by Rachel Caine
Jesse winked at her as she slid the pass through the card reader. ‘Don’t sweat it,’ she said. ‘We’re officially unofficial. Like you, only without the crushing tuition burden.’
‘I’m on scholarship,’ Claire offered.
‘So I heard,’ Jesse said. ‘Friends in low places, and all that. Again, like us. Come on, let’s go see the wizard.’
Claire wasn’t sure if she was referring to The Princess Bride or – more likely – The Wizard of Oz; she supposed that in the latter case she’d be Dorothy, and that made Jesse the … Scarecrow? Not with those curves. Likewise, Pete seemed a bad choice for Cowardly Lion. He looked cuddly, but he worked as a bouncer, which seemed like the opposite of cuddly.
Jesse and Pete seemed utterly out of place here … Jesse for her Goth pallor and blazing hair, and Pete for his muscular frame. Here in Scienceland, people tended to be less attention-getting, and the lab coats they passed gave them second looks of either admiration or fear, or maybe both. Jesse seemed to know it, from the smile on her face and the spring in her step; Pete shuffled along with the box, and didn’t seem to notice or care how people saw him.
Claire wondered what made the two of them friends. Maybe nothing, except a mutual liking for Dr Anderson.
They already knew the one-at-a-time-through-the-lab-door protocol, and Claire ended up going last in line, though Pete tried to politely wait for the honour. Once she was in, Claire followed him to the back of the lab, where Dr Anderson had cleared off a worktable, and as she arrived, Anderson had already folded back the wings of the box lid and was reaching in to lift out the device.
No … in Anderson’s competent, strong hands, as she cradled its weight, it definitely looked like a weapon, not a device. A futuristic ray gun sort of weapon, sure, but if you spotted a character in a film carrying it, you’d know what it was, instantly.
Something to hurt people.
Claire swallowed. She’d been so into the details of what she was doing that she hadn’t really looked at it, just looked, in a long time … and even though others had held it, she’d been assessing the weight, the balance, the structure.
Dr Anderson made it look dangerous. She handled it competently, carefully, and then set it down on a soft foam layer she’d put on the table next to the box. Then she looked up, met Claire’s eyes, and said, ‘Have you checked it out? Any damage?’
‘No damage I can see,’ Claire said. ‘It still powers up.’
‘Excellent.’ Dr Anderson took a deep breath and nodded. ‘Right. Thanks, Jesse, Pete … I think we’ve got it from here. I know you need to get to work. Thanks for helping us out.’
‘You were right to be worried,’ Jesse said. ‘Someone’s watching her house. Big guy.’
‘That’s Derrick,’ Claire offered. ‘My housemate’s ex. It’s a personal thing. I don’t think he’s got any interest in what I do.’
‘Maybe not, but it’s worrying nevertheless,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘Someone could be using him as a stalking horse. He could even be passing his surveillance details along to a third party.’
Claire hadn’t thought of that; she did wonder how Derrick could afford to follow Liz here, and apparently spend all his time hanging out on the sidewalk. Didn’t he work? Surely he wasn’t wealthy enough to be that maliciously idle. It was a great question, she realised; it was something that wouldn’t have occurred to her in Morganville, but out here in the real world, it could be significant.
‘I’ll check him out,’ Jesse offered. ‘I didn’t like his vibe, Irene. Freaky. Not that standing around outside a house with two young women in it isn’t creepy on its own, of course.’ She smiled a little, and Dr Anderson smiled back, and Claire was struck by how … comfortable it seemed. As if they’d known each other a long time. There was also a little bit of challenge in it, too. That was a complicated friendship.
‘Want me to take the box away, Doc?’ Pete asked. It was the first thing he’d said, and Dr Anderson’s gaze broke off from Jesse’s and landed on him. ‘I mean, unless you want it for something. I can use it at the bar. We use ’em to put the recycling in.’
‘Commendable,’ Dr Anderson said, and when she smiled at him, it didn’t have half the wattage, though it was friendly enough. ‘By all means, unless Claire’s got some need for it …’
‘I’ve got boxes stacked to the ceiling,’ she said, and shook her head. ‘Take it.’
Pete grabbed it off the table with a little too much force, and packing peanuts exploded into the air in a spontaneous snowfall. Jesse laughed and grabbed at them as they fell, and then they were all scooping up the feather-light foam chunks, chasing them around the floor since the slightest breath could move them, and generally laughing like fools as they did. It was weirdly relaxing, and by the time the mess was back in the box, and the box in Pete’s big hands, Claire felt breathless and more at ease than she’d been in days. Shared laughter did that, even when you didn’t really know the people you were sharing it with.
‘We should go,’ Pete finally said, and nodded to Dr Anderson. ‘Irene. See you at the bar sometime?’
