Six Times Deadly: A Lawson Vampire Story Collection (The Lawson Vampire Series) (3 page)

In the back, the two businessmen slid out of the booth and wandered over to the bar.
 
They hefted their briefcases up onto the mahogany and clicked them open.
 
From inside they took out two Skorpion machine pistols.
 
Close-in, those things were awful.
 
They handled them like professionals.

My drink was empty and I wasn’t particularly thrilled with my present company.
 
“So, this is it, huh?
 
You three ride out to do battle with what…the infidels?”

“You think this is about Islamic extremism?”
 
said Sleepy.

“Isn’t that the popular fad these days?”

“There are other reasons for doing what we’re doing.”

“That so?”

One of the briefcase jockeys looked at Sleepy and frowned.
 
“He doesn’t need to know.”

“What difference does it make?
 
Another forty seconds he’ll be dead anyway.”

I hefted my empty glass.
 
“He’s right.
 
Without a fresh one, I’ve got no real reason for living.”

Sleepy leaned forward.
 
“It’s a war, man.
 
No other way around it.
 
We’ve got to do what we’re going to do because no one else is going to do it.”

“But why?”

“Because we’re being invaded.”

My eyebrows waggled some the way they normally did when I thought I might be talking to a lunatic or a close relative of one.
 
“By who?
 
Canada?
 
Mexico?”

Sleepy cast his eyes around.
 
“No.
 
We’re being invaded from within.
 
By evil creatures.”

“Creatures.”

“Yeah.”

“What kind of creatures?”

He looked at me.
 
“You’ll think I’m crazy.”

“Too late for that, Sunshine.
 
C’mon already.
 
Your forty seconds are almost up.”

“You mean your forty seconds.”

“That’s one way of looking at it.”

He stepped back.
 
“All right hotshot.
 
How about this:
 
we’re being invaded by vampires.”

That stopped me.
 
But only for a moment.
 
I knew there were enough crazy idiots out there who thought themselves vampires and would have jumped at perpetrating a rumor like that.
 
Sleepy might have had a bad encounter at a Goth nightclub, for crying out loud.
 

“Vampires.”

“Yeah.
 
But not like the ones we read about.
 
These ones are real.”

“You think there are vampires invading the country?”

“They’re taking over from within.
 
They drink blood, yeah, but they don’t need coffins and shit like that.
 
They can walk around in daylight.”

“You realize that sounds completely insane.”

“It’s the truth man.”

“And you’re going to do what with those guns exactly?”

“Go outside and shoot everyone we can see.”

“Uh…”

He cut me off.
 
“The ones who get up after we shoot them are obviously vampires.
 
That will be the proof we need to convince the authorities we aren’t crazy.
 
The video cameras in the terminal will catch the whole thing.”

“Interesting.”
 
They might have been nuts but there was an uncomfortable logic to their plan.
 
Statistically speaking, the vampire population wasn’t all that big in Boston.
 
But they might get real lucky and stumble across one.
 

After all, they’d already been fortunate enough to come across one dumbass.

“It’ll work, too,” said Sleepy.
 
“You’ll see.”
 
He caught himself.
 
“Well, no, I guess you won’t.”
 
He stepped back further and leveled the pistol at my head.
 
“Guess your time’s up, pal.”

I glanced at my watch.
 
“Actually, it expired about ten seconds ago.”

Sleepy thumbed the hammer back on his piece.
 
“See you on the other side.”

I smiled.
 
“Ladies first.”
 
And slapped the barrel out of the way with my left hand as I came off my stool and then sent my right fist into Sleepy’s trachea.
 
The gun went off with a boom, exploding several bottles of Southern Comfort behind the bar.
 
No waste there; I hate that shit.

Sleepy sank on his knees gagging out of control.
 
He was out of the fight for now but I had the Skorpion Twins to worry about now.
 

They might have handled guns like pros but they weren’t used to being in battle.
 
They moved in slow time, reacting out of surprise rather than instinct.
 
Their guns came up too slow and I was able to get one in front of the other, using the middle as cover.

A steady chop-chop-chop buzzed the air as the rear Twin unleashed his piece on full-auto.
 
The middle Twin never stood a chance.
 
His insides got chainsawed.

I kept moving around to the left side of the bar, grabbing my empty glass with one hand, crashing it down on the bar and feeling the bite of broken glass slice into my hand.
 
The surging adrenaline in my system dulled the pain.

The last Twin ran out of bullets and came at me rather than try to reload.
 
I gave him points for that.
 
Unfortunately, I also gave him the jagged edge of my empty glass in his eye socket as he closed with me.

He screamed and clutched at his eye.
 
Too late, I moved behind him, grabbed his jaw and jerked it to one side.
 
His neck popped twice and he stopped screaming.
 
I let him slip to the floor.

Sleepy was still gagging.
 
His face looked a little blue and I supposed the lack of oxygen would shortly render him unconscious before he died.

I knelt beside him.
 
“You picked the wrong bar today, pal.”

His eyes widened as I picked up his gun.
 
Maybe he thought I was going to shoot him with it.
 

I leaned closer.
 
“Who told you about the vampires?”

He shrugged an ‘I don’t know’ and went back to trying to gag himself some more air.
 
I could see his eyes.
 
He looked about ready to check out.
 

I made the decision in a split-second.
 
Maybe I was feeling a little punchy today after all.
 
I let my canines extend and then smiled at Sleepy.

“You were right, you know.
 
