by M. D. Massey
Joe cocked his head and pursed his lips at an angle. “You know, that’s entirely possible. Quantum manipulation of compactification manifolds using dark energy to shift matter could create such an effect—”
I interrupted his nerdgasm. “Back to the topic at hand, guys. Can they do it with this reactor? Do they have enough juice?”
He shook his head. “Nope. Based on the calculations I saw from Piotr’s notes, they can’t do it.”
I sighed, and my shoulders sagged with relief. Then Joe raised a finger and continued.
“That is, not until they get the highly enriched uranium they’ve been looking for.”
27
SPEAR
I did a double-take, then closed my eyes and squeezed the bridge of my nose between my fingers. “Say that one more time?”
Joe looked rather pleased with himself as he explained the situation. “Okay, so the TRIGA reactor that we have at the school was just designed for research and for training future nuclear engineers. Nothing fancy, you see. It runs on UZrH—uranium zirconium hydride—perfectly safe stuff. With UZrH, as the core temperature of the reactor increases, the reactivity of the fuel decreases. Like I said, it was designed to keep stoner grad students from causing a Three-Mile Island incident. But if you replace the fuel rods with enriched uranium, you end up with a reactor that can put out some serious energy.”
“By how much?”
He chewed his cheek and squinted. “Oh, I don’t know—I mean, I’m just a first-year student, or I was—but I’d say by more than enough to create a sustained meltdown. At least, that’s what Dr. Delicious seemed to think.”
I bristled at his last comment. “Excuse me?”
“Dr. Delicious? She’s the redhead they brought in to replace me. Man, she is so hot—I mean, like smokin’ hot. Legs that go on for miles, and those eyes—”
Bobby cut him off mid-sentence. “Let me just stop you right there, dude, before you get hurt.”
“Huh?” He looked at me, then at Bobby, and then at Gabby, and put two and two together. “Do you guys know this chick?”
Gabby grimaced and pointed at me. “Um, he does.”
Joe’s face got beet red, and he started fiddling with his lab coat. “Wow. Oh, I am so sorry. What, is she your sister? Girlfriend? Um, like I said, sorry—and, congratulations?”
I massaged the bridge of my nose again and took a deep breath. “Okay, let me get this straight. Right now, the reactor doesn’t have the juice to punch a hole through to this other dimension where they come from. But, if they push enough juice through it, there’s a good chance they’ll get the desired result?”
Joe cleared his throat. “Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.”
“So where are they getting the uranium?”
His face lit up, and he grinned from ear to ear. “See, that’s the best part. There’s always been this rumor in the department that there’s an old reactor buried under the library at the main campus. Apparently, the government was doing some top secret shit there during World War II and the Cold War—”
“And when are they not?” Bobby mumbled under his breath.
Joe pushed his glasses up on his nose and plowed right on through without missing a beat. “I’ve always wondered if it was true, you know? Like, a top secret lab, right under campus! Wouldn’t that be crazy?”
Gabby yawned. “Thrilling.”
“I know, right? So, I mentioned it to Van, and he passed it on to Piotr, and they sent some of the Pack over to check it out.”
I rolled the barrel of my gun in a gesture of impatience. “How long ago did they send them?”
Joe shrugged. “I dunno, two, three days? I mean, they kicked me out as soon as Dr. Deli—I mean, your girlfriend—started getting results. I only know about it because sometimes I sneak over there for supplies and stuff, and I overheard Van and Piotr talking about it.”
“What else did they say?”
“Well, they said they were having a hard time locating it since that area of Austin was practically ground zero when the bombs fell. But, just a few days ago I heard them say their scouts had found the library, and they were confident they were making progress. They just needed some more help to do an excavation to get under the rubble.”
Finally, some good news. “Joe, how many wolves are left here?”
“Maybe half the pack—eight wolves, tops, plus Van.” He looked back and forth at all three of us, and especially at our gear. “Wait a minute, are you guys thinking about taking them on? You’re freaking crazy. They’ll murder you. Even with only half the pack around.”
