Steady, Dag. C’mon. Don’t lose it now.
The wave of dizziness passed. My vision came back into focus. The astral projection was starting to take its toll on my psyche. I’d already sustained it longer than I’d thought possible. If I ever did make it back to my body, I’d be psychically sapped, unable to take another trip for weeks, maybe months. That is, assuming my meat suit didn’t bleed out first, courtesy of Alexei’s marksmanship.
I picked up the pace, weaving through the maze of ductwork toward the Control Center.
The slats on the grating beneath me created a strobe effect, as if I were viewing the scenes of carnage below on one of those old-fashioned Nickelodeons. DUST agents scrambled, shooting it out with the invading Reich team. Charmed slugs exploded into ghul bodies, liquefying heads and limbs. The ghuls retaliated with a vengeance, plowing through the DUST personnel with rabid hunger, ripping out throats in torrents of blood, tearing out hearts and devouring these while their victims’ eyes glazed over in horror.
I gagged from the metallic stench of death, which overpowered me. Maybe it was my mind’s way of bridging the gap between the gruesome visuals and my absent olfactory sensors. These were people I worked with. People with families. I leaned forward and retched, my spirit unable to expel a thing, not even the ghastly images forever seared in my soul.
The symphony of slaughter moved on. I forced myself to move, turning left at the next cross-section. I was almost at the Control Center. Risking a peek through the grate, I braced myself for the butchery. The corridor below was empty, except for a lone figure lying sprawled on its back.
Tep.
Shit. They’d gotten him, too. I was about to turn away when I saw him twitch. He was still alive, or whatever the technical term was for a functioning mummy.
Poking my head through the grate, I looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear. Then I dropped to the ground, my astral feet silent against the blood soaked tile.
I hunched down next to him. “Tep,” I whispered. “Can you hear me? Are you okay?” Crap. I couldn’t even touch him, lift his head.
He stirred, his black eyes fluttering open. His flesh was decomposing rapidly, cheeks sinking in, lips cracking. His throat was a mass of ragged flesh and linen burial bandages. “It took the amulet,” he wheezed. “Leave me. Save yourself.”
Behind me, steam burst from a broken ceiling pipe dangling from above, scaring the shit out of me.
I leaned in closer so I could hear over the hiss. “What amulet?”
His eyes rolled back into his head. “Khephir …”
Of course. The amulet of Khephir, the Egyptian god of resurrection. The mummy team wore these scarab pendants around their necks, usually concealed under their clothes. That’s how they’d risen from their tombs. And something had torn it from Tep’s throat.
“Tell me who has the amulet and I can get it back for you.”
A blood-curdling howl echoed down the corridor. I spun. A salivating Cerberus eyed me from ten-feet away, its glowing eyes twin beacons of flame. Red blotches marred its thick gray fur like a tally of death.
I backed away. “Nice doggie.”
The beast’s maw contorted in a monstrous grin, revealing its fangs, still encrusted with flesh and blood.
And dangling from one of those fangs was a cobalt scarab medallion.
“It looks like somebody hasn’t been flossing.” I stepped in front of the broken pipe.
The beast roared and barreled down on me. I stood my ground, locking eyes with it as it leapt into the air, soaring toward me—and instead, flew right through me and impaled itself on the protruding steam pipe. The roar morphed into a high-pitched gurgle. The Cerby’s steamy entrails dripped out the hole in its body and hit the tile with a loud plop. Its body spasmed, dropping the amulet on Tep’s chest. It twitched one final time then was still.
I stared at the swaying carcass. “Now that’s what I call well hung.”
I kneeled next to Tep. The amulet had put the brakes on the decay. His breathing was still shallow, though. Hopefully, the re-gen process would kick in real quick. Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could do for him now.
“Take care, buddy.”
Rising back into the ducts, I shifted my ass into high gear and sped toward the Control Center. And my brother.
Who knew? Maybe Abel would bitch slap Cain this time.
****
The control center resembled one of those all you can eat buffets, well, that is if your name happened to be Hannibal Lecter.
