Blood Harvest (37 page)

“Exactly. I’ll meet you in the loading area unless you hear otherwise from me. Out.”

“Oh indeed. Out.”

Kunnert clipped the radio to his belt and thought about his next move. The first step was to collect Daniels then figure out the best way to get the two of them down to the loading dock without attracting attention.

Kunnert ordered his remaining men to set up a defense of the perimeter with the assumption any hostile force would be coming out of the stairwell. As the men took their positions in front of the stairwell door, Kunnert moved into the hallway and jogged to Daniels’ private office. Gripping and turning the doorknob, Kunnert entered the office without knocking. The smell hit him first and fast. It was a coppery, noxious smell that had filled his nostrils so many times before.

Blood…lots of blood.

With a swiftness and efficiency that only come with years of training and practice, Kunnert simultaneously drew his sidearm and dropped to his knees in a shooter’s crouch. He surveyed the room. Nothing moved. Slowly Kunnert crept across the floor to Daniels’ desk. Deciding to take the offensive, Kunnert crept to a position of best conjecture, held his breath and counted to three. On three he quickly stood and whipped the barrel of his weapon to bear on the first thing that moved. Nothing moved, but Kunnert peered at the ruin of what was once Alex Daniels. The man had been completely disemboweled.

The sheer insanity of the sight made Kunnert start to shake; it took a great deal of concentration for him to re-holster his sidearm without potentially shooting a hole in his foot. Kunnert looked from the mangled corpse to the open safe in the wall, which reset his head to work analytically again. What had been in the safe that was so important to Daniels? Carefully, Kunnert moved to the body, pushed aside the gore and felt over Daniels pockets, finding nothing of interest.

“Breathe,” Kunnert told himself, “breathe,” as he tried to still the unbridling fear shooting through his entirety. Kunnert heard gunfire coming from somewhere on this floor. He raced back to the elevators to find Alpha cutting down the men he’d stationed there.

Kunnert could only stare as he watched the man move. Every motion flowed seamlessly into the next as if the entire battle had been choreographed ahead of time. Kunnert had watched enough masters to recognize the expertise in the white haired man who was literally taking his men apart. Men who were armed with automatic weapons being carved to pieces by one sole individual armed only with knives.

The area where most of the bloodletting had been occurring was a good thirty-to-forty feet away from where Kunnert held his position. Kunnert ran several possible scenarios through his head regarding how he might get past the fracas without having to join in the melee. Deciding on his best plan, Kunnert moved into the fray anticipating his path. To his surprise, Alpha leapt out of the space and into the hallway leading to the elevator. This maneuver ruined Kunnert’s escape route, although it did open the possibility of the stairs as an exit point.

As Kunnert bolted for the stairway door he turned to see Alpha spinning with arms outstretched. With timing, strength and speed seeming humanly impossible, he placed his right hand horizontally on the last guard’s throat. The guard’s neck cracked sharply and his body toppled over as Alpha came to a complete halt. He stood facing Kunnert and the stairway door.

At first Alpha either didn’t see or didn’t recognize Kunnert, frozen in place under the glare of a face completely masked in crimson. Kunnert remained motionless as Alpha regarded the heap of bodies he had left in his wake. Kunnert’s breath caught in his throat; he fumbled desperately for the latch to open the door. Alpha’s hands tightened into balled fists at the sound and he charged toward Kunnert.

Kunnert’s training took over. He instinctively drew his sidearm and fired at Alpha. Alpha had seen the motion, broke his charge and darted into one of the side offices for cover. The bullet whizzed past his head and exploded into the wall behind him. Kunnert’s entire countenance quaked as he realized his shot had missed. He never missed! How could this be? It was impossible to dodge a bullet. How could this freak have managed it? Kunnert screamed as he fired aimlessly into the office, praying he could somehow hit and, at the very least, incapacitate Alpha with one of his shots.

