“I have heard about your surveillance problem from Dr. Grey. I figured you could use this. It will jam any electrical surveillance within a fifteen foot radius. Feel free to ask of me what you will.” He handed me the cube with his long hairy fingers. It fit in the palm of my hand with a warm buzz.
“Actually I needed to ask you about s-spiders,” I told him, my voice a little high and cracking ever so slightly. His eyes widened behind his small reading glasses. “I don’t know much about them, and I’m working a case that may involve a spider.”
“Very well, what do you wish to know?” he asked with a thoughtful nod.
We walked as we talked. Walked straight into the arachnid hall. How appropriate. I just stayed in the middle of the hall and focused solely on Nikolai. It took all my willpower not to glance at the horrors in the glass cages surrounding us.
“There was a victim. All orifices and wounds were sealed over with some waxy substance. The eyelids were sealed to the eyes leaving them open. The skin formed a bag. The insides were completely liquefied. When they tried to move the body it ruptured spilling the liquid, like breaking a water balloon. Any idea what could do that to a person?”
He was silent with deep thought for a moment.
“Honestly, no. I have never heard of such a happening. For this to occur to something the size of a human, you would either have to have a large number of smaller spiders attacking at once or one very large one. Supposing it even was a spider.”
“How large?”
“About that big.” He pointed into a cage over his shoulder.
Stupid me, I looked.
There was a black fuzzy spider the size of a truck gnawing at a large silk sack. I started to feel sick and freaked out as the world began to spin. It took me swallowing my breath to keep from spewing bile. My skin crawled as I pushed Nikolai down the hall out of the arachnid area. We were then surrounded by a number of giant snakes. An improvement, not much of one, but it was an improvement none the less.
“Okay, I asked for that,” I admitted with regret to my curiosity that had made me look in the first place. “What would the bite marks from a spider look like?”
“Anything from a small red bump, to a blister, or an acid burn, to twin holes up to three-inches across. As best I know.”
“All I could see on the body other than the vampire and werewolf bites I recognized, were three puncture wounds on the side of the neck. It looked like two fangs on top and one on bottom. The holes were about two fingers across each. Ideas?” I asked, holding up my index and middle fingers together to help illustrate.
“Scorpion,” he answered flatly without taking time to think about it. “Three strikes from a giant scorpion would make holes like that. The venom from the tail would paralyze the victim . . . but the saliva of the scorpion is what it uses to liquefy prey. I do not know of anything that would liquefy a body like you described. It could be a mutation. A form of spider or scorpion, perhaps even a snake we do not have on file. I fear I am not the world’s best expert on such things.”
Mutation huh? Well that leads to a stupid question. “When you say mutation, could you mean a lycanthrope?”
“I have never heard of a werespider or werescorpion. I suppose it is possible. There was a reported case of a wereshark once, before then we did not believe that was possible, so there is a chance. As for a weresnake, I have never known of one with three fangs. The lycanthrope viruses mutate the body away from its normal human form. Honestly I see no reason why it couldn’t cause additional abnormalities. I wish I could give you better answer. I just have none to give.”
“Thank you Nikolai. You’ve been a great help.”
* * *
Nikolai escorted me through the rest of the Halls of Horrors -- as I’d started calling it -- to the others waiting at the elevator to the Demonstration Armory. I looked around for Silis -- the mermaid I’d seen on my last trip through -- when we passed through the coral room. She was nowhere to be found. Apparently she was staying out of places she wasn’t supposed to be for once.
Once again Nikolai returned to his work and we all took the elevator to the Armory. I was having a bad case of déjà vu. We each stood against the same walls we had before. Each not speaking, looking either at the floor or the passing numbers.
Once we stopped we all filed out of the elevator, I was last out again. The room was exactly the same, thousands of guns on the left, shooting ranges on the right. Everything was just the same as it always was, at least whenever I visited.
I glanced around everyone to the other end of the long room at the conference room doors. The most surprising thing sat there, so out of place for the surroundings.
