by T S Paul
“We know she visited there in the forties. The records reflect that much.
“OK?” Agatha held up her hands.
“Chuck found a receipt for gas and food registered to an Ivan Terrible on Santa Rosa Island. That gave us a direction. We pulled every bit of camera footage we could find surrounding that intersection. If you look at the map, here…” Cat placed a virtual map of the island in front of Agatha.
“This intersection leads to Pensacola Beach and only that beach. Unless Ivan was trying to throw us off, he was going there.”
Agatha looked at the long bridge onto the island. “Are there cameras here?” She pointed.
“Pulling them now.”
“Boss?” Agatha looked up to see Bill at the entrance.
“Did John send you something?”
“Not this time.” Bill stepped all the way into the bus and passed his phone to Agatha. “Watch the video.”
Agatha hit play on the phone and watched as Ivan walked across what looked like a sidewalk in front of an RV park. “You found him.”
“Sort of. Just for the hell of it, I pulled up a collection of local videos online. There’s a big competition happening on the island this month. Just about everyone there is posting stuff. I only had to watch five videos of drunken Weres before seeing our guy.” Bill replied.
“Drunken Weres?”
“Ask Chuck if he knows about the North American Were games?” Bill asked.
Both Chuck and Cat’s heads popped up over their small cubicle walls.
“Is that here?” they both asked at once.
Agatha looked at Bill who looked back and smiled. He pointed at the two WereCats.
Agatha asked, “Is that a big deal?”
“The biggest. The competition is about a month long. Just about every Pack in the country has a group here.” Chuck looked at Cat with raised eyebrows. “I think one of my brothers might be here as well.”
“Chuck, be careful. Remember what happened last time,” Cat admonished.
“I do. But this competition is supposed to be neutral ground,” he replied.
Cat patted him on his shoulder as she stepped around the small wall and walked to Bill.
Agatha asked, “What happened last time?”
“You were off on your probi mission. Chuck tried to see his family on the sly before starting his on-the-job-training. The pack enforcers caught him a mile inside their territory,” Cat replied.
Agatha looked shocked. “Were you hurt badly?”
Chuck hung his head. “Only my pride and my arm. One of my brothers is an enforcer for the Pack. He’s the one that caught me. It was nice to see him, but he had to break my arm as a warning. Unless I’m on official business, my family is off limits. To be truthful, if Stephan hadn’t been the one to catch me they might have killed me. Our uncle runs the Pack with an iron fist. No outside influences are allowed.”
“That’s awful. I knew you had problems with your family’s Pack but not this! I can…” Agatha never got to finish.
Chuck held up his hands and stopped her. “The FBI is aware of it. I reported to the Director the moment I got back. Remember, we heal lightning fast, but all injuries still need to be reported. She told me If I really wanted to see them, she would make it official the next time and send along a team to back me up.”
“Oh. Good. We need to support one another. Did you go back?” Agatha asked.
Chuck shook his head no. “I’m still allowed to video chat and call my parents every month. It’s less hassle for them. My uncle is just a dick that way.”
Cat started laughing as she watched the videos Bill showed her.
“Are they that funny?” Agatha asked.
“Not really. Just stupid drunk stuff. Like Chuck and Mongo were at the academy. I’m laughing at the thought that Ana had the entire world to hide in and she chose Pensacola at the same time it was covered in Weres. Karma really sucks,” Cat replied.
Agatha smiled and said, “I wonder if she knew?”
“We can ask her when we catch her. Chuck, can you run facial recognition on videos online?” Bill asked.
Chuck sat down at his computer console. “Sure. What channel are they on?”
Bill stepped in all the way and handed his phone to the technician. The two of them started pulling up videos on the big screen.
“You should have told me about Chuck,” Agatha told Cat.
“It was over and done. In my capacity as Alpha, I’ve reached out to his uncle a couple of times. He really is a dick. He’s done everything he can, within his rights, to deny Chuck time with his family. My father says that Chuck’s uncle Robert holds a serious grudge because Chuck didn’t become an enforcer like his brothers.”
