Raymond ducked into the Director’s Office for shelter, and the now clear glass fogged once more. “She’s armed,” he announced even though the team members would have heard the shots and, by now, smelled the gunshot residue. He felt confusion and apprehension from her thought patterns. She wasn’t expecting vampires to be protecting the White House, and she wasn’t sure what to do next — which was why the Colony and their mission were always kept secret.
When Raymond heard another bullet whiz by the door, he knew that even through her confusion she was willing to kill to get what she wanted. She had spared the human guards’ lives, but obviously she came prepared to use force.
Raymond surveyed the small office for any strategic advantage against his opponent. The room was a basic office, although with sound resistant padding and expensive furniture. It had a wooden desk, comfortable brown leather chair, and computer equipment – and everything was stamped with the presidential seal. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The room had exactly one exit, and that was not to his advantage. He needed to make sure the confrontation with her did not capture him in this small area.
He walked to the President’s desk and tugged at the first drawer, which broke the lock. Pens, cell phone chargers, and what looked like a generous number of letter openers lay inside. Raymond also noticed an ornate box, so he opened it. He was surprised to find a small dagger inside, but wasn’t going to question the perfect timing of the find. He touched the hilt to remove it from the box. His fingertip sizzled when his hand contacted with the silver. Dropping the box back into the drawer he let out a slight curse. He then collected the sharp metal, non–silver, letter openers to use as projectile weapons if necessary.
Ben lurched his body into the room and took refuge behind a conference room chair. He inched closer to where Verna hid. When she rose to take another shot at Raymond, Ben fired a silver bolt directly at her back. The bolt burst through her clothing and splattered her purplish–red blood on the conference room desk and the wall. She yelled in pain as she dove towards the plush carpeted floor. Turning her attention towards Ben, she fired two rounds in his direction, one of which hit him in the shoulder. Ben let out a grunt as his purple blood spilled out onto his shirt, and he ducked down out of the way of fire.
Raymond saw the action and flung five letter openers through the air. Verna’s cries as she ducked for cover told him that they hit their target.
Sterling seized the opportunity and jumped up on the conference room table, soiling its fine varnished finish. From Raymond’s vantage point, he could see Verna pulling the daggers from her quickly aging body. Her long, now white hair, was being stained with deep purple blood as she fought with the letter openers. Sterling whipped his Flex Whip. As the weapon sliced through the air, the leather unveiled itself and revealed the silver flex strips. The whip coiled itself around the woman’s body, burning her where it touched her flesh. Her remaining golden locks turned to gray as she visibly changed from mid forties to her late fifties. Her life–sustaining blood stained the plush rug below her and she moaned in agony. The whip restricted her movements, and she fell backwards onto the silver bolt that still ratcheted itself deeper and deeper into her flesh.
Raymond approached her first, with Sterling jumping off the table directly beside him. Her gun had fallen from her hand and out of reach. Raymond stood above her in the tight corner of the room. Ben slid the conference room table out of the way so he too could join the team.
She resembled the young woman Raymond had viewed on the monitor only moments ago, but now she was aged. Her appearance exceeded the age of 60. Her blood spilled onto him, soiling his clothes. She was going to bleed out before the team could get their answers. She was completely immobilized, so he began questioning her.
“I’ve got her.” Raymond said as he held the now frail body to the ground. “Sterling, start scanning. Ben, check for humans.”
Blood covered Ben’s shirt, but his shoulder was healing itself already. He searched the hallways to check for humans and William assured him that none were around according to the monitors. William sent stilled pictures to the guard stations and had disabled the motion sensors before Verna even crossed the hallway to the Oval Office.
Raymond focused his attention on Verna and compelled her to answer all of his questions. “What did you plan to do here today?”
Her face flinched in pain. “Bugs. I was planting bugs.”
“For what purpose?” he pressed.
She licked her lips and murmured through the pain, “Presidential decision on Supreme Court nomination to replace Justice McCade.”
“Justice McCade isn’t retiring.” Sterling said as he removed his gloves and began touching the woman’s clothes. Her body flinched in pain the second he touched her. Her eyes shut as a moan escaped her lips. “Shit,” Sterling cursed as he read images from her jewelry. “He isn’t retiring. He’s being murdered.”
Raymond tightened his grip. “Is Justice McCade your only target on the court?”
She struggled to shake her head, and finally said, “No. There are others.”
“Who?” Raymond asked. His hands now applying pressure to her wounds to slow her death. Her blood oozed through his fingers, staining them a deep purplish hue.
“I don’t know,” she moaned. “Please help me.” Her hands reached out towards him, her eyes beseeched him.
Raymond held his ground. “Who are you working for?”
Blood spat out of her mouth as she replied. “His name is Zmiya. Groyki Zmiya.”
“Who else are you working with?” Raymond looked at Sterling and mouthed the word ‘blood’. Raymond grabbed Sterling’s glove and did his best to remove the silver bolt which was draining the life out of his prisoner. The bolt was just two inches long, and half an inch in diameter, but it ratcheted deeper and deeper into her flesh with the barbs along its sides. Her skin sizzled in response to the silver.
