The Ancient Breed (48 page)

“It gives us a clue.”

“I must’ve missed that part.”

“The historians said that one wizard died during the battle.”

“I fail to see the correlation between my predicament and the beast’s death.”

“It’s obvious, Nick. You are going to reenact the role of that wizard, and presto, the Cumalodin’s dead.”

Nick jumped to his feet. “But that means I’ll be killed, too.”

Glenna closed the ancient tome and held her hand above it until the golden trapezoid descended from her hand to the cover. She waddled toward the bookcase.

“Oh, you’ll think of something before then,” Glenna said over her shoulder, as she disappeared into the bookcase.

58

C

row turned away from the beating heart wedged at the bottom of the closet door before his stomach completely flopped. Glancing in both directions along the wide hallway, Crow couldn’t believe the number of shredded, decapitated corpses. Secret Service agents. Administrative assistants. Fashionably dressed employees. They all lay in twisted heaps, looking as if they had been jammed through a bakery bread slicer. Broken skulls, exhibiting vestiges of horrified expressions, littered the bloodstained carpeting like cracked eggshells. The walls were discolored with foul russet splash from the carnage.

Crow and Lisa traded petrified glances, each too dazed to speak. A shriek razed the stillness to their left, disturbing their malaise.

“C’mon!” Crow hissed, and they jogged warily down the hallway toward the chilling sounds.

Silence returned before they reached the woman, but Crow managed to pinpoint the source. An office door across the hall lay splintered inside the entrance, and there was loud munching noise inside the office that resembled someone crunching crisp celery.

Lisa gripped his arm. “What now?”

“Well,” he whispered, “Nick told us that the killer creature was less than five feet tall. I say we sneak inside the office while it’s still eating and pop the little shit a few times in the head before it knows we’re there.”

“Good plan. Lead the way.”

Crow observed the calm reflected in Lisa’s eyes. Was it just his imagination, or was she faking her anxiety? How could that be? He was as nervous as a buffalo on hunting day. She had to be at least as frightened as he was. Didn’t she?

Crow shook off the enigma as they tiptoed across the hall and peered inside the office. After once glance, their heads and shoulders snapped back.

Crow’s heart battered his ribs with the force of a jackhammer. “Did you see that thing? It’s over six feet tall!” he hissed.

Lisa chanced another look at the beast. This was not the pygmy killing machine that Nick had described from his encounter in the asylum basement. Its body was blanketed with gray scales and its tree-trunk legs stood on feet with three splayed, clawed toes. The arms were long and muscular, with thick, curved nails protruding from three scaly digits on each hand. The skull and its facial features were still evolving from a human to a beast, but it was the menacing, black spiked teeth that sent shivers erupting along her spine. She rejoined Crow in the hallway.

“It’s so big!” she whispered. Again, her eyes remained clear and calm during this panic situation.

“That’s an understatement. Got any bright ideas?”

Lisa didn’t hesitate. “Let’s stick to your plan, but shoot out its eyes first instead. From what I’ve heard, er . . . seen, they appear to be its most vulnerable spots.”

Crow’s mind instantly raised a red flag at her verbal slip. Had she heard about these creatures before today? Crow didn’t have time to explore his doubts. He had a monster to exterminate. “Are you kidding me? I’m a computer guy, not a shooting-range junkie. I can’t promise I’ll hit anything but the window behind it.”

Lisa grabbed his arms and stared into his eyes. His self-doubt ebbed from his consciousness. “You can succeed, and you will. I’ll attract its attention, and when it turns toward me, fire.”

Crow nodded. “I’ll give it a go.”

Lisa smiled. “You won’t miss.”

Strangely, he believed her; Lisa’s gaze was strangely hypnotic.

She released him and crept into the office. The creature was preoccupied with its victim’s skull and stood with its back to the door. Its long nails dug into the exposed brain tissue inside the broken cranium and stuffed the morsels into its daunting mouth. The female victim’s headless corpse lay crumpled beside the desk, and Lisa’s hand flew to her mouth when spied the gaping cavity in the chest.

