CHAPTER FIVE: Searching for Michael

Budapest, Hungary

They had been in Budapest for about 6 hours; and, so far they that hadn't had any luck tracking down Michael Corvin. They had landed at a private airport outside the city, and then reported to the small office the council kept in the area. There, they had been able to store their extra gear and weapons and then split up. Sterling, Jorge and Daniel were going to check out the local hospital where Mr. Corvin was currently employed. She and Malcolm were heading over to his apartment to see if they could catch him there. First and foremost, they were to find out as much as possible. No interaction with the lycans or vamps unless it was in self-defense.

When she and Mal got to Michael's residence, they found some very interesting things, but no Michael. The complex looked as if a small army had stormed through. They had found a trail of dried blood outside the building and followed it through the main doors over to the elevators. There they discovered a small pool of dried blood on the floor. Always prepared, Alex took a small tube out of her jacket pocket and scooped up a couple of flakes, hoping it might be good enough to run an analysis on. They also found several bullet casings lying on the floor. Malcolm collected these and put them in a baggy for analysis as well. Further down the hall, they found a huge chunk of ceiling that had fallen from the floor above. Alex surmised someone had shot at the floor until it gave.

Leaving the ground floor they made their way up to Michael's place. Here they found proof of some type of lycan conflict. The ceiling and walls appeared to be crushed in various places, as well as more bullet casings found scattered throughout the hall. Someone had obviously been shooting at oncoming shapeshifters, but who, Michael Corvin? This was getting very interesting.

Turning to Mal, Alex noticed an open door and immediately knew it would lead to Michael's apartment. She drew her gun and motioned Malcolm over to the beckoning doorway. Surprisingly enough, there was little damage to the inside of the dwelling. The ceilings were crushed in where the lycans had run across the floor above.

But they found no evidence of foul play. Of course, Michael was nowhere to be found; but all in all, there was no evidence that he was dead either. The blood they did find wasn't enough to kill someone, just enough to show a substantial injury of some kind.

The Hungarian people were superstitious by nature and it appeared that no one wanted the job of cleaning up the mess, nor did they contact the local police. Grateful for this one small concession, Alex instructed Malcolm to help her search the apartment for clues of any kind. They looked through the entire place, and found nothing more than they already knew. Knowing they were wasting precious time, they decided to meet up with the rest of the team, hoping they had better news.

They had agreed to meet back at the local council offices as soon as they were through. Malcolm and Alex were the first to show up, but the other team members weren't far behind. Fortunately, their compadres had better luck than she and Malcolm did. She had sent Daniel with Jorge and Sterling because he was better able to question civilians than Jorge and less intimidating than Sterling. "He hadn't let her down", she thought as he began giving a detailed account of what they had found out.

"It seems that the local police are very interested in talking to Mr. Corvin. They showed up at the hospital looking for him, soon after the shootout at the subway. The doctor we spoke to explained that the policemen were adamant about physically seeing and speaking with Michael; as they were concerned he might be involved in the shooting. Now, the doc told us, he had found this very odd, because Dr. Corvin had never been in any kind of legal trouble. But, he told the police to come back tomorrow; Michael was supposed to be on duty then. Well, it turns out Michael did show up, but not for work. He had been injured and the doc says it looked like a very large animal had bitten him. He was agitated and very nervous; and, he kept insisting it had been a man not an animal that got to him. The doc had him wait in a room while he went to get the cops but, Corvin caught on to the ruse and escaped before the police could question him", he said finishing up.

"Whoa", remarked Malcolm. "And when did all this take place", Alex asked.

This time it was Jorge that spoke up. "This was two days ago", he answered, "And his friend says he has not seen nor heard from him since."

The quiet giant finally spoke up, "I hate to point out the obvious, but Michael Corvin may no longer be human. There was a full moon last night", Sterling said in his deep melodious voice.

Needing a few moments to process this information over, Alex asked Malcolm to fill the guys in on what they had found. When he was done, Alex spoke up, "Well, the evidence we found at the apartment seems to correlate with what you guys found. Michael must have been bitten by a lycan at his home and then made his way over to the hospital. So, I fear you're more than likely correct Sterling. The chances of Michael Corvin being human are slim to none. But regardless, we need to find out what the lycans are up to, why they have ammo similar to ours, and how this is going to affect the conflict with the vampires and the human population. So, we stay and continue to look for Michael Corvin, hopefully he will lead us to the lycans. Let's keep our ears and eyes open for any signs of vamps and/or lycans and get to the bottom of this", she said pacing the room.

"So, what's our next step", Malcolm asked?

"I say we start where this whole mess originally started", Alex decided. "The subway was where the civilian had been injured during the vampire/lycan shootout, right? We know the vamps live in that huge mansion outside of the city. What isn't known, is where they lycans are staying. Didn't the report Willie gave us, state the lycans headed down into the subway tunnels once the vampires returned their fire?" she asked to no one in particular?

Yeah", Daniel answered, "and the female death dealer had chased after them".

"So it's possible, the lycans are living somewhere in that area. I say we go check it out and see what we can find", she directed.