Ovation (Galaxy Circus #9)

Chapter 27

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Lila

M y body is wound so tightly, my muscles ache as we slowly make our way through the facility. Zeydan’s tails are spread out, supplying us with all the locations of the remaining staff. We are adjacent to the door to the office area where Smith took us to sign all the paperwork for Brannock the one time I had been to the facility.

Back then, I thought they were a legit agency trying to keep the knowledge of aliens on the down-low from the general public, and maybe, once upon a time, it started like that, but Smith’s corruption poisoned a once credible agency. Now, we know better. Now, we need to wipe out the rot and clean house, then install trusted personnel to return it to the agency it needs to be—one that provides support and help to all extraterrestrials making Earth their home for now.

We’ve taken out a lone guard who I think was trying to make a run for it. He didn’t even put up a fight. Before any of the guys could kill him, I froze him and told the others we would deal with him when we had seen to the others. I couldn’t, in good conscience, just kill him, especially since he surrendered, wide-eyed and terrified, at the sight of the six aliens escorting me.

Now, Xavier has sent out probes and knows there are six admin staff inside that area. I’m sure they are all military trained in this kind of complex, but I want to give them the chance to surrender, even Bitchy McBitch face. Maybe they don’t have a choice in where they work or who they work for and have no clue what is truly behind the secret door.

“On my command.” Zeydan waves a hand, and his magic explodes the door inward. The sounds of gunfire are loud in the quiet hall, the muzzle flashes competing with the red glow of the emergency lighting, which must be on a different system from the generators. It literally must be the only thing that works, though, because it is stifling hot inside, so the HVAC system must have been taken offline as well.

I wipe my sweaty brow as we wait for the furious barrage of bullets to stop. They are just firing randomly, and none of them are even close to hitting us.

Finally, we hear the telltale sound of empty weapons clicking and the panicked whispers of them saying they are out of bullets. Zeydan sends his tails in. The shouts of fright are loud, and we can hear terrified movements. The seven of us follow, and when two of the three females and one male see my escort, the shouts turn to screams and pleading for their lives. Of course, Bitchy McBitch face has to put on a show.

“You,” she sneers, glaring at me with undisguised hatred. “Smith knew you were going to be a problem. He’s going to take great joy in killing you. I will get a promotion for handing you over.”

I give her a little finger wave and see her reach for a letter opener on her desk.

“Uh-uh,” I tut and point my weapon at her, gesturing for her to join the other three cowering on the ground. They made the right decision to surrender.

“Is this the same Smith who fled Earth and is now currently halfway across the galaxy, trying to save his weaselly ass?” Tirrian asks casually, but smoke drifts out of his nostrils, and his wings flare up high, causing the three on the ground to cower with their hands over their heads.

“He wouldn’t leave me behind,” she argues, shaking her head. “He promised to take me wherever he went.”

“He lied,” Brannock says flatly, and she turns pale at the sight of him.

“You! Oh my god, we’re all going to die!” She starts to shake, and tears drip down her face.

“Yes, you are,” Saxon says, baring his fangs at her. They all scream and cower in terror.

“How many prisoners are in the restricted wing?” Zeydan asks the three who are sobbing uncontrollably and mostly useless.

“We don’t have a restricted wing,” the guy answers, snot dripping down his face.

Zeydan scoffs at his answer, unable to hide the disgust in his eyes. “You are all pathetic,” he growls, and I smell that one of them wet their pants.

I mean, he isn’t wrong. We haven’t even done anything yet.

Bitchy McBitch face smirks. “Doesn’t matter, they’ll all be dead by now. The first thing I did when the power was cut was hit the kill switch.”

I lift my gun and fire, hitting her between the eyes. She blinks in shock, but it must be a reflex, because she’s dead before she even hits the ground, her brain splattered on the wall behind her.

“So, um, understandable,” Xavier says, nodding at her dead body, “but we could have used the information.”

“What does it matter if they are all dead?” I say flatly, turning my back on the others and walking out. I’m numb and furious at the same time, and the urge to paint the walls red with the remaining guards’ blood is riding me. My alternate forms were mostly silent during the raid, not wanting to distract me, but now they are baying for blood.

“What do we do with these three?” Ghosie asks, and I hear Brannock reply.

“Kill them or don’t, it doesn’t matter, but if my daughter is dead like that bitch just said, then I will come back and slaughter anyone who remains.” His fury burns in the air as hot as mine.

