by Alex Dire
A voice responded. “Name.”
“Norman Bernard.”
The door beeped and unlatched. Norman entered and went straight to the elevator.
At the top, the doors slid open. A young man greeted him. His hair was perfectly combed and parted on the side, and he wore a dark blue suit. As he smiled his freckled cheeks bunch up into knots. “Hello Mr…” He looked down at a clipboard. “Bernard.”
“Norman, please.”
The young man turned before Norman finished his greeting.
“I’m Jack. This way please,” said the man. He hustled down the hall.
“Mr. Harding is very busy these days.”
He’s human. I can smell his blood. Norman matched his speed, peeking into offices that lined the hall. Inside each were people tapping at computers and mumbling on phones.
Jack knocked on the door at the end of the hall. The plaque read, “Charles Harding, Acting Chancellor.”
Acting indeed.
Jack pushed the door open just as Chip's voice answered, “Come in.”
Chip stood quickly from behind a large wooden desk with a warm smile spread across his face. He put some papers down and stepped around to greet Norman, extending both arms and grasping in a full hug. “So good to see you, Norman.”
Norman returned the gesture. He wondered how sincere this embrace was. “How’s your campaign going?”
“Not as well as yours if the polls are to be believed,” said Chip.
“I’ll be in my office Mr. Harding.” Jack disappeared before Chip had a chance to respond.
“You’ve brought humans in, I see,” said Norman.
“We’re all in it together, now,” said Chip with a devious smile. “Besides, there are so few of us, we need them if we’re going to get this all done.”
“You mean win the new VU election? I don't see the Vampire Union as having the pull it once did.”
“I wish it were that simple. I’m just fighting to make sure we can have an election. There’s serious opposition to even the idea of a VU.”
“What?”
“Now that we’re…out. The mood seems to be to separate along the existing geopolitical lines. Join with humans country by country. No need for our own VU.”
“They have a point.”
“It’ll never work, Norman.” Chip's smile faded and his whole face dropped to a scowl. “Just look at your Vampire Registration Bill.”
“It’s not my bill!”
“You may not have written it, but it’s yours now.”
He was right. Norman had allied himself with Walsh and by default the whole idea of vampire registration. There would be public hell to pay if he just vetoed the bill. Norman was no politician. “That's why I'm here. I came for advice. You're one of the few friends I have left and you were always good at...managing difficult situations...tactically.”
“Of course.”
“I joined the campaign to make sure we had someone on the inside when Walsh won.”
“He was down two points until you pulled your stunt at your press conference.”
“He was going to win anyway.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
Norman wondered how much he should tell the politician. “Nebulous.” He was too desperate for help to play games.
Chip smiled and chuckled. “Of course.”
“Skeete’s part of the mix.”
“I figured.”
“She’s got enhanced soldiers guarding Walsh.”
“We know how to take care of those, now.”
“Yes, but that serum is hard to come by.” Norman’s glance fell to the floor. “The wolves have all left. We can’t count on them anymore.” Norman had managed to lose nearly all his allies. He'd lose everything at this rate. The country. His school. His nymphs. He desperately needed a tutor.
Chip raised an eyebrow and cocked his head at an angle.
“I’m barely holding my nymphs together. One’s missing. Another, my own, went out searching. I can’t control her.”
“So what’s going well? You seem to be unraveling on all fronts, my friend.”
“That’s why I’m here. I’m not a politician. I can’t even keep my own house together. Not to mention, my school. That place will fall apart if I don’t give it some serious attention.”
“It’s a tough nut, Norman. In politics, even when you win, it never turns out like you thought. The problems are moving targets. It’s like war. You make a plan, but it never goes that way.”
Norman had mostly avoided the great vampire war from a few years back, but his battles since then were testament to Chip's insight. “How do you do it? The people and vampires in this building are all hustling away working for you. How do you make them believe in you? How do you convince them you’re right? And that you’re good?”
“Good? I wouldn’t go that far. But right?” Chip stepped back, his smile dropped and he crossed his arms. “Do you think I’m right, Norman?”
“I…I’ve never thought of it. It was always a matter of survival. There were no choices.”
“It’s still a matter of survival. You just need to make people see that.”
Norman pondered the thought. He could barely make Felicia think through her own survival.
“Because if you don’t. Someone else will. Then you’ll never win.”
He was right, of course. Matt had told him that he needed to join the campaign. He agreed as a matter of survival. Before that, Nebulous had enlisted him in the war against the super-V’s. Norman once again joined so his nymphs would survive. Even Chip had pulled him into a fight he never wanted, made him part of his precious PDRV. Survival had been at the crux of it then, too. Or had it been? Was there no other way? He’d been convinced at each juncture that there wasn’t. But maybe he was being manipulated. Perhaps he was just a political pawn. Maybe there had been choices all along. Norman blinked out of his thoughts and realized he’d dropped his head and was staring at the ground. He raised his eyes once again to Chip.
“You still here?” said Chip.
Norman opened his mouth to answer, but stopped. Was Chip manipulating him at this very moment? Had he been all along? “Good luck.”
