“The Paris Crèche.”
“I was its Guardian, as Gabriel is the Guardian here. I did not believe the Revolution was a danger to the Crèche, only to me. I…was not wrong, but I misjudged the movements in the shadows.”
“My information was only that the Crèche was destroyed,” David admitted. “We weren’t told how.”
“I’m surprised you even learned as much as you did,” the old, old man in the room with him replied. “If you can tell me…how? I know of only three entities in this world—and perhaps a dozen beyond it! —who would know who Anaxis of Athens was.”
“It’s not like you can threaten them,” the ONSET Commander replied with a chuckle. “We bought the information from a creature calling itself the Tahoe Oracle. I have no idea what it is.”
“Ah,” the Arbiter said with a long exhalation. “I was aware of the creature you refer to. It was not on my list, but yes, its powers would suffice to learn that which I thought forgotten.”
He shook his head.
“I would not expect your sympathy for the destruction of the Crèche at Paris,” he concluded. “I am…gratified that you are as willing to consider peace as you are, Commander. My kind have done you no favors.”
“In my experience, only monsters judge an individual by their race or their badge.”
“Even us, Commander White?” the Arbiter whispered. Age and exhaustion seemed to radiate from his frame, overwhelming even the soothing aura that filled the entire Mountain. “My race are monsters; don’t let Hollywood or the trends of romance fiction fool you otherwise. I believe I can teach them a different course, but monstrosity has been our path for millennia.”
“I am a Seer,” David reminded the vampire. “Feral as those fledglings were, they were still…innocent. Helpless. I am a police officer. It is my duty to protect the helpless…even from themselves, sometimes.”
“You should have met Aléxandros,” the vampire told him. “That was where he started, you know. Protecting the Hellenic cities from themselves.” He laughed bitterly. “History shows where that ended.”
The whole conversation had gone somewhat off-course, but David let the Arbiter get whatever was in his system out.
“But Paris, yes. Understand me, Commander, I do not blame the men who burned out my Crèche,” the Arbiter told him. “The Knights Hospitaller knew what they’d found. There was no better way then. No hope of a peaceful compromise.
“The Keepers I had left behind fought, but the Keepers are nurses and doctors, not soldiers. They died. The Knights set the whole place ablaze, burning the teknon to ash so they could not flee.”
David remained silent. He could understand exactly what those eighteenth-century Knights had been thinking—and also exactly how the Arbiter felt about it.
“I failed to defend a Crèche and could no longer claim I was a Guardian,” the Arbiter said simply. “I swore the full oaths of a Keeper and set into motion the sequence of events that led to where I stand today, able to finally offer a compromise and a new path for my people.”
“If we help you,” David noted.
“If you help me. If you defend this facility.” The old vampire sighed. “I have no resources to give you, Commander. Only my word that I will make this worth it.”
“I know.”
The Arbiter gestured.
“Your artillery battery arrives.” He pointed at one of the cameras, showing the green-painted shapes of Major Wilbur’s M109A7 Paladins and their support vehicles driving up the road towards the compound. “The road is better maintained than it looks; it can support them.”
“There won’t be any more help coming,” David said. “We can’t commit mundane troops to this beyond those already briefed.”
“I do not know what the Familias will bring,” the vampire admitted. “But what I am hearing is…dangerous.”
“How so?”
“Romanov has invited Dresden’s faction to work with him to retake the Mountain,” the Arbiter explained. “A brilliant move on his part, one that places him at the forefront of protecting the race. If he succeeds, he will snatch victory in his civil war from the jaws of defeat.”
“What will Dresden do?” David asked. He’d been counting on the civil war to disorganize his enemies’ response.
“I don’t know, Commander White,” the old vampire admitted. “I know what his father would have done—and it is for everyone’s benefit, I think, that you killed him.”
“Your politics make me nervous,” the ONSET Commander replied.
“Yours created a standing order to exterminate my species.”
DAVID MADE it back outside just in time to greet the assemblage of US Army vehicles as they came rolling in. Eight big tank-like vehicles with massive cannons led the way, accompanied by eight similar-looking tracked vehicles without the cannon.
The lead self-propelled gun came to a halt and the hatch popped open. A small sandy-haired man in US Army fatigues and a gold oak leaf Major’s insignia jumped down, a massively impressive mustache flapping around his face as he moved.
The man took a moment to calm his mustache and glanced around, his gaze settled rapidly on David.
“Damn, that is some Space Age shit your people are carrying,” he noted loudly. “You White?”
“Commander David White, ONSET Thirteen,” David confirmed. “You’re Wilbur?”
“Major Miles Wilbur, US Army,” the smaller man said. “I take it we aren’t shelling this place anymore?”
“That remains to be seen,” the ONSET agent admitted. “We have successfully taken control of the facility, but we expect…disagreement on that point from the main vampire forces.”
Wilbur shook his head.
“I had to brief my boys on the way up here,” he told David. “Now, that, Commander, was a weird-ass fucking conversation.”
