Demons 3 Draft 1 CH 15 (Patreon)

The man gets over most of his fear quickly as he raises his hands. A scientist, wearing a lab coat over a suit and the expression of interest and curiosity most scientist I’ve known wore, even if with the worry he still feels. His face has wrinkles, and his hair is a mix of black and gray. What Jason calls ‘salt and pepper’. Interestingly, I’m the source of his worry rather than Claws, who is holding the child.

“Don’t move,” Humbert orders through clenched teeth. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“I’m—I’m Barkley Dunn,” his voice trembles, and he makes an effort to sound more confident. “I was trying to find Jezebel before she causes trouble.”

“Why would she—” Humbert begins. Cline’s snort stops him and he glares at the man. “Do you feel the need to comment, Sergeant Spencer?”

“No, sir,” Cline replies, then continues, “But take it someone who has raised a kid. Toddlers are walking disaster zones.”

Humbert sighs and focuses on the scientist. “Where is Doctor Walker? Lie to me and I’m going to have the demon eat the kid.”

“I do no eat cubs,” Claws replies.

The scientists didn’t show any fear at the threat. He knows demons well enough to understand a child isn’t with a hunt for one as old as Claws.

“I don’t know any Doctor—”

“Listen to me, I’m doing to cut that—”

“Amanda,” I say, cutting the captain off. I don’t know how serious he is with his threat to hurt a child. He sounds serious, but with how thick the demon’s scents are and being away from him, I can’t smell him. Empty threats are a tactic humans employ.

“Oh, her.” The man replies darkly.

“Someone got on the good doctor’s bad side,” Cline comments. Humbert gives him more leeway than I expect. I’ll ask Jason about this when it is over.

The scientist snorts. “Do you have any idea what that woman’s done to my research? I’ve worked for Mister Graves for nearly thirty years. My hybrids have helped secure his properties for most of that. I was supposed to be the one to look after them, now? She shows up, makes a bunch of promises she hasn’t been able to make good on, and I’ve been relegated to looking after the children.”

He looks at the child and his expression softens. Juliet has a similar expression when she spoke about her children. He might not like how it happened, but he doesn’t mind the position.

“So if she were to vanish, you wouldn’t mind?” Humbert asks.

The scientist looks at him, at the soldier. “You’re here to take her back?” This time his expression only reveals calculation.

“Yes. I can’t promise they won’t send someone else to demand retribution for kidnapping her, but our job is just retrieval.”

“Hand me Jezebel, and I’ll take you to her.”

“That’s not how—”

Claws hands the child over to the scientists and Humbert curses.

“You realize you’ve just handed over the only leverage we had, right?” he asks.

“He is its—” Claws sniffs the child. “Is this a human man, or woman?”

The scientist smiles. “Jezebel is female, a woman.”

“He is her parent,” Claws says. “I will not keep a cub away from him and longer than required. He has agreed to help, and he is being as honest as a human seems able to.”

She coos as the scientist holds her. “Hey, kiddo, you good to a nap now, or are you going to take off to explore all the scents in the building again?” He turns and heads for the door. “I’ll put her in her crib and take you to Amanda. One of you can come with me, everyone on the floor below is sleeping. So long as you’re quiet, there won’t be any problems.”

Humbert glares at me as he passes to follow the scientist. “If this blows up because you and your dog don’t follow orders, I am putting a bullet in both your heads.” I fall in step behind him and Claws remains at my side. Like me, he isn’t worried about the captain’s threats. “Bruce, you’re sticking the Doctor Dunn, make sure he doesn’t try anything. Coplar, have a few drones follow them just in case.”

A small hall, built to human standard leads to an elevator and a stairwell next to it. The scientist goes down the stairs. One of the soldiers points to where the striker plate used to be. It and the wood have been ripped out some time ago by the lack of debris. In the stairwell, I make out the child’s scent, as well as others that are neither entirely human nor demon.

On the next landing he waits for Humbert to nod before opening the door and heading down another human-size corridor. The striker plate has also been ripped out. One of the soldiers follows him and two drones zip through the door before it closes.

“Residential floor,” Coplar whispers, “I can make out living rooms through doors that have windows, a kitchen. We’re too far up for this to be where they house the majority of the people, so I’m guessing it’s for the important ones, like this scientist. He’s in a nursery. Twelve cribs, five of which are occupied, without risking waking the kids, I can only say that using their size, Jezebel seems to be the oldest.”

“You guys noticed the doors were forced?” a soldier says. “You’d think that if they were attacked, they’d put bigger locks to protect the kids.”

“The cub may have done the damage,” Claws says in his version of a whisper; which in the stairwell is loud enough to reverberate up and down. “She is not fully human,” he explains.

“They’re experimenting on kids?” Cline asks. “Cap, if they’re doing that we—”

“That isn’t the mission, Cline,” the captain replies. “We’ll make our report and the Colonel can decide what she wants to do about it.” He grumbles the rest. “Probably hire the guy so she can use the kids.”

“They’re coming back,” Coplar says. “I saw nothing suspicious.”

The two men return and Humbert watches out the door’s window suspiciously; as if he doesn’t trust Coplar’s statement everything is fine. The captain mentioned the drug they use has side effects. Is this how it affects him? Causes him to distrust his own unit?

“Where’s Doctor Walker,” he asks.

“In her lab,” the scientist answers. “She lives down there.”

“Where is the lab?”

“At the bottom. Mister Graves had the thirst level of the parking lot sealed and converted it into a research floor. We can each it from the stairwell.”

