Toys

beasts.”

“I must agree with that.” I spoke to Chantal, but also to the crowd. “I know that devil very well. He’s extremely efficient. If he’s here, the final plan is already in motion.”

“We shall see,” said Chantal, who, surprisingly, didn’t seem as alarmed as I was.

Other guests approached me, introducing themselves and thanking me for being here. More than one told me that they’d known my parents and loved them both dearly, and offered sympathy for their senseless deaths.

Chantal was at my side again. “You must eat, Hays. Please. Something tells me we will need much strength soon. We all will.”

I shook my head. “I wish I knew more about the Elite plan. I want to help you in any way I can.”

She patted my arm. “We have ways to make you talk.” She laughed. “What I mean is, there may be things you know that you aren’t conscious of. We have tests. But first-eat!”

She snapped her fingers to summon a passing waiter and took a canape of crusted bread spread with thick paste. “Pate de foie gras, with truffles. Heaven on this earth. You must have one, Hays.”

The smell of the food had been filling my nostrils since we first came in; a blend of savory aromas had my stomach on alert.

But there was a small problem. I was used to eating like an Elite, and even thinking about food like this went against my upbringing and training.

“Do you have anything… without calories?” I said.

The people standing nearby stared as if I were a crazy person. Chantal merely laughed.

“In France, you dare to suggest such a thing as fine cuisine without calories? That is an Elitist nightmare we can hardly imagine! Just try this. Open your mouth! I command it!”

She held the pate to my lips, and I reminded myself that I was, after all, in France. So I opened my mouth- and she popped in the canape.

What a glory! It practically melted on my tongue with a rich, subtle complexity that positively thrilled my taste buds. I turned to the waiter, ready to devour his entire tray. “Yes, please, I’ll have another.”

Then my hearing caught a faint sound that no one else in the room could catch-a jet, heading toward us at what seemed a low altitude.

Lucy! The idea delighted me more than I would have thought possible.

Chapter 75

But then my ears told me that there wasn’t just one jet-there were several of them! Had the war begun already? Here in the French countryside?

I ran to a window just in time to see a wing formation come streaking in, dropping string after string of Elite paratroopers-so many that they completely blotted out the moonlit sky. This was not good; I knew what tough and skillful fighters these were…

Hell, I had been one.

An explosion rocked the chateau with a tremor that I felt shoot up through my feet and jar my teeth. More bombs came right behind it, shattering windows, raining glass on the guests. Then bursts of gunfire erupted as the French guards met the Elite attack outside on the grounds.

I hurried back to Chantal, who was issuing orders into a handheld phone.

Before I got to her though, the two sets of doors to the dining room flew open.

Elite commandos came charging in, firing assault weapons into the cluster of human leaders. It was a massacre of immense proportions.

Horrifying. Unthinkable. Cruel and unnecessary. None of these people were even armed.

Behind the waves of commandos walked a man and a woman, side by side, smiling as if they had just been announced at a fancy ball.

Jax Moore and Lizbeth!

“Great job, Hays,” Moore called to me. “You led us right to the chateau-and handed us the kingpin. Or should I say, the queenpin?”

Chantal straightened her back and strode toward me. With a look of hatred like I’d never seen before, she slapped my face, raking her nails across my cheek. “Traitor! Pig! Bastard!” she screamed at the top of her voice.

Still smiling, Lizbeth calmly raised a pistol and shot her through the left breast. Chantal spun away, clutching at her heart, and fell like a beautiful bird torn from the sky.

Book Four TOYS, TOYS, TOYS FOR ALL GOOD LITTLE GIRLS AND BOYS Chapter 76

Hays Baker is no Elite! He’s human… human… human…

I came awake thrashing, and very confused, as those ridiculous and awful words repeated over and over in my mind.

It took me a couple of seconds to realize that I was actually in my own bed. In my own apartment in New Lake City.

I’m safe. I’m home, aren’t I? What in hell happened to me? I can’t remember anything.

Lizbeth must have heard me-she hurried in to sit beside me, smiling indulgently, and gave me a warm kiss on the lips. The kiss was just what the doctor ordered. The head doctor? I wondered.

“Darling, I’m so glad you’re with us again!” she said. “How do you feel? The doctor said you would be more yourself today.”

“OK, I guess. Except my brain feels like it’s wrapped in a soaking wet towel. That can’t be good, can it? What happened to me, Jinx?”

“You were badly hurt, Hays. Don’t you remember crashing off the roof of that parking garage? You could have died along with the skunk on the motorcycle. They had you healing in a regeneration chamber until last night.”

“That fall with the motorcycle skunk? That’s what I’m recuperating from? How long was I unconscious? I don’t remember much of anything. Sweetheart, I’m really confused. Terribly so.”

“You were in a coma… for about a week. Since then you’ve been in and out of consciousness.” She stroked my sweat-dampened forehead, but then withdrew her hand, wrinkling her nose slightly. “You do need a shower though. Sorry, Hays.”

The queen of neat and clean-that was my Lizbeth. But in a strange way, I had missed that. At least it meant she cared.

“Now tell me everything. What do you remember?” she asked. “I’ve been on tenterhooks waiting to hear. Start at the beginning, Hays.”

I shook my head, trying to pin down my blurred recollections. The beginning? When was that? Where was that? I had no idea, really.

“The Toyz store in Baronville-those ugly murders,” I finally said. “I caught one of the killers on a motorcycle. We went off the roof of a parking garage, fell several stories, and crashed.