8. Mä elän vieläkin. (The Highwaymen.)

Adam, Samuel. Bran, Charles, and the vampires packed up the car and set off towards the facility. They would leave the car in the shelter and were already changing the shape of the vehicle. This was the big van they set off in. The vampires drove through the dark night. The car's headlights obliterated the rugged terrain as they drove through the dark woods and along a path almost as bad as the one they had taken to the village of Marrok, but this was the safest route. The goal was to get the car as close as possible, and then, yes, they would drive off another way. The vampires would move the vehicle into position once they had let the wolves go.

The van was jet black, blending in well with the night. Only the headlights revealed the car's progress through the woods. This was an electric car, so it was almost silent. It was one of Charles's work cars. Charles was his father's soldier, a hitman, a troubleshooter, and very efficient at his job. Charles had a well-known reputation among werewolves, and if Charles Cornick was going to visit, then someone would probably lose their life. Charles had no mercy. 

The vampires were silent as they drove, except now and then to curse softly when they hit a good bump. The men were already changing shape behind them, and with it came their own sounds that neither vampire cared to hear.

The car stopped in a clearing in the woods. From here, the wolves would soon leave the cave mouth if they got into the tunnels, and the men would move the car without the lights on closer when the time was right. Charles opened the back door, put the sled on Adam's back, and then went into shape as the other three were already jogging into the cave. Adam was also carrying a small bag of medicine. Charles became a wolf, almost night-black himself, blending into the darkness and disappearing into the night.

 The vampires watched as the wolves disappeared into the cave, and they watched the clock. This was timed so they could move the car to the right spot with no one spotting them. Now, they just had to be patient and keep their heads down. Nick and Elias didn't know yet if they could even stay and take care of Mimi, what condition she was in, and as much as Nick's wolf wanted to care and defend, the fact was that it wouldn't be that hard to leave Mimi in the care of others and forget about this. 

 Nick and Elias had lived for several thousand years. There were plenty of women and people, and human life was so short and fragile that neither of them wanted to get too attached to any one human being anymore. It would be a bit like a human falling in love with a butterfly. Beautiful, innocent, but so fragile and short-lived. Here, one moment, and gone the next. Living and keeping one's mind in order was easier when one had excessive emotions in check.

The wolves ran silently through the tunnels. There were no lights in the tunnels, but the wolves could see perfectly well, even in the dark, when they got close to the rest area. There were small lamps on the walls because there had been some storage facilities here when the factory had been in operation, and apparently, these guys had kept some facilities in use. 

At one door, Charles could clearly smell that it was a morgue or something, and he knew from the floor plan that it had its own passageway to the incinerator where the evidence was disposed of. They were on schedule, and when they arrived at the breakpoint, it was one of the smaller side caves.

The entrance was between two stones and not so easily noticeable, but Charles had found this when he had been scouting earlier. 

The breakpoint was sheltered, and they wouldn't be there long, just check on Mimi so they could get the rest of the way, which would take about an hour to get back, and Mimi could sleep. Samuel suspected Mimi had developed a tolerance to the drugs and might require another dose, so it was wise to stop, check, and then continue safely.

 Mercy would only arrive when they arrived, but she would accompany them all the way back. Adam was not happy, but Bran had insisted. 

 The Wolves left some of their belongings at the rest stop and continued on their way. They arrived at their destination at quarter to midnight, as planned. Mercy appeared on the scene. She was an Indian woman, slight but with friendly, strong features, and now had a supernatural glow as she ascended to another level.

Her voice was no longer the same, her scent was not the same, and Adam felt the creature reminded him of the terrible accident where he lost his Mercy every time he saw it. Still, their love story was not as the book series had described it; the reality was already much harsher and more brutal, and although Adam had been depressed for a long time when Mercy died, he didn't feel like he could love again.

He had left Mercy in the past, and now this revelation brought back only terrible memories, and he put up with it when Bran insisted Mercy come with them. It was not new information that Bran had been involved with Mercy and not in any appropriate way. They had a relationship, and Adam wasn't too sure they hadn't both wanted it, but he didn't want to think about that now. He stood and waited. 

