“Shit… that was close.” Lazarus wiped the sweat from his brow and shook his hands quickly. John wasn’t sure if the man had been shaken from the fight, or if he was having a bit of an adrenaline high.
“Sorry, man.” One of the members of Orion stepped through the door. He held out his hand, to which Lazarus took hold of and shook at the forearm. “He slipped right by us.”
“Don’t worry about it, mate.” Lazarus assured. He shook his head and cleared his throat in an effort to bring himself down from the rush. “Find the security room?”
“Sure did.” The man responded. He stepped back out of the stairwell and motioned two of the other members of Orion. “Move this body, we don’t need anyone coming up and seeing our mess.”
Lazarus stepped over the body and motioned for John and Aerin to follow. The seventh floor was mainly comprised of dozens of six foot tall cubicles. It was dimly lit by small running lights on the floor and the occasional overhead light that was kept at half strength to provide ambient illumination. The workstations within the cubicles seemed as generic as the ground floor of the building. Each one was made up of a computer, an office chair with no armrests, a small filing cabinet, and various papers strewn around the desk. All in all the building seemed as harmless as any other inside of Los Angeles, but the feeling of foreboding still remained.
“Tapped into security then?” Lazarus asked.
“Almost.” The man replied. “Meredith should be finished with it by now.” He looked back over his shoulder toward John. “We haven’t been properly introduced, John.”
“No we haven’t.” John agreed with a small shake of his head. “You’ve got me at a disadvantage.”
“I’m Orion Actual.” The man said. “Name’s Ryan.”
“Ryan,” John repeated. A smile suddenly crept up on his face. “That’s funny.”
“You think so?” Ryan asked. “Yeah I figure Meredith’s got a sense of humor.”
“Nah, mate.” Lazarus popped Ryan on the arm. “She made you team leader ‘cause your irresistible charm.”
“Yeah, right.” Sarcasm was in Ryan’s voice. He opened the glass door to what appeared to be the security room. “Ladies first.” He said with a gesture.
“Guess that means you, Aerin.” Lazarus smiled at Ryan, completely destroying his insult.
Aerin shook her head and rolled her eyes as she stepped past the two men. John could tell that their antics were testing her patience. He gave the two men a serious glance and a shake of the head that told them to keep their banter in check before he entered the room. The security room was filled with monitors that displayed camera angles of the various floors and rooms that filled the building. In the center of the room sat a computer that had hundreds of lines of code scrolling rapidly across the screen. As the group approached the computer, Meredith suddenly appeared on the screen.
“Oh, look at that!” She said in surprise. “Looks like we’re inside, let’s see…” Her hands ran back and forth over the keyboard as she typed. “Cameras… off. Alarms… off. Okay!” She smiled happily as she continued on. “Let’s poke through his files. Oh, this looks interesting. Hey-“
“Meredith.” Aerin spoke, suddenly cutting the small girl off. “Where is his office?”
“It’s… on the top floor.” The small girl answered. John could see that she was slightly shocked by Aerin’s sudden forwardness. “Aerin…” She called out. “Be careful.”
Without saying a word, Aerin turned away from the computer screen and squeezed between Lazarus and Ryan as she made her way out of the security room. The three men remaining next to the computer all looked down at Meredith on the screen. She silently looked up at them as well and nodded in agreement. Lazarus patted Ryan on the shoulder and motioned John out the door. Together, they walked down the hallway and joined Aerin at the elevator door. Clearly she was in a hurry to confront her enemy, and neither John nor Lazarus made mention of taking the stairs. The doors opened with a ding and the three of them stepped inside the lift. Aerin pressed the button for the 15th floor and, as soon as the doors shut, they were off.
