Lottery King 7, page 29
But this building was so out of place from everything.
“Did The Rising build this?” Gemma asked as if she could hear my thoughts.
“Our intel suggests it’s an old human military base, Commander,” the shadow nymph said. “It appears The Rising located the place and took over.”
“It wasn’t in use anymore, I take it?” I asked.
“No, your majesty,” the shadow nymph replied. “It had been shut down sometimes in the late eighties.”
“That matches with the timeline Rijah suggested,” Nyxx commented.
“Yeah.” I nodded.
The shadow nymph walked inside, and Nyxx, Gemma, and I followed him in.
The air inside was cooler than the humid jungle air, and it was lit with long fluorescent light bulbs. Several of them flickered, and it gave the whole space a really awful B-level horror movie vibe. I wouldn’t have been completely shocked if Jigsaw himself shuffled out in his red velvet robe.
But no such villains appeared among the metal desks that lined both sides of the long room. Old monochromatic CRT computer screens flickered at a few of the workstations, and there were a few more modern computers, too.
The back wall housed a huge chalkboard that was scribbled with a language I assumed was Burmese. I couldn’t read any of it, but there were some simple schematic-like drawings that illustrated the stage at the festival The Rising had planned to use to sacrifice the humans.
A long table that looked like it would have been perfectly at home in an executive boardroom took up the center of the space. It was piled with thousands of pages of paper, and I noticed a few open folders that looked like photocopies of the teacher profiles Koschei had.
“What have you learned?” I asked the shadow nymphs in the room.
“Their plans to sacrifice the humans at the festival were…” one shadow nymph said, and I could hear a grimace in his voice. “For lack of a better term, your majesty, they were well thought out.”
“Nnnrrr,” Gemma grumbled under her breath with disgust.
“They’re obviously horrible plans, Commander,” the shadow nymph said in a rush. “But they were not hastily made. These plans illustrate the construction process of an executioner’s block hidden within the facade of a maintenance vehicle used by festival workers.”
“That is impressive planning,” Nyxx conceded with extreme distaste in her voice. “Continue.”
“They’d managed to get their hands on the same make and model truck of the hired maintenance workers of the festival,” the shadow nymph said.
“Was that hard to do?” I asked.
“Not especially, your majesty,” he replied. “But the conversion of the innards was very difficult. They cut through the back cargo part of the truck and created a hinged contraption that would fold open with a single release switch.”
“I don’t understand,” Gemma said.
The shadow nymph cupped his dark hands into a vague box shape.
“They built hinges into the top,” he explained and indicated the place where his index fingers touched. “That way, when they released the hinges, the whole thing would collapse open and outward into a small mock stage.”
The shadow nymph splayed his hands open, palms up, into an imitation of a flat plane.
“I see,” Gemma breathed.
“Is the vehicle in the camp?” I asked as an ominous trickle slipped along my spine.
“Yes, your majesty,” the shadow nymph answered with relief. “We have the vehicle. “Three tall posts had been anchored to the floor of the inside. There were gallons of gasoline stashed inside with several heavy chains and padlocks.”
“It was all ready to burn three humans in front of an unsuspecting crowd.” I scowled.
The shadow nymph nodded and didn’t say a word.
I sighed as I realized how close we might have come to three humans dying in what I thought was one of the most horrific ways to die.
“How many humans are here in the camp?” I asked.
“We’re still working on a final head count, your majesty,” the shadow nymph replied. “The last count I saw was well into the fifties.”
“Fuck,” I breathed, and I thought about how long they’d been gathering in this jungle. “I guess that’s what, like two a year? All things considered, it could be way worse.”
“It may still be worse, your majesty,” the shadow nymph said. “That number only accounts for living humans. We have no idea how many they may have captured, killed, and disposed of during those years.”
“Good point.” I raked a hand over my face. “What about Lady Pemala? How is she doing?”
“She woke up a few minutes before I came to speak with you, your majesty,” the shadow nymph said. “She is lucid and confirmed a member of The Rising injected her with something.”
“Any idea what?” I asked.
“We have every reason to suspect it was a sedative,” the shadow nymph said. “She has not stopped speaking once since she woke up.”
“Hmm,” I grumbled with a roll of my eyes. “That sounds like Lady Pemala. I wonder if they sedated her just to shut her up.”
“To be frank, your majesty,” the shadow nymph said in a dry tone. “It would not surprise me.”
“Okay,” I chuckled. “Have a medical team check her as soon as possible.”
“Yes, your majesty,” the shadow nymph said.
“And have security give her the run down just like everyone else,” I added. “That’ll piss her off for sure, so give her all the pomp and circumstance her little heart desires when you bring her home. Give her a full security detail, tell her it was on my orders that she be looked after. Got it?”
“Yes, your majesty.” The shadow nymph nodded.
I started to look around the long table at the files and evidence that was all piled up on top. There were several leather-bound books stacked on the corner nearest to me, and I realized I recognized the swooping loops on several of the capital letters. It was Koschei’s handwriting.
“What are those?” I pointed at the journals as I walked closer. “Have you been able to translate them at all?”
