Death Betrays

by J. C. Diem

  Leaving the stolen car in the short term parking lot at the airport, I scurried inside and searched for the next flight to North America. The next one that was scheduled to leave was heading for LA and it was due to leave in half an hour. Noting the gate number, I took off at a fast walk. My shoes clomped noisily with each step, drawing stares that I did my best to ignore. The shoes were even more uncomfortable to walk in than I’d expected.

  I didn’t have time to check whether there were any empty seats on the flight. The cargo hold would have to do. With my newly enhanced hypnotic powers, it was almost too easy to talk my way outside and onto the tarmac. A baggage handler emerged from the belly of the craft that would be ferrying me to the U.S. and prepared to close the hatch. He started in fright when I appeared beside him. “You never saw me,” I instructed him after capturing him with a glance. With a jerky nod, he waited for me to climb inside before shutting the door tightly.

  It was roomier than I’d expected inside the cargo hold and far less icy than I’d thought it would be. Several animals were along for the ride so I guessed the pilot had to make sure they didn’t freeze to death during transit. The pets had wisely been placed so they couldn’t see each other. They growled, yipped and meowed but came short of trying to kill each other through their cages. One of the dogs, a small thing with a lot of fur, showed me its teeth in a silent snarl when I walked past its cage. All of the animals subsided into nervous silence when I was out of sight. Maybe they could sense that I wasn’t human.

  Bags, suitcases and packages of all shapes and sizes had been stacked in untidy rows. Making my way to the back of the hold, I started shifting the suitcases around. I built a low wall so no one would see me when they came to feed and water the animals. It would be easy enough to hypnotize them into forgetting I was there but staying out of sight was a low risk solution. Turning the flight attendants into walking cabbages might be noticed and I preferred to reach the U.S. with a minimum of fuss.

  Making myself as comfortable as possible on one of the larger suitcases, I spent the next twelve hours bored out of my mind yet far too keyed up to sleep. Worry was my constant companion. I formulated and rejected a dozen plans, wishing that I had been given enhanced intelligence as well as enhanced beauty. My plans all had a similar theme revolving around finding the secret facility and breaking inside it. Until I actually saw what I was up against, it would be impossible to come up with a final plan.

  After a stop somewhere to refuel and to exchange existing passengers for new ones, my fight continued on. It was dark when the plane landed in Los Angeles. I slipped out of the cargo hold when the baggage handlers’ backs were turned. Stepping inside the airport, I was astounded by the sheer size of it. Huge and confusing, LAX was the biggest airport I’d ever been in. A harried security guard gave me directions to the domestic terminal, which turned out to be on the other side of the gigantic complex.

  After an underground train ride, I found the correct terminal and searched for a flight to Denver. It was going to be a close call this time, the plane was due to leave in a few minutes. I made it to the gate just as they were calling for a missing passenger a final time.

  Spying me jogging towards her, the flight attendant put the microphone away and smiled in relief. Her smile slipped a bit when I was close enough for her to see my face. “Are you Akira Chen?” she asked doubtfully. The name sounded Asian and I was obviously Caucasian so I could understand her scepticism.

  “Yep, I’m Akira,” I told her and stared into her eyes. “You’ve already checked my boarding pass and everything is fine.”

  “Welcome, Ms Chen,” she replied woodenly. “You are free to board.”

  Settling into my borrowed seat after bamboozling my way through two more impatient attendants, I ignored the hostile glares coming from my fellow passengers. None of them were happy that I’d held up the flight. This trip was going to be much shorter than the last at just over two hours and twenty minutes. I was pretty sure I could endure the wrath of dozens of people for that short length of time.

  I was still being sent an occasional stare of annoyance at holding everyone up when we landed. I waited patiently for my turn to disembark instead of pushing my way through to the front of the crowd. Drawing undue attention to myself wouldn’t be smart considering I was on a rescue mission to save my friends from the U.S. government.

