexia took the seat opposite Sarah. “I’m listening.”

“I had one of my contacts dig into the history of the hunter program. It turns out an investor outside of the government bankrolled most of the first project. When the hunter program was shut down, he lost everything.”

“Who is this guy?”

“His name is Ethan Wake. He runs a small investment firm now. He comes from old money, Lexia, but his reputation has never recovered. It just seems to me he’d be the kind of guy interested in getting revenge. Lucy has to get her money from somewhere.”

“Can you find out more?”

“I’m sorry. If I dig deeper, someone is bound to find out.”

“Okay. Thanks, leave it with me.”

“I’ll be back in a fortnight. I’m going to try find out who Lucy’s contacts are within the government.”

“Get me the names, Sarah, and I’ll take care of the rest. How’s the cure coming along?” Lexia asked. If she was going to bring an end to Lucy’s plans, she’d need someone looking out for the hundreds of hunters trapped here.

Sarah looked sheepish before digging a needle and tubes from her bag. “That’s what else I came here for. I was hoping you’d donate some blood. It may be the key I’m looking for.”

“Sure.” Lexia sat quietly while Sarah set up what she needed. Pricking her skin with the needle, she filled tube after tube. “I need to know you have enough power to help these people, Sarah. I can’t bring down the whole structure if every hunter dies along with it.”

“I have friends in high places, Lexia, but they are cowards. They’ll only act if they know they can win.”

Even though Lexia was exhausted, she couldn’t sleep that night. Tossing and turning, her mind went over every piece of information she had and every hurdle she had to overcome. There were too many obstacles and not enough information. Lexia had no choice but to keep digging. Lucy had set Lexia on this path of no return when she’d turned Alice; however, Lexia planned on her only finding out when she had nowhere left to run.

Her alarm went off far too quickly. Sneaking from her room, Lexia padded quietly toward Lucy’s office and waited for her to emerge. The hardest part of her plan was getting from her hiding place, and inside the office in the few seconds it took for the door to close, all without Lucy noticing.

Lucy was nothing if not punctual. Her door opened at exactly 4:00 am. The second her back was turned, Lexia ran for the door, her fingers touching the edge seconds before it slid shut. Not daring to breathe, Lexia pushed the door opened a few centimeters more and slipped inside, allowing the door to close.

Listening, Lexia waited for Lucy’s footsteps to grow distant, only they were growing nearer.

Fuck!
Scanning the room, there was nowhere for her to hide. Her heart hammered in her ears, each frightened beat a countdown to her death. Lexia flattened her back to the wall as the door swung open, nearly hitting her in the face. Lucy dashed in, picked something up and left before the door had even started to close.

It took a few minutes for Lexia to breathe again. With her back still plastered to the wall, she tried to calm herself.
Jesus, I’ve not been that frightened in a while.

Shaking her head, Lexia focused on the job at hand: finding information. The first few drawers she came across held files on the hunters. She flicked through them until she came across Derrick’s. There wasn’t much she didn’t already know, except for an address and the names of his wife and child. He never spoke of them, apart from mentioning he had a daughter the other day. Derrick had always referred to his wife and daughter as ‘my family.’ Lexia had presumed he’d meant parents and siblings. Derrick didn’t look old enough to have a daughter near her age. Flipping back to the first page, she noted his age, thirty-seven.
She must have been pregnant when he enlisted. Has he even seen his daughter?

As she folded the file back up to put away, a photo fell out. Picking it up, Lexia stared at the picture, feeling her heart break for Derrick. The woman in the picture held a newborn baby. She looked so young, too young to be all alone with a new life. She knew she shouldn’t, but she did. Lexia slipped the photo into her back pocket and vowed to get Derrick home to his family. He would be free and he would see his daughter and wife again.

“Where do you keep the good stuff, Mother?” Lexia asked quietly, pushing the filing cabinet closed with her hip as she scanned the room again. “You wouldn’t leave it in plain sight…Or would you?”

Lexia walked over to the bookshelf. Surprisingly, Lucy had large selection of books, but Lexia struggled to imagine her relaxing with a book. Randomly pulling books from the shelf, she flicked through their pages finding nothing until the sixth book. Hidden inside was a photograph. Lexia froze as she looked at it. She remembered the day perfectly; her seventh birthday. She remembered how she’d wanted a tea party on the lawn. The weather hadn’t really been suitable but her dad had gone ahead anyway. The picture showed Lexia laughing at her dad as he fiddled with the toy teacup. Alice was there too, rolling around the rug, laughing so hard she’d started to cry.

Why would you even have this? Were you there watching?

It took all her will to slip the photo back and slide the book into its spot. Carrying on with her search, Lexia had almost given up hope of finding anything else when a large book in the far corner caught her eye. She opened it to find it wasn’t a book at all but a box. Hidden inside was the journal Lucy had been writing in the other morning when Lexia had caught her off guard.

Her body fizzed with anticipation and unease as she randomly flipped the journal open. What secrets lay within these words?

Maura joined us today, but sadly not as I had hoped she would. I was forced to threaten the animals she so loves in order for her to come. That animal, the panther she loves, I see what they have is strong, but with time I will alter that. I have many experiments to run on her, samples to collect. So much information I have been longing to gather for years. The weeks that follow are sure to be illuminating and exciting.