Cate grabbed Marisol and started pulling her down the hall. “Run.” Why wouldn’t she move? “Run. Vees!”
Marisol’s face finally registered understanding and she turned with Cate and started running. They got to the end of the hall and Cate hit the elevator button. They could head to the stairs, but if the doors opened right away, she’d be safe inside a sealed box.
“There’s no power.” Marisol pointed out.
Of course. Stupid. She and Marisol took off running towards the stairwell. As they turned the corner, Cate stole a glance back toward the lobby. She heard gunshots, but couldn’t see where they were coming from or if they were doing any good. As they rounded the corner, it looked as if the action were all contained in the lobby, as if no one had noticed them. She hoped she was right.
Chapter 14
If the door to the lab he’d just been standing in had opened without a badge, that meant that other rooms on this floor would be unlocked. Mason drew his gun and saw Frank, who was right behind him, do the same.
He didn’t know what had happened to the drugged prisoners, but the idea of them roaming the halls scared him, not something he was used to feeling. Containing those prisoners became his first priority. Once that door was sealed, with them safely locked behind, he could figure out why there was a fire alarm going off in the middle of the night, on a night when so much had already gone so wrong.
Mason gestured for Althea, who was the only guard left in the hall, to fall in behind him. She looked like she was still in control, not freaked out by the noise and the flashing lights. That was good, because they were already wearing on his every nerve and it had only been seconds.
He inched along the wall to the corner. He was probably being overly cautious. There was no reason to suspect those prisoners had moved from the last time he saw them. They’d practically been comatose, but he didn’t want to take any risks.
He peeked around the corner. In the academy, they’d taught him to take in a lot of information in a few seconds, to scan a room for potential danger. As he pulled his head back, he already knew there was nothing potential about this situation.
He turned to Frank, and Althea, and signaled them to be ready, and then he turned the corner. A second before, there had been one man lying on the ground, and a prisoner over him, tearing at his flesh. Now the prisoner was gone, and all that was left was the bloody remains of a guard.
The guard’s body was right outside the prisoner’s lab room. Mason had to assume the prisoner had retreated back into the room. There was no time for a human to have gotten out of sight anywhere else.
He moved forward slowly, keeping his gun trained on the door, but his eyes open in case anything moved down the hall or around the next corner. As he got closer to the body of the guard, it became obvious that there wasn’t enough left of the man to even check for a pulse. His throat had been chewed off, almost down to his spine, and his shoulders and arms looked like they’d been blasted by a land mine. The prisoner hadn’t bothered with trying to remove the bullet proof vest. He’d just eaten what was easiest.
The fact that the prisoner had eaten so much of this man so quickly was a thought Mason would have to process later, once he was out of danger. The door to the prisoner’s lab room was closed and Mason waited until Frank and Althea were right behind him before pushing it open.
He moved into the room quickly. There was no one behind the door and the rest of the room, being fairly open, was easy to see. There was one prisoner in the room. He was standing on the far side, looking exactly as he had looked when Mason had seen him the first time, which must have been ten, fifteen minutes ago. He hadn’t moved. He wasn’t the prisoner Mason had seen in the hall.
Mason filled with doubt. Fear, really. Did he miss something when looking around the room? The other prisoner had to be here. He dropped down low and looked beneath all the hospital beds, but there was no one else in the room.
Mason turned to Althea. She should know more about the mechanics of the building. “How can we lock this door?”
For a second, she seemed thrown and Mason started running through all the crazy ideas he could come up with, like tying a belt around the handle.
Althea said, “I can do it. From the hall. We done in here?”
Mason looked around. The other five prisoners were gone, somewhere in the building. This one looked like he wasn’t capable of moving, let alone killing, at the moment. Knowing what at least one of the others had done, Mason was sure it was best to lock him - and the others, when they found them - down as soon as possible.
Mason nodded. “Yeah, let’s clear out.”
The hall was still clear as they moved into it. Althea pulled the door closed and then entered a code on the keypad. The door locked.
Althea explained. ”These are mechanical, so the fire alarm doesn’t affect it.”
Mason knew that not all doors in the building had a key pad – just the ones that needed to stay locked. Usually the keypad was disengaged, and only badges were used, but for special cases, and for people who knew how, they could be used for adding extra locks.
Frank was already edging down the hall, in the direction the prisoners must have gone, the direction the scientists had headed earlier. There were at least two other guards who should have been on this floor, and Mason had to assume they would also be found somewhere down that hallway.
Mason turned to Althea, “Mason.” He nodded towards his partner. “You already met Frank.”
She smiled. “Still just Althea.”
They moved down the corridor together. Mason was relieved to have the extra gun.
Frank stopped at the first door they came to, waiting for Althea and Mason to back him up. As Frank opened the door, Mason’s heart started pounding unexpectedly. In a way, this was a routine sweep. He’d hunted vees before in exactly this same manner. The situation was often scary, but Mason rarely was affected by nerves. He was too focused.
