“Do what you have to do?” Jack cringed. “You’re killing people!”
“Don’t you get it? We’ll die without the perilium.”
“Then die! What gives you the right to take someone else’s life like this?”
“That’s why I’ve been studying it,” Henderson said, raising his voice. “If I can synthesize it or find a way to replicate it, we can make it ourselves and I can end this nightmare!”
“And in the meantime… what?” Jack said.
“In the meantime we have to maintain the status quo.”
Jack eyed him with disgust. “Status quo? Meaning you keep herding innocent people to the slaughter?” He nodded again to the terraria. “To be fed to those things in the cave?”
“No.” Henderson shook his head. His eyes seemed to glaze over. “To be fed to her.”
“Her?”
“Sh’ar Kouhm. They feed them to the queen. The others—the males—just get the leftovers.”
Jack sat dumbfounded, staring at the second terrarium and recalling the larger specimen and how it fed. His heart raced at the thought of one of the queens lurking in the caves. Something even more terrifying than the males he had encountered. He remembered the massive shape he had glimpsed in the cave as he and Ben were making their escape. Could that have been the queen? Jack shuddered. “And she drinks their blood?”
“Drinks their souls, yes.”
“And since she feeds on fear,” Jack went on, “these victims are alive and kicking. They’re filled with terror when they get thrown to the Soul Eater?”
“I don’t know how the ritual is performed.”
Ritual? Jack squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath. “Look… Dwight. This… this has to stop. You can’t let this continue. These are people you’re killing. Human beings!”
Henderson stood. “I haven’t killed anyone. I’m trying to end this.”
“But you’re helping them do it.”
“And I’m telling you, your only chance of staying alive is if Vale thinks you still have some value to him. So you decide. Help me find a solution and live. Or stand there moralizing and get thrown into the pit.”
Jack took a long breath. “Is everyone in Beckon trapped here like you? They’re all involved in this?”
“Everybody in this town was lured here by Thomas Vale at some point; they were chosen for a reason. They each had something Vale wanted to exploit. Money, expertise… Malcolm Browne was a businessman worth millions. Sam Huxley was a lawyer. Frank Carson is ex-military and Vale wanted him for security purposes. And the others… we were all facing death in some way and gave up everything for the promise of a miracle. A second chance at life.”
“A second chance?” Jack frowned at him. “So wait a minute. If this stuff can eliminate disease, then how…?” Jack was trying to piece together the information Henderson was giving him, but he couldn’t think of how to frame his next question. It sounded too crazy. “Exactly how long have you been here?”
Henderson just looked at him for a moment. “You’re starting to understand the true secret of perilium.”
“So you’re saying this stuff… enhances longevity?”
“Significantly.”
Jack blinked away his shock. “Seriously… how old are you?”
“Let’s just say I’m older than I look.”
Jack’s mouth hung open. This guy looked like he was in his twenties. Thick, chestnut-brown hair without a hint of gray. And perfect complexion. Not a trace of age lines by his mouth or crow’s-feet around his eyes. No moles or liver spots. But how old was he in reality? Forty? Fifty? Jack pressed him for an answer, but Henderson refused to provide further details. Finally Jack shook his head in frustration. “But you’re telling me that if you leave here or stop taking the perilium, you’ll die.”
Henderson nodded and his lips grew tight. “I’ve seen it before. There have been others. The day you fail him or the day he decides you’re no longer useful to him, he cuts you off.”
Jack fell silent for a moment, taking this all in. Then he snorted. “So basically your whole job here is to find new victims for the N’watu to sacrifice.”
“Because if we don’t, the flow of perilium stops. And we all die.”
Jack stared at the first terrarium. The kiracs had picked clean both the carcasses of the rat and the guinea pig. All that was left were bloodstains and bones scattered around the cage.
“What happened to you?” Jack asked. “You’re a doctor. You used to value human life, didn’t you? You should know better.”
Henderson issued a long sigh. “You need to see things with a little more objectivity.”
“Objectivity?” Jack said. “You kidnap innocent human beings and bring them here to die.”
At that point the door opened and Vale entered, shaking his head as if he’d been listening in on their conversation the whole time. “You know, Jack, I was really hoping you would work out here. That you’d be able to see the bigger picture.”
“I’ve seen enough,” Jack said, his teeth clenched. “I’d tell you how wrong all this is. How evil. But I’m guessing you’re beyond even grasping those concepts.”
Vale chuckled. “It’s funny how quick people are to judge evil, while so blind to seeing it in themselves.”
“Don’t you drag me down to your level.”
“Oh, I think you would be capable of greater things if properly motivated. We’re all willing to sacrifice others for our own purposes.”
“Not like this,” Jack said. “Not like you.”
“No? Tell me, Jack Kendrick, what moved you to come here in the first place? What drove you to search those caves? Something did. Some ambition. What was it, Jack?”
Jack’s jaw clenched. Did he dare bring up his father? Would these people know what had happened? Or had his father just been one of a multitude of victims? Despite how painful the truth might be, Jack needed to know.
“I came here to find out what happened to my father.”
Vale narrowed his eyes and the corner of his mouth curled up slightly. “Your father?”
“His name was David Kendrick, and he disappeared somewhere out here twelve years ago.” Jack found his voice quaking slightly. “He was an anthropologist doing some research. I’m guessing you probably remember him. You know what happened to him.”
Vale merely shrugged. “But unfortunately I don’t.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” Vale said. “It’s sad, really. You coming all this way, looking for answers and not finding them. And it sounds to me like your friends paid the ultimate price for it.”
Jack opened his mouth but could find no answer. His anger drained away as he pictured Rudy’s terrified convulsions and death. And he could still hear Ben screaming as he was pulled back down the tunnel by the same creatures.
“So was it worth it, Jack? Was it worth their lives?”
Jack stared at the floor. “I… I didn’t kill them.”
“No? It was your obsession… your desire to find answers that killed them.”
Vale gestured to Frank Carson, who entered the room with a dark grin. Fear and anger gripped Jack as he snapped out of his guilt and looked for some way of escape. But there was only the one door, and his hands were still bound behind his back. Still, he made a dash for the doorway, trying to plow through Carson. But Carson grabbed him and wrestled him to the floor, knocking a table over in the process and scattering papers everywhere.
He yanked Jack to his feet and slapped the back of his knuckles across Jack’s face. Jack swooned momentarily and his legs buckled as he struggled to stay standing. He blinked the stars from his eyes and looked up at Vale.