The morgue entrance reeked of formaldehyde and death. Kasper's nanobots recoiled from the chemical stench as they descended into tunnels that predated the subway rerouting. Douglas gripped Thompson's 1924 blueprints, the old paper crackling with each careful fold.
"Power grid's different," García whispered, comparing her tablet to the ancient diagrams. Her hands trembled as she traced the routes. "They've rewired sections, but the pneumatic tubes..."
She pointed to a narrow passage marked in fading ink. "Still functional."
The tunnel curved ahead, lined with ceramic tiles from Buenos Aires's golden age. Art Nouveau patterns spiraled along the walls, now stained with decades of condensation and neglect. Their footsteps echoed off the curved ceiling like gunshots.
Kasper raised his fist. Full stop. Combat formation.
Above them, screaming.
Not panic screaming. Death screaming.
García's analytical mask cracked completely. Her tablet shook in her grip as she cross-referenced the blueprints. "That's... Dios mío, that's coming from the psychiatric wing."
Douglas checked his sidearm. The metal felt cold and inadequate against his palm. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the tunnel's chill. Twenty-seven potential hostiles, unknown enhancement levels, zero backup. "How many Lazarus survivors?"
"Twenty-seven confirmed." García's voice broke on the number. "Madre de Dios, those screams..."
Twenty-seven people I don't know. Twenty-seven reasons to die tonight. Standard urban combat doctrine says retreat and call for reinforcement. But those screams...
They climbed through a maintenance access, emerging into a supply closet that smelled of bleach and terror. Kasper cracked the door. Hospital corridor. Fluorescent lights flickered overhead, casting shadows that moved wrong.
A nurse ran past, her white uniform splattered with blood that wasn't hers. Her eyes were wide with shock, unseeing. She stumbled, caught herself against the wall, kept running.
"Señor," she gasped to no one. "Por favor, ayúdanos."
Then they saw it.
Seven feet of biomechanical nightmare stalked down the hallway. Part cybernetic enhancement, part organic horror. The cyberllich moved with predatory grace, chrome-plated skull reflecting the dying fluorescents. Its right arm pulsed with electrical malice, cables and flesh fused into something that belonged in nightmares.
"Jesus Christ," Douglas breathed, his voice barely audible.
The creature turned. Empty eye sockets fixed on their hiding spot with mechanical precision. Targeting systems engaged with soft electronic beeps. Its jaw unhinged with a wet, mechanical whir, revealing rows of metal teeth designed for maximum trauma.
It smiled.
Kasper felt his blood turn to ice. His heart hammered against his ribs so hard he wondered if the others could hear it. Threat assessment protocols flooded his enhanced vision with tactical overlays, but they all came back the same: probable KIA. I've seen things that would break most minds. But this... this thing was human once. Someone's son. Someone's brother.
Behind them, a voice spoke in Spanish-accented English. "You're not the only ones hunting tonight."
Kasper spun, exoskeleton powering up with a low hum. Servos whined as combat protocols engaged. Weapon acquisition systems came online. A young man stood in the shadows, maybe twenty-five, with dark hair and scars that told stories of surgical precision. Next to him, a girl who couldn't be older than seventeen, but her eyes held centuries of pain.
"Easy there," the man said, hands visible but ready. His voice carried an odd harmonic resonance, like multiple frequencies playing simultaneously. "We're not your enemy. Tonight, anyway."
"Identify yourselves," Douglas demanded, hand still on his weapon. Standard police protocol for unknown contacts.
García's tablet chimed. Emergency broadcast. She angled the screen so they could all see, her fingers white-knuckled on the device. Channel 7 was running live footage from outside the hospital. Police barriers. SWAT teams. And behind them, reporters describing "terrorist activity" and "enhanced individual threats."
"They're spinning this already," Douglas muttered. His jaw clenched. Twenty years on the force, and he knew media manipulation when he saw it. "Bastards work fast."
"Gets worse." García scrolled through social media feeds with shaking fingers. "Someone's feeding them tactical information. Real-time updates on our exact position."
Kasper felt ice form in his chest. Not just media manipulation. Active tracking. Counter-intelligence protocols suggested immediate extraction, but civilian casualties made that impossible. Someone wanted them exposed, vulnerable.
The young man stepped forward. "Rui Rulvan. And this is Lydia Ceballos."
"Project Lazarus survivors," García whispered, recognition dawning.
"Sobrevivientes," Rui corrected quietly. "Among other things. That creature out there hunts people like us. All of us."
People like us. He's including me in that category. Enhanced individual classification. Should I be insulted or terrified? My nanobots are screaming warnings, but there's something else. Recognition. Like looking at a broken mirror.
The cyberllich's footsteps grew closer. Methodical. Patient. Each metallic clank echoed through the walls like a countdown timer. Hunt pattern Alpha: systematic elimination, room by room.
