Acolyte (18 page)

‘No!' shouted Jonah. It turned towards him and took a step in his direction. For a moment it stood still, and Jonah sensed that it was wary of him. Guns didn't seem to concern it, but there was something about Jonah it didn't like.

He felt panic rising but he pushed back the fear; the terror that could bleed into him from revival subjects was something he had become used to suppressing. Pointing the flashlight at it, he moved
towards the shape in the darkness, testing what his instinct was telling him.

And the shape stepped away.

‘I'll hold it back if I can,' said Jonah, his voice trembling. ‘You two get out of here.'

Bob moved to Ray and helped him up. ‘Then what?' said Ray, eyes wide.

‘Find Torrance,' said Jonah. ‘I hope to God he's still here. Find him and make him stop this.'
If he
can
stop it
, Jonah thought.

Jonah stepped to his side, coming between the creature and the door as Bob and Ray rushed out. He could feel its gaze on him, and could sense its uncertainty. It came forward a little, then backed off again.

His nerve was starting to fail, though. The shape stepped forward and paused. Too close for comfort, Jonah stepped away from it. And it came forward again.

‘Bob!' he called. ‘Hurry!'

He was the one backing off now. The creature was still wary but it was advancing. Jonah moved out into the corridor and retreated towards Ray, who was propped against the wall thirty feet further on, blood pouring from the wound on his arm.

Past Ray, Jonah could see the movement of flashlights at the far end of the building. He heard Bob shout Torrance's name.

Jonah shone his flashlight back along to the canteen door as the dark mass emerged and turned, seeing him. It waited for a moment. Jonah found enough courage to move towards it again, but this time the creature seemed to know the threat was an empty one.

It came for him. Jonah held his ground. He raised his arms as behind him the shouting grew. He heard gunfire, but still the shadow drew closer, picking up speed. Three more strides at most, he thought. He braced and closed his eyes, dropping the flashlight, not wanting to see death bear down on him.

But nothing happened.

For a moment he thought it was standing over him, waiting, wanting its victim to see it before it struck; then he opened his eyes, grabbed the flashlight from the floor and swung it across the corridor.

Nothing was there. He turned and saw Bob walk up from the far end of the office. They both converged on Ray.

‘Torrance?' said Jonah.

‘Alive, for now,' said Bob, holstering his gun. ‘He pulled a gun on me. I shot him twice. He's unconscious.' He looked around. ‘Where is it?'

Jonah shook his head. ‘I think it's gone.'

‘Fucking thing bit me,' whispered Ray. ‘Threw me, but it felt like a
bite
.'

With a thunk that startled all three of them, the lighting directly overhead flickered on. The rest of the corridor was still dark.

‘Shit,' said Ray, shocked by the sudden brightness. He looked terrible, blood soaked through his jacket from shoulder to elbow, his shirt scarlet. Jonah suspected that if he looked closer at his wounds, they would look like abrasions. Scratches of varying depth and ferocity. He thought of those obsidian teeth, glinting in the dark as the creature had approached him. He thought of Mary Connart.

Jonah took out his phone. ‘Signal's back,' he said. Somehow he wasn't surprised. He walked to the end of the corridor, lights flickering on overhead as he triggered the motion sensors.

Torrance was lying on the floor bleeding profusely from two wounds that looked serious, one in the stomach and one on the left side of his upper torso. Beside him was a flashlight and a travel bag. He had no doubt now that Torrance had intended to kill all three of them before making an escape. Locking the door had been Torrance's way of buying enough time to set it all in motion.

The man's breathing was strained and uneven. On his shoulder Jonah could see a faint trace of the shadow, returned now. Home.

He went back to Bob and Ray.

‘I've called it in,' said Bob.

Ray looked at Jonah, urgently. ‘What the hell was it? Where did it come from?'

‘You both saw it, then?' said Jonah. They nodded. Jonah shook his head. ‘I saw things like this in dreams. Visions.'

‘Jesus,' said Bob. ‘Nobody's going to believe a word of this.' ‘Torrance mentioned that there were others,' said Ray. ‘Did he just mean others who knew about it, or others who were like him?'

