After taking a deep breath, he dove through the doorway, coming to his feet behind the first row of coffins, laser-rifle primed and ready to fire. No white flash greeted his appearance. Inching upwards, he swept the laser's sight across the room. No one. Frowning, he relaxed a little and glanced at the nearest coffin. Metal, not wood. Odd, because metal was usually only used to contain the newly turned. After checking the room a second time, and noting the exit across the far side of the room, he slowly opened the coffin.
The woman inside was little more than a teenager, with long blonde hair, rich brown skin, and a build that could only be described as voluptuous. Why would Kazdan be recruiting people like this? Sure, the girl was pretty, but the softness in her face suggested she'd led a sheltered, easy life. How would someone like this help him start — or maintain — a war? Wouldn't it make more sense to recruit people he could use as bullet fodder? Even then, as one of the newly turned, his creations would be next to useless for several months. Their thoughts would be consumed by the desire to feed, even as they tried to understand the onslaught of new abilities, new sensations that were often a fast track to madness for the freshly turned vampire.
He lifted the woman's hand, and felt her wrist for a pulse. After a several minutes, he found it. A single beat, unsteady, weak, but nevertheless there. The girl was still turning. It would be another day or so before the unsteady beat settled into its regular pattern of one beat every three minutes, and only then would she wake. Was this girl one of the names on the list? What price had she paid to join the ranks of the undead? And why?
He turned and looked at the other coffins. If he'd had the time, he would check them all, but he didn't have time. Kazdan was gathering an army, and it didn't really matter if that army was filled with women as soft as the blonde. What mattered was how many more he'd created.
And if Sethanon was as all-powerful as they'd presumed, why would he let a lieutenant build an army like this right under his nose?
He frowned and closed the coffin lid. The SIU would have to be called in to decontaminate the place. But first, he had to find Sam. And Kazdan. He hefted the rifle to a more comfortable position then walked across to the next door. Again the sensor opened it as he approached.
The room beyond was silent, but he had a bad feeling someone was in there, waiting. He dove through and rolled upright, rifle at the ready. And found himself staring into the barrel of a laser cannon.
"Don't move, Gabriel dear, or I'll blow your beautiful eyes through the back of your f**king head."
Chapter Fifteen
Voices broke through the darkness, voices Sam knew, voices she was beginning to fear — for with them came the onslaught of more tests, more pain. Better by far to remain in the secure safety of dark unconsciousness. Yet something within her struggled through the layers of pain, struggled to hear and understand. Gradually, the words became clearer.
"You keep on with these tests, and you'll kill her." The speaker was a woman. The sultry tones were familiar, even if the worry that edged her words wasn't.
"She is more than any of us had guessed. More than even Sethanon guessed. She is our key."
Jack's voice, cold and hard.
"And she will be no damn good to us dead!" Anger filled the woman's voice. Visions of Stephan's wife, Lyssa, swam through Sam's mind. But if this woman was Lyssa, how did she know Jack? And why was she here — wherever here was — defending her? "Look at her, Jack — she's barely alive. Look at the heart monitor."
She could almost feel Jack's scowl. "I only have two or three tests to go."
"Two or three tests we don't need. Unless, of course, it is your intention to kill her."
"Why the sudden concern?" Jack's voice held a mocking note. "I thought you couldn't wait to get her out of my life?"
Sam frowned. Why would Lyssa want her out of Jack's life? This was making no sense — her thoughts stopped. There were two women called Lyssa. The one she'd met at Stephan's place, and the one she'd rescued from Jack's cell. This was the first Lyssa, the fake, Sam was sure of it.
So why was the fake defending her? Especially given the hostility the woman had thrown her way at Stephan's?
"That's before I saw her in action myself. I owe her my life, Jack. If she hadn't found that bomb Mary set, I'd be paste right now."
Jack snorted. "Have you seen the stupid bitch?"
"No. Stern advised Stephan to separate us, and he tried to send me to some military compound."
"Then maybe he suspected you."
"Suspected his best friend's wife? Not likely."
"Stern's no fool. You must have said or done something to raise his suspicions."
"And maybe it was your precious little partner that made him suspicious. If she could sense the presence of the kites, sense the clone was a vampire, why couldn't she sense I'm not who I'm supposed to be?"
"None of the tests I've performed show any true strength in that field."
They hadn't? Then what the hell was he looking for? What had he found, if not her growing ability to sense some human races?
"And yet she knew Mary was up to no good, something I wasn't aware of even though I'd practically lived with the ungrateful witch for the last six months."
That sounded like Suzy. Even the haughty iciness in her tone was all Suzy. Were she and the fake Lyssa both in the room?