by Philip Henry
The lift doors opened on three and Lucinda’s heart jumped. A mousy-looking woman with glasses and a blouse that was so loud you should be issued ear-plugs to look at it, peeked inside. She held an apple in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. “Going up?”
“No, down. Sorry.” The woman turned her attention to the other lift as the doors closed. It hit Lucinda then that this was a really normal day for almost everyone in this building. They worked, they ate, later they would go home. This was a Wednesday evening like any other to most of these people. To Lucinda, this was the most important day of her life, and the most dangerous.
The pain twisted in her stomach and she knew she was going to be sick. She couldn’t make it to six. She hit the button for five and the doors opened almost immediately. She charged out and ran to the nearest toilets. She kicked in the door of the stall just in time to be sick. She sat kneeling on the floor, trying to get her breath back. She pushed the door closed behind her and retched again. There was blood in her vomit. A lot of blood. She sat there until she felt the spell had passed then stood and flushed away the mess. Turning to the door, she stopped and tapped her head against the cubicle wall. She turned back, flipped the lid of the toilet down and sat. She needed a minute to be sure. To be absolutely sure, before she went on.
Last night had gone exactly as she had expected. When Nicholl had left she had dressed and gone to the Ministry. No one was suspicious of her arriving at two in the morning. People came and went at odd times at the Ministry. She had used the fact that Rollins was attracted to her to gain access to Level Six and there she had seen her salvation. She had timed it so Rollins would be going to do his hourly security sweep of the whole of Level Six. She had declined the offer to go with him and said she would wait for him. It took Rollins about ten minutes to do his sweep and Lucinda had used that ten minutes to change her life. She had made a deal with the devil and now it was time to collect what was owed. She clutched her bag tightly and steeled herself. She stood up and walked out of the cubicle.
Outside the toilets, Carmichael was waiting. “Hey, Sheridan, I saw you run in there. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I had Indian food earlier on and you know what they say: you don’t buy Indian food, you just rent it.” Lucinda smiled and Carmichael laughed loudly.
Carmichael was forty-six and grossly overweight. He was always sweating and didn’t change his shirts often enough. Even now as he stood before Lucinda she could see not only the damp patch of the current sweat, but also two more light brown stains a little further out. It was like the rings in the centre of a tree: count them to tell how long he’d been wearing the same shirt. Carmichael was obviously excited about something and was itching to tell Lucinda.
To fob him off would be suspicious so she asked him. “What’s happening, Carmichael? You look like a kid on Christmas morning.”
“Oh my God! It’s that artefact that came in last night.” He stopped abruptly and his excitement jumped up a gear. “You were on that mission weren’t you? The Elvis impersonator!”
“Yes, I was there, Carmichael. It was amazing.”
“Come, come.” He took her by the arm and led her into the lab. “You are never going to believe what I think we have in our possession!” He led Lucinda to a desk close to her own. She saw the skeletal hand sitting among masses of pages of computer print-out.
“Of course,” Lucinda said, “the hand. Were you able to work out what the writing says?”
“Yes, yes!” Lucinda was sure Carmichael would have been jumping up and down at this point if gravity hadn’t been objecting so strongly. Carmichael sat her down in his chair and stood before her. He picked up the hand. He blew out and emptied his lungs, trying to calm himself. “You know what language this engraving on the bone is? It’s ancient Aramaic. That’s right, the language Jesus would have spoken.”
Lucinda was shocked. “You’re not going to tell me that’s Jesus’s hand, are you?”
“No,” Carmichael said, smiling. He looked like he was about to burst with excitement. “When translated these words are Talitha cumi!”
Lucinda shrugged quickly, wishing he would get to the point.
“Not a big Bible reader, eh?” Carmichael said smugly. He picked up a Bible from his desk and searched for the place. “You familiar with the story of Jairus’s daughter?”
Lucinda thought back to her Sunday School classes when she was young and remembered the basics. “Jairus’s daughter died and Jesus brought her back to life, is that right?”
