Vampire Beach: Hunted, page 14
‘We need to find carts,’ Jason told Adam.
‘I’m on it.’ Adam turned onto the next hall and spotted a maintenance man. ‘You!’ he yelled. ‘Two carts, pronto. I need them for the prisoners.’
The maintenance guy jumped, then turned and raced down the hall. ‘Right away, Mr Norton!’ he called over his shoulder.
‘Stay here and wait for the carts,’ Jason told his friends. ‘I’m going to find that storage room and turn up the heat.’
He jogged away from the group and turned back onto the original hallway. The room they’d seen on the floor plan was two corridors up. Jason slowed as he passed a man in a lab suit rushing the other way, then sped up again until he reached the second corridor.
This place was deserted. The corridor was short, a dead end. And sure enough, there was only one door. Jason pulled Bill Baldwin’s ID out of his pocket. ‘Tell me you had drug access, Bill,’ he whispered. Holding his breath, he swiped the card. The door clicked open.
A rush of relief flooded Jason, and he smiled. Inside, the room was cold and dark, and Jason could sense that it was a big place. Luckily, the temperature controls were right inside the doorway, protected by a plastic covering.
‘Finally, something that’s easy,’ Jason murmured. He smashed the plastic with his fist, then hit the red ‘Up’ arrow to raise the temperature. He pushed it to the maximum: eighty degrees. Then he hit ‘Enter’.
And an alarm went off.
‘Damn it!’ Jason looked up – red lights were flashing over the doorway, and bells were clanging through the hallway, echoing up and down the other corridors.
Jason slammed the door, then grabbed the crossbow bolt from his weapon and stabbed it into the sensor pad, scratching and tearing at it until there was no way anybody could use it to unlock the door and turn down the thermostat.
Then he ran. Back to the main corridor, down to the first intersection, and over to his friends. They had two motorized carts and were just settling Christopher onto the back of one of them.
‘Something you want to tell us?’ Adam asked as Jason ran up.
‘Yeah. It’s time to go.’ Jason jumped onto the cart with Christopher and Van Dyke, spun the little wheel, and hit the gas. The thing shot off down the hall. Adam leapt behind the wheel of the second cart while Zach and Brad jumped into the back.
The maintenance man watched, baffled, as Adam sped away with a wave.
Jason reached the end of the hallway and took a right, keeping an image of the floor plans in his mind. ‘This corridor should lead us straight to the Medi-Life building,’ he told the vampires, hitting the gas until they were at maximum speed.
‘When?’ Van Dyke asked, peering ahead. The hallway vanished into the distance, no end in sight.
‘I don’t know. I think it’s a couple of miles,’ Jason said.
He heard Adam’s cart behind him, picking up speed. After a minute or two, the sounds of the alarm behind them began to fade. There were no more doors, just smooth white walls. This section was clearly just a connector to the main building, not part of the HemoCorp complex anymore.
‘We might make it,’ Jason said. ‘This might actually work!’
Just then, two guards appeared about fifty yards ahead, standing at attention.
‘Oh, no,’ Adam moaned. ‘A security checkpoint! Meaning, that’s two guys who could potentially go Bruce Banner on our asses. Look sharp, folks.’
Jason slammed on the brakes, squealing to a stop just a few feet from the men.
Adam’s cart crashed into his, pushing him further toward them.
The guards both lifted their crossbows. ‘This hallway is off limits,’ one of them growled. ‘Orders from Mr Norton.’
Adam jumped off his cart, walked right up to the bigger guy and swatted the crossbow out of the way. ‘We’ve got a situation in the complex,’ he said. ‘Don’t you hear the alarms? Get back there and check it out while I escort the test subjects to a secure area.’
The two guards stared at him for a second as the alarms blared dimly in the distance.
‘Go!’ Adam yelled.
They took off at a run down the long white corridor. Jason grinned at Adam, raising his eyebrows.
‘I could get used to being in charge,’ Adam joked, climbing back on to his cart. ‘For anyone who wasn’t paying attention, I was channeling James Caan from Godfather one, just without the hammy New York accent. But even you guys must have known that, right?’ Adam read the look on all their faces. He sighed. ‘Not the right time, I guess.’
