Stay Away (The Beocraftian Gambit - Book One)

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: THE ATTACK ON EULICH

The white-coated lab assistants moved about in choreographed silence, while some stood before a large table drawing pipettes of fluid from tiny tubes and transferring them into a vile. Frank walked into the laboratory, William following behind, barely able to keep up with his swift strides.

They entered the same cabin that was labelled, 'special project'. Just like before, Frank slid a card through the electric door, opening it, and they both walked in. William's eyes widened at the sight of Eulich lying lifeless on the bed in the centre of the room. Her body had been wrapped in a plastic bag that covered her body just up to her neck, and her eyes were wide open in a disturbing stare.

He came and stood at her side. "How did this happen?"

"Someone came in last night and strangled her in her sleep. We are yet to identify who it was." Frank walked to where she lay and pushed the plastic bag that'd covered her body to reveal several scratch marks on her skin. "Judging from the cuts on her body, I'd say a shifter did it."

"Mrs Eulich has always been in isolation. How could anyone have access to this facility?"

"That's a question I've been asking myself. There's no way anyone could have gotten in to..."

"The doctors that'd been observing her—" William interrupted him, raising an eyebrow at him. "You don't think they did it?"

Frank stroked the tip of his finger over the cuts on Eulich's ghost-white skin. "The claws of either a shifter or a wild beast caused these scratches. We both know it's a shifter." Then he turned to William and said, "Before I hired Dr Kent and Dr Stone to operate on Mrs Eulich, I ran a series of tests on them and found no trace of a shifter DNA embedded in either of them. I made sure of that. And besides, I'm the only one with access to this door since I hold the key. Dr Kent and Dr Stone never enter or leave this room without my supervision. It can't possibly be them, I'm perfectly sure of it."

"Well, somebody else did it, someone on this taskforce—someone who doesn't want to be discovered by Eulich," William spat, an unpleasant frown spread across his face. "We have a traitor on the taskforce."

"I've had Catherine go over the security footage from the last twenty-four hours. We should be able to catch this traitor soon enough," Frank assured.

"Who else knew about Eulich?"

"The only time I talked about her was in your office when I explained her abilities to you. And of course, Mr Rushford was there too."

"Derik? No." He shook his head. "There's no way Derik could have killed her. He's currently lying unconscious in the hospital as we speak, and he's been that way since yesterday."

"It wouldn't come as a surprise to me if he did it. After watching the way he'd behaved yesterday, I swore nothing would surprise me ever again."

"I have my reasons for suspecting Derik, but I don't think he did it." William vouched. "After Derik walked out on me yesterday, he went straight to my daughter in the hospital. I trust Derik, he's anything but a traitor, that's why I put him in charge of looking after my daughter."

William examined her body more closely. "Derik couldn't have done this. It has to be someone else-–someone whom we're not taking into consideration." Turning to Frank, he said, "Run deep analysis on every member of this taskforce. I need to know who the traitor among us is. I won't have myself working with a shifter."

"I'll do that right away, sir."

###

Alex sat in his office, listening as Kevin narrated his experience with T-Murek. "I'll be back. Be ready when I return," Kevin finished the narration. "Those were the last words he said to me before he departed from that room, leaving me tied to that chair to stare at her guts until the police arrived."

Alex did not blink even for a second as he listened to Kevin explain the horrible things T-Murek did to Loretta. "A hell of a guy," he remarked and his face twisted. "What kind of person takes pleasure in torturing another human that way?"

Kevin remained silent, unsure of how to answer that.

Alex took out a notebook and a pen. "Have you had any encounter with T-Murek before a year ago?" he asked.

"No," he answered. "I never met him until last year when he made me watch as he tortured Loretta."

Alex wrote something in his notebook, and then returned his gaze to him. "You mentioned something about T-Murek killing your mum, do you know why?"

"I was still a little boy when my mum carried me in her arms. I could barely remember or understand much of anything that happened way back then."

"And what about the masked man? Do you have the slightest hunch who he might be?"

Kevin sat silent for a moment. He wanted to discover to Alex the man he'd encountered earlier at the park and the note which he folded in his hand, but then hesitated. "I don't know who he might be."

"Can you describe the place where Loretta was tortured?" he inquired.

"It's an abandoned warehouse in Fallout city. I can't remember much of what was inside that room," he said. "I can take you there. Maybe you'll find something the other detectives may have missed."

"Good," he consented. "We'll start from there to look."

Suddenly, Kevin's phone buzzed in his pocket. Taking it out, he looked over the screen and announced, "Its Lena."

Both men became quiet. As soon as he pressed the phone to his ear, he heard Lena squalling, "He's here again!"

Kevin quickly put the phone on speaker and held it up for Alex to listen.

"The man who took my daughter," she babbled. "He is here again and wants to take me too."

"What!" Kevin exclaimed, eyes widening. "Scream for help or something, somebody will come in to rescue you."

"No... no... no... no..." Lena babbled like she was crying to someone there with her. She sounded rather scared to death. "He's going to get me, Kevin... please help me! Anyone!" she whined, and then the phone line went dead.

Heart pounding against his ribcage, Kevin turned to look at Alex. "He's there with her."

Hastily, Alex pulled out his phone and dialled a number. He heard a voice answered from the other end. "Good day, inspector. How may I help you?"

"Hello sergeant, we have a situation at De-Marie hospital." Alex bellowed. "There is a possible kidnap going down right now in room 231! I repeat, room 231!!"

"Copy that, sir," the voice echoed.

Then both men quickly left the room.