I shrugged. “We’ll take our chances.”
Joe stood up and wrung his hands. “You don’t understand, man. Van isn’t like other werewolves; he’s an original alpha. Do you know what that means? I mean, think about his name. Van? Ring any bells?”
We looked at each other. “Nope.”
Joe rolled his eyes. “C’mon, you don’t remember your Scandinavian mythology? Van? Vanagandr? The monster of the river Van? He’s freaking Fenrir, the wolf that bit off Tyr’s hand.”
I drew a blank. “Seriously, you have me at a loss. Who’s Tyr?”
He threw his hands up in the air. “Ugh! You guys are hopeless. Tyr was the Norse god of war, and probably a really tough dude in his time. So if Van bit off his hand, think about what that says about him.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, but those are all just myths.”
“Just myths? Just myths?” He pounded his hands on his chest. “There’s a myth standing right here in front of you. Werewolves are just myths. As are vampires, zombies, and all the other crazy stuff running around out there. I’d say the chances that Van is the Vangandr of the myths are pretty darned good. Not to mention his two right-hand guys are named Skull and Hate. You know, Sköll and Hati, the sons of Fenrir?” He exhaled loudly. “Of course, you don’t—why did I even ask?”
I turned to look at the kids. “Bobby, you have anything to add about this?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. I mean, my dad is second gen, one of Van’s get. He just told me to stay away from him. I think Dad respects him, but I also suspect that he’s more than a little scared of him. And I never really knew my dad to be scared of anything.”
Joe raised his hand. “Hey, I’m lost here—who’s your dad?”
I decided to keep that info under wraps. “Not important. What is important is that we take out the remaining wolves before the rest of the pack gets back with that uranium. Then, we trash the reactor and get the hell out of here with the settlers. And Kara.”
I turned around and headed out the door, gesturing for the kids to follow. “We have work to do. Let’s go.”
Joe hollered after me. “Hey, what about me?”
I turned around to face him. “What about you? From what I can tell, you’ve been helping them all along, complicit in everything they’ve done, from killing and kidnapping settlers, to whoring the women out to punters, to helping them build this doomsday doorway. I’m doing you a favor by letting you live." I paused for effect. "Come to think of it, why don’t you tell me why I shouldn’t just kill you outright?”
Joe turned a paler shade of pink at the threat. “Look, I’m not much of a fighter, but I hate the Pack. I’ve been their whipping boy for years. The only reason they turned me was to keep me around to help them with their crazy-ass project.” He paused and cleaned his glasses on his shirt tail. “I may not be much of a fighter, but I am smarter than any of you…” Bobby growled next to me, “Just saying, don’t get all huffy, because it’s probably true. And I know that place like the back of my hand. Hell, I’ve practically lived there for the past nine years. I know things that can help you out.”
“You know things, huh? Well, what do you know about killing deaders? Because we need to clean out the top three floors of this place before dawn. You up for getting your hands dirty?”
“It’s not really my thing, but I’m willing to help if it means getting
back at Van and his goons.”
I looked him in the eye. “Alright, but if you screw us, I’m going to tie you to a cross and disembowel you, and let the vultures eat your entrails. It’ll take you months to die. I guarantee it.”
Joe gulped loudly. “Okay then, so long as we understand each other.”
28
PERCEIVE
We cleared out the rest of the place without a hitch, then headed to the identical building next door, where we repeated the process. Despite his nerdiness and my distrust of him, Joe turned out to be fairly handy at killing deaders. In fact, he had been responsible for many of the broken windows in the buildings, as he’d found that tossing deaders through the plate glass windows was an easy way to be rid of them. He wasn’t nearly as deadly as Bobby, but it so happens that even a runt werewolf is still a force to be reckoned with. I made a mental note to keep an eye on him. He’d be dangerous, if he ever decided to turn on us.
