Ibenus (Valducan series)

by Seth Skorkowsky

  Malcolm chopped the last bug off the ceiling. "Come on," he shouted, running down the hall.

  They ran, their red lights bouncing across the walls. Coming around the curve, the passage was empty, seeming to stretch forever.

  "There." Malcolm motioned to the rubbery, steaming screamer corpse inside a side passage entrance. Brass shells gleamed on the floor around it. A red bead in his blood compass pointed in the tunnel's direction. "It's getting away."

  They followed the winding tunnel, pausing long enough to scan the empty chambers they passed to be sure no monsters were lying in wait. Malcolm paused at a Y intersection and checked the bottle again. The blood sphere pointed vaguely to the left, not enough to be sure in this maze-work if that was the way to go. Malcolm ventured a few feet into the right passage, lifted his nose and inhaled deeply. He turned and repeated down the left side. "This way."

  Around a corner they found a clear rectangular box laying in the hall. Long metal bolts ran through the thick acrylic, holding it firmly in place. Inside was cloudy, foul steam leaking from the rows of holes along the side.

  "What the hell is this?" Orlovski asked.

  "Live trap," Malcolm said. "Idiot was trying to catch one."

  A glint of metal behind a rock caught Victoria's eye. "Look at this." She holstered her gun picked up a chunky two-tone pistol, stainless and black. A red laser sprang from the right grip panel as her fingers encircled it. A shiver ran her arm. This gun killed Gerhard. It took Allan's foot. Her grip loosened and the laser went out.

  "Store it away," Malcolm said. "It's not suppressed so don't shoot it."

  Remembering Chaya's training, she cleared the huge bullet from the gun, clicked the safety, and jammed the pistol into a side pocket of her pack, happy to be rid of its touch, then hurried after Malcolm and Orlovski.

  The smell of sulfur itched her nose as they continued on. Yellow smoke swirled at the edges of their light beams, growing thicker.

  "Smoke bomb," Malcolm coughed. "Cataphiles toss them to escape pursuit."

  The lack of air movement, made the cloud dense and impossible to see through. Victoria held her breath as they trudged deeper through it. She watched her feet as to not trip on the uneven floor. Eyes, watering, they pushed past the wall of smoke and continued on.

  "Damn it," Malcolm growled. The red bead was gone from the compass. "Hurry up. We can catch it."

  Still coughing, they hurried down the tunnel, passing a pair of dead screamers, then another.

  "Found it," Malcolm said, holding up the bottle. They turned down a tall, narrow corridor, eyes scanning the holes and alcoves along the walls.

  A coo sounded from the darkness ahead. Victoria drew her pistol.

  The passage continued, sloping gently downward. Malcolm's compass pointed to the right wall but the tunnel was straight, no exits on either side. The blood bead rolled along the bottle's wall as they continued. The demon was now to the right and behind them.

  "There has to be a switchback up here," Malcolm said.

  The tunnel leveled out, ending at a small, muddy chamber littered with puddles and rocks.

  "The hell?" Malcolm peered around, his light searching the walls and ceiling.

  "Wrong turn?" Orlovski asked.

  Victoria looked back up the passage. "We didn't pass— Bloody hell."

  A pair of chubby-cheeked screamers skulked along the ceiling toward them. Their pincers opened as her red light fell across them. Squealing with laughter, they charged. Victoria raised her pistol, firing at the closest one. The bug wove back and forth, dust and rock blasting around it. Orlovski swung in beside her, crouching. He dropped the other screamer with two rapid shots. The remaining bug leaped toward the wall and Victoria nailed it mid-air, sending it tumbling to the floor. Legs twisted, it tried to rise, but a final shot blew it apart.

  "Where did those come from?" Orlovski flipped on his pistol's light, unleashing a brilliant white beam down the entire passage. Three more screamers emerged from shadows, racing toward them.

  "There!" Victoria pointed her smoking pistol at a red-striped mantismere scuttled out from beneath a section of raised wall forty feet up the tunnel. The wall shut behind it like a door flap, only to open again as another screamer hurried out.

  "Form up!" Malcolm ordered, stepping behind them. "Victoria take the right. Taras, left."

