vampires?”
“Not just vampires,” answered the monster. “Werewolves, mummies, zombies, any number of other monsters.”
“Werewolves? Come on.”
“Yes, Jamie, werewolves.”
“Full moon, silver bullets, all that stuff?”
“Silver bullets are unnecessary,” said Frankenstein. “Normal bullets will work just fine. But the moon controls them, as it always has.”
Jamie’s interest was piqued, despite his scepticism. “What are they like?” he asked. “Have you ever seen one?”
Frankenstein nodded.
“They are terrible, tormented creatures,” he said. “Savage, and instinctive. I hope you never encounter one.”
Jamie paused. “And where do you fit into all this?” he asked, cautiously.
“You’re a well-read boy,” Frankenstein replied drily. “You work it out.”
“But that was just a novel,” Jamie replied.
“Like Dracula?”
“Well... yes.”
Frankenstein looked away. “That miserable little girl,” he said quietly, almost to himself. “She gave my pain to the world as entertainment.”
Jamie tried another angle. “So what happened the night my father died? I mean, what really happened?”
For a moment he didn’t think the monster was going to respond. Frankenstein was staring into the distance, lost in his memories. But then he shook his head, as if trying to clear it, and answered.
“I don’t think you’re ready to hear about that yet.”
The cruelty of this statement almost broke Jamie’s heart. He composed himself, though not so quickly that the watching Frankenstein failed to notice, and continued.
“What about yesterday?” he asked.
“Alexandru has been looking for you and your mother ever since your father died. Yesterday he found you.” Frankenstein replied. He saw the look on Jamie’s face, and anticipated the question that was coming. “We don’t yet know how. But he did.” “Why am I still alive?”
“The girl, Larissa her name is, was supposed to kill you. She didn’t do it.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know that either. She says she won’t talk to anyone except you.”
“Me?” Jamie asked, his eyes suddenly wide. “Why me?”
“Don’t worry about that now.”
“What about my mother? Is she... is she dead?”
“Our assumption is that your mother is being ransomed by Alexandru.”
“Ransomed for what?”
Frankenstein looked at the boy with great sadness.
“For you, Jamie.”
The monster and the boy sat in silence for a long time, letting those three terrible words sink in, until eventually Frankenstein stood up. His shadow engulfed Jamie entirely, and he reached a hand down to the boy, who took it and let himself be pulled to his feet.
Frankenstein led him along the wooden path and out of the rose garden. They walked in silence across the vast field towards the low dome until they crossed the empty runway and Jamie finally spoke again.
“What do they call all this?” he asked, his voice thick with emotion.
My mother. Oh God, my mother. The thing in the grey coat has my mother.
“This?” Frankenstein replied, sweeping an arm to indicate the huge circular base. “This is Classified Military Installation 303-F. But everyone calls it The Loop, for reasons I’m sure you’re clever enough to work out.”
Jamie glanced round at the enormous circular base, and smiled. “Not the base,” he said. “The organisation. What’s the organisation called?”
Frankenstein smiled.
“I’ll let Admiral Seward tell you that,” he answered. “I’m to take you to him now.”
“He’s going to have to wait.”
“And why is that?”
“Because I want to see the girl who tried to kill me yesterday. Right now.”
Chapter 12
A CRIMSON KINDNESS
Frankenstein pressed H on the panel in the lift and they began to descend. The huge man looked straight ahead, his mouth set in a thin line, and Jamie knew he was angry.
The lift doors opened on to a round chamber. In front of Jamie were a thick airlock door and an intercom panel. Apart from that, the walls were bare. The lift doors began to hiss shut behind him, and he whirled around. Frankenstein was still standing in the lift, looking at him. He lunged forward and stuck his hand in the narrowing gap.
“What are you doing?” he shouted. “You can’t leave me down here on my own!”
Frankenstein replied in a tight voice full of edges.
“You wanted to come down here. I didn’t tell you to. Instead, I have to go and tell Admiral Seward that you’ll deign to come and see him when it suits you.”
Jamie stared at the huge man. When the doors began to close again, he shoved a hand between them, but he said nothing. He just stared at Frankenstein, who returned his gaze.
When the doors hissed for the third time, Jamie let them close. As Frankenstein’s face disappeared behind the sliding metal he thought he saw the monster’s face soften, and the wide lips part, as if he was going to say something. But then the doors clicked together, and he was gone.
Jamie turned away from the lift and examined the intercom panel. There was a small button at the bottom of the metal rectangle, and he pressed it and waited. He was about to press it again when a voice suddenly emanated from the intercom, making him jump.
“Code in.”
Jamie leant towards the intercom and spoke into the metal grid.
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, and was embarrassed by the tremor in his voice.
“State your name.”
“Jamie Carpenter.”
There was a long pause.
“Proceed,” the voice said, eventually, and the huge airlock door unlocked with a rush of air.
Jamie
