The Wolves of London Book 2: The House of Striker

(Chapter song ‘Anarchy' by KMFDM)

ZEN

Quaid steps forward. “We apologize for disturbing you, but we really do need speak with Miranda. It’s of planetary importance.”

“I would let you, clown suit…” He starts.

“Clown suit?!” Quaid scowls and looks over his red long coat.

“But as I said. She’s napping. And it’s going to be a while.” He chews his cheek as he furrows his brow.

“How long?” Zander asks.

He looks to Ezra. “24 hours.” He looks back at us. “Give or take.”

Ezra’s wolf makes a sort of sick grin that makes my skin crawl.

Cora crosses her arms. “You killed her.”

“Bravo!” Oliver points his cigar hand to her. “That took a lot less time for the necromancer to find out than I thought it would. Yes. She’s dead.”

“I need to see the body.” Cora insists.

“What’s left of it.” He snorts.

“I don’t need much.” Cora tilts her head and looks at him sternly.

Oliver stands with his thumbs hooked on his pants. “You guys aren’t going to leave me alone… are you?”

“No.” Zander states. “In fact, I think things will get a whole lot worse for you from here on out. I don’t think Falcon is going to just let you have a lab. I know I’m not.”

“It’s under my house. Not much you can do to remove it.” Oliver shrugs. “Besides. My boys like it down there.” He smiles.

Zander steps up to him. “I would suggest you step aside, call off your dogs, and comply. Maybe, we can discuss keeping the lab under regulation. You let us have Miranda and anything else pertaining to my father and this won’t get messy.”

Oliver studies Zander’s stone face. He around at the rest of us. “If it gets you out of my hair faster… Follow me.” He grumbles. “Ez.” He snaps his fingers and she shifts to a small dark haired woman who looks angry.

As we follow them into the house, Ezra leans to Oliver. “We're letting them in?”

“Yes.” He says low as he struts to the house.

“But they’ll tell the story.” She sounds worried.

“Secret, babe. The word is secret.” He corrects.

“Sorry. Secret.” She glances back then up at him.

“It's fine. I can handle it. Don’t you worry your beautiful, deadly head about that. Link the others. Tell them to stand down.”

“Done.”

He kisses her hair, then shoots Zander a look.

As we get to the door, Krestin is escorted by three men. He looks beat up, but it’s nothing he can’t heal from. He looks more humiliated than anything else.

“Get off me.” He growls.

“The frog will act good.” One man scowls.

“I’m not a frog!” Krestin growls as Dorian and Demetri snicker.

“I will burn both your asses.” He scowls as he point to them.

“Felix, stand down.” Oliver barks over his shoulder.

Felix runs a hand through his dark hair and glances at Krestin.

“If the frog tries anything… then you can eat him.” Oliver instructs.

Felix leans to Krestin. “I like frog buts.”

“Dude. I’m not even touching that one.” Krestin stifles a snicker.

“Get out.” Felix growls and pushes inside the house.

Oliver struts in and tells Ezra to go upstairs and change. “You'll have to excuse my boys. Language is hard for them, but you’ll get the point when they’re swallowing you whole.”

We walk through the front lobby. The white marble floors and staircases in either side of the room are really wasn’t what I was expecting.

My eyes float up to a large marble statue of Ezra in a sheet looking up seductively with a hand on her neck and another on her exposed thigh. “You… uh… You really love your mate, there.” I state as I point up to the woman.

Oliver stops and looks back from a hall. “She inspires me.”

I nod. “I can see how murder can do that.” I cinch my brow and give Avery a look.

He ticks his head and shrugs.

“She’s a little hellish, but she makes up for it nightly.” He smirks and opens a door. “Down here.”

We follow him down some basement steps. It’s dim lighting is brightened when we meet cold steel on the floor and walls. It’s a small room with a desk and man in his 30s behind it. There’s a single door that looks like a bank vault.

“Leader.” The man stands and nods his head.

“Open it.” Oliver orders.

“But the intruders…” He points to us.

“There with me. Do as your told or no supper.” Oliver warns.

The man rubs his stomach like he’s thinking. “Be watchful.”

“I will. Stand down.” He says as he stands at the door.

The man pushes a button on the panel behind him and the large door cracks open. Air is rushed in and it slowly begins to swing open.

“I had a break in a few months ago. When Zayden escaped. Three foundation guys.” Oliver informs as we walk through the door.

“The men who were looking for Strikers army…” Avery starts. “They never made it out .”

“Strikers army? Excuse me?” Oliver turns around and crosses his arms.

“That’s not of your business.” I narrow my eyes.

“Sweetheart. I like a feisty woman, but only in small doses. Lose the attitude or I call this whole thing off.” He warns.

Avery pushes in front of me. “Talk to her like that again, and I’ll make you wish you didn’t open your damn mouth.”

Oliver steps up to Avery. “You look familiar. Do I know your dad?’

“No.” Avery grits.

“Oh. In that case, I’ll kill you slowly.” He smiles.

