Rachel laughed. "d.a.m.n."

I held a hand out to her as we approached the drop-off. Below us was the entry point, but it was a wicked climb with a free fall of at least fifty feet tacked on at the very end. "And now I need you to trust me again. It's going to be faster if we do this my way."

Without hesitation, she put her hand in mine.

I swung her onto my back. "Hang on tight."

As her arms tightened around my neck and her legs cinched around my waist, I adjusted my body to the additional weight. After checking our position, I slid one foot over the edge and dropped us both over. Snagging the edge with my hands, I stopped our fall and started to move us sideways.

I had to give Rachel credit-she didn't even gasp.

"Tell me when I can open my eyes."

I laughed as I worked us down the sheer face. "You can't be afraid of heights. We jumped rooftops together."

"Those heights had cement and buildings under them. Here, there is nothing."

I glanced down. "Well, not nothing. There are trees, probably a stream or two."

"Shut up, Lea. You aren't making this any better."

I reached the spot where I had to let go. "Just don't open your eyes yet." She tightened her hold on me as I pushed off into open s.p.a.ce. The fall lasted only a second, two at the most.

Bending my knees as we hit the cement, I was able to cus.h.i.+on the worst of the fall. Rachel's hold slipped a bit, but it didn't matter anymore. I swung her off my back. "We're here; you can open your eyes."

I started into the building, my eyes adjusting to the dim light with ease. The hangar had been built into the side of a tiny mountain and the opening was barely visible with all the overhanging vines and plant growth. But the interior was far bigger than I'd expected. Rachel caught up to me and flicked on a small flashlight. I didn't need it, but it did help.

Our boots echoed through the empty hangar.

"Just me, or does this feel creepy as h.e.l.l?" Rachel asked, pitching her voice low.

"Not just you, and I've seen some creepy s.h.i.+t in my life." I picked up the pace. The sooner we were in and out, the better.

There was a single metal riveted door at the back of the hangar. I was expecting it to be locked. It had been locked at one point, but the door was bent outward, as if something large had slammed into it.

Repeatedly.

I carefully opened the door, scenting the air. The blood of an animal of some sort, layered with a trace of human blood. A red light flicked off and on above our heads. Glancing back at Rachel, I blew out a sharp breath. "What do you want to bet the monsters they've been making got the better of them?"

"Oh, that can't be good," she muttered.

"My gut tells me we need to hurry." The hallway in front of us was narrow and painted gray from top to bottom, but there were a couple of bare bulbs burning bright enough that we no longer needed the flashlight.

There was another door to our right. Rachel opened it and stepped in before I could say anything.

"Look at this," she called out softly.

The room was twelve by twelve and loaded with filing cabinets. Rachel held a piece of paper out to me.

Two holding facilities, one on the thirteenth floor for the blood recipients. One on the fourth level for the blood donors. I handed the paper back to her. "Want to guess who the recipients are?"

She snorted. "I'll find the donors, you deal with your friends." We had brought Sean's walkie-talkies with us, and Rachel handed one to me. "Channel four."

I didn't like that we were splitting up, but there was no way around it. I flicked my walkie-talkie to channel four. "Be careful. If you see anything that looks like it was human once, don't wait to have a chat. Run."

"Always."

I started out of the room.

"And Lea?"

Stopping, I looked back. "Yeah?"

"You be careful, too. I know you're a vampire and can kick some serious a.s.s and all...but..."

"I'll be careful." And I would be.

Unless Rachel's life was on the line. Then all bets were off.

CHAPTER 32.

RACHEL.

Lea left the room and I hooked the walkie-talkie to my jeans, trying to decide whether I should head straight to the fourth floor or investigate these file cabinets. Despite the time crunch, my curiosity won out. That was part of the reason I was a journalist. I couldn't stop asking questions, even though it often got me into trouble.

But less than a minute of riffling through files told me there was nothing here to interest me. It was mostly supply requisitions and personnel files dated from the 1920s to the 1960s. If something was here, it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack. I needed more current information.

I headed down the hall, slipped into the stairwell, and descended the stairs. Though I was worried about running into one of the staff, it was late, which was on our side. As I made my way down the dark stairwell, my thoughts drifted to Sean. I knew I should have felt more remorse over leaving him out there like that, but I couldn't find it in me. Not after everything he'd done. Did that make me like the monsters Lea hunted?

I couldn't let my mind go there. At least not yet. There'd be plenty of time to think about it later.

When I reached the fourth floor, I peered through the small window and checked out the hallway. It was empty and late enough that the lights had been dimmed. I left the stairwell, then tried to figure out which way to go. I stood in the middle of the hallway, studying the numbers on placards next to the doors. Directly in front of me was 416, Supply Closet. I grinned. The signs would be helpful. I tested the doork.n.o.b. Locked, which meant the others would be, too. Thank G.o.d for Sean's key card.

I needed room 452, so I turned left, following the rising numbers and staying close to the wall. When I came to room 429, Records Room, I sucked in my breath. This certainly deserved a detour, but as I reached for the handle, something else caught my eye. About twenty feet down the hall was a large six-foot-wide window, its gla.s.s laced with wire. A heavy-duty window meant they either wanted to keep something out or keep it in.

Color me intrigued.

I stalked toward it, stopping just next to it, and carefully peeked around the corner to look inside.

It was a lab. Two people in lab coats sat at a table, their backs to me-a man and a woman. They were packing things into plastic crates, pausing now and again to make notes on the tablets next to them. Centrifuges and test tube racks covered most of the counters extending from the peripheral walls, and two rows of long worktables filled the center of the room, covered with microscopes and computers.

