Jerry placed a hand on Andy's back and made him flinch. He did not enjoy the contact, but he did not move away.

"Things will find a way of working themselves out, man. Mrs Dennison is really strong. She'll be back and ready to kick arse in no time."

Andy sighed. "Thanks. What is it you two wanted to show me, anyway?"

"Oh," said Nessie. "It's not important right now. It'll keep."

"Might as well tell me now," said Andy. "I'm not doing anything else, am I?"

"Okay, well, Jerry and I were looking through the books and-"

The doctor came out of the operating theatre and Andy stood up again. "Is she...?"

The doctor waved a hand. "She's fine. We stopped the bleeding and stitched up the wound. Luckily the damage was mostly across the collarbone. The major arteries were still intact. She's a very lucky woman."

"I want to see her."

"Of course. The nurses are just making her comfortable in one of the suites. Head inside and take the door on your left."

Andy hurried into the operating theatre and then took the door on the left. It led into a wide corridor with several rooms running off it. He saw through the room's windows that Sun was inside one of them along with two nurses. He barged through the door and moved beside his wife's bedside.

The two nurses left.

"Sun, I'm so sorry. I should have protected you, I should have-"

"I'm fine, Andy. Stop fussing."

Andy stopped talking and gave her a hug. She winced as he no doubt aggravated her injuries, but she did not whimper and hugged him right back.

"We're getting out of here," he said. "Soon as you've rested. Let them deal with the batling. It's not our problem."

Sun eased him away stared at him with something approaching pity. "Andy, I'm fine. You don't have to do anything rash."

Andy saw how his wife's usually olive skin was now pale; and examined the clean white bandage that covered the sickly brown of her stitched-up wound. She most certainly was not fine.

"Keeping you safe isn't rash," he said, not meaning to shout but doing so anyway. "It's a promise I made. I can't risk you getting hurt again."

Sun shook her head, cleared mucus from her throat. She said, "I've never needed a man to protect me, Andrew. I didn't marry you to look after me. I married you because of the man you are: a kind, courageous man. To run away is not who you are. It is not who I married."

"I'd rather run if it means you're safe."

"You can't run from this. Whatever that batling is doing here is linked to something much bigger. Whether you like it or not, we're part of this. We can't turn away."

"But-"

There was a knock at the door.

Andy growled as Jerry poked his head through the door with an anxious look on his face.

"What is it, Jerry? Does this look like a time to interrupt?"

"Yeah, erm, I'm sorry. I've just come to tell you that Nessie will be in the library if you wanted to discuss that thing she found. She said to come by at your leisure." Jerry put on a nervous smile. "I'm really glad you're okay, Mrs Dennison. I was worried. Get well soon."

"Thank you, Jerry."

Andy sighed. "Jerry, wait. I'm sorry. Come on in; providing my wife doesn't mind."

"Of course not," said Sun. "Take a seat, Jerry." She motioned to a chair beside her bed.

Jerry took the seat and smiled at her. "Thank you," he said. "So what happened in the cellblock? Did the batling do this?"

Sun nodded. "It isn't as bad as it looks. I'll be back on my feet in no time. I just need to find out what they did with my things. I'm naked under here."

Jerry laughed and then looked around. "Hey, I think some of your things are here," he said, stretching. He picked some items off a table beside the bed and held them up so that she could see them. "Here's your purse and that blue button thing they gave you to access the systems."

Sun smiled. "Thanks, Jerry, but that still doesn't really solve the naked thing."

Jerry blushed. "No, you're right. I'll go find out what they did with your clothes. You two probably want your privacy."

"I'll come find you and Nessie later," said Andy. "Thanks, Jerry."

Jerry left the room.

Andy turned back to Sun. "How are you feeling? Are you in pain?"

"No, I think they gave me painkillers. Not morphine, or I would be out of it. They must have given me codeine or something."

"Do you need anything else?"

Sun put her hand on Andy's. "Sweetheart, I'm fine. You should get back to work. I need to sleep. The surgery has left me feeling sick and tired. I don't want to get a fever."

"I can't leave you."

Sun squeezed his hand. "Andy, go and do some work. I won't have you sitting by my bedside. I'm not a child. I'll be fine. Soon as I'm rested I'll come join you." Andy went to speak, but Sun cut him off. "Sweetheart, I almost got my head taken off putting your plan into action. You got the batling in with Lucas, so go see what happens. No point setting up fireworks and not watching them go off."

"I think I've had enough of fireworks," Andy said. "Enough to last a lifetime."

Sun laughed. Her eyes were drooping and she was beginning to fall into slumber. "A few more won't hurt."

Andy grimaced. "Only takes one to take an eye out."

Chapter Twenty.

Jerry found a nurse in the operating room cleaning up. He asked for Sun's clothes.

"We've piled them up over there," one of the ladies said, nodding towards a pile of clothes on a side table. "I'm about to go attend to Mrs Dennison, would she like me to bring them in for her?"

