Replica (The Blood Borne Series Book 2) (25 page)

RACHEL

After Lea and Ivan climbed into the back, Antonio gave me a strange look, and I suddenly felt like a specimen under a microscope. But I could tell Lea had whipped him good. That thought filled me with more smug satisfaction than I cared to admit as I walked past him and around the front of the truck.

“You’re driving, so why are you still standing there?” I climbed into the cab and pulled my bag strap over my head.

Without a word, he got in and turned the engine over and waited.

I put my bag in the middle between us to set up some boundaries. When I realized he hadn’t started driving yet, I started to get snippy. Then I realized I hadn’t told him where to go.

What if Ivan was right? What if my anger over Antonio was distracting me enough to put us in danger? I reminded myself I’d fought off werewolves with him at my back. I might not like him, but I knew I could count on him in a fight. Like it or not.

I dug Hades’s coordinates out of my bag and plugged them into the GPS. “We need to head out of the village, then northwest.”

He nodded and started to drive, keeping his attention on the road.

I narrowed my eyes. Why was he being so uncharacteristically quiet? I set the GPS next to him so I could focus on the problem of transferring files over from my salvaged hard drive.

After I hooked up my phone to the charger Baran had included, I pulled out the new laptop first, “new” being a relative term. It was refurbished but functional.

Next came what was left of my laptop. I used one of Baran’s screwdrivers to open the pieces. Unbelievably, the hard drive looked intact. That boded well.

I opened the new laptop, replaced its hard drive with my old one, and held my breath as I rebooted the computer and opened the drive.

“Thank God,” I muttered under my breath when I saw everything was intact. I grabbed one of the thumb drives from Baran’s bag, inserted it into the USB port and transferred the files.

“You seem to know what you’re doing.”

It was a statement, not a question, and my gaze jerked up in surprise. “My first two months in war-torn desert country taught me if I had computer issues, there was no Geek Squad around the corner to take care of things for me. So I learned to do it myself.”

He didn’t respond to that, but snuck glances at me as I finished the transfer and swapped the old hard drive for the clean one. Once I had it all together, I went through my messenger bag to make sure everything else was in there.

“Your friend just happened to have supplies?”

“He just happened to have
my
supplies.” I shot him a sardonic grin. “I was on the move a lot. I found it helpful to have emergency backups scattered around.”

“Why would that man bring you a Humvee as well as all the other things you requested and deliver them within hours?”

“Have you ever been in a war zone, Antonio?”

His shoulders rolled back. “I am at war every day.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not a war of your own making,
real
war. Ugly and deadly, where people hate each other for no reason other than the color of their skin, a line on a map, the possession of a fossil fuel, or a belief in different gods—a violence that sweeps across a land and destroys everything and everyone in its path. That is war. Not your grudge match with Lea.”

I turned more to face him. “I’ve stared into the faces of the victims. The children who watched their parents die. The man who lost his arm and can no longer work on electronics to feed his children. They are the ones who pay the price for the decisions of a bunch of assholes in suits. I’m sick of it.”

“And how does Baran play into this story about a man who lost his arm and can no longer work on electronics?” A pleased grin lit his face. “I can put things together.”

“How Baran plays into it is no business of yours.”

“Fair enough…unless we can’t trust him and we’re walking into a trap.”

“If we were walking into a trap, you would have been killed when Baran drove into the village.” I leveled my gaze. “You are a participant in this thing, but you’re not one of us. If you don’t trust Baran, you’re free to go. I’m done with my computer, so I can take over.” I pointed out the window at the endless barren landscape. “That looks like a good place for me to drop you off.”

“I’m staying with you and you know it.”

“Then keep out of my past.”

Exhaustion overcame me. I was tired of sparring with Antonio. I needed to save my energy for the facility, especially since we had no idea what nightmare we would find there.

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, dozing for what seemed like a few minutes. The ringing of my cell phone woke me up, and when I opened my eyes, I was shocked. Based on the sun’s position in the sky, it had risen several hours ago. I reached for my phone, but Antonio already held it in his hand.

I snatched it from him, and my mouth dropped open when I checked caller ID. It was Hades.

“Hello.” I still sounded groggy from sleep.

“Did I wake you?” he asked, chuckling softly. “I’m trying to picture you in bed.”

“I’m in a truck cab with drool on the side of my face—” I swiped my cheek with the back of my free hand, “—so try again.”

“Are you in Iraq?”

I put a foot on the dashboard. “No.” I still didn’t trust Hades. Yes, he wanted me to go to the facility, but I didn’t trust his motives. Especially after the werewolves on the train warned us against them too. He was asking me to destroy what was essentially his life’s work, yet he hadn’t offered a reason that satisfied me. So let him think we were a day or more away, not that we were about to come knocking within hours.

