by Toby Tate
Lilith gazed up at the helicopters buzzing around like flies and did her best to stay in the shadows to avoid detection. They had thermal imaging sensors, as well, so the beast knew to keep under awnings and trees as much as possible.
Lilith figured they had sectioned off this area of the city to keep her contained. If she could still laugh, she would have found that amusing. They could no more contain her than they could a demon from Hell. She would go where she pleased and create whatever havoc she deemed necessary to advance her cause, which was to propagate her race. She could reproduce asexually, but still wanted Hunter for a trophy if nothing else. She knew he would probably find her repulsive, but he would get over that once she found a way to make him into a Lilitu. And she would find a way.
As she advanced toward Isham Park, Lilith thought about the things she had left to do before her children were born and the surprises that were still in store for the assault team that she was sure was on its way to find her.
That was when she saw a helicopter fly low overhead and make a descent over Baker Field. The beast stopped and watched as it slowly disappeared from view over the buildings and trees. Then she changed direction and headed toward Baker Field.
* * *
Hunter and Gabe watched from the baseball diamond in Baker Field as the helicopter made its landing, the dirt from the infield swirling through the air and stinging their flesh like needles. Hunter held a hand in front of his eyes, blocking as much dirt as possible. The chopper landed in the grassy outfield, the noise from the rotors making his ears ring. Hunter’s hair and clothes flapped in the wind as he waited for the doors to open. He couldn’t wait to see Lisa again, eat a decent meal and take a shower.
The first people out were men Hunter didn’t recognize, but who he knew were from the Special Ops team. They were mostly dressed in dark civilian clothes and sunglasses and wore rucksacks. They were all armed with formidable-looking weapons, a few of which he could tell were grenade launchers. They got out of the chopper and spread themselves around the area as if they were securing the perimeter. Once that was done, a big man with a scar across his nose, who Hunter figured was the leader, motioned for the other team members to exit the helo.
Lisa was the first one out. She immediately spotted Hunter and once she cleared the spinning blades of the Sea Hawk, sprinted to Hunter’s awaiting arms. They kissed as if they had been apart for years instead of days.
After a few seconds, Lisa held her husband at arm’s length. “Hunter, I have to tell you something.”
Hunter raised his brows. “What?”
“I volunteered to help track down Lilith.”
Hunter nodded and said, “Well, I guess that shower can wait a few more hours,” then kissed his wife again.
* * *
Gabe smiled at the public display of affection between Hunter and Lisa and walked past the couple to meet with the other CIA members.
“Glad to see you made it, Gabe,” Jason yelled over the sound of the chopper, slinging the strap of the big MK16 over his shoulder.
Gabe shrugged. “Wouldn’t miss it. I see you diggers are armed to the gills. Probably a good idea. She’s really big now, and strong. She has claws and teeth and she can move fast. Animal fast.”
Jason nodded, then turned and watched as the helicopter rotors picked up speed and the machine rose into the sky above them.
“Well, looks like we’re on our own,” he said. “You have any trouble getting here?”
“None to speak of. Once I got rid of the parasite it was a simple matter of just filling Hunter in on the situation.”
“Must have been hell infiltrating that group. Anything we need to know?”
“I know that most of the group ran off when Lilith started…mutating…and I never saw them again, but…” Gabe trailed off, lost in deep thought. Her intuition was suddenly in high gear.
“But what?” Jason asked.
“Something just doesn’t feel right. I’m not sure what it is, but we need to watch our backs.”
“Always,” Jason said.
Fredrichs turned and made a circular motion above his head, indicating that the team should gather around. Hunter and Lisa were the farthest away from the group and were somewhat slow in getting the message.
“Hey, you two lovebirds mind joining us?” Jason said as the others chuckled.
Before anyone had a chance to react, a white blur shot out from behind the dugout and tackled Sly Johnson, who was standing on the far side of the group with Samson, checking over his rucksack. Samson was knocked back off his feet and Johnson hit the ground with a thud, letting loose a yell of surprise. Weapons were raised but no one shot for fear of hitting the commander. The beast moved so fast it was over in seconds.
Then, it was gone.
Everyone ran toward Johnson, who lay prone on the grass, completely still.
“Oh, shit, shit, shit! Where the hell did that thing come from?” Samson said, picking himself up off the ground and hoisting his weapon.
Gabe was the first to arrive. She knelt and looked the fallen man over. Johnson’s eyes were staring, but he wasn’t seeing anything—his throat had been ripped out all the way to his spine. She could actually see the vertebrae, ivory-white and slimy with gore.
Gabe thought she was going to be sick and quickly averted her eyes as the rest of the group warily gathered around.
“Well, I guess we’ve had our first run-in with Lilith,” Jason said.
“She moves so fast you can hardly see her,” Mac said. “Johnson never even had a chance.”
“Maybe none of us do,” Sammy said.
Lisa suddenly screamed and everyone jerked their heads in her direction.
“What is it?” Gabe said, then glanced around and realized she already knew the answer—Hunter was missing.
