Out of the Black - Lee Doty [143]
The kid put a hand on the cop's weapon, pressed down slowly. The cop looked at him inquisitively, but allowed him to lower her weapon.
"That's Dek." The kid pointed to Anne.
***
"Right this way, gentlemen." Agent Vega said. He opened the door to the first-floor conference room and stepped aside. The six confused officers passed through for their debriefing. Rather than following them inside, the agent closed the door. He and his two companions waited in silence. All faces were hard, inscrutable.
From the other side of the door, they heard the sound of two doors opening into other rooms. Shouts, then screams erupted from the other side of the closed door. A burst of gunfire sounded as at least one of the officers had the presence of mind to draw his weapon. The screams were intense, punctuated by crashing violence and the sound of rending flesh. It was over in perhaps twenty seconds, except for the ripples of black laughter and the sound of feeding... these lasted significantlynger.
Do they really have time for that? Vega wondered mostly to distract his imagination from painting the picture of events as they unfolded on the other side of the door.
They were hard men. They were servants of an ancient and proud order, experienced soldiers and assassins. Yet they were still men- they were still afraid. Vega couldn't shake the feeling that the Savants he served had made a horrible mistake that would likely leave them as dead as many of the other clans.
This was supposed to be the turning point for Asado- their ascension to dominance, but Vega didn't think so. He feared that this... thing, and its ever-increasing horde of progressively more disturbing flesh puppets would be the bloody screaming end of everything, including Asado.
But then it wasn't his job to think. It certainly wasn't his job to fear. He made sure his weapons were ready. His men anxiously followed suit. This thing had really poured on the effort to get its hands on this key. Amazingly enough, it had already suffered two defeats tonight from this woman: one in the ER, and most recently in one of the operating rooms. Asado had also taken the beat-down once upstairs in the doctors' lounge, then again at the OR, if the gunfire that terminated the last communication from the other team was any indication.
Their enemy was tough, but easy to underestimate. Vega had seen their quarry's picture during the briefing in the whispercraft on the way here. There had been a significant amount of laughter and even more disbelief. Yet here they were, regrouping while their all-powerful ally collected some firearms, and enjoyed a serendipitous snack, apparently.
It was getting pretty serious about its quarry. This was the first time it had ever asked for weapons. Until now, it had always been a hands-on kind of killer.
"Gruumen au korgst prada Asado!" The monophonic chorus of perhaps ten voices from the darkness behind the door shouted.
Vega was not impressed by its use of the old tongue. Its lack of four more weapons was not his problem. "Aruta kovan – noch plataanos." He called back.
Silence.
The three killers glanced at each other, then back to the door. There was a click, and the door swung slowly open. Muscles tensed, knuckles turned white around pistol grips.
Only one of the thing's Avatars appeared, resolving slowly from the darkness of the room beyond. It eased into the light like someone might ease into a very hot bath. Its mouth and hands were dark and glistening around curved teeth and claws.
Harms had always been disturbing enough, but as this thing got a better hold on their flesh, Vega had learned just how much headroom was left in disturbing.
"Asado plataan... bucha." The words slithered out of it slowly for emphasis. Maybe it was his problem after all.
"No!" He moved as fast as he could. The pistol was already in his hand, all he had to do was point it at the flesh puppet before him and pull the trigger. He never had a chance.
His pistol discharged, but the thing had already broken his wrist and pointed the gun toward Murphy's abdomen. Murphy