Treasure of the Dead

Chapter 41

Maddock burst into the room at the same time as Bones, with Willis a step behind them. Fabi lay strapped to a cot while Avila stood over her with a syringe pressed to her neck.

“Stop where you are! Do not make another move or she gets it!”

Maddock froze, holding Bones and Willis back, lest emotions get the better of them, especially Bones. “Gets what?”

“This syringe contains a high concentration of potassium chloride, more than enough to stop her heart. If one of you so much as flinches, she gets the needle.”

No one spoke for a few seconds, but Avila could see the three warriors visually appraising the situation. Bones focused on Fabi while Willis inspected the room, his gaze lingering on Cassanda, who was no longer moving as she lay strapped to a cot not far from Fabi. Maddock’s eyes were fixed on the doctor himself. The cool scrutiny apparently made Avila nervous enough to want to reiterate his position.

“You might be able to kill me, but I assure you she will die. If you don’t want that to happen, drop your weapons and slide them over to me.”

Maddock noted that Avila crouched behind the cot — and Fabi — in such a way as to block his chest and even part of his head. It was an effective stance, for now, but at least he was scared. Apparently he’d been caught without his guard duty. Three on one, with the hostage Avila’s only saving grace. As dire as the situation was, Maddock had faced worse. He knew their best chance — Fabi’s best chance, that was — was to play along until Avila slipped up. Being a non-professional in the combat business, he surely would. Still, the weapons loss was an undeniable blow. Maddock and the others reluctantly slid their pistols and dive knives across to Avila, where they came to rest beneath Fabi’s cot. Avila’s right foot swept beneath the cot to draw the pile of weaponry closer to him.

“I want the three of you to lie face down on the floor right now.” Avila jerked the hand holding the needle to Fabi’s neck as a warning.

“Dr. Avila, please think about what you’re doing,” Maddock tried to reason. “There’s no way out for you once you go down this road. You’ll be just another common criminal.”

Fabi’s sudden outburst jarred them all. “Let him kill me! Don’t do what he says! He’ll kill all of us, or even worse, turn us into zombies.”

Maddock heard her words, but he also heard the terror in her voice. She did not want to die. She did not want to be zombified, either. And looking at Cassandra, Maddock could see that whatever she had been injected with had done her no good. She was out cold, face covered in foamy froth. Was this the fate Avila had intended for Fabi had Maddock not intervened?

“You’ve got five seconds to comply!” Avila gripped Fabi’s shoulder harder as he kept the needle pressed up to her neck.

Seeing no choice at the moment other than to comply with Avila’s demands, Maddock eased himself face down to the floor, arms and legs outstretched. Bones and Willis followed suit. Just because he was lying down didn’t mean Maddock had given up, though. He continued trying to appeal to whatever sense of humanity Avila might still possess.

“Your creations are running amok all over your lab, Dr. Avila. Your men are down. Why don’t you put an end to this before more people, including yourself, get hurt?”

Avila laughed heartily without loosening his death grip on Fabi. “Have you not heard the old expression? If at first you don’t succeed…”

“Die, die again?” Willis grunted.

Avila glared at him and looked back to Maddock. “I’ll just have to start over, if not here, then somewhere else. There is no doubt that my discoveries will make me the most powerful man in the world.”

Bones strained his neck to look up from the floor in order to glare at Avila. “You’re a sick freak, you know that?”

The physician grinned in return. “Perhaps someday you will see the wisdom in my actions. If you can bite your tongue long enough to live through this, that is.”

During the exchange, Maddock eyed the most interesting thing he could see from his worm’s eye vantage point: the pile of weapons on the floor underneath the cot. He knew that Avila had been reticent to lean down and try to pick one of them up while the three of them were standing. But now that they were prostrate on the floor, he was bound to make a move for them. And then it would be all but over. Bones kept the distracting dialogue going while Maddock’s tactical wheels turned.

“What’s up with you, Avila? You’re not a short guy, so it must not be a Napoleon complex that you have. I guess you’re compensating for shortcomings in other physical areas, is that it?”

Avila cackled in Bones’ direction. “Personal insults are tools of the feeble-minded.”

Maddock sensed the time was near to make a move. He only hoped his friends would somehow know what he was thinking. He looked over at Bones and caught the twinkle in his eye.

“Why don’t you just fight me, Avila? I’ll even do it blindfolded.” It was not lost on Maddock that Bones sounded truly angry, no doubt incensed by the fact that his woman, or one of them, anyway, was in peril at the whim of this madman.

Maddock watched as Avila again turned his attention to Bones. While he delivered an angry retort, something about his time having been wasted long enough by a descendent of savages, Maddock reached back and slipped a recon knife from the inside of his boot. He’d taken to carrying them that way in his Navy days, and he still made a habit of it. He palmed the blade under his hand and wrist as he continued to lie face down, surreptitiously watching Avila.

“Charming as it was, I’m afraid our conversation must come to an end.” Avila leaned down and made a grab for the abandoned weapons, and Maddock sprang into action, rising to his feet. He hurled his knife at Avila, who turned his head. The blade sliced him across the cheek, leaving a red stripe, and clattered to the floor somewhere behind him.

Avila raised one of the pistols he’d snatched from the floor but Maddock was already in motion, rapidly chewing up the distance between him and the menacing doctor. He only hoped he would be quick enough.

Maddock leapt as the explosion of a gunshot filled his ears.