by Stephen Cole
‘Those three blind mice again. Me and Chung got out, but Mike—’
‘Spare me the gruesome details,’ Blood interrupted. ‘Things are bad enough as it is. Jicaque keeps going into some kind of trance, preparing himself for “the coming ordeal”, as he likes to put it. Which is fine, but makes him lousy company.’ He paused. ‘You know, a grey limousine was parked outside the Bane Gallery when we got here.’
Tom felt a tingle in his guts. ‘Takapa?’
‘Yeah, bloody poser. That skinny cow who runs the place showed up a while back, and I think maybe Marcie Folan did too.’
‘You think?’
‘To be honest, I crouched down out of sight at the first inkling. People have been coming and going all afternoon. I don’t know what they’re up to in there, but Jicaque’s not getting happy vibes off the place.’
Tom sighed. ‘Does he think he can get inside?’
‘We’re working on that. Call us when you’re ready to come and join. And we’ll shout if there’s any sign of Trolly this end.’ He hung up.
As Tom placed the phone back on Stacy’s adopted desk, Sunday came back holding a big bag. ‘I had a spree at Old Navy,’ she announced. ‘Talk about last-minute shopping – they were dying to close up. Hope they fit.’
‘Hallelujah,’ Tom said, as with a smile she tossed him some blue jeans, a black hoodie and deck shoes. She dumped the bag and the rest of its contents at Chung’s feet without a word.
‘Thanks,’ said Chung as he picked up the bag.
Sunday sat back next to Stacy. ‘Thank her. She paid for it.’
Chung pulled on a pair of combat pants, and looked at her thoughtfully. ‘Guess you must hate me pretty bad, huh?’
‘What do you care?’ asked Sunday, without turning around.
‘Well?’
‘What’s to hate? Oh, aside from the fact that you were quite prepared to hand me over as raw ’wolf-meat to a stranger?’ Her voice started to rise. ‘Aside from the fact that creatures like you aren’t content to turn my dad into a monster, you have to make him, like, some kind of junkie too—’
‘I had nothing to do with that shit,’ said Chung hotly. ‘Don’t try to make out I’m like Takapa.’
‘Duh, hello!’ Sunday shook her head in disbelief. ‘You’re both werewolves, aren’t you?’
‘Takapa’s garbage. I hate him as much as you do.’
‘Why?’ yelled Sunday back at him. ‘Because he turned your buddies into raw hamburger? Well, what have you and your buddies been doing to people like me your whole life, huh? Is it different when you actually know who’s getting gnawed on? Or maybe you’re just uptight ’cause it’s werewolf eating werewolf – the superior beings snacking on each other instead of some crappy old human? Is that what’s pissing you off, you goddamned hypocrite? Huh?’
Chung looked away. ‘The Dark Chapter has always put limits on the kills in this city,’ he said quietly. ‘Without us a whole lot more humans would be dead.’
‘Not because you care about life,’ said Sunday. ‘Only because you want to keep the heat off your own hairy back.’
‘Hey, hon,’ said Stacy quietly. ‘You want to hate me along with our pureblood friend here? Because it was me who helped make your dad a junkie, not him. I developed that bloodlust drug they use.’
‘Come on, Stacy,’ Tom argued. ‘You were making a serum you thought would help newbloods control their ’wolf urges. You were trying to save lives.’
‘Sure. And Takapa took that ambition and twisted it around to serve his.’ She pointed at Chung. ‘So don’t aim your hate at him. He never asked to be born a ’wolf. The hunt’s in his blood, it’s all he knows. That’s not evil, that’s nature.’
Sunday stared at her in disbelief. ‘You’re defending him?’
‘I’m just saying Takapa’s the evil one – taking that nature and trying to turn it into something he can control.’ She ran a hand wearily through her auburn hair. ‘There will always be ’wolves in the world, Sunday. And there’ll always be bad stuff we can’t stop, hiding out there in the shadows. We’ve just got to know what it is we’re fighting – and pick the fights we can win.’
Tom clenched his fists. ‘This is one fight we have to win. I’m going to get Kate back. Whatever it takes.’
‘Amen to that, Tom.’ Stacy bent back over her microscope. ‘You know, these skin cells are reproducing at an incredible rate …’
‘Regenerating themselves?’ Tom asked.