As the lift approached their destination, Lazarus motioned the other two back as he assumed point. The doors opened up to a long hallway with a few doors on either side. At the very end of the hall, two guards stood facing the elevator. Upon seeing the doors open, they immediately opened fire without warning. Lazarus took cover inside next to the door and fired a few rounds blindly around the corner in an attempt to score a hit. This exchange of bullets went on for a few seconds before Aerin’s impatience came to a head. She clapped her hands together and stepped around the corner as she thrust her hands forward. A large Cypher projected in front of her, catching each and every one of the rounds fired at her. Suddenly, she pulled her hands back and thrust them forward. The Cypher shot forward at an insane speed, along with all of the bullets she had stopped in midair. The wave of metal collided into the Puppet Soldiers at the end of the hall and shredded them to pieces.
“It’s clear.” Aerin stated.
One of the large double oak doors at the end of the hallway suddenly burst forward. The third Puppet Soldier that had been on the 15th floor stood with his weapon at the ready. His sights were trained squarely on Aerin, the one that had just decimated two of his comrades. His finger squeezed down on the trigger, and Aerin was caught off guard with no time to react. A red mist suddenly erupted from the back of the Soldier’s helmet. The spray was heralded by a loud bang, and Aerin turned around to see Lazarus standing in the elevator with his pistol drawn.
“Now it’s clear.” He stated as he stepped out of the lift.
He walked next to Aerin and examined the two bodies on the floor as John approached from the rear. John could see the aggravation on Aerin’s face. He couldn’t tell if she was angry with her company, or angry at herself for having slipped up so badly. As they pushed open the oak doors and stepped over the dead body, he chalked it up to a combination of the two. The office inside was an eerily similar scene. There was a large window that made up the entirety of the back wall and on it was a large curtain. There was a wooden desk situated in the center of the room with a black leather chair behind it. Were it not for the bodies, John would’ve mistaken it for Meredith’s own office.
“This is weird.” John observed as he slowly moved around the room.
“No kidding.” Lazarus agreed. “So, you two feel our man?”
John closed his eyes for a moment and concentrated. He could feel two presences in the room with him, and a massive presence all around; but other than that, he had nothing. He opened his eyes and shook his head no as he looked to Aerin for a different answer. But the look on his face told him she felt the same.
“No,” She shook her head. “He’s not here.”
John could see a mix of emotions play out on Aerin’s face. He could see a heavy anger welling up within her that mixed with a deep disappointment; on top of all of that was a thick anxiety that permeated around her. Finding Richard Holland was something that meant a lot to her, and having traveled this far just to come up empty handed wasn’t something John was okay with.
“Let’s take a look around.” He said as he went over to the desk. “See what we can find. There’s got to be something in here.”
“Right!” Lazarus was quick on the draw. “There’s bound to be some great intel in here.”
Aerin shrugged and walked over to a nearby book case and began to search through its tomes. Lazarus walked over and began checking through some shelving that was mostly covered in abstract décor. John sat down at the desk and pulled out the keyboard. He started up the computer but quickly found it to be locked, which wasn’t much of a surprise. He tried a few passwords before exhausting his ideas. The desk drawers didn’t prove to have anything of use within them. There were a few folders with basic financial reports, but nothing more.
“Find anything?” Lazarus asked. He had already given up on understanding the artwork that covered the
shelves.
“No.” John said with a sigh. He leaned back into the chair and rubbed his eyes in aggravation. “There’s nothing here.”
“Oh ye of little faith.” Meredith’s voice suddenly came through John’s earpiece.
The computer screen suddenly flashed as lines of code began running across it. John and Lazarus both leaned forward as they watched the layers of security peel away slowly until the computer’s home screen was visible. Meredith appeared on the monitor just as she had in the security room downstairs. She smiled and giggled as she hacked into Holland’s computer. The whole show had caught Aerin’s attention, and she abandoned the bookcase to come watch as well.
“Now we’re talking.” She said as she leaned forward intently. “Looks like our friend is in the office right now.”
“In the office?” John repeated. “His office?”
“Yes and no.” Meredith said. “Not the one you’re in; looks like he has another. There’s a hidden partition, something he didn’t want others to see.”
