*Hi there! Now the next chapter is translated and beta read (thanks a lot to Jo – you're just great!) and ready to be read by you! Pink Punkette, SamBrody and Moonjat54, I thank you so much for your reviews. You made my day again and again. I so need that kind of support. Feel hugged!*
Dr. Frankenstein
„An abominable deed doesn't torture us when we've just committed it but only much later, when you're thinking back - for the memory of it never dies."
(Jean-Jaques Rousseau, 1712-1778)
Beth felt anything but comfortable while heading down the stairs to the subway station. As strange as it seems, being in the solitude of the small farm in Baja, California, with all those vampires, had made her feel much safer and more comfortable than here in a major city like L.A. Here she was surrounded by people she didn't know who were so busy with their own lives that they didn't notice her in their hustle and bustle. The experiences of the last days had made Beth more fearful and cautious. Because she was aware that she would soon meet a man being searched for by a dangerous secret organization, every person who looked at her a bit too long or did something conspicuous suddenly looked queer to her. Knowing that Josef walked behind her at a distance was the only reason that kept her from changing her mind. Her wish to turn and head back to Mick who needed her badly grew with every passing second.
Diana, or maybe Peterson, had chosen their meeting place well. Even at this late hour the metro station was busy and security cameras were everywhere. The Security Service or the police would know very quickly if something were to happen. Covert actions were all but impossible even for the Legion and they definitely didn't want any publicity.
Beth cast a last glance over her shoulder to assure herself that Josef was still following her. She slowly walked along the track, peering at everyone she passed. She had never seen Peterson face to face and wasn't sure she would recognize him. But then she remembered, her appointment was actually with Diana. Perhaps it would be better to look for her.
An unseasonably cold wind blew through the rail tunnel like a bad omen and caused Beth to shiver. She pulled her thin jacket closer around her body and stopped. She spotted a young woman with dark, shoulder-length hair at the other end of the track who was glancing cautiously at her time and again. Beth was almost certain that this was Diana and quickened her steps. To her disappointment, she noticed the student was alone. Maybe Josef had been wrong about his assumption.
Diana was pale and appeared totally different from their first meeting. Her big brown eyes were fearfully searching her environment for sources of danger and Beth prayed that Josef was ingenious enough to not catch her eye. If they wanted to find Peterson they couldn't afford to scare Diana off.
"Thank God!" Diana uttered, relieved, when Beth was near enough to not be overheard by anyone else. "I was afraid you wouldn't come."
"What's happened?" Beth asked as if she didn't know what this was about.
Diana's glance flew over the shapes of the other people in the station. Then she stepped closer to Beth so that they were able to talk in whispers.
"Frank Peterson appeared at my place," she whispered to Beth who tried to look surprised. "He… he was totally distraught and," She faltered and moved away to cast a glance down the track. "He told me he had been abducted by a secret organization that had forced him to conduct cruel experiments on humans. He has narrowly escaped and is now on the run. God, Miss Turner, that's all so awful." She inhaled shakily and made an effort to get her feelings under control. "Frank said Brian is in cahoots with these people."
Beth eyes widened. "Your Brian? Your fiancé?"
Diana nodded bravely, despite the tears in her eyes. "I don't want to believe it. But I promised Frank I wouldn't say anything to Brian as long as Frank's still in L.A."
"But why is he still here?" Beth asked, confused. "Why didn't he try to leave?"
A much stronger wind gust from the tunnel announced the arrival of the next metro and they could hear the typical sounds of the wheels on the rails.
Diana grew visibly more uneasy. She threw a glance at her wristwatch without giving any sign she had heard Beth's question.
"Diana?" Beth bent a bit forward to try to catch the young woman's eyes as the train was entering the station, brakes shrieking.
"We need to go now," Diana said tensely as she linked arms with Beth. Her grip was surprisingly strong as she pulled Beth to one of the open doors of the metro car. Beth was so startled that she didn't struggle. Just as they entered the train compartment she was able to get a quick glimpse of Josef's dark shape, which disappeared immediately, and with admirable elegance, into the neighboring compartment.
Beth couldn't stop her heart from beating a bit faster as Diana pushed her into the rearmost corner of the relatively empty compartment and down onto the bench, sitting down herself. Slowly, but surely, Beth began to get angry. She wasn't a doll for Diana to move around as she wished.
