Rapture (26 page)

“Your master?” Sam asked, already knowing the answer.

“The Antichrist, of course. He calls the shots around here and on most of the western seaboard. But then, you probably already knew that.”

“Where are my friends?” he demanded.

“Somewhere safe for now, although I can’t promise that they’ll stay like that for long. As soon as we’ve finished with you, their usefulness will be about exhausted I’d say.”

Anger boiled within him then. He jumped to his feet, hurling himself at the invisible barrier.

Jonah chuckled heartily. “You really are quite stupid, aren’t you?” He rolled up the sleeve of his right arm and showed Sam a mark tattooed on the inner wrist. Sam stopped pounding on the barrier and leant forward, suddenly filled with disquiet.

“You see this? This is his mark. Everyone in this city has this mark - and you didn’t notice?”

Sam could see the tattoo clearly. It was a stylized outline of a horned face. Inside were tattooed the name Abaddon and the number 666. The mark of the beast.

Sam should have expected this. He knew that with the rise of the Antichrist, all his followers would bear the mark. Why hadn’t he checked when he’d first entered Las Vegas? If he had, then he wouldn’t be in this predicament. Or Grace and Joshua. No wonder there were no demons in the streets – all the people here already followed Satan. What need had they to drag his faithful to Hell?

“What are you going to do with me?”

Jonah folded his arms across his chest. “I have my orders. We’re to conduct a few tests on you. There might be others like you around and my master wants to make sure that all your weaknesses are fully explored.”

“Then what?”

“My master wants to make damn sure that you and he never meet. After we’ve finished with our tests, he wants you gone.” Johah flashed his perfect teeth. “We’re going to kill you, of course.”

Sam paced within the tiny confines of the pentacle. After Jonah and his guards had left, he’d focused all his strength into freeing himself. It was no use. Somehow, there was absolutely no give whatsoever in the invisible barrier that contained him.He had no idea what he was going to do. All he knew was that he had to escape. Doing that, however, might prove difficult.

With no other option, he sank down to his knees in a meditative pose. He emptied his mind of all thought and calmed his body, feeling his heart rate slowing.

He was still poised like that when they came for him again. This time, there were four guards and another man dressed in a white lab coat. Of Jonah, there was no sign. The four guards were all armed with tasers. The technician held a modified straight jacket in his arms, reinforced with thick iron bands. Clearly, they intended to use that to confine him.

Their initial plan had been to taser him into submission. Now, seeing Sam already calm and possibly unaware of what was going on around him, the leader of the five men hesitated. “The tasers are unnecessary,’ he whispered. He gestured to the technician to move forward with the straight jacket while he and the other three covered Sam with their weapons.

The technician shuffled into the pentacle. One of his feet accidentally scuffed the chalk outline, breaking the symbol ever so slightly.

It was enough. Sam had been waiting for this exact moment, praying vehemently and gambling that they would not just taser him before restraining him. He felt the change immediately. Both of his eyes shot open. He moved as fast as he ever had in his life, his actions a blur to the wary guards, grabbing the technician around the neck and turning him around to face the other men in the room.

In shock, taken completely by surprise with the sheer speed of Sam’s actions, the four guards fired their iron barbs simultaneously. All they succeeded in doing was frying the technician that Sam was using as a shield.

As the man gyrated violently in his arms, Sam threw him at the first of the guards. The guard released his grip on the taser and tried to draw his baton but the technician slammed into him, and their two bodies dropped to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs.

The other three had drawn their batons, but Sam was already in amongst them. Hikari had trained him extensively in unarmed combat, especially in close quarters. The small room and the cluster of bodies worked to Sam’s advantage. The men were getting in each other’s way.

Sam attacked the guard closest to him. The guard was well-trained, probably an ex-soldier. He was also armed with an iron baton that should work well on someone like Sam. Unfortunately, he had not counted on Sam’s strength and reflexes.

Sam slipped under the swinging baton and punched the guard once, twice, three times in the chest before the guard even realized what was happening. The man was already out of the fight after the first punch. The second punch broke every rib in his chest. The third contained so much force that it lifted the guard off his feet and sent him catapulting into the guard just behind him.

The last guard still standing swung his baton in a sideways arc. If it had connected, Sam knew that it almost certainly would have shattered his skull. Sam stepped inside the swing, stopping the blow dead. Grabbing the man’s arm, he flicked it over his head and down straight onto his knee. The sickening crack of a breaking bone was almost as loud as the man’s scream of pain. Sam finished him off with a punch to the side of the head that floored him instantly.

He turned, picking up two of the fallen batons just as the remaining guards got to their feet. The two men faced him nervously. Sam could clearly see the fear on their faces. With a wordless agreement, they separated, one moving around behind him while the other attacked from the front.

The solid iron batons in Sam’s hands felt good. They weren’t his swords but they were effective weapons in such a confined space. After all, using two weapons at once was his speciality.

His right baton darted out and slammed into the face of the guard in front, knocking him off his feet. The guard hadn’t even seen the blow coming. At the same time, he lashed out backwards with the baton in his left hand, instinctively knowing where the other guard was. He was rewarded with a solid thud as it connected, and turned just in time to see the last remaining guard slump to the ground, unconscious. Less than thirty seconds had passed since the guards entered the room.

