Page 84 of All Saints Day
I nod ruefully.
“And they're running out of patience. It won't be long before they unleash the virus on the public. They’ll use the deaths of innocents to smoke me out of hiding,” I explain flatly.
Martin goes white as a sheet but says nothing.
“You can't go back; next time they'll be ready. They'll be using your mate as bait.”
“I don’t think there’s going to be agoing back,” Sébastien scoffs from beside me, big beefy arms crossed over his chest. “We left a good portion of their so-called ‘Country Estate’ in ruin onour last visit, and I can’t imagine they haven’t scrambled to do some damage control after they realized Compton’s devices had been compromised.”
“This is where you come in.” I lower my gun and re-engage the safety—looming over Martin as he kneels before me on the forest floor. “You have access to the members of the Windmill who occupy positions at the Feds—including Compton, who still hasn’t been made as a corrupt stooge for the Windmill,” I continue carefully, looking down my nose at him. “With your co-operation, we can get information about where Frank is being held, if they’ve moved the labs and testing facilities that make the altered Zeitnot virus.”
My uncle looks up at me, that pleading look in his eyes.
“Helping you walk into your death? Into the gates of hell? Is that really what you want?” He shakes his head softly, as if that might change my mind.
“You will do this for me—it is what I ask of you,” I command coldly, Martin shying away from me with his eyes squeezed closed as if I were a ball of flame passing too close to his face—bright and hot, before falling prostrate in a chorus of swearing himself to me and begging my forgiveness.
Chapter 31
Sébastien
Martin helped us connect many dots when he began cooperating in our endeavor to counteract the Windmill’s plans to release the Zeitnot virus and rescue Frank from captivity.
He confirmed what we had already suspected—that the DPW and other shady parts of the US Military Intelligence body had been involved in the original project; a serum that would not only allow the change of designation at will—but one that would eventually strengthen the chosen designation to potentially superhuman levels of ability.
The fruits of the Penny’s labors would miss the mark, giving rise to what would become the Zeitnot virus.
The Windmill, through various layers of corruption and subterfuge, had managed to get samples from the original strain of the Zeitnot, deep in storage with the Penny’s research.
Before they knew about the potential cure, the Windmill had experimented with introducing the original strain of the virus into at-risk populations via tainted drugs.
Dennis, Frank, and the late Michael Duboze had all been involved with chasing cases that dovetailed with the Windmill’s Zeitnot explorations. Of course, nothing would ever come of any findings, because of Windmill plants in the DEA—but it was certainly illuminating to see in retrospect.
It became obvious to the Windmill that if they really wantedto get the results they were after; they were going to have to make some changes and upgrades to what the Penny’s had been working with. If they wanted power, money, and that mythical serum… They had a long way to go.
Martin was also able to get us access to some of his fellow federal higher-ups who moonlit for the Windmill.
Much like he had with Compton—Caz was able to gain access to anything and everything on the personal devices of Feds who used his deadly little USB cables. As innocuous as the string of rubberized wire looked—it left sinister vulnerabilities wide open to Caz with the greatest of ease.
All of Compton’s old connections had been closed out since we used him to help us break into the Country Estate, so we were in the dark as to where Frank was transferred after we were parted during our daring escape.
Though Louise could feel a great deal down the mating bond from Frank now that the two of them had exchanged bites, it seemed clear that the Windmill was doing its best to keep Frank in pain in order to entice Louise to come save him—as such, there wasn’t much helpful information to be gleaned from the bond.
Caz determined that Frank was being held at the Windmill’s largest Research and Development facility; a massive compound in rural Alaska that was extremely difficult to reach without detection.
I sincerely doubted that it was a coincidence the Windmill decided to intern Frank at the Alaska facility; the very birthplace of the Zeitnot virus and super serum research.
They may as well have made a neon sign or sent a flowery invitation.
Your fated mate is here—along with the drugs for which you will be the keystone to a cure.
A jaunty little request; walk directly into this trap.
Our objectives seemed simple, but impossibly out of reach; enter the Alaskan R&D facility, destroy whatever stores andlaboratories of the virus that we could on site, rescue Frank, and make it out alive.
All of this, and we didn’t have the luxury of planning or prep time. For all we know, the Windmill could be releasing drugs tainted with the new strain of the Zeitnot into the population as we speak.
We will be gathering what meager supplies we can, then we are bound for rural Alaska.le Chevalier Blancwill be ready and waiting to call in the cavalry as soon as we are clear of the facility, to fall on his sword publicly and expose the corruption within the Feds, along with confessing to the murder the Pennys, in a last-ditch bid to clear Louise’s name. He has also been instructed to alert the public to the oncoming danger of the Zeitnot virus and to the cure and vaccine developed for the original strain, and for the prospect of advancements that Dr. Perla was surely soon to make on the new, unnamed strain.
