by M. Lorrox
She swallows. “I know what you’re going to say, but I’m not going to apologize.”
Eddy raises both palms. “I didn’t say anything.”
Charlie continues driving. “I didn’t say anything either.”
June slaps her hands on her thighs. “COME ON, I know what you’re thinking, that I shouldn’t have done what I did because it was dangerous and irresponsible, but—”
“So why did you do it?”
She looks at him in the rearview mirror. “No—” she sighs, “—I was saying that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Oh. Well, why did you get on the bus? It does seem like it was a dangerous thing to do.”
“Because I had to, Charlie. Nobody else was there and he was going to get away.”
“Probably, yeah.”
“Umm, so I got on the bus. To help stop him.”
“I know. From what I heard and from what Schermer says—” He smiles over his shoulder to Eddy and June. “—you two were a great team.”
“So, you’re glad I got on the bus then?”
Charlie laughs. “No, definitely not happy about that, and especially not happy that you got off the bus with the target. I told Eddy to tell you to stay on the bus.” He looks at Eddy. “Who of course told you to stay put... RIGHT?”
Eddy nods.
June sits back into her seat and sighs.
Charlie looks at her in the mirror again. “June, your dad is probably going to kill you. I texted him updates that you were safe, but still, he’s probably going to kill you. The vampires on the other hand are probably going to want to throw you a parade, and if I were Eddy, I’d be a little upset that you didn’t stay on the bus when he asked you to.”
June takes a fast breath. “And what about you?”
He bounces his head a little, side to side as he drives. “Well, you know I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, but what concerns me the most is that you have no idea what you’re doing. You’ve been a vampire with our abilities for what, two days? You don’t know what your limits are. You could have gotten in way over your head today, June. If he knew you were following him, who knows, maybe he had a gun on him. Maybe a knife.”
June closes her eyes. “I just had to do something.”
Charlie sighs. “I understand how you feel, but you put yourself in a lot of danger, when you didn’t need to. And you ditched your dad.”
She remembers the way he crashed and fell when he took off after her. “He’s really mad?”
Charlie nods. “Yeah.”
After the meeting at the Pentagon, the vampires are brought back to the hotel. Hamid holds a brief, closed session with the High Council, and Sadie waits outside for it to finish. When Mary steps out, Sadie walks with her. “So... What are you up to, Mary?”
“Oh Sadie, I didn’t have a chance to talk to you; there have been so many extra meetings and closed sessions. Will you let me explain over tea perhaps?”
“At the restaurant?”
She shakes her head. “My room. We need to speak privately.”
“Lead the way.”
Mary turns on an electric teakettle and sets out two cups. “Finally, a little privacy.”
Sadie clears her throat. “So, what’s going on?”
Mary sits in a chair across from her old friend. “I think you should join us on the High Council.”
Sadie jolts and furrows her brow. “The Council is full, there’s no room on it.”
“For now, you’re right.” She shakes her head. “I’ve spoken to Hamid about this, but to no one else. I think there’s someone that is working against us, from within the Council.”
Sadie frowns. “Working against you? How?”
“I can’t explain; it’s a feeling. There have been too many coincidences, too many accidents. I want you around for your support and to prepare you for a nomination.”
Sadie nods. “I’ll do what I can. Can I tell Charlie?”
Mary glances to her side for a moment. “Not yet. Some of the guards may be in on it as well, and they may try and seek his help—they may try to convince him to join them.”
Sadie chuckles. “And we know exactly how that’ll go.”
Mary laughs. “Yes, yes we do.”
After a moment, Sadie swallows and asks the question she’s had on her mind all morning. “Mary—for this mission—are they sending Charlie?”
She takes a full breath in and out before responding. “That’s not exactly the correct question. The question is, are they sending the Commander of the Council Guard—and the answer is yes.”
“If it’s political, why not use a high-ranking vampire who is also in the military? There’s dozens of knights that out-rank Charlie.”
