by Jon F. Merz
Talya shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
Wei cleared his throat. “All right, now that Xuan Xiang has been taken care, we should dispose of his body.” He pointed at me. “Lawson, be a good chap and put him over on the litter occupied by your young friend there, would you?”
I looked at the litter. Jack was on his back. “I’ll have to move him first.”
“Do it. He’s not going to need the litter anyway,” said Wei.
I nodded and moved toward the litter. The hypodermic was in my right hand. I slipped the cap off and then rolled Jack off the litter on to his stomach. As I did so, I punched the hypodermic into the laceration he’d gotten from the bullet, shielding the action with my back. Then I simply palmed the injector again and went to get Xuan Xiang’s body.
He was heavier than I expected and I had to simultaneously resist the urge to look over at Jack. I didn’t know what to expect from the injector, but I hoped it was working its magic on the wound. For all I knew, it could have been too late and I’d wasted the remedy on a corpse. But if there was a chance to save Jack, I was going to take it.
I got Xuan Xiang’s body on the litter and Wei gestured for two soldiers to cart him away.
“What are you going to do with his body?” I asked.
“Why do you care?”
I shrugged. “I really don’t. Just curious.”
Wei sighed. “If you must know, he will be placed down in the pit. You see, he still has some usefulness that I can glean from him.”
“Why does he need to be buried in the pit?”
Wei smiled. “Did I say he would be buried?”
I shook my head. “Placed then.”
Wei clapped his hands. “I suppose you’d like to know.” He took a deep breath and looked at the Silencer. “What do you think, my darling?”
“I think you should let me kill them right now and be done with it.” She held the pistol up. “The longer either one of them is alive, the more dangerous they become.”
“They’re both unarmed,” said Wei.
The Silencer pointed at me. “Did you see his skills? Hers are even better.”
I looked at Talya. “Seriously? You’ve been training again?”
Talya smiled. “A girl needs to keep her edge.” She looked at the Silencer. “But then that raises an interesting question: how do you know that I’ve been training?”
The Silencer laughed. “Do you really think I wouldn’t keep tabs on the two people who have the most potential to cause the greatest damage in my life? You don’t get to live as long as I have without learning a few things along the way. And one thing I learned a long time ago was to keep your enemies closer than your friends.”
“I never got a Christmas card,” I said.
The Silencer looked at Wei. “You’re taking a big risk by not letting me kill them both.”
Wei eyed me. “You know that the bullets my men are armed with can kill a vampire as easily as a human being, right?”
I frowned but nodded. “I do.”
“So let me tell you one time: if you try anything - anything at all - my men will fill your body with bullets. And your girlfriend, too. If you’re good, out of a small measure of respect, I will answer your question about Xuan Xiang. But if you even blink wrong, that will be the end of it.”
“Fine.” What the hell, it bought us a for more minutes of life. And just maybe, it would allow the hypodermic time to work.
“We’re going to move to the pit. You will be escorted by my men. Fall in.”
Talya and I moved into a formation, surrounded by Wei’s soldiers on all sides. We walked down the hallway back the way we’d come earlier. From there, we walked out to the periphery of the ring to a small vantage point that jutted out over the Abyss itself. Talya and I were positioned by the very edge. If we made a misstep, we’d go over the edge and fall deep into the pit far below.
Talya eyed me. “Not exactly a lot of room to maneuver.”
“You aren’t kidding.”
Wei gestured for us to turn around. “If I could draw your attention to the pit. Specifically, the bottom. You’ll see several of my men positioning Xuan Xiang’s body.”
I looked and saw that they had his body stripped to the waist and were positioning it in a very specific way with his legs and arms stretched out to the side like he was going to make dirt angels or something.
Next to me, Talya whispered, “What is going on here?”
“I don’t know.”
Once that was done, the soldiers moved away from the body and scrambled back up the dirt path that they had come down bearing the corpse. I looked back at Wei. “All right, so now what happens?”
“You’re awfully impatient for someone so near to his own death,” said Wei. “Why not just relax and enjoy the show?”
I turned back and watched. The strings of lights running into the pit didn’t provide nearly enough illumination down near the bottom of the pit. I wondered why they hadn’t simply strung brighter lights that would make it easier to see. That didn’t make any sense.
A technician spoke up and Wei nodded his head. “Shortly, Lawson. You will see what I’ve been working on here.”
Talya frowned. “You feel that?”
A slight tremor bubbled up from the bottom of the pit and it reminded me of the earthquake we’d experienced earlier today before we’d rescued Talya. I looked back down into the pit and strained my eyes to see what was going on.
I didn’t have long to wait.
29
The creature pulled itself out of the dirt and stone, its translucent skin evident even in the dim light of the pit. Three pale milky orbs dotted its face and I presumed they were the eyes. Appendages sprouted from its side giving it the appearance of a subterranean spider, but I doubted it was some type of arachnid. Hell, I didn’t know what it was. But it was obviously keying in on the corpse of Xuan Xiang. As it struggled to pull itself free from the last remnants of dirt, it shook its head once and then twice, seeming to sniff the air. Long strands of saliva or bile or some other gross sticky substance drizzled from a mouth lined with rows of serrated teeth.
