J.A. Konrath / Jack Kilborn Trilogy - Three Scary Thriller Novels (Origin, The List, Haunted House) (24 page)

“What’s going on, Race?” Andy asked. “Just detonate the bombs.”

“I need to talk to the President.”

“Then get his ass on the phone!”

They entered the Octopus, Race going to his wife. He held her face in his hands.

“Do you feel okay, dear? Anything wrong?”

“I feel fine, Regis.”

“Sun, can you check her out?”

Sun nodded, and sat Helen down at one of the far tables.

Andy got up close to Race and thrust out his chest. “Why don’t we kill him?” he demanded.

“He can’t get through that gate. It’s holding.”

“What if—”

“I can only destroy Bub if he’s a risk to any of the occupants of Samhain.”

“Bullshit,” Andy said. “We’re expendable. The people involved in a top secret project are always expendable.”

Race jammed his finger into Andy’s shoulder. “We are not expendable, understand? But I can’t kill Bub unless he’s a threat. Right now he’s trapped. He cannot get out. And even if he does, we have back-ups.”

Andy said, “The bombs implanted in his body.”

“Yes. Plus we have something called Lockdown. See, above all the doors?”

Race pointed to every door in the Octopus. Above each of the frames was a large overhang with a slit in the bottom.

“More titanium gates, they completely seal off each arm and the Octopus. I just need to type in the code on the security screen, right here.”

“What’s the code?” Andy asked.

“Lockdown.
One word, all caps.”

“So what are you waiting for?”

“It can’t be reset. Once we’re in Lockdown, gates drop on all the arm entrances and in front of the exit at the end of the Yellow Arm. Plus three more titanium gates drop on the staircase leading to the outside. We’d be stuck here until someone cut us out, bar by bar, with a blowtorch. So that isn’t necessary right now. You don’t have to worry. We’re safe.”

Andy shook his head. “I’ve had it,” he said. “I’m not a soldier. It’s not my job to fight the devil. I know exactly what will happen. I saw Jurassic Park. Everything will go wrong. The systems will fail, Bub will get out, we’ll all be dead by morning.”

“Calm down, son.”

“Bullshit! I want out. Me, Sun, the rest. Get us the hell out of here, Race.”

Andy met Race’s gaze, trying to be just as impassive.

Race said, “Okay.”

Andy stared at him, amazed. “Okay? That’s it? We can go?”

“Of course you can go. I’ll call the President right now, arrange for transport. We can have a chopper here within an hour.”

Andy wasn’t sure if he could believe him or not, but Race sat down at a terminal and accessed a program called
CONTACT
. He clicked the options bar on
EMERGENCY
.

“Direct link to the Prez,” Race explained. “Unless he’s having a press conference, he should be on line in a minute or so.”

Within seconds another window appeared on screen. The message bar read AUDIO CONNECT.

“General?” came the President’s voice from the monitor speaker.

“Mr. President, the occupant has breached the first two phases of security. He is extremely hostile, and we have civilian casualties. Request immediate evac.”

“Is the occupant currently contained?”

“Yes. I’m going to stay with him. But I want the rest of the team picked up ASAP.”

“Of course. I’ll contact Fort Bliss.”

“I’m going to need help to neutralize the subject. Maybe one of those big game hunters who captures elephants for zoos. With a tranquilizer gun and plenty of ammo.”

“I’ll find someone as soon as possible. A helicopter will be sent immediately to evacuate the team. I’ll debrief them at Fort Bliss. How did this happen, General?”

“I’m not sure, Sir. He got the codes for the gates somehow.”

“I’ll contact you soon. God be with you and your team, General.”

The computer blinked MESSAGE ENDED.

“Well,” Andy said, relief making him feel twenty pounds lighter, “he’s an okay guy after all.”

Race picked up the phone and hit *100. His voice boomed over the in house speakers.
Dammit,
Andy thought.
That was the intercom code.

