Vortex Page 10

  As the man she assumed to be Ryker talked to Dr. Wu, Karen turned her head slightly to the left and looked over at the small form lying on the table about five feet away. It was covered by a thin, pale blanket. She assumed it was Pyk. Penny had said he was small—like a child but not a child. He appeared to be unconscious. If that was the case, how had he managed to “push” that mountain lion to attack her captors? Had he done it at all? Surely that wasn’t a coincidence. She hoped he was conscious. If he wanted to protect her, he’d better get busy pretty fast.

  Ryker came to her side and joined his hands behind his back. His eyes moved over her body. They paused on her breasts and his eyebrows bobbed once, ever so slightly.

  “Who are you?” he asked pleasantly.

  “Someone with a very good lawyer,” she said coldly, her voice dry and hoarse. It required effort not to clench her teeth against the pain in her shoulder and arm.

  “Why are you here? Who sent you?”

  “We’re here on business.”

  “What kind of business.”

  “None of your business. Are you cops? What is this place?”

  “Who is we? Who are you here with?”

  “My husband.”

  He cocked a brow and nodded once. “I don’t believe you, of course.”

  “Now ask me if I care. My husband and I are writers and we’re researching a novel. And I have been abducted, shot, and now you’re holding me against my will.”

  “What kind of writer carries a gun?”

  “A writer who firmly believes in the Second Amendment of the Constitution.”

  Ryker rolled his eyes, then turned to Dr. Wu as he approached with a syringe.

  “The antibiotic?” Ryker said.

  Dr. Wu nodded and said, “Yes.” Then, holding the syringe in a fist, he swung his arm backward, then forward in an arc with great force, and drove the needle into Ryker’s throat.

  Gavin said nothing as he walked through the snow flanked by two of the armed, masked men in black. But he did a lot of thinking. Before leaving the house, they’d searched him and taken the 9mm tucked in the small of his back. They’d taken his wallet, too. They would not speak to him when he asked them who they were and where they were taking him. He was without a weapon and ignorant of his situation—not the circumstances he would prefer. But his biggest concern was Karen. According to Burgess, Penny knew that Karen was “in big trouble.” That worried him.

  Up ahead, something was heaped in the snow. As they got closer, Gavin saw a lot of red spread over the white. Part of the heap was a human body dressed exactly like Gavin’s escorts. Beside it lay a large hump of golden fur.

  The men flanking him slowed their pace.

  “Who is that?” the man on his left said.

  “Is that a... a mountain lion?” the other said.

  “It’s not our problem. Let’s just get him to the motorhome.” A small shadow passed over them and Gavin tilted his head back to look up. All he saw at first were fat snowflakes falling into his face. Then he saw the birds.

  He saw one at first, then a second. They were not small birds, and they were getting larger because they were—

  The hawks released piercing shrieks at the last moment, just before they slammed into the men on each side of Gavin. The man on Gavin’s right went down hard and landed on his back while the other flailed his arms and staggered over the snow shouting, “Jesus fucking Christ, what the hell!” The hawk had dug its talons into his shoulder and was pecking the side of his head as it furiously beat its wings. He managed to clutch the back of the hawk, tear it away from his shoulder and throw it to the ground, then he aimed his gun and fired four times until the bird was still.

  Gavin’s attention was caught by movement out on the snowy field. Two animals were charging across the expanse of snow toward them—a mountain lion from the left and a black bear from the right. The animals did not seem aware of each other because as they rushed closer and closer, kicking up snow and huffing clouds of breath, they looked directly at Gavin.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Ryker made a horrible gurgling sound as he staggered backward with the hypodermic needle in his throat. Dr. Wu jerked the needle out, then plunged it back in again.

  Ryker swung an elbow around and slammed it into Dr. Wu, knocking him against the table on which Karen was lying.

  Still standing at the sink, Carla spun around, saw what was happening and shouted, “What are you doing?”

