The floor was dark grey slate cut in massive slabs. The ceiling extended so far above her head, and above the chandeliers that hung at fifteen-foot intervals and bathed the hall in a soft, warm light, that she couldn’t see what it looked like. At the end of the hallway was a large, open area, and it was here that the men sent to guard the Emperor had congregated. There were six of them, including the lieutenant who Colonel Miller had ordered to lead the defense. He was visibly relieved at her arrival.
“What’s the situation, Captain?” he asked as Vanessa made her way toward them. “We heard … well, it sounded like explosions, but that can’t be—”
“It was explosions,” Vanessa said, cutting him off. “The bats blew the doors off the elevators and overran the first sublevel. Now I’m here to take command. That’s the situation.”
“Oh. D-did Colonel Miller send you here to reinforce the position?”
“No, I sent myself. HQ is swarming with bats, Lieutenant. The people in the CC can take care of themselves. I’m more worried about the Emperor. If the enemy gets this far, it’s our job to fill that fucking hallway up with bodies.”
“Uh … yes, ma’am.”
“We’re here until someone who outranks me says otherwise. I haven’t heard from Colonel Miller, but I’m absolutely sure this is what he’d want.”
“I’m not trying to question you, Captain,” the lieutenant said.
“Good. What’s your name?”
“Baker. I was … I came up a few years before you did.”
“Yeah. You used to call Carrie Brennan ‘Scarface’ behind her back.”
“I guess I did,” Baker admitted.
“Right,” Vanessa said. “Consider this your chance to get in my good graces, then.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
They lapsed into a silence that Vanessa imagined was not entirely comfortable for the rest of them. She didn’t know whether Baker and Carrie had ever spoken to each other outside of the requirements of their duties or not. Perhaps he, too, thought she had a snake tongue and whispered rumors about her with the other soldiers. Vanessa didn’t care; at the moment there were more important things to worry about.
It wasn’t long before their silence was disturbed. After less than fifteen minutes, Colonel Davis burst through the door with three majors and a crowd of soldiers following him. He stopped short when they came to the end of the hallway, head tilted, looking at Vanessa in surprise.
“Captain Harper?”
“That’s me, sir,” Vanessa said.
“Last I heard, you were on the first sublevel.”
“We couldn’t hold the position after they blew up the elevators, sir. Too many of them. I decided that it would be best if I came down here to another bottleneck to try and protect the Emperor, rather than being swarmed and killed.”
Davis considered this and nodded. “Sound decision. Listen, Captain, they’re evacuating the CC. There’re too many bats and they’ve done too much damage to the facility. Miller’s refused to go – I guess he’ll hold it to the death – but Palowski’s already left with his people. I’m going to take the Emperor through his personal tunnel. We’ve made sure the bats won’t be able to get to our data or stop the explosion before the place goes up.”
So there it was: they were retreating, and the Emperor did indeed have his own route to the surface.
“What are your orders, sir?” she asked, and Davis shook his head.
“You can come with us or you can stay,” he told her. “I’m not giving orders on this one. There’s a group of them not far behind us. If you stay, you might buy the Emperor time. If you come with us, you have a much better shot at surviving the night. It’s your call, Vanessa.”
She had never been addressed by her first name by any of the three colonels, and for a moment she wasn’t sure how to respond. She understood that this was Davis’s concession to her status with the Emperor – the fact that she was the presumptive heir to the position Charles had held. If she had been just an ordinary captain, he would have made the decision himself.
Her first instinct was to join them. Vanessa did not want to die, and the thought of retreating to their facility in Colorado and regrouping there was appealing. They could work on a new plan of attack, a way to get back at the vampires for this latest affront. At the very least, she would have time to come to terms with the knowledge that had been forced upon her.
She thought of the things that Charles had told her that she had shoved to the back of her mind for these past few weeks, trying as best she could not to dwell on them. Now, she had no choice. She didn’t want to face the Emperor, not yet, not with the things she knew. They were her burden alone; no other soul in the building knew what she knew, but if they had, they would have understood her reticence. If she stayed, there was a chance she could take care of the approaching group of vampires, retreating afterward and avoiding direct contact with the Emperor.
“I need a decision, Captain,” Davis told her, and Vanessa took a deep breath.
“I’m staying,” she said. “I’m staying to give you as much time as possible, but please … any of these men, if they want to go, please take them. It’s not fair to make that choice for them. They can go with you and regroup in Colorado. Is that acceptable?”
“I’m not sure it would make much sense to leave you in this hallway alone, Captain,” Davis said.
Three of the privates serving under Lieutenant Baker told the colonel that they would stay, and after a moment Baker himself spoke up.
“I’ll stay too, sir.”
Vanessa glanced over at him. “If you’re doing that to make up for Sergeant Brennan, you don’t have to. I’m not that bent out of shape about it.”
Baker shook his head. “I’m doing it because I want the Emperor to stay safe. Can’t take back the things I said about your friend, Captain.”
“No, I guess you can’t. All right, Lieutenant Baker, I’m glad to have you with me. Colonel, I think the five of us can hold this hallway and give you some extra time, but I wouldn’t complain if you moved quickly.”
