“Looks like we’ve got the right place.”
Zander leaned in, looking at the monitors. I caught a waft of his scent, and my heart slammed against the cage keeping it locked away. His hand squeezed my shoulder, and I melted, my head lolling back to feel his arm against my neck.
He pointed at the screen. “Here comes another bus.”
His voice was distant, the hammering of my heart shoving the blood through me, the roar of my unrequited feelings filling my ears.
“Pull up the infrared.”
I obeyed, working on autopilot.
“Aim it at the interior.”
I did.
And the screen filled with red. Hundreds. Thousands.
And I snapped out of it, the passion replaced with terror.
Thousands.
All about to become vampires.
This was stupid.
“This is stupid.”
He squeezed my shoulder and let go.
“I know.”
“Then why are we doing this?”
“Because it’s the right thing to do.”
“But we don’t stand a chance!”
The last bus pulled away, then the last willing thrall disappeared from the street. Inside, the infrared view showed a large group near the doors, with smaller groups streaming away, then stopping, seeming to group themselves in clusters of three.
“I wish we had a bird’s-eye view.”
I nodded. “We need drones.”
Zander chuckled. “Yeah, a couple of Predator drones would make this much easier.”
“You guys seeing what I’m seeing?” It was Rick.
Zander activated his comm. “I don’t know, what are you seeing?”
“Something weird. It doesn’t make any sense. They seem to be organizing them into some sort of grid.”
And that’s when I saw Zander smile.
“Exactly as I thought.”
He looked at the screen and his face clouded.
“We don’t have much time to stop this.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
We needed a plan. We couldn’t just run in there, stakes-a-blazin’. If there were just the several dozen vampires I was expecting, we might in fact stand a chance with those grenades, or Vampire Busters as Messina called them. But with several thousand humans as well? Stakes usually just slowed them down. You needed real bullets and real grenades. Neither of which we had enough of, or any of.
We needed intel.
But we also needed to play this right. If my hunch was accurate, what was happening right now inside that abandoned looking warehouse might just make our survival possible.
But if I was wrong…
I looked at Sydney, then up to the heavens. God, take me, not her. If just one person survives tonight in all this chaos, let it be her.
“Let’s gear up. Rick, can you tell if there is a clear way in?”
“Roger that, south side, that’s the left side facing the front. There’s a fire escape, no windows, and just a door at the top. Assuming you can open it, it’s clear on the other side.”
“How can you be sure?” asked Sydney. “Vampires don’t show up on infrared.”
“Ha! Trust me. We’re way beyond infrared. I’ve got a crystal clear bead on Zander plus thirty-eight vampires in the building. None outside.”
“Are you sure?”
“You just moved to the back of the van.”
“You could have seen that through the window.”
“Now you’re putting on body armor.”
I flipped the bird to the eye in the sky.
“That was rude.”
“Okay, so you can see me. On the other side of that door, what are we expecting?”
“Small room, unoccupied. Probably a supervisor’s office or something. I recommend you get in, close the door fast, and stay low. It could be all windows.”
I put my jacket back on, stuffed as many of the Vampire Busters in my pockets as I could, and grabbed my hat off the top of one of the monitors. I turned to Sydney as she filled her pockets with the remaining grenades. “Ready?”
“Set.”
“Let’s go.”
I opened the rear doors of the van. Everything went dark inside. Pushing the doors open slowly, I stepped out, then helped Sydney to the ground. Closing the doors, I peered into the night, and reassured myself we were alone.
I sniffed.
I could smell them, but it was faint, their outside exposure having been mostly blown away by the wind that was beginning to pick up. I pressed my hat onto the top of my head, a little harder than usual—I’d hate to have to choose between saving the world and chasing after my hat.
“Are we still clear?”
“Affirmative.”
I walked with purpose across the street, as if I belonged there, Sydney bringing up the rear, a little more conspicuous with the Equalizer hidden behind her back.
I had to admit, I was scared. Entering a swarm of vampires this large was idiotic. With thousands of their followers present it was even more so. And the moment we were through that door, my scent would begin to travel through the enclosed space. Depending upon the airflow, it might take seconds, or minutes, but eventually, every vampire in that place would know I was there.
And it only took the first one to raise the alarm.
We reached the side of the building and I looked up at the ladder for the fire escape, sitting about twelve feet above us. I crouched, then shoved up with my legs, propelling myself through the air, arms outstretched. My hands grasped the bottom rung of the ladder, then my body weight pulled it down to the ground. I stepped aside and let Sydney go up first, then I followed quickly behind. Once we had reached the first set of stairs, I pulled the ladder back up to hide our presence, and to prevent anyone but a vampire from coming in behind us.
We slowly made our way up the stairs, the old rusted metal creaking with each step. It was too loud. A gust of wind blew, shaking the entire structure. I looked up. A full moon was now covered by clouds. It was going to rain. Hard. Three hundred years of weather forecasting told me that.
But there was one good thing about this. If those inside had any experience in this building, they would ignore the rattling of the fire escape, and chalk it up to the wind.
