“What are you doing here?”
“You were crying out, you must have had nightmares.”
“I locked the door!” Lucy shouted at him, pulling the blanket tighter.
Oscar smiled. “Yes, but I have the key. I did nothing but watch you, Lucy, I swear to that. I was merely worried. You have been through so much.”
“It was a nightmare,” Lucy growled. “What were you going to do, scare it away?”
“I took your hand,” Oscar said quietly. “You seemed to calm down after that. I didn’t violate any boundaries.”
“You violated boundaries when you unlocked a door that I specifically locked to keep you out!” Lucy shouted.
Oscar stood and bowed his head. “I’ve upset you, I’m sorry. I’ll have breakfast when you are ready to come out.” He left, quietly closing the door behind him. Lucy waited until she heard his footsteps fade before she jumped out of bed and wedged a chair back under the door handle before getting dressed. Finally, she reached under her pillow and retrieved her bracelet, vowing that she would keep it on, even while she slept.
They spent the next several hours poring over maps and hand written transcripts that Oscar had been keeping on the routines within the compound. They were going to make their move in the early evening, a time when activity within the compound was at its lowest, but also when most of the High Born aristocracy would likely be within the compound. The Elders, they didn’t have to worry about, as they never ventured outside the innermost areas.
Lucy stifled a yawn and looked at the clock. It was nearly time to move. She stretched and rubbed her eyes. Oscar set a fresh cup of coffee on the table in front of her. “Thanks,” Lucy mumbled, perking up slightly from the scent of the strong roast. Oscar hovered for a moment, but then settled himself in the opposite chair, still watching her intently.
“Is it my appearance?”
“I'm sorry?” Lucy asked, confused. “What about your appearance?”
Oscar glanced in the mirror, appraising himself with a frown. “I’ve gotten used to being invisible in Paris,” Oscar explained. “But I can understand if my... unusual look frightens you.”
Lucy found the absurdity of the situation uncomfortable. Certainly, Oscar was unusual, but he was anything but unattractive. “Oscar,” she sighed. “This has nothing to do with your appearance. You're very attractive, honest, but you are forgetting that I know you were genetically modified to be attractive and extremely dangerous. I'm sorry, but I simply can't explain this enough. Perhaps under different circumstances...” She trailed off uncertainly. She had to find a way to steer the conversation back to the task at hand.
“I have nothing but time, Lucy, I'm willing to wait, to give you as much time as you need.”
“Oscar,” Lucy said with severity, “you have to let this go. Aside from the fact that you can't badger me into developing feelings that aren't there, you know what I am capable of. If I were to kiss you, you would die, do you understand that?”
“I was under the impression that there are things I could do, dietary modifications…” Oscar sounded hopeful, but Lucy shook her head.
“A vegetarian diet would give you protection against a normal hunter, but there is no guarantee with me,” she explained. “I'm as likely to kill you with a kiss as a bite.”
But Oscar wasn't to be dissuaded so easily. “I would take that risk.”
It was sad, really, Lucy realized. As much as Oscar's misplaced affection bothered her, it bothered her more that this was just another example of how the ES enslaved their own as much as the human population. She felt terrible about the set of circumstances that led Oscar to discover, after centuries of a cold, unfeeling existence, that he was capable of love. She only wished she wasn't the catalyst for his awakening. If she did make it back to New Orleans, Lucy was going to have a long talk with Ida about the outreach program. If Oscar was capable of such an epic shift, no doubt the vampires in New Orleans could do it too. “Right now we have bigger issues, like how we are going to pull off this attack and live.”
The plan was almost laughably simple, in theory. Oscar has shown Lucy several maps of the areas beneath Paris. Directly above the compound, there were crawlspaces used for ventilation. Above that, were the tunnels used by the Metro, as well as several unused former utility areas. From one of these areas, they could access the ventilation shafts without coming into contact with any vampires. From there they would access the laboratory and detonate a small explosive, just large enough to set off the sensors, which in theory would cause someone to activate the shut off and blow the compound to smithereens.
