The warden cleared his throat and then continued. “I’m afraid our illustrious history caught up with us last night. Somewhere around eleven pm there was an incident in Cell Block D. We don’t know what caused it or even exactly what happened. What we do know is that while a guard was escorting another prisoner back to cell 26, the door to cell 28 came open instead and the Eretiku confined there was released into the main corridor.”
The men were completely silent now, their attention fixed firmly on the warden.
“Things rapidly went downhill. We lost the guard and all of the prisoners along that section of the walk before we even knew we had a problem. When we did realize we had a breach, we responded the way we are trained to respond. We locked down the wing and sent in a squad to try and re-secure the prisoners that had escaped.”
The warden looked out at them and every single soldier in the room could see the regret so plain on his face. “It was exactly the wrong thing to do. We lost the entire squad, never mind a good portion of the prisoners, before we understood just what it was we were dealing with. When we did, we pulled out, sealed off that section of the complex, and called for help.”
Cade took over from there. “We’ve been ordered to secure the cell block and have been given authorization to put down the Eretiku and any of the other prisoners that we feel necessary in order to carry out that order. I don’t need to remind any of you just how difficult this is going to be; Delta lost five men during the initial capture and they were better equipped than we are right now. But we don’t dare delay any longer while waiting for the right equipment to be flown in because if that thing in there finds a way out of the complex we’ll have a much bigger problem on our hands.”
He picked up two stacks of photographs from the table beside him and handed one of them to Riley, who in turn made certain each member of the team received a copy.
“This is what you will be facing,” said Cade.
The photo showed an elderly woman in dark clothes and a shawl, her face turned mostly away from the camera.
Several of the men looked up at Cade, to see if he was joking. He most assuredly was not.
“And here is a picture of a guard who was unlucky enough to meet her gaze during the incident last night.”
Riley passed the second stack of photos around. This one showed a man in a hospital bed who appeared to be at the end of a long illness. His cheeks were sunken and hollow, his skin ghostly pale. Large red weeping sores could be seen across the exposed skin of his face, neck and hands and it was clear that they extended beneath his clothing as well. His hair had mostly fallen out; what was left was thin and lifeless.
“You’re looking at Private Jason Polnick, age 28. Yesterday he was perfectly healthy.” Cade paused, and then said, “They don’t expect him to live out the night.”
He looked them over, making certain that they understood the implications of what he was suggesting. “Some of you might not be familiar with the Eretiku. The name itself is Russian and it refers to a woman who has sold her soul to the Devil and returns after death from the grave to prey on the life-force of the living. Don’t let the old crone appearance fool you. She’s incredibly fast, incredibly strong, and meeting her gaze infects you with a wasting sickness that makes Ebola look like the common cold. She also has the unique ability to fool your eyes into thinking she isn’t there. Hence the mirrors. They’ll protect you from her gaze and let you see her at the same time.”
Cade moved over to a wall, where a map of the complex had been tacked up. It resembled nothing more than six pointed starfish, with each cell block arcing out like arms from the central hub. “We’ll station half of you here,” pointing to the thick set of blast doors that cut the cell block off from the central hub. “A second group will be here.” The blast doors he pointed to this time were deeper down the block corridor and cut off the cells themselves from the guard’s section.
“Olsen and Callavecchio, you’re with me. You’re the best I’ve got, shot-wise, and we’re going to need everything we can bring to the table in that department because we’ll be shooting at a target we can only see in a three-inch mirror.”
The two men nodded, but didn’t say anything.
Cade looked over at Riley. “Once we’re inside the doors, the first thing we’ll do is plant some demo charges along the walls, rigged to a set of controls that we’ll leave with you. If things go badly for us, and you suspect that thing will find a way out, don’t hesitate to blow the place. We can always rebuild but we can’t afford to let that thing loose.”
“Roger that,” said Riley, but it was clear that he wasn’t exactly thrilled with the order.
Cade turned back to the others. “We do this by the numbers, people, by the numbers. Watch your backs, keep your eyes open, and make absolutely certain you don’t look this thing in the eyes. Any questions?”
There weren’t any.
“All right then, let’s suit up.”
CHAPTER TWO
As quietly as possible, Commander Williams, Sergeant Olsen, and Private Callavecchio slipped through the blast doors and into the corridor leading to the cell block proper. All of them were dressed in jumpsuits of black flame-retardant material worn over a set of ceramic body armor that had been blessed by the Holy Father himself. They carried the standard issue HK Mark 23 .45 caliber handgun, complete with a twelve round magazine, a flash suppressor, and a laser-targeting device. Two spare magazines for the pistols were affixed with Velcro to their left wrists. A combat knife was either clipped to their belt or in a calf sheath on the outside of their boots. Their swords, recently blessed again during Mass, were slung across their backs, the hilt of the weapon extending just beyond their right shoulders for easy access. On their heads were lightweight Kevlar tactical helmets with built-in communication gear.
