Winter's Warrior: Mark of the Monarch (Winter's Saga 4) (7 page)

Seconds later they were back at the elevator.

“Let me go first, so I can protect you as you come up,” Creed said already climbing the ladder.  “Evan,” he called, “hold the ladder still for Meg.”

“Of course,” he nodded.

They listened as the metal ladder squeaked and strained under Creed’s thick, muscular frame and just when they thought he must be climbing back onto the ground-level floor, there was a series of popping sounds that could only be gunfire.

“Oh no!” Evan breathed even has he raced up the ladder to help.

MetaMonarchs Part 4

1 year ago

“I cannot believe it’s taken you this long to find her, Kenneth.”

“Me either.”

“Where has she been all this time?”

“Texas under an assumed name.  She goes by Winter now.  Margo Winter.”

“Where are the subjects?”

“She’s raised them as her own.  Can you believe it?”

“Have they any idea what they are?”

“I doubt it.  She’s kept them secluded from the world—homeschooling them on a private ranch.”

“How did you get her
to separate from the three?”

“S
imple.  I deceived her.  She’s been publishing papers under her assumed name, in obscure journals.  My scientists brought an article she wrote to my attention.  She’s been working on trying to find a cure for spectrum disorders.”

“You mean autism.”

“Yes.”

“
I seem to recall her having a personal connection with someone autistic.”

“Her sister.”

“She’s been trying to find a cure for autism all this time when she has three of the most advanced humanoids ever created living right under her nose?”

“Incredible, isn’t it?”

“So why did your scientists bring you her article?”

“They were impressed with her findings.  Apparently, she is on the cutting edge of research in her field.”

“I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Can you imagine if she had been altered to be a MetaMonarch?  She would have been unstoppable.  There’s no amount of money that would have made me want to give her up—I don’t care what the highest bidder offered.”

“Stop drooling over what will never be.  You know my plans to rid myself of the Institute and completely relocate to my new Facility in Germany.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’m hoping to bring her and all three original metahumans with me.”

“By the way, how has Michelle been working out for you?”

“She’s marvelous.  I forgot to mention how invaluable her information became once the children contacted her husband, Dr. Theodore Andrews.”

“Planting her with him five years ago was a tactic that paid off after all!  And you scoffed at my idea!  How has she helped?”

“She’s checked in every Monday morning for the last five years, just as you programmed her to do.  She contacts me and lets me know of any changes in Andrews’ behavior or contacts.”

“I knew if we followed her best friend from medical school, she would contact him eventually.  She trusts so few people in this world.  I believed we could count on her leaning on Andrews because he was one of the few people in her life on whom she could depend.  My candidate Michelle was worth losing now that she’s come through for us!”

“She will be tracking his movements.  He’s gone to retrieve the subjects from their home in Texas.  As for me, I’m about to go visit Margo for the first time in twelve years.”

“Have fun with her.  If I remember correctly, she was quite a beauty.”

Accustomed to ignoring Donovan’s advances toward attractive women, Kenneth rolled his eyes. 

“Once I get the subjects back into my possession, I’ll be able to harvest the serum’s formula from their blood.  We’ll be able to start back where I left off!”

“Now wait a minute, Kenneth.  I think our clients are getting pretty effective products even now.”

“You don’t understand, Donovan.  These three are different.  I’ve tried to explain it to you before.  Their serum brought
things out in them that I’ve never been able to duplicate in metahumans since.  They are exceptionally enhanced.”

“Okay, friend.
You go play with your subjects and don’t forget to bring me back my candidate Michelle.  I have clients waiting in the wings for a Monarch with just her skill set,” he chuckled deeply before adding, “A woman with brains and looks is a valuable asset to any discerning client.”

“I’ll bring her back with me, Donovan.  And I’ll call you once I have the subjects in my possession.  I’m dying to see how M57 turned out.  She was especially different even as a very young child.”

Alik, Farrow and Maze held to the shadows as much as possible as they dashed from the Research Hospital to the van glowing eerily white in the moonlight.

“Where the heck is everyone?  This place should be crawling with soldiers.” Alik breathed softly as they peeked around a line of shrubbery.

“There is only one thing I can think of that would clear out the compound like this, and that would be a Retribution Match.”

“I thought of that too, but I remember Creed mentioning Matches are always on Saturdays at noon.”

Their stealth paid off as they quietly pressed the latches on the van’s doors and slipped inside.  “Damn, I wish Evan were here to check for explosives,” he mumbled under his breath as he reached up and flipped the visor open, letting the van keys fall into his wide-open hand.

He slipped the key into the ignition and turned slowly, listening for the telltale pause, click and eerie silence that
would happen when a car bomb has been triggered.

The key turned easily; the engine starting right up and purred softly in the silence of the night.

Alik let his breath out in a gush of relief.  Even Maze seemed to relax the tension in his wide shoulders.

“Wow, you really thought they’d planted an explosive in the van?  I thought you were kidding.”

“Think about it Farrow.  It would have explained why there was no one in sight.”

Farrow’s dark-doe eyes widened
as she realized the validity of his logic.

“Could it still go off?”

“Chances are we’re fine now.”  Alik reassured as he put the van into drive and started up the curb and directly across the pristine lawn.  He didn’t bother with the headlights, not wanting to attract too much attention.

Maneuvering as quietly and carefully as possible, Alik positioned the back of the van at an angle up against the front doors, just as his sister had asked.