Seeing the way that guard had been ripped apart, seeing that prisoner tearing at him like a crow on road kill, had disturbed him in a way he thought he couldn’t be disturbed anymore. He dealt with hunting vampires, creatures who drank human blood. He hadn’t thought there was anything left that could freak him out. Mason didn’t want to face that prisoner, or the four others out there.
Frank entered the room first, Mason close behind. Althea stayed by the door to make sure no one snuck up on them. The room was empty of life. It was a long hallway like room that had windows all along one side, overlooking the quarters where the vees had been held and where the one prisoner currently stood.
There was a door on the far side of this room, and Mason kept his eye on it as he scanned the rest of the room. There seemed to be monitors and computers set up in the middle of the windows. Frank started fiddling with the keyboard, so Mason crossed over to the door on the far side, to make sure the room stayed clear.
Mason pressed his back to the door. He would sweep the hall in a bit, just not while Frank was distracted. His partner seemed pretty happy about something. “Check this out.”
Frank pressed a key on the computer keyboard and one of the monitors shifted, or rather, the image displayed shifted to show the room with the prisoner in it. After some more fiddling, the prisoner started walking backwards.
Mason asked, “Can you bring up the other room?” The case could be solved a lot faster if they could just find out who had helped free the vees right here.
“I have no idea. Probably.” Frank started pressing more keys, with no results.
Mason added, “Just don’t break anything.” Frank didn’t have a great record with technology but, like everything else, he thought he was good with it. “We can always come back with someone who knows what they’re doing.”
Frank acted like he hadn’t heard him and just kept hitting random keys until both monitors suddenly went black. “What the…?”
If it hadn’t been for the lights going out at the same time, Mason would’ve
been pissed. Instead, he just got a sinking feeling.
Almost immediately, the room and hall took on a red glow from the emergency lights, with periodic white bursts from the fire alarm. The good news was, the power going off seemed to shut up the ever present voice of the woman telling them to leave the building.
As Mason’s eyes adjusted, Frank said “Well, I guess we’re done in here.”
Mason took out his walkie to check in with SCC. Maybe they’d know more about what was going on.
“Security. This is Agent Farino, come in.”
He waited. Frank waited. There was silence.
“Security, come in.”
Frank looked over to Althea, who had stopped watching the hall for a second to glance back at them. “Want to try yours?” he asked.
Althea took out her walkie. “Joe, Mike, you guys there?”
The walkie was silent. The whole floor was silent. Until it wasn’t.
There was a loud crash, like shelves collapsing, coming from beyond the wall. Then there were several gun shots fired and lots of screaming.
There was no time to think, no time to try to figure out any of the mess that was going on. There was no time to be scared. Frank and Mason lined up behind Althea and they headed towards the noise.
Chapter 15
The guard on the phone performed his duty well. “Just a burner in one of the labs. Yeah, absent minded professor.”
They’d promised the front door guards they’d send backup and unlock the jammed doors. Now they’d reassured HQ that there was no fire emergency. As far as anyone else was concerned, everything was still copacetic. Best to leave it like that as long as possible.
“Carl, can we kill the phones in the building?” Daniel asked.
“Yeah.” He punched a few keys and presto change. “They should all be dead.” Carl looked thoughtfully at the red phone on the wall in a box marked “emergency.” “I can’t do anything about that one – got its own power and connection. But aside from that, the only other working phone in the building should be at the fire command station.”
Good. Carl had told him phones wouldn’t be a problem, but Daniel hadn’t remembered why. It would be unfortunate if the outside world found out what was going on before he was ready for them to know.
The power, of course, stayed on in the room. SCC had backup power. Lots of backup power. Even the monitors were still running, for a little while, allowing them all to enjoy the live show.
Daniel wasn’t heartless. In fact, the best way to kill a vee was to take out the heart. He was feeling a little guilty being so pleased with all the slaughter. There was no other way to describe it, really. The humans in the lobby were pressed together like cattle. The vees were going from one to the next, taking a little bite here, sampling some blood there, treating the crowd like an all you can eat buffet. The humans couldn’t even see it coming, but they were panicking like they smelled death. Daniel couldn’t see details, with just the weird green camera light. Nonetheless, he enjoyed the entertainment.
Not all vees were vicious. In fact, most were reluctant blood suckers. Many had not wanted to become vees. Many tried not to kill. The vees Daniel had released had been imprisoned for weeks, months, as long as they were able to survive. They had been starved and tortured by the people working in this building. None of them would be feeling like a humanitarian right about now.
The guard, who was handcuffed near the phone, near the monitors, put his head down on the desk, closing his eyes tight. Jerome and Stephen moved around the monitors, and Stephen casually rested his hand on the guard’s shoulder. The guard stiffened, but didn’t move, which was probably best for him. Watching the massacre was like watching a great boxing match. The onscreen excitement made you want to get up and do something.
Stephen seemed to content himself with squeezing the guard’s shoulder while he fixed his stare on the TV. Jerome actually walked away after a minute, as if he’d seen enough. Daniel didn’t much care what either of them thought, but it was nice to have this moment witnessed by vees who might live to tell about it.
