by David Page
“Thank-you.” Richard forced himself to remain calm and still.
“It’s good that you didn’t kill anyone during your escape attempt.” Nash waved dismissively. “That gives us something we can work with.”
“I have no desire to harm anyone.” He locked eyes with him. “Yet.”
Nash swallowed. “Excellent. I’m sorry you had to learn of our connection to Questor Corporation from a third party.” He paused. “How did you learn of Questor’s involvement?”
“You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”
“No, I suppose not.” Nash smiled. “Look, you’ve got to understand that in an underground movement such as this, secrets save lives. We needed to keep you in the dark about my identity and Questor’s involvement in the event that you got captured.”
“Is this an underground movement or a lab kept secret to get past the FDA and the Department while you come up with miracle cures that will make you all rich?”
“I suppose I deserved that.” Nash took a half step back and frowned.
“Why should I trust you or any of the others now that I’ve caught you in yet another deception?”
“What choice do you have?”
“There is always a choice,” Richard countered.
“Then allow me to explain.” Nash paced across the room and back.
“What possible incentive can you give me to trust you now?”
Nash frowned, an expression that made him age five years and then leaned over and undid the straps holding Richard in place.
“Thank you.” Richard sat up and dangled his feet off the operating table.
“Okay, this is the truth,” Nash began. “The people at Questor are not exactly the pillars of virtue you might want as partners, but they’re well-financed and they need us as much as we need them. They’ve offered to help us in finding a cure for you in return for the use of some of your blood in developing cures for various diseases.” He paused for a moment. “Richard, they are on the level. Within six months we can have a cure for you. We can give you back what you have lost.”
Richard stuck his fingers into the holes in his shirt where the bullets had entered. He had the ability to sustain massive injury and heal. The Department had never been able to take that away from him, a fact that they had used to their advantage in torture sessions, but now one that offered him hope. That coupled with his recent ability to access a fraction of his former self made him truly believe that he might be able to reclaim his past.
“I seem to be doing okay without you.”
Nash’s frown deepened. “If you’re talking about the sporadic return of your powers, I’m looking into that. I took a few more vials of your blood while you were out. To be perfectly honest, I still don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
“It felt good to me.” Richard breathed deeply and spread his arms wide. “For all I know, I may get my full abilities back at any moment, at which point this is all academic.”
“And if this is something bad?” Nash asked. “What if the Department planned this ten years ago to finish the job that their virus started?”
Richard’s throat tightened. His rediscovery of power had started shortly after Frederick’s men had injected him. It seemed highly likely that there was a correlation between the two events.
“You make a good argument and if we are to continue with this arrangement, then there is something you should know.” Richard steeled himself. “The Department knows we’re here.”
Nash’s eyes opened wide.
***
“You did what?” Nash’s face was so red, Richard thought it might explode. The Doctor stood up from the conference table, nearly knocking his chair over in the process, and pointed an accusing finger at him.
They had moved into the conference room after he had dropped his bombshell on them. Although the room was larger, Richard felt claustrophobic under their scrutiny. He swallowed knowing full well that if they decided to dispose of him, there would be little he could do about it. Beth’s chair creaked next to him as she fidgeted, but he dared not look away from Nash to see her facial expression but he was glad nonetheless that she had joined them. Next to Nash, Jack leaned back in his chair with his feet up on the desk and chewed on a toothpick. He stared at Richard with cold, predatory eyes.
“Frederick already knew about Beth and would surely have discovered this laboratory given time; if he did not know of its existence already.”
“We have only your word on that, Richard.” Nash sneered. All pretense of the jolly doctor was gone.
Richard stood slowly and leaned forward, planting his fists on the table. “You don’t believe me?” he challenged.
“I don’t.” Jack interrupted. “You’re a vampire with no powers. I think you’d do anything, betray anyone, to get your powers back!” He turned towards Nash. “We should keep him under house arrest, take what we want and then get the hell out of here, before the agents decide to pay us a visit.”
Richard resisted the urge to reach across the table and throttle the man. He closed his eyes and centered himself. After a moment, he opened them again and looked at Nash. “I had no choice, they poisoned me and told me that if I did not help them, they would come for you anyway. I could not let that happen. I took the only course available to me, the only one that gives any of us a chance. And I’ll remind you that this organization received quite a large sum of money from me.”
“Richard’s making sense.” Beth said evenly. “If they really did know about me, then they must know about this lab.”
Nash’s shoulders relaxed slightly.
“I’m not sure Questor will see it that way.” Nash licked his lips.
“I see now who is truly in charge,” Richard scoffed. He wondered if the good doctor had ever had any authority or if Radovan was a complete fiction created by Questor. It was hard to believe that a biotech company with their reputation would so willingly align themselves with a grassroots political movement.
“I am in charge.” Nash glared at him. “I’ll decide what we do next.”
“Okay, Doc, sure” Jack locked eyes with him. “What’s the plan then?”
