Nadya’s Nights: Knight of the Living Dead
Night Five: Virus
Chapter Eight: Intelligence
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2010 Indy McDaniel
Nadya had met Lulu in person just after escaping the M.A.D. base. Despite the continuous poor attempts at flirting she made, Nadya couldn’t help liking the girl. She was friendly, up beat and extremely good at what she did. It hadn’t taken much persuasion to convince Vlad that they needed a good hacker at their disposal.
And that was how Lulu got herself on the very lucrative payroll. Although she flirted with everything within earshot and was able to describe various sexual acts in graphic detail, Nadya was fairly certain she was a virgin. At least in the physical sense. Who knew what she got up to on her computers.
Nadya’s feelings towards Lulu could have been accurately described as like a little sister. Except, Xenia had kind of soured her on the whole ‘sister’ concept. So she decided to think of her more as a slightly naive, overly ambitious friend. Which, in a very literal sense, was exactly what Lulu was to her.
Regardless, Nadya felt compelled to protect her friend from certain things. Certain things, in this case, being personified by a horn dog thief.
So as soon as they’d gotten into Lulu’s living area, where they had some privacy from the young hacker, Nadya gave Knight a hard punch to the chest.
“What the fuck was that for?”
“She’s young, inexperienced and lonely,” Nadya said, pointing a finger at him sternly. “I’m not gonna let you take advantage of her.”
“Hey, she might look like a twelve-year-old boy on the verge of puberty but she curses like a sailor, plays ultra-violent video games from the early 90′s and watches hardcore interracial gay porn,” Knight shot back. “I think she can handle the likes of me.”
Nadya glared at him. “Just leave her alone. We get through tonight, I’ll drive you to fucking Amsterdam and you can bang all the whores you want.”
Knight’s eyes lit up. “That a promise?”
Letting out a disgusted groan, Nadya turned away from him. “Men…” she muttered in Russian.
It took less than Lulu’s projected twenty minutes for her to come looking for them. She didn’t look very happy, though. “Well, the good news is, it was easier to find than I thought it would be,” she said. “The bad news is… the location it’s in is even more guarded than the place you hit earlier.”
“What’s so bad about it?”
“Okay… y’know how there was a whole buncha guys with guns in that office?”
Nadya nodded.
“Yea, think kinda like that… only there’s gonna be a mix of vampires and werewolves. And you’re gonna have to fight your way through the whole fucking place to get to the twenty-eighth floor, which is where they keep the shit. Better yet, it’s got the same self-destruct feature as the last place did, so as soon as the security system registers that the virus or the antidote are being tampered with, the place blows.”
“Jesus,” Knight muttered. “They must seriously not want this shit getting out if they’re willing to blow whole buildings up to keep it in check.”
Nadya opened her mouth to ask a question but Lulu cut her off. “I can’t hack into the self-destruct system. It’s deadlock sealed. Only some really high up motherfucker can even access that shit, let alone shut it down.”
“How long after the self-destruct triggers before the building blows?”
“Eh, roughly five minutes,” Lulu said. “Give or take…”
“Beautiful,” Knight said, lighting up a cigarette and letting out a nasty sounding cough. Looking over at him, Nadya saw he was looking a bit paler. The virus seemed to be doing its job.
Nadya looked back to Lulu. “Just tell me how to get there.” Turning back to Knight, she could see the hand he was holding his cigarette with was trembling slightly. “You should probably stay here. I work faster alone.”
“Hey, me, too,” Knight replied. “But like I said, you’re gonna need me to even get into their vault. Besides… I can probably deactivate their self-destruct mechanism.”
“No way,” Lulu shook her head emphatically. “I just told you – “
“Look, kid-o,” Knight interrupted. “I triggered the last one, I know how I did it. Which means, next time around, there’s a good chance I can sidestep that little shit storm and avoid it entirely.”
