Tuesday Teaser 4/8/2025

4/8/2025

Declan noticed right away Kruger’s heartrate notched up at the mention of the Qiguan and he didn’t ask for an explanation of what the Qiguan was. The sound of a saw cut short their conversation. Declan leaned one arm on the glass and watched Jonas and Lucas.

While Jonas steadied the body, Lucas sawed through the top of the skull. Once he was finished Declan expected Lucas to extract the organ and he braced for the round of smartass remarks he knew would follow.

Instead, Jonas snatched the saw from Lucas and threw it behind him. When he shoved against Lucas’s shoulder in an obvious attempt to move him away from the body, Lucas latched onto Jonas’s arm and jerked him back, pulling him farther from the body.

“Shit,” Declan hissed. He had only taken a few steps toward the door when an alarm sounded, lights flashed, and a series of locks snapped into place.

The yellowish glop that had oozed from Sauer’s body was bubbling from his skull. There was no brain left, it was a yellow, gelatinous moving pile of—Declan wasn’t sure what. It flowed from the body and dropped to the floor looking almost as if it had legs. The yellow goo rolled over itself in a sort of tidal wave and crossed the floor.

“That crap is following them!” Utter panic surged through Declan. The two people he loved most in this world were trapped in that room. He backed up and got as much of a running start as he could.

“No!” Lucas and Kruger shouted at the same time.

Declan barely had time to glimpse Lucas with both hands held out in front of him, while Jonas dragged him back farther. He leapt at the glass wall but never made contact. Kruger barreled into him, knocking him away from the wall and to the floor.

“Get out of there!” Blair shrieked in Declan’s earbud.

Kruger hit a button near the door and shouted into the intercom. “You have ten seconds! The sample locker!”

“Why the hell did you stop me?” Declan shouted.

Kruger pointed to the room. “If you’d broken through the glass this entire section would be incinerated and possibly flooded.”

Lucas nodded and morphed enough into his werewolf form that his hazmat suit strained but didn’t tear.

“Lucas, we’ve got to—”

“Forge! Shut it and move,” Lucas bellowed, picked Jonas up and flung him at the steel doors along the back of the autopsy lab.

Jonas bounced off the door and hit the floor. Lucas ran to him and yanked him to his feet. He jerked open the closest locker, grabbed everything in it with his other hand and threw it to the floor then pushed Jonas inside. He dove in after Jonas and slammed the door shut behind them.

Declan watched in horror as the entire room was set ablaze when flames shot out of the ceiling. Declan jumped back and Kruger pushed him even farther back.

“They’re…they….” Declan pointed to the room.

“Will be fine in the sample lockers. You have no reason to, but trust me,” Kruger said.

The flames were white and blue, telling Declan how incredibly hot they were. A few short minutes later the flames subsided and a whoosh told Declan the room was being cleared of air. There was nothing left of the body or the yellow glop but ashes that were then doused in what looked like a frozen slushy.

“Now.” Kruger ran at the door. Declan heard the locks release and they charged through.

Slipping and sliding Declan ran at top speed to the lockers. “Lucas!” He took hold of the handle. “Jonas.” He broke the handle off, and the door swung open.

Lucas and Jonas were crammed into a space barely large enough for one of them, let alone both of them. They were wrapped around one another, and Jonas’s face mask was shattered.

“I hate this fucking place,” Jonas growled and guided Lucas out of the locker. He was a step behind when Declan grabbed them both in a hug.
Lucas pressed closer and whispered, “We’re okay thanks to Kruger’s fast thinking.”

Declan let go and turned to Kruger. All he could do was nod and swallow down the enormous lump in his throat.

Jonas took off his ruined hazmat hood and threw it to the ground. “No one come down here just yet. We’re fine. Kai, Ori, burn every single body.”

“Forge, I need—” Lucas began but stopped when Declan shook his head and gripped Lucas’s arm.

“We’ll simply have to find another way, Lucas. None of those bodies are safe and they need to be destroyed. Now.” Jonas stalked toward the door. “You still have the biochips and the data from the drives and the equations we’ll have soon.”

Declan looked at Kruger, expecting him to back Lucas up but instead he said, “Your friend is right. It’s time to begin destroying what we can.”