Operation (28 page)

“So you are saying it is impossible?”

“Not impossible, just extremely difficult. But I can tell you this much, unless we resolve the girls’ disappearance in some way, the restrictions will never be eased. Not to mention that if they discover that you, Andre and Iliga are alive, they will stop at nothing to recapture or destroy you.”

“So what do you suggest?” asked Dimitri.

“The only way you will be able to get them out is to get the dogs called off and the only way that is going to happen is to either produce the girls or two bodies.”

“That is not going to be easy,” agreed Dimitri.

“Welcome to my world,” said Reese as he snickered. “Easy doesn’t enter into it. Let me think about this and see what I can come up with. Remember if they find you, they will come after me as well.”

“You fear this and other things,” Dimitri said.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Reese asked wondering what he was referring to.

“I have seen your dreams,” said Dimitri plainly.

Reese felt his stomach somersault with fear at the mention of his dreams. He was not ready to discuss that issue with Dimitri. Not now and maybe not ever. “Well, let’s not worry about my dreams for the moment,” Reese said quickly dodging the subject. “We have enough other stuff to go around for the moment.”

“As you wish, but we shall come back to it later. So it is my turn to ask, why did you come here tonight?” asked Dimitri, “and did you know you were being watched?”

“I’m not surprised about being watched,” said Reese, “probably agency people.”

“We took care of him,” Dimitri said indicating Andre who remained in the distance and totally silent during their conversation.

“You didn’t kill him, did you?” asked Reese.

“No, he is merely… resting. But you didn’t answer my question, why did you come here?” asked Dimitri again.

“There have been some unexplained events that center on this area that caught my attention in searching for the girls. I thought it was possible vampire activity. That’s why I asked you if you were living here.”

Dimitri perked up. “What events? Describe them please.”

“Disappearances. First some teenagers and then a police officer. When I started looking into it, I discovered that the investigation is under agency control and there is no information available. It doesn’t add up. It makes no sense for the agency to take over a local case. If anyone, the FBI should have it.”

“Unless there is something they don’t want you to know,” added Dimitri. “And you say it all happened here?”

“That’s just it, they don’t know for sure. All we know is that this place is a common link between both incidents. Supposedly the teens came here when cutting school, so naturally the investigating police officer came here as well. They know he searched the place because a public works employee was here with him. They searched it together and then the officer left, neither the officer nor the kids have been heard from since.”

“Interesting. Tell me about this place,” Dimitri said as he raised his head as if the night breeze had stirred up some scent that caught his interest. Reese saw how his eyes became distracted as if he wasn’t sure about something. He watched as Dimitri’s eyes searched the darkness as if he sensed that someone or something was watching him.

“What?” asked Reese. “Is there something wrong?”

“No. It’s nothing, go ahead.”

Reese didn’t like the way Dimitri was acting. He remembered from the ops they had been on that when Dimitri or one of the other vampires was nervous or unsure about something, they would act this way. He started to explain, “This area is an abandoned US Navy base. It was shut down in the 90’s. It originally came into service around World War II, 1944 to be exact. That’s about it.”

“It would be a good place to hide,” Dimitri said.

“True. But it doesn’t matter anymore. You say you aren’t living here and the girls are with you, so that wraps that part up. The only thing I don’t understand is the agency involvement in the investigation.”

“It remains a mystery along with some other things,” Dimitri said. “I have another thing I can add to the unsolved pile.”

“What other things?” asked Reese.

Dimitri turned his gaze fully upon Reese. “The other day I was drawn to your thoughts it was a dream or something you were having. I could sense your fear very strongly through a psychic connection.”

“Me? I thought that as only when you had a connection to someone via the blood?”

“That is generally correct.”

“Well, we don’t have any blood connection so how could that be?”

“This is true,” agreed Dimitri, “however if we eliminate that possibility, then something still caused the link.”

“Do you have any ideas?” asked Reese.

“Yes, but they don’t seem possible. You are not aware of any experiments being done that might have caused it?”

“No.”

“Then as your famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, claims, ‘when you have eliminated all that is possible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be true’.”

“And what does that mean?” asked Reese.

“Then there may be another vampire,” Dimitri said simply.

“What? That’s not possible,” interjected Reese.

“Why not?” asked Dimitri. “There are many things we do not know, you yourself have acknowledged this. How can you be sure that another of my kind has not been discovered? You said you did not know about the girls, correct?”

“Yes that’s true,” Reese agreed. “But if there was or is another vampire, why would General Stone or Morris not mention it?”

“Perhaps they did not know?”

“I guess it’s possible,” agreed Reese reluctantly, “but how come you didn’t know about it before?”

“I don’t know,” conceded Dimitri, “but what I do know is this connection is generally caused by psychic commingling of the blood or by the creation by the same master.”

“So you’re telling me that the creature that made you, made another vampire and this vampire is near here?”

“It is a possibility,” acknowledged Dimitri. “My master, Alexander, did not ever tell me if he did create others. I am only going by what I know in these matters.”

“What about Josip?” asked Reese, “could he have created another vampire that you don’t know of?”

“No. We were too close? I would have known.”

“Wait a minute, if you would have known if he did, why did you not know about the girls?”

“They were not developed enough. Even they did not understand what they were. Given time, they would have become more developed and I would have sensed them.”

“So certain powers come with the age of the vampire?” asked Reese.

“Yes.”

“Why did you not mention that before?” asked Reese feeling as if Dimitri had withheld information.

“You didn’t ask.”

“Hmmm, well is there anything else I should know?”

“Not that I can think of,” said Dimitri.

“Okay,” said Reese, “I’m not sure if I buy into this ‘other vampire’ theory, but let’s say for argument’s sake that you’re correct. How does that explain you getting the, what did you call it, the psychic connection to me?”

