I Kill Monsters

by Dennis Liggio

  Past the revenant was the other side of the medcenter. First was another large door made to slam shut for quarantine lockdowns. Then there were labs. We bypassed the labs for the observation area. It was its own sort of quarantine, but not tied to lockdown. This was simply where they would want to isolate and quarantine someone but they had no threat of outbreak. According to Ezra's map, this is where we'd find Jessica. We hoped she hadn't been moved.

  Once through the large doors, we got more cautious. We used a few side passageways so that we weren't on the main corridor. We put our hazmat masks back on to conceal our faces from anyone we might bump into. We expected more foot traffic on this side, even if it was afterhours. Because of that, it took a little while to find her room. There was a plastic bin with the patient name and a medical clipboard like I've seen on hospital shows, but nothing was in the bin - no clipboard and no occupant name. With some worry, we scanned the badge and the door opened.

  At first glance, this room was as white and sterile as any. But some care had been made to make it livable. There was a table and chairs, a television, and the patient bed had real blankets and comfy sheets. And on that bed was Jessica.

  She was dressed in just a T-shirt and sweatpants. She lounged on the bed holding a tablet in her hands. When she saw the door open, she looked up quizzically. "Can I help you?" she said.

  I pulled off my mask and walked toward her. "It's me!"

  "Holy crap, Szandor, what are you doing here?" she said for a moment in shock. Then she got up and gave me a hug. "I'm glad you're safe! I didn't know what happened to you! There's some bad stuff happening. But why are you here? Did they bring you in for quarantine?"

  "Mikkel's here too, by the way," grumbled Mikkel in a low voice behind me, his own mask off too.

  "I know, some seriously bad shit is going on. That's why we're here to rescue you!" I said.

  She looked at me for a long moment, then titled her head. "Oh," she said, stepping back from me. Her brow knotted and she frowned.

  "Oh?" I said, my mood taking a nosedive.

  "Oh crap," said Mikkel, stringing out the words over a long exhale, suddenly resigned to inevitable badness.

  "Yeah.... Szandor, things are complicated," said Jessica, who turned and began to pace the room. "I don't expect you to understand. There's no way you could have understood. This really didn't involve you."

  "You hired us and were kidnapped from my apartment," I said. "Of course it involved us."

  She looked at me again, her lips a tense frown. After a second she shook her head again and started pacing. "I know when they grabbed me I was unhappy about it," she said. "I know what that looked like. I thought they were the ones who dosed me with... well, that's not important. I thought they were the enemy. I thought they were the ones trying to kill me. When they took me I thought that was it for me. I thought I was dead. But they weren't there to harm me."

  "But Ezra said you were in danger!" I said. "He said that Sutton is trying to take over your department, that he dosed you with some pheromones, and that they kidnapped you to keep you out of the way!"

  "Ezra!" she spat out, her voice suddenly angry. Jessica shook her head in dismissive frustration. "Szandor, you have it so wrong. I don't know what's been going on, but you've been getting so much bad information. Sutton is the head of security. They brought me here to protect me, as per MT protocols. I hired you because I needed help and didn't know who was trying to kill me. I was dosed with a cocktail of pheromones that had the ghouls stalking me. When I didn't know who did it, I realized it could have been Sutton. When I hired you two I didn't know who was trying to kill me. So when Security showed up, I thought Sutton was my enemy come to finish the job. But I now know I was wrong."

  "Are you sure?" I said. "Sutton is a real asshole."

  "He is," agreed Jessica, "but he wasn't the one trying to kill me. Asshole or not, he's doing his job protecting MT and its assets. That includes me. He brought me back to MT and has put me down here until the pheromone works its way out of my system. It's almost gone. For all his bad attitude, Sutton probably saved my life by hiding me away down here."

  "But there are ghouls down the hall," I said.

  She shook her head. "They can't get to me here."

  "I'm confused," I said. "If he's not the enemy, then who?"

  "Don't you understand?" she said. "I'm supposed to be dead. My lead scientist has gone rogue and I'm the person with the most information on his research and activities. We've confirmed it. The one who dosed me was Ezra."

