INCURSION: Knightmare (Knight's Bane Trilogy Book 1)

by Bryan Donihue

  Six motioned for Ghost to cover him as he gave a tug on the handle of the door. It was solidly locked from the inside.

  Six looked at Boomer and said, "You're up. Quiet and small."

  The demolitions expert nodded and grabbed a strip of detcord from her pack. Sometimes used to trigger other explosions, Boomer knew that the "detcord" was a small explosive itself, and figured it should be enough to open the armored hinge on the door.

  Motioning for the team to stand clear, she attached the leads to the detonator in her hand.

  "Fire in the hole," she warned.

  A loud ripping sound came from the front of the bunker entrance, followed by the loud "clang" of a heavy metal door falling off of its hinges echoed. The team quickly assembled in the entrance, and they shined their lights down the darkened stairwell. Ghost grabbed two glowsticks and broke them to activate their phosphorescent glow. He tossed each glowstick down the stairwell. The team could see that the stairs went down about two stories and ended on a landing. They could clearly see through the grating on the stairwell, and it looked clear. In formation, the team entered the bunker.

  The team carefully made their way down the metal stairs. Each agent watched for signs of rusted or broken stairs before they stepped, and each was looking around them for cameras or hidden obstacles.

  Ghost hit the bottom of the stairs first and raised his hand to bring everyone to a halt. Leading away was a long corridor of cement. At the end of the corridor, Ghost's light revealed a corner with a passageway to the left. Other than the weapon lights mounted on the carbines and the ghostly green glow of the chemlights, the tunnel and entrance were pitch black. Ghost scanned the wall and saw that the ceiling was a maze of steel mesh-encased conduit about ten feet overhead. The corridor itself was clean and free of debris or dust.

  Ghost motioned his hand forward and led the team down the long corridor as Spooky took one last look at the sunlight filtering through the open doorway. He noticed that he was not the only one to glance back at the sunlight fading away as they pressed forward into the silo.

  When the team reached the end of the corridor, the Ghost stopped and covered his boss with his rifle as Six approached the corner cautiously. The team leader peered around and spied a large hardened steel blast door designed to withstand attack and invasion. He tried the door, but it was locked.

  Stepping back, Six turned and spoke in a low voice, "Spooky. Locked blast door. You're up."

  Spooky nervously stepped forward and pulled a small box with wire leads out of his pack. All the security doors, including this blast door, were originally equipped with 1960s-era electronic locks. As he approached the door, he noticed that the electronic locks had been upgraded to current standards by the new owner. He pushed a key card into the slot waiting for him. Several wire leads ran from the card back to the small computer in his hand. As he watched the digital display, he saw numbers spinning down into a five-digit sequence as the computer used a brute-force attack to hack and find the correct passcode. When it finally stopped, he looked at the team leader and nodded.

  Six nodded back and raised his rifle toward the door. The electronics genius keyed 4-9-4-3-6 into the keypad. The blast door hissed as it released its vacuum seal and swung open. The area beyond the door was designed to be an airlock, with another blast door roughly seven feet away. Unfortunately for the mad scientist, he seemed to have forgotten to seal the inner door. When the heavy blast door finally came to a stop in the open position, Six stepped in front of the door, leaning against it to make sure it did not close until his team was past it.

  "Ghost, go through to the other door... looks like another blind corner," Six whispered. "Heavy, you follow. Block the open door until we all get through this mantrap."

  Ghost and Heavy nodded as they began to move past their leader. The area beyond the trap was lit with cold fluorescent light spilling from around the corner. As Heavy braced his back against the open blast door, Ghost cautiously peered around the corner. This corridor ran dead ended in a blast door that appeared to have been forcibly opened and then torn from its hinges. Distracted by the massive steel door laying on its side, the hunter almost overlooked the small camera mounted in the upper right corner of the corridor.

  He eased back around the corner and walked back to Six. "The next corridor is about twenty-five feet long, with a busted blast door at the end," Ghost reported. "There is also a camera mounted up high. It looks to be a newer model and is probably active. Past that, there appears to be the final blast door that is partially open. I couldn't tell if it was damaged."

