The Last Raven: An Urban Fantasy Noir (Riftborn Book 1), page 22
“The Romans were like the Borg,” I said. “They assimilated you or they exterminated you. They were almost impossible to defeat, and even if you did win a battle or hurt them, there were millions more where that came from. They weren’t all bad people, and I don’t hate the Romans, and like Monty Python said, they did a lot for the world, but they did a lot via murdering everyone in their way. I probably wouldn’t have strong feelings either way if I hadn’t been in their way at the time.”
“Anything else?” Emily asked.
“I’m also the Guild’s Talon,” I said. “Their protector, their . . . well, some would call them assassins. We don’t generally assassinate unless we have to, but whatever we do, it’s to protect the Guild.”
“And humans?”
I nodded again. “The Guilds make sure to remove those who are deemed a threat to humanity, but we also remove those who are deemed a threat to the rift and its inhabitants.”
“So, why has Mason been allowed to continue?” Emily asked. “Why has Callie Mitchell?”
“Both excellent questions I don’t have an answer for,” I said. “Both have powerful friends, and both seem to care little about the Guilds or Ancients becoming involved in their plans. They have backing. I just don’t know who it is or why.”
“The Ancients,” Emily said. “I’ve heard that term before. They sort of rule over the Guilds, yes?”
“Among other things,” I said. “They’re meant to be the wisest and most powerful of us, but I can count on one hand the number of them I’ve ever met. And all of them considered themselves to be above it all. They would often say things like, ‘See the long-term plan, Lucas.’ As if I wasn’t centuries older than they are. I think they’re just scared to involve themselves in anything that messes with the status quo.”
“You’re not a fan,” Emily said.
“The Ancients mainly live in the rift. They’re all riftborn, they’re all . . . well, ancient, and they’re all emotionless assholes with the luxury of thinking long-term about everything. It’s why they didn’t get involved when the Ravens were killed; they’ve seen Guilds all but destroyed before, so why get involved with one more?”
“We’ve only known, officially known, about rift-fused for a few decades,” Emily said. “I know you’ve always been here, but to really know you’ve always been here is a weird thing to think about. You’ve seen things I can only dream of, you’ve seen the ruins of Rome, and you know how it looked back then. Because you were actually there. I find that . . . difficult to comprehend.”
“It’s weird for us, too,” I said. “Living alongside humanity but knowing you’re not actually a part of it.”
“So, do we have a plan on how we’re going to stop Mason, Dan, and everyone working with them?” Emily asked.
“We’re going to see someone with intel tomorrow,” I told her. “We could use some assistance on the ally front.”
“I might be able to help with that,” Emily said. “A lot of my team were stood down, and none of them have been happy about it. I think most would want answers.”
“Are you being swept under the rug or punished?” I asked. “By whoever stood you down, I mean.”
“Bit of both,” Emily said. “FBI agents died, and we’ve been taken off the case. It’s been passed to the RCU, officially. Except the RCU is in tatters. So, who’s in charge of it?”
“Dan is,” I said. “Dan is in charge of the RCU. From what we understand, he’s using Sky-High employees.”
“How is that possible?” Emily asked.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But it means that the Ancients have either given him that control, or they’re involved or they’re waiting to see how things play out. Hopefully, we’ll find out tomorrow when we see Booker.”
Emily stretched and yawned. “I’m going to go down to see Gabriel,” she said. “You staying here?”
“No, I need sleep,” I told her. “Long day. Thank you for helping.”
“My pleasure,” she said. “I don’t like to see the bad guys win.”
I opened the entrance to the bunker and showed Emily down, leaving her with Gabriel as I went to find my bed.
I found it, got changed into something that I hadn’t been in all day, lay down on the bed, and waited for sleep to take me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
I don’t know when I fell asleep; I just know that was pretty soon after my head touched the pillow. I was woken by Gabriel gently rocking my arm.
“I’m awake,” I said, barely conscious.
“We need to discuss the plan,” Gabriel said, handing me a mug of coffee that was the size of my head.
“You’re a beautiful man, Gabriel,” I said.
Gabriel left me to drink my coffee and get dressed, although the latter didn’t happen until after I’d had a shower so hot, it was almost scalding. I padded barefoot through the bunker, finding everyone together in the main area.
“We don’t have all day,” Hannah said as I placed my now-empty mug of coffee on the table.
“Booker said Gabriel knew where to meet him,” I said.
“Abbey Park,” Gabriel told me. “Got an hour to kill yet. Emily is arranging to get some of her people to help. Officially off the books. The informant refuses to meet inside. Wants wide-open space, no people. Those were her requirements.”
“Booker’s informant had better have answers,” Hannah said.
“At least it’s outside of the town,” I said, more to myself than anyone else. “You know this entire town is probably working for Mason’s family. The police certainly are. Getting through Hamble is going to be difficult during the day. Especially considering all of us more than likely have a price on our heads.”
“There’s a tunnel that takes us out of the town into the park,” Gabriel said. “There are tracks and a carriage down there; it’s not exactly five-star treatment, but it’s safe.”
“Exactly what were the people who designed this place expecting to happen?” I asked him.
