Afflicted to the Core, page 22
part #3 of Wielder World Series
"Have they been questioned, yet?" August asked.
Schmidt shook her head. "No. They're all sedated. Wolfe is coming to sift through their minds, see what info she can find."
"When can you check out that drug we got from the Nowhere cultist?" August asked.
"Well, we have to wait for Llewellyn, though I think Wolfe has a chemist contact of some sort. When we know, we'll let you know." Schmidt patted August's shoulder.
With nothing else to do, August ordered pizza from an upscale joint nearby and had Fred pick it up. Reggie perched next to Kyle's bed again. August flipped through his phone, unconsciously tuned into Reggie's sighs and the steady cadence of Kyle's breathing.
~~~
When Bethany returned to the warehouse, she had to bite the insides of her cheeks to not fall into a full litany of what were you thinking? when she discovered Kyle had been shot. These men.
"We don't think the three we rescued from Albion University were drugged with the same chemicals as those we found at the manor house," Schmidt said. The two women were sitting alone in the Coalition's sleeping room, though "room" was a generous word. They spoke quietly, knowing words could carry if someone was close by. "Still waiting for Llewellyn to finish up. Your boys brought in another drug, though. Hopefully, it helps fill in any holes we have. We really need another med expert. I don't want to do any more emergency surgeries if I don't have to." The agent shuddered.
Bethany, once again wishing for a cigarette to keep her hands busy, nodded slowly and simply pressed her palms against her hips. "Would be nice. Any other news on the follow-up on Ricksfield's connections?"
Schmidt stuffed some clothes into a green backpack and zipped it up tight. "We have three people on target. We can grab them at any time, take them to the barn---"
"Yeah. Yeah. I've got to do some BWS work though. I've been away too long without evidence for my excuses, and Jameson's getting twitchy." Her partner was going to figure something out soon. Put a tracker on her, or simply tail her one day.
Schmidt laughed, slinging the backpack over one shoulder. "You should just bring him in. You know he'd be keen on our mission."
Bethany sighed. He would, that was certain; however, did she want to put him at risk like this?
"I gotta get some clean clothes. Be back later." Schmidt waved, and Bethany called out her thanks as her fellow agent walked out.
Striding down the hall to Llewellyn's lab, she almost stumbled on the acne kid as he turned a corner. Clark. Poor guy, had nowhere to go. What would they do with these men? Bethany smiled reassuringly when he hopped away, almost cringing.
"Do you know where the doctor is?" he asked, holding onto his stomach.
"I don't. I was hoping she'd be in her lab?"
Clark shook his head, then slunk down the hall, looking for the most part like a beaten dog.
In the unoccupied lab, she looked for the new drug but couldn't tell which was new. She took up a clipboard and scanned the list of drugs the Coalition had confiscated so far. A column for each name, another for a brief physical description, where the drug was confiscated and if there were any extra notes, including use. Drugs to enhance, to inflict Taint, to cut the Nerve. For some, the effects column was blank. But none were labeled to cure Taint, except Serum 66 and SC 12, which only reduced Taint for a limited duration. The Shadow Bureau had to have a cure in there somewhere. She hoped.
She looked in the cooler for the new drug; it was labeled as needing refrigeration. She found it, labeled NWR14---meaning they got it from a Nowhere cultist, and it was the 14th drug they had confiscated. Some of the drugs had known names, like Serum 66, but others they had to label themselves.
So, they had collected fourteen.
She narrowed her eyes, finding each one in the cooler one more time. There were twenty drugs on the list---some they'd received from BWS---but twenty-one vials in their collection.
Did one not get tagged?
Bethany got onto Llewellyn's computer and searched for the drugs. The seven from the BWS. The one from Benson's informant. The ones from the manor, the college break out, and the one they got from the Nowhere man. Looked like twenty. Nothing was doubled up.
Bethany took the time to match up each vial with its entry and found the one that didn't belong. Though at first look it was clear, if she angled the vial in the right light it held a pinkish hue. The vial was the same size as all the others, with a rubber top. The Coalition was filled with top-notch people, and this shoddy work felt deliberate. Bethany dialed a number from memory. When Marsha Brown picked up, Bethany told her, "I have a project for you."
