Betrayal: Book 3 of the Guardians Saga

CH. 8.2 Honestly

"We should have believed Alex, but she said she made up the bit about trapping Brockner," Cale said.

Grange nodded. "Some part of her remembered it, I'm sure. Bits of memory tend to surface under stress."

"Please, take a look at this." Cale handed over the little device.

Grange stubbed out his cigarette and took the machine for closer inspection. He pressed play and listened a moment before shutting it off. "Advanced subliminals. Talk about twisting your minds. This is very bad.  This means Brockner has a lot more support than we suspected.  I need your help.  If we're going to save Alex, we must work together."

"We don't know where she is either, but we think she's with our brother," Cale said.

"Where would they go?"

"Knowing Rile, they're after revenge," Gabe said sourly. 

Cale drummed his claws in the palm of his other hand. "Maybe back to that warehouse in the projects?"

"It's a start.  We need to leave now." Grange took out his car keys.

*****

On the way over, Cale quizzed Grange.  Gabe remained quiet, brooding. They found the building empty, all traces of the equipment gone.  Grange gave them a questioning look, but didn't say anything.

"Josef Hermann's lab," Cale said. "Alex once said that creep knew something about her powers, about who to contact to sell her.  I bet they went there."

*****

Rile and Alex made their way towards Hermann's lab through the streets of New Orleans, sticking to smaller streets and alleys.

"You're awfully quiet," Rile said.

Alex rubbed her temples. "Enjoy the silence."

Rile hissed softly, upset that she had withdrawn once again from  him. "Tell me what my jerk of a big brother said to you."

"Are we going to do this or gossip like girls?" Alex said. "There's the building. What's the plan?"

"I'm making this up as I go along."

Alex snorted. "Perfect. Tell you what: I'll short out that security camera. Neuro-electric powers still have electricity. Then I'll try my hand, literally, on the hand scanner."

"If that doesn't work?"

"Then make it up as we go along, Dragon Boy."

Alex flattened against the wall, watched that no one was around, and fired a blast at the security camera. It shorted out with a sad hiss.

She placed a faintly glowing hand on the scanner plate and waited, holding her breath. It beeped and the door opened. She and Rile slipped in.

A foyer of grey concrete slabs with a large case full of glass specimen jars greeted them. It quickly branched off into two long hallways, large metal lined doorways breaking up the outline.

Rile pushed her into the nearest doorway and motioned to a security monitor.

"Watch for the security guard. Time his pacing so we can avoid him."

They gazed at the screen. Rile held up his hand, fingers extended. He folded each finger and when the last finger went down, he bounded off.

Alex started, then pain crossed her face and she fell to one knee, clutching her head as the short circuit flared once again.

"Hey you!"

Alex looked up at the security guard and blasted him. Then she froze when she saw who was behind the security guard.

Rile was halfway down the other hallway when he turned and saw that Alex wasn't behind him. He turned back and saw Morgan before his world went black.

****

A/N

Good villains don't stay dead! Or rather, a counterpart takes the place of the dead one!

This chapter and the next gave me fits writing and finding holes and rewriting and finding more holes. Let me know if you see any! You'll hear the screams across the globe, but in the end, I'll appreciate it...

Dedicated to faithful readers
Angel_Eyes1514
And
efrosinia_g

Dedicated to

Cocosghost

who's unflagging support keeps me going through my "everything I write is crap" troughs!