My Familiar Stranger (37 page)

In the blink of an eye, she took it all in - the dart sticking out of Baka’s back, no doubt silver coated - and the second dart poised for launch with her as target. She didn’t know what chemical surprise it was carrying, but knew she didn’t want to find out.

Thinking there was a chance she was fast enough to outrun it, she dug in to sprint the opposite direction. She’d barely sprung into the turn when she felt the sting between her shoulder blades. Instinctively she reached back to try and pull it out, but it was too well placed to reach. In a few seconds, she stumbled, slowed and went to her knees. Her next to last thought before she lost consciousness was that going back for Baka had been a big mistake. Her last thought was that Ram would blame himself for losing another partner and she didn’t want that for him.

Ghost planned to secure Elora and then return to finish off Baka. He would have liked to savor the thrill of shoving a stake through the vamp’s heart. He had earned a reputation for vampire slaying. Only he knew that his motivation was the exquisite rush he got from hearing the squishing sound a stake makes when it is driven into a heart with enough force. That coupled with the sound of a last breath being expelled was satisfaction like no other. What an irony that he was decorated for the vilest impulses of depravity! A slight twist of circumstance might have resulted in infamy at the least and execution at the most. But, no, he couldn’t linger to pursue personal pleasure. With her unpredictable constitution, he couldn’t know how long the sedative would last on Elora.

D team arrived with the med van carrying a plain black bag stashed with firearms already loaded with wood core bullets. Storm and Kay turned Ram’s care over to the medics and lost no more time. Two members of D Team stayed to guard the tunnel entrance while the other two went with Storm and Kay.

When they came across Baka, Storm reached down and pulled the dart free thereby releasing Baka from the paralysis of the silver.

After a minute, Baka sat up slowly and said simply, “Gautier Nibelung.” As he got to his feet Storm thought he saw something more than concern on Baka’s face. Fear maybe. “We won’t find her by ourselves. Too many possibilities.”

Storm cursed then turned back to Baka and looked at him for a minute wrestling with the inner conflict of replacing one idea – that Baka was an abomination of the highest degree – with another idea, that Baka might be his only chance. He never thought he would live to see the day that he’d be asking a vampire for advice, but, if it would save Elora, he’d beg the vamp to drain him dry.

“Do you have a suggestion?”

Baka glanced down the empty tunnel for a minute and then returned his attention to Storm.

“I’ve been formulating a plan. I thought there would be time to check the details carefully, search for flaws, but this development means collapsing my time frame.

I have been exploring the tunnel system, recreating the design in a sort of blueprint form. There are a few main intersections of tunnel and hundreds of dead ends, but there are only three entrances. If we formulate a concerted attack with forces stationed at each of the three access points, we could seal the system permanently with explosive by carbon fixation.

Two birds with one stone. Get rid of the vampire infestation – or most of it – and render the tunnel system permanently useless.”

“C4.”

“Yes.”

“And you think that could be done safely.”

“Yes. Manhattan is rock. The right amount will seal the tunnels and, if anyone above ground feels anything at all, it would be a minor, momentary vibration.”

“Okay. But right now the pressing problem is that one of my team members is missing, likely captured, and in need of immediate assistance.”

“Indeed. First things first. During my interview with Lady Laiken in Romania, she indicated that she intended to train the large, black beast to track vampire.”

Immediately grasping the gist of where that line of thinking was headed, Storm started to look hopeful.

“I need to get above ground so I can call Sol.”

Storm made a concise report to Sol, saying that Blackie would let Sanction handle him, that they needed the dog there right away and to bring something from Elora’s clothes hamper. Something she had worn. Storm jerked when Baka came up behind him and touched his arm to get his attention.

“Just a minute.” He told Sol to wait.

“Tell them to bring blood. Her type. A lot of it along with someone who knows how to do a field transfusion.” Storm stared at Baka for half a beat allowing the implications to sink in. “And a few syringes of sedative. Strong.”

Storm relayed that information. Sol said everyone available would be called in for the operation and that Monq would verify the safety and feasibility of Baka’s plan along with providing the necessary materials.

Being purely objective, a Black Swan knight is a valuable commodity, not just in terms of the money it costs to train one and the time it takes to train one, but also the relative rarity of the ideal psychological profile. When a knight is injured in the field, they don’t send paramedics. They send the best doctors money can buy.

When the med team reached Ram, it took only a couple of minutes to diagnose the concussion. They staunched the wounds so that they could contain the blood loss until they reached the state-of-the-edge, tricked out facilities at Jefferson Unit.

Just as they were starting an I.V. with sedative for transport, Ram regained consciousness and asked for Elora. He heard voices saying, “Just rest,” which caused a momentary panic and thrashing about before he blacked out again.

Ghost had carefully crafted a plan to create a vacancy on B Team, a vacancy that had been promised to him and, by all rights, should have been his. He had visited Monq’s offices in the middle of the night to access Laiken’s files in the pursuit of information about her possible weaknesses. He had tested the aphrodisiac being utilized by vampire for its effectiveness on Elora and had reason to believe she had succumbed.

After getting a brief tour, courtesy of Baka, the system creator no less, Ghost had returned to the tunnel system armed and ready for a proper exploration. Three times he took turns that dead ended. Fifty yards into the fourth tunnel branch, he came across a detention cell complete with traditional jailhouse bars. Judging by the rings in the ceiling he guessed it had probably been used to imprison victims at one time. He opened and closed the iron door, rusty, but still strong enough to hold.

He followed the black spray can markers he had left to find his way back knowing they would blend into the surroundings and be unnoticeable unless someone knew what to look for specifically.

