* * *
Paul focused his energy and jammed the elevator button with a knuckle. The doors slid open and he, Kenneth, and Hodge piled in. Focusing his energy again, he hit the sequence of up and down arrows to take them to Dr. Abrams’ office. The doors shut and the elevator immediately began to descend.
Hodge stood silently, staring straight ahead at the elevator door.
“What did Dittrich say?” Paul asked. “He must have had help if he was heading down here. Who did he have with him?”
Looking out of the corners of his eyes, keeping his head forward, Hodge answered, “Gladys. It was Gladys that came for Dittrich. They had it planned all along. She came into the room, waited for about ten seconds, and then walked back out with Dittrich right behind her. It was right after that when the alarm started going nuts.”
“Gladys?” Paul and Kenneth said at the same time.
“But Gladys is CIA!” Kenneth exclaimed. “She’s been here since Astralis first came into existence!”
“Well I guess she and Dittrich been bumping uglies for a while, now,” Hodge responded in his usual, elegant way.
Paul and Kenneth both flinched with a disgusted shiver as the doors slid open to the antechamber outside Dr. Abrams’ suite.
The door leading to his suite was closed and it was quiet, almost eerily so. The alarm had either been turned off, or it didn’t reach this far down. There was no sign that anything was out of the ordinary, which only served to make all of them even more nervous.
“You sure about this?” Paul asked Hodge quietly.
“Positive.”
Paul stood still, listening. There was no sound of a scuffle, no voices heard through the door. How would Dittrich do this? If he had Gladys with him, and since she was a member of the front office staff, she certainly had access to the elevator code. Once they’d arrived at this level, she could have quietly opened the door and allowed Dittrich to slip into the suite. But then what could Dittrich do? Would it be Gladys trying to kill him? Abrams may have had no idea what hit him.
What Dittrich certainly did not know was that Dr. Abrams was a Walker too, and was more vulnerable after sunset than Dittrich could have ever hoped. But if Abrams was in his suite, in the dream, then certainly he would confront Dittrich.
“What the hell are you waiting for?” Hodge asked.
Kenneth made a sound like he wanted to disagree, but instead said, “He’s right. We have to go in. If Dittrich is already there, we might be too late.”
Stepping forward, Paul focused his energy and pulled open the door. It swung open on silent hinges and Hodge immediately lunged past Paul into the suite. Paul exchanged a look with Kenneth and the two of them followed more slowly.
All doors to the suite were wide open, but none of the lights were on. The silence of the place was unnerving.
“It doesn’t look like anyone is here, or has been,” Paul said in a whisper.
After leaning into all the rooms to get a look, Hodge said, “If no one else is here, you don’t have to whisper, dumbass. Close the door. If nobody’s been here yet, no use giving them an open invitation.”
Hating the way Hodge said it, but knowing he was right, Paul focused his ability and pushed the door shut.
Hodge had been standing just inside the door, watching while Paul closed it. As soon as it was completely closed, Hodge turned and walked purposefully into Dr. Abrams’ private quarters.
“Something’s not right, here,” Kenneth said quietly to Paul.
Not answering, not knowing what was going on himself, Paul walked slowly into Dr. Abrams’ bedroom.
Dr. Abrams was there, asleep in a large, four poster, canopied bed. Hodge stood over him, staring down with a look on his face that was a mixture of pity, hatred, and sadness.
“Hodge?” Paul asked.
Hodge jerked a little and looked up at Paul without really seeing him, looking almost through him, and then turned away, searching for something in the room.
“Hodge?” Paul repeated. “What’s going on?”
“What’s going on,” Hodge sing-songed as he turned his head this way and that, scanning the contents of the room. “Whaaat’s going on.” Apparently, he found what he was looking for on a night stand. He went to it as soon as he spotted it.
He kneeled down in front of the night stand so that his face was level with the top of the table and then turned, leering at Paul and Kenneth.
“Dittrich never came down here,” he said through a toothy smile.
“Clearly,” answered Kenneth in a scathing tone.
