The Crane War

by Graeme Rodaughan

  Chloe tilted her head slightly. “And if we found a ‘bread crumb’ or two?”

  “It would be a trap.”

  “No breadcrumbs so far. Can we assume he’s not laying a trap?”

  “And there’s the core issue,” Crane stated, his eyes narrowing with suspicion. He tapped the armrest of his seat with a long forefinger and then sighed. “It can’t be ruled out. But how can he plan on us finding him if he leaves no clues? Especially, given his ability to evade us over the course of his life.” He pressed his lips into a thin line, then declared, “I’m not convinced this is an elaborate trap but I cannot ignore the possibility. However, trap or not, it remains a moot point if we can’t find Slayne and the Mirovar force team.”

  Chloe asked innocently. “Are there any other ways to identify their movements?”

  Crane stared at her for a long moment, shadows moving behind his brown eyes. He tilted his head slightly, his dark leonine hair sliding across his shoulders, and said, “It remains to be seen. We need to determine the direction Slayne and the Mirovar force team have escaped in, and their final exfiltration site in country before they go international … our time to act grows short.”

  Chloe paused for a microsecond, relishing Crane’s lack of denial. She must keep him alive for now, but once her implant was rendered harmless his time would be short indeed. She stated calmly, “Shadowstone reported they were traveling to the southwest in the opposite direction to everyone else.”

  “Indeed. Then southwest shall be our first direction of inquiry. Our objectives are simple. Re-establish contact with Slayne and the Mirovar force team. Recover the P-Case intact, and destroy them without mercy. If absolutely necessary, the P-Case and the Panopticon must be destroyed lest they remain in Arthur Slayne’s hands. Is that clear?”

  “Crystal.”

  “Then give me a few moments to rest my eyes and consider my strategy in full.”

  “Of course,” Chloe agreed. A slight smile curling her lips as Crane laid back in his seat and closed his eyes. While he no doubt sought to engage whatever sorcerous power, he’d been gifted with by Philippe Allemande, Chloe would consider her own options. Arthur Slayne with the Panopticon would become a measurably more difficult opponent. Crane with the Panopticon restored would have a better chance of capturing the elusive rogue vampire in China, but he would also be able to entrench his position and re-establish the status quo. A circumstance leaving Chloe unable to pursue Hana Tanaka and therefore compelled to remain Crane’s dedicated protector.

  The destruction of the Panopticon was the best option, or at least lost to Crane and Slayne. Slayne would not be able to leverage his position against her, and Crane would be forced to deal with the crisis in China without the aid of the Panopticon. There was a very real chance he would take personal control of the hunt for the rogue vampire. Chloe could go back to Japan without being tracked by the Panopticon. Use the chameleons to find the Tanaka sisters, and extract a solution for the removal of her implant and source the cure for vampirism. The last could be extremely useful when she dealt once more with Dalien Morte and the Red Empire.

  Furthermore, with the Panopticon down, Crane’s own ability to avoid being tracked was compromised. If she could source a simple but powerful Shadowstone tag, she could track his movements whenever he used the command shadowstar drone. Something he was likely to do, given his single-seater drone was down for a maintenance cycle.

  Crane’s eyes were vibrating beneath their lids. Was he dreaming or experiencing a vision? Perhaps one day soon she’d have the opportunity to find out. Chloe lifted her smartphone and sent James Haley a quick message. It read, ‘I need a micro-tracker immediately. Do you have one?’

  James replied back in a handful of seconds. ‘Yes.’

  Chloe lifted her eyes for a moment, struck by a sudden inspiration. Her interrogation of Ramin Kain would now bear fruit. She sent another message. ‘James, go to the intersection of Utah state route 257 and Black Rock road. There is a roadhouse on the southeast side of the cross roads. It is an Order safe house and the likely exfil target for Slayne and the Mirovar force team. Re-establish contact with the Ramp masters but maintain stealth and do not engage.’

  Twenty seconds later, James replied. ‘Found it. ETA of 17:25 +/- 5 minutes.’