There were chairs for six lab technicians, but I only saw the two employees. Whiteboards covered the walls. I was too far away to make out all the writing, but the word diabetes was legible on one of the closer boards.

Sean had told me so many lies, I had no idea what was going on, but there was usually a nugget of truth to every deceit. Someone was creating bioterrorism weapons, and Sean said they were using vampire blood to create medical cures. Was it happening in this room? From the scientists' lack of safety equipment-no protective suits or even latex gloves-I suspected something else entirely was going on here.

I needed to get inside.

The man and woman appeared so intent on their work, I suspected I could slip in without them noticing.

I was considering how to get in when a buzzer went off. The woman groaned. "You're not going to get that, are you?" I could just barely make out her words.

"I'm the senior-ranking scientist," he said in a flippant tone. "The grunt work falls to you."

She got up and walked over to the corner. I decided to use the moment to my advantage. I opened the door, thankful it didn't squeak, and slipped into the room, making sure the door closed quietly behind me. As soon as I was inside, I hunched behind a worktable.

The woman turned off the buzzer, then opened a centrifuge and pulled out some tubes.

"We're down to less than an hour. Step it up," the man said.

His partner sighed. "We need more totes for our stuff. I'll set up these test tubes, then head to the supply room. You want me to grab you a coffee?"

"You know we're not allowed to have food or drink in here."

"And you're not allowed to make personal phones calls, yet we both know you're going to call your girlfriend as soon as I leave."

He laughed. "Are you saying I have secrets?"

"Says the man who works in a secret lab," she said, pipetting what looked like blood from a large test tube into smaller ones. "Why are we packing everything up anyway? I thought they said it was just a drill."

"McPherson says we've got to play by the rules. And the rules say when the red light starts blinking, everybody clears out." He pointed at the ominously blinking red light over the door. "Besides, we're close enough, they're thinking about going public. The powers that be are threatening to kill our funding, so they need proof we're onto something. Which means we need to get it all out."

"Public with all of it?" she asked in disbelief.

"What do you think?" he snorted. "Of course not. Just the cure."

"Which one?"

He shrugged. "Good point. But I hear they're only releasing the one for acute lymphoblastic lymphoma. No sense giving it all away."

"It seems so wrong, though." She sighed again. "We have the cure for every cancer. Why not release it all at once? Why tweak the blood to pretend each form of it requires a specific, targeted cure?"

"The reason is as old as time, Lillian. Money."

I pulled out my phone, made sure it was on silent, then started to take photos of the whiteboards lining the walls.

They weren't just curing cancer. They were curing everything. Diabetes. Arthritis. Lupus. This was unbelievable. I needed to get my hands on one of those test tubes and get it to Tom.

"All done," Lillian said. "Can I get you anything in the kitchen?"

"See if they have any pastries. The cream-filled ones."

"I'll check." The worktables each featured a stack of drawers and enough s.p.a.ce for three chairs. I ducked into one of these s.p.a.ces and waited for Lillian to leave.

Maybe Lea was wrong about the monsters breaking out; these two scientists sure didn't seem worried, red alarm or not.

It only took a few seconds after Lillian left for lover boy to call his girlfriend. "Yeah, she's gone," he said. "What did you do tonight?"

I hoped I didn't have to suffer through a litany of his night, too.

Then, to my surprise, he got up and walked toward a door labeled closet. He went inside, shutting the door behind him.

Did I dare risk it? I had to.

I got up and started taking photos of everything. The work tables, the trays of microscope slides. The whiteboards I hadn't been able to photograph from my hiding place. The screen of the guy's tablet. I considered taking it with me, but I couldn't risk it. The tablet would be missed and the whole place would end up in lockdown. But maybe I could grab the woman's. It had been turned off and shoved to the side. They might think she'd misplaced it.

I started grabbing tubes, one from each rack. They were labeled with names like Lyme Disease, Patient B2, Donor 32. I didn't have my bag, so I found a quart-sized Ziploc bag and crammed them inside it. There was a messenger bag resting on a chair. It did not, as far as I could tell, belong to one of the two scientists, so I commandeered it and put the plastic bag and the swiped tablet in it.

Time to get the blood donors and get the h.e.l.l out of here.

I ran down the hall to room 452, scanned Sean's card, and popped the door open.

What I saw made me gasp in surprise. The room was dim, but there was enough light for me to see it was large and full of cages that reminded me of small prison cells. Inside those cells were people.

Several men lay on cots, but those who were awake turned to look at me.

"What is going on here?" I asked, advancing toward them.

A man in one of the closer cages stood and grabbed the bars. "We ain't going. No more tests." His s.h.i.+rt was open and I could see a medical port on his chest.

"I'm not here to conduct any tests. I'm here to get you out." There was an electronic pad near his cage. I tried scanning Sean's card, and the door popped open.

The man's eyes widened. "Is this some kind of trick?"

"No. We need to get everyone out and quickly. I don't know how much time we have left. What's your name?"

"Rowland."

I opened the first two cells, but there were dozens more. There had to be close to fifty people in the room.

"Don't leave yet," I told Rowland, who seemed to be taking charge of the released victims. "We need to leave together in small groups." I figured there was safety in numbers. Besides, if they all started wandering off, it might alert security sooner.

The walkie-talkie attached to my pants let out a shrill sound.

G.o.d, I'd forgotten all about the stupid thing. I was lucky it hadn't gone off while I was waiting for the lab coats to leave.

"Rachel." Lea's voice squawked out of the box.

I braced myself for the worst.