CHAPTER EIGHT: A Man Down
Malcolm was only slightly concerned. Alex had assured him she would catch up with them; but, they had managed to complete their sweep and there was still no sign of her. They reached the end of the tunnels, and he and the others turned back to find Alex. They were more than ready to get out of the mass grave they had stumbled into.
They hadn't located any survivors, or any other bodies that could lead to any kind of identification. These creatures had all but annihilated each other, and for what? Malcolm was sure that this was a vital piece of information. And he knew that the answer would be crucial if it came down to winning a battle that could soon encroach upon the human world. What was it that had sparked this war, and why were the lycans after Michael Corvin? They had come to Hungary to find the answers to these questions; but, so far all they had managed to do was create more questions. He wasn't the only one frustrated. Sterling may not voice his opinions often, but his body language spoke volumes. He was ready to vacate these premises, to be back among the living. And Jorge was on edge too; he was constantly looking over his shoulder and jumping at shadows. They had been underground for less than an hour, and it was already getting to the normally calm man. He felt the same way; he was just better at hiding it than the younger team member.
They had finally made it back to the chamber where they had left Alex. They had not seen her along the way, so he was hoping she was still working on the dead body they had found earlier. To his dismay, Alex wasn't there and neither was the dead lycan. Near panic set in, was she hurt? Or had she decided they needed a better look at the shapeshifter and brought him above ground?
"I don't like this Malcolm", Sterling said quietly.
He looked over at the tall black man and agreed, "I know what you mean." Hoping she was with Daniel; the three men quickly left the room and ran back to the manhole they had entered through, looking for signs of Alexandra along the way.
When they reached the ladder, Malcolm whistled; a signal that it was them approaching, and not an ambush. He had never climbed a ladder so fast in his life, but when he reached the top, it was Daniel's large, freckle covered hand that reached in to help him out, not Alex's.
"Alex isn't here with you" he asked with his heart in his throat?
"Why would she be here", Daniel asked. "Didn't she go down with you guys into that hellhole?"
By now both Sterling and Jorge had crawled out of the abyss and looked around for Alex.
"Agent Douglas isn't here, is she", Jorge said stating the obvious.
Malcolm looked at Daniel and said, "We have a man down."
He quickly filled Daniel in on all that had happened below the surface.
"You mean you left her alone in a room with a lycan", Daniel asked incredulously?
"Damnit Irish, she's capable of taking care of herself; hell, she's a better shot than any of us here. Besides, when did Alex ever let anyone tell her what to do? She's the leader of this mission: she was giving the orders. Anyway, that lycan had to have been dead. He was shot through with silver. It wasn't possible for him to survive that", Malcolm said defensively.
"Listen, you're both correct", Sterling said trying to lessen the growing panic all of them were feeling. "We shouldn't have left Alex in there alone, but Daniel, Malcolm was right. There was no way that lycan could have survived the amount of silver shot into him. Just at a quick glance I counted five wounds, and it looked to be silver nitrate. I didn't think twice about Alex's order when she told us to continue the sweep. We didn't find anything living in that hole. Everything down there was dead", he finished.
Daniel spoke up, "Obviously not everything. We need to go back down there and look for her", he said moving towards the opening.
Malcolm reached out and grabbed his arm, "Daniel, she's not down there. We re-conned the entire area once we realized she was missing. She's gone, and so is the lycan we left her with."