“That makes no sense to me, Cat. Joining the FBI should be an honor,” Agatha said.
“For you and me it is. Robert Winthrop was arrested as a youth for something. According to Dad, he served twenty months in the reservation jail and almost six months in a federal supermax prison.” Cat answered.
“Whoa! Federal prison? How did he get to be Alpha then?”
Cat looked at her friend and shook her head. “How else? He fought for it. Chuck says he’s a throwback like me.”
Agatha looked at Chuck and started to ask, but he beat her to it. Without even looking up he named his uncle’s species.
“He’s a European Jaguar. The best way to describe him would be if a regular African Jaguar mated with a lion. Think tiger-sized Jaguar with spots. Somewhere around five hundred pounds of muscle and teeth.” Chuck stated.
“Oh. I can see how then.” Agatha nodded.
“Pretty much. My dad told me that Robert killed the other four Alphas when he created his Pack.”
Cat shook her head. Creating a Pack from scratch was much easier than just taking one over. Less chance of dying.
“I got another one.” Chuck cried out.
The main screen changed, and a group of very hairy Weres was having a belly flop competition in a plastic kiddy pool. In the background, Ivan could be seen carrying a small bag of groceries into a what looked like a house.
“Freeze it right there!” Agatha said, “Can you find that house on the map?”
The house in question was a strange design. It looked almost round. Like a flying saucer on stilts.
Chuck hit some keys and looked up. “The video doesn’t have any location codes available. I’m going to have to do it the old-fashioned way and have the satellite scan for roof dimensions and other surrounding parameters. This may take awhile.”
“Chuck, he was at a grocery store and that RV park. Add those factors in.” Cat ordered.
Bill typed a query into one of the computers. “Delete the term ‘grocery’ and replace it with ‘convenience.’ They don’t have a grocery store anywhere on the island.”
“That’s a bit crazy,” Agatha remarked.
“My wife and I’ve been a few places like that in the RV. This says there’s a ‘food mart’ out near the State Park and one over by all the hotels. Try either of those. Do you know where the RV park is?” Bill asked.
“Chuck, the directory says that particular RV park is right on the main thoroughfare across the street from a bunch of hotels and condominiums. It could be in the neighborhood to the right of it. Several of the houses there fit the bill,” Cat pointed out.
His head still down, Chuck typed faster. “I’m adding in the color combination of the surrounding houses and the cars. The belly floppers are in this house here… OK. Got it! Ivan’s house is right there. Do you think Anastasia is there, too?”
The main screen lit up again with a satellite shot of a beach house. It was surrounded on all sides by hotels and gigantic condominiums.
“She has to be. No way Ivan could afford a place like that. Imagine the kind of money involved to hold onto the property when all that is around you.” Bill traced the expensive spaces around the house.
“Chuck, pull up stakes and move us closer. Cat, alert bot
h the local FBI office and the sheriff's office. They need to know we’re here on a stakeout. Try to keep details of our pursuit from them. The last thing we need is for a local cop to wander into the crossfire. Ana isn’t that dangerous to the locals, but I’m not sure how much of a fight she will put up when she sees us. Bill, check with the Coast Guard and see if they can start patrolling the area in front of her house as well as the nearby marinas.” Agatha paused for a second to collect her thoughts.
“Remember. Vampires like to have backup plans. Starting looking for possible escape routes as well as unusual boats or planes. Even we don’t know the sort of resources Ana might have stashed away.”
The team sprang into action as Agatha stepped outside to call her Grandmother and the Director.
<<< >>>
“Do you know this tribe?” I asked.
