Vampire Beach Hunted (15 page)

Jason nodded. Besides his perfect physical appearance, the vampire was in bad shape. His eyes were open, but there was no sign of life in them. The pupils were so tiny that it was hard to see them at all. His mouth hung open, slack. And out of every single limb came a tube that snaked through the tank and connected to a huge machine at the vampire’s feet. There was another tube in his mouth, one in his navel, and one more coming from the back of his neck.

Was this Christopher? Could they save him? It was hard to tell if he was even still alive.

‘What are the tubes doing?’ Jason asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Adam replied. ‘Nothing’s moving right now. I can’t see if the tubes are doing anything at all.’

‘Do you think we can disconnect him?’

Adam shrugged. ‘They did it in
The Matrix
.’

‘OK.’ Jason reached forward and took hold of the tube leading to the vampire’s right hand. He hesitated. Should he just pull? He didn’t want to hurt the guy even more . . .

‘What are you doing?’ a harsh voice broke his concentration. Jason jumped, and turned to see a middle-aged man, wearing a lab coat, staring at him from behind the glass door.

Adam turned his head toward Jason, and Jason could make out his friend’s panicked expression even through the tiny window in the hood.

‘Why are you wearing clean suits?’ the man went on. ‘The warning light is off.’ He pointed to the top of the glass door, and for the first time, Jason noticed the light on the wall. Sure enough, it was off.

Oh my God
, Jason thought, his blood running cold.
We screwed up. These stupid suits were supposed to disguise us, but instead they’re going to give us away!

‘We’re not conducting any level eight tests at the moment,’ the man went on, his voice growing angry. ‘So what the hell are you doing in here?’

Sixteen

JASON THOUGHT FAST
. ‘My colleague and I were just about to commence level eight testing,’ he lied, trying to sound authoritative. ‘We were about to put the warning light on when I heard a noise coming from the . . . subject. We came over to check on him.’

Please let me sound like I know what I’m talking about
, Jason prayed silently.

The man in the lab coat studied him for a moment, then nodded.

Adam, eyes wide, turned back to the vampire and reached for the tube going into his stomach.

‘Leave that one for now,’ the man behind the glass said. ‘I need your help with the new subjects.’ He opened the sliding door, and a guy in a clean suit pushed a gurney into the room. On the gurney was another incubator tank – and inside the tank was Zach.

Jason already knew what was coming when he saw the other tanks wheeled in. Brad and Van Dyke were trapped helplessly in the tanks, strapped at the wrists and ankles and looking dazed. Even Zach, in his tank, seemed really out of it. All three of them had IV lines in their arms, and tubes in their mouths. The incubator tanks were closed, and inside there was a strange fog, as if a cloud were trapped within the glass.

Gas
, Jason realized. Van Dyke had said they’d used some kind of gas to keep him sedated when he was here last time.

‘They’re still conscious, Dr Abell,’ one of the clean-suit guys said.

The man behind the glass nodded. ‘Get started with the wiring while I suit up.’ He turned away and pulled a clean suit off the wall while two guys moved toward Van Dyke’s tank. The third one headed for Brad. ‘You two take that one,’ he said, nodding Jason and Adam toward Zach.

For a moment, Jason felt paralyzed. These people expected him to help stick tubes into his friend! Blind fury raced through him, and his hands clenched into fists.

Adam moved over to the side of Zach’s tank and turned so that Jason could see his face, eyebrows raised in a silent question. Jason knew what the question was: should they do something? Should they try to help their friends?

Every muscle in Jason’s body was tensed and ready to fight. But there were three guys in here, not to mention Dr Abell in the airlock. Even if he and Adam could take all of them alone, somebody was sure to set off an alarm. And the vampires were completely incapacitated. Who even knew if they’d be able to walk, let alone fight?

He shook his head at Adam. Then he picked up a coil of plastic tubing from one of the stainless steel counters. He watched as the other lab assistants straightened the tubing, and tried to copy them. He didn’t know how they’d be able to play along when it came to actually inserting tubes into his friends’ bodies, but right now he couldn’t think more than a minute ahead.

Adam took a coil of tubing and began prepping it as well. Jason thought he looked a little green through the window in his hood, but he was hanging in there.

Casually, Jason moved to stand directly over Zach’s head. He leant in enough for Zach to be able to see his face through the tiny window in his hood, then gave him what he hoped was a reassuring look. Zach blinked, then blinked again, as if he was trying to see more clearly.

