Page 29 of Rattle the Cage

If Nash and Blade had held up their end, the information they may have could protect me from these psychos after I left the park.

My two captors exchanged a look before Nash let out a sigh. “We’ve got nothing.”

17

TESS

Scoffing, my jaw dropped. “Nothing? Very funny.”

I hated when they lied to me, even as a joke.

“We’re not kidding, Trinket.” Blade licked her lips, the venom piercings grazing her skin.

“Explain.” I snapped as I kept walking. Moving through Feverpoint’s waterpark, I noticed another stuffed animal nailed to the height-measuring post on the water-plunge ride.

Nash shrugged, closing the distance between us to keep up with me. “Satellite surveillance has been inconclusive. The compound is heavily forested. From what we have seen, there isn’t much heavy machinery moving in or out. Not even big box trucks delivering anything.”

“No leads on where the DMT could have come from.” I shook my head as I looked deeper into the park. After what happened to Jane, it made my chest hurt to not have any ideas.

Blade ran ahead a bit as her mind raced. “But we know that it would take an intense lab to make.”

Without missing a beat, I added, “So either they have access to a lab or they’re having the refined DMT imported from other sources.”

From the corner of my vision, I saw Nash lift her brows, a little surprised that I knew this already.

Of course I’d spent some time looking into this on my own. I wanted to believe the Freaks could handle it, but I wasn’t willing to let go of all control. If I had a target on my back, I needed to know what I was up against.

Blade nodded. “Right. Obviously, it is possible the lab is on site at the compound.”

“But it would be expensive.” Nash bit her lip, the gold rings of her snake bit piercings shifting under her teeth.

“And we know Rubin doesn’t have that much liquid.” Rubbing my forehead, I tried to piece it all together. His tithing wasn’t big enough to handle the creation of a professional grade chemistry lab. Unless he had income coming from somewhere else.

Laughing, Blade jumped up and down a little. “It would be fucking crazy to have a lab like that on the property with his sheeple running around the compound.”

I shrugged. “It would explain why everyone in town is a fucking zombie.”

Finding information about the effects of DMT was difficult. After decades of conspiracies about government research like MKUltra, the drug had been highly under-researched and buried.

But what I had learned was that DMT could cause serotonin syndrome. When the body has excess serotonin, it could lead to a wide range of side effects. Anxiety. Depression. Agitation. Hallucinations.

If Rubin’s followers were getting high off of his supply and then leaving his compound, it would explain why everyone in Valemont had grown aggressive or completely delusional.

Nash interrupted my thoughts as she ran her hand along the faux-waves that lined our path covered in lichen. “That’s all we’ve got.”

“Not everything.” Blade muttered as she shook her head. “Cyrus has ideas.”

Nudging her, Nash groaned. “It’s nothing.”

But I stopped walking, sucking my teeth. “Bullshit. Tell me.”

“I don’t think we should…”

“No more secrets. What’s her theory?”

Letting out a sigh, Nash clenched her hands to fists as she came clean. “Cyrus thinks it may be Atwood.”

“The college?” I lifted my brow.