Soul Meaning (Seventeen)

by AD Starrling

  I digested this information with a sinking feeling. ‘Can you make a vaccine from the samples you’ve taken from me?’

  Anna nodded, her expression brightening slightly. ‘It might take some time, but it’s definitely feasible.’ She glanced over her shoulder at the wall that separated us from the outer lab. ‘I can’t tell you how relieved Grandfather is that you’re okay,’ she said softly. She stared at me. ‘Were you aware that our grandmother died during the first plague?’

  My gaze shifted from her to the room beyond. ‘No. I didn’t know that,’ I said quietly, feeling another ripple of remorse flutter across my conscience. No wonder Tomas Godard looked so shaken.

  A sad smile flitted across Anna’s face. ‘We’ve only just found you,’ she murmured. ‘We can’t lose you now.’ She turned and quickly left the room.

  I closed my eyes and lay back on the bed, her words playing over in my mind.

  It was another four hours before the fever started. By then, a pounding headache was already hammering at my temples. Chills soon racked my body and sweat soaked the bed sheets beneath me. Countless moments passed. I started to drift in and out of consciousness, barely aware of the people entering and leaving the room in my stupor. At one stage, I opened my eyes and saw Anna at my side.

  ‘Hang in there,’ she said shakily, glancing at the monitors above me. Her face looked strained behind the visor. Next to her, someone was injecting a straw-coloured liquid into my IV.

  The tone of her words alarmed me more than anything happening to my own body. Moisture dripped down my forehead and into my eyes as I blinked and tried to focus on her face. ‘It’s all right,’ I whispered, my teeth shattering uncontrollably. ‘I’ll be okay.’ I was stunned at the weakness of my voice.

  ‘No, it’s not!’ Anna countered harshly. Her eyes were dark and glistening.

  It took all of my willpower to reach out and take her gloved hand into my own shaking one. ‘I’m going to be fine,’ I said more firmly. Her fingers curled around mine. A single tear spilled down her face. I closed my eyes and drifted into oblivion.

  The fever broke exactly thirty-six hours later. How I lasted until then, I was not sure myself; the details were more than a little hazy. Apart from a sore head and some general grogginess that hung around for most of the next day, I was back to my normal self. It was another twenty-four hours before Anna returned to give me the news.

  ‘Your body mounted a response in the form of an elevated white cell count. Otherwise, all the other parameters have stabilised.’ For the first time in days, her eyes were bright with barely concealed excitement. ‘I’ve got the results of your latest tests.’

  I stared at her. ‘What is it?’

  ‘It’s over,’ said Anna. She smiled at my puzzled frown. ‘The infection. It’s gone.’

  My eyes widened. I was unsure I had heard her correctly. ‘Gone?’ Anna nodded. ‘Completely?’ I said insistently.

  ‘Yes. There’s no trace of active disease.’

  ‘How is that possible?’ I murmured.

  Anna hesitated. ‘I don’t know,’ she replied quietly.

  I was silent while I digested these incredible facts. ‘Did you manage to isolate the virus?’ I said finally.

  A frown crossed Anna’s face. ‘Yes. And it’s definitely the one Burnstein was working on.’ She paused and wavered again, her expression awkward. ‘You already have significant levels of protective antibodies in your blood.’

  I studied her face. ‘That’s good, isn’t it?’

  ‘It is.’ Anna’s tone was wary. ‘It’s also incredibly fast.’

  The meaning behind her words sank in. ‘You think this has something to do with surviving the seventeenth death?’ I said steadily.

  It was her turn to be quiet. ‘Yes, I suspect it does,’ she finally murmured. She gazed at me with an unreadable expression. ‘You may be truly invincible after all.’

  I stared at the glass wall, uncertain how I felt about that statement. ‘Am I still contagious?’ I said distractedly.

  ‘No,’ said Anna. A faint smile crossed her lips. ‘The virus is no longer detectable in your blood stream or your swabs. This is the final all clear.’

  I hesitated. ‘Does this mean I can get out of here?’ I said, unable to hide the hint of hope in my voice.

  Anna grinned. ‘Yes.’

  The first person to greet me outside the sterile chamber was Reid. Tomas Godard and Victor Dvorsky followed closely on his heels. ‘How do you feel?’ said Reid.