  The hunters moved forward up the tight passage. The bugs swarmed forward, the demon shepherding behind them. Victoria tracked the closest screamer. Once it closed within ten yards, she fired. The bug leaped to other side of the passage where a shot from Orlovski blasted it into pieces. Gritting her teeth, Victoria aimed at the next one and began to shoot. It was moving fast, laughing as it reached a dozen feet away before she managed to hit it on the fifth shot.

  "Pace your shots," Malcolm said.

  Orlovski swung his pistol and shot another with a quick double-tap. The Russian's face was calm, unhurried, like he was just practicing at the range.

  Holding her breath, Victoria steadied her hand, bracing it with the one holding Ibenus. She waited until the glowing night sights fell between the last screamer's black eyes before pulling the trigger. Dark, reeking steam filled the passage, making it even harder to see.

  Antennae twitching, the mantismere rushed along the ceiling above its splattered brood.

  "Get ready. Victoria, you have range." Malcolm threw up his palm as the demon closed in. It froze, saber arms coming up to shield its eyes.

  "Now," Malcolm ordered.

  The hunters closed in. Victoria hopped as she swung Ibenus, the blade passing between the demon's raised forelimbs and cleaving onto its head. The monster fell, ghostly fire spewing from its split face as it crashed face down at her feet.

  Releasing a sigh, Victoria checked Ibenus' blade. The notch was gone.

  "Reload," Malcolm ordered.

  Victoria ejected her magazine. Two rounds left. One more screamer and she'd have been out. She loaded a fresh mag and slid the near empty one in her pouch, praying she wouldn't need it.

  "Bastard tried to lead us to a trap," Malcolm said, pushing his way to the front. "Corner and overwhelm us." They stepped over the burning and steaming corpses to where the wall had opened, finding a four-foot high sealed passage. It appeared no different than any of the other hundred closed doorways they had seen, but under Orlovski's bright and direct light, the gloppy mortar between the stacked stones held a faint, silvery sheen.

  "Cover me." Hounacier in hand, Malcolm knelt before the wall, feeling along the edge. He hooked his fingers beneath one of the stacked stones and pulled. The wall swung open like a dog flap. Malcolm peered beneath it. "Tunnel opens up a few feet in."

  "What do we do?" Victoria asked. "We need to be heading back to meet Luiza's team."

  Malcolm frowned. "We could be back here in two hours."

  "If they know we found this they're going to be ready for us." Orlovski said.

  "I'd rather we go in with six instead of three," Victoria said.

  "Agreed," Malcolm said, still peering under the door.

  "They could run," Orlovski said. "We'll never find them again."

  "Yeah, and if the three of us go in there without reporting what we found no one might find us ever again."

  Orlovski shrugged. "Then close that before they notice we—"

  Mal's hand shot up, silencing him.

  Tensing, Victoria squeezed Ibenus' grip, ready for anything.

  "Hello?" Malcolm said. "Hello? You two not hear that?"

  "Hear what?" Victoria whispered.

  "Luiza, do you read?" Malcolm slid part way beneath the hatch. "Chaya, Matt, anyone there?" He set the blood compass on the floor, unhooked the radio from his belt, and pulled it inside. "Is anyone there?"

  Victoria lowered to the floor and peered under the door. Gauzy strands, like pearlescent caulk, held the rear side of the door together, forming a twisted hinge at the top. A faint vinegar odo
r emanated from it, sour and unpleasantly sweet. The crawlspace extended fifteen feet before opening up. Malcolm lay on his stomach, his radio before him like a torch.

  Static crackled in her ear bud. A woman's voice came through. "…are you…read…"

  "Luiza?" Malcolm crawled further inside. "Do you read, over?"

  "Mal…ound…ver."

  Malcolm crawled entirely into the passage. "Repeat that."

  "We…ound nest, over."

  "They found the nest," Victoria whispered to Orlovski kneeling beside her with a puzzled expression.

  "Copy that," Malcolm said. "We found a trapdoor."

  "The…down."

  "Repeat that."

  "Mal," Orlovski hissed. "Compass!"

  Victoria glanced back at the bottle lying beside her. Twin red spheres moved along the curved inner wall ahead.

  Gunshots echoed in her ear bud.

