Blood Hunt (Blue Blood Babies sequel!)

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

 

“Jesus, would you look at that?”

That was the first thing I heard.  It was incredibly tempting to stand upright and have a look, to see what could have cause the gasps of shock that floated down to us, but it was too much to hope that no-one would notice a face peeking in the window.  Frustrated, I shifted closer to the wall and listened harder.  Connor, just inches away, caught my eye and gave me a ‘what do you think’s going on?’ look.  I shrugged.  I’d no idea.

“Oh my God, the whole place has been destroyed.  How many people do they think died?”

What?  The desire to look rose again, but I clenched my fists over my knees, anchoring myself in place.

“About a hundred people.  Plus the kids.”

“What, all of them?”

“Yeah.  Apparently a few had tried to get away, so they’d increased security.  They were all locked in the accommodation block when the attack happened, and that was the first building targeted.  Blew it up apparently.  That’s what caused the massive fire.”

“Christ,” someone whispered.

“Bit bloody stupid if you ask me,” a harsh voice commented.  “Killing off the only source of damned pills.  How do they think that’s going to help?”

“They need to get going with Cloud Nine,” someone else murmured in agreememt.

Cloud nine?  There was quiet as the people inside considered these words.  Beneath my ragged breathing, I could just hear the tinny noise of a movebox. 

“Was that Ryan?” Connor mouthed at me.

I knew who he meant.  I wasn’t sure, though.  The snide edge, the aggression, was just like him, but I thought I detected a northern twang that I’d never heard from Ryan.  I made a gesture with my hand, fingers splayed.  Maybe; maybe not. 

“How did they find the place?” a female asked.  Her voice was high-pitched and fluttery.  She sounded scared. 

“That’s the big question,” the harsh voice replied.  “How did they find them?  Intelligence haven’t been able to work it out, but they knew all about the place.  What buildings to target, how to get past the security.  I mean, they shouldn’t have been able to get within a mile of the place.  There are all sorts of early warning systems in place.  These people managed to side-step every single one of them.”

“The question is,” a new voice interjected, “Do they know about this place?”

Silence greeted this question.  I waited, breath baited, my heart thumping in my chest.  The pieces were clicking slowly into place, and two plus two was adding up to a very scary situation.  Another facility had been attacked... another facility just like this one.  And from the sounds of it, their primary target had been the blue blood babies.

So whether they knew about this place... whether we were safe ... was definitely the question.

I was focussing so hard on listening for so much as a whisper from inside the room, I missed the stealthy footsteps sneaking up behind us.  I didn’t know that there were more than two of us loitering in the back space behind the building until a hand curled itself around the back of my collar and hauled me upright.

“What the hell are you two doing here?”  Ryan’s voice was low, but quivering with restrained anger.  He still had a handful of my shirt clenched in his meaty fist and the muscles in his arm were bulging beneath a tight black t-shirt.  I was glad it wasn’t my throat he had his hand around.