by Adam Thielen
“Matthias and guests,” said Matthias to the woman. The nameplate on the desk read ‘Violet’.
“Okay Matthias,” she said. “I don’t see any arrangement for guests.”
“I’ll have it sent retroactively,” he told Violet. Kate and Taq looked at each other.
“I have to report it in any case, and I need the authorization in twenty-four hours,” Violet replied coldly.
Matthias sighed. “I’ll have it in a few moments.”
“Great,” she said in a dull tone. “You can make use of room eleven, at the end of that hall,” she pointed to her right.
“Thank you.”
Inside room eleven there were two beds. The room had a com screen, a first aid kit, a blood dispenser, and a fridge. A wooden door led to a small bathroom.
“I’m going to page Frank. If either of you need a shower, now’s a good time,” Matthias looked at Taq, and though he had less blood on his body and clothing than Matthias, it was still an admirable amount. The mage, more suited to university life was now shaken and tired. He said nothing and walked into the bathroom.
Matthias typed Frank’s locator into the com screen. It stayed blank but a voice came out of the speaker. “Matthias. Great, did you find our friend?” It was Frank’s voice, a distinctive baritone with a slightly Irish accent.
“Yeah, Frank,” said Matthias. “Taq led us right to him.”
“Taq?” puzzled Frank for a moment. “Oh, the mage kid. I knew he would.”
Matthias was about to speak when Frank’s voice cut in. “I’m starting to sense this isn’t good news, Matty.”
“That thing nearly tore me apart, so no, it’s not good news,” replied Matthias. “I couldn’t hurt it and had to run.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Frank breathed into the com. “You failed. Not only are they going to have your ass, I’m going to be on the line for this too. You sloppy asshole. Is there any good news?”
“We think we know where he is,” Matthias ignored Frank’s reprimanding.
“Anything else?”
Kate cleared her throat. “His name is Paul Winter,” she interjected. “He was a journeyman level mage from the Chicago University. Paul had been missing for eight weeks after he somehow removed his bracelet. Their MESS office had no leads on his whereabouts.”
“Okay,” said Frank, pausing. “We know who he is. We know where he is. You need to finish this Matthias.”
“You don’t get it Frank,” said Matthias loudly. “No one is stopping this thing without a lot of help. Can we get some manpower here?”
“Damn it, Matthias,” Frank said. “You’ve got a mage and a neuro; are they useless?”
“Fuck you, Frank.”
“What do you want me to do, tell the council we have a fiend on the loose after a botched job?” Frank asked.
“I nearly bled out on my feet. If we don’t report this, and we can’t stop it, they will kill us. Both of us,” Matthias said.
“Alright Matt,” said Frank. “It’s past your bedtime, get some rest, and I’ll call you later.” The com went silent.
“Guy is kind of a dick,” remarked Kate.
“That’s just his way,” replied Matthias.
“Dick way,” added Kate.
“He’s my handler,” Matthias defended. “It’s his job. And he is a friend, believe it or not.”
“He’s right about one thing,” said Kate. “You do have a mage and a neuro. You want to stab this thing in the face, but there may be other ways to handle it.”
Matthias sighed. “I thought if we hurried… I don’t know what I thought. It was stronger than I thought possible. It was foolish to chase after it without a real plan.”
Taq came out of the bathroom to catch the end of the conversation.
“Likely I’ll have to get both of you out of here and then face my superiors once Frank calls back,” Matthias said. “I can’t have you paying for my mistakes.”
Matthias got up for his turn to shower while Kate and Taq fell asleep on the sterile looking double beds, their sheets a plain white like the rest of the room. Thirsty, Matthias took a small tumbler to the blood dispenser. The dispenser looked like a thin faucet, recessed in the wall with a red border around it. It had an extending suction tube that most vampires preferred to use over filling a cup. More fleshy vampires tend to object to the taste, but to Matthias, it was a bland drink. He gulped it down and then lay on the floor between the two beds and closed his eyes.
* * *
Frank waited anxiously outside a very large double door. The bench he sat on was stiff and uncomfortable. One of Frank’s strengths was a hardened exterior that allowed him to appear calm, confident, and exude charisma. That exterior, which had been cultivated over many years, both as a mortal and as a vampire, was starting to crack. Like many other fleshies—the nickname for vampires with a ‘normal’ skin tone—he still felt much like a human. Just more numbed and desensitized.
Frank kept his eyes busy, studying his surroundings. It reminded him of a courthouse. Even the people walking from room to room, up and down the stairs, fit with that notion. But it wasn’t a courthouse. Frank was just outside the council chamber at the Noxcorp campus. A small corporation in the scheme of things, it still managed to secure a sovereign state in the Midwest area of North America. That state was more of a large city surrounded by farmlands which acted as a sort of buffer to monitor people entering or leaving the city. And that city was Kansas City.
Noxcorp engaged in several businesses, though mainly as an investment firm and capital insurance. There was no bank insurance for smaller corporation states, as they just didn’t have the cash to backup the deposits and loans of the banks in their territories. That made Noxcorp both an insurance company and a large bank itself. It essentially generated profit without doing anything except crunching numbers and loaning money in one form or another. Because they were not a consumer bank, the operations required only a small, very focused staff.