Meredith made a few strokes across her keyboard and a loud mechanical thud suddenly came from the bookcase. John, Aerin, and Lazarus looked over toward it to see part of the bookcase retract into the wall. It slid backwards a foot or so and then disappeared behind the others shelves, revealing a pair of metal doors that opened up with a sharp ding. Beyond them sat an elevator, ready to take them to their target.
“He’s down there.” Meredith stated.
“Good.” Aerin turned and began walking towards the lift, stopping only after Meredith called out again.
“Aerin, please be careful.”
“I’m always careful.” Aerin said without looking back. She took another few steps toward the elevator before stopping again. She glanced over her shoulder to John. “You coming?”
“Of course.” John answered as he stood from the chair and patted Lazarus on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry about me, mate.” Lazarus said. “I’ll stay here; see what I can’t scrounge up. Place could be an intelligence gold mine.” He spun the office chair around and sat down into it hard. “Take care of her down there. Kick that guy’s ass.”
John followed Aerin into the elevator. The inside panel, unlike others John had seen, only had one button: down. Aerin pressed it and the doors closed in front of them and the mechanisms that moved the machine sprang to life. John felt a slight tickling sensation in his stomach as they descended, but it quickly subsided. There was a strange feeling in the air. Aerin was completely silent, and for that matter so was John, the only sounds to be heard where the whirring of the machine around them. Aerin’s disposition had changed from before, she was no longer filled with the anger and drive that John had witnessed earlier, now there was a feeling of uncertainty thrown into the mix.
“You alright?” John asked, breaking the silent tension.
“I… I’m fine.” Aerin responded. She crossed her arms and turned her gaze away.
“Whatever happens, I’m behind you one hundred percent.”
“Thank you.” The air around Aerin changed just a bit more as her expression lightened a little. “I appreciate that.”
“Don’t mention it.” John leaned against the wall behind him. “We’re a team, right?” He asked rhetorically. “That’s what partners do.” With that, a slight silence filled the elevator again as they slowly made their way downward. “Anyway, I think whatever we’re feeling is down here.”
“Me too.” Aerin agreed.
“What do you think it is?”
“I have an idea.” Aerin stated as she stood up straight. “But I really hope I’m wrong.”
“About what?”
“Well, it’s-“ Aerin cut herself off as the doors opened with a sharp ding. She took a step backwards, bumping against the wall of the elevator as horror washed over her face. “Oh God no…”
After a moment she built up enough strength to walk forward. John watched as she brought her hand up to cover her mouth as her eyes darted back and forth. He quickly followed her out of the lift and saw just what had shaken her so much. The room beyond the elevator was large and rectangular. There were many metal tables down below with all sorts of expensive looking machinery moving vials filled with liquids, what of only God knew. Dozens of computers and monitors where strewn about here and there haphazardly for whatever project they were needed for. Out of all of the laboratory’s contents, something stood out. One thing was completely out of place. In the center of the room there was a massive structure that stretched almost all the way to the nearly thirty foot high ceiling. It was brown and jagged and it twisted upward like some sort of malformed double helix. It looked to be made of rock and it gave off the sensation of being inherently wrong.
“Aerin…” John spoke. He tried to turn towards her but couldn’t bring himself to look away. “What… What is that?”
Everything was wrong. The massive rock was causing all sorts of feelings to well up within John. The air was putrid, it made his nose hurt as he breathed it in. The iron taste filled his mouth and made him cough as if he was choking on his own blood. His body ached, his blood boiled, and his hair stood on end. Everything about him that was a Slayer was screaming at him to draw out his sword.
“It’s a… a Bloodstone...” She responded.
The word sent a chill down John’s back, like it was something never to be uttered, something terribly unholy.
“What the hell is a Bloodstone?” He asked.
“A collection of souls crammed together until they have a physical form.” A voice suddenly rang out throughout the room. John looked left and right for the source as Aerin was forcefully snapped back from her daze. The horror and disbelief that had polluted her expression changed quickly to a burning hatred. “It isn’t finished, so I can’t really show you what it’s capable of.” The voice echoed throughout the chamber again. “But… I hope you like it.”
“Richard!” Aerin shouted with a rage John had yet to see from the girl.
