‘Thanks,’ Lisa said.
‘I learned to deal with that kind of male over the course of several centuries,’ Dione replied. ‘That was a good call. If this kid survives, he may be able to give us his supplier.’
Lisa nodded but did not look too excited about it. ‘Kennedy, the girlfriend, doesn’t know. To be honest, just listening to what’s going on in there, we’ll be hellishly lucky if he makes it.’
‘Well… We can try. Look, when Winthrop gets here, you support him. I know you’re working on almost empty, but he’s getting old and hasn’t had much sleep.’
A worried look passed over Lisa’s face. ‘I’ll be here until both of us drop.’
‘Thanks. I’ll be here… supplying coffee.’
~~~
‘The eventual cause of death will be ruled as pulmonary oedema leading to asphyxiation,’ Winthrop said. He looked tired. Then again, Lisa was barely awake beside him. ‘However, it was a race. All his major organs were in various stages of shutdown. If his lungs had not collapsed, I believe his liver would have failed and with the amount of toxic chemistry in his system, that would have proven fatal. The antiviral treatment did appear to slow down the progress.’ The old man looked to his younger companion. ‘You are a good doctor, young lady, and don’t let anyone tell you anything different.’
Lisa managed a weak smile. ‘I guess that points at a viral agent in this “drug.”’
‘It would seem to. Unfortunately, our subject is a mess. Finding anything useful in his system is unlikely, but I’ll try. Tomorrow. If I don’t get some sleep, I’ll be seeing pink elephants in the microscope. I am off to bed.’
‘My shift ended hours ago. I think I’ll join you.’
‘The offer is much appreciated, but I really need to sleep.’
Lisa blushed. ‘I really meant… Not that I wouldn’t, necessarily…’
Dione grinned at them. ‘Dirty old man,’ she said. ‘I’ll run you both back in Winthrop’s van and then come back for my car. I need some sleep myself.’ She sighed. ‘We need to get you a clean sample, Winthrop. Somehow, we need to get our hands on some Apollo.’
‘That would be preferable,’ Winthrop agreed. ‘I’d rather not spend another day like this one.’
19th January.
‘I got your message, Billie,’ Mike said as he approached the CI, Dione at his side. ‘What have you got for me?’
Billie eyed Dione. ‘Who’s the babe?’
‘Detective Hunter,’ Mike replied. ‘She’s my new partner and she’s–’
‘Pleased to meet you, Billie,’ Dione said, smiling.
Billie swallowed hard, his eyes widening a little. ‘Uh, yeah, pleased to meet you, Detective Hunter. Uh, sorry about the babe thing.’
‘No bother.’
Inwardly shaking his head, Mike said, ‘You called me, Billie.’
‘Right. I couldn’t find out who’s supplying this stuff to the, uh, retail outlets. The people selling it are scared shitless of their suppliers.’ He glanced at Dione. ‘Uh, pardon my French.’ Dione just smiled. ‘What I did manage to get was this.’ He pulled his hand from his pocket, bringing a plastic, zip-sealed bag with several slips of what looked like blotting paper in it.
‘Not bad, Billie,’ Mike said. ‘That could be worth something.’
‘Cost me a c-note,’ Billie said.
Dione reached into her coat and produced a roll of bills, peeling off five of them. ‘I believe Detective Williams promised you another eighty for useful information. It just so happens that a good sample is particularly useful, so I’m going to up his reward.’ She held out the notes as Billie passed the bag to Mike. Then she held on when he took them. ‘Two things. If it turns out you’re scamming us, I’ll find you and chew your face off.’
‘O-okay, lady.’
‘And if you find out the name of the supplier, I’ll add another hundred.’
‘He’ll take the four hundred profit and run,’ Mike said when they were walking away. ‘If the suppliers are that scared, he won’t find a name easily or safely.’
‘I know,’ Dione replied, ‘but if he hears something, he’ll come running. Meanwhile, we have samples of Apollo that Winthrop can analyse and by tonight the entire city is going to know that the stuff’s dangerous. Mary is seeing to the latter and she’s very good at spreading bad news. Or covering it up.’