Much like a bank lends more money than it actually has on hand at any one time, Noxcorp had more power than its actual market value indicated. Low staffing and the power of money enabled Noxcorp to be an effective front for the vampire council and its nocturnal constituents. It provided the means to govern and incentivize loyalty toward the corporate executives. Frank would soon report some bad news to those executives, or the council, as they were commonly known. He heard the doors creak open. A small woman, or perhaps she simply looked small next to the doors, beckoned him inside.
A bald man in a suit shuffled past Frank as he followed the woman across the threshold. Inside it was even darker than outside. The room was circular, about twenty meters in diameter. Sconces lined the wall, providing a minimal source of light. A circular table sat in the middle. About a dozen chairs sat around it. Four had men sitting in them, two others had women. They sat in a semicircle facing toward the entrance. One chair in the middle of the group was empty.
Frank sat in an empty chair opposite the council while his escort melded into the shadows. The six executives sat staring down at the table. A slight glow reflected off their faces from the displays embedded on its surface. Frank waited for them to address him.
“Frank,” an older looking woman spoke his name, drawing it out, almost in a motherly tone. “This is unexpected. I see your last case assignment was Shaila. There’s no conclusion report.” She paused and looked up at him, her gaze penetrating into Frank’s psyche. “Why is there no conclusion report?”
“Ms. Koch,” Frank said with deference. “Ms. Shaila Brown was in fact fraternizing with a rogue mage from Chicago named Paul Winter. How he escaped and avoided recollection is unknown. My agent Matthias discovered an incapacitated Winter with Shaila attending to him.”
“Stop!” said one of the men at the table. He appeared middle aged. His hair was white and pulled back. The man motioned at the woman who had brought Frank in. She and two men, security of some sort, left the room and closed the d
oors behind them. The councilman fiddled with the screen on the table. A high frequency whine echoed off the walls and then faded.
Before Frank could continue, another man, this one somewhat younger looking, spoke up. “Frank, we all appreciate your efforts in this matter,” he uttered more as a courtesy than as sincere sentiment. The council was not appreciative of half measures. “These efforts have not brought unwanted attention have they?”
“No, not yet at least.”
“Good.”
“Please, Frank, continue,” said Ms. Koch.
“It was clear that Shaila had been feeding off the mage and, in turn, feeding him her blood. Matthias said she showed physical symptoms of communing. He dealt with Ms. Brown and upon inspecting the mage, discovered he was no longer breathing,” Frank explained. “He then left the room to tend to wounds and upon returning the mage was gone.”
A third man chimed in. “Most disturbing.”
“So the mage wasn’t dead, and your agent screwed up,” spoke the other woman, young looking with short straight hair.
“Wait, why are you here and not out catching the mage. And what is this… communing?” asked the final man at the table, also young looking.
Ms. Koch folded her hands together and rested her chin upon them. “There’s more to this story isn’t there, Frank?”
Frank told them of the encounter at the hotel. The younger looking members seemed puzzled. The third man, Robert Green, and Ms. Koch stayed silent while the others spoke over each other, gaining in volume with each new attempt to dominate the discourse.
“Shut up, will you!” Mr. Green yelled as the arguing reached a crescendo. The room became silent.
“It’s been a long time since I believed in fairytales,” said Ms. Koch.
“Oh, come on,” said one of the young men. “This isn’t real; this is incompetence.”
“Not twenty years ago, a man sat on this council who claimed to have put down one of them just before the collapse,” said Mr. Green.
“Fiends,” said Mr. Guero. “Most disturbing indeed.” A few council members sighed incredulously.
“It’s why we monitor the mage universities. It’s why we have rules. It’s practically why we came together and organized. We’ve all heard the stories. We all have the dreams, don’t we?” said Ms. Koch. “Let’s worry less about what we believe and more about what to do about what is, at the very least, a very dangerous mage on the loose.”
The council members took to arguing again, speaking over each other. Frank only caught some of what they said back and forth.
“Let the humans deal with it.”
“Yes, they have more power and resources than we.”
“And where will they turn those resources next?”
“We have to handle this.”
“Fools!”
“We have partnerships with other corporations, do we not?”
“Our relations are strained already.”
“Superstition and myth, all of this.”
“Then it shouldn’t be too hard for us to take care of this ourselves, should it!”
Frank felt relieved that they were not hoisting him onto a cross at this point, but utterly surprised at how lightly some of the council were taking the situation. He knew his best play now was to keep his mouth shut.
After several minutes of discussion and bickering, they could not reach a consensus on whether or not they should employ teams to hunt down the fiend. Ms. Koch rested her brow on the back of her hands, staring down at the table.
“Clearly, you wouldn’t be here if you thought you could handle this,” Ms. Koch addressed Frank. “But I propose that we consider this assignment open and in progress until the threat is put down.”
The other council members either nodded or stayed quiet. Frank protested. “We need resources and manpower to take this thing down. I implore you, put a little more into this.”
