by David Wood
“You might be able to kill me, but I assure you she will die. If you don’t want that to happen, drop your weapons and slide them over to me.”
Maddock noted that Avila crouched behind the cot—and Fabi—in such a way as to block his chest and even part of his head. It was an effective stance, for now, but at least he was scared. Apparently he’d been caught without his guard duty. Three on one, with the hostage Avila’s only saving grace. As dire as the situation was, Maddock had faced worse. He knew their best chance—Fabi’s best chance, that was—was to play along until Avila slipped up. Being a non-professional in the combat business, he surely would. Still, the weapons loss was an undeniable blow. Maddock and the others reluctantly slid their pistols and dive knives across to Avila, where they came to rest beneath Fabi’s cot. Avila’s right foot swept beneath the cot to draw the pile of weaponry closer to him.
“I want the three of you to lie face down on the floor right now.” Avila jerked the hand holding the needle to Fabi’s neck as a warning.
“Dr. Avila, please think about what you’re doing,” Maddock tried to reason. “There’s no way out for you once you go down this road. You’ll be just another common criminal.”
Fabi’s sudden outburst jarred them all. “Let him kill me! Don’t do what he says! He’ll kill all of us, or even worse, turn us into zombies.”
Maddock heard her words, but he also heard the terror in her voice. She did not want to die. She did not want to be zombified, either. And looking at Cassandra, Maddock could see that whatever she had been injected with had done her no good. She was out cold, face covered in foamy froth. Was this the fate Avila had intended for Fabi had Maddock not intervened?
“You’ve got five seconds to comply!” Avila gripped Fabi’s shoulder harder as he kept the needle pressed up to her neck.
Seeing no choice at the moment other than to comply with Avila’s demands, Maddock eased himself face down to the floor, arms and legs outstretched. Bones and Willis followed suit. Just because he was lying down didn’t mean Maddock had given up, though. He continued trying to appeal to whatever sense of humanity Avila might still possess.
“Your creations are running amok all over your lab, Dr. Avila. Your men are down. Why don’t you put an end to this before more people, including yourself, get hurt?”
Avila laughed heartily without loosening his death grip on Fabi. “Have you not heard the old expression? If at first you don’t succeed...”
“Die, die again?” Willis grunted.
Avila glared at him and looked back to Maddock. “I’ll just have to start over, if not here, then somewhere else. There is no doubt that my discoveries will make me the most powerful man in the world.”
Bones strained his neck to look up from the floor in order to glare at Avila. “You’re a sick freak, you know that?”
The physician grinned in return. “Perhaps someday you will see the wisdom in my actions. If you can bite your tongue long enough to live through this, that is.”
During the exchange, Maddock eyed the most interesting thing he could see from his worm’s eye vantage point: the pile of weapons on the floor underneath the cot. He knew that Avila had been reticent to lean down and try to pick one of them up while the three of them were standing. But now that they were prostrate on the floor, he was bound to make a move for them. And then it would be all but over. Bones kept the distracting dialogue going while Maddock’s tactical wheels turned.
“What’s up with you, Avila? You’re not a short guy, so it must not be a Napoleon complex that you have. I guess you’re compensating for shortcomings in other physical areas, is that it?”
Avila cackled in Bones’ direction. “Personal insults are tools of the feeble-minded.”
Maddock sensed the time was near to make a move. He only hoped his friends would somehow know what he was thinking. He looked over at Bones and caught the twinkle in his eye.
“Why don’t you just fight me, Avila? I’ll even do it blindfolded.” It was not lost on Maddock that Bones sounded truly angry, no doubt incensed by the fact that his woman, or one of them, anyway, was in peril at the whim of this madman.
Maddock watched as Avila again turned his attention to Bones. While he delivered an angry retort, something about his time having been wasted long enough by a descendent of savages, Maddock reached back and slipped a recon knife from the inside of his boot. He’d taken to carrying them that way in his Navy days, and he still made a habit of it. He palmed the blade under his hand and wrist as he continued to lie face down, surreptitiously watching Avila.