He was silent for several seconds, and I wasn’t sure if he was about to call me out for lying or hang up. Finally, he said, “I thought you took this threat seriously.”

“I assure you that I do,” I said, sounding irritated. “But Iraq isn’t exactly an easy country to get into.”

“A resourceful girl like you should be able to find a way.”

“What do you want, Hades? Because I’m pretty damn sure you didn’t call to belittle me for my travel troubles.”

Antonio shot me a glance.

“I called to assist you in your quest, but if you won’t be there in time…”

I tensed. “In time for what?”

“The beginning of the end.”

“And what does that mean?”

“You will find out soon enough.”

“So if you called to assist me, start assisting.”

He paused. “I will send you a file that will help you take out the entire facility. Hit it where it is most vulnerable.”

“You mean blow it up?”

“What better way to destroy it all?” His voice lowered. “But it will be too late if you aren’t there by tonight.”

“I’ll do the best I can.” Which was basically the same as telling him I’d do better. Hello, possible trap.

“There will be a reward for you when you are done.”

“Oh…” I said in a dry tone. “A job well done is its own reward.”

But he’d already hung up.

Sure enough, less than a minute later, an email showed up on my phone with an attached file. I hooked up my hotspot to the laptop and downloaded the file, sucking in a breath when I realized it was a close-up view of a schematic.

“What is that?”

I consider hiding it from him, but I was a reporter, not a demolitions expert. He’d probably know how to approach this better than I did. “A way to blow up the facility.”

“No shit.”

“No shit,” I confirmed. It was a ventilation room, but its location was a complete mystery.

Then something hit it me. Hades’s file was titled APX…I’d seen that title on Derrick’s computer. Buried deep in a utilities folder.

I pulled up Derrick’s buried files, and found the schematics for the medical facility. After scrolling and zooming in, I placed the image Hades had sent me over the top.

“Bingo.”

A shiver ran down my spine. Derrick had known about this place for over a year.

“Where did you get the complete plans?”

“My friend.” It pissed me off that my voice cracked. “He gave his life to try to stop these people, and now I’ll probably have to give my life too.” My back stiffened. “He may have failed, but I won’t.”

“What makes you think your quest will have a different outcome from his,
mi amor
?” Antonio asked, giving me a quick glance. His dark brown eyes bore into mine, but instead of the accusation and belittlement I expected, I saw understanding and approval.

“Because I can hold a grudge. And I’m not dying until I get my revenge.”

He gave a slight nod. “Then we will get it together.”

LEA

The day passed in absolute silence in the back of the truck. Ivan didn’t try to talk to me and I didn’t even look at him. Tension did not begin to describe all the unsaid words hovering in the air between us. I told myself I’d been right to push him away, even if it didn’t feel like it.

Besides, he’d been using me, making me think there was something between us when he really wanted revenge for his wife and his pack. A stab of jealousy I did not like arced through me.

Ivan turned and lifted an eyebrow, but I closed my eyes. I didn’t care what he smelled on me. For all he knew, I could be feeling jealous of the budding relationship between Rachel and Antonio.

Their voices reached me, the conversation lighter and starting to flow more easily. Of course, I wasn’t up there with them. And if I were being honest, I was a huge part of the reason those two didn’t get along. Okay, the whole reason.

“
Madre de Dios
,” I whispered. What a fucking mess.

It would hurt when I had to walk away from both of them. Ivan was already treating me like the monster I was, and while my friendship with Rachel wasn’t over yet, the end was coming. This was better though, and with all my years of experience, I knew it. But a part of me mourned the loss of my friends. That was the problem with allowing myself to recapture a piece of my humanity. The pain was too hard to bear.

As the sun faded, the truck slowed to a stop and the engine cut out. Ivan was gone in a flash, not even pausing to look at me before he leapt from the back.

I followed, slower, thinking about the challenges that lay before us. Rachel and Antonio slid out of opposite sides of the truck. While I’d put distance between Ivan and me, it looked as though Rachel had eased up on the Cazador.

Good and bad. I approached her while I scanned the area around us. “Nice to see you two getting along.”

“How can you possibly know that?” She frowned at me and I shrugged.

“Tension has a feel to it. It’s eased.” I winked at her. “And I could hear you talking from the back.”

She snorted. “Some friend you are. Me and Antonio have come to...an understanding at best.”

Ivan stared out over the sand dunes. “Rachel, which direction are we headed?”

Rachel grabbed a map from the front seat and unfurled it with a flap. She pointed to a spot on the map. “We’re going here.” Then she opened the laptop, and an image of the facility popped up on the screen. A giant square block with spokes reaching out into the desert. The thing looked like an angular octopus.