Darkest Before The Dawn Read online

  Ichika looked around with the curiosity and wonder of a child who had never experienced such a world. “Looks like Eve’s calculations were correct,” she remarked as the group traipsed through the deserted corridors.

  Jacqueline grunted in acknowledgment, distracted.

  “What is it?” Mark asked her, noticing her quietness.

  Jacqueline glanced through the open doors at the deserted labs and offices. “Don’t you think it’s strange that we haven’t seen any dead bodies in here?” she wondered out loud.

  Mark slowed his pace suddenly, and Riku slammed into the back of him, jolting him forward. “Ugh,” Mark grunted involuntarily as the wind was knocked from his lungs.

  “My apologies.” Riku bowed, blushing at his lack of situational awareness.

  Akari swatted him on the arm. “Some silent warrior you are,” she chuffed, rolling her eyes dramatically.

  Jacqueline and Ichika sniggered quietly to themselves.

  Mark was distracted, though. “You have a point, Jacqueline. Perhaps we should let Yuko know while we’re searching this place? It does seem a bit odd.”

  Jacqueline nodded. “Ok, I’ll do that,” she agreed, pulling the strange communication device she had been given out of her pocket as they continued walking.

  Just then something caught her eye up ahead. “Hey,” she said, getting Mark’s attention again. “This looks promising,” she said, nodding toward a set of double doors.

  Ichika frowned. “How can you tell?” she asked, curious as to what other strange superpowers these people really had.

  Jacqueline smiled. “I spent a long time scavenging for technology back in my country. One develops a sixth sense for these things.”

  Ichika raised her eyebrows. “Oh,” she said quietly, noticing that Akari was watching her strangely. “What’s up with you?” she asked as they followed Jacqueline and Mark into the server room.

  Akari shook her head. “Nothing,” she said simply, following Ichika into the computer room and pretending to be immersed in the new environment of computer stacks.

  Mark was already walking around the array, searching for the most strategic place to plug in.

  Jacqueline looked around, a little out of her depth. “Honey?” she called. “I think I’m going to take a walk. See if there are any other clues about what really happened down here.”

  “Uh huh,” Mark grunted, already on his hands and knees in front of a particular stack. He clipped something into place and a fan powered up. “Ok. Be careful. Take someone with you,” he added. “And let Yuko know what’s going on, would you?”

  Jacqueline was already through the door before the two girls realized what was going on and decided to follow her.

  Halfway down the corridor, they had just come from, they managed to up catch to her. Ichika looked at Jacqueline as they strode. “Mark is your husband?” she asked naively.

  Jacqueline shook her head. “Boyfriend,” she corrected, before suddenly becoming suspicious. “Why?”

  Ichika shook her head. “Making polite conversation,” she protested, suddenly remembering that Eve had warned her about Jacqueline’s jealous streak.

  Jacqueline relaxed a little, but remained on edge, as she fiddled with the communicator. “Right,” she mumbled, trying to get it to connect.

  Akari was silent as she followed them.

  Jacqueline finally connected with Eve. “Eve, hi. We’re in.”

  Peckham, England

  The first shot whiffed right by Michael’s ear, his head jerking to the left while his right hand grasped the pistol butt and yanked. He had already sent four antigrav pulse-generated slivers of hot metal streaming back toward the building he believed the shot came from.

  His eyes could see the implosion of the wall as his, Akio’s, and then Sabine’s shots destroyed that location.

  Six guns, all turned up to the highest level each person could handle, started streaming shots down the street. They walked the shots to the left and right, each person taking an area based on their own location. Akio to the left, Michael in the middle, and Sabine on the right.

  They walked down the street, continuing to fire.

  The big building’s brick facing was crashing to the street in front. Large gaps were being torn in bricks that had been there for hundreds of years by the fusillade of firepower destroying the outside. Anything inside was being pulverized as rounds ripped through walls to destroy what they could.

  “Out,” Akio commented. He calmly pulled out new magazines and put them in his pistols while Michael used his left gun to pummel the building in Akio’s area. A second later Akio was back online and Michael took a moment to replace his own magazines. When he was done, Sabine took a turn and reloaded.

  “These fucking hurt,” Michael bitched as they reached the front of the building. He slid his right pistol into its holster and flung his hand back and forth. “Hellacious kick.”

  “Pussies.” Sabine laughed.

  “Try turning yours up to eleven,” Michael told her. She looked at him, then looked at the setting on her pistol.

  Six.

  Eleven? “Oh, hell no! I take that back.”

  “Thought so,” Michael told her. “You can stop. Everyone is farther inside the building now.

  Sabine shot twice more and ceased fire, then watched as a chunk of the wall three stories up slowly slid off and dropped to the ground, crashing into the other chunks of brick. “Wow, now I know why guys like destruction so much.”

  “It is addictive,” Michael agreed.

  You going to watch out for her? He sent to Akio.

  Hai.

  Good, I don’t need another verbal attack for caring.

  Akio chuckled. You need to stop saving people who then become willing to die with you.

  I don’t think I’m responsible for this one. You are the one who taught her how to shoot.

  Hai.

  That’s it?