“It was extended during the Cold War,” Gabriel said. “Some people were scared of invasion.”
“So, they made a subway?” Hannah asked.
“Pretty much,” Gabriel said.
“I will remain here until the meeting tonight.” Nadia said. “I scare people.”
“She’s not wrong,” Hannah agreed.
I picked up my two rift-tempered daggers and put them on. I was hoping I didn’t need them, but I’m also a realist who understands that given the current climate, the odds were good I would. Before I left, I also took my Heckler & Koch P30L and a few extra magazines of bullets.
We followed Gabriel through one of the spokes to what I’d assumed was an old storage room, considering it mostly consisted of furniture with dust sheets thrown over them. We walked around to a large wardrobe, which Gabriel pushed aside, revealing a metal door. He opened it, the hiss of musty, warm air on my face causing me to cough, and stepped through, the old lights flickering to life inside a moment later.
We continued walking for ten minutes before the tunnel opened out into a cavern. There were railroad tracks on the ground and what looked like an old train engine attached to a carriage, both of which were hooked up to some kind of charging station.
“What is this place?” I asked.
“It’s a modified train driver’s cab and carriage from the 1940s,” Gabriel said. “It runs on batteries that are linked to several solar panels that had been on top of the church. There should be enough juice to run it for a few weeks without them, but at some point, it’s going to need fixing.”
“You really went all out with this, didn’t you?” I asked, walking up to the carriage and looking around it.
“It had already been done when I arrived,” Gabriel said. “I just had it modernized and made safe.”
“Are you some kind of doomsday prepper or something?” Hannah asked.
“I think I’m more of a realist,” Gabriel said. “The church was meant to be a safe haven away from those who would use and hurt us. Sometimes, the safest thing you can do is escape.”
“And this takes us onto the railroad tracks?” I asked.
“Disused but owned by the church,” Gabriel said. “It goes from here to Abbey Park, and then up toward Lake Ontario and along past Rochester to Hamilton, before it goes up to Toronto.”
“And no one questions the massive amount of disused track? I asked.
“Ninety percent of it is underground,” Gabriel said. “The official records show it as an old subway route that was disbanded but is owned by about twenty different companies.”
“You made it as hard as possible for anyone to check on it,” Hannah said.
“I’m not sure if I’ve said this before, but you church types are crafty buggers,” I said with a smile.
Gabriel nodded a thank-you as we all climbed on up into the carriage, which was remarkably less dusty than I’d expected.
“You come here a lot, I assume,” Hannah said, taking a seat on a leather-clad bench.
“Once a month,” Gabriel said. “It’s relaxing down here, away from everything. Also, trains are cool.”
No one said anything.
“They are; accept it,” Gabriel announced, walking off toward the driver’s cab.
“You’re driving?” I asked him, sharing an expression with Hannah.
“Is there a problem with that?” Gabriel asked.
“It can’t be any worse than when he drives a car,” Hannah said. “This is literally on rails; it’s not like he can go anywhere.”
“None of you are funny,” Gabriel said, opening the door and closing it behind him.
I sat back and closed my eyes, opening them a few moments later when the carriage jolted forward.
“He can’t stall a train, right?” Hannah asked.
I looked over at her. “Having been in numerous vehicles with Gabriel over the years, he can stall anything.”
The journey was peaceful and quiet. It took about twenty minutes as the train moved underground, occasionally venturing out into the daylight, only to be obscured by high banks and trees. A private railway for the church. I’d been alive a long time, but, like Hannah said, occasionally we were still surprised.
“You think Booker is still on our side?” Hannah asked me as the train stopped and Gabriel entered the carriage, looking very proud of himself.
“Yes,” I said.
We all left the carriage and walked up the track. It was secluded where we were, with trees everywhere and denser woodland not too far from there. The park itself was a massive piece of land, with a large lake in the middle that you could walk around. A sizeable playground sat on one side of the park, just after the main entrance, although it was deserted now.
Gabriel took point and we followed him into the park, moving quickly and quietly, until we reached the rendezvous spot—a group of trees that were slightly elevated from the field around it, giving excellent views. Booker dropped down from one of the trees, landing in the snow as we approached. Zita did the same from a second tree, although she made no move toward us.
“She’s the lookout,” Booker said, shaking everyone’s hand, leaving me for last. “Zita said that you’re not what she thought.”
“I get that a lot,” I said. “Where’s the informant?”
“Send her over,” Gabriel called out to Zita. A woman of about thirty with pink-and-blond hair stepped out from the shadows of the trees. She wore jeans, trainers, and a thick black coat to keep out the chill that whipped across the park.
“This is Scarlet Harmon,” Booker said.
The woman identified as Scarlet looked like a meerkat who had just come up to check it was safe; she constantly looked around the park, beyond where we were standing.
“You okay?” Hannah asked her.
Scarlet nodded for a moment, changed her mind, and shook her head. “No,” she said. “My boyfriend was murdered, my life is in danger, and I just want to hide somewhere.”
Part of me wanted to tell her that maybe she shouldn’t have helped a psychotic doctor experiment on people before deciding she had a conscience, but I kept my mouth closed instead. Let’s not alienate the person who wanted to help.
