Kane pulled up to the White Tower fifteen minutes early, and the guards searched his vehicle thoroughly before waving him into a parking spot. He got out of the SUV and entered the lobby, where a metal detector and an x-ray machine proved that he was unarmed. Kane shivered at the dog-men down on all fours with leashes around their necks. He hated to see the full-blown mutants being used in such a way. The Secret Service guards did not even glance at Kane when one of the dog beasts sniffed him as he got on the elevator. A Secret Service agent entered the elevator with him, tugging the leash of the dog-man as it whined at Kane. The ascent took a good while, and the man had to jerk on the leash two more times to get the mutant to be quiet.

“Wait here,” the agent said as he swiped his badge and hit the hold button. Kane stood awkwardly in the elevator as the man knocked on the door at the end of the hall, and another Secret Service agent opened it. They whispered for a few minutes and finally waved Kane over. As he approached the door, both men walked down the hall towards the elevator.

“Come in, Kane!” a voice boomed from inside.

Kane entered the pristine suite and was immediately impressed by the splendor. The president’s two Siberian tigers were (ironically) lying on a Siberian tiger rug by the fire, and he was surrounded by taxidermy specimens of all kinds. Somehow, they were arranged in a way that actually looked tasteful, and every square inch of the place was designed and balanced perfectly. Kane suppressed a shudder at the sheer number of animals, but he plastered a smile on his face and walked towards the massive tiger-man.

“I’m so glad you could come! We have much to discuss. Come in and make yourself at home.”

Kane’s alarm bells were going off for some reason, and he had to fight to keep his steps from faltering. What the hell is going on? he mused as he reached out and shook the president’s hand. But what flashed through his mind as he touched the man sent his head spinning, and he grimaced before he could stop himself.

“Everything all right, Kane?”

“Yes sir,” Kane responded briskly, “just still getting over my ordeal in the BQZ.”

“The Warden told me of the state you were in when he saw you. I’m glad you’re okay. He was amazed that you and your son were able to dispatch one of his elite units, though. Quite an amazing achievement, if I do say so myself.”

“Thank you, sir. It was a harrowing experience; we nearly died a few times,” Kane said, glancing up into the president’s iridescent tiger eyes for the first time. He took a step back at the barely disguised rage and animosity he saw there, but it disappeared before it could register completely. He wondered if he had just imagined it.

“And were you able to discover any of Dr. Angelino’s motives?”

“Yes sir. She was the mother of a group of kids that live in a parking garage in White Plains, and she has another group of kids at a beach compound in the Hamptons.”

The president’s eyes flashed, and Kane got a nagging sensation as the loose ends in his mind seemed to be weaving together.

“She was very talkative, I see. Anything else?”

“No sir.”

“Have a seat, Kane, we can talk more over dinner.” He pressed a button on the table, and the double doors into the kitchen opened. Four kitchen staff members came out bearing trays, and they began filling up the table with enough food for ten people. The tigers shuffled as the steaming dishes passed, and the president barked at them to go to their rooms. The latch on the door locked as they exited, and Kane’s attention snapped back to the president as he began speaking.

“My tigers are always hungry. They’re second generation, you know. I had their mother and father made into rugs when they passed. That will be all,” the president said as the servers finished setting the dishes on the table.

Three of the servers left the suite as the fourth went into the kitchen to fetch the chef. Then they too headed towards the elevator, the doors closing behind them.

“Mr. President? Is anyone else joining us, sir?” Kane asked as he surveyed the massive feast before them.

“No, Kane. Just you and me. And you can call me James for tonight. Now dig in, don’t let the food get cold.”

Kane nodded and began picking from the plates within his reach, then let slip a groan at the exquisite taste of the food.

“I’m glad to see you approve,” the president said with a grin as he fixed his own plate.

They ate in silence for a bit, and Kane began to relax as the delicious food calmed his nerves and pushed his worries away.