Once we’d gotten the top floors cleaned up, we settled into our new digs. A high-tech conglomerate had occupied the place in the pre-War era, so the area was actually pretty cozy—despite being a bit breezy in places. The tenth floor had a large employee lounge area that came complete with several couches, a foosball table, Nerf basketball, dart boards, and a snack bar that was more or less untouched. It was full of graham crackers, peanut butter packets, trail mix, candy, and microwave popcorn that was useless to us. The place was big, and there was plenty of space even without those offices, so we just shut the doors to keep the wind out and enjoyed the relative comfort of the lounge area.
The other floors and rooms were a bit creepy, though; it was as if the place had been frozen in time. The bombs fell in the middle of the night, which meant almost nobody had gone to work the next day. From what I understand, people panicked, they fought, and they died, and that’s when it got interesting—because that’s when the dead started walking, and they woke up hungry. After that, it was all chaos. I saw it with my own eyes, albeit a few weeks after it all began. Maybe I missed the worst of it; I really don’t know. All I do know is, what I did see was a good indication that things went to shit, and fast.
But, the timing of it all meant that they’d left this place pretty much intact. Not many people thought to hide out in high-rise office buildings once the shit hit the fan. Too bad we weren’t going to be staying. Also, too bad we didn’t have much time to enjoy it. We had a lot of setting up to do before the big reveal I had planned. I sent Bobby off to run some errands for me, including getting a message to the rabbi and Sam that we were in the building and would be springing the trap come next nightfall. Gabby and I got to work on booby trapping the building. I had grenades, claymores, and other party favors I’d collected over the years, mostly from Army Reserve and Guard units that had either been overrun by the dead or abandoned. They would all be put to good use when the Pack showed up.
We spent a considerable amount of time setting the traps. I placed IEDs and grenade traps at about every third floor on the way up the stairs, and then I began rigging the rooftop with claymore mines. The trick would be funneling them into key areas so I could hit them with a direct blast. From what we knew, werewolves were durable and they healed fast, but they weren’t indestructible. My plan assumed that high explosives in close quarters and eleven-story falls would be fatal to the average werewolf. Hopefully I wasn’t placing a sucker’s bet.
I made sure we had everything in place, and waited for Bobby to get back with Sam and the stuff I’d sent him to retrieve so I could finish setting the booby traps on the stairwells. After they showed up, I kept Bobby and Joe with me, and sent Sam and Gabby to the adjacent building. They’d be on overwatch duty, and they’d also be instrumental in springing the trap. The only problem was that we’d be separated. If they got into trouble, I couldn’t help them. I felt pretty sure I had a reliable means of egress for them if things got too hot, but they still worried me.
But the plan beat having Gabby and Sam in the middle of an all-out rooftop rumble with the wolves. We’d be funneling them into the unobstructed stairwell, and then I hoped they’d trigger the IEDs I’d set up and blow themselves back to hell. I assumed they’d head for the other stairs at some point, so I made sure to trap the doors to the other stairwell on each floor, knowing the first wolves would trigger the traps, then the ones behind them would probably try the other stairway. If we were lucky, I’d cripple or kill half the wolves before they got to the roof of the building. That’s where I planned to have my special surprise in store.
My primary concern, beyond keeping everyone alive, was getting all the wolves onto the roof without getting myself killed in the process. Somebody had to spring the final trap, and I’d volunteered to do that myself. But if I got dogpiled by even two of those ’thropes, it could turn into a bloodbath. I felt stronger than I had even a few days before, and from what I could tell the serum was finally getting an edge over the deader venom in my veins, but I still wasn’t sure I wouldn’t have another episode. I knew it did no good to worry, so I simply rehearsed the plan, over and over again in my head, and tried to get some shut-eye before night came again.
One way or another, this thing was going to be over by tomorrow morning. And whether I lived or died, one thing was for sure; if I was going to have my ticket punched, I’d take as many of those ’thropes with me as possible on my way out.