Mercy and Charles turned human, and after first taking the sled apart and preparing it to wait, they slipped in through the service hatch. Charles quickly unloaded the sled and put the harness on Adam, while Mercy put the harness on Samuel, setting up the sled so the wolves could quickly leave. Bran moved around, watching and keeping in touch with the wolves outside in case there was anything suspicious.

Nick and Elias kept a close eye on the facility in the car. It was large. It was a former factory, and most of its interior had been emptied and rebuilt for its current purpose. Nick watched the chimney rising from the back of the factory, with black smoke rising from it, the smell of which carried all the way to the car, and they had no doubt what was being burned in the factory's incinerator. 

They knew that the death toll from this plant was already quite high, and then what could be done about this? Nick and Elias wondered if they could assemble a good army of hungry vampires and have them eat all the naughty scientists, but then again, what would be the possible effect on the vampires' reputation? 

They waited patiently.

Charles and Mercy slipped through the hatch silently and quickly. There were small steps, and Charles opened the hatches and helped Mercy up the hatch. It was dark in the facility, and only the tiny lights along the corridor were on. It smelled like a hospital here, except in the wrong way.

Werewolf's sense of smell is fantastic, and in a hospital, although it has its own smells, it also has the scent of life, of healing and repair, and that was what was missing here: hope, healing. It was everywhere and smelled of drugs, pain, blood, and secretions. This was a hospital from hell. There was a kind of painful atmosphere, and Charles was more sensitive to these things because of his witch mother, whose blood had made him almost a shaman. 

They knew the guards had changed every half hour, and they had just gone to the other end of the ward. Mercy walked from door to door, looking for the familiar scent the vampires had given her from Mimi's clothes.

Finally, she smelled it. It was diluted, covered with drugs, pain, and rage. This woman, this girl, was in an awful place, and it would take calm but also the skill to get things done quickly and efficiently. Mercy could smell or sense already how strong the Chaos from Mimi would one day be, and this was just the beginning, but she couldn't interfere; things had to happen, and she knew no more about the future than anyone else.

She was just on another plane and had her own work to do there. Her boss, Chaos, the cat, could be a really mean cat sometimes when she got on top of it. Mercy was now a sort of agent of chaos. 

She gestured to Charles, who followed her. Mercy walked towards the room, trying to ignore all the other people in the other rooms. Though she heard moaning, panting, and uneven heartbeats, and though she sensed someone was dying, she did not intervene. They had a job to do now, and it had to be done right; it was just a fact that not everyone would ever be saved.

The plan was for Mercy to go in first and try to keep Mimi calm if possible and then administer the medicine if it was needed. Charles would remove the shackles or restraints and carry Mimi, and then they would act quickly and return the same way and slip back into the tunnel as soon as possible. Mercy had the syringe Samuel gave her with her; it had a good dose of strong sedative in it, but more would be in store once they got underway. 

Mercy went into the room first. On the bed lay a woman, frail and barely awake. The woman had blonde hair, relatively large eyes, and what the vampires had described as Mimi. Mimi was almost asleep, and Mercy sensed her will to fight the drugs and stay awake. She tried to use all her strength to fight, and the woman was almost anorexically thin.

Mercy put her hand over the woman's mouth, silencing her, and whispered. "I'm a friend. Nick and Elias sent us, and we're here to rescue you. Nick and Elias are waiting, but for now, you need to be quiet and still, ok? There's nothing to worry about; we have a plan, and everything's fine. You're Mimi, right?"

The woman nodded, and Mercy smiled reassuringly. The woman seemed to be rational, not lashing out or panicking but instead looking at Mercy calmly, almost appraisingly.

I nodded unknowingly when she asked if I was Mimi. that I didn't know who this dark-haired Indian woman was, if this was a dream or what, because another Indian, or at least part Indian, entered the room. He reminded me again of a combination of a few actors. This was a man. He was big, probably over six feet, firm but not a muscle man. He moved like a panther; he was not human, somehow I realized that, and he had almost black eyes. They were dark chocolate brown, looking right through me, and I felt the dominance of this man. He was used to being obeyed.