In reality, they ran the risk of being seen by Metro employees, who may be making use of the old utility areas, or other vampires, who may be using the areas to their own end. Everything hinged on the lab being empty because there was no way to access the ventilation shaft without making some noise.
“The odds are in our favor, but we’ll have to move quickly,” Oscar assured her. “I cannot guarantee that the surrounding areas will not be affected by the implosion.”
“Wait a minute,” Lucy looked up in horror. “What about the Metro? If we’re using their tunnels to get there, then the train tunnels might collapse. I don’t want to cause casualties!”
Oscar shook his head. “There are several feet of concrete and steel between the rail lines and the compound. There may be some slight tremors felt, but nothing of a magnitude strong enough to derail a train or collapse a tunnel. But the ventilation shafts are much closer. We’ll have about two minutes after I detonate the device to get back into the utility area, it depends on their reaction time.”
Lucy looked at the small black lump sitting on the table in front of her that resembled a squashed egg with small exhaust pipes sticking out of it. “Is that it?” she asked. Oscar nodded. “What if it doesn’t catch fire or malfunctions?”
“It won’t catch fire. The ignition only heats up the liquid inside, which will vaporize and create pressure until it jets from the vents. The vapor is actually a harmless substance, but it will register on the sensors as a volatile compound, deadly enough that no one should come to investigate. Don’t worry. I plan on bringing several in the event of a malfunction.”
Malfunction was a word Lucy did not want to hear. She swallowed the last of her coffee and checked the clock. They had less than an hour before they left.
“I guess we better get ready.”
After mentally cursing Oscar once again for his wardrobe choices, Lucy was finally dressed in the closest thing that she could find to combat gear amongst the designer fashions. The jeans and turtleneck were functional, but the boots, Lucy realized with despair, would make too much noise and provide no traction in the tunnels. Her best option was a pair of satin slippers that were clearly meant for indoor wear only. They would provide no protection, but the thin soles had a small amount of rubber tread and would not make as much noise. Lucy realized with dread that their whole plan could unravel simply based on the flimsiness of her footwear.
“Are you ready?”
Lucy nodded and Oscar opened the door. The dank smell of earth washed over them as they stepped into the natural corridor. Oscar resealed the door and threw them back into pitch darkness. Lucy felt Oscar’s arms around her waist and her feet leave the ground. Once again, they were traveling the corridors at record-breaking speeds. This time, at least, Lucy had a clear picture in her mind of where they were, having studied the maps until they were memorized.
Oscar slowed as they reached their first destination, a utility shaft that would bring them up into the back tunnels of the Metro system. He set her down gently. “There are metal rungs set into the wall. I’ll go first, you follow me.” He ascended rapidly and Lucy felt along the wall until her hand found the rusty metal rungs. Still blinded by the darkness, she felt her way up the ladder until Oscar reached out and pulled her up through the opening into a concrete room. From there they climbed through a series of small tunnels and into similar r
ooms. It was slow going, especially through the tunnels that ran close to the catacombs, where breaks in the wall put them just feet from tourists. Cameras flashed in defiance of the posted rules, causing Lucy to lose all adjustments that her eyes had made to the darkness.
With her heart pounding in her ears, Lucy finally eased into the last utility room, the one that connected to the laboratory. A metal grate the size of a door covered one wall.
“Stand back.”
Oscar pulled a small device from his pocket and held it up to the wall. This, he had explained to Lucy, would allow him to remove the panel without its removal being detected by the main computer that controlled security and environmental controls of the compound. With a slight hiss, the grate moved forward a fraction of an inch and slid to the side, revealing a steeply sloped air duct that ended at another vent, through which Lucy could see a laboratory. Not the one that she had been imprisoned in, but similar.
“There’s no reason for you to come down there Lucy,” Oscar informed her as he stepped up into the shaft.
