The Crucible: A Lawson Vampire Novel (The Lawson Vampire Series)

by Jon F. Merz

  “When it works, you’ll be thanking me.”

  I wanted to laugh. She looked ridiculous hanging out up on the ceiling, but she was right, the crazy stuff worked like a charm sometimes. I counted off in my head and held up my fingers when I was close to one. Then I called out to the guards.

  At first, they ignored me. So I called again. This time, one of them looked into the cell.

  “She’s gone,” I said simply.

  The guard shook his head and told me he didn’t understand English.

  I gestured around the cell. “Look, she’s gone. She vanished. I don’t know where she went.”

  This time, his head swiveled back and forth. Then I heard a lot of excited chatter from outside the cell. A moment later, I heard the beeps of the digital keypad and then the clunk of the lock opening. Of course, they were coming into the cell. They probably feared for their lives if Wei found out one of us had escaped. And as well they should have been scared. If I was in their shoes, I wouldn’t want Wei mad at me.

  The door opened and they entered warily, looking around. One of them had his pistol out and pointed at me. I sat completely still on the bunk with my hands folded on my lap in front of me.

  The second guard nodded at me. “Where is she?” he asked in halting English.

  “I don’t know. She disappeared.”

  I could see them thinking back to what they’d seen already. They knew about the Cloak. But Wei had the Cloak. So how could Talya have vanished. As their brains were sorting that through, Talya let go of the wall and crashed down atop them.

  I came off the bunk immediately and engaged the guard with the gun while Talya handled the one behind.

  To his credit, the guard abandoned the pistol as soon as he realized that I was already in too close. Instead, he lashed out with a backhand aimed at my face. I ducked under the swing and drove an uppercut into his solar plexus. He doubled over and I grabbed his head in both hands then jerked it to one side. The pop of his vertebrae told me he was done and I let him slip to the floor.

  Talya had already killed the second guard. We arranged their bodies as much of the way out of sight as was possible.

  “This won’t fool anyone,” she said.

  “True, but even if it buys us a little time, then all the better.” I finished with the bodies and stood back. It would have been good if we could get out of here without killing anyone, but the fact was they could easily be a threat if we left them alive. And frankly, I didn’t need anymore threats than we already faced.

  “Ready?”

  Talya nodded. “Where to?”

  “We’ve got to find Wei. I have to assume that Jack’s body is with him. I need to know he’s dead before I can leave.”

  Talya sighed. “I get it. I don’t like it, but I get it. With any luck, Wei won’t expect us. Once word gets out of our escape, he might simply assume we made for the outside world and focus his attention there.”

  I smiled. “You really believe that?”

  Talya shrugged. “Stranger things have happened. But probably not.”

  “Always honest.”

  “Always.”

  We moved out of the cell armed with weapons now. The problem was, anyone we ran into was going to shoot first and ask questions later. Without the Cloak, we were completely exposed. It would have helped immensely if we could have stolen some uniforms, but both the guards were too small for either of us. And wearing a tight uniform would hamper our movement. It was better to go as we were and know that we at least had freedom of movement if we needed to engage someone in combat.

  I tried to remember the way back to where we’d come from, but it took Talya to get us there. She always seemed to have a knack for finding her way around. And this time was no different. Before I knew it, we were getting closer to Wei’s inner sanctum.

  The corridor before us branched left and right and we paused. I looked at Talya, but she shrugged. She didn’t know which direction we needed to go in.

  I heard sound behind us and we ducked around the corner to the left. I prayed that whoever was coming was going to head to the right. Imagine my surprise when I saw the Silencer turn right and head down the branch.

  Talya didn’t hesitate and neither did I. This was the opportunity we were waiting for.

  Talya stepped up and clicked the safety off her pistol.

  The Silencer froze. She was experienced enough to know the sound and she knew that Talya wouldn’t hesitate to drop her if she tried anything. So instead, she turned around nice and slow.

  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  Talya shrugged. “Is that a compliment?”

  The Silencer frowned. “Wei was a fool for putting you in that cell. He should have kept his word and let me kill you both. We wouldn’t be having this conversation now if he had.”

  I smiled. “Wei has big dreams about how he wants to kill us apparently.”

  She shook her head in disgust. “That’s always been his problem: he never simply gets rid of people. There’s always got to be some sort of show. It’s stupid.”

  “Regardless,” I said. “We’re out and we need to get into his office. You’re going to help us.”

  “Whatever.” The Silencer seemed entirely nonplussed. I suppose that she was simply used to this line of work to the extent that things like this simply didn’t faze her any longer. And she’d been around longer than most seasoned operatives. For all I knew, she was thinking several steps ahead of me.

  She thumbed over her shoulder. “His office is this way. Stand behind me if you want to get in without his guards seeing you. But it’s narrow.” She eyed me. “You’ll want to go left as soon as we enter so you don’t frame the doorway and present a better target for them. They usually stand to his right side.”

  I nodded but I wasn’t sure if I believed her or not. She could have told me anything and I wouldn’t know if it was the truth. To be honest, I didn’t really care. The sooner we got in there, the better. I could deal with Wei and find out if Jack was dead.