As the last bullet was spent, the bolt of Kunnert’s automatic ratcheted to the open position. With practiced efficiency Kunnert ejected the cartridge and lifted a full one from his pocket. He slammed it home reloading the weapon in less than a second. While aiming his gun back into the area where Alpha had disappeared, a rush of air whistled past his ear. Something very solid and heavy slammed into the door behind him and stuck there with loud impact. Kunnert turned to see what had hit the door and was horrified to view a metal letter opener sunk deeply in the door. Alpha had thrown the opener with such force it penetrated a steel, fire resistant door!

Alpha moved back into the hallway. Kunnert aimed and pulled the trigger on his weapon, not bothering to look where his shots were going. He bolted through the stairway door. Had he looked he would have seen one of his shots graze the side of Alpha’s thigh, an insignificant wound, but enough to secure Kunnert’s getaway into the stairwell as Alpha twisted with the impact and fell hard to the floor.

Chapter 52

Steve was back on the first floor where Chris Barnes’ dead body lay peacefully on the ground, his head propped up on the jacket he’d been wearing. Steve stared at the body of his friend, overcome with grief at the sight.

Alpha had directed half of his hunters upstairs with his people on the tenth floor to protect them from guards looking to escape by using the innocents as leverage. The remaining hunters, including Lei, were searching the building for any opposition.

Earlier the hunters had located a tech hiding in one of the bathrooms on the first floor and brought him to Steve. The man was sufficiently terrified and set to work on the system with ferocity.

“I have restored the security cameras throughout the building. We can see every floor in full detail. I have also removed the block on the cell phones so everyone should be getting the maximum signal available to them at this point forward.”

One of the hunters watching the monitors called out: “We have movement in the loading dock.”

Lei ran over to where the hunter was standing, “No, they’re not...” Alpha had given Lei his cell phone before he went after Daniels. She quickly used it to call the other hunters. “We have activity in the loading dock. Who is checking that area?”

When no one responded Lei slammed the phone on the desk and ran for the exit.

The noise stirred Steve from his mourning and yelled after her, “Take some help with you!”

“I can take care of myself, keep everyone else on task,” Lei responded coldly.

Steve reluctantly got up from where he’d knelt beside Chris and moved to look at the security monitors. He could see someone loading a truck with several boxes, not wearing a security uniform. Then a second man came running into view; Steve glared at the image on the screen.

“Lei, a second man has just arrived. It’s that security guy, Kunnert. Do not attack on your own!”

No response came from the other end.

“Lei? Did you hear me?” Steve repeated.

Chapter 53

Kunnert watched as Dr. Whelan loaded the last of the pre-packed boxes into the truck. As he climbed into the driver seat, Kunnert pulled down on the overhead door and latched it closed securing the contents.

He had just jumped down from the truck’s bumper when Lei casually walked around the corner still wearing only the trench coat Alpha had given her earlier.

“Going somewhere my darlings?” she breathed heavily to Kunnert and the doctor.

Kunnert flinched, quite surprised to see her. He quickly regained his composure and shot back, “Yes, as a matter of fact, but it can wait for another minute or two.”

“Is that all it takes with you? Oh come now studley, you wouldn’t get it off that fast and leave me wanting more, now would you?”

Dr. Whelan looked in the side view mirror of the truck and saw Kunnert and Lei in a stand-off in the back of the loading dock.

“Ken, leave her!” The doctor shouted from the driver’s seat.

Kunnert yelled back, “Get out of here Doctor, I’ll meet up with you later at our destination.”

As he turned back to Lei he removed a large folding knife from its holder clipped to his belt. “I’ve wanted to get into you all night.”

Kunnert flicked open the blade and charged at Lei who gracefully danced out of the way. Kunnert attacked again, but this time he feigned right before lunging left. Lei’s reaction was too late; the knife sliced through the leather of the trench coat as easily as if it were made of silk. Fortunately, Lei’s movement had been in time to prevent her flesh from being cut. Kunnert pursued his attack and instead of dodging the knife, Lei blocked the arm wielding the blade and launched a sidekick to Kunnert’s knee. The blow knocked him off balance but it did not hyper extend his knee as she had hoped. Kunnert quickly regained his footing and threw a front kick of his own. His connected solidly into Lei’s abdomen, dropping her off her feet.