Crow kicked off his shoes and followed Lisa inside. Surprisingly, his nerves were steel as he targeted the hideous beast down the short barrel of the 9 mm semiautomatic. He licked his dry lips. This was it. Showtime. He applied pressure to the trigger. He was as ready as he ever would be.

His eyes roamed toward Lisa. What was she waiting for? C’mon, lady, get its attention before his resolve collapsed like a defective teepee.

Crow blinked. Something was different about Lisa. What? Then it hit him. Her clothes weren’t the same ones she’d worn at the warehouse outside Duneden! He looked down. Neither were his! What the blazes was going on? They were identically dressed in jeans, light knit shirts, and sneakers. All black. How had that happened? And why?

Lisa didn’t give him enough time for further speculation. She stamped her foot on the carpet and shouted. The creature’s head snapped in her direction, its eyes glowing a malevolent green. Bloody globs of saliva dribbled from its gaping mouth as it appraised its new enemy.

Crow exhaled slowly and squeezed the trigger. The powerful gun kicked and jerked his hand up, nearly brushing his face. Though he was certain he missed his target, he glanced at the bellowing beast and saw an empty, bleeding socket where its right eye had been. He swiftly raised the gun again and fired at the left eye. That, too, imploded in its skull. The beast’s furious wail nearly ruptured Crow’s eardrums. He stood in awe while it flailed blindly in self-defense. Suddenly, it moved in their direction.

“Let’s get out of here!” Crow shouted, and yanked her from the beast’s path.

They were running hell-bent-for-leather down the hall toward the maintenance closet when the beast slammed against the office wall. It roared angrily and wildly pounded the barrier separating it from its attackers. Seconds later, it burst through the office wall into the hallway, sniffed the air, and listened with its curved, pointed ears. Crow tried to stop, but it was too late. The creature heard them, spun his blind eyes in their direction and swiftly advanced. The thumping footfalls shook the entire second floor of the White House wing like an earthquake. In its blind state, the beast flattened tables, crushed chairs, and lacerated wall paintings as it charged.

Crow and Lisa sprinted for their lives. They didn’t have time to hide in the closet or recite the wind walk chant. It was an all-out foot race to the stairwell ahead.

Lisa was several strides behind Crow when he slid on the blood-slick carpeting to avoid slamming into the wall at the end of the hallway; he grabbed the banister with one hand and allowed his momentum to swing his body around into the stairwell. The railing painfully broke his inertia, and he slid unceremoniously down a few steps before he regained control of his actions. His braking shoulder and shins throbbed, but he ignored the discomfort and jumped to his feet to help Lisa.

The creature’s claws were poised above her head for a lethal strike as she tried to avoid the wall and dive into the stairwell, but with the creature breathing down her neck, she wasn’t able to pull it off. Crow quickly seized her hand and yanked her into the stairwell a split second before the snorting beast crashed headlong into the wall. This one was solid brick.

It reeled backward, a jagged rift split the front of its skull. Blood cascaded down the gray chest scales as it toppled down the stairwell, narrowly missing Crow and Lisa. She screamed as its jaws widened and expelled its final breath.

She hugged Crow until her racing heart slowed. He knew she wasn’t faking fear this time.

“Let’s head downstairs and see who survived,” Crow suggested, gently easing himself from her embrace.

“Right,” she agreed, fluffing her flattened hair to hide her embarrassment.

After they descended to the ground floor, they found it as deserted as the second.

“Which way to the President’s office?” she asked.

He thought a minute. It had been years since he joined Rance and Nick for a top-level meeting with the former president.

Finally, he jerked his thumb to the right. “That way.” He hoped.

When they arrived at the back Oval Office entrance, Crow paused.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“The door’s open. That’s definitely a breach of security protocol,” he replied, drawing his 9 mm gun. “Follow me, but stay quiet. I don’t like the looks of this.”

“Okay,” Lisa said, worry creasing her forehead.

“And take off your shoes. We’ll go in Indian style.”

They moved soundlessly through two doorways before stopping outside a third door. They peered into the Oval Office. They gasped. President Shelton Hanover was crouched on his hands and knees behind the massive desk, his face drawn and pale. When he caught sight of them, he urgently waved them back.

