window taped up to be sure they came out of the elevator and Felix understood why Jack had decided to forget those damn gas masks and that gas because it was already tough enough to see in here even with the spotlights set up at every angle they could think of and all of them, Jack and Cat and Father Adam and Deputy Thompson and even Carl Joplin, gathered in front of the surveillance monitors Carl had set up at a little coffee table in the lobby so that Jack could see them while he worked the elevator and...
And it got very quiet and still with them just standing there for an instant, breathing in that air-conditioned air and watching those dark monitors.
"Hit the lights," said Jack calmly, "and let's see what we can see."
And the lights downstairs in the cells came on - Felix had no idea who flipped the switch, had no idea of the source of any other movements but his own and Jack's and whoever was standing dead inside of that tiny tunnel which had become his vision - and the cameras swept slowly back and forth showing the rows of bunked cells.
And no one was in them. They were empty.
For just an instant, Felix felt an exquisite thrill of relief until Carl Joplin lifted a chubby finger to one of the screens and pointed to an unmade bunk in the corner.
"There, I think," he whispered. He moved his finger to another bed beside it, also unmade. "And there."
Felix stared at the screens, unbelieving, and then back at the others' faces, glowing in the lights from the screens, and then be looked back at the screens themselves, back at the two unmade bunks, and then he saw those outlines in the mattresses and knew the beds were unmade because someone - or something, goddammit - was still lying in them.
And his fear rose and swirled up his spine.
"I don't get it," whispered Kirk. "I mean, I understand it's vampires and all that. Can't see 'em in mirrors and stuff. But what about their clothes? We oughta be able to see their clothes! I mean, it's a scientific fact that...
"Deputy," said Father Adam, from just off his right shoulder, and Kirk turned around and looked at the priest.
"Deputy," Adam repeated softly. "'science' can be helpful." He gestured to the screens. "And we use it all that we can. But," he whispered firmly, looking into the other man's face, "this isn't really about 'science.'"
And the deputy eyed him a beat or two before nodding and looking back to the screens and Felix felt another chill rise and twist within his guts because he hated, absolutely goddamn hated when the priest sounded so sure because he was always, always, right and about then Jack leaned over and around the screens for one last look, at the aquarium, sitting blood-filled and ready inside the elevator.
Then he flipped a switch and the elevator doors closed and they all heard the groaning clunking as the elevator started down. It seemed so loud! It seemed loud enough to wake the -
"There!" cried Carl Joplin, and his stubby finger thumped the screen again and moved away and Felix saw. Streaks, outlines, ephemeral... drifting... but with a purpose, with a pattern and direction and Felix could see them sometimes, really see them when they would move and then pause and for just a brief half second he could see them, see their outlines, see their expressions!
And they were smiling.
"I guess," offered Cat with a very dry throat, "they smell the blood."
And just then all turned to the last monitor, the one that showed the inside of the elevator cage, empty save for the bright-red aquarium and just then the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened and the streaks - there were three of them, clearly three, one man and two women - moved down the row of bunks toward the elevator and...
There! In the elevator screen they saw one of them appear and they could all tell, somehow - out of the corners of their eyes, sort of - that it was one of the women.
"Carl!" whispered Jack Crow harshly. "Get outside and get ready."
"Right," Carl whispered hard in return and he was gone.
Jack looked at the others.
"Get in position."
And they all moved back from the screens to somewhere - Felix was too numb to really tell or remember where - the others were somewhere over there to the right of the