He realized that his methods could be construed as extreme. Better to make a statement than to continue being ignored. Fifteen years ago, when the vee “terror,” as the humans called it, was sweeping Congress and the suburbs and even the Heartland, Daniel had tried speaking out as one sane voice to the masses. For a little while, he actually thought some kind of compromise could be reached, but he’d barely escaped with his head still on his shoulders and he certainly hadn’t been heard by any sensible ears.
The humans, he’d come to find out, didn’t want a compromise, a happy medium, a co-existence. They wanted a slaughter. And now, he smiled to himself, he was giving them one.
One of the tied up guards they were sharing the room with started to moan. Daniel didn’t need to look to know why. He was the one Jerome had spared. He was changing, and the change hurt. Daniel ignored him, but the noise pulled his mind off the video monitors. Time to get to work.
“Carl.” Carl looked up at him in response.
“Yup. I’m on it.”
Carl started typing things into the computer. The computer screen went black and then a whole lot of code started scrolling across the screen while Carl typed and typed.
Daniel wasn’t bad with computers. The whole internet had been a revelation for him and his nocturnal friends. He’d embraced that world as soon as the opportunity allowed. He was as susceptible to cute cat videos as the next person, but he mostly used the internet to gather information, read the pulse of the times, and to quietly – there were ways to be quiet online – spread his own messages, his own ideas. Yes, Daniel was quite good with some aspects of computing, just not the type of stuff Carl did. When Carl had tried to explain to him, several times, what exactly he planned on doing once they got into the SCC room, and how, Daniel’s brain turned into a sieve.
The important thing was that Carl knew how to do what Daniel needed done. That’s why Daniel liked him so much. He was useful.
“Hey, you okay?” One of the guards whispered to the moaner.
Now that Carl was writing in Greek, Daniel was easily distracted. He turned to see how the guards were handling the situation.
The one that was changing was collapsed forward, as much as he could be collapsed with his wrists handcuffed behind him. His immediate neighbor, the guard to his left, was trying to console him. Daniel found it laughable that the one considerate guard just wasn’t looking ahead.
He said, “I’d worry more about yourself, if I were you.” That got their attention.
One of them asked, “What do you mean?”
Jerome snickered and said, “Do you really not know?”
Four guard heads popped up all at once. It was like flashes going off, how fast the light bulbs over their heads appeared. One brave soul decided to address Daniel.
“You should take him with you. He’s one of you now.”
“What?” Daniel put on an expression of shock. “But he’s your companion, your friend. You want to just turn him over to the evil monsters?”
The guard who spoke up looked away. He was done arguing, for now. The guard on the left, the one who’d been so concerned for his buddy just a few minutes ago, picked up the fight.
“If you’re all about liberating the vees, you shouldn’t leave him locked up here. They’ll just kill him, or put him in prison when they take the building back.”
Daniel walked over to the young man, who, to his credit, held Daniel’s gaze. Daniel leaned in, close enough to smell the sweat building up on the man’s neck, and whispered, “You mean, you’d kill him, if you took the building back. Only, you see, I am guessing that he’s going to get hungry long before there’s any chance of a rescue.”
The guard didn’t turn away, or break his glare, and Daniel couldn’t help but admire him, for the briefest of moments, before he returned to Carl’s side.
Lisa, who’d been hiding, as best she could in a room with no
closets, walked slowly, and quietly towards him. He watched her approach, since the show on the monitors was starting to get boring. She looked as if every step pained her. He braced himself for what was sure to be a boring conversation about the value of human life or her baby or husband. Whatever she had to say, he didn’t need to hear.
“Daniel.” As soon as she spoke, all the vees except Carl turned to watch. It had been better for her when she was hiding.
“Daniel. Maybe you could let him go? You don’t have to bring him along or anything. Just put him out in the hall?”
Daniel could hardly bear the weight of her naivety. “Have you ever seen a newly changed vee? They’re like animals, starving animals. He’ll eat the first human he sees. I let him go out there, he will kill. It might not be one of these handsome boys here, but he’ll find something to eat. Maybe even you, if I have to keep answering stupid questions.”
She started backing away, retreating to her corner again, when Stephen’s hand reached out and grabbed her, hard, on her upper arm.
Daniel hadn’t seen that coming either. These two were surprising him more and more, and it wasn’t a good thing. Lisa gasped, but otherwise remained quiet as Stephen pulled her in close to his face.
“I could change you.” Stephen practically licked his lips at the prospect. “Never seen what that would do to a pregnant lady.”
“Let her go.” Daniel felt like he had to take control, fast.
Stephen continued holding Lisa. He slowly turned to face Daniel, smile on his lips. “Why?”
Why not? Because I said so. Because she’s mine. None of those seemed adequate. Stephen needed to understand that he was not the one in control. Carl had turned to watch the action. Jerome’s eyes had been hooked from the start.
“You are free to leave whenever you want. But while you’re in my house, you will not bother my guest.” He hoped that didn’t sound as weak on the outside as it was sounding in his head. He was letting this one get to him.
The V to Z Trilogy (Book 1): Caged Page 8