“If you can’t do it, someone else can, and you can find a new line of work,” said one of the younger members.
Frank forced out a laugh and sat back, lifting his chair onto its hind legs. “You would only be sending them on a suicide mission.” He sat back up, his reverence for the council having faded dramatically. “I have an idea, just cover this up. When some psycho starts murdering people, draining them of their blood, maybe the global board will start looking more closely at smaller vampirism reports.”
“Fine, see yourself out then, Mr. Kerwin,” said the younger looking woman.
“Stay,” commanded Mr. Guero. “I do not appreciate your tone, but I understand the frustration. I propose we provide material support. No manpower. We don’t need this getting out, so the less who know, the better. We’ll provide some limited funds, weaponry, and vehicles.”
“Who’s going to oversee these acquisitions?” asked the woman.
“I will do it if no one else volunteers,” he replied. “Opposition?”
A few grumbles were heard, but in the end, all consented to the proposal. Frank took the opportunity to provide a short list of equipment he wanted access to. He wasted no time leaving while on good terms and still breathing.
* * *
Matthias looked around at his unfamiliar surroundings. He stood on the Golden Gate Bridge, though he knew it only from pictures. His eyes were drawn to the sky. It was gray, segmented with cracks like dried out earth. No cars traversed the bridge. Matthias started walking toward the end of the bridge. As soon as he took a step, he was at the end.
A man ran up to Matthias, “I have to find her, have you seen my daughter?!” he said frantically. Matthias stuttered a negative, and the man ran off as quickly as he had come.
Instead of a city, Matthias saw a valley and rocky hills surrounding him. Light began to shine through the cracks in the sky though he felt no sting of the rays upon his face. Somewhere beyond the horizon, he saw a green glowing form, somehow showing through the rocks and hills separating it and Matthias. He took another step, and his scenery changed. The sky was black, with red orbs high in the air. The ground was ashen gray. Matthias thought he must be on the moon.
The green glow shaped itself into human form and began to submerge itself in the gray dirt. Matthias felt a slight rumble as several hands clawed out from the ground. He looked around and at each turn, another arm was reaching up and toward him. Matthias was frozen, through fear or physical restraint, he wasn’t sure.
Soon the emotionless faces revealed themselves as zombies of some sort. The creatures emerged from their moon-like graves and grabbed Matthias’s legs, arms, and head, pulling violently in different directions. The green figure rematerialized in front of him. As if coming into focus, the glowing subsided, and it became more a man made of green plastic than a glowing figure.
“Matthias,” it spoke in a hoarse whisper.
“He’s sleeping then,” Matthias’s thoughts turned to words without his mouth opening.
“No,” it replied. “He is not.” The voice was slow and prodding, as if feeling out each word.
While Matthias puzzled the meaning of this, the figure reached out and poked him in the forehead, submerging his finger in Matthias’s skull. He saw flashes of preceding events. He saw the faces of Kate, Frank, Taq, and others. Matthias panicked and tried to wrest himself from the grip of the zombies. He screamed and clenched his eyes shut.
He opened his eyes and saw the plain white walls and ceiling of the safe house. He sat up and looked around, afraid that either he was not currently awake or what happened in his dream was real. Both Kate and Taq were still asleep. The clock on the com screen indicated it was eleven in the morning. He got up and washed the sweat from his face. Matthias paced around the room for a few minutes, then logged onto a meta news filter. The reading took his mind off of things for a few moments.
Still restless after exhausting the newest headlines, Matthias left the room and headed to the lobby to look for a vending machine. Violet was still sitting behind the desk. She smiled a polite smile an
d went back to staring at a screen. He found a room around the corner with various junk foods, pumped full of nutrients and chemicals that prevent most of the sucrose and calories from digesting quickly.
Matthias took as much as he could carry back to the room. Halfway through his chocolate cupcake, the com screen beeped.
“Shut that thing up!” groaned Kate.
“Time to wake up; it’s Frank again,” said Matthias. Kate rubbed her eyes while Taq lay motionless. Matthias hit the answer button on the screen. “Bad news first?” he said before Frank could speak.
“Ye of little faith,” Frank replied. “I sweet talked the council good. Puckered up and kissed every part of their anatomy that they would allow my lips to touch. I bent over and—”.
“I’m going to hang up, Frank.”
Frank sighed, “You’re no fun sometimes.”
“I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to tell you my good news,” Matthias said sarcastically.
“Well, I was in a good mood. Apparently the council is chock full of stupid, but it works in our favor. We get to keep hunting the fiend, and by we, I mean you,” Frank clarified.
“They aren’t taking this seriously, but they use that word,” Matthias said.
“Exactly what I was thinking!” Frank said with a sudden burst of sound coming out of the com’s speakers. “They aren’t convinced this thing is as dangerous as I made it out to be, yet they don’t blame you for losing him. It. Makes. No. Sense. But there it is.”
“We can’t stop it though,” said Matthias. “Tell me we get some support.”
Frank answered, “We get some support. That ‘some’ being material only. A package is on its way to you now.”
“ETA?”