  It was time to take a calculated risk. To leverage her knowledge of the Order safe house network acquired from Ramin Kain. It was likely Slayne and the Mirovar force team had used the closest safe house on the exfil path. She could send James and the chameleons to Black Rock to confirm the path of the Ramp masters. She could then maneuver Crane to the Black Rock safe house where the micro-tracker could be applied to one of the command drone’s landing struts by one of the camouflaged chameleons.

  Chloe composed another message to James and sent it. All she needed to do, was put Crane and the command drone within the vicinity of James and the chameleons and she could track Crane’s movements through the Vampire Dominion co-opted military networks.

  James and the chameleons were flying in the Osprey II drone. Its performance was similar to a commercial jet liner. If the Mirovar force team lingered in Black Rock they would be discovered in a little over an hour from now.

  Chloe smiled. Slayne and Mirovar were not stupid, they would not stay at Black Rock longer than necessary. With both Crane and Slayne in the field, the situation was very fluid. She’d have to find a way to ensure the P-Case was lost, and remained lost, and that she gained the capacity to track Crane’s movements. She was not yet ready to deploy the chameleons against Crane. What if he had a voice activation method for the implant resting beneath her skull? He could kill her in a heartbeat. She’d trained the chameleons to capture a vampire without harming them. A technique designed to be used against Crane without activating Allemande’s curse.

  It would have been poetic justice to imprison Crane within a silver coffin within his own facility at Rikers island, but paralyzing him with silver would likely activate the curse and kill her. Instead she could use the safe house in Arizona. Crane would be locked below ground in a prison cell reinforced to defeat vampire strength and guarded by an elite Red Empire fist team answerable only to her.

  Then all she need do was induce the Mirovar force team to discover the Arizona safe house and its prisoner and her problem would be solved forever, but before that glorious event occurred, she’d have to relieve herself of the damnable implant pointing half an ounce of powdered silver at her brain stem.

  And for that - she needed Hana Tanaka.

  * * *

  Shadows fled to the perimeter of Cornelius Crane’s precognitive vision.

  A cusp event was imminent. The direction and distance to the location revealed via pure intuition. In less than four to five hours he’d face a test to his life his precognitive powers could not see beyond. The near future resolved into sharp clarity. The shadowy second figure behind Anton Slayne was revealed as his grandfather. The two Slaynes would fight him together within an aircraft hanger, each armed with one of the dragon swords.

  A formidable pair, but Cornelius would have the combat prowess of a king of vampires and his bastard sword forged from meteoric iron by a peerless Damascan genius, and Chloe Armitage would stand at his side armed with the Red Dragon. Together, they should have sufficient power to best the Slaynes, but hubris was to be avoided. The Metaframe inspired sorcery would not display a cusp if the risk was negligible. Due caution was called for. He approached the pair across a pale concrete floor. Armitage emerged from the shadows, and took a place at his side. The Red Dragon was poised in perfect stillness over her left shoulder. The figure of Arthur Slayne responded to their presence, turning toward him, his eyes flicking back and forth between Armitage and himself. He was holding the Panopticon P-Case in his left hand and the Black Dragon in his right.

  Slayne would keep the Panopticon close, not trusting to leave such a prize in the care of another. His inability to trust the protection of the Panopticon to anyone else would
give Cornelius the opportunity to end the Slayne line and retrieve the Panopticon at the same time.

  However … he pressed his lips into a thin line. This opportunity was too good to be true. How could he trust this vision? Slayne had proved to be a diabolically clever opponent. There was no way he would offer his grandson, himself and the Panopticon at the same time … not unless he believed this was the true end game that would give him decisive victory over the Vampire Dominion.

  Cornelius hadn’t survived for nearly a millennium by taking unnecessary risks. The way of power demanded the elimination of risk, the betting on one sure thing after another. A ruthless operator would search for self-deception and eliminate it. Arrogance, hubris, over-confidence, these were the traps of fools.

