The Vampires Of Livix Twin Pack (Volumes #1 & #2)

by Smith, J Gordon

  I think of my sister and her kids and wonder if they are still alive and held in a place such as this. Tied like me to chairs.

  I wept for them.

  I am cold. And the silence is deep.

  After some time I think I hear the spiders chewing on their prey. I imagine mice or rats sniffing the air for me.

  Padding of little mice feet?

  Am I truly alone? Or is a vampire guarding the top of the stairs beyond the door? Standing silent and unmoving for hours? As I know Garin did on the patio at his house – trying to guard us from the vampire that held me captive now.

  I am so cold here.

  I pull my arms up. Trying to twist my wrists. The rough rope fibers dug into my skin. The ropes are too tight and too effective at locking my bones down to the chair through my flesh. My breath is condensing against the inside of the hood. A droplet of condensate falls from a curl of my hair to splash against the tip of my nose. Maybe it’s a tear. I can’t tell. It’s cold and wet and my skin itches. I move my head to scratch the spot and dislodge other water droplets clinging to the fabric. Now rivulets of moisture fall to my collarbone, roll down my chest in agonizing slowness, and tickle my skin in furious itching. My wrists burn from the ropes as I strain at them. But my shirt soaked up the water and released the moisture into the air drawing more heat away from my body. I knew I wouldn’t freeze here. The ground around the basement and so the basement itself will remain in the fifties. Like a refrigerator keeping meat cool to prolong its edibility. I figured I had some viability because they stored me here. But for how long?

  And what did they seek?

  -:- Twenty -:-

  Branoc stopped the car down the street from the plant entrance.

  “You don’t want to park closer?”

  “No. The cameras reach as far as the telephone pole there,” Branoc pointed.

  A red mark like pain scratched across the sun-darkened pole above the creosote line.

  “You put that there?”

  “Yes. About a month ago.”

  Brett asked, “A regular stakeout?”

  “I knew something went on with this plant but I didn’t know what. But settle in. We are unlikely to see anything until we get their promised phone call.”

  White van trucks rolled into and out of the road at the security building. The exchange of many papers fluttering in the breeze when handed between the trucker and security guards. Some trucks waved a security badge that must have had the information electronically embedded on them.

  “I didn’t see that trucker do anything but roll through,” said Brett.

  Garin said, “I’m surprised so many are using multi-sheet paper documents. That one that rolled through probably has an RFID transponder and uploaded its contents to the plant’s computer receiving department.”

  “I wondered about that too.”

  “Some of the larger supermarkets are testing this.”

  “Cool to have this on a shopping basket.” said Brett. “No wait in the checkout line, not putting it on the belt, have someone scan and tally it, put it back on the belt, bag it, and put it in your cart. You could drive the cart out of the store and right to your car.”

  “The tag costs more than a nickel still. And when the store is only making three or four cents on a soup can they can’t see spending on a tag.”

  “Oh,” Brett watched the next truck hand over papers, “and I guess some people probably like their stuff bagged rather than dumped loose in their trunk.”

  “You could put boxes or bins in your trunk that are totes that you carry right into your house.”

  “There’s that.”

  Branoc scanned the rest of the building and fencing, “Or you can order it on-line and have them deliver to your door with your mail.”

  Garin’s phone rang. He laid the phone on the center console and touched the speaker button. Caller identification only showed the vampire dark net line.

  “Hello Garin … And friends.”

  “Where is Anna?”

  -:- Twenty-One -:-

  The locks around the door snapped back and the panel creaked open. A chill air moved across the floor and brushed my ankles. My tightly tied ankles only kept warmed by the rough ropes. I heard the door close again, softly.

  My neck stiffened. The bag over my head moved and drew in some of the fresh air. Along with the cloying musty mold, I smelled the sharp edge of popular cologne. Recognizable, familiar. More recognizable as the wearer than the cologne itself but who wore that perfume?

  A husky voice bridging nearly to a whisper greeted my ear, “Hello … prisoner.”

  Claire! My whole body stiffened.

  “Where are the others?” I said, muffled in the bag.

  “Far away on errands. It’s only you and me.”

  “Then why the whispering?”

  “It’s a great effect is it not?”

  “Effect for what?”

  “Your body is dumping adrenaline into your system already. I can smell it coursing through your veins.” Her nose breathed my scent starting near my exposed elbow and down my open arm toward my wrist tied in rope. “Other deeper hormones and pheromones and chemicals. Everything modern science thinks they understand. But the nose of a vampire can sense so much more.”

  “What is it you want? Something from Garin?”

  “That’s what my group leader wants. Me …” she trailed off. Hot breath exhaled against the inside of my forearm. “Me, I seek the hunt. The feed. For five-hundred years, that is what I have done and will continue to do. This team is a means of securing easy desserts.” Her tongue touched my skin and lapped along a short line. My body tingled. But I didn’t have a chance to consider it when I realized the motions washed the skin like those of an alcohol prep pad. Fangs dove into my flesh.

  “Ah!” I cried out.