"Diana," she said in a distinctly angry voice, "tell me this instant what all this fuss is about or I'll get off at the next station!"
To her surprise, the young woman nodded willingly. "Frank wants to see you. You are the reason why he's still in L.A."
Beth was speechless for a long moment. She blinked a few times, totally bewildered. "I am the reason?" she finally repeated unbelievingly. "He doesn't even know me!"
"I thought that, too," Diana responded. "But when I mentioned to him that you'd contacted me, he almost freaked out with joy. He said he's been searching for a while for some way to talk to you and that this would make everything much easier."
"What will be easier?" said a frightened Beth. It wasn't a good feeling to know that Dr. Frankenstein was searching for her and was so very anxious to meet her.
"I don't really know," Diana confessed and looked at her almost apologetically. "But I think, for the most part, it's about your friend Mick St. John."
"Really?" Beth was more than skeptical, but Diana nodded.
"You can ask him yourself in a moment," she added with an encouraging smile. "He'll get on at the next station but I'll have to leave as he doesn't want us to be seen together."
Beth shivered. "Wait! Wait! You just want to leave me alone with a man I don't know. A man who's involved in something obscure which might get me killed?! You must be kidding!"
Instead of trying to calm Beth down, the young woman jumped up suddenly and walked to the door as if Beth ceased to exist.
"Diana!" Beth called, enraged, and followed her. "What the hell is going on with you?!"
The student didn't look at her, but answered her question. "I don't want to be involved anymore," she said softly. Her voice was shaky and Beth was afraid she would burst into tears at any moment. Diana turned her head a bit and the fear in her eyes spoke volumes.
"All I wanted was to study medicine and to work in the medical research field someday. The things that happened to Peterson, the things he told me about," she swallowed hard, "I don't want to have any part in. I just want to forget all of it. Please, let me go so I can go back to my normal life. He promised that if I did this one favor I could leave."
For a moment Diana looked like a little girl who had been terribly scared by some horror stories. Beth's anger faded as quickly as it had begun. The young woman was a bundle of nerves, and sooner or later, she would have a nervous breakdown if she couldn't free herself from the pressure and fear that was weighing on her. Not every woman was as strong as she was, Beth had noticed many times before. So she nodded mutely, and because she didn't know what to say, turned her back to Diana and went back to her seat. Before sitting down she glanced over to the other compartment and saw with relief that Josef was sitting on a seat next to the transition doors between the compartments. Although he was still wearing his sunglasses and pretending to read a daily paper, she knew he was watching her attentively.
Beth had to take a step and quickly grab onto one of the poles in order to not lose her balance as the train started to brake. Her heart beat with a much faster rhythm as the first meeting with Peterson drew closer. Along with it came the strong feeling that she was running a really big risk and possibly getting into a life-threatening situation again. But she couldn't and didn't want to retreat. They needed that strange man no matter what he wanted from her.
'Think about Mick! Think about Mick!' she told herself over and over while the metro was entering the next station and came to a stop. Diana gave her a last apologetic glance and swiftly left the compartment after the doors opened with a threatening hiss.
Exactly two people stepped in and none of them looked familiar to Beth. It was a young couple that moved off into the next corner of the compartment. They took their seats and started openly making out.
A loud hoot announced the closing of the doors and Beth took a deep, relieved breath. Suddenly another man, heavily loaded with a huge backpack and a bulging travelling bag, jumped into the compartment at the very last moment. It was quite a stupendous performance for a man of his age, for his hair was gray and his skin had lost a lot of its flexibility over the course of the passing years. But the vivid sparkling in his dark eyes attested to an alert mind and an energy few people of his age owned.
Beth wasn't surprised when, after he saw her, he instantly walked towards her. He looked a bit different than she remembered from the photos. He wasn't wearing glasses and had cut his hair but her memory for faces didn't fail her: This was clearly Peterson. Except he appeared to be not nearly as crazy and unlikeable as she had expected. The smile he gave her was warm and friendly and his eyes radiated nothing dishonest.
"Miss Turner?" he addressed her carefully as the train started to move again and respectfully sat down on the bench across from her.
She nodded, non-committal, and didn't say anything. She wanted to see what he was going to say to her. And she really hoped she would be able to exchange a few words with him before Josef appeared.
