The next thing he noted was that the prisoner wasn’t wearing a bullet proof vest. Mason had, somewhere in the few seconds that passed during the fight, assumed that this guy had found a way to put on a vest or something. His chest was completely eaten up by bullets. Neither agent would touch the guy, not without gloves, but from looking through the exposed flesh, they could tell his organs were effectively shredded.
He looked up at Frank. “How did he keep coming?’
Frank shook his head. “That’s a question for the smart people.” Frank laughed to himself. “You know, the same geniuses who created this guy.”
Frank was right. Cate and her colleagues had created something new. This was not a typical human. He moved too fast, withstood too much. He had qualities, in that way, like a vee, but Mason had never known a vee to survive that many bullets to the chest. You take out their heart and they die. That did the trick with pretty much every living thing. But not this thing.
He didn’t know what the scientists had been trying to do here, only what they had succeeded in doing – creating a stronger, deadlier vee.
Chapter 20
Carl leaned back from the computer and smiled. Daniel’s time for figuring out what Stephen was plotting was nearly up. Daniel preferred looking at it the other way, though. His time for having to deal with Stephen was nearly up. He nodded at Carl.
Carl called, “Lisa, you still here?”
Carl winked at Daniel, like he thought he’d made the world’s best joke. Daniel didn’t want to discourage Carl while they were in the middle of things, so he didn’t shoot him. Lisa peeked out of the corner.
Carl said, “I can use that drive now.”
Lisa blushed and turned her back on them.
Security for this building would not allow entry of any external storage devices. Everyone was screened upon entering the building for cell phones, hard drives, anything with an internet connection or a capacity to transport data. Carl was backing the data up to an internal drive, to take with them, but he needed something extra to corrupt the files. Lisa had been the perfect carrier.
Being pregnant, Lisa was allowed to skip the full body scans due to concerns over radiation. Instead, she got a daily pat down. Daniel had been counting on the fact that the guards would have seen Lisa every day, that they would have seen her growing bigger, and that they would’ve grown a little less thorough with their pat downs as the routine wore on.
To be safe, they’d had Lisa hide the jump drive in her bra. After pulling it out from the privacy of her turned back, she handed the drive to Carl, and then returned to her corner.
While Carl plugged the drive into the computer and prepared to run a virus, or whatever he was going to do to corrupt all the information he’d copied, Daniel considered their next steps, and how to deal with the other vees in the room.
Daniel wasn’t worried about Joe. As someone who worked at the NVIA, Joe would know better than most the type of treatment he could expect when they found out he was a vee. If he had half a brain, he would leave this place as fast as possible and never look back. Not to mention, in his newly turned state, he probably was operating with about half a brain.
It took time to adjust to being a vee. It was like wearing a new body, at first. Daniel remembered feeling like he was hearing things, hallucinating sounds, because after the change he could hear so much more. His eyesight didn’t really improve, though he knew some vees did experience enhanced vision. His sense of smell, however, increased tenfold. In a way, it was nauseating. Having a cacophony of noises assault him from all sides, and being unable to block out the sickly sweet smell of the urine left by a dog three days ago, the sweat hanging in the air of humans who’d already passed by, and the foul toxicity of everything in Kenneth’s basement.
Joe would have a lot to deal with right now. He wouldn’t have time to plan out some way to free his former friends or alert anyone. Besides, he’d still be weak and uncoordinated compared to the other vees. It took time to grow stronger – time and blood.
Stephen and Jerome, on the other hand, were more problematic. Daniel knew where Stephen stood - on his own – and Daniel knew how he would need to deal with him. Jerome was more of a free agent. Daniel couldn’t pin him down, and that was worrisome. He figured there was no time like the present to start laying on the charm.
“Jerome.” Daniel called him over to talk, called him away from Stephen and Joe. Jerome, who looked like he had nothing better to do, walked over and pulled up a chair next to Daniel.
“I wanted to get your opinion.” He didn’t really want Jerome’s opinion, but did want Jerome to feel included.
“Okay. What’s up?”
“What do you think we should do with the guards, when we go?” Daniel asked, trying hard to sound sincerely interested in Jerome’s response.
Before Jerome could answer, Carl interrupted. “Done.”
Daniel turned to see Carl holding up some hardware that he had gutted from the computer.
“You have everything we need on there?”
“Yup.” Carl said, while putting the hard drive in the backpack Lisa had brought.
“Unlock the rest of the building doors and kill the system.”
“All right. Gimme about two seconds.” Carl replied, before getting back to work.
As Daniel turned back to Jerome, he saw Stephen watching. He threw him a little smile, as if nothing in the world could bother him.
He stood up as he asked Jerome again, “Well, what would you do?”
Jerome shrugged, as if it was obvious. “Kill ‘em. Better not to leave witnesses.”
Daniel was relieved. That’s what he’d planned on doing, once he was certain he didn’t need any of them alive, and he’d hopefully gotten Jerome to feel useful.
The guards seemed to know what was happening as soon as Jerome stood up. Still, just so there was no misunderstanding, Daniel announced, “Time to eat.”
