by Philip Henry
“And what was that noise in the lift shaft?” Kaaliz asked impatiently.
“In the event of a Condition Red the lifts all default to Level Two so they can’t be used for escape and steel plates close between every level.”
“Then how the hell are we going to get out?”
“There’s a flaw in the system. When they come down here to kill us they have to use the lift, which means all those steel plates have to open in turn to let the lift pass. When they get out down here the lift defaults back to two again.”
Kaaliz didn’t understand how that helped but didn’t want to seem stupid so answered her with a threat. “You better be right about this.”
Lucinda saw the lift icon move on the screen. “OK, here they come.” They ran to the lift doors and Lucinda grabbed the doors and pulled them apart, wrecking the mechanism. They looked up the dark shaft and saw the two thick steel plates closed together with only a small hole to allow the cable to move. “OK, we have to be quick here. When those doors open to let the lift down we have to fly up to five and pull the doors open. We wait in there. They go on down to six and get out then we just jump on top of the lift and let it carry us all the way up. You’re going to have to hold me because I don’t have time to learn to fly.”
Kaaliz nodded. He was quite impressed with her ingenuity. He put his arm around her waist as the sound of the lift got closer. The two steel plates jerked apart and Kaaliz flew full speed to Level Five. Lucinda grabbed the doors and pulled them apart. The lift was almost upon them. They fell unto the floor as the lift trundled past. Kaaliz heard a noise behind them and turned. Carmichael was trying to hide behind a filing cabinet. Instinctively Lucinda and Kaaliz raced at him. Kaaliz bit his neck and Lucinda bit his wrist. They both drank quickly. Lucinda noted he had his overcoat on; he was ready to leave. There was a pang of guilt that was so weak it barely registered with her at all. The lift had stopped below them and the hunters had all run out amidst a lot of shouting. Lucinda could hear the lift doors closing below her but she wanted to keep drinking. Kaaliz pushed the fat man to the ground, releasing his wrist from Lucinda’s mouth. Kaaliz ran for the lift doors. Lucinda got her focus back and followed him. Along the way she saw the skeletal hand on the desk and picked it up.
“What’s that?” Kaaliz asked.
“Just a souvenir,” Lucinda said, grinning, as they both jumped on top of the lift. It was going exactly as she had anticipated. The steel plates parted before them on every floor. The lift jerked to a stop and they looked up at the steel plate dividing Level Two from Level One.
“Now what?”
“Now I come to save the day,” Lucinda said, taking her phone from her pocket. She dialled and entered her access code and got through to the Ministry switchboard. “Hello, this is Sheridan, I got a Condition Red alert on my beeper: is it a drill?”
Lucinda recognised the switchboard operator’s voice. She had only been with the Ministry a few months. She was young and pretty and had the ability to make crusty old scientists huddle in the cafeteria and throw her shy, sideways glances. The girl sounded terrified. “No, it’s not a drill, Sheridan, and there were only two agents in the building at the time and they’ve gone down there alone.”
“Oh God,” Lucinda said. “I should get in there and help. I’m in the lobby but I can’t get the lift to come.”
“It’s the automatic lockdown. I’ll disable it and send it up for you.” The switchboard girl hung up.
The steel plates parted above them and the lift jerked into motion again. Lucinda lifted the escape hatch on top of the lift and looked in: the lift was empty. “We may as well ride in style.” She and Kaaliz dropped down into the lift just as the doors opened on the lobby. Bradley stood before them looking shocked.
Bradley’s gaze flickered between Kaaliz and Lucinda and finally rested on Lucinda. She took a couple of steps back. “Oh my God, Sheridan, what have you done?” Bradley was strategically backing away as the situation became clear to her. She broke into a run and seized one of the swords from the wall then turned and faced the two vampires. “You’re not leaving here.”
