Zeno: #8 (Luna Lodge) (14 page)

The more the smile on his face spread, the more anxious she grew.

“Let’s find out and see.”

She cried out as he clamped a steel hand on her knee and pierced her thigh. The clear liquid burned like fire in her veins. Her heart hammered in her ears. The world blurred and swirled around her, closing in until the tiny tunnel closed off everything and she was out.

* * *

Apollo, Val and Zeno had been walking in the tunnel for nearly an hour now with no end in sight. Zeno was starting to wonder if the damn thing ran the length of the mountain range. They’d been traveling along the path and following the stronger scents. Presumably whatever was going on would be where the people were.

He frowned. A sound from around the corner reached his ears, but it was odd, like a low hum.

“Is that a machine?” Val asked.

He shook his head, not really sure what the hell it was, but the strong scent of humans reached his nose. People were close.

“Seems like we’re going to have company,” he said.

Apollo nodded.

They picked up the pace and paused when they reached a curve. They cautiously peered around the corner.

To Zeno’s surprise, the path opened to a platform with stairs in the front of a huge cavern. In the center of the platform, he spotted a control room with levers and buttons. A man stood inside, watching what was going on outside. Two guards armed with rifles stood on either end of the control building.

Their guns were pointed in the same direction the man was watching. Something was happening over the side. A fence separated the control room area from the rest of the cavern.

“We need to get in there,” Zeno said quietly.

Apollo nodded to where some crates stacked by the railing.

“Let’s get a look at what’s going on here,” he said.

Zeno and Val nodded.

It was strange. From what they’d encountered, the security was terrible. They were used to multiple layers of guards and electronics, but they’d been able to practically walk into the heart of the operation.

No one had confronted them. They hadn’t encountered a single patrol, and they’d not even encountered a lot of strong scents, suggesting there weren’t a lot of active patrols.

Usually, guards were trying to keep people out. Here, it almost seemed like they were trying to keep someone in.

The hybrids silently made their way to the crates and looked over the edge.

The hairs on Zeno’s neck stood on end.

“Glycons,” he said quietly.

Hundreds of them, all working to mine the mountain.

The creatures stood spread out in a huge cavern linked to dozens of tunnels. A quick look might have suggested dirty men in tattered clothes, but a closer look revealed huge men with thick muscles, sharp claws and shaved heads, most near the size of Zeno. Many had torn or rotting flesh. The glow from hundreds of pairs of red eyes gave an eerie cast to the otherwise dim light of the fluorescent lamps spread out on cords throughout the cavern.

Zeno watched as the Glycons carried the heavy loads from the shafts inside the mountain.

It didn’t make sense. Why would they use Glycons for labor?

“How the hell could we not smell hundreds of Glycons?” Apollo said quietly.

“I don’t know. I couldn’t smell them at Antonio’s place either,” Zeno said.

The other man nodded. “I thought maybe their scents had been masked just there, but why would you do that to hundreds in a mine?”

Val grimaced. “Maybe it’s permanent.”

A Glycon grabbed a huge slab of solid rock from the pile he’d carried out of the shaft and tossed it onto the pile of rubble.

One Glycon must have been worth about ten men, especially these new ones. From what he’d experienced at Antonio’s place, they were much stronger than the Glycons previously sent against Luna Lodge.

Val tapped his arm, and he turned to look where she nodded.

Several guards walked among the Glycons with guns at the ready just like the ones up top. One Glycon stumbled, its mammoth load falling on his foot. He shoved off the rock then fell to the ground. He gripped his leg and let out a piercing scream.

Several of the men shouted up toward the control room. The low hum that had just become background noise grew louder. The Glycon stopped his thrashing and rose, picking up his load. He stumbled along, though not making any noise. It was as if he couldn’t even feel the pain in his foot, which had to have been broken.

Zeno swallowed the bile in this throat.

“They’re controlling them somehow,” Apollo said.

“Antonio said he could,” Zeno muttered. “He must have been pretty confident. I mean those things killed a man pretty close to him.”

Val pointed to several speakers spread throughout the cavern.