  ‘A bit stiff, but okay otherwise,’ I replied. More than anything, I was relieved to be out of the containment room.

  Godard pulled me towards him and engulfed me in a tight hug. I stiffened, then relaxed in his grip. ‘You’re a very silly boy,’ the old man muttered gruffly, stepping back. ‘Silly, but brave.’

  ‘Yeah,’ I murmured awkwardly, ‘I get that a lot.’ I ignored Reid’s knowing grin and looked at Victor. ‘Any news on Burnstein and the Crovirs?’

  ‘Burnstein’s holed up in DC, along with the rest of Vellacrus’s scientists,’ said Victor. ‘It appears they have another research facility there.’

  I thought of the glass tower on Pennsylvania Avenue we had followed Burnstein to. It felt like a lifetime ago. ‘And the vaccine?’ I said with a frown.

  Victor’s expression hardened. ‘They’ve completed the trial,’ he replied. ‘Reznak called a few hours ago. Vellacrus started the inoculation yesterday.’

  My eyes widened. I was stunned at the speed of events. Only three days had passed since we broke into the Crovirs’ lab in Germany. ‘That’s not good.’

  ‘No, it isn’t,’ said Victor with a heartfelt sigh.

  I looked around the lab, aware of the curious stares of the scientists and several Hunters. ‘Where’s your father?’

  Victor exchanged a meaningful glance with Godard. ‘In Europe,’ he replied in a low voice. ‘The Councils and the Assembly are proving more difficult to persuade than we originally anticipated.’ His eyes narrowed. ‘We suspect a few of them are deliberately delaying the process.’

  I stared at him thoughtfully. ‘What’s the plan?’ I said finally.

  A smile flitted across Victor’s face. ‘I’m glad you asked. Walk with us.’

  Thirty minutes later, I leaned back from the table that stood in the middle of the crowded operations room within the main lodge of the Bastian compound. ‘Vellacrus will no doubt have a significant number of Crovir Hunters guarding that place,’ I said, studying the satellite and surveillance photos of the Pennsylvania Avenue sky rise pinned to the wall. ‘How many men have you got?’

  ‘Enough to do the job,’ said Grigoriye with an enigmatic smile.

  I gazed steadily at the Council member. ‘I doubt that. You’ll need to leave a considerable fraction of your army behind to guard the Godards. That doesn’t leave you with a large enough number.’

  Costas frowned. ‘You’ll do well not to question your superiors, Soul.’

  Tense silence followed the Bastian immortal’s words. ‘You forget,’ I said quietly. ‘I’m not a Hunter.’

  Costas half rose from his seat, his face red. ‘I will not—’

  ‘Lucas is right,’ Victor interrupted sharply. Costas settled in his chair with a disgruntled expression. ‘We’d be lucky to reach their lab with our current numbers,’ Victor added.

  ‘I have a suggestion,’ said Reid. He was leaning against the wall and slowly rolling a cigarette between his fingers; his gaze held mine steadily. ‘Christophe Lacroix.’

  Mutters arose around the table. The Bastians glanced at each other in confusion.

  ‘Who’s this—Lacroix?’ said Costas with a scowl.

  I ignored the immortal and stared at Reid. ‘That’s gonna require some leap of faith from the man,’ I said quietly.

  A grin lit Reid’s face. ‘After what he witnessed in Vienna, he’ll be begging us for a piece of the action.’

  I smiled at that. ‘Solito?’ I suggested.

 
; Reid’s grin widened. ‘We owe him. Besides, the more the merrier, I always say,’ he added with a shrug.

  A strangled sound escaped Costas’s lips. ‘Will one of you tell us what the hell you’re talking about?!’ he roared.

  Over the next ten minutes, Reid and I explained about our involvement with the FBI and the French detective. Costas and Grigoriye listened with mounting skepticism. Victor watched us silently.

  ‘Do you seriously expect us to enlist the help of humans in the affairs of immortals?’ Grigoriye eventually said with a frown. Reid’s eyebrows rose. ‘Present company excluded, of course,’ the Bastian added grudgingly.

  ‘Humans have as much at stake here as immortals, although they’re yet to be aware of that fact,’ I said, glancing at Victor. ‘They could tip the balance in our favour.’