Carmichael cleared his throat and spoke. “Gospel of St. Mark, chapter five, verse forty-one: And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.”
Lucinda was stunned. She stood and took the hand gently from Carmichael. “This is the hand that Jesus touched that brought Jairus’s daughter back from the dead?”
Carmichael clapped his hands together rapidly and laughed, nodding. “I know Nicholl hasn’t filed her report yet but she did tell me that this vampire regenerated much faster than an ordinary vamp, is that right?”
Lucinda nodded, awestruck by what she held in her hands. “Yeah, but how…?”
“There’s a myth concerning Jairus’s daughter.” Carmichael took another large book from his desk and opened it at a marked page. “The myth tells us that she lived to the ripe old age of 337. And she didn’t die because the government cut her heating allowance, either. The Roman emperor Constantine the Great apparently ordered her hung, drawn and quartered for heresy. That’s all church politics, though, what’s really interesting is that in her three and a bit centuries on Earth she apparently had the power to heal people.”
“If she touched them with the hand that Jesus touched,” Lucinda said, still examining the bones in her grasp.
“Right! So when she died someone obviously thought that if they had the hand, they might be able to use it to heal.”
“And did they?” Lucinda asked quickly.
“No one knows. According to the legend the hand was stolen from her tomb but after that the trail goes dry. No one knows what happened to it.”
“Until now,” Lucinda said softly.
“It could have been a lot of places since then, or maybe that vamp you killed last night…”
“Bradley killed,” Lucinda corrected.
“Right, Bradley killed. Maybe he was the one who stole it in the first place. Wouldn’t that be incredible? He’d be the oldest vampire we’d ever encountered. I can’t wait until the dating is done on his remains.”
“How do you think it was used to heal? Was holding it enough?”
“Well, a vampire could slit open his chest and put it in there and wrap the fingers around his heart and the healing power would close the wound in no time and the vamp would be immune to the old stake.”
“But on humans, do you think touching it would be enough?” she asked.
“No. I’ve been handling it for almost a day and I still have asthma and high blood pressure. My doctor says if my cholesterol gets any higher he’s going to classify my blood as a solid.”
“So it doesn’t work,” Lucinda said, her last hope disappearing.
“Not directly, but there must be some catalyst in a vampire’s body that activates it. If you believe that Jesus did imbue this hand with healing properties you have to consider that maybe its batteries are running low after two thousand years.” Carmichael’s eyes began to sparkle again. “But do you realise what we could do with this hand if we could synthesize whatever it is in the vampire’s body that activates it? We could heal everyone on the planet. Maybe it’s contagious, like when Jesus touched the girl. Maybe we would only have to activate it once and whoever touched it could touch someone else, and someone else, and so on.” Carmichael tried to look serious now. “Don’t underestimate what you found last night, Sheridan. This may well prove to be the most important artefact in the history of mankind.”
Luci
nda felt a twinge in her stomach again. She hadn’t been healed. “It’s fascinating, Carmichael.”
Carmichael smiled gleefully. “I’ll brew some fresh coffee and you can help me with the research, if you like.”
Lucinda got to her feet. “Not tonight. I’m still feeling really rough. I just came in to pick something up. I think I should go home to bed.”
“Oh right. Hey, what day is it out there?”
“It’s Wednesday…night.” Lucinda remembered when she had got so engrossed in her work that she lost track of time, too. It seemed like a lifetime away. For the last couple of months she had just been going through the motions of her work while her mind concentrated on her other more important plan.
“Oh. My wife won’t be happy about me missing our anniversary. I should probably go home for a while, too.”
Lucinda wanted to tell him to go now, quickly, but it would have made him suspicious. Instead, she gave him a smile and walked back to the lifts and pushed the call button. The lift came almost immediately and she stepped in. The doors closed and she looked at the buttons. This was the point of no return. She could go back up to ground level and no one would ever know what she had planned to do. She stared at the button for six. By pushing it her life would change forever. The life she had known would be over. Her friends, her family and everything she held dear would be gone. But, considering the alternative, it was the lesser of two evils. She pushed the button for six.
