Ch 18: Countermoves
How long had she been here? Two, three weeks? It was impossible to tell anymore. She didn't even know where she was or how she had gotten here. All she remembered was being attacked outside the restaurant and then the world had gone black. She prayed that the couple in the restaurant had not been harmed, but she had no way of knowing.
Constance had woken up in a room that looked like a hospital. In her drugged state, she had thought for a moment that she was in the infirmary at the Hellsing house. As her mind and vision cleared, she realized that she had not been that lucky. The room and the people in it were strangers to her. Attempting to sit up, she found that she was bound to the narrow bed by straps that held her wrists. Looking around, she saw that the room she was in had no windows, being lit entirely by artificial light. When the memory of being abducted returned, she immediately began demanding that the nurses tell her where she was and what she was doing here. Her demands were answered by the prick of a needle and another excursion into darkness.
While she slept, she dimly hoped her guide would appear to her and tell her at least something about what had happened, but he never did. Would she have to endure this alone?
When she woke from her drug induced slumber the next day, she dimly saw the form of a person hovering above her and felt a hand at the base of her skull lifting her head. As the fog lifted from her mind, she could see the man more clearly. He had long gray hair gathered into a ponytail, but he was far from an old man. Looking at his face, which bore a thin smile, she judged him to be in his thirties. He was wearing a black suit with a collar and a long, robe-like coat. Father Enrico Maxwell looked down at the woman who appeared to be ordinary, but was reputed to have powers beyond any mere mortal.
"Welcome back. Sleep well?" he asked, his hand still on the back of her head.
A spark of rage flew through Constance, cutting through the remainder of the fogginess caused by the drugs. She would have slapped the priest's hand away, but she was still bound to the bed. Instead she wrenched her head away from his hand. Maxwell's small smile turned into a smirk. He had been told that the doctor had a lot of spunk and he could see now that it had been an understatement.
"Who the hell are you? Why did you bring me here? I demand you let me go right now!," Constance yelled at the man as she struggled against her bonds.
"Father Maxwell," the man replied. "I am afraid I can't tell you where you are, but the reason we brought you here is that we are quite interested in the extraordinary abilities that you posses."
Does he know about me? Integra and the others are the only ones who know and I know they would not have told anyone else. I can't let these people know the truth. God only knows what they would do with it.
"Abilities? What are you talking about?" Constance asked as she looked up at Maxwell.
"Don't play dumb with me! I have reliable sources that know all about you and what you really are!" The smile had disappeared from Maxwell's face as he looked Constance in the eyes.
"And what am I?" she retorted, "I am nothing more than an ordinary person and a doctor. Your 'sources' are obviously delusional."
Maxwell responded by pushing a button on a cart that he had placed in front of Constance's bed that bore a small television set and video player. Constance found herself looking at a recording of the battle in the library followed by the incident in the dungeon. Someone had obviously made copies of the surveillance tapes from those two days before Integra could order the originals destroyed. Constance's felt that her heart was frozen in her chest as she saw herself in her true form.
"Still think my sources are delusional?" Father Maxwell asked. He strode to the side of her bed again. "We know what you are and we plan to use you to help us in our cause."
"You're crazy" Constance spat. "Even if I am what you think I am, which I'm not, how could you possibly use that information?"
"We have methods." Father Maxwell said, gazing coldly at the prisoner. "You'll find out soon enough." With that, he motioned to one of the nurses and unconsciousness washed over Constance once again.
"I want you to start the experiments as soon as possible," Father Maxwell said to an older man in a lab coat outside of the room. "It may be possible to use her DNA to give an ordinary person her powers, just as we did with Father Anderson."
"Understood, Father" the doctor replied. "I will start first thing in the morning."
Maxwell nodded and left the laboratory that was hidden deep in the Italian forests. Surely this creature had been sent by God to aid them in their war against the undead and the Hellsing organization, even if she did not know it. He truly believed that they would be able to use her powers to make themselves strong enough to finally crush their foes once and for all.
Alucard, Ceras and Pip sat in the flat that had been rented for them as they planned their next move. They had been in this city for almost a month and it appeared that their long weeks of gathering information were coming to a close. Pip, posing as a street hooligan, had heard about a facility hidden in the woods from a transient criminal who often traveled through and slept in the woods to avoid capture. The man had said that he had seen men dressed like priests coming and going from the facility at all hours and had once seen what looked like a dark haired woman wearing black clothing being carried in. The facility was not very heavily guarded, relying on its location to keep it from prying eyes. The criminal had offered to show Pip to the facility, for a price.
