where the weapons were locked. Kurt twisted the steel handle until it broke, clattering to the floor. The door swung open. Inside, hung two high-powered rifles, a small pistol and a few tazers and dart guns. Kurt took down the firearms, checking to see if they were loaded. He tossed one of the rifles to Joe. “Can you shoot, Doctor?”

Joe nodded.

“Mia, my love?” Kurt handed the other rifle to Mia, who shouldered it, peering through the sight. Kurt caught Joe’s amazed expression. “She’s an expert marksman. She never told you? She’s deadlier than you know. It seems you have some secrets, Liebchen.” Kurt took the pistol, and grabbed extra boxes of ammunition stuffing them into the pockets of his suede jacket and the rest into Mia’s battered black leather one. “Aim for the head or heart, Doctor. Is he armed?”

“Probably disarmed the guards.”

Kurt looked around, his face tense. “Any other way out of the building from this level?”

“A freight elevator to the loading dock.”

“We’ll need a vehicle covered from the sun, like a van or truck.”

“The company van, I’ve used it to move equipment. The keys are in Lydia’s office.”

Kurt nodded. “Let’s go.”

They ran to Lydia’s office where Kurt kicked in the door. Joe went to the key safe and rifled through the keys. “Shit— not here. Lydia must have them.”

Mia spoke up, “I can hot wire a car.”

Joe and Kurt both looked at her in disbelief.

“Ethan taught me.”

Kurt smiled. “You’re an amazing woman.”

Joe led them through a set of double doors into a storage room where lab equipment and office supplies were stacked on shelves and pallets. The three of them stepped into the freight elevator. Joe closed the gate and the elevator lurched into operation.

“Christ, this thing is noisy,” said Mia.

“Be ready to fire,” warned Kurt.

They raised weapons in anticipation of attack as the elevator opened into another storage area with swinging doors leading out onto the loading dock. They stepped cautiously outside the elevator. Kurt tilted his head, listening. “Can’t hear him,” he whispered. “Mia?”

She shook her head.

Joe pointed with the rifle. “There’s the van.”

Kurt nodded. “I’ll cover this door. You go with Mia.”

Kurt leaned against the swinging door, training his gun on the doors leading back into the building. Joe covered Mia as she broke the window to open the van door. She crouched down and went to work on the wires, cursing under her breath.

Air swirled down from the huge cooling duct overhead. The smallest of scrapes against metal made Kurt cock his head to the side. “Scheisse— something’s up there.”

Suddenly, a dark shape swooped down, dragging Kurt up into the duct above their heads. The pistol clattered to the floor and the bag containing his laptop dropped beside it.

Joe ran to retrieve the gun. “He’s got Kurt!”

Mia was by his side in an instant. “Where’s this lead? He won’t kill him. Gaius needs us alive to get those discs back.”

“It goes all through the building… he might have taken him to the cafeteria, where the bomb is.”

“Come on!”

They ran inside toward the atrium with weapons poised. Joe panted to keep up with Mia, as she easily outran him to the cafeteria to look inside. “Not here!”

Something scuttled above their head towards the atrium. “They’re still in the ductwork,” Mia whispered. They moved cautiously. Joe looked around, but didn’t see anything. Then a drop of blood hit the floor at their feet. Mia growled, raising her weapon above their heads. “Put him down, you bastard!”

A refined, slightly accented voice called down, “I’ll drop him if you shoot. His brains will spatter over the floor.”

Mia’s face went still, “It can’t be… Brovik?”

Joe’s eyes followed up to the steel armature supporting the glass ziggurat atop the atrium. A vampire, his face seared like melting wax, with long, pale hair, clutched Kurt to him in a death grip.

“I thought he was dead.”

Brovik laughed. “A few hours of sunlight can’t kill one as old as me, Doctor Ansari. Yes, I know all about you. Very clever of the Amazon to put you to work on Mia, did you learn all of her intimate secrets?”

“The body on the boat?” Mia gasped.

“That was one of my dogs you set adrift and burnt with Ethan. Kurt dearest, I was touched at the poetic gesture, but even you, my love, knew nothing about the air raid shelter I’d dug on the island before the war. Give me what I want, and I’ll let you fend for yourselves as long as you can against