“I can only imagine, Major. We expect to come under attack by vampires and potentially Thrall or mercenary forces starting tonight,” David told him. “I expect the major thrust to be about an hour after dark tomorrow, but they’re going to probe tonight to see what we do.”
“My men may be uncertain and confused, Commander, but I’ve still got eight hundred-fifty-five-mike-mike guns and more than a thousand high-explosive rounds to drop wherever you want them. How badly do you want us to fuck up these guys?”
“That’s what I was hoping to hear, Major,” the Commander replied. “For now, I think we’ll want to move your guns higher up the mountain and out of the immediate threat zone. I’m assuming once you’re in position, you can pre-plot target zones all the way up the roads?”
“We can do that,” Wilbur agreed. “Both my guns and my ammo CATs have secondary weapons, though. You sure you want us that far back?”
“Unless your secondaries are loaded with silver, they aren’t going to be much use,” David told him. “Your big guns will blow whatever they hit to hell, and even vampires can’t reconstitute themselves from scattered fragments, but regular bullets aren’t going to do much. I’d rather have you on hand to rain fire from above.”
“It’s your call,” the Major told him. “My orders are clear: you’re in command, Commander White.”
“I’m a glorified cop, Major,” he pointed out. “What I know about properly deploying artillery can be written on a small pin. I want your people set up to back up mine with direct-fire mission, and I want them out of reach of the pissed-off fangs I expect to be swarming the mountain tomorrow night.”
David shook his head.
“I’ll want your boys ready to drop fire tonight, but I don’t expect to call on you until tomorrow,” he concluded. “Tomorrow…tomorrow I expect to need you to turn half of this mountain into hell.”
“We can do that,” Wilbur said grimly. “Though if you’ve got something all-terrain-capable, I’d rather run myself and the Battery Sergeant-Major up the mountain and find a decent spot to ground the guns. I don’t really want to run thirty-five ton vehicles into a forest without an i
dea of where I’m taking them.”
“We’ve got full topographical maps, and the Keepers have given us half a dozen Jeeps,” David offered. “Or you can borrow a helicopter.”
“Jeep’s better. Need to the see the ground.”
“Stone.” David pinged his Agent through the coms. “Can you bring one of the fangs’ Jeeps out? Our artillery CO wants to reconnoiter the slopes.”
“Can do.”
David returned his attention to Wilbur.
“Jeep is on its way. Any more questions?”
“Yeah, though probably not relevant,” the Major said slowly, his gaze on David’s weapons. “Is that a sword?”
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE HAD ONCE FAMOUSLY SAID, “ASK me for anything but time.”
By the time late afternoon was rolling around, David was wishing his own superiors followed the same philosophy. Everyone accepted that the vampires were a threat, that they were probably going to try and retake the Mountain…but no one was willing to move unusual resources into play.
This was shaping up to be the kind of defensive battle where a battalion—even a company or two—of conventional troops could make all of the difference. Vampires were tough and hard to kill, but a solid-enough line of machine guns—preferably with silver bullets—would still make short work of them.
“We have no authority to commandeer conventional troops,” Warner told him in response that request. “ONSET itself has nothing to spare; you know that. The supplies and heavy weapons that are on their way are all you’re going to get, David; I’m sorry.
“To borrow Army troops or even National Guard troops, the Committee has to sign off, and I don’t think they’re prepared to accept that the Familias may be able to fight a real war on US soil.”
“What am I getting?” David finally demanded.
“Two dozen heavy machine guns and about a million rounds of steel-jacketed, silver-tipped, ammo,” she reeled off. “Same 7.62 millimeter rounds your M4s use, so you can load them into the carbines as well as the machine guns.
“We also apparently have a few crates of silver-loaded claymores someone put together and we never found a use for. Those are heading your way as well.”
“It’s something, at least,” David admitted.
“You’ll have two heavy-transport choppers on the ground by an hour before nightfall. It’s not a lot of time, Commander, but our hands are surprisingly tied.”
“That has implications I’m not sure I like, ma’am,” he pointed out.
“I know,” Warner admitted. “I’ve dropped some commentary in the appropriate ears at OSPI. If someone—or more than one someone—on the Committee is in bed with the Familias, we have a problem.”
“If the Arbiter has his way, not for much longer,” David replied.
“Oh, believe me, Commander White, even if the Committee accepts the Arbiter’s Truce and we start reintegrating the vampires, I will bloody nail anyone who worked with the Familias to the wall for treason,” the Major said flatly.
“The good news is you are getting heavy weapons and you have one of the largest concentrations of combat-trained supernaturals Omicron has ever fielded at your command.”
“Apparently, it’s going to have to be enough.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
27
Twilight felt both eternal and far too short as David paced the surveillance center, his attention flickering from camera to camera on the screens around him.
Everyone else was out on the mountain except for Mason. The two of them represented the only reserve he had. There were too many approaches, too many entrances, for him to let the vampires anywhere near the bunker itself.
That meant his fifty supernaturals were scattered around the perimeter, waiting for the call from David to move to intercept the scouting parties they were expecting tonight.
“That’s it,” Mason murmured. “Sun is down.” She shook her head. “Not exactly what I had in mind when I was thinking about watching the sunset together.”
