by Jamie Davis
“Quinn, I…”
Quinn stared into her face for a few seconds and then nodded and pulled her to the car.
Taylor got in, hardly noticing Clark in the driver’s seat. Quinn shut the back door and climbed in the front passenger seat, and the car pulled away from the curb. Clark headed for the interstate ramp. They drove back north to the farmhouse and safety…maybe.
Chapter Thirteen
Quinn paced across the grass outside the farmhouse. “Honestly, Clark, I’ve never seen her like this before. She’s not scared of anything.”
“If what she describes is true, she came face to face with an ancient vampire. That’s enough to scare anyone.”
Quinn looked past Clark’s shoulder at the house. They’d come out here under the auspices of doing some additional training work, but it was really to discuss what had happened to Quinn’s friend.
“You don’t understand Taylor the way I do. I’ve never seen her afraid of anything. She doesn’t jump when you leap out and yell, “boo.” It’s like she’s impervious. She laughs through scary movies.”
“Not anymore.” Clark nodded toward the house. “You saw her in there. She kept going on about how she could still feel his chill breath on her neck as she stood helpless to do anything. I’ve seen it before, Quinn. When you come face to face with the thing that scares you the most, it changes you.”
“But she’s never been afraid of vampires. Ever.”
“Not vampires, Quinn,” Clark said. “She’s afraid of being helpless to defend herself. I think it’s PTSD from something that happened to her sometime in her past. Do you know much about her?”
“No, only what she’s told me since we met when she sort of rescued me from the streets. How do we fix her?”
Clark shook his head. “Maybe we don’t. It will likely take some level of professional help, which we don’t have the time or the resources for, so…”
“So why are you telling me any of this? You’re no help at all.” Quinn had her hands set on her hips. Her anger started to boil over inside. She’d let her friend walk into a vampire’s lair knowing all along it should have been her. She was the huntress, not Taylor.
“I’m telling you because we still need her. I need to push her to get back to work, activating that box thing she installed sooner rather than later. We know they’re close to enacting their plan, and we have to try to get ahead of them somehow.”
“Aren’t you afraid the whole vampire attack thing was related somehow to why she was there? Maybe they realized what she was doing.” Quinn said.
“Maybe, but I doubt it. Taylor did say the box was transmitting a signal. They wouldn’t leave it in place like that. Plus, vampires are apex predators, and Taylor’s an attractive and capable young woman. That’s like catnip to an old vamp like him. She told you how she found out he watched all the employees who worked for him. He probably just saw her hard at work, liked what he saw, and decided he was hungry. It might have even been a sort of twisted compliment. He might have planned on turning her.”
“You’re just guessing. You can’t be sure.”
“No,” Clark said. “But I can’t just give up, either. The only way we win this is if it was a coincidence. I’m counting on that.”
“Okay, what’s the game plan?” Quinn asked. “I understand you need her to get to work. I’m not going to let you go in there and bully her, though.”
“Hopefully, Miranda has been able to soothe some of what’s bothering her most. She might be able to do something with her magic to help. Let’s go see. We’ll play it by ear. We need her to check on that box she left and finish up her VR rig. I want both of us to be able to go in there and do what hunters do best when evil is afoot. Those slayers have got to be trying to disrupt the Fae summit that’s coming to town, probably by killing or kidnapping one of the attendees.”
“Clark, let me take the lead when we get inside. I know her and how important all this is. I’ll find a way to get her back to work.”
Clark nodded. He and Quinn headed back into the farmhouse. Miranda and Taylor sat at the small table in the kitchen with steaming cups of tea steeping in front of them. They spoke in low tones as the other two entered. The conversation stopped, and Taylor turned to check who had come in behind her. She’d been crying; the damp streaks down her cheeks and red eyes gave it away.
She stood up to face Quinn and Clark. “Clark. I need a new knife, maybe two. Something bigger this time.”
“Something bigger wouldn’t have fit in your purse the way the last one did.”
“Yeah, well, the one I had was barely able to protect me.”
Quinn shrugged. “I don’t know, Taylor, it seems like you made it work just fine. For all we know, he’s still pinned to that desk downtown. You did really well for someone who faced down a vampire on her own. I’m not sure I could do it, and I’m the huntress here. You said he probably had a whole office full of telemarketing stockbrokers working under his mind powers.”
Miranda cleared her throat. “It’s called being a thrall. That’s the correct term for when a vampire makes a human’s will subject to their suggestion and control.”
Quinn glared at Miranda. Now wasn’t the time for a vocabulary lesson.
Taylor shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what you call it. I don’t know how he’s tied up with the remnants of VirSync, but it’s definitely there. I ran into Myles Hickman and saw evidence of what are probably eight full VR setups in there that they can use. There might be more elsewhere, but those were the ones I saw.”
Clark nodded at Quinn, and she knew this was her opening. “About that,” Quinn began. “You said you managed to get your gadget installed. How soon will it be ready to radio home or whatever you set it up to do?”
“It’s ready now. I just have to log in to the computer here. Then we’re all set. It shouldn’t take me too long to penetrate their systems with the signal interrupter in place.”