The next evening, dressed in a sleek businessman's suit and using an assumed name, Alucard entered the local branch of an international bank. Minutes later, he emerged from the building with the money that had been wired to him by Sir Integra. Ceras and Pip were waiting for him in a small automobile at curb. As Ceras drove the a point near the meeting place that Pip and the informant had agreed on, Alucard handed the thick wad of cash to Pip.
"When you get to the facility, notify us and we will follow. I don't want our informant to see us and run off." Alucard said.
"Agreed." Pip said. "I have a GPS device on me. It should be no problem to track."
Ceras slowed to a stop in an alley where they would not be seen. "Be careful, Captain," she said as Pip opened the door. She was concerned about trusting a criminal for information. For all they knew, it could be a trap.
"No problem, kid," Pip replied, smiling at Ceras and winking. "Be ready."
As Pip walked to the meeting spot, Alucard looked at Ceras' face. Her concern for Pip was very evident. Since his apprentice and the Captain had met, Alucard could sense an attraction to the young man on his fledgling's part, try as she might to squelch it. Smirking slightly, he patted Ceras on the shoulder and said "Don't worry police-girl, he'll come back to you." The smirk became wider when he saw the blush that had crept across her face.
This place is certainly well hidden, Pip thought as he trudged through the undergrowth. They had been hiking for an hour. After what seemed like an eternity, Pip found himself looking at a small building guarded by a lone sentry. The building seemed too small for a laboratory. His informant, sensing this, informed Pip that most of the facility was underground. Pip thanked the informant and handed over the cash.
"Nice doin' business with ya," the man said as he pocketed the cash and ran off in the opposite direction.
Pip waited until he was sure that the man was gone. He then signaled Alucard and Ceras, who appeared behind him almost immediately.
"That's the place," Pip said pointing at the building. "Only one guard, he should be easy to take care of. Ceras, fire your cannon five hundred yards behind him. That should distract him long enough for us to get in."
Ceras nodded and fired an explosive round. The guard ran toward the source of the explosion. Moving quickly, they ran to the door. Another round from Halconnen took care of the door.
The doctor ducked his head in reaction to the explosion and the cloud of dust and plaster that had rained down on his head. He left his position beside the unconscious creature that he was experimenting on, having just made an incision to expose the bones and muscles of her shoulder blade. It was one of many experiments that he had conducted that day.
Running toward the door to see what the commotion was, he was greeted by man that at first he thought was Father Maxwell. But as the dust cleared, he could see that it was not he. Instead, he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun being aimed by a tall man with short black hair. Behind him were a man with an eye patch and a short girl with strawberry blonde hair. All three were wearing expressions that caused the man's heart to speed up in his chest.they looked ready to kill.
Ceras stepped into the room and aimed her cannon at the group of nurses and technicians that had gathered in a corner to hide from the explosion. Pip grabbed the doctor roughly by his collar and threw him toward the huddled group. Pip then turned to see Alucard staring at the person lying on an operating table, her open wound spilling blood onto the stainless steel surface.
Time seemed to slow down as Alucard looked down at Constance. The wounds she now bore took his mind back to another room similar to this one. In the room his mind saw, he had been the one lying on the table while men who spoke in the German tongue had cut and prodded him until he had nearly broken down and begged for mercy.
When Alucard turned to the look at the doctor whose protective gown was still splattered with blood, he wore an expression of rage that would have caused the devil himself to cringe in fear. Crossing the room in four strides, he lifted the doctor off of the ground by his collar and pressed the muzzle of his Jackal to the doctor's forehead.
"D..d..don't kill me, please, don't kill me!" the doctor blubbered, his feet dangling six inches off of the floor.
"Shut up, you piece of filth! How dare you beg me for your life!" Alucard shouted as his finger tightened on the trigger. Pip and Ceras, who were now at Constance's side, attempting to bandage the wound in her shoulder, called to Alucard when they heard the faint sound of men shouting outside.
"Master, we have to get her out of here!" Ceras shouted as the noise outside grew louder. Alucard was not paying attention to her, too furious to think of anything other than killing the doctor who had tortured Constance just as he had been tortured so many years ago.
"Alucard, snap out of it!" Pip yelled, having come behind Alucard and grabbed him arm. "We have to go, now! Ceras, give us an exit!"
The sound of a large hole being ripped in the wall that was not underground by Ceras' cannon was enough to get Alucard's attention. Throwing the doctor aside, he rushed to Constance and picked her up. The three Hellsing officers ran through the exit, Ceras firing her cannon to block the front door for good measure.
