Vanquished Read Online Free PDF Page B

to get with the program, and Solomon needed someone fully committed to mass extermination.
    “And they’re dropping like flies from . . . ?” President Kilburn asked.
    Solomon smiled patiently. “We sprayed a toxin on the local produce,” he said. “Not traceable. Incurable. So the humans come in for help . . . and they don’t come out.”
    Kilburn swallowed hard and nodded. “But we . . . my family . . .”
    “Just don’t eat any chilies,” Solomon said pleasantly.
    The monitors revealed more “hospitals” and other camps for humans. Solomon had been building them for months, but was only now informing the president. The camps were being presented as “overflow facilities for ourcrowded prisons,” and of course some of the inmates were convicted criminals. But others would be undesirables—rabble-rousers, protestors, and anti-vampire terrorists—who would never face trial. The definition of “undesirable” would be repeatedly expanded until anyone Solomon could not control—human or vampire—found him or herself behind barbed wire.
    It would be some time before this bothered the Americans. After the chaos of the war, humans wanted security and order. The majority cheered the removal of low-life scum and troublemakers from their streets. By the time things reached a point where they realized mankind had been reduced to an exotic species, it would be too late for them to do anything about it.
    “Now, this camp is located in Malaysia,” Solomon said to Kilburn. He frowned. “You seem distracted.”
    “How’s the supersoldier program coming?” Kilburn asked.
    Inwardly Solomon seethed. The supersoldier hybrids were disintegrating. He had scientists from all over the world poring over the files Dantalion had e-mailed him before the lab in Russia had exploded, but a critical component must not have come through.
    “Come and see,” he replied.
    Kilburn stood staring at the screens for a few more seconds, then trailed after him. Six armed guards—three human, three vampire—snapped to attention as Solomonand Kilburn entered the dimly lit corridor. As they progressed down the passageway, the guards stationed at other doors saluted them.
    At the end of the corridor they paused for retinal and fingerprint scans. Solid steel elevator doors opened. The guard inside saluted as Solomon, Kilburn, and their security detail entered. Then the elevator descended, passing floor after floor, until at last it stopped, seemingly at the bottom of the world.
    They walked through a literal maze of corridors, arriving at a steel door guarded by more soldiers in full battle gear. Solomon key-coded the door, and it opened with a vacuumlike fwom .
    After another series of guarded doors, they finally reached one marked BIOHAZARD . Kilburn stank of terror. Solomon was gleeful.
    Six cells, each containing a hybrid, faced them. Solomon led the way to the second cell. A creature, part werewolf, part vampire, part human, and mechanically enhanced, glared at Solomon. Thick, greenish wrists were restrained by handcuffs. Its furry ankles thrashed, clanking the chains that held them. Its long claws tapped against the tile. A thick rope of drool dangled from its mouth. Werewolf teeth gnashed and vampire eyes glowed red.
    Kilburn was really losing it, straining to act normal despite his shallow breathing. Maybe he wouldn’t have been so frightened if he’d known—as Solomon did—that the hybridwas slowly rotting from the inside out. So were the five other hybrids. The different strands of DNA were unraveling. If Solomon was lucky, these hybrids would last another three or four months—long enough for the team to create replacements—if Solomon still needed to pretend that he was fulfilling his promise to Kilburn. Of course, Solomon planned to create his own army, and he’d make sure his hybrids were bigger, faster, and stronger than the supersoldiers he created for the humans. But right now the project was a