II
II
He's doing well. Too well, I suppose. We're suppressing his recovery rate with holy water," the doctor explained to Tres.
They rode a secure elevator up to the hospital's lockdown ward. No one came in or out without passing several security checkpoints. Not that any checkpoint in the world could stop Tres Iqus.
"We've cut his doses of holy water per your instructions. He should be able to talk in the next few minutes," the doctor went on.
"Affirmative." Tres nodded, then went silent again.
They were at Saint Simon General Hospital—a Vatican hospital located in the south suburb of Matheliah City. Normal patients were treated on the first six floors, but the highest floor had quarantine rooms reserved for Church use. It wasn't pleasant. The icy air conditioning blasted continuously and the lights were dim. It felt like a tomb. Tres wasn't bothered by it, of course. He never felt any weakness or emotion.
"I will start my interrogation at once. Prepare the room. Bring me the autopsy reports of the other vampires," Tres commanded.
"Nothing much to report. The autopsies show bite marks that clearly match this vampire's teeth pattern. The claw marks match his fingernails. It's an open and shut case—other than the motive for why he attacked his own kind," the doctor stated.
"That is what I am here to find out. Any other results I should know about?" Tres asked.
"There was one ..." the doctor started, but then his eyes went wide with shock.
A nurse stumbled out into the hallway. She dug her fingers into the doctor's arms and gasped for air. She looked horrible.
"What's wrong?!" the doctor yelled.
"D-dead . . ." the nurse stammered. "H-he had no pulse . . ."
"What? Who? The vampire?" The doctor continued to fire off questions, but Tres was already moving.
He smashed through the metal door and looked at the bed. It was empty except for a cross-shaped bloodstain. The chains and cuffs were sprawled out on the floor.They looked like dead snakes. Blood dripped from the ceiling onto the sheets.
Tres looked up.
"My God!" the doctor screamed.
It was the vampire from the safe house. Someone had crucified him by nailing his wrists and ankles to the ceiling; a stake pierced through his heart. His eyes bulged, and his discolored tongue lolled out of his mouth.
"No pulse?" Tres asked quietly.
"Who let this happen? Get the chief of staff down here now!" the doctor yelled.
"No pulse,"Tres repeated. "He'd never had one."
Tres tossed the doctor aside and burst back into the hallway. His movements were so fast, most hospital personnel registered him as a blur.
He pulled out his pistol and pointed in the nurse's direction. He had her in his sights for a split second, but she was gone by the time he squeezed the trigger. The hammer fell and a thunderous roar sent everyone ducking for cover.
THOOM!
A head-sized chunk was blown out of a wall behind the security desk. The nurse dodged again and slid into the elevator just before the doors closed. Tres caught up, only to find the elevator descending.
He moved to the bulletproof window and aimed his gun. "Everyone find cover," he instructed.
He didn't have to say it twice.
The glass was designed to not only withstand bullets, but to redirect them. He wouldn't be able to blast the window out. The concrete, however, wasn't as resilient. Nine shots exploded out of the pistol. The heat and sonic fury forced everyone to screw their eyes shut and cover their ears. A cloud of rubble and rebar flew through the air. Tres would have coughed if he'd had lungs.
He reared back and kicked the window. It cracked, then shattered, leaving a huge hole in the wall.
"Call the guards at the front desk,"Tres ordered, even though the gun blasts had deafened everyone.
He walked through the hole he'd created.
Tres freefell seven stories. He landed on his feet, his boots crushing the concrete sidewalk into powder. The unexpected impact created mass panic. Hospital patrons outside scattered. Tres took no notice. He strode back into the hospital, reloading magazines with mechanical efficiency. Unlike the people outside, the patients in the lobby were confused, frozen in place. Tres nonchalantly walked past them, ignoring their stares.
Just then, the nurse from the lockdown ward rounded a corner.
Tres raised his pistol, prepared to turn the waiting room into a shooting gallery, but the nurse was faster than he'd anticipated.