“Because it’s not that simple. Think about it. The U.S. government wants our help, and they want us to go public—”
“And they suggest they’ll help us do that, but—”
“Sadie, this military operation that they’ve thought up; it’s a PR goldmine. Think about it. They use cutting edge research and tech to go back out into the wilds of the zombie filled area to protect American interests.” She waves her hand. “I’m sure they’ll spin it in a way that suggests they’re collecting important samples and research or something, but the point is that it’ll be a joint operation.”
The tea kettle buzzes. Sadie gets up to fetch it. She brings it back to where they’re sitting and pours the hot water into two cups.
Mary looks through some tea bags and selects an herbal. “Us and them, working together. Like a team.”
Sadie takes an Earl Gray. “That’s fine, but why Charlie? It’s most likely the last thing he’d want to do.”
Mary bobs her teabag up and down in the water. “It’s plain as day. Charlie has it all; he’s the perfect choice. That’s what the military and the High Council will think; they’re both very predictable.”
Sadie raises an eyebrow. “Indulge me on why he’s the perfect choice.”
“Well, he looks rather ordinary. He’s a little overweight, he’s not a model, he’s got scars, and hair, and scruff. He looks like any ol’, middle-aged, ex-college athlete.”
Sadie laughs. “He’ll love that.”
Mary nods and rolls her eyes behind her thin, silver-rimmed glasses. “I can imagine. But there’s more. He also holds the highest official command-station, Commander of the Council Guard. In addition, he’s a high-ranking officer in the Order of Knights, colonel now, correct?”
Sadie nods and sips her tea.
“And, he’s tough. She tilts her head toward Sadie. “You told me what really happened during Catherine’s ascension. I can’t think of any other vampire alive that could have endured what he did.”
Sadie sets her tea down. “Mary, no one knows about that. How does it have any impact on the situation?”
Mary looks at Sadie over the lip of her cup. Steam swirls in front of her glasses. How naive. “Sadie, my dear, what no one knows is why the story that’s been told of Catherine’s ascension is incomplete. I’ll tell you straight to your face: there’s no vampire knight alive that has the respect and admiration that Charlie does.”
Sadie opens her mouth to argue, but shakes her head and looks away.
“And dear, one thing everyone also knows is what happened to him during the American Civil War—and how he fought back. You and him. You both exposed the old bureaucracy and cynicism that was the open sewer running through our society, and it’s partly because of you both that we as a people have grown as much as we have since then. We are a respected community now. Feared, of course, but respected by other governments. Envied even.” She picks up her cup and takes a large sip.
“Flattery won’t work on Charlie. You know that. And he doesn’t want any limelight. I mean, are you kidding? That alone would make him refuse the mission.”
Mary sets the cup down, reaches out, and takes Sadie’s hand. She rubs it. “My dear, you should know that if he doesn’t volunteer, the Council might put forward and vote on a
Council Directive.”
Sadie rips her hand away. “How dare you?”
Mary draws back in surprise and holds up her palms to Sadie. “Not my idea! I swear I’ll vote against it, and I can convince a few others to vote with me, but—” She lowers her hands to her lap and shrinks in her seat. “—but if the Council votes and I cannot block it, he will have to go.”
Sadie shakes her head back and forth quickly, back and forth and back and forth, not stopping. “No, he won’t go. He’ll resign, he’ll chop his arms off and take disability leave, he’ll do anything except follow another Council Directive into battle.” She stops shaking her head and looks at Mary. “I cannot believe what I’m hearing. I cannot believe that you would even entertain this. This is completely unbelievable.”
Mary slides off her glasses and wipes her eyes. “Sadie, I’m sorry, dear. I want to help... When I suggested that Charlie take the Commander position instead of going back to active service, I had no idea any of this would happen. I really just wanted to help, and...I guess I’m apologizing.” She sits back in the chair and sighs as a tear breaks from her eye. “I know; this is awful. It’s just plain awful, but it is the situation we find ourselves in.”