How long had she been here? Two, three weeks? It was impossible to tell anymore. She didn't even know where she was or how she had gotten here. All she remembered was being attacked outside the restaurant and then the world had gone black. She prayed that the couple in the restaurant had not been harmed, but she had no way of knowing.
Constance had woken up in a room that looked like a hospital. In her drugged state, she had thought for a moment that she was in the infirmary at the Hellsing house. As her mind and vision cleared, she realized that she had not been that lucky. The room and the people in it were strangers to her. Attempting to sit up, she found that she was bound to the narrow bed by straps that held her wrists. Looking around, she saw that the room she was in had no windows, being lit entirely by artificial light. When the memory of being abducted returned, she immediately began demanding that the nurses tell her where she was and what she was doing here. Her demands were answered by the prick of a needle and another excursion into darkness.
While she slept, she dimly hoped her guide would appear to her and tell her at least something about what had happened, but he never did. Would she have to endure this alone?
When she woke from her drug induced slumber the next day, she dimly saw the form of a person hovering above her and felt a hand at the base of her skull lifting her head. As the fog lifted from her mind, she could see the man more clearly. He had long gray hair gathered into a ponytail, but he was far from an old man. Looking at his face, which bore a thin smile, she judged him to be in his thirties. He was wearing a black suit with a collar and a long, robe-like coat. Father Enrico Maxwell looked down at the woman who appeared to be ordinary, but was reputed to have powers beyond any mere mortal.
"Welcome back. Sleep well?" he asked, his hand still on the back of her head.
A spark of rage flew through Constance, cutting through the remainder of the fogginess caused by the drugs. She would have slapped the priest's hand away, but she was still bound to the bed. Instead she wrenched her head away from his hand. Maxwell's small smile turned into a smirk. He had been told that the doctor had a lot of spunk and he could see now that it had been an understatement.
"Who the hell are you? Why did you bring me here? I demand you let me go right now!," Constance yelled at the man as she struggled against her bonds.
"Father Maxwell," the man replied. "I am afraid I can't tell you where you are, but the reason we brought you here is that we are quite interested in the extraordinary abilities that you posses."
Does he know about me? Integra and the others are the only ones who know and I know they would not have told anyone else. I can't let these people know the truth. God only knows what they would do with it.
"Abilities? What are you talking about?" Constance asked as she looked up at Maxwell.
"Don't play dumb with me! I have reliable sources that know all about you and what you really are!" The smile had disappeared from Maxwell's face as he looked Constance in the eyes.
"And what am I?" she retorted, "I am nothing more than an ordinary person and a doctor. Your 'sources' are obviously delusional."
Maxwell responded by pushing a button on a cart that he had placed in front of Constance's bed that bore a small television set and video player. Constance found herself looking at a recording of the battle in the library followed by the incident in the dungeon. Someone had obviously made copies of the surveillance tapes from those two days before Integra could order the originals destroyed. Constance's felt that her heart was frozen in her chest as she saw herself in her true form.
"Still think my sources are delusional?" Father Maxwell asked. He strode to the side of her bed again. "We know what you are and we plan to use you to help us in our cause."
"You're crazy" Constance spat. "Even if I am what you think I am, which I'm not, how could you possibly use that information?"
"We have methods." Father Maxwell said, gazing coldly at the prisoner. "You'll find out soon enough." With that, he motioned to one of the nurses and unconsciousness washed over Constance once again.
"I want you to start the experiments as soon as possible," Father Maxwell said to an older man in a lab coat outside of the room. "It may be possible to use her DNA to give an ordinary person her powers, just as we did with Father Anderson."
"Understood, Father" the doctor replied. "I will start first thing in the morning."
Maxwell nodded and left the laboratory that was hidden deep in the Italian forests. Surely this creature had been sent by God to aid them in their war against the undead and the Hellsing organization, even if she did not know it. He truly believed that they would be able to use her powers to make themselves strong enough to finally crush their foes once and for all.
Alucard, Ceras and Pip sat in the flat that had been rented for them as they planned their next move. They had been in this city for almost a month and it appeared that their long weeks of gathering information were coming to a close. Pip, posing as a street hooligan, had heard about a facility hidden in the woods from a transient criminal who often traveled through and slept in the woods to avoid capture. The man had said that he had seen men dressed like priests coming and going from the facility at all hours and had once seen what looked like a dark haired woman wearing black clothing being carried in. The facility was not very heavily guarded, relying on its location to keep it from prying eyes. The criminal had offered to show Pip to the facility, for a price.
