Obsessions: A Monster Squad Novel 7 (37 page)

His eyes fell on a portrait of the president on the wall. Bob’s head cocked sideways as he noted the deep shadow along one side of the portrait. “Surely not.” He pushed up from the chair and went to the photo. He tried to lift it and found it attached to one side with a hinge. The frame pulled out and Bob stood facing a safe built into the wall. “Fuck me.”

Fingerprint scanner, retina verification, and a combination lock all built into one safe? How paranoid was this guy? Bob’s shoulders slumped as he pushed the frame back into place.

He turned for the door and paused. His computer! How could he have been such a dolt?

He slipped back into the chair and pushed the power button. He waited for the login prompt to come up and smiled when it asked for the login and password.

Being a computer analyst for the agency had its perks. Having had to repair the man’s computer more than once, Bob had become familiar with the pattern he used for his passwords. He clicked his username and tried the last known password that he had stolen from his login logs. The screen instantly came to life and Bob smiled to himself again. Even if the old bastard deleted the files, Bob could reconstruct them. Nobody bothered to use the DoD shredder that came installed on their computers. They simply moved everything to their ‘trash’ and then on occasion deleted those files. That meant they still existed.

Bob clicked away at the computer and grunted happily when he hit pay dirt. He pulled the USB thumb drive from his keychain and plugged it in, transferring the files to the thumb drive before shutting everything down and slipping the drive back onto his keychain.

He stopped at the door and pulled the hood back over his face before slipping out into the lobby. He purposely left the director’s office door open. He wanted him to know that somebody had been in his office…even if he honestly thought there was nothing to be had.

19

Mitchell watched the monitors as the drone made slow circles above the battlefield. “Keep ‘em busy, boys. We got another drone headed your way.”

“Copy that, OPCOM. Be advised, we’re running dangerously low on ammunition here.” Dominic’s voice sounded tinny coming across the overhead speakers. “I’m beginning to wish I’d have listened to what the little vamp had to say.”

“It wouldn’t be anything good, Sierra One.” Mitchell studied the radar feeds and knew that it would be too long before the second drone could be onsite.

“Any idea how many are in the shadows, OPCOM?”

“Negative. They just keep coming. We can’t even pinpoint a staging area. It’s like they’re just materializing in the woods and advancing on your position.”

Marshall nudged Dominic. “See all that dirt on the bodies? You don’t think they buried themselves out there just waiting for us, do you?”

“I have no idea, Two.” Dom pulled rounds from his partially emptied magazines and used them to top off his others. He tossed the empty mags aside and shoved the two full ones into his vest and brought his rifle to his shoulder. “But with as many of them as were buried in the ground just to trip us up and grab at us? Who knows what they were thinking.”

“We were thinking of capturing you so that we could speak.”

Dom spun and leveled his rifle on the vampire standing beside him. “How the…” He felt the color drain from his face and heard the other operators shift their weaponry to aim it at the man now standing beside him. He made no effort to move, his smile unwavering.

“Would you believe I come in peace?” The man held his hands up, palms out to show them empty and raised them slowly. “I could easily have struck at you while you were distracted.”

“You’d be dead.” Dom flipped the safety off and moved his finger onto the trigger.

“Very true. And that is not what either of us desires.” The vampire stepped back and the moonlight highlighted his features. Long blonde hair trailed behind his ears and brilliant blue eyes sparkled with intelligence. He kept his arms raised and stood erect. “You may search me if you like. You may even take me as a hostage. I wish only to speak with the leader of your group.”

“You getting all this, OPCOM?” Hammer asked as Dom reached forward and pulled the vampire unceremoniously into the middle of the circle of operators. Wallace did a quick pat down and declared him free of weapons.

“My people are waiting beyond the trees. They have strict orders not to advance so long as we are speaking. Should you release me right away…or kill me, they will attack again.” The vampire looked to Dom. “May I sit?”

Dom took a step back and shrugged. “Suit yourself. It’s your funeral.”

“I certainly hope not.” The man was dressed in blue jeans and a flannel shirt. Had they been anywhere else, he might have passed for a hiker or lumberjack. He sat on the ground, crossing his booted foot. He motioned to Dom. “Please join me. We have a lot to discuss, and I think your superiors would like to know what we know as well.”

