Elizabeth and the Vampire's Cabin (19 page)

Many
of the inhabitants of the Ukla were ready to wind down for the night and Blord
was no exception. It had been a long day, and the artificial lighting on the
ship was dimming in order to give the appearance of nightfall. His body's
natural clock was telling him that dimmer lights meant bed time, and he had to
keep himself from yawning. Street lamps would be turning on soon, and
businesses would soon be wrapping up for the day. But Detective Blord still had
one last thing to do. And that was debrief the inimitable Mr. Lion. Luckily, he
was allowed to do that from the comfort of his own home.

After
a twenty minute walk, Blord reached his apartment in Beach Town. Many of the
apartment buildings had a theme. His was the beach. It was designed to look
like a coastal resort, and was decorated with plants from the beaches of
several different planets. A fake waterfall was in the center of the lobby and
the front desk always had pictures of beaches on it. Blord enjoyed living in
this area of the Ukla. It reminded him of home. He was raised an islander on a
planet mostly of islands. That was why he had been selected to work this latest
case. The higher ups always liked to match people and assignments with similar
backgrounds. Though Blord didn't know how this helped much in his case. He
didn't know a thing about Earth islands.

When
he reached his tiny apartment, he took a moment to lie down on his bed. His
apartment had no bedrooms. It was a room with a bathroom in it and that was all
there was to it. There was no kitchen or places for cooking appliances. If he
wanted something to eat he was expected to go to the cafeteria or a restaurant.
Still, he was grateful for what he had. In this section of the Ukla, where the
peons lived, they often had to share rooms. He was one of the few that were
granted privacy. And that was only because he had served so long on the ship.
He was in his sixth year. Most people couldn't live on a ship for longer than
four to five year. Staying longer than that got you perks.
   

Once
he felt recharged, he turned on the video communication device in his room. He
turned to channel 685. Static. Figures, he thought sardonically. These powerful
beings that ran the Ukla were always fashionably late. And, of course, Blord
was expected to be fine with this. However, if Blord had tried the same thing,
he probably would have been severely rebuked. He might have even been called in
by his boss, the chief of police, if it happened too often. Thankfully, it
didn't take very long for him to be greeted with the face of Mr. Lion.
  

Mr.
Lion: "Greetings Blord. I know it's late and I hate to make you work
overtime. I appreciate you giving me a debriefing at home. What do you have for
me?

"Sir,
I've been reviewing all the tapes. And this is what I've been able to establish
so far. A couple of months ago there was a meeting between Elizabeth, Aaron,
and Agent Gar. I have no clue what happened, because there were no video or
recording devices being used in Gar's tent at that time. Soon after this, Agent
Arthur and Elizabeth attempted to escape. Only Arthur made it off the island,
because we abducted him. We thanked him for all his help, and notified him that
we had every intention of using him in the future for more undercover work. Two
months later, without informing us of his plans in advance, Agent Arthur
arrived back on the island with an unknown man. Because of the limited number
of cameras Agents Marnie and Lyle were able to put on the island prior to all
the inhabitants arriving, we still do not know how they arrived. It's assumed they
arrived by boat. There were no cameras that were pointed toward the shore.
 
The video footage shows the unknown man, and
then Arthur, appearing out of a large hole in the ground on Aaron's territory.
It was broad daylight. Our thought is that he was attempting to reach the cabin
with Elizabeth. Unfortunately, as tough as Agent Arthur is, he is not
invincible. Agent Marnie and Lyle tell us that one of the vampires, Joe Newman,
found him on the rocks beneath the cliff.
 
He most likely fell off the cliff and broke many bones in his body when
he hit the rocks at the bottom. He was also wet, so at some point he was
probably in the water and was washed ashore. The cliff was approximately fifty
feet high. When the sun began to set, we see the unknown man, apparently lost, and
wandering onto Gar's territory. Gar, who had probably awoken not long before,
saw the man and mauled him. He bit out his tongue, gouged out his eyes, raked
his fangs across the man’s face, and then left the body. About five minutes
later, he came back with two coils of rope and a large trash bag. He took a
folded trash bag and a pair of long yellow latex gloves out of the large bag.
He set down both bags and the gloves. Then he stripped down to his underwear,
opened up the other trash bag and put it over himself like a poncho. Then he
put on the latex gloves. After that, he stripped off the man's clothing and
shoes, pulled another set of clothing and shoes out of the remaining trash bag,
and dressed him. Once the dead man was dressed, Gar dragged the body to a large
Western Hemlock. It may have been as high as seventy feet tall. He slung the
body over his shoulder and tied the legs around his waist with the rope. Using
his vampiric strength, he was able to scale the tree fairly quickly. When he
was near the top, he created a noose and hanged the body. He climbed back down,
got dressed, and took the other coil of rope. He wrapped it around the tree.
Next, we see him taking a note from the bag and he seems to attach it to a tree
with several push pins. He grabbed the bag, quickly hunted a few animals, put
himself into an individualized force field, and then ran inside a cave. We had
one camera that could see inside the cave, and there is something suspicious
about it. We had seen Agent Gar go in there before, and it always appeared that
he was "disappearing" into the cave. My theory is that there was a
depression or fissure in the cave that he could squeeze into which, perhaps,
even opened up into a larger area within that cave. This would have allowed him
to hide quite easily if everyone else was unaware of it. In the past we had
seen him walk in there with supplies, and leave without them so this might have
been a "panic room" that he created on top of the force fields we
granted him."

"This
is all a lot to take in. It's incredible. My question is how was Gar able to
lock them into his lot of land on the island. If he was in hiding, then how
would he know when to activate the force field that would lock them in?"

"We
added a component to his communication device. We equipped it with the ability
to provide him with a small video player that he could use to watch the camera
footage from his part of the island."

