by Lee Roland
She twisted to my right. Debris piled against the wall, partly from the falling stairs. “Go closer,” I told Dacardi.
He walked slowly toward the pile. Behind it, I could see a steel door. Where would that lead? Thirty minutes later, with a minimum of grumbling, we had the frame cleared. The opening revealed a closet full of wires hanging in mad disarray, an electrical closet that once served the subway.
I wasn’t willing to let matters go so quickly. I shoved myself into the closet. “Bring Nefertiti here.”
Dacardi came to me, Nefertiti slid out of his coveralls into my arms, and I laid her on the floor. His body heat had revived her and she moved normally now. I worried, though. She immediately crawled through the clump of wires and disappeared.
I dropped to my knees and the remaining floor debris cut into my jeans. “Nefertiti, we can’t go that way.” She didn’t return. I bent down to dig through the wires and they parted as easily as spaghetti in my hands. I found what she wanted me to see. Behind the wires was a three-foot-square box that led into what had probably been a service passage.
“Okay, guys. Help me get some of these wires out of the way.”
They let out a few sighs, but gave in. What else could they do? Call a cab and go home? I stood back while Michael and Dacardi tore at the wires so they wouldn’t tangle in any equipment we carried.
Flynn stood beside me. “Cass, if we can’t find Selene, I’ll understand.”
“Why shouldn’t we find her?” I laid a hand on his chest and felt the steady beat of his heart. “Nefertiti is on the trail.”
“You were right, though. I should have had faith in you.” His lips brushed across my forehead. “We didn’t need Michael or his money.”
“No, we didn’t need Michael or his money. But I think he’s here with us for a reason.”
“Not a good one.”
“Don’t let your prejudice make good guys into bad guys.” I said prejudice when I meant jealousy.
“And Michael’s a good guy?” Flynn’s voice sounded tight. He didn’t believe that.
“Michael is Michael.”
“And Dacardi?”
“Dacardi is a criminal, but I like him, too. Bare-ass courage made him what he is. He’ll stand with us. Remember the knights on the chessboard. We’ll see what he’s made of soon.”
“The same could be said for all of us, Cass.”
He was right. I drew a breath to speak, to say the words, tell him how I felt when a scrape came from behind me. Claws on concrete. I knew that sound. One of the rhinolike predators I’d killed the day we’d fallen into the sewer was scrabbling and clawing its way onto the platform. Ungainly, slow, and lumbering, probably injured by the storm sewer flood. I drew my gun but hesitated. I’d be shouting Here I am! by blasting monsters this close.
“That’s it,” Michael called from the closet. “We’re in.”
Nefertiti suddenly raced past me. She coiled and struck the predator in one smooth movement. Her fangs caught the thing in the softer-looking tissue around its lips. The thing froze and she struck again, this time under its eye. Then she calmly glided back toward us.
The monster stood rigid. It gave one long, mournful cry that stretched away down the long tunnel and into the darkness beyond. With a heavy, wet smack, it toppled over onto the concrete platform. The gray hide quivered and jerked. One final sigh escaped its lungs like air from a balloon.
“Damn,” Dacardi said from behind me. “She’s good.” Nefertiti crawled to him and stopped at his feet. He crouched in front of her. Then he held out his hand and she crawled up his arm to nuzzle his ear. I went first, a bit of a squeeze, but no more than the pipe that dumped us here. At least it was dry. As I suspected, a duct carried electrical wires serving the subway. Twenty feet down, it opened up into a narrow passageway that let us stand. Still more wires to shove aside, but easier this time.
“These wires are copper,” Dacardi said. “A million dollars in salvage here.”
“Probably.” I had to agree. “There’s a lot in the Barrows that’s salvageable.”
“Who owns it?” Flynn asked. “They pay taxes, don’t they?”
“Yes,” Michael said. “I do.” His words weighed heavy with irony.
“All of it?” I stopped to turn back and stare at him.
“No. A large portion, the Zombie and the areas close to the docks.”
