Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series

by T. M. Nielsen

  ***

  “Maddie?” Cody called and knocked on her door.

  Emily opened the door and smiled, “Come in.”

  Cody came in and pulled her into a hug, “How are you this evening?”

  “Fine,” Emily said, and leaned her head against his chest, “But…”

  Cody looked down at her, “But what?”

  Emily sighed, “I’m bored, you all do everything for me, and I want a job that will help our cause.”

  Cody sat down and thought, “Like what kind of job?”

  Emily shrugged and sat down beside him, taking his hand, “Dishes?”

  “No, you’re overqualified.”

  “I can cook,” Emily said, and ran her fingers along his forearm.

  Cody smiled and kissed her softly, “Overqualified.”

  “Ok then, what am I not overqualified for?” she asked, and looked into his eyes.

  “Being my girlfriend,” Cody said, grinning.

  Emily smiled, “That’s not a job.”

  “Do you really want to work?”

  “Yes, I’m bored and I want to help the cause.”

  “You said you’re good with computers?” Cody asked.

  Emily nodded and then smiled, “I’m better than good.”

  “Do you think you can work around the vampires?”

  Emily’s face fell, “Will they be out of their cells?”

  “No, never,” Cody promised.

  “Is that where I’m needed?”

  “We’ve needed help there for a long time. We need someone who knows computers, and can run the analysis equipment,” Cody said. “It would be as a favor to me.”

  “What would I get in return?” Emily asked, and smiled.

  “I would show you,” Cody said, taking her face in his hands, “But you keep saying no.”

  “Patience is a virtue,” Emily whispered just before Cody pressed his lips to hers. She always got a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when he kissed her like that. She felt like she was cheating on Chevalier, and each time Cody tried to take it a step further. She wondered if he would always take no for an answer.

  “Say yes to me,” Cody whispered, and began to kiss her neck.

  Emily pushed against his shoulders, “No, not now.”

  “Why?” he asked, looking into her eyes.

  “Please, no,” she said. Her eyes showed the desperation in her thoughts and he misunderstood.

  “Did they do something to you?” Cody asked angrily.

  “No, not like that,” Emily told him.

  Cody nodded and pulled away from her, “You can start in the morning. We really need help.”

  “Will they… smell me?” Emily asked, frowning.

  “Maybe, the blood suckers have quite the noses on them, but they can’t get out,” Cody told her. “Trust me, Maddie. I won’t let you do anything dangerous.”

  Emily nodded and watched as he left her room. She slipped off the ugly bib overalls and slid into bed in the t-shirt and soon fell asleep. She woke up early the next morning and started getting dressed.

  “Maddie?” Cody called and knocked on her door.

  Emily pulled on the overalls quickly, “Come in.”

  Cody came in while Emily brushed her hair and tied it up into a French braid. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, then kissed her neck softly.

  Emily smiled, “It’s against the law for you to harass an employee.”

  “Ok, then, you’re fired,” Cody said, and moved her t-shirt so he could kiss her neck.

  Emily pulled away from him, “Let’s get going. I can’t sit here another day with nothing to do.”

  “Ok, let’s go,” Cody said, frustrated, and led Emily back down into the prison. She stayed close to him inside of the cell block and slid into the chair behind the computers.

  “This is the blood analysis. It’s taking a while to run because their blood is so strange,” Cody explained. “Just make sure it keeps running. If it gets stuck, then reboot and it will automatically reload the program and start where it left of.”

  “Easy enough,” Emily said, and scanned the six computers.

  “The rest are surveillance. We watch their every move to see if we can catch a form of communication or something that could jeopardize a mission into one of their covens.”

  “So do I watch for that?”

  “No, just keep the cameras going,” Cody said, and he showed her how to restart them.

  “What’s this last one for?” Emily asked, motioning to the only computer that had no program running.

  “That’s for fun, you can surf the net or check e-mail,” Cody said.

  Emily sighed, “I don’t even have an e-mail anymore.”

  Cody smiled, “Then surf the net. See if you can find vampire sightings.”

  Emily nodded and glanced around the room. There were more heku this time. Before there was only 1 heku to a cell, and now some had two or three.

  “You’ll be ok, if you need anything, push this button,” Cody said, and pointed to a red button on the desk. “We’ll have someone bring you lunch.”

  “Ok, I’ll be fine,” Emily said, and smiled.

  Cody left and she looked around the room again. There was a camera on the far wall that was pointed directly at her. She smiled and waved at it, and then turned back to the computers. She wasn’t in a hurry to touch what she wasn’t supposed to, so she started up the extra machine and typed ‘Vampire Sightings’ into a search engine.

  Two weeks passed by slowly, and she started to become more comfortable with the extra computer. She searched through tasks and registries and found no tracking software on it. A quick glance showed her there were no hidden key loggers plugged into the keyboard, but she still stuck with searching for vampires. Several times she went to horse auction sites, ones she knew the Thukil and Council City Cavalries used to read up on horses and look for good deals.

