Claire nodded. She focused on the plans first. Anderson was right - it was a straightforward enough job, but a lot of it required her to disassemble the base model, and reassemble in the new configuration. She studied the schematics, and examined each piece that she was to add into the machine. That was an amplifier, capable of boosting the signal at least a hundred times beyond what she'd originally planned. That piece, snapping on underneath, was an inverter that changed the signal from something that enhanced to something that cancelled - which was what she had originally intended, to be able to remove a vampire's desire to attack instead of having to fight in the first place. These were the modifications she'd have made in the course of her studies ... something that would have made VLAD a mostly benign defensive weapon.
But the last piece was the most sinister. It was a complex combination of several different pieces, but from what Claire could puzzle out, it was designed to trigger a different set of emotions. Fear, obviously - overwhelming, paralysing terror. It also seemed to have some other component. From what Claire had seen of its effects, it must have sensitised nerves and created a strong pain reaction. Like a taser, only more intense, and very long lasting.
'What are you doing?'
She jumped. Irene Anderson was staring at her, cold suspicion in her gaze.
'I'm sorry,' Claire said. 'I just wanted to be sure I understood what I was doing first. I didn't want to make any mistakes.'
'Don't,' Anderson said flatly. 'You've got an hour. Move it.'
Claire took a deep breath, put the nonworking VLAD in the centre of the worktable, consulted the plans one last time, and began the work.
She built the thing, piece by piece. The tools were all right there, everything precise and perfectly laid out for her. Anderson was watching her, and she made sure that she did nothing, absolutely nothing, that would draw any suspicion.
Not even Dr Anderson could keep her focus completely on her forever. Claire felt when it started to wander; it was like pressure coming off of her, and she had to work hard to not give any kind of physical signal that she knew something had changed.
Just do the work. Do the work.
By the time she was down to the last of it, Anderson's focus had mostly moved on, though she remained close. And when Myrnin suddenly convulsed and cried out, writhing in his restraints, it drew Dr Anderson's complete attention for a critical few seconds, just as Claire fastened the last piece of the machine on board.
She'd already identified the opportunity, when she'd been going over the plans. The last component had switches built inside. They were tiny, not meant to be manipulated without specialised tools, but she'd deliberately chosen the smallest possible screwdriver, even though it was the worst tool for the job she was apparently doing.
It fit into the tiny slots just far enough to slide the switches in opposite directions.
I have no idea if I'm modding this right, she thought. But all she could do was reverse the order of the switches, and hope that it worked.
As she finished and put down the screwdriver, Dr Anderson was right there to take control - even before she'd managed to take the weapon off its stand to hand it to her.
'Good job, and done in time, too,' Anderson said. She handed it to the man who'd been Claire's shadow and guard all this time. He didn't bother with the safety strap. 'It's time to see if you're reliable, Claire. If you aren't - if you decided to try to pull a clever one and sabotage me - then we're going to find out right now, and it won't go well for you. Or for your friends. This is your final exam, do you understand? Pass, and you win the lives of those you care about.'
Claire met her eyes. 'And what if I fail?'
'Then we have acres and acres of farmland waiting for fertiliser,' Dr Anderson said. 'I'm fighting for the human race. I'm not going to flinch from whatever I have to do to save innocent lives for the future.'
'Neither am I,' Claire said. 'You should have trusted me. I'm really tired of people not trusting me.'
Shane would have recognised that tone. But Dr Anderson missed the warning altogether.
Anderson led the way to the other half of the room, through the clear glass door that separated the two parts. The three vampires knelt where they'd been left, all still submissive. Dr Davis had blood samples laid out on his lab tables, neatly labelled, and he was talking to a lab geek in a white coat - but one, Claire noticed, who also had the rising sun pin on his lapel. He looked up when he saw Anderson, Claire, and the guard, and nodded.
'Excellent,' he said. 'We've been waiting.'