The man padded like a jungle cat and said, "I will untie these restraints, and you'll behave yourself. You won't make a fuss or try to lash out at anything. You're in no condition to move, so stay where you are."

I nodded again. The man's voice was like melted chocolate. His movements were sure, strong, and deliberate; I was pretty quickly unlocked from the shackles and restraints or even the chains. I was limp because I had an enormous pile of muscle relaxants stuffed into me and I realized I had just heard the footsteps of these two, well I hadn't kept my eyes closed for long then.

Mercy squeezed the anesthetic drip bag. She had opened the drip bag as she passed, and as the woman stared at Charles, Mercy tried to put as much of the drugs into the woman as she could. She didn't know what was actually in the bag, but soon, the woman's eyes began to close, and she was clearly struggling to stay awake. It worked, whatever it was. 

Charles said. "It's all right, and you can sleep. We will help you. Don't fight it. Let the medicine help. The journey will take some time, and you should be asleep. You stink of pretty damn much every drug, and you can get scared, so sleep, just sleep, you're safe. "

Don't fight it. Before I knew it, this Indian woman had opened the drip tubing and was pushing the contents of the drip bag into my veins as fast as she could. I could feel the drug flooding into my system, and the drowsiness only increased. My consciousness began to blur ominously, and the last thing I realized was that the woman was only removing the drip, not taking the cannula out of my vein.

Then, I felt powerful hands lifting me, and my last thought was related to a strange sense of security. This man smelled like an apple; it belonged to this man, and I fell asleep with an apple-scented sense of security. I wouldn't have to fend for myself all the time while he kept me safe. 

Mercy and Charles acted quickly. Charles wrapped Mimi in several blankets and carried a sleeping roll that really weighed little in his arms as they returned the same way. Mercy noticed that the faint, uneven heartbeats in one room had stopped.

It wasn't her job to save these people. Everything has a purpose, even if it feels so wrong, just to save one and leave the others to die. They crept back through the service hatch with their haul and headed for the wolves. Samuel came in wolf form to sniff. Mimi was wrapped carefully in a blanket, but she looked somehow tired even as she slept, her eyes shifting under her eyelids and her breathing a little more frantic as if she were fighting the drugs.

"Should I give this one more medicine?" Mercy asked.

Samuel whimpered and nodded. Mercy attached the syringe to the cannula and pressed the plunger. Mimi's breathing calmed, and she lulled slightly. Chares gently placed Mimi on the sled and then covered her as best he could before he and Mercy tied her to the sled with the support straps and set off. 

 Charles and Mercy led the way, and after less than an hour, they came to a breakpoint. Charles and Mercy turned human and made sure Mimi was still asleep. Mimi was cool, skinny as hell, and Charles was already wondering who would take care of her. Probably Samuel would, at least initially, but then what? Charles smiled in his mind. He knew he wasn't a nurse, but something about Mimi stuck in his mind, and he wanted to get to know her in some way.

It could be that the vampires had just sold Mimi so well to them, that she was a nice girl and all, but something about Mimi made the wolf in Charles' nature wake up and want to protect Mimi. It was almost owning her.

Even though Samuel's drugs were strong, Mimi furrowed her brows and made noises. Mercy gave another injection, which put Mimi back into a deeper sleep. She went limp, sighing, and Charles could hear Mimi's heart beating rapidly, even though she was now well-medicated. Then Charles heard a thump.

Everything was ready. The guards had waited patiently, and now the wolves stopped exactly where they were supposed to. The men had been keeping an eye out ever since the wolves had entered the facility. They had made a plan when they had seen werewolves exploring these caves days before. Dr. Kendrick had identified Charles Cornick, and he had wanted as powerful wolves as possible for his rage tests. Charles Cornick, the killer wolf everyone feared, would make a very good victim.

 Fifteen armed guards readied silver nets and tranquilizer guns. Soon, Dr. Kendrick and Morrisey would have their long-awaited donors. The guards were on the move. Surprise was on their side. How the wolves then became associated with the target omega. Well, it didn't matter. The fact that they had allowed the wolves to "rescue" the omega was part of the plan because they knew about this break, and this was the best place to capture the wolves. 