‘Or maybe others who—' started Bob, but then he stopped, staring at Jonah. ‘Others who might want to keep this quiet. Others who might be in a
position
to keep it quiet.'

Jonah felt his stomach drop at the thought. ‘We have to act like we saw nothing.'

Ray looked at Bob. ‘So what the hell do we say just happened?'

‘We say that Torrance was rambling and then resisted arrest,' said Bob. ‘Backup's five minutes away. We need to have our story straight by the time they get here.' He turned to Jonah. ‘And you should leave.'

Jonah shook his head. ‘I don't understand.'

‘Until we know more about what's going on here, we have to be cautious. If there are others, whatever the hell these things are, none of us wants to look like a threat. And I saw it back off from you, Jonah. It might be simpler if you weren't here when backup arrives. We took you to your car before we came to this office, understand?'

Jonah looked at Ray, who nodded. ‘Get going,' said Ray. ‘Prop the front door open on your way out, huh? I'm not quite up to moving just yet, and I'd rather Bob didn't have to go down and let backup in. I don't want to be left alone up here.'

*

Jonah wedged the doors open as requested and started to walk fast. He was shivering, and not from the cold. Sirens were close; he
ducked into the dark entrance of a shop a hundred yards down the street as half a dozen police vehicles converged on the building he'd just left. A minute later an unmarked car came from another direction, driven with urgency. A suited man got out and was intercepted by one of the uniformed officers setting up a cordon, the cop raising a palm to block his way.

The suited man held up ID; the cop took a look and nodded. They spoke briefly before the cop waved him through, but Jonah was finding it hard to concentrate on what was said.

Because Jonah's eyes were on the suited man's shoulder. At the shadow perched there, clearly visible.

Glistening in the streetlight.

Annabel was sitting in the same bar where she'd met Takeo and Kaylee two weeks before, finding out just how bad their coffee was.

Her thief hadn't shown yet. The day before, Kaylee had sent her a message: their friend was willing to meet her with new information, for a price. She'd not had to give it much thought, and she'd been waiting over an hour for the man to show up. Instead, she'd had two cups of murky water and thirty minutes of glances from a guy on the far side of the room, who'd been there when she'd come in.

Shit
, she thought, as he finally decided to venture over and try his luck.

‘You mind if I join you?' he said.

‘I'm waiting for someone.'

He sat anyway. ‘I'll keep you company until they get here. Want a drink?'

Annabel nodded at the coffee. ‘I'm OK,' she said, with a flat voice. ‘And, like I said, I'm waiting for someone, so …' She looked at him, expecting him to get the hint.

The man smiled. It was an appealing smile, the kind that begged to be returned, but she resisted. ‘I understand,' he said, then he lowered his voice. ‘I'm Yan, by the way.' He held out his hand.

Annabel smiled now. Yan was the thief. She shook his hand. ‘You let me sit here and drink this terrible coffee?'

‘Just being careful.' He looked at her, appraising. ‘I'll get you a decent drink, then we'll talk.'

She let him get her a beer, and when he came back she handed him his payment, up front as agreed. ‘So why meet me in person?' she asked. ‘Why not send the other two?'

Yan passed her a USB stick. ‘Means they don't take a cut,' he said. ‘Besides, Takeo said you were pretty, and I'm
very
shallow. I wanted to see for myself.' He smiled again, but Annabel wasn't about to let him distract her.

‘So what did I buy?' she asked.

‘You bought a puzzle,' said Yan. ‘Two sets of documents. One is a detailed five-year plan for the expansion of the Winnerden Flats site, aimed at crushing the competition in the cryogenics business. Significant increase in capacity, and a huge new research wing that's already nearing completion. This was what my original clients were most interested in, and it was pretty easy to get hold of. The other is a
different
building plan for the works at Winnerden Flats, completely at odds with the rest.'

‘Couldn't it just be an outdated plan?'

‘No. It was more recent. And hidden.'

‘How and when did you get hold of this information? If you're happy telling me.'

