“You’re one strong bastard,” I said as I pulled my self up. “I wonder, can you hear me? Is there a human left in there to reach? Or is it all beast?”
I was stalling, giving Krisan as much time as I could for her to bypass the electrical grid. A building like this had to be all digital, with controls and safeguards. No power company to regulate the grid. Of course, I had no idea how they got their power, but it would have to be enough.
He stopped, looking at me with huge blue eyes as if he understood what I was saying.
That was my cue. I leaped up, grabbed the PVC pipe with one hand and crushing the housing holding the bundles of cables. At the same time, I swung up with my foot and kicked the gas pipe with all my strength. The PVC pipe with the wiring broke free from the ceiling, depositing me on my butt. The gas line remained intact.
“Oh sh—”
He was on me in a heartbeat. Five-inch claws ripped into me, slicing through the equipment vest and my skin with equal ease. Seven feet up I could see the exposed electrical cable, sparking, waiting for me.
I kicked out at him, slamming my foot into his nuts. I probably couldn’t hurt him normally, but with my enhanced strength he felt it and stumbled back a few steps. I pushed off and stood, holding my stomach with one hand as it healed.
My power was waning, I felt it. Despite all the deaths, I was running into the limit of what I could do.
I reached up and yanked the cables down, pulling them free and ripping them apart in a shower of sparks. The light show made him back up and re-evaluate his prey. He went low, growling and trying to decide if he could get me in a leap.
I let the cables dangle, took a deep breath, and waited. If he took it slow, he would have me, but if he rushed...
I charged forward a half step, trying to provoke him. It worked; he skipped back then charged head-on. I leaped up, grabbed the gas pipe with both hands... and pulled for all I was worth.
Metal pinged as it broke free from the concrete housing. I screamed as he jabbed his claws into my back like skewers and pulled me down. It took everything I had to hold onto the pipe. His strength and my resolve tore it completely free and pressurized natural gas poured into the hallway... until it hit the spark from the exposed electrical cables.
This is why those metal pipes were so damn thick!
Chapter 32
First came the pain. Lots and lots of pain. Then came the coughing. Followed by orange light so bright it hurt my head... no, that wasn’t right. The large piece of, concrete resting on my head caused that.
I tried to breathe, to suck in enough air to carry on, but there wasn’t any and I passed out.
My first thought upon waking a second time was to call out, but I clamped my jaw shut before I gave away my position. It wasn’t like I was in a public building. Anyone who heard me wouldn’t be here to help.
I struggled, straining against the block on my back. I managed to get my hands under me and push up like I was working out back in Detroit. I roared as every muscle strained, my body tensed from the exertion. My arms quivered, fighting for every inch.
“Come on, Madi, you can do it,” I heard Spice say. She spoke from far away, I wasn’t sure where, but I couldn’t spare the energy to look for her.
My arms hit full extension. I brought one leg up and rested the load on it for a second while I changed position to push up from under it, my hands flat against the concrete, and I heaved. I clenched my jaw so hard I felt like my teeth were going to break.
Another guttural roar escaped my lips as I managed to stand and then shove the block off me. It fell in a mighty crash of debris and dust that washed over me, obscuring my vision for a moment. It wasn’t that it was dark—the area was filled with smoke and dust. Even with my perfect night vision, I couldn’t see.
I dropped to one knee, taking a moment to rest and catch what little breath I could. I felt all over myself looking for wounds the way Joseph had taught me to after a battle. In the heat of things, adrenaline was great, but it could also hide life-threatening injuries.
While my clothes and vest were in tatters, burned, and crispy, I was fine. Not a scratch on me...
“Well,” I said out loud for Spice’s benefit, “I guess we know who can regenerate faster.”
“Was there any doubt?” she replied from the shadows.
“Yeah, there was. ‘Misses I hope you get bit!’” I yelled back.
“I just said those things to motivate you, that’s all.”
She walked through the smoke as if it didn’t bother her, which it didn’t, because she was a figment of my imagination… or something.
A cool breeze shifted the smoke and dust and for a moment I could see where I was. Whatever happened after the explosion, it decimated this part of the building.
“Damn,” I muttered as I dragged myself over a pile of concrete and steel. Then I saw him.
He was barely recognizable; all his skin was burned to a cinder and I could see parts of his skeleton where the fire burned hottest. Smoke still rose from his flesh. I held my breath for a good long minute, half expecting him to start moving... but he didn’t.
I look down at myself, with my burned and shredded clothes, and briefly wonder if I looked like him until Spice regenerated me. A shudder ran through me at the image. I didn’t need that in my head.
When I was sure the beast was dead I moved on, trying to scramble up piles of rubble and find my way out of this mess.
“Hello?” It was Sheila, the girl with the bite mark. “Uh... Wraith?” She sounded far away.
I debated for a moment if I should say anything. Letting people think I was dead was almost always a good plan. But she might need my help.
“Sheila?”
She sighed in relief. “Over here.”
