Kharrn was crouched in the darkness, just a few yards from the main entrance to the research facility when he heard an alarm klaxon followed by the sound of an automatic weapon. The gunfire sounded like it was coming from the other side of the facility.
Kharrn had been wondering how he was going to get through the steel security door without smashing it down and revealing his presence, but now the door banged open and a man in a white lab coat ran out, leaving the door swinging in the wind.
Kharrn stepped into the light and grabbed the man by the front of his coat. Kharrn said, “What’s happening in there?”
The man’s eyes were wide with terror. His hands fluttered uselessly at Kharrn’s thick wrist. “Let me go. Jesus Christ, man. Let me go. They’ll kill us all.”
Kharrn shook the man like a dog shaking a rat. “Tell me what’s happened.”
“We lost the containment grid. They’re free. All of them are free. He was smarter than we thought. He helped them escape.”
“How many?”
“Please let me go.”
Kharrn hefted the axe in his other hand. “Answer me or I’ll cripple you and leave you for them.”
“Oh God. Oh please. I don’t know exactly. A couple of dozen maybe. Now please let me go.”
Kharrn caught the sharp odor of urine and he tossed the man aside. He stalked over to the open door and stepped inside. The bloody remains of another man lay on the tile about ten feet down the corridor. Bloody tracks smeared the floor. Huge, bare feet with webbing between the toes.
Kharrn paused as he felt a tickle in the back of his head. Something was reaching out and probing. But Kharrn had spent centuries learning to defend himself against that sort of incursion and he pushed the searching tentacles out of his head.
Still, it meant that the true Deep Ones had arrived. Crowley had told him they would come. The fleeing man had said the mutations had escaped. He had also said something about a mysterious ‘he’ who had helped them to escape.
If the Deep Ones were here then time was running out. They would think nothing of slaughtering everyone on Russell Island, including the civilians on the far side.
But what did they want? If they had come to free the mutations, then that was already accomplished. They had merely to wait for them in the surf. Were they after revenge? Or was there something more? Kharrn decided the answers waited in the main lab. He started along the corridor, alert for any attack from man, beast, or something that was both.
Marcos hit the computer room like a force of nature. He did not back up the files. That was begging for grief. Instead he went to each of the mainframes and gave them the command to reformat. It wasn't quite that easy, there were plenty of protocols to prevent what he was doing, but he managed it just the same. The only catch was that doing it took time he could ill afford.
There were ten mainframes in the facility. They were necessary evils. They cost more money than he would make in a lifetime and he crippled them without hesitation as that was the only guarantee he had that he would, in fact, have a lifetime.
Before he was even finished the first of the Chimera came into the area, sniffing the air and loping around on all fours, letting him see exactly how odd the legs were, how close the thing was to a toad or frog. The eyes were vast and the pupils were blown. One was easily three times the size of the other. Judging by the scars, this was one of the creatures Sterling had vivisectionalized.
It was mostly healed from the damage, another point in their favor, but the damage to the brain seemed permanent.
Marcos thought he would certainly die there, but the creature looked past him and finally left the room.
“Well, this is convenient.” The voice was low and calm and grated his nerves. “Just when I was looking for someone to ask questions to, here you are, ready to answer them.”
The man facing him was average. Maybe a little tall, but no giant. He was lean, brown hair, brown eyes, wearing a dark sweater, a black shirt and black jeans. He wasn’t wearing shoes, which while peculiar was hardly unusual if one walked along the beach enough.
He was wearing glasses, rimless and with wire arms. He took them off as he came closer, and still he was unremarkable.
And then the stranger smiled, and nothing about him was average. That smile made him want to piss himself. “What's your name?”
“Javier Marcos.” He hadn't planned on answering but the words were out before he could stop himself.
“Javier, I need you to tell me what's going on here.”
He almost did it a second time but clamped his lips shut.
The stranger's smile grew larger, just at the edge of too large for his face. His teeth were broad and white and looked for all the world like they were made for biting faces apart.
“Javier, we're being civil so far. Don't make me start breaking things.”
“Things?”
“Fingers. Toes. Teeth. Whatever. Tell me what I need to know. Tell me right now, before things get ugly.” He walked closer as he spoke and Javier tried backing up, but soon found himself pinned against a mainframe computer that was currently cleaning itself of all possible evidence.
“I can't help you.” Javier shook his head and stared hard into those brown eyes. They stared back, and they smiled and that smile was just as bad as the grin below it.
“I don't want your help. I want answers. How many of them are there? What's the source of the materials you've been using? How long has this been going on?”
Try as he might, Javier could not look away from those eyes. The man was no taller than he was, but he seemed gigantic.
“There are twenty-five viable candidates and I don't know how many rejects. We've got a specimen in sub-level two. Been keeping it there and heavily sedated, as in comatose, last I heard. We've been at this for almost five years, but we've been moving carefully. No risk of exposure. I don't know what went wrong.”
Javier shook his head. “What have you been doing to my mind?”
“Nothing. I've just been asking questions. Show me to your specimen.”
“No.”
The man's smile got even worse and he moved his hand along Javier's face before grabbing his ear and crushing it in his grip.
“Owww! Leggomee!”
“Keep screaming and one of those things will come along. I can handle them. Can you?”
Javier tried to pull away, but stopped when the agony in his ear exploded.
“Take me to the specimen, or I'll start with your ear and move on from there. Seriously. I don’t mind taking pieces off of you, sweet pea. You're the one who tried playing God.”
Javier nodded and held up his hands. He would make his move as soon as the man let go of his ear. A quick jab at the man's solar plexus and while he was winded he'd knee the bastard in the face.
The man let go and continued to stare Javier in the eyes.
Javier nodded. “This way. It's this way.”
“Good boy. For a minute there, I thought you were going to swing at me and I'd have to rip your ear off.”
For the life of him, Javier did not know if the man was joking.
Javier was a nervous twitch away from pissing himself. Crowley was fine with that. Nervous Nellies made his life easier. The thought that he had used mind control to get his way was also amusing. While he could probably arrange something, it would take more effort that he wanted to invest, and as he had expected the man was quick enough to go along with the promise of pain.
The elevators were locked. That was what happened when security protocols set in. Why let the monsters they'd created get out the easy way? Still, there stairs here and there and Crowley watched while Javier fidgeted with his keys and finally managed to open a door.
“Careful sunshine. Might be more of those things.”