‘So we’re getting somewhere, finally.’
‘Yes, we are. Finally.’
~~~
Leanne sat in the security room chair in the Candle watching monitors with rapt attention. She had had a couple of hours free and Mike had been relatively useless at the office, so he had met her at the club and taken her in to observe.
‘So you think you may be getting leads that’ll stop this?’ Pat asked him. Despite saying he was experienced enough to give Tony a break, the club’s owner had come in with them. Dione had said she would, and why.
‘We’ve got clean samples of the drug,’ Mike told her. ‘Winthrop has already confirmed it contains “viral material in a fluid suspension.” He’s doing all sorts of tests to see if he can work out what it does and how it does it.’
‘Gene sequencing,’ Leanne said without looking around. ‘Introduction of the virus into host cells in culture to examine the pathology. It’s all standard stuff. Just takes time.’
‘I’m not sure it gets us closer to the people making it.’
‘It could. This is fascinating…’ Leanne’s eyes were glued to a screen where a fairly large, black man was engaged in quite enthusiastic sex with a white girl. Mike was not entirely sure what to make of that.
‘How?’ he asked.
‘Oh, well, if the manufacture requires specialist equipment, you may be able to track down people who’ve bought it. That kind of thing is fairly controlled. You need specific licences to be able to manufacture viral material, even inactivated, which I’m sure they’d put on the application. Buying the equipment without would be difficult, I’d imagine.’
‘There you go,’ Pat said. ‘I’m feeling more confident every minute. That’s Damian, Leanne. He’s young, still a filius, and he is a nubian. Not all of them are actually black-skinned, though there is something of a preference. Or was. More interracial couples, more white nubians and black carpathians.’
‘They… seem to be enjoying themselves. She looks delirious.’
‘The virus can have varied effects, both in the euphoric and accelerated healing phases. Sometimes one or both fail, which is never great. Sometimes the euphoria flashes over into something more extreme, though I think she’s just getting off on having a huge cock pumping her like a steam train.’
Mike could see Leanne’s cheeks and noted the bright red spread over them. What Leanne said was, ‘That might be it. I’ve never complained about it.’
Pat burst into laughter as Mike went bright scarlet.
~~~
‘It’s a retrovirus,’ Winthrop said. ‘The gene sequence puts it squarely in the Retroviridae family, which is why the antiviral treatment had an effect.’
‘Is that good, bad, or just interesting?’ Mike asked. ‘I mean, HIV is a retrovirus, right?’
‘Indeed it is, and we may see more luck in treatment with a similar regimen of antiviral drugs as those used in HIV treatment. That’s the good part. This virus is not HIV, however. This virus has been manufactured, engineered using Haemovirus germanicus as a base. Due to the close relationship, nubians may be affected by it, but may have some resistance. My analysis suggests that the Eurasian-derived species are targets, but the others are not. You, Dione, are safe. I got no reaction from your tissue, or the samples from Pat and Mary.’
‘But the vast majority of vampires in the city could succumb,’ Dione said.
‘Quite. In humans, the effect is relatively mild. Cells are infected and forced to produce a cocktail of chemicals which result in the high and the feeling of overpowering confidence. Muscle fibres are stimulated. Users will be stronger than us
ual, adding to the feeling of power. When the body catches on to the virus and attacks, the infected cells undergo necrosis, destroying the virus and the cells, and introducing toxic chemicals into the body. An overdose results in extreme blood toxicity, organ failure, and death.’
‘Painful death from how it seemed,’ Mike commented.
‘Very. In vampires, there is a relatively similar effect, but an additional factor comes into play as the new virus attacks the existing one, rewriting portions of its DNA. Brain matter is destroyed rapidly, from the evidence we’ve seen, but the vampire’s capacity to repair damage is not, initially, eliminated. The normal hibernation on exhaustion of live blood is. The result is an undead monster, not unlike a ghoul in some ways.’