“You own the Zombie? How did you manage that?”
“Abandoned property. Tax sales. I purchased it from the city. They were happy to sell. Taxes are pennies a square block until I redevelop. I’d begun the redevelopment process near the docks when I suddenly ran out of money.”
Oh, yes, brother Vic had helped himself to the cookie jar. That semi-explained why Michael tolerated Theron. He needed the money.
We came to another metal door, but this one cocked to the side and hung from one hinge. We emerged into an underground parking garage.
This was ideal territory for monsters, but there was no sign or smell. Only one level below the street, but I could hear water seeping in the lower end, lapping at the pavement like a dog slurping from a toilet. The roll of thunder thudded through the building. Now relatively safe, I prayed that the Mother would send a biblical flood to cleanse the nightmare under the streets—and I wondered why she didn’t do it before we went down. Abby said she controlled the weather. I assumed she controlled the weather. So how did we go wrong here?
Nefertiti slid down Dacardi’s arm and headed across the garage to the high end, where a set of twisted steel stairs led up into the building itself. She waited for us. I picked her up when I reached her and draped her over my shoulders. I knew she could climb, but I still worried. She’d taken a horrible chill for a snake.
We climbed the stairs one person at a time to distribute our weight, but they creaked and groaned. We gathered on a more solid landing.
“This is too easy,” I said softly. “Nothing I do is this easy.”
“Don’t borrow trouble, Cass,” Flynn whispered in my ear.
“Dim the lights,” I said as I gripped the metal door handle. Great Mother, don’t let it be jammed. The door opened with the perfect ease and oiled silence of something used often. Disturbing. Were we expected? Most likely. The hallway we entered was clear of debris. An easy path to the interior and another set of stairs leading up to the next floor.
Our feet made little sound on the steps as we climbed. Shreds of ancient rotted carpet clung to the steps—at the outside edges, not the middle. Someone used this path often enough to wear the threads away. The air smelled different here. Not like habitation, but not the tomblike atmosphere of a truly abandoned building. The signs of use ended at a door. I signaled for them to cut off the lights and we walked into a dark, silent hallway. In the distance, I could see a faint glow and hear the soft sound of voices.
Nefertiti writhed and slid down my body to the floor and headed for the light.
The men fanned out on either side of me as we crept down the hall. I had them turn off their lights and let their eyes become accustomed to the dimmer illumination.
Then a child’s voice, a little girl’s, said, “Oh, look, the snake is back.”
“No, that’s a different one. The other one was bigger.” A boy spoke this time, his young voice pitched high with fear. “Don’t go over there, Kimmy. It might bite you.”
Soft light spilled from a room on my left. An open, steel-barred cage door stood in place of a regular one. I faced my troops and held up my hands, palms out, trying to make them not rush into a trap.
“Careful.” I mouthed the words. Still too easy.
I peeked around the door’s edge. Several kids—I couldn’t tell how many—sat huddled together on mattresses on the floor. The light came from a few battery lamps scattered around the room. Cookie and candy wrappers littered the area, along with empty water bottles. At least the scum who locked them up fed them. A couple of portable toilets sat in the corner, but in spite of that, the roo
m smelled of sewage. Long-term planning by someone who kept children as sacrificial lambs.
Dacardi surged forward and I blocked him with my body. Had he heard Richard’s voice? “Wait,” I said. “It could be—”
“What was that?” another girl said. This one sounded older.
Flynn drew a sharp breath. Selene’s voice, most likely.
I stared straight ahead down the hall, still looking for a trap. I saw nothing but darkness.
“Who’s there?” a boy called. Fear came with his words, but anger, too.
Dacardi jerked again. Richard for sure.
I stepped in front of the door so they could see me. They all stood now, huddled in a group. Selene was there, as was Richard. Teenagers, they stood tall above four other children, two boys and two girls. The older pair stepped in front of the smaller children.
“Hi,” I said softly.“Richard—quick—are there guards?”