'You can afford to lose one, Patrick? Just in case Claire's tried to do something interesting with her project?'
'I have redundancy now,' he said. 'So, yes. If I had to pick one, I'd say the older-looking one. He seems like the most trouble.'
'Oliver?' Anderson nodded. 'Very well. He's got quite the reputation as a killer. I think that seems appropriate.' She turned to the guard, took the heavy weapon, and held it out to Claire. 'Take it.'
Claire didn't hesitate. The weight settled in her hands, throwing off her balance, but she felt better for having it. Stronger.
'Before you try using it on me,' Anderson said, 'please remember that my friend here has a weapon pointed at your head.'
Claire glanced aside, and saw that the guard behind her had drawn his sidearm, and yes - it was pointed at her, steady and calm. He wouldn't hesitate, she thought.
'What do you want me to do?' she asked. But she already knew.
'I want you to shoot Oliver,' Anderson said. 'I want you to prove to me that I can trust you. He looks as if he is recovering faster than the others, and I want you to render him nonthreatening. Then I want you to continue shooting him. Do you understand?'
Claire swallowed hard, and looked at Oliver. He hadn't raised his head. He looked frail, and unexpectedly old and vulnerable. 'Why?'
'Because I need to be certain we can kill them this way,' Anderson said. 'The simulations say it will work. I need to prove the theory, and document how long it takes to accomplish it. You wanted to be a scientist, Claire. This is what it takes.'
Oliver looked up. It seemed to take a vast effort, from the shaking of his body, but he raised his head and met her gaze. His eyes weren't red. They were dark, and human, and afraid.
'Please,' he whispered. 'Please.'
Claire didn't honestly know what he was asking. She didn't know what he wanted. But she knew what she had to do. It had to be done fast, and confidently, and above all, it had to be done without hesitation.
She took a deep breath, said, 'I'm really sorry, but she's right. I have to do it.'
And then she raised the weapon and held down the trigger.
It seemed to take forever. Oliver was caught in the beam, twitching, eyes wide, mouth open, and the chains rattled against the hasp like chattering teeth ... and then, he collapsed. Dead weight. He fell hard, with no attempt to save himself, and hit the concrete limp and lifeless. All the colour that remained had drained from his face, leaving it eerily blue-white; his eyes were open, dark, and blank. His fangs were down, his mouth half-open.
He didn't move.
'How can we tell if he's actually dead?' Davis asked. He sounded completely unaffected by the whole thing. Claire felt hot, unsteady, numbed into stillness. She couldn't look away from Oliver's eyes.
Dr Anderson went to Oliver, knelt down, and used a silver knife from her belt to cut him. No reaction, though his skin still burned and sparked along the edges of the cut.
She stabbed him. Nothing.
'It's dead,' she said. 'Congratulations, Claire. It's quite a breakthrough. With a little more experimentation, we can understand everything about vampires - how to use them, how to control them properly. And it's all thanks to you.'
'I know,' Claire said. 'So's this.'
She couldn't hesitate, couldn't stop to second-guess herself. She turned the weapon on Jesse and shot her, too. Then turned the gun on Myrnin. She didn't have time to hold down the trigger quite as long before the guard started to rush her, clearly not sure whether this was a killing situation or not, and deciding to err on the side of caution.
It was enough time for her to smash VLAD against the concrete floor and destroy the delicate circuitry before he tackled her.
'No!' Anderson yelled, too late. Myrnin and Jesse were lifeless on the floor, like Oliver. 'No, you fool, what did you do?'
'I ended your experiment,' Claire said, as the guards shoved her down to a kneeling position. 'Because you're not a scientist. You're a monster. I'm not leaving any of them at your mercy.'
Anderson's face turned red with fury, and she grabbed the wreckage of the weapon off the floor. 'Shoot her!' she shouted. 'Shoot her, and shoot her friends, too. And bring me Michael. At least we've still got him!'