“Not yet, your majesty,” the shadow nymph said. “Unfortunately, they’re in Russian. I personally believe they’re manifestos, instructions, or teachings of some kind from Koschei to his disciples.”
I picked up one of the journals and skimmed over several pages.
“It’s definitely his handwriting.” I nodded and flipped another page.
Several paragraphs had been circled in red marker. Other sections were scribbled with notes like a poorly written first draft of a term paper, and there were entire pages that had been completely crossed out.
“Get someone on these as soon as possible,” I said. “I’d bet half my real estate there’s useful shit in here.”
“We’ve already begun to scan copies to send to Madame Sveta, your majesty,” the shadow nymph said, and he pointed to a pair of shadow nymphs behind me.
I turned around to see the pair carefully scanning each page of a journal with some kind of rectangular glass. It looked like a large magnifying glass, except it didn’t magnify anything as it emitted a soft glow of blue light.
I nodded as I took another look at the interesting magical technology, and I turned back to the reporting shadow nymph.
“Good,” I said. “Keep me posted on all of it.”
He waited for a moment as I scanned through another journal. I couldn’t read a word of it, but the markings, notes, and scribbling made me think someone had taken Koschei’s teachings and tried to rewrite them to fit their own agenda. Only translations from Sveta would prove that theory to be true, though, so I put the journal back on the table.
“What else?” I asked.
Before the shadow nymph could respond, a pair of merfolk soldiers hurried into the command center with tense looks on their scaled faces.
“Your majesty,” one of them said. “There’s something you need to see.”
Chapter 17
There was a deep look of concern in their bright eyes, and my lips snarled involuntarily as I wondered what the fuck else they might have found in this hellhole.
“Show me.” My nostrils flared as I suppressed my boiling rage.
“This way, your majesty,” the merman with bright orange hair said.
Nyxx, Gemma, and I followed the two mermen from the cinderblock building. They led us further beyond the old military building, and I saw several soldiers holding flashlights in their hands waiting for us about fifty feet past the command center.
“What is it?” I asked.
“You won’t believe it unless we show you, your majesty,” the merman with blue hair said.
“Okay…” I droned.
An ominous feeling filled me as we marched for another five minutes through the jungle. Finally, the orange and blue-haired merfolk soldiers stopped in the middle of a small empty spot that was about ten feet in diameter.
“What…?” Gemma’s eyebrows furrowed with as much confusion as I was feeling.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “What’s–”
The blue-haired merman held up one finger as his partner crouched down in the ankle-high brush. A solid clink of metal sounded, and suddenly the merfolk soldier opened a hidden trapdoor that was built into the jungle floor.
“What the fuck?” I breathed.
“We’ve cleared the space, your majesty,” the blue-haired soldier assured me. “The space is safe, but I feel I should warn you, it’s deeply unsettling.”
“We’re ready, soldier,” Gemma said in a firm tone.
“Yes, Commander,” the soldier replied.
He climbed down into the hole on a ladder that was anchored onto the walls, the other soldier followed behind. Nyxx insisted on going next, Gemma followed a second behind her. As I stepped down onto the top rung, I heard the sharp intake of breath as both women gasped with horror.
“Shit,” I hissed under my breath as I climbed down the ladder.
My first impression of the structure was that the floor was made of diamond-plated metal. Strange greenish lights were strung along the ceiling with a bulb every five feet, and they illuminated one of the most horrifying things I’d ever seen in my life.
Dozens of bunk-bed style medical beds were lined up along the corridor. Each bed was covered in clean white sheets, and a human was unconscious on each bed. Even from my position at the end of the hall, I could see IVs connected at the inner elbow of each person’s arm. They were all hooked up to at least two bags of clear fluid, and a monitoring device sat tucked into a small built-in shelf beside their beds.
“Humans?” Gemma hissed under her breath.
“Yes, Commander,” the merfolk soldier said.
“They’re alive?” Nyxx asked as she walked up to the nearest bed.
A middle-aged woman who looked shockingly healthy lay unconscious on the bed. Her eyes were closed, but in the green light, I could see them moving side to side like she was in deep REM sleep. Her chest rose and fell evenly with her breathing, and her body seemed relaxed.
“Yes,” the blue-haired soldier replied. “They’re medically sedated, but they seem healthy.”
“What are they doing here?” I asked.
“We don’t know yet, your majesty,” the orange-haired merman replied. “We weren’t sure what to do with them.”
“I have no idea,” I breathed. “This is way out of my wheelhouse. We need doctors, or healers, or somebody.”
“We need more information about their condition,” Gemma agreed. “It’s possible they’re all braindead…”
“Wouldn’t they need to be on ventilators to breathe, then?” Nyxx asked.
“Could they be enchanted into this state?” I asked.
“I suppose that’s possible,” Gemma hummed. “They could also be perfectly healthy humans…”
“Locked in medical comas,” I finished. “It would certainly make them very quiet and easy prisoners to care for.”
“But why?” Nyxx insisted. “Why keep them here? Why imprison them in the first place? Why so many?”
