The Road to Bedlam: Courts of the Feyre, Book 2 (46 page)

    "I don't understand."

    "Nor I, but the effect is simple. Once the treatment is applied, the magic is unleashed and it consumes the subject. They have lost every patient they have tested. Your daughter is the next test subject and they are planning to run the test tonight."

    "My daughter!"

    "I have tried to delay it. I have done everything in my power, I assure you, but she is next on the list. They are very hopeful for the results. Unfortunately I remain pessimistic."

    "This is barbaric! They can't do this on human subjects."

    "They have consent from the patients and from the families. They can do it, and they already have."

    "They don't have Alex's consent. How can they? She's a child."

    "They don't need hers. They have yours."

    Of course they did. I had signed the papers myself. It hit me, then, what they were doing. They were waiting until families were in the position that Katherine and I had been in at the hospital and then putting forms in front of them.

    What was the phrase?

    
We will do everything in our power to save your daughter.

    This was what they meant.

    "I know what I consented to, and I didn't mean this."

    "It makes no difference. They have all the permission they need."

    "It's immoral. It's wrong."

    "They believe they are helping them."

    "They're killing them!"

    "In pursuit of a cure. If they can make it work they believe they will save far more than they harm."

    "You know that's never going to work. You know what being fey is like. Once the magic is active, it's there forever. You can't just send it back."

    "They think they can."

    "That's ridiculous."

    "So is putting a man on the moon. They did that."

    I turned away, speechless at the obscenity of it.

    "There is not time for this, Dogstar. If we are to rescue your daughter, it must be now."

    I turned back. "You did this, Raffmir. You're responsible."

    "Did I not bring you here in time to set things right? I am doing everything in my power, but without you tonight's endeavour may fail with tragic consequences. I need your help."

    "Then let's go."

    "This facility has been constructed to contain those with fey abilities, mongrels who have lost control and are capable of murder and worse. It will not be easy to get inside."

    "But you know a way?"

    "Fortunately it has been constructed to stop fey getting out, not to prevent them getting in. It has its weaknesses, but once we begin we cannot stop. There are no friends here, Dogstar, and no innocents. Everyone involved knows what transpires here. Because it is night, the staff is much reduced, but the facility runs continuously – there will be people there."

    "I'm ready."

    "We will go to the roof. They are not expecting us. Their strength is limited and we have the advantage. Once inside we cannot afford for them to organise resistance. We will need to be ruthless."

    "You shouldn't have a problem with that."

    "It is not me I'm concerned about."

    "I can do my bit."

    "Your resolve must be firm if you want to see your daughter again."

    The memory of what a few misguided men had done to the missing girls on the boat returned to me, but in a form that was distilled and cold. It left me feeling empty and full at the same time.

    "I have seen what people do to each other, Raffmir. I don't need a lecture."

    In my mind, though, I began to wonder whether I would be able to contain the anger again, if it was once released. Raffmir watched me. Whatever he saw, it was enough.

    "Come then," he said. "It is time I took you to your daughter."

    He stood close, pointing across the heath to the cluster of buildings. "The building we need is the one at the back there, near the road. That is Bethlem Wing."

    "What did you say?"

    "Bethlem Wing. That's what it's called. Why do you ask?"

    Another piece fell in to place for me. Bethlem Wing, Porton Down. The initials on the B files were BWPD. That was what it meant. He was right, this was where they had taken her.

    "Never mind. How do we get in?"

    "As I showed you on the hill, that day, we must travel to the roof of the building. Once we are there, you must not draw power unless absolutely necessary. The alarms are set to detect changes in temperature, so if you draw power for any reason you will alert them to our presence. Use glamour alone until I give the word."

    "OK. How do we get inside?"

    "I have a way. Once we are in the building we must try and avoid raising the alarm for as long as possible. The longer we have before the alert goes out, the better chance we have of getting in, finding your daughter and getting out."

    "And how do we get out?"

    "We make our escape route as we go in. All we have to do then is get back to the roof and we leave the way we came. The best outcome is they don't know we've been there until after we're gone."

    "Is that likely?"

    "If we draw power the alarms will trigger and they will assume there is a break-out in progress. They will not be expecting a break-in. We still have the advantage."

    "Until we want to leave."

    "Do not get trapped in there, Dogstar. The best of it is that they would break my vow for me. What they will do to you does not bear speaking of, and I would not be the cause of it."

    "And yet you've been funding it, all this time."

    "These are the depths we are driven to. I do not like it anymore than you."

    "And yet it continues."

    "Do you wish to argue morality or rescue your daughter?"

    I stared back across the expanse of rough grassland.

    "Good," he said. "Follow me."

    He stood apart, gathering energy until he was surrounded by a white aura of power. The warm night breeze chilled in response until he suddenly vanished. In the glare of the arc lights on the distant buildings I could not see him, but I knew where he'd gone. I stood in his place, focusing on the roof of the building he'd shown me, until the energy thrummed through me and the shadow world was overlaid on to reality. Then I stepped behind the curtain of the world into the space beyond, emerging on to a rooftop surrounded by arc lights.

    Raffmir waited next to a large concrete structure built into the rooftop. Around us, banks of air conditioner units whirred in an incessant breathy hum.

    "Now what?"

    "There'll be a moment or two, then someone will come to investigate."

    "The alarms have gone off already?"

    "No, but the cameras aren't working." He pointed to a pair of wall-mounted security cameras angled to scan the rooftop. Their bare wires hung from them like entrails where he had ripped them out.