Nash nodded. “What’s done is done. We don’t have to be happy about it, but we do need to deal with it.”
Everyone remained silent for a moment. Richard forced himself to remain outwardly calm. Internally, he wondered why they had given in so easily. Given the level of betrayal to which he had just confessed, he expected them to be furious. For the moment, however, he had to take them at face value. He cleared his throat.
“I realize we have little reason to trust one another, but working together, we now have the opportunity to do some real damage to a common enemy.” He looked at each of them. He blinked at the similarity between his short speech and the one he had given to his soldiers one thousand years ago, urging them to support his decision to reject the Saxon insurgency and join with William the Conqueror. “By saving my life, we will accomplish our diverse goals.”
“Agreed.” Nash turned towards Jack. “Jack, I’d like to hear your recommendations.”
Jack said nothing for a moment. His lip twitched as if he wanted to sneer but was trying his best to keep a stoic expression. He nodded his head grudgingly. “We should get that tracking device out of Richard’s arm and send someone out to the middle of nowhere with it. Maybe we can attach it to the bottom of a truck on the freeway. That should take the heat off us long enough to evacuate the lab.”
Beth turned to Nash. “Can you do that without blowing us up?”
“Yes, but I’ll need fifteen minutes to prep and do an initial survey of the device.” He stood again. “All right people, this isn’t exactly what we’d planned, but it’s happened and we need to deal with it. I’ll get the homing device out of Richard’s arm and hand it off to you, Jack.” He motioned to the mercenary. “Pick someone we can trust to get that thing as far from here as possible.”
“I trust all of m
y men.”
Nash turned to Beth. “Can you escort Richard back to the operating room?”
She did not answer for a moment, instead chewing on her lip thoughtfully. Finally, she sighed. “All right.”
Richard stood. “Aren’t we forgetting something?”
Nash looked at him, a confused expression on his face. “What?”
“I’ve got a day and a half before the poison in my blood kills me.”
Nash frowned. “I can’t make any promises.”
***
“You could have told me.” Beth stood just inside the door to the operating room with her arms folded across her chest. “You could have trusted me.”
Richard leaned against the metal table and watched her. His face flushed. He had come full circle with Beth as far as trust was concerned and just when he thought they had reached an understanding it was he who had undermined it. Her eyes appeared glassy as if she might cry, but the set of her mouth spoke of anger and determination.
“I’m sorry, Beth.” He took a tentative step towards her. “Trust does not come easily for me and, as you’ve seen, with good reason.”
“I know you’ve been through hell, Richard.” Her expression softened. “Not all of us are out to get you. I thought you would have realized that by now.”
Richard shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down like a chastised schoolboy. “I understand that, now.” She had proven to be his friend by allowing him to go off on his own the prior evening. If not for her, he would never have been able to contact Stan.
“Good.” She reached out and raised his chin with one hand. “I can appreciate the position you are in with the Department. I really can.”
Richard did not think any human could fully understand. However, she at least wanted to. “Yes. I think you can. We are all in grave danger now.”
She nodded. “They will be coming, whether you contact them or not. They want Nash and Questor too I’m guessing.”
“You did not appear completely surprised by Questor’s involvement.” Richard studied her for a moment. “Did you know?”
“I knew this group had a mysterious backer, but wasn’t sure who it was.”
“And now?” Richard straightened. “You can’t possibly approve of Questor’s methods and reputation.”
“I don’t know.” She looked up behind him towards the rear corner of the ceiling.
Richard risked a glance over his shoulder and spied the security camera. A green light glowed to the left of the lens. He had seen enough systems whilst in the custody of the Department to know that it indicated an active mode. Someone could be watching.
As he looked on, the green light winked out to be replaced by a red light on the opposite side of the lens.
“There,” she said. “The camera should be out for the next five minutes.”
“Won’t someone notice?” He reached into his jeans pocket and his hand closed over the glass knight as if it would protect him somehow from what was to come.
She shook her head. “I’ve arranged to have a looped image of us standing here show up on Jack’s monitors.”
“Friends in low places?” Her resources surprised him, given her relatively low standing among Nash’s organization.
“Something like that.” Her smile slipped into a frown. “Listen, Richard. Questor is not your friend or mine. Before I worked with Nash’s group, I was involved in the animal rights organization that tried to expose what Questor was doing. At the time, we had no idea they were trying to infect dogs with vampirism, but we knew whatever they were up to was horrific. This clinches it though.” She balled her fists. “They’ll do anything to get what they want. You were right not to trust them.”
“So what do we do?” Richard asked.
“We’ve got to get the hell out of here.” She looked over his shoulder at the camera. “But we’ve got to wait until Nash gets the homing device out of your arm. Once that’s done, I think I can hide you someplace safe.”
Richard shook his head. “That’s not going to work. You’re forgetting about the virus they were nice enough to inject me with.”