  Mikkel cursed.

  "I don't understand," I said, still confused, but a bad feeling twisting through me.

  "Ezra's making a play to leave MT and take all his research with him to a competitor," she said. "When I told him Minerva would sue him into poverty if he took any of his research, since it is all MT intellectual property, he started plotting his escape. He dosed me to get me out of the way. Without me, MT would move much slower blocking him, and he'd get out with research. All the info about his research is in records, but I know it all intimately since I was his project manager. Killing me would give him a window to get everything and make his escape. With me alive, he's locked out of our systems and he can't go anywhere. But we still need to find him."

  "Crap," said Mikkel behind me, realizing how we fucked up before I did.

  "Ezra can't have been the one. He wanted you rescued!" I said. "He's the one who showed us how to get in here to rescue you!"

  Shock raced across Jessica's face. "He was the one who engineered this rescue?"

  I nodded.

  "Szandor, what did he have you do to get in here?" she said.

  "Well..." I said, suddenly very embarrassed.

  I didn't get to finish. There was a loud noise as the door burst open. Black clad commandos grabbed Mikkel and forced him to the floor. Before I could react, they had grabbed my arm and pulled it up behind my back. I was slammed against the wall, my cheek pressed up uncomfortably.

  "Help..." I said weakly before the soldier pulled my arm more sharply to make me shut up.

  "Ms. Ingstrom, are you okay?" said one of the commandos.

  "Yes, I'm fine," she said distractedly. "Report. Is there anything wrong?"

  "Ma'am, security has been tracking the usage of a badge by an MIA employee through the office. At first it seemed harmless, but once it hit biomed we were called up and dispatched."

  "I want a map of their movements based on the badge's timestamps," said Jessica. I heard her sigh audibly. "I don't want anyone else notified. I will cover this, understand?"

  "I'm sorry, ma'am, but as per protocol, Director Sutton has been notified and is on his way."

  "Shit," she said.

  "What about these two?"

  "Put them in conference rooms on this floor," she said. "Unharmed. But I want a guard on each of them, Sutton be damned."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  I appreciated her saying unharmed. I didn't appreciate the security commandos ignoring this once we were in the hallway. Maybe it was because Mikkel resisted and tried to escape. I was too much in shock to resist. But either way, a bunch of black clad soldiers kicked the shit out of us and knocked us out.

  So much for the compassion of corporate America.

  Stuff is Messed Up

  The room I woke in was much more spartan than Jessica's. It was a small conference room containing just a table, a few chairs, and a white board. Either someone had knocked out a few lights or they had set this room on dim. I was alone. I assumed Mikkel had his own room. I had been stripped of the plastic hazmat suit but still wore my jumpsuit. My weapons were gone and it was clear someone went through my pockets. As I stood up, I had to readjust my jumpsuit, particularly in the groin area. They had searched me that closely. I suddenly felt like I needed a shower.

  The door was locked and I received no response when I banged on it. I could have kept hammering on it, but I was pretty sure before I got the door open, someone would have come and beat
me up again due to the noise I was making. I was fuming in anger, but there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. My sole act of defiance was drawing a penis on the white board. Then I sat down at the table, resigned to waiting for someone and feeling like a tool.

  A short while later I heard movement in the hall. I didn't bother to try to stand behind the door or any other foolish escape. I simply lounged with my arm over the back of my chair and stared at the door as it opened.

  First came one of those commandos in black. This one must have been Extra Large Family Size, since it seemed like he was a foot taller than all the others I had seen and had a neck thicker than my thighs. He was likely picked to intimidate me. He muscled into the room then glared at me. He raised the butt of his gun and then gave a look of disappointment when I didn't even twitch. He saw the dick drawn on the white board and frowned. Then he took up a position next to the door. Next walked in Jessica, who had ditched her sweats for a professional business suit. Last came Suitguy, also known as Blake Sutton. His expensive suit was crisp despite the late hour, his expression sour probably because of the late hour. Jessica and Sutton sat down across the table from me. Sutton opened a briefcase and pulled out folders while Jessica simply swiped at her tablet. She did not make eye contact with me.

