by Aimée Thurlo
“There’s a police escort, and that’s unusual. Hang on, I’ll call.”
Diane listened to the phone ring, then finally someone answered. “Okay. We’ll be there in a few minutes,” she answered in a clipped tone, then turned to Lee. “Rogers was just attacked, but apparently he escaped injury and is back in his hotel room. I’m speaking to one of the security people.”
“See if you can find out who’s in the ambulance,” Lee pressed, taking the freeway exit east, then turning onto the street where the hotel was located.
“Right. If it’s Elka, then she won’t be hurt for long.”
“Damn, he hung up.” Diane started to redial, but had to stop and hang on as Lee made a quick turn into the motel’s parking lot. A police car with emergency lights flashing was blocking a row of vehicles and an EMT vehicle was beside it. “Never mind, we’re here.”
Diane got to the sidewalk first, stopped, and held out her badge as two security people in black jackets came forward, blocking her way to the ground-floor hotel room behind them.
Lee noted the men were both over six-four and as solid as rocks. They were also on high alert. Both had a hand on the grip of their weapons when they saw him right behind Diane.
“Paul Rogers. He’s inside and okay?” Diane asked. “I need to ask him about the perp. Where is she?”
“How’d you know it was a woman?” One of the guards, an older man with gray around his temples, took a step forward, his eyes narrowing.
“The flyers,” his partner muttered, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“Where did it happen, and what did she do?” Lee wondered why Rogers wasn’t dead if Elka had been the attacker.
“That Pfeiffer woman jumped him under the breeze-way leading to the restaurant,” said the young, black guard, who looked ex-military. He pointed to a covered area between two buildings which led into a restaurant.
Two EMTs were picking up their gear while police officers strung yellow crime-scene tape around the section of covered walkway. “The woman wrestled our client to the ground, screaming and calling him a traitorous bastard. They squirmed around so much neither one of us could get a hold on her.”
Diane looked at Lee curiously. “That doesn’t sound like Elka to me.”
“That’s the name Rogers … the client used. He recognized her right away,” the older guard answered.
Lee shook his head. It still didn’t make sense. “What happened to the perp? She was hurt, right?”
“While they were rolling around she grabbed Rogers’s gun. He managed to turn the muzzle around, and it went off. She was gut-shot,” the black man said. “The ambulance is taking her to the university medical center.”
“Stay close, she may have a partner,” Lee said, then motioned toward Diane as a bright light came on. “Time to leave,” he added, turning away. There was a television news team on the scene now, and neither one of them could afford to show up on a local broadcast.
“Let’s hope we get to the hospital in time.” Diane nodded, stepping away quickly.
“She looked pretty far gone to me,” the older guard called out, but Lee and Diane were already hurrying for his car and didn’t respond.
Lee pulled out onto the street as Diane adjusted her seat belt and reached down into her jacket to verify that she still had her big lockback knife. “If that really was Elka, why didn’t she kill Rogers? She had to be holding back.”
“Yeah, unless it really wasn’t Elka, despite what the security said. A vampire, male or female, can kick any normal human’s ass in hand-to-hand. There’s no way he could have twisted a gun around in her hand so she shot herself. Either she’s playing some kind of game, or we have the world’s biggest coincidence.”
“We don’t believe in coincidences.” Diane nodded. “Think we can get there before Elka, if that’s really her, heals herself?”
“I’m working on that.” Lee had already reached the freeway ramp, and was now accelerating up onto 1-25. The hospital exit was less than three minutes away, so the ambulance was already there.
Diane was on the cell phone again, trying to raise someone at University Hospital who could alert additional security. It was completely dark now and Elka would be much harder for a mortal to locate if she managed to get away from the lights.
“I’m parking in the emergency area,” Lee said as they roared east up Lomas Avenue, weaving back and forth between lanes as he fought drive-home traffic. “Damn, I wish I had my department unit right now.”
