Page 79 of A Touch of Treachery
Bryce followed Henrika out of the elevator.He was dressed all in black, as were the guards who crossed the lobby and fell in step behind him.All the men had their jackets unzipped and open, showing off the guns holstered to their belts.
Henrika didn’t break stride as she walked past us.“Come along, children.Time to see the toy you’re all so desperate to acquire.”
Oriana rolled her eyes, and Niles glared at Henrika’s back, but the two of them followed her.Steig ambled along behind them.
Bryce gave Desmond a thin smile and held out his hand.“After you, Dez.”
Desmond spun around on his heel and followed the other paramortals.I fell in step beside him, while Bryce and the guards closed ranks behind us.
My gaze flicked around the lobby.Joan was perched on a stool in the corner, checking her phone and sipping a hot chocolate, while Gabriel was leaning against a column, reading a newspaper.Neither one of them looked at Desmond and me.Our friends would do their best to keep an eye on us, as would Gia, Diego, and even General Percy through the resort’s security cameras.But for the most part, Desmond and I were on our own.
We left the warm confines of the lobby and stepped outside.The winter wind slapped me across the face and knifed through my heavy clothes, making me shiver.A couple of inches of snow had fallen overnight, crusting everything in a blanket of sparkling white.Dark gray clouds cloaked the skies, indicating that a massive storm was on the way.
Niles and Oriana grumbled about the cold, and even some of the guards stomped their feet and muttered their displeasure.
Steig drew in a deep, appreciative breath and held his arms out wide.“Ahhh!This sort of weather reminds me of home.”
“Yeah, if your home is an iceberg,” Oriana muttered.
Niles snorted out a laugh.So did Bryce, but Steig ignored them both.
Henrika strode over to the nearest set of stairs and headed down to the lawn, where several black snowmobiles were waiting with small red winter sleighs attached to them.
Henrika climbed into a sleigh, along with Bryce.Niles, Oriana, and Steig got into another sleigh, and Desmond and I claimed a third sleigh.
A guard hopped onto each snowmobile, cranked the engine, and took off.The snowmobiles easily pulled the passenger sleighs along behind them, and the smooth sensation reminded me of flying.
“If we weren’t going to a weapons demonstration, being tucked in a sleigh with you would be an excellent way to spend the morning,” Desmond murmured in my ear.
I laughed and rested my head on his shoulder.He was right.It was pleasant, and I was going to enjoy the journey, even as my stomach tied itself into knots about the destination.
The snowmobiles and sleighs sped across the golf course, then slowed down and stopped at the edge of the woods.We all got out of our sleighs, while the guards grabbed long coils of ropes that were attached to the backs of the snowmobiles.What were they going to do with the ropes?
“We walk from here,” Henrika said.
Steig strode forward with no hesitation.Oriana and Niles grumbled again, but they too followed Henrika.Desmond and I fell in step behind them, and Bryce and the guards once again brought up the rear.
We went deep into the woods, so deep that I couldn’t see or hear any noise from the hotel.According to the maps I’d studied, there were no buildings on this side of the resort grounds where Henrika might possibly have a hidden lab.I raised my eyebrows at Desmond in a silent question, and he nodded in return.This was the same area he’d searched with Gabriel last night, and he didn’t know where Henrika was taking us either.
The trees thinned out, and we stepped into a large clearing with a lone spotlight at one end.It was still glowing, given the dark clouds gathering overhead.I recognized the area from Desmond’s description.What were we doing way out here?
Henrika nodded at Bryce, who disappeared into the trees on the far side of the clearing.Then she faced the rest of us.“And now, what you’ve all been waiting for.A demonstration of my Redburn formula.”
“What are you going to do?Blow up some trees?”Niles asked in a snide voice.
Henrika smiled, but it was a sharp, thin expression.“I promised a formula that will kill even the strongest paramortals, and that’s exactly what I’m going to deliver.”
Footsteps crunched through the snow, and a man stumbled into the clearing.He was wearing a long white lab coat, as though he was a scientist.One of his eyes was blackened, his lower lip was split and bloody, and his hands were bound in front of him with black plastic ties.Bryce followed the man, a gun in one hand and a small black briefcase in the other.
“Please, please!You don’t have to do this!”the man pleaded.“I’m a scientist, not a spy!I don’t even know what Section 47 is!”
Lie, my synesthesia muttered.
Even though no one was threatening me, a sick, sick feeling flooded my stomach.Desmond’s hands clenched into fists, but Steig, Niles, and Oriana looked more curious than concerned.
The other guards forced the scientist up against a tree at the edge of the clearing and tied him to the trunk with the thick ropes they’d grabbed from the snowmobiles.The man kept begging, but no one else said a word, not even Henrika.
One of the guards produced a cloth from his pocket and shoved it into the scientist’s mouth, although he kept trying to yell through the makeshift gag.His muffled pleas reminded me of a wounded animal keening, and the sounds ground against my heart like a dentist’s drill.