Sadie looks at her teacup. “I don’t blame you, Mary; I don’t. But what are we going to do? Is there a way to just put an end to this nightmare?”
Mary leans forward, pulls a napkin out from under her teacup, and dries her face. “Ending the nightmare... You know, I might have an idea.”
Sadie sits back in her chair and studies her old friend. She remembers a time centuries ago, when Mary helped end a different problem. When Mary helped her hatch a plan that ended with buckets of blood—blood on her own hands, and flesh in her own pigs’ troughs. A plan that also prevented leagues of innocent blood from filling the streets of Florence.
Sadie swallows. “I just was thinking back to when I first met you—way back in Italy during the trade wars. Remember that?”
Mary flashes her eyes wide. “How could I forget?”
“I trusted you then, and your plan worked. It was messy...but it worked.”
Mary nods.
“Tell me your new idea, my dear Mary, but know that I pray it won’t be a tenth as bloody as that first one.”
Mary can’t help but chuckle and shake her head. “No promises.” She rubs her temple with one hand and takes a deep breath. “We make it Charlie’s idea.”
Charlie drops June off at the mall next door to the hotel, so that she has plausible deniability about where she’s been. Rusty jumps out with her, and Charlie tosses her a leash and collar. “Put that on him, they’ve got leash laws up here.”
“Oh, okay. Thanks.”
As Charlie drives away, he sighs. “Be ready for a rough night.”
Eddy glances up. “Because of Skip?”
Charlie nods.
Eddy looks out the window. “She asked me what to do, and I told her to stay on the bus. Why do you think she got off?”
“I don’t know, bravado maybe.”
Charlie parks in the garage under the hotel. “Eddy, let’s stop in and check the progress of the operation, I’ve been off-radio for a while now.”
“Yeah, I’m curious if they tailed him to the bomb.”
I’m curious if we have to evacuate.
They arrive at the room set up as the operation HQ, and they’re greeted with applause as they enter. Schermer is there and is clapping alongside the FBI agents. Eddy is beaming.
Charlie smiles. “I’ll take this as good news?”
Agent Harding nods. “We picked up a tail on him, thanks to some excellent anonymous tips, and followed him back to a residence in Arlington belonging to Terrance Schuster.” He glances at his watch and turns back around to the room. “What’s the status on the helo? Are the spike strips in place?”
An agent with a headset looks up from behind a laptop. “Helo is thirty seconds out sir.”
Another agent lifts his head up. “SWAT ready, sir. All cars ready to set mobile blockades. All comm lines are open. Holding on your command.”
Agent Harding looks toward Charlie and Eddy and smiles. “Just in time for the action.”
Charlie pats Eddy on the shoulder and whispers in his ear, “Come up to the suite when this is over.”
Eddy turns. You’re leaving?
Charlie is walking out the door. Agent Harding picks up a radio and looks at his watch. “Get ready to move in, four, three, two, one, GO!”
In Terry’s neighborhood, a police helicopter equipped with vision-disrupting green-pulse lasers and loudspeakers mounted between the landing rails hones in on the house. Police cars pull onto the street from different directions and block it off. The SWAT team pours out of the beat-up taco truck and splits up; one team charges toward the house, while another bee-lines for a garage nearby that Andrew entered. Police roll out spike strips in front of the garage doors and along the road in front of the house. Ambulances wait at the end of the block.
Schermer walks over to Eddy, and they both listen as Agent Harding receives updates and calls out more orders. “...Alright, go thermal and breach.”
The door to the garage is thrown open, and a one-hundred-and-seventy-decibel flashbang is tossed inside.
-PEWGH!-
The SWAT team activates smoke grenades and rushes inside with them as the helicopter starts blaring a message: “THIS IS THE POLICE, YOU ARE SURROUNDED, PLACE YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD AND GET ON THE GROUND.”
Back at the hotel, an update comes through the radio.
“Two suspects in the— -BANG! BANG! BANG!- —Shots fired! Shots fired in the garage!”
