Chapter five: the infection
Liam stood tensely at resistance HQ. A very bad thing had happened. Very bad.
"I was walking to Liam's apartment to drop off that dream tech he'd asked for," Street explained, "When I saw Jace get zapped with some energy weapon and bam! She fell down. These guys in weird gray suits hauled her into a Lexus and then took off."
Renee asked her to remember the license but Liam had the feeling these weren't the kind of people that could be easily found.
* * *
Jace opened her eyes to a bare and empty room. Cursing, she stood, her body screaming from the electric blast she'd lost consciousness to earlier.
"About time, Laura." She turned to her left, to see good ol' Vosloo with two suited thugs at his side.
"Fuck you, suit man." She replied, and advanced on her captor. His two body guards moved infront of him.
"You think you can take them without shifting? Feel different, Laura?" Her eyes opened in horror…
"You… didn't…"
"Damn right I did. Your time is over drw-2002." Her rage grew just, and green eyes flared. But they had injected her with the Hangman's serum… and no matter how hard she tried, she could not shift. Enraged, she attacked the trio infront of her.
The two bodyguards tried to grab her, but they were assaulted with a hail of fierce kicks. She whirled like a tornado, demonstrating flowing martial arts. They were no match, and within a few moments, piled on the floor at Vosloo's feet.
"I'm impressed, Laura." She was panting hard, but her eyes showed her rage, strong as ever.
"I was a bouncer after I left this shithole. For a year. Then I moved to a less bruising job." She wiped the sweat from her brow. She felt very hot, like her body was on fire.
"Feeling it yet, Laura? That's the feeling of time catching up to you. You can't run from your own mortality. You can't hide. You are through, so give up now."
Her hands clenched with anger. She turned to the steel door and smashed it in, with unnatural strength. Yells emanated from the other side, because the door was not operable now…
And then, she savored the look of Vosloo as her heaving body leaned close to his terrified face…
"Not… without… you…"
***
"Let's go over this again. Where would they have taken her? Is there anyway to trace her?" Renee paced around HQ, her eyebrows knitted in thought. Her heals clicked away as Street and Auger both pecked into their keyboards.
"How about I hack into her FBI file again?" Street suggested. Auger shrugged.
Renee turned away, frustrated. Her eyes found Liam, sprawled out on the couch, eyes lost in thought.
"Liam?" She asked, moving towards him, but the protector didn't respond. She touched his shoulder, causing Liam to start.
"What about the place they tested her! Auger, search "Project Genova" in the government database," He blurted out.
After several moments of silence, Auger pulled up blueprints of a building.
"Is this what we are looking for?" He asked. Liam didn't but it was a start.
"Let's check it out, Renee," he said as he grabbed his jacket.
They arrived in a deserted area of Nevada, following the coordinates Auger was sending. Infront of Renee and Liam stood a tall gray building; old, desolate and damaged. The wind was all that broke the eerie silence.
Solemnly, Liam led Renee through the rusty barbed wire fences. There were several 'condemned' signs hanging on the cracking cement walls.
"Oh my god, Liam…" He turned to face Renee, whom had her hand over her mouth, staring at something beyond a small hill. He followed her, and saw the most awful sight; weathered by time, the dry, parched ground protruded bones, as if spitting them from its maw. It was a mass grave that seemed to last several hundred meters. Renee turned away, and quickly walked back to the building. Liam also turned away, disgusted by the sight.
They entered the building close to each other, disturbed by the eerie silence and general feeling of uneasiness. The halls were dark and gray, with rooms, cells, on each side. Liam paused to try and make out something written on the wall when Renee let out a shrill cry.
He ran to her, and she turned again, gasping his shirt. A moment passed before Liam's eyes adjusted to the darkness, for only a small hole let in any light. The cell was drenched in dried blood, splattered again the ceiling, streaking the cement walls. Hand prints… no, something else portrayed a struggle, and deep etchings covered the leftmost wall… claw marks. It reeked of death, and the two felt stifled and left immediately back to the outer hallway.
"Something… horrible happened here," Liam murmured. Bloody foot and paw prints lined the floor, different kinds of paw prints, different animals. Lead bullet holes adorned every cell.
"God Liam, it's like something from a nightmare…" He nodded. Jace's nightmare, only for her, it had been a reality. "Liam! Come here!" Renee pointed to more scratches on the wall, seeming done with a sharp strong object. Something or someone had obscured the message.
Beware Genova's children; their vengeance will be stated
Vosloo is our death-
We will find an
save the first and she will
"What?" Renee shook her head, confused. Liam remembered hearing the name Vosloo before… He opened his global to call the mothership.
"What is it Major?"
"Sandoval, I have something extremely important to ask you." Sandoval's eyebrows rose. "I overheard you speaking about man named Vosloo last week… I need to know who he is." Liam knew Sandoval probably wouldn't talk, but if he did know, then maybe Liam could get it out of him.
"Why Major, why would you want to know that?" Liam sighed.
"Because he may be connected to the missing girl Zo'or wants." Again, Sandoval looked surprised.
"Tell me the truth. Do you have a lead?"
"Perhaps, if we find this Vosloo." Sandoval seemed to be debating. Then, a miracle occurred.
"I will send you his name, address, and what I know on one condition, Kincaid."
"Most anything."
"Don't give her to Zo'or, Major. I want to have… an edge over him. Let me know first." Liam was beaming inside.
"I promise, Sandoval. I promise."
As the data was transferred over his global, one last remark came from the mothership.
"Major, he has a serum. A killer serum. If he finds her, he will kill her. You must get to him first." Those words turned Renee and Liam's blood cold.
***
The world seemed overly bright to Jace. Her body was aching and on fire, and her vision was getting blurry.
Vosloo's unconscious form was now only a blur to her. She had enjoyed knocking him across the room, even if it was her last action on earth.
It was hard to move, to breathe, even think. Her thoughts were of her own demise at first… then of her life. Of the resistance, and then- her heart cried out as she realized that her past, her dear friends and support would never know, would never see her again. Tears dripped down her face as her eyes closed.
***
"He's a director in the CIA. A clean record, nothing notable, not like what you describe," Auger reported.
"If he has a global, we can trace it, maybe," Street suggested. Liam nodded hastily, and soon they had a lock on the man called Vosloo.
***
Vosloo groaned, his head throbbing. He opened his eyes to hear people shouting outside the room. His bodyguards were in a heap on the floor, now accompanied by the bitch known and Laura Denoven. Than God she was done and over with now.
More cries came from outside the room. He hear something like an energy stick or something… at last, someone was getting him out of this hellhole.
The door burst open, but that wasn't en employee, who was - *Thud* The man called Vosloo returned to the floor whence he came, and resistance members flooded the area and Liam burst through the door.