Black Order (Sigma Force 3)

A contented mewl rose from the massive monster in the doorway.

Monk frowned at the transmitter. "How did you get—?"

Fiona stared up at him and waved the device for them to follow her.

"You stole it," Monk said.

She shrugged and headed down the hall. "Let's say I bumped into an old chum, and somehow it ended up in my pocket. She wasn't using it."

Ischke, Monk thought as he gathered the others to follow.

Monk helped Lisa with Painter. Gunther carried Anna under one arm. Mosi and Brooks leaned on each other. They made a sorry assault team.

But they now had backup.

Behind them, the pack trailed, a dozen strong, more joining, lured by the aura of pleasure emanating from the girl, their own little Pied Piper of monsters.

"I can't get rid of them," Fiona said, babbling a bit. Monk noted how her hands trembled. She was terrified.

"Once I found the right button," she said, "they followed me from their cages. I hid back in the room where Gray told me to wait…but they must have remained in the halls and rooms around here."

Great, Monk thought, and we run right smack into them, the perfect postcoital snack.

"Then I heard your yells, then the explosions, and—"

"Fine." Monk finally cut her off. "But what about Gray? Where is he?"

"He took the elevator downstairs. That was over an hour ago." She pointed ahead, where the corridor ended at a balcony overlooking a larger hall. "I'll show you."

She hurried. They stumbled along to keep up, checking periodically behind them to watch the pack. Fiona led them down a set of stairs to the main entry hall. Closed elevator doors were opposite the massive carved front doors of the mansion.

Major Brooks limped toward the electronic lock, flipping through a set of key cards. He swiped several before he found one that turned the red light to green. A trundle of motors sounded. The cage rose from somewhere below.

As they waited, the hyena pack slunk down the stairs, lounging, basking in the pleasurable glow from Fiona's device. A few padded the hall floor, including the one called Skuld.

No one spoke, eyeing the monsters.

Distantly, muffled by the door, screams and gunshots reached them. Khamisi was in the thick of his own war. How long would it take for him to get here?

As if reading Monk's mind, the double doors to the mansion slammed open. Distant gunfire shattered brightly, popping and blasting. Screams grew richer. Men poured in. Waalenberg forces in retreat. Among them, Monk spotted the black-suited figures of the elite, ice-blond siblings, a dozen strong, looking little fazed, as if they'd come in after a refreshing day on the tennis courts.

As war waged outside, the two forces eyed each other in the hall.

Not good.

Monk's team pressed back, pinned against the wall, outnumbered five to one.

3:15 p.m.

Gray stepped away from Baldric Waalenberg.

"Watch him," he ordered Marcia.

Gray slid to Isaak's former workstation, one eye on the Bell's power meter. He reached to a toggle he had seen Isaak flip before. It controlled the blast shield around the activated device.

"What're you doing?" Baldric asked, voice sharp with sudden concern.

So there was something that scared the old man worse than a bullet. Good to know. Gray snapped the toggle back. Motors rumbled underfoot and the shield began to lower. A sharp blue light pierced its top edge, blazing forth as the lead wall dropped from the roof.

"Don't! You'll kill us all!"

Gray faced the old man. "Then turn the goddamn thing off."

Baldric stared between the lowering shield and the console. "I can't turn it off, you ezeh The Bell is primed. It must discharge."

Gray shrugged. "Then we'll all watch it happen."

The ring of blue light thickened.

Baldric swore and turned to the console. "But I can erase the kill solution.

Neutralize it. It won't harm your friends."

"Do it."

Baldric typed rapidly, his knobby fingers moving swiftly. "Just raise the shield!"

"After you're done." Gray watched over the old man's shoulder. He saw all their names appear on the screen along with an alphanumeric code marked genetisch profiel. The man hit the delete key four times and the genetic profiles were erased.

"Done!" Baldric said, turning to Gray. "Close the blast shield!"

Gray reached to the toggle and switched it back with a pop.

A groan sounded underfoot—then something cracked with a ground-shuddering jolt. The lead shield froze in place, partly lowered.

Beyond the edge, a blue sun glowed in the heart of the blast chamber. The air rippled around the Bell as its outer shell spun in one direction and the inner in the other.

"Do something!" Baldric begged.

"The hydraulics are jammed," Gray mumbled.

Baldric backed away, eyes widening with every step. "You've doomed us all! Once fully powered, the Bell's raw and unshielded pulse will kill everyone within five miles…or worse."

Gray was afraid to ask what could be worse.

3:16 p.m.

Monk watched the rifles rise toward them.

Outnumbered.

The elevator cage hadn't reached this floor yet, and even if it had, it would take too long to get aboard and close the doors. There was no way to avoid a firefight.

Unless…

Monk leaned to Fiona. "How about a little pain…"

He nodded to where the hyenas had retreated to the stairs.

Fiona understood and shifted her finger on her device, switching from pleasure to pain. She pressed the button.

The effect was instantaneous. It was as if someone lit the hyenas' tails on fire. A mighty scream yowled from a score of throats. Creatures fell from balcony perches overhead, crashing to the floor. Others rolled down the stairs into the men. Claws and teeth lashed at anything that moved in a blind rage of fury. Men screamed. Rifles fired.

Behind Monk, the elevator doors finally chimed open.

Monk fell back, drawing Fiona with him, guiding Lisa and Painter.

Gunfire peppered at them, but most of the Waalenberg forces focused on the hyenas. Mosi and Brooks offered return fire as they retreated into the cage.

Still, it would be close. And what then? Alerted, the forces would simply chase after them.

Monk stabbed blindly at the subbasement buttons.

Time enough to worry about that later.

But one of their party was not one to procrastinate.

Gunther shoved Anna into Monk's arms. "Take her! I hold them off."

Anna reached for him as the doors closed. Gunther gently pushed her arm down and stepped back. He turned away, pistol in one fist, rifle in the other—but not before staring hard into Monk's eyes, sealing their silent pledge.