He shrugged. ‘Allow me to keep it vague. It was over four weeks ago. I lifted the first set of documents from a system that was relatively insecure. The other came from data I managed to get from a much harder target before I got cut off. Everything was encrypted, and this was the only thing I managed to dig out. I couldn't do anything with the rest but pass it on. I doubt my clients managed to decrypt it either.'

‘You were cut off? So they knew someone had been there?'

‘Yes, but they had no way to trace it back to source. Anyway, I told my clients what I thought had happened.'

‘Which was?'

‘They were being played. They heard the rumour about
Andreas Biotech expanding their cryogenics business, and these convenient documents showed up, confirming the rumour, stored in the first place anyone from outside would have looked. Too easy to find, meaning the company had
wanted
them to be found. Which was why I kept looking. The second set of documents, these are the real plans.'

‘So Andreas Biotech were trying to mislead them?'

‘The first documents show an expansion over five years. My clients think the intent was to lull them into complacency. They feared a rapid expansion into their markets, so a long-term plan was less of a threat. Me, though—' He shook his head, reluctant to continue.

‘Go on.'

‘I think my clients are wrong, but I don't understand
what
the intent was. The whole thing is a puzzle, and I don't
like
unanswered puzzles. One of the reasons I wanted to meet you is to ask you, face to face: if you work it out, tell me. Please. Before it drives me crazy.'

‘I don't follow. Why do you think your clients got it wrong?'

‘It's not about lulling them into complacency, because I don't think the real plans are anything to do with expanding their cryogenics business.'

‘How come?' said Annabel.

He shrugged. ‘Look at the alternative site plan and ask yourself a question: if they're expanding, where do they put all the extra customers?'

*

Annabel left Yan after getting him to promise to send anything new, should he manage to decrypt the other files; Yan had been keen to meet up again, either way. She'd declined as politely as she could and headed home.

When she got back to her apartment and looked at what was
on the memory stick he'd given her, the first thing she did was bring up both site plans for Winnerden Flats and compare them.

In each, the facility had improved residential quarters for a significant number of staff, and a gym area including a pool. In the first plan – the dummy if Yan's instinct was correct – the entirely new wing consisted of storage areas for the bodies of future clientele, to complement the existing storage area marked within the older part of the building.

In the alternative plan, this area was designated as research labs, with a large circular region annotated ‘MCH'. There was no additional storage.

‘I see what he means,' said Annabel out loud. ‘Where do they put all the extra bodies?'

She closed the document with a sigh. She'd have another look tomorrow, she thought, although she was aware that it was all just detail, an excess of information that didn't really tell her anything useful about Andreas Biotech. Just distraction.

She poured herself a drink and threw a sandwich together, and thought about Yan's enthusiasm to meet up again. Flattering, yes; Yan had been easy on the eye. The depressing part had been that, for the briefest of moments, she had considered saying yes.

‘You're an idiot, Annabel Harker,' she muttered. It was an old habit, she knew. Yan was blatantly the kind of guy for whom any relationship would have a built-in self-destruct mechanism. Even
considering
seeing him again was the first step on the path to using him as an emergency parachute. Something to allow her to flee a relationship that had grown beyond the confines of her comfort zone, and to enter one that could only be a disaster.

In the past, it wouldn't have been nearly so long before her self-preservation had kicked in and made her unconsciously look around for an escape route. It was high praise in a very twisted way, although she couldn't imagine Jonah taking it as a compliment. ‘You're so important to me, Jonah,' she said to her kitchen,
‘that I've put off consideration of infidelity for over a year.' She shook her head. ‘Classy.'

With impeccable timing, her phone chimed; a text had come through from Jonah.
Call me
, it said.
Need to talk. Now.

She set her phone down. She wasn't ready for a heart-to-heart, not by a long way.

She sat and ate, marvelling at how the intense love her parents had shared had left her with an allergy to commitment. Witnessing the loneliness of her father after her mother's death had inoculated her against it. She couldn't bear the dread of finding herself, somewhere down the line, so alone and so unhappy.