  Ryker staggered further backward, the syringe jutting from his throat, until he fell on his back. Dr. Wu pounced on him, wrapped both hands around Ryker’s throat and squeezed.

  As Ryker and Dr. Wu struggled on the floor concrete, Carla stood motionless, staring at them with bulging eyes but not making a sound.

  Karen turned to look over at Pyk. He stirred under the blanket and slowly sat up. He seemed calm, utterly relaxed as he swung his legs over the edge of the table. Wearing what looked like a thin, pale-green hospital gown, he sat there and watched Ryker and Dr. Wu, and Karen realized that Penny and Gertie had been right—he looked like a child. But he was not. His skin was a pale blue, and when his lips parted, she saw that his teeth were... not right.

  Carla turned to Pyk and said, “You’re doing this!”

  He looked at her, still completely calm, and tilted his head slightly to one side.

  “No!” she shouted. She turned and rushed toward the door, arms outstretched. She grabbed the doorknob, then bent her head forward and slapped a hand to the side of it. “No! Not me! Not again! Please!” Moving as if against great resistance, she pulled the door open, then fell against the doorjamb. She leaned out the door and screamed, “Help! Somebody help!”

  For a moment, everything felt surreal to Gavin, as if he had stepped into someone else’s nightmare. But it quickly fell together in his mind. Discovery Channel memories flashed in his head—not all black bears hibernated but they weren’t out running around like this one at this time of year, and mountain lions were nocturnal animals. He remembered what Penny had said about Pyk being able to “push” others to do what he wanted. He remembered her prediction that Pyk would somehow harm the people who were holding him now that he and Penny had been separated.

  He’s doing this, Gavin thought.

  The man who’d shot the hawk was on one knee pulling the other hawk off of his friend. The hawk was flapping its wings and clawing with its talons, and in the struggle, the man had set his gun on the abdomen of his prone companion.

  Gavin took one step toward them and kicked the kneeling man in the face. He flew backward with a grunt and before he landed, Gavin had picked up his gun. He tossed a glance in the direction of the approaching animals—they were a lot closer and moving in fast, and the masked men hadn’t noticed them yet. The prone man was still fighting with the hawk while trying to get up, still clutching his gun in his right hand. Gavin stomped his foot down on the man’s gut. The man doubled up with a grunt, dropping his gun in the snow. Gavin bent down and snatched it up.

  “You guys are on your own,” he said. The bear and the mountain lion did not take their attention off the two men as Gavin turned and hurried toward the lab.

  A moment later, the men he’d left behind began to scream.

  As Gavin rounded the corner of the building, a door opened, a woman leaned out and screamed, “Help! Somebody help!”

  Marjorie didn’t like being tucked away in a bedroom and told to wait, like a child at a dinner party who’s been gotten out of the way of the tipsy adults. But she was in no position to complain. Ryker was a fat cat and pulled a lot of weight at Aquino. She sat on the bed as Stewart fidgeted and wandered around the room aimlessly.

  He stopped and frowned down at the floor. At first, she thought he was looking at something that displeased him, but she quickly realized that he was deep inside himself.

  “Stewart, what’s wrong?” she said quietly.

  He didn’t respond.

  She stood and went to his side, t
ouched his shoulder. “Stewart? What’s the matter?”

  His head jerked up and his usual frown had deepened. “Someone’s pushing.”

  “What? Who?”

  “Someone here.” He turned and pointed to the small window. “Someone out there.” He went to the window and looked outside. “In that building. Someone in that building. Someone powerful.” He turned to her. “None of us can push. Who’s here?”

  “I-I-I don’t know.” She went to him and looked over his shoulder out the window just as the door of the building outside opened and a woman leaned out. As she began to scream, Stewart ran out of the bedroom. Marjorie shouted his name and went after him.

  Crystal turned off the unpaved road and into the Mahler’s driveway.

