Table of Contents
also by anthony e. zuiker
LEVEL 26: Dark Origins
LEVEL 26: Dark Prophecy
To Uncle Denis Scinta, my biggest fan
It is well-known among law enforcement personnel that murderers can be categorized as belonging to one of twenty-five levels of evil,from the nave opportunists starting out at Level 1 to the organized, premeditated torture-murderers who inhabit Level 25.
What almost no one knows is that a new category of killer has emerged. And only one man is capable of stopping them.
His targets:
Level 26 killers.
His methods:
Whatever it takes.
His name:
Steve Dark.
WILL
YOU
STEP
INSIDE
THE
LABYRINTH... ?
chapter 1
LABYRINTH
The homeless man sways back and forth, back and forth, on the street corner just across from the big gleaming white phallus of Los Angeles City Hall.
Hes either preparing to cross the street or keel over and die.
But he wont die.
Not yet, anyway.
After a few moments he wipes his brow, hoists the box under his arm, then ambles across the street.
Good puppet.
Watch him walk through the neatly designed plaza, enter the front doors of the gleaming new Police Administration Building, and make his way right up to the smooth polished wood partition of the security checkpoint.
The homeless man stands there and waits for a guard to see him, just as instructed.
Guard asks,
Help you?
The security detail is used to men (sometimes women) showing up in this condition, looking for handouts or a smoke or a bathroom, but this homeless man merely smiles, revealing rotted, pulpy gums and meth-ravaged teeth, holding up the box like a moron, wordlessly gesturing for the guard to take it.
Just like I told him to.
The expression on the guards face practically screams:
BOMB
Everybody scrambles.
The new administration building has state-of-the-art antiterrorism gearyou dont go dropping $437 million on a new police facility without dedicating a fat chunk of that money to security, not in this post-9/11 world where government buildings, and public servants, are prime targets.
Through the plate-glass windows I watch as the homeless man and his box are forcefully and quickly separated.
I sit on the bench and sip a cup of slightly bitter shade-grown coffee.
At long last, it begins.
I can do many things.
Things you couldnt even begin to imagine.
Powers, skills, and abilities beyond the human ken.
However, I cannot see through walls.
Still, I know exactly what is happening inside police HQ right this very second.
By now, the suspected B-O-M-B would have been brought to an outside facility for examination using the latest equipment. X-rays. Chemical tests. Each test costing the residents of Los Angeles a stunning amount of money.
The old protocol used to be simple: Blow it up first, sift the remains later.
But not now, in these heightened times.
If only they would open the box, all would be explained. But I knew they wouldnt open the box, because they feared a bomb might be inside.
And truth be told, they are right. I did send a bomb.
Only its not in the box.
Now the homeless man would be brought to an interrogation room with two deputy chiefs of the Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau.
I checked the rosters and knew exactly who would be in that room with the foul-smelling homeless man.
Men with checkered pasts.
And the homeless man wouldnt say a word. Hed be semi-coherent, at best.
Wouldnt ask for a lawyer, nor respond to direct questioning.
Wouldnt dare.
Just like I trained him.
[To enter the Labyrinth, please go to Level26.com and enter the code: boom]
chapter 2
DARK
Downtown Los Angeles, California
When Steve Dark arrived at the chaotic scene at LAPD HQ a burly row of uniforms yelled and tried to push him backno access, no nothing, dont care who youre with, dont care what you say. Dark calmly removed the cell phone from his jeans pocket, pressed a button, then showed the screen to the nearest cop.
Oh, okay, one of them mumbled, then parted to let him through. Guys, hes okay. Let him in.
Dark still had his get-into-any-crime-scene-free pass, courtesy of Lisa Graysmith. The digital image on his phone allowed him passage into pretty much any law enforcement perimeter in the world. It was a universal COOPERATE WITH ME OR ELSE badge, with clearances at the highest level. Dark had received it in an instant, but he knew it could just as easily be taken away.
He was led to the interrogation room, which had been rocked by the explosion. The blast, Dark could see, was brutal yet short-range: meant to kill those in close proximity, but not cause structural damage to the building. The rooms were too small, too well insulated. The blast would have nowhere to go but through them all. Dark thought about the flesh ripped from bone, the pulpy fragments of what used to be a human life splattered over the walls of the interrogation room.
What happened?
An LAPD crime scene investigator glanced at Darks badge, then explained that the two detectives were in the same room with the suspecta homeless man whod carried in a suspicious package.
Turns out the package wasnt the worry, the CSI said. The guy was a living bomb. Were trying to pull enough together to figure out what type.
Wheres the other package? Dark asked.
Over in the forensics lab. Ask for Josh
Banner? Yeah, I know him. Thanks.
Dark had heard about the blast while making breakfast for his daughter. He immediately put on his headphones and tuned in to the police band for the details: A homeless man had shown up at LAPD headquarters with a package thought to be a bomb. But instead of the package exploding, the man didkilling two seasoned deputy chiefs and injuring six. Within minutes Dark was handing off his daughter to his mother-in-law and climbing into his Mustang, hell-bent for downtown.
This was no ordinary terrorist incident.
Ordinary terrorists dont leave mysterious packages behind.
Steve Dark used to be a cop.
The best of the best, working for the most elite manhunting unit in the FBISpecial Circumstances Division. Hed worked for Agent Tom Riggins, the man whod carved Special Circs out of the Justice Departments ViCAPViolent Criminal Apprehension Programduring the mid-1980s. For years, Riggins and Dark and their colleagues hunted the worst monsters to ever scuttle across the face of the earth. And Dark was usually leading the hunt.
Until one of the monsters struck back in the worst way imaginable. Dark had been raised by a loving foster family here in California. His new parents, Victor and Laura, thought they would never be able to conceive. They adopted Steve. Then soon after, Laura got pregnant. Twin boys. Still, they treated Steve no differently than his younger siblings.