  ‘Are you suggesting we reveal the affairs of our race to a bunch of—of mortals?!’ Costas barked derisively. ‘You think we’re just suddenly going to get friendly with them, after thousands of years of keeping them out of our business?’ He turned to Victor. ‘This is preposterous!’

  ‘After what went down at the Hauptbahnhof and in Vienna, I would be surprised if they didn’t suspect something already,’ I said calmly, staring at Victor. ‘It’s your decision.’ I glanced at Reid and shrugged. ‘We trust these men.’

  Victor held my gaze for timeless seconds. ‘Call them,’ he said finally.

  It was almost midnight when we finally ended our negotiations with the FBI and Interpol. Lacroix was taking a chartered flight from Paris later that night with some twenty odd agents from Europe, the Swiss and the Austrians having been all too keen to offer their assistance. Solito’s boss promised us another eighty men, including two SWAT teams from the local Metropolitan Police. Homeland Security and the CDC had been placed on high alert and standby.

  ‘You have friends in high places,’ I murmured to Victor as the room slowly cleared. I had listened while he spoke with various senior officials at the Pentagon and in the White House and found myself strangely unsurprised by their discussions. ‘We didn’t really need to contact Lacroix and Solito, did we?’

  A grim smile crossed the immortal’s face. ‘Let’s just say that the top brass like to have good grounds to offer us their assistance. The events in DC and Europe are more than enough reason to justify this operation under the counter terrorism act.’ Victor paused. ‘The few mortals who know of our existence are extremely wary of us, understandably so,’ he added in a low voice. ‘After all, we’ve interfered with and shaped the course of human history for almost two millennia.’ He sighed. ‘Neither side wishes to see a war between our races, us more so than the humans. That’s why we requested observer status at the UN and maintain close ties with the political leaders of the world.’

  ‘I’m sorry to interrupt, but has anyone given any thought to the mortals who’ll be working with us on the ground?’ said Grigoriye. The Bastian Council member hovered in the doorway, a frown on his face. ‘It won’t be easy to hide the abilities of our kind from them. They’re bound to talk.’

  ‘Not if we spread the rumour that the Crovirs possess new, technologically advanced body armour and a fast healing serum that confers an almost unnatural ability to survive otherwise mortal wounds,’ said Reid. He shrugged. ‘Your men will just have to be extra careful. Besides, the FBI will probably give us body vests.’

  Costas snorted. ‘Good God, I never thought I’d see the day when an immortal would have to wear human armor,’ he said under his breath as he stormed out of the room.

  Victor grimaced and glanced at his watch. ‘We have eight hours before we leave. I suggest we get some rest.’

  I had been given a room on the ground floor at the back of the main lodge. After grabbing a quick bite, I showered and got into bed. The mattress was soft and more comfortable than the one I had been forced to lie on for the last three days. Still, although I felt physically drained, sleep proved elusive. I stared at the ceiling for what felt like hours before eventually drifting off.

  A sound woke me some time later. A soft breeze was blowing in through the open window. Light from a nearby security lamp flickered through the swaying curtains and cast moving shadows across the ceiling and walls of the bedroom.

  There was a creak from the doorway.

  I lifted my head off the pillow and stared at the figure that stood there. ‘Anna?’ I said hesitantly.

  She crossed the floor silently, bare feet sliding over the dark wood, and paused at the side of the bed. Her eyes were unreadable in the gloom. She pulled the covers back and crawled into the space next to me.

  Her voice was a bare whisper in the night. ‘Don’t speak.’

  Then, her lips covered mine.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  She was gone the next morning. I blinked, rolled over and stared blindly at the ceiling. Distant sounds of activity came through the bedroom door as Dvorsky’s men prepared for the upcoming mission.

  Memories from the night flooded my mind. The softness of her skin under my fingers. The taste of her mouth beneath my lips. The strength in her warm and supple legs as they clung to my waist. Her nails digging into my back. Her quiet, breathless moans as she arched beneath me. And throughout it all, the heady smell of oranges that infused the space around our bodies, drowning me in her scent.

  Someone rapped sharply on the door, startling me. ‘You up?’ said Reid from outside.

  ‘Ah-huh.’ I sat up and swung my legs off the bed, trying to suppress the sensual images still flashing past my eyes.