I followed her voice through the darkness until I found a massive hole leading up into the car garage. I was so turned around from the maze-like corridors, that it must have turned back and run under the garage. One of the smaller armored cars had fallen down into the sub-basement when the floor collapsed and I climbed up on it and stretched for the lip of the hole. Sheila was there, on her stomach, stretching to reach me. For some reason, I trusted her and leaped up to grab her hand. With a strength no one that size should possess, she pulled me up.
Once out, I dropped to a knee for a breather. Half the garage roof had collapsed, including where Neve was waiting for me.
Neve?
Then I see my friend—sitting on the back of a different armored vehicle along with the dozen girls I rescued.
“When we came in, she spotted us and waved us over to this larger APC. She’d hot-wired it and was waiting for you to come back. She’s a good friend to have stayed. I’m not sure I could have, knowing what was back there,” Sheila said with a jerk of her head to the building.
I took a moment to examine the main complex. The part of the wall that led to the research facility was completely caved in. The only reason this part of the garage survived was that it wasn’t under the building, just an extension out into the jungle from the bottom floor.
What hadn’t collapsed was on fire. Short of a nuke there really wasn’t anything else I could do to destroy this place, and staying would only guarantee capture. I was out of weapons and exhausted beyond measure. It was time to go.
“We should talk,” I said to Sheila as she turned to go back to the others. I put a hand out to her wrist, not holding her, just a touch.
“I... I know. I’ve known for a while now.” She looked down, crossing her hands under her chest and hugging herself. “I think I’m what they wanted. Maybe not a person resistant to their changes, but a person who wouldn’t turn into the beast but still had the powers of one. I can feel it...” she looked away toward the others. “Inside me. Like a well of rage and hunger, screaming to get out. But...”
“You can control it?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yes. Maybe forever, maybe not.”
“Wherever you go from here,” I sai
d to her, “make sure it is far from people. Until you know you can.”
“I... I thought you would kill me once you knew,” she said. Tears filled her eyes but didn’t fall. “I don’t want to be one of those ravenous creatures. I want to be me. I want to go home to El Paso and just live my life.”
I knew the feeling. I reached out and pulled her to me, wrapping my arms around her in the most comforting gesture as I could manage. “It will be okay. I promise.” Maybe I wasn’t quite the cold-blooded killer Spice wanted me to be. After all, empathy came naturally to me, even before I lost my family.
I held her for a good thirty seconds before we broke and walked to the APC. Neve looked around nervously, as if more of those things could jump out any second and take her.
“Can we go?” she asked.
“Hi to you too,” I replied.
She smiled, somewhat. “Yeah, sorry. Uh, can we go? Please?”
I let out a laugh. “Thanks for waiting.”
She nodded. “Sure.” Then she looked away.
“Okay, okay, let’s go. There’s a road not too far away. We can make it there, head north a little, then I can get you all on your way home.” I said with a smile. “Well… as soon as I can find a cell phone.”
We loaded all the girls in the back. The front wasn’t really a separate compartment, just elevated from the passenger section. Two seats allowed for a driver and gunner for the turret.
I scrounged through the cargo compartment until I found a coat, then climbed up into the gunner’s seat. “Neve, just head West. When you hit the road turn North.”
She gave me a thumbs up as she fired up the diesel-powered vehicle. It took a few minutes to navigate out of the half-collapsed garage, but once we did, there was a hidden road through the jungle that led in the direction we wanted to go.
Within thirty minutes we were on a regular dirt road heading north. The sound of the tires on the mud, combined with my own exhaustion, lulled me to sleep within minutes.
“Madisun?” Neve said. My eyes snapped open and I leaped up, ready to fight. I was in the gunner seat, not in any immediate danger. We were parked outside a trading post that was part of a small town. It wasn’t the kind of town one would find on a map.
“Yeah?” I asked while failing to stave off a yawn.
“I’ve got you the phone you wanted. I also managed to sell some things that were in the back. The girls are in that little cantina there getting some food.” She handed me a package wrapped in brown paper. “Clothes,” she said offhandedly.
I nodded to her. “Wow. You’re full of surprises.” She gave me a subdued smile before ducking back outside.
The phone was the standard kind purchasable at a million airports worldwide. I dialed Krisan’s number and started stripping off the remains of my burned out clothes, tossing them in the back. The coat hid me from view while I tore open the brown package. Inside was a pair of jeans and a white tank top, along with a long-sleeve button-up shirt. The sizes looked spot on.
“Hello?” Krisan said with caution in her voice.
“Hey. It’s me.”
“Oh thank God. What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later, promise. Right now I need transport for thirteen girls to the USA.” I slipped the jeans on, trying to hold the phone with my neck while I did so.
“I see where you are. One sec. I think I can get a bus there in a few hours. Should I head for the airport?” she asked.
“Whatever for?”
“Oh right, you don’t know... Madi, you’re the most wanted woman on the planet right now. The news is all over a hospital you blew up, pulling out body after body. They’re saying you were arrested and taken to a private medical facility for mental evaluation. You escaped, murdered the staff, and blew up a hospital full of sick people.”
I clicked the phone over to speaker and placed it on the central console before rubbing my hands up and down my face. What next? What could they possibly do next? I won’t stop until they are all dead, but who else am I going to have to fight along the way if everyone thinks I’m the villain?