My chief guard and scout was called Kahleed. He told me several weeks into our trek that he preferred to be known as number one or number two when dealing with Royal Vampires. My kind was cruel and easily angered it seems. His story was long and convoluted, but the gist of it was that he was a representative for a Chin trading house. He was captured in one of Stari Ras’ many human raids and turned into a slave. His ethnicity is what saved him. Very few Chin or Nipponese peoples were found east of India. The Master of the city at that time transformed Kahleed to keep him local. As the years passed, he made a name for himself as a tracker and trader for us. This was his first trip home.
“I do. They are called White Huns by the people around here. My own folk call them Yeda. I had heard they were wiped out by the leader of the Guptas. I guess the reports were wrong,” Kahleed said.
“Can we negotiate with them?” I asked.
“It depends on their situation. If they are the last…” he looked me up and down, “it might be too expensive.”
Pursing my lips, I gave him a stern look. “Believe it or not I can take care of myself.”
Kahleed refused to back down. “Against the whole army down there?”
I crooked my head ever so slightly. “You have a point. Can we go around them?”
“Not easily. They are blocking the only usable pass for more than three hundred leagues in either direction. Yes, there are other passes, but they are occupied with larger foes or lead to places far out of our way. This is the quickest way to our destination,” Kahleed pointed out.
“So we have to go through here, then. Do you know where the leader’s location is?” An insane plan formed in my head.
Kahleed looked sternly at me. “We do. It is at the top of the mountain. There.” He quickly drew a map of the town in the sand. “What is your plan?”
“I will present myself to this leader and either negotiate a way through or bind him to me. Either way is the same result,” I replied.
“Bind him? As if making a servant? Is that within your powers?”
“It is. I know how to do it, I just never have. He, unfortunately, will have to stay here after I do it. For him, it will be most hard.” And it would be too. The creation of a servant is very special. It is a two-way process. The servant loses much of himself, and the master gains knowledge and power.
“Look on the bright side, Kahleed. If I fail, then we can still go around.” I pointed out.
My guards, each and every one of them only grunted. We quickly covered the entrance to the cave and hid in the darkness. Dawn was coming.
<<<>>>
“Mistress, we have a problem.” Ivan stood in the doorway watching me.
“What is it now? Another problem you have forgotten to inform me of?” Killing Ivan was looking better and better.
“I think the FBI has found us,” he stated.
My head jerked up, and I caught his eyes. There was a panic in them that had not been there before. “Why do you say that?”
“There is a bus similar to yours just now pulling into the RV park. It had a police escort.”
I considered that for a moment. It was costly to stay here, and the location was a high-end park. “Are you sure it wasn’t some movie star or something? That new hotel at the end of the island has shows sometimes.”
“It was them. It has to be. My phone has been acting funny lately. I keep hearing clicks on it,” Ivan replied.
“Clicks. You’re using the burner phone, right?”
Ivan nodded. “Yes, Mistress. The one you bought for me.”
“Good.” I paused and looked at him again. “Show me which phone you’re using.”
He held out a small red flip phone, and I groaned, “That is the phone I bought you last year when we first got together. Why have you not replaced it?”
Ivan only blinked at me with wide eyes.
I pointed to a box by the door. “The phones in the box? I told you to select another one, remember?”
“Oh, those. I have that too.” Ivan pulled a still-in-the-package phone out of his pocket and showed me.
Leaning back in my chair I covered my eyes and moaned. I forgot the one bad thing about binding a servant, and I did it in the modern world. Always pick a smart man to bind. Because they get a big case of the dumbs. Ivan was cursed by this because he was Russian. He had even told me once that cell phones were rare in his home village of Kalizov.
“We are so screwed. Give me the red phone.” I held out my hand.
Ivan smiled and placed it in my palm. Without even looking I crushed it into tiny pieces using my vampire strength. “No more phones for you. Ever so carefully, I need you to spy on the bus holding what you think is the FBI. Can you do that?”
He nodded.
“Without being caught?” I asked.
“Yes, Mistress.”
“If you see my former team members, come home right away. Anyone else you may stay and watch. Understood?” I asked again.
“Yes, Mistress,” Ivan nodded.