‘Ghouls,’ Dione said, ‘are something you will hopefully never have to deal with, but they do act a little like this.’
‘If we get another public event like the nightclub,’ Mary said, ‘it’s going to be very hard to keep a lid on this. People are not going to believe that a drug makes your canine teeth grow. One is covered by some aberration, many more and people are going to start screaming about vampires. A few conspiracy sites are already posting things, but those are easy to discredit. If it hits the mainstream media…’
‘Leanne said we might be able to find out who’s behind this by following the equipment they need to make the stuff,’ Mike said.
Winthrop nodded. ‘I’ve prepared a list for Mary to search on. I must say that both Leanne and Lisa have proven most useful in this little crisis. They are both young women with very good heads on their shoulders.’ He looked at Dione and she looked back. Mike watched the exchange and wondered what was passing between them, but he was not going to find out right now.
‘Mary?’ Dione said.
‘I’ll run the list and see what comes up, but I saw it arrive in my mailbox earlier and I’ll give you a starter for ten. Early Worm Biotechnologies has everything on the list and a licence to work with viruses. I looked into it when I was going over the company profile.’
‘That’s… an interesting coincidence,’ Mike commented.
‘I hate coincidences,’ Dione said. ‘Where’s their production facility?’
‘Supposedly they don’t have one,’ Mary replied. ‘They aren’t at that phase. I can get the delivery locations for the equipment though.’
‘Do it, and run the list anyway. Early Worm might not be our culprit, but my gut is telling me Mike and I need to pay them a visit.’
20th January.
Dione and Mike sat in Dione’s car, looking out at the nondescript building which was, supposedly, Early Worm Biotechnologies’ corporate headquarters. They were both frowning.
‘What a dump,’ Mike commented.
The building was one storey, the walls painted an ugly grey long enough ago that some of the paint was peeling. There was a roller-shutter, a smaller, more human-sized door, and a couple of bricked-up windows, and no signage. The building did extend back a fair way from the road so there was plenty of space, but it looked like it was not being used.
‘Are we sure this place is occupied?’ Dione asked.
‘The company is still, apparently, active,’ Mary’s voice replied from Dione’s phone, on speaker. ‘The rent on that place is paid every month and they filed tax returns last year. Their bank accounts are showing activity too.’
‘False front?’ Mike suggested.
‘Maybe,’ Dione said. ‘Mary, how’s the other list coming?’
‘I’ll send it to your phone,’ Mary replied. ‘I’ve got three companies that could be producing, but none of them look likely.’
‘Okay, we’ll get back to you.’ Dione cut the call, pocketed her phone, slipped her sunglasses on, and then opened the car door.
‘We’re going to look anyway?’ Mike asked.
‘Might as well knock. Go knock.’
While Mike walked over to the door, Dione went to the nearest window, tracing her fingers over the painted-over bricks. She frowned and walked over to the shutter, examining the runners on one side.
Mike walked over to her after a minute. ‘No one home,’ he said.
Dione just nodded and walked back to the car. She was pulling away down the street when she said, ‘We’ll go over the other companies on the list, but I want to be back here when it gets dark.’
‘What did I miss?’ Mike asked.
‘Well, that shutter looked crappy, but someone has been keeping it nicely greased so it makes less sound when it’s opened or closed.’
‘Odd, but explainable.’
‘Uh-huh, but the windows are something else. Someone bricked the windows over and then painted them to match the walls, but the paint is newer. A few months, I’m betting. Transylvanians really don’t like sunlight.’
‘So they brick over the windows and they work at night,’ Mike said, nodding. ‘Stakeout?’
‘Vampires are not fond of words with “stake” in them. Unless it’s a phrase, with something like “rare ribeye” in it. However, yes, stakeout.’
‘Great, I’ll bring the doughnuts.’
~~~
‘I should probably mention that I don’t actually like doughnuts,’ Dione said.