Davis frowned for a moment and said, “If he sends me back for you …”
“Then I’ll come. You know that, sir.”
“Very good, Captain Harper. Give us fifteen minutes, then fall back into the Emperor’s chambers and take the right-most door. Lock them off if you can, but if it comes down to it, save your own skin. Rendezvous in Colorado. We’ll be watching for you.”
“Yes, sir,” Vanessa said, and she was amused by the confidence in her voice. She hoped it sounding convincing, because in truth she had no idea if she could hold the bats off for fifteen minutes or not. She intended on doing her best, and hoped it would be good enough.
The Emperor’s interior chambers were blocked by a massive set of mahogany doors, carved and inlaid like the walls. There was a small keypad on one, and Davis typed a lengthy sequence into it. He was rewarded with a beeping sound, and Vanessa heard some heavy mechanism within the door moving, unlocking it. She wondered if the other soldiers thought that this was for the Emperor’s protection.
The doors swung open on well-oiled hinges, barely making a sound as they moved. Inside, the lights were dim almost to the point of darkness. Vanessa could make out what looked like the receiving area of a well-appointed luxury suite at a five-star hotel. There were tasteful pieces of furniture – two chairs and a roll-top desk, a small table with a lamp on it – and several pieces of artwork in large, gilded frames. After years of sleeping in bunks with her fellow soldiers, she couldn’t help but feel a twinge of envy.
She had the impression that she was looking upon something much older than the rest of the compound, as if the Emperor’s chambers had been there before the base had been constructed. This seemed impossible, and she guessed that they had been painstakingly disassembled at some other location and put back together here.
The colonel pointed to his men, ordering them to split into two groups. When they had done so, he had the
m move in through the door and line either side of the room, weapons ready. Then he turned to Vanessa.
“Good luck, Captain,” he said to her, and Vanessa nodded, giving him a brief salute.
“Same to you, Colonel.”
Then he stepped inside and swung the doors closed again. She did not hear the lock re-latch. The only people left with her were Baker and the three privates she didn’t know.
“Hell of a night,” she muttered, and beside her she heard Baker give a short laugh.
“It’s about to get worse,” he said, and pointed. At the far end of the hall, she could see figures approaching.
Chapter 26
The Captain and the Captain
“Come on, come on, get those fuckin’ fires out!” Two shouted, leading the charge to the hallway, extinguisher in hand. Behind her she could hear Sasha and Lewis shouting as well, directing their troops. The yellow cabinet had contained at least a dozen extinguishers, all neatly lined up, ready to be taken on hunting excursions by the Children soldiers. Now they were being wielded by the very vampires that those soldiers had been taught to hunt.
Two ran past the first few fires, not wanting to create a traffic jam, and when she felt she was far enough into the hallway, she stopped, turned, and aimed the nozzle of her extinguisher at the patch of flame. She pulled the red pin away from its firing mechanism, clutched the trigger, and a great jet of white, snow-like spray blasted out from its nozzle.
Two had no idea what sort of chemicals were in the tank, but they seemed to be doing their job. The flames died away and she moved on to another spot. She could see other vampires around her doing the same, and within a relatively short span of time – it seemed amazing to her, given the size of the fireball that had rocketed up the hallway – they had things under control. Theroen came up beside her and touched her shoulder.
“Your hair is full of ashes,” he said, smiling as she glanced over at him. A fine grey coat of ash had settled atop his hair as well.
“Yeah?” she asked. “You think it’s going to mess with my conditioning routine?”
His smile widened to a grin. “It looks a bit like duckling fuzz.”
“Oh, shit, am I adorable? You know how I feel about being adorable …”
“Can we cut the lovey-dovey banter?” Tori asked, walking up behind them, and Two glanced over at her.
“But I’m so good at it …”
Tori glared at her, then shouldered her way past them and down toward the end of the hallway. The three elevator shafts had been blown wide open. The stairwell was still technically accessible, though any vampires wishing to use it would have to clamber over a pile of rubble before descending to the first sublevel.
“We don’t have much time,” Tori shouted back at them. “They’ll regroup soon. Tell your friends to get their shit together.”
Two turned to Theroen. “My favorite thing about her is how pleasant she is.”
Nonetheless, she made her way back down the hallway and out into the warehouse. Sasha and Lewis were there, reorganizing the ranks, forming small groups of four or five Burilgi centered around a single Ay’Araf commander. Lewis’s people seemed willing to follow orders, understanding that the Ay’Araf vampires had considerably more training and that such tactics would result in fewer deaths.
“Tori thinks they’re going to regroup fast,” Two said as she reached Sasha, and the Ay’Araf woman nodded.
“They’re soldiers,” she said. “The people in charge won’t let them run about like headless chickens. We need to press the attack now.”
“Well, the elevator shafts are open. You guys can pretty much flood the first sublevel.”
“Good. As soon as that level falls, we’ll focus on the Command Center.”
“Sounds good. I think Theroen and I are going to go with Tori.”
“She intends on going after the Emperor himself, does she not?”
“That’s the plan, yeah.”