  Six nodded. "Ideas?"

  Ghost's grin turned mischievous. He handed his rifle to his boss and said, "I'm going to stroll down the corridor and kill the camera. Once it's dead, the rest of you can come around the corner without being seen. If he sees me coming, he might think I'm alone."

  The team leader thought for a moment and nodded his approval. He said, "I like it. Go for it,"

  Six turned to ready the rest of the team while the hunter pulled out the silver inlaid cane and strolled around the corridor as if he belonged there. Once he reached the end of the corridor, he made sure that the area was clear and calmly reached up with the cane tip and smashed the little plastic camera. As he pulled the cane back down, the hunter heard a loud curse echoing from somewhere beyond the partially opened blast door.

  Ghost clicked open his mic and warned Six, "Time to move, boss. Someone knows we're here."

  He moved back down the corridor to meet the team as they rounded the corner. Grabbing his rifle from Six, Ghost tucked the cane away and raised his rifle to his shoulder. The team moved back toward the end of the hallway that Ghost had just vacated.

  When they reached what should be the last blast door on the level according to the plans, Ghost found that the door was partially jammed and would open no wider than three feet. He motioned for Six to cover him, and, with his rifle raised, Ghost squeezed through the door. Crashing to a halt, he found himself on a stairwell landing with a flight of stairs leading down three levels to the entrance for the first level. Ghost stepped to his right as he tried to cover all three flights at once.

  Six came through the blast door opening and realized that Ghost needed some help. He told Ghost that he would cover him and ordered him to proceed to the next landing. The team leader swung his rifle down to cover the flight below them. Ghost shifted slightly and began to cover the stairway in the middle and then slowly moved down the wire mesh stairs. Heavy stepped through the doorway and immediately covered the stairs below them with his shotgun.

  The landing was getting a little crowded when Six spoke up. "Three stairways leading down to command level one," he said "Heavy, Spooky. When we hit the bottom landing, you guys stay there and cover the stairs down to command two. Everyone else, will clear command one. Watch your targets and look for Dr. Kaine."

  Heavy pointed his shotgun down the stairs in the middle. Six and Ghost carefully descended the stairs and guarded the lower landings with their rifles. They paused on the last landing before the doorway to gather the rest of the team. Doc and Do-Right quickly stepped through and walked down, joining the two lead agents on the landing. Boomer and God squeezed through and quickly joined the rest of the team with Heavy and Spooky bringing up the rear. The team made their way down the relatively short flight of stairs and came to a landing across from a six-foot wide opening with a faded sign above the open doorway proclaiming "Command Level One." Nothing living was visible.

  As the team knew from the blueprints, the command level was a large circular level, roughly forty feet across with a ceiling approximately fifteen to twenty feet tall. The level was separated into compartments. According to the original plans, the first two doors to the left should be a janitor's closet and restroom, respectively. Beyond the monolithic wiring and ducting conduit in the middle should sit a small kitchenette, and the back of the level should house a mechanical room for HVAC and potable water.

  At a
silent three-count, Six and Ghost simultaneously burst through the opening. Ghost swung right slightly to cover the open side of the room as his boss stepped forward and opened the janitor's closet. Behind the two men, Boomer and God moved into the room and covered the restroom and the kitchenette entrances. Doc and Do-Right stepped in and to the right. The former deputy concentrated his sights on the mechanical room.

  Doc noticed her vestments begin to glow their etheric blue and shouted a warning just as the first vampire burst from the kitchenette, distended jaws open and brimming with teeth. As the vampire charged out of the kitchen, the door to the restroom was flung open, and a human familiar reached for God who stood closest to Doc.

  When Six turned to fire on the familiar rushing his sniper, he noticed that two revenants were running out of the mechanical room. He concentrated on his target, but he did not pull the trigger as he realized that Boomer was standing just beyond his target. He mentally switched gears and swung the butt of his gun at the maddened familiar's head, dully noting that the familiar was another teenager. The butt of his rifle connected with the back of the girl's head just as the butt of God's rifle stroked into her jaw. The force of the two blows violently jerked the girl's head around, and Six heard the bones of her neck snap as the body of the girl collapsed to the floor.