I hear the others mumbling as they decide what to do with the three in the room, but I’m not stopping. I walk down the corridor to the door. I feel Brannock at my heels, but we don’t talk, because there is nothing left to say.

“I thought you said the kill switch couldn’t be activated without power?” Tirrian asks, and the others catch up.

“It shouldn’t have been. In the event of a power failure, that area hermetically seals. They are trying to create bioweapons from some of the aliens as well, so it’s a fail-safe so nothing escapes into the base or worse, gets out into the atmosphere.”

“Bioweapons?” Saxon growls.

“Yes, the guards are a chatty group, and I overheard two of them talking about it during the raid on the Pleasure Inn. They were hoping to round up some new and interesting creatures to experiment on.”

“Fuck, they all need to die,” Xavier growls. “Can we agree all of them need to die, Lila?” I can hear how exasperated he is with my human sensibilities. Xavier is the one who has always been impatient with that part of me, but he has nothing to worry about now. I’ve gone all psycho Cheryl on them, and shoot to kill is now my motto.

I raise both guns as the noise increases, and we find a dozen guards milling around the restricted door. They seemed to have calmed down somewhat and are arguing about how they are going to get through to make sure all the experiments are contained.

I don’t even wait for them to notice us before I start firing my weapons, one in each hand like a gunslinger from the O.K. Corral. Three are dead before the others even realize what’s happening. Xavier could freeze them, and it would be like shooting fish in a barrel, but that isn’t any fun. The five of them stream past me with Ghosie once again staying with me to protect my back from anyone we may have missed.

“Watch out for those bullets,” he reminds the others, but it’s unnecessary, since none of them can get their weapons up before they hit the ground in bloody, dead messes. Brannock is a ruthless killing machine, and the other four aren’t slouches in that department either. I think it takes less than ten minutes, and the guards are all dead. None of them surrendered, so we didn’t spare any of them.

I watch, detached, as they are dragged into a pile off to the side. We don’t want any children who are behind the door to see them and get frightened.

“We need to hurry. We cut off the power, and the HVAC system isn’t working out here, so it means air is not circulating, and with that area being sealed, they are all going to run out of oxygen very quickly.” Brannock stares at the sealed door like he can melt it with his mind.

“How about we go back and turn the generators on? We need to power up the transport room anyway,” Tirrian suggests.

“Let’s wait until we clear that area of personnel. There are probably scientists and guards in there too, right?” Saxon suggests.

“I’m not sure if they go home in the evenings or if they live in, so yes, we should probably wait and clear that area before we turn the power back on,” Brannock agrees and steps back so Ghosie can do his thing. This time, the three of us can’t squeeze through the cracks because it’s sealed—Xavier tried.

Instead, I strip off my armor and change into my carevasta bear form. I don’t want to destroy it, and my chunky bear body is not going to fit into it.

Ghosie grins at me as he looks me up and down, and I wink at him. We don’t have time for fun, but he has gotten to know the quirks of this form quite often over the last week. Stress relief with my PA for the win.

“We’ll take Xavier and Zeydan through first, and the two of them will use their magic to protect anyone else coming through,” I tell the others, who don’t like that I’m going to be in danger, but there isn’t much they can do about it, so they keep their objections to themselves, which I appreciate.

Stress relief wasn’t the only thing Ghosie and I spent time doing during the week. We also practiced phasing in case I needed to do it on the mission. It’s the freakiest fucking feeling in the world, and I killed a few inanimate objects before I got the hang of it and attempted it with a live creature. I started with a chicken, just in case, and when I proved I could take a chicken through walls, then Tirrian bravely volunteered to be my guinea pig. Well, I say bravely but he extracted a bargain from me before he agreed. After this is done, we have to spend a week shopping for things for my dragon vault. I know, right? How dare he expect me to spend money in exchange for his help!

I wrap my arms around Zeydan while Ghosie does the same to Xavier, and we step through the door. Zeydan squeezes his eyes shut, and I hear him growling low in his chest, his tails pinned tightly against his body as we move through the door. I look around the other side for danger before releasing my phase. If they were to shoot at us while we were phasing, the bullets would pass harmlessly through us, but the minute we stop phasing, we are in the line of fire again.

The area is clear. It’s another corridor, but we knew that from the plans Brannock drew us. I was expecting security to be banging on this door as well, but they aren’t. Maybe they are having trouble containing their captives.

I grin as we drop out of phase, and Zeydan steps back, shuddering.

“That is awful,” he mutters, and he runs a hand over his ears and face in agitation, like he’s feeling to make sure everything went back into place.