The tie around her waist loosened. As Kunnert lunged for her she flipped the coat open, blocking his view. Lei whisked her hand at an exposed area of Kunnert’s back and slashed her fingertips across his flank. Kunnert winced with surprise and stumbled away from Lei to gather himself. He stood facing her while running his hand along his side. He was feeling pain and discovered his shirt had been sliced and several shallow stinging lacerations were oozing thin streams of blood.

Looking at the blood now covering his hand Kunnert stated, “Now that was clever.”

“You’re lucky I wasn’t cleverer. My nails are usually poisoned,” Lei shot back.

“Indeed. Lucky me, unlucky you,” Kunnert murmured as he charged again, knife flailing as he rushed toward her. Instead of retreating, Lei ran forward meeting his attack head-on with trench coat flying behind her like a cape.

The vision of her running completely nude with black leather flapping in her wake created Lei’s desired effect. She watched Kunnert’s eyes as the distance between them diminished, Lei clawing her fingers and Kunnert arching his blade at shoulder height. Each was aiming for the other’s neck and the vulnerable structures which lay beneath.

Lei never took her eyes off Kunnert’s, the world moving in slow motion as her fingers approached his throat and his blade crept closer to hers. Then she saw it. Kunnert’s eyes flickered from the spot on her throat to the lower part of her anatomy as four million years of male instinct took over for the tiniest of moments. All the physical training and the surgical enhancements molding her into the siren she was paid for themselves ten fold as Lei used the moment to shift her weight. The blade passed harmlessly to one side of her neck while her fingers continued on course for the man’s throat. In that split second, Kunnert realized his mistake and desperately tried to correct his body’s trajectory.

Lei’s fingers penetrated fabric and flesh. Her fingers pierced into Kunnert and the warmth of blood ran down her digits and across her hand. The desperate shift of position on the part of Kunnert caused her fingers to penetrate the muscles of his chest and shoulders, not the throat. Painful as the wounds would be, Lei knew they were neither fatal nor incapacitating.

Kunnert backhanded her with such force the blow sent her head reeling like a knockout punch in a boxing match. It threw her off her feet and into the air, spiraling backward some five feet before she crashed onto the cement beneath her, resting haplessly on the ground.

From the shadows where Lei had appeared earlier came the sound of feet approaching. Kunnert turned to see two hunters sprinting toward him. Reaching down he grabbed Lei by the hair and lifted her up enough to slide his blade beside her throat.

“STOP! Or I’ll slit her throat!” he called out. The men instantly slid to a stop some twenty feet away.

Dr. Whelan, who had reluctantly waited to see the outcome of the fight, was shifting the truck into first gear as Kunnert dragged Lei back to the vehicle. Her eyes were blinking rapidly in an attempt to regain her senses. Kunnert leapt up the loading step and grabbed hold of the balancing handle outside the overhead door. The truck started to roll out of the loading dock as Kunnert held Lei awkwardly to his chest with knife still at her throat. The hunters began to run for the truck, a gesture that made Kunnert laugh out loud.

A loud explosion and a cloud of smoke plumed from the loading dock about the same time a fountain of blood erupted from Kunnert’s right leg. His laugh turned into an immense scream and he was rocked off balance. Both he and Lei flew off the truck and into the parking lot just outside of the Pharmanetics building.

Rolling with the impact, Kunnert controlled his fall then quickly sat up to examine his leg. A large caliber bullet had gone in one side of his thigh and out the other. Ignoring the intense pain Kunnert reached for his knife where it lay on the ground next to him. He remembered the snub nosed revolver in its ankle holster on his left foot. He reached for the gun.

As he looked up from his ankle toward the loading dock Lei jumped on top of him. She wrapped and intertwined her legs around his body at the waist, then encircled her right arm around his neck and grabbed the inside of her left forearm to lock her grip. She fisted the hair at the crown on Kunnert’s head and wrenched his head back as she pressed her naked body intently against his. With incredible force she drove her head down and sunk her teeth into the center of Kunnert’s throat, crushing and tearing at his Adam’s apple. Kunnert struggled and punched to get the woman off of him, but Lei had locked her body so efficiently he couldn’t find the slightest leverage to remove her as she chewed on his throat.