“Tell us what you know,” I said.
Scarlet sighed. “There were six of us,” she started. “Clive, Harry, Daisy, me, and two others. We all worked for Callie and Mason; I helped Callie with data that she’d found during her experiments. At the time, we didn’t know about people being experimented on. We thought she was trying to save the world. We thought she was trying to find a way to use the tears in the rift to heal people. About four months ago, Daisy found out what was going on. She went to Mason, told him her concerns, and went home. She was murdered that night. Break-in gone wrong, the HPD said.
“We all got an email from Mason’s pit bull; his name is William Stone. He’s a . . . He’s bad. Really bad. Anyway, we got an email to say that what happened to Daisy was awful and that we should all be more careful in the future, as it would be terrible if her death was the start of some crime wave. He actually advised us to make sure our doors and windows are locked at night.
“So, anyway, a week later, we’re all shitting ourselves still, trying to find a way out. We get a timed email from Daisy telling us everything she’d found out. My boyfriend, Clive, contacted the FBI. Two weeks later, and three of us go to see a handler. They ask us to get intel on Sky-High, on Mason, on anyone who can help the FBI get a case together. So, we spent two months getting info. A little at a time, taking copies of data when we thought it was safe. Until Clive and Harry went to meet them just over a month ago.”
“When they were killed,” Gabriel said softly. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Scarlet nodded a thank-you before continuing. “The remaining three of the original six were called into Mason’s office the day after Clive and Harry died. We were told that while it was really sad that Clive and Harry had died, it was clear that they had been somewhere they shouldn’t have been, and that we should all take that lesson to heart and not go to dangerous places.
“I decided to keep my head down and just do my job. One of my colleagues tried to quit and was told why that wasn’t going to be happening anytime soon. A few weeks later, I found all of this intel that Clive, Harry, and Daisy had acquired. I thought it had been with them when they’d died. There was so much of it, so much insane stuff. Experiments, people in positions of power being bribed, threatened. Murders. Most of it not concrete, just timelines matching up, emails, bank account details. So much data that they’d managed to acquire. Mostly illegally. They hacked the email server for internal emails, which they could do because it was their job to keep it working. They controlled every piece of info that went into the cloud; they build themselves back doors into every piece of software in Sky-High Security.”
“Where is all of this data?” Hannah asked.
“On a USB drive,” she said. “I gave it to Zita last night.”
“A lot of it is encrypted,” Booker said.
“I have the key to unlock it once I’m safe,” Scarlet said. “Once I know these psychopaths aren’t going to find me.”
“We can do that,” I said. “But I have questions.”
Scarlet nodded.
“What do you know about Dan, the kidnapped RCU?” I asked. “Basically, everything that happened since three weeks ago.”
“Not much,” Scarlet said. “I didn’t have access to external comms, and Mason is deluded, but he’s not actually stupid. I’m pretty sure that one of the other techs working on the email server found out what Harry and Clive were doing and ratted them out. I know Dan. I’ve met him a few times. He used to say he worked for the RCU, but now he says he runs it. Dr Mitchell told me the same thing, that we’ll have an easier time of it now that Dan is in charge.”
“That confirms what I’d already heard,” I said.
“There’s an FBI person who comes in,” Scarlet said. “Don’t know his name. No other personnel are allowed in the labs when he’s there, but he comes in once a month to talk to Dr Mitchell and Mason. I don’t know why. There’s no internal communications.”
“What is Callie Mitchell doing?” I asked.
“Making hybrids,” Scarlet said. “We were lied to.”
“What does she want them for?” Gabriel asked.
Scarlet shrugged. “I just run the data, check for problems. For the first few months, I thought they captured fiends and ran tests on them, and I didn’t mind. They’re just fiends. Monsters. But Daisy found out about the prison under the Sky-High building. Rift-fused are kept down there, humans too, but mostly rift-fused. I realised I was working for a sadist too late and couldn’t get out.”
“We’ll help you,” Gabriel assured her.
“Do you know where the RCU agents are?” I asked Scarlet.
“Five are in the prison,” she said. “Everyone was freaking out because the company had gone from working in the shadows to just outwardly kidnapping a bunch of agents and murdering more. It was all over the news. It’s why I was shocked that Dan is now in charge of the RCU. He’d been a regular at the office over the time I’d worked there. He’s . . . He wants Dr Mitchell’s research to proceed as quickly as possible. We have chats with Mason about the data, because Dr Mitchell is too busy to bother with keeping the ‘boss’ informed, and I always got the impression that Mason and Dr Mitchell have different visions about what the experiments are for.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Mason wants to find a way to create a super soldier,” Scarlet said. She was relaxing now and was quite animated with her hands as she spoke. “He wants to monetise it. He wants to get power and wealth and status, and that’s his every aim. Dr Mitchell . . . It’s personal for her. Deeply personal.”
“You know why?” Hannah asked.
Scarlet shook her head. “She doesn’t fraternise with the staff. She orders us to do stuff and we do it. Those who work with her on the experiments themselves have it harder. She threw a chair at one of them because he made an incision too deep on a fiend.”