David shot her a shocked glance, checking to make sure their radios were muted.
They were, of course. His lover was significantly smarter than he was; he knew that. She wasn’t going to be careless with a secret that could make both of their lives a thousand times more complicated.
“Be careful,” he told her anyway, then turned his attention back to the cameras.
The Arbiter had installed the best of the best for the sensor systems that surrounded the Mountain. As darkness swept over them, the screens tinged green as they automatically switched over to infrared. In night vision mode, the overlay for the attached motion sensors was more visible as well.
David toggled his radio on.
“Leitz, are you seeing anything on overhead?” he asked the analyst.
“Nothing yet… Wait,” she replied. A moment paused. “Might be coincidence. Might. But pattern recognition just IDed two dozen cars and SUVs headed your way with similar arrival estimates.
“We’re watching for an earlier wave, but I’d say you’re definitely going to have problems in an hour.”
“Thank you,” David told her. “We’ll pass the word.”
He nodded to Mason and switched his radio to the main channel.
“Control has flagged incoming vehicles with a shared ETA of approximately one hour,” he told his people. “Now, the fangs know we can do that, so I’m expecting we’ll see the actual first wave sometime in the next thirty minutes.”
He paused, considering his words. There wasn’t much to say.
“Keep your eyes peeled, and good luck.”
EVEN AS HE watched the screens around him, the video from the cameras was being fed into the tactical network running inside David’s AR wargear. His heads-up-display could show him any of the cameras, plus the locations and status of any of his people.
It could easily get confusing, and the system worked best with teams of six or less. Right now, the main thing he was using it for was to know which of his people were near each camera—so when the motion detector tripped, he could direct people to deal with the situation.
“Stone, Hellet,” he said calmly over the radio. “Motion detector just tripped on camera D17, two hundred and fifty feet southeast of you.” He studied the camera.
“I’ve got three…no, four, bodies at seventy degrees,” he told them. “Flagging to your wargear.”
“Moving,” Stone replied crisply.
Their icons blipped on his HUD, and a moment’s study allowed him to bring up the cameras to watch them moving into the area. The four vampires—nothing else looked like a human but had a seventy-degree-Fahrenheit body temperature—moved up and past camera D17, clearly unaware of the device.
Tapping commands, David brought up cameras C16 and C17, allowing him to pick up the continued advance of the vampires and the movement of his own team.
Hellet moved closer to C17 and stepped out into the open, clearly visible to the incoming vampires.
“I can see you,” she said loudly, her voice carrying over the radio to David. “This facility is now secured by the Federal Government; surrender or we will use lethal force.”
On the cameras, David saw the vampires freeze—and then go for their weapons. The lead vampire got off a single shot that ricocheted off Hellet’s defensive shield.
Then both cameras lit up with flashes of bright light as Stone opened fire with the big machine gun. Silver-tipped bullets tore through the trees, shredding foliage and trunks alike.
The four highlighted figures on David’s screens reeled backward and fell.
“Clean sweep,” he told them. “Well done.”
“Camera E12 has motion,” Mason announced as he turned his gaze back to the screen. “Linking in with Klein.”
David’s followed her words, studying the video feed from E12. Another set of four vampires was moving through the bushes, but the Elfin Warrior was already on the radio with Mason and he left that sector to her, turning his attention to the re
st of the Mountain.
Moments later, another flare of motion caught his attention.
“Camera D36,” he said aloud, studying it. “Agent Dupond, I have motion in your sector, camera D36. One hundred seventy feet to your south-south-east.”
“Moving,” the massive Empowered grunted from Mason’s team grunted back. Two of ONSET Fifteen’s Agents, Pierre Dupond and Hiro Tsimote, moved on David’s screen, intercepting the vampires as they approached camera C38.
There was a blast of fire that was visible from half of the east-side cameras. When the heat and light faded, there was no sign of the group of vampires moving up the side of the hill.
“Neutralized,” Tsimote noted flatly, and David sighed. The flame elementalist hated vampires—he’d had an even worse first encounter with them than David had, and they both carried the scars of vampire fangs. They were supposed to be summoning people to surrender, but…
“Understood,” David replied shortly. It wasn’t like he had any illusions about the intent of any vampires sneaking up on the Mountain tonight.
“Motion sensors are clear,” he noted a moment later on the general channel. “Continue to watch for contacts; the vehicles are forty minutes out but we know they’re going to try and be sneaky.”
TWO MORE TEAMS tried to sneak their way in while David watched and waited for the vehicles to arrive. A total of twenty-five vampires all told had tried to make an approach. None had surrendered when called upon to do so. None had survived their first encounter with the defenders.
Either the Familias spearheading the attack had no idea just what surveillance net was woven around the Mountain, or they had presumed ONSET wouldn’t have control of it. Either way, they tried stealth and failed miserably.
“We may need to up our estimate of just how many vampires are going to be coming our way,” David quietly noted to Mason as he studied the fleet of vehicles converging through Crater Lake National Park.
ONSET: Blood of the Innocent Page 19