Once there, he put the van in park and kept it running.  “What time do you have?” he asked anxiously looking at his watch in the dim glow of moonlight trickling through Farrow’s passenger window.

When she didn’t answer he looked up to see her eyes watching him intently.

Too anxious to hold still, Alik climbed into the back of the van and began shuffling through the junk back there looking for…well, anything to keep his mind off the beautiful blush that tinged Farrow’s cheeks when he caught her staring at him. 

“What are you looking for?” Farrow’s voice asked from the front seat. 

“Um, a shirt, I guess,” Alik murmured.  He was rummaging through the bags strewn in the back of the van.  The second bag he yanked open was Farrow’s.  Alik’s hand pulled out the small black dress she’d worn earlier.  A whiff of her perfume mixed with the scent he knew to be hers naturally drifted to his sensitive nose.  He resisted the urge to bury his face in her dress to breathe her in.

Coughing, he shoved the dress back into the bag and yanked it closed as he covered his blush with dialogue.

“Do you see any movement out there?”

“No, nothing.” Farrow’s eyes were scanning the area around them.

“Good,” he mumbled both in response to Farrow and to finding Creed’s satchel and in it, a black T-shirt that would fit him fine.

He was on his knees in the back of the van slipping his beautifully muscular arms through the shirt before dragging it up to his head.  In that instant, Farrow couldn’t help but stare at his beauty.  His wildly long brown hair slipped through and in that instant, Farrow was caught ogling the boy who had completely captured her heart.  He glanced away from her, an adorable crooked grin on those full lips. 

Farrow busied herself checking her weapon as he climbed back into the driver’s seat.

“Time?” he asked, his voice a bit gruff.  Farrow cringed inside, wondering if she’d embarrassed him by watching him dress.

“It’s been three minutes, thirty-eight seconds,” Farrow frowned at her digital watch as though it was the cause of their awkward moments.

What am I thinking?
  Farrow scolded herself. 
We’re in the middle of life and death, and I’m worried about what Alik Winter thinks about me?  He doesn’t think of you that way, Farrow.  How could he? Focus soldier!
 

Alik grabbed his weapon and was taking the safety off, eyes scanning the area around them
then whipping back to the front doors of the hospital, desperately looking for the others. 

Keep it together, Al.
  Alik shook himself mentally. 
Meg expects nothing but the best from you and you cannot let her or Ev down because of some girl—no matter how attractive she is.
  But even as he thought the words “some girl” he cringed.  She wasn’t just some girl.  She was Farrow. 

“Over there,” she whispered. 

Alik’s eyes followed her intense stare.  All he saw at first was a grove of trees and shadows draped around them. 

“What did you see?”

“Movement.”  Farrow was holding her scope up to her eye, keeping absolutely still as she searched the blackness.   The anxious coyote let out the softest of whines, his eyesight even more acute than the metahumans in the van. 

He just confirmed what Farrow already knew.  All her training as a sniper was telling her they were being watched.  Just then she saw moonlight glint off something metallic.

“I see a weapon,” she breathed.

Alik was scanning the surrounding area, not wanting to be caught off guard from a different direction.  That’s when he saw movement himself. 

“Damn it,” he breathed and pointed his weapon directly at the moving shadow, tracking its progress through his scope.

“They’re coming for us,” Farrow said.  “Probably just waiting for backup before they attack,” she added rationally.  And though she seemed completely confident on the outside, inside she was terrified everything was about to go to hell.

“We need to go on the offensive.  Meg and the others could be pouring out that door any minute.  We can’t let them walk into an ambush.”

“Agreed.”

“I’ll take those on the right, you go left.  We run to the doors and defend the others from there.”

“Right.  On the count of three, we run.”

Alik looked directly at Maze.  “Get ready to run with us, okay?”

Maze licked his muzzle and pranced in place, as though excited to bolt away from the danger he
sensed.

Together Alik and Farrow counted:
one, two, three.

Both metas yanked open their doors and sprinted, guns blazing in the
ir predetermined directions.  Maze bolted past the two soldiers and ran like a silver blur into the building, the front doors still hanging wide open. 

Return fire was swift.  A barrage of bullets showered from both the north and south. 

They ran further back into the lobby to find protection from what was bound to be a convergence of soldiers coming for them.  That’s when they saw what was left of the elevator.

“What happened here?”  Farrow breathed, trying to make sense of the destruction.

“
Damn!
” Alik breathed, putting the pieces together quickly with his perfect memory.  “The power’s out.  The only way to the basement is by elevator.  They crawled down the elevator shaft to get to the kids.” The vein in Alik’s forehead pulsed angrily, worry etched deeply in his youthful face.

They ran to the jagged hole in the floor of the elevator and peered down.  Maze was already barking into it as though he’d chased quarry there.

Alik put his hand on Maze’s flank to calm him before yelling, “Meg?  Creed?  Evan?  Are you there?” his deep voice echoing through the darkness. 

Silence screamed back at them.

Alik and Farrow exchanged worried looks.  “Well, this explains why it was taking them so long,” Alik rationalized.

“I wonder if the metas out there are coming in after us.” Farrow crouched at a corner and risked a peek around it to see if she could
determine how badly they may be trapped.

She saw nothing.

Seconds passed.

“Maybe we should go in after them?” Farrow whispered, torn between watching the front doors for soldiers and looking back at the elevator.