Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
A look of disdain crossed Huisman’s face. “I don’t care about humanity. The world would be better without so much so-called humanity.”
“Oooo, cool. We’re going the Thanos route.” Even without use of her limbs, Kala’s whole being managed to convey sarcasm. “You going to snap those fingers and get rid of a percentage of the population?”
“Nothing so simple. I don’t merely want people to die. I want them to suffer. I want them to learn. When I’ve caused a sufficient amount of chaos to force society to fail, I’ll come in and offer a different way. My way.” Huisman stood. “Society is a bloated whale. You know what happens when a whale dies? They rot and explode and ruin everything around it. However, they also feed the smaller creatures. I’m going to make sure the whale explodes, and I’ll be the one to control what happens after. Starting with your family and Benjamin Parker. I’ve watched him. He’s obsessed with the woman he knows as Ms. Magenta. I’ve only seen him this way about one woman before. I killed her, too.”
Carys was starting to get the feeling back in her limbs just in time for a chill to cross her skin. “Won’t it be better to keep her alive? To torture her? It would kill her father knowing she’s alive and he can’t get to her.”
“Thanks, cousin,” Kala said. “It won’t work.”
“It won’t, because I have so many choices.” Huisman clapped his hands with apparent glee. “He has so many children. I’ll have fun going through them one by one. And a grandchild already. I’ll finish with his wife, and then I’ll leave him alive with only hate in his heart. As I’ve lived for years.”
There was a knock on the door, and Carys lifted her head to watch a big man in fatigues walk in.
“Ils sont éveillés,” he said.
“Emmenez-les dans la salle à manger,” Huisman replied. “Ladies, I will have to leave you here for now, though someone will come for Ms. Taggart in a moment. Carys, that is. I’ll keep Taggart’s pit bull where she is for now. I hope he wants you safe. You should hope he has some affection for your family.”
“Tristan loves me, but he doesn’t know anything,” Carys said.
“Tris knows everything,” Kala replied. “He’ll tell you what you want to know. He’ll do whatever you want as long as you don’t hurt Carys.”
“He’s not The Jester,” Carys insisted.
“Shut the fuck up, Car.” Kala had a single tear sliding from her eye. “You let Tris take whatever he has to. He said they’re awake. This is going down soon. Apparently in the dining room, unless this fucker is going to serve them a four-course meal before he kills us all.”
Huisman was behind her rather than following his guard out. She heard him moving around and then he was at Kala’s side, a needle in his hand. He pushed it into the injector cap. “I won’t kill you yet, but as long as you’re here you can let me know if this works.”
“What are you doing to her?” Carys felt panic well again. “What’s in that?”
He pulled the needle away, holding it up. “In this? Another experimental drug. This one should make her feel like her veins are on fire for…” He glanced down at his watch. “Well, I’m hoping for hours, but we’ll have to see. Watch the clock for me, Dr. Taggart. Though it pains me to call you a doctor when you’re nothing more than a glorified midwife. If you ask me, childbirth should be a test, and if a woman can’t fulfill her role, let her die. It’s one of the places we went wrong, putting all those resources into saving weak women.”
Kala’s eyes had closed. A paralytic would hold her in place but without a sedative…
Kala’s mouth came open, a scream shaking the room.
“Ah, there it is.” Huisman nodded as though satisfied. “Watch her for me. Don’t worry. Someone will come in and gag her. I wouldn’t leave you having to listen to a hysterical female. That would truly be torture.”
Kala was screaming as he walked through the door, and Carys tried not to give in to despair.
* * * *
“Where do you think we are?” Zach stood in the middle of the great room of what appeared to be a mansion of some kind. He whispered the words since they were surrounded by guards. “Whatever they gave us knocked me on my ass.”
Which meant they had no sense of time or even how they’d gotten where they were. At least they’d been released from the restraints he’d woken up in. Tristan had come to in the back of a van beside Zach. They’d both been led through a big garage and into this massive house. They’d passed through a living room with furniture still under dust covers and white drapes that let in enough light to let him know it was day. Likely morning.