He shook his head. “No. At least not close. Men come at daylight and bring food.” He didn’t talk loud, hadn’t moved, and held the others back. Healthy suspicion resonated in his voice.
“Stand still and be quiet. Okay?”
Richard nodded.
“Michael, give me a hand here.” His strength, combined with mine, should’ve let us remove the door.
Michael came forward. “Stand back.”
He wrapped his hands around the barred door and jerked up and out. It cracked with the sound of a demolition crew at work as it popped loose at the lock and tore out half the doorjamb.
Dacardi rushed into the room. Flynn followed him. I couldn’t blame them.
“See!” Selene cried as she flung herself into Flynn’s arms. “I told you my brother would come. I told you!” Flynn didn’t say anything. He cried. So did Dacardi.
“We need to go,” Michael said. “Now.”
The other children had come forward, but they huddled together, despair on their faces.
“Can we go, too?” one little girl asked. Her voice quavered and tears glittered in her eyes. No one had come for them.
“Of course you can.” I reached out to reassure them, but Michael stepped forward first.
He crouched down to be on their level and gave them that beneficent smile. “You can come with me.”
One of the girls, a lovely child, reached out to touch him, then drew her hand back. “Are you an angel?”
“No, but I’m someone who will help you,” he said. This was a Michael I’d never seen. Man, human, or something else, he had a complexity I did not understand.
They’d been psychologically wounded, these young ones, probably traumatized to the deepest places in their hearts. I hoped they would recover. Maybe Abby would help with a potion or two—if she could.
I went back and checked both directions in the hallway. Nothing.
I didn’t want to go back the way we came in, but we were in the heart of the Zombie Zone, and nothing good lay outside. The rain had stopped, and I’d bet the storm sewers were moderately clean by now.
“Nefertiti,” I called softly. Damn, where was she? “Nefertiti, come on, snake.”
“Maybe she went with the other snake,” Richard said. “The big one that looks like her.”
“Oh, yes,” Selene chimed in. “One of the men came back after they fed us one morning. He came in and said I was a big girl and he wanted to play with me.” She sneered. She knew how he wanted to play. “The snake came and bit him. He fell over and died.” Her eyes glittered, even in the soft light. “It came and stayed with us sometimes. We weren’t scared when it was here.”
“He’d locked the door behind him before he died, so we couldn’t get out,” Richard said. “But I took this and hid it before the others came and found him.” He held up a stunner. “Batteries are good.” He had a dark streak near his eye. He’d fought somewhere along the way.
“And I got this.” Selene drew a bronze-bladed knife out of her pocket. She grinned and I could see so much of Flynn in her.
These two had been willing to fight, not surprising, given their relatives. I didn’t know of a big snake, but Nefertiti knew her way around. This was where I’d found her and maybe she called it home. Others like her might live here. I certainly couldn’t go hunting for her.
“You ready?” Dacardi held a cell phone to his ear, and his little GPS thing glowed in his hand. “Good. Track us. Hurry. Blast your way in if you have to. There’s an extra hundred thou for all of you.”
“Damn, Dacardi. That’s big-time.” I couldn’t hide my shock.
“Ain’t going back in those sewers.” He stuffed the instruments in the plastic bag and shoved it back in his pocket.
We made our way down to the first floor using one dim, shaded light. There were no windows or doors left there, and no sign of monsters.
“Still too easy,” I muttered.
I peered outside and tried to get my bearings. The plaza, the center of the pentagram and the last place I wanted to be, was behind us on the other side of the building. Lightning flickered across the sky and skirted the tattered edges of boiling clouds. Not crashing bolts, but what my mother called God’s lace. A precise scientific name, I’m sure. The street was empty but the night had a heavy silence, as if greater things were ready to fall upon us.
Flynn wrapped an arm around me and kissed my ear. He was shaking and he couldn’t talk. We made a three-way clump, since Selene wouldn’t let go of him.
“Thank you,” he whispered, as Selene finally broke the embrace to talk to Richard.
I had to say it. I grabbed his shirt and held on. “I want to tell you . . . I . . .”