‘Exactly. But so fast …’ She looked up, rubbed her eyes. ‘I hate that I can’t explain this.’
‘Never mind explaining it,’ said Chung, pacing around behind her. ‘How do we stop it?’ He noticed a large metal door in the wall behind him. ‘Hey, what’s this?’
‘Cold store,’ said Stacy vaguely. ‘Don’t go in. There’ll be a whole heap of viruses kept on ice in there.’
Chung frowned. ‘Dangerous shit?’
‘Nothing too exotic,’ she assured him, turning back to her microscope. ‘They’re researching diseases in children, I think. Polio, chickenpox, influenza strains, stuff like that.’
‘Thought maybe we could hit Takapa with something really toxic,’ sighed Chung. ‘Instead, what have we got? The flu.’
Tom shrugged. ‘Maybe we could spread some germs about this gallery place,’ he said wryly. ‘Try and make Stubbe sneeze himself to death.’
Stacy glowered at him. ‘Gee, the answer was under our noses the whole time.’ Then she straightened up from the microscope and frowned. ‘Well … maybe not our noses …’ With that, apparently lost in thought, she went into the cold store.
Chung shivered in the blast of chilly air that escaped the metal door, and slipped on the grey sweater Sunday had picked up for him. ‘It’s a good fit,’ he admitted. ‘A good choice, too.’
‘Yeah, well.’ She shrugged. ‘They were all out of black leather and wolf’s heads.’
‘I won’t be wearing that stuff again,’ he said. ‘The Chapter’s over.’
‘And maybe a new chapter beginning,’ Tom muttered.
‘Sure. Maybe.’ Sunday looked at him doubtfully. ‘But in their book or ours?’
g
g
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kate came round slowly, her head pounding and aching in every muscle.
She supposed that meant she was still alive.
Her eyes flicked open. It made no difference; everything was still black. Distant sounds carried to her – bangs and talk and drills going … the sounds of things being built, somewhere nearby. Was she still at Brook Mansion, or someplace else?
Weakly, she tried to get up. A crack of light lay balanced on the blackness ahead of her – suggesting a doorway.
Her legs didn’t move properly, nor did her arms. For a sick second she thought she’d been paralysed. Then she realised she’d simply been tied up – her feet bound together and her hands tied in front of her.
Hopping and shuffling, fighting a wave of nausea and dizziness, she managed to reach the door. She pulled down on the handle with her two bound hands but – big surprise – it didn’t open. She felt with her tender head for the light switch and soon found it. With a whirr, a white strip blinked on above her into blinding light. When her aching eyes had adjusted she saw she was in a storeroom – from the smell of bleach and polish, a cleaner’s closet.
She slumped against a wall and sat down, trying to pick at her bonds with her fingertips.
Then she heard a rustling noise coming from a corner of the room.
She froze, suddenly alert, then looked to where the noise had come from. Something moved, half-hidden by a pile of blankets. Then it called feebly for help. It was a man’s voice.
Kate shuffled cautiously closer, barely keeping her balance, and saw it was a cute-looking black guy with a classy little beard. Beneath his leather jacket his denim shirt was in tatters, stained and crusty with blood from some pretty deep wounds.
With a shock she recognised him. ‘Zac?’
she whispered incredulously.
Slowly, his eyes flickered open and looked up at her. ‘I’ve seen you … before …’ he said haltingly. He was clearly in a lot of pain.
Kate nodded. ‘I was there when you visited the Drake Hotel, and when Chung led the attack on Takapa’s place,’ she told him. ‘I saw you attacked, brought down by those ’wolves. I thought you were dead,’ she added quietly.
Zac’s tongue flicked over his dry lips. ‘Man, I hurt bad.’
‘You’ve lost a lot of blood,’ Kate said gently. She guessed he couldn’t have long. ‘I’ll try to get some help.’ Some hope, she thought. Pulling away from him, she shuffled towards the door. But before she could even reach it, a key turned in the lock. Kate flinched away as the door swung open.