“Charming as it was, I’m afraid our conversation must come to an end.” Avila leaned down and made a grab for the abandoned weapons, and Maddock sprang into action, rising to his feet. He hurled his knife at Avila, who turned his head. The blade sliced him across the cheek, leaving a red stripe, and clattered to the floor somewhere behind him.
Avila raised one of the pistols he’d snatched from the floor but Maddock was already in motion, rapidly chewing up the distance between him and the menacing doctor. He only hoped he would be quick enough.
Maddock leapt as the explosion of a gunshot filled his ears.
Chapter 42
Avila’s bullet buzzed past Maddock, but he felt the projectile clip his shoulder. It wasn’t enough to stop his forward momentum, though, and he crashed into Avila over the cot. Fabi squealed while Avila bear-hugged Maddock and pulled him to the floor on his side of the cot.
Maddock gripped Avila’s gun hand as the physician fought against his opponent’s grip to bring his weapon to bear. Maddock unleashed a flurry of jabs to Avila’s face with his left hand, but Avila was still managing to level the pistol at Maddock’s head. He fired once as Maddock dodged to the left, feeling his hair move as the round passed through it into the ceiling, exploding a light fixture that rained glass down upon them.
Maddock caught motion out of his peripheral vision but couldn’t stop grappling with Avila long enough to see what it was. Then suddenly Bones popped up behind and to the right of Avila, his own firearm jammed up against the doctor’s temple.
“It's time to die, Dr. Moreau.”
Avila’s eyes widened in fear as he froze. Maddock extricated himself from Avila, relieving him of his handgun in the process. Once at arm’s length from his foe, Maddock rose to his feet, dusting off his pants.
“Bones, I had no idea you had any literary inclinations whatsoever. In the service the only thing I ever saw you reading was Playboy, and something tells me it wasn’t for the articles.”
Bones shrugged without taking the barrel off of Avila. “I have read a couple of books, you know. Now and then.”
“Will you two shut up!” Avila barked.
“Don’t worry, mad scientist, you won’t have to listen to us for much longer.” Bones centered his barrel on Avila’s temple.
“Have some sense!” Avila pleaded. “Spare my life in the name of humanity! Scientific advancement!”
Maddock waved an arm at the destroyed lab, a dead zombie body crumpled on the floor in a corner, Cassandra’s limp body in the cot next to Fabi’s. “This is what you call advancement? Experimenting with people without their consent in order to turn them into some kind of slaves?”
“Not slaves. Productive workers. To better their own lives as well as those they work for.”
“What a crock,” Bones growled. “You know, the Nazis experimented with Jewish prisoners during the war and they were later held accountable for their actions.”
“I’m well aware of the Nuremberg Trials.” Avila’s voice had lowered to a near whisper.
Bones nodded. “Well, consider this your trial. And we’ve found you guilty. Goodbye, Dr. Scumbag.”
“Don’t do it, Bones!” Fabi’s shrill plea rent the air.
Bones narrowed his eyes without averting his gaze from Avila’s head. “Give me one good reason why not.”
“If you kill him, you'll have to kill me too.”
Chapter 43
“What do you mean, Fabi?” Maddock gave Bones a look that said hold off. He kept the gun pressed up against Avila’s head, but refrained from pulling the trigger.
“He injected me with something. He's going to make me into one of those…things. He has to reverse it. I’d rather you kill me first, Bones, than me turn into...into...” She couldn’t complete her morbid thought, and Avila cut in.
“Not going to happen.”
Bones’ eyes oozed hatred as he stared at him. “When I was in the SEALs, Avila, they taught me a few tricks about how to persuade people. It’s been a little while since I had to do something like that, but even so, I doubt you want to be the one I use to brush up on my skills.”