Jason hit the gas again, and they sped on.
‘I see something,’ Van Dyke said a minute later.
Jason squinted into the whiteness. ‘Yeah,’ he agreed. There was something silver up ahead.
After another minute it became clear: silver doors. Silver elevator doors.
‘We’re here,’ Adam cheered from the other cart. ‘The corridor ends at the elevators. They must lead up to the main Medi-Life building.’
They pulled the carts to a stop, and Jason jumped off and hit the ‘Up’ button on the elevators. The others helped Christopher off the cart, practically lifting him into the air and setting him on his feet. Jason bit his lip. The guy was in really bad shape.
Sienna and Belle are coming with a car, he thought. Let’s just hope they get here in time.
With a soft buzz, the elevator arrived. Jason half-expected Norton to jump out of the opening doors, but nothing happened. It was just a regular elevator. They all piled in, and Jason pushed the button that said ‘Lobby’.
The elevator shot up with a whoosh. . . and kept on going.
‘How far underground are we?’ Zach asked.
Adam shrugged. ‘If the tunnel goes through the hills, there’s no telling how deep it is. The Medi-Life building is at the top of the hill.’
Finally, the doors opened and they all stepped out into a huge marble lobby. The ceiling over the lobby was made of glass, letting in the pale light of early morning. Jason blinked, staring up at the blue California sky. Had they really been down in the HemoCorp complex all night?
‘This is surreal,’ Brad muttered, glancing around at the corporate lobby. Sunlight glinted off a waterfall along the back wall, the smell of fresh coffee wafted over from a fully stocked breakfast stand, and polished-looking workers were making their way in for the day.
Jason nodded. It was bizarre to come from the hi-tech, nightmarish vampire experimentation labs, up here to normality, all just by taking an elevator.
Judging from the looks they were getting, the people on their way to work found it pretty bizarre to see a bunch of exhausted teenage guys and a security guard with a crossbow, too. Jason pulled out his cell and speed-dialled Sienna.
‘Where are you?’ he asked when she picked up.
‘About half a mile from Medi-Life,’ she reported. ‘We’ll be there soon.’
‘I need you to get to the front entrance. Just pull as close to the doors as you can,’ Jason told her. ‘Christopher won’t be able to make it much farther than that.’
He hung up and they started across the lobby toward freedom. Jason could feel the tension melting out of his body. They were nearly out, and surely nobody would dare to stop them in a public place like this!
He glanced over at Van Dyke and Brad, supporting Christopher. ‘Will he be OK?’ he asked Zach.
Zach nodded. ‘We’ll keep him here in Malibu until he’s fully healed.’
Jason looked at the bank of doors ahead, leading out to the parking lot. No sight had ever seemed so beautiful to him.
‘Freeze!’ yelled a deep voice. ‘Stay right where you are!’
Suddenly, about eight guys with crossbows rushed the lobby, lining themselves up in front of the doors. In the center was the big New Yorker they’d fought at the warehouse. Jason and his friends stopped walking.
‘You idiots,’ someone said from behind them. ‘Did you actually think you could escape when I have the entire place under constant surveillance?’
Jason turned to find Norton-Adam approaching them from the elevators, Bianca and Dr Abell behind him.
‘You’re scaring the Medi-Life employees,’ Zach said smoothly. He nodded toward the scandalized people in suits who had gathered around to watch.
Norton turned to them. ‘This is a security procedure drill,’ he announced. ‘Please go to your offices and remain there until I give further instructions.’
Murmuring in confusion, the workers all headed for the elevators or for doors to the hallways leading off the lobby. Suddenly one of the front doors opened and a girl in a business suit rushed in, not even seeming to notice the guys with crossbows.
‘Close the entrance!’ Norton snapped. ‘Direct new arrivals to the side door.’ One of the guards rushed outside to do it.
But Jason was still watching the girl in the suit.
So was Adam. ‘Brianna?’ he gasped.
The girl stopped and looked up. It was definitely Brianna. Her face paled as she looked from Adam to Norton and back. But she wasn’t surprised, Jason noticed. It was as if she’d known all along that there were two Adams.