Dom turned to Hammer, “Keep an eye on the tree line. If anything moves, drop it. That goes for all of you. Keep the perimeter secure.” He turned to the vampire and sat across from him, his rifle resting across his lap so that the barrel faced the man.

“Allow me to begin with an apology. You were not who we thought you were at first. Once we realized you were the human hunters…I sent one of my people to make contact.”

“And who did you think we were?” Dom couldn’t hide the distrust from his voice.

“It is a very long story, but suffice to say, we thought you were hired mercenaries sent to exterminate us.”

“Not too far from the mark.”

The vampire stiffened and nodded slightly. “You are the human hunters, no? The ones who lead the attack against the Sicarii in the desert?”

“One and the same.” Dom sneered a smile.

“Then you are not the mercenaries we thought you to be.” The vampire’s voice grew silent as he spoke. His face took an almost reflective appearance as he turned his attention back to the hunter across from him. “We were crossing through this area and discovered a small group of very young vampires. They had done…unspeakable things.”

“We know.” Dom raised a brow at him, not believing him.

“We are
not
Lamia Beastia
, but we do not adopt the tenets of the Humanus either. We do feed on humans, but we have familiars who volunteer their blood to us. We do not kill in order to feed.”

Dom didn’t like what he was hearing, but he got the distinct impression that he was truthful. He shrugged. “I should care?”

“You should. We took it upon ourselves to remove the troublesome vampires from this area and were about to move on when we got word that they were simply bait.”

Dom’s eyes narrowed. “Bait? For what?”

“For you, we think. Perhaps for us. We are not sure.” The vampire shrugged slightly, his face displaying worry.

Mitchell came across the coms, “Who would be doing the baiting and who told him this?”

“Who told you the baby vamps were bait? Why would they do this?” Dom repeated.

The vampire shook his head. “The only survivor from those we removed is who told us. He wasn’t…new. He was much older. He was ordered to do this thing.”

“By who?”

The vampire averted his eyes a moment and inhaled deeply. “He
claims
that he was ordered to by the Council.”

“Who?” Dom leaned forward, unsure what he was hearing.

“The Vampire Council?” Mitchell asked.

The vampire looked up and nodded. “Your superior is correct. The Vampire Council. We tried to ask him more questions, but he had a suicide pill. Silver. He swallowed it before we knew what he was doing. He would rather accept the true death than betray his masters.”

“And you thought we were mercs sent to kill you?” Dom shook his head. “Why?”

“Hunter, you have much to learn about our ways. It is the true death for any who takes the life of another vampire. But for one who takes the life of a Council’s agent?” The vampire shuddered. “Everyone he has ever cared about shall pay. They will see to it.”

“Pass him coms, Sierra One,” Mitchell ordered. He turned to the communications tech and nodded. “Enter this into the permanent record.”

“I can hear him fine,” the vampire stated as Dom pulled his earpiece and lip mic.

“I think it’s so they can hear you better.” He handed it to the vampire and watched as he fumbled with it. Dom laid his rifle aside and clipped the mic in place then helped him run the wire for the earpiece. “You’re good.”

“To whom am I speaking?” Mitchell asked.

“You may call me Reginald.” The vampire listened to the sounds in the background as Mitchell took his seat again.

“Reginald, I am Colonel Mitchell, I think maybe you should go into a bit more detail here. If there’s a threat coming from the Council, I’d like to know about it.”

*****

Jack watched Gnat run through the rafters unrolling cables as he jumped through the narrow gaps. If he didn’t know any better, he’d swear the little guy had been doing it his entire life. He smiled to himself knowing that the performance his people were putting on would go a long way toward convincing those around them that they were who they claimed to be.

He lifted another stack of monitors and carried them into the office space and set them on the makeshift station that Viktor and Foster were setting up. “I’ll get the power supplies set up on the backside of the office here. The closer to the station, the better.” He gave Viktor a knowing look and the older wolf simply nodded.

Jack went out and picked up the crate with the power inverters and carried them to the backside of the office. With explosives embedded into the monitors and the power inverters, he hoped to direct the blast inward toward whoever was at the station, disintegrating them with one fail swoop.

