Hotbloods 5: Traitors

Frustrated, I pressed the dots at random. The screen flashed red. I’d gotten it wrong, and I had no idea how many attempts I had left. What if it self-destructed, action-movie style?

I was about to try another pattern when the handle of the lab’s main entrance turned, and the door started to creak open. My head whipped around. Panic bristled through me as I shoved the cabinets closed, locking them as fast as I could, and replaced both the magnetized key and the black box under the utensil tray. I couldn’t risk the box being locked back inside the cabinet, where I might never be able to get at it again, but I hoped Jareth wouldn’t notice it was in a different place. Maybe he’d think he’d misplaced it. Better yet, maybe he wouldn’t bother looking under the utensil tray at all.

I’d just thrown myself under the bottom of a dusty bookcase, my heart pounding in my chest, when a shadowed figure entered, closing the door quietly behind them. Peering out from my hiding spot, I could see it was a coldblood… dressed in doctor’s clothing.

Doctor Ulani.





Chapter Fifteen





I stared at the doctor. My heart thundered in my chest, so loudly I was sure it would give me away. Dust was creeping into my nose, tickling the edges of my nostrils, making my eyes water. Even so, I couldn’t look away.

Doctor Ulani closed the mysterious main door and began to explore Jareth’s alchemy lab. Judging by his hurried movements, he was clearly searching for something in particular. He wore a look of grim determination, his gaze darting from cabinet to cupboard, and down to the storage boxes tucked beneath Jareth’s workbenches.

I had to bite my tongue to keep a gasp from hissing out of my mouth as Doctor Ulani suddenly flopped to the floor, staring up. If he looked off to his side, he would see me looking back at him. After rummaging in his pockets, Doctor Ulani produced a strange, thin, rectangular device that shimmered with electricity. It looked like a handheld screen of some kind, but it didn’t look like any comm device I’d seen before.

He moved toward the utensil tray, peering through the device, which had a steady light flashing on the screen, but he didn’t seem to find anything interesting. A moment later, as his slithering took him to the far side of the room, he snatched a hidden device from the underside of Jareth’s desk, then rose to his feet. I guessed that whatever the device with the flashing light was, it located certain types of devices—and he’d found what he was looking for.

He moved over to one of the workbenches and set the device down. It looked very similar to the black box that Navan and Ianthan used, but it was larger and made from silvery chrome. Why had Jareth hidden it, in an already-secret room? Perhaps he hadn’t wanted to take any chances.

The doctor flipped up the monitor of the silver box device. The screen was blinking with a dialogue box similar to the one that had stumped me, on the black box. It didn’t seem to faze the good doctor, however, as he pressed a different button on the strange device he’d produced from his pockets and placed it against the screen. Crackling white lines bristled across the dialogue box, presumably scrambling the code that was needed to get in, unlocking it.

I frowned at him, trying to get a closer look at what he was doing, but he kept moving, blocking what I could see. I didn’t know whether he’d managed to hack into the silver box or not, but his body language showed confidence. There was only one explanation: this guy was a spy. Whether he was spying for Queen Brisha, Orion, or even Queen Gianne, I couldn’t be sure.

Still, if he was a spy, I couldn’t let him leave the lab. The last thing we needed was another one running around, sharing any potential progress on the elixir with more coldblood factions. What if Jareth’s information led one of them to crack the immortality code?

Glancing across the workbenches, I caught sight of another tray of laboratory tools sitting by a sink. Among the items was a paring knife, the blade glinting in the low lights, having been freshly washed and left out to dry. It almost seemed a shame to have to get it dirty again, but perhaps it wouldn’t have to come to that. Maybe I’d be able to frighten the doctor before he could glean anything useful.

With the doctor’s back turned, I slid along the ground toward the workbench where the tools lay, careful to keep as low as possible. As I approached, the thought of causing someone harm brought with it an onslaught of flashbacks, the memory of Pandora’s death skittering into my mind. Right now, I was certain of only one thing: I had to find out what the doctor knew and see if he was a liability. Only then would I be able to make a judgment call about sparing his life.

Reaching the workbench, I grasped the hilt of the paring knife. The doctor still hadn’t noticed me. Spurred on, I rose onto my haunches and crept across the lab, sneaking up behind the doctor without making a sound.

Wracking my brains for an appropriate Aksavdo move, I settled on a control grip around the neck. My arm slid across his throat before he even realized I was there. The blade, pointing at his windpipe, served to back up just how serious I was, while my other hand settled on his spine, two fingers resting against one vertebra. A swift jab, and he would be rendered immobile. From the shiver of his body, I could sense he knew that.

No matter what he did, or how he moved, he couldn’t get away unharmed.

“Who are you working for?” I whispered in his ear.

“Loosen your grip, and you’ll find out,” the doctor replied, his tone taking me by surprise. The formality he’d shown in Lorela’s room had evaporated, replaced with a wry quality.

I jolted his neck backward, letting the knife bite deeper. “Who are you working for?”

“Let go of me, and let me see who I’m talking to,” he grumbled.

I pressed the knife harder into his neck, my fingers digging into his spine. “I won’t ask again.”

“Okay, okay! We’ll do it your way, kiddo,” he purred, his body relaxing against me. “I’m not at liberty to tell you who I’m working for, so back off, or you’ll end up regretting this little show of power. You’ve got no idea who you’re messing with, princess.”

“Is it Queen Brisha?” I pressed, though his voice made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

No response.

“Queen Gianne?”

Silence.

“Orion?”

The doctor laughed. “I worked for one of them once, but I’ve long since given up bowing and scraping to undeserving bosses. Now, I’m more of a mercenary, gathering juicy morsels of information to give away to the highest bidder—that could be you, if you play your cards right.”

“Why?”

He let out another bitter laugh. “So I can get myself a fancy ship, and get as far from this steaming pile of throat-tearer dung as possible, before everything really goes to crap. Why else?”

“I don’t understand. How did you find your way in here? Nobody knows about this place.”

“Nobody?” He snorted. “You really are precious, princess. You think nobody guessed big bad Jareth Idrax was hiding the truth from everyone?”

“What truth?”

“You really think he’s not doing exactly what I’m doing? You really think he isn’t scrambling to find a way to buy his family out of this place, for when these two bitches destroy each other, and everyone on this stupid planet?” he snarled.

I was just about to answer when he jumped up and pushed back as hard as he could, using his feet as leverage against the workbench. I flew to the ground, smacking my head against the lab floor, the doctor splayed on top of me. He writhed and thrashed, breaking free of my grip, then kicked my hand hard, making me drop the knife.

He was up on his feet in seconds, hurtling for the door. I was up a moment later, sprinting after him, barely missing a beat as I stooped to pick up the blade. He turned the handle as I barreled into him, tackling him to the ground. Doctor Ulani tried to fight back, but he wasn’t as strong as I’d expected him to be, his hands flailing helplessly as I forced my knees against his upper arms, pinning him there and sitting down on his chest.