Barely missing a red light, Lee cut across traffic and screeched to a stop by the emergency-room entrance. He jumped out and ran toward the double doors, going slow enough not to give away his speed capabilities, but faster than most humans could move. Diane was somewhere behind him.
Lee came to a quick stop inside, almost colliding with an orderly pushing a wheelchair across the small emergency room lobby. “Excuse me, where did they take the woman who just arrived?” he asked.
Diane entered just then, her badge in the air. “FBI. We need an answer now!” Lee was already moving toward the double doors that had the words EMERGENCY ROOM painted upon them.
“Hold on!” A stern-looking Chicano woman in her forties stood up from behind a counter just to the right of the entrance. “Two officers are already inside with the patient. Wait right here,” she insisted.
Diane got right up in her face. “Two aren’t going to be enough when she wakes up.” She reached down over the counter and pressed the button that released the lock.
There was a loud thud that shook the wall, then the clanking ring of metal.
Lee was first through the door. One APD officer was lying on the floor, clutching at his chest, his legs moving in slow motion as he groaned in agony. The other was facedown, blood running out onto the tile floor from his head. A nurse in scrubs was screaming, trying to support a doctor who was down on his knees, gagging. Stainless-steel tools and pans were all over the floor.
A heavy wooden door had been kicked open so hard it had splintered, the glass and wire panel in the middle shattered. Beyond was a dimly lit corridor and stairs leading up.
“Where does that go?” Lee shouted, grabbing a woman in scrubs with a stethoscope around her neck.
“Laundry, storage areas, staff lounge,” she answered. “You’re not allowed …”
“Neither is she.” Diane stepped on through, moving carefully for a few steps until she was clear of the slippery glass and debris on the waxed floor.
“Have security cover every exit. The woman has a gun!” Lee yelled back at the emergency-room staff still on their feet as he followed Diane up the flight of stairs.
“She grabbed one from a cop?” Diane whispered as Lee came up beside her.
“I thought I saw an empty holster. Even if she isn’t armed, the civilians need to stay out of her way,” Lee whispered as he moved quickly forward.
Diane nodded. “Once the story gets around about her taking out two cops from her gurney, that should reinforce their caution.”
Lee and Diane continued down the hall, hurriedly checking inside an empty linen storage area, a laundry full of churning machines and three sweating employees, and a staff lounge with two women in scrubs playing cards.
A loud boom, metallic rather than from a gunshot, came from somewhere ahead. Lee ran forward, taking a corner so fast he bounced off the wall on the other side of the hall. Someone was standing in a half-opened door at the end of the passage. It was Elka, barefooted but still in bloody sweatshirt and jeans. She raised a hand in his direction.
“Gun!” Lee yelled, diving to the floor as a bullet ricocheted past him and struck the end wall.
Diane poked her head around the corner, pistol leading the way. Elka fired again, then dove out of sight down a set of stairs.
Lee rose to his knees, his pistol pointed in the direction Elka had gone. “You okay?”
“I’ll cover you. Go!” Diane called.
Lee ran to the doorway leading downstairs a
nd hugged the wall. Glancing over, he noted a large dent in the metal door near the latch. So much for keys. Hearing the vampire wrecking crew at the bottom of the stairwell, he took a half step forward and peeked over the edge, ducking back just before Elka, at the bottom, fired two more rounds up the stairwell. The bullets struck a lighted Exit sign on the ceiling, shattering the bulb and darkening the hall even more—theoretically.
There was another loud thud, and then a loud electric bell went off—an alarm.
Diane came running up and actually slid three feet before coming to rest opposite him. They both looked down at once.
“She went outside!” Diane shouted.
Lee looked down below the front sight of his pistol. At the bottom of the flight was a barred door with an alarm and a sign that read EMERGENCY EXIT, ALARM WILL SOUND WHEN DOOR IS OPENED.
Lee took the flight down in two steps, stopping at an open window beside the door, which led down still another flight of stairs. Glancing out the window, he saw that the stairs led to the roof of the ground floor. Beyond that was a section of the parking lot reserved for doctors and staff. “She didn’t take the stairs, she went out onto the roof.”
