23
Integra froze. That voice… It can't be.
"Surprised to see your old uncle, hmm?" the silhouette asked.
"You are not my uncle," Integra snarled. "My uncle is dead."
"I thought I was too when you shot me," the man said. He turned his body slightly to reveal his right sleeve, tied up around the stump of his missing arm.
Integra couldn't deny it. It had to be her uncle. Who else would know about the secret exit? And then there was the arm. She could still remember the image of it lying on the dungeon floor where Alucard had torn it off.
"How did you survive?" she asked.
"It was a miracle, really," Richard Hellsing began. "The medical examiner you dumped my body with found a weak pulse. Since I had no identification with me, he had no idea who I was. I woke up in the hospital two weeks later. I asked them not to notify you. I wanted to surprise you."
"If you've been alive all this time, then why haven't you come after me? Why wait this long to finish what you started?"
"I knew I could never get past your vampire servant," he said. "This empty sleeve is proof of that. I had to wait until you were vulnerable, until all your safety nets were gone. Twenty years I waited for my brother to die and another ten years I spent watching you. Waiting for a weakness. When that Round Table fool betrayed you, I knew that my chance had come at last. Over the years, I've made friends with key individuals who shared my opinion of your position. They allowed me to bypass the normal bureaucracy and set up the charge of treason."
"So you've become a snake," Integra accused him. "Slinking in the shadows, letting others do your dirty work."
"I see you've made some new friends too, Integra. I think I'll feed them to Solomon."
Robin took a step forward but Amon put his hand on her shoulder. The thought of calling Alucard occurred to Integra. But no, this was her fight.
"Bastard!" she shouted. "I killed you once and I'll kill you again."
She drew her gun from her belt and aimed it.
"It's time to finish this," Richard said.
Two shots rang out, echoing off the tunnel walls. Richard Hellsing fell to the ground. For a moment, the others listened to his ragged breathing. They didn't relax until it had stopped completely. Integra staggered forward and sank to one knee in the patch of light from the open door. She clutched her bleeding arm, letting her gun fall to the stone floor. She smiled, a strange satisfied smile. It was the same arm as last time.