  The recent discussion with Armitage returned with a snap. Arthur Slayne was offering a trap, but its shape was superbly hidden. A trap Cornelius may have to spring to discover its true nature. He needed the Panopticon back to support his efforts on the Eurasian continent. He had to quell the threat posed by the single Mekrarian vampire traveling to the west, before thousands more were unleashed upon the world in a wave of destruction he could not contain without revealing himself to the world.

  The new Panopticon would not be ready for up to another month. Mekra and her spawn could overtake half a continent in that time. Everything was at stake - and the utmost in effort and sacrifice was called for.

  Cornelius was well aware that many would see him as the villain but few would understand that he also championed a cause. He ensured that most people, day after day, got to wake up in the morning. To live their lives without fearing demons in the night. To live in a shield of ignorance many of them would fight vigorously to maintain. Few people welcomed the illumination that declared their cherished beliefs to be lies.

  He kept the world safe from harsher masters who would extract a greater price.

  Cornelius opened his eyes and looked across the cockpit at Armitage.

  She watched him with her vivid-blue eyes, her left eyebrow arching quizzically. She asked, with a touch of insolence, “Did you have a nice nap?”

  He frowned, sat up straight, and stated, “They are fleeing to the southwest. A matter of a few hundred miles to a location northeast of Las Vegas.”

  “That narrows it down. I won’t ask how you know.”

  “An excellent decision on your part,” he offered sardonically. She clearly suspected his precognitive power. Well, let her continue to speculate. She’d get no confirmation from him. Cornelius studied her for a long moment, then stated, “The Slaynes and the Mirovar force team are heading for an airport. It will be a location they can reach within the next five hours using common transport.”

  “We need a new strategy.”

  “And you have something in mind?” Cornelius asked derisively, “Perhaps a strategy you have already prepared for just this contingency?”

  Armitage ignored his sarcasm and leaned toward him. “We have too few praetorians, and the Blake force team operates in the southwest. We could end up facing both force teams at once.”

  “Do you fear such?”

  She grinned. “Yes. Even I would fear to face the two premier and might I say the only surviving force teams of the Order of Thoth. And you should fear them too.”

  Cornelius grinned wolfishly. “Then what do you propose?”

  Armitage tapped her lips with her right forefinger.

  * * *

  The shifting images on the command drone’s displays cast shadows across Crane’s face.

  He watched her expectantly. Chloe knew this game well. Crane would ask her for advice, and then do whatever he wanted to do anyway. He did it to double check his strategy and test it against another point of view to avoid blind spots. However, he knew full well he couldn’t trust her advice, except that she wouldn’t send him to his doom - not with the damnable implant beneath the base of her skull ready to send a lethal dose of powdered silver into her brain stem on the event of his death.

  This was a game she’d have to play with the greatest subtlety. She suggested, “We need to activate the militia.”

  Crane paused for a moment. “To what extent?”

  He was at least willing to consider the idea. Every vampire was registered with the Vampire Dominion. They had an allocated territory in which they could hunt. They had to obey the rules for kills, disposals, and maintaining the secrecy of vampires. If they behaved, they were protected by the Vampire Dominion from the Red Empire and the Order of Thoth. If they broke the rules, the praetorians would come looking for them, and if necessary, Chloe herself would intervene.

  Chloe’s dire reputation had kept the vampire dominion an orderly community for over a century. The average vampire feared her more than they feared the Red Empire and the Order of Thoth, and justifiably so. She could find any of them in minutes and be on their doorstep in less than twenty-four hours. However, now it was time for the vampires to repay the Dominion for their protection. Crane needed them; it was time to raise an army. “Given the short timeframe, I propose we call up every vampire in the west from Tucson in the south, to Portland in the north. Then through an arc from Denver and Dallas in the east and Monterrey in the southeast. If we notify them now, they still have time to converge with private jets on Las Vegas.”

  “That would raise forty to sixty vampires for immediate action,” Crane replied. “If Justin Blake arrives with a second force team, that may not be enough to bring an overwhelming force to the fight.”