"You don't know how relieved I am to finally meet you," he said. She could hear the sincerity in his voice and knew he meant what he'd said. "And at the same time I feared this encounter as I've never feared anything else in my life…"
She frowned. "What is this about?" she asked. "I mean, we both don't even know each other. At least I must be a stranger to you. Because it was me who started to search for you after you'd been missing for a long time."
"Yes, I know," Peterson admitted and smiled sadly, "Because you were searching for Mick."
Beth stared at the man in front of her disbelievingly. The intimacy he had taken in mentioning Mick by name totally put her off her stride. She hadn't thought for a moment that he would know his test objects by their names or that he would use their first names. It almost sounded as if he were talking about a close friend.
" I… " Suddenly Peterson looked really desperate. "I don't know how to break this to you."
This man was either a brilliant actor or his knowledge of Mick's fate was really putting a strain on him. He had to breathe deeply several times to regain control. He threw a glance into the corner where the couple was glued together and then bent a bit forward to Beth.
"Mick is most certainly dead," he finally said, looking guilty and gave her a worried glance, which quickly turned to wonder as she was not showing any of the expected reactions. What was the use in pretending, when the plan was to take him back to Mick anyway?
"You, you already know that?" he asked after a moment of confusion and in doing so showed that his mind was indeed working as quickly as she had assumed. "What else do you know?"
Beth drew a deep breath. "I would like to know if you just wanted to communicate this bad news to me or if there's another reason for this meeting," she responded coldly.
Peterson had to blink a few times to shake off his astonishment before he was able to concentrate on the question.
"Yes, there is another reason," he admitted and bent down to open the bag he had placed between his feet. He reached into it and took out a notebook that had become so overstuffed by the addition of more notepads that he had been forced to put an elastic band around it so that it wouldn't fall apart. He cast a long, pensive look at the book as if he were about to say good bye to a precious treasure with heavy heart.
"These are all the notes I took over the long time period I worked in the laboratories," he explained and held it out to her across the aisle. Beth was too puzzled to take it, although she was aware that this book would be a tremendous help to them.
"After a certain point it all revolves around Mick," he told her sadly. Beth reached out for it courageously, took the heavy book into both her hands and stared at it with an unpleasant feeling in her stomach.
"If you want to know what's happened to him during this past year then read it," he said. "The truth may be painful sometimes, but it's better than this tormenting uncertainty, I believe."
For another long moment Beth gazed at the black cover, then she looked up, directly in Peterson's sad eyes.
"Why? Why are you doing this?" she put her thoughts into words.
"Because I'm afraid I won't live for much longer," he replied with a composure which totally belied his words. "So many people are after me. It's just a matter of time before they get me. "
Beth didn't know what to say and she noticed that Josef had gotten up and was prepared to come over to them as soon as they reached the next station. The train had already started to brake as it came to its next stop.
A warm, unbelievably affectionate smile appeared on Peterson's thin lips.
"He loved you so much, you know," he said softly and Beth was once again speechless.
"He talked so much about you, told me so much about you that I was able to recognize you immediately when I entered the compartment," he went on while Beth's guts were twisting. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Mick had told this… this Dr. Frankenstein about her? This man, who had doubtless been one of his tormentors for over a year? Mick had confided in him, although this man had used him as a laboratory animal?
"I'm not a monster, Miss Turner," he added as if he had just read her thoughts. "I made a lot of mistakes and may in fact be to blame for all the harm that has been done to him, maybe even for his death, but one thing you can trust me on. I most certainly didn't want any of this to happen. I tried to protect him as much as I could."
The metro stopped and Beth noticed that the two other occupants had left. Peterson's words made such a mess of her thoughts that she had completely forgotten where she was and about the plan she and Josef had made. And she also hadn't noticed that her friend had left his compartment to board again from outside in order to prevent Peterson from being able to escape through one of the front doors. But he wasn't the first one to board. A bearded man in a leather jacket and a smaller, redheaded guy entered the compartment prior to Josef and Beth was suddenly alert again. Immediately she knew that something was wrong with those two men as they just glanced at Peterson and her but stayed in the entrance area and talked with each other quietly and calmly.
Beth held her breath when Josef came through one of the other doors and quickly sat down on one of the benches. With a bored look, he took off his sunglasses, pushed them into the inside pocket of his jacket and unfolded his paper again, instantly poring over of the articles. His presence calmed her down a bit but couldn't bring her wildly hammering heart under control.