“Some sort of special frequency,” she said. “Same as the weird people in town outside Luna Lodge. We’ve got to let Titus know. This could be the thing that gives us the edge. If we could get our hands on how they are doing it, we might be able to make it work in our favor.”

Zeno nodded and turned to go back the way they had come but ducked back down as a car pulled in, blocking their only way out.

Two men stepped out from the front seat, and one opened the door to the back.

A low growl rumbled in him as Antonio stepped out. He would like nothing better than to stain the man’s clean white shirt a bright red.

The growl died in his throat as faint hint of vanilla sifted through the air. Zeno breathed in deeply. Something was off.

The scent was close to what he knew, but still not quite right. Two slim legs slid out of the car. He’d know her from a mile away, especially the pale creamy skin he’d spent all night worshiping.

“Fuck,” Apollo grunted.

Zeno felt his friend’s firm arm across his chest, stopping him from doing the one thing that would get them all killed.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” Zeno snarled.

He watched in horror as she slid out of the car wearing only the black lace nightie he’d seen her pick up just the other day.

Her head hung as she trailed behind Antonio into the control room.

“Something’s not right,” Val frowned. “I get nothing from her.”

Zeno turned to Val. “What do you mean?”

“Her emotions.”

He nodded once. He’d thought it was just a rumor, but given how Val had acted on this mission, he was coming around to believing it. He almost wished he didn’t in this particular situation, though, as it only made him worry more.

“Nothing? So she’s not scared?” he asked.

“No, it’s like she’d dead inside,” she said. “I can’t sense anything. She might as well be one of those rock slabs.”

His heart threatened to leap out of his chest.

“Maybe it’s the mind control,” she said. “Whatever it is, she’d not herself right now.”

“All the more reason I need to get to her.”

“We need to report to Titus,” Apollo said, his arm still firmly in place.

Zeno wrenched himself away.

“You call Titus,” he snarled. “I’m getting my fucking woman back.”

They stared at each other for several tense moments before Val cut in.

“He’s right, Apollo,” she said. “We don’t have time to wait. We need to act fast. Who knows what he’s going to do to her in this state?”

Zeno tensed. He’d fucking kill Antonio. He’s shred him to pieces with his bare fucking hands and make him pay for what he’d done to Ava, to Piero and to every innocent person he’d ever hurt.

“We need to blow this place,” she said. “Whatever it is, it can’t be good, and even if Antonio isn’t with the Group, they’re helping him.”

Zeno nodded. Blowing everything the fuck up seemed like the perfect plan to him. “Agreed.”

Apollo glanced between them and stopped at Zeno. “That isn’t the mission,” he said. “We’re just supposed to observe and report.”

Zeno leaned in. “Well, the mission fucking changed. We both know when Titus sent us down here he wasn’t expecting hundreds of mind-controlled Glycons.” He gestured the way they came. “And what if Antonio loses control? What if those things start rampaging through town?”

Apollo sighed and ran a hand over his head. “Okay,” he said. “So you want to blow the place? How exactly are we supposed to do that?”

Chapter Twenty

“I’m not armed,” Zeno shouted as he walked down the tunnel. The plan was risky, but he trusted in Val’s skills. He just needed to give her enough time to do her thing.

Eyes blazing and arms raised, he made his way toward the men with guns, knowing Antonio would get a good view of him through the window of the room.

“Don’t move!”

One guard pointed his gun at Zeno while the others seemed uncertain if they should leave their posts to deal with him. It was a tough dilemma either way. It was either deal with him or deal with the Glycons.

The two men that accompanied Antonio there stepped out of the control room and made their way toward Zeno. One shouted in Spanish at the guard, and he went back to his post.

Zeno snorted. In the end, they knew who the real threat was.

The two guards tried to grab his arms, but he was too large for that, so they took turns shoving him forward until he was standing no less than twenty feet from the control room.

“So you came to join us,” Antonio laughed from the stairs. “Please, come and see your friend Ava.”

She stepped out of the room and stood next to him at the top of the stairs. Antonio wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her hard against his side.

“What did you do to her?” Zeno asked, his voice almost a growl.