  ‘Get your butt moving. We leave in thirty minutes.’

  A column of SUVs and vans stood waiting on the driveway at the bottom of the porch when I walked outside the lodge moments later. I paused as I got my first daylight look at the Bastian compound.

  The complex was positioned near the summit of a peak and was surrounded by thick oak and pine forests. The land fell away to the front in carefully carved terraces that accommodated a collection of buildings and underground entrances, all of them artfully camouflaged to blend in the green and brown background. Guards with guns patrolled the grounds. The outer perimeter was not visible from where I stood.

  Through a gap between the trees, I caught a view of blue skies and a distant range, its tips crowned in wisps of thin clouds and fading morning mist.

  ‘We’re in Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains,’ said Reid at my side. He lit up, inhaled deeply and blew out a smoke ring. ‘Impressive, isn’t it? Victor tells me they’ve had this place for over sixty years.’ He glanced at me and smiled faintly. ‘It’s bigger than the FBI’s training grounds in Quantico.’

  The Bastian convoy was getting ready to move. I watched Costas and Victor climb inside one of the trucks and Grigoriye speak to them briefly through the open window: the Council member was staying behind to guard the complex along with a hundred Bastian Hunters.

  Footsteps sounded behind me. Tomas Godard appeared at my side. ‘Be careful,’ he said simply and handed over the daisho.

  My fingers closed gratefully over the familiar handles. ‘I will. Thank you.’ I slipped the blades into my belt. ‘Say goodbye to Anna for me.’

  The drive to DC took a little over two hours. As we drew closer to the city, the tension inside the vehicle we travelled in rose palpably. I glanced at Reid. He smiled at me grimly. Shortly after eleven, we reached a deserted parking lot close to the Washington Circle Park. Lacroix and the FBI were already there.

  Solito’s boss was a burly Texan called John McCabe. The man frowned heavily as he shook hands with Victor. ‘I have direct orders from the Oval Office to follow your instructions to the letter,’ he said gruffly. He chomped down on a cigar stub. ‘I don’t know who you are, Mister, but if you put the lives of my men in jeopardy, there’ll be hell to pay, whatever the Attorney General says.’

  ‘Same here,’ said Lacroix coolly.

  A faint smile dawned on Victor’s lips. ‘Rest assured that our organization will do the utmost to p
revent any such misfortunes.’

  Lacroix glanced at me. ‘You wouldn’t want to tell us the name of this organization of yours, by any chance?’ said the Frenchman cynically. ‘It appears to have a great deal of influence with Heads of States on both sides of the Atlantic.’

  Costas scowled. ‘That’s none of your concern. You know far too much as it is,’ growled the Bastian Council member.

  Discontented mutters arose among the agents behind McCabe and Lacroix. ‘Not exactly a people person, is he?’ Reid muttered. Despite the anxiety humming through my veins, my lips twisted in a wry grin.

  Victor sighed. ‘Look, there are sound and valid reasons why we must keep our identities a secret from you,’ he said, staring the FBI chief and the Frenchman firmly in the eye. ‘I’m afraid that to say more would indeed, as Costas states, reveal too much.’ He turned to the surveillance photos of the Pennsylvania Avenue sky rise spread across the hood of a vehicle. ‘In any case, your men won’t be going higher than the tenth floor.’

  ‘And why is that?’ said Lacroix belligerently.

  Victor glanced at him. ‘Because we have more experience dealing with these people than you do,’ he said curtly. The Frenchman looked unconvinced. A Bastian tech gave Victor a handful of pictures. He placed them over the FBI surveillance photos. ‘These are the latest thermal satellites images we have of the tower.’

  ‘Wow.’ Solito’s eyebrows rose as he studied the prints. ‘Those look a helluva lot better than ours.’

  ‘Oh, we’re using the latest in laser satellite technology,’ said the tech who brought the pictures with an enthusiastic smile. His expression sobered at Costas’s threatening stare. The tech cleared his throat and retreated silently in the background.

  Solito’s eyes widened. ‘How did you guys get your hands on that kind of money?’ Silence fell across the parking lot. The FBI analyst stared at the crowd of frowning faces. ‘Forget I asked,’ he muttered.