Shanna

WHAT had happened? An explosion could mean only one person: Clay. But what could he have been carrying to blow out a wall like that? Better not to think about it. Who knew what Clay carried in his bag of tricks?

She just hoped he hadn't gone up with it.

The sergeant had told two soldiers to escort her--a euphemism--to the trailer at the rear of the lot. They pulled her inside and stuck her in what they'd called "the command center."

It looked improvised in some ways--a featureless space with no decorations and half a dozen one-piece polymer chairs. But the small, fixed window that had to be at least an inch thick said otherwise. The best thing about that window was it faced the parking lot. Shanna had her nose pressed against it now, hands cupped around her eyes to shut out the room light, straining to see what was going on.

The door opened behind her. She turned to see four disheveled-looking kids being herded into the room by the same two soldiers who had brought her. They moved away and then another soldier--with bars on his shoulders--strolled inside. He had gray hair and a barrel chest, and his expression was grim. He stared hard at Shanna.

"Who are you?" he demanded.

"Shanna Wiener. I'm an anthropologist."

"Colonel Halford. My men just caught some sort of creature, Ms. Wiener. It attacked them, we believe, with intent to eat them."

"Not eat them," Shanna corrected. "It wanted to suck their blood."

"Do you know what it is?"

"It's..." Shanna's voice went soft. "It's a dracula."

"A dracula."

She nodded.

"As in a vampire? The kind you fight with crosses and garlic?"

She shook her head. "Crosses don't work. I don't know about the garlic."

Shanna expected disbelief, but Halford simply nodded.

"Do you know how many there are?"

"No. The infection spread quickly. There could be hundreds."

He nodded again. Two soldiers came in and saluted. Col. Halford saluted back.

"The autoclave is in place, sir."

"Sound the sirens. Clear everyone to the perimeter. I want detonation in sixty seconds from the moment I stop talking. Dismissed."

The men hurried off.

"What's an autoclave?" Shanna asked. She didn't like the sound of it.

"Same as in a hospital. Used for sterilizing medical equipment. Except this sterilizes a much larger area."

"It's a bomb?"

"It's a giant shaped charge. When detonated it will shoot a plasma jet down through the hospital roof with irresistible force at a speed of eight-thousand feet per second. The jet will penetrate each of the floors like an anti-tank missile melting through a steel armor plate. The air in the hospital will heat to ten thousand degrees, sterilizing the entire structure."

Shanna shook her head. "My boyfriend...my fiance, is still in there."

"I'm sorry, Ms. Wiener. I have my orders."

No. This couldn't be happening. The military was here. They could help him.

"Please. He's a good man. A cop. He saved a lot of people tonight."

"I know. I just heard from four children who talked about a policeman with a big cool gun. But I also heard from Dr. Driscoll, my medical officer. She confirmed these creatures are contagious. We simply can't risk any of them getting away. They've managed to kill six of my men in less than ten minutes, Ms. Wiener. Good men, well trained. Durango has a population of fourteen thousand, and it's only ten miles away. If one of those things manages to get there, it will be a slaughter."

Shanna didn't think, she acted, running for the door, leaping out into the night, sprinting for the hospital as fast as she could.

She had to get Clay out of there. Had to--

Two men tackled her.

A few seconds later she was in handcuffs, being dragged away, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Clay! CLAAAAAY!"