He’s pretty out of it
, Jason thought.
I hope he could tell it was me
.

‘Chop, chop!’ Dr Abell barked, coming in from the airlock in his clean suit. ‘What’s taking so long?’ He moved to the guy at Brad’s tank and snatched the tubing away from him. ‘We’ve got to get them wired before—’

An insistent beeping interrupted him, and all the lab assistants turned toward the back wall. Baffled, Jason turned, too.

Half the wall was taken up by a huge flat-screen monitor, which had suddenly come to life. And on the monitor, larger than life, was Adam.

‘Dr Abell, I see you have the intruders,’ Fake Adam said in a vague New York accent.

There was a crash as Adam dropped the coil of tube he was holding. He turned away to pick it up, clearly trying to cover his shock at seeing his own face on the monitor.

Jason was a little shocked himself. It was obviously a communications device, and this was obviously the fake Adam that he’d been hanging out with for the last couple of days. And even now, knowing the guy was a fake, he couldn’t tell the difference in their faces. The resemblance was exact.

‘Yes, sir, Mr Norton,’ Dr Abell said. ‘Three vampires, just like you told us to expect.’

Jason turned to Adam, who was busy re-coiling the tubing, his back to the monitor. Jason went over to help him.

‘Norton,’ Adam said quietly, the helmet of his clean suit right next to Jason’s. ‘The guy in charge –
that’s
who is impersonating me.’

‘That’s who has been hanging out with us for the last two days, setting us up to get caught,’ Jason agreed.

‘Very good,’ Norton-Adam said. ‘I’m in the car now. I expect them to be ready by the time I get back to the complex.’

‘Yes, sir. As soon as they’re wired, it shouldn’t take long to put them into light comas,’ Dr Abell replied. ‘The last subject was comatose within five minutes.’

‘Well, these vampires are stronger,’ Norton-Adam said. ‘Their blood is purer. I want you to take good care of them, Abell. Monitor the IV feeding constantly. The healthier we can keep them, the better the output will be.’

‘Output?’ Adam whispered.

‘Of course, Mr Norton,’ Dr Abell replied. ‘The feeding tubes will allow for optimal output of blood, bone marrow and spinal fluid. But I’m afraid that the tissue will eventually suffer if they’re kept comatose—’

‘I’m not an idiot, Abell,’ Norton-Adam snapped. ‘We’ll harvest the tissue first, while it’s healthy, then take the fluids. We can wake them up in between harvests and let them move around to rebuild muscle tissue. Any bed sores will heal as soon as we let them regain their powers.’

‘Perhaps a rotating schedule would work,’ Dr Abell said. ‘Since we have multiple subjects now, we can have one or two being harvested while the other one is recuperating.’

‘Excellent idea,’ Norton-Adam replied. ‘We don’t know how long it will be before we can isolate the vampiric DNA strands for replication. We may need to keep using their actual fluids and tissues for quite some time to make the drugs.’

‘I’ll work up a schedule immediately,’ Dr Abell said, sounding very pleased with himself.

‘Now, what about the human?’ Norton-Adam asked.

Adam and Jason exchanged a worried look.

‘Adam Turnball?’ Dr Abell asked.

‘No! Jason Freeman,’ Norton-Adam answered. ‘He broke in with the three vampires. I told security to take him to a cell.’

‘I . . . they only apprehended the three vampire subjects,’ Dr Abell said.

Jason shot a look over his shoulder at Norton-Adam. The guy looked seriously pissed off. ‘You’re telling me there’s an
intruder
on the loose inside the complex?’

Dr Abell just shrugged helplessly.

‘Unacceptable!’ Norton-Adam snapped. Then he seemed to calm down. ‘Well, at least he’s only a human.’ A slow, self-satisfied grin worked its way across his face. ‘Besides, if Freeman tries to cause any kind of trouble, I have just the thing to keep him in line.’

Jason’s heart seemed to skip a beat. What did Norton mean by that? What did he think would keep Jason ‘in line’?

Sienna
. The thought was instantaneous. Norton – as Adam – had seen enough of Jason and Sienna over the past few days to realize how deep their relationship went. Did he have Sienna? Had he taken her hostage, too? Jason stared at the face on the monitor, anger fighting with terror in his mind.

‘But, Abell, I want him found,’ Norton-Adam was saying. ‘
Now
.’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘If he’s not in custody by the time I get there, I will be very unhappy. Do you understand?’ Norton-Adam’s voice had taken on a deadly edge, and Jason could see that Dr Abell was frightened.

