Of course, that would also mean there was an entrance somewhere in these hills large enough to take trucks, and surely the Directorate, with all its scanning equipment and satellites, would have spotted it by now.
Maybe not. Quinn had stopped at the next door.
Why not? An entrance big enough to take trucks needs roads heavy enough to take them. Not an easy thing to conceal in a forest.
It is if it is disguised as something else. Are there any quarries or logging camps nearby, perhaps?
I have no idea.
But Jack will.
Yeah.
I keyed the code into the door then stepped back to give him access to the thumb coder. The labs being underground would certainly explain why Jack and the Directorate have been unable to discover any suspect buildings with their satellites. But how could Starr do that much excavating without anyone taking note?
The only thing new about these tunnels are the doors. The concrete surrounding us is old. Decades old.
The cartel has been playing around in the DNA pool for forty years.
This place is older than that. Much older.
The light above the sensors clicked from red to green. Quinn grasped the door handle and hauled it open.
And that's about the time the shit hit the fan.
Air stirred, coming at us with the velocity of a train. For a heartbeat I thought it was merely trapped air rushing out, but then I caught the smell—fetid, unripe flesh.
I reached out telepathically, trying to catch some sense of what was coming at us, but it was a total dead zone. Not dead as in mind-blind, but dead as in nothing there, just empty space. The creature wasn't there in body form, either. Its body heat barely existed, which meant that under infrared the creature was little more than a muted flame of dark, dark red that faded to black toward the extremities.
But dead, dying, or whatever, it was coming at us hard. And it was pretty much a given that it wasn't rushing to give us a great big hug.
Instinct had me throwing myself into Quinn, knocking us both out of the way. Why, I have no idea—he had infrared and would have seen the creatures the same as me. He grunted as his shoulder hit the wall, then his arms went around me as he steadied us both. A dark shape leapt through the doorway, its guttural howl seeming to echo down the tunnel as it skidded to a halt several feet away.
Or maybe it wasn't an echo we heard, because suddenly there was another one skidding to a stop beside the first one, this one slightly smaller.
Fuck, Quinn said. Chameleons.
Chameleons were a rare breed of nonhumans who could take on any background, and literally become part of that background. Charmingly, they were also flesh eaters. We'd come across a pack of them once before, and in the end, had only survived because Rhoan, Jack, and Kade had raced to the rescue.
There'd be no such rescue this time.
I pushed away from Quinn, ducked the night dark paw the second creature flung my way, and backpedalled through the door. The room beyond at least felt bigger than the tunnel and would provide more fighting room. Which I needed, even if Quinn didn't.
The ones we met at the breeding center didn't smell this bad. I ducked another blow, then dived in close for a quick one-two punch to the creature's gut. It felt like I was hitting iron. I danced out of the way of the creature's swipe and watched it warily. This one didn't seem as fast as the first but that didn't mean it was slow. Just that I had more of a chance against it.
No, these ones rot. Quinn was moving so fast he appeared little more than a blurring rush of flame. It means they are very old.
As old as these tunnels?
Older.
I ducked another blow but missed the follow-up. It hit with the force of a hammer, flinging me off my feet and deep into the darkness of the room.
I grunted as my back hit the floor beyond, and couldn't stop myself sliding along the slick tiles. Not until I hit something hard and metallic, anyway. Pain slithered up my spine, but the rush of air suggested I had more than a bruise to worry about. I scrambled upright and quickly felt behind me. A table. A metal table. No chance of breaking off a leg and using it as a stake, unfortunately. Not that I knew if a stake killed these things, but it would have been worth the try. That table also meant we'd reached the lab areas—but obviously a disused section, because I couldn't imagine anyone willingly working in the presence of cannibals.
The creature lunged at me again. I spun and lashed out with a heel, my kick landing high and hard. It staggered back several steps, but managed to swipe one big paw across my shin. Needle sharp nails tore into flesh and blood welled, the sweet scent overriding the foulness of the creatures. Even as I cursed, the darkness stirred.
There were more of them hiding here.
Great. Just fucking great.
I caught my balance and backed away again. Away from the creature, away from the stirring shadows. Luckily, the room was rectangular, leaving plenty of retreat room before I got into trouble.
Quinn, there's something else in this room.
I know. He was still near the entrance, but the creature he fought seemed to be slipping into death, the deep red of its life force barely visible, almost entirely swamped by night.
They don't feel as big, but just as nasty.
They are young.
Young?
As in, a nest of young.
Oh shit. No wonder mama and papa were so pissed. They were determined to protect their kits, not the labs. We need to get out of here before those youngsters decide to help out.
It would be a better idea than fighting them all right now.
I continued to retreat, watching the creature as I groped behind me in an effort to find each table before I ran into it. Though I couldn't see an exit through the blackness, logic said there had to be one. I had an odd feeling that if we got out of the lab, the creatures might leave us alone.
Which, considering these creatures were flesh eaters, didn't exactly make a whole lot of sense. I mean, surely it wasn't an everyday occurrence that dinner walked so willingly into their lair?
My fingers touched the cold surface of another table. As I edged around it, the creature leapt. Once again I spun and kicked, spraying blood through the air in the process. Claws skittered against the tiles, drawing closer. The young were drawn by the scent of blood more than the need to help their parents.
My blow caught the creature in the gut, the force of it reverberating up my leg. It sent the creature crashing into another table and had to have left a huge dent in the surface. It shook its head and rose to its feet, then launched itself through the air again. I quickly sidestepped. The creature tried to twist around, but its claws found no purchase against the tiled surface and it slid right on by. Giving me the chance I needed to look quickly around.
The young were muted flecks of red huddled in the far left corner of the room. Beyond them was what appeared to be a large fissure in the concrete walls. The exit stood to my right and thankfully, didn't appear print- or key-coded. As the creature picked itself up and twisted around, I ran like hell for the door and hauled it open.
Quinn, I found the exit. Get your butt over here.