Silverbird, p.1
Silverbird, page 1
Silverbird
Book Two of the Storm Series
T. Hearts
Silverbird was first published in 2022.
Text copyright © T Hearts, 2022
Cover Illustration and Header illustrations by T Hearts.
Edited by T Hearts
Twitter: @StormbiteBook
Wikia: https://stormbite.fandom.com/wiki/Stormbite_Wiki
All rights reserved.
All characters within are works of fiction, as is the world it is set in, and all characters belong to T Hearts. All locations within the story are for setting purposes only.
ISBN 9781719947015
ISBN9781-7199-4701-5
Typeset in 10 pt. Garamond.
Cover font typeset in Libby
Stormbite Universe Books
The Storm Series
Stormbite (2018)
Silverbird (2022)
Skybourne
The Compass Projects Series
Sirocco (2020)
Gregale (2020)
Libeccio
Mistral
Far Horizons
Broken Arrow (2021)
Ten of Feathers
Glasswing
Chapters
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1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
0
Loch Mullardoch, Scotland.
Twelve Years Prior.
“Are you ready? This is the last one.”
“And the worst.”
“Be positive Mikele,” chuckled Rex softly, shining his torch up at the roof of the tunnel until he spotted the number twenty-two that marked the heavy metal square, glowing in a pale yellow. “After this, it’s down to the professionals to finish the whole plan off. No more sneaking around and you can wrestle with your conscience elsewhere.”
“Do you promise?”
“We’ll see.” Rex shrugged, unlocking the hatch above them. It was meant to be used for emergency exits and there were other tunnels that lead all across the facility, and as far as Rex was concerned, this was an emergency.
He sprayed oil onto the hinges so that it wouldn’t creak or whine as he pushed it open. Stealth was of the essence, with no room for error, not that Rex was ever wrong. Peering into the kitchen-living room area, he held his breath as he listened for any signs of a disturbance from their unauthorised entry. The room was quiet and still, open plan with a tall ceiling made of local pine, the stars visible through the huge skylights that covered the roof.
Slipping out onto the wooden floor, Rex helped Mikele up and let the hatch lay open. It would be invisible once it closed and would blend in with the wood around them, then the only way out would be through a window or a door unless they could get to the hatch release mechanism, wherever it was hidden.
A dim flash of light caught his attention from one side of the room. Rex froze, holding his breath and glancing towards the light. The TV played quietly with and displayed the idling animation of a video game character whilst the slumped figure on the sofa snored lightly, the controller still in his tattooed hand and a loaded handgun on the table beside him.
Swann.
Apprehension made Rex’s skin prickle. They had to be quick and silent. If Swann found him then Rex would have more than just his fingers broken. As well respected as both Rex and Mikele were, that meant nothing to Gaius’s most favourite Dobermann.
“Mikele,” Rex whispered to the younger man, “if I die here today, get Joy to move ahead with the plan and burn everything. Take the kids. Destroy the server room. Leave no evidence.”
Mikele nodded anxiously, praying under his breath for their safety as well as cursing Rex for the trouble he was putting them in. Padding through the house, Rex ignored the mutterings. It aggravated Rex, but this was entirely on form for Mikele. Mikele had always been a very gentle soul, and from the very beginning the young scientist had been reluctant in the plan. He was too soft, too green, too young, he didn’t understand.
‘Spineless coward.’ Rex mused to himself, peering into the next room where the two children slept. ‘He’s such a liability.’
The moonlight poured into the room through the skylights, illuminating the twins and turning their blue-grey wings metallic silver. Feathers covered their faces and bodies, rousing and falling as the Avios dreamt, coiled and curled up like kittens. Most of the Avio children were asleep in the small apartments of the main facility dormitories, but thanks to Gaius’s favouritism of Swann, it meant that he had given Swann permission to house his two girls in a small home of his own on the hillside. Even Mikele and Min Jin with the twins that had been given over to them to be the role model of did not receive the same treatment.
Rex hated the interference.
It was his project. His.
Professors Mira and Samodiva had given control of the Type-Seven studies over to him and his team, as the two senior directors flitted from new project to new project and pranced about pretending to be parents to the Synths that they had created themselves. They didn’t care about what they were doing. They didn’t care about the science. They were forever chasing something new and shiny, throwing money at problems, and leaving real scientists like himself to fix up the messes afterwards. Even Gaius Daniels didn’t even realise how much he was messing with the study for allowing privileges to be given to only some of the subjects and the others to be managed like animals. These girls already acted differently, more authoritative than the others. More controlled despite how feral they could be when given the freedom to fly. Maybe that was what Gaius wanted, Rex mused to himself. He was eyeing up his project to take it all for himself and discard of the ones who he had no interest in. To take it and move forward with it along with one of his other new ideas of how to profit from chaos.
