by T. C. Edge
And then he heard it, a light thud coming from outside, through the thick door…
He began moving over, his pulse now quickening. Reaching to his left eye, he activated his scanning lens, before realising it wouldn’t work in a closed environment like this. The room was sealed off, the walls and door impenetrable.
He reached the door and stopped.
“Ragan?”
He turned around to see Commander Wexley coming forward.
“Is there a problem, Agent Hunt?”
“I’m not sure, sir. Just a feeling.”
“I know your feelings,” said Wexley forebodingly.
As he spoke, another little thump sounded.
This time, they both heard.
Wexley nodded to the door, his hand reaching slowly to the holster at his hip. “Check it out.”
Ragan stepped forwards, unlocking the thick metal door. He pulled it open slowly, revealing the white corridor beyond.
No longer was it white, least not everywhere.
Now, pools of deep, dark red blood dotted the floor, in such contrast to the colourless corridor. They appeared beneath the shapes of three men, clad in black, lying dead and still down the hall. Ragan’s chest tightened, his senses kicking straight into gear as he stared at the men, awkwardly arranged and bundled into heaps.
And each, Ragan could see, had two red dots upon their necks, dribbling blood down their pale flesh to the floor.
Ragan’s eyes widened, and his lips parted.
“Mikel,” he whispered.
His eyes darted around, searching into the distance. He looked left and right, to the bodies on the floor.
And then, he looked up…
“Good morning, Agent Hunt,” came a hissing whisper. “Pleased to see me?”
Before Ragan could react, Mikel was gliding from the low ceiling like a bat, wreathed in his black coat. He swung his feet hard as he came, kicking Ragan flush in the chest. The force was enough to have him pummelling back into the room, tumbling right into the machine in which Chloe lay trapped.
He smashed his head hard, momentarily blurring his vision.
“What the hell!” shouted Wexley as Ragan came flying through. His eyes swung to the door, and fell upon the nano-vamp standing tall at the threshold. “Who…or what, are you!” demanded Wexley.
Mikel smiled, revealing his long fangs, dripping blood. He traced a tongue across them, humming in pleasure.
“I’m disappointed you don’t recognise me, Commander Wexley,” he crackled. “You being king of the spooks and all. I feel so…so…hurt.”
He smiled again, so fond of the fear now spreading from within the room. His eyes traced its occupants. Doc and his two technicians were staring right at him, frozen in place and petrified.
Ragan slowly got to his feet, blinking hard. He linked eyes quickly with Wexley, and in a split second, both men acted. They reached for their hips, drawing their guns, lifting them in Mikel’s direction.
The nano-vamp was too fast, too accurate. He quickly flicked a couple of tiny discs from his fingers, one at each weapon. They landed on the sides of the pistols, giving off a small electric charge and immediately disabling them. The fizzing energy rushed through the gun and onto Wexley’s and Ragan’s skin, causing their grip to instinctively loosen, the defunct pistols dropping to the floor.
Ragan’s mind was working fast. He turned to Wexley with a grunt.
“He’s pumped up on nanites,” rushed his voice. “He’s drained the guards outside!”
“My men,” growled Wexley, turning fierce eyes on Mikel. “You killed them.”
“I ate them,” whispered Mikel immediately, an ugly grin contorting his face. “And they tasted good, Commander. So very good…”
“You…freak…” started Wexley.
“Freak?” said Mikel, taking a step into the room. “Oh, if I’m a freak, then people like you made me so. You,” he seethed, looking at Wexley, and then over to Doc. “People like you make people like me. You curse me to this life, this insatiable hunger…”
His eyes swam upon Ragan, and then looked to the machine behind him.
“Is that why you’re here,” said Wexley. “To feed?”
Mikel’s eyes were manic, wide and strange. He was powered beyond normal function, beyond his already super-human state. The nanites from the three guards outside would be swimming through him, augmenting him further. He was adding power each time he fed. And he still looked hungry.
His eyes stayed on Ragan for a moment, ravenous and wild. Then they drifted to the machine once more.