Peterson didn't seem to have missed the two men's strangeness, or he had recognized Josef, for he suddenly acted as if he didn't know Beth and leaned back in his seat eyeing the advertisements on the walls with a great deal of interest. As inconspicuously as possible Beth put the book in her own bag and took a deep breath. She knew it wouldn't be long before something happened.
The metro began to move and the two men immediately dropped their masquerade and headed towards them. The bearded man sat down next to Peterson and put a strong arm around his narrow shoulders while the redhead took a seat next to Beth, so close that she was forced to move aside so as to not have bodily contact with him.
"Don't be so shy, baby," he whispered softly to her and grabbed her arm to pull her back to him. He smelled of aftershave and cigarette smoke and had eyes so cold that an icy shiver ran down her spine.
"What do you want with that woman," she heard Peterson ask the man next to him quietly as he uttered a small, disparaging laugh.
"Don't try to shit me," the bearded man replied as softly as the professor, his fake smile caused Beth to shudder. She had to brace herself not to look toward Josef, and in her fear, give him away.
"You've stolen something from my leader," the man went on in a whisper. "He wants it back."
Peterson swallowed hard. "That's not possible," he confessed tensely. "I burnt the file."
The bearded man uttered a disdainful wheeze. "I don't care about that. Where's the test subject?"
Beth felt sick. Test subject? Was it possible they were searching for Mick?
Peterson looked really confused. "But you've killed him."
The bearded man grabbed his arm so tightly that Beth thought she heard his bones crack. "I told you, don't fuck with me!"
"What about you, dolly," the redhead breathed into Beth's ear and she disgustedly backed away as far as his firm grip allowed. She could barely suppress the need to slap his face. "You've been described to us perfectly. Where did you take that thing?"
Thing?! Her fear was now mixed with wild rage and she flashed him a look full of hatred as she compressed her lips.
"You'll tell me either way," the yucky guy smiled and pushed a strand of her blonde hair out of her face in a very strange gesture. "But maybe you want me to hurt you."
The metro jerked a bit as it went around a bend and the bright neon light on the ceiling started to flicker. Beth thought she saw Josef quickly stand up from the corner of her eye the moment before the light went out completely and suddenly several things happened: The train braked so violently that all of them were thrown to the floor as a shape leaped at them in the flickering light. The bearded man jumped up, pulling out a gun.
Darkness. A cry of pain. A sickening crack. Beth felt a movement next to her, felt the redheaded guy, who had fallen onto her, get to his feet again. Light. Josef, who was suddenly on this side of the compartment, turned around on his heel and kicked the face of the redhead, who had flicked a knife open, with such force that he went hurtling through the whole compartment. He crashed painfully into the wall at the other end. Darkness. Beth breathed in shakily and hoped and prayed that her wobbly legs would be able to carry her, as she slowly tried to stand up. She winced when she sensed a movement somewhere in the darkness.
"Are you all right?" That was Josef's voice next to her and she cursed herself for being only human and not being able to see anything in this blackness. She nodded quickly. She could hear a choked sound and then the light went on again. Josef grabbed Peterson with one hand and lifted him up into the air as if he was a puppet filled with cotton wool.
"Déjà-vu?" he asked with a smile that fully exposed his stately fangs while the old man desperately tried to loosen the strong fingers that had closed around his neck.
"Josef!" Beth called, upset, and grabbed his arms. "Let him down! We still need him!"
She could see that her friend had to really fight himself to oblige, but finally he surrendered and roughly set the poor man back onto his feet. Peterson gasped loudly for air and staggered a bit, but he had no time to recover, for Josef grabbed his arm again and pulled him to one of the doors.
Beth had the presence of mind to seize her bag and the professor's luggage and climbed over the bearded man's twisted, lifeless body that lay in the aisle. One glance at the other man in the farthest corner of the compartment was enough to tell her that he, too, hadn't come through this fight without damage.
