Smoke was down on a knee, taping a cluster of stun grenades together. “I’m making a gizmo.”
“Like a MacGyver gizmo?”
“Sort of, but mine is just a tad deadlier than the Comet-and-peroxide bombs he mixes.” He uncoiled some tripwire, attached it to the pins on the grenades, and wedged the cluster bomb between some bodies. “Come on.”
They entered the stairwell just as the garage door opened again. A surge of men and deaders rushed into the room. Smoke and Sid took cover behind the fire exit door. Bullets riddled the metal door. Lead smashed through the door’s safety glass. The guards and deaders hustled down the ramp, pointing and firing. They stepped over the cluster bomb.
“Perfect,” Smoke said. He yanked the trip wire. Nothing happened. He looked at Sid and said in a Marvin the Martian voice, “Where’s the kaboom? There’s supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom.”
The enemy charged right at them.
CHAPTER 30
Hunkered down beside Smoke, Sid pulled the pin from a hand grenade. “Here, try this.”
A broad smile crossed Smoke’s lips. “Aw, how did you know this was exactly what I wanted?” He cracked open the door and yelled, “Did somebody order a pineapple?” He flipped it out and closed the door.
The grenade exploded.
Boom! Kaboom! Kaboom! Kaboom!
“Ah, there’s the earth-shattering kaboom.” Smoke said. “It just needed a little nudging.”
Sid couldn’t see anything but smoke through the narrow glass window. “We need to go.”
“After you.”
There were three options: Upstairs, through a door into the basement, or downstairs into the subbasement. Sid took the steps down. According to Manson, that was where the main server was that needed to be destroyed. They made it down one level. The stairwell ended at another fire door.
Smoke opened the door.
Sid did a head check into the hallway. “Clear.”
They slipped into the corridor. Only the emergency and exit lights illuminated the hall, which went straight about fifty feet and then crossed at a four-way intersection. Nothing aside from them stirred.
“It’s feeling a little stuffy,” Sid said.
Smoke held his hand up to a return air vent. “I believe Vormus actually did his job. How surprising.”
“And you said never to trust a shifter.”
“I still don’t.”
On cats’ feet, they hustled down the hallway. Halfway down it were two doors, one across from the other. The doors weren’t marked, and they required security access. According to Manson, the server should be in the western corner, the farthest from the garage.
Smoke lingered by the first door they came to.
“The server is this way,” Sid said.
“We need to go in here.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll be expecting us in the server room.”
Looking at the door Smoke wanted to enter, she said, “Maybe they’re expecting us in this room.”
“Humor me.” He pointed his weapon at the door.
Sid shoved his gun aside. “We don’t have to blow up everything. Geez, I thought you were sneakier than that.” She dangled an access card in front of his eyes. “See? Sneaky.”
“Where’d you get that?”
“I lifted it from Samone when I dislocated her arm.” She scanned the card. The security light went from red to green. “After you.”
Inside was a network of huge floor-to-ceiling metal pipes. The pipes were sweaty, and the room was filled with a suffocating humidity.
Smoke snuck through the steam. He grabbed the wheel handle on one of the valves and turned it counterclockwise. He did the same with several others. Coming back to Sid, he said, “It’s going to get hot in here. It’s going to get hot everywhere.”
She wiped the sweat from her brow with her fingertips and opened the door across from the one they had just entered. “Oh my.”
Smoke stuck his head in the door. “Ditto.”
Rows of living bodies lay sunken in metal carts. The lights were low and throbbing with the rhythm of a heartbeat. The people lay in pools of a transparent golden fluid. Their faces were connected to breathing apparatus. Limbs were hooked up to strange I.V. bags. The macabre lab pulsated with weird glowing tubes, and wires ran in coils that stretched up to the ceiling like snakes.
Smoke and Sid inspected the rows.
There were dozens of bodies ranging from heavyset men to petite women. Eyes closed, their features were unlively. She studied face after face with her stomach in knots. “This is sick, Smoke.”
