“Now, what does this all have to do with your missing family members, you may ask? Well, in due time, you’ll figure it out. For now, let me show you a new toy a couple of my engineers have developed for me. It started as a side project—something to help keep tabs on my Monarchs who go in as deep sleepers—but it turned into something even more.” Arkdone’s voice took on a grand tenor as he waved to the huge plastic maze to his left.
“This is exactly what it looks like. It is a rodent testing maze. Not that I have a problem with testing on humans or metas, but sometimes I just need a living, entirely expendable creature. Dr. Bjorn, if you would show our viewers.”
Michelle panned the camera to the right and zoomed in on what Bjorn was holding up with tweezers. It looked like a tiny capsule, half the size of a pill you might take for a headache. “That is what should matter to you very much, my Winter Clan,” Arkdone’s voice spoke off camera.
“A capsule designed specifically for you, each set is made of very special nanoweapons that are injected with this simple syringe gun. They can be placed anywhere in the body because they are programmed to travel and stay in the subject’s heart. Oh, but you haven’t seen the best part!” He breathed excitedly.
“Dr. Bjorn, if you will.” The doctor held a white, pink-eyed rat in one hand and the syringe gun in the other. He shot the device directly into the animal’s hip and placed the rat in a plastic box. “Now, what you didn’t see Dr. Bjorn do is activate the nanoweapon to start transmitting. They just take a quick twist to activate—genius, really!”
“Dr. Bjorn is walking to the other side of the maze and doing the same thing to the brown rat, injecting it with the other nanoweapon in the set.”
Margo, Theo, Alik, and Farrow watched in fascinated horror at what was happening on the fifteen-inch laptop screen. Farrow was still holding the baby, too afraid to put him down anywhere for fear of what may jump out of the shadows to get them.
“Now, I will assist Dr. Bjorn in releasing the rats through the maze and let’s see if you can figure out for yourself what will happen. If you’d like to pause the video to discuss your theories with one another, now would be a good time. No?” He smiled wickedly, as though knowing exactly how much turmoil and fear he was creating in his audience. “Well, then. Let us proceed. On the count of three, doctor.”
Michelle panned back to fit both men into the shot and caught the exact moment when the rats were released into the maze.
“If you’ll notice, we were kind enough to put a nice chunk of cheese right in the center of the fifteen-foot maze. These rats have run this course many times. Just watch,” He said excitedly. Alik could almost hear him chuckling strangely off camera.
The rats scurried through the maze. Michelle used the zoom to track their progress. Just as they were nearing the cheese, the white rat exploded into a bloody mess. The brown rat ran ahead to nibble on the prize all for himself, unconcerned with the dead kin seven feet away.
“Whhoo hoo! Did you see that? Absolutely beautiful!”
The camera panned away from Arkdone’s ridiculously happy face to the oozing mass that seconds ago was a white rat. One of its pink eyes stared grotesquely from the decapitated head still wobbling upside down.
“The six members of your group whom we have collected have now been implanted with either a trigger,” the camera panned to the brown rat sitting on its haunches nibbling a chunk of cheese. “Or with an explosive.” The camera rolled back to the mutilated body of the white rat.
“Do you see now?”
“Ah, but you may wonder how they might still be alive? Well, I can assure you, they are. I have every intention of playing with my new toys for a while before I let them go and try to find you or each other. Besides, they will be watching DVDs with this same recording. I mean, it’s only fair, right? We may as well lay all our cards out on the table. It’s the right and just thing to do, I’d say. Not that you hold your actions to such high standards.” Arkdone clasped his hands behind his back and began pacing four steps left, four steps right, and back again, as though he truly were deep in thought giving a lecture.
Alik watched him closely trying to place where he’d seen his demeanor before. It wasn’t his handsome physique, but something about the way he moved with skulking grace, like that of—Alik’s eyes narrowed—like that of a snake.