Inferno
By Divamercury
Sorry about the confusion earlier. I accidentally uploaded Chapter 7 twice and after I removed it, it showed that there were 9 chapters when there weren't. I'm new at this, so bear with me. Again, I don't own anything save Ciara, Luke, and Andrew Leonard and Harridan Pharmaceuticals. Thanks, and enjoy Chapter 10! Chapter 11 will be out shortly; I have a personal rule that states that I can't post an unfinished chapter, and I have to have 1,000 words per chapter. I've got about 600-700 so far, so not much longer. Enough rambling. On with the story!
Chapter 10
After several fruitless searches at a few restaurants where the workers knew her by name, I ended up completing my list of places to look into Sara's illness. I was beginning to realize that this wasn't any everyday bug. It affected the Witchblade. Hmm
The ring of my cell phone derailed my train of thought. I answered it.
"Hello?" I said absently.
"Ian! Where have you been? You didn't come home! Where are you?" It was Irons, obviously. I snapped back to reality.
Damn, he finally called.'
"Sara is ill, and I decided it would be best if I kept an eye on her," I said, telling the truth.
"Well, get back here now!" He hung up.
Bastard.'
I returned to Vorschlag. The only reason was that I had nowhere else to search, and it was the last location on my list. I was very worried, but Gabriel hadn't called saying that anything was wrong, so I tried not to think about what was going on. Maybe Vorschlag would have some answers
* * *
Gabriel woke me up after about a two-hour nap.
"Listen, Chief, I know you don't want to hear this right now, but you need to eat something. It's been about 24 hours since you ate or drank anything, and that isn't going to help you fight this thing off."
"You're right, Gabe. I need to have something. Could you get me some juice or something?" I asked. He smiled, glad I was open to the suggestion. He disappeared for a few minutes. While he was gone I had some time to try and make sense of some things that had been bouncing around the inside of my cranium for some time. How had this happened? Why couldn't I control the Witchblade? In general, what the hell was wrong with me? Exasperated that I had no believable answers for these questions, I closed my eyes and tried to relax and think back to how this could have happened. For I knew that it was no accident.
"Okay, Chief, here you go," Gabe said, coming back into the room with a tray of food. All it had was a plate with two pieces of toast on it and a glass of orange juice, but it would be plenty. I had no appetite to speak of but I had to eat something. He set the tray on my lap and sat by me in his chair while I ate.
"Are you feeling any better, Chief?" Gabe asked, concerned. I couldn't lie.
"Yes and no." I didn't say I had do give a straight answer; I just couldn't lie! "The aches are starting to go away, but my right arm still hurts. I'm not as stiff as I was, and my fever seems better, so I guess I'm doing okay for now. This ought to be over soon, Gabe. Now it's your turn to relax."
* * *
I could put off returning to Vorschlag no longer. I entered and traveled through the many halls with no trouble because I was known there. I approached Irons's office but stopped short. The door was ajar and I could hear a meeting going on inside. I decided not to enter right then; I had experience in what would happen afterwards. I came closer to the door and crouched, peering through the doorway. Irons was meeting with two men, both of whom I recognized. The one sitting in the left chair in front of Irons's desk was Dr. Immo, Irons's pet geneticist that was given the credit of creating me. The one on the right was Andrew Leonard, the CEO of a powerful company by the name of Harridan Pharmaceuticals. I wondered why the two were in conversation with Irons at once. I caught the end of the conversation.
"So it is working?" Irons asked. Immo shifted apprehensively in his chair.
"Apparently, Mr. Irons. I am unsure of the side effects, but I have a feeling that the virus will be convincing enough in itself," he said nervously.
"And the cure?" Irons said, fixing Leonard with his icy glare.
"It is being kept safe in a vault at Harridan," he said. "You do have enough just in case she relents?"
"Yes, I have hidden it somewhere. I cannot remember exactly where it was placed, but if I cannot find it, then I will let you know. No matter what happens it will be close by."
"Well, if we are finished, Mr. Irons, I need to be going. I have another engagement," Leonard said. Immo muttered something along those lines as well, and Irons dismissed them with a careless wave of the hand with the Witchblade's mark on it. The two men left and I entered after them, taking my place at his right.
"Hello, Ian. It was wise of you to stay outside the door; you remember what happened last time." He had known I was there the entire time. I wasn't surprised. Yes, I remembered. I still had the scars to show it. I didn't respond to his statement.
"How much did you hear?" he asked me.
"Enough," I said. "What is going on?"
"I apologize for having to keep you out of the loop, Ian, but I can't tell you," he said with that purely evil smirk. I stayed silent for a moment, then noticed him glancing at a paper on the desk. He shredded it in his paper shredder after he caught me looking, and I asked, "What have you done?"
He merely smirked.
I was afraid that I had stumbled onto what I was looking for. I turned and left Irons's office, ignoring his protests, and went after Immo. I found him in the infirmary downstairs. He jumped when he saw me, dropping a tray of instruments that he was carrying to be sterilized.
"Ian! Hownice to see you."
I severely doubted that. He was terrified, the spineless creature. The fluorescent light reflected off of his head, sparsely covered with dark gray hair, and off of his thick coke-bottle glasses. He reminded me of a mole in many ways.
"Hello, Doctor. I have a few questions for you."
