Part 29 (1/2)

The monitor that covered the front gate showed movement also. A semi pulling a huge cargo trailer rolled to a halt, then another parked beside it, and another pulled up behind. The drivers got out and moved to open the rear doors. More trucks were pulling up behind. You could pack a lot of dead stuff into that many trailers.

”With your s.h.i.+eld gone, a veritable ocean of the righteous dead will flood this place. Once the Hunters are gone, I'll deliver you personally to my Master.”

”What about me?” Grant asked.

Torres scowled. ”You? I just wanted to gloat for a minute. Might as well pop you now.” He moved the gun back toward Grant. ”All that I'm going to ask is that I'll be the one to animate your corpse afterward.”

Grant gave Torres a b.l.o.o.d.y smile. ”Good thing I texted Franks when I found Pitt.”

Grant had been holding his phone when I had spotted him.

Torres' eyes flicked to the door just as it exploded inward. He opened fire. The flash-bang grenade went off a split second later.

My eyes were scalded with light and my ears rang with a deafening screech. Head swimming, I struggled to my feet. I had to reach Torres. I misjudged and crashed into the wall. A strong hand grabbed my neck and shoved me out of the way. I tripped over Herzog's corpse and went to my knees.

A moment later I could see again. Bright purple ghosts floated across my corneas, but I could at least tell what was going on. Torres was face down on the floor. Franks was kneeling on his back, handcuffing him. Archer stood in the doorway with a Sig 229 pointed at Torres' head.

Then I could hear. Torres was screaming, thras.h.i.+ng. ”The High Priest is coming! His legions are coming! You can't stop him! It's the dark new dawn! Do you hear me?”

Franks jerked Torres to his feet. He towered over his prisoner. ”Yeah. I hear you.” Then he slammed his giant fist into the side of Torres' head with a brutal hook. The cultist collapsed, unconscious. ”So shut up.”

I got unsteadily to my feet. ”Where's the alarm b.u.t.ton?”

Franks pointed at Torres' limp form. ”Get him out of here.” Archer looked confused. ”I'll explain later. Contact Myers. Tell him we got the spy.” Franks glanced down at Grant. ”Nice work, Agent Jefferson.” He was smug, mission completed, no idea what was coming our way fast.

There was a large red b.u.t.ton on the control desk. I mashed it repeatedly. Nothing happened. I looked under the desk. The wires had been torn out. I swore.

Franks' blunt features were perplexed. ”What?”

Grant had gotten unsteadily to his feet. He pointed at the monitors. ”The Condition's attacking!”

The acolytes had pulled up a hidden hatch near the barracks and were entering the tunnels. The view of the front gate showed the trucks and the movement of some vast beast tottering down the trailers' ramps. On the cafeteria camera, Earl finished speaking. He was stepping down. Esmeralda was taking his place. Someone stood in the audience, back toward the camera, a gun extended forward. It was utterly silent. Earl jerked as a hail of bullets tore into him. There was a loud noise down the hallway as something exploded.

The power went out.

Chapter 15.

A brilliant flashlight beam clicked on. Franks flashed it around the room.

”Status?”

”Commando team is trying to destroy our ward stone. And when they do there's at least four truckloads of undead waiting to charge in.” I pulled out my own Streamlight and s.h.i.+ned it around the room. I spotted my compact STI.45 and picked it up. ”We've got to protect that ward.”

Grant, stumbling from the beating, retrieved Torres' suppressed HK and looted some extra mags from the unconscious traitor. That's right, I had tossed Grant's gun down the hallway. Franks was a hulking shadow behind his light. ”Archer, request reinforcements. Jefferson, call the Shacklefords and warn them what's coming.”

Archer came back immediately. ”I've got nothing.”

”No signal,” Grant said. The Condition was jamming us somehow. This was a full-on a.s.sault. Hood had set it up perfectly. He must have been planning this forever. Like Holly had said, this was a chess game to him.