Rollins gave her a broad smile when the lift doors opened. Sheridan stood there looking like the epitome of sex-appeal. She strode toward him smiling seductively. She was wearing a skin-tight black Gucci dress, high-heels and fish-net stockings. Her breasts bulged from the low cut of the dress, longing to be set free. Her blue eyes smouldered in the frame of dark make-up. Rollins smiled and knew she wanted him. She came close and pushed him against his desk. She ripped open his shirt without speaking. She lightly scratched her nails through the hair on his chest and rested for a moment on his taut six-pack, then slid her hands around inside his shirt to his back and pulled him closer. They looked into each other’s eyes. Each wanting the other. Uncontrollable desire guiding their actions. He looked down at her inviting cleavage and wanted to be there. She moved closer and kissed his neck. Sheridan moved slowly down his chest, tracing a line with her tongue until she was on her knees sitting before him. She took off his belt and threw it across the room. She grabbed his trousers, ripped them open and…
Ping!
The lift doors! Rollins opened his eyes and stood up quickly in the toilet cubicle and tried to stuff himself back into his trousers. Who was coming down here at this time of the night? He hated being interrupted mid-fantasy. He checked the mirror quickly to see that nothing was obviously protruding and then hurried out of the toilets.
To his amazement, Sheridan had just stepped out of the lift. He wanted to pinch himself. She wasn’t wearing his fantasy outfit, but even in black fatigues she looked good. She noticed him.
“Hi, Sheridan. Two nights in a row. People will talk.” Smooth.
Lucinda walked towards him. She was nervous and she was sure it showed on her face. She needed to get this over with as soon as possible. “Hi, Rollins. You working alone tonight?”
Yes! Who says wishes can’t come true? Rollins walked slowly towards her and said in his best Barry White voice, “Jus’ you and me, baby.”
Lucinda took a bottle of perfume from her bag.
“Perfume. You came prepared. Can I have a sniff?” Rollins was inches away from her now. Lucinda held the perfume bottle up to his face and sprayed twice. Rollins’s head spun and then darkness closed in on him from all sides. Rollins dropped to the ground hard. Lucinda bent down and checked his pulse. He was fine but she had no idea how long her little chemical compound would last on a man his size. She had to hurry. Before she stepped into the room she took a can of spray paint from her bag, reached around and sprayed the lens of the security camera.
She rushed over to the control terminal and accessed the computer. The screen prompted her for the password. She reached into her bag and took out a CD. This was it: the next stage of her life was about to begin. The computer’s CD drive opened like a tongue waiting for a communion wafer. She laid the disc down carefully and the computer swallowed it. The password program she had created was incredibly complex and she gained access almost immediately. The program would run automatically now, and every time the computer asked for a password the disc would satisfy it. Many different passwords at many different levels of authority were needed for what she was doing. She walked away from the console and over to the habitat.
The huge box was solid concrete reinforced with steel on three sides and above, while the fourth wall was six-inch thick Plexi-glass. The room was white and fully illuminated at all times. Painted on the wall to the left of the glass in large red letters were the words: EXTREME CAUTION. And below in smaller black letters were the words: SUBJECT 16 – KAALIZ
He stood facing her. He half-expected that she wasn’t going to show and that this was just another one of the Ministry’s mind games to test his psyche. But here she was and he was going to be free at last. “So, open the habitat,” he said impatiently.
She eyed him suspiciously. “The computer’s doing it now. It’ll be open any second. When it does open, you remember our agreement. There’s no way you’ll make it out of here without me. I’m not bullshitting you.”