  Emily’s heart stopped when she read the comment below a young Clydesdale:

  Magnificent breed, though after we spoke on the phone, I don’t think it’s what we were looking for. We are looking for a good riding horse for a little girl that will be riding soon. The rest of our horses are for work and aren’t as gentle as the young one would require. Do you have others? ~Silas

  Cody knew she was interested in horses. It allowed her to search the horse sights without question and she did it a lot, looking for any signs from home. She wasn’t sure if this was a coincidence, or if she was grasping at straws to find a trace of the palace on the horse pages. She sent a private message to the Silas in the horse review.

  Silas, just a suggestion. Find a hopeless mustang and keep at him until he’s as gentle as a painted mare. Do that and you’ll be right on the MARK! ~Madison.

  Emily wrote comments on a few more horses to keep up appearances, and then went back to searching for vampire sightings. She found an article written in northern Scotland about the sighting of a vampire coven that was caught burning live cows and dissecting them for food. She printed it off and put it aside for Cody.

  ***

  “Sir,” Silas said, coming into the council chambers. He handed the reply to his Clydesdale post over to Chevalier.

  Chevalier frowned, “Where did you get this?”

  “I was looking at Clydesdales and asked to see if the seller had any other horses, this was one of the replies,” Silas said. “It could just be coincidence.”

  “It could,” Chevalier said, and re-read the note again. “Be extremely cryptic and write Madison back. See if you get any other feel from her.”

  “Yes, Sir,” Silas said, and left to go back to the Internet.

  ***

  Emily sat down at the familiar desk and set her cup of coffee down by the keyboard. She scanned the heku and saw nothing changed. She’d gotten permission from Cody to read some of the files on the other computers. She said it would help her track down real vampire sightings, and he liked the idea. She first wan
ted to check the horse site, and her heart jumped when she saw a reply to her message.

  Madison,

  Thank you for your suggestion, though I’ve always preferred temperamental Arabian stallions. They have personality.

  ~Silas

  Emily had to fight back the tears as she read and then re-read the post. She knew it was from Council City, and he obviously knew it was her. The danger flooded to her though and she scanned the room again before posting.

  Silas,

  Nothing good can come of a temperamental Arabian. I suggest a cattle prod, though I’ve heard it does nasty things to animals other than horses and cattle. My favorite horse ever though, was an appaloosa mare named EVE.

  ~Maddie

  Emily wrote another handful of replies to the forums, and then turned her attention to the analysis computers. She started with the first, the one running blood analysis. The computer wasn’t secure, and she could see everything from past logins, to file security and passwords. She suspected whoever set this computer up, still had full access to everything. She found four back-doors and closed them, grinning.

  ***

  Silas handed the new note to Chevalier. He read it over and over.

  “I don’t know what she means by the mare’s name… EVE,” Silas said.

  Kyle chuckled, “I’ve always found it odd that the first letter of each of the factions spell Eve.”

  Chevalier glanced at him, “That could be it.”

  “The factions?” Kyle asked.

  “Maybe there are heku from all factions there now,” Chevalier said, and turned back to the printed note.

  Quinn shrugged, “Or it could be something completely different. She’s obviously being watched and is afraid to say more.”

  “I’m glad we have something from her,” Chevalier said. “We just need to be careful and not expose her.”

  “Why don’t we put a horse up for sale? Use a photo of that mustang in front of the stables,” Silas suggested. “Then we can get a good conversation going about horse care or something insignificant.”

  “Do it,” Chevalier said. “We’ll let Sotomar know that we think there are Valle in the compound also.”

  Silas nodded and left for the stables.

  ***

  Emily opened Notepad and started to type. The days of coding flooded back to her as she began to write a program that could completely erase everything on the computers instantaneously.

  “Maddie?” she heard Cody call over the intercom.

  Emily pushed the red button, “Yes?”

  “I know this is last minute, and if you don’t feel comfortable then don’t... but…” Cody hesitated.

  “Just tell me. I’m sure I can manage it,” Emily said.

  “I think the tubing is twisted on the vampire in the first cell,” Cody said. “She’s completely restrained with electrified restraints, and can’t get out. Can you… see if you can straighten the tube?”

  Emily glanced quickly at the heku on the table, and frowned at the camera, “Are you sure?”

  Cody responded seriously, “Yes, you’ll be perfectly safe. We just can’t get away from this meeting right now.”

  Emily nodded and looked at the cell. She reached back to push the button, “How do I get in?”

  “The cameras are linked to the locks, just choose the image and the password is TDKAM,” Cody told her.

  Emily wrote it down and nodded, “Ok.”

  “Thanks, you’re a doll,” Cody said.

  Emily took a deep breath, and clicked the image of the heku on the table. A password prompt appeared and she typed in the password. A quiet click sounded as the cell door unlocked. Emily glanced around the room and moved slowly toward the cell, acting as if she were terrified to go into it. She stretched into the cell and looked at the tubing, immediately seeing the kink. It was on the far side of the table on the floor.

  Emily got onto her hands and knees, and crawled slowly into the cell, glancing often at the heku on top of the table. She could hear the electricity running through the restraints, and caught a fleeting glimpse of the heku’s chest moving as she breathed.