That afternoon, I got Bobby and Joe up and prepped, and signaled over to Sam and Gabby to see how they were doing. Sam indicated that things were five by five, so I sat Joe down with the sketch I’d gotten from Sam and started going over the layout of the compound.
He stared at the hand-drawn map for a bit, then started jotting things down. “Let’s see… The reactor lab is here, which is where you’ll probably find Piotr and your girl. Van and his goons stay in these buildings, and they usually have one or two wolves over here guarding the hostages.” He made more notes and circles on the map. “I think that about covers it.”
“Alright then.” I looked at Bobby and smiled. “You ready for this, champ?”
He nodded. “About as ready as I’ll ever be. Besides, I wouldn’t miss this for the world. And something tells me you’re going to need someone watching your back before this is all over with.” He looked pointedly at Joe. I guess the kid didn’t trust him either.
Joe looked at us both, and spread his hands apart as he spoke. “Look, if you guys don’t believe I’m with you, I can just leave. But, I’d rather stay and have a chance to prove myself. Basically, I’m screwed out here living on my own with no pack. Lone wolves typically don’t last long, and especially not runts. I’d be dead anyway within the year on my own, so I see this as my best chance.”
I looked him over and tried to determine if he was legit. It was impossible to tell if he was playing us, but I couldn’t deny him the chance to prove himself. It just wasn’t my style. “Tell you what, Joe. You stay and help us kill these ’thropes, rescue the settlers, and get my Kara back, and I’ll take you with us when we leave. But if you cross us—”
“I know, I know—a long, slow, painful death awaits.” He leaned back in his chair with resignation. “What choice do I have? I’m going to help.”
I glanced at Bobby, and it was apparent that he wasn’t buying it. I considered that it was entirely possible that Joe was going to betray us to get back into Van’s good graces. But, it was worth the risk. We were short on bodies, and if Joe was sincere, he might help tip the scales in our favor. Even if he turned on us—one more runt wolf wouldn’t make much difference.
I stood up and brushed my hands on my pants. “Well, I guess it’s settled then. I’m going to check all the traps, then I have to head next door to talk with Sam and Gabby. When I get back, it’s going to be go time. Be ready.”
Bobby got up as well and followed me out of the room. Once we were well out of werewolf earshot, he spoke up. “I don’t trust him, Scratch. His story doesn’t add up, and he smells like fear and nervousness.”
“Could be anticipation. He doesn’t seem like much of a fighter, and he’s probably scared of most of the Pack.”
Bobby scowled and looked off to the side. “He makes one wrong move, and I’m ripping his throat out.”
“You’ll get no argument from me there. Now, go fuel up, or lick your nuts, or whatever it is that werewolves do before a big fight. When I get back up here, it’s on—”
Bobby interrupted me as he went for a high-five. “—like Donkey Kong! Man, you set me up for that one. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to say that in the context of prepping for a fight?”
He didn’t pull his hand back, and instead looked at me expectantly. So I figured what the hell and gave him his high-five. He beamed. I chalked it up to nerves and youthful enthusiasm and headed off to finish preparing our little surprise attack.
29
BACK
I walked both stairwells and checked all the traps, starting by setting the tripwires in the blocked off side. Then I went down the other side, checking placement and angles just in case. I figured I’d place the rest of the tripwires on my way back up, but I was being anal on purpose, just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I headed down to the bottom floor, sneaking like a kid skipping school, just to make sure that I didn’t tip the wolves off to our presence before we were ready to go.
“So, am I early to the party?” someone said as I exited the stairwell.
I turned and drew my pistol, only to find Colin and not some ’thrope or punter. He wore bike leathers instead of the chainmail he’d worn the last time I’d seen him—kevlar-reinforced leather, not a bad choice. He also had a humongous two-handed sword slung over his back, and various knives and stabbing implements strapped all over his chest and waist. All-in-all, the guy looked pretty freaking dangerous. I was pleased as hell to see him because of it.
