“Yes,” Naomi said without hesitation. As William’s apprentice, she had access to all of the council’s most sensitive information, including its finances.
“Do they, like … submit expense reports?” Two asked, and Naomi laughed a little, shaking her head.
“Lewis tells me where to book the rooms, and how many of them to book, and under whose names. I pull out my little black card with no limits on it and make some phone calls. Then I transfer some money from the council’s accounts to my own and report doing so at the next official council meeting, assuming we are successful and the council still exists.”
“Nice,” Two said. She remembered the black card; Naomi had used it to buy her an entire new wardrobe after the Burilgi had ransacked her apartment.
“It seems like everything is settled, then,” Sasha said. She drained the last of her martini and glanced around at the others to see if they concurred.
“Everything except the date,” Theroen said.
“Two weeks seems a reasonable window,” Leonore said. “The Children are unlikely to redeploy so quickly, and we should be able to move any Burilgi or Ay’Araf who are willing to help within that time.”
Lewis and Sasha were nodding. Two glanced at Theroen and Naomi, but neither seemed to have any objections.
“OK,” she said. “Theroen and I will talk with Kanene about getting in there. Once we pick a day, I want a promise you won’t hit them until midnight. That’s all I’m asking. After that, assume we’re dead and come at them with everything you have.”
“And if you’re not dead?” Sasha asked.
“Then we’ll still be working to get Tori out of there, and if that’s just not possible, well … so be it. You know whose side we’re on. You know what we’re willing to do if it comes to that. Both of us have fought and killed for the council already.”
“What if you have to fight and kill Tori?” Naomi asked, and Two glared at her.
“I told you, you know whose side we’re on,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about that, OK? Even if Tori won’t come with us.”
“I have never doubted your loyalty for one moment, Two,” Naomi said. “I was merely curious. It may come down to the two of you versus her. That’s the simple truth.”
“If she tries to kill us, then she tries to kill us,” Two said. “It’s not really a hard choice. If it’s me and Theroen or her, I’m choosing the two of us. If she threatens him, then I’ll kill her myself.”
“My hero,” Theroen said quietly, his voice dry, and there was some laughter around the table. Two glanced over at him, shaking her head.
“It’s not funny,” she said.
“Of course not,” Theroen agreed. “None of it is funny, and if I joke, Two, it is only to keep from giving in to despair. For all her troubles and flaws, Tori is my sister and I will forever regret the part I played in what she has gone through. If it comes down to it, we will try to kill her, but I would no more do violence to Tori than you would. It is because I hope so much to avoid this that I have agreed to go with you on this mad adventure.”
Two’s expression softened, and she nodded. “OK, you’re right. It’s not funny, but if there’s anyone here who should shut up about making jokes under pressure, it’s me. Sorry.”
“There is nothing to be sorry about,” Theroen said serenely.
“Two weeks from now is Saturday, August second,” Sasha said, glancing at her phone.
“Do you think a Saturday night is the right time?” Lewis asked.
“Pretty sure it’s fine,” Two said. “I don’t know if they’re allowed to go out, but it might actually be better if some of them are hitting the bars.”
There was general agreement with this statement, and for a moment the group found itself at a loss for words. Finally, Leonore spoke.
“So, are we finished here, then?” she asked.
“Not quite,” Naomi said, and she reached forward, taking the bottle of wine and refilling Theroen’s glass, and Leonore’s, and her own.
“What’s left?” Two asked, and Naomi grinned; it was one of the genuine smiles that had become so rare from her of late.
“Nothing,” she said. “I simply refuse to let this council disband so long as there is any wine left in this wonderful bottle.”
Chapter 18
Final Thoughts
“Where you been, Ness?” Carrie asked as she came into the room where her squad slept, and Vanessa gave a kind of cynical laugh but didn’t respond, choosing instead to drop onto one of the unused lower bunks – she thought it had once belonged to Connors – and lie staring upward, breathing slowly. Carrie, who had been sitting on her own bunk and cleaning her service pistol, glanced up in surprise.