”You know where the ward stone's at?” I asked. Grant had been around longer than I had.

”No idea,” he answered. I s.h.i.+ned my flashlight on him. He was bleeding from his nose and one eye was swollen shut. I had really clocked him. Served him right, just not for the reasons I had imagined. If we lived through this, I was going to find out why Grant had turned snitch and then I was going to beat him to death.

”The bad guys were heading into the tunnels by the barracks. Earl said that the stone was centrally located,” I said.

”Probably in the middle of the property,” he responded. The main building was toward the front. We had some ground to cover.

The compound was connected to the regular electrical lines. Those must have been cut by whatever that explosion was, probably set by the doppelganger. But we had our own backup generators in the bas.e.m.e.nt. I could hear them begin to whine from down the hall. They were up and running within a minute. The lights came back on.

The cultists were in the tunnels. Luckily Earl had given me a brief tour. ”I know about an entrance to the tunnels. We're close. We can intercept them. We've got to hurry.” I started from the room.

”Wait,” Franks said as he blocked the exit. ”I'll handle this. My mission is still to keep you safe.”

”No, you lied. Your mission was to capture your traitor.” I pointed at Torres' unconscious form. ”Now get the h.e.l.l out of my way.”

”You were both part of my mission.”

”You son of a b.i.t.c.h...” He had brought a murderer right into my house, and put all of us at risk, just to accomplish his mission. Unfortunately, I couldn't even afford the luxury of being angry. There was work to be done. ”We're out of time.”

He contemplated that just for a second. After all, with the warding down, we were probably all going to die anyway. ”Fine. Let's go. Archer, warn the Hunters. Find a way to contact Myers.”

”Yes, sir!” Archer shouted, whipping out a pair of handcuffs and securing one of Torres' already cuffed wrists to the heavy desk. Then the efficient agent sprinted from the room, shouting back at us. ”I'll get help.”

Franks raised his Glock 10mm. He was wearing a suit, and other than what he had stashed in his pockets, probably didn't have a lot of extra firepower. All I had was my compact pistol, two extra 10-round mags, and a Spyderco folding knife. The rest of my gear was upstairs, fat lot of good that did me right now. Grant had Torres' piece, but at least he was wearing armor. So it was up to a brute, a snitch, and me, armed only with handguns, to defeat a commando force of heavily armed and amped-up cultists. I led the way toward the tunnels. ”Hurry.”

We reached the storage closet that Earl had showed me. The door was locked. I kicked it open. My ankle was really burning now. Shoving the shelf of cleaning supplies aside, I realized that there was no way I was going to batter this ma.s.sive door open. The padlock hanging from the ma.s.sive latch was a serious piece of steel. ”c.r.a.p! I can't open it.”

”Move,” Franks ordered as he shoved past me.

”Well, that was stupid,” Grant said.

”Shut it, you rat rat.”

”You have no idea what you're talking about it, so shove it,” Grant returned. ”I saved your life.”

”I can't believe you're a Fed. You lied to us all.”

”I've got my reasons,” Grant replied as he took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the blood from his forehead. ”I told you the truth earlier. You think this is all about you? The world doesn't revolve around you, Pitt.”

Maybe Grant just brought out the worst in me, but I wasn't in the mood to listen to his c.r.a.p. ”Well, yeah, it does. So screw you.”

Franks studied the big lock for a moment. Maybe he was planning on shooting it. Realistically, as solid as that chunk of steel was, we were going to run out of ammo and die from ricochets long before we broke it. Franks put his gloved hands around the lock, braced one big foot against the door and pulled with all his might. He roared as the metal bent, tore, then broke free. He fell back. Whatever the h.e.l.l Franks really was, he sure was handy to have around.

Franks tossed the broken lock on the ground. He cracked his knuckles. ”Go.”

I pulled out my flashlight as we entered the tunnel. I remembered how to get to the intersection, but the only other time I had been down here, I had gone in the opposite direction than we needed to go. But rough estimation should get us toward the barracks.