Chapter 22
Steel. Grease. Blood. Ryan found himself on a metal catwalk above a large industrial space. It looked like an underground factory, with big automated machines and different assembly lines each performing specific tasks. The pounding they had been hearing all night came from these machines, whose functions Ryan could only guess at. However, this was not a normal factory. Ryan’s first clue had been the bodies.
Suspended upside down above a large vat were six fresh corpses. Wide rivulets of blood dripped from their eviscerated torsos and slit throats. It ran down their dangling arms and dripped from their fingertips into the vat below, which collected the blood and sent it to the other machines.
At the other end of the factory space were stacks of large bricks of white and yellow and other pale-colored powders. The narcotic hybrid.
This was Hess’ production site. This was where they synthesized Vain. Ryan was putting it together, piece by piece. The bodies in the morgue were the ones that had already been drained of blood. Ryan couldn’t help but wonder: where did the bodies come from? Where was Hess getting these people? And where was Dr. Webster? Had he already been killed and drained of blood? Where did they store the people that were still alive?
Ryan had no time to wonder. A brutal kick connected with the side of his head and sent Ryan into a daze. He looked up at the hazy figure and readied himself to transform. He had beaten vampires before, he could take Hess.
The figure, however, did not belong to Hess. It belonged to Robert Webster.
“What?” Ryan asked, still dazed.
“I really am sorry, Ryan,” He began, “that you’ve made such progress in denying your true nature. Hess could use a man like you. It’s why I healed you when you first showed up at the hospital. A power like yours…it shouldn’t be locked away, it’s not meant to be caged. Trying to contain something like that, it can corrupt the mind, drive a man to madness.”
“Speaking of corruption…” Ryan spat as his head cleared.
“I told you when we first met, the distinction between good and evil isn’t as obvious as the distinction between human and wolf.”
“I thought you at least understood there was a difference.” Ryan shot back.
Webster looked at him with an amused smile playing about his lips. The smile faded as quickly as it had appeared, and it was replaced by a set jaw hanging below narrowed eyes. “I thought that way once. Until I learned the truth. You see, when I was doing my residency, I had a wife. We were very much in love, but then she got very sick very quickly. I had the power to save her, but I couldn’t do it. I was terrified of my power, terrified that something would go wrong and I would kill her, or even that everything would go right, but I’d go off the deep end the moment I started using my powers for selfish reasons. I didn’t want her to see me like that, crazed and power mad. And so I had no choice: I let her die. I let her die because I thought it was the right thing to do, that I was sticking to the almighty code of honor, that I was doing humanity a favor by denying who I truly was, denying the gifts I had been given. And do you know what? I even believed that for a while. For years I thought it was a sacrifice that needed to be made, but every day that passed I questioned that decision more and more…and the fundamentals behind that decision.
“Was it evil to let her die when I could have saved her? Or was it good to keep my powers in check? The two forces that have been at war since humans first set foot on solid ground: light and dark, truth and lies, help and harm, good and bad. And here I was, stuck in the middle, with one question: how do we do good, when for people like us, the means of doing good requires us to step into the realm of evil? We can cage it and we can control it for a while, but eventually, everyone falls off the wagon. ”
“What about the warehouse?” Ryan asked in frustration. “What about the people there that have devoted their lives to overcoming their human nature, their lust for power? The people that have chosen to do good? Everything that you told me?”
“Those people? You? Ticking time bombs. Eventually everyone loses control. Everyone. So when our destiny is written in our genes, how are we supposed to survive in a world with rules that we, by our very natures, cannot follow?
“The answer is simple, Ryan, and this is the truth I eventually discovered: we don’t. The sermon I gave you at the waterfront? Calculated to be exactly what you needed to hear of course, but it’s absolutely true…for them. Good and evil are humanity’s rules and we are not human. We are something else. Melody Richman went mad trying to live as one of us in a world with rules made by them. The rules they have made don’t… can’t apply to us. The people in that warehouse, the naïve minds that I myself mistakenly helped to shape, one day they’ll learn that the rules don’t apply to them. I only regret that it took me so long to learn the truth. Do you know how many people I watched die, Ryan? And for what? Words. Words like ‘good’ and ‘evil’, ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, with definitions and interpretations as variable as the wind. Humans need words like that to help them run their lives but we, we have the power to write our own words. To deny or to cage that power is an affront to who and what we are. We are gods that have chosen to live as monks! That is not the order of things.”
