by M. Lorrox
He smiles, nods, and squints a little. “Yeah, she really is.”
Sadie reaches out and pats his hand. “I’m happy for you. And I trust your judgement. I’m sure Minnie will just love seeing the exhibits and being around other kids her age.”
The coffee starts to drip into the pot, and Skip gets up from the table and walks back over to it. “She’s made one friend already. What’s the boy’s name...? Herbert, I think.” He expertly swipes the pot away and replaces it with his mug, catching the dripping coffee as it comes out. “No, maybe that’s his dog. Stuffed animal.”
Sadie chuckles.
“I remember, it’s Tommy.” He turns back around while he waits. “Anyway, you’re right. Minnie is enjoying being around the other kids.”
Sadie turns to him. “Can I give you a word of advice?”
“Of course.”
“Try and keep tabs on Valentine. If she sets her down someplace and leaves her, I guarantee we’ll have to go back to find her.”
He chuckles. “Never leave a man behind, right?”
“Yeah, or in this case a personified magic unicorn that prefers feminine pronouns.” She gets up. “I’ll wake Minnie and get her ready for the trip.”
Skip nods and turns back to his coffee mug. It’s just about to overflow. Yikes! He slides it out and the pot back in, spilling hot coffee on the counter. That’s what I get for being impatient. He grabs a paper towel and cleans up his mess while his cup of coffee sits, temporarily ignored.
An hour later, everyone is bustling about the suite. Eddy and June make breakfast while Sadie shows Skip the bag she carries for Minnie on outings. Meanwhile, Minnie is bouncing up and down on the couch.
Sadie finishes going through the bag with Skip, then she puts her shoes on. She hugs Minnie goodbye as June tastes the big batch of oatmeal with a spoon. “It’s ready.”
Eddy spoons some into a bowl and hands it to his mom. “Here you go. Have a good day.”
“Thanks, you too.” She takes a bite and burns her mouth. “Nice and hot.” She turns to Skip. “Will you walk down with me? I want to go over the schedule one more time.”
He shrugs. “Sure.”
In the elevator, Skip starts to go over the field trip’s details, but she interrupts him. “Skip, the reason I wanted you to come down is so I can tell you something about June.”
“Oh? What’s up?”
“Something occurred to Charlie and I; you might be at risk.”
“How so?”
Sadie shrugs. “We think we should test her saliva, to see if it carries...pathogens.”
He furrows his brow. “I thought the vampy-ness, you know, overruled, and that it only transmits through direct blood contact.”
“Right, but what if somehow she can still transmit the other one? Through saliva, like all the others that are infected by it do?”
“Oh. Oh shit.”
“Yeah.” The doors open, and Sadie steps out and turns, holding the door. “Just be aware. We’ll figure out a way to test it. I wouldn’t worry her though.”
He nods. “Thanks for telling me.”
“Of course. I have to get going. Will you take my bowl back up?” She hands it to him. “Have fun today with Minnie.” She smirks. “And Katlyn.”
He nods. “As much fun as a field trip with two dozen kids can be. I think Katlyn will be a little preoccupied.”
“Later, Skip.”
“Bye, Sadie.”
She walks away, and the elevator doors close.
Back in the room, Eddy and Minnie eat some oatmeal. June tastes the pot again as Skip walks in. “Hey Dad, I added some brown sugar, it’s pretty good now, want some?”
He looks at her with the spoon in her mouth. “I think I’ll pass on the oats this morning, thanks though.”
“Okay.” She spoons herself a bowl and sits at the table to eat.
Skip walks to the fridge and hunts inside for his leftovers from last night’s dinner. Spicy Thai noodles and eggplant it is.
General Campbell leads the platoon of two squads out of a set of doors and onto a runway at Joint Base Andrews, just southeast of Washington DC, in Maryland. Before them are two massive planes—a pair of C-130 Hercules. Each has four, huge turboprops under its wings, and both have their rear hatch opened. General Campbell turns and stops in front of the platoon.