Ragan stepped to block his path.
“If you want her, you’re going to have to go through me.”
Mikel let out a cackling, unearthly laugh. The scientists shuddered and sank to the far wall.
“Oh, Agent Hunt, I have every intention of having you too,” he said with glee.
“So that’s why you’re here,” demanded Wexley once more.
Mikel’s eyes moved over.
“Oh no, Commander. That is merely a bonus. You know exactly why I’m here.”
Wexley looked at Ragan.
“He knows? How does he know?”
“I don’t know…” said Ragan.
“Oh, it matters not,” said Mikel, pulling a gun from his long black coat. It came like lightning, appearing before anyone could even see his hand move.
He aimed it at Doc, who cowered lower.
“Come here,” he whispered.
Doc stayed his ground, trying not to hear.
“I said, come here,” repeated Mikel, firing off a shot into the wall.
Doc’s body trembled, rising up on creaking legs. Bent low, he stumbled forwards.
“Open your hand,” said Mikel, pointing the gun right at his head. “Open it now.”
Slowly, Doc lifted his hand, and opened it up. It was empty.
Mikel let out a little laugh.
“Is it worth dying, just to delay by mere seconds? I know you have the data disk with you. I saw you take it as I entered the room.” He looked to the machine. It was no longer humming. The screens were no longer loading with data. “The extraction is complete. Give me the disk, or I will kill you all.”
Doc delayed, looking elsewhere. And in a split second, Mikel moved the gun and shot both of the technicians in the head.
“I said, give me the disk!” he growled.
“Don’t do it, Doc!” shouted Wexley. “Don’t you hand that disk over, soldier!”
Mikel let out a breath, and shook his head.
“Oh, for goodness sake…”
With a flash of movement, he snatched out and took Doc’s other hand, tearing his closed fingers apart, and exposed the little disk inside, surrounded by a protective metal shell. Doc roared in pain, several fingers broken, and was thrust back into the room, as Mikel nonchalantly picked the device from his open palm.
He looked upon it with total dispassion.
“Whatever’s on here, it must be important,” he mused. “For you humans to risk your lives.” He smiled again, blood still dribbling down his lips, and took a half step forward.
“Now, where were we…”
Suddenly, an alarm started blaring, spreading from the lower floors of the building. Mikel stopped in his tracks, his attention momentarily lost.
It was enough. Just enough for Ragan to make his move.
With his focus elsewhere, and his pistol turning just a little to one side, Ragan flashed forwards from the middle of the room, going straight for Mikel’s gun. He grabbed it, twisted, and tried to dislodge it from the nano-vamp’s grip, but Mikel was too flexible, his wrists turning to an unnatural degree and clinging on.
He drew back, the alarm growing louder, but Ragan held on. His fingers worked quickly, extracting the magazine and dropping it to the floor, rendering the weapon useless.
“Hold onto him, Ragan. Don’t let him go!” called Wexley, hurrying forward to help.
Mikel’s eyes took in the com
ing man. With his spare hand, he reached in and took hold of a knife, slashing suddenly out as Ragan tried to hold on. He was forced back, dodging the blow, a few metres suddenly appearing between the nano-vamp and his foes.
He looked them up and down, and drew a twisted grin once more.
“Sorry, Agent Hunt,” he hissed. “We’ll have to finish this another time.”
Turning, he flashed away, quick as lightning. Without delay, Ragan set about the chase. Then, suddenly, he stopped.
Chloe.
He turned and saw her, still inside the machine.
His promise to her echoed in his head.
I will keep you safe. I will set you free.
He looked again at Mikel, already reaching the elevator.
And right then, he made his choice.
Hurrying back into the lab, he rushed to the controls to extend the mould, just as Wexley came rushing after him.
“What the hell are you doing, Ragan!” he called. “You have to go after him. You have to retrieve the data!”