"How important?" Marsha asked curiously.
"Very. Need analysis yesterday."
"Ah, crap. I've---"
"Yesterday. Lives are on the line."
"Lives are always on the line with you."
Bethany held her breath and just waited.
"Fine. I'll meet you---"
"At that place we met with the kids last spring." She wasn't exactly sure who could be listening, though she felt fairly confident in the security of her agency phone.
"Really?" Brown said a little breathlessly. "What are you getting me into?"
"I need you to do this. I'll meet you there now. I'm on my way."
"Yeah. Fine. You owe me."
"Always."
She hung up and photocopied the notes on each of the drugs they'd recovered, biting the inside of her cheek as she considered what she was doing. Using a dropper, she took a sample of each of the drugs to add to a new, clean vial, taking very little of Serum 66. She got a cooler, packed it with ice packs, and plopped the vials inside. She stopped, caught her breath.
Without telling anyone, she left the warehouse.
Chapter 17
August bounced his leg, ready to leave. He needed to find Matt Ratlick---or Jeremy Fish. Needed to find the cure. He'd use any information available to him, either through his own contacts due to connections with his business or the cults, using the intelligence he snagged from the BWS or letting Agent Wolfe think she was using him by sending him on errands. He knew his end goal wasn't a sprint. It was a marathon if anything, but helping Kyle with his trap...that was a sprint he needed to run now.
Reggie's eyes on him, warm and overflowing with worry, were hard to battle. Kyle rolled his shoulder, poked at the white bandage covering the rough stitches in his arm.
"I'm gonna go..." August began.
Llewellyn charged into the observation room.
Reggie jumped to his feet. "You're back. Kyle's been---"
"Who took it?" demanded Llewellyn, red touching her cheeks in the splash of emotion.
Kyle scoffed. "The bullet? Passed right through---"
"No. The drugs. Someone took them. Stole the drugs we've been collecting. God damn it. We've only got so much. Now, someone took at least 5 ccs from each vial." Lewellyn's fists looked ready to break someone's nose.
August felt his body turn to ice.
"Did one of you do this?" Llewellyn growled. She plunged her hands into the deep pockets of her lab coat, and August wondered exactly what she had tucked away in there. Visions of a scalpel or a syringe full of something to knock one of them out flipped through his worried mind. Her anger appeared to have pushed her beyond reason, nearly baring her teeth like a cornered dog. He didn't know if she was a bender, or a mentalist, or what. Crap. Normally, he could easily take most women in a physical battle, but what if she was a booster?
Reggie took a step sideways, putting his body between the doctor and Kyle, whose guileless expression of shock was almost laughable.
"Why would we do that?" Reggie asked, cool and careful, arms out easy and relaxed at his sides. "We want you to help us; we don't want to get in the way."
Llewellyn's snarl relaxed. She blinked a few times, inhaled, flaring her nostrils. With a shake of her head, she slowly pulled her hands from her pockets and rubbed at the bridge of her nose. "I know. I know. There's no reason it would be you...but...Who else?" Her skin had paled except for the raised color in her cheeks, a look of utter abandonment stamped over features so perfectly suited to nonchalance that seconds before had made her appear mad. "Someone has betrayed us."
"Have you called the other members?" August asked.
"Maybe it was one of the other kids," Kyle said reluctantly.
Llewellyn shook her head at August. "I only just discovered it, and when I saw the one you needed had the least amount removed, well..." She almost smiled, an anemic, apologetic thing. "I assumed you'd been somehow involved." She slumped against the counter hard enough to push it across the concrete floor with a loud grind. "Shit." At once, she seemed to notice Kyle's arm.
"What happened to you?" she asked, almost reluctantly.
"Crazy bastard shot me."
"Idiot," Llewellyn said.
"Well, it was either that or Wield," Kyle defended himself.
Llewellyn brushed her hair out of her face. "Good thing you didn't Wield. You do any more of that, boy, and you'll have to remain sedated indefinitely. Better to be shot. Any shakes?"