  When Sutton seemed to have their papers organized and Jessica had swiped through whatever she was doing on her tablet, both of which took a dramatically long minute, Sutton looked right at me. Then he slid a badge across the table to me. It was Smilin' Rick Molina again. I couldn't tell if Rick's eyes looked reproachful or if his smile was gloating. He knew the jig was up for me.

  "What can you tell me about this, Mr. Nowak?" said Sutton simply.

  "It's a security badge," I said.

  "I know that, dumbfuck," said Sutton acidly. "We pulled it off your defenseless unconscious body. Where'd you get it? Why were you using it?"

  "It's just something we found," I said.

  "Oh really? It just happens that it belongs to an MIA agent assumed dead, but I think you already knew that. So it's real interesting that you show up here using a dead man's badge to get through our security," said Sutton.

  "The guy was dead when we found it," I said. "We figured he wasn't using it."

  "That's a rather weak excuse," he said. "I guess we can add manslaughter to the list of charges for the police. Breaking and entering, destruction of property, identity theft, manslaughter."

  "Cut the crap," I said. Due to Mikkel, I had seen enough of these police interrogation scenes. "If you were going to give us to police, you would have done it already. For whatever reason, you want this off the books and you want to do some private bullying. Honestly, I'd rather be dealing with a cop right now."

  "We thought we could give you the benefit of the doubt," said Sutton. "You could help us and we could help you leave all this behind you."

  "Reading off a list of crimes and a railroaded murder charge?" I said incredulously. "That doesn't sound like the benefit of the doubt. You're acting like you're trying to send us up shit creek."

  "Szandor, this is serious!" said Jessica, finally breaking her silence. "These are some serious charges! I'd like to help you out, I really do, but this isn't some game!"

  I guess I knew who was Good Cop here.

  "Yeah, well, excuse me if I'm not entirely grateful," I said. "We broke in here to rescue you. If we knew you were fine and dandy, we wouldn't have wasted the effort, we wouldn't have messed up your shit, and we'd be sitting at home having a bottle of whiskey while you could be doing whatever the fuck you do. You could have sent a text or something. Y'know, some sort of I'm Not Dead Don't Screw Yourself Over By Trying To Rescue Me note."

  "I've been under strict communication silence," she said.

  "Jessica's well-being is a Minerva internal matter," said Sutton. "You are unnecessary."

  "Then what am I fucking doing here?" I said. "I know she's safe now. I don't give a damn about being here anymore. Let me go home and I'll forget about everything here. Shit, just give us to the cops if you think we're a danger. Why am I still here?"

  "You know exactly why you're here," said Sutton. "Where's your goddamn partner?"

  "Mikkel?" I said in confusion. "You took him. I have no idea where he is. I'd actually like to know myself."

  "No, not your brother!" he said. "Where the hell is Ezra?"

  "Ezra's not our partner..." I said.

  "Where the hell is he?" spat Sutton.

  "Fuck, I don't know," I said. "We dropped him off at a street corner last night. If he hit the airport, he could be halfway to the Caymans for all I know."

  "Bullshit," said Sutton. "Where is he?"

  "I have no fucking clue," I said. "He's not our partner. He's some asshole that was feeding us information. Wrong fucking information, from the sound of everything, as he told me there was some damn Minerva power struggle and Jessica needed rescuing." I exhaled in frustration. "Goddamn we're stupid."

  "I'm not believing that you two were just innocents who made the wrong decisions," said Sutton.

  "Really? Because I'll fully admit we fucked up," I said.

  "I'm inclined to believe they didn't know a thing about this," said Jessica. "I think they're dupes. Easily fooled and lacking in the intelligence to have thought things out, but innocent."

  "What the fuck, Jessica?" I said. I didn't need some of this abuse from her too.

  She shot me a look that said, Shut up, I'm trying to help you, moron. I shut up.

  "You've read the dossier on the Nowak brothers," said Jessica. "You know MT's assessment of them."