I knew what was coming and I didn’t much care for it.
“What do you think, Lawson?” asked Wei from behind me. “Would you believe we discovered them when we were attempting to resurrect the N’Yak Tul? As ferocious little creatures as those buggers were, these creatures are even more terrifying. They’re nearly blind, of course, spending their time deep below the earth - hell we had to drill down extremely deep just to locate them - but once they get roused, they are nearly insatiable.”
The spider mole - it seemed vaguely appropriate to call it that - scented the air again and I saw a long proboscis suddenly jut from the crown of its head. Who said unicorns don’t exist? This creepy as hell one sure did. Using the proboscis like some sort of antenna, the spider mole felt its way around until the tip of the proboscis came to rest on Xuan Xiang’s chest.
Instantly, it lifted away and then struck down, impaling the chest cavity. I heard a long slurping sound and felt my stomach turn over. I bit back on the rising gorge in my throat and forced myself to watch the spider mole drink deep of Xuan Xiang’s blood. Clearly the new bullets didn’t affect it. I tucked that away in the back of my head in case I ever had to fight one of these things.
A moment later, the proboscis withdrew and the creature settled itself down for a lengthy meal. It devoured Xuan Xiang’s head first, crunching right through the skull bones like they were potato chips. The rest of the body soon followed and only when the entire body was eaten did the spider mole withdraw back to the hole from whence it had emerged.
I turned and looked at Wei. “That’s not a very nice way to die.”
Wei waved my comment off. “Oh, please, Xuan Xiang was already dead when I had him placed down there. I don’t think he felt a thing.”
“Still,” I said. “You could have at least given him a decent burial. I assume he served you well for a
little bit of time?”
Wei shrugged. “I’m not very sentimental, Lawson. Surely this is not a surprise to you?”
“I would have given you the benefit of the doubt.”
He laughed. “Very kind of you, but I deserve no such benefit. I am as cruel as they come. My allies could well become my enemies at a moment’s notice. I make no excuses for my actions - they are merely the result of my desire to accomplish many great things.”
“And how does that creature help you accomplish anything?”
Wei eyed me for a moment then he laughed. “See? You almost had me there. You’re good, no doubt. But I won’t tell you my plans, no matter how much you’d like me to.”
I really didn’t give a shit about his plans. I was playing for time. At any moment, I expected to see Jack come through into the ring firing an assault rifle and hopefully enabling Talya and me to gain the upper hand before anyone realized what was going on.
But Jack didn’t show up.
I swallowed and wondered if he was truly dead or not. In my heart I didn’t think he was, but then again, I’m an optimist. A nagging little voice at the back of my head told me to get used to the idea that the guy might be dead. And I didn’t like that voice very much at all. Even if I knew it might be true.
“So now there remains but one question,” said Wei.
“I can think of several more than one,” I said.
Wei shook his head. “No, I’m afraid there’s only one question you need to concern yourself with.”
“That being?”
Wei’s smile snaked across his face again. He wore cruelty like a badge of honor. “Which one of you will die first?”
I shrugged. “Shoot me now. I don’t care.”
Wei shook his head. “Oh no, there won’t be any shooting with you two. You just told me that death at the bottom of the pit was a horrible way to die. And I told you that Xuan Xiang felt nothing because he was already dead.”
I knew what was coming. Wei didn’t strike me as all that imaginative when it came to killing people.
“You, however, will feel every bit of your death at the hands of my lovely creatures.”
Creatures? “How many are there?”
“Does it matter?”
I shook my head. “Just wondering. Considering I’ll be facing them.”
“Well, you needn’t worry just yet. That one has just eaten. As far as we can tell, he won’t need to feed again for about six hours. That means you and your girlfriend have time…for now.”
The Silencer looked entirely displeased with this news. “I thought you were giving them to me.”
Wei eyed her. “I never said any such thing.”
“You told me I could kill them. Now you’re changing your mind?”
Wei brushed her off. “We will discuss this later.”
The Silencer stormed off, leaving Wei alone with his soldiers.
“I don’t think she’s happy with your decision,” I said.
“I don’t really care what you think,” said Wei. “And I certainly don’t care if she’s upset or not. The conclusion remains the same: you will both die in six hours.” He gestured for his guards to take us away.
We let ourselves be herded away and we were guided back down to the prison cells where we’d sprung Xuan Xiang. They placed us in the other one without the busted digital keypad lock. When the door swung shut behind us, I glanced at Talya, but she didn’t seem to be in the mood for talking. And I knew why. She wanted to figure out a way to escape.
The only problem was, there were two guards stationed right outside the cell. If we even attempted to somehow access the digital lock, they would know immediately. Talya looked up at me and smiled.
“Hivyo sasa nini?”