  Boomer opened up with her shotgun as the vampire reached for her. The full-auto shotgun spit out a round every fifth of a second, and each three-quarter-inch bullet was one of Norbert's special vampire hunting slugs. The twelve gauge shotgun roared, and four slugs hit the chest of the vampire, sending it sprawling backwards from shock and energy. The demolitions specialist grinned wildly at the lack of recoil in her new toy. She raised the gun to her shoulder and fired another short burst, thumping three rounds into head of the vampire before it could recover. The head of the vampire disappeared in a mist of ichor.

  As she raised the muzzle of her shotgun, she spotted two more vampires coming from the kitchen around the corner. She centered her shotgun on the beast to the right. As she pulled the trigger, Boomer heard at least two rifles open up around her. Both vampires were soon overwhelmed by the firepower as it hit them. Both Boomer and God scored head shots on their respective monsters, and Six contributed to the withering firestorm.

  Do-Right and Ghost targeted the two revenants that came howling from the mechanical room. Ghost called, "Right," and began firing at the monster on the right. Do-Right switched targets to the left-most revenant and pulled the trigger on his rifle.

  Four holes appeared in the revenant's chest right over its heart. This staggered the creature. The former deputy raised his aim slightly higher and put the reticle right on the bridge of the creature's nose. Do-Right squeezed the trigger three times. He smiled slightly as the rounds all struck, emptying the monster's skull and dropping the creature's body to the ground.

  Ghost managed to hit his revenant several times in the chest, but the shots only slowed the creature down as it shook off the effects of the bullets. He pulled the trigger again and again and felt a "click" as the bolt locked open on his carbine. He dropped his rifle to let it swing freely on its sling, and he drew the cane sword from his belt. With a click and a twist, the blade sprang to life and glowed white as it rose out of its sheath. The remaining revenant suddenly forgot the wounds in its chest and cringed back in abject terror. In a classic fencing stance, Ghost advanced on the creature.

  The monster overcame its momentary fear and lunged at the hunter. He blocked the creature's claw attack with his sword as sparks danced all along the blade where the beast's claws struck. Ghost smiled as he whirled in a classic riposte, and the blade seemed to leap forward of its own volition and skewered the creature. The beast began to scream in pain, and smoke poured from where the sword ran it through.

  As he ripped the blade out of the creature, Ghost parried the next claw attack with the shaft of the cane and again swung a masterful riposte. This time the blade met the creature's face and plunged through the eye and into the brain. The creature immediately stopped and dropped to the ground as if it no longer had bones. As he pulled his blade from the creature's corpse, the hunter flicked the blade slightly to remove all of the black ichor off the blade.

  Ghost sheathed the blade as its glow faded. As he turned around, he saw the rest of the team staring at him.

  Six looked at him and said, "We really need to have a chat about your background. I have a feeling I'm being left in the dark."

  Ghost shrugged. "I suppose we should talk about it soon," the hunter replied. "After this mission."

  Six nodded.

  "What was that blade?" questioned Doc. "I've never seen anything like it."

  The hunter chuckled drily. "It's designed to burn and damage vampires, or any of their spawn," he said. "It's been in my family for generations. Now I think it's time we go, boss," he said as he turned to his leader.

  Six nodded and sent Do-Right, God, and Boomer back to wait with Heavy and Spooky. The rest of the team quickly cleared the remainder of the small floor. In the kitchen, they discovered a young girl, barely alive and fading fast, with feeding marks all along her throat, wrists and thighs.

  Doc looked at her boss. Her voice was filled with compassion, "If we don't take care of her, she'll become a revenant as she dies."

  Six said, "Wait a minute. I thought they were supposed to be cured if we killed the master that turned them. Why isn't she cured?"

