“And how’d that work out for you?”
Tomas winced, pulling the comforter closer around his body. “I scoped out his house. It looked pretty quiet. Two guys in the courtyard, couple of ‘goyles on the gate pillars and wall in the back. I thought it would be him and me and maybe a bodyguard or two. I took the ‘goyles out in the back and got in through a balcony window. Place was lousy with demons. They were everywhere. It was like a demon convention and I walked right into the middle of it. And Tesslovich has a weapons collection you wouldn’t believe. There was something on every wall. I had to fight my way out.”
“And you brought their little monsters straight to me. Thanks so much.”
“I’m sorry. I was trying to warn you.”
“I came to you for help and you sent me packing.”
“I didn’t . . .”
Ariel’s cell phone rang. “Sorry. I have to take this. I’m expecting an important update about the end of the world. Where are you, Bishop?”
“My office.” Bishop sighed as he looked around.
The task force had tried to make a mess but they were amateurs compared to whoever had left him the goat head. He’d put his remaining files in a storage cage in the basement after the first break-in. The cabinets in the office were empty, the computer was already gone, but the rusty blood stains were still very visible on the wood of the desk top. He was going to have to have that refinished. Or maybe he’d leave them. Let clients speculate on who had bled all over his desk and why.
“I called Susan Elizabeth’s mother and she hasn’t reappeared. I warned her to call me the minute she shows up. That there might be complications.” Barbara Morgan’s hope was heart wrenching. He wondered if calling her had been a good idea, but he didn’t want a repeat of the Jennifer Corbin debacle.
“I’m a little busy here, Frank. Is there something else?”
“C.T. called wondering if we could bring him a fresh blood sample from a demon. Since you seem to have connections . . .”
“Demon blood? Are you serious?”
“What about Timmy John?”
“We relocated him to Tahiti, remember? For stealing the fight-night tickets.”
“There must be somebody else at the Garden who’d be willing to give it up for cash.”
“I think we have bigger problems right now.”
“You know, I really hate that phrase.”
“All right.” Sigh. “Do you have your car? I’m going to break rule number three in the Raptor Rule Book and give you my address. If you meet some bikers on the way in, just tell them you know Ez.”
* * *
“What’s rule number one?” Bishop asked when Ariel opened her door.
“Never let a civilian know what you are.”
“Too late for that, how about rule number two . . .”
Bishop caught sight of Tomas. He sat at the table wrapped in the quilt, one bicep circled by gauze. He was eating peanut butter toast with jam.
“Am I interrupting something?”
“Tomas is part of our new Guest Raptor program.” Ariel said. “He tried to take Tesslovich out last night and got his ass kicked all the way to my backdoor.”
Bishop raised his eyebrows. “Didn’t El tell you what happened when she tried to kill him?”
Tomas gave El a narrow eyed ‘who-the-hell-is-this?’ stare. “There was some concern she might not have been as thorough as she could have been,” he said.
“Thorough?” Bishop said. “She took his head straight off his shoulders. It bounced across the room. I was there, I saw it happen. Three days later he’s back in court with a stiff neck.”
“I guess I was misinformed.” Tomas said through clenched teeth. “Why are we talking about this in front of a civilian?”
Ariel slammed down into her chair and leaned across the table. Bishop decided he was safer leaning against the sink. He’d said what he saw and he was sticking to it.
“Do you have any idea what’s really going on here, Tomas?”
“There seems to be a heavy infestation of demon activity in the area. They seem very--organized.”
“Organized? They’re here to plan a takedown of the human race, you idiot! That’s why all the kids are missing. Zaki Kiriyenko has been using them to test ways of engineering a demon super race.”
“How do you know that?”
“I know people who know things like that, okay?”
“Him?”
“No, not him. Don’t be silly.”
“Standing right here,” Bishop said, miffed.
“A scientist. Zaki’s ex-partner. He’s a biotech genius.”
“Have you told the Guardian this?”
