Tainted Blood

by Ferrel D. Moore

  She walked up to him, and, only a foot away, propped her fists on her hips.

  “Did you know that since the moment I went to work for you, I wondered what you were like? I fantasized meeting you someday. And now that I’ve met you, do you know what I want most?”

  “This ought to be good,” the Instructor leaned over and whispered to Yuri.

  “No, I do not, and now is not the time.”

  Sveta made a slight pivot as though to turn away, but turned back in a smooth motion and drove her fist forward and up into Hauck’s chin. He flew back, taken completely by surprise, and crashed to the floor.

  “What’d I tell you?” said the Instructor.

  But she wasn’t through. She was on him, her knees pinning down his biceps, and she started swinging. He twisted and turned his head to avoid the blows. He arched and tried to throw her off to the side, but she was too practiced a fighter. Blood flowed from a split lip and he was only saved when she missed his head with a straight-on punch and hit the hardwood floor instead.

  As she drew her hand back in pain, he reached up and grabbed her sweater, gathering it in his fasts. With a quick roll he sent her flying.

  “Enough of that shit. Can we get down to business?” said the Instructor.

  Sveta sat up and held her injured hand.

  “I should kill you,” she said.

  “I’m bleeding,” he said in disbelief.

  Hauck’s high shirt collar had popped open, revealing an ugly, congealed scar at the base of his neck. When he saw Sveta looking at it, he hurriedly buttoned it.

  “Yeah, well push your finger in that spot under your nose like I showed her so you don’t mess up the floor.”

  The old man was out of his chair and walked over to stand in front of them.

  “You,” he said to Sveta, “have got talent. You, Hauck, you should have seen that coming.”

  She got to her feet and confronted the Instructor, looking down at him.

  “You tell me since he won’t. Who are you?”

  The Instructor looked over at Hauck and raised an eyebrow. Hauck nodded and got to his feet, heading toward a roll of paper towels to soak up the blood and put ice on his jaw.

  “Me? You want to know who I am, girlie?”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  The Instructor laughed.

  “I’m the boogeyman, girlie. I’m the bad man that people with money call when they want something done nobody else can do.”

  “Is that so?” said Sveta contemptuously.

  “That’s the way it is. Hauck said you were GRU. Is that right?”

  “Go on.”

  “I did work for them. Did work for the CIA and the rest of them, too. I don’t care what side I’m on. I just do the job. I kill people, I rescue people and it’s all the same to me.”

  “You’re like him,” she said, pointing at Hauck.

  “Him? You think so? I trained him, but me and him are different. He’s good, I give him that. He’s a smart bastard, except he don’t know when to duck, ain’t that right, Hauck?”

  Hauck was too busy putting an ice pack on his jaw to answer.

  “The way it is, Hauck’s got a conscience, and that gets in the way. All he would talk about before we came after you was how he wasn’t going to let you and that other chick die.”

  A look of confusion crossed Sveta’s face, but she did not turn to look at Hauck.

  “Zoe,” she said. “Her name was Zoe.”

  “Whatever. Point is, he wasn’t going to let you die. Me, all I wanted was to whack that thing. That’s what I was getting paid for. If you or Zoe got in the way, well that would have been too bad.”

  Sveta finally turned to look at Hauck.

  From his chair at the computer bank, Yuri watched, hanging on every word.

  “Is this true?” she asked.

  “What’s the difference?” he said.

  “Is it true?”

  “Yes, it’s true, all right. I’m not a monster.”

  “Then why didn’t you tell me what Drogol was in the first place?”

  “Because I thought it was a safe situation. He is eighty years old for God’s sake and Zoe had him convinced you were the reincarnation of Alexandra.”

  “And Crue?

  “Crue knew everything going in. Drogol killed my brother and Crue’s father at Ryazan. He was supposed to take out Drogol. Chenko thought he was there to collect a tranquilized beast and return it to Russia for Anna Kazakova. We were going to send him back with a picture of Drogol’s dead body. Do you think I really believed they would take the price off my head?”