“That voice!” Richard Holland resonated throughout the laboratory. “Aerin, my dear, it’s been far too long since I’ve heard you. You know, it’s a shame things happened as they did, I’ve missed you so.”
“That’s too bad.” Aerin remarked. She swung her legs over the railing and dropped down to the lower level.
“You know, you could always join me.” Holland stated. “Your magic was always so exceptional, and I could still use a friend like you.”
“Friend?!” Aerin nearly snarled. “Like hell!” She looked around the room frantically searching for the source of the voice. “Why don’t you show your face so I can burn it off?!”
“My, my, you have quite the temper nowadays.” Holland remarked. His voice seemed to be coming from speakers around the room. “And you used to be so timid. How about we have a nice chat instead of burning my face off? You know I need that to function.”
“I will kill you.”
“In due time my dear.”
John hopped over the railing and dropped down onto the floor as well. Aerin scanned the room top to bottom as she slowly approached the massive Bloodstone. It sat atop a metal pedestal that was covered in tubes and wires that fed into the rocky structure. There were dozens of cables that came off of the pedestal, all seeming to run together in one direction. John followed Aerin as she traced the cables around the other side of the stone to where they connected. A huge array of monitors sat at the back end of the room, its existence concealed by the Bloodstone. Underneath the tower of computer screens was an elderly looking man. He looked to be somewhere around his sixties. His hair was short and white, which matched the white lab coat that he wore. As John and Aerin slowly approached, John looked up and examined the computer screens. There were hundreds of lines of data streaming all about, which he could only assume pertained to the massive rock behind him.
“Ah, that’s better.” The man reached down and ejected something from one of the computers beside him and placed it in his shirt pocket
before spinning his chair around to face John and Aerin. “It’s been a long time, Aerin.” He said with a smile. His gaze glanced over toward John. “And I see you brought your Slayer along as well. It’s good to see you made it out of Russia in one piece; I know a lot of us didn’t.”
“Russia?” John repeated in confusion.
“You mean…?” Holland raised an eyebrow as he contemplated the scenario. “I see… you are different. What a shame, Angel. Losing your Slayer like that.” He leaned back into his chair and crossed his arms. “And you two seemed so close.” He said with a devilish smile.
Aerin shouted with a burning hatred in her eyes as she slapped her hands together, creating a dozen Cyphers all around her. With a powerful thrust forward, they all fired massive bolts towards the old man. They exploded against him, creating a billowing mass of flame just ahead of John that was hot enough to force him to shield his eyes. All the while, Aerin continued her volley unabated. Bolt after bolt struck forward, tearing the computer screens around him to pieces as Aerin continued her assault. Eventually, she stopped; letting the Cyphers vanish around her, she breathed heavily. Either the attack had taken it out of her, or she had released years of pent up aggression in one move, John didn’t know. Suddenly, laughter came from just in front of them. Beyond the cloud of dust and smoke that was slowly dissipating, Richard Holland sat unscathed
“Oh come now, Aerin, did you really think I’d just sit here and let you end me like that?” Holland rested his head on one hand as he smiled to her. “You should know me better by now. Half the fun is in the chase, and I haven’t even begun to run…” Suddenly Holland spun around in his chair, certain the barrier that surrounded him would protect him, and began working again on the section of his computer that hadn’t been destroyed. “I’m in the middle of something, so take your time and play with two of my latest pets, would you?”
A sudden thud came from either side of John and Aerin. Two brutish looking men stood lumbering over them, their presence completely hidden until they were almost on top of the Angel and her Slayer. It was strange; John hadn’t sensed nor heard their approach until they had nearly been right on top of them. He turned to face the one closest to him as Aerin did the same behind. John reached behind him and took hold of his blade. A torrent of fire roared up around him as his body transformed. The beastly man shambled forward until he came about five feet from John. It cracked its neck and hands as it let out a disturbingly painful sounding laugh. This thing was an abomination, and it needed to be destroyed.
Slayer: A Demon Hunter's Tale Page 21
