C N Crawford - 02 Agent of Chaos by C N Crawford & Alex Rivers

Author:C N Crawford & Alex Rivers [Crawford, C N & Rivers, Alex]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781547138333
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: CreateSpace Publishing
Published: 2017-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

After four of us had hauled the boar up an escalator, using a stretcher that groaned under its weight, we loaded the creature into the back of Gabriel’s car. Gabriel had explained to them that I needed to get the boar back to the zoo, and as long as we were taking the thing off Wright’s hands, he didn’t seem to care.

While Gabriel hurried off to speak with a paramedic, I plopped down in the passenger’s seat, the window down. Alone with the unconscious boar, I clutched my ankle, my blood streaming over Gabriel’s floor. All around, red and blue lights flickered over the stone walls. I tried to imagine how this boar sacrifice would work in the center of London’s financial district, surrounded by bankers and rush hour traffic.

Gabriel hurried back to me, thrusting a roll of gauze into my hands. “Let’s go.”

As Gabriel slid into the driver’s seat, I haphazardly bandaged my ankle, staunching the blood flow. Slowly, Gabriel rolled into traffic, heading back to the Temple of Mithras.

By the time we got to Gresham Street, by Guildhall and the fae bar, the traffic started to ease up. The smell of blood overpowered the car, both from my bandaged ankle and the bleeding boar, its ivory hide stained maroon. That, coupled with the earthy smell of unwashed boar, made me want to gag. I swallowed my revulsion. The idea of adding vomit to this ungodly stench horrified me.

Gabriel turned to me. “How are you doing?”

“Okay.” I pulled out a syringe and unbuckled my seatbelt, turning back to the boar. “I’m just gonna make sure this thing doesn’t wake up.”

I held the syringe just over the sleeping boar’s body. If it moved, I’d have to plunge the syringe into its back, filling it with more sedatives, hoping it wouldn’t gore me to death. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if it overdosed. The idea of giving the boar mouth to mouth made me want to hurl.

After a few moments of staring down at the dirty animal, I noticed a small metallic chain encircling its neck.

“There’s something on this boar,” I said. “A necklace.”

“Can you get a closer look?”

I tried to unclasp it, but the blood covering my fingers made the slippery.

“No. I’ll try again later after I can wipe off my hands. I’m guessing our culprit put the chain there.” I glanced at the window, recognizing the intersection near Bank Station. Somehow, everything kept leading back to this neighborhood. Gabriel turned onto a large street, pulling up his car in the bike lane. To our right stood a raised stone platform. On the platform, a low railing surrounded a rectangle of rocks, about one foot high. Modern buildings loomed behind the temple ruins, their glass surfaces gleaming in the city’s lights.

I frowned at the stumpy rock foundation. “This is it?”

He unhooked his seatbelt and turned on his blinkers. “This is it.”

I checked the time. Six twenty-five. We had twenty minutes. Plenty of time to kill an unconscious boar, I thought.

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