Xavier is pretty collected when he and Ghosie appear, though he does look a little queasy. “What is that evil grin for?” he asks, pointing at me. “It’s even scarier in that form. You look so cute and cuddly, it’s kind of psychotic.”

He eyes me warily, and I laugh. “I was just imagining that the captives are causing a little uprising and getting some of their own back. I’m guessing that’s why there is no security here.” I wave my hand around, and he nods thoughtfully.

“You may be right. Our job may have been done for us already.”

“We will go get the others. We’ll leave Brannock for last because he isn’t going to want to wait while being this close to Chloe,” I tell the others, and Xavier puts out his hand to stop me.

“Lila. You need to be prepared for what we might find,” he says quietly, and I frown in confusion, looking between him and Zeydan.

“What do you mean?”

The two of them exchange a glance.

“Despite the lack of the kill switch, I don’t doubt the guards and scientists in here have some form of protection. The prisoners are probably wearing collars like Brannock did,” Xavier warns me, and I still don’t get what he’s saying.

“What he’s saying, Lila, is all the captives may already be dead,” Zeydan states flatly, and I stumble back, gasping.

“Oh my god!” I slap a hand over my mouth to stop the scream that wants to escape. I shake my head. “No, no, no. Oh God, what if they are? He will never forgive any of us.”

Xavier nods solemnly, pulling a syringe from one of the pockets in his armor. “That’s why I have this. Link gave me a sedative in case of that scenario. We will freeze Brannock and administer it before he can go berserker on us. None of us, not even you, would survive.”

Tears stream down my face, and I want to scream and rage, but I nod. “Okay, that was smart.” I wipe my face and take a deep breath, trying to get my shit together. I don’t want to set him off before we’ve even discovered the truth.

“Should we even bring him through?” Ghosie asks, looking at the door we need to return through.

“At this stage, I don’t think we can avoid it. He’ll only hurt himself if we don’t,” Zeydan says, his focus down the corridor. He wears a small frown on his face, and his cute little fox ears twitch like he’s listening to something, but then he smiles—or at least I think it’s supposed to be a smile. It’s kind of hard to tell on his foxy features. “I think we are going to be okay. Go get them, we have work to do.” He practically pushes us through the door.

Ghosie and I bring Tirrian, Saxon, and Brannock back through. Brannock doesn’t wait to recover from the phasing before he has his weapon in hand and is storming down the corridor. I quickly change back, put my armor on, and hurry after him.

We move swiftly down what is quite a lengthy corridor, my stomach in my throat as I brace for what we are about to find. When the corridor ends, we come to a large, open, circular space with about fifteen closed doors lining the outside and a large medical facility opposite us. In the open space are a couple of guards and scientists, and they are all arguing about how they are going to get the doors to the rooms unlocked.

They don’t even notice us in the low emergency lighting. “We need to keep one or two alive so we can question them about everything that has been happening in this facility,” I hiss at Brannock, and he gives me a curt nod of assurance. I look to the others. “Do you understand?” I check with them, and they all nod.

“Which one was in charge?” Xavier asks, and Brannock shrugs. “I don’t know, I was never kept in this area.”

I tune into the thoughts of the panicked staff, who alternate between banging on doors and shouting demands.

“That one.” I point to a woman in a white lab coat. “She’s the head scientist. Even with all that is happening, her mind is still excited about running tests on an infant who was born recently,” I growl, really wishing I could eviscerate the woman, but I know we need her.

I keep scanning the minds. “And that one.” I point out a male in a white lab coat. “He is actually sympathetic to the captives and wishes he didn’t have to be here. He will spill his guts. He’s only here because his idiot brother, who is a guard, made some bad bets, and he’s paying off some kind of debt for him.”

“And that one,” Xavier growls, pointing out one of the guards. “He likes to use that cattle prod on the children. I want to torture him for information.” Xavier’s words cause a violent reaction from the other five men. They seem to growl in unison like a pack of wild animals, and this finally gets the staff’s attention.

“Fuck, they’ve come to kill us,” a guard shouts and takes off through the medical facility to a door on the other side.

“Yes, we have, unless you choose to surrender. Lay your weapons down, and you will be spared,” I offer. Some of these people may be like the man whose mind I scanned—not here willingly. One or two of the scientists drop to their knees and put their hands behind their heads, but I watch in shock as the head guard Xavier picked out points his gun at them and takes aim. Before we can react, he kills all three of them.

“Dirty fucking traitors,” he growls, and then all hell breaks loose.