The next day he returned carrying two heavy duty padlocks, two lengths of heavy chain that could not be broken by an angry vampire, fifteen feet of rope, two rods with shark hooks, and two sets of titanium handcuffs one of which had been modified in the shop in sublevel two in the early morning when everyone else was sleeping. He doubled a length of rope in two and used one of the hooks to thread it through the ceiling ring. The other was used to grasp the folded section and pull the free end clear. Next he attached the rope to one of the lengths of chain and pulled it through the ring. Once the facility was ready for use, he found a nearby indention in the tunnel wall where he could await prospective accomplices.

He had learned the skill of stationary stalking by deer hunting with his father when he was a twelve-year-old; the necessity of staying statue still for hours at a time, not moving no matter how cold it was, no matter how hungry you might be, or how much you might need to urinate. He was forced to leave empty handed in time to return to Jefferson Unit for his shift with E Team, but he came back the next two days. The third day, he hit the jackpot.

Just an hour after he arrived he heard movement and went so still he was practically holding his breath. Two vampire came his way. It was as easy as shooting ducks in a barrel. All he had to do was step out and throw two silver coated darts. The vampire were down and immobilized before they had time to realize what happened.

Ghost pulled them into the cell and left them there, paralyzed by silver, unable to move, hunt for food, or even defend themselves from rats. He wound several feet of chain between the first rung of the gate and the gate post, then fastened one of the padlocks.

The entire time he worked he talked to the paralyzed vampire saying he was sorry to leave them so, but that he would be back before they starved with meal delivery both lovely and tasty.

One thing he hadn’t taken into account was how heavy Elora was. He wished he’d read the file more carefully. She weighed twice what she should have. By the time he dragged her to the cell he was exhausted, soaked wet with sweat, and hating her even more - if that was possible.

He stripped her clothes, secured her wrists and ankles with the cuffs, then ran the chain through the loops he had welded onto the manacles for that purpose. He raised her from the ground using the angled leverage of running the chain through the wall ring and suspended her from the ceiling with her feet just ten inches from touching ground. The second padlock was used to secure the chain connected to the wall ring.

He threw two sedative darts into the paralyzed vamps. After a couple of minutes, giving the chemicals time to work their magic, he removed the silver coated darts knowing that the two vampire would awake soon and hungry. Very, very hungry.

For the piece de resistance of sadism, he had made a special aphrodisiac laced dart for Elora and marked it as the only one with red feathers. Unfortunately he couldn’t find it. He searched the pocket of his cargo pants where he had stashed it, but it was gone. After going through every pocket and looking around the area, he decided he would have to be satisfied without the additional torture of the aphrodisiac. He removed the sedative darts which were the only evidence linking him to the carnage about to take place. Even if the scene should be discovered by The Order, he would never be implicated.

The vampire were beginning to rouse. He wished he could afford to stay to enjoy witnessing the spectacle of ripping, shredding, snarling, and screaming about to take place, but decided it was more prudent to get rid of Baka.

With one last look he walked away leaving Elora to die a death worse than a demon’s nightmare.

When he was thirty yards away from where he’d left Baka, he heard voices. Spraying hissed curses into the darkness he turned back. At the next tunnel intersection he headed away from the cell where Elora was about to be devoured by hungry, angry vampire.

Sanction arrived with Blackie in twenty minutes. Storm told Baka to hang back since the dog had previously demonstrated an extreme intolerance for his presence and had been trained using his scent. Storm asked Sanction for the article of Elora’s clothing and hoped to Woden that big German Shepherd was as smart as she thought he was.

When they entered the tunnel, Storm put Elora’s tank top in front of Blackie’s nose as he had seen her do the day he observed the game of Find Sir Hawking.

“Find Elora.” Blackie stared up at Storm intently with ears pointed forward looking like he was asking for clarification. Say again. Storm repeated the steps.

Blackie barked and started into the tunnel pulling on the leash. He wanted to run, but they were afraid that, if they let him off leash, he would outdistance them in the space of a few seconds leaving them as lost as they would be without him. Baka followed behind them at a distance so as not to be a distraction.

Blackie and Sanction reached the cell a few seconds before Storm and Kay. They heard Sanction’s shouts up ahead and broke into a sprint for the rest of the distance. By the time they arrived, Sanction was almost sobbing and Blackie was hitting the bars of the cage, reminding them of the dog he had once been before Elora claimed him.

Kay reached for one of the pistols that held the wood core bullets planning to put an end to these particular vampire, but Storm caught his arm and pushed upward before he fired. With a chillingly flat tone he simply said, “Splat gun.” Kay didn’t question the request. He simply exchanged his weapon, shot them both in the face with silver gel, then used bullets to break the lock.

It took several tries since green wood core bullets are designed to penetrate flesh and not metal. They had to close Blackie out of the cell to keep him from tearing into the paralyzed vampire. Plus, the dog had not been inoculated. They didn’t know whether animals were susceptible to the virus, but couldn’t take the chance.

The scene inside the cell was grisly. Elora had been bitten repeatedly, all over her thighs and abdomen. Even with all the blood, the gouges and deep scratches were evident. Her neck had been spared only because they couldn’t reach it. Ghost had planned to keep her jugular out of reach partly to prolong her suffering and partly because he knew it would drive the vampire into a more fevered feeding frenzy.

Storm locked his arms around her thighs. While he held her weight up, taking the strain off her wrists, Kay shot the lock holding the chain to the side wall ring. Storm readjusted his hold as she slumped over and Kay helped him ease her to the ground.

When Baka arrived, Blackie renewed his protest, but Sanction was able to take him a few yards away and keep him under control.

As usual, Baka was wearing a long tailed silk shirt. He came forward and knelt down. He tried to feel for her pulse, but his hands were shaking. He took the shirt off, laid it over her body, then put his ear over her heart to listen. She was alive, but white as death and unconscious. Which was undoubtedly merciful.