“Then go. Be careful.”
What to do, what to do? I asked this of myself. Down to the wire. If Agatha and the team were here… Grabbing my tablet, I logged into the secure section and leafed through my contacts. Could they have found him yet?
The phone rang only once before someone picked up. “Sandpiper Airport, Brian speaking.”
“Brian, is Joe around? I need to have him get my plane ready for flight.” I asked.
There was silence for a moment, and Brian replied. “Sorry, Ma’am but Joe’s out with the flu. I can get Frank to fuel your aircraft for you, but the flight line is shut down right now. Would you believe a sinkhole opened up right under the east runway? The FAA and TSA are all over the place right now. I can book a commercial airline for you out of Tallahassee if you like?”
“That’s fine Brian. Tell Joe to get better. Say, is Lowell still working out in the maintenance shop? He was supposed to run a check on my plane for me,” I asked.
“I can let him know you called, but I think he’s helping those FAA guys out. Was there anything specific I can do for you?” he asked.
“No thanks. That’s all.” I hung up the phone and crushed another burner phone.
Damn! They found the plane. Brian and Joe were a pair of curmudgeonly old guys that ran a small, very small, private airfield over on Santa Rosa Island. There was no Frank there, at least there wasn’t a month ago, and Lowell was gone. Long gone. I happened to know he was in the Witness Protection program. The FBI or some other agency had possession of my plane and my backup escape plan.
My options were getting smaller and smaller. I might actually have to confront my past and make it my future after all. Shaking my head, I told myself ‘NO.’ I wouldn’t go down that road and take responsibility for all those Vampires. Alukah can take his orders and shove them down his throat. Not doing it now or ever.
<<<>>>
You would think that sneaking past a gate guarded by a fierce barbarian tribe would be impossible. It isn’t that hard when they are only looking for warriors and other tribes like themselves. Women and the elderly they completely ignore. That is how I got in
to the small fort blocking the road, and all it took was a heavy cloak.
Once inside, I found the encampment quiet. A few fires burned and humans sat around talking and singing. The leader's tent was exactly where my scouts said it would be. Lit up like a meeting house on a holiday night. The walls of the tent were actually glowing. A pair of guards stood outside the tent dozing in their chairs. It was good to be the king.
With my Vampire hearing, I could understand the conversation from within. It was an obscure dialect, but its basis was one that I was taught as part of my ambassadorial training.
“... we must leave this place. The Guptas could crush us as easily as we smashed that small village. Our men are tired.”
“NO! We rule here. For now, we hold the high ground. We can see them coming. The Gupta are gone. My father and his armies destroyed them.” The voice was strong but young-sounding.
“Your Highness, you are wrong. Forgive me, but you are wrong. He destroyed one such army of Guptas, but there are more. Their empire stretches to far off Tibet.”
There was the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Smack! “You will not speak to me so! I rule here. My father may have trusted you, but I do not. Leave me.” The young voice was sharp.
“Sire, I meant no disrespect but…”
“Leave. Now! Leave, or I call the guards and end this.” The King’s voice was filled with anger.
There was the sound of a brush of cloth and the tent opened. An older man wearing worn and much-used armor stepped out. He glanced at the lounging guards and marched quickly away.
This was my chance if I planned to do this. I knew both ways how to bind a servant to me. Alukah might not approve of the quick way, but Gaius wanted me to have complete training. I suspected I had only minutes so I would need to be quick.
Using Vampire speed, I raced around the tent and approached the two men from behind. I was trained in several hand-to-hand techniques, and neither was needed here. In modern parlance, this would be called the Hangman’s fracture, but it was a dirty trick taught to me by a very old Roman mercenary. Grabbing the man’s head in my hands just above the forehead, I pulled back and at the same time put pressure on his lower back. The spine cracked, and he lay there choking on his own windpipe. It worked for the first but not the second. For him, it required me to twist his head off his body using Vampire strength.