slight breeze he created carried another scent to Cliff’s ultrasensitive nose.
Blood.
Linda’s blood.
Over the years, Cliff had infused himself with blood donated by almost every employee that worked for the network. And even if he hadn’t, Doc Linda had gotten enough paper cuts for him to recognize the scent as hers.
Alarm struck. Spinning around, he grabbed Whetsman by the arm. “Where is she? What have you done?” he demanded, his voice low and guttural. Too low to carry to the guards down the hallway whose attention, he sensed, sharpened on him.
Whetsman gaped up at him with terror-filled eyes. “I didn’t do anything. I don’t know where she is. Probably out fucking that German immortal who thinks he’s smarter than me.”
Liar! the voices cried, slavering for action. Kill him!
“Bullshit,” Cliff snarled. Crowding the man up against the wall, he scanned the white lab coat.
There. On the cuff of the arm Cliff held. Crimson speckles.
“Cliff?” Todd called from the end of the hallway. “Everything okay down there?”
Cliff ignored him and yanked Whetsman’s arm up to sniff the droplets of blood.
Whetsman’s heart pounded in his chest as he trembled in Cliff’s grasp and watched him touch his tongue to the spots. “What the fuck are you doing? That’s disgusting!”
“Cliff?” Todd called again.
Fury rolled through him, exciting the voices and amplifying their calls for violence.
That’s Linda’s blood! He killed her! He tortured her! He cut her up! Cut him up! Butcher him!
“What did you do?” Cliff growled, tightening his grip on Whetsman’s arm.
Bone snapped and crunched beneath the pressure.
Whetsman screamed.
Cliff shook him like a dog with a toy. “What did you do?” he bellowed. Spinning, he yanked the scientist across the hallway and slammed him into the wall.
More! Fuck him up! Fuck him up! the voices demanded, filling his mind with gruesome ways he should punish the bastard for killing Linda. For killing his friend.
An alarm began to blare. Boots pounded up the hallway.
Cliff threw the man across the hallway again, taking pleasure in the crack that sounded as Whetsman’s head struck the wall.
A dart skimmed past Cliff’s nose. He ducked a second one, then a third.
The snicks of suppressed gunfire filled the air.
Bullets struck his torso. Agony tore through him, merely heightening his fury.
Roaring, he bent over Whetsman where he’d crumbled to the floor, picked him up, and hurled him at the guards who ran toward them, weapons raised.
The gunfire stopped. Swears erupted as bodies tumbled to the floor.
Cliff started toward them, seeing nothing now but the man he wanted to rip to shreds.
More bullets peppered him.
Cliff stumbled backward, howling in pain and fury as Whetsman picked himself up and limped toward the elevator.
That fucker was getting away!
Cliff shot forward at preternatural speeds, bowling through bodies, seeing no faces, only impediments keeping him from reaching Whetsman before—
The asshole ducked into the elevator and the doors slid closed.
“No!” Cliff slammed into them full force. The heavy metal dented with a thunderous rumble but didn’t halt the elevator’s ascent.
Something jabbed him in the back. Ignoring it, Cliff dove for the door to the stairwell, plowing through more obstacles he barely acknowledged were guards. Men cried out as he batted them aside and leaped up to the first visible landing. Dizziness rose. Lethargy threatened, dragging at his legs like a strong river current as he raced upward, one floor after another, passing shadows that emitted screams so loud they matched the voices that kept yowling in his head, lending him strength and driving him onward.
Cliff stumbled out of the stairwell onto the ground floor.
Halfway across the lobby, Whetsman tripped and fell to the floor. A dozen guards followed and hovered over him while he clutched his arm and shouted, “He’s crazed! He’s fucking crazed!” When the scientist spotted Cliff through the dark legs surrounding him, he shrieked, rolled onto his belly, and started scrambling away.
The guards spun around.
Too late.
Cliff covered the distance between them in one leap. Grasping the back of Whetsman’s coat, he lifted him above his head and slammed him down again.
The scientist screamed.
That’s it! Hurt him! the voices clamored. Make him bleed! Make him scream! Make him beg for mercy!
More snicks sounded while the alarm continued to blare.
Bullets struck Cliff in the back and burst from his chest. Breathing became a struggle. Blood poured from his lips. But all Cliff saw was Linda’s blood on Whetsman’s coat.
Fuck him up! Make him bleed the way he made her bleed!