Deadtown (37 page)

“Shh!” Daniel squeezed my hand and stopped, gesturing with his other hand. I glanced around for a big tree to hide behind, but all the trees were slimmer than I was. So I dropped to a crouch, pulling Daniel down with me.

He dropped my hand, reached inside his jacket, and took out his gun, a 9mm Glock. He nudged my arm, then gestured with the gun. Fifty yards away, a potbellied norm in a fluorescent orange hunter’s hat stepped through the brush, holding a rifle in both hands. He was looking away from us, so as quietly as possible, we stretched out flat on the ground. My nostrils filled with the dusty, loamy smell of dead leaves, and I pinched my nose to keep from sneezing. My heart pounded so loudly I couldn’t tell whether the hunter was moving closer or farther away.

After what felt like an hour, Daniel tapped my arm. “He’s gone,” he whispered. “But he went the way we were heading. We’ll have to go around the long way.”

I thought of Maria, locked away somewhere north of us, and every way seemed like the long way. We half ran, trying to be quiet, stopping every few yards to listen. Daniel kept the Glock out, but we didn’t see the hunter—whatever he was hunting—again. Twenty minutes later, we emerged from the woods onto another road. Daniel paused, looking left, then right. “I think it’s this way,” he said, turning right.

We kept inside the woods, following the road. Twice we heard a car coming, and twice we dove for the ground. Finally, we rounded a curve, and there sat a blue Toyota with New Hampshire plates.

“Okay,” Daniel said, holstering his pistol, “according to my buddy, the key’s under a trio of rocks next to a birch tree.”

“There’s a birch tree,” I said.

Daniel jogged over to it. “And here’s the key,” he said, coming back a minute later. He opened the passenger door with a flourish. “Welcome to New Hampshire!”

So far, so good. We’d made it in. Now all we had to do was find Maria, avoid whatever traps Gravett had set, and make it out alive.

26

GRAVETT BIOTECH WAS A FORTRESS, A COMPOUND IN THE middle of the woods surrounded by eight-foot walls topped with razor wire.

“How are we going to get in?” I said, looking at the high wall.

“You’re a shapeshifter. Can’t you turn into a bird or something and fly over?”

“I could. But then I’d be stuck in bird form for several hours, which wouldn’t help get you in—or Maria out.” Besides, I didn’t want to shift on the day of the full moon, not after what had happened during the panther shift. No eating people today—not if I could avoid it. We’d have to find a norm way inside.

We ran alongside the wall, keeping low. Getting in would be the easy part. Gravett must be all in favor of welcoming me inside. It was getting out again that was going to be tough.

“Look!” I pointed to a place up ahead, where the trees stood close to the wall; the branches of one huge pine tree reached right across it. “I can climb up there, then drop to the other side.”

Daniel shook his head. “Won’t work,” he said. “The branches are too thin when they get close enough to the wall. They won’t hold your weight.”

“I’m going to try.” I ran to the base of the tree and put my arms around the trunk. It was sticky and smelled like pitch. I tried to shinny up it, but I couldn’t get a foothold. And when I gripped the trunk with my knees, I couldn’t figure out how to move upward.

Daniel caught up to me, panting. “Give me a boost,” I said.

“Vicky. It’s. Not—” he said between pants. But when he saw my expression he laced his fingers into a kind of step. I put my foot in his hands, and he boosted me up so that I could grab hold of one of the lower branches. From there, I pulled myself up until I was sitting on the branch where it met the trunk.

I was only about ten feet off the ground, but it felt higher. I could see far into the Gravett Biotech complex. Six brick buildings stood around a central courtyard. At the far side of the courtyard, almost directly across from my perch, was a barred gate. There was a gatehouse next to it, but from here I couldn’t see whether it was occupied by a guard. We had to assume it was. Everything was still—no patrols, no guard dogs, nothing. No people in lab coats bustling around with clipboards. The stillness worried me. It was like the place was holding its breath, waiting for me to make my move.

Surprised at how unsteady my legs felt, I grasped the trunk, inching upward along it, until I stood at my full height on the branch. The tree seemed to shake with my own trembling. At chest level, another branch grew parallel to the one I stood on. I clutched the branch with both hands and took one step, sideways, toward the wall. So far, so good. Another couple of steps, and my confidence grew. But the branch began to thin, and the farther I moved from the trunk, the more it bent. This branch would snap or dump me before I got past the wall. From where I stood, I could just about jump onto the wall—to be sliced up by razor wire.