“I only know Zmiya,” she gasped as death tightened its grip. She closed her eyes as her breathing slowed. Sterling injected three syringes of human blood into her, giving her a burst of momentary energy.
Her eyes opened once again. “Blood. Please … More blood.” Now red human blood spilled from her wounds. Raymond could feel the increase of bodily fluid as the new blood poured over his fingers and mixed with the darkened purple which had already spilled to the floor.
He struggled, but eventually Raymond successfully removed the bolt and tossed it onto the floor, his hands burned in the process where the bolt touched him in his haste. “After you answer my questions you’ll get more blood. How are you going to kill Justice McCade?” He interpreted her thought patterns. She was merely a pawn in Zmiya’s game — a scared pawn who didn’t want to die, but was so in love with the creep she would not give him up unless she was compelled.
“Poison. He’s being killed with poison,” she choked out.
“Are other Justices in danger?”
“I don’t know,” she shook her head.
Adding more pressure to her wounds, Raymond asked, “Is there an antidote?”
She closed her eyes and whispered, “I don’t know”
“Where is Zmiya?”
“… Don’t know,” she sobbed.
“What is Zmiya’s plan?”
“… d’know.” Her eyes tightened and her lips pursed in pain. Another injection of human blood was performed by Sterling.
During the questioning, Sterling continued his tactile search. He touched her clothing, the contents of her pockets as he emptied them, which included the bugs she was planning to plant, and he even touched her skin. “I’ve got all I can from her.”
Ben stood above the three of them. “Hallway is clear.”
Verna’s blond hair was all white, her bones frail, and her skin an ashen color. Raymond loosened his grip on her and began to lick her wounds. “She’s dying,” he said between licks.
“Let her die,” Ben said.
Raymond glanced up, but co
ntinued sealing the wounds.
Without offering to help, Ben simply said, “Last time I checked, treason was punishable by death.”
He now looked to his son for aid. “Help me Sterling. Other than misplaced loyalties she isn’t a bad person.” Her blood now pooled faster onto the floor. The two began licking her wounds, but she turned to dust before their eyes.
The three soldiers stood in the puddle of blood and dust which was once Verna. Raymond shot Ben a look of disgust.
“The bitch shot me! She was only repentant at her end. If she had survived, she would have still been a traitor to this country.”
“We could have gotten more information from her, or even have used her to lure Zmiya out,” Sterling said. He put on his gloves and retrieved the bolts which now sat among the scattered ashes.
“She had the ability to faze her body so objects could pass through.” Raymond admired. “Nice little trick.”
“That still didn’t save her.” Ben fiddled with the leather band of Sterling’s whip until it caught in the leather casing. Without touching the silver, he wound the chain up within the leather until it was safe for him to hand the weapon over to Sterling.
Fastening his gloves Sterling thanked Ben for the whip. “She was food for Zmiya for months until he recently turned her.” He shuddered. “She was in love with the man. She thought by helping him she’d prove her worth to him.”
“Sad, but an enemy of the state nonetheless. I’ll search for information about Zmiya from the Council database.” Raymond knelt down and collected Verna’s dust and some blood samples. “Officially we’ll have to classify her as EKIA and her COD a stabbing. Unofficially, her human family won’t understand what happened to her, so we’ll have to list her as a missing person.” Pocketing the remains, he added, “Sulie will want to review her DNA for information about her transparency ability.” He walked down the hallway removing his phone from his pocket to dial his sister.
“That’s odd,” Sterling said as Ben surveyed the mess in the room.
“What is?” Ben asked.
A puzzled look appeared on Sterling’s face. “She said his name was Zmiya.”
“Yes. Do you know the family?” Ben asked.
“Back when I worked with the United Nations I did some work with the Russian ambassador, who was an ass and his men hated him. They called him zmiya behind his back.”
“Could he be related to our Zmiya?”
Sterling shook his head. “I doubt it. The word zmiya in Russian is an old slang term.”
“For what?” asked Ben.
“Serpent.”
CHAPTER THIRTY–EIGHT
Raymond rejoined William in the Cave as he kept vigil on the monitors. Fortunately, no other vampires tried to gain entry into the White House. With no more threats, the West Wing needed a cleanup job.
Dark purple blood spatter had run vertically down the beige colored walls when Verna had ducked for cover, making a horrific display which now needed to be cleaned up. The short wooden filing cabinet stood against the wall draped in blood as well, but at least it was locked shut, so no blood had ended up on the contents inside. The plush dark brown carpet had taken most of the damage. A sticky mess of blackened blood and dust combining into a paste lay thick and heavy on the rug. With his arm now fully healed, Ben scrubbed the corporal remains of Verna from every surface, leaving everything looking as good as new.