CHAPTER 74
After the diversion of Lilith’s first attack, she doubled back behind the dugout, ran onto the field and grabbed Hunter from behind, backhanding Lisa and knocking her to the ground. The monster dragged Hunter toward the outside of the ball field and beyond the dugout while holding his jaw shut with one hand. She was incredibly strong and Hunter was as helpless as a child, unable to cry out. When she got him outside the field the monster released him and as he stared into her silver animal-eyes, Lilith growled two words.
“Lisa dies.”
Hunter understood only too well. Either he went with Lilith willingly, or she would kill Lisa. He had no choice but to go. He would have to think of a way to escape later.
Pushing Hunter ahead of her, Lilith headed out of the field and into Inwood Hill Park.
* * *
“Oh, God, she has him again,” Lisa said, picking herself up off the ground. She rubbed the left side of her face where Lilith had struck her.
“That bitch. I’ll kill her,” she growled and began to run out of the park toward the exit, but Gabe caught up to her and grabbed a shoulder. Lisa shrugged it off and turned on her with eyes of fire.
“Ms. Singleton, you’re injured,” Gabe said, tenderly touching Lisa’s bruised jaw. “And you can’t chase after them alone. We have to track them with the whole team.”
“Why?” Lisa shouted. “The team obviously is no match for her, so what difference does it make?”
Lisa was hyperventilating as if she had just run a seven-minute mile and her heart felt like a carbine set on automatic fire. The rest of the group came up cautiously behind Gabe.
“Lisa, I admit she got the jump on us, but we have a way to track her,” Jason said.
Lisa eyed him warily. “You do?” she said.
Jason called over his shoulder to one of his men.
“Harrison, front and center. Show the lady your new toy.”
He stepped to the side and the wiry, blonde-headed man filled in the gap, slid off his backpack and reached inside. He pulled out a handheld device that looked to Lisa like a barcode reader used by department store clerks with several metal rods of different lengths prot
ruding from the end. On top was a touch-screen user interface. Harrison switched it on and the screen lit up with small icons like those on a PC.
“What is that?” she asked.
Harrison continued to watch the screen as he spoke. “We figured out that since Lilith had been exposed to radiation on board the Ford, she’s probably carrying residual radiation in her body. This machine can track extremely small traces of just about any type of radiation, including gamma and alpha particles, which she probably carries in her blood. Just like a bloodhound can follow the scent of a specific human, we can set this machine to follow a specific radiation pattern.”
Lisa frowned. “How does it do that?”
Harrison glanced up at Lisa and smiled. “Sorry, ma’am, that’s classified.”
Lisa eyed the screen just as it started to show an oscillating sine wave, increasing and decreasing in amplitude.
“I’m definitely getting a radiation reading from over that way,” Harrison said, pointing behind Lisa and toward the team dugouts.
“We need to follow it while the trail is still hot,” Jason said.
“What about Johnson’s body?” Phillips asked. “I don’t think we should just leave it here.”
Lisa glanced at Samson, who had been assigned as Johnson’s partner and saw that a deep frown lined the big man’s dark face. Jason slapped a hand on Samson’s back.
“Don’t beat yourself up, Sam. Nobody saw her coming, including me. Next time we’ll be ready.”
Samson simply nodded, pulling the carbine tight against his back.
Jason held a hand up to his right ear. “Base, this is Fredrichs. We have a casualty, repeat, we have one casualty, Lieutenant Commander Johnson. Request pick-up in Baker Field at drop-off point. We are moving out and attempting to locate target.”
Jason glanced around at the other team members. “We’ve been here ten minutes and already had one death. Let’s not lose anyone else. Everyone keep a sharp eye out and keep your weapons ready. And for God’s sake, don’t shoot any of the other team members or any civilians. Make sure you know what you are shooting first. Alright, let’s do it. Harrison, take the lead.”
Lisa couldn’t wait to shove her Beretta up Lilith’s ass and pull the trigger.
CHAPTER 75
George Saunders and his team at CIA headquarters had been working the last forty-eight hours on sorting through every e-mail, phone conversation and Internet connection made by anyone related to Lilith’s EVE organization. They spoke to anyone who had ever known Lilith or her associates and had come up with very little.
But in the last couple of hours they hit the jackpot with Jeremy Kramer, an ex-lover of Lilith’s and a disgruntled recent ex-member of EVE who had managed to leave the organization and live to tell about it. After flying Kramer in from New York, the man shut up as tight as a bank vault, refusing to speak until his demands had been met.
Kramer, a throwback to the 1990s Generation X culture complete with long, dirty-blonde hair, ripped blue jeans and Nirvana T-shirt, sat in an office with a wall covered in two-way glass as Saunders sat across the table, sipping coffee and trying to be as non-threatening as possible. The director of the CIA and several operatives watched from the other side of the glass.
“If they find out I’ve been talking to you, they’ll come after me,” Kramer said. “Those people are crazy. You have to guarantee my safety before I say anything.”
Saunders sat his coffee down on the table and loosened his tie. “Don’t worry, Kramer, we’ve got your back. But remember, just being associated with EVE could mean trouble with the CIA, so I can only guarantee your safety if you give me something useful.”