  “They must also bring their familiars and wannabe vampires. They are easy converts and just as easily disposed of afterwards.”

  “How many?”

  “Another two hundred or two hundred and fifty for a total force of more than three hundred vampires, plus we’ll control the air with our shadowstars.”

  “And afterwards?”

  “Bunch them up and wipe them out. The wannabes and lesser vampires are disposable. A pair of hypersonic missiles from this drone will be enough to eliminate them. If we really need to sanitize Slayne’s exfil site completely, we can use a nuke. We have two on board this craft.”

  “Indeed, but perhaps a little difficult to explain to the world.”

  “Not in the least. The United States Air Force could easily be transporting a live warhead from one site to another and have a ‘terrible,’ accident. There would be an official inquiry, reviews of operations, updates to protocols, and a two-star general would lose his pension. In less than twenty-four hours the attention of the world will move on to the latest scandal involving a Hollywood celebrity and their over-indulged pet llama.”

  Crane arched his eyebrows. “Everyone believes they know the truth.”

  Chloe tilted her head. “Human arrogance is so useful. No one bothers to look beyond what they already believe. We can use that to our advantage. We can create an army of vampires, use it to effect, and then destroy it - all within a matter of hours. The evidence of the new vampires will be obliterated before it can get out, and we can use the blunt force of hundreds of vampires to swarm attack Slayne and the Mirovar force team.”

  “And if the Blake team is coordinating with Slayne and shows up on the field of battle?”

  “We’ll have over three hundred vampires, and our praetorians in reserve. If needs must, we can enter the battle too.”

  “Such forces are not without risks of their own. They will be difficult … perhaps even impossible to control.”

  “Those risks are less than the risks of failure.”

  Crane frowned briefly, then stated firmly, “Wake them up, and get them in motion.”

  Chloe nodded. “We’ll coordinate them via your skeleton staff at the Citadel.”

  “Make it so,” Crane ordered.

  Chloe nodded again and got to work.

  * * *

  The remains of the Panopticon fortress were a faint smudge on the northern horizon.

  Arthur and Anton led the Mirovar force team past a ‘Closed for Renovation
s,’ sign and pushed through the front doors of the Black Rock roadhouse. There were two men and two women in the main dining room dressed for performing surgery.

  Arthur addressed a middle-aged woman with iron-shot short hair, “Rebecca,” he nodded toward Peter and Chiara, “we have two who have taken hits and need to be assessed.”

  Rebecca ordered, “Mike, Jess, you look after the big guy.” She gestured toward Chiara and the third surgeon. “Ben, you and I will work on the girl.”

  There was a brief chorus of assent and the four doctors went to work.

  Arthur caught Anton’s attention and pointed at another table next to the kitchen. It was laden with an abundance of food and drink, and he said, “Better fill up. We won’t get another chance to eat for a while.”

  Peter called out, “Anton, could you get me a tray.” He looked down at the dark-haired woman prying a sliver of black metal from his forearm with forceps and winced. “I could’ve just dug that out myself.”

  “And make a right mess of it too, no doubt,” she said, without taking her attention off what she was doing.

  Arthur called out. “Everyone, our helpers have combat surgeon experience from Iran, Venezuela, and South Korea. They might not be Ramp masters, but they know what they’re doing. Come over here and refuel.”

  Jay shrugged and approached the food-laden table.

  Arthur continued. “Jay, Anton - eat fast, take a tray if need be and go out and set a perimeter watch.”

  Anton looked at Arthur, a question poised on his face. “Peter asked -”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure everyone gets fed,” Arthur offered, and clasped Anton’s shoulder. “Go with Jay and set up a perimeter. Our asses are hanging out in the wind here and I want to know if anyone shows up.”

  Anton nodded and replied, “Sure.”

  “By the way,” Arthur suggested with a slight grin, “don’t shoot Dwayne when he catches up with us.”

  “I’ll make sure to keep a special lookout for Dwayne.”