Riggio had very mixed feelings. In the dim, distant perceptions of his consciousness, he seemed to have always known that he had three sisters, and that they had not died when he took control of the body very early in their shared lives. Now two of the sisters were not moving beside him in the abdominal cavity, not responding to his attempts to communicate with them. Of his sisters, only Tatsy and Lizbeth were in touch with him, and Lizbeth was confirming to Tatsy right now that Riggio was an increasing danger. But Lizbeth, like Tatsy, could not read his thoughts, yet he could read theirs... everything the two of them were thinking and saying to one another.
The abdominal pains Riggio had experienced several times when he’d dominated the body made sense to him now, the sensation that something was inside the cavity and kicking like a baby in the womb... or babies... anxious to be born.
Those had been his sisters struggling to be born, three of them including Tatsy, and despite their raw antipathy toward him, he cared deeply about them. Exploring Tatsy’s thoughts and memories, he understood how outraged she felt that he had been born, and she had not—until she finally managed to take over, and transform the body into a female.
Though she would never believe it, he empathized with her, and did not fault her for the hatred she felt toward him, over the unfairness of him taking most of the nutrients when all of them were in their mother’s womb, so that he could survive and make it out through the birth canal, trying to leave the others behind, as if they were dead.
He understood all that; he got it. But he hated cooperating with Tatsy at all. Brooding over her hatred for her entire life, thinking of little else, she had become psychotic. Part of him would enjoy killing her more than anything. Part of him wanted to be rid of her for all time. But their relationship went back a long way, and killing her could very well be suicidal. The fear she’d had about this earlier was his fear now.
“I love you, Tatsy,” he whispered, almost involuntarily, but it was the truth.
She did not respond, but in her thoughts that were read by Riggio he knew she loved him too, with more intensity than she could ever feel for anyone else. Anger, hatred, and a very deep love, all intertwined... but snarled in the knots of a lunatic.
~~~
Lightning flashed across the sky as Tatsy ran one way and then another, in an effort to trick her prey and then pounce. Finally, behind one of the containers she saw Meredith, wet and crouching, her face illuminated in low light. She was terrified, and tried to scramble away, but fell in the mud. She seemed unable to continue running. Had she injured herself? If so, it was only the beginning of what was going to happen to her.
“Got you!” Tatsy said.
“Why are you chasing me?”
Tatsy had no reason to answer. She leaned over and jerked the other woman to her feet, then pulled her by the arm toward the shadowy dome at the center of the construction yard, the dome that led down into Sun Under. Meredith struggled to get free, and complained about her left ankle hurting terribly, that she thought it was broken.
Good, Tatsy liked her to experience pain. Tatsy pushed her down and kicked her in the ankle she was complaining about, causing her to scream out in pain. Another sharp kick, this time in the ribs, and another scream.
Tatsy looked around. Though the wind and pounding rain were loud, she didn’t want anyone to wake up and come to the aid of this bitch.
~~~
Meredith didn’t think her ankle was broken, but at the very least it was a bad sprain, and Tatsy’s kick had not helped. Even so, Meredith thought she might be able to run on it, but for only a very short distance. She had feigned the severity of the pain, but felt the ankle throbbing, and knew she could not go far; it was why she had only made a feeble attempt to get away when Tatsy found her. The ankle was undoubtedly swelling up, too.
The crazed woman dragged Meredith to her feet, and continued toward the dome, moving faster now. “This is where it all ends for you,” she said.
Trying to put the pain in her ankle out of her mind as she hobbled, Meredith saw that the strange woman’s eyes were wild, her features contorted into a terrible, insane rage. What had set her off? What was this all about?
As they moved, Meredith again thought she noticed a resemblance to Riggio in the facial features. But Tatsy’s eyes seemed larger than his, and the mouth was different, smaller. Was this his sister? She didn’t want to ask, worried that anything she said might make the situation worse, might cause the woman to kill her. Tatsy was very strong.