Then I had an idea. Clutching the higher branch with one hand, I shrugged off my leather jacket and dropped it to Daniel on the ground. “Toss that up so it covers the wire on top of the wall.” He lined himself up with the branch and flung the jacket upward, hanging on to one sleeve. The first try, he missed, and the jacket slid down the wall.

On the second try, he got it. The jacket landed on a length of razor wire, flattening it. I’d have to jump carefully to make sure I hit the narrow strip protected by the jacket. I inched outward on the branch.

“Wait a minute,” Daniel called. He took off his own jacket and threw it onto the wall next to mine. “Okay,” he said, “I think you can do it.”

I wanted to close my eyes, but I didn’t. I kept them on my target, a four-foot-wide safety zone of leather. I took a deep breath, thought about Maria—and jumped.

 

 

FIVE MINUTES LATER, DANIEL HAD JOINED ME INSIDE THE wall. “She’s in Building Four,” he said. “That’s what the report we got from New Hampshire said.”

“Which one’s Building Four?”

“Let’s find out.”

As I’d seen from the tree, the complex held half a dozen buildings. We dashed from the shelter of the wall to the nearest one. The place was still deserted. It was Saturday, but it seemed like there’d be more activity, more excitement, after they’d stolen a possible Cerddorion child. The wide-open stillness of the place made me nervous. It couldn’t have felt more like a trap if they’d plunked down a big open cage in the middle of the lawn with a sign that read ENTER HERE.

Still, if there were no obstacles to getting in and finding Maria, at least they were making half of our job easy for us.

We edged along the side of the building until we got to the corner. Turning that corner would bring us into the courtyard, where we’d be in view of the other buildings. Daniel held up his hand, indicating I should wait. He pulled his pistol and held it pointing upward. Then he disappeared around the corner.

I squinched my eyes tight shut, waiting for the pop of gunshots. All was quiet—that eternal, unrelenting silence. In a moment, Daniel reappeared. “This is Building Three,” he whispered. “Four is the next one over.”

I nodded, and we backtracked until we stood behind Building Four. Again, Daniel went around the corner to check out the front of the building. I waited for him to motion me to join him, but when he returned, he took my arm and pulled me back. “This one’s guarded,” he said.

“How many?”

“Just one that I saw. A guy in a lab coat. I can’t tell if he’s armed.”

Someone was in the building—good. I’d make the bastard take us to Maria. And we could use him as a hostage if we had to.

“Let’s get him,” I said.

We went for speed, bursting around the corner and through the front door. Daniel pointed his gun, but I’d jumped the guy and had him pinned to the floor before Daniel could yell
freeze
.

“Nice tackle.”

“Thanks.” I twisted Mr. Lab Coat’s arm behind his back. “Where’s Maria Santini?” I asked, twisting it harder.

“I don’t—Ouch! There’s no need for violence. No one named Santini works here.”

“You know who I mean, damn you. Where’s the little girl?”

“Oh, you mean—” He grunted. “There’s no little girl here.”

I grabbed a fistful of brown hair, yanked his head back, and slammed his face into the floor. “Are you sure?”

He groaned and tried to turn his head to look at me. Blood streamed from his broken nose. His glasses were crooked, and one lens had cracked, making it look like he had two eyes in one socket. “There’s no little girl here,” he repeated. “This is a research facility.”

He was stalling—not good. It probably meant reinforcements were on the way. I smashed his face against the floor again, then climbed off his back. He half rolled onto his side and squinted up at me in surprise.

“Okay, Daniel,” I said. “Shoot him.”

It was impossible to say who looked more shocked—Daniel or the guy on the floor. I knew that Daniel would never shoot anyone in cold blood, but it took him a second to realize that I
did
know that. The guy in the lab coat, though, suddenly looked uncertain.

Daniel took two steps so his feet were planted in front of the guy’s face. Mr. Lab Coat, wheezing in fear, curled into a fetal position and covered his head with his arms. His cracked lens glinted between them. Daniel aimed the gun and clicked off the safety. The sound of that click echoed off the walls.

“No, don’t!” Lab Coat’s voice came out in a high-pitched, half-strangled whine. “Don’t! I’ll take you to her.”