‘Yes. Yes, sir. I’ll—’ Dr Abell began. But Norton-Adam was gone.

They all stared at the blank monitor for a moment. Then Dr Abell snapped back into command. ‘You heard him! Find that boy!’

The clean-suit guys all scrambled for the door.

‘He’s probably going for the prisoner cells, thinking we’d put the new subjects there,’ one of them said.

‘Or else he’s coming here, to get them out of the lab,’ another put in.

‘Two of you go to the cells,’ Dr Abell snapped. ‘I want someone on guard here, too, while I get to the security room to organize new search teams.’

‘We’ll stay here,’ Jason said quickly. ‘We can work on the wiring while you take care of security, Dr Abell.’

‘Good. Work fast.’ Dr Abell turned to the third clean-suit guy. ‘You – get up to the warehouse and get me the head of security. He’s up there with the outside teams. If we don’t catch that kid, I’m not taking the blame by myself.’

The four of them piled out of the room, pulling off their helmets as they went. In a matter of seconds, Jason and Adam were alone with the vampires.

‘Nice move,’ Adam said.

‘Thanks. But we have to work fast. They’re all coming back.’ Jason shoved his fear for Sienna down and rushed over to Zach’s tank. He studied the outside, looking for a way to open it.

‘Here.’ Adam reached over and pushed a small button near Zach’s feet. The top panel of glass slid to the side, leaving Zach open to the air. Almost immediately, the cloud of gas escaped into the room.

Jason was glad he had the clean suit on. If that gas could subdue vampires, there was no telling what it would do to humans. Quickly, Jason undid the restraints around the vampire’s wrists.

‘Hang on, Zach,’ he said, reaching in to pull off the tape that held the tube in Zach’s mouth. ‘I think this might hurt.’ He grabbed the tube and pulled it as smoothly as possible out of his friend’s mouth. Even so, Zach began to gag, and bloody foam formed around his lips. Finally, the end of the tube appeared, and Jason sighed in relief.

‘One down,’ he muttered. ‘You OK, man?’

Zach didn’t answer.

‘He’s still out of it,’ Jason said. ‘Open the other tanks to let that gas out. It’s what keeping them dazed.’

As Adam went over and opened Brad’s tank, he glanced at Jason. ‘That guy – Fake Me – he said he had something to keep you in line. What does that mean?’

‘He’s kidnapping vampires,’ Jason said. ‘And he’s been hanging with me for two days. He knows about me and Sienna.’

Adam gasped. ‘You think he’s got Sienna?’

‘If he does, he’s a dead man,’ Jason said. ‘I don’t care if he has vampire strength. If he hurts her—’

‘Freeman,’ Zach cut in. His voice was weak, but clear. Jason spun around to see him sitting up in the tank. ‘We have to get out of here.’

‘You’ve still got an IV in.’ Jason hurried over. ‘Are you OK?’

Zach nodded. ‘The gas is wearing off.’

Suddenly, the outer door to the lab banged open. Jason’s eyes locked with Zach’s. Zach dropped back down onto his back, grabbed the feeding tube, and stuffed it back into his mouth. Jason slid the restraints over his wrists without hooking them together.

Adam picked up a clipboard and went over to Van Dyke’s tank. He hit the button to open it, and then began pretending to make notes as if nothing was weird. Jason turned to face the man who had just come through the sliding door of the airlock.

It was Adam. Or rather, Norton.

‘Why are the tanks open?’ Norton demanded, grabbing himself a gas mask from a compartment on the wall labeled ‘
EMERGENCY
’.

‘We were getting ready to wire the subjects,’ Jason told him, trying to make his voice sound deeper than usual. He kept his body turned away from Norton, hoping the guy wouldn’t think to look too closely. If he managed to see through the window in Jason’s hood, Norton would recognize him for sure.

But Norton wasn’t interested in him. He strode over to Zach’s tank and leant in to see him. ‘The great Zach Lafrenière,’ he said tauntingly. ‘Not so special now.’

Zach ignored him, gazing at the ceiling like he was still out of it.

‘I hear yours is one of the purest bloodlines,’ Norton went on. ‘Just imagine how rich I’m going to get, thanks to your DNA.’

Jason studied Norton as he spoke. The guy didn’t look so much like Adam anymore. His nose seemed bigger, and he had heavy jowls instead of Adam’s thin face.