The Breaking

Chapter Thirty-Two

The hill where Cole and Jessup had met Rico was now completely cordoned off by the military. In fact, most of the town had become a base inhabited by men wearing fatigues adorned with a mix of Army and Marine Corps insignias. The only thing those uniforms had in common was a patch on the shoulder bearing the wolf and skull insignia of the IRD. Helicopters roared through the air. Armored vehicles rattled down the streets. Command centers had been set up in spots that were formerly in the quiet section of town.

“Well,” Cole said as he and Paige were escorted by Adderson and three soldiers carrying large caliber machine guns, “at least we don’t have to worry about news choppers getting too close.”

Dressed in simple khakis that could have been lifted from any Middle East conflict over the last couple of decades, Adderson displayed nothing but the IRD insignia and a colonel’s eagle pinned to his shirt. “You obviously haven’t been watching the news,” he said.

“No. We’ve been busy.”

“I’m sure you have, but it’s all out there. These creatures have taken over entire towns, which has made our jobs that much more difficult. What happened in Atoka is still under review. In the last twelve hours several Class Two shifters have been spotted throughout the country.”

“Half Breeds,” Paige said to Cole.

Grimacing as if her use of such common terminology hurt his ears, Adderson continued, “There have also been several reports of spontaneous transformations occurring in neighboring states.”

“Do we really have to go through all this official talk?” Cole asked. “You’re just adding syllables and wasting time.”

“You want me to cut down on the syllables? Fine. How’s this? FBI. Manhunt. Escaped prisoner. Oh, sorry. Was that last one too long for you?”

“Nope,” Cole replied. “Point taken. Continue.”

“You’re taking care of that escaped prisoner thing, right?” Paige asked.

Adderson nodded. “Already done. Just try to steer clear of Colorado for a while.”

They’d reached the center of the IRD barricades, which put them within eyeshot of a crude stone statue. Esteban still crouched on all fours and snarled at something roughly at Cole’s eye level. The Full Blood’s stone covering was a little dusty but mostly intact.

“We want to contract your services on a regular basis until this crisis is dealt with,” Adderson said to her.

Paige looked around at the uniformed soldiers. “Don’t you have enough bullets to throw at these things?”

“Bullets don’t help. I don’t need to tell you that. Since you and your associates are the only ones to have hurt these creatures, I’ve been authorized to make an offer. You’ll be compensated for your efforts, but trust me when I tell you we can’t afford to take no for an answer. Things have gone way past the point of people like you sneaking around and covering up vampire raids as gang fights, or werewolf sieges as wild dog attacks. We’ve already been covering those tracks and now our entire unit has been forced into action, so you might as well come along for the ride. It’s either that or get rolled over by the machine you see around you.”

Paige closed her eyes, unable to think back to simpler days when changing a license plate or laying low for a while was enough to shake unwanted attention from the authorities. “I’ll have to contact some of the others to see what they think about this.”

“You could always give us their information so the IRD could—”

“Or,” she cut in, “I could do it myself. Nice try, though.”

“I’ll give you time to think it over, but don’t take long. We’re launching an offensive within seventy-two hours, with or without your help. Between you and me, your help could save a lot of soldiers’ lives.”

“Or you could just stick to lying to the media and keeping the cameras away from us while we do our job.”

Adderson shook his head. “Too late for that. And before you tell me about how tough it is being a Skinner, just know that I’ve got an appointment with several highly ranked officials to try and convince them not to carpet-bomb areas that show signs of getting half this bad.”

“So there really have been Half Breeds sighted?”

“In six different states. There are unconfirmed reports of sightings escalating internationally as well. Canada, the Czech Republic, and Finland have all made reports that coincide with Class—” Recognizing the exasperated look on Paige’s face, Adderson crossed his arms and said, “—Half Breeds, and at least one Full Blood was spotted. That’s just the first wave of intelligence, with more coming. We need expert help. We’ve got resources you could never match, and it’s not like you people could deal with this problem on your own anyway. Shouldn’t be much to think about, but I’ll let you talk to your partner.”

“Where’s Rico?”

Adderson pointed to a tent that had been constructed near a portable toilet and said, “Right over there getting medical attention, not that he seems to need much. That’s a trick that could do my men a lot of good, you know.” When he didn’t get a response to that, he added, “Naturally this offer extends to him as well. He was a definite asset to us here. Take a few minutes and talk it over. You know where to find me.” He walked away and took his escort with him, leaving Paige and Cole mostly alone at the top of the hill.