It was all the threat Lucinda needed. She couldn’t believe how little she cared now. She wouldn’t give a second thought to killing Bradley and she knew she wouldn’t feel an ounce of regret either. Lucinda dropped her bag in the opening of the lift doors so they wouldn’t be able to close and the lift couldn’t go down and bring reinforcements. Bradley moved over to the doors to block their escape. Lucinda strode toward her slowly. She wanted to find out just how good Bradley was. Kaaliz flew at her and got slashed across the face with the sword. He fell to the ground. Lucinda ran and grabbed her from behind, locking her arms. Lucinda applied pressure until the sword dropped. Kaaliz came at her from the front and Bradley kicked him hard under the chin and twisted from Lucinda’s grasp in one move. Bradley leapt at Lucinda and landed punch after punch in her face, never giving her time to respond. Kaaliz picked up the sword and lunged at Bradley. She quickly parried and grabbed the sword and tried to wrestle it from his grasp. Lucinda attacked again from behind and Bradley dodged to the left and thrust the sword that Kaaliz was still holding, into Lucinda’s side. Lucinda sprung back from the blade into the air and landed twenty feet away.
The doors swung open and old Ted from the front gate ran in with his gun drawn. Lucinda raced at him immediately and snatched the gun from his hand. The old man tried to charge her and she grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the far wall. She turned and saw Kaaliz was on the ground and Bradley was standing over him. She was pummelling Kaaliz with combinations of fists to his face and feet to his groin. Lucinda raised the gun and took aim. She was smiling as she squeezed the trigger and the gun jumped lightly in her hand.
The dull report echoed loudly around the lobby. The bullet caught Bradley high in the chest and she dropped backwards. Kaaliz got up and turned to see what had happened. Lucinda threw the gun aside and walked over to Bradley. She lay on the floor with blood pooling under her. She had her hand over her mouth and dropped it as quickly as she could.
“That’s not sporting, Bradley,” Lucinda whispered.
“And shooting me is? You fucking chicken shit,” Bradley spat through the blood welling in her mouth.
Kaaliz dropped to his knees and leaned in to bite her. Lucinda put her hand on his shoulder and stopped him. “Go feed on the old guy.”
“Why not her?” Kaaliz demanded.
“Because she just drank from her last resort ring. It’s poison. It won’t kill you but it will knock you on your ass for a couple of days. All agents have them. Some have a ring, some a locket on a chain. Like I said, not sporting.”
Kaaliz looked over at the old man trying to get to his feet again. “You should feed some more, too.”
Lucinda nodded. She put her foot on Bradley’s throat and twisted her foot ‘til she heard her neck snap. Bradley’s eyes glazed over and her body went limp. Lucinda and Kaaliz went over to the old man and fed on him quickly. When the old man was completely drained, they ran out the doors into the pitch black night.
“That old man was pretty thin,” Kaaliz said. “I still don’t think I could fly very far. I hope you know somewhere close by.”
“We’re not flying. I have my car here. I know where we’re going: it isn’t far.” Lucinda unlocked her car and they got in. She drove down the steep incline to the front gates, which old Ted had locked tightly before his foolhardy act of heroism. The gates were just wire – gates aren’t any sort of security when it comes to vampires – and the car easily smashed through them. “I estimate we have at least twelve minutes before they decide they have to get the local plod involved. The cops’ cameras will find the car easily but in twelve minutes time we won’t be in this car.”
Kaaliz was impressed. Not only with the skill that she had executed her escape plan, but also with the killer instinct that obviously matched his own. He was going to enjoy his time with her. “I never asked you your name,
” he said.
“It’s Lucinda.”
“Lucinda,” Kaaliz repeated quietly. “I think we’ll call you Sin from now on.”
Sin turned and nodded her approval.
going home
The attic was warm and free of rodents. Kaaliz and Sin had entered through the unlocked skylight after abandoning the car at the train station. This was Sin’s parents’ house. Kaaliz had been wary of staying here because it was too obvious, but Sin had convinced him that it was perfect because it was so obvious. No one would ever think she would come here. The only place more obvious would have been her flat. Whoever the Ministry sent after them would be looking for the most secluded places in the area. To hide in plain sight was a stroke of genius.