He yells over the distant rumble of an aircraft taking off elsewhere at the base, “Soldiers! Alpha Squad, led by Lieutenant Walker, will proceed to the Herc to your left. Bravo Squad, led by Lieutenant Rodriguez, you will proceed to the Herc on the right. Good luck and Godspeed.” He salutes the squads, and they all salute him back. He walks down between the two columns of soldiers, and the lieutenants who were in the front of each line turn around to face their squads.
Lieutenant Walker walks backward. “Alpha Squad, let’s go!” He turns and jogs toward their plane.
Lieutenant Rodriguez smiles. “Don’t let Alpha get to their plane first, let’s go Bravo!” He turns and runs. The soldiers follow, and Alpha Squad picks up their pace as well. None of them run at their top speed though—they know they’ll need their energy later. Both squads slow as they reach their planes.
Charlie remembers the packs he used to wear during wartime, but the modern gear seems a lot heavier. These boots are great though, I gotta get me a few pair. Everyone is carrying a similar pack, but the vampires have blood supplies in addition to rations in theirs. The non-vampire soldiers carry assault rifles with stowed bayonets, Tiger carries a sniper rifle, and Charlie carries his katana. When the Alpha Squad reaches the loading platform of the plane, a member of the flight crew steps out and speaks with the lieutenant. Everyone else just waits.
Charlie is amazed. Floor to ceiling and nearly wall to wall of the plane’s cargo area is filled with a giant vehicle, an Armadillo that is being winched backward into the plane. Behind the one he stares at, another two have already been loaded in. He elbows a soldier next to him. “I think they should have used a bigger plane.”
The soldier frowns and furrows his brow. “No, that’s the biggest that can use unprepared runways, and none smaller can fit Dillos in them.”
Charlie looks at him. It was supposed to be a joke… I guess it sucked. Never mind.
Lieutenant Walker turns to face the squad. “We’re going to be using the side hatches, peel off one by one, go!” He jogs to the right side, the next person jogs to the left, and everyone that follows alternates. Both groups wait to climb into the plane by its lowered front cargo hatches.
Inside, it’s cramped. The three Dillos fill most of the cargo area and leave only a small space between them and the wall behind the cockpit. Charlie considers making another attempt at a JAWS-inspired joke, but he decides against it.
The ten humans and three vampires that will ride in the remaining cargo area secure their packs to a sled, two at a time, then slide the sled down toward the back of the aircraft underneath the Dillos. They attach the front of a full sled to an empty one, fill it, then slide it down and attach another empty sled. Rinse and repeat until all their gear is out of the way—stowed underneath the vehicles.
They secure their weapons vertically—all of them together—near the port-side hatch with nylon webbing and cinch-straps. Then, they fold down jump seats on the forward and starboard walls and settle in.
When the last Dillo is secured, the loadmaster closes the rear cargo bay door, and the flight crew in the cockpit fire up the engines. Charlie, Tiger, and Aharon all glance at one another, then reach into their breast pockets to take out a set of earplugs. They get them in when the engines really start to make noise. It’s still loud to them, but at least they won’t get a headache.
The loadmaster jumps in through one of the front hatches, then secures both of them shut. He flips down a jump seat and pulls a radio handset off the wall above it. “Cargo area secured.” He glances to Lieutenant Walker, who gives him a thumbs-up. “Squad secure. We are GO for takeoff. Over.”
&nb
sp; A speaker above their heads gives a response: “Roger, beginning takeoff procedures. Over.”
The loadmaster, McGee by his name-patch, sits down. “Buckle up, boys and girls, this lady may be big and heavy, but she still dances in the wind!”
Charlie can’t help but chuckle. He tightens his harness. Tiger is seated next to him on the left side, and Aharon is on the right. Beyond Aharon is the starboard side hatch door. In a row against the forward wall of the cargo area, all the other soldiers sit, facing aft. The weapons are directly across from the vampires, on the port side of the plane.
Aharon nudges Charlie.
“You all set?”
Aharon nods. “I’m sorry, but to quote a much more famous doctor, ‘I may throw up on you.’” He smiles.
Charlie doesn’t get the reference. He smiles anyway and turns away, toward Tiger.
Tiger smiles at him. “Hey, Commander?”
“Try to call me Colonel on this mission... But, what do you want?”