A little girl.
The girl sat in a chair just beside the large double doors to the conference room. Her ankles were crossed, her hands in her lap all prim and proper. She sat there quietly staring at the wall in front of her. She was dressed like a prep school student. Loafers on her feet, ankle socks, red and blue plaid pleated skirt, with a white blouse decorated with a girl’s ribbon tie under a blue blazer. Her brown hair was cut in a short bob, even with her jaw line. Her bangs were straight, just above her eyebrows. She turned her head to look at us.
She was totally adorable.
She opened her mouth just a little as her eyes widened in awe. At first I thought her reaction was to Marsala, the vampire the size of a mountain. But, I soon noticed that the awe was directed towards Emmy and myself. It was as if this girl had never seen another female before in her life. Quickly she regained her composure and returned to staring at the wall. Once and a while she glanced at us from the corner of her eye.
We reached the other side of the large room moments later. I saw that beside her on the floor was a small suitcase, a backpack, and a teddy bear that had vampire fangs and a cape.
Just what in the world is this girl doing here? This is no place for children.
As we passed her to go through the double doors, she lifted her eyes at Emmy. Her chocolate brown eyes were so dark, they were almost black. Those eyes then turned to me. There was something there, some kind of wanting, a desperate need for connection I couldn’t understand.
I passed through the doors, leaving the cute little girl alone in the other room. For some reason I suddenly felt bad for leaving her there alone.
Inside the conference room I had that déjà vu again. Marsala crossed the room to take a knee in front of Yuric and Jamison just like last time. The similarities were too much. I’d almost burst out laughing. Thankfully I managed to keep it to just a smile though.
I crossed the room to Yuric. I bowed my head to him, looking him in the eyes as I’d done before as a sign of respect.
“Greetings again Yuric, Master Vampire, envoy of the Vampire Council. May your blood run pure from all wounds.” I hope I remembered that right.
The blood greeting was a sign of great respect amongst the vampires, or so I was told. Yuric broke out laughing. That laugh made me cringe. I couldn’t help it. He was still creepy. No matter how much time I spent around him, or how nice he was to me, he still crept me out. Bald, with pointy ears, and an undead almost corpse-like glow to his mother-of-pearl skin, all contained inside his banded collar long coat that skirted clear to the floor, hiding his feet to give the illusion that he simply floated around the room. Creepy.
“And greetings to you Kieran Grey, Psionic Hunter, Survivor Reborn, Slayer of Masters. May the blood run pure from all your wounds as well. It is good to see you again Child.”
He held his hand out and I shook it. That warm waxy-stick feeling of his flesh and bone was still sickening.
“I never got the chance to properly thank you for your help back at the Dark Towers. So. . . . Thank you.”
“You were in quite a mess, were you not? It was an honor that I was able to be there, and witness firsthand your brilliant destruction of Master Ahmed Targ. That joyous vision has brought me great pleasure with each recollection.”
“I’
m glad you are pleased. Targ was a . . . problem,” I said using Yuric’s own word he’d used before to describe the dead vamp, instead of the ones I could think of. Like asshole, fucker, and all the usual terms for people I didn’t like.
“That he was, that he was. You have however, left the St. Carver region in a power vacuum. There is no Head Master Vampire of the Region now. The Council is debating on who they will send to replace Targ. They are not sure who would be willing to live in an area with one who is the Slayer of Masters.” He gestured towards me.
“I take it I’ve received a new title.”
“Oh yes. The Council was most pleased. You not only got Targ to openly confess to helping the rogue Jacob, but you saved them the trouble of destroying him. For someone who is not a master vampire themselves to kill a master vampire is a great feat Child, one that few have ever accomplished. Targ was a very powerful master, many died by his hand. Yes, the Council was indeed pleased when I told them how you killed him. So pleased in fact that they sent me to deliver a gift to you. Again I bring you gifts. Gifts from the Council, and from myself this time. Jamison.” Yuric said the name like a command, déjà vu again.