The dome was unlocked. With a squeal of glee, Tatsy jerked open the door, dragged Meredith inside and continued pulling her, past barely-illuminated office cubicles, into a corridor. With a sinking feeling Meredith realized where they were going, toward the center where there was a huge drop-off.
She’s going to kill me.
But Meredith did not know why. She punched and flailed and tried to slow her down, but it was to no avail against a demonic strength that was far superior to hers.
She might have only one chance against this woman, if she could break free, which she thought might be possible, because there were moments when the grip loosened. Meredith looked for a room she might dash into, and lock the door.
CHAPTER 44
Zack saw a half-open door in the dome, with light coming from the interior. He and his passengers had just pulled up in the van. The windshield wipers beat a steady rhythm.
“Let’s get out and start looking around,” Hagel suggested.
At Zack’s sensor-command the engine whined down and the wipers stopped. The headlights remained on.
The cop in the back with Yordanius slid the van’s back door open and climbed out.
“I’ll stay here,” Agent Jantz said.
When Zack stepped out into the drizzle he heard what sounded like a scream, coming from the dome.
“We’d better check that out,” Agent Jantz said.
Zack was already sprinting for the doorway. It sounded like Meredith.
~~~
Through a hatch in the floor, surrounded by an oval black railing, Meredith saw the artificial sun below her, suspended on the end of its support cable. Inside the clear globe, silver and gold reflectors glimmered. The rope ladder had been removed, and was nowhere in sight. This left only the permanent ladder, which was still jammed partway down. It seemed to be a little lower than before at the bottom, suggesting that it had begun to operate and then stopped again. But the bottom rung was still too far above the sun and its surrounding walkway.
“Someone’s here to see you, Sunny,” Tatsy said, her voice sibilant, hissing like a snake. Standing with Meredith near the top of the emergency access ladder, Tatsy held her prisoner’s arms behind her.
Meredith’s mind whirled, as she looked desperately for something to break her fall, something to grab onto if this crazy woman pushed her off the edge, as she was threatening to do.
Behind her, she heard a man shout her name. It was Zack! Turning her head to look back, she could not see him yet.
~~~
Moments before, Zack had stepped through the doorway, into the interior of the dome, calling Meredith’s name.
The scream had come from somewhere over here, and moments before he’d seen shadowy movement inside the building, where it was dimly lit. Now he was running through a lobby, with offices accessible through glass doors, and a long corridor leading deeper into the dome.
Pausing to listen, he heard only the rain and the voice of Nolan Hagel as he ran just behind him. Zack’s eyes had adjusted to the light, which came from blinking control panels in cubicles around the dome’s interior. No operators were present.
He called out Meredith’s name again....
Now a cry for help came from the other side of the dome, and he ran in that direction. It was Meredith!
~~~
“No one can save you now,” Tatsy whispered, her eyes glowing red. To Meredith, the crazed woman’s powerful grip felt like tight handcuffs clamped on her wrists.
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But suddenly Tatsy jerked and stumbled backward. With a groan she dropped to her knees, still holding onto Meredith, who was forced down with her.
For an instant Meredith felt the pressure loosen on her wrists, before tightening again. Then it loosened once more, for a little longer this time, and then tightened. Not enough time for her break away, but what was going on?
“You’re going to die, bitch,” Tatsy whispered, in Meredith’s ear.
Then three other female voices whispered the same thing, word for word—one after the other and distinctly different in tone from one another—all coming from Tatsy’s lips. Hearing this, Meredith shuddered. This woman was definitely insane.
Where is Zack? Meredith wondered. She struggled to look back down the corridor, then heard him call her name again. Closer this time, though she still could not see him.
Then she was startled to hear yet another voice speak from Tatsy’s mouth, this one male and in a full voice: “I’ll make her let go of you, Meredith. Then I want you to run!” It sounded familiar, like Riggio, which startled her, and made her think of the facial similarity she’d thought she noticed between Tatsy and Riggio. Previously she’d thought it was just a trick of light and shadows, but this made it different. What did it mean?