“I know. My love, my life, I know.” He rubbed his face against mine.
For once, I had no words.
Richard comforted the younger children. A born leader, that boy. I could feel the power in him and Selene. That was the thing that caused the Mother to send me after some children. These were the ones the Darkness desired. The others, while still precious, were simply children. I always rescued them when I could and I hoped that somewhere there was someone to love them, joyful to have them returned.
Michael stood silent, his eyes on the street.
Michael turned to me. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I felt the weight of his gaze. Had he proven himself this night? I wanted to think so. I wanted to think that Dacardi’s men would arrive and we’d all go safely home.
Dacardi was whispering in his phone again and the mechanical sound of approaching vehicles came. Then the sound of gunfire. “Use the big ones,” Dacardi ordered, his voice rising. “Use the fucking flamethrowers.” He shouted the last words.
Light, brilliant as a high summer morning, filled the streets a block away. Howls and screams filled the night, then roars of rage. The battle had begun—and since the vehicles hadn’t slowed, I’d bet humans and their guns were winning—for now. When they moved closer, their light filled the street before us. I had a bit different perspective.
I’d seen the monsters in the sewers, an increase in the numbers over the years, but now at least a hundred milled in the street. They must have climbed aboveground at the first sign of rain. Now they poured out of buildings and threw themselves in front of what looked like a couple of Fire Dogs on steroids. Men sat on top of one and suddenly sent out a thirty-foot slash of fire. That fire sent dozens of blazing monsters running away screaming. Other men with automatic rifles fired indiscriminately through the throngs and mowed the creatures down.
“Dacardi,” I screamed over the deafening chaos of battle. “How did you know we’d need this much firepower?”
Dacardi was laughing. “My granny told me. I dreamed about her two nights ago. Paid attention for a change.”
I saw no reason for the humor, because more creatures were pouring out of the buildings around us, packing the streets with fangs and claws. Why were there none in the building that held the children? Because, of course, we’d walked into a trap. I didn’t think the person or thing setting the trap had counted on D
acardi’s army getting us out. They had expected me to come alone, I realized. I was supposed to go in, unchallenged, until someone snapped the jaws shut around me. Maybe I had done something right, asking for help.
The roar of battle buffeted us: screams, donkeylike brays, the firecracker chatter of guns, and the racing engines of the Steroid Dogs. The vehicles had made their way to within sixty feet of us and stopped where the street ended in a series of cracks they couldn’t cross. We’d have to weave our way between those cracks—and we’d have to fight.
I drew my gun and heard the others ready theirs.
“Richard, Selene, you keep the little ones together,” I shouted above the screams and gunfire. “Stay in the middle and let us fight.”
They did as I asked, their faces solidified with determination. After weeks of fear and captivity, these two brave children wanted to take a stand.
Dacardi yelled final orders into his phone. “Get down,” he said. He pulled something out of his pocket. He threw it outside. Oh, damn. We all dropped. The grenade exploded, sending monster parts flying everywhere, even onto us. We surged out of the building and onto the street. We made it a good way over the pavement before the beasts realized we were running among them. Only forty feet to go.
Flynn and Dacardi were the only ones with rifles. They mowed quite a few down. I had to be more selective. I’m a good shot, and every time I pulled the trigger, every time the gun slammed against my palm, one went down. The brilliance of the lights on the vehicles helped. The creatures frantically shook their heads in an attempt to keep from staring into it straight on.
Then they surrounded us and our forward motion slowed. Another searing blast of fire came close—too close. The biggest problem was the monsters between the vehicles and us. We couldn’t shoot in that direction and the men couldn’t shoot in ours. I moved to the front, where my shots—individual, precisely placed—were more effective. I dropped a magazine and loaded another. The men on the vehicle shot them, too.
Another fifteen feet. With horrified faces and wide, bulging eyes, the younger children screamed, but those small cries were lost in the clamor of battle. Richard and Selene had them by the arms and dragged them on.