Smoke’s hard stare was focused on one of the bodies. “Sicker than you think.”
His dark tone brought her toward him. “What’s wrong? Is it someone we know?”
“Afraid so.”
She glanced down. It was hard to make out the face on account of all the slime, but suddenly it became crystal clear. She let out a sharp gasp.
CHAPTER 31
It was her old FBI director and friend Ted Howard.
Sid’s body went numb. “I buried him, Smoke. I mourned with his family.” She stuck her hand in the goo. “I can feel his heart beating. Dammit!” Tears streamed down her face. “I can’t take much more of this maddening world!”
Smoke took her by the waist and pulled her to him. Holding her tight, he said, “I know what you mean. But Sid, they’re alive.”
“They’re attached to some sick and twisted machine.” She forced herself out of Smoke’s hands so she could go up and down the rows searching all the faces. She found Asia’s face half buried in the goo. “It’s Asia.”
“Mal will be thrilled.”
Gathering herself, Sid said, “I kinda like her quiet like this. She’s so peaceful.” She made her way down one row after the other, noting a few more faces she knew. One was an FBI agent whose name she forgot. Another was a female news anchor from television. She discovered the face of another man she knew all too well. “It’s Senator Wilhelm.”
From across the room, Smoke said, “Yeah, and he’s not the only senator here.”
“Are you serious? No wonder this country’s leadership is so screwed up.” She glared at Wilhelm. She hated the man and his son on account of all they had done to her sister. But that relationship had been going on for a long time. How long has this madness been going on? “We need to find Manson.”
“We need to shut down the server,” Smoke said. His gaze was fixed on another body. “Oh man.”
Stooped over Wilhelm, Sid leaned back. “What?”
With his palms on the table, Smoke said, “It’s Rebecca Lang.”
“No way.” Sid walked over for a look. It was the petite woman, covered from head to toe in the goo. “But last time we saw her, she was pregnant.”
“There’s no bulge in her belly now,” Smoke said. “A pregnant clone. Now that’s weird.”
“At least now we know why she’s always been such a pain in the ass.”
Looking at all the odd wiring that covered the room like modern webbing, Sid slung some goo from her hand. “This reminds me of that scene in The Matrix. We’ve got to get them unplugged.”
The main lights flickered on.
“That would be to their peril,” a voice said.
Sid and Smoke whirled. Titus Tolliver, in full gargoyle form, stood in the doorway adjacent to the one they came in. The husky creature had a triumphant look on his face. “They are in a fragile state. If you do anything to change it, you will kill them.”
“Maybe they’d rather be dead,” Smoke said. “I figure we’d be doing them a favor.”
The gargoyle slunk deeper into the room. He dipped his stony fingers into one of the patients’ pools. The demon-faced man glowered at Smoke. “You don’t want to play God with their lives, do you, Mister Smoke? I thought you wanted to saves lives, not take them.”
“Anything is better than leaving them in your hands,” Smoke said. “I’ll take my chances
with my maker.”
Titus shrugged his brawny shoulders. His approach was slow and steady. “You might just be meeting your maker sooner than you think.” He kept coming right at them.
Smoke and Sid backed toward the door they came in.
She lowered her weapon. The last thing she wanted to do was hit these people with friendly fire. Judging by the look in Titus’s eyes, he was here to kill her and Smoke if he couldn’t take them down. Using Smoke as a shield, she turned to back out the door. Taking a peek, she saw that the hallway was empty. Suddenly her arms and legs tired out. She felt like the only thing keeping her together was the sweetheart suit. Shoulders sagging, it was all she could do to take a breath. The supervitamin’s effect had completely worn off. The adrenaline that had gotten her this far was gone too. She just wanted to sleep.
“Where are you going?” Titus said. He followed them out into the hallway. “I thought we were having a friendly conversation.” He closed the door behind him. Holding his finger to his lips he said, “Ssssh! We don’t want to wake them.”
“You talk too much for a gargoyle.” Smoke put his assault rifle up to his shoulder and took aim. “I put you down last time with these bullets. Take one more step and I’ll do the same.”