Sasha pursed her lips, considered, and nodded. “Nothing she does will ever make up for Jakob, but if she manages to kill him,it will at least be a large step in the right direction. Go now, Two, and tell her that we will send our troops first. Once they have engaged and distracted the enemy, you should be clear to move forward. Go with her and burn this problem out at its roots. Kill the Emperor before he escapes.”
“All right,” Two said, and she had half turned to go before she stopped herself and turned back. Sasha looked at her, surprised, waiting for Two to explain herself.
“Sasha … thank you,” Two said. “You could have fought her, but you didn’t. I don’t understand why you didn’t, but I’m glad.”
Sasha considered this, placing her fingers together tip-to-tip and staring at them before curling both sets into fists. These she held for a moment before releasing them and letting her hands fall to her sides. She looked up at Two, opened her mouth as if to explain, and then shut it again. At last she shook her head and spoke.
“For all the terrible things that have come in your wake, I have never once doubted that you would have sent them all away if you could,” she said. “You are a good person, Two Majors, and that matters. It matters that you came back for Molly when you could have left her to rot, and it matters that you came back for Jakob and me in the cathedral when you could have escaped with Theroen and Naomi. It matters that you have come back for this woman, even now, and that you believe she can be redeemed. I do not trust her, but I trust you. You have earned that much from me.”
“That means a lot to me,” Two told her.
Sasha gave her a rare smile. “Good. Now go help her kill the Emperor and ensure that I will be glad I didn’t stab her to death when I had the chance.”
“You guys go first. We’ll stay out of the way until your people go through.”
“I will see you at the rendezvous point when this is done,” Sasha said. They had worked this out in advance; the council members would meet in a secluded location to determine what next steps were required, if any. Arrangements had been made to disperse the remaining vampires back through various local and regional airports in order to avoid arousing the suspicion of local law enforcement.
“We’ll be there. Me and Theroen both. Count on it … and stay safe.”
“You, too,” Sasha said, and without another word she moved forward, calling out commands to those she had put in charge, readying the attack. Two turned and headed back in the direction of the hallway to share the plan with Theroen and Tori.
She found them standing at the edge of the warehouse in silence. Two supposed with another pair this might have been awkward, but Theroen’s ethereal calm seemed to work well with Tori’s barely-contained emotions. She didn’t want to chit-chat and he, unlike most people, had never felt the need. Two thought back to the first night she had met him, when he had taken her to the Italian restaurant in Brooklyn. They had spent half the evening in silence and yet she had never felt more comfortable with anyone in her entire life.
“That’s an interesting expression,” Theroen said, tilting his head a little. Two could feel the edges of his mind touching hers, not prying but there to accept anything she might want to share. She let the thoughts and images of that first night – it had quickly become a date even though he had paid for her company – flood her mind, and he grinned.
“Why ever were you thinking of that?” he asked her, and Two shrugged.
“I just was.”
“How interesting.”
Tori rolled her eyes. “What’s the plan?”
“It’s pretty simple,” Two told her. “We get out of the way, Sasha and Lewis send in their people, and while they’re taking the first sublevel and assaulting the Command Center, we go after the Emperor. Just you, me, and Theroen. That’s how you want it, right?”
“Frankly, I’d prefer to go alone,” Tori said. “But I’ve come to terms with the fact that I’m not getting rid of the two of you.”
“Perhaps you could even consider valuing our co
mpany at some point,” Theroen said, his voice dry.
Tori glanced over at him. “Two weeks ago, I’d have killed you on sight. I think we’re making progress.”
“Where’s Thomas?” Two asked, wanting to change the subject. Tori indicated to her left with a tilt of her head and Two turned to look in that direction. Thomas was sitting on the floor again, knees up against his chest, head down. She wondered if she should interrupt him, or simply leave him here to choose his own path.
Vampires were rushing by them now, charging the elevator shafts and throwing themselves onto the first floor. Two could hear bursts of fire from automatic weapons, screams of agony, and the general roar of combat. Something in her mouth tasted bitter and medicinal, like biting into a handful of soft, wet cloves. She shook her head, both in grief that the situation had come to this and in rejection of the melancholy that wanted to overwhelm her. There was no time.
“I hate this,” she told her companions. “I hate all of it, so let’s go finish it. Let’s make sure that tonight’s the last night and whoever’s left tomorrow can celebrate that it’s over. Let’s burn the fucking roots out from under the Children and make sure they can’t ever come back to haunt us. Let’s go find the Emperor.”
* * *
The first sublevel smelled like death. There was gunpowder, acrid smoke, and ash from the explosives. There was blood, a scent Two knew well, and also the unpleasant tang of sweat, and bile, and other fluids of the body. Each of these she could pick out individually, but the combined whole was something she had never before experienced and hoped never to know again. The whole was greater than the sum of its parts, a stench that made her want to weep and retch and turn away.
“Dear Lord,” Theroen muttered as they made their way through the central hallway. Around them they could hear the sounds of battle: gunfire, the clash of metal on metal in up-close combat, and the screams of the dying. Tori was leading them, with Theroen next in line. Two was behind him and Thomas was bringing up the rear. He spoke now, his voice taut with emotion.
The II AM Trilogy Collection Page 114