Horsemen's War (The Rebellion Chronicles #3) - Steve McHugh Page 0,103
to the safe house, which was in an otherwise innocuous building on the other side of Freedom Plaza.
Roberto opened the door and motioned for everyone to go into the foyer beyond, where twenty heavily armed individuals stood next to a set of elevator doors.
“Tego, you stay here,” Layla said. “Just in case.”
Tego curled up on the floor next to the elevator, and Layla stroked her head before getting in and heading up to the top floor. The doors opened, revealing another dozen heavily armed personnel.
“They’re at least taking Gawain seriously,” Chloe said as Roberto led them down a corridor and used a key card to get inside a room with cameras and a one-way mirror, which looked into a much smaller room that contained a chair, table, and mattress. Runes adorned every surface inside the cell.
There were three people inside the room with Layla, Chloe, and Roberto: President Lopez, a Secret Service agent, and a general who Layla was pretty sure was called Blake. Gawain was sitting down on the mattress, staring at the one-way mirror. Occasionally, he waved.
“He’s not bleeding a lot,” Layla said. “That’s unexpected.”
“He’s not doing anything,” President Lopez said. “He occasionally swears at us.”
“You want to try?” General Blake asked Layla and Chloe.
“No,” Chloe said. “I’m really not the person you want in there with him.”
Layla sighed. “I can try—not sure it’ll do any good. I’m thinking Mordred or Nate would be better suited to getting him to talk.”
The Secret Service agent opened the door, and Layla stepped into the cell.
“Layla, isn’t it?” Gawain asked.
Layla nodded.
“You going to take this off me?” Gawain asked, showing the sorcerer’s band.
“No,” Layla said.
“No, I suppose that’s too much to hope for,” Gawain said.
“The runes all over the city—what are they for?” Layla asked.
“Graffiti is a terrible crime,” Gawain said smugly. “But some people just need an artistic outlet. They’re art.”
“They’re elven,” Layla said.
“Elven art,” Gawain told her with a smile.
“Where is Lamashtu?” Layla asked, trying to think of anything to say that might get Gawain to cooperate.
Gawain shrugged. “Mars?”
“Bye, Gawain,” Layla said. “They’re going to throw you in a deep dark hole, and you’re going to die horribly.”
“Ladies first,” Gawain said, staring through Layla with a gaze that made her shiver.
The door burst open, and General Blake walked in. “You vile little shit,” he shouted, waggling a finger at Gawain. “You think you can sit there and smile. You attacked our country; you murdered our president. You’re going to be tried as a war criminal for this, you’re going to be executed, and if I have my way, it’ll be a slow, long death.”
Gawain looked over at Blake, who was three feet away and flushed with rage. “I guess he’s a lady,” Gawain said, and he sprang up from his bed toward Blake and tore out his throat with his teeth. Layla dived into Gawain and dragged him away as Roberto and Chloe entered the room; the latter smashed the butt of a fire extinguisher into Gawain’s face.
Layla pushed the semiconscious sorcerer to the floor, and he started to laugh, his broken nose making the sound even more unnerving.
Paramedics dragged the general out, but he’d stopped breathing, and as everyone else cleared out of the room, Layla heard one of them say that he’d died.
“Where’s President Lopez?” Layla asked.
“She’s been taken out of the building,” Roberto said. “Back stairs, to an underground system of tunnels. She’s safe.”
Layla glanced back at Gawain, who was sitting upright again.
Roberto’s radio went off, and he left the room, leaving Chloe and Layla alone.
“You think we should just kill him?” Chloe said. “It would be doing the world a favor.”
Layla stared at her friend for a second. “You okay, Chloe?”
Chloe shook her head. “I can’t stop wanting to wash my hands. I’ve scrubbed them a dozen times, and I still keep thinking Piper’s blood is on them. I keep smelling it.”
“You want to go back to Shadow Falls?” Layla asked. “I can hold the fort here, try and figure out if Lamashtu is actually turning up and, if not, try and figure out where she’s gone.”
Chloe shook her head. “No, I want to stay here.”
Layla took her friend’s hand in hers. “I’m glad,” she said.
Roberto reentered the room. “We’ve got a situation,” he said. “There’s a really angry dwarf lady over at the square yelling at people.”
“How angry?” Layla asked.
“She threatened to tear the head off a soldier and stuff it up the ass of another one,” Roberto said.