Lulu didn’t say anything but Nadya could tell from her face that the ‘kid-o’ comment had stung. Knight, as usual, was oblivious. In Nadya’s opinion, that was probably a good thing. Maybe their rendezvous had been successfully derailed already.
“Whatever,” she said, holding up her hands. “You want to come with, come with. You fall behind it’s your own damn problem. You turn into an undead slave, I’ll shoot you myself.”
“Kinda figured as much,” Knight said before starting a coughing fit.
Ignoring him, Nadya moved over to Lulu. “What sort of distractions can you give me?”
“Not many,” Lulu said, giving a worried look to Knight. “Is he gonna be alright?”
“Forget about him,” Nadya said sternly. “What CAN you give me?”
Lulu’s eyes lingered on Knight a few moments longer before she looked to Nadya. “This place is like their major R&D department. Seems like the samples in the other building were just a lucky break. They weren’t really supposed to be there.”
“So why were they?”
Lulu shrugged. “Fucked if I know,” she said. “The R&D’s system is locked up tighter than a homophobe’s asshole. Finding the location wasn’t too hard, but finding out exactly what they’re doing in there is a real pain. If you ask me, the whole goddamn thing stinks of a trap.”
“Like the stuff isn’t really there?”
“No, like they wanted me to find it there,” she said. “Like they’re putting out just enough intel to lure you in. I donno, call it paranoia. Us hackers are bad with the paranoias. Course, that doesn’t mean we’re wrong about it.”
Nadya was agreeing, the whole thing didn’t feel right. But if she had a line on where the antidote was being held, she had to check it out. Of course, that didn’t mean she was going in completely blind. “You said the vault’s on the twenty-eighth floor, right?”
Lulu nodded.
“What about rooftop access?”
“Nice try,” Lulu smirked. “But unless you’re fucking Spider-Man or some shit, there’s no way you’re getting all the way up there.”
“I wasn’t thinking about climbing.”
Lulu’s brow furrowed and she gave Nadya a blank look for a moment before she realized what Nadya was getting at. “Ohhh, you sly fox.”
Nadya smirked. “I have my moments. What I need is some firepower if I’m gonna be heading in that place. And plenty of silver bullets. I’m running low.”
“Want me to call up Vlad and see if he can schedule a drop off?”
Shaking her head, Nadya reached for her cell. “Nah, I should do that. After all, I’m technically supposed to be grounded. What, after being at the scene of an exploding building and all. I figure he’ll change his mind after I let him know what all’s going on.”
Lulu nodded. “I’ll head back to my command center and see if I can break through any firewalls.” She turned and headed back the way she’d come.
Nadya dialed Vlad and put the phone to her ear, waiting for him to answer. After the second ring, he did. “I told you to lay low,” he said. “Since you’re calling me, I take it you’re finding that to be difficult or you’ve come up with an urgent reason why you can’t.”
“Little bit of both,” Nadya said. “The asshole I was sharing a car with earlier. Turns out he’s into some pretty heavy shit involving our angry friends. Put simply, really nasty virus that’ll turn whoever gets infected into an undead slave. In other words, not something very nice. I’ve already got a line on an antidote to the shit that, in my personal opinion, would be a very nice thing for us to have. Problem is, it’s in a pretty heavily guarded building. So, I’m gonna need some weapons and silver.” She paused to take a breath. “How’s your night been?”
Vlad laughed at her last comment. “Clearly not as eventful as yours.” He paused for a moment. “Is there a reason why this has to be such a rush job?”
Glancing over at Knight, Nadya could tell he was feeling like shit despite the tough guy act he was putting on. “The asshole’s infected with the shit. And although he is, without a doubt, an asshole, he does seem to have quite a few useful talents. Besides… you know me. I don’t like to wait.”
“Fair enough,” Vlad said. “The usual assortment of toys and trinkets? Or would you like something special?”
“Surprise me,” Nadya said before hanging up the phone.