  “You couldn’t have told me this?”

  “I told you what I thought you needed to know. How was I supposed to know that he would turn into the beast before you arrived?”

  “That’s the point,” she shouted back at him. “I was on your team and you sent me in blind to a situation where you didn’t have enough controls in place.”

  “Hauck,” said Yuri, “there’s something you have to know. With all this going on I forgot to tell you.”

  “Know what? Tell me.”

  Hauck was glad for the distraction.

  So Yuri brought up the two images, side by side as before. Sveta, Hauck, and the Instructor closed about him in a tight semicircle to see.

  “Uh-oh,” said the Instructor.

  “What is this, Yuri?” said Hauck.

  “Two different beasts,” said Sveta.

  “Like she said. The one picture is from Evgeny’s remote camera, taken after it … after it killed him. The other is taken from the night we raided Drogol’s house.”

  Hauck steepled his fingers and stared, the confusion on his face evident. Moments passed in silence as he took in the implications.

  “Is this our problem?” asked the Instructor.

  Another pause.

  “No,” said Hauck. “There’s nothing we can do. Homeland Security is involved and every police and emergency force in the area. We have to clear out by tomorrow or eventually we’ll be caught in the net.”

  “I can’t believe this,” said Sveta. “There’s another monster running around out there killing people and you’re just going to run?”

  “He’ll let them know,” said Yuri, “but by an anonymous, untraceable tip.”

  “Thank you, Yuri,” said Hauck. “I can speak for myself. And, yes, that’s what we will do. They are better equipped to handle this than we are.”

  “What will you tell them?”

  “I’ll have to think about that, Sveta. If this second thing is like Drogol, how exactly will I tell them that there is a man who sometimes turns into a monster? Don’t answer. I’ll come up with a way.”

  “Two of them, huh? But this one here looks like a baby version,” said the Instructor.

  “I did extrapolations,” said Yuri. “It’s about six and a half feet tall—best estimate.”

  “Am I still bleeding?” said Hauck.

  “Okay, Sveta,” said the Instructor, drawing out her name, “your turn. What have you got? What did you find out down there?”

  “Yuri,” said Hauck. “Get her a drink. Get us all a drink.”

  “Didn’t I teach you not to drink on the job?” said the Instructor.

  “Make mine a double, no ice,” said Hauck.

  Five minutes later, Sveta told them everything that occurred in the underground complex.

  *****

  Throughout her entire retelling of the events, Hauck betrayed no emotions and asked no questions. Sveta was an experienced operative and left nothing of consequence out. At the recounting of Zoe’s death, however, his face tightened and he looked down at the floor as though in silent prayer.

  When she was finished, Yuri whistled.

  “So you’re saying Drogol brought Zoe, back from the dead once, healed her again and you, too?”

  Sveta finished her drink.

  “I know how it sounds, but I was there.”

  “That’s not possible,�
�� said Yuri.

  “Neither is him turning into a monster,” she said.

  “I get your point.”

  She looked at Hauck, and saw him exchange a glance with the Instructor.

  “You say,” he said, “that he believed cutting off his head was the only way to kill him?”

  “Not counting an exploding oil refinery,” said Yuri.

  “Please, Yuri. Is that what he told you?”

  “Yes, it was.”

  “So we know how they can kill this other one?” said the Instructor.

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  “You knew nothing about this second creature?” asked Sveta.

  “No, believe me,” said Hauck. “I had no intelligence whatsoever about its existence. Although considering the werewolf legends, I should have had a suspicion. But Drogol’s case is so different than all of the lore. That is, if he indeed was hit by a blast of energy as he was bit by another werewolf that would explain why he was unique. You know, I thought all along that he was deranged, thinking he was Rasputin, but after seeing for myself the underground complex and hearing your story, I’m not so sure.”