I pulled the norm up onto his feet. He shook so hard his knees buckled, and I caught him before he hit the ground a second time. “Which way?” I asked. I’d twisted his arm behind his back again.

Daniel pressed the pistol against the guy’s head, behind his right ear. He’d put the safety back on, but Lab Coat didn’t know that.

He motioned with his chin toward the elevator. “Third floor.”

“We’ll take the stairs.” I dragged him to the stairwell.

Daniel went ahead of us. “It’s clear,” he called down.

By the time I’d hauled Lab Coat up two flights of stairs, he’d recovered somewhat. When we emerged on the third floor, he led us quickly down a long corridor—or as quickly as he could, given the grip I had on him. The walls were gleaming white; so was the tile floor. The place smelled like a cross between a hospital and a zoo, strong antiseptic over musky animal odors. Every few feet there was a door with a small, square window about five feet above the ground. Wires crisscrossed the reinforced glass. I glanced inside one; the narrow room held a cot but was otherwise empty. In the next one, a wolf, mangy and thin, huddled in a corner, its back toward the door.

Next to each door were a magnetic card reader and a metal frame that held a printed card. SUBJECT 1375B, read one card. SUBJECT 1722A, read another.

We stopped in front of a door about midway down the corridor. The card here read SUBJECT 3564C. I looked through the tiny window and saw Maria, sitting on the cot and hugging herself tightly. She looked so small, so terrified and alone. I grabbed Dr. Lab Coat and pressed his face against the window until the glass cracked. I put my lips to his ear. “That, you asshole, is a little girl.”

I picked him up with both hands and threw him, as hard as I could, down the hall. He grunted when he hit the wall and again when he hit the floor.

Maria had looked up at the movement at the window. When she saw me, her eyes went wide, and she jumped off the cot. I smiled at her, reaching for the doorknob. It was locked. And Lab Coat was crumpled in a heap against the far wall, out cold.

I pointed to the card reader by the door, turning to Daniel. “See if that jerk has an ID card. Something with a magnetic strip.” I put my fingers against the glass and said, “We’re coming, sweetheart. We’ll get you out of here.”

Daniel searched the guy’s pockets, shaking his head. He pulled open the lab coat and said, “Bingo!” Handing me a plastic card with a photo on one side and a strip on the other, he said, “It was clipped to his shirt pocket.”

I swiped the card, holding my breath. The lock made a telltale click, the knob turned, and the door flew open. Maria rocketed out and flung her arms around me. She didn’t say a word, just pressed her face against me. I held her tight and showered her hair with kisses.

“Come on, kiddo,” I said. “We’re taking you home.”

“We?” Maria looked around. Daniel smiled and said hi; she stared at him, her eyes wary, like he was a stranger who’d offered her candy.

“This is Daniel,” I said. “He’s a police officer.”

Maria tensed. “A police officer already came. She said I had to stay here.”

“Not Daniel.” I gave him a half-smile. “He’s okay.”

The heap in the lab coat groaned. “Sounds like our cue to leave,” I said. Holding Maria’s hand, I started back down the hallway. Gray, furry faces with wide, rolling eyes peered out of some of the windows as we passed all those locked doors. As we neared the stairwell, shouts and hard-stomping footsteps erupted ahead of us. They were coming up the stairs.

We turned and ran the other way down the hall, toward a green-lit exit sign at the far end. A howl came from one of the cells we passed, giving me an idea. I stopped and swiped the ID card that had opened Maria’s door. The lock clicked, and I pushed the door open. I did that at every door we passed. Growls and yelps filled the air behind us. A moment later, a voice yelled, “Stop!” then “Holy shit!”

As we neared the exit door, I glanced back. Wolves, half-men, and a few unidentifiable creatures looking like something out of a nightmare, charged the other end of the hall. A rifle went off, taking a chunk out of the ceiling. A human screamed. I pushed Maria into the stairwell, ducking in behind her.

 

 

BEFORE WE MADE IT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS, AN alarm went off with a skull-splitting clamor. Strobe lights flashed at each landing. Maria covered her ears as we ran down the last few steps. At the bottom were two doors: one leading to the first-floor hallway and the other, marked EXIT, opening to the outside. At the exit door, Daniel put a hand up, telling us to wait. As he eased the door open a crack, I hugged Maria to me. I could feel the bumps of her spine under my hand as I stroked her back. She seemed so small and vulnerable; I didn’t want to let go of her. The alarm kept up its racket.