“Attention, this is Race. Everyone meet in the Octopus for immediate evacuation. Repeat, everyone meet in the Octopus, we’re all getting out of here. Move your asses, people.”

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE!”
Bub bellowed, his voice heard from all the way down the Red Arm.

“I guess he doesn’t like the news,” Andy said.

“Screw the son of a bitch. What the hell happened in there, Andy?”

“I don’t know. I was in Red 6 translating the glyphs and I heard screams. It was Rabbi Shotzen, getting ripped apart.”

“Shotzen let him out?”

“I don’t think so. Bub… he skinned Shotzen to get the code for the second gate. The Rabbi didn’t give it up.”

“Brave man. So how did Bub get the codes?”

“What’s happening?” Dr. Belgium entered the Octopus through the Green Door.

“Bub’s out,” Andy explained. “We’re leaving.”

“I’ll get my things,” Belgium turned for the Blue Door.

“Pack light,” Race said. “Have you seen Father Thrist or Dr. Harker?”

“Not lately. Do you think…”

“Race!” Sun said. “Your wife!”

The three of them hurried over to Helen, who was lying on the floor with Sun crouched over her.

“She was fine just a second ago,” Sun said.

“Is it the Huntington’s chorea?” Race asked. “Is it back?”

“No,” Sun said, panic in her eyes. “This is something else.”

H
elen struggled in the throes of some kind of seizure. Her limbs flapped uncontrollably, and her back arched and twisted, but it didn’t look like any convulsions Race had ever seen.

Helen’s legs and arms were bending backwards.

“Helen! Oh, Lord!”

“Regis,” she cried.

Race’s eyes clouded over. He knelt next to his wife, holding her in an attempt to stop her body from snapping apart.

“Her feet.” Dr. Belgium pointed.

Race stared as one of Helen’s high heels split open. The shoe fell away, revealing toes that swelled and melded into a giant black mass that resembled…

“A hoof,” Andy said.

Race could feel his wife expand in his arms, bulging and stretching.
Changing.

Helen howled, revealing several rows of long, sharp teeth.

“Oh my my my…” Dr. Belgium said.

“Race,” Andy put a hand on the General’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Helen. I’m so sorry.”

“Race, we’ve got to take her out of here.”

“Take her where?” Race accused. “This is my wife, dammit!”

“Race, your wife is growing hoofs and fangs. We’ve got to separate her from the group.”

“I’m not leaving her!”

A deep growl came from Helen.

Andy put his arm around Race’s neck and yanked him backwards.

“Move her!” he yelled at Frank and Sun. They wasted no time, each grabbing a foot and dragging Helen out the nearest door, into the Yellow Arm.

“Helen!” Race choked. He held Andy’s arm and twisted, flipping the younger man off of him. Then he made a run for the Yellow door.

“Don’t!” Sun stood in his way. “It’s not Helen anymore! Stop and listen!”

Behind the Yellow door came a cacophony of screeches and yowls, sounds no human being could produce.

Race shoved Sun away and grabbed the door knob. He paused, grief racking his face.

“Barricade it,” he said through his teeth.

The next thirty seconds were a frenzy of chair throwing and table stacking, everyone waiting for the inevitable moment when the Helen-thing came crashing through the door.

The moment stretched, but never came.

“Maybe she left,” Belgium said.

“The exit to the outside is down that hallway,” Andy said. “Do you think she’s trying to get out?”

“Do you want to open it and look?” Sun asked.

“Well if she’s in there, how are we supposed to get out ourselves? The helicopter should be here within the hour. Race—”

One Star General Race Murdoch marched into the Red Arm, his heart a stone. He had never felt pain like this before. Helen’s illness had been torture for Race, killing him a bit at a time in the same way it was killing her. But seeing Helen whole again, dancing with her after all of these years, and then watching helpless as she turned into that…

Bub was sitting behind the gate, a lopsided grin on his face.

“Hoooooooow’s Helen?”

Race turned to the keypad on the wall and punched in the first two numbers of the code to open the gate.

“Goooooooood boooooooooy.”

