Page 65 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

Ten pairs of eyes turned to look at the mayor, who was appearing to grow queasy again.

“I’ve brought you here because our first step is to construct an overview of their plan, the education process, the facilities, what they’re doing, where, why, and how. What I require from you today is to help me with information gathering. At the end of the day, we will take what we’ve learned back to Newland and meet to confer on how best to proceed.”

Lines had formed between Serene’s brow that Rosie had never seen before. Free’s inner circle apparently shared his initial disbelief that the very people they’d sacrificed so much to protect were conspiring to exterminate them like pests. That disbelief was quickly replaced by anger that threatened to strip them of control, a trait they prized above all others.

Free looked at Comstock. “Is everything we need to see within walking distance of this building?”

“The library, education outlets, and labs are within a couple of miles. The foundry and munitions plant are at a distance and will require transportation.”

“Let’s begin with what can be seen on foot,” Free said.

As they filed out of the conference room, Rosie saw that Exiled had herded all the City Hall staff and the visitors who were unfortunate enough to be in the building at the time of the takeover, into the foyer. They were sitting together on the floor in the center looking distressed and uncertain. She waited for a couple of others to pass so that she could get Free’s attention. He leaned over so that she could speak quietly.

“Those people don’t know what’s going on. They’re scared and their imaginations are trying to fill in the blanks. It’s not a good way to begin the possibility of a future alliance.”

Free nodded at Rosie before calling out to Carnal. “Keep the mayor here. We’re going to have a word with these people.”

While Carnal had heard his father’s directive perfectly, the mayor had heard nothing. Carnal’s large hand enclosed the man’s bicep, pulled him out of line, and told him to go stand by Free.

Free looked over the group of about sixty individuals.

One of the men spoke up, clearly wanting to distance himself from whatever was going on. “I’m only here for a permit.”

Free ignored him and spoke to the group. “Your mayor is taking us for a tour of your schools. Because our visit is top secret, we can’t afford to allow word of this to get out before we’re ready to make a joint announcement.” Free looked at Comstock, who nodded a confirmation on cue. “If you simply wait out this inconvenience, no harm will come of this. You’ll be detained for a short while and then will go about your business. If you need to use facilities, one of us will accompany you.”

If Free’s entourage had asked all the questions that came to mind and waited for answers, the tour would have taken days, not hours. The mayor had resigned himself to cooperation long before they’d left City Hall. He took them first to some of the underground facilities where students with exceptional interest had been mentored and undertaken advanced studies. Naturally, personnel were surprised to look up and see a sizable group of hybrids entering a facility that was planned and designed to be kept secret from hybrids.

The mayor assured them that it was in the best interest of everyone concerned to be open and forthcoming with Free and his people. Once the initial shock wore off, Free found that most of the humans had pride in their accomplishments and were pleased to share. Free asked every single teacher, one by one, if they would have a problem with teaching Exiled. There were a few who replied honestly that it would be a rather abrupt shift of gears and that it might take time to get used to the idea. Others seemed open to sharing their knowledge across a broader, more diverse range of students. The only thing they were interested in was whether or not prospective studentswantedto learn.

The mayor showed them the library where all the science and technology books that had been spared were gathered for safekeeping and hidden so that they’d be unlikely to be found by the Rautt. They were then shown the underground facilities of another building where the labs were housed.

“We spread the facilities out according to purpose, thinking that if one thing was discovered, others might remain hidden,” Comstock said.

There were inherent problems with underground facilities in a society without electricity, namely it was cold and dark, which meant working by oil lamps. That in itself, was dangerous in the labs where they were working with various forms of explosives.

After the head chemist got over the surprise of having hybrids tour his facilities, he seemed almost eager for the opportunity to show off their progress and accomplishments.

“First, we had to figure out how to make black powder. We had the recipe. You use sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. That’s saltpeter.” He shrugged. “It works without the sulfur, but it’s hard to detonate.”

Free looked at Serene, at Carnal, at Rosie, then shook his head. The chemist walked on and they followed. “After that we tried to find a way to make red brass without electricity. That’s gunmetal. That was a success, but one of my people came up with a modified version using mostly copper with about ten percent tin and traces of lead and zinc. Eventually that led us to steel and we decided the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

“The Rautt destroyed our power sources, but left all the scrap metal just lying around waiting to be repurposed. Steel is plentiful and there’s no need for smelting with iron and coal. All we had to do was construct an oxygen furnace for a foundry and disguise it as a trash dump.” He smiled. “It’s on the southern outskirts. We burn rubber because the smell is so awful we knew it would be a deterrent to Rautt investigation.”

He ended that sentence with a humorless laugh.

“We make the parts of firearms and assemble guns by hand in another facility, also on the outskirts, but far enough away from the foundry to deter suspicion.”

“I want to see this place,” Free said to the mayor.

Comstock hesitated. “Like I said, it’s too far to walk.”

“You will ride with Joy and point out where to go.”

They walked back to City Hall, mounted the bikes, and turned toward the sea of farmland beyond Farsuitwail to the south. The city stood like a crumbling citadel on the edge of plowed fields, orchards, vineyards, and lands used for grazing livestock. The land to the north of Farsuitwail was a vast wasteland with the Rautt stronghold beyond that. No one had ever gotten close enough to see where the Rautt lived, but there were stories, rumors about grisly spectacles of public torture of those who had been unfortunate enough to be captured alive.

Since their arrival, the Exiled had lived in their settlement in the foothills west of Farsuitwail, which gave them a lookout vantage point over both the city and wasteland. Between the superiority of hybrid distance vision and the fact that it was impossible to cross the wasteland without raising a cloud of dust that was as good as an alarm system, sneak attacks by Rautt were impossible. Exiled didn’t always survive battles unscathed, but at least they had enough warning to prepare.

Fifteen minutes after speeding away from City Hall, they were dismounting the bikes in front of an innocuous-looking building that gave the appearance of being a small stucco-covered house with a flat roof.

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