Both Olsen and Callavecchio had their mirrors in hand and were using them to scan the walls and ceiling in their general vicinity as carefully as possible. Cade, however, had decided to rely on his own peculiar set of talents.
Several years before, he had barely survived an encounter with a supernatural entity he had since come to call the Adversary. The battle had resulted in the death of his wife and left him scarred both physically and emotionally. He’d lost the sight in his right eye and the flesh on that side of his face had been savagely disfigured, leaving him with a wide band of scar tissue that stretched from the hairline above his eye, down across his cheekbone, and around behind his ear. The eye itself was still intact, but was nothing more than a milky white orb floating in a sea of damaged flesh. Normally he wore an eye patch over it, more for the comfort of others than for himself, but he’d left the patch behind tonight, wanting nothing to obstruct his Sight.
While the damage to his eye had cost him his ability to see in any normal sense of the word, he had gained something unexpected in return. When he moved his ruined eye just so, the supernatural world was revealed to him in all its so-called glory. Nothing could hide from his Sight; he could see through the guises of demons and angels alike, as well as anything in between. Mystical power was as obvious to him as a mountain in the middle of a desert plain. For short periods of time he could even see into the Beyond itself, without setting foot outside his own plane of reality, but doing so also revealed him to the denizens of that realm and so he didn’t do it all that often.
As a reanimated corpse that fed on the life-force of the living, the Eretiku’s very nature would make it impossible for it to hide from him. What he didn’t know was whether or not its killing gaze would have any effect when seen through his Sight and so he intended to be as careful as possible in the confrontation ahead.
Still, he didn’t hesitate to activate his Sight.
Much of the spiritual world is driven by emotion, with objects and locations taking on the predominant feelings surrounding them. In a prison, the primary emotion is despair. The corridor before him went from cold, hard steel to looking like a diseased artery that pulsed and glistened w
ith unidentifiable growths and sores in the eyes of his Sight. The bodies of the dead were black with fear and pain and the ghosts of several of the guards stood beside them, the confusion about what had happened clear on their faces. They became aware of Cade in the same moment he became aware of them and with a quiet word he sent them on their way, hoping their next existence would end better than this one had. At the end of the corridor, the doors were inscribed with a number of mystical seals and signs, the power within them glowing with a white-hot heat.
Of the Eretiku, there was no sign.
“All right,” he said to the others, “we’re clear. Keep those mirrors handy and let’s move out.”
Weapons drawn, they advanced down the corridor, through the guard station, and into the main cell block.
They emerged on the second and middle tier of the block, roughly in the center of one of the short sides of the rectangle. On each level a narrow walkway extended in front of the cells, with enough room for two men to walk abreast comfortably. A waist high railing prevented anyone from slipping over the edge.
Olsen leaned against the railing and used his mirror to allow him a look at what was beneath them and then did the same with the level above. The other two tiers were arranged just like this one, as the plans had indicted, and the center space below them was simply left empty. He didn’t see any sign of their quarry and he let the others know it.
For Cade, the cell block was even worse than the corridor, for it was the place that the inmates spent the majority of their time. The Mother Church had long ago decided that it was unjust to simply execute those enemies that surrendered to its mercy, but knew at the same time that it couldn’t allow those same enemies any chance of escape back into the world where they could continue to wreak havoc and harm. Containment facilities like this one were the best answer the Church had come up with and it had put its most battle hardened veterans, the Templars, in charge of their operation and maintenance. Cell Block D was in the lower security area of the prison, but even here inmates were not allowed to interact with each other, lest they combine their abilities and discover a way of getting past the guards and the wards built into the building itself, and so their existence was reduced to solitary confinement inside of soundproof cells. They were given an hour of exercise per day, in separate, isolated exercise rooms and only on rare occasions did they get the chance to see the sun and open sky.
Some of the creatures confined in this space had life spans that were all but indistinguishable from immortality to the humans who operated it and decades spent in confinement with only hope for centuries more of the same made for a blanket of rage and despair so thick that Cade had to take a moment to get used to looking at it all. When he was ready, they began moving along the walkway that extended the length of the cell block on the right hand side. Some of the cell were still sealed shut and secure; from within them the three knights caught glimpses of a variety of things that would have sent ordinary men away screaming in fear. They even recognized a few, captives from earlier missions Echo had carried out on the Order’s behalf. Others had been torn open, victims of the Eretiku’s search for nourishment and the corpses of more than one littered the walkway before them. The men from Echo were cautious, making certain the victims were actually dead before trying to move past them.
They had advanced almost to the end of the first walkway when it happened.
A hand snaked out from beneath the railing and clamped itself around Cade’s ankle. Before he had a chance to react, it yanked him off his feet and then dragged him with amazing strength across the walkway, beneath the railing, and out into the open air high above the floor three stories below.
But Cade would not be so easy a victim.
He released his grip on his pistol, sacrificing the weapon so as to leave both of his hands free. As his gun made the long fall to the floor below, Cade made a wild grab at the post of the railing as he was swept past.