Ryan had heard more than enough; disappointment and disgust written all over his face. “Doc, I’m going to give you props for the act at the warehouse. Really stellar, convincing stuff. And I’m going to applaud that whole little speech you just gave, very Blofeld. Did you practice that? Cause if not, I mean, wow, moving. But here’s the truth: I’ve had a long night, and clearly you’ve gone bye bye. So if you’re going to kill me, just kill me. I need the rest.”
Webster smiled. “I won’t lie to you, I’ve been carrying around this syringe of silver nitrate for a few days now, waiting for my chance to use it. Now however, I am at your mercy. The needle is in my pocket, and you can transform and rip out my throat long before I could ever reach it. You know what that feels like, don’t you? To bite clean through a man’s neck? So here I am, Ryan.”
“I’m not going to kill you.” Ryan replied through gritted teeth.
“No? Not even when I tell you how many people I’ve murdered at the hospital upstairs? They were fine, just a little sick, but I killed them. It’s amazing how many lethal chemicals doctors are allowed to walk around with. Truth is, Hess’ little blood empire wouldn’t be half of what it is if not for all the fresh bodies I’ve provided him.”
“Why would you help him? Why would you do that? Why betray us?” Ryan demanded.
“Because we, the special few, we’ve been given a world without rules, we get to make it our own. We’ve got a blank slate, we get to decide what’s right and what’s wrong. To rewrite the words. And me? I’ve decided that using our abilities to our full advantage, to obtain immeasurable power, that is very, very right. In a few months, this city will be at our feet. I told you at the warehouse: humanity’s lust for power is infinite. If we’re blessed with the means to obtain that power, why should we deny who we are?”
“The crate at the docks, it’s got nothing to do with any of this, does it? And you sent Tom after it because he was the only one who could have discovered this little scheme without fighting through your goons.”
Webster smiled again. “I honestly don’t know what was in the crate. Something or other of Hess’, I assume. Skin cream or tooth sharpeners, I don’t know. The important thing was what you thought was in the crate. And it occupied you five long enough for the ink to dry on the Kimble deal, didn’t it? That was the real nail-biter. If you had found us out then, the whole thing could have gone up in smoke. But now the deal is done. After you kill me, even if you destroy this whole lab, production on Vain will slow for maybe a week at the outside.”
“And the ‘abduction’?” Ryan asked. “You knew we’d come looking for you, why lead us right to the operation?”
Webster shrugged. “I wanted out, Ryan. I wanted you all to believe I was dead. I was sick of all the whining. I wa
s bored with the double life. Bored with feeding Hess information from the inside. I wanted to devote all of my energies to the operation, to expanding our power. I did indeed know you’d come looking, but I thought I could get away clean. I never gave you the credit of tracking the operation here. Even then I was sure you’d never be able to get past Hess’ countermeasures. You’ve exceeded all of our expectations, Ryan, which is what makes so regrettable that you’re still so naïve. Oh well. I didn’t expect to die tonight, but now that you’ve made it here…I know a destiny when I see one. It’ll be worth it too, to watch the power consume you just before you take that frenzied final bite. All it’ll take is a little twist of the knife, a push over the edge…”
“You can’t push me to do anything.”
“Not even by telling you that it was I who destroyed Ruby’s ingredients, so that the substitutes she used for your bracelet would break? That it was I who told Grayle exactly where to find you…only after the bracelet broke of course, I couldn’t arouse suspicion. I tried to kill you. I put you in the crosshairs. I put Eli and Vanessa in the crosshairs. You will kill me, Ryan. I can see it all over your face.”
“I won’t.”
“That’s your choice. You can wait for my cavalry to arrive, then you’ll die one way or another. After you do, I promise you I will kill Eli and Vanessa. We can always use more blood. Then I’ll find Evelyn, and I’ll kill her too. She’s becoming much too powerful to have working against us anymore. Someone will have to put a bullet to her sooner or later. Might as well be someone she trusts completely.” He smiled.