“The Guardian made it very clear that he’s not interested in my opinion.”
“So, a Raptor, a few wolves and a ‘biotech genius’ have decided to take on fifty super-demons by themselves?”
“I was hoping you’d help now that you’re here.”
“I’m helping.” Bishop said, but no one was paying attention to him.
“Ariel, the Guardian called me in because he didn’t think you could be trusted to follow orders. You can’t bring other Raptors in on this without his permission.”
“Well, I guess the old fart was right. I’m through waiting for him to get a clue. You haven’t been here Tomas. You haven’t seen Zaki’s arena, or how he brutalizes these kids. You haven’t seen that he’s created a way for demons to achieve a world-wide domination of human beings. Maybe even an annihilation. The Guardian is used to having his Raptors take out a demon or two, maybe a whole nest if they’re threatening enough. They tip things in the wrong direction, we tip it back. Good balances out evil. Well, good and evil don’t weigh the same anymore, Tomas. Evil is about to move all the weight to their end of the teeter totter and we have a minuscule window of opportunity to stop that from happening.”
“I need more proof than a bunch of well-dressed demons swilling champagne and trading stories about the good old days.” Tomas countered.
“We’ll take you to see our guy. He can show you proof. I need your help on this Tomas.”
Tomas scrubbed at the unburned side of his face, His short copper dreads looked frayed. He was healing fast but he had a ways to go.
“Clothes?” he asked. “Weapons?”
“Dingo left jeans and a sweat shirt for you in the bathroom. There’s soap and towels. If you need some help, let me know.”
Bishop raised one eyebrow. It was a talent.
“Shut up.” Ariel told him. “We’ll be ready in a minute.”
“And the plan is?”
She struck it off on her fingers as she headed for the bedroom. “Demon blood, C.T. Kale, rescue kids, kick some demon ass.”
- 41 -
“That was quick.” Bishop stopped his car across the street from the Seventh Circle to let Ariel out. It was late morning, but Ariel assured him that Hell never closed. When he was a kid, a priest had told him the same thing.
Ham had given Ariel a syringe and a special test tube that had preservative in it for the blood. He’d given her a general description of how to use it.
Bishop made a mental note to never let her try to stick a needle in him.
In five minutes Ariel was back in the front seat. “For twenty bucks, the guy drew it for me himself. Thought it was kinky. I hope the fact that the blood’s fifty percent alcohol won’t ruin the sample.”
She held up the tube. It was the color of one of Timmy John’s Grasshoppers without the bug garnish. “Guy was blasted. Hopefully he’ll forget anyone asked him for this.”
“Where are we going?” Tomas asked without enthusiasm.
“Underground. We have to be a lot more careful now. C.T. said we should take the eastbound train from Jefferson Station until someone tells us to get off.”
* * *
After changing subway trains twice, the Deep’s guide, who looked like a college student on her way to classes at the local university, eased them toward the e
nd of the station platform and through an almost invisible opening in the wall. Once off the platform and into the tunnels she stopped and quickly assembled one of the Deep’s automatic rifles, complete with infra-red scope, from pieces stored in her book bag. Then she gave Bishop a pair of night goggles that matched her own.
Bishop eyed the rifle. “We’re going through the rat tunnels aren’t we?”
“Sorry.” The guide swung the bag back over her shoulder. “We’ve stepped up security and the rats tend to discourage being followed. Last in line watches everybody’s back.”
“If they attack,” Bishop promised. “I’ll try not to scream like a girl. Although if one of us does scream, that will be me.”
The girl gave him a grin and pushed the safety to full automatic.
“You guys armed?” Bishop asked Ariel and Tomas.
“Never leave home without something sharp and pointy,” Tomas answered. “Are we expecting something larger than rats in these tunnels?”
“Demon activity has picked up in the last couple of days,” the guide said. “They’ve got guards on the subway platform at Hauptmann’s and Tesslovich has some kind of ogre guarding his stop on the line since last night. You never know how far the demons may have penetrated the perimeter.”