“What’s the security like?”

The scientist stares at the captain. “Did you see the patrols? The demon and the hybrid we use? No one gets in, we don’t need to worry about security inside.”

“We got in,” Cline comments.

“Well, the military isn’t who we usually have to deal with. Another thing we can thank her for. The only real problems we’ve had over the years were rival families, but they left when the evacuation was ordered. Scared of the sickness like everyone else.”

“And you aren’t scared?” Coplar asks.

The scientist looks like he will answer, then only shrugs. “Everyone but her, in here, should be asleep. I don’t think the woman ever sleeps.” He stars down the stairs.

As the scientist promised, we don’t encounter guards or alarms. The only sound in the stairwell is that we make and the soft whirl of the drones over our head. Coplar asked about mapping every floor, but Humbert refused. Time is of the essence, and all they need of the way back to the rooftop.

On the bottom floor, I push through the scents when Humbert opens the door. Disinfectant, blood, human exhaustion, sounds of machines muffled by closed doors. I’m back there for a second, Amanda’s test subject. Her pride.

The scientist leads us through the corridors, and the drones fly in all directions. Twenty seconds later, Coplar speaks. “I have eyes on Doctor Walker through a closed door. She’s working, as far as I can tell. Definitely looks like a lab, but it isn’t the second-rate one Intel said it would be.”

The scientist chuckles. “Mister Graves makes sure we have the best tools available. It’s why his family’s always been at the top in the city.”

“Everyone goes silent,” Humbert orders. “That means you too Doctor, you say anything from this point on and I will have to shoot you.” The scientist swallows and nods. Humbert motions for him to continue leading us.

The rooms have equipment, some older, and disused, by the scents, some recent and still in use. Some have desks and computers. Six show signs of use. Other scientists or assistants. The scientist indicates a door at the end of the hall, and Humbert motions for Cline and another soldier to head to it.

I fight the urge to go. I want to see Amanda, see what she’s doing; if she’s hurting another innocent. I’ll know soon enough. Now isn’t the time to interfere with who the captain does things.

Cline and the soldier look in the window, each in one direction, then make hand gestures. Humbert motions for us to proceed, except for the scientist, to whom he assigns a soldier to guard. At the door, he looks in, gives hand signals before looking at me and Claws. He isn’t happy. With our presence or our inability to understand what the signals mean, I can’t tell. He indicates for us to remain where we stand, then bursts into the room.

Once all the soldiers are in, I follow them. They surround Amanda at her desk, looking around the room for opposition. She looks surprised to see them, annoyed, discouraged?

The room is larger than I expected. There is another desk on the left side, by rooms with glass walls. Six of them, each with an occupant. Older versions of Jezebel, looking more like the hulking hybrids the closer to adulthood they are.

Amanda sees me.

“No!” Her voice startles some of the soldiers, everyone had been silent until now. She looks older, the lines on her face more evident. She’s thinner, her suit hanging loose. The Amanda I remember took better care of her appearance. “You don’t get to ruin this too for me! I left you alone, get out of here, and let me do my work!”

“Doctor Walker, I’m Captain Humbert, I’m here to take you home.”

She glares at him. “Home? You mean to those people begging me to give them soldiers who can save the world and then won’t give me the tools I need to do that? That home? Well, you can go back then. At least here they don’t chain my hands when they ask for my help.”

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Doctor. I have my orders.”

She crosses her arms over her chest. “I don’t care what you’ve been told to do. I’m a free woman, so you can’t force me to go anywhere.”

“Doctor, the knowledge you hold is military property.” She glares at the man. “The fact you’re using it here means I can charge you for treason. Do you really want me to arrest you and drag you out of here? My job is to bring you back, the how has a lot of flexibility.”

“You think you can force me to leave?”

“Look around, Doctor, twelve is us, one of you.”

“Aren’t you forgetting people?” she asks, and Humbert tenses, glancing at me and Claws. He saw us enter, wasn’t happy about it, but since we kept our distances didn’t say anything.

“I wasn’t saddled with them against my will. I find ignoring they exist as much as I can simplifies my life. And it turns out they weren’t needed. They know better than helping you.”

She sighs. The sound of annoyance I am familiar with. I heard it often in the last years I was hers. Directed at me as I followed her directions less enthusiastically than she wanted. At Jason anytime he insisted on making me more human, at the other scientists who couldn’t measure up to her expectations.

“The narrow mindedness of the military will never cease to amaze me. Why would ever think I’m referring to those two?” Instead of pointing to me and Claws, her hand jerks toward her desk.

I’m not fast enough. She knows my speed, how acute my senses are. She trained herself not to give anything away. I pull her away from the desk as the alarm sounds. She uselessly fights against my grip, but it makes moving difficult. I shove her at one of the soldiers, and before he can catch her, I punch Amanda in the jaw. She slumps in his arm.

“Are you crazy?” the man demands. “You’re strong enough you could have snapped her neck.”

“I spent months fighting humans in a cage. I know exactly how much force to use to incapacitate someone.” I take her and throw her over my shoulder.

“We have sedatives,” Cline says, raising her head and looking at her eyes.

“I don’t,” I reply. I look at Humbert. “Are we going to argue about this here, or are we evacuating?”

“We’re going active!” The captain yells, and the soldiers press a button on their forearm. “Formation!” the change is visible in them, can be smelled. They are still ordered, controlled, but there’s aggression in them now. Something they want to unleash.

They are on the hunt.