They had gained entry because Sin had a bed there. This meant she didn’t need an invitation to come in and that she could invite Kaaliz in. Years ago a Ministry worker had written a book on the rules of invitation regarding vampires. It outlined all the loopholes in the oldest known protection. Sin had studied this book in the weeks leading up to the execution of her plan and had found some odd exceptions, like: a vampire can enter if he paid the rent on the residence, a vampire can enter if his offspring dwell there, and a vampire can enter if they had slept there in the 24 days before becoming a vampire (who knew how many tests it took them to come up with that figure). Her mother had been shocked but also happy when she had asked to bring her old bed out of storage so she could stay over on weekends. Sin had slept over a few times just to be sure that the loophole would work when it needed to.
Kaaliz hadn’t been able to sleep. They had stacked boxes so the sunlight wouldn’t cut into the darkness of the attic. Kaaliz sat at the far end of the attic looking at the thin frame of sunlight around the boxes. Sin lay beside him sleeping silently. He was free. After nearly a decade of incarceration he was finally free. No more experiments, no more torture – now he could walk the night preying on those who crossed his path. He had tried to escape many times when he was first put in the habitat but the longer he went without blood, the weaker he became. After a while he lost track of time completely. When Sin had told him he had been locked up for ten years he couldn’t believe it. Kaaliz had overheard one of the Ministry personnel taking some government bigwig on a tour of the facility once and he had said that the disorientation was an added safety precaution. The theory was that, without windows, clocks, watches and no regular shift patterns, even if the vampire did somehow escape, he would never know if it was day or night outside and so there was a 50% chance his escape would be in vain.
In the last ten years Kaaliz had been subjected to every possible form of torture. He had been stabbed, shot, impaled, electrocuted, poisoned and even set on fire – all so they could study his regeneration process. They had also injected him with all kinds of diseases: AIDS, cancer, Ebola, SARS and countless others. They took blood from him and studied the antibodies that were produced to counteract all these diseases. But just because his body eventually won out against all these diseases didn’t mean they didn’t hurt. They had injected cancerous cells directly into his brain and he had been in constant hysterical agony for almost two weeks as his weakened physiology fought it. That was possibly his worst experience in the Ministry. That was when he had tried to rip his chest open and tear his own heart out. The pain had been too much and he had passed out. When he awoke again his chest had almost healed and the pressure had eased a little inside his head.
Through all those ordeals his anger had been the one thing that had kept him going. Anger at Xavier and Claire. The two vampires that had Made him and then turned on him for simply being what he was. What they had once been. What they wanted to be again; remorseless killers. When he had been captured by the Ministry all those years ago and was lying in a cage in the back of their van, he had waited for Xavier and Claire to come to his aid. He had watched the back doors of the van, ready to react when they were flung open and Xavier and Claire, his vampire mother and father in a sense, would come to rescue him. They had never come. Over the years Kaaliz had become more and more suspicious of Xavier and Claire. He obsessed on why they had not come. They had had some harsh words and fights but surely they still protected their own. Even animals in the jungle look out for their own. He began to suspect that they had tipped off the Ministry to get rid of him. Xavier especially resented him and Claire would probably blindly follow whatever he said. Whether they had tipped off the Ministry or simply not intervened when he was taken was immaterial, both crimes were equally cowardly. Kaaliz shook when he thought about the betrayal. This was not over. There was a score to be settled.
Sin startled awake and saw Kaaliz sleeping in the eaves of the roof. She looked over at the skylight and saw soft, orange light faintly glowing behind the stack of boxes. She heard knocking and realised that was what had woken her. She moved quickly and silently across the floor and pressed her ear to the ground above the front door. She could hear everything with remarkable clarity. As she waited for the door to be answered she saw a beetle run across one of the ceiling joists and she could actually hear each of its legs being put down as it scurried off into the darkness. She smiled, marvelling at her unbelievably heightened senses. The door was opened under her and she redirected her attention. She could hear everything.