Bodies, and parts thereof, were strewn everywhere, on the floor, over desks, slumped in chairs, all pale from serving as human sippy cups for parched ghuls.
My brother stooped next to the vault door, applying a Semtex plastic explosive. A Reich agent, decked out à la Matrix, stood sentry beside him. How could my own flesh and blood be in league with these animals?
Phillipe stood with his back to his companion, and held out his hand. “Hand me the detonator.”
The ghul reached into his trench coat and pulled out a shiny black palm-sized device.
If I was going to do something to stop him from blowing the vault and triggering the failsafe, I had to do it now. I wasn’t sure what the limits of my astral powers were, but that old movie Ghost came to mind, particularly the scene when hunky Patrick Swayze’s titular hero possessed Whoopie Goldberg’s body. I guess when a spirit’s desperate enough it’ll jump anyone’s bones. Ratcheting up my concentration levels, I jumped from the duct and into the ghul’s body.
It was like falling into a well of darkness and intense hunger. My mind wrestled the ghul’s for control. Its animal instincts were powerful, but no match for my desperation to save the lives of Mom and my friends.
Or the hatred I felt for my brother.
I settled into my new crib, glaring at Phillipe through borrowed eyes.
He turned to face me. “Didn’t you hear me, Aldric? Give me the detonator.” He reached for it.
I pulled the device from his grasp. My movements were sluggish, as though my limbs had rubber bands attached to them. Aldric was fighting me. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Have you lost it?” Phillipe asked, eye wide. “Heinrich promised delivery to our contact at Montefuego for the ceremony there tonight. Our window is closing.”
Contact at Montefuego? Alexei. But what was the deal with the ceremony? Fear for Marco and Cassie flooded my mind, loosening my hold on the ghul body.
Phillipe took advantage and lunged for the detonator. I smacked him across the face, drawing blood from his lip. A surge of hunger kicked in, as though I were starving and hadn’t eaten in days. I bared my teeth. No. Aldric’s teeth. His flesh lust was overpowering my will.
Phillipe’s face went from shock to rage. He tackled me to the ground, his fingers groping for the trigger button. “I don’t know what’s wrong with you, you son of a bitch, but you’re ruining everything.”
My ghul eyes locked with his. “If you blow the vault, you’ll trigger the failsafe countdown. You’ll kill Mom. How can you do this to her? To us?”
Confusion set in his eyes. “Dagger?” he whispered. “How did you—?”
“Don’t do this. For Mom’s sake, if not for mine. She still loves you.”
For a moment, I saw my brother in his eyes. His finger relaxed on the trigger button. Maybe it wasn’t too late for him. For all of us.
“Reality isn’t always real.” His finger tightened on the detonator button.
“No!”
The explosion hurled us across the room. My consciousness ripped free of Alrdic, leaving the ghul’s body lying unconscious in a corner.
Phillipe crawled out of the rubble of a computer terminal, clothes torn, bloody scratches tracing his exposed skin. He staggered into the blasted vault.
Attention all personnel. Failsafe has been activated. Lockdown will initiate in one minute.
I couldn’t let him get away. I concentrated, trying to will myself into his body,
possess him like I had the ghul. I couldn’t do it. I was psychically spent, having used too much juice on Aldric.
My brother emerged from the smoldering gap in the wall, holding a metal case. He smiled at me. For a second it reminded me of the look on his face when I’d scored my first home run in little league, after he’d spent the entire summer coaching me.
“Alpha Bravo five sixteen one nine six four,” he said.
“What?”
“That’s the new system access code. You can use it to deactivate the failsafe. Or you can waste precious time and try to come after me. It’s your call.”
Lockdown will initiate in thirty seconds.
Booted feet rapidly approached from the down the hall.
If I let my brother get away, he’d take Il Evanidus to Heinrich, and who knows what they’d unleash on Montefuego, on Marco and Cass. But if I went after him, Mom, Fel, and Aristede would go up with DUST, and Montefuego’d be consumed by the fall-out anyway.
The son of a bitch had me exactly where he wanted me.
