Department 19: Battle Lines by Will Hill Page A

catch the second half
,
he thought.
    Then a pang of sadness gripped his heart. He had not really thought about Johnny Supernova in a long time, not even when the obituaries ran in the newspapers and magazines. By then, they had long since ceased to live in the same world.
    Goodbye, Johnny. Sleep well, you crazy bastard.

9
THE SHOCK OF THE NEW
STEVENAGE, HERTFORDSHIRE
    “I’ve lost him!” shouted Alex Jacobs. “Next level up!”
    Angela Darcy swore and ran for the concrete ramp, John Carlisle keeping pace at her side.
    Operational Squad F-5 had been about to head back to the Loop when the call had come through from the Surveillance Division, informing them of a new target. Squad Leader Angela Darcy had asked no questions; she had merely told their driver to head for the new coordinates, as fast as possible.
    She was tired, and knew her squad felt the same. They had taken down a vampire in the north London suburbs, a routine operation that had been perfect for Carlisle. The rookie had been with the SBS in Portsmouth until barely a month earlier, when recruitment to replace the men and women lost during Valeri’s attack had begun in earnest, and he had been summoned to Blacklight to begin his training. He was doing well under Angela’s tutelage; she had been encouraged by the poise and calm he had displayed on his two missions so far, characteristics that she had long since come to take for granted from Alex Jacobs. The quiet, experienced Operator had spent long spells in the Intelligence and Security Divisions, but had requested reinstatement to the active roster immediately after the attack that had hurt the Department so badly. Angela had watched him closely for the first few days, looking for signs of Operational rust, but quickly realised she had nothing to worry about; Jacobs had slipped into the black Operator’s uniform as though he had never taken it off.
    They had found their target, a disoriented, raving vampire in his early twenties wearing the tattered remains of a white hospital gown, exactly where the Surveillance Division had told them they would: in a rail freight yard outside Stevenage station. Angela had led her squad towards him with their weapons drawn, ready to put one more vampire out of its misery before heading for home and the warm comfort of their beds. The target had backed away from them, his eyes glowing red, twitching and twisting like a cornered animal. Angela had been about to give the order to fire when the vampire, its eyes wide with confused panic, turned, sprinted across the metal rails, and leapt over a brick wall into the second level of the multi-storey car park that served the station.
    Angela gasped. The vampire had been little more than a blur, a streak of white that had been gone before she could even tighten her finger on her T-Bone’s trigger.
    “Jesus,” said Carlisle. The rookie was staring up at the looming concrete structure of the car park. “I’ve never seen anything move that fast.”
    Jacobs said nothing; he simply turned, raised his visor and gave Angela a look whose meaning was clear.
    Neither have I.
    Angela felt the faintest flicker of unease in her stomach and pushed it down. “Follow me,” she said.
    She led them back along the deserted platforms and out of the empty station. The car park rose tall against the night sky, an ugly lump of concrete, lit weakly from within by flickering yellow light.
    “Do you think he’s still in there?” asked Jacobs.
    “I don’t know,” she replied, her gaze fixed on the towering building. “Let’s find out.”
    Angela’s boots thudded on the concrete as she ran up on to the car park’s uppermost level. They had chased the vampire up through the structure, getting little more than a glimpse of him on each floor, and she felt a surge of relief as she crested the ramp and surveyed the wide-open area.
    No more levels
, she thought.
Nowhere for you to go.
    Carlisle and Jacobs arrived beside her, weapons drawn, visors