“Mrs Sheridan?”
“Yes.”
“I’m Agent Nicholl from the Ministry.”
Fear grasped Sin. Nicholl had found her! But how?
“Mrs Sheridan, I wonder if I could come in and ask you some questions about your daughter?”
Sin thought her mum sounded fragile. “Have they found her?”
There was a long silence. “How do you know about it, Mrs Sheridan? Has Lucinda been here?”
“Been here?” Mum asked. “Ms Nicholl are you sure you have the right house? My daughter died three weeks ago while on holiday in Spain.”
Another pause. “Mrs Sheridan, can I come in? I think we have a lot to talk about.”
Nicholl came in and Mrs Sheridan showed her into the living room. Sin followed them silently across the attic and again lay down with her ear pressed to the floor.
“I’ve just brewed some coffee. Would you like some Ms Nicholl?”
“Yes, thank you. I haven’t had much sleep in the last two days.”
There was a brief pause as Mrs Sheridan got the coffee and then settled into her chair that made an audible squeak even to those without heightened senses. Nicholl said, “Maybe you should tell me what you’ve been told and we’ll take it from there, Mrs Sheridan.”
“OK. About a month ago Lucy went on holiday to Spain. She sent us a postcard that said she was having a great time. Then…that weekend we got a call from a representative of the Spanish government, a Mr Hernandez I think, and he said there had been an accident. Apparently Lucy’s rental car had lost control and crashed through a railing and into the sea below. He said some of the wreckage of the car had been found but her body hadn’t. He said they lose a few swimmers every year and they’re never found. Currents and undertows and such things. But he said that witnesses had positively identified that Lucy was driving the car. She had made friends over there. She could always make friends.”
Sin heard her mother sniffle a little and she knew she was crying. This was uncomfortable; she didn’t want to be here.
Mrs Sheridan continued, “He left a phone number that we could get in touch with him and we phoned him every day to see if there was any news but there never was. My husband finally got sick of waiting and he flew out there yesterday to help with the search even though Mr Hernandez said there was nothing he could do. I think he just had to feel that he tried. We got a letter from Mr Hernandez saying the search had been scaled down because after so much time it was highly unlikely that the remains would ever be found. I think that was why Jim went out there. He didn’t want to give up. Neither of us did.”
Sin heard Nicholl setting her coffee cup down and clearing her throat. “Mrs Sheridan, I�
��m going to come clean with you for your own safety. I assume you know what the Ministry is and that you and your husband both signed the Official Secrets Act when Lucinda started working there?”
“Yes, we know about the vampires and we signed the papers to say we wouldn’t talk about it.”
“OK,” Nicholl took a deep breath. “Mrs Sheridan, last night Lucinda gained access to one of our observation areas and released one of the vampires we had in captivity.”
“What? You mean she isn’t dead? But why…how did…?”
“Once we realised that Lucinda had been responsible, we launched an investigation on her personal life. Were you aware that Lucinda was sick, Mrs Sheridan?”
“No,” she replied quickly. “What’s wrong with her?”
“She had stomach cancer. An especially aggressive form that was inoperable and in the last few months had spread to her liver and kidneys. She was dying, Mrs Sheridan. Ministry agents are supposed to only see the Ministry doctor but after a lot of searching through computer records we found the private doctor she had seen and seized his files. It is our belief at this time that Lucinda voluntarily released the vampire in order to be Made, thereby curing her illness.”
Sin listened carefully for her mother’s response. She couldn’t hear anything until her mother almost shouted, “But what about the man in Spain, Mr Hernandez?”
“Forensics went over Lucinda’s apartment last night inch by inch. We found one partial thumb-print that we couldn’t identify. We tracked him down this morning. His name actually is Hernandez, Miguel Hernandez but he lives just a few miles from here. He’s an out of work actor who did six months a long time ago for fraud. He says that Lucinda paid him three thousand pounds to play along with the story for as long as you kept calling.”
“But the number we have isn’t local,” Mrs Sheridan protested.
