Shrouds of Darkness (24 page)

I shake my head but tell her my suspicions. “Right now my lead suspect is Vincent.”

Katherine looks appropriately shocked at my accusation. “Vincent, head of the Council Vincent? Why would he risk so much on something so dangerous? Surely he doesn’t want a war with the werewolves?”

“I’m not sure. Vincent is old, really old and he is not fond of change. He comes from a time when vampires were feared wielded enormous influence and power. It could be he wants to recapture that. I have also heard that his influence is slipping amongst the Council and voting vampires. He could simply be creating a crisis so that he can resolve it and make himself look stronger.”

“You think he would take that big a risk just to get reelected?” Katherine asks, finding it hard to believe considering the high potential of disaster.

 “It got Bush reelected after 9-11,” I reply with a shrug. “Look, Katherine, I need you to stay away from me. Don’t even call me. It’s for your own safety.”

Katherine bolts from the couch and starts jabbing me in the chest with a finger as she speaks. “I told you before, Leo Malone, you’re not going to scare me off that easily. I’m a big girl and I’ll make my own decisions! I gave you my heart and more and I won’t be cast aside because you’re scared!”

I gently grab her finger and hold her hand.  “It’s not about me, not really. If someone isn’t watching me right now, they certainly will be after tonight, and the less they know about you the better. If they have seen you with me already then they probably just assume you hired me to look for your father. But if they even think there is more to it they can use you against me, use you to hurt me and to stop me from doing my job. I’ll keep you informed whenever I get new information, but right now it is best that we have as few connections as possible.”

Katherine gives thought to my words and sees that they make sense. “All right, but when this is over I’ll be back. And, Leo…”

“Yes?”

“If they hurt my father, I hope you kill every one of them,” Katherine remarks with a level of scorn that makes me proud.

“You can count on that. I won’t even charge extra.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

After Katherine leaves I head into my armory to prepare for my date tonight. I go for the practical yet stylish
Miguel
Caballero bulletproof trench coat with custom-made weapon holders. It’s my last one so I really hope it doesn’t get terribly damaged but that is highly unlikely.

As house warming gifts, I choose a wide assortment of explosives, my favorite amongst them being my high-tech triple whammy which I created by duct taping a smoke, concussion, and fragmentation grenade together.

A few other explosives crafted for various particular functions round out my collection of party favors and I stash the smaller ones amongst my many pockets and retaining straps while the larger ones go into a black combat pack.

"All right, Mr. De Mille, I'm ready for my close-up," I jokingly say to my empty chamber. And people say I don’t have a sense of humor. I crack me up sometimes.

I told Marvin to call me and report any increase in activity, but other than several calls being made, there has been no real physical movement yet so I sit and wait. My gut tells me they will meet tonight, and as the clock slowly rolls over onto the next day, I get the call I am waiting for.

“Leo, I got several of those numbers moving all towards the same spot. It looks like they’re all heading towards the docks on the northwest side of Brooklyn just north of Conover Street. Two of the phone numbers are already there and haven’t moved for about thirty minutes so I’m betting that’s where they’re all going. I can’t say for sure, but Google maps show a huge brick warehouse near the water. I’d bet money that’s where they are. That’s as close as I can get you.”

“I know the place. Good work, Marvin. I’m shutting my phone off so I’ll be out of touch until this is all over. Keep looking into Vtech’s security logs and let me know what you find out.”

I hang up and shut my phone off so an errant call does not give me away. I need my surprise to be total. I am going to be outnumbered but I figure I outclass them by a significant amount. So far, all these scum have just been younglings and street thugs. None of the vampires I have crossed so far have been particularly well trained or been a vampire long enough to have come fully into their full strength. The entire physics of fighting changes when you have a near twenty-foot vertical leap and enough strength to throw someone like a shot put.

It is this difference in skill and shear meanness that I hope will give me the deciding edge in this conflict. That could all change depending on who else shows up to play. Even a couple decently trained Sheriffs could cause my entire plan to go bad real fast, but I never let small concerns like that keep me from doing what needs to be done.

Taking a cab is out of the question. I don’t want any witnesses putting me anywhere near the scene but I need to get there quick. It is time to dust off my trusty bike. It is an old 1981 Yamaha Maxim and it is unregistered and used only on rare occasions. It is also still common enough to give me plausible deniability of any witness sightings.

I take off in the opposite direction of my destination just in case someone is already watching me. I weave in and out of the mild traffic of the late night, zip through several alleyways, and use streets with little or no nearby roofs that would allow another vampire to follow by that elevated route. Once I am certain no one is following me, I make haste towards the suspected rendezvous point.

I park several blocks from the warehouse. There are no nearby structures in which to cross to the warehouse by rooftop so I have to chance the open ground. I’m not too concerned. It is a cloudy, moonless night and I am decked out head to toe in black. The likelihood of posted guards is also slight. One of the vampires’ greatest weaknesses is the confidence of their own immortality. This is especially true of the young ones who still remember how weak and frail their human bodies were by comparison. They will likely be confident that no lone vampire, regardless of his fearsome reputation, will attack an unknown number of enemies.