“Oliver. Back off. Avery.” Zander casually looks over his shoulder and Avery stands down. “What did the men want?”

“I can only assume they wanted Zayden. My father left him here to die. He’s the only one we found in here and the only one that broke out. When the earthquake happened in Axelridge, he went nuts. Pounded the shit out of his cell. Then some woman in white showed up and opened the door. I think it was Genesis, but it was hard to tell. I think she wanted Zayden to destroy the planet, but he had other plans.” We enter a room the size of a basement. There’s desks in here and several weapons cabinets. “Anyway, I didn’t want to take chances, so I converted my basement onto a safe. 10 inch thick steel walls, ceiling, and floors. 8 inch thick reinforced steel doors and rotating security codes. Plus my men. The three that got their asses chewed were the first, but I’m sure they won’t be the last.”

He walks to a door and pushes a code on the keypad. The door cracks open and slides to the right. Oliver walks through. “The good thing about my boys is they only need an hour and half sleep each day. So they patrol every hall and room down here. You won't get far.”

“They stay down here. Locked up.” Quaid asks.

“Yep.” Oliver confirms.

“That’s a little… cruel.” He replies.

Oliver spins around. “Trust me, Bozo. You don’t want these motherfuckers running loose all over town. They have no end to their hunger.”

Quaid pinches his brow as he crosses his brow.

“What are you feeding them?” Dorian asks.

Oliver walks into an even bigger room with even more desks. There’s 5 hallways on the back walls. “Beef, mostly, but occasionally one or two get a human that pisses me off and pushes buttons. Clean kills. I was investigated for it.” He walks to a hall and stops at a dark panel. “The weird part, they prefer people. So when others are denied the other white meat, they share.”

“What do you mean, share?” Demetri asks.

“I mean just that. They come down here, make some weird noise that sounds like a dying squirrel and the rest come running. The ones that ate the people, puke it up and the rest go to town.” Oliver almost looks proud.

“Gross!” I turn green at the thought.

“It’s life, baby.” Oliver grins.

“We really need the files on these.” Zayden says sternly.

“Not a chance. Not your monkeys, not your circus.” Oliver turns to the panel. He presses a finger to it and the panel lights up to a blue outlined map on black.

“Holy shit.” I walk up to the panel and start looking around.

“I’m thinking of calling it the bat cave.” He chuckles as he puts an unlit cigar in his mouth.

“You’re hardly batman.” Dorian snorts.

“I don’t know. Dark, smart, and have zero fucks to give. Sounds like Batman.” He shrugs.

“Minus the human decency.” Quaid raises a brow.

“Decency is overrated.”

“I like anarchy.” Demetri smirks.

“You would. But I like it. Let’s go with that.” Oliver points to him then turns back to the map.

“Why that?” Krestin asks.

“This place is the golden child for chaos. It seems to fit the liberty theme Striker had.” He eloquently floats his hand to the room.

“With the hellhounds? Makes sense.” Krestin ticks his head.

“Hellhounds tried and failed. Demons? Childs play. Calling them hellhounds is an insult. Especially coming from a frog.” Oliver mutters.

“Oh, excuse me… idiot.” Krestin grumbles.

Zander walks up to the map. “How big is this place?”

“This map isn’t complete.” Oliver turns and points to the main floor. “This says six floors, but we’ve found 8 floors in sections 2 and 4 and 10 in sections 1, 3, and 6. The Torrent experiments created avenues to branch to all kinds of weird shit. Teleportation. Invisibility. Multiplication…”

“Multiplication?” I interrupt.

“Yeah. That was their favorite. They tried to apply it to their hybrids. It didn’t end well.” Oliver glances around the group.

“What happened?” Zander asks.

“The monster divided into four, ate five scientists, then exploded.” He said that like it was another Monday.

“All of them?” Krestin asks with shock.

“Yep.” He says in that tough voice. “The morgue is this way.”

He leads us down corridor three and I’m amazed at all the tech. Everything is stuff I don’t recognize. “What happened in here, exactly?”

“Up here? Nothing. Tests for viability and holding cells. Some operations were done up here. Removing extra limbs. Stuffing internal organs back inside. The usual stuff.” He says as he casually walks.

“You seem a little indifferent.” Quaid observes.

“No sense in crying over exploding test subjects.” He responds.

“Oliver.” Zander grits.

“Not my circus remember. I’m just the steward.” He grins over his shoulder.

“Still. Your family was responsible….’ I start.

“No. My father was responsible. I went as far as Red Rock. I didn’t even know this place existed until I found Ezra. Can’t blame me.” He shrugs.

“Red Rock. You were in Red Rock?” Zander questions.

“I interned. Yeah. Blake is a good teacher if you’re looking to be all up in the mad science stuff.” He says as he turns left down another hall. “But I quit, then joined the unit. My brothers followed. We had better insight to what’s out there from up there.” He smiles.

Zander glances at him. “You spied.”

Oliver stops at a door and smirks. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He chuckles then opens the door.