To Rook, he says, ‘Get theSomnex-V.’
Blaire’s eyes widen.‘You can’t seriously—’
Lachlan ignores her.‘Get it now.’
‘You won’t be able to push him out if he’s unconscious,’ she tells him.‘He’ll fold and get stuck.’
Lachlan nods grimly, headed for the armoury.‘I know.’
Somnex V is odourless, harmless and it works fast to knock anyone unconscious.Jolene made it for him, useful in case of a closed-room hostage situation.While Rook retrieves the sedative aerosol, Lachlan suits up in tactical tape, Kevlar and compression wraps.His forearms, thighs, wrists, lower stomach, knees and elbows are going to take the worst of it.Somnex doesn’t last long so he knows he has to be quick, which means he doesn’t have the time to lay down material to compress the teeth and even if he did, once he’s deep in, whatever he’s using will snag.The shaft is purposely not big enough for a ceiling crawl method, evenwithmagnetic plates.
Any metal protection on his hands will prevent him from creating traction to drag himself.
It’s a really clever trick.
He just wasn’t expecting Julian to use it against himquiteso well.
Rook deploys the Somnex while Lachlan makes his way to Julian’s position head on.It takes three minutes of excruciating pain and torn skin to reach where the boy is unconscious in his fucking pyjamas.Lachlan buys himself a few seconds to stabilise.He’s lost a lot of blood and passing out would be just about the biggest mistake of his entire life, but he always excelled at resistance training, so he gets solid hold of Julian’s wrists, ruined gloves removed and pulls hard… only for the hands to slip instantly free.
Lachlan’s blood makes it nearly impossible for him to grip and hold Jules.
‘Fucking great.’
Gritting his teeth, Lachlan ties rope around Julian’s wrists, knows it’ll hurt but he wrapped the wrists with bandages first to prevent lasting damage.
Then he pulls backwards.
The relief of goingwiththe grain of those teeth is instant and, in a macabre way, his own blood helps the glide.
They’re almost out when Jules wakes up, groggy and confused.
A single pull backwards in thoseflimsyfucking pyjamas and he’ll be scarred for life.Lachlan can either knock him out,ideal,or he can reason with him.The latter seems impossible but Lachlan’s not sure he can land the angle ofblackout punchin such cramped quarters, so he takes a deep breath and says, ‘Julian, you have to help me now, OK?Mimi is screaming for you.She’s terrified.Please don’t make her suffer anymore.’
He blinks, frowning.‘Huh?’
‘You’ve been up here for three days,’ Lachlan lies to his face.
Julian’s eyes widen with genuine fear.‘What?’
‘She thinks you left her behind,’ Lachlan tells him, still pulling slow and methodical to hopefully negate anybitesshould the kid draw his arms back to ease the pain of being dragged.‘Please.’
The seventeen-year-old looks truly afraid.He nods shakily and starts helping Lachlan to get them both out.‘What’s this wet stuff?’
Lachlan grits his teeth.‘My blood.’
It’s only thirty more seconds and then they’re out, emerging from the unlocked access point where Rook is waiting with a medical team for Jules, all of whom rush to help him and ignore Lachlan.
When they’re both clear, Lachlan drops to his knees, pulls off a shredded, bloody t-shirt that used to be black, and then removes the protective materials to assess the severity of the damage.Only Blaire comes to help him.Clara arrives, phone to her ear, relaying the situation in quiet tones, neither helping nor condemning.Lachlan hasno doubtwho’s on the other end of that call.
‘That was very stupid,’ Blaire tells him, quietly fierce.
‘No shit,’ he utters, feels faint, but tries to smile anyway.Blaire, at least, doesn’t seem afraid of blood.She wraps his chest in a bandage roll after she pulls out one of the teeth that apparently broke off in him.She holds one of his hands high above his head to stop the flow where his inner wrist caught a few bites.Lachlan’s forearms and knees have taken the worst of it, but aside from his face and neck, there’s almostnowhereon his body that didn’t get slightly chewed up.
On the plus side, the teeth are a fantasticprovendeterrent.
On the negative side…
‘Mr Penhalyx is flying back tomorrow,’ Clara informs him when the call ends.Behind her, he sees Julian’s navel has a little blood on it, a few of the teeth snagged him for real, but the kid isn’t focused on his own wounds, he’s just staring wide-eyed at Lachlan, who admittedly looks like something a great white spat out.
