Page 108 of Ravaged Devotion

Rue grimaced at an unconscious bear on a metal table. There was a drill positioned between its eyes, and he was grateful it was an image and not a video. “This is sick.”

“Out of the eight bears, only three were altered,” Uriel said.

“Only.” That didn’t make it better. At all.

“Those three were tagged with devices that seemingly helped control their migration,” Ellery picked up the conversation, moving to perch on the end of the desk so he could face them all. “Sort of like a remote control. We can’t find where it is though, it’s just referenced in some of the notes. For the other animals, the fog is also scented with pheromones we can’t smell. But they can.”

“It’s mating season for bears,” Ryker divulged.

“Coincidental?” Ell chuckled, letting them know he was joking.

“Anything else?”

“Notes on where the fog machines are placed on the outskirts of the property,” Uriel said. “And a program that should allow me to control them from here.”

“You don’t think that’s a ton?” Bowie questioned, referencing his earlier statement with a shake of his head.

“There’s nothing like this,” Ellery held up the game manual he’d kept and then tossed it onto the desk. “Nothing with anyone’s name on it that could implicate them.”

“Whatever device used to block service is missing as well,” Uriel added. “Either it’s down here somewhere and we’ve just yet to find it, or it’s hidden somewhere else. Without it, we won’t be able to get our multi-slates working, or call for help.”

Ellery grunted and clapped his cousin on the shoulder. “We don’t need help. We’ve got this. Right, RykRue?”

They both scowled at him.

“What did you just call us?” Ryker asked.

“It’s your ship name,” Ell said. “Duh.”

“No,” Rue stated, the same exact moment that Ryker did, causing their voices to overlap.

Which of course, Ellery got a kick out of.

He was still laughing when Bowie took it upon himself to step up to the weird machine in the corner, point to it, and ask bluntly, “What does this do?”

“That powers the creatures,” Ell said, only for Uriel to shake his head.

“Potentially,” his cousin corrected.

“That potentially,” Ellery restated snidely, “powers the creatures.”

“You’re saying we could turn them all off with this thing somehow?” Bowie inspected it more closely.

“By all means,” Ell waved at it, “if you can figure it out, go for it. There’s no instruction manual in this place either.”

“We’re worried hitting the wrong buttons could have dire consequences,” Uriel surmised.

“Like what?” Ryker crossed his arms with a frown.

He tapped the screen and then opened a text file, scrolling through it too fast for any of them to actually read. “This says there are explosives built inside some of them. With a function like that, it seems wiser not to mess around with the controls.”

“Are they controlling them fully?” Rue didn’t think so.

“No,” Uriel confirmed. “The three that were modified have been given some sort of concoction to prevent their bodies from rejecting the mechanical parts. It’s keeping them alive, so to speak, but it also altered their brain chemistry, making them extremely aggressive and all but ridding them of their fear receptors.”

“That main seems to be more of a main power source, and a beacon of sorts. It’s hooked up to the system,” Ellery patted the computer, “but we can’t find the actual program used to do anything. Meaning we can’t turn them on or off, and we can’t be sure pressing random buttons on the actual machine won’t lead to detonating them.”

“Detonating?” Rue did not like the sound of that.