Page 71 of The Devil's Ice

Three hours later, in a silence that had only fallen about ten minutes earlier, Scars’ burner cell chimed, chimed again. And again. And again.

Knowing exactly what he was about to see, Scars picked up the phone, opened the first attachment, then another and another.

“And?” King said.

“Well, I can’t tell you what the hell might have donethis.” Scars held up the phone to show the grisly image of Viper Grant with blood, vomit, and some kind of clear foam around his blue-tinged lips, his back eyes open and locked in frozen pain and horror. “But it looks pretty permanent.”

“Can I see?” Ice asked. “I have some unfortunate experience with poison exposure from my time in Afghanistan.”

Scars handed the phone over and Ice went through each image carefully, noting body positioning, fluids, and skin color. Finally, he glanced up at the other men and nodded.

“If I had to guess, I’d say it was some kind of airborne chemical. Maybe carbon monoxide, since it made them puke everywhere, but the blood looks like it comes from the stomach and lungs. But…” He stared closely at the pictures, went through them again more slowly. “Despite all the blood and puke, their blue lips make me think that they actually suffocated.”

“Does carbon monoxide work that fast?” Cain asked doubtfully. “It’s only been a few hours since Bones texted that he was on his way to Viper’s card game.”

“Not usually,” Ice said, gazing down at the photo of Preacher slumped over the table, some kind of liquid all down his chin and chest, surrounded by what looked like poker chips. “It depends how much you dump on them all at once, I guess. All I can say for sure is that from the looks on their faces, whatever Bones did to them, it fuckinghurt.”

The phone rang then, and Ice handed it back to Scars who picked up right away, then put it on speaker.

“Scars?”

“Yeah. What the fuck did you do to them, man?”

“I locked them in the Hellions warehouse where Viper and Preacher and their little lapdogs play cards,” Bones said. “Then I pumped in gallons of phosgene through the air vents.”

“Ofwhat?”

“Phosgene,” Bones said, launching into a science lesson. “An organic, chemical compound that isridiculouslyeasy to make, even if you aren’t great at chemistry. It was used as a chemical weapon in the Second World War, and if it’s inhaled in large quantities – and I madesurethat it was – pulmonary edemas appear immediately.”

“So…” King said slowly. “So pulmonary means the lungs, right? So does that mean that they puked up disintegrated lung tissue? They choked to death on it?”

“No. Pulmonary edemas causemassivefluid buildup in the lungs.”

“So…” Scars said, struck by the sudden understanding that came to him in a blinding flash. “So… theydrowned?”

“Yep.”

“Holy shit.” Scars stared at the photos in horror, trying hardnotto imagine what it must feel like to drown from the inside out. “That is the worst thing that I think I’ve ever heard.”

“It was painful, I can assure you,” Bones said. “But it was pretty quick, as far as things like this can go. I exposed them to so much all at once, that it was all over in about forty minutes, but they were incapacitated within five. They’d have been aware and conscious for most of what was happening, but no way to get to their feet or even crawl.”

“I – I don’t know if that’s better or worse than what I was imagining,” Cain said. “That is fuckinggruesome.”

“They deserved it,” Dux said quietly, and his brother nodded. “For what they put Briley through, for what they did to Vixen… they had it coming. I’m glad it hurt, I’m glad that they knew what was going on, I’m glad they died afraid.”

“Allof that happened,” Bones informed them. “I swear it.”

There was a short silence as the men looked at the photos for a few more seconds, then snapped their eyes back up. It was time to move on to the next part of the plan, and none of them were wasting any time feeling pity for a bunch of baby kidnappers and attempted-murderers of children.

“Scars?”

“Yeah, still here,” Scars said to Bones, his mind already four steps ahead of where he was actually standing. “Call me when you get eyes on Wolf and the twins.”

“You got it,” Bones said and disconnected.

The six men stood there, mentally switching gears to the next part of the plan: they had to clean up the mess in the back room, in preparation for the cleaners the next day, and Ice and Cain were the ones tasked with making the body disappear. They’d be travelling a bit for sure, but thought that they’d be back in Denver in about three days.

“Let’s do what needs to be done back there, and then go get our President,” Scars said now, then looked at Dux and Drake. Both men had knuckles that were bruised and raw, swollen and scraped to shit; both men looked utterly at peace. “Andyour babies.”

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