  What else would you have me say? You are right, I taught her how to shoot.

  Just…just watch her, Michael finished, then stepped into the building.

  —

  Michael could feel the pain, the emotions of those beneath him in rooms under the ground. He read the thoughts, the agonies, the desires to die as machines sucked their blood out.

  Some of whom he felt deserved it, many of whom did not.

  His eyes flared red and he turned back around. “Akio!”

  “Hai!” Akio turned from speaking with Sabine, his eyebrows raised in question.

  Michael reached down and unbuckled his holsters’ belt. “Take these. I’m not going to need them.”

  Akio noticed the granite in Michael’s eyes and nodded. “We will be outside.”

  “What?” Sabine hissed, but stopped when Akio’s hand sliced in front of her. Michael had turned around and was walking into the building.

  Akio looked at her. “You have met a man who has been softened.”

  Sabine snorted. “Softened?”

  “Somewhat,” Akio clarified. “The Patriarch is here, so we need to step back.”

  Sabine looked around. “Like, literally?”

  An explosion shook the inside of the building, and a portion of the roof seemed to crumble, pieces raining down across the street and bouncing off walls.

  “Never mind,” Sabine answered her own question, and the two took off running across the street, aiming for an alley.

  —

  Down the street, Leo and Oscar whistled as they watched the roof explode. “That man is pissed.”

  Leo had a smile on his lips, but it didn’t touch his eyes. “I think he just found out about the captives underground.”

  “Why?” Oscar asked. “He doesn’t like other vampires hurt?”

  “Boy,” Leo shook his head, “that guy is honor personified. He would do that if you were strapped there.”

  —

  First, there were explosions…

  Then there was FEAR. The feeling that hit those wh
o had made it down from the third floor had to work hard to stop their minds from gibbering.

  The fear caused Harry and everyone around him to struggle to get up and move as parts of the roof collapsed.

  Harry made an effort to get on his feet and moved from desk to table to chair to the wall and the switch. It was one of those old-time switches; it looked like a handle with two braces coming down. He grabbed the top and smiled, holding the handle as he turned to the video feed and saw a human in a black coat and hat walk through the hallway into the large outer room which was just on the other side of the wall from where he and his people were making their last stand.

  When the dark man walked into the middle of the room, Harry grinned.

  “Welcome to my lair, motherfucker!” he said as he yanked down on the switch, sending millions of volts of electricity arcing around the room on the other side of the wall. “Survive that, you sonofabitch!”

  The fear stopped and palpable relief washed through the teams.

  That’s when the laughing started. All eyes turned toward the door.

  —

  Michael felt the ionization in the air before the electricity started arcing throughout the room.

  He reached out, dropping his fear as he focused everything he had on trying to pull the electricity through his hands. “Don’t you dare mess up my coat, and leave my damned hat alone!” he said menacingly to the power surging through him, “or I’ll figure out how to ground you in another dimension!”

  The power he was shunting wasn’t nearly as strong as the many lightning bolts Michael had handled on the ship in the storm. However, it was still enough that he moved some of it to the Etheric before he aimed his left hand at the door to the room and released half the power he was channeling.

  He never noticed he was laughing.

  —

  The door exploded inward, bouncing over a desk and landing ten feet to Harry’s right. His eyes went from the remains of the door to the doorway, and the bright white person who was walking in.

  That was when electricity started arcing around the room.

  Harry pushed up on the switch. Even he could see that giving more ammunition to this monster was a bad idea.

  He reached for his pistol.

  —

  Michael read the minds of those around him, flitting from head to head and striking those first who had their wits about them.

  He casually threw out his left hand, frying the leader in the back of the room who had disconnected the power in an attempt to rob Michael of any more ammunition.

  “Fool,” Michael said as he ransacked the man’s mind for any news of the Duke. “Dammit!”

  He was done here. Flinging out his arms, he sent tendrils of electricity through everyone in the room. Twice guns fired, once because one of the mercenary’s fingers convulsed and pulled the trigger. “That’s bad gun safety,” Michael told no one in particular.

  The second exploded; due to the electricity, Michael presumed.

  In ten more seconds he sent his last bit of electricity out, and silence reigned. He listened for any minds near him and found none that weren’t in extreme pain. Over to his left, a light fixture broke off from the ceiling and crashed to the floor.

  Michael touched all the minds and walked around the room, nudging a couple to make sure they were dead. Even his mind was a little messed up for the moment.

  He reached up and took his hat off. He looked it over and smiled. The few marks that had appeared just gave it more character, he thought. There had been something silver on the side.

  It was melted now.

  He wiped his skull and slid the hat back on. He wanted to help those below before… He turned, listening to a comment from Akio.

  Walking back toward the front, he sought the minds Akio had found and then nodded.

  Come, he sent to the people who were ready to rush the building to honor those who had fallen and those they sought to help.

  The police who had been at the end of the road were making their way here.

  They never saw the man leave, but they found the results of his fury. In the lower levels, some bodies were so emaciated it made hardened men and women cry.

  Why hadn’t they done something sooner?

  It is enough, a voice told them as they sought to help those they could, that you are here now.