As I prefer to be, I am right and they are wrong. I spy no guards outside the building at all and I am fully prepared to deal an ass-whooping of epic proportions upon the occupants of that building no matter how many of them there are. I think I have kept to the shadows for too long. People have forgotten what it means to cross Leo Malone. It is time to put the fear of reality back into the legend. The thought gives me shivers and a slight chubby. I need to focus better.

I stick three small explosives to the steel door that is used to enter the building, place a hefty satchel charge in front of it, and attach a trip wire to door handle in case someone opens it before I am ready.

Locating a drainage pipe bolted to the wall, I quickly shinny up the side and gain the roof where I set up a dozen small shape charges in a ring about ten feet across  not far from the door I booby trapped a minute ago . I peer through the broken pane of a skylight and take stock of the goings on below.

There are perhaps a dozen figures gathered near the center of the cavernous chamber below, gesticulating and shouting in obvious agitation. The mob does not worry me as much as the lone figure that most of them are addressing their concerns to.

He, or she, since whoever it is wearing a mask and hood to conceal their features and identity, stands seemingly impassive at the fore of the crowd.

“I thought we were supposed to be protected!” one of the thugs shouts at the figure.

Another one pipes in, “I say we just go kill this mother fucker and be done with it! It’s one guy.”

“You didn’t meet him, Dirk. That guy is not playing around and I for one don’t ever want to meet him again.”

Oh, Mikey, you poor dumb son of a bitch. You really should have stayed home tonight.

“That’s because you’re a pussy, Mikey. You were a pussy in life and you’re a pussy in death,” Dirk shoots back with obvious derision.

“Look,” the masked figure interrupted with a whisper, “Malone will be dealt with, but not yet and certainly not by the likes of you.”

“Then what are we supposed to do? Just wait for him to hunt us all down one by one?”

“
The situation is being dealt with as we speak. There are greater things at work here and greater people at risk right now than you. That loose end is being taken care of right now. Then we will deal with Leo Malone. Until then, find a deep hole and hide in it until you are called.”

I don’t know what loose end the masked man is talking about, but since I am here I doubt he means me. Most likely, they are covering up some key piece of evidence like the fact that the Cure apparently walked out of Vincent’s secure laboratory. Whatever it is, there is nothing I can do about it right now and it looks like my man in the mask is about to leave.

Pulling out a remote, I trigger the three small explosives attached to the door. They are too small to do any real damage but that isn’t the intent. I want it to sound like someone trying to kick the door down just to get everyone’s attention pointed that direction and it works. Knives and guns are pulled out and pointed at the door as they all slowly stalk forward, huddling closer together as they do so.

I pull out all my triple whammies and hurl them through the small skylight so fast that all four are in the air before the first one ever touched the ground. I then sprint across the roof and leap into the air as my grenades explode, filling the room with thick white smoke, concussive blasts, and flesh-rending shrapnel.

At the apex of my leap, I trigger the ring of explosives on the rooftop, creating a perfect hole ten feet across like a giant cookie cutter. Gravity pulls me through the opening along with a slab of concrete the size of a large kitchen table, which I ride down like a surfboard right into the middle of shear chaos and pandemonium.

A gory, red spray like a stomped on packet of ketchup spurts out from beneath the slab upon reaching the ground, indicating that it landed on one of the slower, less fortunate vampires. I hope it is the leader. I do not have time to think about that just now. With my blade in my right hand and Shalonda in my left, I begin dealing out death to everything in my sight.

The smoke is thick enough that it makes it difficult to distinguish friend from foe unless you are within a few feet of them. This gives me a significant advantage since I have no friends here.

I land hard, absorbing much of the impact by flexing my knees and rolling towards the nearest vampire. I lash out with my sword even before I stand up, taking out one of the vampire’s legs just above the knee. A lightning-fast strike as I spring to my feet takes his head off as he meets me half way in his fall to the floor.

A pistol barks from about ten feet away and I feel a bullet tug at the flap of my jacket. I point my hand canon directly at the muzzle flash and squeeze off a round. I am already moving, not waiting to see if I scored a hit, but the scream from that direction tells me my aim was true.

Panicked voices ring out across warehouse as the rogues try to pick out their friends and create some kind of concerted defense. There is no way I am going to let up enough for that to happen.

More screams echo across the vast chamber. These of pain, most of which I quickly silence as I dance through the thick smoke, slashing and shooting at anything that moves. True panic is starting to set in and the vampires begin firing wildly into the thick, pervasive smoke without regard to friend or foe. Curses of pain reply to several of the shots, which allow me to home in on my prey.

I can just barely make out the three forms running for the trapped door. I throw myself to the ground right as twenty pounds of high explosives and ball bearings go off, blasting and shredding all three fleeing vampires into something barely recognizable.

I catch movement out of the corner of my eye and bring my sword up just in time to block a machete aimed for my neck. I force the lethal weapon wide and bring my own blade back in a swift slice, disemboweling its wielder. My equally fast return stroke succeeds in taking off my attacker’s head where his had failed.