Jamison opened a case taking out a number of knives this time. “These blades have a high silver content, and are all molecularly sharpened. They will each cut through almost anything and never dull. As I said last time, vampires and lycanthropes are allergic to silver. Any wound caused by silver heals very slowly, about as fast as the wound would on a normal human.” He placed out several knives of different types on the table. Some were folding knives, others were throwing knives, two of them were straight blades each as long as my forearm, like short swords.
“Master.” Jamison held out a obsidian-black oval cylinder.
Yuric took the black thing in his hand. It was carved with ornate markings that reminded me of Tanaka’s tattoos. Yuric held it in both hands offering it up to me.
“This was made especially for you by our best craftsmen. You can place your hand over it, but do not touch it. The riddle is simple. It holds a great power to the one that can figure out the puzzle within. The center is key, switch one, four, three, activate to receive this gift from me.” Yuric held it up to my face. He had that smile that freaked me out on his face again. I had to struggle not to let my skin crawl.
I placed my hand over the black object. I did it because, I was told I could, and I didn’t know what else to do. I looked around at the others in the room. No one gave me any hint of an idea of what this thing could be.
The lights of the room distracted me, so I closed my eyes. With my right hand over the object, I made a fist. Then I opened it. The shield-bubble expanded from my hand. When it had enveloped the object I stopped. I concentrated on the object until I could see inside it. On the inside there were six switches on each side near the edges.
Was I supposed to flip the switches?
I remembered the riddle, The center is key, one, four, three, activate to receive this gift from me.
Does that mean to flip the switches one, four, and three? I concentrated on the switches. Which one is which? . . . The center is key. I counted out from the center. On the right side I flipped switch one, then four, then three with my shields.
SSSHHNICK! A sword blade expanded out from the handle with a little noise of metal sliding against metal. The double edged blade was decorated just as the handle. Collapsible sword, this is cool! I flipped the switches on the other side. Another blade expanded out the other side. A double bladed sword, even better! I opened my eyes to look first hand with my normal vision. It was a beautiful sword, the obsidian blades glistened in the lights. I glanced at Yuric. He did not yet look pleased.
Did I missed something? What else does he want?
I closed my eyes again, reopening the shield-bubble. I looked at all the switches, then at all of the inside of the handle. At the center were two interlocking disks. Do they do something? I focused my shields to turn the disks. The handle split in the middle. I opened my eyes. Yuric smiled as he now held a blade in each hand.
“You truly are amazing young one. You showed great promise with a blade before, I only hope this sword will do you justice. The gifts are yours.”
“Thank you Yuric, and thank the Council as well for their gifts.” I was truly happy with the weapons.
Why did Marsala ever warn me about gifts from the Council? All they ever gave me were neat weapons. No one could complain about those, could they? Everyone likes to get cool toys.
“You misunderstand me. The weapons are my gifts to you. You have yet to receive your gift from the Council.” Yuric’s creepy smile widened to that sadistic, full fanged look.
Why do I just feel like things are about to get bad, really, really bad?
“If I may be so bold as to ask, just what is the gift from the Council?” I questioned cautiously.
“Why, the child in the other room, of course.”
Chapter 5
“THE LITTLE GIRL IN THE CHAIR?!?!” I didn’t keep the surprise out of my voice as I shrieked the question. I saw Marsala cringe in the background.
“Of course, why else would she be here? Do you not approve of your gift?” Yuric narrowed his eyes at me. That glance gave new meaning to, looks can kill.
“Forgive my surprise Yuric. I am” -- I had to pause to come up with the right words -- “overwhelmed that the Council would . . . honor me with such a gift.” I tried to sound sincere, honestly I tried.
Yuric looked accusingly at Marsala. “You have indeed taught her well. I assume you instructed her to accept any gift from the Council without question?”
Marsala ducked his head again when he answered, “Yes, Master.”