They set off the silver nets, trapped the wolves under them, and shot at least four darts into each animal. But Charles was not in wolf form when he had been exploring another part of the cave. The substance was ruthless; it worked quickly, and the Aconitum in the nets weakened the wolves even further. Soon, they had three wolves trapped and Target Omega. They would be enough because all three were powerful wolves, and the target omega was unconscious. The faux wall opened and out came men with stretchers, and they had more drugs with them.

Charles had gone to investigate another tunnel that branched off from this one when he sensed the silver and aconitum. He heard the sounds of the web launchers and cursed in his mind as his eyes fell on the motion sensors in the ceiling. How the hell had he missed those...

Acknowledging it was too late, he managed to drag Mercy out of harm's way so no one would notice them. He derailed the Mercy into one of the other little spaces, kept quiet, and held the Mercy silent as he cursed in his mind.

"Shh, there's nothing we can do. We'll have to rescue Bran and the others later. For now, we'll just get caught. "

Charles could see that at least four of the guards still had the net loaded, and he wouldn't get another step further until the net was on him. Charles and Mercy could only watch. From behind the false wall came men and when Adam, Bran, and Samuel were lifted onto the stretcher, they were given more drugs and tied to the stretcher with silver chains. But they were now too badly outnumbered, and when the men were not looking for them, were satisfied with these three. Charles stayed hidden. 

Mercy could smell Adam's skin burning from where the silver touched him. But she couldn't intervene. It wouldn't do any good and she just had to watch helplessly as the men were quickly bound, strapped to stretchers, medicated, and moved to another corridor with an elevator. The door to the corridor closed and the false wall was now clearly visible. It had looked so real and he hadn't even checked that it was actually stone.

Charles cursed in his mind, knowing that these satans had been on to them all along. Charles knew that three full-sized werewolves were difficult to control, and there were a limited number of places to keep them.

Nick and Elias knew something had gone wrong when the entire entrance to the cave was suddenly filled with men, and a large truck pulled up to one of the exits. From their car, the men watched as four people tied to a stretcher were loaded into the truck.

A couple of dozen guards also entered the truck. Then the truck's doors slammed shut, and it drove off. Ten minutes later, Charles got into the truck.

He said, " It was a fucking trap, there were motion detectors in the ceiling, and I didn't see them, then there was a false wall near the break area, and apparently there was some space that didn't show up on the floor plan, and Adam, Bran, Samuel, and Mimi got caught. Mercy and I got out while I was exploring another part of the cave, and I heard the net throwers. I managed to get Mercy to safety, but the bloody corridor was already full of men who had been behind the false wall. I'm sorry this didn't go as planned."

Charles was very fucked up about it.

He said: "Mercy went where she's going now. That was all she could do. The rest is in our hands now. Let's see what we can find. What we can do? "

The vampires quickly left by car, and the men drove back to Bran's house, where Charles concentrated on his computer. 

Charles said, "I'm busy then as I have to cover for Bran now, but I'll do what I can."

Nick and Elias started calling around. Nick started calling other packs he knew, but none wanted anything to do with Marrok, so they were useless. The packs he knew were not under Marrok and had no interest in rescuing him when they were almost enemies of Marrok.

Charles eventually tracked the truck to the port. He had watched it with various cameras and satellites, but he couldn't have done it in real-time; there was a delay of at least 12 hours, and when they found it, it was empty. All the dock workers had been killed, and the cargo manifests for that day, and all the logs had been erased.

Charles said: "Dead end. Now, I don't know where to look; I guess we'll just have to wait for someone somewhere to see something. Watch for rumors and keep our eyes and ears open. I'll share this so we have an enormous pile of wolves on watch in case something turns up, but if the ship goes into international waters, we won't have as many wolves in South America, for example, as we do here."

Nick and Elias agreed. The men exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep each other informed of even the smallest clues. Charles knew that Bran, Adam, and Samuel would act as soon as possible. Now, it was just a matter of waiting and seeing what would happen.