Page 88 of I Dream of Danger
Nick jerked his weapon and they fell into a rhythm, Nick treading lightly on the edges of the steps, covering the field of fire below them, Jon moving down backwards covering the field of fire behind them. Both weapons up, fingers on trigger button. They could switch from stunner to bullets in a fraction of a second.
Go on.
On the twenty-second floor, the door to the floor was ajar. Up until now, all the doors had been closed, a keypad on the wall next to the door. Nick took point again and slowly opened the door with the muzzle of his weapon.
Jesus! A man was lying on the floor, a pool of blood around his head. A clerical worker, dressed in white shirt and black slacks. He was lying on his side, one arm at an unnatural angle.
His throat was torn out. Something—someone?—had taken a huge chunk out of his throat and he’d bled out.
He’s dead.
Nick nodded at Elle in his head. Yeah. No need to reach down with two fingers over the carotid to check.
His eyes met Jon’s.
Nick! Behind you! Elle’s voice screamed in his head and he turned just as something came at him, a beast making terrifying animal noises, a creature with blood smeared over its face, hands up and reaching for him. It made a wild leap and it?—
Fell to the ground in a lifeless heap, half its head shot away. Nick had opted for good old-fashioned bullets.
“Jesus!” Jon’s voice came out a harsh whisper. They’d both taken a knee, ready to deal with other crazies who might be coming, but there was no one. Nick focused on the man who’d attacked him and rose slowly. He hadn’t noticed many details—too busy killing the fucker—but now he walked over to the carcass. The…man was covered in blood and had—Jesus. Nick bent over. Did he have a human ear in his mouth? While attacking, the man had seemed all teeth and claws, but now, if you discarded the blood and the human ear between his teeth, he looked like an executive. An out-of-shape executive who probably took a golf cart around the course twice a month just before a hearty lunch at the club.
He was chubby. His once white, now red shirt strained at the buttons around his belly. He was balding. His suit was good quality and his shoes were shined and he’d come at Nick like a maddened grizzly bear.
Nick…
Yeah, honey? He thought it abstractedly, trying to puzzle out the two men, two members in good standing of the office drone class, one maimed, the other …maimer? Nick touched the man’s head with his toe, turning his head this way and that. The ear in the man’s mouth wasn’t his. It was someone else’s.
So this thing, whatever it was, wasn’t limited to these two.
Nick, get in the elevator and go down to the second sublevel. Now. Elle’s voice was more than a whisper now, and there was urgency in it.
He turned to Jon. “Elle says to take the elevator down to the second sublevel. Now.”
Nick didn’t know Jon that well. When the shit had rained down on them in the Cambridge Lab—belonging to the same company that was raining shit on them right this minute—he’d been on his second Ghost Ops mission. You go into battle a lot with someone and come out the other end alive, a bond is forged. After only two missions and the third one gone to shit…well, Jon could easily question the order.
Jon didn’t hesitate.
They both ran for the elevator and Nick punched in -2. The lights flickered, cut out, came back on.
“The fuck?” Jon said.
Nick shook his head. He had no idea.
Hurry, came Elle’s whisper in his head.
A click, then Mac’s voice. “In position.”
Nick tapped his ear. “Roger that.” He flipped to Haven. “Catherine. How’s she doing?”
Elle’s spirit was here, in a way Nick couldn’t explain but knew was true. Her body, however, back in Haven, was in a sort of coma. Though Nick knew, rationally, that she was safe and in Catherine’s hands, the irrational part of him wasn’t happy with the situation. Whatever part of Elle was here couldn’t be shot and killed, but there was something going on that scared him down to the marrow of his bones. There was evil here. He’d been in lots of places where the forces of darkness operated. Where hatred and greed and lust for power were powerful motivators, and he could deal with that. All warriors faced the worst of human nature and fought it. That’s why they were warriors.
But there was something about what was happening here that scared the shit out of him, and he wanted Elle far, far away instead of here. In spirit rather than in body, but still.
Catherine’s calm gentle voice came on. Jon didn’t react and Nick realized that she’d switched on just his channel. “Elle’s fine. Vital signs are stable. I’m at her side and won’t leave until she wakes up or until you guys get back.”
Muscles loosened in his body. Catherine would stay by Elle’s side.
Don’t worry about me. The tone in his head was stern. Pay attention. You’re going to have to act fast. There was silence for a second in his head and just as the elevator reached the second subbasement level with a ping, Elle reappeared. Two…things. Right outside the door!