  The fangs left my skin, “Delicious. Oh so delicious. Tainted with the smell of burlap and rope like basmati rice.” The fangs dug again into my arm. She forced them deeper. I cried in pain. Fire coursed through my veins starting from the wound and running through my body. Waves of pain and fire. Adrenaline threw me awake on a startled run. My heart pounded in my chest, like a long sprint I couldn’t get enough air. I tipped my head back to get air through the bottom of the bag. Cold moisture clinging to the bag drenched my face. Instead of cold, I burned hot and the water came like a cool shower after a hard aerobics class. Sweat starting across my back between my shoulder blades ran down the line of my spine. To puddle in the small of my back. Similar rivulets burst out on my chest as my heart pounded in my ears and my breathing came deep. The fangs left my arm.

  “In case you’re wondering. That’s the dance of death,” Claire stood, “Garin probably never showed you that. He only revealed the vanilla layer of desire, if that.” She touched my wrist with her fingers and the burn replaced with a soothing bandage of wriggling things that I knew knitted my flesh back together again. Mark free. Other than my profuse sweating and a body that heaved in exertion – well beyond any jogging or yoga class and the unseen amount of blood taken. I couldn’t talk, my mind singed numb and my body wrung out.

  I heard a metal bucket scrape against the stone floor and water splashed in a dipper. Claire raised the front of the hood high enough to expose my lips and nose. She banged a tin cup against my teeth and poured chilled water into my mouth. I sputtered yet drank. I could only imagine the insects that floated on its surface. The iron of the cup salty against my tongue. Dribbles of water came out the corners of my mouth as I swallowed the tasteless liquid yet my body took it in hungrily.

  “You’ll get more in shape for that sprint as the days go by. You’re young and the training will be fast. You and I will work up to it.”

  The door moved open. “Oh, I don’t think I need to tell you this is our little secret.”

  And the door closed and the locks snapped back home.

  My thirst continued.

  -:- Twenty-Two -:-

  “Anna is q
uite safe,” said the voice. “She is guarded over by one of your good friends, Garin. Claire is there with her now.”

  Garin’s fists squeezed into the seats like sharp talons ripping into the soft vinyl and foam.

  Branoc said, “And where is that?”

  “Not yet Mr. Branoc.”

  Garin said, “I want to talk to her.”

  “Quite out of the question but we will get you proof. First we need to know you have access to the equipment we need.”

  “Which equipment?”

  “In the research department of that business you are parked in front of –”

  Garin and Branoc shared glances. Branoc quickly scanned the plant and the horizon around them.

  “Don’t worry Mr. Branoc. You parked outside the plant’s security system. We have watched that plant far longer than you have. We have additional systems monitoring the facility. Garin seems to know a lot about RFID tags.”

  Brett said, “They bugged the car?”

  “Oh, no need for that, my precious,” the voice seemed to enjoy this, “hacking your phones and the car systems as well as laser points were picking up slight vibrations in the automotive glass and the body panels. Good that the vampire police don’t buy vehicles with creature comforts in mind.”

  Another voice on the other end laughed, “– creature comforts!”

  “– since heavy padding to block out road and engine noise makes the need for our instruments to be that much more sensitive.”

  “But for today your only task is to get access to pilot plant HK.”

  Garin said, “Never heard of the pilot plant.”

  “Incredulous. You’re a business owner and a vampire and you don’t know what you’ve got in there?”

  Branoc interrupted, “No. His family only participated as passive investors. They do not have sufficient national security clearances.”

  “What about you Mr. Branoc? I know you have access to nearly everything.”

  “That access comes with costs. Primarily time. Approvals and vampire warrants that would obviously compromise your project’s secrecy. Rules to follow. I cannot walk in and flash my badge.”

  “That is too bad Mr. Branoc. You need to start seeking those approvals – through quiet channels as you suggest. We would have you sneak in but the equipment we are interested in acquiring is bolted to the floor and will take several trucks to get out.”

  “You don’t want money?”

  “We’re not your regular thieves.”

  Branoc shifted in his seat, “I already guessed that.”

  Garin said, “That’s some project if we need a fleet of semis to load –”

  “We can wait. We have a snack here.” The voice moved off speaker phone mode, “Mr. Branoc, we have the girl and the girl’s family. It can get unpleasant or you can work your Red Tape Bureaucracy to its fullest. I shouldn’t have to remind you not to bring in any reinforcements or other complications. We are watching. We will talk more tomorrow.” The phone went dead.

  Branoc started his car and drove back onto the road. He punched the accelerator and they raced away from town. Passed the five and the ten acre home parcels. Passed the horse farms and the dairy farms and out into wide open stretches of soybeans and corn. The tasseled corn reached above head height. The roads turned to dirt and washboards stuttered the suspension like galloping horses. Billowy clouds of white road dust swirled around them. Other vehicles going the opposite direction brought conical fog clouds in their wake. Lights on vehicles came out of the fog as they sped forward. Branoc shifted down and accelerated where the road cleared. He wheeled the car off the road and onto a short driveway that entered the center of two sprawling corn fields. They followed the rough path toward a cut in the ground shielded by large elm trees and ash trees looking gray from losing their battle with the metallic emerald ash-borer beetle.

