Out of the night and straight down the rabbit hole

It looked like a hospital operating room. There was the glitter of metal everywhere in the form of needles and probes, clamps and gurneys. Monitors upon monitors and trays of instruments put the finishing touches on the theme. And if that had been all in the room, it could’ve passed as a medical facility. But that wasn’t all; that was only half the picture. Recessed security lighting showed computers on standby, softly humming in oddly comforting song. It wasn’t one or two either, but an entire bank of them lining the wall. Screen after screen filled with a slowly rotating DNA strand shed a sickly green glow onto the shiny linoleum floor. That kind of tan and white checkerboard-patterned tile was cheap and easy to clean—especially of blood. I’d seen that theory proven true firsthand in the basement of Konstantin’s bar. A bucket of a water and bleach mixture and a mop and it was as easy as that . . . except for the cracks.

Close to the operating table, I knelt down and pressed a gloved finger to the thin brown line that ran between the tile. This place wasn’t just for looking pretty; they used it. Why was it I didn’t believe they were performing tonsillectomies down here?

“This is one creepy motherfucking place.”

I looked over at the whisper to see a child-sized hospital gown cascading from Saul’s hand in a fall of pale turquoise. It was an oddly forlorn sight, that scrap of material. Despite its cleanliness—there wasn’t a drop of anything on it, including blood—the sight of it made my stomach twist all the same. “Anything on the computers?” I asked, shifting my eyes to the safer target. I knew enough to surf the Net, but that was about the extent of my knowledge. On the other hand, Saul’s business depended on his expertise with the technical as well as the physical.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Saul shrug and move to take a seat at the nearest computer. Grunting at the spinning screen saver, he started typing. “Reminds me of biology class. Bacteria and fetal pigs; I’ve had better times,” he said.

Then and now, I was assuming. Remaining silent as he worked, I explored the rest of the room. I was loath to call it an infirmary. People were meant to be healed in those types of rooms. I didn’t see healing going on in this place. Along the far wall I found a massive refrigerator, easily the size of a restaurant walk-in model. But while the size might be similar, there was one immediately noticeable difference: the lock. This unit was sealed with a computerized pad that awaited a code key. Hissing in annoyance, I turned back to Saul. “Well?”

With some annoyance of his own, he slapped his hand on the side of the terminal. “It’s locked up tighter than grandma’s panties. I need either a password or a good week to work on it. Since we don’t have either, I suggest we get moving.”

It shouldn’t have mattered, the impenetrable computer and tightly sealed refrigerator. It wasn’t why we were here. I was here to retrieve Lukas, first, last and everything in between. Finding out who had taken him and why would be useful, damn useful, but we didn’t have the time to spend on anything more than a quick and dirty search. We’d already done that now and it was time to move on. That didn’t stop me from looking over my shoulder at the firefly glow of the computer monitors and thinking I was making a mistake walking away so quickly. That DNA molecule, boldly displayed, gnawed at me. What the hell were they doing here?

Saul’s hand on my shoulder pushed me on through the next door. This one was locked as well, but from the inside . . . our side. I was able to handle that without resorting to Skoczinsky’s felonious talents. From there we went upstairs to the first level. The level of illumination remained the same: shadowed gloom interspersed with dim security lights near floor level. We had come out into a long hall. There were doors scattered evenly on either side and the floor was the same bland tile. Past midnight, the place appeared deserted, but I decided it still was time to bring my favorite boy out to play. Some equated guns to women. That bald bastard Sevastian called his Glock Lolita. Not only was he a bastard but a pervert as well. I never saw weapons that way. The ability to do violence isn’t exclusively linked to the male gender, but I couldn’t deny I thought we had a leg up on it. I had never named my 9mm, but I did think of it as male—ruthlessly, amorally, unapologetically male.

Jerking a thumb toward one end of the hall, Saul drifted that way on silent feet with his own gun at the ready. I took the other end and the strength it took to hold the Steyr in my hand was only a fraction of what it took to trigger that first door latch. Aside from the basement, the building, although sprawling, was only one level. The children had to be here, if not in this hall then in the next—or the next. What had been a dream for a good portion of my life had become a reality just beyond my fingertips. Whatever I found here, for good or for bad, was going to irrevocably change who I’d been. It made opening that first door a little like dying.

The metal might have been cool to the touch, but I felt nothing through my glove. Even without the shielding material I don’t think I would’ve felt anything but an icy ghost of a sensation. My nerves, mental and physical, had gone into hibernation for this excursion. It was the only way to function, the only way to survive. And when I opened that first door to see two sleeping boys with coal black hair, I did survive. I survived, breathed in and out like the living do, and then closed the door quietly to move on to the next one.

Each room was equipped with two beds. Sometimes both were filled with either boys or girls and sometimes one would be empty—until I tried the fourth room. As I pulled open the door there, someone was waiting for me. Out of bed and just within reach of the doorway, a little girl looked up at me. She couldn’t have been more than seven, eight at the most. Petite and dressed in plain white pajamas, she had a sweet, heart-shaped face and silver blond hair that was phantom pale in the low light. Innocent and lost, she belonged in a four-poster bed cuddling a furry teddy bear. She belonged with her mother and father, not here; not in this sterile and clinical prison. I clenched my jaw. Goddamnit. She wasn’t my brother and could very well be a distraction that doomed us, but I couldn’t stop myself. She wasn’t mine and she wasn’t Saul’s Rosemary, but she was someone’s. Someone’s heart was ripped out, their life ruined beyond repair because she had been taken. I holstered my gun and held out my hand to her. She didn’t move, didn’t cry out or scream, but only watched me with impassively shadowed eyes. It was unnerving. What kid when faced with a gun-waving man dressed all in black wouldn’t scream her lungs out?

Stripping off my glove, I tried again. Palm up, I let it lie unthreateningly between us with an inner patience I was far from feeling. “It’s all right, sweetheart,” I assured her softly. “Come with me. I’ll take you home.” She didn’t blink at the words or move, but continued to study me with an assessment that was anything but childlike. It almost seemed to hold the cunning of an adult or . . . a wary animal. My hand began to grow cool, then cold, far colder than the temperature warranted. Confused, I pulled it back and turned it over. My nails were dark blue, the skin of my fingers blanched an unnatural white. What the fuck? When I looked back up, the door was shut once again. The girl was gone. Not much to my credit, I wasn’t completely sorry.

Shaking my hand hard, I put the glove back on and gritted my teeth as the blood began to tingle fiercely back into my fingers. I had no idea what had happened and less time to think about it. Resolutely, I moved on to the next door.

I don’t remember opening it.