Luck was with him. He caught a hold of it with one hand, arresting his fall, but the Eretiku still had a firm grip on his leg and was already trying to pull him loose from his makeshift anchor. Against the creature’s awesome strength, he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out for long.
“Help!” he yelled and hoped the others would be in time.
He could feel the thing’s claws digging right through the thick leather of his boot, searching for a better hold, and he redoubled his efforts to kick himself free of its grasp.
Hands wrapped themselves around his wrists and he looked up to find Olsen holding on to him, the other man’s feet braced against the railing as he fought to keep Cade from falling any further. Beside him, Callavecchio leaned over the railing, his mirror in one hand, angled so as to give him a view of what was happening below, and his pistol in the other.
“Hold still!” he shouted, and Cade had a second to think “easier said than done” before the other man opened fire.
It was a difficult task, firing over a ledge at an angle, past the struggling body of a friend, with only a small hand-held mirror with which to aim. Cade was all but certain he was going to end up with a slug in the leg, but even that would be preferable to the thirty foot fall he was currently staring in the face, so he simply closed his eyes and hoped for the best.
Callavecchio made three quick shots, one after another without pause, and the third and final shot was followed by an angry shriek that echoed off the cold stone walls. Cade felt the grip on his leg loosen and realized with something close to shock that he was uninjured and free.
“Quick! Pull me up!” he said and Olsen did just that, while Callavecchio kept his eye on the space beneath them.
“Do you see it?” Cade asked, climbing to his feet and drawing his sword so that he wouldn’t be defenseless if it attacked again.
Callavecchio shook his head while continuing to scan the lower area with the help of his mirror. “No. It’s gone, for now.”
But they knew it was there. Somewhere. The attack had merely redoubled their determination to find it and end its miserable life.
An hour later, however, they were back where they had started, at the edge of the second tier, still empty-handed. They had searched the entire cell block and had not found any further sign of the creature. Cade knew it was here somewhere; there was nowhere else for it to go. But so far it had managed to elude their best efforts at tracking it down.
Just where the hell was it?
As he looked out over the open space at the walkway on the other side of the cell block, something swung down from the tier above, hanging upside down directly in front of his face. It was close enough that he could feel its fetid breath on his cheek, could smell the stink of its unwashed body.
With the help of his Sight, Cade could see through the creature’s human guise, could see it for what it truly was; a rotting corpse with slavering jaws and molted skin. A third eye existed in the center of its forehead and it was from this that its wasting gaze originated. With the help of his Sight he could even see a black wave of power emerging from that orifice and he didn’t stop to think, didn’t even take the time to reason out the options, knowing his companions would be dead the moment they turned to look. Instead, he simply squeezed his eyes shut and slammed his head forward as hard as he could.
His skull smashed into the Eretiku’s, dazing it, and he felt its weight fall upon him as its clawed feet lost their hold on the railing of the tier above. They tumbled to the floor, each fighting for the advantage, and ending up with Cade on his back and the Eretiku lying atop him, his hands wrapped around the other’s wrists as he fought to keep its slavering jaws from sinking into his unprotected neck. He bucked back and forth, trying to throw it off him, but it managed to wrap its feet around the back of his legs and held him close. He could hear it shrieking its rage and hunger at him, but he wouldn’t let that distract him for if it did he was dead.
As the creature shoved its face forward in another attempt, Callavecchio’s hand shot out and held a mirror dire
ctly in front of its eyes.
The result was astonishing.
Cade didn’t know if it was because its mystical gaze had been redirected back upon itself or if it simply couldn’t bear the sight of its true nature, but the Eretiku reared up, its prey beneath it forgotten for the moment as it clamped its hands over its eyes, shrieking in agony.
Olsen was ready and waiting. His sword flashed out in a savage blow, slashing through the creature’s arms just below the wrists and continuing forward, severing its head.
Its screams cut off abruptly and the body fell over backward, spewing blood as black as tar in every direction, as its head rolled off the edge and disappeared from sight.
For a moment no one moved, shocked into immobility by the suddenness of its end, and then Cade was kicking the thing’s rotting corpse off him in disgust as the other two men helped him to his feet.
“Are you all right?’ Olsen asked, his gaze never leaving the Eretiku’s corpse, as if he wasn’t quite convinced it was dead yet. It was a move learned from long experience; too many of the things they’d faced had a nasty habit of getting up again.
This time, however, the creature was good and gone.
Cade nodded in reply and fought to catch his breath. That had been closer than he liked. But the job was done and once more Echo had defied the odds, coming out on top without the loss of a single man. That made him smile, then laugh, and soon the other two men were laughing along with him in simple relief at the fact that they were alive while the enemy lay dead at their feet. They clapped each other on the back, congratulating themselves on the success of what they accomplished, and then turned toward the doors leading to the rest of the complex where their friends and squad mates were waiting.
The Templar Chronicles Omnibus Page 21
