Reveille (The Hybrid Disasters, Book One)

Chapter 23: Believe

When I woke up the next morning, I lumbered downstairs for coffee and found Charles at the kitchen bar waiting for me.

"Good morning, Addy. Please grab a quick bite to eat and get dressed. We're going on a trip. I'd like to depart within the next fifteen minutes if you don't mind."

"Right," I replied dryly. I grabbed a banana from the fruit basket and a cup of joe, then headed back upstairs to shower and change out of my pajamas. I put on a black romper and a pair of open-toed, black leather booties. I braided my hair down the center and headed back downstairs with minutes to spare. I looked nice but also ready to kick ass if I needed to. "Where are we headed, Charles?"

"To my laboratory," he replied. "I want you to see first-hand what it is that I do."

I must have looked surprised because he further elaborated. "I know DPO asked you to help gather evidence on me, Addy. They would've been fools not to. Unlike them, however, I'd like to give you the option to choose a side." He got up from his seat and grabbed his keys from the hook by the front door. We drove to the City Hall where my father worked as City Mayor. After entering the building, we took the elevator to the sub-level. The basement was filled with rows and rows of old, dusty file cabinets. Charles escorted me to the back wall where he halted before a pin-protected cabinet. After entering the code, the cabinet popped forward just the slightest. He grabbed the edge of the cabinet and pulled it towards us, revealing a trap door. I followed him through the hidden entrance and into a long concrete tunnel. We walked wordlessly for about ten minutes before the tunnel ended at another coded entrance. Through that door, we entered into a wine cellar. Charles guided us up a wooden staircase that led into a restaurant's empty kitchen. We exited the back entrance of the restaurant and stepped out into an alleyway where a black Lincoln Navigator sat waiting for us. We climbed in the back.

The driver and passenger, both suited men, greeted Charles. Charles returned their greeting, and the driver took off. I couldn't see out of the shaded windows, but the drive only lasted twenty minutes. When I exited the vehicle, I found myself inside a cave. I followed Charles toward a steel door hardly noticeable at the back of the cave. He scanned his hand, and the door opened. We were finally entering his lab.

The walls and ceiling of the lab were solid rock, but everything else was made of steel. There were a few people in lab coats mulling about, but Charles continued through the main area until we came to another door. We entered into a small hallway that led to another room similar to the first, except there were several suited men standing guard around the room. In the center of the room sat a rather large vault made entirely of bullet-proof glass. The vault was roughly six feet tall and six feet wide. Charles approached the vault and stopped. He allowed me a moment to examine the contents inside. There appeared to be a large stack of faintly glowing stones. The stones were roughly the size of a cell phone individually, with black coloring and coarse texture similar to the mineral biotite. Unlike biotite, there was a dark red hue shining through the various cracks on each of their surfaces, causing the stones to have a very ominous and vein-like appearance. I estimated there were at least a hundred pieces inside. I looked to Charles, wondering what the strange stones were for.

"This is firestone, Adeleigh," Charles informed me. "I have it smuggled straight from the Plane of Fire."

My eyes widened at his admission. They were pieces of Lyric's home world. "What does it do?"

"I'm still testing the substance, but it appears to have many properties. I'll admit that it was in the serum Donny took to rescue you. I had only tested it on a few gremlins with positive results prior to his attempted rescue mission. I'm quite surprised at the effect it had on Donny. It's a very powerful substance. It can strengthen, but it can also weaken. It's a very dangerous weapon in the hands of humans."