Hunter (5 page)

"This is our
lecheon expert, Doctor Dunwood," Inspector Briggles said as he
studied his notepad.

"Okay. So
doctor, why does she only have one bite mark? The guards at the
prison had many."

"Ah, quite
true. After reading up on lecheon culture it seems to me that this
particular victim was probably bitten by Corvus alone. I suspect it
was probably some kind of victory feast after escaping from prison.
I understand that lecheons feel that the artificial blood tastes
nothing like the real stuff. Perhaps Corvus was desperate for a
taste?"

"And it is
known that young women were Corvus's preference," Inspector
Briggles cut in.

"Preference?"
Nova asked.

"Oh yes, much
like you might prefer chips while I prefer steak. The lecheons each
have their food preferences," Dunwood said.

"Charming,"
Nova said. "What else can you tell me about the
lecheons?"

"Only general
things really," said Dunwood. "I know they've been feeding on
humans for a lot longer than we've known about them. One of their
stranded ships initiated the vampire myths in early Earth
history."

"I don't need
myths, doctor; I need to know how to kill them," Nova
said.

"Oh, our
force does not condone the killing of lecheons," Inspector Briggles
stepped in. "Our purpose in hiring you was to capture the criminals
and return them to jail."

Nova turned
her violet eyes to the inspector and stared straight through him.
"I'm sorry, did I say kill? Of course, I meant capture." Nova
smiled with her mouth but her eyes remained emotionless.

"Of course,"
said Doctor Dunwood. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much more than
you already know. The lecheons are sensitive to wood, as you would
have seen at the prison. They can heal much faster than humans and
have a higher pain threshold. They are quite impervious to metal,
so standard weapons are useless. You'll be able to do some damage
with plasma weapons and if you manage to set them on fire, they'll
probably die."

"Probably?"

"It's all
theoretical. Obviously we can't perform experiments to test any of
this."

"Obviously."
Nova turned back to the crime scene. "Look." She pointed to a patch
of ground.

Inspector
Briggles knelt beside her. "It's just some dirt," he
said.

"Not just any
dirt." Nova pinched a sample between her fingers and held it up to
the light. "It's sand. Very fine sand," she said.

"Sand?"
Briggles said. "There aren't any beaches near here."

"Exactly."
Nova brushed the sand off her palm. "Briggles, I need a list of all
glass manufacturers and any other warehouses that might have
sand."

"Of course,
I'll have it sent straight to you." Briggles took a couple of steps
away, before pulling out his communicator and relaying her request
to head office.

"Doctor
Dunwood," Nova said, standing up. "Is it true that lecheons are
sensitive to sunlight?"

"Yes, that's
right," the doctor said. "It's their eyes. The lecheon home planet
is much darker than most of the human colonies. To them, our lights
and sun are too bright; while to us it's almost as if they can see
in the dark."

"Excellent,"
Nova said.

"It won't
kill them though. They just won't be able to see very
well."

"At this
point I'll take whatever I can get."

"The list has
been forwarded to you," Briggles announced.

"Good," Nova
said, nodding. "Let me know if anything else pops up." She ducked
under the yellow tape and marched away from the crime
scene.

***

"Cal, what do
you make of Briggles's list?" Nova asked. She sat inside Crusader
enjoying a large pile of chips. Doctor Dunwood had made her hungry
with his talk of food.

"As you can
imagine there aren't many places near here still using sand," Cal
said, hovering by her side.

Crusader's
front screen flashed to a bird's eye image of the city. Three red
dots lit up showing where sand could have come from.

"Are they all
still in operation?" Nova asked.

"These two
are," Cal said and two of the red dots turned blue. "But the third
one has been out of use for two years."

"Then that's
where they are," Nova said, popping a chip into her
mouth.

"Are you
certain?" Cal asked.

"Yes. The
sand had blood on top of it, but there was also some underneath it,
which says to me that it was deposited during the girl's
murder."

"Do you think
the lecheons were carrying sand?" Cal asked.

"More likely
it was caught on one of their shoes and the tumult with the girl
shook it lose."

"What's your
plan?"

"I'm going
in, just as soon as I finish these chips."

"Should you
ask the police to accompany you?"

"Don't worry.
I'm not going in to attack them. This is purely
research."

CHAPTER SEVEN

Nova crept around the side of the large
warehouse. The street was abandoned; most manufacturing had moved
off-world to the Resources District. The metal walls were
corrugated and covered with rust. Graffiti created splashes of
colour in the otherwise grey district.

Footprints
dotted the ground around the warehouse, but the area was eerily
silent. The only noise was the wind howling through an abandoned
warehouse and somewhere a metal door was banging back and forth in
the breeze.

Clang. Clang.
Clang.

There were no
other people in sight. It was a ghost town, at least during the
day. The ragged piles of cloth piled against the side of the
warehouse suggested that at night time the area became a refuge for
the homeless. Just like serial killers, lecheons made easy meals of
the homeless and lonely, as no one noticed when they
disappeared.

The map of
the warehouses had been uploaded to Nova's mental chip and the
image displayed clearly in front of her mind's eye. It looked
harmless enough. Footprints led up to a closed metal door. Nova
stood on the tips of her toes to peer through a dirt-stained
window. The upper panes lay shattered on the ground by her feet.
She couldn't make anything out through the gloom inside.