The running ceased just outside. “Öffnen Sie die Tür. Lassen Sie uns innen,” a voice cried in German. Fists hammered the door. The remaining Reich Agents wanted in, probably to escape the lockdown, just like Phillipe.
Lockdown will initiate in ten seconds.
Phillipe took a step closer. “I don’t think you have too much time left to decide, Dagger.”
“Go!”
He dashed past me and through the Emergency Exit door. Pausing, he turned one last time. “I’ll be seeing you.”
“Count on it.”
Lockdown initiated.
The door whooshed closed like a guillotine, cutting him off from me.
The installation will self-destruct in T-minus five minutes.
I had to get back to Price with the override code.
The Control Center door erupted in a spray of metal.
Three Reich Agents stood in the threshold brandishing their AK-47s at me. They leered, exposing blood-stained teeth encrusted with flesh. The one in the middle licked his lips.
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, I’m sorry. I thought this was the way to the little boy’s room.”
Then I did the only thing I could: ran right through them and hauled ass back to the Interview Chamber, hoping I’d make it in time.
****
Two Soul Scanners barred the way into the Interview Chamber. Phillipe’s virus had set them free with no accountability.
They hovered in front of the doorway, generating waves of ice-cold air that congealed the puddles of blood in the corridor and turned them into macabre mini-ice-skating rinks. Their frosty gaze fixed on me.
“I don’t suppose you guys are just going to let me in there, huh?”
Their mouths opened, emitting a high pitched shriek that sounded like the cries of a thousand pigs being led to the slaughterhouse.
“I’ll take that as a No.”
The installation will self-destruct in T-minus two minutes.
The male scanner charged me. I reacted instinctively, throwing a punch as if we were both flesh and blood. My fist connected with icy cold steel and sent him reeling into a wall, which surprised him just as much as it did me.
Looks like my astral self, composed entirely of thought, had evened the playing field. Payback, thy name is Bitch.
The Souler wench pounced like some crazed talk show panelist, about to give me an ass whoopin’ for messing with her man.
I whirled and kicked, but she leaped-frogged me, and landed an uppercut to my jaw. I fell to my knees, just in time to see her companion’s foot make contact with my cheek.
The installation will self-destruct in T-minus one minute.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
The Souler wench’s long fingers wrapped around my throat. My mouth opened, gasping for air that I really didn’t need. That’s when her tongue darted from her mouth, ready to French kiss the soul out of me. My hands flew to her face, twisting it away from mine. From my peripheral vision, I glimpsed her boy crawling toward me, his own tongue hungry for some action. His hands gripped my jaws, prying them apart. I was trapped between them, my mouth opened wide and ready to be penetrated.
Kind of reminded me of those Frat boys I’d warded off at that UM party last year.
I released the Souler wench’s face, gripping her tongue in one hand instead, and grabbing her boy’s with the other. In a split-second, I wrapped them together, like those twisty-ties used for garbage bags. The Soulers released me, their eyes mimicking the lunar cycle. Apparently, once they’d initiated the Suckathon, they couldn’t shut it off.
I rolled out from under them and watched in revulsion and awe as their bodies writhed, shriveling into prunes, and liquefied into puddles of protoplasmic goo.
I made a mental note to ix-nay getting oral from a Souler. I may be fluent in Pig Latin, but I’m not a Pig.
The countdown queen roused me from my stupor.
The installation will self-destruct in T-minus ten seconds. Nine.Eight …
I dove through the Interview Chamber door.
I saw everything in flashes. Aristede curled up in a fetal position, his body torn and charred. Price slumped in a chair, bruises covering her face.
And my mother, cradled in Felanie’s arms, trembling, a gash in her neck oozing her life onto the floor. I couldn’t move.
T-minus five seconds. Four …
“Dagger. The code!” Price shouted.
“Alpha Bravo five sixteen one nine six four,” I replied, as if in a dream.
Each tap of Price’s fingers on her wrist hammered into my brain.
Two. One …
I braced myself.
The option to override the self-destruct has been accepted. System reset.