He ran the heavy extension cords to the inverters and plugged them in, the outputs fed through the wall and to the computer station where Lilith could watch her attacks take place. He hoped that they could convince her to test the system prior to the attacks. If they could remove her and the Fallen one from the equation before any suicide bombers could detonate, maybe they could save a whole lot of lives.

He nearly fell over when he was told what the targets were planned to be. Every major Catholic church across the world and then political heads of state. Capitols, monuments, anything that they could think of that would shake up the people enough that they would lose faith in their leaders. The crazy bitch was adamant that the churches would be her first targets though. She was obsessed with making them pay for what was done to her in a previous life.

Jack mulled over the whole idea of her obsession while he ran the cabling. He knew what it was like to become so focused on something that you lose track of a bigger picture. He had become obsessed with revenge when he found out about the wolf virus giving them their strength. He was so disillusioned with the program and the people running it that he actually ran the opposite direction and joined forces with a vampire. He sighed as he realized once again that he’d set himself up to be let down. Disillusioned by the flaws of the four hundred-year-old being who saved him from the attack that killed his team, he wasn’t ready to admit that people can do the wrong thing for what they believe to be the right reason.

Jack paused as he ran out another run of cabling. He glanced at Thorn inside the office with Viktor and Foster. Was he really that different than Mitchell? The colonel had used the wolf virus to transform the men into fighting machines. True, he damned them, but he made them physically more capable of facing what was out there. Was Rufus that far out of line by creating the Doomsday weapon?

And Apollo. He was obsessed with Maria. When Sheridan got to him and twisted his mind…Jack closed his eyes and tried to shake the gut wrenching pain that he’d been ignoring since he had heard of Apollo’s death. He ground his teeth and clenched his fists as he fought off the urge to scream. One of Sheridan’s men had put a round through Apollo’s skull like he was a rabid dog.

He blew out the breath he’d been holding and let his body sag. At least Apollo didn’t suffer.

“What’s the hold up?”

Jack turned to see a rather large man staring at him. He had to assume it was one of Lilith’s demons. He tried to smile as he shrugged. “Sorry, just got a little frustrated. The cabling keeps getting twisted up…knotting up on itself.”

The man eyed him cautiously then stepped off, back to his own duties. Jack watched him walk off and turned back to his own work. He finished running out the cabling and hooked the proper ends to the power inverters. With power applied, it would feed the computers inside the office. For a little while anyway, before they overheated and shut down.

He patted the detonator in his pants pocket and smiled to himself. Hopefully it wouldn’t take that long.

*****

“Everybody out.” Jim Youngblood didn’t raise his voice as he spoke, but he had that commanding tone that made everyone in the room stiffen and take note. People started filing out of the room when he reached out and grabbed Laura by the arm. “You. Stay.”

“I’m not a terrier, Dad.” She glared at him as the others walked out and quietly shut the door.

He didn’t apologize as he released her arm, but he stood from his bed and pulled back the sheets. Her eyes fell on the dirt, detritus, and pine needles at the foot of the bed. “When did you go out?”

Her father crossed his arms and stared at her. “I didn’t.” He pointed to the mess in his bed. “But when I crawled back into bed, this was here waiting for me. It was stuck to my feet. Any idea how that could have happened?”

She looked to him and saw the accusatory look in his eye. “I have no clue.” She stepped back and shook her head. “What? You think I came in here and planted this stuff when you weren’t looking?”

“Crystal was asleep right there in that chair. I stood up and stared out the window. I get back into bed and…
this
.”

“Well I sure as hell didn’t do it.” She crossed her arms and stared at him.

Jim pointed to her travel bag. “Didn’t you?”

She glanced at the bag she kept the serum in and gave him a shocked look. “Really? You think that the shot did that?” She reached down and picked up a small handful of the dirt and pine needles. “You really think that this is a figment of your imagination?”

“Hell no I don’t. I know it’s real.” Jim Youngblood stared at his daughter and waited for an explanation.

“What do you want me to tell you, Dad?”

“Tell me how I can have a…a…
vision
of running in the woods, hunting down a rabbit. And when I snap out of it and climb back into bed, my feet are covered with the forest floor.”

Laura shook her head. “I can’t.”

Jim sat down heavily on the bed and shook his head. “Do I have this to look forward to from now on?”