Something about the situation didn’t feel right. It wasn’t until Oscar had slipped entirely into the shaft that she realized their plan was compromised. A shadow blocked the light at the bottom of the vent. Someone was in there. “Oscar, wait!” Lucy cursed silently, but it was too late, he had already slid down. From the noise that issued back up the shaft, Oscar must have realized his mistake as well. The grating clattered to the ground and Lucy heard loud footsteps and shouting.
Chapter 33
“Dammit!”
Lucy pushed herself up over the ledge and misjudged the span of the shaft. Her arms flailed and she fell forward, sliding down the shaft until she tumbled into the room. She came to a halt only when she collided with a cart full of instruments, which toppled to the ground with an earsplitting crash. Her entrance at least, seemed to have provided enough of a distraction to momentarily stop the action.
Oscar, who had been pinned to the ground by another vampire, took advantage of Lucy’s entrance and threw the vampire against the wall. The other vampire had apparently been running for the door, no doubt to alert others, but had turned to see what had happened. For a moment he hesitated, unsure whether to deal with Lucy or get help. She took advantage of his hesitation and jumped to her feet, running at him with weapons ready. The vampire lunged toward the exit. Just as he reached the door, she dove and jabbed the CPA into his back with a satisfying hiss. She turned back to see the vampire Oscar had been fighting staggering to his feet. With cat like reflexes, Lucy sprang to her feet and rushed the dazed vampire, running him through with another CPA.
“Let’s get out of here!”
“We can’t leave, Lucy,” Oscar said vehemently. “They know we’re here now and they’ll come after us. We have to go through with the plan.”
“What?” Lucy shrieked. “It’s not going to work! Even if you set off the device, someone’s going to come in here and check out the noises first! Come on, we can lose them in the tunnels.”
“No,” Oscar insisted. “We’ve come this far, there’s only one way to do this. You have to get out of here, go back the way we came. I’ll set off the implosion myself.”
“Are you crazy? Oscar, you’ll die if you do that!” Lucy was hysterical. At any moment, they were going to be set upon by countless vampires and Oscar was talking about a suicide mission that couldn’t possibly work.
“If you live, it will be worth it.”
“No,” Lucy shook her head. “No, Oscar, besides, your programming. You aren’t capable of doing that, remember?”
Oscar bent down and put one hand against Lucy’s cheek. “You broke my programming, Lucy. If I die, I die with my humanity restored.”
Lucy brightened suddenly. “That’s right! You broke your programming! Oscar, you can fix the safety shut off to give us time to leave before the place blows.”
Oscar shook his head sadly. “We don’t have time and even if we did, we’d have to get to the environmental control office and back out again without being seen.”
Lucy was about to say that she’d take that risk when the door opened and another vampire entered the lab, took one look at the dead vampires, and took off running back the way he came.
“Now it is definitely too late, Lucy, you have to go!” Oscar pushed Lucy toward the ventilation shaft, but she resisted.
“Oscar, seriously, let’s both go. Can’t you fly us out of here? We can get far away from Paris and contact Evan. Now that we know how to take out the compound, we can do it safely. There’s no need to sacrifice yourself. If you’re serious about turning your life around, you can join the outreach.”
“Lucy, it’s okay, please. I’ve lived the worst possible life imaginable and I’m not even sure I’m capable of repenting completely.” Oscar pulled her back to him. Cupping the side of her face, he leaned in and bent his head close hers in an attempt to kiss her. Lucy violently pushed him away when she realized what he was about to do.
“Oscar no, don’t do this! I’m not going to watch another person die for no reason!”
“My death will not be in vain, Lucy.”
She couldn’t believe this was happening. “Are you crazy? This isn’t the time to play hero! Get us out of here and we both live. If we go with your plan, we might both die!”
Oscar appeared to consider Lucy’s words and she let out a sigh of relief, which was a mistake. Before she realized what he was doing, Oscar pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her. Caught off guard, Lucy gasped, allowing him to forcefully deepen the kiss, effectively committing suicide with her as an unwilling assistant. She pushed him away, horrified. “Oh god, Oscar, what have you done?”