  “Let’s go.”

  The Silencer turned around and started walking. Talya had her pistol leveled on the base of her skull and I nudged her.

  “Aim lower. She’s one of my kind, remember?”

  “Right.” Talya lowered the pistol so it now aimed in the center of her back. Any round that fired would punch its way through the Silencer’s heart and virtually be guaranteed to kill her.

  We moved down the right corridor and wound up outside a heavy wooden door that seemed strangely out of place given the metallic interiors of the facility.

  The Silencer looked over her shoulder at us. “Ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  She knocked once, waited and then turned the door knob. As she moved into the room, Talya suddenly shoved her forward. I went left and Talya went right. I was already squeezing the trigger on my pistol at the guards on the right side of Wei, who sat behind a big imposing desk.

  The guards didn’t have a chance to react. Even as they brought their assault rifles up, I’d fired four times. Two rounds for each and the bullets smacked into their skulls, tossing them back against the wall.

  Talya had her gun still leveled on the Silencer, although she could have easily redirected to Wei if need be.

  I saw no movement from the guards and then pivoted to bring my weapon on line with Wei’s head. “Howdy.”

  He shook his head. “Well, this is something of a surprise. I must say you certainly are a hard man to keep imprisoned.”

  “I had some help from a lovely woman.”

  Wei frowned as he looked at the Silencer. “And apparently some other help as well.”

  I shook my head. “She had nothing to do with this. We ambushed her back in the hallway.”

  “I find that hard to believe.”

  “Believe it or not, it’s the truth. Why would I protect her?”

  “You wouldn’t,” said Wei. “But I still find it suspicious.”

  The Silencer
sighed. “Your paranoia will be the death of you. I warned you what might happen. You should have given them to me and this wouldn’t be an issue. But instead, you had to be stubborn and now we’re in this situation.”

  I’d never heard of anyone talking to Wei like that and living, but obviously, the Silencer didn’t care. It was interesting to see the look on Wei’s face when he realized that she didn’t care if he was upset with her or not.

  “You’ve got a lot of opinions, don’t you?”

  “Does it matter?”

  Wei shrugged. “I’m not sure I like this new attitude. I find it…unsettling.”

  “Enough,” I snapped. “I’m not here to play marriage counselor.”

  “And why are you here?’ asked Wei. “After all, if I had been the one to escape, I certainly wouldn’t stick around. I’d be heading back to the real world outside and hoping I had enough of a head start to make it out alive. But here you are. Curious.”

  “Where’s the body?”

  “You saw what happened to the body. The creature ate him. There’s nothing left, I assure you.”

  “Not Xuan Xiang. The body of my young friend.”

  “Ah,” said Wei. “Yes, your friend. Hmm, so that’s it. You’re sentimental. Too close to him to let go, eh?”

  “I need to know if he’s really dead.”

  “Would that put your mind at ease if he was? If you could leave here in good conscience knowing that you did all you could do and it wasn’t enough in the end?”

  “Just answer the question, Wei.”

  But Wei just smiled. “Why not ask him yourself?”

  31

  I turned and saw a door that I hadn’t noticed before because it had been obscured by a large topographical map of the surrounding area. Now it slid back to reveal a large metallic portal that opened. From the other side, two more soldiers wheeled in what appeared to be a large aquarium of sorts. Green fluorescent liquid filled the container.

  And Jack floated in the mixture.

  An air hose and mask covered his face and his limbs were stretched out to four fixed points on either side of the tank. His eyes were closed. For all I knew, he could have been dead and Wei was simply trying to fool me. But even as soon as I thought that, I knew it wasn’t true.

  “Your friend is quite an intriguing specimen,” said Wei. “I mean, I knew that your race had certain special abilities - namely your incredible regenerative powers - but that young one there has something else that he can do. Isn’t that so?”

  “He’s an Invoker,” I said. “He can conjure the spirits of dead vampires to assist him during times of need.”

  Wei nodded. “And that is just a small sampling of his actual skill. Invokers are a rarity in your culture, are they not?”

  “They’re not common.”

  “And training them takes years. After all, being able to summon forces from the after life is pretty draining I would imagine.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know the specifics. You’d have to ask him.”

  Wei smiled. “Actually, I don’t need to ask him at all. You see, I have access to another Invoker. One content to answer all of my questions and then some.”

  “Who?”

  “Me,” said the Silencer.

  The look on my face must have been pretty amusing to Wei because he laughed out loud at me and then clapped his hands. “Oh my, our friend Lawson here didn’t see that one coming.”

  Talya nudged the Silencer. “Don’t forget I’ve got this gun aimed right at your heart. You even tick the temperature up a single degree and I shoot you dead.”

  I was glad that I’d briefed Talya on the characteristics of Invoker skills years ago. Unlike human spirits which can cause the room temperature to grow cold, vampire spirits have the opposite effect. It can turn into a Turkish steam bath if you get an Invoker cranked up.

  The Silencer shook her head. “I’m not doing anything. That’s precisely why the young one is being held in that container right now.”

  I eyed Wei. “What’s she talking about?”

  Wei sighed. “Oh, nothing that we won’t resolve eventually. I had an idea that I needed her help with and she refused. Called it insane.”