Crow and Lisa exchanged puzzled glances.

Crow opened his mouth to speak, but Lisa clapped a hand over it. They listened, and heard a familiar, terrifying noise. Moving from the protective shadows of the entrance, Crow stole a look at the other half of the Oval Office.

In the center of the room, another large beast was busily gnawing a fleshy bone from one of the several dead Secret Service agents stacked in a grisly heap. This prehistoric killer was even larger and more fully developed than the one upstairs.

Two killer creatures? How could that be? And where did they come from? According to Nick, there was only supposed to be one small creature - the President’s mutated wife. Crow’s eyes wandered back to President Shelton who was frantically gesturing for Crow to retreat.

Crow stepped back and rejoined Lisa. He gave her one of those “Got any ideas?” looks, but after lengthy consideration, she merely shrugged her shoulders. He pointed to his gun, and she nodded, but with far less enthusiasm than she had had earlier.

There wasn’t time to call Rance for backup. They had to do something
now
.

If not, the United States would be swearing in a new President tomorrow.

59

C

row swallowed and raised the barrel of his 9 mm. He didn’t feel as confident as he did in the upstairs office when he shot the eyes out of that monster. He was about to step into the open and fire when Lisa snagged his forearm.

“Now what?” he whispered, half-frustrated and half-glad for the interruption.

“Did you see that?” she hissed fearfully.

“See what?’

“The flies swarming around the creature.”

Crow peeked around the wall again and squinted at the munching monster. Lisa was right. There was a black cloud buzzing its head like a black cloud, and when it swatted lazily at the pests with its bloody hand, they only scattered for a few seconds. The flies got bolder with each pass until several tried to light on the beast. A green aura suddenly appeared and blanketed the creature’s entire form. As soon as the flies made contact with the eerie glow, they were zapped into small ashes.

Crow retreated behind the wall. “It’s protected by some kind of force field,” he whispered incredulously.

Lisa lightly touched the 9 mm’s barrel. “You might as well go in there with a peashooter for all the good your gun’s going to do,” she said sadly.

He hesitated. “There’s got to be a way to penetrate its protective shield, but I’ll need Geronimo to offer some concrete suggestions before I go charging in there.”

She gestured toward the panoramic windows behind the president’s desk. Crow followed her gaze and saw a rescue team gathering outside. Black Hawk helicopters had delivered additional Army Special Forces teams armed with large-caliber weapons.

Crow’s tension receded. “We’re saved.”

Lisa disagreed. “They can’t get in here,” she said in a low voice. “When the killing started, the Secret Service must have sealed off the place.”

“I knew it was too good to be true! Hanover’ll end up like his bodyguards – sliced and diced,” he lamented. “Looks like we’re on our own again.”

“Not necessarily. Can you get on a computer and reverse the lockdown?”

He sighed. “It would take too long.” Crow was ready to raise the white flag and go home when his mind stumbled onto an idea. A pretty good idea. His face brightened.“Tell me you had a brainstorm . . .”

He nodded. “I’ll get online with Geronimo. The computer chief can penetrate the White House security without breaking a sweat. Geronimo’s done it before during a security drill here.”

Lisa checked her watch. “How long will it take?”

“I’ve got to find a computer that somebody’s already logged on to. Shouldn’t be a problem, though. That way I don’t have to waste time deciphering the network password. How long do you think we have?”

“Fifteen minutes - max.”

“Be careful,” Crow advised her. He retreated quietly into the main hallway and disappeared around the corner.

Crow swiftly checked the closest two offices, but the computers there had been destroyed. The third office was strewn with half-eaten corpses, and Crow walked away. No way he could work in there. The fourth office yielded one that he was searching for.

Crow went right to work. First, he disabled the speakers; he didn’t want Geronimo’s voice attracting the Oval Office creature’s attention. His fingers flew across the keyboard, and within twenty seconds, he was connected to his personal creation and cyberspace companion.

The screen read:

Greetings from your orphaned computer. I haven’t heard from you in so long, I thought that you had forsaken me, oh wise and mighty Crow.