“They are our property. We created them, patented their existence, we have the right to treat them as we see fit.” Gaius had said, brushing off all complaints that Rex and his team had brought forward. “You will do your job as you are instructed. If I decide that your project is to end then you will end it.”
Rex shuddered at the sudden burst of rage that set his heart thundering. He pulled his mask up to his face and brought out the canister of gaseous Nyx to keep the twins sedated, silently instructing Mikele to hang back and keep watch.
He had been loyal since day one, but this needed to be done. He had delayed allowing the Type-Sevens being put into production, but he knew his time was up. It needed to be done before Gaius decided what weapon that he was going to use against the world next. He had to work quicker.
Steadying himself, Rex removed the scalpel from his pocket and crouched down close to the twins. As he manoeuvred closer, his foot ever so gently creaked the floorboards. A current of electricity buzzed across his skin. A wing twitched and an aquamarine-green eye fluttered open, the milky nictitating membrane still spread across as the Avio slept. Keeping perfectly still, Rex held his breath and waited until her eyes had closed again, spraying across an extra dose of Nyx just to be on the safe side.
The elder twins was always the worst one to deal with when trying to sedate or give any form of medication. She metabolised it all just that bit faster than the others and could bite a lot harder. That was part of the reason they were going to use her and the others. He knew that they would go down fighting if they had to.
Mikele watched from the doorway. Anxiously, he dug his hands into his pockets, seeking comfort from the hard little metal capsule within, cursing Rex with every fluttering heartbeat.
“Done?” Mikele hissed, nervously watching the living room for signs of movement from Swann. Rex stood, smiling as he wiped the area clean and rolled up the packet that had contained the dermal skins used for healing wounds and scars.
“All done.”
“Good, now let’s get out of here.”
Checking that the coast was clear, the two conspirators retreated slowly back to the escape hatch. Rex’s heart was drumming, excited and terrified all at once. Riding on the high of success.
This was it.
This was the last step.
He was going to take it all away from them.
“Are you sure that it’s all going to be safe like that?” Mikele asked sceptically in a hushed voice as he leapt back down into the tunnel and retreated into the darkness.
“Trust me,” said Rex through the mask, following after him and beginning to carefully lower the hatch door. “There’s no way they’ll be able to find it, and so long as you are with me on this, we can solve everything.”
“Rex if this goes wrong-” Mikele gasped and stared straight past him, dark eyes wide in terror.
Rex felt the prickle of an electric current running across his skin and the hatch stop as it was held open. He wheeled around. One of the twins was nose to nose with him with her wings tensed, fangs bared, and pale green eyes fixed on him, cold and savage.
She cocked her head to one side, sharp and raptorial, terrifying the primal-simian part of his mind into alertness. The human-like face didn’t fool him. This critter could kill him.
“Rex?” She questioned, in a low sleepy snarl. “What are you doing?”
‘Run!’ His brain screamed as a panic flooded his veins, but the scientist in him wrestled it back into control.
No.
Think quickly.
If she told Swann, that would be it. ARCDA would continue onto the next stage in their plans. No. He wasn’t going to let her stop this. They had to go through with the plan, for her sake as much as for the sake of the world. How though? How? She was too curious. She would talk.
“Rex?”
Without even thinking, he grabbed the girl by her hair and dragged her into the tunnel, the hatch door shutting behind them. The slam echoed loudly down the tunnel and throughout the house above.
Before she could bite or call out, Rex held her by her throat to stop her from screaming, rummaging through his pocket for the canister of Nyx to sedate her. She struggled wildly, thrashing and doing her best to slice at him with her sharp little talons and beat him over the head with her wings. She was stronger than him. More vicious too.
“Shh, shh. It’s alright, just sleep. Everything will be fine.” Rex insisted, spraying the gas into her face as she struggled. He kept his eyes fixed on the hatch above, hearing the gentle thudding of Swann getting up to investigate the sound. She went slowly limp, but he didn’t trust it for a second. He knew how cunning this one was compared to her sister and so he dug his nails into her skin to see if she reacted. Even with the Nyx, she was already stirring. This wasn’t good.
His hands shook. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He had a plan. He couldn’t let her ruin it. Grabbing her by the hair, he slammed her head into a wall, letting her crumple unconsciously to the ground.
“Rex! What did you do?” Mikele hissed, breathing heavily as he backed away with the torch. “What did you do that for!”
“It was necessary.” Holding her tight after checking for any bleeding, he began to carry her down the tunnel, shoving past Mikele. “We need to get rid of her, now. Take her up to the lab. We can’t let her talk to anyone.”
“You’re not going to kill her are you?”
Rex didn’t answer.
It was all too much for Mikele. He jumped in front of Rex, blocking his path, trembling and terrified of his friend and what he was going to do.
