Trip was standing over the dead man in the tie, his tomahawk dangling at his side, dripping dark blood. “That was Jim,” he said softly. “Friend of mine. Taught shop. Last time he was the one that broke in. He was the one that got the kids that I couldn’t save. I put those kids in there. I told them to barricade the doors and stay put. I went to get help. I told them to pray. I told them to have faith and everything would be okay. I told them to trust me, but I failed them. I was too slow, too weak…I wasn’t ready then. I didn’t know what I was doing then. I wasn’t prepared. Not this time…Never again.”

I looked to the classroom. The screaming had stopped. It was quiet except for the buzz of the old lights. “What happens now?”

“I don’t know. Last time I got this far they were already dead.” Trip put his tomahawk away and stuck a fresh mag into his subgun. “Let’s find out.”

Stepping over corpses, we reached the classroom. The door was nearly destroyed. One sharp kick sent it flying inward.

As promised, he’d given us our exit. The four of us stepped out onto the empty gambling floor of the Last Dragon casino. The door we’d just come through led to nothing but an empty janitorial closet.

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Earl Harbinger wasn’t even there for me to brief when we got back to the conference center. He was off taking care of another crisis called in by Mitch. Apparently, there was a kraken in the pool.

Cody, Paxton, and the other smart Hunters had come back from the nightclub without incident. They’d walked right through the area where we’d been initially attacked by zombies, and there hadn’t even been a sign that anything had happened there at all. I gave them the rundown of what we’d seen, then had to repeat myself to Klaus Lindemann, who had been made the second-in-command of our operation. I hadn’t been around for that part. It struck me as a cagey move by Earl, though, since Grimm Berlin was respected by many of the companies that didn’t particularly care for us, and even the companies that didn’t like either of us would have a difficult time not listening to the combined experience of those two men.

Nobody I briefed had a clue what the significance of topaz could be, but it immediately sent Lee on a research kick. We had monsters that had violent adverse reactions to silver, and more rarely from other substances like holy water, white oak jade, or salt, so why not topaz? Milo took a raiding party down to the gift shops to find some. There was bound to be some jewelry we could use. It would be nice to have another weapon to use against this thing.