  Doc shook her head. "She hadn't turned before her sire was killed. If she had already turned, she would have likely turned back. Unfortunately, if they're still alive but not fully turned when the master dies, then they turn into a revenant."

  She raised her cross and stake. Doc looked at Ghost. "Use your machete," she said. "Take her head once I perform the rites. It's the only merciful option."

  The priest prayed over the young girl. The Latin phrases caused the girl to cry out in agony until she mercifully passed out from the pain. With a sharp plunge, Doc drove the silver spiked end of her cross into the girl's chest and straight into her heart. Ghost quickly stepped up and swung his machete and ended her torment.

  25

  KAINE

  DECOMMISSIONED ATLAS MISSILE SILO, DIVIDE, COLORADO.

  The three agents were in a more sober mood as they rejoined the rest of the team. Heavy and Boomer both covered the stairway leading down with their shotguns, and everyone exchanged their partially emptied magazines for full magazines for their firearms.

  Again, the team moved down the first two landings, pausing before the final set of stairs. Because he knew that the command level two should be the same size and shape as the level one, Six made a decision and stood at the top of the stairway leading down. He called out in a loud voice, "Dr. Bishop Kaine. We are here to talk with you. Come out with your hands raised. I'm giving you ten seconds to surrender peacefully... starting now."

  The group heard a howling scream that announced a revenant. Two of the creatures barreled out the doorway below the team and lunged for the agents. Alerted by the screams, Heavy and Boomer both aimed and opened fire with their AA-12s. The deafening roar of the fully automatic shotguns quickly drowned out the screams of the revenants. The creatures never realized what happened as their mangled and torn corpses collapsed on the stairs.

  Not willing to wait any further, the team moved down the stairs. As they reached the bottom, Six and Ghost again went through the doors first with Ghost covering the right side and his boss the left. Two human familiars, each holding an aluminum baseball bat, stood by the ancient control center equipment on the left side of the room. As the humans surged toward Six, he flipped the selector switch on his M4 to burst mode and pulled the trigger.

  A three-round burst chattered from the rifle hitting the chest of the familiar on the right. Six shifted to the left and placed a second burst into the chest of the familiar and watched as both tumbled to the floor. Flipping the selector switch back to single, Six stroked the trigger twice, once into each fami
liar's head. He stopped to cover what appeared to be a bedroom to the back and an open sleeping quarters in the center of the room and then motioned for the rest of the team to protect him by watching the other half of the level.

  Ghost shifted his aim to the right as another screaming revenant burst around the corner. His rifle fire was joined by the deafening clatter of the full-auto shotguns carried by Heavy and Boomer. The chest and head of the creature disappeared in a spray of ichor, allowing the bottom half of the body to crumple to the ground.

  God and Do-Right stepped over to join their leader in covering and exploring the left half of the level. Protected by the two agents, Six walked toward an open doorway located where an office as originally located on the plans. Six spied an unmade bed and some standard bedroom furniture in the former office. As he approached the room, he scanned the room and paused. He barely restrained himself from pulling the trigger. Huddled in the corner was a young girl, no more than eleven or twelve years old. Her disheveled clothing and frightened face made the DHS leader pause. He quickly scanned around the room to make sure that no other monsters were in there, and he muttered over his headset that one victim was alive.

  Meanwhile, in the other half of the command level, Ghost slung his rifle and pulled the cane from his belt as Doc's vestments began to glow blue once again. He and Heavy stepped forward, allowing the priest to protect the rear of the party, while Boomer watched out for Spooky.

  Another revenant screamed and burst from its hiding place and met its end at the tip of Ghost's ancestral blade. Ghost didn't have time to pull the blade from the skull of his latest kill when yet another creature appeared and charged for the hunter. The full-auto burn of Heavy's AA-12 roared as the center torso of the revenant who was attacking Ghost disappeared in a spray of ichor. The hunter yanked his blade free of the skull of the dead revenant, and looked at the big machine gunner.

  "Thanks, man," Ghost said to Heavy. "Stupid skull on these critters doesn't like releasing blades."