He loved this, the moment before a kill. He loved the smell humans got when they were afraid. The noise, not so much. Why did they always have to yell? Truly, he would take his time more often, savor the moment, if it weren’t for all the damn screaming. Now that the noise had started, he felt like he needed to rush, just to shut them up.
Daniel walked over to the 5 remaining guards, with Jerome following close behind. He’d been planning on leaving one of them alive, to guide him through the building. Now they had Joe, none of the human guards were needed. Jerome knelt down to the guard farthest to the right and started eating. Daniel was about to feed on the one at his feet when he realized Stephen wasn’t with them and he knew that he had made a horrible mistake. In his haste to feed, he had neglected the most important thing in the room, the guns.
As Daniel turned around, he heard Carl say, “I finished my homework Mom, can I eat now?”
Stephen was smiling at Daniel, gun aimed at his chest. Carl had stood up. Seeing the new situation, he’d frozen to the spot. Daniel smiled and shrugged, hoping by feigning nonchalance he could open a dialogue and maybe buy himself a few seconds to think.
“Oops.” Daniel stated.
Jerome was oblivious, feeding. Joe was busy trying to stay conscious, barely moving in his chair. Carl, who was now alert to the situation, was about as physically adept as a manatee. No one else was going to help. This moment was between Stephen and Daniel.
“I am gonna go out on a limb here, and bet that you want to take that hard drive for yourself?” Daniel asked.
“Wow,” Stephen said, with no small amount of sarcasm, “You are just as smart as they say.” And then he fired.
Luckily, his aim was crappy. As Daniel launched himself out of the way, the bullets nicked his shoulder. He hit the ground hard, but had shelter behind the desks. The gun continued to fire for what seemed like a long minute. At first, Daniel thought Stephen was just wasting bullets. Then he saw that all the surviving guards had been killed.
Jerome, meanwhile, had managed to scramble out of the w
ay, and was also ducking behind some desks. Daniel unholstered the gun he’d taken off the guard in the lab, raised his hand over the desks and started firing in Stephen’s direction, hoping to kill him or slow him down.
Daniel was never so lucky. He stopped firing when it was apparent Stephen wasn’t returning fire. He heard a scuffle and realized his next big mistake - not giving Carl a gun of his own. Fortunately for Carl, he was still useful. If Stephen hoped to make any money on the black market with the data Carl had just stolen, he would need him to finish the job.
“If I hear or smell you anywhere near us,” Stephen called out, “I will kill him. He’s not that important to me.”
Daniel was still trying to think of a way out, for him and Carl. He wasn’t about to risk getting his head blown off to steal a glimpse at the door. He could imagine Stephen holding a gun to Carl’s head. Daniel was a great shot, but the explosive bullets these guns used affected a wider area, the better for completely destroying a vee heart before it could regenerate. If Daniel tried some sort of quick draw maneuver, he could very well rip off both their heads, and he didn’t think Carl would enjoy that. He’d have to come up with a plan B.
Daniel heard Stephen say, “Sorry Joe. It’s been fun.” Stephen fired once more and then the door opened and closed.
Daniel risked looking over the desk then. Stephen and Carl were gone, as was the bag with the hard drive in it. All the guards were dead, including Joe. It was just him and Jerome now. He had only a vague understanding of the layout of the building, and which exits led where. How the hell was he supposed to find the server building without any guards to act as guide?
And then he heard the sniffling and remembered he had one more card to play.
Chapter 21
The final door in the long hallway was barricaded. Mason had tried to push the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. The door looked worn out, if a steel door could look worn, as if someone had taken a battering ram to it.
Mason looked at Frank, who stepped forward, turned the door knob, which wasn’t locked, and pushed on the door himself. Nothing happened for him either.
“Someone making a last stand?” Frank offered.
That’s what Mason thought. Those prisoners didn’t seem to be mentally aware enough to barricade a door, so it was most likely some of the scientists or guards locking themselves in.
If they tried to break down the door, or even tried to yell to get through to whomever might be in there, they would be making a lot of noise. Mason wasn’t ready to start drawing attention. By his count, there were four prisoners on the loose and he didn’t think the three of them could take them on, if they were all like the one they’d already encountered. And that was assuming they didn’t have any vees to deal with.
Althea stepped forward. “There’s another door. On the other side.” She gestured towards the door at the end of the hall. “We could go through reception, or back around the way we came.”
Mason didn’t like the idea of going back. Not that it mattered, since the bad guys were mobile, and could easily be moving around the circle. At least forward felt like they were making progress.
“Or we could just leave,” Frank said, stating a more practical option.
“But there are probably people locked in there.” Althea insisted.
“Yeah, and they’re a lot safer than we are at this point.” Frank responded. “They’ll just have the other door barricaded too, and they can stay, safely locked in that room, until this whole thing passes.”
Mason knew Frank well enough to know he wasn’t arguing out of fear. The guy hated wasting energy. And he had a point. Still, they were civilians, more or less, and Mason had a duty to make sure they were okay.
“C’mon Frank. Let’s just take a peek at the other door.”
Mason started moving towards reception. Frank just shook his head, like he’d expected nothing less. Althea followed behind.
