The Jake Helman Files Personal Demons (35 page)

The Soul Searchers stepped before the glass doors and peered in at them.

Pulaski sat up straight. “Son of a bitch. What do these freaks want at this hour?”

9:02 p.m.

Jake stopped at the security bay station and Graham looked at his coat.

“You going out again?”

“No, I caught a chill yesterday and this AC is only making it worse.”

Graham nodded. “Yeah, this place can be an icebox at times. Pulaski just called from downstairs. Our morning callers are paying us a nighttime visit.”

Jake grunted. Maybe the Soul Searchers sensed something in the air. “Tell him to lock the doors.” He did not want Sheryl’s apparition anywhere near Cain.

“That’s illegal while anyone’s inside the building—fire hazard.”

“I don’t want any more trouble with those things, okay? Tell Pulaski to lock the doors and stand by them. If a building inspector or fire marshal shows up, he can unlock the doors before they give him any static.”

“Okay,” Graham said, reaching for his telephone.

Jake waved his card at the scanner for the utility corridor’s glass door.

9:04 p.m.

Pulaski snatched the ringing telephone from its cradle. “Yeah?”

“Helman says to lock the doors,” Graham said.

“Fuckin’ A. I don’t want these things getting anywhere near me. They might be radioactive or something.”

“After you lock the doors, he wants you to stand by them in case an inspector comes along.”

“Uh-huh. Maybe we should serve these things milk and cookies while we’re at it.” Pulaski hung up and turned to Badeseo. “Hey, Mowgli, the new boss man says to lock the front doors.” He took a set of keys from a hook near the computer and tossed them into the air.

Badeseo caught the keys with one hand. “Then why don’t you lock them?”

“Because I have seniority, you damned Ali Baba.”

Badeseo offered an insincere smile. “It will be my pleasure, you damned redneck.” He walked over to the glass doors, where the Soul Searchers stared at him with unblinking eyes. He found the right key, hunched over, and turned the locks at the bottom of each door frame. When he stood up, the faces continued to stare at him. “These are certainly pitiful wretches.”

Pulaski grunted. “Then you should feel right at home with them. Stand there and unlock the doors if anyone who looks like a regular person shows up.”

Sighing, Badeseo stared back at the strange-looking men and women.

9:06 p.m.

The security monitors glowed on Jake’s face as he entered the Control Room. Many of them displayed empty cubicles on the corporate levels. One by one, he shut down the recorders, deleted their digital files, and erased the discs inside them.

9:09 p.m.

Kira pushed Tower in his wheelchair along the central path of his Garden of Eden. The overhead lights had dimmed, suggesting nighttime, and he held the oxygen mask in his lap, occasionally taking deep breaths from it.

“How are you feeling now?” Kira said.

“Better,” Tower said. “Stronger. But—”

“What?”

He held out a shaking hand. “I feel like I’ve turned the final corner. The DCL-21 jump started my system, but it’s saturating my blood. If our plan doesn’t succeed, I’ll never see the sun rise again.”

Leaning over, she spoke into his ear. “It will work. It has to.”

9:12 p.m.

Entering the dark conference room, Jake closed the door behind him and turned on his flashlight. Ignoring the spectacular view of the city, he strode to the Demonstration Room door and waved Kira’s card at the scanner. The door unlocked and he stepped inside.

Cool air descended upon him from the ceiling, and he switched on the lights and closed the door, leaving it ajar just a crack. He crossed the humming room, gazing at the snakelike shadows that swam within the globe’s murky green water. He placed his right hand on the curved glass, and one of the creatures dove toward it, flashing its teeth and hungry eyes at him. Jake stared at the face of the little monster. Was it his imagination, or did the creature resemble Tower? He left his hand on the glass and more Biogens appeared, all of them glaring at him as they tried to get at his flesh. He looked at the bottom of the globe, and in the sand he saw two human skulls and a pile of bones riddled with teeth marks.

Laddock and Birch
, he thought.