“Ogre?”
The Raptor waved a dismissive hand. “All muscle and no brains,” she said. “They’re used as guards and most of them moonlight as bouncers in the demon bars.”
“Is that what that guy was,” Bishop was thinking about his first trip to The Seventh Circle with Ariel. “I thought he was just big and really, really ugly.”
“They have the brains and vocabulary of a house pet. If one of them attacks you, just throw something shiny and yell ‘fetch!’”
“I’m only a private detective you know,” Bishop said, glancing sideways at Tomas. “Maybe I should write that down.”
- 42 -
Cassius received their little group in his study. The walls were paneled in dark wood and lined with bookshelves. It was as if the entire room had been transported from some old mansion or exclusive gentleman’s club above ground to the Deeps. Some books looked really old, others seemed to be about history, or technology, but a whole shelf was full of popular novels. A few reference books and unrolled maps were open on the large table in the middle of the room. The floor was covered in old, but impressive looking oriental rugs, and the chairs were deep and inviting. There was even a fireplace, though it burned gas instead of wood.
“Wow.” Ariel said.
“Our scavengers got the room from an old house that was being torn down,” the guide explained. “Seemed a shame to let it go to waste. Here’s your guests, C.T. I’ll see ya’ later in the ‘sitch room.”
Cassius was at his desk with his head down, typing something into his laptop. “Sorry, I’ll be done in a second.” Then he looked up. Several expressions moved across his face in rapid succession. He stopped typing and stood up with an unexpected suddenness.
Ariel put her hands out. “It’s okay, Tomas is a Raptor. He has important information that we thought you should hear.”
“Tomas?” Cassius came around the desk and held out his hand, his eyes never left the Raptor’s face. “Your--addition to the guest list startled me that’s all. Welcome to the Deeps.”
“Nice to meet you,” Tomas said. “This is some place you have here.”
“It wouldn’t have been my first choice, but I’ve gotten used to it. Being down here gives me more quiet time to do my research. What happened to your face?”
“Goyle blood. I tried to get to Tesslovich last night. Never came close. I was stabbed and shot up pretty good. Ariel and her friends saved my life. But I may have stirred up a hornet’s nest by accident.”
“Tesslovich’s house was full of demons,” Ariel said.
“What does ‘full’ mean?”
“A lot,” Tomas said. “Thirty, forty, it was hard to tell. Everyone was dressed up as if it was a special occasion.”
“Then it’s begun” Cassius waved everyone to a seat and leaned against the front edge of his desk. “We’ve noticed more cars parked in the Hauptman garage, more activity on the subway platforms, guards patrolling the tunnels nearby. Zaki is about to unveil his master work.”
“Ariel told me if I came along I’d find out what’s about to happen and what you plan on doing about it.”
“First the bad news.” Cassius went back behind his desk and tapped a key. A section of bookcase pivoted around revealing a flat screen.
“What are we looking at?” Bishop asked.
“Blood chemistry. The numbers on the left are the boy you and the Sister rescued. The next column is Jennifer Corbin’s blood sample. Luckily, we have connections in the coroner’s office. Both samples are off the charts for steroids. And cortisol levels, which show the body’s reaction to extreme stress, are over four hundred. The blood also contains a variety of toxic byproducts including a mutant form of e-coli. According to her sample, I would postulate that Jennifer Corbin was in a state of toxic steroid rage when she went after her family. She may not have even known who she was killing.”
“The boy in the hospital was headed in the same direction. Plus he was in a dangerous state of alkalosis that would have short circuited his nervous system within a few hours. I can’t imagine the demons thought he would be found alive. They probably hoped finding his body would distract and confuse the task force.
“We also isolated some of the nanites in their blood. My techs were able to disassemble them. There are at least two distinct types.”
A new picture appeared. Nanites the size of Tonka toys prowled the screen. Some had a golden carapace with a flagellum for a tail. Others were transparent, lit up like small, blue neon insects allowing the observer to see tiny circuit boards inside their shells.