Norman turned and left. He reached the elevator and pushed the button. This had been a fruitless visit. He’d needed advice from Chip and all he learned was he’d been a pawn in Chip's game of chess.
The doors slid apart with a ding. Norman’s game had gotten so much more complicated now. He needed to move pieces of his own. Perhaps there was some value in what Chip had revealed. The empty elevator doors closed.
Norman turned back. He needed to do some manipulating of his own. Time to turn the tables on the acting chancellor.
He strode back down the hall and pushed Chip's door open without knocking. “If I don’t succeed, you lose. You’ll need to register, and you know how that will end.”
“I suppose it will require a change in tactics.”
“You have a very vested interest in seeing that I succeed.”
Chip leaned back in his chair. His voice hardened to ice. “What are you getting at, Norman?”
“I need some people.”
“Who?”
“Well, Rufus for starters.”
Chip smiled. “I thought you were going to ask for money.” His smiled enlarged to a laugh. He pushed a button on his phone. “Send in Rufus.”
“Yes sir,” replied Jack’s voice over the speaker.
Moments later, Rufus entered the room.
“You called, sir?” Rufus’ eyes locked with Norman’s.
Norman thought he caught the soldier’s lips betray a hint of a smile.
“What’s the teacher doing here?” he said.
“I’m assigning you to protect Norman. He’s quite a target now, and he’s running out of allies.”
The corners of Rufus’ mouths curled down. “Sir, I prefer to work here at HQ.”
“I know, Rufus,” said Chip. “But Norman�
�s need is great. He requires strength. He’s gotten himself tangled up with Skeete Daniels.”
“I wasn’t aware of that,” said Rufus.
“So there you have it.”
“With all due respect, sir,” said Rufus. “I’m pledged to the PDRV, not to Norman Bernard.”
“He’s one of us now, Rufus,” replied Chip.
Rufus tightened his lips. His eyes darted and met Norman’s. “He’s running for a human office.” His words came out staccato. “He’s chosen a different side.”
“Our fortunes run in parallel with this election.”
“For now.” Rufus crossed his arms.
Chip's jovial politician’s demeanor sagged. His eyelids dropped slightly, not quite to slits as he leaned forward in his seat. “It’s not a request.” He lowered his head. “Soldier.”
Rufus exhaled. His breath nearly hardened into a growl. “Very well.” Rufus tipped his head in the slightest bow and turned to Norman. “After you.”
Before Norman turned to leave, he saw Rufus shoot a look like sharpened wood, right at Chip. Best leave before the soldier had second thoughts.
They both rode a silent elevator down.
As they stepped onto the sidewalk Norman finally broke the quiet. “He’s a bit testy.”
“He’s a politician. Power is his thing.”
“I think I’ve noticed.”
“Someday it will be his undoing.”
Norman wondered if there was a threat in that remark.
“It will be all of ours.”
23
Poison Pill
“I’ve called in a friend,” said Rufus as he sat down next to Tyrese on the sofa in the Condo.
Norman turned from the freezer, his hand still gripping the bag of blood. “What? Who?”
Rufus did not answer.
“Nice to see you, too,” said Darius from the seat across the coffee table.
Rufus looked a bit bizarre. A soldier, dark pants, tight black T-shirt, green jacket, long ornate stake strapped to his back in the middle of somebody’s living room.
Three loud knocks interrupted the awkward scene.
“Come in,” shouted Norman.
The door swung opened. Matt Barnes entered.
“This is your friend?” said Norman. He couldn't believe Rufus would turn to Nebulous. He was too much the soldier for that.
Rufus growled and frowned.
“Did I interrupt something?” asked Matt.
“What does Nebulous want now?” said Rufus.
Matt looked to Norman. “You’re going to want to see this.”
Norman, Rufus and the nymphs gathered around the coffee table. Matt slapped a thick stack of paper down.
“This is the Vampire Registration Bill. Do you know what it does?”
“Of course,” replied Norman. “It requires all vampires to receive a registration number and assigns a registration officer to each of us.”
“True,” said Matt. “But that’s not all it does.”
Norman bunched his eyebrows. “Oh?”
“This bill sets up a whole system for…” Matt looked around the group. “For vampire extermination.”
Norman grabbed the bill off the table. “No, it doesn’t. I’ve read every page of this bill.”
“No, you haven’t, Mr. Bernard. Not this one. You’ve only read the version released to the public. This is the full version. It has several provisions that Walsh apparently wanted kept secret. Only congressional leadership has seen this. National security.”
Damn! How could Norman fight this thing if he couldn't see it? What else was being hidden from him? He was consumed by an urge to just beat the shit out of Walsh.
“And you’ve allied with this insect,” said Rufus, snarling, revealing his canines.
Norman breathed a deep calming breath, releasing his predatory urge. “How did you get this? Can you be sure it’s authentic?”
“Mr. Bernard. It is.”
Norman didn’t doubt his former student. Nebulous had never been wrong in the information department.
“I told Chancellor Harding this would happen,” said Rufus.
“No,” said Darius. “We can’t let it happen.”