I ran to my mother, crouching beside her. God, she looked so pale. So frail. Not like the strong-willed cast-iron woman I’d known all my life. “What happened?”
Felanie eyes were moist and bloodshot. “A couple of Reich agents decided to have a little fun. They attacked your mother. And Aristede.” She looked over at where he lay huddled and choked back tears. “He tried to stop them … they used … they …” She broke down, burying her face in her free hand.
“A Holy Water I.V.,” Price finished. They injected it into his veins. They would have finished the job had the failsafe alert not driven them away. ” She tapped some commands into her keyboard. “I’ve alerted medical. Whatever med-techs we still have left are on their way.”
I rushed to Aristede’s side. His eyes were closed but I could see he was still breathing. “Hang in there, buddy. It’s going to be okay.”
“I’ve used a coagulating spell I know on your mother,” Felanie said. “But it’s mostly for paper cuts and such. She’s lost so much blood.”
Despite all our differences, she was still my mother. And she really did give a shit. If only I’d realized it sooner. The possibilities of what might have been seeped away, along with her blood.
“Dagger, you’re fading,” Felanie screeched.
I looked at my hands. They were now translucent. I’d more than worn out my astral welcome. I convulsed, trying to hang on, but it was no use. I was slipping fast. Maybe this meant my physical body was in its death throes.
I rushed over to my mom, kneeling beside her. “Promise me you’re going to be okay, Mom. We have a lot to talk about.”
Her eyes fluttered open, weak and unfocused. “Daguerre … forgive me … I was only trying to protect …”
Had I not been a spirit, my eyes would have flooded over. “Save your strength.”
I turned to Price. “Listen to me. Before I’m gone, I need to tell you. The Reich’s plans are going down tonight. At Montefuego. Phillipe’s taken Il Evanidus there and they have the missing page.”
“None of us can do a thing about that now. This entire facility will remain in lockdown for the next six hours. Once housekeeping has disposed of the bodies and the replacement personnel has been briefed—”
“Housekeeping? Replacement personnel? You cold-hearted bitch. My mother is dying. Do you get that? Dying. And I might not be that far behind. Do you understand what it means to lose someone close to you? To watch them suffer? Look around you.”
Price didn’t flinch. “I will forgive that outburst, because of the situation. “But the truth is, Agent Beaumont, none of us are indispensable.”
“Guess that’s where you and I differ, Ms. Price.”
The stakes were high and I had a job to do.
I turned to my mom. There was so much I wanted to say, but I couldn’t find the words.
Her hand tried to clasp mine, going right through it. But the moment our essences converged, I felt a warmth that conveyed so much more than words ever could.
I pulled away and looked at them all one last time. Then I let go with my mind and watched them fade away, Mom, Felanie, Aristede, Price.
I was alone in the void, wondering if I’d live long enough to make a difference.
Chapter Nineteen
I woke up spread-eagle, wearing only my underwear, my hands and feet handcuffed to the bed. Out of the Astral Projection Frying Pan and into the S & M Fire. At least I was still breathing, if a little groggy. Alexei must have knocked me out with a trank gun. Why not just kill me outright?
A figure emerged from the shadows, the right side of its face cloaked in moonlight. Its hands held a gleaming silver box.
“Gut. You’re awake. I wanted you to be conscious for the ritual.”
Heinrich.
I could only imagine what kind of twisted fantasy the perv had in store for me. “I still have a bit of a buzz. Could we possibly put this off til I catch a few more Zs?” I tugged at my bonds. I had just enough slack where I could raise my upper body about six inches.
Heinrich glided to the side of the bed. “Unfortunately, there is not much time. The Age of the Sixth has arrived and I’ve brought you a gift to ensure you will be more open to my affections. You belong to me now, Dagger Beaumont.” A clammy hand rubbed my bare thigh.
I pulled my leg away as far as the cuff would allow. “Hey. Hands off the merchandise, Hoss.”
“You are truly an exquisite physical specimen.” He rubbed his lips together. “However, I’m going to miss that fire of yours.”