  Sutton sighed and nodded, leaning back in his chair.

  "Look," I said, trying to figure a way out of this. "I'm totally willing to turn over all the information I got from Ezra in exchange for us getting out of here and never having to deal with this bullshit again."

  "The flash drive?" said Sutton. "We have that. We have some of our IT guys going through it right now."

  "Oh, is it Nelson?" I said. "How's he doing?"

  "Mr. Bradley is at home recovering from a concussion," said Sutton icily.

  "Neither of us hit him that hard," I said. Then I wondered if I was wrong. Maybe I did hit him that hard. Maybe I didn't know my own strength.

  "Regardless, we already have everything on the flash drive," said Sutton.

  "Well, shit. I don't know what else to tell you. That is all we actually know," I said.

  "I believe that highly unlikely," said Sutton.

  "Believe what you want, we don't know shit," I said.

  "We'll question your brother and see what he says," said Sutton.

  "He'll just tell you the same," I said.

  The level of testosterone in the room was rising, as well as an icy coldness. Both Sutton and I thought we were right. Both of us were willing to go to bat for it. We were both sitting there thinking we each had the bigger balls. Jessica might have been exacerbate at the amount of stupid manliness in the room. However, even if I wanted to compromise, I had nothing to compromise about; I had nothing else to give them. All I could be would be more verbally sorry and fuck that shit, that's not Szandor Nowak. That's some other guy.

  Then something interesting happened. Jessica and Sutton's phones both rang at the same time.

  They turned and shared a worried look before answering their phones. I watched their faces as they listed to the person on the other end of each of their phones, having separate but similar conversations.

  "What do you mean the holding pen doors are open?" said Jessica.

  "What do you mean the lockdown protocol is failing?" said Sutton.

  They looked at each other and both paled. I started hearing an alarm siren from the hallway. They returned to their calls.

  "Ezra's worm? Fuck," said Sutton, taking a moment to glare at me. "On a timer to open all the cells. That's fucking fantastic." His expression said he didn't find that fantastic at all.

  "How much is compromised?" said Jessica, worry et
ched on her face.

  "No, not yet, I'm currently in the medcenter," said Sutton. "I'll be making my way to the elevator but I need an extraction team immediately. Don't freeze the elevator until that time."

  "I need an immediately upload of all data from the medcenter to backups," said Jessica. "I'll be exiting with Sutton."

  "We need teams in the underground garage ready to seal any breach of containment," said Sutton, standing up and grabbing his briefcase.

  "Unfortunately, we're going to have to consider any existing specimens as expendable," said Jessica, also rising. "I don't care if Ezra had big plans for them! I don't even care if Director Simons had big plans for them! We will not be on the hook for a city wide infection with MT's name all over it, do you understand?"

  Yelling into their phones, Jessica and Sutton left, their guard following after them, suddenly alert and his rifle unslung. He didn't even bother to close the door behind him. I sat there for a moment, wondering if anyone was going to come back for me, maybe let me know to follow them or to go to Hell, but no one came back. I guess going to Hell was implied.

  Before me sat an open door into the hallway, flashing red lights and siren bleeding in through the doorway.

  "Well, that's interesting," I said in mock voice. "No thanks, Jessica, I'll find my own way out. No really, I'll be fine. I totally don't need an armed escort out. Geez." I couldn't decide if she was too caught up in the orders she was barking or she really didn't give a damn about my wellbeing. Maybe both. At one point I had wondered if there had been some romance possibilities there, despite all our differences and the unlikelihood of it working. Clearly there wasn't. Worst hookup ever.

  I got up and tentatively walked to the door. I had overheard that lockdown had failed and the creature cells were open. When I stuck my head around the corner I wondered if there was going to be giant tsunami of lethal creatures, like Spiders clinging to the back of rabid ghouls as they ran down the hallway, followed by a zombie cleanup crew. In contrast, this hall was mostly empty. Red lights in the ceiling were flashing red and creating the alarm sound. I did see a white coated lab tech running down the hall away from me, but so far there was no major commotion.