“Bummer.Gunnar and I had plans too.”Bryn grinned.Emmett blushed.
Bryn didn’t know if their boss had another name to add to Warden, but he’d never dared ask.Warden sat at the head of the table dressed in an immaculate black suit, white shirt and subdued gray tie.He glanced at Bryn and frowned.
“Mr.Ashton, why do you always dress like an attendee at a goth rock concert?”
Bryn glanced down at his ripped black jeans and My Chemical Romance T-shirt.“Not sure I’d call this band goth rockers, sir…more like…uh, never mind.”He sat his ass down before he got himself in more trouble.Warden’s piercing stare was enough to curb even his tongue.
“Thank you for coming in, Emmett,” Warden said in a much softer tone, bestowing Emmett with the trace of a smile.Emmett blushed even more then ducked his head.He pulled a notepad and pen from his satchel.
“No problem at all, sir.”
“What’s going on, boss?”Gunnar took the seat next to Bryn.
“Yeah, tell us, Warden.I had a fun evening in planned for my God-given, long-overdue day off.”Bryn cast a sly look in Gunnar’s direction.
“You need to readjust your priorities, young man.There are training courses for that,” Warden replied.
“Why does that sound like a threat?”
“Because it is.Now shut up and listen.”Warden’s laser glare could have drilled a hole in sheet metal.“You’ll all be aware that some gene-affected individuals spend time at The Facility undergoing a range of tests and personal development, mostly if they have chosen a career path in law enforcement or the military.”
Bryn pressed his lips together in a tight line to stop yet another sarcastic remark.His own stay at The Facility had been lengthy, unpleasant and not exactly voluntary.Would be so justified.
“In the last six months I’ve been receiving disturbing reports that some of these individuals have been experiencing varied levels of psychosis.In the first instance, our scientists were concerned that this might be an effect of a new gene mutation but tests showed that was not the case.Blood samples, however, did reveal the presence of a narcotic.A new synthetic drug that we haven’t come across before.”
“Sounds nasty,” Gunnar commented.
“Indeed.None of the people concerned were habitual drug takers so we weren’t, and still aren’t, sure how this got into their systems, but the effects can be catastrophic.Enhanced abilities specific to both lupines and sanguines were found and, to start with, it appears that this is the only development but, after time, other traits begin to manifest.”
Gunnar frowned.“Such as?”
“Paranoia, blood lust, increasing aggression and eventually hemorrhaging in the brain leading to death.”
Emmett glanced up from his note taking, white-faced.“Who would do that to people?”
“Someone with no morals and zero compunction about using people for his own ends.”Warden stood and clasped his hands behind his back.“Someone like Salvatore Russo.”
“Wonderful,” Bryn said.“The Hammer.Our favorite mob boss.Had to be him, didn’t it.Only worse option would have been our neighborhood psycho pen pal, Dr.Templeton.”
“Thank you for that observation, Bryn.”
“How do you know it’s him?”Gunnar asked.
“A better contribution, Detective.We know because last night, Boston PD raided what they thought was a meth lab.What they found was a production facility for this synthetic drug that the people they rounded up were calling Thanacrine.Several of those arrested have confirmed links with Russo.”
“In Greek mythology, Thanatos was the personification of death,” Emmett contributed.“He was a minor figure, often referred to but rarely appearing in person.That could be the root of the name.”
“I thought Thanos was a Marvel character,” Bryn said.
“Thanos was a warlord from Titan, whose objective was to bring stability to the universe by wiping out half of all life at every level no matter what it took…so he’s a possible inspiration too,” Emmett conceded.
“Thank you, Emmett,” Warden said.
“So production has been stopped?”Gunnar asked.
“No.This was one small place.Russo isn’t stupid.It’s better to spread the risk across multiple facilities than concentrate efforts in a single location.Less of a financial hit if one place gets raided.There will be more.”
“And he’ll have another one up and running to replace this one before we can blink,” Gunnar said.“So what’s our interest?”