Clark stepped over to the doorway leading to the dining room and glanced at the table where all the gear was laid out. “So, you’ve got two full VR rigs ready to go?”
“Uh about that,” Taylor said. “It turns out we only grabbed enough extra gear to cobble together one headset for the VR dive. I configured it for Quinn because she’s been in before and knows what to expect. I don’t know how you’d react to it.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m the one who’s going in if there’s only one, not Quinn.”
Taylor paused and shook her head, “It’s keyed to her brain scan. I found it in the software we jacked from one of the stolen drives. I think that’s an essential part of the process. If we don’t have one for you, it could be awful.”
“What? A brain scan?” Clark asked. “Where am I supposed to get one of those?”
Quinn jumped in. “I think that’s her point, Clark. Look, I’m good with it. I’ve been in there before, and I know what the slayers they send out will be able to do. The best part is I can now do even more. Plus, you’ve said I’ll probably gain more skills once I’m back in there.”
“Not alone.”
“I was alone before. The best you could do was help me get Miranda away once I rescued her.”
Miranda said, “It might work better anyway since you can remain in the real world while wherever Quinn goes, she’ll eventually have to return here. If we can come up with a way for her to signal you once she’s inside, you can jump in the car and head to her location to help. Then when we have to pull her out, you’ll still be there to lock things down and help any victims out.”
“How’s she going to carry stuff with her?” Clark asked. “I thought she could only appear with stuff from the arsenal supplied by the system?”
Miranda smiled. “That’s the good news. Taylor and I think we discovered a way using the tech/magic interface to allow Quinn a limited number of items to transfer with her inside. It wouldn’t be much, but at least she could take the real Bowie you gave her. Plus, that’s actually enchanted and bles
sed, which will help inside when in battle. It’s possible that maybe her phone will transfer through, too.”
“How’d you manage that?” Quinn asked. “I figured that was a non-starter since VirSync wasn’t able to do it.”
“They may not have wanted to,” Taylor suggested. “Since they could equip you with anything they wanted you to have inside the VR, they didn’t need you or want you to take anything inside. Your amulet circumvented that somehow with its own magic.”
Quinn’s hand came up to brush against the amulet hanging in view around her neck.
“Taylor’s right.” Miranda continued. “That amulet is what gave us the idea to try it. It required some tweaking, but we think it will work.”
“What if it doesn’t?” Clark asked. “We don’t want her in there unarmed.”
Taylor shook her head. “She should just be able to dial up her regular equipment list and manually equip anything that doesn’t come through. We’ve thought of all that. We’re ready for her to go and get this done.”
Clark stood silent for a long time, then he gestured to the dining room and the computer setup Taylor had created. “Then do what you need to do. I’ve got a feeling something is going to happen soon. We need to be ready.”
Quinn smiled. The excitement of getting back into the VR system, this time on her own terms, had her buzzing with energy. She wanted to kick some more ass. The fight with the werewolves the other night had given her a fresh taste of what she could do, and she wanted more.
Chapter Fourteen
It was a good thing Quinn was ready to go. As soon as Taylor got her hack in place, the surveillance worm pinged her computer. The VR systems downtown were firing up for a mission. It woke them all out of a dead sleep, thanks to the joint alarms Taylor had set up on all their phones.
Ten minutes later, they all stood around the dining table while Taylor tapped away at the keyboard, and Miranda went over the spells she would have to cast one last time.
Quinn stood off to one side in black jeans, black boots, a black t-shirt, and her leather jacket. Her Bowie hung down in the shoulder-holster under her right arm. The only other thing she had was the phone in her pocket and a wireless earpiece connected to it.
“How much longer,” Clark asked.
“I’m coding on the fly here,” Taylor snapped. “Let me concentrate, or I could send Quinn to the arctic circle by accident.”
Clark started pacing around the room, circling the table. He pointed to it. “Quinn, you’d better get ready and lie down. As soon as Taylor says the word, we have to send you after them. They’ll have a head start on you. Time is against us here.”
Quinn climbed up onto the table and laid down with her head next to the three flatscreens. Her feet hung off the other end from the mid-calf down. Still, that was the best they could do unless she was going to lie down on the floor.
Taylor snapped her fingers. “Got it. Okay, they’ve sent four people in this time. From the profiles I can see in their system, they’re each one of the demon-possessed candidates.”
“Anyone we know?” Quinn asked.
“No, at least not well. I scanned the names. They’re using people from among the older candidates who were there before us.”
“Quinn,” Clark said. “Even if you knew them, they’re not going to listen to reason. Don’t hesitate to kill them. They’re damned already, so your soul is safe because you’re now working in the light.”
She turned her head and craned her neck around to see Taylor between the monitors. “Does it tell you who their target is, or am I going in blind?”
“All I can see is the two men and two women they sent inside. There’s no reference to the target.” Taylor glanced at Miranda. “You ready to do this? They’ve made the transit. We need to send you now. All I can tell is it’s somewhere downtown, near the Inner Harbor and the stadiums.”
“I’m ready.”
Miranda looked down at Quinn, smiled, and laid a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’ll bring you back at the first sign of trouble.”