  “Who cares?” said the Instructor. “Are we done here? The big bad wolf blew himself up and the Feds will take care of the little one. Because if we are done, I’d like to get out of here and go home.”

  Hauck looked at them each in turn, rubbing his jaw as he did so.

  “Yes, we’re done. Yuri will wire money to your account, Sveta, plus a substantive bonus.”

  “What about me?” said the Instructor.

  “I’ll take care of you,” said Hauck. “Any other questions, anyone?”

  “No,” said Yuri.

  “I’m going to bed,” said the Instructor.

  “Why are you lying to me again?” said Sveta.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Sveta got back in his face.

  “You don’t think Drogol is dead, do you? I saw the way you looked at the old man. For once in your life, just come out and tell me the truth.”

  “It’s not our problem, Sveta. If he’s alive, and I am saying if, we don’t even know where he is.”

  Sveta turned to the Instructor.

  “He’s lying again, isn’t he?”

  “Pretty good bet.”

  “Where do we find him, Hauck?”

  Hauck looked as miserable as he felt. His jaw was swelling in spite of the earlier ice treatment; his lip was cracked again and began to bleed.

  “Tell me, Hauck,” she said, “or I’m going to hit you again.”

  Finally he broke.

  “He’ll return to the underground complex.”

  “And how do you know he’s not dead?”

  “Because he’s fucking fireproof,” said the Instructor. “You should have seen him burning down in the sewers. Son of a bitch kept on running after I nuked him with a shoulder-fired rocket.”

  “So what do we do?” asked Yuri.

  “I think we’re going to have to cut his head off,” said the Instructor.

  Sveta suddenly remembered something.

  “Hauck, did you choose me because I looked like the Tsarista Alexandra?”

  He hesitated.

  “I should hit you again,” said Sveta.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Yuri, to his relief, was told to stay behind.

  And despite Hauck’s forceful objections, Sveta was going anyway.

  “I started this with you, and I’m going to finish it with you,” she said. “And besides, I believe that he trusts me.”

  Hauck sent a team to dispose of the bodies outside of the building where the other beast had killed Mishka’s men. What was left of Evgeny was collected to be given a proper, if anonymous, burial. Hauck and the Instructor retrieved Zoe’s body, to be given the same treatment as Evgeny.

  After that was in order, they finished preparations.

  The Instructor went armed only with his newly favorite sword, Hauck took a machete and Sveta, contrary to her wishes, ended up with another machete. They also went armed with rifles and plenty of ammunition.”

  “For the wolves,” said Hauck.

  But when it came to loading their vehicle with explosives, Sveta demanded to know why.

  “Because,” he said, “if we can’t kill it I’m going to bury it by blowing that place up. It might not kill it, but it may contain it.”

  He reached out then in a sudden, unexpected gesture and took her hands. It startled her so that she stepped back, but he held firm.

  “Listen to me, Sveta. If it comes to that, if there’s nothing else we can do, then I want you and the Instructor to get out. Get out as fast as you can. I’ll detonate the explosives.”

  “You’re crazy. I’m not going to leave you down there to die. Detonate them by remote.”

  His face was emotionless and his voice was calm, as though he were discussing the weather.

  “I can’t take that chance. We lost contact with the surface for a while down there, so I can’t be sure that it would work.”

  “But Zoe contacted you to let you know where we were.”

  “We never received a transmission from Zoe. The only way we knew where to find you was because Anna’s men tracked your vehicle’s GPS and we intercepted their communications. You see, there’s really no other way to be sure that the explosives detonate.”

  “I warned him about getting a conscience,” said the Instructor.

  *****

  Although they took sufficient provisions, it was the third night before Drogol appeared.

  They saw no wolves the entire time that they were there, as though they had never been there in the first place. The smell of death and decay began to permeate the air. The bodies of Mishka’s men lay where they had fallen. Golden light from the remaining globes still gave them light enough to see, but to Sveta they were no longer magic.