Ryan felt a burst of strength course through his body and he transformed in the blink of an eye as he tackled Webster to the ground in front of the doorway and pinned him to the catwalk with one massive paw. The mad doctor simply smiled.
“There it is. There’s the beast. There’s your true nature. Here’s my throat, Ryan, I can’t make it any easier. Show me the killer we both know you are. This is our new world, Ryan. We make the rules! If I have to die for you to see that, this is one sacrifice I will gladly make. Come on! Think of the people I’ve killed, the hundreds! Think of the people I will kill, how they’ll cry out for you to save them but you won’t be able to because you couldn’t bring yourself to take one little life. Or I suppose I should say, another little life.”
Ryan roared savagely and brought his snout within inches of the doctor’s face. The werewolf’s immense heart beat with the excited anticipation of the kill. Ryan breathed deeply, in and out, wondering what he himself was about to do. The doctor smiled still.
The wolf in his head urged him forward with a frantic desperation. Two inches more and he’d reach the throat. Two inches and he could get at the blood and the meat. Two inches and he could savor the sound of the prey’s final breath gurgling out of a ragged, gaping hole in the neck.
Ryan felt his heart slow. He released the wolf and reverted back to human form. He didn’t have it in him. He sat back on the cold steel catwalk and panted with exertion and adrenaline. He had beaten it.
In a flash, Webster sprang up and tackled him. Ryan’s back slammed against the metal and his vision swam. Ryan saw now that it had all been a bluff: the doctor knew Ryan would never kill him, so all he’d had to do was wait until Ryan had let his guard down. It had worked.
Webster leapt on top of him and pressed a needle up against Ryan’s throat. He felt the sharp metal of the syringe press against his neck, but it didn’t break the skin. If Ryan transformed, the needle would prick him. If it pricked him, the compound would enter his bloodstream and carry the death-dealing silver to all his major organs in a matter of seconds. That was assuming it didn’t cause his veins to burst open first. The two men stared at each other.
The doctor gave a mad snarl and tensed his arm to drive the needle into Ryan’s neck. At the same time, Ryan grabbed the doctor’s arm and tried to force it away. They struggled for a moment, but the night’s exhaustion sapped the strength from Ryan’s muscles in only a few seconds. In a few more, he knew he’d be dead.
Behind them, the door squeaked open and Webster looked up. It was just enough of a distraction for Ryan to shove the man’s arm away and scramble out from under him. Webster rolled away and the syringe flew out of his hands and skittered across the catwalk, over the edge, and down into darkness.
In the doorway, still too weak to stand or even sit, was Evelyn. Tears flowed freely down her face and Ryan could tell she had heard every word the doctor had said. She looked Ryan dead in the eye. He gave a tiny shake of his head. She stared at him, then gave the smallest of nods.
Webster crawled toward the catwalk railing and propped himself up to sitting. The syringe had fallen and it was long gone. The doctor was finished. He simply sat there and smiled.
Evelyn used what was left of her strength to slide the gun across the metal grating. Ryan looked at it. Something was different.
He could feel it now: finishing this wouldn’t send him over the edge, not as long as he had people there to grab him before he fell. When he had been ready to close his jaws around the doctor’s throat, it had been about anger and hatred and revenge. This was about right and wrong. This was right.
No images of Frank Spalding flashed before Ryan’s eyes, no questions of guilt or redemption. He could kill this man. Not for the things he had done to Ryan, but for what he had done to Ryan’s friends. For betraying the trust of a frightened, hot-headed girl who barely even knew what trust was. Killing Webster would not atone for killing Spalding, but he knew now it wouldn’t send him over the edge either. Spalding’s death had caused Ryan more sleepless nights than he could count. He would sleep soundly tonight.
Ryan picked up the gun and pressed it to Webster’s forehead.
“About time.” Webster said. “What’s this for? Redemption? Or is it just because you want to watch the light go out of my eyes? Or wait, for Spalding?”
Ryan was calm. Thoughts of Evelyn, of Eli, of Vanessa, of his mother.
“No. For them.”
The gunshot echoed off the stone walls.