Read Online 30 Days of Night: Light of Day by Jeff Mariotte - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jeff Mariotte
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watching Spider John die was surprisingly hard. She had trained with these people, had hand-picked the team, and they were her charges. She’d had people under her before, but in her new position she felt a greater sense of responsibility for them, and the stress of balancing individual lives with the overall mission.
Compromised soldiers had to be killed, so that the mission itself wouldn’t be compromised.
Marina hoped she didn’t fall into that category.
“Let’s clear the rest of this basement,” she said. “Then get to sterilization, stat.”
The Operation Red-Blooded bus had arrived by the time they got out of the building. They had found no more undeads, but a passage led into unused subway tunnels. They could mount a search operation, although from there the vampires could have gone anywhere. They had found more bodies and body parts, dozens of them in various states of decomp. Every time Marina closed her eyes in the sterilization shower, she saw pink organs and blackened skin, glistening muscle and patches of white bone, and the shower’s spray felt like spit splashing her skin.
They all showered together, and she couldn’t evenbring herself to check out the naked bodies of her coworkers. For a change she didn’t want any hands or mouths on her, or her own on anyone else.
But the part where she had said fuck it and opened fire?
That had been fun.
That was worth repeating.
Marina almost couldn’t wait for the next encounter.
10
“T HAT ONE! ” M ITCH SAID. “She’s good!”
They were crouched down in a weed-choked vacant lot, a few blocks off Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Tall buildings formed a wall between them and Lake Michigan, but behind them were nothing but two- and three-story structures, mostly residential. The scent of somebody’s earlier barbecue lingered in the air like a memory. Mitch was pointing at a young woman carrying a cloth shopping bag that bulged with her purchases. She had on a red tank top and snug jeans and sneakers and short dark hair poked out from under a ball cap. White wires from an MP3 player in her pocket snaked up to her ears.
“Why her?” Walker asked.
“Why not? She’s alone. She’s close.”
Both good reasons, but Walker didn’t know if they were good enough. He wasn’t feeling it the way he wanted to. “Shouldn’t there be something more?”
“What do you want, someone wearing a sign that says ‘Bite Me’?”
“That would be handy.”
“Dude, she’s gonna get away! Can we stop talking and go get her?”
They had taken their next two victims from the ’burbs of Park Forest and Oak Forest, then decided the pickings would be richer in the city itself. Walker was nervous about all the people surrounding them, but he couldn’t argue with Mitch’s reasoning, and their first Chicago victim, three nights earlier, had been easy to find and to take. Nothing about this woman suggested that she would be a problem—the lot was dark, and he couldn’t see anyone else around, although he knew they were out there, in apartments and condos, driving past, maybe hunkered down in the shadows just like he and Mitch were.
“Okay, fine,” Walker said. “Let’s go.” They cut across the lot, on an angle that would get them to the street corner before she reached it. When they were about ten feet away, Walker said, “Excuse me, miss?”
She stopped and looked at him, then pulled the earbuds from her ears. She chewed gum with her mouth open. “Yeah?”
Walker’s mind raced furiously. He felt dizzy. He had thought he would ask her to help him look for his dog, but then realized that line was so old it couldn’t possibly work. Maybe if she was six. But she wasn’t. She was a full-grown adult, a city dweller, no doubt wise to anything he could come up with.
“I thought I could get to Loomis this way,” he said, reaching for the first halfway-convincing line he thought of. “Do you know where it is?”
“Sure,” she said. She swung around
Compromised soldiers had to be killed, so that the mission itself wouldn’t be compromised.
Marina hoped she didn’t fall into that category.
“Let’s clear the rest of this basement,” she said. “Then get to sterilization, stat.”
The Operation Red-Blooded bus had arrived by the time they got out of the building. They had found no more undeads, but a passage led into unused subway tunnels. They could mount a search operation, although from there the vampires could have gone anywhere. They had found more bodies and body parts, dozens of them in various states of decomp. Every time Marina closed her eyes in the sterilization shower, she saw pink organs and blackened skin, glistening muscle and patches of white bone, and the shower’s spray felt like spit splashing her skin.
They all showered together, and she couldn’t evenbring herself to check out the naked bodies of her coworkers. For a change she didn’t want any hands or mouths on her, or her own on anyone else.
But the part where she had said fuck it and opened fire?
That had been fun.
That was worth repeating.
Marina almost couldn’t wait for the next encounter.
10
“T HAT ONE! ” M ITCH SAID. “She’s good!”
They were crouched down in a weed-choked vacant lot, a few blocks off Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. Tall buildings formed a wall between them and Lake Michigan, but behind them were nothing but two- and three-story structures, mostly residential. The scent of somebody’s earlier barbecue lingered in the air like a memory. Mitch was pointing at a young woman carrying a cloth shopping bag that bulged with her purchases. She had on a red tank top and snug jeans and sneakers and short dark hair poked out from under a ball cap. White wires from an MP3 player in her pocket snaked up to her ears.
“Why her?” Walker asked.
“Why not? She’s alone. She’s close.”
Both good reasons, but Walker didn’t know if they were good enough. He wasn’t feeling it the way he wanted to. “Shouldn’t there be something more?”
“What do you want, someone wearing a sign that says ‘Bite Me’?”
“That would be handy.”
“Dude, she’s gonna get away! Can we stop talking and go get her?”
They had taken their next two victims from the ’burbs of Park Forest and Oak Forest, then decided the pickings would be richer in the city itself. Walker was nervous about all the people surrounding them, but he couldn’t argue with Mitch’s reasoning, and their first Chicago victim, three nights earlier, had been easy to find and to take. Nothing about this woman suggested that she would be a problem—the lot was dark, and he couldn’t see anyone else around, although he knew they were out there, in apartments and condos, driving past, maybe hunkered down in the shadows just like he and Mitch were.
“Okay, fine,” Walker said. “Let’s go.” They cut across the lot, on an angle that would get them to the street corner before she reached it. When they were about ten feet away, Walker said, “Excuse me, miss?”
She stopped and looked at him, then pulled the earbuds from her ears. She chewed gum with her mouth open. “Yeah?”
Walker’s mind raced furiously. He felt dizzy. He had thought he would ask her to help him look for his dog, but then realized that line was so old it couldn’t possibly work. Maybe if she was six. But she wasn’t. She was a full-grown adult, a city dweller, no doubt wise to anything he could come up with.
“I thought I could get to Loomis this way,” he said, reaching for the first halfway-convincing line he thought of. “Do you know where it is?”
“Sure,” she said. She swung around
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