Damnation Code (William Massa) - William Massa Page 0,46
they skipped the basement.”
“Fuck you…” The guard’s words were cut off as his forehead connected with the elevator wall again. Talon tore the security badge from the guard’s breast-pocket and inserted it into a slot. A panel slid open, revealing a biometric touch screen. He pushed the groggy guard in front of the screen. A beam of light zipped over the monitor, scanning the guard’s eyeball. A second later, a touch-screen flashed into view. Talon selected the basement and the elevator hummed to life.
“Your friend begged for his life, ya’ know,” the guard mumbled under his breath.
Talon grew still as he tilted his head at this. Blood trickled down the guard’s broken nose as his mouth creased into a dirty smile. “He squealed like a pig—“
The words died on his lips as Talon drove the blade through his ribcage, straight into his heart. The guard spat at him with his dying breath before staggering away.
A red circle was widening where the knife had entered. He slid down the wall, trailing a smear of blood, and crumpled on the elevator floor in a widening pool of gore.
Fuck! Talon cursed himself. He’d originally planned to keep the guard alive, at least until he was inside the server farm. Studying the dead guard, Talon did recognize him as one of Erik’s killers. Wherever Erik might be, Talon knew he was grinning like a schoolboy.
This one’s for you, old friend.
The elevator stopped and the doors parted. Talon stepped into a narrow hallway and navigated through another doorway that required the guard’s security badge.
Two IT engineers faced a bank of monitors inside the a glass-enclosed control deck overlooking an endless maze of servers. They gazed up at Talon with surprise. One of the IT guys reacted immediately and sprang to his feet, knife up. Talon grabbed a nearby coffee pot and hurled its boiling contents into the IT guy’s face. The IT guy screamed and backed away.
The second engineer whipped out a blade, his binary tattoo exposed as he rushed Talon. The Delta operator stepped aside and yanked the engineer’s arm back until it snapped. The knife went flying.
Three punches later and the engineer had joined his buddy on the ground.
A second door whirred open. Talon advanced into the server maze. A knight entering the lair of the dragon.
The server farm stretched out before him, a cold, sterile maze of pulsing technology. Talon’s footsteps echoed eerily as he penetrated the otherworldly computer labyrinth. The marble black servers that dotted the white, cavernous space made Talon think of electronic coffins in a mausoleum. Glittering futuristic graves containing the remains of some computer race of the distant future.
Talon didn’t know which of the black monoliths housed Zagan’s demonic program, but it didn’t matter. He would blow the whole basement sky-high. Moving with speed, all too aware that the clock was ticking, he set his C-4 charges and armed them. One after another, the lights on the explosives glimmered red while the remote detonator remained secure in his jacket pocket.
The plan was to set off the C-4 and get the hell out of here. But if his enemy left him no choice, Talon was prepared to die in this basement. Whatever ancient entity Zagan had brought back to life couldn’t be allowed to return to the 21st Century and multiply. The world had enough problems without having to worry about a demonic invasion.
Talon had set about eight charges when the hairs on his neck and arms stood up. Something had changed inside the server maze. He shivered and realized the temperature had dropped by ten degrees or more. He peered down the spooky, abandoned hallway. The computers shined with an unnatural life and the ventilation system hummed forebodingly.
He was about to shift his attention back to the task at hand when reality tilted once more. Something unnatural was unfolding at the end of the server passageway. For a second the air rippled and thin tendrils of condensation snaked around the monolithic computers. A fog was forming, and spreading rapidly.
The old Talon would have stared with incomprehension at the surreal spectacle. The new Talon had been waiting for Zagan to make his move.
Talon’s fingers closed around the pentacle and draped it over his neck.
“This had better work.”
Ahead of him, the ghostly fog swirled and parted, revealing a new arrival on the scene.
Zagan.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
SERRONE ENTERED THE police morgue, her head pounding. She’d snacked on Ibuprofen for breakfast and washed the pills down with about a gallon of coffee, but still