At first glance it looks like a private surgical room.
Steel surfaces, locked cabinets, expensive equipment, everything sterile and sealed.He can’t see all the way inside though, so he pulls out his knife and angles the blade to reflect the interior.
He makes out the distorted figures of the Delacroix twins, Thomas Whitlock, Richard Vale, Alistair Penhalyx and Mikhail Sorrenko all standing around something with their backs to the door.
Lachlan sinks lower and looks inside without the knife.Now he sees the machinery.Breathing tubes, IVs, blood bags, heart monitors.The blue glow is coming from something he can’t see, whatever it is that they’re huddled around.He hears voices spoken in hushed tones.
‘Can you hear me, my love?’Alistair is saying.Lachlan clocks a medical team, not dissimilar in dress and attire to the ones who work on the Estate.He sees two beds on wheels.The team are surrounding the bed on the left.The adults hover around the one on the right.‘That’s it, take your time.’
Lachlan still can’t tell what’s causing the glow, but when a pair of delicate feet slide carefully off the side of the bed, silvery-blue toenails immediately give away who it is.
Someone half turns.
It’s Sorrenko, and he’s looking directly at Lachlan, who freezes.
For three agonising seconds, they stare one another down until Sorrenko says to Alistair, ‘I’m going to check with Kessler about the generators.’
Alistair seems preoccupied with Savannah.‘Fine.’
Sorrenko moves towards the door and Lachlan pulls away, rising to stand.
He falls silently into step with Sorrenko as they head up the spiral staircase.Mikhail doesn’t seem surprised at all to find the two other bodyguards unconscious, stepping clean over them.
Once they’re out of the bunker, he pulls Lachlan into a shadowy corner, voice lowered.‘You’re lucky I turned and no one else.’
‘What are you doing to her?’Lachlan demands tightly.
‘I can’t explain,’ Sorrenko says, lifting both hands when Lachlan moves in, gun aimed right at his fucking face, ‘but we’re going to save her, me and you.I will help reverse it.There is time in the first three days.The bond is fragile.’
‘What bond?The fuck are you talking about?’
‘Death frightens all men who dream.’
‘What have you done to her?’
‘Even though with each cycle you wake with less time, life is life.’
‘Sorrenko,answerme or I’ll—’
‘I love my children more than I love myself for the first time in too long.My boy Roman loves Savannah.’
Lachlan watches him warily.‘So you’ll help me?’
‘Love puts us on the losing side, but yes, I will.’
‘Penhalyx was right.You’re betraying him.’
Sorrenko gives a momentary, humourless chuckle.‘He’s sensed it coming for years now.He has no love for Julian, you know that, but Ilovemy boys enough to send them away.Do you understand?’
‘Tell me what’s happening.’
‘There is no time.’
‘It’s blood transfusions?Stem cells?Bone marrow?What are they taking from her?Tellme.’
‘I am going to reverse what was done but it will seem wrong in every way.I need to know—’
‘You can’treversea transfusion—’
