7

REVELATION 6:17

For the great day of his wrath is come;

and who shall be able to stand?

~ * ~

"So what's the plan?" C.J. asked. "It'd be pretty stupid to leave this door unlocked."

"We're not going to," Alex said. "Deb knows where I am. If she shows up, and if she's . . . changed, she'll find her own way in."

Great, C.J. thought. Deb knows where I am. Nothing like staying emotionally detached. They followed Alex inside and waited while he locked the door, then led them down a corridor to a stairwell door beside a bank of elevators. Another lock rattled and Alex swung the door open, its hinges making a loud and ear-stabbing screech. He gave them a grin that was still a little green. "My alarm. Ready to climb?" They started up without comment as he relocked the door then passed them, his legs conditioned to the stairs.

"How much farther?" McDole panted.

"Thirteenth floor" Alex tried to sound cheerful.

McDole groaned good-naturedly as their flashlights made small, bobbing circles with each step. "So," Elliot said after a few more flights. "These stairs must've been a pain in the butt."

"Not really." Alex's face was a gray and black shadow, his voice strained. "Normally it barely winds me. I figured the higher you were, the safer—especially with the vampires getting weaker. Here we go." Another door screamed in the darkness as though it had sand in its hinges. "Here's where I live, folks. Not much to see, I’m afraid."

C.J. stepped through cautiously, looking left and right along a dim inner hall before walking soundlessly on the parquet flooring to a better-lit outer corridor evenly spaced with northern windows, making a mental note that he was leaving the only close location of a stairwell. "What's above you?" he called back to Alex. "Have you ever been upstairs?"

"Yeah," Alex said as the rest joined C.J. "Nothing much different from here."

"The doors?" McDole wondered.

“All locked." Alex scrubbed at his face as they turned and moved toward the south end of the building. His eyes were bloodshot and watery with pain; he didn't look ready for a confrontation.

“And there's no one else in the building?"

Alex shrugged. "If there is, they're invisible or they move at night when I can't see them. I've never heard anything."

"I hate to break up the conversation," said C.J., "but darkness is a-coming. We'd better pick our places."

"C.J.'s right," McDole said. "Where would she expect to find you?"

Alex stopped at the doorway to a small office and stood there unsteadily. "Here," he said at last. "She'd probably look here first."

C.J. poked his head in and frowned when he saw the tiny office, bare except for a few miscellaneous items. "No way. There's no room in here to get clear if she—" McDole cleared his throat and C.J. blinked. "Uh—if we have to."

"Where else?" Elliot asked. He and McDole both looked unhappy with Alex's information. "Someplace a little bigger?"

"Yeah," Alex said. "Over here." They rounded another corner and found themselves facing the south wall. Heavy drapes covered most of the windows next to the bookcases; here and there Alex had cracked the material to let in the light.

"This is better," C.J. said. "That office back there is a death trap."

McDole turned from the windows and held up a clay pot. "Where did you get these flowers?"

Alex swallowed. "Deb and I found them in Marshall Field's," he answered quietly. He pulled a chair from under a desk and sat heavily. "It doesn't matter."

An uncomfortable silence fell, then C.J. clapped Alex on the shoulder and pointed at the ceiling. "Come on, guy. You ever been up there?"

Alex twisted his neck upward. "I told you already. All the doors—"

"Not upstairs, up there. In the ceiling." The teenager scrambled atop a desk and raised one of the large tiles in the dropped ceiling. "This is a great place to hide." C.J.'s voice was muffled by the layer of tiling as his hands groped overhead and found a hold. "I'm surprised you never thought of it."

Alex stood with McDole and Elliot and peered at C.J. as he hoisted himself into the hole. "What're you going to do if the ceiling collapses?" he called.

There was a few seconds of soft scuffling, then C.J.'s head poked out. "It won’t, as long as you make sure to put your weight where the supports are anchored into the main beams. Use your flashlight to find them." He glanced at McDole. "It ain't gonna be the most comfortable place in the world."

"I think I’ll stay down here," McDole said. He eyed Alex and Elliot. “Alex can go up over here," he pointed to one spot, then another. "C.J., you position yourself there." He turned to Alex. "You're positive the doors will make a warning noise?" Alex nodded. "Okay, then, two people up, two down." He studied the office area carefully, then pointed to an alcove created by a couple of filing cabinets. "I'll stay here, and Elliot can hide in the secretarial station at the corner. We should be able to hear her come in"—McDole glanced at Alex to be sure—"and see her when she gets here."

"Not much of a moon tonight," C.J. interrupted. "That'll be tough."

"We'll have to make do. Switch on the flashlights only if absolutely necessary, and then only for a second or two. If something else sees it . . ." He didn't have to finish.

"So we have her surrounded," Elliot said. "Then what?"

"Then we grab her, I guess." McDole's words made Alex's face go white. "The idea is to take her alive, right? Maybe we can talk to her."

C.J. let out a long breath. "Oh man, this is going to be a trick."

"We can do it," McDole said firmly. "If we all work together. We have to be able to count on each other at every second. There's no room for backing out, okay, Alex? Hesitate and someone could die." Alex nodded curtly.

McDole steeled himself. "Then everybody find your place and get comfortable." He looked at his watch.

"Four minutes until sunset."