by Jason Mather
Something about the size of a medium dog scuttled across the shadows on the floor. It was holding what appeared to be a piece of the strengthened window in one articulated limb, while the other three moved it over by the door. Hans was too stunned to propel himself off the bed.
He wouldn’t have made it anyway, as just then the door opened.
— «» —
His first thought after the door opened was to wonder why the lights were off. Had the target left already? Her schedule had said half an hour. Had someone tipped her off? His second thought was to switch to plan B. If all else failed, kill the brother. There was no time for a third thought.
— «» —
When the door opened, it took in everything it needed to know in a microsecond. Dead guard. Unknown unauthorized stranger. Weapon in hand. It drew back the tendril with the glass and threw the piece of window at high speed, jumping after it a split second later.
— «» —
Hans had a brief glimpse of a man in the doorway, saw what looked like an oddly shaped gun, and then the creature on the floor pounced. The glass in its grip was immediately airborne, shearing off the gunman’s hand at the wrist. The creature leaped and landed on the assassin’s head as he was still falling, and the only sound the man made was a soft grunt as he hit the floor.
Seconds passed, and Hans hoped the creature had exited the room. Then the scuttling began again. Hans curled up on his bed, certain it was what had gotten him before, knowing that there was nothing he could do to fight it off.
But it detoured toward the window, climbing up wall and glass with ease, exiting through the hole it had made.
— «» —
Once back outside, it sent one more message.
Threat neutralized. Target safe.
CHAPTER 2
The creature left silence in its wake. Ear-straining, bowel-churning silence. Enough strength had returned to his legs that Hans was able to maneuver himself over the railings and stand beside the bed, using it for support.
The dead man lay sprawled in the open doorway. The circular glass jutted, unbroken, from the viewscreen. The strange gun lay close by, displaced hand still wrapped around it. Hans considered picking it up, but squashed the idea. He had no expertise with guns. Probably end up shooting himself. Besides, severed body parts made him squeamish. So did dead bodies.
Afraid to draw attention to himself, he did not call for help, but he couldn’t stay in here, either.
Hans let go of the bed and hobbled to the wall, left leg dragging a bit more than his right. He was sick and tired of feeling helpless and disabled, but any attempt to get more speed out of his legs would result in him toppling over, so he fought his own nature and moved carefully.
He followed the wall around to the door, passing the creature’s handiwork. The dead man’s eyes were missing, now just two bloody holes. The creature had stabbed him with its appendages. Scrambled brains. Efficient. Sickening.
Another dead man lay in the hallway, facing away from Hans and spilling blood onto the floor. One of Grit’s soldiers, wearing the same pseudo-civilian outfit they all wore when they were unsuccessfully trying to blend in. Hans did not recognize him, had never met many beyond Gino and a couple of other officers.
Belatedly he realized that he was completely naked. There was a robe hanging by the bathroom, but Hans’ urge to exit overrode his decency. He doubted he was the first naked man to go wandering around the halls of this place, and he couldn’t spend another second in this room.
Getting around the body in the doorway was a near thing. He almost tripped trying to step over the sprawling legs, but images of falling onto the corpse steeled his resolve. Once in the hallway he turned to his right, the other way blocked by two hundred pounds of dead soldier. He could hear a phone ringing down the hall and headed toward it. No one was in the hallway, out of fear or because of the late hour, he didn’t know. The emptiness did little to relieve his nerves.
Hans put one hand on the left wall and struggled toward the T-junction a few dozen feet in front of him. His legs were already tiring, but he was determined to find someone, anyone. The urge to yell was tickling the back of his throat, but his fear throttled it. There was not much he could do if there was anyone else on this floor who wanted him dead, but he wasn’t going to make it any easier.
At the junction, he turned left. The phone continued to ring. Why hadn’t anyone answered it yet? Where the hell was the nursing staff? Where the hell was Doctor Laud? Somebody answer the goddamn phone! He almost yelled then, but regained what little composure he had and followed the nearly identical hall to the next junction, taking a right this time because he could see an exit sign hanging from the ceiling. He was shivering, both from the AC and the adrenaline. If anyone found him in this state they were going to be both shocked and unimpressed.
The sign at the junction led him to another right and he could see the nurse’s station. The volume of the ringing increased and he realized what he had taken for a phone was actually some kind of alarm. The nurse must have triggered it. “Patient lockdown” was flashing above the desk. That explained the empty hallways. Everyone had been locked in. Everyone who didn’t have a dead man lying in their doorway.
The trip down the final hallway took all the energy he had left, the red light and ringing goading him along. When he finally reached the desk he desperately needed to sit down, so he scooted his way around the edge to the chair on the other side.
Until he tripped over Antonia.
He landed with a thud right next to her, his hands lame attempt to catch him leaving them covered in her blood. Her eyes were open and glazed, a neat hole in her forehead, mouth agape.
Hans did yell then, though not much noise came out.
— «» —
Grit was out of the jumpcraft before it had finished landing, decorum damned by her half roll in the mid-length skirt. Gino followed, eyes aware. He had recommended they wait for the strike team to be in position before entering, but Grit wasn’t having any of it. It was reckless of her, but he knew, despite their differences and arguments, she would do anything to protect her brother.