  Freed from the plane, I mingled with the crowd and slowly dropped back towards the rear. Spying an exit, I hypnotized a security guard into letting me out. My time was rapidly being eaten away and I didn’t have the patience to wait in any lines. Jogging around to the main entrance, I took another short trip back inside. A few minutes later I held the keys to a hire car and was headed out of the doors for a final time.

  Climbing behind the wheel of the small Mazda, I sent out my senses and caught a trace of vampires in the distance. Zeroing in on the area, I sagged in relief when I found a cluster of my kin. There was no way to tell whether they were my friends or not but some strange instinct told me they were.

  Leaving Denver behind, the view quickly became monotonous. The landscape was mainly flat to start with but it gradually began to rise into hills. Scrubby trees began to make an appearance and then the occasional fir or pine tree showed up. Pale moonlight from a waning moon shone on a mountain range ahead. I sensed the vampires somewhere on the other side of the range. Some of the trees at the top of the range were white with snow and I shivered at the thought of how cold it was going to be up there.

  Dawn drew close before I could tackle the mountains. Nudging the rental car onto a little used dirt track, I parked behind a stand of trees and climbed into the boot. I guessed I should think of it as a trunk since I was in America now. This time, I allowed myself to sleep but it was thin and riddled with dreams of my friends calling out to me for help. The images were fleeting and didn’t help me to figure out exactly where they were or what condition they were in. All I saw was white walls and humans wearing either white lab coats or army uniforms. The general emotion I felt from the captives was despair and terror.

  Come nightfall, I hit the road again and the small rental car gamely attempted to climb the mountain range. The clouds were low enough that it almost seemed like I could reach out and touch them. Snow still lingered despite it being mid spring. My heater was going full blast to combat the chill. I didn’t relish being out in the cold and wished I had stolen something warmer to wear. The three inch heels wouldn’t exactly be ideal for sneaking around in. At least if any of my toes fell off due to frostbite I would be able to reattach them when they thawed out again.

  I finally cleared the range and drove for an hour or so beyond them before my senses told me I was closing in on the place where my friends had been taken. I turned onto a side road and it came as no surprise when I was confronted with a sign warning me that I was entering a restricted area. The high fence topped with razor wire to my right was a dead giveaway that I was somewhere I shouldn’t be.

  Hoping my car hadn’t been spotted, I stopped and reversed back onto the mostly deserted highway. There had to be cameras watching the area as well as guards on patrol. If I was caught on film I could be identified with the facial recognition programs government agencies were so fond of using. If Sanderson was alerted that I had escaped from my watery prison, he would kill my friends and allies in a heartbeat. To break them out with a minimum of casualties on our end, I was going to have to be stealthy again. I only hoped I would have as much success this time as I’d had when infiltrating the Court mansion.

  Further down the highway, I stopped at a sleepy little ski town and parked in a supermarket car park. A light dusting of snow covered the ground and my teeth started to chatter the instant I climbed out of the rental car. Apparently, they were having a long winter this year. Then again, I’d never been to Denver before so maybe this was normal.

  One of the shops still had a light burning inside and I crossed the street to investigate. I felt the icy hand of fate g
uiding me when I saw that it was a ski hire store. Shoplifting wasn’t a pastime I usually felt compelled to engage in but it was going to be called for in this instance. I hadn’t bothered to steal any money during my journey and had no spare cash on me.

  A man in his mid-twenties approached when I knocked on the door. His wary expression turned to dazed wonder when I caught his eyes. He let me in without me needing to give him a verbal command to. “You are the most-”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” I broke in before he could start raining praise down on me for how gorgeous I was. “I’m hot, get over it.” His grin didn’t waver but he stopped trying to compliment me. “I need clothes that will keep me warm while traipsing around in the snow,” I told him. Tall and wiry with an impressive afro, the clerk was all too happy to help.

  Minutes later, I was decked out in thermal underwear and a blindingly white ski jacket and matching pants. He even gave me waterproof snow boots and thermal socks. The white balaclava he handed over would stop my face from freezing as well as help me to blend into the landscape.