‘More for me then,’ Mike replied, his eyes on the grey building across the street. They had, with a little help from the 41st Precinct, persuaded the owner of the factory unit across from their target to let them watch from inside. It was distinctly more comfortable and the building had windows running all along the frontage. Detail was a little lacking because the glass was old and clouded with dirt, but they could sit in the dark and not look like a couple of cops in a car.
‘You’ll be sick.’
‘You sound like my mother.’
‘I have never in my unlife sounded like someone’s mother. Sunset’s in… fifteen minutes. We’ll start to see some activity then.’
‘Yeah, I figured.’ There were a few seconds of silence and then Mike asked, ‘Have you ever regretted that? I mean, never having children.’
‘Vampires don’t have a reproductive imperative. We live forever, or we can, and I seem to be giving it the good old college try. Reproduction is designed to keep the genes alive and mine are.’
‘Yeah, but…’
‘Occasionally I see children and wish…’ The vampire gave a shrug. ‘Fostering Mary was enjoyable and about as close as I’ll get. Succubi have low conversion rates and we… don’t generally try.’
‘I feel like I should ask why, but I don’t want to intrude. It sounds kind of personal.’
‘It’s a little personal. There are ways around the conversion rate, but it’s always iffy. If we try and fail, we’ve killed someone we probably felt something for.’
‘I guess that’d make you reluctant, yes.’
‘But the main problem is knowing who you can trust. All of us got together in about four hundred AD and agreed that we would limit our attempts to convert to those we were absolutely sure of. If there was any doubt, any at all, we would not make the attempt. Well, there’s always a little doubt, and the chance of failure usually tips the decision in favour of not going ahead. There have been barely any new succubi since then. There were just about two hundred of us back then. We’re probably down to less than fifty.’
Mike looked at the dark woman, shadowed in the waning light. ‘Why the caution?’
‘Because someone might make an incubus. The male of the species is a different animal. And I mean animal. I find it… hard to feed without sex. Drinking blood arouses me. Quite a lot, actually. I may enjoy finding suitable intimate partners at all times, but when I feed, it’s like all I want to do is fuck. Incubi are like that all the time. They’re uncontrollable. It was an incubus who bit me, and before he got to me, he’d raped and killed half a dozen young women.’
‘They’re a danger to the secret.’
‘Oh… That’s something of an understatement. So, we don’t convert men. Ever. We only convert women we know we can trust. I
f we go straight for any length of time, we tend to pick female partners, in case of accidents.’
‘That… has to suck. I mean, what if you fall in love with a guy?’
Dione flashed him a grin. ‘Thankfully, I’ve never had much luck with men and long-term relationships. You’re all so clingy.’ She gave a little shudder and went back to watching the building across the street.
After a second or two, so did Mike.
~~~
As the last spark of sunlight was touching the horizon, the door of the grey building opened and a man walked out of it, checking up and down the street. He was in shadow, but he still seemed a little wary of the light. With no one in sight, he returned inside and closed the door.
‘Strange that he didn’t answer when I banged on the door,’ Mike commented.
‘Well, perhaps he didn’t hear you,’ Dione replied.
‘Yeah. I’m sure that’s it. So they’ve got at least one watchman in there.’
‘Uh-huh, but blocking up the windows was stupid. He has to come out to check the road. And the windows are north-facing so the chance of enough light getting in to cause problems is minimal. Check the plans Mary gave us, would you? If there are more coming, then I’d like to get a look inside if we can and the front door is probably not an option.’
Mike pulled out his phone and flicked through to the schematics Mary had pulled from when the building was built. Working on the small screen was not perfect, but after a lot of expanding and scanning, he found what he was looking for. ‘We’ve got a fire exit on the right-hand side and there’s also two rear doors letting out into a yard.’
‘We’ll check those once we’ve got confirmation. And… I think it’s starting to come.’
A black, panelled van was drawing up outside the loading door. The driver was obviously not too worried about the sunlight since he had to have been driving in it. He stepped out into twilight, stubbed out a cigarette, and headed for the front door.
Dione pulled out her phone and started typing. ‘I’ll get Mary to run the plates. That guy was probably carpathian, so this isn’t just transylvanians.’
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