  Malcolm looked back, the light of his headlamp momentarily blinding Victoria. "Luiza's team found the nest. Signal is stronger in here." He drew a glow stick from his vest, cracked it, and hurled it down the crawlway. "Grab the compass and follow me."

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  "Here," Orlovski said, offering a hand as Victoria emerged from the crawlway into an arched tunnel. She crinkled her nose, fighting the urge to sneeze at the vinegary reek.

  Curved channels spiraled along the walls like the inside of a giant gun barrel, freshly cut and white, lacking that ancient dinginess she'd grown accustomed to. The floors were absent of loose rocks, the stones being arranged in swirling patterns along the floor and irregular, rib-like arches. The orange light from Mal's thick glow stick on the floor only added to the surreal surroundings. "This is unexpected," she muttered, running her toes across the small, pearl-colored gloops bulging between the paving stones. She pressed hard, feeling one crunch beneath her boot.

  Orlovski shined his light down the passage. "Quite the little artists, aren't they?"

  The two red beads in the bottle slowly rolled along inside ahead of them, beyond the curved wall. The demons were moving but she could see no exits leading that way.

  Malcolm's dark eyes scanned the floor, his lip curled in a mistrusting sneer. "Watch your steps. This is their court." He reached out for the compass, which Victoria offered over.

  Weapons drawn, they headed east, leaving the orange glow behind. Following Orlovski's lead, Victoria activated her pistol's under-barrel light, shining the brilliant beam along the dark recesses. The patterns in the walls and floor changed as they moved deeper, ranging from intricate designs to nothing at all, save for an absence of loose rocks and white-chipped telltales that the tunnels had been recently worked.

  "Luiza," Malcolm said. "Can you hear me?"

  "Lou…clear," she replied in the radio. Gunshots popped in the background, an indecipherable yell, maybe Chaya, then two more shots.

  "What's going on?"

  "We chased…inside. Few skirmishes. Most…rying bastards."

  "Everyone all right?"

  "We're good. Used a lot of ammo," she said.

  "Any idea where you are?" Malcolm asked.

  "Not really. They've changed it."

  "Well, we're getting close. Signal is getting better." Malcolm paused, shining his down a crawlway, then continued on. Victoria glanced through it as she passed, seeing the back of another trap door.

  A faint coo trailed up from the passage behind them. Victoria swung her light around, searching the hall but seeing nothing. She held her breath, listening. She flinched as something touched her shoulder.

  "Come on," Orlovski whispered, his eyes scanning the tunnel. "They have to know we're here. Let's find the others before they come for us." He cracked a bright green glow stick and dropped it on the floor. "Maybe we'll see shadows if one moves past it."

  They continued on, Victoria regularly checking behind them. The green light faded as they rounded a turn. The hall split several times, opening into various chambers, traces of old graffiti still clinging to the freshly-furrowed walls. An elaborate gossamer construction dominated one chamber, completely covering three walls. Geometric tubes, like some over-sized wasp nest, studded the far side. Most of the cells were empty, but a few were sealed with rounded caps.

  "Christ," she breathed.

  Orlovski's light played across the sealed chambers, revealing pale doll faces, as if preserved beneath cloudy cling wrap like packaged toys. "Fuck this."

  One of the eggs shuddered, the screamer inside writhing. The surface stretched. Twin pincers emerged, slicing through the membrane, unleashing a gurgled cry. Malcolm rushed inside, his palm up. The creature froze and Hounacier slashed across, killing the monster in its womb. Black froth sizzled out. More of the cells began to twitch. Malcolm hacked and chopped, shredding the nest and everything inside it.

  Screams erupted behind them, coming both ways up the hall.

  Victoria spun, her chest tightening. She moved the light up the hall, searching for the first sign of movement. Here we go.

  "Let's move," Malcolm snapped, steam wisping from his bloodstained machete.

  They hurried down the passage. The cries grew closer, rising and falling in waves. The tunnel opened into a domed chamber. Patterns of white stones crusted the upper curve like a cathedral mosaic. Screamers seethed out from the far doorway, spreading out across the etched walls. Victoria fired into the mass of legs and faces pouring in but hit nothing.

