The unmarked black transit vans sat side by side in the Echo Park parking lot, pointed in the direction of the hospital across the street. One of the vans was equipped with weaponry and a cage in the cargo area, while the other was home to all manner of computer equipment, all of which had blinked out when the earthquake aftershock hit.
“How’s it looking back there?” the team leader asked the IT guys in the back of the van.
“Systems are coming back online now, Drake.”
“As quickly as you can, gents. I need to know if that bitch is still in there.” Lionel Drake stared at the hospital across the way. Half of the building was plunged into darkness, while the other half clung to generator power.
Their boss, Spencer Thorn, had dispatched them to capture the newest creature for his collection. They had, though, arrived a little too late, a massive earthquake freeing the Aswang from Echo Park Lake. Drake had been all about charging into the hospital and taking the creature by force, but Thorn had told them to stand down. A hospital, even one on the brink of closure, would have witnesses inside, which could potentially kill a stealth operation.
Drake did not feel good about letting innocent people die, but given how much money Thorn threw at him, it became easier to swallow the inevitable civilian casualties. He always imagined that once he left his illustrious military career behind, he would land a private security job. Drake did not expect that he would be getting paid top dollar to hunt down and trap creatures he’d only believed existed in horror movies, yet that is precisely where he had ended up, bagging monsters for an eccentric billionaire’s private collection.
“We are back online,” one of the IT guys called from the back of the van.
Reaching down, Drake lifted a device that looked like an oversized police radar unit and pointed it at the hospital. The display showed the heat signatures of three humanoid shapes. “We have movement inside. It looks like two human souls and one unidentified.”
“Confirmed. That’ll be our girl.”
“Should we go in?” the driver asked as he fidgeted in his seat.
“Not yet, Rankin.” Drake gave the driver a quick sideways glance, concerned that he was going to jump the gun. It was his first time working with the new man, and he did not have a good feeling about him. “I’ll tell you what. Go over and talk to Givens in the armory van. Get us the weapons we need for when we do go in.”
Rankin hopped out of the van with a quick nod and jogged over to the other vehicle, sliding inside and out of sight in the blink of an eye.
“Is it just me, or is that guy a little too high-strung?”
Turning to look at the IT guys—or the Nerd Patrol, as he called them—Drake pursed his lips. “Don’t worry about him. Keep an eye on our girl.”
In the beginning, Drake had complained that the Nerd Patrol was an unnecessary addition to his team. He had complained to Thorn that the last thing he needed on a mission was a pair of geeks to babysit, but Bits and Bytes, the codenames they had assigned themselves, had proven to be an invaluable resource on more than one occasion. The fact that they felt the same about Rankin as Drake did confirmed that his feelings about the man were probably correct.
Examining the figures on the scanner, Drake fought the urge to ignore orders and bolt across the street to help the people trapped inside with the creature. Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned to see Rankin step out of the second van, weapons in hand. The man was little more than a shadow figure cutting through the dark, but every single detail came into focus for a moment as an explosion rocked through the second floor of the hospital.
“What the heck was that?” Bits and Bytes cried in unison.
The scanner screen had turned a bright shade of red, the heat of the flames the only reading it could pick up. Drake gave the device a shake and pointed it back at the building, praying it would pick up something from inside the wreckage. He jumped out of the van and almost fell over Rankin, who lay on the ground with an assault rifle pointed at the hospital. “What the fuck are you doing?” Drake asked, planting a boot in the man’s side.
“We are under attack.”
“How do you figure that? The people inside that building have no idea we are here. They are fighting for their goddamn lives against that…that…thing in there.”
Jumping quickly to his feet, Rankin pressed in tight against Drake till they were almost nose to nose. “Don’t talk down to me. EVER.”
Snatching the weapon out of Rankin’s hand, Drake pushed the man in the chest, sending him backward, arms pinwheeling. “I’ll talk to you any way I want. I’m in charge here, and you would do well to shut up and listen.”
Fists clenched, Rankin fumed, glaring at Drake with evil intent in his eyes. He took a hesitant step forward, like someone testing the ice on a newly frozen pond.
“I will put you down without thinking twice,” Drake said, trying to ignore Givens, who had stepped out of the second van and was advancing on Rankin, a baseball bat cocked and ready to swing.
Letting out a roar, Rankin went to make his move, but the loud thump of the bat connecting with his skull ended the attack before it began. Without saying a word, Givens dragged the unconscious man across the tarmac and dumped him into the cage in the back of the van.
“We are going to need that space,” Drake said.
“If things go as planned, we’ll have the creature tranked and back at the facility before this moron wakes up.”
“And if we don’t?”
“Then our newest exhibit will have a bite to eat for the ride home. Speaking of which, where is that nasty fucking creature?”
Picking up the weapons, Drake returned to his van, picked up the scanner, and pointed it at the hospital. “What do you see, guys?”
“One heat signature. Human.”
“FUCK. Thorn is not going to be pleased,” Drake yelled, pounding his fist against the dashboard.
“Hold on,” Bytes said. “It’s changing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that the thing that was human isn’t quite so human anymore.”
Drake looked at the scanner but needed a bigger display to better understand what was going on. Slipping between the seats, he moved into the back of the van, still pointing the scanner at the building across the street. Staring at the oversized monitor in front of Bits and Bytes, it became clear that what they were looking at was not human.
“How is that possible?” Drake asked, peering at the screen.
“This creature is a shapeshifter, but she may also be, how can I put it, infectious.”
“Call me stupid, Bits, but how so?”
“That explosion may have blown her to pieces. If anyone left standing up there ingested her blood or pieces of her flesh, they might well take on her form.”
Drake shook his head as he watched the image on the monitor move through the hospital. “Time to move in,” he said. The words had barely escaped his lips when a squad of emergency vehicles came tearing down the street, lights flashing and sirens blaring.
“Looks like the cavalry has arrived,” Bits said.
With a groan, Drake passed the scanner to Bytes. “Get up front and keep an eye on what’s happening. If that thing gets out, let me know right away.”
“What are you going to do?”
Clambering out the back of the van, Drake looked back and said, “I’m going to gear up. We are a man down now, so I want to be ready to take that bitch down as soon as we get the opportunity.”
As if a creature that feasts on human flesh wasn't bad enough. Now, the original creature may be dead but its flesh and blood are turning humans into its spawn? I can see this situation getting way out of hand. Looking forward to the next chapters.
Wait! A billionaire collecting monsters? I love how unhinged that is🫣 also, I'm totally stealing "nerd patrol" and using it as a group chat name