“You OK?” she asked.
“Been better,” Vanessa said, still staring at the mattress above. Carrie set aside the pieces of her gun, crossed the room, and hunkered down next to her.
“Did Charles … I mean, is he …”
“He’s still alive,” Vanessa said. “He’s even awake. We had a lot to talk about. That’s why I missed practice. Was Dillinger pissed?”
“Nah. I mean, he said if you didn’t have a good excuse he was going to tear your arms off, but then he said you probably did have a good excuse.”
“When the Emperor’s Left Hand tells you to stay and listen …” Vanessa began, and Carrie nodded.
“You stay and listen. Got it. What did he have to say?”
Vanessa considered this question for a time. “Not sure I want to talk about that.”
Carrie seemed momentarily unsure how to respond to this, and Vanessa glanced over at her as the silence expanded. As she did so, she caught the tail end of some emotion – she thought it was disappointment – leaving Carrie’s face.
“Hey, sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like I don’t want to talk about it with you. It’s just some crazy shit. I’m still trying to figure it all out.”
Carrie made her best effort to look baffled by Vanessa’s concern and said, “You do what you gotta do, Ness.”
Vanessa smiled at her. “Thanks. Listen … I know you didn’t tell anyone about the Captain and the bat we met that she thought she knew. I would’ve heard about it by now if you did. I really appreciate that. I’m glad I can trust you.”
Carrie smiled, a bit of a blush rising to her cheeks, and glanced away. “You know, you can’t just call her ‘the Captain’ anymore. You’re one of those now, too.”
Vanessa had completely forgotten this fact amidst the revelations that Charles had shared with her earlier, and she smiled.
“Guess you’re right. Going to take me a while to get used to that.”
“How’s Charles? You said he’s talking?”
“Yeah … least he was when I left. It’s bad, Carrie. It’s really fucking bad, and he’s not going to last much longer. This is another one of those things that I need you to keep to yourself, OK? I have to tell someone because I can’t deal with it all alone, and I really trust you.”
Carrie’s blush deepened, but this time she didn’t look away. She only smiled, and nodded, and said in her lisping voice, “I understand, Ness.”
Vanessa sighed and glanced up at the mattress above her before speaking. She was startled to feel tears spring to her eyes – and by the effort it took to push them back.
“It’s cancer,” she said. “It’s deep down in his brain, and there’s nothing they can do except try to make him comfortable.”
Carrie winced. “Ugh, Jesus, he’s not even old!”
“No. He’s not old at all, but he’s dying. I’m not sure he has a month left. Shit, I’m not sure he has a week left. Doc Chambers wasn’t even sure he was ever going to come out of that coma.”
“He’s tough,” Carrie said. “I think he’s tougher than a lot of grunts like me even realize.”
“You’re not a grunt,” Vanessa told her, and Carrie laughed.
“I’m not an officer. Haven’t even got a silve
r bar, and you’ve got two gold ones.”
“Yeah, but …”
“It’s never gonna happen. Look, Ness, I’ve made my peace with it. I’m great with the equipment, and that’s all they need from me. I don’t have the tactics to be an officer. I guess they’d give me a bump if I got out there and killed one of the really old vampires myself, like I always dreamed, but I won’t. One eye means shitty depth perception, and that means I can’t shoot. If you can’t shoot and you’re not a tactical whiz, you get to man the surveillance system in the van when the real hunters go after the big game. It’s all right.”
“Yeah, no, you totally sound like it’s all right,” Vanessa growled, and Carrie laughed.
“OK, it sucks,” she admitted. “But I can live with being a grunt, because at least we get to go out in the field. Captain Perrault’s the only one at her rank who’s out there a lot, and she’s a pretty fucking unique case.”
“I’m out there,” Vanessa said.
