Ethan leaned away desperately as Patterson tried to sink his teeth into Ethan’s neck. The world tilted crazily in the darkness as Ethan toppled over backward and smashed onto his back on the unforgiving tiles. In the scarce light from the open doorway to the chamber he saw the syringe plunge down toward him.
Ethan grabbed the pastor’s wrists and stopped the tip of the needle two inches from his own chest as Patterson tumbled down on top of him, teeth gritted with effort as he pushed his entire body weight down on the syringe.
Ethan gasped beneath the pastor’s furious attack, sucking in air as he struggled to hold Patterson’s body inches above his own, the pastor grimacing and starting to laugh maniacally as he drove the syringe another inch toward Ethan’s chest.
Ethan felt the tip of the needle pierce his shirt and skin, a tiny prick of pain. He felt his muscles bursting with effort, his eyes bulging as he heard his own labored pulse rushing through his ears. Spots sparkled before his eyes as he felt the last of his strength deserting him.
He heard the pastor’s voice above the rushing in his ears.
“Prepare to meet thy Maker.”
Patterson shoved his body higher up on Ethan’s, bringing his full weight to bear on the syringe. Ethan sucked in a lungful of air and twisted the pastor’s wrists downward, turning the needle away from his own chest.
Patterson grunted as he fought this new and unexpected counterattack. Ethan let the pastor’s body weight help him, placing all of the strain on Patterson’s wrists. The pastor gagged as he struggled to control his balance.
The syringe turned between them, facing down toward their feet, and Ethan changed his grip on the pastor’s hands, ready to push the syringe upward. Patterson panicked, scrambling up and away from the needle. Ethan hooked one leg over the pastor’s and kicked it out from beneath him, twisting him by his hands and wrists as his body flipped sideways and over onto his back. Ethan scrambled on top of Patterson, the needle now pointing down at the pastor’s chest.
In the faint light, he saw Patterson’s eyes swimming with panic.
“Joanna Defoe,” Ethan hissed, glowering down at the pastor.
A tremor of recognition flickered across Patterson’s features.
“Let me go,” he gasped, “or I’ll tell you nothing.”
“I had nothing to do with it,” the pastor croaked, straining to hold the syringe away from his skin. “I don’t know what happened to her, I swear.”
“Then what use are you?” Ethan growled.
“No, please, don’t—”
Ethan slammed his entire body weight down on the syringe. Patterson screamed as the needle plunged deep into his chest and the fluid flooded into his body.
Ethan hauled himself off the pastor, yanking the syringe free and tossing it to one side. Behind him, he heard a clatter of footsteps as flashlight beams sliced into the darkness and a handful of FBI agents burst into the chamber, Axel Cain at their head.
“Hands up, don’t move!”
Ethan complied, not resisting the FBI agents as they cuffed him. He saw Lopez being cuffed alongside him.
“Illuminated?” she said. “Darkness? You’re a riot, Warner, you really are.”
“You got it, didn’t you?”
He watched as they lifted Patterson to his feet, the pastor holding his chest where the needle had pierced him. Slowly he straightened, and began to chuckle as he looked at Ethan. For a terrible instant, Ethan wondered if the insane old man had been right as he stood four-square and looked Ethan in the eye.
“The Word has been spoken, and this is God’s judgment upon us all for …”
Patterson’s voice trailed off, and the fevered delight vanished as his face folded in upon itself in agony. Ethan took a step back as, bowing over at the waist, Patterson looked up and wailed a scream that sounded as though his innards were being doused in flames.
Patterson lurched to one side, the FBI agents leaping out of his way as the pastor slammed into the side of the gurney and sprawled onto his back, his eyes bulging and his mouth wide open as a foamy mess of bloodied mucus bubbled out to spill onto the tiles beneath him. Ethan winced as the pastor gargled and thrashed, dark blood spilling from his cavities as his internal organs turned to mush inside him.
Patterson gave a last anguished cry of despair, his limbs contorting at impossible angles as his spine arched over to the sound of cracking bones, his head