‘Soon,’ Anderson agreed. She nodded back to Pete, then to Jesse. For Jesse, she added a wink. ‘Both of you, take care. I don’t know why, but my instincts tell me we’re going to be up against it pretty soon. And I always listen to my instincts.’
‘Hell yeah.’ Jesse winked at her, smiled at Claire, and strode out of the lab, all long legs and swinging long hair. Pete waited for the door to cycle and followed, and in the sudden silence, the place felt very empty, quiet and sterile.
Although a lone packing peanut had escaped to roll around on the floor, which made Claire feel a little bubbly giggle inside. She kept it down, though, because Dr Anderson’s smile had disappeared, and she was all business as she peered at Claire’s device.
‘What do you call this thing?’ Dr Anderson asked her, and gently touched some of the oddly angled gauges and gears.
‘The Vampire Levelling Adjustment Device,’ Claire said. ‘VLAD, for short. Well, that was what I was considering calling it, anyway.’
‘VLAD,’ Anderson repeated, and smiled. ‘Really.’
‘My boyfriend liked it.’
‘Your boyfriend has a questionable sense of humour.’
‘He’d be the first to agree with you about that,’ Claire said. She’d rolled her eyes when Shane had popped out with that name, off the cuff, but now she thought it was spectacularly appropriate. VLAD. She could totally see it.
So could Dr Anderson, it seemed, because she slowly raised an eyebrow and drew a manicured fingernail along the barrel. ‘VLAD,’ she said again. ‘Yes. I think it seems like the right thing, after all. So. Break it down for me, Claire. How exactly does this work?’
‘I’m not sure it does. I mean, it does something, but not necessarily what I want it to do, yet. The goal is to be able to tune in to a specific vampire broadcast emotion – like hunger – and cancel it out. Make the vampire not hungry. Theoretically, it could stop an attack, or at least drastically slow it down and lessen the intensity.’ She swallowed hard, because she had Anderson’s full and unwavering attention now. ‘In theory, it should also be able to cancel out the specific projections that vampires can do to make other people obey them on command, wipe out memories, etc. It levels the playing field. That’s why I called it VLAD.’
‘You think that it would stop them from attacking someone.’
‘Or at least slow them down – at the very least, it would throw them off balance. And it’s possible that it would seriously disable them.’
‘Permanently?’
‘I don’t know about that. Probably temporary?’
‘What trials have you run?’
‘Not many,’ Claire admitted. ‘I used it on Myrnin kind of accidentally, but he didn’t give me a lot of feedback about it. I think it disturbed him, though. Right now, I’m just calibrating the device to try to locate the specific wavelengths where vampire powers resonate. If I can pin that down
, the theory is that I can then create a counter-wave to cancel them.’
‘So when a vampire projects fear at his prey – which is one of their key hunting abilities – it would nullify that.’
‘Well, it wouldn’t stop you from being afraid. I mean, vampires are scary all on their own. But they have a way of pushing you from fear into panic.’
‘And their mental abilities – to conceal themselves, to cloud memories, to compel people to do things …’
Not every vampire had any of those abilities, and as far as Claire had been able to tell, none of the vampires, not even the very strongest like Amelie, had all of them in equal measure. But she nodded. ‘Theoretically, it should work,’ she said. ‘But there’s a power problem to solve, and right now VLAD is way too heavy and bulky. Some of that is Myrnin’s attempt to help me. He likes – gears.’
‘Always has,’ Anderson agreed, with a smile that was almost fond. ‘First things first – we deconstruct, we test each piece of it, design more streamlined versions … and we construct a simulation to run in the array to show us exactly what the response is. Once we do that, we test it on a live subject, but not before.’
‘On a vampire? For that, we’d have to go back to Morganville.’
‘Not at all,’ Anderson said. ‘This thing, if it works, is far too dangerous to be in Morganville, or anywhere that Amelie can get to it. In fact, there’s a strong possibility that—’ She paused, because a soft musical tone sounded in the lab, and she swivelled to face a computer monitor set in the wall behind them, concealed from easy view by a half wall. On the monitor, striding down the hallway, was a tight knot of four people, all dressed identically – no, not really, but all in dark suits that seemed identical at first glance. Three men and a woman. Her suit had a skirt, and midheel shoes, and she lacked a tie, but that was really the only way the four of them differed.
‘Claire, take VLAD,’ Anderson said. She kept watching the monitor for a few more seconds, then nodded as if she’d confirmed her suspicions. ‘Come on.’
Claire scooped up the heavy weight and hustled after Dr Anderson as she moved around lab tables to a blank white wall … and then pressed her hand to an almost invisible panel that was set in it, white on white. It lit up with a shimmering silver glow, and a panel slid open.
