The Enhanced

Chapter 15

"Why did Aria just thank me for something I didn't do?"

Eli shrugged. "No idea."

"Should I ask her why?"

"I think you should start washing dishes after using them. This isn't even my week to do them."

"You're the worst."

That had been the end of that, but Aria was none the wiser about it so he shrugged.

✗

Sneaking into the facility wasn't as difficult as Klaus feared. Things were going according to plan. Klaus would have commented on it if he wasn't so afraid to jinx it.

Up in the air vents, they were privy to conversations that would have otherwise been unheard. Klaus froze at the mention of a particular name.

Aria tugged at his pant leg, as if to ask what was wrong. He tapped his ear and shook his head. She stayed put, straining her ears with him to listen.

"-rumors about Knox," a guard was saying. "Sounds like bullshit."

"If that pain in the ass is involved with Hunters, I'll eat my left boot."

"Sal said-"

"Sal's a dumbass. Why would you listen to Sal?"

"He says he saw it himself!"

"Yeah, yeah, and my mother's in the Elites."

Their voices got further and further away. Klaus held his breath until they were gone entirely.

"Knox?" Aria whispered.

"He's in charge of the Elites."

"That explains it then, doesn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if he's colluding with Hunters, who's to say he doesn't have anything to do with your moles getting caught whenever they tried exposing what was going on in the facilities?"

"But that's completely different."

"Is it? Wouldn't he lose income? How would all the Elites be funded if it gets harder for Hunters to do their job? Eli said sacrifices have to be made. What if this is another one?"

There wasn't any proof, but a stone settled in the pit of his stomach.

They moved on, recording as much as possible. The labs were the worst places. Organs were being harvested from corpses and those who were alive were experimented on. Some were drugged, others weren't.

Klaus wanted to be sick. It was never this bad where he was kept. He knew, he knew it was worse for those who were born Enhanced, but he'd never seen it. Part of him wished he'd never had.

Aria's knuckles were white, fingers clenched around her camera.

The cells on the bottom floor were all filled to capacity. The Enhanced lived in misery, beaten into submission and dressed in thin, dirty clothes. The air wasn't sterile like it was everywhere else. Instead, it reeked of death.

Two guards were dragging a woman up toward the labs. She shrieked and thrashed, while a young boy in a cell sobbed quietly at the sight.

Aria moved to to kick her way down.

Klaus hardly managed to stop her in time.

Aria glared something fierce, violence in her eyes. "We can break them out. I can get it to stop. I can make them."

"We wouldn't make it out without tons of them dying. You can't control every guard."

"But-"

"Aria," Klaus pleaded, "if we did somehow manage to get everyone out, we would have no way of hiding all of them. Plenty of them probably need medical treatment and we can't promise them that. And a breakout like this would scare the public."