I grinned. She’d chosen to ask me ‘what now?’ in Swahili. The likelihood of the guards knowing that language were about a zillion to one. And it was one of the languages Talya and I both spoke. Talya due to her extensive work in Africa with orphan children. And me, well, let’s just say I’d had more than a few reasons to know how to converse in Swahili over the years.
“We could put on a show for the guards,” I said in Swahili. “You know, give them a few cheap thrills.”
“The hell,” she answered. “I’m not giving those wretched fools anything but a few bullets if I get the chance. Maybe two broken necks if I can’t get my hands on a gun.”
I sat down next to her and put my head in my hands. “I think there’s a good chance that Jack is dead.”
She put her arm around me and squeezed my shoulder. “I’m sorry.”
I nodded. “Too much time must have elapsed. We did all that we could. I just don’t think I had enough time to get the injector into him.”
“But you tried,” said Talya. “And if he is dead, then he knows that you did everything you could for him.”
“It wasn’t enough,” I said. “Trying…I may as well have just given up.”
Talya slapped my back. “Cut that bullshit out. That’s a loser thing to say and you know it. Our lives have no guarantees. Tomorrow is promised to no one. And Jack, whether you want to admit it or not, was a fully grown man capable of making his own decisions. He knew the risks. He made his own choice to come along with you. Didn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“So there you go. I know you’ll grieve for him. I will also. Especially since he thought he was coming to rescue me. My gratitude will never wane for his actions. But like the rest of the great warriors we’ve both been blessed to know, Jack stood on his own and unfortunately paid the ultimate price.”
“I know what you’re saying is true, but it doesn’t make it any easier to take.”
She smirked. “Does it ever make death any easier to take?”
“Nope.”
“It comes for all of us someday,” said Talya. She stood up and walked toward the door.
“What are you doing?”
She looked back and grinned at me sideways, the same way she had all those years ago when I first fell in love with her. “Death comes for us some day. But I don’t intend to let that day be today. Or six hours from now. There are people here I need to kill before anyone feeds me to some disgusting subterranean creature. Hell freakin’ no.”
I gave her a moment to look outside and survey the scene. She came back and sat down.
“They’re talking about the next time they get leave and how many whores they’re going to fuck.”
“Have I ever told you that it’s hot when you drop F bombs?”
She kissed me hard on the lips and I wrapped my arms around her. It felt so good to lose ourselves for a few seconds within the grace of that kiss. But then we both pulled away.
Talya winked at me. “There’s more where that came from. But first we’ve got to get out of here.”
“I’ve decided Swahili isn’t the sexiest language.”
“That’s for sure. But at least it lets us plan without those goons knowing what’s up.”
There wasn’t much in the prison cell aside from the simple mattress we sat on. The platform the mattress was on was made of cement. If we attempted to smash that apart looking for some sort of rebar, the guards would know about it instantly. And I doubted that the mattress had any sort of steel springs in it that we could use to stab the guards. As far as I could see, we had squat to work with.
“All we have to do is get them to come into the cell,” said Talya. “Then we can overpower them and get out of here. After all, it’s just you and me now.”
That sudden realization made my heart ache. I didn’t know for sure if Jack was dead, but the probability was high that he was. Still, would I be able to leave him here without knowing one hundred percent if he was or not?
“I need to confirm Jack is dead.”
Talya paused and then sighed. “Yeah, I know you do. I guess I’d feel the same if it was someone I was truly close to.”
“Like me.”
“Nah, I’d leave your ass in a heartbeat
.” She smiled again and I wanted to kiss her so damned badly. I could lose myself in her eyes and never even care.
“You’d be sentencing yourself to a life of terrible sex if you did that.”
She sighed. “I guess you’re right. God knows I’ve been with some awful partners before.”
“It’s tough being the best and ruining you for other men, but somehow I’ll deal with it.”
“Great,” said Talya. “Do me a favor and stow the lovers talk for a while, okay? We need a diversion and I think I just figured one out.”
30
Talya eyed the walls of the cell for a moment and then walked closer to the door. She rested her hands on either side of the walls that bracketed the door and tested them by pushing against the concrete. She nodded to herself as if verifying something and then smiled at me.
“It will work.”
“What will?”
She just winked at me. “Watch and see. Watch and see.” She glanced out of the slit at the top of the door to ascertain what the guards were up to, but they seemed too deep in their own conversation to really care. As far as they were concerned, we were locked up and incapable of mounting any sort of escape.
It was the same type of lazy thought process that I’d seen countless times before. People only see what they want to see; and they only believe what they want to believe. The guards obviously didn’t think we could go anywhere, so naturally, in their brains, we weren’t going anywhere. If you know how to work around that sort of mental hopscotch, there were ways to take advantage of it.
Which is what Talya was going to do right now.
“Give me ten seconds and then call them,” she said still speaking in Swahili.
I nodded. “You got it.”
And then she quickly scaled the walls and positioned herself above the doorway to the cell with her hands on one wall and her feet on the other.
I smiled. “You really think that will work?”
“Quiet you. I saw this on an episode of Miami Vice one time. I’ve always wanted to try it out.”
“Far be it for me to rain on your creativity.”