“No, that’s what the phone connection is for. Leave me in there until I call for an extraction. If you take me out too soon, I might not be able to save whoever it is they’re after.”
Clark headed for the door. “I’ll head downtown now. Call me when you have a fixed location for the target.”
Quinn nodded and grabbed the VR visor and pulled it down over her eyes.
Taylor’s voice came over the integrated headphones. “See ya in a little while. Don’t hog all the fun.”
Before Quinn could answer, Taylor activated the system while Miranda started chanting. Two seconds later, blackness crashed down around her and a wave of overwhelming nausea hit her. Her hands clutched her gut. Before she had a chance to vomit, though, there was a flash, and she was no longer in the farmhouse.
———
Quinn opened her eyes to find herself standing on a grassy hillside, staring at the lights of the city around her. Before she had a chance to get her bearings, she lurched forward. Quinn fell to her knees, spilling the contents of her stomach into the grass as the nausea that had started at the farmhouse completed its course.
She rested on her hands and knees while she spat to clear her mouth. “Damn, Taylor,” Quinn muttered, “looks like you didn’t get the gear dialed in as well as you thought.”
Sitting back on her haunches, she glanced around and tried to figure out exactly where she was. Taylor and Miranda were supposed to have sent her somewhere near Baltimore’s Inner Harbor tourist district. This wasn’t it. She could see the water from the hill she was on so it could be nearby.
Standing and waiting for the residual dizziness to dissipate, Quinn took in the area around her. An old cannon, painted black, was mounted nearby pointed out over the water.
I’m on Federal Hill, Quinn thought as she realized where she’d landed. She didn’t see the harbor area, so she must be on the northeastern side of the park. She turned and walked to the top, following the path to the far side until she could see the shops and restaurants that made up the two main structures of the Inner Harbor.
It was late, and most of the establishments were already closed. Still, the area was well-lit and recognizable below her. A chirp in her ear reminded her to check in. She patted herself down to make sure she had everything. A quick search confirmed her Bowie, the phone, and the wireless earpiece had all survived the transit.
Quinn reached up to tap the button on the earpiece as the phone chirped again. The connection opened.
“Quinn, can you hear me?” Taylor asked.
“I’m here. I landed on Federal Hill, just east of the harbor.”
She realized they had her in a three-way call when she heard Clark’s voice, too.
“Okay, I’m on the way. Track down the slayers and try to get to their target ahead of them.”
“I know what I need to do. I’ll check back in when I find out what’s going on.”
“We’re monitoring you from here. I can see your brain wave pattern coming back over the connection.”
“Good, be ready to bring me back in a hurry if I need it.”
“Don’t worry, we’ve got you.”
Quinn reached up and tapped the earpiece to close the call and turned in a full circle, searching for any sign of the VirSync slayers. They should have arrived in the area just ahead of her. That meant they were probably still working to acquire their target. She had to be faster and get ahead of them.
“I need a map,” Quinn said to herself, not expecting an answer.
To her surprise, a sort of transparent overlay showed up on top of everything she could see. It took her a few seconds, but she soon spotted her location as a small pulsing blue dot. With a bit of concentration, Quinn discovered she could zoom in and out and move across the map if she needed it.
Quinn decided to try out some of the things she could do in the old VirSync system and tried to activate her tracking ability in conjunction with t
he map. A bit more concentration and… Bingo! Four red dots appeared on the map. It looked like they were a few blocks away in the residential part of the Federal Hill neighborhood, heading south of her position. If she hurried, she could catch up with them.
She didn’t want a fight, or at least not yet. She had to break through their search line and try to get ahead of them. Then she could search for herself and maybe track in on their target. Then she could get them to safety. First, she had to catch them, and that meant she needed speed.
Bringing up the stamina bar was almost second nature now. Quinn drew down about ten percent of the available energy and poured it into her strength and speed. She took off at a run, moving across the top of the hill at a blurring pace. She reached the first of the well-maintained brick row homes in this affluent neighborhood and darted down the first street.
A glimpse of a fire escape down an alley gave her an idea. She twisted at the waist without slowing, changing her direction in a heartbeat. The jolt to her legs caused a slight twinge of pain, but she ignored it.
Leaping from ten feet away, Quinn cleared the second-floor fire escape railing with ease. She didn’t slow at all as she bounded around and up the next three levels until she stood atop the slightly sloped roof. She looked down the row of houses.
“This is insane,” Quinn thought. If her plan worked, though, she’d run right past the slayers without them being any wiser.
Pushing off from the low parapet at the building’s edge, Quinn ran along the peak of the attached rooftops. She got to the end of the row, and on pure instinct, leaped as far as she could.
Exhilaration filled her as she landed on the roof across the street. She resisted the urge to shout with glee and kept going. This was like ultimate parkour.
Just before the end of the next block, Quinn spotted the first of the slayers. The black-clad figure slipped from shadow to shadow in the street below. It was unlikely any of the residents would be able to see them. To Quinn, her vision enhanced by the huntress amulet, the VR system, or maybe a bit of both, the slayer appeared as clear as day. It looked like it could be one of the males.
