Rachel bit back against the pain that flared. “Sorry, Rach,” Sinunu said.

Rachel clenched her teeth. She felt more anger than pain. “I’m too slow.”

Sinunu smiled. “Let’s call it a day,” she said. “You’re beating yourself up more than I ever could. And it’s because you’re tired, girl. You’ve improved more in two days than runners who’ve trolled the shadows for six or eight months. I’m impressed.”

Rachel picked up a towel from the floor of the workout room. Fratellanza, Inc. had several of them in this facility in the Renton District.

“Anyone hungry?”

Rachel looked up to see Julius enter the room, followed by several soldiers carrying trays of hot food.

“Starved,” Sinunu said. “Rachel?”

“Yeah, me too.”

Julius had his men set up the food in the corner, then he brought a plate over to Rachel, who was sitting on the floor while she stretched.

“I thought you could use something. It’s sundown and you’ve barely eaten since this morning.” Julius set down the steaming tray of meat, hot rolls, and real coffee.

“You keeping track of my diet?”

Julius just smiled.

The smell of the hot food suddenly hit Rachel’s nose, and her stomach grumbled. “If the sun is down, Martin should be back,” she said. Then she picked up a hot roll and a sausage link and wolfed them down.

Rachel realized that her mindset had shifted. The change in her was so dramatic that sometimes she didn’t even recognize herself. She’d been hard before, streetwise and scared in her spike heels and see-through skirts. Now, dressed in exercise cottons, her long hair freshly shorn close to her skull to better accommodate the corn gear, her hardness had changed. In the last few days, she’d transformed from being a mans plaything into a warrior. She liked the change, but it scared her as well.

Now, she felt an inner confidence that seemed to chase away that streetwise fear lurking under her brash exterior.

Julius was studying her face, scrutinizing the fresh bruises under her right cheek. “I see Sin is still getting the best of you.” He glanced over at Sinunu. sitting by herself and shoveling food into her mouth. “How’s she holding up?”

Rachel felt a wave of pity swelling inside. “I’m not sure. When we’re working, she seems okay, but I think part of her has gone dead.”

Julius continued to stare at the albino woman. “Truxa.”

Rachel nodded. “Of course.”

Julius turned his gaze back to Rachel. “And somehow you still feel responsible?”

Rachel nodded, without saying anything.

Julius was silent. Then, as if to change the subject, he said, “I’ve been working with Short Eyes on a project.”

“Short Eyes has conveyed her appreciation of your cunning, Mister D’imato.” The voice Came from the doorway.

Rachel turned to see de Vries standing there in his dark duster, a small smile on his thin blue lips. “Martin,” she said, and she knew that she’d let too much emotion into her voice. But she was very happy to see him.

“Hello, Rachel. What have you done to your hair?” He smiled and she grinned back.

“Sin got a little overzealous with the shears.”

De Vries looked over at Julius. “We need to talk.”

“Go ahead,” Julius said, leaning forward.

De Vries stepped up close, and though Rachel knew it was only her imagination, it seemed as if the temperature suddenly dropped a few degrees. “They’re on the move. I took a quick detour on my way over here, and they are definitely vacating. At the rate they’re going, the place will be empty by tomorrow night.”

Julius nodded. “That matches the Intel my decker and Sandman have come up with. The compound is being systematically shut down.” He sighed. “I’d have liked another week to finish preparations, but I guess it’s now or never.”

De Vries locked eyes with Julius. “You know that there’s only a slim possibility that Warren is still human?”

Julius nodded slowly. “I’m still hanging on to the hope that, with everything going on there, they might have shut down on all major procedures. But, yes, I do understand that every moment we’re still here is another moment for Warren to be lost.”

De Vries frowned. “And if things don’t turn out as you hope?”

Rachel watched as Julius’ jaw muscles tightened. She’d seen the same look on Warren’s face when someone pushed him too hard. “I know what I have to do, vampire, and I won’t hesitate. For now, we’re wasting precious time. Let’s get back to business.”

De Vries smiled, cold and hard. “Fine. And here’s some business we’d better keep solidly in our minds. When we take the compound, every infected creature has to be destroyed. Every single one. Otherwise, we could see a plague of HMHVV on the scale of the first VITAS epidemic.”

Julius nodded. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Rachel shuddered. Her parents had both died from VITAS, or at least that’s what she’d been told by the people at the orphanage. VITAS killed slowly and painfully, but it didn’t turn people into monsters.

She turned and left Julius and de Vries to hash over the assault, and headed for the showers. As she cleaned up, she thought about what she was going to do tonight, and why. She imagined all of her fear being washed away by the water and slipping down the drain. As she stepped from the shower, she thought about all the people who had been hurt, and how she wanted to set that to rights. She changed into loose camouflage fatigues, and by the time Julius had prepped the troops, Rachel’s heart was as cold and hard as dry ice.

She knew this was about more than getting Warren back now. What she did tonight could affect people halfway around the world. She wasn’t going to fail.

33

The Ordo is concerned about using the Zulu BioGen front. If things do not go exactly as planned, you could easily be compromised by the paper trail. Be warned. If that happens, we will cut you off and deny any knowledge of you or your aclivities.

– 

Matrix transmission from London, England to LTG # NA-UCAS-SEA-4897, 09 August 2060

Two hours before dawn, the convoy rolled through Hell’s Kitchen. The residents who were awake at that hour and saw the line of truck after truck rumble down the streets immediately bolted for whatever safe place they could find. It only took an hour for the rumor to spread. The UCAS army was invading Hell’s Kitchen, and they were packing armor and weapons like nothing any of the folks there had ever seen before.

All the trucks bristled with wooden stakes, from every angle, like huge, monstrous porcupines.

Within the hour, every street in Hell’s Kitchen was deserted. Even the go-gangers had gone off to hide. No matter how tough they were, they were no match for the army, who packed milspec caliber weapons.

In the newly revamped Mobmaster, Julius rubbed his eyes. The smell of sweat in the vehicle was nearly overpowering as the men surrounding him finished the last check of their weapons.

Julius looked around one last time, and tried not to think of how he might have better prepared the men for what was to come. Sandman, de Vries, and Killian had given him every bit of information they had, but Julius had been the one to make all the final decisions.

Of the sixty men he’d called in for the assault, only a few of them carried standard projectile weaponry. They had learned, mostly from de Vries, what worked and what didn’t.

Most of the men carried flamethrowers or lasers. The flame-throwers were the most effective, but tended to be fickle. That was why they’d divided each squad into groups of eight, with three men armed with flame throwers, three armed with lasers, and two walking flank with automatic weapons. The men toting lasers were responsible for keeping the vampires from reaching the men with the flame throwers, and the men with projectile weapons were to keep any goblins from wading in and killing the men with lasers.