The elevator opened immediately.
“Emergency security override, military use only.”
“Emergency override already in effect, floor please.”
Grit gave Gino a confused look. As far as she knew the two of them were the only people on premises capable of a full military lockdown. The building must be compromised, but Grit had never encountered anyone capable of cracking a government building.
No extra words of caution were necessary between them. The elevator descended.
Hans was huddled, naked and shivering, in the hallway in front of the nurse’s station. She could see blood on his hands and face. Grit moved to him. A glance at Gino and he was stalking off down the corridor.
“Hans?” She could see no obvious wounds.
“Help her,” his voice was monotone.
“Are you hurt?”
“Never mind me, help her, goddamn it!”
The nurse from earlier was lying on the floor, shot through the head.
“What happened, Hans?”
He raised his head to look at her.
“You want something from me, you get on the fucking comm right now and get someone up here to help her.”
“I don’t think anyone can help her at this point.”
“They saved me, they can save her.”
“Carlton’s dead, Grit,” Gino chirped into her comm.
“Shit.”
“There’s another body in here, don’t recognize him.”
“Bring me something to cover Hans.”
“Sure.”
Grit turned back to her brother. “Can you walk?”
“Find Laud.”
“Christ, Hans, I don’t know where he is.”
Hans put his head back down and would not talk to her.
“Gino.”
“Yeah?”
“Can the viewscr
een in there locate Doctor Laud?”
“It probably could if there wasn’t a piece of the window sticking out of it.”
“What?”
“There’s a hole in the window in here. The missing piece is buried in the viewscreen. Looks like it took our stranger’s hand off on the way.”
“So, he was killed by a piece of window shrapnel?”
“It doesn’t look like shrapnel, it’s perfectly circular. Also, whatever killed him lobotomized him.”
Too many unknown variables were at work here. What the hell was going on? Hans made a noise and fell over on his side.
“Hans, we have to…”
“I’m not going anywhere till you get Laud in here to help her.” Hans was beyond sense. She wasn’t talking him out of here. She wasn’t sure where she would put him, anyway. She took off her suit jacket and balled it up under his head so at least he wasn’t laying his damn fool head on the tile floor.
“Gino, what’s your threat assessment?”
“It looks to me like the threat has already been eliminated.”
“I’m going to call off the lockdown and try to locate Laud. Any concerns?”
“None worth mentioning.”
Grit stood and moved over to the nurse’s console.
“End lockdown, authorization Greta Ricker.”
The alarm beeping stopped.
“Locate Doctor Laud.”
The screen showed his location to be in his office on this floor, though almost immediately the signal began moving in her direction.
“Commander, this is Lieutenant Kinsley. We are in position to move forward with a sweep and contain.”
“Hold position for now, Lieutenant, the situation has changed a bit.”
“Where do you want me?”
“Cover the ground entrances and wait for my next order.”
“Roger. How’s your brother?”
“Alive. Thank you.”
Gino rounded the corner into view carrying a robe for Hans. Doctor Laud was right behind him. As the doctor neared and saw Hans, he moved to crouch beside him. “Is he hurt?” the doctor asked Grit.
“The blood isn’t his, it’s the nurse’s.”
Laud noticed Antonia for the first time. His reaction was quick and professional. He moved immediately to the nurse’s station and began talking into the microphone. Two nurses, freed from wherever the lockdown had trapped them, came around the corner within moments, wheeling one of the motorized lifters.
“Take her to the stasis unit, and get her settled as quickly as possible,” Laud instructed. They went about their business efficiently, though the shock on their faces was evident. “Who did this?”
“We don’t know, but it was most likely a man who is already lying dead in Hans’ room.”
“Did you stop him?”
“No.”
Laud looked like he had more questions, but kept them to himself. Grit turned to help Gino wrestle Hans, now unconscious, into the robe. The nurses wheeled Antonia off down the corridor.
“Can you save her?” Grit asked the doctor.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to try. We need to get Hans bedded down.”
“Do you have any other open rooms?”
“There’s always a few on this floor, that’s why I’m allowed to keep some of my patients here. “
“Show me where.” Grit bent down and lifted Hans bodily off the floor.
“Have you ever thought about being a nurse?”
“Couldn’t. Too squeamish and I don’t handle stress well.”
— «» —
When Hans came around, he was confused. The room looked exactly the same, same windows, same screen, same poor decoration, same bed.
A figure in nurse’s scrubs stood by the window across the room, the view outside different from what he had grown accustomed to. Mountains in the distance.
“Antonia?” Hans’ voice was hoarse and groggy.
“She’s in stasis.”
Memory returned with anger. Hans struggled against the restraints.
“Hang on, Hans, I activated them because you were thrashing around a bit and the doctor said I shouldn’t wake you,” Hans recognized Grit’s voice now. She moved to the controls. The restraints retracted. The lights came on. Hans could see her clearly now, absurdly wearing a shoulder holster over the top of the purple scrubs.