“I’ve made my peace, be comforted with that.”
Lucy stood, paralyzed and horror-stricken. There was nothing that she could do. By kissing her, Oscar had signed his own death warrant.
Oscar had to get Lucy out of there. At this point, he could only hope that he made it to the switch before he was poisoned.
“I love you, Lucy,” He whispered fiercely.
She turned her head away, unable to meet his eye. She didn’t deserve love. Her humanity had failed her and in the end, she was no better than the monsters who had manipulated Oscar and countless others into what they were. “I’m sorry, Oscar.”
“It matters not that you can’t reciprocate my feelings, just allow me to die without regret. Allow me to atone for Andre’s death. Now go, quickly!” He let go of her and ran from the room before Lucy had a chance to protest. With one final shudder, she pushed a table up against the wall, climbed back into the ventilation shaft, and struggled up the incline.
Moments later, panting and sweating, Lucy tumbled into the utility room, just as the walls began to shake. She heard a loud crash and looked down to see the shaft was now blocked by a solid metal wall. She threw herself into the tunnel and crawled quickly, unconcerned now about being seen.
She made it through two utility rooms before the earth around her began to shake violently, dropping rocks and debris all around her. She dove for the next tunnel and scrambled over the loose dirt. She could see light up ahead from the utility room that would take her out of the crawlspace and into the safety of the Metro line. She crawled faster, but suddenly the walls around her shuddered. The last thing Lucy heard was a loud crack as the ceiling above her gave way and she was knocked unconscious by the fallout.
Chapter 34
A blinding white light washed over Lucy as she drifted into awareness.
“Lucy! Oh god, Lucy!”
A blurry shadow entered her field of vision, mercifully blocking the glare.
“I found her! Over here! I need some help getting her out!”
It couldn’t be.
“Andre?” Lucy asked thickly through lips caked with dust.
“Hang on, Lucy,” Andre’s disembodied voice drifted back to her. “We’ll have you out of there in a second, don’t try to move.”
“Oh god, no!”
Lucy moaned. She remembered the tunnel collapsing on her as she tried to escape the wreckage of the compound. She didn’t make it. Of course she didn’t, no one would have survived being buried alive. She closed her eyes against the light, which seemed to grow brighter. Her mind whirled in confusion as she drifted back into a semiconscious state.
“Lucy, stay with me!” Andre begged, shaking her ever so gently back.
“Andre, where are we?”
“We’ve nearly got you, Lucy, just stay with me, okay?”
“Okay,” Lucy answered in bewilderment. Where did he think she would go? Where could she go? She tried to move, but couldn’t. It felt as if a weight was pushing her down. Down? Oh no, what if that was what Andre meant?
Before her thoughts could spiral further in to absurdity, the weight lifted and several voices started shouting at once. With the weight removed from her chest, Lucy took her first unencumbered breath and began coughing uncontrollably.
“Guys, get back, give her room!” Andre’s authoritative voice cut through the chatter. He lifted her slightly, cradling her head in his lap, and held a water bottle to her lips. Lucy sputtered, but at last the coughing stopped and she drank.
“Where are we?” There were rocks and dirt all around her and her clothes were caked with mud. Shadowed figures hovered in the distance, their faces obscured by the backlighting.
“Somewhere near St. Paul.”
Lucy shielded her eyes against the light and tilted her head until she could see his face. He was paler than normal, with dark circles under his eyes and worry lines around his mouth. A smudge of dirt streaked his chin and cheek.
“St. Paul?” Lucy asked. “I thought we had to go to St. Peter first.”
Andre regarded her with a bemused look. “St. Peter?”
“Never mind,” she sighed. “I was never very good at remembering the saints. I’m just glad you’re here. I never imagined it would be so...so…I don’t know, dirty? Where are the clouds and angels playing harps?”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 30