“You think that’ll keep happening?” Carrie asked. “How many other captains have any major confirmed kills? They’re going to make you start hanging back, Ness, and that’s fine. You’re too fucking smart and valuable to waste on some dipshit vampire that gets lucky. That’s what grunts are for. That’s what people like Janus and Burke and Connors and Paulo are for, may they all rest in peace. Not one of them made it past Corporal.”
“Are you trying to depress the living shit out of me, or is it just happening by accident?”
“I guess the latter.”
“Well, nice job.”
“Sorry, Ness. I’m just trying to tell you I’m not jealous. I’m happy for you. You’re a born commander and you’re going to keep on climbing. I bet you make colonel someday.”
Vanessa gave a harsh, disgusted laugh, and said, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that will be happening.”
“But you’re—”
“Trust me, Carrie. There is no chance that I will ever be a colonel. Fucking Charles … he made sure of that. He … God damn it.”
Vanessa could feel the tears stinging at her eyes again, and she rubbed a hand angrily across her face. God damn Charles, yes. The things he had told her could never be taken back, and they would never be far from the front of her mind. In preparing her to become the next Left Hand of the Emperor of the Sun, he had damned her forever to mental agony, the very same that he must have suffered all of these years. She wondered for a moment if the tumor in his brain was a direct result.
Carrie easily picked up on her distress. “Ness … what’s wrong? You can tell me, I promise.”
Vanessa shook her head. “No, I can’t. I made some promises of my own tonight that I don’t know how to keep. I promised things to a dying man who has looked after me for more years than my real father had the chance to, and I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to do the things I promised him. I just … want it to end.”
“What, like all the vampires dead?”
Vanessa considered this in silence for a long time, looking again at the coiled steel springs that held the mattress above her aloft.
“I don’t even know anymore,” she said. “Sometimes I just want it to be over. Right now. Today. But there’s still so much more to go.”
“Ness, I can’t … it’s hard to understand you if you won’t tell me what’s going on.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Look, it’s just a tough time right now. I’ll admit that. I lost four men, had a crazy situation with Captain Perrault, and was almost asphyxiated. Then I came home and tried to give my report to Charles, and he had a seizure and went into a coma. When he woke up, he told me he was dying and then laid a whole shitload of confidential information on me that I can’t share with anyone other than the Emperor, who I’ve never even talked to. I’m not in the best place right now.”
Carrie considered this and then nodded, giving a small laugh. “I suppose that’s fair.”
Vanessa took a deep breath and forced herself away from the edge of tears. “Thanks for understanding, Sergeant.”
“My pleasure, Captain,” Carrie said, and she stood up, stretching her arms against the steel support of the top bunk. “Listen … I’m here. I want to help.”
Vanessa felt a great surge of love run through her, not just for this woman but for all of her soldiers, the men and women who were willing to die for her – some of whom had already made that sacrifice. What had she done to deserve this kind of loyalty? How had she come to be the leader that she was?
“Carrie …”
“Yeah?”
“You’ll be the first one,” Vanessa said. “When it’s time, you’ll hear it first.”
“It’s going to be pretty big, huh?” Carrie asked her, and Vanessa managed a tired smile. She was not at all confident in that smile, not sure that it looked anything like it should have, but it would have to do. She owed it to those of her soldiers who remained to fight on.
“Huge,” she said, and she laughed, shaking her head. “It’s going to be huge.”
* * *
“Did you speak with your brother?” Charles asked her, his voice little more than a whisper, and after the words she could hear the slight squeal of the artificial lung that now sat beside his bed, helping him to breathe. In just a few days his condition had deteriorated alarmingly.
“Yeah, we talked,” Vanessa said. She was sitting in a chair to his right, trying her best to look at Charles in the same way she would look at anyone else. It wasn’t easy; his bad eye now moved randomly, seemingly with a mind of its own, and his pallor had become so pronounced, his body so thin, that she could see the intricate web work of the blood vessels in his face.