  Branoc motioned for them to get out. He popped open the hood. The engine dirty and dusty from the road. He took a pair of nylon prisoner cuffs and tied his phone and Garin’s under the hood. Brett had lost his phone somewhere. Branoc put a rock he toed out of the dirt against the accelerator. The engine roared inches below the dangling and swinging phones. They scrambled up the dry bank and then rippled through the corn like apparitions. Brett could hardly keep up with the two vampires but at last, they stopped. The engine noise faint among the loud rustling corn leaves that waved like blades of grass in the breeze.

  Garin spoke first, “So what do we do?”

  Brett asked, “Well,” he caught a few heaving breaths, “I’m curious why you didn’t take the chips out of the phones so they didn’t work while we talk?”

  Garin answered, “They’d know we conspired. Now they hear the engine and maybe GPS to locate us but we have a few minutes.”

  Branoc said. “Garin, not really a plan yet.”

  “Don’t you have any equipment to trace their call?” asked Brett.

  “Brett, we already went over that and no equipment is available. Vampires have access to a hidden untraceable phone network.”

  “Oh.”

  “Do you have any Red Tape that can help?”

  “No. My group is run from the highest levels but by our nature we don’t exist and cannot get assistance through any channels.”

  “You’re a lot of help.”

  “That’s why I didn’t want to elaborate in the car in front of them.”

  “So we’re back to what can we do?”

  Brett said, “What about deliveries and shipments?”

  “What do you mean?” asked Branoc.

  “Can you get a new supplier or customer and haul things out that way?”

  “No. They wouldn’t have legitimate authorization in or out.”

  Garin said, “But that’s the start though. We could crack into one of the suppliers of something mundane.”

  “Like gloves or chemical supplies.”

  “Yes. And then we get in that way. I suspect the plant relies on the heavy perimeter security and less on anything inside.”

  “But any of those deliveries are small trucks. They said we needed semis and a way to move heavy equipment that’s bolted down to the floor.”

  “Garin, I know you looked into the finances. Do you remember any opportunities?”

  “Not many that makes sense.”

  “The ones we want are outgoing and slipping something big out will be tough.”

  “Ok, maybe this can work: we get in on a small supplies truck and then use regular international cargo shipment containers to send it out.”

  “Why those?”

  “International boxes are closed up after packing and a short bolt is used to seal the doors. That bolt is coded to the contents and if the bolt is removed or switched then they can suspect tampering –”

  “– But the doors on the truck don’t get opened and inspected at the security checkpoints.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Don’t customs officials inspect them on-site at the factory and seal them themselves? That often saves shippers time since the cargo breezes through Customs. That will be risky.”

  “Of course.”

  “What are our targets?”

  “Brett, you’ll need to get a delivery job at Arnold Janitorial Supplies. Branoc or I cannot do it as Ramsburgh Industries already has our pictures and data in their system. Arnold Janitorial has a truck that delivers twice a week based on the invoicing I saw.” Garin added, “One of the guys I went to high school with is a manager there and I can suggest you are looking for a job. You don’t have any criminal records that might come up in a background check against driving?”

  “No. Only a parking ticket at a concert in downtown Detroit that I later paid.”

  “As I suspected. You’re good then.”

  “You already knew that, didn’t you,” Branoc asked.

  “I did a little background checking when I found him hanging around Anna,” Garin shrugged. “The outbound we might want is a company called Shintoau Shi
ppers. They transport a huge amount of containers every day out of that plant. We need to commandeer a few and salt them in. The hard part will be diverting the containers once they leave the plant.”

  Branoc said, “We’ll give the container numbers to the kidnappers and put paint marks on the top of the containers so we can see them from above.”

  “The actual getting equipment loaded will be tricky and we won’t know how to do that until we are inside.”

  “We are giving the kidnappers what they want. At great risk.”

  “We don’t have any information on them yet. Not where they are –”

  “Nor what they want that equipment for.”

  “Brett, we’ll go back into town and I’ll drop Garin off to pick up some burner phones at the supermarket. I’ll get you to your apartment so you can change into interview clothes and show up at Arnold Janitorial. By then Garin should have called the owner and gotten you set up.”

  “I remembered it might not be that easy, Branoc. While I knew the manager in high school his sister had the biggest crush on me and he kind of loathed me for it.”

  “But he got over it in supplying your plant with services.”

  “That’s right. But it could go bad.”

  Brett asked, “You didn’t do anything to his sister did you?”

  “No. Ignored her. Other than my vampire background, I was a normal kid. It’s not until later you realize more relationships are available if you had paid attention. But a kid doesn’t, especially boys.”

  “It’s not exactly a secret about your family wealth, Garin. You’d be attractive as a toad.”

  “Or you held out looking for True Love?”

  “Maybe. I needed a spark.”

  “It’s overrated,” said Branoc, “But enough commiserating since this corn is a long way from being whiskey.”