Jerry nodded. "If you wouldn't mind."

He exited the room back into the corridor then headed for the conference room. From there he could make it into the dormitory wing and back to his suite. He was knackered after studying in the library for so long.

The small blue disk in Jerry's pocket was burning a hole. He touched its rubbery surface and felt his stomach churn. What would happen when Sun realised he had stolen it from her bedside table. And why had he even stolen it in the first place?

Because I don't want to be a prisoner like the things they have in the cells. I want to leave, to get a million miles away from this place. People are dying.

I'll happily give myself up to the police back home than stay in this place until they decide to 'dispose' of me.

But there's no way they will let me go home.

Jerry passed through the heated atmosphere of the conference room, the space filled with the sound of computer exhausts humming out hot air.

Jerry stepped towards the door that led to the living quarters, but took pause.

If I'm going to get the hell out of here. I should do it now, while everyone is distracted with what just happened. I could make it to the lift and take it to the top. Sun's fob should let me access the controls.

Jerry changed direction and headed out into the cellblock. The first cell now contained both the batling and Lucas, separated by a mesh of steel.

The batling was stooped over on the floor, its wings wrapped around itself. It was obviously healing after being fired upon. The Irishman stared down at the creature silently, but glanced upwards when he noticed Jerry.

"You off then, are you, lad?"

Jerry stopped outside the cell and looked in. "What?"

Lucas smiled, although it lacked his usual cheeriness. "You're leaving, I take it?"

"I..."

"It's okay, lad. Get going while you can. Things aren't going to get any better around here."

Jerry frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the death of that poor security guard will only be the first of many. This place is a madhouse and the inmates want blood."

"What are you going to do?"

"Not I," said Lucas. "This ugly little blighter on the floor. He's just getting started."

"How do you know that?"

"Let's just say I know his type. All 'humanity will fall' this and 'mankind will burn in hell' that type of nonsense. Nothing original, but serious all the same."

Jerry looked down at the wounded creature and wondered how it could possibly be a threat to mankind. It was no bigger than a koala bear.

"Who the hell are you?" Jerry asked Lucas.

"Just an interested third-party. I have a vested interested in the outcome of this damnable pit, hence my presence in this festering hole."

Jerry shook his head, rolled his eyes. "Dude, why you got to be all 'riddle me this?' Stop talking bollocks."

Lucas grinned. "You've become quite the man, since I saw you last Jerry-lad. I see your heart. It swells with a courage once absent."

"You don't know me."

"I know you well, from a time forgotten by all but the most perceptive, but it's of no importance in this place and time, lad. What's important is that the angry little monster currently sleeping on the ground between us will soon be well again, and when he is it would be better to be rid of this place. My advice to you would be to hurry up and get in that lift. Go home and face your punishment. Life may still hold promise for you."

"How do you know about me? How do you know the things that I have done?"

Lucas ran his fingertips across the mesh of the fence. He blinked slowly. "When faced with a man, I have little difficulty in reading the verses of his soul. Your past, your present-they are etched into your mind and body. And when read together, they hold glimmers of your future. Which is why I am telling you one more time to flee this place. I fear you will not live if you do not, lad. No one would blame you for running."

Jerry frowned. He had planned on leaving anyway; that was why he was in the cellblock after all: heading for the elevator. Lucas's warning only added to the argument for trying to escape.

"Don't worry, I'm going. You take care, weird Irish guy." Jerry turned and walked away. He fingered the rubber fob in his pocket, making sure it was still there. Then he headed down the corridor.

Just running away as usual. But what bleeding choice do I have?

Further on down there was a bloodstain. It covered the floor in a congealed pool. Jerry stepped around it squeamishly. There were also several patches of chipped concrete where bullets had doubtlessly struck.

The elevator was just up ahead, past the cell with the horrible-looking vampire. It snarled and hissed at him as he past, beat at the glass with its twisted hands.

Gonna be really glad to get away from that nasty sod. He looks like wants to rip me to pieces.

Wake up, dude, that's exactly why the thing is locked up in a hole in the ground. It's not because it cheated the house at Vegas. It's a freaking monster.

Something caught Jerry's attention.

Wolfie sat up against the glass of his cell, wagging his tail and panting. When he saw Jerry pass by, he began to wiggle excitedly.

"Hey, Wolfie. How you doing?"

Wolfie yipped.

"I still can't believe they have you locked up down here with a monster like that thing next door. You're not a monster like him, you're just an animal."

Jerry thought about Lucas's words and wondered if Wolfie would be alright once things turned bad. Was something bad really going to happen, or was the Irish guy just messing with him?

Can I really walk away and leave everyone here to die?

Run away, dude. You're not walking, you're running.

Wolfie jumped up on his hind legs and pawed at the glass with his front ones. His long pink tongue slurped across the glass.