Outside, Sam found himself alone in a long, brightly lit corridor. He blinked in the white glare of the neon bulbs and listened carefully, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness. He could hear voices some way off but not the urgent sound of running feet or yelled warnings. So far, his partial escape had gone unnoticed.

He glanced both ways down the corridor. He was about half way along. Both directions looked identical with a set of frosted glass doors marking each end. Set into the corridor were a further four doors – two on either side of his, also made of solid wood. If he was Jonah, where would he have put his friends? It wouldn’t make sense to separate them too much. It would be much more simple to contain them within the same general area. No doubt, Jonah had been questioning them on Sam’s potential vulnerabilities and so he would want them near to him in order test out any possible leads. He was guessing but he was confident that Joshua and Grace would be behind one of those four doors.

The first door to his left was empty but for a few stacked crates. The second was locked and bolted from the outside. Sam slipped the bolt and backed up to the other side of the corridor. It wasn’t much of a run-up but it was enough. The impact of his shoulder against the door splintered the lock and the door flew open. Grace was inside, tied to chair.

He could see the relief on her face along with several cuts and bruises. Jonah and his men had not been gentle with her. She said nothing as he untied the rope, just curled her lip at him ever so slightly in gratitude. Sam felt his rage mounting again. Jonah would pay for this.

“Are you ok?” he asked. “Can you walk?”

Grace nodded mutely. Sam helped her to her feet and he retraced his steps back along the corridor, Grace sticking close to him. They found Joshua in the last room, locked but easily dealt with. Unlike Grace, he was neither tied to the chair nor suffering from the same treatment that had been inflicted on her.

Joshua looked surprised to see him but his expression quickly changed to happiness.

“What took you so long?” he asked.

“A few of Jonah’s men got in my way,” Sam replied. “They won’t get in my way again. Why weren’t you tied up? How come they didn’t hurt you like Grace?”

Joshua shrugged. “Beats me. Maybe they were starting with Grace and were going to get to me later. Probably saw her as an easier target.”

Sam nodded. That made sense. But something was niggling away at the back of his head again. “Let’s get out of here. Did either of you two see which way was out when they brought you here?”

“I did,” said Grace. “Outside those glass doors is a set of elevators. They’ll take us back down to the lobby.”

“Good idea,” said Joshua.

“No,” she said. “That won’t work. There will be guards downstairs. There’s no way we’d get past them all.”

“Fair point,” said Joshua. “Besides, when Jonah hasn’t heard from his guards in a few minutes, all hell is going to break loose. Forgive the pun.”

Sam was hardly listening. He was thinking furiously and then, suddenly, he knew what to do.

“Come with me,” he said to the others. “I’ve got a plan.”

The two desk clerks behind the lobby’s reception desk looked up when they heard the elevator chime. Two men and one woman dressed in guard uniforms strolled out. The clerks lost interest and returned their attention back to other matters.

Sam deliberately walked slowly, not willing to draw attention to himself. Joshua and Grace did the same, keeping their heads in the direction of the front doors and ignoring the other people in the lobby.

The doors slid open as they approached. Outside, it was dark. The city had come alive again. There were lots of people on the streets and at least two dozen milling around outside the hotel.

There were two guards still on duty outside. Unfortunately, it was the same two guards that had let them in earlier. Despite their disguises, the guards immediately recognized Sam and his friends.

Sam saw both of them open their mouths to raise the alarm. He stepped in close and punched the first one so hard in the stomach that he dropped to his knees instantly. Sam grabbed the second one and brought him close enough to whisper in his ear.

“Make a sound or any sudden movements and they’ll be the last you ever make,” he hissed, forcing the tip of the iron baton concealed in his jacket pocket into the guard’s side.

The guard gulped nervously and nodded his understanding, sweat starting to bead on his forehead.

“I only want two things from you, and then I’ll let you go,” said Sam quietly. “Do you know what those two things are?”

The guard nodded again. “Your swords?”

“My swords,” Sam agreed. “Where are they?”

“They’re in a storage room off the lobby,” said the guard.

“Good,” said Sam. “Take us there. Grace, Joshua, you stay here.”

Sam held the man by the arm as they re-entered the hotel. The lobby clerks favoured them with some curious stares but Sam waved at them reassuringly. “He’s feeling sick,” he said, indicating the other man. “Just helping him find his medication.”

The guard guided Sam to a small door adjacent to the lobby desk. He fumbled around in his pocket and brought out a key with which, after three attempts, he managed to unlock the door. Inside, the room was just a series of aisles containing racks and shelves, all filled with various confiscated or lost goods.

Sam pulled the door to behind them and the guard led him to a section that was obviously where all the weapons were stored. Sam saw his swords immediately, jutting out of a metal cylinder filled with all manner of long, thin weapons, including Joshua’s baseball bat. Relief flooded through him. His swords were a part of him; he hadn’t felt whole since they had been separated.

Dropping the batons, he tucked his wakizashi into the belt of his borrowed pants, feeling better already, then tried to conceal the katana and the baseball bat underneath his jacket. The end of both weapons poked through below the material of the jacket but it would serve. He only had get through the lobby then they would be clear.