Yuric laughed. But, this laugh didn’t freak me out like the last one did. He turned back to face me.
“Allow me to explain. The child is a psionic. She is a healer, not of others, but of herself. Last year we came upon a failed government plan in Europe. Exactly where is not important. It involved turning psionic children into soldiers for their cause. The children were brainwashed from birth, trained to be assassins and soldiers. Most of the children were unable to be saved because of their conditioning. They were destroyed rather than risk them getting out amongst the public. There were a handful that had their memories regularly erased, so they did not remember the tortures they had endured. This girl was one of those.
“As a self-healer, each time she is hurt, she comes back stronger. She was repeatedly tortured, and surgically violated. Each time she healed, she grew stronger, and faster. She had been trained to be the perfect assassin. She is an excellent marksman, extremely strong and fast even for someone three times her size. She is also extremely intelligent beyond her years, and also speaks seven languages fluently. But, she is still a child. Children need guidance. Someone to teach them, to help them make the right decisions in life.
“Because of her conditioning, she will be devoted entirely to the person that becomes her guardian. We altered her conditioning so that the first woman to give the child a name will be that guardian. She will obey any order from her guardian without question. Since it is a woman that must name her, we have kept her secluded from any females. We did not want such a powerful weapon to belong to just anyone.
“The Council respects you as the Survivor Reborn, and even more now as the Slayer of Masters. Your destruction of Targ was an admirable feat. Few could stand up against such a powerful master vampire -- much less a human -- and survive, or even hope to win the confrontation. They have deemed you worthy of the girl. Once you name her you will become her guardian, her Sister. We have already made arrangements with the GCP and the Archives. She will be an officer of your equal rank, your partner, and most of all your little sister. She will attend studies at an Archives approved school when not with you on assignment. The paperwork is all in order, you just have to name her.”
What in the hell is going on? How can I accept the life of another as a gift? I don’t want a slave, and I
don’t know how to take care of a kid. I haven’t even figured out how to be a woman yet, much less a big sister. To refuse her would be bad. They’ll probably kill her if I don’t take her in. What the hell should I do? I guess I really have no choice. Do I?
Emmy placed a hand on my shoulder, she looked as shocked as I felt. “I’ll help you with her, if you want.”
“What would be a good name for her?” I asked Emmy.
Before she could answer, Yuric interrupted. “You and you alone can name her.”
How am I supposed to name a girl I’ve never met? I was never good at naming anything. My pet cat I had as a kid was named, Cat. I can’t just call the girl, Kid, or Girl. I looked to Marsala and Tanaka for help. They both just shrugged their shoulders at me. I thought about all the girls in my past, trying to remember their names.
Why is it when you needed to remember something specific, your mind always goes blank?
Suddenly I had it. A name fitting such an adorable little girl. The smile on my face gave it away.
“You have a name for her?” Yuric asked. I nodded, but before I could say it he put up his hand silencing me. “Come to me Child,” Yuric said it in a normal voice, but it was like the words carried a weight to them they should not have been able to.
The large doors suddenly opened a crack. The girl stuck her head into the room like she was not sure she was welcome inside. “Did you call me Master Yuric?” the child asked in a sweet little angelic voice.
Yuric raised his hand, “Come Child, we have introductions.”
The girl entered the room. She hesitated at the door then hurried past us to Yuric’s side. She kept looking at Emmy and me hesitantly.
“Child, we have brought you to your Sister.” As soon as he said “sister”, my feelings on the subject of taking the kid as my little sister changed. Yuric pushed the girl gently in front of me.
A second ago I was upset at the idea of being given another human being as a gift. Now, for some reason, the instant Yuric said that I was her sister, I just wanted to take care of this kid with every fiber of my being. What’s the deal? Is this some sort of mind control or something? Vamp mind tricks? Like Sorrow’s gift?
Revenge's Web (Kieran Grey Psionic Hunter) Page 4