“Up yours, Kenneth,” Hodge spat. “You think you’re the man, don’t you? You always have. Always so calm, so confident—so freaking cocky. You shouldn’t have pissed me off today on the balcony. Now you get to be first.”
“First?” Paul asked. “What in the hell are you talking about, Hodge?”
“Well, first…” Hodge began, but then trailed off, taking deep breaths at an increasing pace. Paul knew that look on Hodge’s face. He was working himself up, focusing his anger in order to carry his voice outside the dream.
Paul had no idea what Hodge was up to, but he didn’t want to find out the hard way, especially when Hodge was kneeling right next to a sleeping Dr. Abrams. Paul moved closer to see what Hodge was doing. He felt a sense of dread when he finally saw what it was that was on the night stand next to the bed.
It was the little black electronic device that Paul had delivered down to Dr. Abrams himself.
The one that Gladys had given to him. Gladys, who was working with Dittrich the entire time, if what Hodge had told him was true.
“What is that thing, Hodge, and what are you doing?” Paul demanded.
Still breathing heavily, his face distorted, Hodge turned to Paul and gave him a grin that sent chills down his spine.
“Is est vicis,” Hodge spoke in a loud, anger-edged voice.
“What—” Paul began, but stopped. A green light on the black device blinked to life. He looked at Kenneth, who was clearly just as confused. “What is that?”
“It is time,” Hodge said. “That’s what it is.” He got to his feet. “It is time for the good doctor,” he pointed down at the slumbering form of Dr. Abrams, “to finally realize the arrogance of assuming that his own wants and needs are more important than everyone else’s.”
A red light next to the green one popped on with an audible click, and a yellow cloud of fumes began spewing out the side of the device.
Beginning to feel the first stirrings of panic, Paul looked down at Dr. Abrams. Whatever the fumes were, they didn’t look good. “What have you done, Hodge!”
“I think the right question to ask, New Guy, is what have you done? It was you that brought me down here, and it was you that delivered this ventilator to Dr. Abrams.”
Kenneth looked at Paul with wide eyes.
“I didn’t know!” Paul protested.
“That’s okay,” Hodge sneered. “The important thing is that you did what we needed you to do.” Mockingly, Hodge put one hand over his heart and said, “We couldn’t have done this without you.”
“This was all just a trick?” Paul asked incredulously. “Today with Dittrich, parading me around to make everyone believe that I’d joined him? The idea that we were under attack upstairs? None of it mattered because the real attack is here—right now.”
“Oh there is a real attack up there, too,” Hodge answered, moving away from the bedside toward Paul and Kenneth. “You bet your ass there is. But it didn’t start until I got you to leave the Sanctum. Rex didn’t close that door by accident.”
“If you hurt a single one of our friends….” Kenneth began, stepping toward Hodge.
“You’ll what?” Hodge asked. “Nothing, that’s what. Because Astralis is going to be ours within the hour and Abrams will be dead. Look around this room.”
Hodge waved his arms around the room. It was quickly becoming filled with yellow-tinted air. “The fumes are toxic,” Hodge said.
“Abrams won’t even know he’s dying. He’ll just take a few more sleepy breaths, his esophagus will close and his lungs will collapse, and then … end of story.”
“You bastard!” Kenneth ran at Hodge, fists cocked.
Hodge, looking almost bored, took one step to the side rammed a meaty fist into Kenneth’s gut, doubling him over. Pivoting on his heel, Hodge slammed an elbow down on Kenneth’s neck, forcing him to his knees.
Hodge stepped back, grinning. “Come on, you pathetic piece of crap! Get up! You don’t have much time left on this earth and I’m more than happy to fill your last minutes with pain and humiliation.”
Roaring in fury, Kenneth surged to his feet and rushed at Hodge, but once again Hodge proved the better fighter, turning on his heels to let Kenneth miss him, almost like a bullfighter. As Kenneth passed him by, Hodge pushed him from behind, propelling him head-first into the wall.
“Right now, Rex is making his way into your safe room, Kenneth,” Hodge spat. “I made sure to tell him to do you and that pathetic midget you call a Sentinel first.”