Ben’s injury was not a through–and–through. He caught in his hand the brass bullet as the object made its way out of his body. The other bullets fired by Verna were wedged into the walls and furniture. They needed to be dislodged, the walls puttied over, and the chair upholstery fixed. After the final scrubbing with bleach was done, Ben joined Sterling in the M16 room to help wipe the memories of any guards who may have witnessed the event. Thanks to the surveillance monitors having been hacked into by William, not much work was needed.
Raymond glanced over from his computer screen when Sterling and Ben rejoined them in the Cave. Once again, “no match” came up on the monitor when he searched for the name Groyki Zmiya. He figured, with a foreign sounding name, any reference to him may be in a foreign vampire database, and not at his disposal.
“Where is Justice McCade? And what protection do you suggest for him?” Ben asked.
Raymond closed the search screen on his laptop. Of course, he needed to search for Justice McCade. In the rush to find Zmiya he almost forgot about the man’s targeted victim. He logged into an internal government website and used his mouse to click the necessary links. “I’m trying to download the Justice’s calendar.” Raymond pointed to the large display screen that hung on the wall showing William’s current task. “William transferred the images from the cams to our server so we can do a review. He also erased the footage from the main feed.”
“Human guards are now clean,” Sterling said as he sat on the green couch. “They all think a computer glitch caused the security sensors to go haywire.”
Looking at his son, Raymond asked, “What about the guards that were attacked by Verna?”
“Awake and fully refreshed. They think their shifts just started.” Sterling wiped his hands together in a spic–and–span manner, suggesting that everything needing to be done had been done.
“The last White House tour has finished and the place is shut down for now.” Ben watched the security monitors. “West Wing staff is shutting down for the night. No stewards are in the kitchen since the President isn’t in–residence.”
William adjusted the cameras to show the West Wing, Residential Hall, and the kitchen. Employees were leaving, lights were turned out, and all was quiet.
“Ben, I want you and Sterling walking the grounds. Coms stay on. William will watch the monitors for any activity.”
Sterling nodded over to Ben, and the two left the Cave on their assigned task.
Raymond had contacted the other Coven Masters of the American Council during his search for Zmiya, but the task proved fruitless. A Google search produced nothing as well. Without an image, fingerprints or DNA, it was near impossible to track the vampire down. Zmiya was definitely a vampire since he turned Verna, which meant that somewhere out there a family line existed, unless he was an independent and didn’t live in a coven. More than likely, he was rogue and his family line had disinherited him. Since the American Vampire Council turned up nothing, Raymond had placed a call into the European, Canadian and South American Vampire Councils and was waiting to hear back from them.
The schedule for the Justice showed nothing out of the ordinary. Raymond checked the list of meetings the man had had for the last several weeks, and there were no mystery meetings on his calendar. All names, dates and places checked out. He pulled up phone records for the man, but everything looked fine.
Raymond reached for his phone. “I need to update Dixon and Alex on what happened,” he said to William. He glanced down at the phone in his hands. This was the first time he had thought of Alex in a while because of all the excitement. This is a hell of a way for her to start her week, and it's only going to get worse, he thought. He began to dial her number when his cell phone rang. Looking down at the secured line, he realized she was calling him.
Ring–ring! Ring–ring!
Raymond answered his phone, “Go.”
“‘Team Kick Butt calling in with status,” Alex said from the other end of the line.
“‘Team Fairy Dust acknowledges.” Damn full house beating his four–of–a–kind last night.
William let out a soft chuckle in the background; Raymond ignored him.
“What is the status Alex?” Raymond asked.
“All is well with nothing to report. How is the house?”
“Secure now. How are you doing in Texas?”
“Oh, Texas is fine. I sent the report you wrote about the camera malfunction to the human team. They’re now all a buzz and doing diagnostics on all their equipment and have no clue a vampire entered the Sit Room. The President is in
his private quarters and tucked in for the night. He was told the truth and feels fortunate not to have been home today. Sulie and the team are running a perimeter check here at the hotel and will be gone for a few hours. What about you?”
“Situation is normal around here, finally. White House tours stopped the minute Sterling tripped the outside alarms.”
“Sounds good,” Alex said.
“With this second breech, I’m glad the setting for the State Dinner was changed.”
“Me too,” Alex agreed.
“The President has hosted affairs in this new ballroom before, so that makes it easier for the human team to quickly assess the dangers. The Advance Team is already running security checks as we speak. It’ll be a headache to get everything changed, especially with it being your first week on the job, but at least everyone knows their part.” Raymond heard a pause on the phone. “You still there Alex?”
“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine. Nothing like a trial by fire to get me up to speed. At least the speech tonight at Greggory Gym at the university went well.”
“That is good news.”
“I’m in my hotel room. Sulie is my roommate again.”
Raymond smiled. “I hope you like my sister, considering that she’s probably always going to be your roommate.” Raymond hated talking on the phone instead of in person. He wanted to have a long talk with her about something other than business. Sighing, Raymond realized just how much he missed Alex.
“How is Ben’s shoulder?” she asked.
“He’s fine. The bullet expelled itself. He keeps a jar of bullets at Fang Manor for all the times he’s been shot.”
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