“Madi?” she asked.
“I’m here,” I replied with a long, deep sigh. “Just thinking about my options. And ‘no’ to the airport. I’m not done here. Clearly, more people need to die.”
I slipped the tank-top on, followed by the over shirt. Krisan stayed silent for a moment. I imagined she was thinking over what I had said. It gave me time to roll up the sleeves.
“I’m with you Madi, but... we don’t have very much money. No weapons or other equipment, and unless shapeshifting is a power you haven’t told me about, everyone from Chile to Canada is looking for you. What are you going to do?”
It was a good question. “I have an idea or two,” I said looking out the window to where Neve leaned against the APC. “First things first, I need to get back to Belize City.”
“It’s an eight-hour drive or a fifteen-hour bus ride. When should I expect you?”
I glanced at the clock on the phone. “I’m gonna sell this thing for whatever I can get and head back via car. I’ll call you when we’re closer.”
“Okay, Madi?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful,” she said before disconnecting.
She said that like I’m usually not.
Chapter 33
It wasn’t difficult to sell the APC to a couple of disreputable types. Especially since we only asked for pennies on the dollar. I’m sure the previous owners would be appalled at the tiny sum I received for it. It was worth it for me.
By the time the charter bus arrived, I had secured one heavily used thirty-year-old Toyota pickup and enough gas to get me back to the city—along with an old machete he had in his garage. The blade edge was long since useless, but I didn’t need it to be sharp.
I wanted to be surprised when Neve asked to come back with me. I wanted to be wrong about her, but my suspicious mind wouldn’t allow me to be.
“Are you serious?” I asked her.
“Yes. I have... people in Belize I need to check on. Once I know they’re safe, I can move on.” Lie.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I placed a hand on her shoulder. “It will be good to have the company,” I said, lying just as easily as she did. I figured it was too convenient for a friend of mine to show up in some secret hospital eight years after I saw her last. It was good to know, and like Charles beloved old cartoon always said, knowing was half the battle. If I played this right, she could deliver me to the person I was looking for.
We waved at the bus as it pulled out of town. The charter would head north to Cancun where the girls would board a boat and head for the twelve-mile limit. Once there, they could call the US Coast Guard for rescue.
I smiled, thinking about how ISO-1 was going to deal with the bad press. Multiple groups of trafficked women rescued by the USCG in the same week?
Patting Neve on the shoulder I gestured to the truck. “Let’s get rolling. I just slept, so you get some rest while I drive the first half. You can have the second half?”
She tried, and failed, to hide her surprise. “Uh, okay? Sounds good.” We piled in and headed south on the dirt road. It didn’t take long for Neve to fall asleep. My fine-tuned senses told me she really was asleep, not faking it. Her heart rate slowed, muscles relaxed, and she slumped against the door.
Spice appeared in the bed of the truck, with her back to the rear window just behind me and her feet up on the side.
“You figure it out yet?” she asked.
“Lot’s of things,” I replied.
“You think so?”
I nodded. “You really weren’t worried about those things biting me, but you were worried about them killing me,” I said.
“I hate to start over. It’s a pain, literally, to find someone willing to kill. You really are special,” she said. I adjusted the rear-view mirror so I could partially see her face.
“So you keep saying. I have a different theory,” I said.
<
br /> “Hypothesis, you have a hypothesis. Don’t you have a degree from a fancy school?” she asked with a smirk.
“If I were speaking to a scientist about science you would be correct, but to a layperson the words are practically interchangeable. Do you want to hear my hypothesis then?” She was just acting pedantic because she feared I knew the truth. Which I did.
“Go for it.” She shifted around in the bed to look at me via the mirror. “Just remember, Madisun Dumas, you need me a lot more than I need you.”
That sent a shiver down my spine. There was an implicit threat in her words, one I didn’t like. Spice was greedy, never happy with the kills I gave her and always wanting more. It didn’t make for a sustainable relationship. I had to make her behave. No more leaving me hanging without powers as punishment. No more tricking me into giving her what she wanted.
“You’re right, I do need you,” I said. She smiled at that declaration.
“Good, I’m glad we understand—”
“I don’t think you quite understand, my greedy little friend,” I said interrupting her. “After the incident in the swamp, I thought you understood my level of commitment.” Her eyes narrowed at me. She was angry; I could feel it. Like a buzz. “I get it, though. You’re sustained by life force, right? Just like the vampire you claim to be. If you can’t take someone else's, you’ll take mine, am I right?”
She nodded slowly. “Like I did with Joseph, but you already knew this. I don’t see—”
“Wait for it. And don’t bother with your disappearing trick, I know you can still hear me, even if you can’t read my mind.” Was that fear I saw on her face? “I told you back in the swamp, I’m ready to do what it takes to get this done, but I’m not going to become like ISO to do it.”
“Ha! You’re already a better killer than anyone in ISO-1 could ever dream of being. Madi, do you even know how many lives you’ve taken?”
The question surprised me, because I didn’t. I’d stopped counting after the first dozen, it hadn’t seemed important. I wish I had, for no other reason than to answer her.
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