“JAMAISVOUS KNEW? He knew!” Krysty breathed, her crimson hair tightening about her face and neck in an unconscious mirroring of her inner turmoil. “This explains everything.”
“I know,” Ryan replied, placing a hand on her shoulder. “And we left Doc and Mildred back at the fortress alone with him.”
“Millie’s a big girl,” J.B. said, his face a tense mask. “She can take care of herself.”
“It’s not Mildred I’m worried about. She’s been leery of Jamaisvous since the beginning. My concern is for Doc. He’d do anything to get back…” and Ryan trailed off, not wanting to raise questions or suspicions in their Puerto Rican companions about Doc’s origins. “To his own place. Where he’s originally from. He has a wife, kids.”
“Sure,” Soto said. “I understand.”
Jorge took up the conversation. “This…’redoubt’ I believe you called it. You honestly think El chu-pacabras live inside?”
“Yeah. Like I said before, I believe the bastards were cobbled together by some mad doctor working on some sick project,” Ryan replied. “At the very least, they must have lived in here. Don’t know if any are left or not.”
“Only one way to find out.”
When the keyed-in code admitted them, Ryan stepped past the doorway. The layout inside was functional and to the point: stripped barracks, with skeletal bed frames and empty footlockers; a closed-out kitchen, the cabinets barren of foodstuff, utensils, anything not nailed down. Long-lived autocircuits clicked into life, causing the overhead strip light pan- els to flare as the group made its way down the main level to the single elevator car at the end of the hallway. The heavy steel entry door to a stairwell left of the elevator was crumpled as if hit by a massive battering ram. The door had been hurled across the hall, and lay ripped from its mounting hinges.
“Somebody wanted out in a powerful hurry,” J.B. said, running a hand along the twisted metal. The front of the ruined door that had been on the inside of the stairs was covered in jagged scratches, some light and quick like the tracks of a domestic tabby, others deep and long like the aftermath of an enraged Bengal tiger.
“Or something. See if you can fetch us a ride, Dean,” Ryan said, jerking a thumb toward the elevator.
“Right, Dad,” Dean responded, stepping past J.B. and the stairwell door to the front of the elevator. He pushed the call button, but the plastic activation disk mounted in the steel plate to the right of the elevator doors remained dim. He tried it a second and third time, pressing with all of his might, and still received no satisfaction.
“Elevator’s out,” he announced. “Must be busted.”
“Not like elevators,” Jak said. “Make me nervous.”
Memories of previous elevator escapades went through Ryan’s mind, including one precarious escape from a stalled car that had hung between floors, suspended over nothingness. They’d been able to exit via the ceiling hatch, but then were faced with a lengthy climb up an emergency shaft ladder, after which the only exit to the top floor was guarded by snipers.
“I can’t say I care much for elevators, either, Jak. Jamaisvous said there were power problems here with the nuke gen,” Ryan replied. “May be why the elevator isn’t working. No choice in the matter-I guess we walk. I’ll take the point.”
Then a weight fell on Ryan’s shoulders. He felt long crooked fingers try to grab on to his face, snaking claws toward his nostrils, his mouth, even a small hooked claw that tried to insinuate itself into the empty socket behind the tooled leather of his eye patch. Hot breath blasted on his neck like an open flame, and visions of vampires skittered through his brain.
Ryan didn’t frighten easily, but the cold sweat of fear involuntarily popped out on his brow. Dropping his blaster, he reached up with both hands to snatch the animal who’d fallen on top of him. His gloved fingers found purchase on a series of quill-like appendages sticking out of his attacker, and he used them to lift and hurl the beast to the floor. Two of the razor-sharp quills cut through the leather of his gloves and into his fingers and palms, but Ryan ignored the bite of pain to rid himself of the animal.