The shelf on which Chloe lay was now extending, bringing her with it as it came. Ragan ignored Commander Wexley and hurried over to her, pulling a little device from his pocket. He pressed its sharp tip into Chloe’s thigh, administering a drug that would quickly wake her. Her body stirred almost immediately, her eyes fluttering and starting to open.
“Hunt, what the hell’s going on!” roared Wexley again. “Leave the damn girl. We don’t need her anymore.”
Ragan felt a flush of anger at his words, and turned upon his false boss, towering above him.
“Maybe you don’t need her, sir,” he said, “but I’ve got a promise to keep.”
As Wexley’s face swirled up into a craggy mess of confused wrinkles, Ragan balled his fist and swung. It connected with Wexley’s jaw, knocking him out cold and sending him tumbling off to one side.
He turned again as Chloe began rising from the little bed, rubbing her eyes.
“What…what’s going on?” she asked.
“I’m getting you out,” said Ragan, grabbing her and pulling her to her feet. “Can you walk?”
“I…I think so.”
Ragan took her hand, leading her towards the door. A croak from the side of the room stopped him momentarily.
“Ragan, you’re…betraying us? Betraying the CID?”
He looked down at Doc, his face beset by a look of agony and forehead dripping sweat. He was cradling his broken fingers, his hand trembling.
“Get down to medical, Doc,” said Ragan. “Get those fingers seen to.”
“And where…are you going?”
“Mikel,” grunted Ragan. “I’m going after Mikel.”
With that, he turned, and grasping Chloe’s hand, began rushing off down the corridor
30
Chloe’s head was a blur, her nanites still yet to kick in. There was a loud blaring sound pulsating from below, bodies and pools of blood on the floor ahead. She took several deep breaths, Ragan tugging her along too fast for her sleeping legs to travel. She half stumbled, but regained her footing just in time as she reached the end of the hall.
Ragan quickly initiated the security scanner for the lift, his DNA signature read. The elevator doors opened and they stepped inside. There was another body in the corner, that of a middle aged woman in a sharp suit, her body bathed in blood.
Chloe looked at the ghastly sight, not knowing what had happened, then gazed up into Ragan’s raging eyes.
“Who…is that?” asked Chloe weakly as the doors closed and the elevator began rising.
“A senior agent here,” growled Ragan. “Mikel must have used her DNA signature to get access to the floor. She was a nice lady. Her name was Anne.”
“Mikel…” whispered Chloe.
“Yeah, Mikel,” snarled Ragan, still staring at his dead colleague. “That bastard did all of this. He took the damn data.”
“He…what!”
Chloe was beginning to wake. The alarm was growing clear. The smell of blood on the elevator floor was growing richer. Ragan’s eyes, a piercing blue, were sparkling brighter with a new fury.
“He took the disk, Chloe, killed six people in the process. We have to go after him…”
The motion of the lift slowed, the door opening up wide. An empty space appeared ahead, a staircase leading up to the light. A door was open. It must be the roof.
“Come on!” called Ragan, taking Chloe’s hand again.
He began pulling her forward, hauling her up the stairs. Her footing became more sure as she went. By the final two steps, she was bounding out through the open door and into the cool morning air.
She looked out across the roof of the CID, and saw a host of jet-cars and other airborne transports parked in separate areas. One was lifting, spreading off into the air. Through her clearing vision she stared up and saw a hateful visage through the window. Hair black, skin pale, lips red.
He was a monster.
“Mikel,” she growled.
The nano-vamp smiled down at them, displaying his fangs. Chloe could almost hear him say, “I’ll see you again soon.”
And at that moment, seeing him slip away into the low clouds, Chloe wished for the reunion.
“We have to go after him!” she shouted, looking to Ragan.
“Yeah, I know! You’re waking up then?”
“Waking up! I should say. Now come on, what the hell are you waiting for?”
She turned and began running across the roof, barely even looking around at the towering skyscrapers surrounding her, some tall enough to reach into the clouds above. She didn’t give a thought for where she was, how close to her old home. How her dad’s old lab, the place he worked and died, was nearby, only a block or two away.