  “Just keep going,” Penny said breathlessly, “all the way back!” She sat forward, hands on the dashboard, but as soon as the white building and black motorhomes came into view, she unfastened her seatbelt.

  There was a storm of activity up ahead. The door of the white building was open and a woman was leaning out with her mouth open wide, a look of terror on her face as she reached out with one arm.

  Several masked figures dressed in black ran over the snow toward the woman in the doorway and the door of the motorhome closest to them opened and several more black-clad figures dashed out of the vehicle.

  The door of the other motorhome opened and a chubby blond boy stepped down on the metal step then hit the ground jogging toward the building.

  “Oh, no,” Penny said.

  “Whats wrong?”

  “They brought Stewart Shelby here. Probably to find me.”

  “You know him?” Crystal asked as she brought the Prius to a stop.

  Penny nodded. “From Aquino. He’s mean. Very mean. And it’s not good that he’s here. Pyk won’t like him at all. And from the looks of things, Pyk’s already pretty upset.”

  Penny opened the door and got out of the car. Against her better judgment, Crystal did the same.

  Karen decided if she was going to get the hell out of that lab, this would be the time to do it, because everything and everyone was going crazy.

  Carla was screaming out the door while Dr. Wu strangled Ryker and slammed his head against the concrete floor again and again. There was a lot of activity outside the open door and Karen suspected there would be more people in the lab any second.

  She sat up with great effort and cried out through clenched teeth as the pain in her arm became explosively worse. The room spun and tilted as she sent her legs over the edge of the table.

  Gavin, where are you? she thought as she lowered herself to the floor. More spinning and tilting and her vision became fuzzy, and for a moment, she thought she was going to vomit from the agonizing pain in her shoulder, back and arm.

  She leaned against the edge of the table as Carla continued to scream for help.

  Dr. Wu got to his feet and walked away from Ryker, who lay still on the floor, mouth open wide, bulging eyes staring blindly at nothing, a pool of blood slowly spreading around his head. The doctor remained calm, almost casual as he walked over to Carla. He closed his fist on a clump of her hair at the back of her head and pulled her inside. She screamed in panic as he kicked the door shut, then slammed her face against the door with a sickening crack. Carla’s body became limp upon impact, but Dr. Wu pulled her back and slammed her face into the wall again. He did it repeatedly, until her blood was smeared on the door. Then he opened his hand, pulled it back abruptly and let her drop to the floor. Moving as if he were getting ready to go home for the day, Dr. Wu went to the black overcoat hanging from a hook by the door, reached into the pocket and removed a handgun. He opened the door, stepped outside and began to fire the gun.

  As gunfire and shouting exploded in front of him, it occurred to Gavin that this was the kind of thing typically referred to as “all hell breaking loose.”

  An Asian man in a white lab coat had appeared at the door of the lab and was picking off the black-clad men who, a moment ago, had been rushing toward the door in response to the woman’s screams for help. Now they were dropping like shooting gallery targets as the Asian man aimed and fired, aimed and fired. Some of the black-clad men fired in his direction but seemed to be missing—until Gavin spotted the blood on the Asian mans white coat. He’d been hit, but he didn’t seem to notice and just kept firing. Then Gavin saw that the black-clad men were shooting at each other.

  He had a gun in each hand but saw no point in doing any shooting. They were all doing it for him.

  When he spotted the blond boy standing by the motorhome, Gavin felt a moment of panic. An old woman came out of the vehicle, grabbed the boy and tried to pull him inside, but he resisted. Then a burst of dark red appeared in his blond hair and he collapsed to the snowy ground. The old woman was next.

  “Pyk! Pyk, stop!”

  Gavin spun around to see Penny running toward him.

  “Get back!” he shouted. He grabbed her and rushed her around the corner of the building, away from the shooting. When he saw Crystal, he waved her over, too.

  “Pyk’s inside,” Penny said. “He’s doing this.”

  Then the shooting stopped.