Antonio gave a little laugh.

“I just gave her something so she would see how things are,” he said and grinned a little wider. “I think you see now as well.” He waved a hand. “You were a fool to dare oppose me. I have power, wealth and now I have her.”

Zeno snorted loudly “I see a sad little man who can’t get women on his own, so he has to have a little help.”

Antonio scowled at him and shouted something in Spanish. The man to the left of Zeno cracked him hard on the back of the head. He stumbled forward but didn’t fall.

He looked up at Antonio. The smug prick actually thought he had the upper hand in all this.

“Ava is my pet now,” he said and grinned. “And it looks like you are as well. It’s my lucky day. I get one of you for free.” He wrinkled his nose. “Hybrids,” Antonio continued, “they had a few of your kind. Didn’t seem worth the high dollar they were asking for them.”

His blood hammered in his ears, and he growled. Zeno had to focus so he didn’t rush forward and snap the man’s neck. Apollo had been right. The damn Horatius Group bastards were selling them off like a commodity.

“Oh, don’t like that?” Antonio laughed, and the sound of it burned Zeno. “Well, don’t worry too much. These ones were too far gone, anyway. They made the Glycons look tame.”

Zeno had heard about hybrids that broke. They were unable to find the man inside, instead becoming nothing but the beast.

He’d never believed it before. He always thought it was something the scientists told them to keep them going and focused. It had worked. The confirmation of the possibility made Zeno’s stomach lurch.

“Why are you doing this?” Zeno asked, his voice was low, and he struggled to keep himself in check.

Antonio stepped down the stairs slowly. When he reached the bottom, he snapped his fingers and pointed next to him. Ava followed, her short black nightgown riding up. He could see a deep purple bruise on her thigh. An injection site maybe.

Zeno looked up and found Antonio smile again at him. The smug bastard enjoyed all the suffering he caused.

His slimy hand slipped under Ava’s chin, and he tilted it until she was looking at him.

“Kiss me,” Antonio said.

He pressed his mouth to her, making sure to press his tongue deep into her mouth.

“I swear I will fucking kill you, you son of a bitch,” Zeno growled.

A gun from the guard on his right poked him in the side when he tried to take a step forward.

Ava made a gagging sound, and Antonio pulled back to glare at her.

Zeno saw it then: a flash of the real Ava as she glanced over to where he was. She was trying to fight it, just like the hurt Glycon.

“You still don’t understand,” Antonio said. He stepped forward, a sly smile plastered on his face. “You stole from me, and because of that, I’m your worst nightmare. You’ll beg me for death before I’m done.”

Zeno blinked several times before he threw back his head and laughed. It was a deep booming laugh, the kind that came from low in the gut.

“You’re laughing? What are you laughing at?” Antonio shouted.

A guard punched Zeno hard in the ribs, and he leaned forward, still laughing through the pain.

“Stop laughing!” Antonio shouted even louder. “You will stop laughing, or I will have you fucking killed right here!”

Zeno looked up at him, the laugh now a chuckle. Antonio leveled a pistol at his head.

“Dogs must respect their owners,” Antonio said and stepped forward. “And you don’t, so you’re just another stray. I will end you. Stray animals need to be put down.”

Zeno stared him dead on, forcing a grin on his face.

“I may be a dog, but you’re a bug,” Zeno said. Antonio’s face twitched, some of the arrogance leaving his eyes. “A pathetic little bug that couldn’t measure up to my worst nightmare on their best day. You think you’ve seen suffering. You don’t know the first thing about it, you little maggot. You think you’re going to end me?” He let out a hollow laugh and stood tall. He glared down at Antonio. “No,” Zeno said, giving Antonio a cool smile. “Let’s see how big you are when the shit hits the fan.”

The man raised his gun, his hand shaking.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Antonio asked.

Zeno turned to Ava. “Ava,” he said, trying to keep his voice calm but firm.

She turned to stare at him.

“What does he mean?” Antonio shouted to his men.

“Baby, we gotta get out of here,” Zeno said, ignoring everything else around him.

She shook a little, and he knew he had to be getting through to her.