“It’s already happening,” said Tyreese. He punctuated the statement with a knowing chuckle.
“What do we do?” said Darius.
“We fight,” said Rufus. “We kill Walsh and show them what they can do with their registration.”
“Extermination,” corrected Tyreese.
“We can’t win,” said Norman, Fighting would make everything much, much worse. It would set the whole world against them.
“No, Mr. Bernard,” said Matt. “You have to fight.”
“We’ll be killed.”
“You’ll be killed when that bill passes,” said Matt. “And it will pass.”
Norman wrinkled his forehead at the student. It was Matt who'd convinced Norman to join with Walsh to stop the bill from the inside. Now he was saying it was going to pass?” How do you know?”
Matt raised an eyebrow.
Norman grew frustrated with his former student. He'd risked so much because he trusted Matt. Now he was keeping secrets. Trust could only go so far. Of course Norman shouldn’t doubt Matt's information. But the conclusion? Fighting? “We are so few, how can we fight?”
“You need to take the fight right to the heart of your enemy,” said Matt
My enemy. The boy had grown more and more distant from Norman and the nymphs. Nebulous was his tribe now.
“You need to kill Walsh,” said Matt.
“Gladly,” said Rufus.
Norman had just announced his alliance with the senator at the urging of Nebulous. Now they wanted him to kill Walsh? That couldn’t be right. But Nebulous seemed to know so much more than everyone else, as if they had a bird’s eye view.
Norman remembered Chip's advice. Was Nebulous using Norman? Were there choices that he failed to consider? “No fighting.”
“There’s no choice,” said Matt.
“There’s never been a choice,” said Rufus. “We are who we are.”
The voices of Matt and Rufus merged with the thousand questions running through Norman’s head. They jumbled together until they were just a wall of confusion. It stopped his thoughts. He needed to kick down that wall.
Norman screamed. “No!”
The voices in his head stopped. Matt and Rufus stared at Norman, wide-eyed. Darius trembled.
“Bad assed,” said Tyreese smiling.
A silence ensued. It almost had a volume of its own. A new wall to smash down.
A rap at the door cracked though the quiet.
Before Norman could respond, the door swung open. Standing in the frame was a woman. A soldier. Bronte. She stepped into the room whose occupants just stared at her.
She looked at all the stunned faces. “Is this a bad time?
Norman waited up all day, but Felicia never came home. He knew that she’d never get back during daylight, but he couldn’t sleep. So he waited.
Rufus woke first, a blanket barely covering his huge muscular body on the floor. He’d taken off his weaponry, but slept in his cloths. Bronte had done the same on the sofa.
As the last of the day’s glow faded from the frame of the shaded windows, Rufus sat up. “Bronte.”
As if she’d been listening and waiting, Bronte shot up, apparently wide awake. “That felt good.”
Norman stood. “I’m going to wake the nymphs. There’s frozen blood in the Freezer. Three minutes, twenty-two seconds in the microwave will get it up to temp.”
Norman had slowly been buying the condos in the building with his savings. His nymphs needed a place to live, and he might as well keep them close. Two units down he knocked on the door and waited, knowing that the teens would require some time to snap out of their sleep.
Tyreese opened the door. He nodded and backed away, letting Norman in.
Darius stumbled across the studio living r
oom in a robe.
“Felicia never came back,” said Norman.
“I told you she wouldn’t” said Tyreese.
Darius opened the freezer and pulled out a bag of blood. It was much easier to get now that there was a legitimate market for it.
“I’m not going in to school today,” said Norman. He struggled to get the next words out. He knew how much his nymphs needed him...and he needed them. “In fact, I’m not going in any more.”
“Wait, what?” said Darius, snapping himself out of his grog.
Tyreese nodded. “Saw it coming.”
“Why?” said Darius.
“He’s a politician, now,” said Tyreese. “No time for kids anymore.”
“It’s not like that,” said Norman. The accusation hurt. He was their teacher. Their mentor. Their friend.
“I know it’s not. But, really, it is. Isn’t it?”
Of course Tyreese was right. Norman’s only goal was to keep his nymphs safe. In this new world where they seemed exposed to everything, it was nearly impossible. Engaging with the human power structure right at the top might be the only way. “Someone will be taking over for me.”
“Who?” said Darius.
Norman shook his head. “Politics.” He wondered how much to tell them. Seeing as each day could bring a deadly surprise he saw no reason to hold back. “I’m going to the capital today. If I’m going to stop this bill, I’ve got to start now.”
“We should come with you,” said Darius.
“No, go to school.”
“You need help. Walsh has Skeete’s scum helping him.”
“I’ve got Rufus and Bronte.”
“You gonna kill him?” asked Tyreese.
“No.” He hoped his statement was true. “I’m going to convince him.” He turned to leave. “Don’t be late. I can’t watch over you forever. Get to school. Don’t stop going.” Before he swung the door closed, he looked back. “If anything happens to me.” Norman bore into their eyes with his gaze. “Find Felicia.”
Tyreese gave a stoic nod. Norman knew he’d keep his promise.
24
Appointment