She plucked an unlucky child from the motionless crowd. The child's mother held fast to her little girl's arms. The child kicked and screamed. None of it seemed to faze the nurse. From out of nowhere, she produced a shotgun and aimed it at the girl's temple, but the kid jerked around so much, the nurse couldn't get a clear shot.
Instead, she focused on Tres. "Don't even think about it, Vatican dog. If you—"
BOOM!
Tres' pistol clicked and a round split the air. It hit the nurse in the chest and sent her flying. It was timed perfectly. The mother and child both dropped to the floor as the nurse reared back with the force of the bullet. She hit the wall behind her with a thud, a smoking fist-sized hole in her chest.
Tres strode past the shocked mother and child. He noticed that they both had a thin layer of gloss on their hands and arms from when they had wrestled the nurse.
"UV protection gel?" Tres asked the slumping vampire. "Are you Fleur du Mai?"
The vampire spat at him.
Tres lifted the Methuselah by the neck, taking a good look at the protective sheen on the nurse's skin. UV gel could completely block ultraviolet radiation from the sun. While wearing it, a vampire could walk around in normal society, unnoticed. Humans had banned the substance years ago, and only the Vatican had any in sto'ck these days.
"Ten days ago at the safe house, why the slaughter? What are you trying to hide?" Tres asked tonelessly.
The vampire tried to laugh at him, but ended up gurgling on her own blood. She smiled mockingly and showed Tres her fangs. "Die, Vatican dog," she whispered.
BOOM!
A gunshot silenced her laughter. The vampire had lost a hand. She squirmed in Tres' steely grip, but no matter how much she struggled, she could not free herself.
"I will heal you and wound you, again and again, for the rest of eternity. You will find no peace or rest as long as you withhold information from me," Tres threatened. He dug his fingers into the vampire's exposed chest cavity.
The vampire tried to scream, but the pain was so intense she couldn't make a sound.
"You can end this by talking," Tres explained calmly. He sank another finger into the creature's chest.
The nurse gurgled blood and nodded. Then she spoke in hushed tones. Tres listened carefully, noting every word.
Tres threw the vampire to the side and shot her several times. He thought about keeping her alive for further interrogation, but that hadn't worked out very well for AX recently.
Tres reloaded his pistol as he walked through the silent crowd. They instantly parted for him, looking as frightened as children waking from a nightmare. The silence was broken by the sound of a potted plant smashing against the tiled floor.
"You bastard!" the mother yelled at him.
Tres turned to her and cocked his head.
"You could have killed me! You could have killed my daughter!" she screamed.
"Shut up!" another patient told the hysterical woman. "Or he'll kill you now."
The crowd tried to pull her away from the priest, but no one could contain the mother's fury. "Was it worth it? Huh? Was it worth it to nearly kill me and my child? Is that how you serve your God? With reckless bullets?! Have you no soul?" she shrieked.
Tres' expression didn't change.
According to Tres' internal simulation system, shooting had been the best option. Any other actions would have resulted in up to nine innocent deaths. The girl would have been taken hostage and killed in any alternative scenario. But he knew that explaining his actions would only make things worse; humans didn't see the world the way he did.
"No soul? Affirmative," he said.
Tres moved so fast that the patients could only make out a streak of color rushing past them. He scooped up the mother and her daughter in one swift movement. A bullet tore into the arm that Tres had wrapped around the baby. Reddish black oil squirted out of him as he wheeled around and drew his firearm.
The young mother didn't take her eyes off the priest. Blue and white sparks shot out of him. His artificial skin was sliced open as the round that was supposed to kill her daughter stuck in his plastic muscle.
' While he covered the mother and daughter, Tres pointed his M13 toward the elevator. There sat the vampire, attempting to fire one more round with her last ounce of strength.
BOOM!
Tres Iqus fired a shot that blasted the vampire's head off.
"I am Hercules Tres Iqus, Vatican Papal State AX Agent HC-III X. I am Gunslinger," he explained as he put the mother and child down gently. "I am not a human, so I have no soul. I am a machine."