“You finally decide to get a real job?”
“My suit was ruined. This is what was available.”
“So, you’re my guard now? I’m flattered.”
“Gino’s on the door. I’ve got two men on the roof and two more in the lobby.”
“Again, I’m flattered.”
“You’ve become an important commodity.”
“Commodity, huh?”
“Cut it, Hans, I don’t need your bullshit right now.” Her eyes glazed slightly as she listened to something on her comm. “I need to know what happened.”
“And here I thought you were standing guard out of a sense of love and familial duty.”
No one could glare like Grit.
“Could you get me a glass of water?”
“There’s a drinking tube next to your head.”
“I’m not a fucking hamster.”
Grit rolled her eyes and spoke softly into her comm. “One water coming right up, Your Highness.”
They faced each other, silence multiplying. Hans broke first.
“How’d I get back here?”
“I carried you.”
“Oh.” He wasn’t quite expecting that answer. “Did you bathe and clothe and tuck me in, too?”
“Actually, yes.” Hans hadn’t expected that, either. He was rapidly losing ground. Gino came in with his water.
“Denver’s finest at my beck and call. Could you bring me a fluffed pillow and one of those little mints?”
Gino grasped Hans’ hand and placed the glass in it, only letting go when he was sure Hans wouldn’t drop it. He exited quickly.
“It must have been awkward for you,” Hans continued.
“It’s not the first time I’ve given you a bath.”
“First time in thirty years.”
“Not much different really. Some of you is bigger than I remember. Some of you isn’t.”
“I’ve always had undersized toes. Hurts my balance some.” He drank his water. Grit walked over to the bed and took it from him when he was done, catching his hand in her free one.
“Hans. I’m… glad you’re OK. When I came out of that elevator and saw you on the floor with blood all over you, I thought I’d really lost you this time.” Hans was taken aback, spluttering for something to diffuse this sudden intimacy. “I know we don’t get along well most of the time, and that we disagree about most things, but you’re my brother and that should count for something. I’ve been watching you for fourteen months, the whole time wondering if I was going to lose you, and just when I got you back I thought I’d lost you again…”
“Greta, you don’t have too…”
“Can it, Hans. We’ve been at odds a long time, ever since I joined up, and I’m sick of it. I don’t want us to go out hating each other. I want a brother again, not this stupid bickering. So tell me you love me and forgive me and need your big sis and we can go back to the verbal sparring tomorrow.”
She squeezed his hand. He looked out the window for a long moment before speaking, afraid his voice would break and ruin his composure.
“Remember that time I fell into that stupid piece of shit bear trap that Jackson had set up?”
“Never could figure out how he thought he was gonna catch a bear with that thing.”
“Yeah, he’d dug like a two-foot pit and put some upturned sticks he’d sharpened in it. Called ‘em panjo sticks or something.”
“Punji.”
“Yeah, after some old movie he saw. Covered it up with a bunch of twine and leaves and didn’t bother to tell anyone.”
“You chased in that fox that kept getting
after Mom’s chickens.”
“Broke my leg in two places, put one of those sticks right through my hand, almost took one in the neck.”
“You were in a sorry state.”
“You carried me all the way back to town. Two miles, wasn’t it?”
“Something like that.”
He looked at her.
“Do you have any idea how hard it is to have a sister that’s more manly than you?”
“Ma was stronger than both of us.”
“True. Goddamn women are taking over the whole world.”
“We’re equipped to.”
She squeezed his hand again. He squeezed back.
“You were a pretty good big sis.”
“You weren’t so bad either, most of the time.”
“How’d we get so lousy?”
“Dunno. Truce?”
Hans just nodded. His energy was fading again.
“My life was not worth hers.”
“Whose?”
“Antonia’s.”
“The trade hasn’t been made yet, Hans. Laud put you back together, maybe he can save her too.”
“Maybe. Sorry about your soldier.”
“Laud has got him in stasis, too. They didn’t come any tougher than Carlton. If anyone can make it he can.”
“And if not?”
“He’ll be missed and mourned and honored for the soldier he was.”
“I’d rather not have to do the same for you, Grit.”
“Not planning on it.” She leaned over and kissed his forehead. She used to do that when he was a kid. The memory was warm and suddenly very present.
“I gotta get some sleep. I’ve had an exciting day.”
“We need to talk about what happened in that other room, but that can wait ‘til morning.”
“Yeah.”
Hans drifted off quickly, as close to home as he’d been in a while.
— «» —
It was already almost noon when Hans woke, late enough that the sun was already over the mountains. The night before felt very distant in the light of day, especially the weirder aspects, but Hans was not prone to delusion or hysteria, and had no doubt that it occurred. He’d be happy to accept a reasonable lie, though.
Another bed had been wheeled into the room, currently occupied by his sister. She was curled up on her side, facing away from him, snoring in that way that only women could, a sound both raucous and soothing. Hans pressed the call button on the bed. The door opened and Gino came in, looking worn and sleep-deprived. He spent a moment looking at Grit curled up on the bed, removed his jacket, draped it across her shoulders.