Kyle frowned, flexed his arm and winced. "Gunshot still hurts. And just a little." He held out his hand, and there was a tremor to his fingers, so faint it could almost be attributed to the two cups of coffee he'd had.
"Well, you seem fine." Llewellyn nodded once to herself, gaze unfocused, then reoriented her attention on Kyle. "Just realize. Even with Serum 66, you're at your limit. I've no idea what an overdose might do. I've not enough information on what's in your bloodstream already or how much Serum a body could take."
"Yeah, I won't. I get it. It's just a gunshot wound. No biggie." Kyle almost pouted. Reggie squeezed his hand.
August grit his teeth. Damn it, August. Too slow. Just too slow. But another part of him reminded him he was fast enough that Kyle hadn't Wielded.
With the noose of Taint trap tight around his neck, Kyle could do little to protect himself, and August didn't want to think about his own mounting mango need. He hated this. Hated the sour pulse to his heart. Hated the uncertainty. Hated the worry and the helplessness.
"Did you want to check it over for me?" Kyle asked.
Llewellyn wrinkled her nose. "No. I'm not a surgical doctor. Jay did just as well as I would have. Keep it clean, I guess." She turned to leave, then paused at the doorway. "If you hear anything about the drugs, tell me."
"We will," Reggie said. Llewellyn left.
"Shit. Someone took the drugs," Kyle mumbled. The enormity of it sent acid through August's veins.
"Probably some easy explanation," Reggie said.
"Let Llewellyn mess with that, I am going to go to my next contact." August waited, letting himself desire their aid but not pushing for it. It was for the best if he went alone.
Kyle shook his head. "Shit guys. I'm useless. I can't Wield. Can't do anything. I just get shot. Damn it." Kyle kicked his heels against the underside of the cot. "You guys should just go without me. I'll just get in your way."
August wanted to agree, to keep Kyle here and safe, away from the temptation to Wield. Away from fuckers with guns. But knowing he had these two at his back set every nerve of August's at ease. He trusted no one more, well other than his parents and Stephen.
Reggie brushed his fingers through Kyle's hair. "Hey, Kyle. We're a team. We won't leave you behind. We'll stick together."
August huffed through his nose, wishing he'd left before such a vow was uttered.
~~~
Reggie relaxed behind the steering wheel as they cruised down the highway to Lewisville. In the passenger seat, Kyle fiddled with the radio, searching for some station 'that wasn't crap', finding little more than country, oldies, or political talk. August was tucked in the back, reading a sci-fi book with a space ship on the cover they had picked up at a supermarket while shopping for road trip goodies.
Other than the radio, they were quiet.
For the most part, it was a wonderful, companionable quiet, even with the heavy blanket of worry they all felt for Kyle. From the corner of Reggie's eye, he would catch Kyle hold out his hand to study the shake, then clench his fist and distract himself by fiddling with the heating and A/C. They had to find a counter drug. Something that would heal Kyle's Nerve, maybe. Reggie squeezed the steering wheel as acres and acres of wheat fields zipped past.
Kyle touched Reggie's arm, tilted his head, and gave him a sweet smile. "It'll be fine, stop worrying."
It was silly really, the warmth that spread through his body when he thought of Kyle, and now August. How did he stumble into this...whatever this was? This lovely, very unexpected relationship. And it was a relationship. Before he'd even noticed, without even the sex, he was in something with these two. He didn't feel like he'd earned it. You had to earn happiness like this, right?
He'd not been intimate in so long. This all felt so...easy. Relationships...even just sex, had never been easy.
Something would eventually crack. Not that he was waiting for it. It's just the way the world worked.
The wheat fields continued rolling past them as Reggie cruised down the open road. Little traffic disrupted the isolated landscape. Oddly, even considering his entire situation, he felt at peace. He'd left a message with his sister, informing her of their latest objective, but didn't expect a call back. His niece had a performance coming up. He wondered if Paul would mind if he brought a date.
Oh hell, what was he even thinking! He couldn't bring two guys to his niece's dance performance at school. One, Paul would accept. Two? That might be a little more acceptable than if he announced they were all Wielders. Maybe a little. The man was a tad conservative. Reggie was quickly beginning to lose his guard and think that his life was normal. It was dangerous ground he walked on, where only a thin layer of cooled crust protected him from a sea of lava churning underneath.