The next evening, dressed in a sleek businessman's suit and using an assumed name, Alucard entered the local branch of an international bank. Minutes later, he emerged from the building with the money that had been wired to him by Sir Integra. Ceras and Pip were waiting for him in a small automobile at curb. As Ceras drove the a point near the meeting place that Pip and the informant had agreed on, Alucard handed the thick wad of cash to Pip.
"When you get to the facility, notify us and we will follow. I don't want our informant to see us and run off." Alucard said.
"Agreed." Pip said. "I have a GPS device on me. It should be no problem to track."
Ceras slowed to a stop in an alley where they would not be seen. "Be careful, Captain," she said as Pip opened the door. She was concerned about trusting a criminal for information. For all they knew, it could be a trap.
"No problem, kid," Pip replied, smiling at Ceras and winking. "Be ready."
As Pip walked to the meeting spot, Alucard looked at Ceras' face. Her concern for Pip was very evident. Since his apprentice and the Captain had met, Alucard could sense an attraction to the young man on his fledgling's part, try as she might to squelch it. Smirking slightly, he patted Ceras on the shoulder and said "Don't worry police-girl, he'll come back to you." The smirk became wider when he saw the blush that had crept across her face.
This place is certainly well hidden, Pip thought as he trudged through the undergrowth. They had been hiking for an hour. After what seemed like an eternity, Pip found himself looking at a small building guarded by a lone sentry. The building seemed too small for a laboratory. His informant, sensing this, informed Pip that most of the facility was underground. Pip thanked the informant and handed over the cash.
"Nice doin' business with ya," the man said as he pocketed the cash and ran off in the opposite direction.
Pip waited until he was sure that the man was gone. He then signaled Alucard and Ceras, who appeared behind him almost immediately.
"That's the place," Pip said pointing at the building. "Only one guard, he should be easy to take care of. Ceras, fire your cannon five hundred yards behind him. That should distract him long enough for us to get in."
Ceras nodded and fired an explosive round. The guard ran toward the source of the explosion. Moving quickly, they ran to the door. Another round from Halconnen took care of the door.
The doctor ducked his head in reaction to the explosion and the cloud of dust and plaster that had rained down on his head. He left his position beside the unconscious creature that he was experimenting on, having just made an incision to expose the bones and muscles of her shoulder blade. It was one of many experiments that he had conducted that day.
Running toward the door to see what the commotion was, he was greeted by man that at first he thought was Father Maxwell. But as the dust cleared, he could see that it was not he. Instead, he found himself staring down the barrel of a gun being aimed by a tall man with short black hair. Behind him were a man with an eye patch and a short girl with strawberry blonde hair. All three were wearing expressions that caused the man's heart to speed up in his chest.they looked ready to kill.
Ceras stepped into the room and aimed her cannon at the group of nurses and technicians that had gathered in a corner to hide from the explosion. Pip grabbed the doctor roughly by his collar and threw him toward the huddled group. Pip then turned to see Alucard staring at the person lying on an operating table, her open wound spilling blood onto the stainless steel surface.
Time seemed to slow down as Alucard looked down at Constance. The wounds she now bore took his mind back to another room similar to this one. In the room his mind saw, he had been the one lying on the table while men who spoke in the German tongue had cut and prodded him until he had nearly broken down and begged for mercy.
When Alucard turned to the look at the doctor whose protective gown was still splattered with blood, he wore an expression of rage that would have caused the devil himself to cringe in fear. Crossing the room in four strides, he lifted the doctor off of the ground by his collar and pressed the muzzle of his Jackal to the doctor's forehead.
"D..d..don't kill me, please, don't kill me!" the doctor blubbered, his feet dangling six inches off of the floor.
"Shut up, you piece of filth! How dare you beg me for your life!" Alucard shouted as his finger tightened on the trigger. Pip and Ceras, who were now at Constance's side, attempting to bandage the wound in her shoulder, called to Alucard when they heard the faint sound of men shouting outside.
"Master, we have to get her out of here!" Ceras shouted as the noise outside grew louder. Alucard was not paying attention to her, too furious to think of anything other than killing the doctor who had tortured Constance just as he had been tortured so many years ago.
"Alucard, snap out of it!" Pip yelled, having come behind Alucard and grabbed him arm. "We have to go, now! Ceras, give us an exit!"
The sound of a large hole being ripped in the wall that was not underground by Ceras' cannon was enough to get Alucard's attention. Throwing the doctor aside, he rushed to Constance and picked her up. The three Hellsing officers ran through the exit, Ceras firing her cannon to block the front door for good measure.