I hoped.
“Let’s go, quickly,” I whispered.
Sydney nodded, and we raced up the final two flights of stairs, then took up position on either side of the door.
“You’re still clear.”
I gave a thumbs up to the eye in the sky, and pulled out my lock picking gear. Sydney raised a finger for me to wait, and tried the knob.
It turned.
She pulled the door open slightly, not even enough for it to clear its own frame. I leaned in and place my mouth to her ear. “Okay, we need to get in and close the door fast, otherwise they might hear the wind. I’ll go in first, then you get in position. Rick, I’ll give you a thumbs up when I want you to signal Sydney to enter.”
“Affirmative,” came Rick’s voice over the comm.
Sydney nodded, and we switched positions, my hand replacing hers on the knob.
“Still clear?”
“Affirmative.”
I jerked the door open enough to let me step through, then closed it behind me. I didn’t move. My heart was thudding, that slow dull rhythm hinting at some sort of humanity left in me. If I were human, there would probably be a drummer in there right now, hammering on the double bass.
“Still clear.”
I listened for a moment, and could hear the thousands below. Only murmurs. Certainly nothing to indicate the mass turning had begun.
I gripped the door knob and gave a thumbs up.
“Go ahead, Sydney.”
The door opened, and Sydney stepped inside. I pulled it closed behind her and we both stood, looking at each other, and listening. I couldn’t detect any changes.
Suddenly there was a squelching sound of a microphone activating, and the murmur
ing stopped. I looked at Sydney. Her eyes were wide. I could smell her fear. I repeated my prayer.
For the first time I actually took in our surroundings. It was indeed a supervisor’s office, with windows covering two sides, allowing whoever had occupied it long ago to lord over his minions below. I motioned for Sydney to stay put, and I inched toward the closest window, and peered down below.
And nearly gasped out loud.
Having a hunch about something is one thing, but being proven right is an entirely other. Spread across the floor below were thousands of cages, each perhaps three feet by three feet, and about seven feet high. They were organized in groups of three, with one outer gate, then two inner gates, all closed, each tiny cage containing a lone human.
And not one of them seemed to have a problem with it.
The speakers squelched again, and I followed the gaze of the thousands below to the far wall.
And my bloodlust boiled.
Lazarus.
He was standing on a small podium, a dais and microphone in front of him, flanked by half a dozen of his followers, the rest spread amongst the cages of thralls willingly awaiting their fate.
He leaned into the microphone.
“Welcome, believers. I”—he said it as if he were God—“am Lazarus.”
The roar of three thousand thralls filled the warehouse, shaking the very floor I found myself on. I felt Sydney slide up beside me.
“What’s going on?”
“They’ve got them in cages.”
Sydney took a look out the window, then ducked down again. “Why would they do that?”
“Control.”
The roar from the crowd died down, and I looked again to see Lazarus lowering his arms back to the dais. “You are all here to fulfill a desire, to fulfill a dream. And by doing so, you shall help fulfill mine. For once you are turned, you will serve me, and no one else!” The roar again filled the warehouse. I dropped down behind the half wall housing the glass.
“How do we stop this?”
I looked at Sydney and shook my head. We needed a plan, and I didn’t have one. Setting the thralls free was useless. These people weren’t prisoners. They wanted to be here. We could only try to save them from themselves.
Lazarus was the key. He was the one who needed to die. If he died, the plan would fall apart.
The roar stopped.
“Tonight we end the dominance of man on this planet. Tonight, with this momentous event, we stop living in the shadows. We will stop living in fear, living secret lives. We will emerge from the darkness and take our rightful place at the top of the food chain, slave to minority status no more. For tonight will be the first of many, where we will create thousands of us. The next batches will not be brought here willingly. They will be taken, and turned, then they will realize the power they now possess. They will bow at my feet, and serve me, and serve us, for the greater glory of our kind!”
Again the roar.
I peered over the wall again, at the floor below, and examined the cages. Each grouping of three cages had three doors, two inside, simply leading to the next cage. Each contained a human.
And then I realized what was happening.
And it was genius.
We had thought he would need to unleash the turned on the city, separately, so they could feed.
But we were wrong.
He wasn’t going to turn three thousand here tonight. He was going to turn one thousand. Only one in each group would be turned. The other two would be fed upon by the recently turned. All within their cages, all under control, with no risk to Lazarus or his followers.
And when it was done, there would be one thousand freshly turned vampires, all under control, their initial bloodlust satiated.
“This is bad.”
“What?” It was Messina.
“He’s only going to turn one third of them. The rest are there for the turned to feed on.”
“Oh my God! Can you stop it?”
“Let me think!”
Lazarus began to speak again. “And yes, I said ‘us’. For those of you who are here willingly, who are here because you want to serve, you want to be greater than the mere mortals you now are, will hold a special place of honor amongst us. For it is us in this room who will rule this new world order. You out there, now, awaiting your immortality, awaiting your unlimited power, will serve as the lords of this land, reporting to these princes who stand with me now, and ultimately to your king. Yes, we who are here now, are the new ruling class, for together, WE. ARE. LEGION!”