Grinning sadistically, Hodge continued. “Every Sentinel that isn’t part of our group is now locked in the Sanctum. They’re being given a choice. They can either surrender the fight or surrender the life of the Walker they protect. But first,” he looked down at Kenneth, who was rising to his hands and knees from the floor. “Just to show them that we’re serious, I told Rex to drag your limp, helpless body into the hallway and make an example of you.”
“Hodge—why?” Paul cried out.
“Because I can!” Hodge sneered into Paul’s face. “Because today is the beginning of a new life for me! And you, New Guy—I’m going to make sure that you won’t be part of it no matter how bad Dittrich wants you.”
Kenneth cried out from the floor, clutching at his stomach.
Paul rushed to him. “Are you alright? What is it?”
“It’s my stomach, it burns!” Kenneth said, lifting his shirt.
Shocked, Paul saw a deep slice in Kenneth’s abdomen just below his chest. It was wide open, and although there was no blood Paul knew there had to be plenty of it upstairs where Kenneth’s body was.
Rex’s preferred weapon—a blade.
Kenneth looked up, naked fear clearly conveyed. Paul felt helpless, useless. He didn’t know what to say, didn’t know what to do. There was nothing that could be done and they both knew it.
“Aghh!” Kenneth cried out again, clutching his belly as another wound opened.
Paul looked up into Hodge’s grinning, stubbly, gap-toothed face. “You’d do this just to prove a point?”
“No,” Hodge’s face became serious. “I would do this because this piece of dirt couldn’t learn proper manners this morning on the balcony.”
Kenneth cried out again as Paul roared in fury and threw himself at Hodge.
“You arrogant bastard!” Paul screamed.
Catching Paul’s enraged charge as if he were catching an unruly child on a playground, Hodge allowed Paul’s head to ram him in the stomach while reaching down and grabbing Paul around the waist, throwing him to the side like a sack of potatoes into a dresser with a large mirror.
The dresser slammed back against the wall and the mirror shattered as Paul’s body impacted it. Hodge paused, momentarily shocked, but then remembered Paul’s ability had been triggered by anger in the past.
“Oh this is going to be fun!” Hodge cried maniacally. “I get to kick your ass and bust the place up! Hell yes!”
Grabbing a handful of Paul’s hair, Hodge pulled him up from the glass-strewn floor and slammed a fist into Paul’s nose. The pain was incredible, exploding across Paul’s face. He opened his mouth to choke out a cry of pain, but Hodge relentlessly swung again, driving his fist into Paul’s cheekbone, stifling the cry and driving him once again back against the dresser.
“Oh come on. Don’t tell me you’ve never had a really good ass-kicking before?” Hodge cried out happily as he kicked Paul in the ribs, knocking him away from the dresser toward Kenneth. Paul tried to get up, getting as far as raising to his hands and knees, but all it did was give Hodge a better angle for another well-placed kick, this time raising Paul slightly into the air and landing him with a grunt face down on the floor right next to Kenneth.
“Kenneth,” Paul whispered, looking into Kenneth’s eyes. “You hang in there, Kenneth. Don’t you let go. We’re going to find a way to stop them.”
Kenneth’s mouth worked, opening and closing, but the only sounds that came out were gasping attempts at speech. His arms, clutched against his belly, twitched as if he wanted to reach out to Paul.
“You two having a huddle down there?” Hodge stepped over to look down on them. “Looks more like a cuddle to me.” Bending down, he grabbed Paul by the back of his pants and the back of shirt, lifted him to chest height, and then dropped him face-first down on top of Kenneth. “There. Now you’re having a cuddle.”
Groaning, Paul pushed himself off Kenneth and into a kneeling position. He took Kenneth’s hand. “Kenneth? Can you hear me?”
Kenneth looked as if he might nod, but then his entire body twitched, twice. Angling his head to look up at Paul, his eyes grew wide.
Then he slowly faded away. Literally. The hand Paul had clasped in his own became less and less substantial until he was no longer holding anything. The floor in front of him was empty. It was as if Kenneth had never been there.
Watchers of the Night Page 65
