Nadya's Nights: Road to Vengeance (9 page)

Chapter Fourteen: Breaking Quarantine

Nadya had spent a great deal of her time exploring all the nooks and crannies of Vlad’s estate.  Even as a traumatized thirteen-year-old, her urge to explore the massive compound that had become her home was strong enough to get her out of her bleak mood.

There were hidden passageways, secret weapons caches, and trapdoors all over the place and she knew where they all were.

Some of the secret passageways pre-dated Vlad’s occupancy of the estate.  She wasn’t sure if he even knew about them.  She’d seen more than a few infected men and women dropped into the quarantine room, so she knew how to get there.

The guards weren’t going to let her just walk in and take Ulbrecht for a stroll, so she’d have to stop by one of the weapons caches and grab a gun or two.  In her battered state, she didn’t look forward to doing much hand-to-hand combat.  She’d left Vlad’s office and headed back to her bedroom, hating herself a little more with each step as she considered what she was about to do.

She knew it was wrong.  She knew she should accept what Vlad told her and write Ulbrecht off.  She hardly knew him.  But doing that felt even more wrong than betraying Vlad.  She soon grew tired of all the self-hatred and doubt coalescing in her head and pushed it all aside.  If she looked at it as just another job, it became a whole lot easier.  She didn’t have to consider deeper meanings or bitter betrayals.  All she had to do was focus on what steps she needed to take to achieve her goal.  She was good at that.

Once she got back to her room, she grabbed a small pack and filled it with a few necessary items.  She found a small throwing knife under her bed that she must’ve forgotten when she moved out and tossed it in with everything else.  She grabbed some socks and another pair of combat boots that weren’t as worn as the ones she’d left at Ulbrecht’s flat and put them on.  She grabbed her jacket and tossed it on then slung her pack over her shoulder and headed for the door.

Peeking out briefly, she saw the hall empty and entered it, shutting the door behind her.  She went down the hall and rounded the corner, going over to a statue of a nude woman.  The statue was about a head taller than Nadya and she was arching her back, pushing her marble tits out for any passersby to admire.

Pinching the statue’s left nipple and giving it a twist resulted in a low rumble and then a section of wall behind the statue lifted away to reveal a weapons cache.  She moved forward and grabbed a pair of pistols.  They were smaller and fit into her hands smoothly.  She snatched several extra magazines.

She loaded each of them and pulled the slides back to chamber rounds then she slid one into her waistband and took hold of the second.  Twisting the statue’s nipple in the opposite direction closed the wall back up and she continued on her way.

The next stop was a large painting – roughly four feet by three feet – of a forlorn woman in a blue dress sitting in a chair.  The piece was called Portrait of Anna Akhmatova, Nadya remembered.  A Russian avant-garde artist by the name of Nathan Altman had painted it in the early 1900’s.  She briefly remembered Vlad taking her on a tour of the complex and giving her the history on each of the many works of art he’d collected over the years.

“The Russian Museum in St. Petersburg has a very lovely replication of this piece,” he had told her with a knowing smile and a wink.

The memory only made her focus on the betrayal she was currently committing, so she pushed it aside.

Tapping three separate spots on the frame in a specific order caused the painting to snap forward an inch or so.  She pulled the painting from the wall.  It swung on hinges and revealed a small passageway behind it.  She slid into the wall and pulled the painting closed behind her.

The passage was pitch black.  Nadya reached into her jacket pocket and pulled her Zippo out, lighting it and holding it in front of her.  The small flame illuminated the passage with flickering light.  She moved forward along the brick path through numerous twists and turns until she reached an opening in the floor about the size of a manhole.

Flicking the lighter closed, she put it back in her pocket and slid the second gun in her waistband next to the first.  Going down the ladder in the dark was a slow journey, especially with her busted knee, but she managed to get down without incident.

She pulled her lighter and gun out again then turned right and started down the new passage.

Reaching a section of wall where the bricks were a slightly lighter color than the rest, Nadya stopped.  The hatch would put her in one of the basement hallways, a little ways from the holding chamber she was heading to.  She flicked the lighter closed and readied herself to exit the secret passage but paused momentarily.

There was no way to tell if there was anyone in the hall or not.  She didn’t want to kill anyone here.  Most of the guards she knew on a first name basis.  She decided she’d use the guns only if she had to and – if she did have to – to only injure.

But seeing Nadya popping out of a wall was nothing new to the guards, so there was no reason to go out with weapons at the ready.  She slid the gun into her waistband and zipped the jacket up to conceal the weapons then pushed a brick on the wall, feeling it shift a few inches inwards.

The wall slid open in front of her, bathing the dark hidden passage in light.  She squinted her eyes and stepped out, hearing the wall slide close behind her.  She looked from side to side and saw the hall vacant.  Turning to the right, she started towards a set of thick double doors at the end of the hall.

There was an electronic keypad set into the wall next to the double doors.  This would be the first tricky part of the whole plan.  Vladimir changed the code every week or so and Nadya had no idea what it was.  She’d have to knock and hope the guard that came to see who it was knew her.  Otherwise getting inside would be a bit more difficult.