He reached down and grabbed Avila by the base of the neck with the hand not holding the gun, confident that Maddock or Willis would take him down if he somehow did manage to wrest Bones’ gun from him. But Avila’s reaction was simply to laugh.
“Don't waste your time. There is no cure. I lied to her to get her to tell me where the treasure is.”
“That’s a load of horse manure if I ever smelled it.” Bones looked to Maddock, expecting him to concur, but Maddock’s expression bore a trace of uncertainty. He tried to hide it but inside, his heart sank. Something about Avila told him he was telling the truth. Maddock was formulating his next thought when they heard a commotion from a short distance away.
A man Maddock didn’t recognize, wearing a white lab coat, burst into the room. He was quickly followed by a couple of armed men. Avila’s eyes bugged out at the sight of his associates. He called out to his men.
“The big one has a gun on me! All three are armed!” Seeing that Bones’ gaze was averted to the newcomers, Avila launched his body hard against Bones’ legs, knocking him backward and throwing off his aim.
The newly arrived gunmen opened fire with semi-automatic weapons, sending Maddock and Willis diving for cover while returning bursts of rounds loosed from the hip. Computer screens exploded, puffs of drywall dust filled the air and a broken pipe sprayed hot water.
Maddock took position beneath a lab bench and loaded a fresh clip into his weapon. He then proceeded to unleash a more carefully aimed salvo at Avila’s men. Willis did the same from his own cover position a few feet away. To Maddock, it felt like old times, though not in a good way. He’d never liked killing, but it was something he would do if he had to, especially as a SEAL. Yet it saddened him that he’d come here as a peaceful treasure hunter only to be confronted with a kind of savagery worse than that usually encountered in war.
Out of the corner of his eye, Maddock saw a young woman—the same one who’d been been strapped down minutes before—leap onto Avila’s back. Before the surprised doctor could fight back, she sank her teeth into his throat. Avila’s shriek died in a wet gurgle, and was drowned out as one of his men gunned down the crazed attacker.
The firefight lasted only a few more moments. Once Avila’s gunmen were down, Maddock glanced back over to Bones to see how he was doing. The big Cherokee was leaning down over Avila, taking his pulse. He looked up at Maddock and shook his head. “He’s dead, and good riddance.”
Fabi who was now free of her bonds, hurried over and knelt beside the girl. “Cass,” she whispered. Tears streamed down her face. “I’m so sorry.” She looked up at Bones. “I let her go. I just couldn’t stand to see her lying here. I guess I thought she might still be herself, but that stuff…”
“It’s all right.” Bones offered his hand and helped her up.
She stood and squeezed Bones in a tight embrace. “Thank you for saving me.” She turned to look at Maddock and Willis. I want to tell all of you… I love you guys. I just wanted to say it before...before I turn into one of those things. Avila was my last chance.”
“Maybe not.” Maddock strode across the lab floor toward the lone man of the three interlopers who was still standing, the unarmed man in the lab coat. He stood there, shell-shocked, as Maddock grabbed him by the collar.
“What’s your name?”
“P-Peter!”
“Peter, what is the cure for this condition that Dr. Avila gave to her?” He pointed to Fabi.
The man shook his head, a sad look spreading across his face. “There is none. I’m very sorry. If there was I would gladly administer it to her, but there isn’t.”
Maddock shook him. “What is your role here? Are you a scientist or a technician or what?”
“I am but one of the scientists who developed the serum according to Dr. Avila’s specifications.” He nodded to Avila’s dead body before continuing. “We were working on a ‘switch’—a biochemical trigger that would allow the zombification process to be turned on and off at will—but to date that line of development has not been successful.”
“How does the actual serum, without the switch, work?” Maddock demanded.
“You can think of it sort of like a fast-acting cancer that doesn’t usually go to completion, that is, clinical death. It modifies the blood cells at first, and from there it metastasizes to the brain. It takes about an hour for the serum to take effect, and once it does the change is progressive and permanent.” He glanced over at Fabi as if expecting her to transform into a mindless monster at any second.