“Where’s the bathroom on this thing?”
Charlie turns away without answering, closes his eyes, and sighs.
Eddy verifies that the velvet pouch and ring is safely stored inside his bag, then he slings it over his shoulder and walks into the living room. “You’re all set, Skip?”
He’s showing Minnie a brochure of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “All set. Just waiting for the bus, and then we’ll be off.” He bends down to look at Minnie. “Are you ready to go and see some dinosaur bones?”
She takes a slow breath. “I was born ready.”
Skip laughs and shakes his head.
Eddy walks to the pile of shoes by the door and finds his sneakers. He grabs them, then he looks at June, who is reading a book. “Sure you don’t want to come see the squires?”
She places her finger on the page to hold her place, then looks up. “No, I’d actually like to keep reading. Tell them I said hi, though.”
“Alright, see you guys later. Have a good trip, sis!”
She doesn’t look up from the brochure. “Don’t worry, I will!”
As Eddy crosses through the lobby, he hears a bellman clear his throat in an obnoxious way. Eddy turns to him and notices that the bellman holds Rusty. “Oh hey, nice and early this time.”
“I need to speak to your father.”
Eddy frowns and looks at the man’s nametag. “Rod, I’m sorry, but he’s been deployed. If you’d like to speak to my mom, I can pass the message on to her, or you could talk to me.”
Rod hands him Rusty. “I’m off during the weekend, so you’ll have to find other arrangements for your doggie. I’ll be back on Monday.”
“Oh, okay. Not a problem. Thanks for telling me, but is there any chance you can take him up to the room? I’m actually headed to a meeting.”
“Oh. Sure.” He takes Rusty back.
“Thanks, Rod.”
“You’re welcome, Eddy.”
Rod carries Rusty into the elevator as Eddy checks the instructions Jambavan had texted him.
From hotel, cross the street, walk a block past the electronics store, cross the next street, turn right, Potomac Cafe on the left.
Within a few minutes, Eddy arrives. Jambavan and Sky each have a drink and wave him over. He waves back and orders a mocha. Then, he sits down at their table. They’ve chosen a secluded spot in the back, and Eddy sits with his back against a wall, facing into the rest of the cafe.
Sky sets her drink down and leans over to him. “Do you really think that guy was following you?”
He nods. “It sure seemed that way, and he didn’t look happy at all when I ditched him.”
Jambavan points at Eddy and cocks his head. “That was smooth, by the way, nice quick-thinking.”
Eddy smiles. “Thanks.”
The barista slides a coffee onto the counter. “Rusty!”
Eddy pushes his chair back. “That’d be for me.”
He comes back a moment later with a huge mug of mocha. He sets it down carefully. “This thing’s huge; I could almost take a bath in it… Oh, that reminds me. Any chance there’s a local source of a lot of Vitamin B? A friend needs to take a bath…in that.”
Jambavan nods. “There are some goat farms a little out to the west that my knight gets supplies from sometimes, but we’d have to drive. There’s a butcher that’s a friendly too, but I’m not sure if he’s open on Fridays. He’s got weird hours. I can check later; just text me.”
“Thanks, man.” Eddy sips the hot mocha. Mmm, that’s good.
Sky sets her coffee down. “How’s June? You two do anything last night?”
“She’s alright. Says ‘hi.’ We just hung out.”
“Tell her I said hey, back. Eh, never mind, I’ll just text the lass.”
“Uh, okay. Listen though, I want to tell y’all something interesting that Lorenzo said.” He opens his bag to get the pouch with the ring, but before he takes it out, he glances around the cafe to make sure no one is paying special attention to them. He doesn’t see anything concerning, so he pulls out the ring.
“So I was being cool and not letting on that I had this, but I asked a bunch of vague questions about the items from the legend. Everything he said reinforced that this ring is the real deal, but he made this one comment that I didn’t really think about much at the time. Since then, though, it got me thinking.”
Sky motions for Eddy to hurry up. “Out with it already!”
