The Chronicles of Koa: Netherworld

Chapter Five

Koa met Halston at the safe house. Their meeting place was an unassuming abandoned warehouse that Halston had purchased decades ago. The entire strip of land was abandoned. Once a power plant, no one dared come near it for fear of radiation exposure.

Koa had the suspicion that Halston probably had a dozen or so safe houses. Whenever one was compromised, he always had a backup, and he didn't always tell her his plan. He was clever. People tended to assume that such an attractive man couldn't possibly be such a genius. They didn't know that he was always at least ten steps ahead of them, and that his brain functioned at a superhuman level. They could never guess that he was not, in fact, human.

She walked into one of the secret entrances in the back and covered her head with her hand. The exposed pipes still tended to drip cold water onto her head. It was dark and silent, except for the incessant drips. She rolled her eyes and lifted herself a few feet off the ground to avoid stepping into the black puddles that covered the flooring.

Halston was good. This was all a diversion, in case anyone dared come inside. They would see the oil spills and the oozing green gases that seeped into the air from cracked pipes along the wall. Anyone would be discouraged from going any further, but Koa knew better.

She ignored the mutilated rats and followed the labyrinth-like tunnels to a small door that one might never have noticed because it seemed to blend into the darkness. The door was rusted and covered in a slimy film of green goo. She pulled the hidden lever and pushed. With a creak it opened, and her eyes were affronted by bright lights.

Koa groaned and hurried inside. She pushed the door closed and set the lock on the digital keypad attached to its back.

"Glad you finally decided to join us," Halston called.

Koa sighed and turned to face him. With clean, white walls, the sterile space reminded her of a lab or a hospital. The constant buzz of electronics hummed in the background. The sleek white desks and long bare tables were spaced apart like a study hall.

Halston's love for technology was apparent at first glance into that room. He had flat screens everywhere and prototypes for weapons and various gadgets and devices. Everything was neat and tucked away into its proper place. Then then she saw it, locked away in its glass case.

Halston's infinity gun.

Koa shivered as she looked at it. She loved that weapon. She almost wanted to trade in her Lyrinian sword, just to wield that shotgun one time. She'd only ever seen Halston use it a handful of times, and each time she had been appalled by its power. He refused to let her touch it.

She shifted her gaze to Halston and Galena, a female assassin from their Russian office. She gave Koa a forced smile and returned her attention to Halston. Koa felt the tension in the room. Galena looked as if she had been crying. Her dull blond hair looked dirtier than normal, and she had suspicious cuts on her arms that were barely hidden by a bunch of bangles.

Galena had first been seen by Al, their recruiter, and later brought into the Netherworld Division by Halston. She was a charge, or 'pet' for hire, similar to Ian in that she sold her blood to paying customers, but Galena worked with the most notorious of them all. Now, she went undercover for the Netherworld Division and sought to expose the most evil of the vampires and kill them. She was ruthless, cold, and calculating.

Koa swallowed and silently took a seat a few feet from them. She glanced at Galena and saw that her eyes were red and swollen. She had bruises on her cheeks and neck.