Maddock followed his gaze. “Fabi, how long ago did Avila inject you with the serum?”
She looked at him over Bones’ shoulder, sniffling. “About forty-five minutes.”
Maddock looked back to Peter, still held in his iron grip. “We have to try something. Let’s inject her with the latest batch of the switch serum that you do have and hope it works.”
But the scientist’s eyes were more downcast than ever. “We used the last batch we had on some monkeys. I’m terribly sorry, but it takes at least forty-eight hours to cook up each batch. We didn’t keep it in production mode, it was just sort of a side project that—”
The sound of Bones’ footsteps slamming the floor caused him to break off while both he and Maddock watched his friend run to the far side of the lab. Maddock released his hold on the scientist, who staggered back a couple of steps, composing himself while he looked around the shambles of his former laboratory in disgust.
“Bones, where are you going?” As Maddock watched, his former partner in war, now partner in business, stopped at a shattered plant growing station. He moved about there for a few minutes, not responding to Maddock, Willis and Fabi asking him if he was all right. Then he came running back across the lab, clutching a syringe full of dark liquid.
He went to Fabi, and before she could say, “What is that?” he injected her with the substance.
“Fingers crossed,” he said.
Then Peter said, “We really need to get out of here. None of us are safe, trust me.”
“Which way?” Maddock looked past him to the nearest lab exit.
“I can lead us out through the house.”
Maddock held his gaze while he hefted his pistol. “If this is some kind of double-cross...”
The researcher shook his head. “Just trying to avoid any more killing and get out of here with what little dignity I have left. Helping you will let me redeem myself, at least a bit.”
Maddock’s internal guide told him that the man was being forthcoming. “Lead the way. Wills, Bones, Fabi—let’s move.” They began moving out as a group, but Fabi looked back at Cassandra.” We can’t leave her.”
“Fabi, she’s gone. If we try to carry her body out, it’ll slow us down. It’s not worth the risk.”
Fabi broke down in a fresh bout of tears while Peter pleaded with his eyes for Bones to get her moving.
“We can’t just leave her here like this!”
Bones gently urged her along. “We’ll send the authorities back for her body after we get out of here safely.”
They set out again but this time it was Maddock who halted after a short distance.
“Now what’s up?” Bones asked.
“Hold on, one minute.” Maddock moved to the bank of ca
ges on the far wall and released the dozens of zombii corralled inside before running back to the group.
“Let them cover our trail.”
Chapter 44
“We may encounter some resistance when we go through here,” Peter warned.
“Resistance is my specialty.” Bones held his firearm in the ready position, and Willis followed suit. Maddock asked the scientist what sort of resistance they could expect.
“Living and not-so-living, but it’s Avila’s guards who haven’t yet gotten the memo that worry me the most. There may not be time to explain things to them, and they’re more of a shoot-first-and-ask-questions-later bunch. I’ll try to let them know, but first let’s get you guys out of here so they won’t be so nervous.”
They emerged from the lab complex into the actual mansion, leaving the door wide open. Distant shouting echoed, but other than that they saw no one inside the main living area of the house, a sprawling, high-ceilinged great room furnished with oriental rugs and ornate furniture. The scientist waved them on, jogging across the space with the three former SEALs and Fabi in tow. Except that, as they moved, it became apparent that Fabi wasn’t really in tow, she easily kept pace with Maddock and the rest of them, running neck and neck with the scientist.
Bones caught up with her as they reached the opposite side of the room and turned into an arched hallway. “You feeling better, Fabi? Looks like you have more energy.”
She eyed him with a smile and nodded. “I do feel better. Much better. Bones, what was that stuff you injected me with? Was it the experimental switch serum?” Her voice was edged with tension, with the unspoken fear that maybe Bones had managed to find some untested lab sample, and that it would wear off soon.