  “What do you know about the army facility just down the highway?” I asked him.

  “Uh, it’s an army facility and it’s just down the highway,” he replied unhelpfully.

  “What do they do there?”

  He shrugged. “I’m not sure. Experiment on aliens maybe?”

  “Never mind,” I said with a silent sigh. My inner voice didn’t have to point out that the clerk could be right. Technically, vampires were descended from aliens and no doubt scientists had been called in to probe my surviving kin. They would want to find out how we ticked so they could discover better ways to kill us.

  The clerk had one final service to offer me before I left. I filled up on his blood before I braved the cold again. I left my meal in blissful happiness as he continued his job of stocktaking. The tiny puncture wounds in his neck would fade until they looked like insect bites in a few hours.

  With no idea what kind of security measures the not so secret facility used, I was glad for my all white gear. Taking the car would be a bad idea so I went on foot. The snow crunched beneath my new boots as I sprinted back down the highway. Reaching the turnoff that led to the restricted area, I stuck close to the tree line on the left side of the road.

  Headlights blazed as a car approached me from behind. I ducked deeper into the trees and hunkered down to watch it pass. It was an army jeep, the kind without a roof, and carried several armed soldiers. Their faces were red from the cold as they searched the area for possible threats. I was far from warm but my outfit kept me from seizing up in the frigid temperature. I shuddered to think how bitter the cold would have been if it had been the middle of winter.

  Somewhere up ahead, the jeep slowed down and turned off. So far, I hadn’t spotted any cameras but that didn’t mean they weren’t there. I stuck to the trees and stealthily made my way to where the jeep had turned off.

  A gate, complete with more razor wire as well as a pair of guards, barred the way. The road disappeared into the trees beyond the barrier. The jeep had already moved out of sight but I heard the engine as it receded deeper into the compound. I needed to get inside the grounds but going in through the main gate was out. The cameras I’d been expecting were in place here. Two were pointed directly at the gate and several more had been directed at the road. There were enough of them that it would be very difficult for anyone without the proper authorization to enter.

  Staying low and moving slowly, I snuck past the guards. They chatted quietly, only occasionally glancing up and down the road to check for possible intruders. Their faces were also red from the cold. One of the men was smoking and his cigarette jittered up and down with his shivers. He raised his eyes heavenward and cursed as snow began to fall. “Just what we need,” he complained. “More snow.”

  “I’m so tired of standing out here freezing my ass off,” his partner responded. “I don’t know what they’ve got stashed inside the complex this time but they’re being way too paranoid about it.”

  Nodding and making his cigarette smoke whirl around his head, the other guard barked a laugh out of the side of his mouth. “Are they expecting someone to come in with their guns blazing and try to storm the place?” Patting the strap of gun that lay over his shoulder, he uttered another laugh. “If anyone even stops to ask for directions I’ll blast them in half with this baby.”

  “Speaking of paranoia,” the other man said. “What is it with these new guns? They have enough firepower to take down an elephant.”

  A chill raced down my spine when I recognized the weapons. They were the same type of gun that had been used to reduce me to chunks of meat. Not all of the personnel knew vampires were being held within the facility but they had been armed accordingly anyway.

  Continuing down the road until I was out of sight of both the guards and the cameras, I crossed the asphalt to examine the fence. The trees had been cleared on the other side for a stretch of about fifteen feet. Checking to make sure the area was still clear, I backed up then ran a few steps and launched myself into the air. Landing on the other side of the fence, I was only a few steps away from the trees.

  Turning around and walking backwards, I moved in an awkward hunch. Using my hands, I smoothed down the snow as best as I could to obscure my footprints. I obliterated my tracks until the snow ran out and dirt took over. Remembering a trick I’d read about years ago, I picked up a branch that still had leaves on it. Dragging it behind me, I swept away my footprints as I continued on through the forest.

  Deeper inside the thicket, the trees were dense enough that very little snow reached the ground. I crept closer to the road the jeep had taken and followed it. After hiking for some distance, the trees suddenly petered out and stark white snow took over once more. Hunkering down, I studied the area in puzzlement. Apart from a couple of buildings that looked like airplane hangars, the place was empty.