As he stepped into the reception area, Mason felt immediately exposed. Beyond the receptionist desk, which was built like a mini fortress, there was an open glass wall separating them from the elevators and offices beyond. He could see a good hundred yards. Worse, he could be seen.
It didn’t look like anything was moving out there, so he slowly moved into the room.
Once he cleared the desk, Mason saw the bodies. Three dead guards. Judging by uniform alone, he knew these were security guards. With how they were mutilated, he might not have recognized them even if he had known them. Mason again swept the room, making sure whoever or whatever had killed them wasn’t still there.
That’s when Althea walked into the room.
“Oh God.” Althea ran, without caution, up to the nearest dead guard, turning his body over. She stumbled back, looking in horror at what remained of her friend, and then she crossed herself.
As Althea grieved over the first dead guard, closing his eyes and saying a prayer under her breath, Mason moved through the room. The guards looked like they’d been retreating towards the labs. That made Mason think the attackers, most likely, judging by the look of these injuries, the infected prisoners, had come out the same way he and Althea and Frank had.
Where they went after was the question.
The second dead guard was face up, though there wasn’t much left of his face. Althea walked up beside Mason and stood, staring down at the faceless man, as if wondering how to make it right. There were no eyes left to close.
Mason took a handkerchief out of his back pocket. He always had one – a habit he’d picked up from his dad – though he rarely had cause to do anything with it. He laid the hanky over the guard’s devastated face. Althea finally stopped staring, and looked up, grateful.
They walked together to the last dead body.
This one was different and, for a moment, Mason felt sympathy for what these men had gone through. This guard’s body was intact. He hadn’t been ripped apart like the others, only because he’d saved himself from that fate. It was clear from his injuries that he’d put his own gun in his mouth and fired. The monsters hadn’t been interested in his flesh after it was dead. In that way, they were like vees.
Althea knelt down and closed the last guard’s eyes. As much as he sympathized with her, they didn’t have time for grief. Mason looked up at Frank who gave one, quick nod. Ready to move.
Mason tapped Althea on the shoulder and she stood. They all retreated back into the lab hallway, the side they hadn’t been down yet. It looked clear. The door to the other side of the locked room also looked battered. Those things had tried to get in on both sides, but had apparently failed, as the door still would not budge.
Frank looked a bit like he wanted to say I told you so. Instead, he just said, “Yeah, well, we’re here. We might as well knock.”
Mason knew that they’d been in danger every second of this weird night, but making noise could only call attention to them. He said, “Get ready.”
Althea and Frank understood. And, of course, they were both ready.
Mason knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again, a little louder, still controlled, trying not to sound like an unthinking monster beating down a door.
After still getting no response, he decided to try yelling. “Anyone alive in there?”
Nothing moved. Finally, he heard a response.
“Who’s out there?”
“Agent Farino. You okay in there?”
No one answered, but Mason could hear loud scraping and banging and, after a few seconds, the door opened up.
As he suspected, the squirrely scientist, Stan, was standing in the doorway. He saw the other one standing back a few paces, holding a metal stool in his hands, as if he were prepared to tame a lion with it. When he saw who it was, he put the stool down.
“Come in. Hurry. Before those things come back.” Stan, agitated and impatient, waved them in.
Mason didn’t see the need to argue, though he wasn’t quite prepared to be stuck in one place. When Stan tried to move forw
ard to close the door and rebuild his barricade, Mason stopped him. Althea took watch at the door.
“We’ll guard the door.” Mason said, as calmly as possible, hoping to soothe Stan’s nervous energy.
To his surprise, Stan laughed. “Yeah, we had a guard. There were three of them, too. I didn’t see what happened, but there was a lot of screaming.”
Althea looked at Stan like she wanted to strangle him. Frank shrugged with his usual authority.
For now, maybe, it would be okay to take a few minutes to gather themselves. Mason nodded. Frank patted Althea on the back, relieving her, and the two of them withdrew into the room. They reestablished the barricade, a combination of file cabinet and chair.
Mason took a moment to look around, to see if they had anything useful. Just lab stuff and computers. No weapons. There was a phone.
Mason picked up the phone and put it to his ear. Dead.
Stan said, helpfully, “Phones don’t work.”
Mason hung up. They’d need to call out at some point. In the meantime, he assessed the two scientists to see if either of them would be of any use in getting out of this situation alive.
Stan, he knew already, wouldn’t be. He was the sort who would push you into a fight and then run over your body. The other one, James, seemed cocky and self-assured enough to want to be a hero which wasn’t always a good quality, but at the moment, a hero would do well.
And then he noticed the blood. James’ sleeve was torn and covered in blood.
“You injured?” Mason asked.
James looked at his arm, as if to confirm it was still there. Mason noticed the bandage under the sleeve. His wound had already been treated.
“Yeah. One of those things bit me during the fight. It’s not bad though. I’ll live.”
Mason looked at Frank. The cut on his ear had clotted up and scabbed over already. He and Frank had survived a lot of hairy situations, and so far, they’d always managed to keep each other alive. Mason was starting to think they might even make it through this night. If they could survive until morning, he felt, unreasonably, that daylight would bring relief.
The V to Z Trilogy (Book 1): Caged Page 11