Framed in the doorway against the clean brightness of the gallery beyond stood a skinny man, probably in his fifties, dressed in an expensive black suit that made his deathly pale face seem even whiter. His white-blond hair was shaved down to the scalp, but it had more freedom on his weak chin where it sprouted in a small goatee. His features were small and precise, bunched up close together in the centre of his pockmarked face. Kate shuddered as he stood there, staring at her, his albino eyes sweeping up and down her body. Takapa had come crawling out from under his stone at last. Ready for his big night.
‘How charming to see you again, my dear,’ he said. ‘I’m glad you’ve woken up. You were asleep for some time.’
Kate glared at him. ‘Never mind me,’ she snapped. ‘What about Zac?’ She gestured behind her. ‘Are you just going to leave him here to die?’
‘Zac? Is that his name?’ Takapa tilted his head to one side in mock sympathy. The little silver helix that dangled from his right ear gleamed in the light. ‘Such a pity he’s not going to pull through. That poor security guard gave his life so that Zac might live again.’
Kate frowned. ‘Live again?’
‘Oh, yes,’ smiled Takapa. ‘Zac was quite dead this morning, I assure you. He would have stayed dead, too, if he hadn’t received a transfusion of energy from Araminta’s poor security guard.’
Kate suddenly felt icy cold as she remembered the mulched remains of the security guard, recalled her own disbelieving words to Jicaque, back at the Drake Hotel: You’re saying these codechanters can separate a soul from a living body like a dentist pulls a tooth? Jicaque had guessed that Takapa would be trying to kick-start Stubbe’s soul with psychic energy sucked out of some other poor bastard – and here was proof of his intentions.
Takapa was looking at her expectantly.
‘So you and Liebermann are doing the full Frankenstein bit now, huh?’ she said quietly.
‘Indeed.’ Takapa beamed at her like a teacher pleased with a star pupil. ‘Although naturally, only the psychic energy from another pureblood lupine will suffice to revive the Great Wolf.’
Kate glanced back over at Zac’s prone body in the corner. ‘I guess Liebermann has been perfecting his techniques …’ She shuddered to think that something like this had so nearly happened to Sunday. ‘Didn’t get it quite right this time though, did he?’ she spat, staring at Takapa with utter loathing. ‘Zac’s dying all over again, anyone can see that.’
Takapa shrugged. ‘Nevertheless, the experiment was a most useful one: Liebermann had extracted the security guard’s psychic energy a few hours prior to putting it into Zac, holding it within a codechanting circuit. During this interval without a host, the energy weakened. Enough remained to bring Zac back to a living state – but not for long. Happily, we now know the importance of placing our extracted pureblood psychic energy immediately into the body of the Great Wolf in order to avoid such … complications.’
Kate stared at him in disbelief. ‘Liebermann kept the guard’s … soul, just floating around for hours, waiting for a new body?’
Takapa’s pink eyes were gleaming. ‘Really, my dear, you mustn’t be so sentimental. What I am talking about is merely energy – a source of fuel. Your idea of a soul is just romantic hokum.’
‘Yeah? Well, my idea of an asshole is staring me right in the face,’ Kate sneered. ‘We don’t just run on batteries like machines! We’re people, with feelings and memories and dreams …’
‘That is simply clutter,’ Takapa told her flatly. ‘Liebermann’s chanted codes strip all that away.’ He took a step towards her. ‘I shall proceed with Stubbe’s resurrection here at the Bane Gallery tonight, as planned. The sacrifice shall take place before my eminent pureblood audience, and the Master shall rise again. The lupine community shall finally appreciate my worth and offer support to my vision for the future.’ Takapa walked towards her, and the fine dark cloth of his suit seemed to swallow the light around him.
‘Keep back,’ Kate hissed. She took a shuffling step backward, lost her balance and fell down against some boxes.
Takapa tutted and shook his head. His left ear was missing altogether, as if it had been chewed clean off. ‘I do apologise for leaving you here with the dying, but I had no time to arrange for a room of your own. When I heard you’d been apprehended at Brook Mansion, I had you driven over at once.’ He bowed courteously. ‘I simply couldn’t wait to see you. Your sharp tongue amuses me no end.’ He reached out to touch her. His fingernails were long and filed to points as sharp as his yellow teeth.
Kate closed her eyes and willed herself not to give the evil bastard the satisfaction of making her squirm. She felt his fingers brush against her ankles, then grip the thin cord that held them tied. He snapped it with a quick, slicing motion.