"We must hurry," Josef murmured and pried open the door as easily as if he was lifting the cover of a book. Fortunately, they had been in one of the rear coaches and were able to climb out of it unseen. The train conductor's torch flashed at the other end of the metro and Beth could hear some frightened calls from the other compartments as with wobbly legs she followed Josef and Peterson. She hoped and prayed that no other train would arrive as they crossed another track. She could barely see in the twilight of the tunnel and rushed along, following the lighted arrows on the walls which showed the way to the next exit. Josef rushed to a door which had the lighted sign of a fire exit resplendent above it. He ripped it open, shoved Peterson through it and let Beth go through before he did the same. The corridor lying behind it was ugly, grey and smelled like a musty cellar. They paused for a moment to regroup.
"Who were they, Josef?" Beth asked breathlessly. "Where they soldiers of the Legion?"
"Probably," he muttered and grabbed Peterson's arm again. The professor seemed to slowly recover from his shock and looked at Josef with a mixture of fear and curiosity.
"You are Josef?" he asked and her friend angrily knitted his brows, when the professor started to laugh delightedly. "My goodness, I visualized you totally differently!"
Josef's cheek muscles twitched suspiciously and Beth laid a hand on his arm soothingly before he could react.
"Mick has seemingly talked about us," she explained shortly and tried to tell him with a look that they could sort it out later.
"What?!" Josef snarled at Peterson and his gaze alone was a death threat. "No way!"
But Peterson seemingly didn't take notice of it, for he turned again to the tall and very angry vampire. "It's hard to believe you're more than 400 years old. You appear to be about twenty, twenty five at most."
Josef just gaped at him and then turned to Beth. "Am I at least allowed to break his arm, please?" he asked through gritted teeth. She distinctly shook her head and shouldered the bags again.
"Let's just move on," she said as calmly as possible, while asking herself where Peterson might have gotten this information, if not from Mick.
Josef had to take a deep breath to get his anger under control and Peterson helped him by simply keeping his mouth shut. Josef's last comment had probably reminded him that he had overstepped the mark a bit and he would be better off not to tangle with an enraged vampire. Josef underscored this by giving him a hard push to start him walking.
"Do you think they were alone," Beth spoke to Josef after a period of brooding silence between them.
"In the metro they were alone. But I think there's a welcoming committee at the next station waiting for the professor," Josef responded still a bit grumpy. He reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and pulled out his cell phone.
"Who are you calling?" she asked.
"I'm trying," Josef held his cell phone up in different directions while they walked and seemed to have success, " to call Daniel."
Daniel was the helicopter pilot Beth knew from the multiple flights they had taken with him and she was greatly relieved. If there was one safe way out of this city, it was by air. Josef described their situation in a few words, gave clear instructions and ended the call. Again there was an unpleasant silence between them. For a while the echo of their quick steps on the sandy ground was the only sound to be heard.
"May I ask what you're planning to do with me?" Peterson asked hesitantly as he had looked again and again at Josef with uncertainty. The vampire uttered a scornful sound and Beth felt some sympathy for Peterson.
"We'll take you along with us," she said as vaguely as possible.
"Am I right when I assume that you don't want to kill me for now?" the professor asked.
"That depends upon what period of time you're associating with 'for now'," Josef growled back and Beth rolled her eyes.
"We need you for something," she added and Josef looked at her, alarmed.
"What?" she countered angrily. "He'll learn soon anyway! He'll see for himself, or have you planned to blindfold him?"
Josef shook his head, disgruntled, and pushed open the door they had reached. This time Beth was the first one to step outside, followed by Peterson and Josef. She looked around and realized they had come out in a public green space somewhere near Macarthur Park.
"Where now?" she addressed Josef, whose facial expression wavered between grimness and tense concentration.
"To the park," he explained briefly and pushed Peterson forward, but the professor was so wrapped in his thoughts that he stumbled. Quite suddenly his face lit up and his eyes roamed back and forth between Josef's and Beth's faces.
"My goodness. Is he? Is he alive?" he uttered unbelievingly. "Does that really mean he's alive?!"
Josef's eyes flashed at the professor angrily and he compressed his lips tightly into a thin line. In doing so he let Peterson know that he would not get a single word out of him. So the professor's gaze roamed to Beth's face. She struggled with herself for a moment, didn't know if this man really deserved this information, but then she nodded.
Peterson shocked her again, this time with a loud, relieved laugh and all at once he was completely agile and exited.
"God, take me to him!" he uttered agitated. "If you want him to survive this without any damage, then take me to him as quickly as possible! I'm really the only one who can help him!"