Scott Sigler - Nocturnal - A Novel

A woman stepped toward him. “Stop!”

Aggie took off, his newish boots thumping out a staccato drumbeat on the escalator’s metal steps. He heard and felt similar pounding behind him — the heavy steps of men.

The first escalator took him up to the station’s main floor. One more escalator and he’d be out on the streets. There were more people up here, heading home from bars or from late nights at work.

“Get out of my way!” Aggie ran, carrying the baby-bag in both arms. His legs felt weak. He was already exhausted.

“Stop him!” the men behind him screamed. Most of the people in front of him quickly got out of the way, but one man, a kid of no more than twenty, stepped in front of him.

Aggie slowed, then tried to cut left.

His foot landed on his blanket — the blanket slid across the polished floor, and his foot flew out from under him. In the split second it took him to reach the ground, his only thought was to protect the baby.

The back of Aggie’s head cracked against the marble, and everything went black.

Date Night

The faint but beautiful sounds of a plinky piano echoed from inside of Mommy’s cabin. There were no lights in there, just darkness and music. People lined the arena’s ledges, holding torches that flickered like big stars against the cavern’s blackness.

Alone, Rex stood on the ship’s ruined deck. He held a wicker basket with a present for Mommy. Tonight, he would become a man.

Everything was happening so fast. He and Pierre and Sly had brought the chief of police and her daughters back Home. The chief had given up a bunch of names. They’d even printed pictures of those criminals on Chief Zou’s computer, so the soldiers would know if they had the right people.

The chief’s husband was cooking in the stew. Most of him, anyway. His head was in the basket. Mommy liked brains.

As soon as Rex finished this ceremony with Mommy, he and Sly were going to plan how to use Chief Zou to round up the criminals. Firstborn had allowed the bullies to live, but Rex would not. Once those who knew of Marie’s Children were gone, Rex’s people would become even more of a secret.

Hillary wanted the people to spread, and so did Rex. She said the only way for that to happen was to make new queens. The only way to make a new queen, she said, was for a king to mate with an old queen.

Rex was the king, and that was that. If he was the king, though, didn’t he need a crown? Maybe someone could make one for him — the people had built all these amazing tunnels, surely they could make a kick-ass crown.

He felt so nervous. He’d never had sex before. Would he get it right?

Two white-robed men walked out of Mommy’s cabin. They stood on either side of the door, waiting. The one on the left wore a devil mask. The one on the right wore a mask that looked like Osama bin Laden.

They both waved Rex forward.

Up on the ledge, all the people waited for him to enter. Rex turned slowly, looking up at the ledge, at the torchlight-illuminated faces of his people. Everyone was here. Now was the time to make Firstborn understand that all of this belonged to Rex, and Rex alone.

“I have made a decision,” he shouted. His voice echoed off the arena’s walls. “I am not going to hide in the caverns and let other people go fight. I’ll fight with them. I’ll lead like a real king. But that means Savior might get me, or the cops might or someone else. I’ve decided who will rule if anything should happen to me. I name Sly as my successor.”

Rex heard applause. Not as much as he would have thought, though. Didn’t everyone like Sly?

“Sly is also a fighter,” Rex shouted. “If he and I both get killed, then Hillary will be our ruler.” He hadn’t seen Hillary around, but she was probably somewhere up on that ledge.

Rex knew it was a good decision. Firstborn hated Sly, so maybe he’d try to kill both Sly and Rex. But Firstborn had saved Hillary once — would he kill her as well? Was his need for power that great?

The announcement was done.

That meant no more stalling — Rex had to go into that cabin and be with Mommy.

A smell tickled Rex’s nose. He sniffed lightly, then deeper. What was that?

He turned toward Mommy’s cabin. He sniffed some more. His face suddenly felt hot. Another step, and he stumbled a little on a loose board. He managed to catch his balance before he fell — wouldn’t that be embarrassing? To fall in front of everyone?

Rex stopped. He looked down. He had the boner of all boners. Wow, did his face feel hot .

And then a deep voice came from inside the cabin. Mommy’s voice.

“Venez ah mwah mon rwah.”

He didn’t understand her words. He didn’t care what she said, didn’t care about anything anymore but that smell in his nose and what waited for him there in the darkness.

Rex walked through the cabin door.

Bryan & Pookie Meet Aggie James

They weren’t officially back on the force yet, but a lead was a lead. Bryan wasn’t going to let a little thing like being fired get in the way of pursuing it.

They’d heard the call come in. A bum had been picked up at Civic Center; a bum carrying a baby. The bum had been injured. Paramedics had brought the bum and baby both to SFGH. When the arresting officer called it in, he described the baby’s blanket as being covered with circles and slashes, occult kind of stuff .

A bum with a baby. Just like Mike Clauser had described.

Most of the cops at SFGH were preoccupied with Erickson’s security. That — combined with the flurry of activity that had blown up surrounding this new Handyman Killer, and with Zou not being around to direct traffic — meant Bryan and Pookie weren’t really on anyone’s radar at the moment.

They stepped off the elevator onto the second floor of the hospital’s main building, far away from the mental health wing. The injured bum was on this floor.

Bryan looked down the hall. It wasn’t hard to spot the right room, because a uniformed officer sat on a chair outside of it.

“Shit,” Bryan said. “Think you can talk your way past this one, Pooks, or is the Force no longer strong with this one?”

A dismissive huff escaped Pookie’s lips. “Nigga, please. Don’t you recognize him? It’s Stuart Hood.”

Bryan did recognize Hood: he was the guy who’d first interviewed Tiffany Hine after Jay Parlar’s death.

“Come on,” Pookie said. “I’ll talk my way in there. Let’s see if Daddy really has lost his touch, or if the SWAT boys were just a fluke.”

They started walking. Bryan hadn’t made it ten steps before he slowed, then stopped — a new smell. A strong yet faint scent, cut with the normal hospital odors of medicine and disinfectant.

He knew that smell … it was a lot like the odor from Rex Deprovdechuk’s house. Similar, yet subtly unique. The baby or the bum, or both, were Zeds.

“Bryan,” Pookie said. “You okay? You’re stumbling a little.”

Bryan blinked, shook his head. “Yeah, fine.” He’d have to learn to control this stuff. What if he ran into one of those basement critters and they had some stink that made him lose focus? Losing focus against something like that bear creature could get him killed.

Pookie put his hand on Bryan’s shoulder. “You sure?”

Bryan took a breath, gave his head and shoulders a quick shake. “Yeah, I’m good.”

He followed Pookie to the room.

“Stuart Hood!” Pookie said. “Good to see you again.”

Hood looked up and gave Pookie a wide smile. “Inspector Chang.”

“Hell, call me Pookie. Hey, did you hear that Zou reinstated us?”

Hood looked from Pookie to Bryan, then back again. “No, I hadn’t heard that. That’s great news, congrats.”