Titus waggled his finger. “You caught me off guard last time. It won’t happen again. My skin is impenetrable.” He shrugged. “Besides, you should know I cannot die.”
“That’s what the giants thought. Did you see what’s left of them?” Sid said.
“I’m not one to look back. I’m forward thinking.” Titus stepped forward.
Smoke squeezed off two single shots in rapid succession. The concussive force of the exploding rounds shook the walls and flickered the lights.
Titus still stood. A grin formed on his big-eared, broad-nosed face. “You see? I was ready. I am ready for anything. Gargoyles, attack!”
A bat-like screech echoed down the hall. Small gargoyles rounded the corner behind them. The two-foot-high monsters raced toward Sid and Smoke on foot and with wings.
“I’ll take the big one, you take the small ones!” Smoke said.
Exhausted, Sid wheeled her weapon around and started shooting out a spray of ammo. The bullets ripped through the first wave of gargoyles, blasting through their screaming bodies and blowing them up like pottery. She blasted off their rage-riddled faces. Bullets tore through legs, wings, and bodies.
A gargoyle hopped at her on one good leg.
With her weapon, she turned it to powder.
Still they came. High and low they attacked.
They latched onto her ankles. A small, hard fist smote the back of her head. One of the little monsters rode on her shoulders, pulling her hair. Using the butt of her weapon, she cracked the ones on her legs in the skulls. Noses and ears came off.
How do these things live? It’s impossible.
The monsters swarmed her. They attached themselves with clawed fingers and toes, blanketing her like a net. She sagged under the great weight. They bit, struck, and clawed. With a growl, she rammed the ones she could into the wall but went down in a sea of flesh-rending gargoyle grey.
CHAPTER 32
Smoke unloaded the entire clip of bullets into Titus in a cadence of tiny explosions.
The gargoyle man stumbled backward on his heels and fell to the floor, then rose with a nasty look and dusted off his burly chest. “That made for quite the finale, Mister Smoke. Too bad it did not have the climax you hoped for.” He stormed through the white vapors.
Chucking the weapon aside, Smoke drew one of the special knives from its sheath. He’d fought the gargoyle once before and almost died. Now he had to match the juggernaut in even more confined quarters. He needed to find its weakness.
Titus lashed out with his clawed hands.
Smoke ducked. Striking fast, he jabbed the special blade at the gargoyle’s ribs. The blade slid in deep, drawing forth a howl.
Titus staggered backward holding his side. “You wounded me! You wounded me! You’ve found my weakness. It’s my ribs! Oh, the pain! The suffering! The anguish!”
Smoke backed off, watching the gargoyle with wary eyes. “You aren’t really hurt, are you.”
Titus pulled the knife out with a smile, tossed it aside. “Of course not. I’m the total package.”
“True, but Arabian steel can cut your skin.”
“It can cut, but it can’t kill. You see, I don’t bleed, Mister Smoke.” He punched his fist into his hand. “But you can, and you will. I’m going to turn your body and that suit you treasure into a bag of bloody smashed potatoes. I can’t wait to make your bones snap and pop.”
Smoke removed the sword strapped to his back. “Don’t forget crackle.”
Titus’s eyes narrowed on the sword. “Where did you get that?”
“It’s a little something I picked up at the gargoyle killer thrift shop.” He spun the blade in his hands. The balance was perfect, the edge keen. He drew it two-handed to his chest. “And they even gave me the riddle steel for free.”
“You’re a fool if you think that blade can stop me.”
“Not the blade, but the hand that wields it.”
“Shut up!” Titus charged.
Smoke went into a zone. Springing forward with the sword, he chopped down hard. The blade removed Titus’s right arm at the elbow.
The gargoyle barreled into Smoke like a charging bull, knocking him to the floor. Titus hammered away with his good hand. His heavy punches rocked Smoke’s body.
Smoke clocked Titus in the chin with his knee and squirmed free. He popped up on his feet.
Titus rose up in a deadly crouch.