She gave no thought for anything but chasing Mikel down. And it wasn’t just retrieving the data that drove her onwards, fuelled each of her charging steps. It was killing that creature, that horrible, murderous thing. It had hounded them from coast to coast, and she wanted it dead.
So she ran, heading for no vehicle in particular, before Ragan’s voice called in her ear.
“Chloe!”
She turned on the spot and saw him heading the other way.
“Right, sorry…”
She sprinted after him, just as he drew up to his jet-car. She grabbed the passenger door and pulled, opening it up, and saw her backpack within, tucked safely into the footwell.
With one leg through the door, the sound of shuffling feet reached her ears. She turned to see a unit of black-clad guards hurrying through the door and onto the roof. There were six of them, all heavily armed, coming forwards in combat formation.
“Stop right there, Agent Hunt,” called one of them, his voice spreading across on the blustery wind. “Both of you, raise your hands and step away from the vehicle.”
Ragan looked over at Chloe. He was on the driver’s side, the door open. He reached into his pocket and withdrew Remus, dropping him gently onto the seat. Then he nodded at her, raised his hands, and stepped out into the open.
“I’m unarmed,” he called out. “We’re both unarmed.”
“And you…girl. Show us your hands!”
Chloe drew a breath, looking at Remus.
“OK, buddy,” she whispered. “Time to wake up.”
He fizzed and fluttered, his orb like shape pulsating as if he were a human being stretching after a long night’s sleep. Then, without delay, he formed himself into a little hovering drone. It was his regular configuration for combat.
Chloe smiled.
“Good boy.”
Another shout spread from across the roof.
“Miss! Raise your hands, step away from the vehicle, or we will shoot!”
This time, she did so, slowly stepping from halfway inside the jet, stretching out her hands, and moving over to Ragan’s side. They shared a look, and the guards began stepping forwards, two drawing out restraints as they came, and the other four staying just behind.
Chloe shut her eyes, and Remus’ perception fed into her nanites, presenting her his view. He was above them, hovering over silently ahead, sneaking unseen behind their backs.
Ok, buddy, Chloe thought. Let’s swat these flies.
Remus hovered lower, behind the four rear guards. With a little hum, he began gathering his energy, powering up. A few crackles of electricity began sparking behind the men. One caught it in his periphery, and turned.
But too late.
Just as he did, Remus let loose the most violent blast he could. The electricity spread right into the nearest men, quickly shocking and disabling three of them who fell to their knees, spasming and convulsing.
The other three turned too, shocked by the sight. It was enough time for Chloe to draw her focus in, lighting her hands up blue. She took a step forward, lowered her fingers, and shot out a web of electric netting that engulfed the three remaining soldiers. Each joined the rest, their trembling bodies locked into temporary seizures.
“Great job!” called Ragan, rushing over to grab a couple of their weapons as the electricity zipped off and faded. “Now let’s get out of here.”
Chloe hurried after him and scooped up Remus, his energy all but spent from the blast.
“You did so well, buddy,” she said, slipping him into her pocket. “You saved me again, how many times is that now?! And uncle Ragan too!”
“Yeah, thanks little guy,” smiled Ragan. “I can see why you two make such a good team.”
Chloe didn’t say it, though she certainly thought it. And, probably, Ragan did too.
We all make a good team…
With no time to waste, they hurried for the jet and leapt inside, Ragan quickly firing it up. The alarm was still audible in the building, and no doubt more guards would come running out quick. They’d played their trick, and it couldn’t be used twice.
They needed to get going, now.
The spouts began blowing blue, and within seconds the jet was starting to hover up into the misty morning sky. Chloe looked around, searching for some sight of Mikel’s transport, some trail in the clouds that might reveal him.
“Which way do we go?” she asked. “Where is he?”
Ragan didn’t answer straightaway. His focus seemed to be on the building, eyes ever watching the exit to the roof to see if any further soldiers came. As they lifted higher, the mist thickening, they gradually began to lose sight of the roof below. Shortly after, the other towering skyscrapers had disappeared too.