She opened her eyes. Takapa was still crouching over her, fondling the severed cord between his fingers. His other hand closed around her bound wrists, and heaved her up by them.
He leaned in close. Kate shuddered, and didn’t bother to hide it. ‘Come, let’s take a stroll while we talk of the future,’ he said. Then he opened the door and gestured for her to follow him out.
Kate’s legs were buzzing with pins and needles, but she refused to let Takapa see her discomfort. With a last glance at the pitiful creature in the corner, she strode out after him.
‘Since you’re blowing so much cash on your luxury hotel, why hold your big moment at the Bane Gallery?’ she asked him haughtily. ‘I mean, I can understand you not wanting to keep Stubbe in that dump you call a headquarters, but the conference room at Brook Mansion—’
‘Does a king sleep so close to the common herd?’ Takapa snapped. ‘You think I should simply invite my pureblood guests to peep in at the Master’s door?’ He shook his head. ‘Oh no. This is an event, one requiring careful stage management. The build-up, the anticipation … Imagine the excitement of my audience as they are escorted here to witness the impossible … Oh, yes, they shall see the Great Wolf – but only when I allow it. Here, on my terms.’
‘And speaking of terms,’ she drawled, ‘I guess with Araminta in your pocket it’s not costing you any extra to hire the place, huh?’
‘You underestimate my resources,’ said Takapa through gritted teeth.
Was it Kate’s imagination, or did he seem just the tiniest bit rattled?
‘Besides, I find it agreeable that they should see me as a patron of the arts as well as of science. A Renaissance ’wolf … with so much to offer to the lupine community.’
An edgy-looking man in a dirty white coat shuffled into view from around the corner. It was Walker. From the spaced look in his bloodshot eyes, he’d finally found his fix. If he recognised Kate he didn’t show it. He was too busy shifting uncomfortably under Takapa’s glare.
‘Not slacking off now, I trust, Dr Walker?’ said Takapa softly.
‘No, Papa Takapa, I would never do such a thing,’ protested Walker. ‘I’ve been checking the new scans.’
‘How is our patient?’
‘Making a superhuman recovery. Superhuman.’ Walker began to babble, with, it seemed to Kate, a mixture of fear and genuine enthusiasm. ‘The stem cells have healed whole tracts of the cerebral cortex together with Lieberma
nn’s codes. Stubbe’s body is healing at an incredible rate. Tissue regeneration is proceeding faster than I first predicted, and—’
‘So he’ll be ready in time, yes?’ snapped Takapa.
Walker flinched like he’d caught his fingers in a mousetrap, and nodded. ‘Ahead of schedule, Papa Takapa.’
‘Very good. All right, Walker. Carry on.’ As the scientist shambled past them, Takapa turned back to Kate with an apologetic air. ‘I would show you the body of the Great Wolf himself, but I understand from Araminta you have enjoyed that singular pleasure already.’
‘Oh yeah. It was a total thrill.’
Her sarcasm seemed lost on Takapa. ‘And in any case, I fear Liebermann might find your presence distracting after this afternoon’s encounter. He so hates to be shown up in front of his lesser associates.’
‘There was nothing lesser about what they did to my head,’ Kate said with a shudder.
‘They are talented creatures, no doubt of it,’ said Takapa, ‘but compared to Liebermann they are ignorant savages. He draws on their powers periodically to boost his abilities in psychic surgery … and to heighten his strength in preparation for other rituals. As you shall see tonight.’
‘Can’t wait. But if he’s so powerful, how come he’s working for you and not the other way around?’
‘He was rotting in South America when I tracked him down,’ said Takapa. ‘Almost dead. I nurtured him back to health, found the last surviving members of his original cult to give him support. He shared my aims in his heyday – to make the ’wolf as powerful and destructive as it can truly be. Now, with my funding and direction, his work can continue. I have restored purpose to that old carcass of his. I have made it possible for him to pass on some of the codechanters’ secrets to a new generation, so that his work might never die.’
‘Those men, watching Sunday when she was kept at the warehouse,’ Kate realised.
He smiled. ‘And, thanks to me, Liebermann will achieve tonight his crowning glory – the resurrection of the Great Wolf himself.’