‘Of course!’ Adam murmured. ‘She set me up! She asked me to drive out to get her, and that’s when I was ambushed.’
‘I guess she’s been working for Norton all along,’ Jason said quietly.
‘Take the subjects back down to the complex,’ Norton ordered the guards.
Four of the guys started forward, crossbows up. Jason felt a wave of exhaustion. They’d already managed to escape so many times in the past few hours. How were they ever going to pull it off again?
Suddenly, Adam stepped in front of the guards.
‘You morons!’ he shouted. ‘Don’t listen to him. Don’t you even know who you’re working for? That’s Adam Turnball. I’m Mr Norton.’
Nineteen
THE GUARDS HESITATED, confused, letting their weapons drop a little.
‘Do you think some kid would be able to make off with four vampires?’ Adam asked, his voice dripping sarcasm. ‘I should have you all replaced by people with brains.’
The guards looked doubtful, and one of them raised his crossbow again. But he didn’t seem entirely sure which version of Adam to point it at.
‘Listen to him,’ Bianca cried suddenly. Jason shot a look at his aunt. She was gazing at him, a pleading expression on her face.
She’s sorry, he realized. She wants me to forgive her. For a brief moment, she looked so much like his old, cool Aunt Bianca that a lump formed in Jason’s throat. But there was no time to get emotional right now.
‘That’s Mr Norton,’ Bianca said, pointing at Adam. ‘He’s your boss. The other one has been holding me hostage all this time. He wanted to use me as a bargaining chip to get his friends back.’
‘How dare you!’ Norton roared.
But Bianca’s trick had worked. The guards lowered their crossbows, totally confused. They glanced back and forth between the two Nortons – or the two Adams.
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ said the New Yorker, addressing both of them. ‘But we have no idea which is the real you.’
‘I’m the real me,’ Adam said, brimming with confidence now. ‘Thank you for clarifying things, Bianca.’ He stared the New Yorker straight in the eye. ‘Now, escort the real Adam Turnball back to his cell.’
‘I’ve had enough of this.’ Norton strode forward angrily. Some of the guards aimed their weapons at him.
This is working perfectly, Jason thought, shooting his friend a grateful look. He took advantage of the guards’ confusion to inch toward the doors. Zach, Brad, Van Dyke and Christopher took the hint and moved that way, too.
Norton stopped, staring aghast at his own guards pointing crossbows at him. ‘The impostor is right about one thing,’ he snarled. ‘I should replace you all!’
‘Are you calling me an impostor?’ Adam snapped.
‘Yes.’ Norton turned to face him, and the two versions of Adam glared at each other – until one of them began to change. As Jason watched, Norton’s nose grew longer, his cheeks heftier. His ears went from sticking out to drooping. His eyes developed bags underneath them, and his entire body seemed to thicken. In a matter of seconds, he was a middle-aged man.
Bianca turned to Jason. ‘Run!’ she yelled.
Jason ran, barreling through two of the guards to open the door and hold it for his friends. Zach sped through, but Brad and Van Dyke were moving more slowly as they helped Christopher.
By the time they reached the door, the guards had all recovered from their confusion and were aiming their crossbows at the fugitives.
‘No!’ Norton yelled. ‘We need the vampires alive. Shoot for their legs.’
A crossbow bolt flew at Brad’s thigh.
Jason jumped for him, pushing him out of the way just as the metal bolt sliced through the air and hit the glass door. The door shattered, showering little cubes of safety glass across the floor.
‘Run! Go! Go!’ Jason yelled, pushing the four vampires ahead of him. They were all outside now.
Jason turned to find Adam. His friend had skirted the guards to the back, and he was sprinting for a door at the opposite end of the entrance from Jason.
‘Jason, get out of here,’ Bianca called. She was heading his way, fending off a guard who had her by the arm.
Outside, Jason heard the squeal of brakes and saw Belle’s car jump the curb and skid to a stop on the sidewalk in front of the building. Brad and Van Dyke dragged Christopher toward the car.
‘Aunt Bianca!’ Jason called, turning back. But he’d lost sight of her in the press of guards.