The crowd screamed in a frenzy of whipped up emotions, as if their favorite rock band had just hit the stage. I watched as Lazarus’ lieutenants spread out amongst the cages, reaching into the first segment of each group, and grabbing an arm of the human it contained. Screams of pain accompanied the screams of ecstasy as teeth sank into dozens of arms throughout the warehouse.
The frenzy continued, undying, if anything, increasing in intensity. I surveyed the scene, my mind racing in desperation as I tried to come up with some way to stop it, but I couldn’t figure out anything. I saw the first group of arms tossed away, the lieutenants, or princes of the new world order, as Lazarus had called them, step back, then reach up and pull a chain over the cage they stood in front of.
The inner gates opened to the cells of the recently turned, and screams of terror began to mix with those of ecstasy, as nearly one hundred thralls realized they were about to become victims instead of vampires.
I leaned back against the half wall, my eyes closed, the palms of my hands pressed hard against my ears as I tried to drown out the screams. If I let it proceed, we’d be dealing with only one thousand, instead of three thousand. But right now, I wasn’t dealing with three thousand, I was only dealing with three dozen. The three thousand were caged. They were no threat.
I heard a new round of screams, and looked to see a second batch of the turned unleashed on their unsuspecting comrades. Now most of the screams were that of terror. In every cage the thralls had their arms thrust through, desperate to have their arm bitten, and not that of their companions. In some cages, those who were slated to be turned had been grabbed by the person behind them, in a struggle to the death.
The tide had turned.
These were no longer willing thralls, these were desperate, terrified humans, who wanted out.
And that was the key. They had to be freed.
But how?
I looked again at the cages, and the cables pulled by the princes. Each cable controlled an individual door, but those cables in turn linked up to long metal bars that stretched the length of the warehouse, each one appearing to correspond to a row of cages. Through the darkness I could see the ends of the bars, and my hunch was confirmed, the bars more like axels, their ends studded with teeth that fit into gears that looked like they could raise or lower the bars.
And if I could raise the bars, I could free everyone at once.
But where were the controls?
“Rick, can you detect any type of control panel from where you are? I’m looking for something that would control the gate mechanisms they have.”
“Something like that’s going to need a lot of juice. I’ve got faint energy signatures all over the place, probably lights and regular wall sockets, but there’s a large source right under you. Looks like a lot of power going into one panel. That has to be it.”
“Okay, is it clear?”
“Yes.”
I turned to Sydney. “I’m going down there. If I can open the cages, then all hell is going to break loose. I’ll try to get back up here, and we’ll figure out what to do from there. But first we have to stop that turning.” I pointed at the door. “I want you out of here. I’ll signal you when it’s safe to come back in.”
She shook her head. “No way am I leaving you here alone!” she hissed.
I squared my jaw and glared at her, pointing at the door. “Out, now, before it’s too late!” I could hear a fourth round being
turned.
She frowned, but went for the door. She gave me one last look, clearly indicating she wasn’t pleased, then opened the door, stepping out. A gust of wind whipped through the room as she did so, disturbing the decades old dust, before it subsided with the closing of the door.
And something changed below.
Not from the humans. Their terrified screams continued to flood the air. But something else. There was distinct shouting. Orders being given. I crawled back to the window and looked. “Uh oh.”
“Zander, something’s happening. A bunch of them are headed your way!”
“Yeah, yeah, I see it.”
They had caught my scent, the gust of wind enough to push it across the warehouse. It was damn the torpedoes time. I rose to my feet, opened the door, then jumped over the catwalk rail and down to the floor below. I landed, tossing two stakes as I did so, eliminating the two closest to me. I quickly retreated, looking over my shoulder for the control panel Messina had referred to, and found it. There were several dozen levers, currently all in the down position. I reached the wall and spun around, throwing two more stakes.
Two more clouds of dust. I rearmed and then reached up, pushing the first two levers up, and was rewarded with the sound of a motor, and the rattling of chains.
This brought everything to a stop as the princes looked up. I shoved two more up, then another two.
“Get him!” screamed Lazarus from the stage. Three dozen sets of eyes turned from staring overhead, to me. There were too many for me to take, they would be on me within seconds.
I decided my fate, and turned to face the levers. With my hands spread wide, I was able to push two in each hand, and shoved four at once, then moved to the next four.
I felt teeth sink into my shoulder. I shoved another four up, then pulled a stake from my jacket and plunged it into the scalp of the prince on my shoulder.
Dust. I shoved another four up before I was grabbed from behind by two sets of hands, and tossed into the midst of hundreds of humans, vampires, and recently turned. It was chaos. The princes tried to reach me, but were constantly hampered by humans running in every direction, and to my delight, recently turned, filled with bloodlust, attacking anything in sight, including their masters.
Turned (Zander Vargar Vampire Detective, Book #1) Page 20