Nova held her
gun at the ready. The lecheons might be able to heal faster than
her but she was sure a few well-aimed plasma blasts would slow them
down. She laid a hand on the swinging metal door and pushed it
inwards. It swung open with a creak.

Clang.

Nova jumped
and her heart leapt up into her throat. Her shoulders, arms and
back tensed and she whirled towards the noise. Her breath caught in
her throat.

It was the
door in the distance, swinging in the breeze.

She let her
breath out slowly and turned back to the black interior of the
warehouse. She forced her muscles to relax and flexed her hand as
it clutched her gun. It was just the wind. If there were lecheons
here she'd teach them a thing or two and then bring them straight
to Inspector Briggles.

Nova waited
just inside the door with bated breath. There was no noise from
inside. If the lecheons had been in the path of the light they
didn't let Nova hear.

She stepped
further into the doorway with her gun level. Her eyes peered into
the darkness but she couldn't make anything out.

Nova fumbled
with the side of her gun until a beam of light shone out from the
top of the barrel.

She swung the
weapon left and right. Sure enough, the floor of the warehouse was
covered with sand. There were piles of it, almost as if an entire
beach had been tipped into the building. Scattered amongst the sand
were crates and boxes. Most of them had had their lids forced open
and their contents spread across the floor.

Pools of
dried blood stained some of the sand red. Spatters and droplets
spread out from the warehouse door, creating morose patterns on the
ground.

She peered up
into the rafters. Metal beams held the roof in place, rusted and
dented. Deep shadows filled the crevices where the roof met the
walls. She shone her light into the recesses, but there was still
no sign of any lecheons.

Nova lowered
her weapon. The lecheons had definitely been here at some time but
there was no sign of them now. She scoured the building for some
clue as to where they'd gone. They couldn't have gone hunting
during the day, they would be asleep somewhere, and all evidence
pointed to this warehouse.

Nova marched
across the warehouse, her eyes scanning every surface and every
spec of sand. She didn't find any bodies but the blood was proof
enough that the lecheons had been there at some point.

"Grishnak,"
Nova swore, kicking the sand as she headed for the door, she was no
closer to finding the coven.

"Such dirty
language for such a pretty girl," Corvus said, jumping from the
rafters and landing in front of Nova.

Nova's hand
went straight to her gun but she was too slow. Corvus moved forward
and caught her wrist in a vice-like grip.

"Oh I don't
think so," he said.

"I have
people with me, they'll shoot you down," Nova said.

"Really? You
seem like a lone kind of hunter," Corvus said, stroking Nova's
cheek with his spare hand.

"Let me go
and I won't kill you."

Nova's heart
ramped up. It felt like it was beating a hundred times a second.
Her breath quickened and sweat burst out of her forehead. Her knees
felt weak, as if she'd been running for miles.

"Sensing
distress. Sending backup." Cal's alarmed voice sounded in her head
but she barely heard it over the noise of her own
breathing.

Agony coursed
through her wrist from Corvus's powerful grip, but she kept her
face immobile; she wouldn't let him see the fear which surged
underneath.

"I like a
girl with spirit," Corvus said and then began to laugh. It was a
hysterical chuckle which echoed around the empty
warehouse.

Somewhere in
the distance was the growing roar of an engine. Nova would
recognise it anywhere; it had to be Crusader. Hope surged in her
chest.

"So my dear,
what's your name?" Corvus asked.

Nova wanted
to give a hot reply but there was something wrong with her face, it
refused to do what she wanted. It was like there was something
getting between her brain and her body.

"What are
you—"

"Ah, the
magic of pheromones, amazing isn't it? I guess your experts didn't
tell you about that? I'm not surprised; we generally keep it as our
own little secret. If it hadn't been for all that damn wood I could
have made it out of the prison in five days instead of five years
with this little trick."

"You're so
handsome," Nova said. Her eyes went wide at her own words. Why had
she said that? But then her gaze was caught back on the lecheon and
it was as if nothing else existed. The pain of his hand clasped
about her wrist was gone, as was the fear she had felt. It was all
replaced with a soft doe-eyed infatuation.

"I never get
tired of hearing that." Corvus laughed. He let go of Nova's wrist
but kept his eyes firmly locked with hers.

Nova stood
staring back at him. She didn't attempt to run away or escape;
instead, her gun fell out of her loose hand. A tiny voice at the
bottom of her skull tried to yell a warning but it was shushed by
the rest of her.

"Did you tell
anyone where you were going?" Corvus asked.

"Only Cal,"
Nova replied.

"Who is
Cal?"

"My
labourbot."

"Ha-ha a
labourbot, how quaint. Will you be missed if you don't return
straight away?"

"No, no one
will notice."

"Good. Then
how about you and I go for a walk?"

Nova nodded.
She had barely blinked since Corvus took hold of her wrist. Her
entire mind was focused on the angles of his face and his dark
hair. Her heart was still racing but instead of fear it was
nervousness. She felt like a girl on her first date. Her face
flushed red but she couldn't look away. She was entirely
enamoured.

"Let's go
then," Corvus said, leading her to the back of the warehouse. He
stopped next to a large crate and pushed. It slid back to reveal a
dark passage leading down under the warehouse.

"In you
go."

Nova obeyed
his instructions like a puppet and descended down the narrow stairs
into the darkness beyond.

CHAPTER EIGHT

"I'll bet she tastes bitter," a female voice
purred.