Page 53 of Reaper Razed

Grabbing it and dragging it open, I reach into the hallway, grab him by his shirt, and drag him into the room with the rest of us.

Dice backs up the footage a little and starts it again. Once everything is on the tarmac, the plane taxis away and takes off. Three of them are just standing there hugging each other. “That has to be Ray, Dane and Bran. I’ve seen them stand like that a ton. I would bet my life that that’s them.” Dice sounds almost like he’s trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

“Wait, what’s that?” One of the other screens flares to life.

“That’s the gate. There’s a vehicle approaching and heading in. It’s a blacked-out van. We follow it on the camera before it pulls to them in front of the hangar. Two men get out, shake their hands and load the body bags into the van before setting off.

“Set a tail on that vehicle. I want to know who’s in that van and where it goes!” I spit at Dice.

“Wait, that's Ray!” Dozer shouts, “back it up.” We watch as they load the equipment into the armoured truck, then Ray rips off her gas mask and throws it across the tarmac, screams into the air, then drops to her knees and sobs into her hands. The other two take off their masks and drop them to the floor before collapsing at the side of her.

My phone chimes in my pocket. Grabbing out, it’s a message from Ray.

Unknown. I’m back. I’m sorry. I need some time. I’m okay. Back soon, love you.

I try to reply, but it won’t let me. I tell the guys, and all we can do is watch. We watch as she drags a device out of a bag. That must be what she messages me on. Then she gets up and wipes her face, and the look that passes it sends shivers up my spine. I’ve seen Reaper in full swing, but this… her face just falls blank, dead eyes like her soul has just departed. They climb into the armoured truck and drive out of there like bats out of hell.

All we can do is watch. We have multiple monitors playing multiple footage. Dice is running number plates, watching cameras, and hacking into the cloud to get to the stored footage from all cameras, all before the armoured truck disappears.

“Fuck!” I bellow. “How is that fucking possible? Where the fuck are they?”

Dice leaves those screens scanning. “We’ll be alerted if Dane’s truck pops back up, or Bran’s, for that matter. I’m gonna concentrate on the van.”

After what feels like a lifetime, Dice finds the van. It’s pulled onto a military base. Of course it fucking has. “Can we get eyes on that base and find out who’s in those bags? It’s pointing to Bernie and Cade, but fuck… That’s gonna blow up their entire world if they lose those two.”

Dice manages to tap into a few cameras, but nothing gives us anything useful. Then he tries phoning through to the base, but that’s a dead end. “Send me the coordinates. I'm going there myself.” I bark out. As I go to leave, Scar speaks up.

“Steel …” she lets out a breath. “That’s not her.”

“What the fuck, Scar? You just saw her. It is; it is her. She’s back. I’m going to the base to find answers, then I’m finding her and dragging her ass back home.”

“No, Steel… I mean… that’s not the Ray you know. I’ve known them for nearly ten years. You need to let her come back when she’s ready. Whatever has happened… you think Reaper is a ruthless killer? You’ve seen nothing yet. They all compartmentalise, but they do it with personalities. This is full-on Black Queen, and trust me, you don’t want to be near her when she detonates, because that is what’s going to happen.

“Steel, please just let her come to you. Right now, they’re all riding a fucking high or a fucking low, and it’s gonna get way worse. When they come back, they’re empty. There's no compassion, there’s no humanity, and there’s certainly no love for anyone. They will rip you apart and burn the pieces without a second thought. Please let her come to you. Don’t force this. She’s sent a message, which is more than any other time.”

“They’ve been like this before?”

“As long as I’ve known them. They’ve spent a lot of time ‘travelling’ to various destinations.” Scar uses air quotes, as if that’s what they’ve told people but not what they’ve been doing.

“I’m going to the air base to see if I can find anything out, but I’ll come straight back, okay?” I look at Scar. “I trust you.” I nod at her.

She nods back. She cups my face. “She will come back. You just need to let her find her own way. Ares, go with him, please.” He nods and drops a kiss on her cheek before clapping me on the shoulder.

“Come on, Brother, let's see what we can dig up.”

“Dice, let me know if they show up on the cameras.” He nods as we walk out the door.

“Jesus, Ares, what is she involved in? I thought all this started here. I thought this was someone she was becoming here. I thought it was my fault. I can’t lose her.”

Black Queen

Pulling into The Tower, I get out. I can’t feel. I can’t shake this emptiness. I’m trying to will myself to feel something, anything, but there’s just a void, a black hole where my fucking swinging brick used to be, and I can’t function. I head for the shower. I swing by our dorm room and grab my tequila on my way.

When I get to the showers, Dane and Bran are in there already. It's more like a changing room here, so I slide into an empty shower cubicle. I don't bother closing the curtain. I just turn the water on freezing, slide down the wall, and drink my fill of tequila.

It’s not till the water shuts off that I glare up, and Dane is standing there in a pair of boxers with his hand held out. I slap the bottle in it, and he chugs it like it’s his job. He leans down and drags me to my feet, pulling me to our room. It’s one we all share. It has two double beds, but we only ever sleep in one. When we come back from what we’ve seen, we never want to be away from each other. Bran’s already in bed in his boxers, and he tosses me a t-shirt, which I slide on as Dane grabs me some pants. I pull them on and slide into bed. Dane gets on my other side, and we drink till the tequila is gone.

Waking up the next day, or maybe the day after that, fuck knows what day we’re actually on, Bran’s getting dressed, looking freshly showered. “I can’t do this.” He gestures to us, wallowing in self-pity in bed, stinking like a five-day-old hangover, and Stig of the Dump comes flooding back. “We’ve already lost them. I’m not prepared to lose Demi. I’m going home.”

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