"Listen," Rui said, watching Kasper's face carefully. "You have two choices. Fight together, or die separately."
Kasper studied the young man. No fear. No desperation. Just cold calculation that reminded him of himself staring into a mirror. Tactical assessment suggested cyborg enhancement, threat level unknown. The recognition made his stomach twist. "What are you exactly?"
"The same thing that's hunting us." Rui's eyes never left Kasper's. "But I chose differently."
He's a cyberllich. Every instinct screams at me to put three rounds center mass. ROE dictates immediate termination of hostile enhanced individuals. But those screams upstairs... children's screams. Children who sound like Miguel did when...
Lydia stepped forward. Her small frame seemed to ripple, as if reality bent around her edges. Shadows deepened wherever she moved, gaining substance. Temperature drop: five degrees and falling. "There are children here. Niños inocentes who don't deserve to die for someone else's experiments."
The screaming stopped. Sudden. Final.
Silence pressed against them like a living thing.
"It's finished with the first floor," Rui said quietly. His jaw tightened. Military precision in his assessment. "Psychiatric wing next. Then pediatrics."
Douglas looked at his partner. Thirty years of police work, and it came down to this. Trust monsters to fight monsters, or watch children die while maintaining moral purity. Hell of a choice, partner.
Kasper's throat felt like sandpaper. His mouth tasted of copper and fear. "What do you need?"
The words tasted like ash. Every year of training rebelled against them.
"Distraction. That thing's programming focuses on eliminating witnesses in order of threat assessment." Rui pulled back his sleeve, revealing forearm implants that pulsed with bioluminescent patterns. Biotech integration, military grade. "Right now, you're not even on its list."
"And you are?"
"I'm number two."
"Who's number one?"
Lydia raised her hand. As she did, her shadow expanded, writhing with shapes that belonged in nightmares. The temperature in the closet dropped another five degrees. Frost began forming on the metal shelves like crystalline spiderwebs. "Me."
What the hell have I gotten myself into? And why does part of me feel relief that I'm not facing this alone? When did I become so tired of fighting everything by myself? When did I start believing I had to carry everything?
Through the supply closet's thin walls, they heard the cyberllich methodically searching rooms. Door after door. The sound of medical equipment being torn apart with mechanical precision. Hydraulic systems hissing. Getting closer.
"Plan?" Douglas asked. His voice was steady, but sweat ran down his neck despite the sudden cold. Standard tactical assessment: they were outgunned, outmaneuvered, and running out of time.
Kasper checked his weapons. Standard protocol: neutralize the cyberllich threats first, then deal with the unknown entity. But protocol didn't account for children bleeding to death three floors up. Protocol didn't account for the look in Lydia's eyes when she mentioned innocents. Protocol didn't account for how much those screams sounded like his brother's voice echoing through that burning building in Córdoba.
"I draw its attention. You get the survivors out."
"No." Rui stepped between him and the door. "It'll cut you apart. That exoskeleton won't protect you from what it's carrying."
"Then what do you suggest?"
Rui pulled a device from his pocket. Small. Chrome. Pulsing with the same frequency as his implants. Military signal amplifier, probably stolen from ATA research division. "Signal amplifier. Military grade. It'll make my beacon scream so loud the thing won't be able to focus on anything else."
"Including you."
"Including me."
Lydia grabbed his arm. "Rui, no. We talked about this. Prometiste que we'd find another way."
They have history. Real history. Pain shared between them like battle scars. These aren't just random monsters. They're people who've been through hell and came out the other side still trying to protect others. Still trying to be human. Still carrying the weight.
"Someone has to be the bait," Rui said. "Might as well be me."
Douglas studied the young man's face. Saw the same determination he'd recognized in Kasper twenty years ago. The willingness to die for people who'd never know their names. "There's gotta be another way."
"There is." García said quietly. She was staring at her tablet, fingers flying across emergency protocols. "Hospital lockdown procedure. If I can trigger it..."
"The whole building seals," Douglas finished. "Nothing gets in or out."
"Including us."
"Including the cyberllich."
Kasper felt his nanobots surge with combat anticipation. His heart rate spiked as adrenaline flooded his system. Tactical scenario: enclosed space, superior enemy, multiple civilians, zero extraction options. Trapped in a building with a biomechanical killer and twenty-seven potential victims. No backup. No escape routes. His mouth went dry, tasting of metal and old fear.
Perfect. Just like Costa Rica all over again. Except this time I'm working with the monsters I used to hunt. Dad would be spinning in his grave. Sorry, Papá. Sometimes the rules don't account for children. Sometimes you have to choose between being a good soldier and being a good man.
"Do it," he said.