She got to Cole’s side as quickly as she could and leaned in to whisper fiercely at him. “I don’t like this!”

“I hit that point when we were met at the Casa Bonita Club by G.I. Joe and a freaking tank,” Cole snapped as he ran his hand over Esteban’s petrified back. “So does that mean you told them about the nymphs as well?”

“No,” she said. “I just told them we were calling from a strip bar and to come pick us up. They’re already in this and would have been dragged in sooner or later anyway. This way, we’ve got some say over what goes on.”

“You really think so?” Cole scoffed.

Paige turned away from the pair of modified AH-1 Cobra helicopter gunships being tended by a crew and said if a low voice, “It’s not like we could just wash our hands of this and take a vacation in Finland.”

“At least they could have let us get something to eat while we were at that club.”

“Didn’t you take anything from that buffet in Sven’s Viking Lounge?”

“Is that what that strip bar was called?” Cole asked.

“I don’t know! I can’t read Norwegian or Swedish or whatever the hell was on the signs in that place. It was creepy enough that all those girls knew Vihtori on sight. So …what do you think about Adderson’s offer?”

“First things first. I want my coat back from Canon City’s lockup.”

“Sure,” Paige said. “Let’s push our luck with that. What will you say when they ask about the other prisoners that got away?”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” Since she obviously wasn’t buying that, Cole added, “You could fire back by asking where to find Esteban.”

“What do you mean?” she asked while slapping the Full Blood statue. “He’s right here.”

“Right. Too bad it’s hollow.”

She cringed, glanced at the group of soldiers clustered around Adderson, and then peeled her hand away from the statue to touch her palms. Cole knew damn well that she wasn’t feeling any heat in her scars either. When she slapped the statue again, it was hard enough for the sound to reverberate beneath the stone surface. “Did they take him somewhere?”

Circling the statue, Cole found the scratches along Esteban’s midsection as well as the multiple smooth spots where the petrifying substance had been administered. “This is the real thing,” he said, placing his palm against the stone.

“Well you’re the expert,” she said in a low, insistent voice. “How did he get out? Is that even possible?”

Cole dug out his phone and tapped a few icons on the screen. “I don’t know, but Jessup may know.” He didn’t get an answer, so he called the next number on his list.

“MEG Branch 40, this is—”

Cutting him off with a hastily whispered identification number, Cole asked, “Where’s Jessup? Have you heard from him?”

“Are you kidding?” Stu replied. “I’m surprised to hear from you! Every other Skinner has dropped off the grid. Nobody’s answering our calls, but a few have left messages.”

“Is Jessup one of them?”

After some tapping on a keyboard, Stu said, “Yes, but he didn’t give a location. The message he left is for you or Paige.”

“Could have started off with that part,” he growled.

“I didn’t take the message. Abby did. Anyway, there’s a phone number.”

“Give it to me.”

Stu rattled off the digits, which Cole committed to memory. Suddenly feeling very nervous with continuing the call around so much military communications equipment, he was about to wrap up the call with a quick goodbye.

“Wait!” Stu pleaded.

“What is it?”

“There’s chatter all over the place about what’s happening. People are getting killed and werewolves are showing up on the news. Reporters aren’t even bothering to call them anything other than werewolves, for Christ’s sake! What the hell, man?”

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Stu.”

“Tell me this isn’t as bad as it seems.”

It was a simple request, but one Cole knew he couldn’t fulfill. “Just stay safe and keep your eyes open. Don’t give out any information unless you get an ID number. On second thought, we need to change the ID numbers.”

Happy to have something to do that fell within his area of expertise, Stu said, “On it.”

Cole hung up and dialed the number that was already fading from his memory. The call was answered on the first ring by a familiar scratchy rasp. “Jessup?”

“Cole, thank God. Where are you?”

“Back in New Mexico. Where the hell are you?”

“About six miles outside of Louisville, Kentucky. I’ve been driving all damn day tracking Cecile. What happened with you?”

“Never mind that. The military’s got this place and us locked down tight. Where’s Esteban?”

There was a pause, followed by the rattle of an engine winding down. Knowing the older tracker, it had to be another Ford. “I stayed as long as I could. That thing just walked out and ran away.”

“What do you mean he walked out?”

“Stepped out of that stone shell like he was a ghost. I made some calls and found out what he was doin’ at that Colorado prison where you were being held. He was after some of them Nymar Shadow Spore collected by other Skinners. There were other samples down beneath that place. Older samples.”