The skeletons of the two security guards had been picked clean. Jake raised his eyes to the globe’s top and saw a seam in the glass. Above it, an iron hook on a heavy chain hung from the ceiling. The top must have been removed, and the bodies lowered through it into the green liquid. He removed his hand from the cool glass and the creatures dispersed. Circling the globe’s filtration system, he opened a metal lid and gazed down at clear water rushing through a metal trap. A wide faucet protruded from a device near the filter, over a round base with a blue button and a red button. Closing the lid, he wandered over to the metal drums stacked at the back of the room. He picked one up, shook it, and examined it. Three latches attached the lid, which had a three-inch valve on it, to the drum. Knocking on the lid, he heard a hollow echo inside. He carried the drum to the filter and set it down on the round base like a bowl on the turntable of a mixer, then rotated the base until the drum’s valve aligned with the faucet: a perfect fit. He twisted the valve so that it adjoined the faucet and pressed the blue button.

The hum emanating from the globe’s base grew louder and the green liquid whirled counterclockwise. The Biogens tried to swim against the powerful current, but their efforts proved useless: one by one, the filter sucked them toward its trap, and one of them disappeared. The faucet shook with a loud
shlurp!
and water gushed into the metal drum, accompanied by something solid.

A moment later, Jake heard the creature shrieking, the horrible sound echoing inside the drum. He pressed the red button and the water in the globe stopped swirling. The Biogens resumed their swimming pattern. Closing the valve, he rotated the drum away from the faucet, which dripped green liquid. Swimming in a tight circle, the isolated creature bumped against the inside of the drum. Jake grabbed the metal handle with both hands and set the drum on the floor. He supposed it contained a gallon or so of mock seawater, enough to support the bloodthirsty creature for the immediate future.

Opening the filter’s lid again, he removed a twenty-six-ounce container of kitchen salt from his coat pocket, compliments of the corporation. He pulled the tab on the container and poured the salt into the filter. A white cloud formed within the globe, and the Biogens swam away from it, their movements jerky. Jake shook the container, speeding the salt’s flow until the creatures had no place to flee. Fissures opened in their bodies and trails of blood streaked the water. Jake slipped the empty container back into his coat pocket and watched the saltwater tear at the Biogens’ flesh, dissolving it like Alka-Seltzer. Crablike legs burst through their sides and clawed at the glass surface. The creatures writhed in agony and exploded, their insides blooming outward. Oxygen bubbles rose to the top of the globe, and the cloudy water turned putrid brown.

E
ntering the security bay, Jake set the drum on top of the security station and aimed his Glock at Graham’s chest. Graham glanced at the gun and stiffened, his eyes registering alarm.

“I like you, Graham. Why don’t you get lost?” Graham swallowed. “I can’t do that.” “Sure, you can. Take the night off. That’s an order. And take Badeseo and that asshole Pulaski with you.”

Graham rose to his feet. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Everyone keeps telling me that. You’re all wrong. I know exactly what I’m doing. It’s going down tonight. You understand? They killed my wife and there’s going to be hell to pay.”

Graham’s eyes darted to the camera above the front door.

“Forget the cameras. Forget this job. Just get the hell out of here while you still have your soul. The Reaper will be here any minute, and this time he’s going to have free run of the building. You don’t want to get in his way.”

Graham’s eyes widened, and Jake saw the wheels in his head turning. Graham raced to the door and palmed the lock release.

“Graham?”

The bearded man looked at him. “I’ve copied all of Kira’s personnel files. Whatever she had on you, I have, too. Forget I was even here tonight.”

Graham nodded, then hurried to the elevators. Jake sat behind the station. He reached beneath the console, found a series of toggle switches, and flipped them up one by one. All of the doors around him unlocked in a staccato of metallic clicks. He stood, took the drum from the counter, and carried it to Kira’s office doors, which opened with ease. As he crossed the threshold, the lights of midtown Manhattan beckoned beyond the windows. Turning to his right, Jake pressed his eye to the retina scanner and opened the anteroom door.