  Emily hoped this worked. She leaned down to un-kink the tubing, and was able to say, without moving her lips, “I’m Equites.”

  She un-kinked the tubing and started back out of the room, crawling, but glanced back and saw it was kinked again. She walked out to the desk and grabbed a piece of tape, stuck it to her cheek, and crawled back into the room nervously. She wrapped tape around the kink so it stayed open, and then stood up and ran out of the cell. She saw the heku look at her briefly as she ran out.

  Emily leaned back and caught her breath before hitting the button, “How do I lock it?”

  “Same code to lock it. We owe you, Maddie,” Cody said.

  Emily re-locked the cell and turned to the computer. She went back to her program, carefully checking for context and hidden coding errors. She didn’t have any way to test the program once it was done. If she ran it and it didn’t work, it could be too late to delete all of the information on the heku.

  Cody met Emily in the walkway outside of the cells and kissed her passionately. Emily pulled away from him and leaned her head against his chest, “I think she looked at me.”

  “Who?” Cody asked, and wrapped his arms around her.

  “That vampire with the tubes,” Emily said.

  Cody smiled, “I’m sure she did. She can’t hurt you though.”

  Emily just nodded and pulled closer to him. She looked into the cell with the heku on the table, and she was watching them.

  “I want to show you something. Something the board decided we may need your help with,” Cody said.

  “Ok,” Emily whispered. Cody walked over to the computer and unlocked the cell to the heku in electrified shackles. Emily pulled away from him when he headed inside.

  Cody chuckled, “Come on, he can’t get to you.”

  Emily just hoped the heku didn’t break her cover once he caught her scent. She was able to meet his eyes as she walked in, and saw his body tense when she got near him. An understanding crossed his face, and he watched her as she stood by Cody. Cody reached out and pushed against a brick high on the wall. The wall opened into a stark white room and he walked in, holding his hand out for Emily to follow him.

  She stepped into the room and had to fight back a gasp. The white room looked similar to a surgical room. There were six heku in it that were all in various stages of torture. One had his arms removed, and they were hanging in cold storage off to the side of his cell. An older heku was screaming silently from a soundproof room where he was hanging from the ceiling by his wrists, while electrical impulses were sent in to hundreds of pins stuck into his body.

  Another heku was in a large MRI tube, strapped down, and he seemed to be unconscious as his body was continuously scanned. Emily frowned when she looked into a quiet cell. The heku was clearly dead. Her head had been removed and was sitting a few feet from her body, and a camera was taking still shots every 5 seconds. The gruesome click’s sounded through the room.

  The last two heku were in the same cell, a male and female that weren’t dressed, and were sitting, humiliated, in separate corners. They didn’t even turn around when Cody and Emily came to them.

  “Why aren’t they dressed?” Emily asked, frowning.

  “We’re seeing if they will breed,” Cody said coldly.

  Emily turned away from them, her anger rising quickly. She had never known someone to treat another being this badly. To torture them and disgrace them even after death. Her body shook as the anger rose.

  Cody pulled her closer, “It’s ok. They can’t hurt you.”

  Emily just nodded, too angry to even talk.

  “Once in a while, we may need you to come in here and check on one of them. Can you do that?” Cody asked her.

  “Yes,” she whispered, fighting to calm her temper.

  “Now come, I have a surprise for you,” he said, and led her
back out into the main prison. Someone had taken her spot at the computer, and she forced a smile as they left. Emily clung to Cody’s arm, as normal, until they got back to her room.

  “Get changed, we’re going out,” Cody said, smiling broadly.

  “We are?” Emily asked, shocked.

  “Yes, there’s a change of clothing for you. I’ll wait down stairs,” he said, and headed down the hallway.

  Emily quickly went into her room and locked the door. She slipped into the little black dress and heels that were left for her, and ran a brush through her hair. The dress was tighter than she preferred, but she was ready to get away from the dull food and gray walls of the compound. She walked down the stairs, and Cody face lit up when he saw her. She walked up to him and he pulled her into a kiss.

  “You look amazing,” Cody said, smiling.

  “Thank you,” Emily said, blushing. He led her out to an old Pontiac and opened the door for her. She wrinkled her nose a bit when she sat down, the car smelled like mold and ancient cigarettes. She buckled herself in while Cody climbed into the driver’s seat and started out of the compound.

  Emily watched out the window into the dark trees that surrounded the compound. She didn’t see them, but had a feeling they were swarming with heku, all waiting for her to figure out how to get the prisoners out and wipe the records. She smiled when there was a break in the trees and she saw four wolves standing in the clearing, watching the car pass. The trees gave way and a small city appeared, full of quaint little tourist shops and snow covered walks.

  “I’ve been going through the vampire records,” Emily said. “I was wondering though, if we should start backing them up, in case the computers go down.”

  “We talked about that, about backing them up and printing hard-copies, but it’s too dangerous to keep a second set of them,” Cody told her, and laid his hand on her knee.