Cole could still feel the Nymar hand clamped around his throat while he was strapped to a hospital bed, and could still hear the hungry rasp of the vampire’s voice taunting him when his body was almost too drugged to move. Shaking off those memories like so much cold water, he asked, “The IRD has been collecting Nymar?”

“No. It’s one of us. That prison has been there since 1868, but portions of it shifted into private ownership in 1904. The deal was made as part of an experiment in corrections philosophy but basically gave one man free access to prisoners to be used for his own research.”

“God damn,” Cole sighed. “Lancroft?”

“We knew Jonah Lancroft ran more than just his reformatory. He had labs and hidden facilities like this prison all over the country. Probably all over the world.”

Although Adderson and the soldiers were keeping their distance, Paige was becoming increasingly anxious. “Did you say something about Lancroft?” she asked.

“Wait a second,” Cole said while going through the potentially painful motions of waving Paige away. “You said we knew. Who’s ‘we’?”

“It’s not as sinister as it may sound. Your friend Ned Post was a Lancroft historian. Lots of us are. We could all learn a lot from a man like that. Now that his journals are being unearthed, he’s getting an even bigger following than he had when he was alive.”

“Lancroft was a murderer. He killed Ned,” Cole said while stabbing a finger into the air as if jabbing it through Jessup’s chest.

“What’s he saying about Ned?” Paige asked.

The harsh crackle that came through Jessup’s end of the phone connection was either static or a heavy sigh. “Ned may have had a falling out with the old man, but Lancroft had plenty of supporters, and after everything that’s happened, he’s got even more. The Full Bloods aren’t dead. Now that the Breaking Moon has risen, the Army won’t be able to do a damn thing against them. The Nymar are sitting pretty. Lancroft’s ideas may have been radical, but they may also be the only ones that make any sense. If we would have listened to him before, things may not have gotten this bad. At least one saving grace is that we got the cargo Cecile was carrying.”

It took Cole a moment, but he recalled it and asked, “The Jekhibar?”

“Poor girl was more than happy to get that thing out of her arm.”

“And what happened to her then?”

“She’ll find somewhere to hide, and stay there if she knows what’s good for her. You want to hear more, then come find me when you’ve learned some damned respect. I’ve got to go. There’s work to be done.”

With that, the connection was cut. Cole jammed the phone into his pocket and stormed over to the entrance of the tent where Rico stood sipping from a steaming paper cup. Paige tried to follow but veered away in order to keep Adderson busy before he joined the party.

Stepping up close enough to Rico to smell the vanilla almond cream in his coffee, he said, “I just talked to Jessup.”

“Really?” Rico replied as he grinned widely. “How’s that old cowboy doin’?”

“He says Ned was tight with Jonah Lancroft and that the prison I was in was one of Lancroft’s facilities. Since you’re the one who was close enough to Ned to inherit his house, I’d like to know what you think of that.”

“I gotta be honest with you, Cole. The man may have been a cocksucker, but Lancroft made a lot of sense back before the cheese fell off his cracker.”

“So he’s still alive?”

“Not unless you believe in all that ghost shit or the philosophical ‘He’s with us right here’ garbage,” Rico chided while tapping his chest. “I’m talkin’ about his ideas. Lancroft knew this shit was brewin’. All you gotta do is read his journals.”

“I have.”

“Really? I know some Skinners who’d love to have a look at those things.”

Cole nodded and glanced toward Paige. It was obvious he wouldn’t have much more time to himself, so he asked, “Have you been setting us up? Is that the real reason you tried to kill Paige?”

“You think I’d cover my tracks by making me look like a punk bitch who got his brain twisted around by shapeshifter? I would’ve come up with somethin’ better than that.” He sipped his coffee and then tapped the rim of the cup against Cole as he said, “You need to get your priorities straight. All the tiptoeing bullshit is over. Lancroft used to track Half Breeds down, poison them, and set ’em loose. Did some innocent townsfolk get killed? Maybe, but the whole den was destroyed with a minimum amount of fuss. There ain’t many of us left, Cole, so we gotta do things like that. You wanna hear about effective tactics? In some of the earliest journals—and I’m talkin’ books that date back to the 1700s—Lancroft’s followers talk about how the old man used to take Nymar that stepped out of line and stake them to the ground outside of the spot where all their buddies hung out. He’d wait for dawn so everyone could see what had happened to the bloodsucking little shits who’d been talking so tough and then douse them in kerosene. Once he was sure all the other Nymar were watching, he set their asses on fire.”