Uncomprehending, Meredith wondered if she was really awake, or if she was back in her room at Sun Under, suffering a terrible nightmare. Events were jumbled, unreal.
Feeling the grip loosen once more, she pulled away. But Tatsy lunged at her quickly and pushed her off the edge, headfirst.
Meredith grabbed for the plazchain ladder, caught hold of a rung and arrested her fall.
She righted herself and scrambled down the ladder, trying to ignore the pain in her ankle. Looking down she confirmed what she’d noticed before, that the ladder was lower than it had been earlier in the day, but the bottom rung was still too high, not close enough to the walkway around Sunny.
~~~
In the middle of the long corridor Zack and Detective Hagel reached an oval black railing with an open hatch in the center. Adjacent to the hatch was a horizontal cylinder with a plazchain ladder wrapped around it, a ladder that led from the cylinder down into a hole.
At his side, Hagel had his gun drawn.
Glancing back, Zack also saw Agent Jantz approaching at a brisk, uneven walk, wearing her illuminated exosuit, accompanied by Dr. Yordanius and the cop guarding him. They caught up, and Jantz asked, “What’s going on?”
Detective Hagel looked into the open hatch and motioned for the others to stay back. He pointed his weapon down and knelt on a floor grating at one side. Zack knelt beside him. Below them the ladder was swinging wildly, and he saw two figures on the bottom of it, punching and kicking one another. Two women, and one of them was Meredith, fully clothed but in her stocking feet. They were both soaking wet, from their hair to their clothes, obviously from being out in the rain. Meredith’s clothes were muddy.
The ladder swung near a silver and gold globe that hung from the cavern ceiling.
“That’s Meredith,” Zack said to Hagel, his voice low. “Be careful!”
“I’m holding my fire, but I might be able to get off an accurate shot. That could be our killer, dressed as a woman. It could be Riggio Demónt.”
“I was thinking the same thing, but please be certain before taking a shot. Please!” Zack didn’t want to yell and surprise Meredith, then caught his breath when he saw her let go of the ladder and fall.
Fortunately she landed on top of the globe and grabbed hold of the bottom of a cable where it connected with the globe. The other woman—or was it Riggio?—was still on the lowest rung of the ladder above her.
The globe, illuminated by low light that danced on the surfaces of reflectors inside, must be the artificial sun Zack had heard about. How far was it to the bottom of the cavern? A long way, hundreds of feet. He saw low security lights on down there, illuminating some of the equipment parked on the cavern floor, and the village buildings and amenities that were under construction.
Detective Hagel flipped on a powerful, hand-held flashbeam and shined it at the woman on the ladder. The wild swings of plazchain had diminished, and she seemed to be waiting for the best opportunity to jump. She looked up, into the beam of light.
Zack saw crazed, feral eyes. It looked like a real woman, not a man dressed as one.
He heard murmuring behind him, saw the albino Dr. Yordanius looking over his shoulder into the hole. “Riggio?” the doctor shouted into the hole. “Is that you, Riggio?”
“What do you mean?” Zack asked.
The doctor didn’t answer. Again, he shouted into the hole. “Riggio? Is that you, Riggio?”
No answer came.
The ladder swung away from the light beam, then back into it.
On his level, Zack studied a mechanism near him, connected to the plazchain ladder and apparently for raising and lowering it. The mechanism had electronic controls, with a panel of toggles and touch pads. Adjacent to that was a large black wheel, a backup manual control.
Standing over the control panel, he flipped a toggle marked “LIFT.” A message appeared on an electronic screen: “OUT OF ORDER.”
He tried to turn the black wheel, also without success.
“Turn it the other way,” Agent Jantz suggested.
Zack did so. The ladder lifted, but only a little before jamming.