“Rex this is insane, you can’t seriously think-”
“We don’t have a choice, Mikele! Mikele, please. You know we have to do this. You’ve seen what they’ve done, you know- what they did to us? To me, to you! They changed us Mikele.” Rex began to pace, a tremble in his voice as he spoke. “We have to think of the bigger picture and keep people safe. You know exactly what happens next once they’ve finished all of their testing.”
Mikele stared at him. He’d seen Rex on a rampage before, but never had be looked quite so intense.
It was his last chance to save his friend he realised. The last chance to stop him from doing something catastrophic.
“Rex. You need to stop.” Mikele said softly, hands raised and beginning to try to corner Rex. “I can’t do this. I can’t help you hurt them.”
“It’ll be alright. No one is going to find out a thing. Look. We can drop her off on the moors, and in the morning persuade her that it was a dream or that she crashed after a night flight. Then we can just carry her out along with the rest of the kids. It’ll be simple!” He smiled reassuringly, trying to pull the same trick Mikele had seen used many times to smooth out a problem, and shoved past him. “It’s for the good of everyone. Everything will be fine Mikele. Just trust me.”
“Rex, no.” Mikele called after him, “Rex! Rex!” and then, “Ruadri!”
Rex froze. Demeanour shifting, he calmed. He knew Rex hated his old name. His voice edged with anger as he looked over his shoulder at Mikele.
“Mikele, we don’t have time-”
“Stop it. Just stop. I don’t want to hear it. I just want you to stop.”
The softly spoken tone gone from his voice, it almost frightened Mikele to hear himself talk so angrily.
“This whole plan, everything you are doing, it won’t solve anything, it’ll only cause more problems for…for everyone. I know you’re scared about what could happen, what has happened, but isn’t it better to change it all from the source instead of tearing everything apart?”
Silence filled the tunnel.
With a weary sigh Rex turned around, head bowed. Mikele’s heart wrenched. Even in the low light, he could see the torment and conflict Rex was putting himself through.
“Come on my friend. It’s okay.” Mikele said, tone softening once again as he approached Rex, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay to be scared. We can find another way to fix this.”
“You’re right.”
Rex smiled sadly looking into Mikele’s rum-dark eyes, then with a sudden strike he punched him in the chest, or at least that was what Mikele felt first. Mikele staggered backwards, slamming his head against the rocky tunnel wall as Rex punched again three more times, dropping the torch.
Black spots danced before his eyes, and it was only the continued glinting of something on his chest that when his sight returned he realised what Rex had done.
“I am scared,” Rex said calmly, pulling his scalpel out of Mikele’s chest, grey eyes flashing eerily opal in the low light, “but I will keep people safe.”
Mikele stared at him, bewildered. Pain burned its way across his chest as he began to bleed out. Clumsily, he reached out for Rex, trying to grab at him but Rex only brushed his hand away, picking up the torch that Mikele had dropped.
“Rex, don’t leave me here!” Mikele begged, struggling to breathe, lungs and heart pierced by the scalpel. “Rex! Come back!”
Rex looked down at him one last time, grey eyes a dangerous and reflective silver in the light, then with a slow blink, he turned his back on Mikele and leaving him in the darkness. Scrambling to try and reach him, Mikele fell to his side, gripping the little metal capsule in his pocket for comfort, crying in pain.
“Ruadri!”
1
‘Ualapu’e, Moloka’i, Kingdom of Hawaii
They had been chasing him for the last twenty minutes. A pair of swift winged Avio hunters, stalking him through the steep misty mountains and winding roads with agile grace, but now he had the advantage.
The sun was dipping low in the sky and with the balmy day cooling off, it was getting misty. Their eyesight was keen, but the dimming light and unfamiliarity of the terrain was beginning to hinder them. Even so, he didn’t have many options when they had free movement of the entire sky and he was trapped on the ground.
Speeding to outpace them, he leant dangerously close to the road as he rounded another winding corner. The boy sat behind him clutched tightly at his jacket, his scream muffled from beneath his helmet. He double checked his GPS to see where he could lose them. Revving the engine, he pulled the motorbike off onto a slip road that ran beneath a small tunnel through a buttress of the mountains. It was enough to throw them off for a short while, forcing them to bolt immediately skyward to escape a head on collision with the rocks. The Avios veered sharply as they raced across the steep cliff-face, then back down over the steaming canopy of trees. They spiralled into a tight and twisting drop through a break in the jungle’s foliage, coasting low behind the biker as soon as he broke free of the tunnel.
The rider caught a glimpse of a slate-grey wings on his right closing in on him, and a rust-orange pair on his left, smaller than the other, but still able to keep up. Talons scraped across his helmet and the larger Avio powered on over him, their huge wings spread wide across the road.
A flash of headlights through the trees ahead warned of an oncoming car and the two Avios furled their wings and dipped skilfully into the surrounding jungle, out of sight as the bike passed by before sweeping back into view on the road behind him. They knew the game well. They weren’t allowed to be seen by humans; it would draw too much attention and then they would lose the game.
