LITMIR.BIZ

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you clever?”

      “Did he leave and come back for it?”

      “That wouldn’t have been very hospitable of me, would it? Especially not for one of my very best customers.”

      Realisation dawned on Jamie like the first clap of a thunderstorm. “He stayed here, didn’t he?” he asked, his voice little more than a whisper. “He stayed in this house while you finished the order?”

      The chemist spat a wad of blood on to the living room floor, and glared at Jamie.

      “That’s right, you little brat. Alexandru, Anderson, and his prize.”

       His prize?

      “My mother,” Jamie said. “He kept my mother here while he waited for you to make your Bliss. And you let him? How could you do that?”

      “Alexandru can do whatever he wants, whenever he wants,” replied the chemist. “I’m not going to cross him for some human.”

      Fury burst through Jamie and he launched himself at the chemist. Larissa blurred forward, wrapped him up and dragged him back, kicking and punching.

      “Some human?” he roared. “That human is my mother, you disgusting creature! My mother, who never hurt anyone in her entire life, who has nothing to do with any of this, and you let him keep her here, in your house? I’m going to kill you!”

      Frankenstein shot Jamie a look of sympathy, then turned back to the chemist.

      “When did you finish your work? When did they leave?”

      The vampire shot the monster a look of savage satisfaction.

      “Yesterday. About two hours before you came to see me.”

      The words crushed the fight out of Jamie, and he sagged in Larissa’s arms.

       So close. We were so close. We missed her by a matter of minutes. Too much. It’s too much to bear.

      He heard Frankenstein ask the chemist where they were going, but the monster’s voice sounded as though it was coming from underwater; it was distant and muffled. He felt Larissa place her cheek against his as she hugged him, felt the warmth of her body surrounding him, but felt nothing. He would fall to the floor if she released him, he knew it; she was the only thing holding him up.

      “They went north,” answered the chemist. “Alexandru sent the rest of his followers ahead, to prepare for some kind of party. That’s all I know.”

      Jamie felt Larissa’s muscles tense momentarily, and then she spoke from above him.

      “I know where he means,” she said, softly. “I’ve been there. I know exactly where he means.”

      “You’ve been where?” asked Jamie. “Where’s he talking about?”

      “I’ll show you when we get back to base.”

      “Why don’t you just tell me?”

      “So you can let your pet monster blow me to pieces after I do? I don’t think so.”

      Frankenstein rolled his eyes, then stepped away from the chemist, who was glaring malevolently at the people who had invaded his home.

      “I should press this,” he said, nodding towards the detonator in his hand. “God knows the world would not miss you. But I suspect you might consider it a kindness, and that is not what you deserve.”

      He looked around at the rest of the Blacklight team and motioned to the door.

      “Can you stand?” whispered Larissa, and Jamie nodded. She let go of him, and he swayed unsteadily for a moment before walking towards the door, followed by Larissa and Morris. Frankenstein walked backwards after them, his eyes never leaving the chemist, who was staring at him with naked murder in his eyes.

      “Don’t move until we’re gone,” he warned. Then he pulled the living room door shut in front of him, and joined the three figures who were waiting for him on the garden path. They hurried through the gate and along the road towards their waiting vehicle.

      “What does all this—” began Morris, but Frankenstein cut him off.

      “Not now, Tom. We’ll debrief in the car. OK?”

      Jamie walked along the road, his mind full of misery and hopelessness, his feet made of lead. He looked over at Larissa as they approached the car, and gasped.

      Her eyes were a deep, liquid crimson.

      Then she moved.

      She grabbed his wrist, so quickly it had happened before he even realised, unpeeled the fingers that were wrapped around the detonator to take it easily from his grip, and disappeared into the night sky.

      Chapter 33

      ON THE WAY TO THE GALLOWS

      There was silence in the SUV.

      Thomas Morris was behind the wheel, guiding the car towards the Blacklight base, and a series of questions that no one in the vehicle was looking forward to answering. Frankenstein was in the passenger seat, staring out of the window at the passing countryside; the flat landscape sped past as the powerful engine devoured the distance. Jamie sat in the back, his hands over his face.

      Eventually, Morris spoke.

      “How bad is this going to be?”

      Frankenstein laughed, a deep grunt without humour in it. “How bad do you think?” he replied. “We took a vampire off base without authorisation, disobeying the specific orders of the Director, then let her escape. We fraudulently commandeered a helicopter and a pilot, and lost the only lead that might have led us to Jamie’s mother. I think it might be quite bad. Don’t you?”

      Morris nodded glumly, his eyes on the dark road.

      “It’s over, isn’t it?” asked Jamie, his voice barely audible. “We’re never going to find her.”

      Frankenstein leant around his seat’s headrest and looked at him. “I promised you I would help you find her,” he said. “And I will continue to do so. But you have to be prepared for the fact that after today, we are probably going to be doing this on our own. And that’s assuming that Admiral Seward doesn’t have us both arrested. Which he very well might.”

      Jamie nodded. He hadn’t expected to be told anything different. He had been wrong, so terribly wrong, and now Larissa was gone and he had jeopardised the careers of two men who had believed in him, two men who had helped him.

      “I’ll tell Seward it was my idea,” he said. “I’ll take the blame for everything.”

      “I appreciate the gesture,” replied Frankenstein. “But that isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference. We should never have let you take her out of her cell. You couldn’t have done it without the code Tom gave you, and Seward knows that. We’re in this together.”

      Morris groaned, and turned the SUV off the motorway, sending it speeding past RAF Mildenhall on their left, approaching the final turning that would take them through the woods and into the Loop. A C-130 Hercules roared low over the road, lights flashing on its enormous belly as it rushed towards the long Mildenhall runway. The SUV shook and rattled as the huge aircraft thundered over them, then there was a loud thud on the roof of the car, and Morris spun the wheel to keep it on the tarmac. He slammed his foot on the brake and brought them sliding to a halt at the side of the road.

      “What was that?” asked Frankenstein. Then the passenger door on the opposite side of the car to Jamie was pulled open and Larissa swung easily into the seat next to him.

      “Did you miss me?” she asked, sweetly.

      Frankenstein hauled the T-Bone from his belt and shoved it against her throat. She pulled it easily out of his hand and threw it out of the open door. The monster fumbled for

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