Chapter 15

Viria spent the whole day hanging like bat from the darkened corner of the ceiling. Spells of invisibility used up too much energy if in effect for hours, but she kept having to disappear briefly when someone’s bored eye rolled over to the ceiling.

It was a conference room, and people were filling in slowly. The spotless white walls reflected the fluorescent lighting and the glass table was almost invisible against the equally white floor, save for the holographic screens within the glass and some protruding out of it.

There was something in the air, though. And Viria was great at tasting the atmosphere. Panic was her favorite flavor in such situations, and she was getting an endless amount to feed on. With a smirk, she watched on.

Murmurs and whispers grew louder in the air into questions and demanding slams of fists on the table. People started tapping away at the glass as their keyboards popped up and spheres of information with various codes spun before them.

“The genetic coding has been tampered with!” someone cried.

“Our fetus supply has been jammed,” another said. “The passwords are not working.”

“But then they’ll never open!”

“The current embryos that were undergoing formation have stopped and started to decay,” a voice called out.

“Who did such a thing?” someone demanded angrily. “Check the CCTVs!”

“They’ve been frozen this whole time!”

A few swears rose up in the air. The fear was at an all-time high and Viria had never seen people act so unprofessional in her life. She could see fingers being pointed at one another as accusations flew. She held in a chuckle. This was the most satisfied she had felt in her life. She felt really proud of Mitch. He’d done the job so well and no one even got a hint. She was aware of a slip up but the woman who was present at the time said nothing. She sat confused and in a daze.

Everyone froze. The lights dimmed, making the walls seem dark and grey. The people straightened out their lab coats and rushed to their seats. As soon as the last person got in place, the wall across split right in the center and slid soundlessly apart, opening up only a third. Lights lit up the newly appeared hallway.

Slow clicks approached the room, growing louder with each one. The mood grew tense and anxious. It was so much that Viria almost felt sorry for them. She knew that there were some people in the room who had been forced against their will into these experiments or maybe had no choice but to join. She observed them all and could tell apart who the said people were. Zooming into their name tags, she punched the letters into her phone under her cloak and sent them in to Mitch, instructing him to follow a protocol of security for the innocent. She knew he would be able to pin their identities and personal information in the data he’d stolen from the computers and help them out. Viria wasn’t completely heartless. She always made sure to have good reasons for her actions.

A figure appeared. Tall, thin, and graceful, dressed in a three-piece grey business suit. Her grey hair was cut short and styled neatly over her head. She was well past sixty, but she looked well-groomed, nevertheless.

At her presence, everyone in the room stood and gave her a small bow.

“Please, sit down all of you,” she said gently. They straightened and sat ever so robotically, all in sync and with absolute precision. Viria found it somewhat disturbing. With a nod of approval, the woman walked to the chair before her. A guard appeared out of nowhere and pulled the seat back for her, helping her in. He then returned to his post. Viria knew about the guards and had made sure to stick to the vents and be very careful and silent.

The walls behind the woman slid toward each other and closed seamlessly. Viria would have never guessed the walls were doors to anything. As if that wasn’t enough, a huge hologram screen was projected onto the entire wall.

“Let’s proceed with updates on the progress,” she said as graphs, codes, and documents opened up neatly on the screen in sections. A man started off with a hint of tremor in his voice.

“Well, we had an eighty two percent success rate–”

“Had?” the woman asked, a sense of hostility entering her voice.

“Well, until yesterday everything was going smoothly,” he said with as much courage as he could muster, “but an overview of system shows that it’s been tampered with.”

There was pin drop silence in the room as the woman processed what she had just heard. With a deep breath, she spun her chair to the screen behind her and responded calmly, “The damages?”

Someone reached onto their screen and tapped away at some files that opened onto the larger one. Codes blinking ominously red, documents scrabbled and gibberish as if they had been encrypted, heartbreakingly plunging graphs that ended in straight lines like a dead heartbeat.

The woman’s shoulders stiffened, knuckles going white at the arm rests of her seat. A hand rose, thumb closing over each finger to crack them and flex later.

“What do we have left?”

“The ones in the external containers have been left untouched.”

“This was definitely done upon intrusion,” another said. “It was planned. This was not a malfunction of any sort.”