Kaaliz had considered killing her as soon as she freed him but he had decided that just in case he really couldn’t get out without her, he should keep her alive. He could always kill her later if he wished. Besides which, after studying her body he could think of other needs she could sate. Later.
They both heard the computer bleep behind them and the glass slowly began to lift into the ceiling. Kaaliz didn’t rush. He wanted to savour his liberation. Every inch the glass rose before him got him closer to blood, and, to revenge. The glass disappeared into the ceiling and Kaaliz stepped down. He stepped towards Lucinda and she felt a coldness radiating from him. She tried to remain brave but it was difficult. They stood face to face now and Lucinda’s heart was beating ferociously against the inside of her chest. Kaaliz smiled, pleased at the fear he elicited. He leaned in close to her. Lucinda closed her eyes tightly.
The alarm went off on all floors of the Ministry. Kaaliz and Lucinda turned and saw Rollins on his knees weakly holding on to his desk. A beeper went off in Lucinda’s pocket. She grabbed it and silenced it without thinking. Rollins had the phone in his hand and when he spoke into the receiver his voice echoed on every public-address speaker in the Ministry.
“Condition Red. Subject 16 is loose. This is not a drill. I repeat, Kaaliz is loose! Kaaliz is…”
Kaaliz flew at him. Lucinda cried, “No, wait, don’t hurt…” Kaaliz grabbed him and ripped his throat out. “Oh shit,” Lucinda said, terror creeping over her. She staggered back a few steps and dropped to the ground. The blood was gushing from Rollins’s neck. Kaaliz held him and drank deeply as he twitched his last spasms of life. When Kaaliz had completely drained him, he dropped Rollins to the ground and turned to Lucinda.
She sat with tears in her eyes. Her face drained of all colour. She was cold and shivering. She was beginning to think this was a very bad idea. She saw Kaaliz coming towards her with blood dripping from his chin. She scrambled to her feet and tried to run. Kaaliz grabbed her by the shoulders and looked her in the eyes.
“We had a deal,” he said coldly. “This is what you wanted.”
Lucinda began to cry and managed to force out the words, “No, I don’t want it anymore. Let me go, please.” She could hardly catch her breath as she spoke.
Kaaliz gave her a wicked grin. “Soon, you’ll feel differently.” Kaaliz bit into his wrist and blood began to trickle. Lucinda tried to scream through her panicked tears but Kaaliz put his wrist in her mouth and held her nose. The drips of blood fell on her tongue and she was almost hysterical as she thrashed aroun
d. Kaaliz held her tightly. She tried to bite him, she tried to spit it out, tried not to swallow but it ran down her throat all the same. Then she began to calm. The blood was like liquid energy. It tingled as it spread around her insides and it felt good. She felt good. She felt strong. She wanted more and sucked hard on the wrist in her mouth. Then a peaceful, perfect calm came over her and she relaxed.
“Wake up,” Kaaliz screamed. He was slapping her face. Lucinda woke up gradually and saw she was on the ground with Kaaliz above her on all fours. She reacted and slammed the heel of her hand into his chest. Kaaliz flew straight up into the air and smashed against the ceiling. He dropped beside her and got his bearings back quickly. “What are you doing?” he shouted. “We have to get out of here.”
Lucinda suddenly remembered where she was and what she was doing. He was right: they did have to get out of there, and fast. Lucinda got to her feet. Kaaliz stood up beside her. “Right. OK.”
“No, it’s not OK. We’re both weak; I’ve sired with only one mortal in my stomach and you haven’t fed at all. We can’t fight our way out of here, and I just heard something sealing in the lift shaft. I thought you said we could get out that way.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lucinda said and walked over to the console. She checked the status of the lockdown and was relieved that there was still time for her plan to work.
“They’re going to be here any second,” Kaaliz said, glancing at the lift doors.
“No they’re not. In a Condition Red situation the procedure is that all field agents – hunters to you – assemble on Level Two by the armoury and are directed by the most senior agent. They’re still gathering the forces at the moment.”