“Dr. Angelino was working on a true cure, you know?” the president said casually. “She told me she only needed a few more breakthroughs before we would have been able to truly cure the populace. We would have been able to control who received this amazing gift and keep people from going rampant.”

Kane’s mouth went dry. Even though what the man said made perfect sense, the way he said it made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

“We were going to change the world, you see. Her contacts at other labs around the world were astounded at her progress, and I was helping her get closer to that goal. If we could have gotten the Offloader in Pennsylvania, it would have been perfect. A few more Offloaders would have done it too … but you and your fucking son had to go and ruin it all. I knew we were in trouble when I saw my children’s base circled on your map, but I thought we could eliminate you. Yet you were too resilient, it seems, and too well protected.”

Kane’s blood ran cold as all the pieces suddenly snapped into place. The president was the father of the children at the parking garage! But how could that be? His wife was in seclusion somewhere, wasn’t she?

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

He did not have time to ponder this realization as the president stood up, his features beginning to ripple.

“What about your wife?” Kane asked in confusion.

“My wife’s maiden name was Angelino. She was the greatest scientific mind on this continent—AND YOU BLEW HER BRAINS OUT ALL OVER HER FUCKING OFFICE!”

So many animal features were rippling over the president’s body now that Kane could not keep up. The monster of a man grabbed the table, and with a flick of his wrist, sent it flying to the other side of the room. Kane backed away, but the president was there in a flash, picking Kane up by the throat with ease. Kane kicked feebly as he dangled there, knowing he was in serious trouble.

“Show me what you can do, little Offloader,” the president said as he shook Kane mightily.

Struggling desperately, Kane called on the strength of his inner elephant and began prying the fingers from around his throat. The president nodded, and his features rippled again as his fingers closed more tightly around Kane’s throat. Kane could not budge them now, so he switched tactics. Calling forth his turtle shell, he surrounded his throat with armored plates. But the president simply flexed his hands, and the shells began to crack.

“What else have you got?” he asked with a gleam in his eyes.

Kane did not respond, so the president slammed him into the glass behind him. He did not know which was louder: the four-inch-thick glass cracking, or half his ribs shattering. Gasping in pain, he called on his praying mantis. The scythe-like serrations on his forearms sprang into position, and he sliced the president’s wrist all the way to the bone, spraying blood all over the both of them as the massive man slammed him into the glass again. This time the glass shattered, and Kane watched the cuts heal instantly on the president’s wrists.

“That’s more like it!” he cried as he stepped forward and dangled Kane over the sprawling city far below.

The president pretended to drop Kane then, and his praying mantis wings exploded out of his back on pure instinct. The leathery tegmina he had never produced before hung limply behind him, wings beating feebly as he tried to fly backwards. But despite his valiant efforts, he was held fast, and it was no use.

“Is that all you have? How pathetic. I expected more from you after everything I had heard about you.” The president hauled him in close and whispered in his ear, “This is for my wife.” Grabbing Kane’s left wing, he brutally ripped it from his back. Blood misted into the crisp night air around them. “I guess this is goodbye.”

Kane gripped the president’s hands then, and in a last-ditch effort, he scrambled for the tiger in the man’s mind. There were dozens of animals in here with it, but when he spotted it, he jerked it from the president’s head and watched the tiger features disappear from his face as his eyes changed to a dull human brown. Before he could consider the implications of the drastic change, the man wrenched Kane’s right wing off, and he screamed in agony.

“Assassin!” the president roared as he flung Kane out into the darkness.

Kane tried to summon another set of wings as he plummeted towards the earth, but nothing happened. Shocked and nearly paralyzed by how fast the ground was approaching, he tried in vain to manifest the wings again. Feeling his tegmina flapping in the wind above him, he furled them out to try to use them instead. They caught the air and slowed his descent, but they did not function like wings. Stretching them out as far as he could, he managed to coast to a nearby roof. But he was still going much too fast, and he smashed into the roof full force, feeling his already broken ribs puncture his lungs in multiple places as he rolled over and coughed up a mass of blood. His legs were broken, and so was one of his arms, but his punctured lungs were more important. Reaching in desperation for the tiger he had ripped away from the president, he called on his new mutations. Black and white fur covered his body as the transformation took place, and he felt his bones knitting back together.