  The silence that followed was deafening. Gavin’s ears rang.

  Gavin, Penny and Crystal stared at each other, unmoving. After a long moment of roaring silence, Gavin held up a hand and motioned for them to stay. He went to the corner of the building and peered around it.

  The shooting that had seemed to go on forever—it had, in fact, lasted only seconds—had left behind at least a dozen dead bodies on the blood-stained snow. Most wore black, except for the old woman and little boy, and two men—one black, one white—who lay between the motor home and the door of the lab.

  Gavin headed for that door—and, he hoped, Karen.

  As gunfire erupted outside the door, Karen tried to walk again, but only fell against the table a second time. Pain and dizziness overwhelmed her and her knees gave way beneath her.

  Two arms wrapped around her waist and held her up. She looked down to see a shock of black hair and the pale-green hospital gown. It was Pyk. He tilted his head back and looked up at her, expressionless and silent, then helped her back up onto the table. Surprised by his strength, she groaned as she got onto the table and stretched out. She closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, hoping it would push back some of the pain. It didn’t work.

  She realized the gunfire had stopped. When did that happen? she wondered. She’d lost her sense of time passing.

  “Jesus, you look awful.”

  She opened her eyes to see Gavin looking down at her, a tense look of concern creasing his brow. He covered her with something—Ryker’s black overcoat. Karen wondered if she’d lost consciousness. Was she still in the same place?

  “Gavin?” she said.

  “What happened? Were you shot?”

  “Yeah. They winged me. While I was winging it.” The shrill laugh that burst from her was surprising because it sounded like someone else—someone who was near hysteria.

  “I’m getting you out of here.”

  “How?”

  “By taking you out of here.”

  There was movement behind him and he spun around nervously. “Gertie,” he said.

  “Everybody’s dead,” Gertie said in a near-whisper. “They’re all dead. Even the two men in the house. They shot each other. They just turned to each other, aimed their guns and... and fired.”

  Karen lifted her head slightly to see Gertie and Crystal. Behind them, Penny bent down to face Pyk. The two of them stared silently into each other’s eyes. It hurt too much to keep her head up, so Karen let it drop with a thunk to the table.

  “Papa called the police,” Gertie said. “Mamas real upset and he’s calming her down now.”

  “The police are coming?” Gavin said.

  “Yeah. And an ambulance, probably. Papa told them there’d been a lot of shooting.”

  “We have to get out of here, Gavin
,” Karen said, her mouth dry, voice hoarse.

  “No, we’re staying right here. You need to get to a hospital.” She felt light-headed and woozy. “But the police... the questions...”

  “We’ll answer the questions.” He leaned closer to her. “As Susan McGee and Peter King. You hear me?”

  She closed her eyes and tried to nod.

  “I’ll answer their questions while you’re being treated. Once you’re taken care of, we can pay the hospital with the credit card Martin gave us. Then we’ll just leave. Can you remember all of that? Because they’re going to give you drugs.”

  “Yes,” she whispered, eyes still closed. The pain was a giant mouth and it was closing on her... then swallowing her. She felt Gavin’s hand touch the side of her face before she lost consciousness.

  Gavin thought fast, trying to anticipate what would happen once the police arrived. They’d have a whole lot of questions, none of which he would be able to answer because he and his wife had just dropped in on the Mahlers to ask some questions for their book. Karen—No, Susan, he thought, don’t forget that, she’s not Karen, she’s Susan!—had gone to the bathroom. Next thing he knew, there were men with guns in the house telling him to go with them. They’d taken him out the back door to this building behind the house, where he’d found his wife. Then everyone had started shooting everyone else.

  But what about Penny? he thought. And Pyk?

  Gavin turned to Penny, who was silently staring at Pyk. “Penny,” he said. “Those children they fed to him—what did they do with the remains?”

  Penny turned to him slowly, blinking as if she’d just awakened. “What? The remains? Oh, they... they took them away and cleaned up.”