The boy’s words shook Knight to the core. While some adults would attribute the child’s claims to an overactive imagination, he knew that there were monsters in the world. He had seen them with his own eyes. He had fought them, and he had the scars to prove it. But unfortunately, the cruelest monsters he had ever faced were men of flesh and blood. Men like Richard Ridley, the former head of Manifold Genetics. Men like Ling’s uncle.
He squatted down to the boy’s level. “Don’t worry, kid. I’m a monster hunter.”
The boy’s eyes perked up. “Really?”
“That’s right. Stick with me, and you’ll be just fine. I promise.”
A string of gunfire drew his attention away from the boy. He swore under his breath and headed toward the building’s entrance. The children reluctantly followed. He checked the street through the M4’s ACOG scope. He didn’t see any movement or anything suspicious, so he called the children after him, and they went to check on Mueller.
He kept a cautious eye out as they rounded the corner, but he wasn’t prepared for what he saw. Mueller was gone. In the spot where Knight had left the man, was a scattering of spent 9mm shell casings and a pool of blood.
He heard a gasp behind him, and he grabbed for Jiao as the boy ran back out of the alley. The boy made it into the middle of the road before Knight could catch him. When he finally reached the child, he said, “We stay together, kid. No running off. Okay?”
The boy nodded, and Knight said, “You were right. Let’s get back inside.”
A shadow overhead blocked out the sun.
Knight’s reaction was instantaneous. He rolled to the side, holding Jiao under his arm. His free hand shot out and grabbed Ling by the shoulder, pulling her along with him.
In the spot where they had just stood, a massive chunk of concrete struck the pavement, splintering the road and sending a cloud of cement dust and rock chips into the air. He didn’t waste any time trying to determine the origin of the attack. Whatever had been large enough to toss a chunk of concrete the size of a Mini-Cooper wasn’t an enemy that he wanted to face with only an M4 and two kids in tow.
As he pulled the children toward the building’s entrance, he heard a sound that he had hoped to never hear again. The high-pitched, rattling wail that filled the streets at his back, echoing off sidewalks and the glass of empty office buildings, was eerily similar to that of a beast that he had thought long dead. A creature that had regenerative abilities the likes of which the modern world had never seen. A monster of legend that Chess Team had found was actually based upon fact. The Hydra.
7.
Knight slammed the door behind them and pushed the children into the building. The boy tripped over his own feet, but Knight was there to catch him and drive them forward. The roaring at his back grew louder. Closer.
“There’s a bomb shelter in the basement,” Ling said.
“Show me. Quick.”
Ling bolted off toward a large, gray door marked by the symbol for stairs. Knight scooped the boy up and threw his small frame over one shoulder like a fireman escaping a burning building.
Ling reached the stairwell door first and held it for the others. Knight slammed it shut behind them. “Move!” he said, urging her into the bowels of the structure.
Above, he heard the screech of glass and metal tearing apart. Whatever was out there was small enough to follow them inside but large enough to destroy half the structure while doing it. He thought of the first time he had faced the Hydra inside one of Manifold Genetics’s Alpha facility in New Hampshire—the subterranean complex that would soon become Chess Team’s clandestine base of operations. He could still hear the screams of the researchers and security personnel when the beast awakened from its several thousand-year slumber and attacked. The sound of thundering footsteps from the floor above and the memory of screams pushed his legs to churn faster.
When they hit the door to the floor below, Ling pushed inside and pointed down the corridor. “We’re almost there. Follow me!”
She shot off down the hallway, and he was on her heels. He had been trained to quickly notice the details of his surroundings. It was a skill that had saved his life on many occasions. In this hallway, he immediately recognized vacant security stations and signs reading Authorized Personnel Only.
Ling pushed through an open door that adjoined one of the security stations. The door was clear, but he could tell that it was made of bullet and impact resistant Lexan polycarbonate. They ran into a long concrete maintenance tunnel lit by bare bulbs hanging from a conduit along the ceiling. The air was stale.