Diane joined him, breathing hard. “Is she back in the shadows there against the wall?”
Lee looked. “No, but there are some imprints in the roof gravel. She probably jumped over the parapet and down to the pavement.”
“What now? She could be long gone.”
“This is on the south side of the building. Take the stairs down, then make sure she didn’t cut back into the building. Check the parking lot and see if she’s trying to hot-wire a car. But be very careful,” Lee said, putting away his pistol and climbing up onto the window frame. “I’ll meet you outside.”
Diane started to speak, but he launched himself over the metal frame and dropped down onto the roof with a crunch, bending at the knees to reduce the shock. Like stepping off the curb, he thought, then glanced down from the roof at the nearly full parking lot, illuminated by floodlights for the night-vision-impaired.
Seeing nothing that got his immediate attention, Lee moved toward the parapet, then suddenly heard crunching gravel above and behind him.
“Crap!” Lee dove back toward the window. He felt a stinging pain in the back of his right leg at the same instant a boom sounded above his head. Lee rolled onto his back, trying to bring his pistol around and up.
A woman cursed, and then a revolver appeared over the roof edge above him pointed down in his direction. There was a click, then another curse. Fighting the numbness in his leg, Lee aimed, but held off firing when the hand disappeared.
Lee stood, shakily, and heard footsteps fading across the roof above. Clambering up onto the window ledge, he leaped up and grabbed hold of a drainpipe, then pulled himself on up to the roof. He saw movement out of the corner of his eye just as Elka dropped out of sight below the roof level.
Limping across the roof as quickly as he could with a bullet wound in his calf, Lee came to the spot where Elka had disappeared. The revolver she’d been using was lying on the roof. The click he’d heard suggested she’d run out of ammo and explained why she’d left it behind. About fifteen feet below was a van. A big dent in the vehicle’s roof showed where she’d jumped. In the distance, probably a hundred yards or more, he could see Elka running rapidly across the parking lot.
Lee thought about jumping down, looked down at his bloody pant leg, then decided to watch where Elka was going instead. Crossing a side street at a run, the woman disappeared down an alley and out of sight.
Lee moved back across the roof and, finding that his leg had already stopped bleeding and was healing rapidly from the inside out, climbed back down to the porch roof, then inside the hospital again.
Ten minutes later, after finding Diane and directing officers to the area where Elka had last been seen, Lee was back in his own vehicle with Diane, checking alleys and side streets in an ever-increasing spiral search. City officers were combing the entire uptown area now.
Lee knew Elka would probably break into a home or business and, undetected, steal some clothes and hole up for a while. The hours of darkness were the perfect time for vampires, and Elka was a predator with an entire city of victims to stalk. But who was her real target, and what had happened with Rogers less than an hour ago? He wasn’t sure if he’d just been lucky, or if Elka was carrying out part of some greater plan.
Lee and Diane soon left the block-by-block search up to the officers already involved and decided to interview Rogers. While he was driving, Diane dialed up the CIA man’s hotel room. Grumbling to herself, she quickly made two other calls.
“You mean that nobody knows where he is?” Lee demanded as Diane finally put away her phone.
She shrugged. “Either that or it’s a cover story being given to everyone right now, especially the press. According to the Albuquerque Police Department, Rogers said that he’d call in later, then drove off with his own security people. Logan said hell have Rogers give us a call as soon as he checks in. I think Rogers believes that someone tipped off Elka.”
“Elka probably hung back and watched him leave Los Alamos. His motorcade involved at least three vehicles, and those big Suburbans are hard to lose. It would have been a cinch to follow him here. His security has plenty of muscle, but I doubt they’re used to working against a professional like Elka.”
“Logan’s going to fax me a photo of the person who saw Elka kill that police officer, though he said it really doesn’t show much. The license plate was stolen, so that wasn’t much help either.”
“So maybe Elka does have a partner. That’s something else we’ll have to deal with.”