“Of course they’re magnified thousands of times on the screen. Each one is smaller than the size of a molecule which allows them to travel freely around the body through the circulatory system. An appropriately programmed nanite has the ability to manipulate and rearrange the body’s mechanisms so it can go wherever, and do whatever it wants it to; repair cell damage, stop the aging process, prevent death by natural causes or severe physical trauma. Run by ultramicroscopic computers they can operate independently or be networked into a master server that tells them what to do. Considering how little energy they consume, scientists think that nanites might be programmed to last for hundreds, even thousands of years.”
“That’s a scary thought,” Tomas said. “Especially under the circumstances.”
“Well, to be truly successful any nanite has to be non-toxic to the host. Zaki used my model of carbon atoms bonded into tiny spheres and coated with 18 carat gold to avoid toxicity. Unfortunately, he’s expanded that concept to engineer compatibility with demon physiology by creating a molecular vehicle made out of a previously unknown acid resistant material with an unidentified bacterial propulsion system. This material seems to attract, or even manufacture proteins that eventually become toxic to the humans who carry it.”
“Those blue nanites make the body stronger, faster, more aggressive, the gold nanites repair the cell damage caused by toxicity and trauma. But eventually the healer nanites can’t keep up with the constant rearrangement of molecules necessary to keep a human body alive. Serious injury doesn’t get repaired, mutations occur, toxicity increases, internal organ systems start to fail causing physical as well as mental symptoms. This may not happen in demons. The proteins the demon nanites produce might have beneficial effects for them, and their nanites have been built for survival in a highly acid environment that already contains poisons toxic to humans like arsenic, strychnine and chlorine. Gold is also impervious to acid so the healer nanites are compatible for use in demons.”
“So this is going to make them much harder to kill?” Tomas asked.
“Consider the fact that Tesslovich himself not only survived a nanite infusion, they saved his l
ife when Ariel beheaded him. The only permanent solution may be to dismember the carriers and burn the bodies at high temperature until there’s nothing left.”
“You wanted a sample of demon blood to see how the nanites react to it.” Ariel said.
Bishop pulled a crumpled paper bag out of his pocket. “This is a piece of carpet that has blood on it from a dead demon. I’m afraid it’s a few days old.”
“I got a fresh tube.” Ariel held it out. “My guy was pretty drunk, but it’s the standard green stuff, nothing exotic. I think he was a lesser Strxian, they’re easily addicted to all kinds of drugs and they’ll do anything for a few bucks.”
Cassius pushed a button on his desk. A young man opened the door holding a plastic carrier filled with tubes, packages of syringes, tubing and needles. “Strxian should do just fine. I’d also like a tube of Raptor blood, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“No problem,” Ariel said.
“Actually, I’d prefer blood from Tomas. He’s been injured recently and that means his immune system is highly activated. That would give me a chance to analyze Raptor blood and its physiological response to injury.”
Tomas shrugged and rolled up his sleeve.
- 43 -
Mouser woke up back in a plastic cell. It wasn’t in the same place he’d been put when first abducted, it was in the grey man’s lab. The clear Plexiglas wall of the cell was flush with the other walls of the room, but had been hidden by a sliding panel.
Mouser didn’t remember anyone bringing him mice for dinner, but he did remember being hit with a dart and falling off his perch in the cage. He’d lost consciousness before hitting the floor.
Now he was back in human form, naked and very thirsty. A fresh set of clothing had been left on his bunk. They resembled the scrubs that doctors wore. His were orange, the same color prisoners wore in county jail. The waist of the trousers had a draw string and he had to tie it tight then roll the excess cloth over several times to keep from tripping on the cuffs. A sandwich wrapped in plastic and a bottle of water had been left on the floor just inside the cell. He tore into them, chugging the water followed by a ravenous attack on the sandwich.
Raptor: Urban Fantasy Noir Page 26