"Wait." Rui grabbed García's wrist. "Once that lockdown initiates, we have maybe thirty minutes before the thing systematically hunts down every Lazarus survivor in the building. Including the children."
"Then we use those thirty minutes to eliminate it."
"You don't understand." Lydia's voice carried harmonics that made their bones vibrate. The air around her shimmered like heat waves, but cold. "It's not just a cyberllich. It's a prototype. Next-generation enhancement fusion. Part of their preparation for..."
She stopped. Eyes widening in genuine fear.
"For what?" Douglas demanded.
"The war that's coming. Enhanced soldiers. Cybernetic integration." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "They're testing the technology here before they ship it to Germany."
The pieces clicked together in Kasper's enhanced mind with mechanical precision. Tactical analysis: not just witness elimination. Field testing. Live-fire exercises using human targets. The Lazarus survivors weren't just being silenced; they were serving as training dummies for next-generation weapons.
And I'm about to become part of the test. Test subject or test administrator, I can't tell which anymore. Either way, someone's collecting data on how we die.
"How many more like you are there?" he asked Rui.
"Worldwide? Maybe two hundred. Most don't know what they are."
"And this thing?"
"Prototype Hunter-Killer. Designed specifically to eliminate enhanced individuals." Rui's voice dropped to a whisper. "People like us."
García's tablet screamed alerts. Motion sensors throughout the hospital lighting up like Christmas. The cyberllich wasn't searching anymore.
It was herding them.
"Lockdown. Now." Kasper ordered.
García's fingers flew across her screen. Hospital-wide alerts began blaring. Steel shutters slammed down over windows with crashes that shook the building. Emergency doors sealed with pneumatic hisses that sounded like dying breaths.
They were trapped.
All of them.
Through the ventilation system, the cyberllich's voice echoed with mechanical satisfaction.
"Protocol Lazarus initiated. Commencing systematic elimination. Beginning with highest-priority targets."
Footsteps. Getting closer. Each clank a death knell.
Rui looked at Lydia. Some unspoken communication passed between them. Years of shared trauma condensed into a single glance. Trust built on survival and loss and the weight of carrying secrets that could break the world.
They trust each other completely. When was the last time I felt that about anyone? When did I become so alone? When did I start believing I had to carry everything by myself? Miguel trusted me, and I let him burn.
"Time to see what we're really made of," Rui said.
Lydia nodded. Her small frame began to change. Shadows deepened around her, taking on substance and malice. Her eyes shifted from brown to crimson, and when she smiled, her teeth looked sharp enough to cut steel.
"Bienvenidos a nuestra pesadilla," she said.
The supply closet door exploded inward. Splinters of wood and metal flew like shrapnel, embedding in the walls around them. The smell of ozone and superheated air filled the space.
The cyberllich stood silhouetted against the flickering hospital lights, its chrome skull reflecting their terrified faces. It studied them with the patience of a machine built for killing. Cables writhed beneath its synthetic skin like living things. The smell of ozone and burning metal filled the air, mixed with something organic and wrong.
Then it spoke.
"Rui Rulvan. Lydia Ceballos. Your termination parameters have been updated."
It raised its right arm. The biomechanical limb unfolded into something that hummed with lethal energy. Plasma began to build along its surface, casting blue light across the walls. Targeting systems locked onto each of them in sequence.
"New directive: eliminate all witnesses."
Kasper felt something he hadn't experienced in years. Pure, undiluted fear. Not for himself, but for the choice he was about to make. His hands shook as muscle memory warred with moral necessity. The taste of metal filled his mouth. Tunnel vision started to close in, but he fought it back.
Working with cyberliches. Everything I was trained to kill. But if I don't...
Upstairs, a child's scream cut through the emergency alarms like a knife through his heart. High-pitched. Terrified. Calling for his mother in Spanish.
Sorry, Protocol. Sorry, Dad. Tonight, I choose differently. Tonight, I choose to be human instead of a weapon. Tonight, Miguel gets to live through someone else.
He stepped forward, placing himself between the cyberllich and Rui. Between duty and humanity. Between the monster he was trained to be and the man he chose to become.
"You want them?" Kasper said, his exoskeleton powering up with a whine of servos. Combat protocols flooded his system. Weapon targeting systems came online. "You go through me first."
The cyberllich tilted its head, mechanical joints whirring. Optical sensors focused on him with predatory interest. "Kasper de la Fuente. The Void Killer. Interesting. Your termination was not scheduled for this operation."
"Plans change."
"Indeed. Updating parameters. Kasper de la Fuente added to elimination list. Priority: Maximum."
It smiled again, and this time the expression was purely mechanical. Predatory. Data collection protocols engaged.
"This will be... educational."
Behind him, Rui whispered, "Gracias, hermano."
Lydia's shadows began to move.