“You see that?” Race said, facing the demon. “You’re four numbers away from being free—”

Bub’s grin stretched.

“—and that’s as close as you’re ever going to get. It’s over, Bub. It’s not a question of you getting out. It’s a question of you still being alive five minutes from now. You’re about to go off like a fourth of July firework.”

Bub darkened.

“Are you threatening meeeeeeee?”

“No, Bub. I’m killing you.”

Race turned and headed back to the Octopus, getting intercepted halfway there by Sun, Andy, and Frank.

“I’m doing what I should have done forty years ago,” Race told them.

He led the trio and into the Octopus and began to take down the make-shift barricade in front of the Yellow Arm.

“General,” Dr. Belgium said, “maybe you should think this over. Helen—she might not be pleased to see you.”

Race smiled sadly.

“Hell, Frank, if a soldier can’t handle the little woman, what good is he?”

The last table was pushed away and Race took a deep breath.

“After I go in, put this back up, and don’t open the door again until I give the all-clear.”

“I’m going with you,” Andy said.

“They teach you hand-to-hand combat at Harvard, son?”

“Two have a better chance than one.”

Race clasped his shoulder. “I respect your bravery, but this is my job, not yours. You stay here and keep an eye on your lady, let me tend to mine.”

Andy stared hard into Race’s eyes and offered his hand. “Good luck, General.”

Race shook it and grinned. “I’ll take training over luck any day.”

He winked and went through the Yellow door.

The hallway was empty. Race moved slowly at first, then broke into a jog. The years of daily exercise had paid off. He tried to push the emotional baggage aside and visualize his goal. Yellow 4.

That’s where the bomb switch was.

He got within ten yards, and then Helen burst out of Yellow 3.

But it was no longer Helen.

She’d changed into a five foot version of Bub. Her chest was greenish, rather than red, and her wings didn’t look large enough for flight. The legs had bent backwards, like a goat, ending in large cloven hoofs. Her arms ended in razor claws that resembled eagle talons. Hundreds of long, pointy teeth, thin as icicles, jutted from her mouth, so large that her lips were shredded and bleeding.

Race stared hard into her elliptical eyes, eyes the color of a furnace. He found no trace of his wife in their depths. A lump the size of a plum formed in his throat.

“Hello, dear,” Race said.

It took two steps towards him, its piggish nostrils sniffing the air.

“Can you understand me, Helen?”

The creature growled, raising its talons. They ground together with the sound of knives being sharpened.

Race clenched his teeth and said, “I’m sorry.”

Then he took a running start and dove at the thing that was once his wife.

It was like fighting a tiger, all claws and teeth and muscle. Race had the weight advantage, but the sheer ferocity of the demon’s attack put him on the defensive. He was being torn apart in ten places at once.

She forced him to the ground and continued her assault, ripping at his clothes, snapping at his neck. The pain was electric. He felt as if he’d fallen into a meat grinder, and part of him wanted to just give up and die.

But Race was a soldier. A soldier with a debt to settle. For his country, that he loved so dearly. For his friend Harold, whose senseless death weighed upon Race every hour of every day. But most of all, for Helen.

Bub had to die. And so did this abomination that was once his wife.

Race went for the eyes, making his fingers stiff and jamming them in hard. The demon squealed, releasing its grip long enough for Race to crawl past and reach Yellow 4.

It was a keypad entrance. Race lifted his arm to punch in the code, but his arm wasn’t working right. He took note of the puddle of blood forming around his feet.

He was hurt bad.

Race used his other hand, unable to stop it from shaking.

His first attempt at the code failed.

The thing that used to be Helen advanced on all fours, like a wolf.

The General ignored the threat, and once more punched in the code. A talon wrapped around his leg and tugged, just as the door unlocked.

Race grabbed the doorframe and pulled himself into Yellow 4, breaking the beast’s grip. He slammed the door shut with his feet, hoping it would hold.

• • •

“How do we know for sure the bombs will kill Bub?” Sun asked. “He heals so fast.”