  Over in the corner, Leo turned from his partner and reached up, drying the tears that had overcome his ability to keep them from falling.

  Peckham, England, Two Buildings Down from the Blood-baggers’

  Four men held state-of-the-art sniper rifles against their shoulders. Each had an area to cover and was waiting for the vampire to come out of the building, fingers on the triggers.

  “Head shots, folks,” Liam told his team members. “Might not kill him, but it will mess him up enough we can go take his head.”

  Some forty feet behind them, a small woman climbed up the fire escape and lifted her leg over the ledge to step softly on the roof. Standing up, she saw the four heads; all had their eyes focused on their scopes.

  Fifteen seconds later, Akio waited as Sabine dropped the last few feet from the fire escape. “Four more fuckers who won’t be bothering Michael.”

  “True,” Akio agreed as the two walked down the back alley behind the buildings. “And he will be happy to find out these four knew where The Duke is located.”

  “No shit?” Sabine asked.

  “No, I do not shit you,” Akio answered as they took a left and saw Michael down at the other end of the alley.

  Sabine sniffed. “Akio, you have a ways to go with your cursing.”

  Akio chuckled. “No shit?”

  Overlooking the Kurobe Dam, Toyama Prefecture

  Yuko felt a sense of dread flush through her body. She looked up from her computer screen at Eve. “Something is wrong. It’s Michael and Akio. I can feel it.”

  Eve cocked her head. “Michael, Akio, is everything ok?”

  There was silence on the line. A moment later they both heard Akio through their implants. “No. It’s Michael. He needs our help. How soon can you get here?”

  Eve did a quick calculation. “Twenty minutes, give or take?”

  Yuko interjected. “We’ve just put Mark and Jacqueline into a high-risk situation. I’m concerned about leaving them.”

  Akio was clear. “Then the ArchAngel may die.”

  Yuko’s eyes filled with terror. “We’ll sort it out and be right there. Stand by.”

  “Thank you,” Akio responded.

  Just then the twin of the Etheric communications device she had given Jacqueline came to life.

  “Speak of the devil,” Yuko mumbled. Before responding, Yuko shot an instruction to Eve. “Let’s get ready to leave.”

  Eve busied herself packing up the operation as quickly as she could.

  “Jacqueline, hi?” Yuko responded. “How are you getting on?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  London, England

  “He’s where?” Michael asked.

  “The Large Hadron Collider area near the old France/Switzerland border,” Akio answered. Michael had spirited them away after a quick check of the building one last time in Myst form. They were now far enough away that they didn’t expect anyone to put the three of them together with the carnage in Peckham.

  Michael pulled his hat off and wiped his head before replacing it. The three of them were under a tree in a park, and he was looking off in the distance. “Why would he want to be near the Hadron Collider?” He turned to Akio. “What exactly is it again?”

  “That would be for Eve to explain.” Akio pursed his lips. “Effectively, back in the time before the WWDE, a bunch of scientists got funding to build two incredibly large circular rings underground. The purpose was to push atoms together with the intention of smashing them, causing tiny explosions.”

  “See?” Sabine interrupted. “More boys with their destructive toys.”

  Akio looked at her. “There we
re female scientists as well.”

  “Of course,” she replied. “Otherwise the guys wouldn’t have gotten anything done.” She looked at Michael and then back at Akio. “Ok, I’m talking out my ass. I’ve no idea what a Hadron, large or small, even is, or why we would want to collide one.”

  “They were looking for a Higgs boson.” Michael’s voice was just a bit distant. His eyes unfocused for a moment, then he directed his gaze on the two of them. “Sorry, I remember that much. Like Sabine, I’ve not a clue what a Higgs boson is.”

  “It was called the God particle,” Akio answered. “And that is about the end of anything I know. The important part is, the Large Hadron Collider was destroyed back near WWDE, so the only thing I can think of is William likes the fact that everything is underground.”

  “How far?” Michael asked.

  “Something like a hundred meters, I think. The important part is that the large ring is something like twenty-seven kilometers in diameter.”

  Michael whistled. “I bet there are a lot of ways out of that circle.” Akio shrugged. “It would make a very large place to stay out of the sun, and yet give him ways to exit if we attack.” The three enjoyed the wind for a moment. “How did your guy know where the Duke is?”

  “He saw one of the signs that had been damaged in a battle,” Akio answered. “They were flown there without having been told where they were going.”

  “Well,” Michael replied, “it goes to show that no matter how careful you are, you can always make mistakes.” He pointed up. “Let’s bring our transportation down and go visit William.”

  Akio murmured into a microphone on his collar. Moments later, the three of them saw the Pod coming down out of the afternoon sky.

  “Think we should go now, or tomorrow morning?” Michael asked as they walked toward the Pod.

  “If he sleeps during the day, tomorrow, assuming he doesn’t know that his team has been killed. If he will find out when he wakes up, then now. We can be there in twenty minutes.”

  A few in the park noticed the ship dropping out of the sky, then the three figures coming out from underneath the trees. One of the figures was a lady, one an Asian dressed in something resembling a cross between military fatigues and a martial arts outfit, and the final…looked like someone from the old American cowboy films.