The things Yadira, Rijah, and Anh had mentioned about The Rising’s plans came back to me.
“The teachers mentioned something about human slaves.” I frowned. “This is not what I envisioned.”
“No, it’s not what I imagined, either.” Nyxx shook her head.
“What the fuck is going on here?” I muttered.
“We’re still trying to figure that out, your majesty,” the orange-haired merman said.
His tone and the tension in his shoulders told me he wanted answers as badly as I did, and I knew not one of my guards or soldiers would stop until we knew what was happening in this human prison.
“Do we know what kind of IVs they’re hooked up to?” I asked as I walked to the nearest bed.
I touched the bag of clear fluid gently to turn it, but it was all written in Burmese. None of it made any sense to me, and even if it had been English, I probably wouldn’t have gained much information from it. I felt it was safe to assume it was fluids to keep the humans hydrated in their unconscious states.
“Ugh,” I groaned slightly as I had another idea.
The human at the bed in front of me was a woman, so I stepped to the next bed where a man lay, and I pulled his hospital gown up to look at his chest. Just as I’d expected, there was a feeding tube port taped into place near his navel.
“They’re tube feeding them,” I said.
“What does that mean?” Nyxx asked.
“They’ve been feeding them a special nutrient-packed liquid through a tube inserted directly into their stomachs,” I said, and I pointed at the port.
“Do you have medical training I didn’t know about?” Gemma asked with a curious expression.
“No.” I gave her a half-smile. “My sisters and mom love to watch medical dramas on TV. There are a lot of them in the human world, and I’ve seen enough episodes of House and Grey’s Anatomy to recognize a feeding tube.”
“So this feeds them?” Gemma pointed at the feeding tube and then the IV. “And this hydrates them.”
“Yeah,” I said. “That’s enough to keep the body going. I mean, their muscles are probably atrophied from lack of use. They’ll be really weak when we wake them up, but they should be healthy enough.”
“But why would anyone want human slaves in this condition?” Nyxx asked again. “It doesn’t make any sense. What use are they?”
“I don’t know…” I sighed. “I mean vampires don’t even need to do this with humans, right? There are plenty of other ways for them to feed.”
“There were only a small number of vampires among The Rising, your majesty,” the orange-haired merman said.
“This is way more stock than they’d ever need,” Gemma said.
“Mmm.” I nodded as I tried to puzzle out the purpose of these humans, but I couldn’t make any sense of it no matter what angle I looked at it from.
“Sir?” a voice called from the far end of the corridor.
“What is it?” the orange-haired merman shouted back.
“I think you should come see this,” the voice replied. “His majesty, too.”
I arched an eyebrow at that, and I wondered what other hellish things had been discovered.
“Goodie,” the orange-haired merman muttered.
The two merfolk soldiers started to walk down the long underground corridor, and Nyxx, Gemma, and I followed behind them. We passed close to a hundred unconscious humans all in the same condition before we met up with the mermaid soldier who’d called for us.
“Your majesty,” she said with a merfolk salute. “Commander.”
“What did you find?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” she admitted.
Before I could ask anything else, she turned and walked through a door at the end of the corridor. It opened into a large room and the contents nearly pulled my dinner out of my stomach.
“Oh, goddess,” Gemma gasped.
The room looked like a war zone surgical center. Huge spotlights hung from the ceiling over metal examination tables. There were half a dozen stations with metal trays that displayed every kind of modern medical tool I could have thought of. There were scalpels, clamps, and bone saws among other things I didn’t know the names of.
A few more unconscious humans were lined up on rolling gurneys along the walls like they were waiting for their turn in surgery. But they didn’t look peacefully asleep like the humans in the corridor.
These poor souls were covered in bruises and bloody bandages. They were collectively more pale, and the floor was covered in small puddles of blood. One human was still actively dripping blood from a long surgical wound on the inside of his right bicep.
“Shit,” I hissed.
I walked over to him as I started to prepare to tether his lifeforce to me.
His chest was still, and the blood dripped without the steady pulse of a heartbeat. I reached out to touch his skin, and he was too cool to be alive. He hadn’t been dead for long, though, and I suspected he’d been the current experiment specimen when my teams had arrived.
“He’s dead,” Nyxx murmured.
“Yeah,” I sighed.
I looked down at the floor, and there was half of a footprint in the bloody puddle on the floor. Another three marked the path the person had taken back out through the long corridor we’d come down.
“Whoever was working on him must have gone up when we arrived,” I said.
“There’s not enough blood here to have been the cause of his death,” Nyxx observed.
“No, there’s not,” I said with surprise.
Nyxx was right, he must have died from another cause. I looked around and spotted an empty syringe on the metal tray of surgical tools. A tiny drop of something blue clung to the end of the needle.
“It looks like he was euthanized.” I pointed at the syringe.
Everyone breathed silently for a moment, and I scanned the room for more information.
That’s when I noticed the huge bulletin boards at the back of the room. On the left side, there were two life-size diagrams of the human body, one male, and one female. They were labeled in Burmese, but it looked like they were pretty straightforward anatomy diagrams.