“Get the ladder farther up!” Jantz said to him, keeping her voice down. Zack tried, but it remained jammed. Then the FBI agent said, “Too late!”
Zack saw it, too—the monster on the ladder leapt free of it, dropping catlike onto the top of the artificial sun with Meredith. It was a long drop, an athletic, almost inhuman leap. The desperate struggle resumed between the women.
In a panic, Zack pushed his way past Hagel and scrambled down the ladder, shouting for the attacker to leave Meredith alone. Hagel followed him down.
~~~
Above them, Dr. Yordanius gazed down as the women fought, feeling embarrassed by the mistake of identity he’d made. For a moment, he’d thought he recognized those eyes looking up at him, had been certain it was Riggio, even if it looked like a woman. On impulse, he’d called out the name, but he’d been wrong.
His mind seemed to be playing tricks on him.
He rose to his feet and walked away, with the police guard staying close behind. But moments later Yordanius was back, looking down into the hole again, and scowling as he thought about the things he’d done in the laboratory to Einell Demónt and her fetus before it was born, and what he’d done to the fetus afterward as it grew into an adult.
Maybe in that combination of modifications and the cocktail of chemicals and genetic materials he’d created something unprecedented, something that his detractors had warned about. It seemed entirely possible, and scared the hell out of him.
And if true, the lab-creature was still changing....
~~~
On the lowest rung of the plazchain ladder, Zack looked down at the top of the artificial sun. Meredith was holding the cable with one hand, while swinging at the woman with her free hand, and kicking at her. The woman was holding on to the cable herself, while trying to bite Meredith’s fingers, to make her let go of the cable. Moments before, the attacker had grabbed hold of Meredith’s hair and tried to jerk her hard, but Meredith was able to pull away.
Zack hesitated, wanted to leap, but didn’t dare. He was bigger and heavier than the women, and there was no place left on top of the sun for him to land. He would have to aim for the attacker, but she was moving around so much it seemed too uncertain. For Meredith’s sake he didn’t think he should risk it. No, it would be better to try something safer, something with a higher chance of success. He saw Hagel above him, still looking for a kill-shot.
The cable holding the artificial sun might be reached (for Zack to slide down it) if he could swing the ladder far enough in that direction, but wide metalloy plates on the cable appeared impassable, like
rat guards on the anchor cable of a ship.
Above him, he heard Agent Jantz shouting down to Hagel, asking if he could get off a shot. Bright lights went on up there, and someone trained a spotlight on the top of the artificial sun, where the women were fighting.
“Can’t risk it yet,” the detective said, but only to Zack.
Zack’s heart raced. He remembered his own handgun back in the van, and the rock climbing gear he had brought. Not enough time to retrieve them.
With no other options he lowered his legs below the bottom rung, and held on to it by his hands, intending to try to drop where he wouldn’t hit Meredith. His heart racing, he looked down, waiting for an opportunity.
The women continued to struggle below him. He saw Meredith slip and cry out, but she regained her footing. The attacker grabbed hold of Meredith’s hair again, and pulled. Fighting for her life, Meredith kicked her, and struck her in the stomach, but the other women appeared to be stronger, and was insanely ferocious, as if she were on drugs.
The attacker seemed to have inexplicable periods of a few seconds in which she released Meredith and paused, before going after her again with renewed strength.
Zack felt the ladder drop, just a little. Overhead, through the floor grating he saw the police officer and Dr Yordanius struggling with the manual control wheel. He hoped they were figuring it out.
~~~
Meredith kicked again at Tatsy, and got her hair free when the grip seemed to loosen once more. Then she did a double-take when the crazed woman’s features shifted and hardened. The black hair took on a different, more masculine style. Muscles rippled beneath the clothing, stretching the fabric and tearing it. Dark hair covered the arms and chest. The eyes glowed animal-red, then softened.
Riggio!
The Unborn Page 27