“Work with what we have for now,” she said, “and I want an investigation done immediately and have the culprit captured.”

“What about the other mission?”

“Hunting down ViriaSchovsky can wait,” she hissed. Viria was startled. She didn’t think she would be pursued already. She needed all traitor being hunted down and destroyed before they got their hands on any more information. She couldn’t have the Morbus having the slightest clue about the sanctuaries.

“Right now,” the woman continued, “we make sure no one gets here. This is the root of the whole organization.”

“And the mother?”

Mother?,Viria contemplated. She was getting an idea of sorts.

“She is evolving well,” came the reply. “The test run proved the distribution to be well balanced, although a little shaky. She’s grown more powerful now. Our chimera will be powerful than ever now.”

Mitch was right, she thought with her heart picking up an uncomfortable feeling.This is only getting bigger than what we keep assuming. I need to get back home.

There was silence in the air. Everybody waited for the woman’s next words expectantly. Her long fingernails clicked on the arm rest.

“No one leaves tonight,” she said dangerously. Turning around, she taps onto a button on the table and presses her thumb onto the surface. The lights turn red and an alarm echoes throughout the whole structure, followed by screeching sounds and clangs.

Viria switched energy spectrums and viewed the skeleton of the place. The vents had been closed, and all exit doors had been barred. All signals were cut off to the outside, which meant she wouldn’t be able to reach out to anyone unless through the computers in this very room.

Fuck, I’ll have to meditate and get to Yin and Yang, tell them what’s going on and inform Ivanna. This is all just computer systems and Mitch can tamper with the security and get me out of here easily.

“Everyone can spend the night in the emergency bunks,” the woman continued. “Meanwhile, someone please call in an investigation team.”

****

Luke couldn’t sleep after the attack. Everyone from the pack had been shifted into the sanctuaries, but he was worried about all the others. He couldn’t afford another test run of the chimeras. They were too strong and he’d barely managed to hold them off. Hell, even Viria needed help fighting them. Of course, she understood what their weak spot was, but determining them in each chimera during combat seemed impossible. The anxiety stole his slumber away and he needed to go and find where they came from. The Morbus HQ was too far from them and Viria would have known and warned them if the chimeras had been sent from there. But she didn’t, so there should be a separate base where they were being trained. Maybe the place had a whole army. Who knew? The idea of stumbling into a mass of them was scary, but he had to investigate and make sure to warn remaining packs of any oncoming trouble.

Shifting, he followed the fading scent. He knew he had to be quick because it would soon disperse and mingle with the smell of the trees and the trail would be lot for good unless he found another way. But the wind had already taken away some of the sand and soil that imprinted the chimeras’ feet. There claw marks on the trees, but theirs wasn’t the only ones so it was hard to distinguish.

He felt the need to be cautious even though he couldn’t smell an animal around for miles. Most were asleep. It was barely sunrise and the forest life had still a few more hours to go before embracing consciousness.

This is taking a toll on all of us for real, he realized as he followed the scent.We’ve been stressed for days despite the breaks. It’s like this is never going to end.

He jumped over a large bush and picked up pace as the scent grew slightly stronger.

What if they’re still there and camping? What if I run right into them? I should’ve brought back up. Goddammit, I’m not even thinking straight anymore.

A sharp burn cut across his paw.He hissed and stumbled. Quickly looking around to see who had attacked, he rolled back up on his legs ready for combat. Breathing heavy and every puff coming out like a smoke from a kettle, his eyes raked the clearing he had entered. They finally rested upon a circle of rocks with coals steaming in the middle of it, some still red at the bottom. He calmed down.

They must’ve packed up recently, he thought and sniffed the air, Definitely recently.

With a deep breath, he pinpointed the direction and followed as quietly as he could. He could hear their breaths and the noises they were making. Grunts, howls, and growls. Snaps of jaws and abrupt hisses. It sounded something similar to when animals cornered in on a prey, and that alarmed Luke. He hoped it wasn’t an innocent wandering shifter that had fallen into their campsite.

Luke sensed the danger, hunger, and bloodlust in the air. He knew a fight when he smelled one.

He knew his mate when he smelled her, too.