Jonathan Bond - The Terminus experiment

If Marco’s tone was cold before, it was positively arctic now. “Are you threatening me? Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”

Julius thought about the night Marco had come to him, changed into a vampire, and asked for his help. “I should have asked you that eight years ago, just after your little ‘accident,’ but I didn’t. Or maybe you should have asked me that when you came to me two years back and told me things were going to be different, and again asked me to back your play. You’ve taken everything I’ve ever loved and ruined it, including the brother I used to have. Well, I’m taking some of mine back. Now.”

With that, Julius disconnected. Hitting a button that rolled down the bullet-proof glass, he tossed the telecom out the window.

Julius turned to Biggs, who had lifted his visor and was watching him with a raised eyebrow. Julius smiled. “All right, Let’s take a look at those layouts and see if we can make tonight go a bit easier.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

As the voice from above echoed in the operating theater, Sinunu reacted even without thinking. Pushing Rachel to the floor, she spun into a kneeling position, bringing both her crossbow and HK MP-5TX on target simultaneously.

The crossbow twanged as soon as she had a viable target-the dark, strangely deformed figure standing at the top of the short stairway just to the side of the huge pentagram. The steps led to a supply elevator.

Then everything clicked into slow motion as she realized what she’d done. Sinunu watched as the arrow streaked toward the figure she now recognized as de Vries. The reason he looked deformed was because he had something slung across his shoulders.

As suddenly as the realization hit her, de Vries moved gingerly down a step, and to the left. He reached out with his free hand, easily snagging the wooden bolt from mid-air.

“Frag!” Sinunu was on her feet, her regret turning to anger the instant she understood the vampire was safe.

Dc Vries smiled down on her, gently twirling the feathered shaft in his fingers as if it were some kind of cheerleader’s baton. “You seem to be a bit on edge, my dear”

He quickly descended the steps to the floor.

Sinunu felt a small hand on her shoulder. She turned and saw Truxa standing there, a smile on her full lips. “Baby, don’t get mad. You reacted, that’s all.”

Sinunu felt her hands unclench.

Flak was still staring at de Vries. “What the hell are you doing? Where the hell did you go? And who the hell is that?” He pointed at the dark-haired man over de Vries’ shoulder.

De Vries smiled. “Not enough time for a full explanation, but this man is going to be our decoy. If Marco D’imato were to learn that his nephew had been rescued, he’d simply grab him again and we’d never find him.”

Rachel pushed to her feet beside Sinunu. “This isn’t Warren,” she said. “We got the wrong chamber or something.” De Vries stepped over to the vat and looked at the body on the floor. Then he dumped the body of the man he carried next to the one who’d crawled out of the vat. He was shaking his head. “Bloody hell,” he said, for an instant going into what Sinunu guessed was a trance.

“What now?” Flak said, breaking de Vries’ reverie. “We don’t have time to change tactics and search for our target. Your mole gave you faulty intel and now we’re on the verge of being fragged for no gain.”

“We bail,” Sinunu said. “We’ll have to regroup, and come back after we get better intel.”

From behind her, she heard Flak grunt again. “Good idea, chica. Let’s get the frag out of here.”

De Vries lifted the decoy’s body and led the group to the platform. Even under the combined weight of the entire team, the gleaming platform drifted silently downward. Then they were back in the tiled chamber again.

Sinunu looked at de Vries, who stood next to her, the decoy like a limp, naked rag over his shoulder. “What are you going to do with him?”

De Vries shrugged, the movement causing the unconscious man’s body to bounce up and down. “I’m not entirely sure. I don’t like the idea of leaving him here, so I guess I’ll take him as far as I can, and then decide.”

Sinunu nodded. It made sense. When you were on a run, you did what you could, and then you did what you had to.

They were just passing through the door of the decon chamber when Sandman’s voice came over the tacticom, “We got uninvited guests. The system bumped to full alert. The whole compound just lit up like a Christmas tree, and the grounds are swarming with people.”

“Frag it!” said Flak into the tacticom as they moved quietly into the locker room. “What did we trip?”

There was a short pause, then Sandman said, “Nothing. It wasn’t us. Evidently the bad guys are expecting some heavy-duty party crashers. They’re setting up some serious drek out there.”

Quickly, and quietly, they began to move down the hallway, Sinunu and Flak switching point at every hallway juncture.

“What’s the easiest way back to the van?”

Another pause from Sandman, this one much longer. “You’re not gonna like this, Flak. They got the back buttoned up even tighter than the front. According to Short Eyes, this place is full of vampires and they got wind of us. We’re rolling, even as we speak.”

“Drek. All right, can you stay in the system?”

“Null sheen. Hold tight for a few ticks while I work out your best exit route and how we can meet up. You solid with that?”

Sinunu stopped listening at that moment. From around the dimly lit corner, she saw movement, shadowy outlines against the wall.

“Action on our twelve,” she whispered into her tacticom. “Fade back?”

“Negative,” came Flak’s reply. “We got to get the frag out of here. Let’s light ‘em up.”

The shadow figures seemed to glide swiftly from left to right, and for just a moment, Sinunu couldn’t tell what they were doing, then it hit her. They were checking all the doors, making sure they were locked.

She heard a soft shuffle behind her, and could tell from his subtle odor that Flak was at her back.

Suddenly the shadows stiffened, going completely still.

“Now,” came Flak’s whisper.

From her left, Sinunu heard Truxa mutter a quiet chant, then give a soft clap, setting off a spell. Sinunu rolled onto the floor just as a gout of greenish-brown fluid shot over her shoulder and down the hallway. She came to a crouch as the shadowy things leapt out of the way. There were three of them, and the furthest one didn’t move fast enough.

The green acid completely engulfed it, rending flesh parts in a putrid explosion.

Sinunu didn’t have time to care. There were two of the things left, and for the first time, she had a good idea just what they were up against. If Sandman was right, these were vampires and made Number One look like a child’s toy.

The closest was a human male. She could tell by his features that he’d been black at one time, though now his dark skin was a dusky color that contrasted with the short dreds crowning his head.