She stopped at the doors and stood on the tip of her toes to look through the thick glass set in them about head level.  She could see the guard standing off to the side, but his back was to her so she had no idea who it was.  Taking a deep breath and settling back on her feet, she reached up and gave a brief knock on the door.  She heard shuffling feet approaching and then a stern face looked through the window, taking a moment before thinking of looking downwards to spot the short young woman on the other side.

His face brightened a bit, as did Nadya’s.  She knew the man almost as well as she did Vladimir.  He was one of the older guards in his employ – a man named Sven with thick shoulders and sandy blonde hair.  She saw his face disappear from the window for a moment then heard the ding of the lock being deactivated.  The door opened and there was Sven, giving her a friendly smile.

“Nadya,” he said.  “Long time.”

She shrugged.  “Only a couple months.  You look well.”

Sven nodded.  “So do you, all things considered.  Heard you got shot.”

Nadya motioned to her wounded shoulder.  “Shot-ish, nothing permanent.  A few other bangs and bruises, but I’ll heal fine.”

“That’s good to hear,” Sven said, a genuine look of relief on his face.  The expression was quickly replaced by confusion.  “But what are you doing down here?”

“I came to see the guy you’re guarding,” Nadya replied.  “He helped me out a lot last night.”

“Oh,” the burly man said, his face growing a bit grim.  “He’s infected, you know.”

She nodded.

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt anything for you to visit with him for a bit.  Besides, I wouldn’t want Mr. Belikov finding out I turned you away.”

Nadya gave him a lopsided grin.  “I’d never go tattling to get you in trouble.”

Sven stepped aside and let her enter the room.

“Thanks,” she said, walking in and looking around.  She’d been in this part of the quarantine section a couple times.  It was an observation room.  The actual chamber was further in, separated by a thick wall made of Plexiglas.

Supposedly impenetrable.

She’d seen her first werewolf in that room, pounding on the thick walls.  Whether or not the walls were actually impenetrable was up to debate, but she knew it took a lot more strength than the average werewolf possessed.  Which was a considerable amount.

She approached the thick wall and spotted Ulbrecht lying on a small cot towards the rear of the room.  The containment room was air tight, with small vents cycling the oxygen inside.  If it came time to terminate the occupant, the air cyclers would be shut down and the werewolf inside would suffocate.  Lack of air wasn’t enough to kill the beasts but it was a good way of rendering them unconscious.  After that, men went in to finish the job.

Men with chainsaws.

Nadya tapped on the wall but got no response from Ulbrecht.  The walls were too thick to allow her tapping to be heard on the other side.  Sven walked over to her and motioned to a wall panel off to the side.  She went over to it and saw it was an intercom system.  She punched the transmit button and spoke into the microphone.  “Rise and shine, sleepy.”

In the room, Ulbrecht jumped up from the cot, looking over to the transparent wall.  His look of surprise became one of happiness when he spotted Nadya.  He rose from the cot and approached the glass.  He tapped at a companion intercom system on his side and spoke into it.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” he said.  His expression darkened a bit.  “They said I’m going to become like that thing last night.  That this is the safest place for me now, until they can help me gain control.”

She nodded. 
They would have told him something like that.

She was silent for a few moments, considering what she was about to do.  There was a good chance all this would go horribly wrong, especially considering how wounded she already was from the night before.  She had no way of knowing whether or not she could actually find help for Ulbrecht.  All she had to go on were rumors.

Usually, it took about three days for the werewolf virus to take hold of a person.  It had already been one day.  So that left her with two until it was too late.

If it isn’t too late already.
  She had no way of knowing when the cure had to be administered in order to take effect.

Still, I have to try.  I owe him that much.

And if she couldn’t find a cure then she’d at least get to give him the choice of ending his life quickly and relatively painlessly.  She casually reached into her jacket and took hold of one of the pistols, letting out a sigh.

“Sorry about this, Sven.”

The guard gave her a confused look until she pulled the pistol free and aimed it at him.  He took a step back from her, raising his hands.  “What are you doing?”

Nadya motioned to the armored door leading into the quarantine chamber.  “Open it up,” she said.  “I’m taking the doc.”

Sven complied, but he didn’t look very happy.  “This is a bad idea, Nadezhda.”

She nodded.  “I know.  Do it anyway.”

He tapped a code into the pad by the armored door and it clicked open.

Ulbrecht watched the scene play out with wide eyes, unable to hear what was happening through the thick walls.  Nadya motioned him to come out and he walked to the open door, moving past Sven and into the observation room.

Nadya then motioned Sven through the door into the quarantine room.  He moved inside and she went over and pushed the door shut again, the locks clicking back into place.  She moved back over to the intercom and hit the button to send her voice into the room.

“Like I said, I’m sorry.  I just can’t let Vladimir kill him.  I owe Vlad my life, but I owe Ulbrecht the same.  Hopefully, he’ll understand.  Tell him not to worry about any new werewolves working against him.  One way or another.”

Sven nodded and she turned from the intercom to Ulbrecht, who still seemed confused about what was happening.  “Come on.  I’ll explain on the way out of here.”

She moved past him towards the door leading back into the hall.  No one would question her roaming the estate, but they might wonder about Ulbrecht. 
And Vlad is probably wondering what’s keeping me from dinner by now.