Kyle flipped through some Willie Nelson, Garth Brooks, and hit some Top 40s channel that Reggie hadn't even known existed. "You seriously need some satellite radio." Reggie had some old CDs, but apparently, Good Charlotte and Foo Fighters were too blah. Kyle stuffed his hands underneath his thighs, but he couldn't stop the shiver skating along his entire body.
"You can play something from my phone, bro," August offered, handing his cell to Kyle.
Kyle plugged the phone in and critiqued August's playlist. "Baby Got Back, really? Kanye, not too bad. And Happy, well, I guess that's a good song." The judgment continued, and Reggie glanced back at August in the rear-view mirror, only to see the man laid back, eyes closed, a contented upturn to his lips.
"Oh, I like this," Kyle said and played "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley, singing along in a belting voice a little off key. August joined in, his low baritone mixing well with the actual song. Then "Downtown Kitty" came on, Theo Bait's voice ranging all over the place.
"Higher, higher than this raging scream, I fly, you make me fly."
August squeaked on the piercing fly at the end, pulling giggles out of Kyle, who tried to smother his snorting laughter in his arm, but failed.
Reggie clung to the steering wheel, to stop himself from reaching out, touching them, assuring himself that this was real. It dawned on him, at that moment, this was love. He could hardly think straight, just listening to these men sing, watching the blacktop whisk into the backdrop underneath his tires.
He would follow these men anywhere. Reggie had never been surer of anything.
Kyle eventually gave up and just smiled out the window as August continued his accompaniment.
Then "Life is a Highway" came on. They all sang the old Tom Petty song, watching the world zip by as they made their way to Lewisville.
~~~
Matt Ratlick---August didn't want to force Reggie to face down Jeremy Fish if they could avoid it---lived in a modest McMansion in a sea of other modest McMansions built in a housing complex on a sloping hill that once grew wheat. The lawn was immaculate, each blade of grass exactly one inch high, the hedges perfectly squared off, the flowers bright and sunny.
August knocked on the door, Reggie and Kyle flanking him. No answer. He turned the knob. Locked.
"Yoo-hoo!"
All the men turned as one as a middle-aged woman in a sunflower dress waved and trotted down her driveway, along the sidewalk, and up the Ratlick driveway.
"Hello," she said, breathlessly. August wondered just how hard that trot was for her. "Are you friends of Matt's?"
Kyle nodded, his charming young man smile dialed up to ten. "Yes, we are, ma'am."
Ma'am? August almost snorted.
"Well, he hasn't been in or out of that house in weeks. We're wondering if something happened. Is he ill, or on vacation? His yard boy still comes by and takes care of the yard, but I haven't seen the maid come or go either."
"Yeah," Kyle agreed with her worry. "He's hasn't been answering his phone, so we came to check up on him. He was supposed to meet us for a fundraiser last night. So, you haven't seen him?" Kyle slipped in enough worry that August almost believed him.
"No. No, I haven't!" The neighbor looked ready to reach a high tizzy. Then she gasped, mouth open in a little 'o'. "You don't suppose he's messed up with," her voice dropped, "the law?"
"What!" August barked out. "Matt? Oh no. He's a straight-up guy." He tried to look a little disgruntled, a little fierce at defending his friend to this woman.
The woman's eyes widened more. "Oh, well, I wasn't saying...Oh, no. Matt is a wonderful man. I just worry, you know." She now looked unsure, eyes shifting from one man to the other.
"I understand." Kyle made a shallow, sympathetic nod. "We'll let him know you're worried about him."
The woman hesitated, then nodded in response. "Do tell him to call me."
"Of course," Kyle said with a wave. "And thank you for looking after Matt."
The woman strolled back down the driveway in her heels, seemingly appeased that someone was going to do something about her wayward neighbor and she didn't have to lift a finger to do anything about it.
"So, brick again?" Kyle asked.
"Probably got a load of security on this place." Reggie scanned the front. "Any way around a coded security system?"