Kramer seemed to think about that as he wiped his nose with the back of an arm. According to the background check, Kramer was educated and extremely intelligent, with a master’s degree in biology, but acted more like a hormone-enraged teenager. Saunders figured he probably had some kind of drug problem that made him paranoid and agitated. The commander marveled at the fact that some of the smartest people were often the easiest targets for recruitment into organizations like EVE.
But by the time Kramer was done talking about Lilith and her plans for Manhattan Island, Saunders and everyone in the observation room were scrambling to contact Fredrichs and his team and praying that they weren’t already too late.
* * *
Jason’s comm unit had been patched in directly to Saunders, who was relaying some rather disheartening information. Lisa and the entire team listened over their own phone links with growing dread.
“Are you sure?” Jason said, grimacing at the news.
“Afraid so,” Saunders said. “I see no reason why he would lie. Kramer’s crazy, but he’s not psychotic. I can’t say the same for the rest of Lilith’s followers.”
“And he has no idea where the device is? It’s just somewhere in Manhattan?”
“That’s about it. I can’t ask you to stay—that’s up to you. But let me know your decision ASAP.”
Lisa, along with everyone else in the group, was now staring at Jason with a mix of horror and disbelief as they stood only a few hundred yards outside the exit to Baker Field.
“Well, you heard the man,” Jason said. “Lilith’s followers are alive and they have planted a backpack nuke somewhere in Manhattan. At about ten kilotons, this bomb will flatten everything within a two-mile radius and make Manhattan uninhabitable for the next century. An ideal situation for Lilith and her brood. Even with much of the city evacuated, there are still a few hundred-thousand people on the island, so there will be an unthinkable number of casualties. Apparently, Gabe, you weren’t in the loop on that one.”
Gabe shook her head. “Lilith might have suspected something. She must have thought I was useful at the time. I guess I’m lucky she didn’t kill me.”
“I would say you’re probably right. Anyone have any opinions on what we should do?”
Lisa spoke up first. “Personally, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell of finding that bomb. I say we locate Hunter, kill Lilith and get out of Manhattan before it becomes a wasteland.”
“I’ll have to agree with Ms. Singleton,” Phillips said. “This city is huge and we have no clue where the bomb is. In the meantime, Lilith is about to give birth and on top of that, she has a hostage.”
Everyone nodded and murmured in agreement. Lisa thought that Jason actually seemed relieved as he keyed a number into his Android.
“Fredrichs to base, patch me through to Saunders again.”
Several seconds of silence.
“Saunders here.”
“Commander, we’ve decided to forego the search for the nuke. We simply don’t have the capability or the time to find the device. We’re going to attempt to rescue Hunter Singleton and hopefully capture or destroy Lilith in the process.”
“I understand, Jason. I’ve already informed the mayor and he’s having as many people as possible evacuated off the island. Good luck and watch yourself. Keep me informed and let me know if you need any assistance.”
Jason clicked off the Android and sighed.
“I’m not going to ask any of you from the Ford to take part in this mission, knowing that bomb could go at any minute. Anyone who wants to go back, let me know now.”
No one said a word.
“Then let’s do this,” Jason said as Harrison once again switched on the radiation detector and the team edged farther into the city.
CHAPTER 76
Lilith screamed with an animal ferocity that made Hunter’s blood run cold. She was in some kind of pain, and deep inside, Hunter found that he was not only glad, but he prayed that she would die. It would make things so much easier. His head ached, his stomach was twisted in knots and he had never wanted to take a shower and eat a hot meal so much in his life. This was definitely one of those times when miraculous intervention would be welcome.
She lay only yards away next to a large uprooted elm tree, writhing in pain on the grass of whatever p
ark they were now in, somewhere along the western edge of Manhattan. They had traveled for hours and the sun was already beginning to fade as the day crept to a close. Lilith was evading detection and Hunter realized that her senses were probably highly acute, like that of an animal. She could detect anyone before they even got close. The uprooted trees and garbage that lay strewn everywhere from the storm provided extra cover, as well. He thought about running, but it would be useless. She would only find him again and if he ran for the ship, he would put them all in danger. She would also kill his wife.
He had to think.
Lilith howled, her white coloring reflecting the sun like the fur of a wild arctic polar bear but with musculature that was much more well-defined. Lilith’s mouth was a yawning cavern of jagged, razor-edged ivory filling her elongated jaws and her ears had grown to points that rose above her head, offsetting silver eyes full of evil cunning. Lilith’s long talons dug into the ground, plowing up the grass and soil into small heaps. She was part bear, part wolf, part lion—a hybrid of several different predatory animals. No animal like this had probably ever existed during the reign of humankind, at least not that Hunter had ever heard of. It was like myth come to life. Some part of him, the newspaper reporter, wanted to document it, grab a camera and get a photo. If only he could.
The other part of him just wanted to kill the beast.
He wondered what could be wrong with her, what could be causing such pain. Was she changing again, growing even larger?
Then like an epiphany from above, it hit him and Hunter suddenly realized what was happening.