“Patience, grasshopper.” Eddy smirks and takes a sip of his mocha. Then, he swallows. “Ah. Okay, so he said that the items had hidden inscriptions and odd markings on them, but he didn’t seem to know what they said or what they were. It makes me wonder; everybody knows what the symbols on the band mean, the ‘life in the blood—death in the blood,’ script. So how could that be what he was talking about?”
Sky turns her head. “Huh?”
“Everybody recognizes the carvings of that motto, well, every vamp anyway. So I’m betting he was talking about different markings.”
Jambavan picks up the ring. He inspects the outer sides, then the inside of the band where the script is, then the bottom of the flat area—where on the other side, the carving resides. “I don’t see anything but the script.” He hands it to Sky.
She takes it and inspects it. “Nor can I.” She turns it between her fingers and notices that there’s a thin line carved around the outside, underneath the textured rope that surrounds the symbol. “Do you think this line is carved or—” She presses her fingernail into the line, and the top of the ring shifts. She freezes and looks at Eddy. “Did you see that?”
He nods. “Yeah. Pry it up.”
She wedges her nail into the line and circles it around the ring. “It’s a tight fit.” After working her nail around the lip for a few rotations, she finally separates the top from the bottom. She sets both pieces down in a way that allows them to see the newly revealed areas. The three teens lean their heads over the ring to get a good look at it.
On both faces are tiny carvings, some as small as a pin’s scratch, against an otherwise mirror-polished surface. Sky drops her mouth open as she squints. “How the hell were they even able to make such small carvings?”
Jambavan squints. “Very carefully.”
Eddy can’t help but frown. “Guys, hold on. How could this be legit? I mean, it’s supposed to be crazy old. If they could make this, a thousand years ago or whatever, wouldn’t it be all corroded? It looks brand new.”
Jambavan frowns back. “You don’t know much about gold, do you?”
“Huh?”
“It is prized because it is shiny and rare, but for other reasons, too. It is very easy to work with, and in normal environments, it is completely inert; it doesn’t react or corrode with almost anything. This looks like rose gold though, which means there’s copper in it. Copper will oxidize and turn green, but this hasn’t...” He reaches out and slides his finger along one of the revealed faces. “Ah, oil. There’s oil on it,
maybe to help lubricate the two pieces when fitting them together, but it likely also kept a seal on the inner faces, preventing oxidation.”
Eddy’s earlier frown is now a huge smile. So awesome!
Sky points at Jambavan. “You’re smart.”
He takes a sip of his drink.
Eddy rotates the pried-off top piece, so that he can see the symbols in rows. “These remind me of the symbols in the motto, but some look really different. Pictographs maybe?”
Jambavan sets his mug down. “Early writing often used pictographs.”
Eddy sighs. “Any chance either of you can read...this?”
They both shake their heads. Sky leans over the pieces again. “It’s so intricate, whatever the writing says.” She sits back in her seat. I think you’ll need to find an expert.”
Eddy picks up the pieces of the ring, and carefully guides the them back together. He doesn’t close them all the way though, hoping it’ll be a little easier to open later. “Do you think I can trust that Lorenzo guy?”
Jambavan shakes his head. “I’d try to find someone else instead.”
Sky snaps her fingers. “I know! Let’s go to that place where they have rooms and rooms just filled with historical knowledge!”
Eddy looks at Jambavan; he’s rolling his eyes. He turns back to Sky. “You mean the internet?”
“Better! And I said rooms and rooms.”
“The library?”
“Yup! There’s one just a few blocks from here.”
Jambavan turns to her. “There is? Oh. Well that’s a good idea then.”
Eddy shrugs. “What if we try that other thing, called the internet?”
Sky shakes her head. “There’s so much crap on there that it can be hard to find a good source, but at the library we can search their scholarly journals.”
Eddy squints his eyes at her. “You’re a closet nerd, aren’t you?”
She mimics him and squints back. “The bat’leth didn’t give me away?”
Eddy snorts a laugh. “It probably should have.”
The two squires finish their drinks, and Eddy gets the rest of his mocha to go. As they’re walking outside toward the library, their route takes them back to the street with their hotel. A large, white charter bus passes by, heading in the other direction. On it are Minnie, Skip, Katlyn, and over thirty other people, all headed to DC.