“Damn.” Beth’s eyes narrowed and she chewed on her lower lip for a moment. “Do you really think Nash will help you if you stay? Assuming the Department doesn’t just barge in during the next twenty-four hours.”
“No.” Now that Richard knew the truth about Nash, Radovan and Questor, it was highly unlikely that they would try to help him.”
Beth piercing blue eyes fixed on him again. “Which means that unless we can get you out of here and find another way to save you from this new virus….” She let her words hang.
“Yes.” His death might be imminent, but he could still choose not to accept it. He folded his arms in front of him. There had to be another way and perhaps his flashes of power had revealed one. “This is not the end, Beth. My flashbacks; they could be the key.”
“You could be right, but unless we can get you out of here, we’ll never know.” Beth glanced at her watch. “We’ve only got about 30 seconds left before the camera’s come back up.”
“Then we have that long to devise a strategy.”
Beth nodded. “I’ll think of something. I’m not alone down here. There are others who will help us. So, you should be prepared for anything. I’ll need to talk--” She glanced at the ceiling again and blinked, smiling suddenly. “Okay then, good luck with the blood donation.”
Richard did not need to look back to know that the camera was active again. He nodded. “Thank you.” He had wanted to tell her about his discovery of the other vampire, but it would have to wait.
Beth held his gaze for one final moment. She looked as if she wanted to say more. Instead, a warning flashed across her eyes and she turned, leaving him alone in the antiseptic room.
22
The metal door squeaked as it slid open. Nash entered with a surgical bag in one hand. Two of Jack’s mercenaries followed. They fanned out behind him and aimed semi-automatic pistols at Richard. Nash lowered his bag to the ground and looked at Richard nervously.
Richard directed his attention to the doctor, but watched the soldiers out of his peripheral vision. A ball of dread knotted within him and he felt cold. They were here with a dark purpose. They were here to kill him.
“Doctor?” He swallowed, glancing casually around the room for anything that might help him escape.
Nash slipped his hands into the pockets of his lab coat and looked down for a moment. “I’m afraid I have some bad news for you.” He looked up slowly. “Given the time constraints imposed on us, there is nothing we can do for your condition. This virus will kill you, probably exactly when the agents told you it would.”
Tomorrow, Richard thought. A sliver hope remained, however. “Perhaps I do not require your help. My flashes of power-”
“Are not what you think,” Nash interrupted, his eyes burning with intensity.
“What do you mean?” Richard’s throat tightened as his worst fears seized him.
“Would you like the technical or non-technical explanation?” Nash raised an eyebrow in a question and stepped closer.
“The non-technical, please.” Richard regretted it after he said it. The technical explanation would surely have bought him more time.
“All right.” Nash paused half way between the men and Richard. “I can only speculate that as your body nears death, your systems have been thrown out of whack. This has caused small gaps to open in the shield blocking your vampiric abilities. You’ve got three viruses at work within you; your initial vampirism, the Department’s virus and this new virus and they don’t exactly get along with one another.”
“They are affecting a psychic shield that many scientists do not even believe exists,” Richard countered. It baffled him that they could have created a virus such as the one that rendered him powerless in the first place. Science did not really accept psychic phenomena as anything other than myth and fiction.
Nash shrugged. “True,
but in dealing with the viral component of your condition, they inadvertently created this shield. I have seen it at work and I can tell you that there is no way your system can fight it any more than you can fight this new virus in your body. You’re going to die Richard. Whether it is today or tomorrow, it will happen. Wouldn’t you like your death to have a purpose?”
“I already have a purpose.” Richard knew where this was leading.
“Ah, yes, this quest for the creature who turned you,” Nash scoffed. “Forget about her, Richard. Give yourself to us. Let us take your blood and you could save millions of lives. Your body contains the secrets of curing cancer, AIDS, and a dozen other diseases!” The doctor’s eyes blazed with fanatical zeal.
So that was their game. They wanted his blood. “I have not given up on surviving the next few days. There must be a way.” Richard shook his head as he backed up against the surgical table.
Nash’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t be naïve, Richard. Medically speaking, you have no chance.”
As if on cue, the mercenaries took a step forward in unison. Richard watched them nervously. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but he tried to ignore it, focusing instead on Nash’s theory of viral interaction whilst simultaneously keeping an eye on the soldiers. It made a certain sense that a battle between these viruses had momentarily allowed him to grab a hold of some of his power. It was ironic that what Frederick had given him had actually allowed him to recapture a few fleeting moments of his past glory. If the Department had known that he might access his powers for even a minute, they would never have given him the injection. Perhaps if he simply survived to see the result of whatever was changing within him, he could find a way to use his powers to cure himself completely, despite Nash’s protestations to the contrary.
“I am going to survive, Doctor. I do not know how yet, but I will find a way. Allow me to go, now, and I will let you take as much of my blood as you want over the coming months.”