  The first night they spent placing explosive charges throughout the complex. It was difficult work considering the size of the place, but with Hauck and the Instructor’s expertise, they were able to place them. The idea was to take out enough key wall and structural support to bring the ceiling down. Hauck wasn’t worried about risk to anyone overhead because, as he said, it was a vacant area of the city. He kept the radio activated detonator in his pocket.

  While Sveta and Hauck took turns sleeping in the same small building where Drogol had healed Sveta and Zoe after they were attacked, the Instructor roamed the complex seeming to need no sleep at all.

  On the second night, he told them he’d come across a recess in one of the walls filled with human bone fragments.

  “Bones?” asked Sveta.

  “Yep.”

  “How many?” asked Hauck.

  The Instructor looked at him as though he’d lost his mind.

  “You think I counted them? Shit, must be thirty or forty people, but it’s hard to tell. They’ve been chewed on pretty bad. Want to see them?”

  Sveta and Hauck both declined.

  While they waited, the two of them talked off and on. Hauck told her in detail about the killings at the prison that changed his life. He told her how his brother had been a guard there. He told her about his life on the run since that night.

  She asked him about Zoe and he told her what he knew.

  They talked about the mystery of Drogol and his transformations, of werewolves and curses.

  “Do you think that it’s possible,” she asked. “that what he said about Tunguska and the Tesla ray actually happened?”

  “I don’t know,” he said.

  “Do you think that he is responsible for what he’s done?”

  “Who else?”

  “But he didn’t choose to become a monster. And he spent his life trying to cure the disease.”

  “I’m a spy, Sveta, not a philosopher. And he should have killed himself if he knew what he’d become.”

  “How?” she asked. “We weren’t able to kill him.”

  “St
uck his head in a guillotine and pulled the cord. I don’t know. I have to sleep. You stand guard.”

  On the third night, while he was dreaming of his brother for the first time in years, Sveta came in to the building, sat on the edge of his cot and shook his shoulder gently. His eyes snapped open.

  “What?” he asked.

  “He’s here,” she said simply.

  Hauck reached for his machete.

  *****

  Drogol stood on the Tesla tube platform, wearing the same black priest’s robes he wore when Sveta first saw him. He was looking out across the complex, a distant, sad smile on his face.

  She and Hauck went slowly up the steps to meet him. Hauck’s agitation was evident to Sveta, though he tried to hide it. The machete dangled from his right hand. Sveta’s hung from her belt in a canvas sheathe. As they ascended the steps, Drogol turned to look at them.

  “So,” he said in a soft voice. “You come to end my wretched days. I knew you would not fail me, Tsarista.”

  This time, Sveta did not correct him. She had come to see Drogol in a different light. Despite his violent other self, she had come to pity him.

  “And you, you are much older, Hauck. That is your name, isn’t it? Who else would the Tsarista bring to my execution than the man with no heart?”

  “You killed my brother,” said Hauck. “I won’t have tears for you and his soul will finally rest in peace.”

  Drogol flared, and the sudden anger in his face made both Sveta and Hauck take a step back. For a moment, he seemed about to burst into rage, but then, slowly, his fury subsided.

  “The beast that comes through me killed your brother,” he said. “As you see me now, I have never taken another’s life. I have been poisoned and stabbed and shot and thrown into a freezing river to die, but I have never done the same to another.”

  The two men stood looking at each other. Hauck’s fingers tightened on the handle of his machete, while Drogol removed a cross and thin chain from a hidden pocket and put it around his neck.

  “I am ready to die tonight, and I see you have come prepared to execute me. The Tsarista has heard my confession, so what else is for me to do but kneel and be set free. I cannot live with myself. I cannot be both beast and man, and I would rather die as a man than live as a beast.”

  Simple, so simple, thought Sveta and she felt tears forming but blinked them away. He offers no defense, no excuses. It was not me, he was saying, it was the beast but I am the beast. Sveta had no idea what to think anymore.