Smoke hacked into him like a berserker. The heavy blade carved into the gargoyle. Hunks of stony flesh flew. Smoke kept swinging.
Titus surged into him like a force of nature.
Both man and monster were in a maddened state of battle.
The Arabian steel sawed through Titus in another arc. A nasty strike split his skull down to the nose. Smoke ripped the steel free.
Punching at Smoke with powerful stabs, Titus said in defiance, “You cannot kill me.”
“We’ll see!” Smoke tore into the beleaguered gargoyle with a chop that split his knee.
Titus stumbled to the floor. Helpless agony filled his face. “No,” he pleaded. He shielded his head with his arms. “Stop!”
Smoke didn’t relent. With both hands he brought he sword down hard and quick.
Chop! Chop! Chop!
The gargoyle shifter had nothing left to fight with. He glared at Smoke. “I hate mortals!”
“Then I won’t keep your dead brother waiting.” Smoke turned the sword loose for a final blow. The blade whistled through the air.
Titus’s head rolled from his shoulders. It bounced off the floor and rolled across the room before it lay still.
The smaller gargoyles collapsed all around Sid, and she lay with her face covered by her arms but bleeding. She kicked the inanimate stone monsters away. “Get off me!”
Smoke rushed over, dropped the sword, and took her by the hand. “It’s over.”
She fought against him.
He held her fast. “Sid, it’s me.”
Her eyes found his face. “Is he dead?”
“I think we’re getting the hang of killing them.” He moved aside, revealing Titus’s body. The monster had transformed back into a man that didn’t bleed so much as ooze. He combed her hair back from her eyes. “Can you move?”
“Barely. Help me up.”
Smoke complied. Sid was about as banged up as he’d ever seen her. She had bad scratches all over her face. Her lip was split, and blood dripped from her chin. “Lean on me if you need to.”
“No.” She checked her weapons, filling her hands with two pistols. She limped down the hall. “Let’s find the damn server and blow the hell out of it.” She passed through the intersection, made it to the next door, and scanned the card.
Smoke opened the door. It was the e
lectrical room, steel panels locked up with heavy padlocks. “Looks like you found home base for the electric, fire, and security systems.
“Shoot it. Shoot it all.” She fired.
Smoke fired.
Bullets tore through steel. Alarms and lights went on and then out.
Smoke eased inside and set a charge of C4 along the largest conduit he could find. He hustled back out and closed the door. “Get down.”
They both crouched.
Smoke triggered the detonator, unleashing a tremendous boom. All the lights went out.
“I’d love to go to sleep in this dark, hot mess,” Sid said. The emergency and exit lights came on. “How cozy.”
“They’ve got a backup generator running somewhere. I can hear the hum, but those emergency lights are on battery power.”
Sid crawled over to the next door. The security keypad lights were still on. She scanned the card and went through the door. Icy air greeted her like the coming winter. “Morning glory, feels good.” She and Smoke spilled inside. “Man, look at that thing.”
Behind a ten-foot-high Plexiglas shield sat a huge computer server shaped like a pyramid. It was at least ten feet square at the base and stood ten feet high at the top. It was black with brilliant illuminating circuitry that coursed through tight veins of pulsating energy. The colors varied and changed, pulsating to a beat like the heart inside a titan’s body.
Smoke made his way over to a control center that stood inside the massive room all by itself. The fifty-inch computer screen showed black. He pecked at the keyboard and shuffled the mouse. A moving image popped up on the screen. It was Kane and Allison. The burly blond man with long curls in his stringy hair had a smirk on his face. Allison appeared as voluptuous as ever in her skintight navy bodysuit.
“Hello,” Kane said. “I see you made it to the server room. Well done. As you can see, the server room can be very chilly. ’Course, those elements aren’t any concern for the likes of us. Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter. And as you can see, the server is operating just fine. You blew up the wrong targets.”
The Supernatural Bounty Hunter Files: Special Edition Fantasy Bundle, Books 6 thru 10 (Smoke Special Edition Book 2) Page 35