“Speaking of dealing with things, how’s your leg?”
“The bullet passed right through. Don’t let all the blood mislead you,” Lee smiled. “I’m just glad that was her last bullet. Another hit might have made it very inconvenient.”
“Like in your heart? You’re lucky the weapon she grabbed was a revolver and only had six rounds.”
Lee nodded. “How are the officers she attacked doing?”
“Both are expected to live, but Elka really manhandled them. Which raises the question, why almost kill them and not Rogers?”
“Maybe hell be able to give us an idea.” Lee was driving west toward 1-25, having intended on heading south again to the hotel where Rogers had been. Now he decided to go north instead and began looking for the next exit.
“When we talk to Rogers well find out exactly what happened between him and Elka,” Diane said.
“Let’s go home, check out the fax, then we can both clean up and have something to eat. Afterward we can figure out our next move while we’re waiting for the call,” Lee suggested. “I gather from your side of the conversation with Logan that the President still isn’t going to cancel his visit.”
Diane shook her head. “No. But they’re going to keep his security extremely tight and close the ceremony to everyone except base personnel, invited guests, and a few members of the press. At least the ceremony is going to be in broad daylight on the loading apron right beside a gate and those participating will come by vehicle directly to the site. I just wish we had some idea what Elka was planning.”
They arrived at Diane’s apartment building shortly thereafter, but before Diane could open her door, Lee reached out and touched her arm. “Wait, let’s look around before we get out. We have more than one enemy looking for us now.”
Diane turned her head, studying the area. About a third of the parking spaces normally occupied were vacant. “Seems normal for this time of day. People going out for dinner, a movie, dating.”
“Don’t see anyone waiting in their vehicles—except us,” Lee said, checking everything outside within his view. “Isn’t that a light on in the apartment, though?” He looked closely, seeing what appeared to be flickering lights on the living/dining area window curtain.
“In our—my apartment?” Diane ducked down lower to see out
the windshield toward the second story. “Looks like the TV is on. It wasn’t like that when we left.” She reached down and felt for her pistol, checking the side mirror to make sure nobody was coming up from behind.
“Thieves don’t usually evaluate the loot before taking it, do they?” Lee opened the door slowly, keeping an eye on the apartment windows. The bedroom was dark, and nobody was visible inside that he could spot. “Don’t close your door. We want to do a silent approach. It might just be a snoopy landlord.”
“Nobody is supposed to have any key except me. I had a deal with management.” Diane slipped out her door, bringing up her pistol and keeping a sharp eye around them.
“I’ll go up first,” Lee said.
“It’s my place.”
“I’m harder to kill.”
“That’s true. Okay, just this time.” Diane stopped, letting Lee get a few steps ahead. She’d provide cover and watch the windows.
“The freaking sound is on. The damn burglar is watching the news,” Diane whispered.
Lee nodded but kept moving silently up the stairs. When he reached the door, he saw no signs that the entrance had been forced, but the match that had been placed in the upper jamb of the door was gone. Whoever was inside, or had gone in and left leaving the TV on, either had a key or was an expert locksmith.
Instantly thinking of Elka, he turned and mouthed the word to Diane, shrugging to make it a question. She set her jaw as she brought her pistol in line with the door, then nodded.
CHAPTER 17
ee switched his pistol to his left hand and slowly turned the knob. It moved freely. Nodding to Diane, he turned it completely and lunged forward, muscles coiled enough to break the deadbolt free if necessary. The door flew open with barely a sound and he dove across the dimly lit room, vaguely aware that someone was sitting on the sofa in front of the TV. Rolling and coming to a crouched position, Lee swung his pistol up. “Don’t move!”
Seated on the sofa in front of the television, looking over at him with her hands up and an anxious expression on her face, was an attractive long-haired blonde barely out of her teens, dressed in tight jeans and a baggy sweatshirt. “Don’t shoot me, Officer Hawk. Or should I call you Lee Nez?” Her voice was a bit shaky, but the words came out as if they’d been rehearsed.