    "Why did you do that?"

    "Because we need this door open without raising the alarm," he said, indicating a service door. "Stand over there, out of sight."

    We waited for a few moments until there was the sound of movement from the door. Someone tried several different keys, then the door swung open.

    "…but whichever one it is, they ain't working now."

    From my position towards the side, I could see two security guards emerging. They wore uniforms, but were not military. As the second one emerged, Raffmir stepped out on the far side of them into their line of sight.

    "Ah, I'm glad you've come. We're having some trouble with the cameras."

    "Who the hell…"

    As the first one spoke, Raffmir stepped forward. The security guard jerked and the bright point of a sword punched through the back of his uniform. He waved his arms ineffectually and sank to his knees. At the same time, his colleague went for the gun holstered at his waist, his scrabbling fingers clawing for the weapon, flipping open the holster. In a second I had my sword drawn, the edge bright against his throat, pressed into his windpipe.

    "Drop the weapon," I told him.

    He held the unholstered pistol out by two fingers and let it fall to the ground, where it clattered heavily.

    Raffmir stepped forward, placed a boot on the shoulder of the kneeling man and pulled his sword free. The man toppled backwards with a final cough, his head lying in a growing pool of blood. Raffmir swept the sword up in an arc, sending a spray of blood across the air-conditioner units.

    "Are you planning on keeping him as a pet?"

    I pressed the sword upwards, keeping the man on tiptoe, not letting him gain balance and posture to fight back.

    "Can we tie him up?"

    Raffmir whirled on the spot. The man jerked in my hand as Raffmir's sword thumped into his chest. He jerked again and then collapsed forward on to the blade I held at his throat. I was forced to relax it or slice his neck through. He fell into a heap across his colleague.

    "What did you do that for?" I demanded.

    "We do not have time to take prisoners, Dogstar. There are no innocents here, remember?"

    "He was helpless. You didn't have to kill him."

    "What were you going to do? Take him with us? Leave him here to raise the alarm?"

    At that moment the smell hit me, a mixture of shit and blood, the smell of death. My gorge rose and I turned away, spewing what remained in my stomach on to the concrete roof. Cold sweat covered my forehead. I leaned against an air conditioner and tried to wipe my forehead.

    "Some Warder you make, throwing up at the first sight of blood." Raffmir was amused.

    "I do what I have to," I told Raffmir, the taste of vomit still sour in my mouth. "But I don't kill for pleasure."

    "Nor I. It is necessary, I assure you," he said. "They might raise the alarm otherwise and we cannot risk that."

    "The alarm will be raised as soon as they miss these two," I pointed out.

    At this one of the men's lapel radios chirped.

    "Did you find the problem, Chris?" The voice was distorted by the radio.

    "Now what are you going to do?" I asked Raffmir.

    In response, he rolled the dead guard on top on to his back and unhooked the radio. He shifted his glamour into the image of the man on the floor, and clicked the button on the side of the radio.

    "Looks like a problem with the wiring to me," he said, using a voice similar to the dead guard's and looking at the broken camera. "You should get someone up here to fix it."

    "Right you are. I'll give the security firm a buzz."

    "We're on our way down," Raffmir said.

    The security guard that was Raffmir tossed the radio on to the bodies. "By the time they find the bodies, it will be too late. Take the form of the other one. It will avert their notice."

    It made me feel sick again to take the form of a man I could see dead on the floor, as if I was somehow stealing his identity as well as his life. He had been going for his pistol, so I suppose that meant he wasn't innocent, but did that make it OK? My hands were slick with sweat and I wiped them on my trousers as I followed Raffmir through the access door into the building.

    We dropped three flights of metal stairs before opening a service door on to a corridor brightly lit by lines of fluorescent tubes.

    "This is the administration floor."

    We passed glass-fronted offices, one after another, each with a symmetrical array of desks. Close to midnight, they were deserted.

    "How do you know so much about this place?"

    "I have seen plans for the building. We funded the construction, after all."

    "You're in this up to your neck, aren't you?"

    "In my experience, necessity is only the mother of further necessity. We do what we must."

    "Which way?"

    "Down, always down. The lower floors are the secure area, below ground is where we will find your daughter. There are no windows and fewer exits. It makes it easier to contain the inmates."

    "Inmates? Is that what we're calling them?"

    "Mongrels, half-breeds, gifted individuals, whatever you would like to call them, that's where they're held."

    We pushed through a set of doors and went quickly down a double flight of stairs, exiting on to an identical corridor. As we opened the doors, there were two more security guards walking down the corridor towards us.

    "Stay calm," said Raffmir quietly.

    "Did you find the problem?" one of them asked.

    "Looks like a wiring problem. We reported it and they're calling in the security company," said Raffmir, mimicking Chris.

    "Right you are."

    They walked past us, the one who had not spoken nodding to me as they did so. I gave him a nervous smile, saying nothing. We heard one of them speak into the radio as they walked on to the stairs we had just descended.

    "Chris and Terry on their way down," he said.

    We came to another double door and Raffmir thrust through them to the stairway. We descended two floors, passing double doors at each level.

    "This is the end of the administration area," said Raffmir. "Beyond here is secure. Stay alert. They will be guarding more closely from here on."

    We walked down a corridor lined with more offices. The windows to these were translucent but obscured with privacy film. We came to a double door with an electronic lock and a blank proximity reader showing a red light. Raffmir pushed the door. It rattled but did not yield.

    "It's too early," he said.