  “You? Insane? Wow, I never would have thought-“

  The Silencer interrupted me. “He wanted me to summon a vampire spirit and embed it in the body of one of those creatures they found in the earth.”

  “The spider moles?” I stared at Wei. “Why on earth would you do that?”

  Wei leaned back in his chair. “Because I can and because it would help me control the other creatures. They’re not the brightest things and don’t take to weaponization very well.”

  “You want to weaponize them?”

  “Of course,” said Wei. “Can you imagine a whole squadron of those terrifying things obeying every order I give them? They could burrow right under the earth and emerge to wreak havoc anywhere I wanted them to go. I have plans to send them under the oceans of the world. I could threaten to unleash them anywhere and hold the world hostage to whatever I dreamed up.”

  “You know, most crazies just want to get their hands on some nukes or a dirty bomb to achieve their objectives.”

  “Dirty bombs are so yesterday,” said Wei. “The real power comes from the thought of what could possibly happen. After all, I don’t want the planet contaminated to the point it becomes unusable when I take it over. That would be foolish. And it only illuminates the small mindedness of those who aspire to terrorism. I want access to everything. And if I don’t get it, then I send a squad of my beauties to attack infrastructure systems, data backups secure facilities, energy grids, what have you. Nothing would be immune from it because the spider moles can burrow into literally anything. We’ve tested their abilities an they are nothing short of astounding.”

  “So why a vampire spirit?”

  Wei raised his hand. “Why not? Using an Invoker, I can embed one and then use it to control the others.”

  “From what I’ve gathered, spirits of any race don’t like someone trying to control them. Now, obviously, I’m not an Invoker, but it seems to me that would be an awfully dangerous proposition.”

  “I tried to tell him that,” said the Silencer. “He has chosen to disregard my advice.”

  I looked at Wei. The smug smile on his face made me want to puke. “You’ve got an Invoker here telling you the idea isn’t sound and yet you still want to proceed? Wow. I’m actually surprised that you’d so willingly commit suicide like this.”

  “I’m not committing anything,” said Wei. “Except perhaps murders on a grand scale. My beasts do get hungry, after all. You saw what they did to Xuan Xiang’s body.”

  “Yeah, I saw it. It was disgusting. So you cooked this whole scheme up to lure me here with Jack in tow?”

  Wei sniffed. “Lawson, you give me far too much credit. A great leader must be able to see opportunities when they present themselves and then act upon those opportunities. This is what differentiates a worker or a drone from the exalted status of leadership. This facility’s main purpose is to harvest the creatures and trap them. Xuan Xiang asked for some space here because he knew a remote location would be more secure than one in, say, Beijing. He figured there was no way that you would risk coming here - especially if you couldn’t find it.”

  “Go on.”

  “But she told us there was one potential method you could use if you happened to think of it.”

  “Tracing you back by way of the spirit link.”

  Wei nodded. “Exactly. We knew the chances were remote. There was no guarantee the young one even knew he had that ability. So I certainly didn’t devote any real attention to the prospect.” He smiled. “But then we started seeing signs that perhaps we were wrong. And it seemed possible that you had actually managed to penetrate the installation.”

  I glanced at the Silencer. “Why were you here?”

  “Wei called me in to discuss the feasibility of embedding a spirit in the spider
mole. I told him he was nuts.”

  “Verbatim, actually,” said Wei. “But then another opportunity presented itself - your young friend. And I was then able to call upon her other skills to make sure I was able to obtain his help.”

  I stared at the Silencer. “What skills?”

  “The ones you know best,” said Wei. “Her marksmanship.”

  The Silencer shrugged. “Don’t look so angry, Lawson. It’s because of me that he’s even still alive. If any of Wei’s other troops had tired to make the shot, they would have ended up killing him.”

  “You shot him?”

  The Silencer nodded. “I was positioned midway down the pit and had a perfect angle on to your position. All it took was just patience. But I have plenty of that.”

  I shook my head. “This is crazy. How did you know we’d be there?”

  “Because we put a tracker on your girlfriend,” said Wei. “And then we allowed her to escape when it became evident that you were in the facility.”

  “But you didn’t know we had Jack with us at that point.”

  Wei sighed. “Lawson, you really need to stop being so naive. I had access to two members of your race. Two members who know the inner workings of your communications systems, security protocols, and the like. Do you really imagine that your grid is secure? It’s not. And when Xuan Xiang made contact with you in New York City, we knew you’d end up bringing the young Invoker along. How else could you have established contact with us in the condominium?”

  I turned to the Silencer again. “It was you.”

  She smiled. “It takes more than one Invoker to open up a link. Maybe it slipped Jack’s mind, but he should have known there was an Invoker on the other side of the connection. Xuan Xiang certainly didn’t have the ability to do what I did.”

  “I could have left him behind,” I said.

  Wei shook his head. “No. We’ve been eavesdropping on your comms. When you made the call from Bhutan, we ran it back down and checked all our assets in Manhattan. The chances you were still there with Jack were remote. You did throw us for a bit of a loop with the Bhutan thing. I had no idea what the Cloak of Despar was.”