‘Kill the humans!’ Norton commanded. ‘Stop the vampires!’
The New Yorker looked right at Jason and aimed his crossbow at his chest. Jason stood for a second, paralyzed, his shoulder aching where Tamburo’s crossbow bolt had almost killed him several months before.
Time seemed to slow down as the New Yorker shot his weapon.
Jason watched in sick fascination as the deadly bolt flew toward him. It’s not going to hit my shoulder this time, he realized. It’s going to hit my heart.
He was moving, he knew. He was diving out of the way. But it was too late. The bolt was coming for him. It was about to hit him—
And then Bianca was in front of Jason, blocking his view of the crossbow bolt. There was a confusion of dark hair flying, a strange sound from Bianca like the air being let out of a tire, and her body slammed against his.
Then suddenly everything sped up again, and Jason was falling with Aunt Bianca on top of him. He landed on the sidewalk outside the door, and his aunt rolled to the side. A crossbow bolt was sticking out of her chest.
‘Aunt Bianca!’ Jason cried. He grabbed her shoulders, trying to ignore the way her head flopped to the side. ‘Aunt Bianca!’
‘Freeman.’ Zach was at his side. ‘We have to go.’
‘My aunt . . .’ Jason couldn’t stop staring at her face. Her eyes were open, staring. Her lips were pale.
‘She’s gone. Leave her.’ Zach pulled at his arm, but Jason shoved him away.
‘Jason.’ Now Adam was there, too. ‘We have to go. Right now. Come on!’
Jason glanced up at his best friend. Adam’s eyes looked haunted, but his face was determined.
‘I can’t just leave her.’ But Jason was up and moving; somehow he was running, with Adam holding one arm and Zach holding the other.
In front of them, Belle’s car door was open. Van Dyke and Christopher were already in the far back row. Zach shoved Jason in, and Brad pulled him across the seat so Adam and Zach could climb in behind him.
Belle peeled out, the door still open. Jason saw guards running after them, crossbows aimed. A loud, metallic thunk made the car shake as they bounced down off the curb and took off into the parking lot.
‘I think they shot your parents’ car,’ Van Dyke said.
‘We have insurance,’ Belle muttered, hitting the gas.
In the passenger seat, Sienna turned to look at the guys, her eyes roving over all of them, and stopping on Jason.
‘Everybody OK?’ she asked.
Her dark eyes seemed to pour comfort into his soul, and, for the first time in hours, Jason felt safe. He nodded, as Adam gave a faint smile.
‘Yeah,’ Adam said. ‘I can’t quite believe it, but I think we’re all going to live.’
Twenty
‘FIREWORKS!’ SIENNA DECLARED four days later.
Jason looked at his girlfriend in her strapless minidress and nodded. ‘I’ll say.’ He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her down to sit on his lap on the couch.
Sienna laughed and smacked him lightly on the arm. ‘No, I mean actual fireworks. Zach says they’re starting in five minutes. He got a professional firm to do them, so they should be spectacular.’
‘Figures.’ Jason laughed, gesturing around Zach’s incredible house, which was filled with about a hundred people at the moment, all of them laughing, dancing, drinking and generally having the best time of their entire lives. Graduation had been yesterday, and Zach was having the party of the century to celebrate. ‘Everything here is spectacular.’
Jason spotted Danielle dancing with her friends Kristy and Billy under a gigantic disco ball that had been hung in the living room. Van Dyke and Maggie were cuddled up on a chaise longue in front of the ten-foot-wide fireplace, complete with roaring fire. Adam was interviewing Brad on camera, and Erin and Belle were busy flirting with a couple of senior guys from school.
Graduates, Jason corrected himself. None of us are seniors anymore. We’re high-school graduates.
It felt strange to even think the words. Jason wondered if he’d ever get used to the feeling. He sighed. Graduation had been bittersweet, so soon after losing his aunt.
‘Thinking about Bianca?’ Sienna asked, taking his hand.
‘You’re too good at reading me,’ Jason told her with a smile. ‘I know I shouldn’t be thinking about Aunt Bianca at a party. I should be enjoying myself, happy to be with my friends one last time before we all scatter to our colleges.’