“Once the blood connection is eliminated, then this other vampire is close to you somehow. It could be close in terms of either physically or mentally.”

“Hold on, you’re losing me here,” said Reese.

“Think of thoughts such as dreams or memories, and place it in terms of water. They flow through your mind and sometimes they crest their banks and spill upon others.”

“So, it could be anyone that I have been in close proximity with.”

“That is correct.”

“Well that really narrows it down. Do you have any idea how many people I have been around the past few days?”

“That may be irrelevant at the moment,” said Dimitri, his voice and tone changing. Reese saw that earlier look of distraction return to his face. Dimitri turned to Andre and motioned to him with some form of signal that caused Andre to also become more heightened in his posture.

“Yes, irrelevant,” murmured Dimitri. He closed his eyes and appeared to become intensely focused on something.

“What’s going on Dimitri?” asked Reese. “What’s irrelevant?”

Dimitri opened his eyes and looked at Reese. “There is another vampire and it is very near.”

“Near as in… in this area?” asked Reese.

“Yes. We should explore this place further,” said Dimitri, “follow me.”

“Ah, sure,” Reese agreed. “Lead on.”

C
HAPTER
F
IFTY
-S
EVEN

“Why have you not told me there are others… like me?”

Samantha slowly replaced the handset into its cradle and turned to face Christina, her eyes wide with fear and surprise. “What do you mean?”

 “Please don’t treat me like an idiot,” said Christina. “I know they exist. I felt their presence. I have done what you have asked of me for many years. You can at least be honest with me now, besides, I will know if you lie.”

“You’re right,” Samantha said grudgingly. “That is why I came here tonight. Your new assignment is to…”

“Tell me about them?”

“Yes. There are two of them.”

“Why did you not tell me earlier?” asked Samantha.

Samantha sighed. “It was a military action and we did not know about it when it occurred. Later, when we learned of what had been done, we had them transferred to what we thought was a secure compound in an area not far from here.”

“For what purpose? Were you intending to replace me?” asked Christina.

“No. They were to be treated as additional assets.”

“I wish to see them,” said Christina.

“You can’t. As I tried to tell you earlier, they have been taken,” Samantha said.

“Taken, what do you mean taken?”

“We still don’t have a complete picture yet, but it appears that they had help in getting away from us.”

“Ah, now I see why you’re here,” said Christina as she began to understand. “This is not only about finding them it is about killing those that took them from you.”

Samantha ignored the comment as she said, “We need to get them back before anything happens to them or they are discovered by someone else.”

“You are worried about losing your superiority in this arena, aren’t you? Someone else will have their own assassin to send in to take care of their problems.”

“Not my problems, my country’s problems,” Samantha shot back. “But that is one way of putting it.”

“Well, what have you got to go on?” asked Christina.

“Not much. We have people working the issue but they haven’t come up with anything specific to go on. We’re searching all locations that look like potential hideouts but still we’ve found nothing.”

“You said that you suspected that they had help in escaping? How did you conclude this?”

“They had only been in the facility for a few days. Someone had to show them how to get out. After all, they were just young girls who didn’t…”

“Girls?” asked Christina. She remembered the images she had received from John’s nightmare. There was nothing there that she had seen that resembled little girls. On the contrary, she remembered a male vampire quite specifically.

“Yes, two young girls, their approximate ages are thirteen and seven.” Now it was Samantha’s turn to look at Christina oddly. “What did you think they were?”

“I assumed they were male,” Christina said trying to hide her surprise. “I couldn’t tell from the connection I had with one of them,” she lied.

“Well regardless of their sex or size, they are still extremely valuable assets and I want them.” Christina heard the demand within the Handler’s voice. “And I want you to find them,” she continued. “This takes precedence over everything else.”

“I can try, but we need to narrow the search area,” she suggested trying to sound helpful although she had no intention of turning the little ones over to her.

“We have a specialist on the team that has a background that is useful,” Samantha continued. “We have asked for his assistance on other issues in the past. If you two work together, then maybe you can come up with something.”

“That will help,” agreed Christina. “When can I meet him?”

“Tomorrow night, I’ll arrange a meeting with you and…”

“Commander John Reese,” a man’s voice called from the shadows.

Christina and Samantha turned in the direction of the voice. A dark figure was emerging from the shadows but had not fully stepped into a lighted area where they could see.

“She already knows him,” the voice said, “yes, she knows him very well.”

The figure stepped into the light.

“Mr. Smith, this is a surprise,” Samantha said. “How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t,” he said. “This is, how should we say, a happy coincidence perhaps. We installed a tracking device on Commander Reese’s car. Tonight, someone took out my associate who was watching his house. When we activated the tracer, we saw that the location he came to tonight was the same area of the incident we had last night. We knew there had to be some connection.”

“Last night?” Samantha said. “What are you talking about?”

“You killed Jake,” Christina said, as she pushed Samantha aside.

“Yes,” the man with Mr. Smith said as he smiled. “He bled like a stuck pig but he didn’t give you away. The dumb shit, I might have killed him quicker if he had given you up. But he was too stubborn to make it easy on himself.”

“Then you will die,” Christina said her voice becoming deep with a raspy undertone. She took slow steps toward the man. “And I will not be quick as I pull your limbs from your body.”

“Christina,” Samantha said. “Don’t do anything foolish.”

“This man is mine. He must pay for the death of Jake,” Christina said as she shot across the room at the man with such speed that no one else had a chance to react. She grabbed a handful of his hair and jerked his head back with such force, an audible crack was heard. Her other hand sliced at his clothing at such speed that neither Smith nor Samantha could distinguish the blurred movement. Next she slowly ran her long fingernail under his chin drawing a line of blood.

“Stop it!” Samantha shouted.