Agent Harding paces. “Carter, alert the ambulances.”
“Man down! -BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!-”
“Carter!”
“Trauma team ready sir!”
“House clear.”
Eddy glances up at Schermer, who frowns. They wait.
“Shooter down... Other suspect surrendered. Clearing area… Garage clear. We have them in custody.”
Agent Harding nods. “Verify bomb.”
“…Verified. WOW... It’s a big one, sir. Doesn’t look like it’s armed yet.”
He nods. “Clear both areas again and prep bomb squad.”
“...Garage clear.”
“...House clear.”
“Move in the bomb squad.” Harding looks over his shoulder to the agent with the headset. “Tell the helo to hold position.” He looks at Agent Carter. “How’s our man?”
Carter holds up a finger, listening to a single earphone pressed to his ear. “Two wounds, torso and thigh...missed the vest at the right shoulder... They’ve controlled the bleeding.” Carter looks up. “He’ll make it.”
Agent Harding nods. “Good work.” He turns around. “Bomb squad, what have we got?”
Eddy sits down and just stares while his heart races. THIS. IS. NUTS.
When June comes up to the suite, she finds Skip waiting for her in the living room. She can hear Charlie talking to Minnie in the other room. She comes in and sets down her bag. “Hi, Dad.”
He doesn’t say anything; he just stares at her.
She walks to the fridge and pours a glass of blood. Her hands shake.
He lets out a loud sigh. “I’m very disappointed in you.”
She turns to him. “Dad, I had to follow him, okay? He was going to get away, and he wants to kill us. Me, the Costanzas, and all the vampires. You would have been killed too.”
“No, they would have evacuated the hotel and caught him later.”
“What if they didn’t catch him? What if he had another bomb, or another buddy who could slip in and kill people? Look, I’m sorry I left you at the bus stop. It all just happened so fast.”
Skip sniffs. “You know, Charlie told me that they followed Blackjack, or whoever, to another man’s house. He told me that they would have lost him if it wasn’t for you, and he got a text that said they found the bomb. So, you saved the day, June.
Congratulations.” He turns and walks into the bedroom, leaving the door open.
June drinks some of the blood, takes a deep breath, then follows him into the bedroom and shuts the door behind her.
Twenty minutes later, Eddy comes back to the suite. He can hear June and Skip talking in their bedroom… Well, he can hear June saying, “I know—I’m sorry,” and Skip being upset at her. Eddy can also hear Minnie and Charlie in the other bedroom. He pours a glass of water and walks into the bedroom that he shares with his family. “Hey, sis. Hey, Dad.”
Minnie jumps up and runs to Eddy. “Look what I made in pottery.” She grabs his hand and pulls him toward the window. On top of Sadie’s old trunk sits a lumpy bowl-shaped device with a hole in one side and a flat spot directly across from it.
Eddy steals a glance to Charlie.
He smiles. “What do you think, son?”
Eddy looks at the situation in front of him. “Wow. That’s really cool… How does it work?”
Minnie looks at him and scrunches her brow. “What do you mean?”
“Well, what is it?”
She looks back at it and smiles. “What do you think it is?”
Eddy tilt his head. Ashtray? I can’t imagine they’d ask kids to make those... A messed-up bowl? An alien’s eating utensil? Ah! “I know, it’s a hat!” He reaches down and tickles Minnie.
She squirms and twists and laughs. “No! Stop it!” She escapes, then straightens her shirt and scowls at Eddy. “You know it’s not a hat, don’t be dumb. Look…” She walks over to the device. She picks it up and holds it in the palm of her hand with her thumb poking through the hole. “It’s a place to set your paint brushes, see? The bowl by the thumb-hole is for the water, and the flat part is where you set your brushes.”
Eddy smiles and imagines it in use. “Oh, yeah, that looks like it would work really well. So are they doing a painting class tomorrow or something?”
“How should I know?” Minnie sets her creation on the windowsill. “They told us to make bowls, but this is much more useful.”
“Who showed you how to make that?”