  Sending out my senses again, I felt the vampires somewhere beneath my feet. The entrance to what must be an underground facility was probably in one of the hangars. My chances of getting inside without being noticed were minimal. There was no way to tell how extensive the facility was or how many soldiers and personnel were in the complex. I needed to find a way inside that wouldn’t alert Colonel Sanderson that I had arrived and that all hell was about to break loose.

  Wishing Gregor was there to offer me advice, I wracked my brain for a solution that wouldn’t result in the deaths of my friends and acquaintances. I’d come too far to just give up without a fight. God help us all but they needed me.

  Not for the first time, I felt far too inadequate to be the dreaded Mortis. Not that long ago I’d sold clothing for a living. Now I was the only hope of survival for vampirekind. If this wasn’t some kind of cosmic joke, I didn’t know what was.

  Chapter Twenty

  Several soldiers patrolled the perimeter of the grounds and seemed to be on a timed schedule. Each one detoured to check inside both hangars during their patrol. They were disturbingly vigilant, shining heavy duty flashlights at any movement that caught their eyes. There was only a short window when no one was visible.

  A vast expanse of snow lay between me and the twin buildings. I figured my best bet would be to grab one of the soldiers and drag him into the woods to ask him a few questions.

  Waiting for one of the brief moments when all of the guards were out of sight, I streaked across the snowy field. Halfway to the hangars, my foot thudded on metal and I stopped to investigate. Crouching down, I wiped the snow away and revealed a grate. Peering inside the hole, a long shaft led to darkness. Perfectly square, the passage was narrow but not too narrow for me to be able to fit inside.

  Movement in the corner of my eye had me flattening myself on the ground. Lying still, I waited for shouts to ring out and for explosive bullets to fly. Cautiously lifting my face out of the snow when neither happened, I waited for another break in the patrol before springing into action.

  Glancing
around to make sure I remained unobserved, I lifted the grate and slipped inside. Bracing myself with my feet against one wall and my back against the other, I lowered the grate back into position gently. It would have been far too heavy for a normal woman to lift but it was easy enough for me. Soft snowflakes immediately began to fall through the grate and onto my face. I hoped the snowfall would become heavy enough to hide my footprints. All it would take for the alarm to be sounded was for one guard to wander close enough to see my tracks. They would lead him directly to the grate. The soldiers would put two and two together quickly enough and the hunt would begin.

  It was a long way to the bottom of the tunnel and I made my way downward carefully. I would heal if I fell and broke every bone in my body but the impact would hurt like hell. Stopping just above the end of the shaft when it came to an end, I peered downwards. Water ran sluggishly about twenty feet beneath me. It was far too clean to be from a sewage pipe and no noisome smells wafted upwards. With a mental shrug, I dropped and landed in the liquid. It was only ankle deep and my boots protected my feet and legs from getting wet.

  Sloshing over to a narrow path that ran beside the shallow trough of water, I turned in a full circle. The walls, ceiling and floor were all made of unpainted grey concrete. The tunnel stretched far into the distance in both directions. With only two choices, I headed left. My progress was eventually blocked by a set of bars that disappeared into the ceiling and floor. The bars were as thick as my wrists. A hallway leading deeper into the facility tantalized me from the other side.

  Tugging and kicking the bars had absolutely no effect. They were far too strong for me to break. Giving up in defeat, I headed in the other direction and eventually came to a blank wall. The water flowed into a narrow shaft that dropped down even deeper beneath the ground. Now what? My subconscious had no answer for me so I grumpily jogged back the other way.

  Staring at the hallway that remained stubbornly out of my reach, I leaned against the cold bars and stretched out a hand as if I could will myself through them. At that thought, a red line appeared on my wrist where it had previously been severed. My hand came free and dropped to the ground. Instead of scuttling off down the path under its own power as I half expected it to, Righty lay on its palm, waiting for me to possess it.