We do exist.”

Whatever final shred of consciousness Sleepy possessed made sense of my teeth and his eyes grew even wider.
 
Then he passed out.
 
He’d be dead in another two minutes.

I walked behind the bar and got myself a fresh glass.
 
The bartender was still dead and I didn’t think he’d mind all that much anyway.
 
I poured another dollop of Bombay Sapphire into my glass, added some tonic water, ice, and a wedge of lime that I squeezed into the mix.
 
I stirred it with my finger and drank.

Humans knowing about vampires didn’t sit all that well with me.
 
It was my job to make sure that kind of knowledge didn’t come to be widespread.
 
But someone out there knew about us.

I wondered if maybe the Syndicate had something to do with it.

The sudden appearance of four heavily armed State Troopers with MP5s at ready derailed my train of thought.
 
They burst through the door.
 
I stopped moving.

“Freeze!”

The lead guy came ahead and quickly figured out the scene.
 
He glanced at me.
 
“You took out three guys?”

I took another sip of my drink.
 
“Crazy luck.”

“Damn fool, more likely.”

“No argument from me.”

He surveyed the scene some more.
 
“We’ll need some information and a statement.”

I slid him my passport.
 
“Here’s the info.
 
My statement is this:
 
I was sitting here having a drink when those three hauled out the hardware, screamed something about being invaded by aliens, blasted the bartender and then made to kill me.
 
I took out the guy with the pistol first and then two other two pretty much did each other.”

“That’s it?”

I held up my hands.
 
“Does it look like there’s anything else?”

“Guess not.”
 
He eyed my passport and made some notes on his notebook.
 
“You going to be around if we need some more information from you?”

“Nope.”

“No?”

“I’m headed to Japan.”

“Coming back?”

I looked at the bar and the three guys who thought they were going to save the human race by exposing vampires to the world.
 
That kind of fanaticism didn’t make me feel so good.

“Yeah.
 
I’ll be back.”
 
I took the final gulp of my drink and slammed my glass back down on the bar.
 
From my pocket I took out a twenty dollar bill and left it under the glass.

The State Trooper looked at it.
 
“I don’t think anyone’ll mind if you skip out on the bill.”

“Probably not.
 
But I’ll leave it just the same.”

He pointed at the corpses.
 
“A job like this, maybe someone ought to be paying you.”

I started for the door.
 
“Money’s overrated.”

“You kidding me?”

I leaned against the door and pushed it open slightly.
 
Outside, I could hear the bustle of the terminal.
 
I could see the faces of the curious trying to get a glimpse inside the bar at the bloodshed.
 
They stared at me.
 
Wondered who the hell I was.
 
What the hell I had done that I could just walk out of there like no one’s business.

I glanced back at the cop.
 
“Sometimes, it just takes a good drink to make it all worthwhile.”

“You’re a strange dude, you know that?”

I smiled but I didn’t feel all that jolly.
 
“I’ve got a plane to catch..”
 
Outside, I tried to lose myself in the barrage of human travelers.
 
But already, I knew some of my precious anonymity had been lost.

And I wasn’t sure any drink was worth that price.

Interlude

Grease covered my fingers.
 
I had a mouthful of the steak-and-cheese sub and chewed very, very slowly.
 
The barrel of a gun aimed at you can make everything slow down.
 
Even when you can’t see it.

The man across from me in the red plastic laminate booth smiled like he’d just managed to win the lottery and bed Hollywood’s hottest starlet in the same afternoon.
 
“Caught you with your pants down, Lawson.
 
Imagine that.”

I swallowed.
 
Outside, the mid-afternoon sun stabbed westward and as it did, I caught the glint off the scope atop what was no doubt a sniper rifle on a roof across the way.

I let my eyes track back to the man in front of me.
 
“Whoever that is, he any good?”

“He won’t miss.”
 
Stegman pointed at the sub.
 
“Want to finish that?
 
Your last meal and all.”

I frowned.
 
Stegman was supposed to be in Helsinki right now.
 
Not sitting across from me in a booth in a pizza joint in Allston.
 
A first class ticket for a 5:30pm flight on Fin Air sat in my breast pocket, proof the Council wanted me to hunt Stegman down and execute him for laundering money for Moscow’s new power elite.
 
Stegman’s activities would draw attention from Western intelligence agencies and could possibly expose the fact that a race of living vampires existed in secret alongside humanity.

Not cool.

I took a sip of the Pepsi and leaned back, keeping my hands on the table so One-Shot-One-Kill across the way didn’t get jumpy.
 
“You know it won’t end with me.
 
The Council will just send another Fixer after you.”

“Killing you like this will give them pause,” said Stegman.
 
“And allow me to disappear from their radar.”

I smiled.
 
“Not possible.
 
The Council will find you.
 
Eventually.”

“By then it won’t matter.
 
Not once I have enough money to find the Cloak of Despar.”

I smirked.
 
“You’re hunting folklore?”

“Laugh all you want, but you know as well as I what that cloak will enable me to do when I find it.”

I frowned.
 
Every vampire child knew the Legend of Despar and how he’d supposedly worn a magical cloak that kept him safe from a wild pack of humans intent on hunting him down as he made his way through the Khyber Pass almost three centuries back.
 
Given to him by the vampire monks of Tibet, the cloak allegedly made the wearer invisible and acted like amazing armor in case of battle.

But it was a fairy tale.
 
And no one I knew actually believed it.