Charles had given Doctor Chambers permission to share all of the details about his condition with Vanessa. She met with Chambers often for status updates, and the doctor had confided that he doubted Charles would last the week, particularly given the strict no-resuscitation orders the man had given. Sooner or later, the tumor growing rapidly and unchecked inside of his brain would cause some essential part of his body to fail, and that would be the end of it.
“You talked. Good. How is he?”
“Oh, he’s dandy, Charles. Life in a cell really suits him.”
Charles made a wheezing noise that Vanessa thought was supposed to be laughter. The sound sent shivers up her spine, and to stop it she spoke again.
“He’s not interested in cooperating. He says he didn’t sign up to kill innocent people.”
“Innocent …” Charles repeated, and for a time there was no sound but the hums and clicks and squeaks of the various pieces of medical equipment keeping him alive.
“He told me I should come back and tell you he can’t be redeemed,” Vanessa said. “He said he was broken and it wasn’t worth the Emperor’s time to try and fix him. He said he didn’t know how it happened … it just happened.”
“There are ways—” Charles began, and Vanessa cut him off, shaking her head.
“He said he’s not taking any pills or drinking anything other than water, and he’ll fight injections. If you try and slip it into his food and he realizes it, he’ll go on a hunger strike. He says he’s done, Charles, and I … he’s my brother, and it kills me to say this, but I think he means it.”
“What does he propose we do with him?” Charles asked, and then broke into a coughing fit. Vanessa found herself up on her feet, adrenaline racing through her veins, but Charles waved her off.
“I will live yet a bit longer,” he said.
“Is there anything I can do? I wish I could … I don’t know …”
“Make it all go away?” Charles asked, smiling with the good half of his mouth.
“Yes!” Vanessa exclaimed, sitting back down. “This isn’t fair.”
“Death is an end we all must face,” Charles told her. He was staring up at the ceiling, his chest rising and falling ever so slightly, letting the mechanical lung do its work.
“Not the vampires,” Vanessa murmured, and Charle
s rolled his head to the side to look at her.
“That is why your work is so important,” he said.
“I know. I know it is.”
“That is why you must take up the mantle. You must become the new Left Hand, the Staff of Knowledge, the—”
“I already said ‘yes,’” Vanessa told him. “Charles, I already said I would do it. I already accepted all of the shit you threw at my feet with no warning, and I’ve spent the past couple of days trying not to think too hard about that decision. Don’t make me go back to it yet.”
“Very well,” Charles said. “My apologies, Vanessa.”
“S’OK. Sorry for getting angry.”
“You’ve nothing to be sorry about. I am an old, tired man, and when one reaches this point in one’s life, it is not uncommon to become very concerned with one’s legacy. We are so close. If we take the U.S., then Canada, Mexico, and South America will fall in only a few short years. With the new supply of recruits that would give us, we could move on to Europe or Africa. Even Asia. Can you imagine releasing more than a billion Chinese people from the scourge?”
“That would be pretty amazing,” Vanessa agreed. She had no idea how many vampires there were in China. Even the best estimates they could make amounted to little more than shots in the dark. If there was but one vampire for every hundred thousand humans – a number much lower than the ratio in America – there would still be more than thirteen thousand vampires in mainland China alone. The idea of sitting at the left hand of the Emperor as he guided a force large enough to assault such a number was hard to imagine.
“I will not be there to see the end,” Charles said. “I thought I had time. Ten more years, at least, perhaps even twenty. We could do so much in twenty years. Surely this entire hemisphere could be wiped clean, and we could be well established in Europe and Asia.”
“We’ll do our best, Charles.”
“Yes, I’ve no doubt. Ah … I would have so enjoyed climbing the steps at Choquequirao, knowing that we had at last restored the Children to the glory that Pizarro stole from us all those centuries ago. Will you do something for me?”
The II AM Trilogy Collection Page 104