  The light on Orlovski's gun zeroed in on a single bug among the throng. He fired, splattering black, and moved to the next. "One at a time. Pace your shots." He killed another, then another, the shots in rhythmic time.

  Circling back to back, Victoria focused on one moving along the ceiling. She fired, blasting stone. Damn it. Clenching her teeth, she sighted it again and blew it in half with a perfect shot. Don't get cocky, she joked in her mind. She moved to the next one, firing as it lined up.

  More wailing bugs poured in from the doorway they’d entered. Victoria shot two of them before they joined the ranks swirling around them.

  Pausing his firing, Malcolm threw out his palm to a wave surging across the floor. The front line reeled back, the ones behind them spilling over only to recoil at the eye tattoo’s power. Malcolm and Orlovski peppered the ranks with bullets before they could recover.

  Dust trickled down through the beam of Victoria's light. She looked up. Several of the screamers dug at the ceiling stones, pincers gnawing between them. The sheet of stones sagged as it peeled free. It rippled and bulged, more loose rocks shifting beneath it. A fist-sized stone fell, thudding between her and Orlovski. The Russian didn't appear to notice as he emptied his magazine in a closing wave.

  "Roof," she yelled. "They're bringing it down!" She shoved Orlovski out of the way as dust and rocks began to fall.

  "Move," Malcolm shouted. Palm out front, he ran for the exit, shooting and stomping bugs as he cut a path. A crackling rip thundered above and stones rained down as they fled. Dust billowed past, enveloping her and dimming their lights. A flat wedge beamed off Orlovski's helmet, eliciting a grunt. Victoria lurched to the side as a head-sized rock smashed down right in front of her.

  A screamer scuttled toward her, jaws open. She lifted her gun just as a falling rock smashed the screamer to pulp.

  Eyes stinging with dust, Victoria charged toward the glow of light moving ahead and dove through the exit.

  "This way!" Malcolm shouted.

  Someone was firing a few feet away but she couldn't see through the dust. The screams were lesser now, most of the brood killed serving as distraction. Spidery legs clawed at her calf, the pronged tips digging into her skin. It scrambled around to the outside of her leg. Yelping, Victoria swatted the flat of Ibenus down, knocking the creature free before its jaws found her.

  The lights ahead cut to the side. Choking on dust, Victoria rounded a corner to find Malcolm and Orlovski.

  "Are you okay?" Malcolm coughed. The wh
ite powder completely covered him.

  Victoria rubbed at her teary eyes. "Yeah."

  "Thank you," Orlovski panted. Crimson spread across the dust on the back his hand from a ragged cut.

  "No problem."

  New cries called from the darkness behind them. Victoria raked her gritty tongue along her teeth and spat. "They're still coming."

  Malcolm checked the bottle. Five red spheres moved inside the plastic walls, three behind them. Two were ahead. "They're just sending the minions. They could do this all day. We need to find them. Put `em down." He peered up the corridor ahead. "Come on."

  They hurried down the tunnel, their lights bouncing along the walls. Fresh cries joined the ones behind them. The hall split and Malcolm chose the left passage. It led to another egg chamber, though the cells were all empty. Victoria wondered if their former inhabitants had been the ones they'd faced in the cathedral. The tight hall continued on, winding through several turns before it ended at a blank wall.

  "Shit." Malcolm shone his light around, searching for an exit. "Wrong tunnel."

  Victoria glanced down the passage behind them, the incessant wails growing louder. I fucking hate that noise.

  "Back," Malcolm ordered. "Before they trap us."

  Weapons ready, Victoria led the retreat, charging toward the advancing cries. The narrow walls scraped her shoulders as she ran, pausing long enough at each turn to make sure it was clear before continuing on. The egg chamber was just ahead. They only needed to get there first, spread out side by side, and kill the bugs at the entrance.

  Victoria checked the next corner and froze. Spindly legs curled around the far corners. Too late.

  "Contact." She brought the gun up as the doll face emerged into view and she fired. Another screamer launched itself into the hall before the first blackening corpse hit the floor. Victoria fired, missing it by a hair, but the next shot splattered it.

  She moved forward, pistol trained on the corner. A screamer lunged out as she drew near, its jaws open. Victoria fired, knocking it back, but still alive. She squeezed the trigger but nothing happened.