After pausing to sip his flavored coffee, Rico shrugged. “Some might see that as extreme. Maybe some wrong ideas were put into a few storytellers’ heads, but it sent a message that convinced the Nymar not to fuck with us. Those messages are gone, my friend. The bloodsuckers know no fear and the shapeshifters are out of control. Don’t you think now’s the time for some good old-fashioned barbarism?”

“Who are you talking about?” Cole asked, thinking back to his conversation with Jessup. “The people who’d be interested in those Lancroft journals? The ones who run that prison in Colorado? The ones who you’ve obviously already signed on with? Who are they?”

“Lancroft used to say the only difference between a Skinner and any other human being is vigilance. That’s who we are. And now that we’ve found what could be the source of the Full Bloods’ power, we may be able to unlock the one last juicy tidbit he didn’t get to pass along.” Leaning in closer, Rico dropped his voice to a snarl that rivaled a Half Breed’s. “There’s been one big question on everyone’s mind since the Mud Flu. It’s just been too far out of our reach to really ask it. If that truly was Jonah Lancroft— the Jonah fuckin’ Lancroft—then how the hell did he live that long? Maybe the Torva’ox that all them Full Bloods were yappin’ about had something to do with it.”

Paige, Adderson, and a group of soldiers were approaching, but Cole wasn’t going to stop short just because of them. “You think Lancroft was immortal because of what we found in Atoka?”

“Not immortal, since you did kill the old guy, but yeah. If that power’s in us, then we could live long enough to do what needs ta be done. That is, if we know how to use it.” Rico snapped his head forward so he was close enough to speak to Cole using words that could barely be heard over his rasping breath. “Nymar, shapeshifters, you name it. We can’t fuck around with these things no more. We need to take them out before the human race is either wiped out or runnin’ around on four legs.”

“And now that you’ve got the Jekhibar, you think you can just put everything back to the way it was?” Cole asked. “You think you’ll make us all live for hundreds of years like some twisted old man who may be just another freak like the ones we hunt down and kill?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Rico replied. “It’s something better than the bullshit we’ve been doin’ lately.”

“We did some good work. One Full Blood’s still contained, another one’s dead, and the rest are scattered. The last thing we need is to make them worse by tearing each other apart. Our system works. It just—”

“Our system is in pieces! Open yer fuckin’ eyes and take a look. The goddamn Army is here tryin’ to shoot Full Bloods! How do you think that’s gonna end?” With that, Rico turned on his heels and stomped away without spilling his coffee.

“Everything all right here?” Adderson asked.

“Sure,” Cole replied.

Some of the soldiers had moved in to flank Rico, but were dispersed by a quick shake of Adderson’s head. When Cole fell into step with her, Paige steered them back to the Full Blood statue. “We need to find out what the hell happened with Esteban,” she said. “I know the Breaking Moon made them stronger, but Full Bloods can’t just start walking through rock. What if Minh pulls the same crap?”

“She’s gone.”

“What?”

“That Lancroft cult or whoever they are,” Cole said. “I think they got her already. If Esteban found something that Lancroft was hiding away, I don’t know how much help a bunch of helicopters will be in tracking him down.”

“Esteban isn’t the only other Full Blood out there. Finding the gargoyles worked out this time, but if we don’t find some more tricks pretty soon, this little war will go on for a long time.”

“So this is a war now?” he asked.

“What else would you call it?” She moved in closer beside him, but only to give them some more privacy as she said, “We’re the only ones that couldn’t be forced into the Breaking. When these guys figure that out, we may both be headed straight back to a prison.”

“Don’t forget the Amriany. They didn’t change either. Are they around here too?”

“I couldn’t say much of a goodbye to Nadya and Milosh before I was zapped to Finland, but they said they’d mention us to their clan leaders when they got back. We’ve got an in with the Amriany now, and they could prove to be even more valuable than the IRD.”

He pulled in a breath but couldn’t bear to hold it for more than a fraction of a second. “What in the hell are we supposed to do now, Paige?”

“We take advantage of the breathing room we’ve earned and gear up for the next round.”

Rico shoved past some more soldiers on his way to a beat-up Toyota parked at the end of the road.

Military personnel snapped pictures and took measurements of Esteban’s statue without getting too close to fangs that were still caked in flaking blood.

Helicopters roared over Raton, New Mexico.

Paige’s hand closed around Cole’s.

He smiled at her.

Things could have been worse.