Saving Face

Chapter Twenty-Five: Darkness

After tying up the moaning guards, Tomas retrieved another gurney for Mr. Fleischer. Then Sarah led the way toward the vault exit, pushing the gurney that held the sleeping Marilyn and the face coffin that held the dispossessed Dr. Maerwynn.  Jill's unmoving mask lay near Marilyn's head.

Just before Sarah reached the vault threshold, Eirene hissed, "Sarah, stop! Friki Zoi."

"Did you just call me a freakyzoid?"

"No, Friki Zoi." Eirene, who looked shaken, pointed at the thick posts of the doorway, and for the first time Sarah noticed runes carved into the steel. They looked like a mix of hieroglyphics and Chinese.

"What is that?" She reached out to trace one that recurred often, made up of three simple marks that gave the impression of a long-eared aardvark.

Eireen snatched her hand away. "Don't touch.  They are more often called heka, and may be known by many names, but their work is not to be trifled with."

Sarah wiped her hand against her leg. "So why are we stopping? Let's get out of here."

As Tomas and the three toughs clustered close to inspect the runes, Eirene shook her head.  "We cannot pass with dispossessed. I recognize a few of the runes.  Bad things would happen if you tried to exit with your friend and Maerwynn as they are. Tomas, did you know of this?"

"No.  It must be one of Maerwynn's assistants."

Sarah snapped her fingers and glanced back into the vault. "That's right. Mai Luan came in here with the others, but I don't see her now."

Eirene turned toward the dim expanse of the vault stacks that stretched out of sight in both directions and, as Sarah began to ask another question, raised a hand for silence. "We are in grave danger. I must neutralize her before she works her devilry. Tomas, take the right."

Tomas scooped up the knife Dr. Maerwynn had dropped, and the two moved swiftly in opposite directions into the stacks. Sarah watched them go, torn with indecision. Part of her wanted to join them, to stay close, but she didn't want to leave Marilyn and her own body.

The three toughs waited by the door, eyeing it as if wondering if it was worth the risk of rushing through, despite the vague danger Eirene feared.

One of them gave Sarah an appraising smile, "So, what do you do for fun around here?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

He shrugged and dragged a sleeve across his bloody nose. "Right now I'd believe just about anything." He examined his arm more closely and muttered, "I don't feel like myself at all."

Another of the convicts, a thick-necked fellow, gave a startled cry and pointed at the gurney. "Hey, that mask just moved."

Sarah leaned over Jill's mask-like face as the shrunken lips twitched. A whisper-thin voice barely reached her ears.

"What's happening to me?"

"It's an experimental transfer, like the dolls ... on steroids."

"Cool."

The convicts drew further back.  One of them crossed himself and made a gesture to ward against evil. Sarah had seen it once on TV.

Sarah glanced back into the stacks but both Eirene and Tomas had disappeared into the gloomy expanse. Eirene's open fear of Mai Luan made Sarah deeply nervous. She'd only known Eirene a few minutes, but the woman seemed so confident, despite having been imprisoned for what sounded like a long time. If she feared Mai Luan, Sarah wanted nothing more than to escape immediately.

Then she got an idea and turned back to the convicts. "Are there other bodies back there?"

The closest one shrugged again, "Baby, right now if someone told me there was a dragon back there, I'd believe it."

"Big help." Sarah hefted the face coffin holding Dr. Maerwynn, but could not bring herself to lift Jill's dispossessed face. So instead she leaned over Jill and said, "I'll be right back."

"Where you going?" the thick-necked convict asked as she headed further into the vault.

Sarah paused to scoop up the taser dropped by the first guard, "Don't touch that face and she won't hurt you. I'll be right back."

The tough guys drew another pace away from the gurney, and Sarah hid a little smile. Their nervousness would keep them docile for a while at least. Trying to show more confidence than she felt, Sarah headed straight back into the dimness of the vault, hoping to find a body to bring back for Jill.

She walked twenty yards, with aluminum stacks shining dully in the dimness to either side, and fought to keep from thinking about the horrific contents in those hundreds of vault boxes.

She paused at a junction that cut through the long rows just as the unmistakable sound of a scream rippled out of the darkness to her left.