"Were
you nuts? You turned this guy into a god! He was all-seeing and completely
untouchable in an individualized force field. Not mention he had a larger force
field to entrap his victims, leaving them at his mercy. What were you people
thinking?"

"Sir,
we always had Agent Gar's safety as our first concern. The large force field
was always intended as an invisible "panic room" for him to seclude
himself in. The ability to monitor anyone on his land was just part of the idea
of the panic room. This isn't such an unusual concept on planet Earth. The
wealthy may have a room that they can lock themselves in, watch burglars
through surveillance equipment, and stay safe. The panic room we designed was
just a bit bigger. We thought it was necessary in the event that the other
vampires discovered, or even suspected, he was spying on them, it was thought they
wouldn't show any hesitancy in ending his life. Agent Gar was only fully
protected on his own land. If he had been on the property of another vampire,
he would still have the individualized force field, but he would not have been
able to determine their whereabouts or lock himself into a "panic
room" by using the bigger force field. He was taking a risk, and we felt
this was the least we could do for him."

"So
what happened after everyone got locked in."

"Well,
that easy enough. Ren, one of the female vampires, was the first to die. We
believe she was poisoned by vampire blood that Gar purposely put into a
canteen. Remember, this was Gar's "panic room" so we shouldn't be
surprised if he had a booby trap or two set up as a "just in case."

"That
poor woman. I feel awful for her. Go on."

"It
wasn't too long after her death that we were ready to attempt an abduction. We
realized something was terribly wrong when Gar murdered the anonymous man, and
we had been preparing to stage an abduction since then. Because Gar was
protected by the individualized force field, we couldn't grab him. And he had
already hunted, so he wouldn't need to hunt for another day or two. He probably
could have stayed in that force field for seventy two hours straight before he
needed to come out of it and hunt. So we decided to save the lives of the
people he trapped and abduct them. But they were fast! It was two vampires and
one half vampire. But the half vampire moved like a vampire. I didn't even know
half vampires could be that fast. Aaron and Elizabeth ran in one direction, but
Kyla chose to run in another. And then something horrible happened. It was pure
coincidence. Kyla, the other female vampire on the island ran into Gar's cave.
He must have got the drop on her. We can hear the screams on the footage. The
theory is that he beat her, ripped off her face, and then force fed her some of
his own blood. It could have been as simple as him biting his own tongue and
spitting into her wounds or mouth. He's lucky he didn't die himself. If she had
been able to create open wounds on him, her own blood would have killed him. We
see him dragging her body out into the open and then washing off all the blood
in a stream before he headed off to his cave."

"I
think I know what happens next. We see the video of Elizabeth stepping out from
behind the waterfall."

"Yes.
We went for her immediately and you had your meeting with her. In the meantime,
Agents Lyle and Marnie were contacting us frequently for instructions on how to
proceed. They were afraid for Agent Arthur. He was being tended to by Joe
Newman, but they were informed by the vampire Cal that he did not think Arthur
would live. At that point we did not want to move Arthur, because Marnie and
Lyle told us he looked too injured to be moved. But if he was already dying, we
decided it was worth a shot. Once you sent back Elizabeth, we told Marnie and
Lyle that we would hover high over the cabin. Once they saw an opportunity to
move Arthur outside, they should do so immediately. We could beam them all up
in a moment. They said they had to quickly drag him out the window while Joe
and Cal were in the other room. Once they were outside we beamed them up. And
Agent Arthur was in as bad a shape as they claimed he was. Most of his bones
were broken. He couldn't talk because a lung was punctured and his half his rib
cage was nearly shattered, making it difficult for him to breathe. He's still
unconscious, but I believe he is out of danger now. Half vampires, though not
as powerful as full vampires, heal quickly."

"Once
Agent Arthur is awake, I will visit him and offer him a position on this ship.
It's the least I can do. We can offer him a better life than the anonymous one
he would have had as a half vampire roaming the earth. Are Marnie and Lyle
still aboard?"

"No.
They wanted to go home to Canada, so we dropped them off in a vacant field.
We'll be sending them a nice, large sum of money for their services."

"I
just wish I could have thanked them for their efforts, personally. Now, onto
the more distasteful subject of the night: Agent Gar. How has the interrogation
going?'

"Not
well. I am absolutely convinced that Agent Gar is insane. He either won't
answer our questions or raves about Elizabeth and how she "belongs"
to him and not Aaron. He believes he had to kill Ren and Kyla, and he would
have killed Aaron, in order to get to Elizabeth. I don't even think we can
court martial him, because he would be not guilty by reason of insanity. The doctor
who evaluated him thinks he may need to be "wiped."'

"You
mean, clear out EVERYTHING!"

"Yes,
unfortunately, that is what he is saying. The mind wipe will clear out all the
disease and imbalance from his brain.
 
We're talking a full wipe, which means he will have full amnesia. He
won't even be able to say his own name. But it will take care of the
problem."

"Ugh,
it sounds like Agent Gar is going to end up being a long term problem for us.
We'll have to pay for his rehabilitation and even his confinement until we're
sure he's no longer a danger. What a headache."

Blord
tried not to roll his eyes. Money, money, money. That's all these big shots
ever thought of.

"Agent
Blord, this experiment is obviously done. This is the second time we have tried
to study prehistoric man, and it also the second time it has failed with tragic
consequences.
 
No one will fund our
involvement in this any longer. There are only a few loose ends that I think we
should wrap up. Disintegrate all those cameras on the island! I don't want any
trace of our presence to linger there.

"We've
already done that. They are self-disintegrating unless we command them not to
every twenty four hours. They're all gone by now."

"Then
find out who that dead body is hanging from the Western Hemlock! And do
something nice for Elizabeth and the vampires. We should do something to say
we're sorry."