Kane rolled over and groaned. “Why did I not call on my gyrfalcon?” he chastised himself.

Slowly he got to his feet and pulled on the bird, and new feathered wings gradually sprouted and unfurled from his back. He stood out like a sore thumb with his white fur and feathers; he would not be able to escape the Secret Service for long. But he had no choice. He leapt up from the rooftop … and landed unceremoniously in a heap.

“Shit!” Kane swore as he got back to his feet. The gyrfalcon wings were different from his praying mantis wings. He practiced a few movements to familiarize himself with the altered flight muscles. Trying again, he succeeded this time and shot straight up as high as he could, disappearing into the clouds.

. . . . .

Kane landed in Mitchell’s back yard an hour later, having taken a roundabout way to lose any possible trackers. He knocked at the glass back door. After a few moments, Thomas came to the door, but he did not open it.

“It’s me, Thomas!” Kane said as he folded his wings behind him.

“Mitchell!” Thomas called as he continued staring at Kane.

Mitchell came into the kitchen, reaching into the hallway to snatch his broadsword from its rack there.

“He says he’s Kane, but I didn’t want to open the door until I had you beside me.”

Mitchell leaned down and kissed Thomas on the top of the head as he passed, then pushed him behind himself to open the door.

“You’ve shaved your armpits since middle school,” Kane quipped. “Now let me in before I’m out of time.”

Mitchell promptly let Kane in, and Kane hurriedly went to the front of the house and began closing the curtains.

“Whose blood is that Kane?” Thomas asked in his mousy voice.

“Mostly mine, but some of it is the president’s,” he admitted as he came to stand in front of Mitchell. “Do you trust me?”

“Kane, what is this—”

“Do you trust me?” Kane interrupted.

“Of course I do, but what—”

“I don’t have time to explain. It was a trap all along. The president is the father of the parking garage children, and Dr. Angelino was his wife.”

“WHAT…?” Mitchell began.

Kane cut him off again. “He tried to kill me during dinner; I barely escaped with my life. He is the most powerful person I have ever seen, and if my Offloading abilities get even half as good as his, I will be unstoppable. But I need to find the other Offloader in Pennsylvania in order for that to happen.”

“Pennsylvania? Kane, you need to slow down…”

“I can’t. Promise me you will take care of Harry, Mitchell.”

“Kane, we can work through this—”

“PROMISE ME!”

“… I promise, Kane.”

“Thank you. Now I need you to get me out of the city, tonight! See if Rebecca will bring me my gear after you two get Harry protected. Get Sorcha to move in with him until I can clear my name and get to the bottom of this. It’s going to get rough for anyone associated with me, so you need to cut ties with me. Don’t believe a word they tell you, but you’ll need to act like you do.”

“Kane, slow down. This is too much; you’re going extremely fast…”

“Enough, Mitchell. If you won’t help me out of the city, then at least clear the wall in an area so I can slip over. I doubt anyone will see me, as high as I’m going to be flying, but I need you to do it anyway. I’m going to lay low in Edison. Try to help my family through the fallout, but don’t tell them anything. You, Thomas, and Rebecca are the only ones that can know.”

Kane opened the back door then and nodded at two of his oldest friends. “Take care, you two. Love you guys.”

With that, he flung himself into the air and disappeared.

TO BE CONTINUED

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my editor, Robin, for giving my manuscript the missing flair that it needed. My cover designer, Christian, deserves his own shoutout for putting up with my many changes. I also had two beta readers that went above and beyond the rest, Sarah, and Russell. I think it might be illegal to not mention your wife in these, even if I dedicated the book to her, to epsilon and back Amanda. Kick ass and be kind my friends!