There were shelves behind it. Most were crowded with labelled boxes and bottles, but there was a large empty shelf in the bottom, and Claire quickly knelt and slid VLAD into the space. As she pulled back, Anderson pressed her hand on the locking mechanism again, and the door slid shut with barely a whisper.
‘Say nothing,’ Anderson said. ‘If they ask you a direct question, just tell them you don’t know anything about the research, you just arrived. It’s true. Whatever you do, don’t lie to them, but tell them as little as you can possibly get away with.’
‘But – who are they?’
‘Let’s hope you never need to know. I sincerely don’t want to involve you in things above your pay grade.’
That was all there was time for, because the outer door slid open, and the first of the four stepped through. They obviously knew the protocol, too. The tallest man came through first, and nodded to Anderson as he stepped aside. He had cool, assessing brown eyes that flicked over Claire briefly before focusing back on the professor.
The other three came in quick succession, each nodding and politely waiting until the last had joined them. The last was a midsize man in a pale blue shirt and bright blue tie – just a shade more unconventional than the others in the group. He walked forward, extending his hand to Dr Anderson.
‘Irene,’ he said, and smiled. ‘Good to see you again.’
‘You too, Charles. To what do I owe this visit?’
‘Just a spot check, the usual stuff.’ He shrugged. ‘You understand how it goes. Protocol.’
‘I know that having four people assigned is a little heavy for a spot check,’ she said. ‘Isn’t that something you only need one agent for?’
‘For you, Dr Anderson, the royal treatment,’ he said. ‘How are the biologics coming along?’
‘Fine,’ she said, and flicked a glance at Claire. ‘Let’s discuss this in private.’
‘Just a minute,’ said the dark-suited woman, stepping forward. ‘Your name is’ – she made a show of checking her phone – ‘Claire Danvers, correct?’
‘She’s my lab assistant,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘What’s the point?’
‘Well, we’re doing background checks,’ the agent said. ‘I’ll need to schedule an in-depth interview.’
‘An interview? What for?’ Claire asked.
‘For security reasons,’ said the main guy. ‘That’s all you need to know. Is she read in on your projects?’
‘No, she just arrived,’ Dr Anderson said. She turned toward Claire. ‘I do some work for these people. They tend to be just a little bit paranoid, I’m afraid, even though what we’re working on is pretty mundane. Nothing to worry about.’ She sent a smile toward the other woman. ‘Look at her, she’s eighteen. You seriously think she could be a spy?’
‘I think kids younger than eighteen have done amazing and terrible things,’ the woman said. ‘Miss Danvers, I’ll be in touch for your interview. Until then, she has no access to anything related to your projects with us. Understood?’
‘Completely understood,’ Anderson said. She nodded to Claire. ‘You’d best be on your way, Claire. This doesn’t concern you.’
‘Okay,’ Claire said, and hesitated for a second. There was a very weird feeling in the air, in the way these four official types were facing off with her professor. ‘Are you sure you don’t need me to call anyone, or …?’
The woman looked irritated. ‘Who do you think you’re going to call? Beat it before I find a security reason to make you stay.’
Dr Anderson gave her a look that Claire interpreted as go ahead, and Claire collected her backpack and headed for the door to badge out. As she did, she turned back and said, ‘Oh, Dr Anderson, should I let your next appointment know you’ll be delayed?’
‘Yes,’ Anderson said, without any hesitation at all. ‘Just call Dr Florey and let him know.’
‘I will,’ she said.
Dr Florey. Jesse and Pete had said they worked at Florey’s Bar and Grill. And of course, Jack Florey himself was an entirely imaginary person, the mascot of Fifth East. So there was definitely a message in that.
The door opened, and Claire exited before any of the agents could ask her anything else. She walked quickly down the hall, expecting to hear fast footsteps behind her; she half expected her badge to fail at the next security station, but it flashed green as she swiped it, and she escaped into the academic side of the building.
She had a million questions firing off in her mind, but until she found Dr Anderson alone and able to answer them, there wasn’t much point in considering them. Still, the fact that Anderson was apparently neck-deep in spy science was … well, chilling. More chilling than the vampire stuff, since Claire was accustomed now to thinking of it as normal.
Claire ducked into one of the student lounge areas, found a worn-out, battered couch that didn’t have anyone currently napping on it, and took out her phone to look up the number for Florey’s. She found it on the Internet, called and asked for Jesse.
The roar on the other end of the phone indicated it was definitely happy hour. ‘She’s busy,’ said the man who’d answered; he had to shout to be heard over the noise. ‘Call back later.’
‘Wait – I—’
No good. The phone went dead. She called back, and it rang a long time, but no one picked up. Not too surprising. She supposed that they probably couldn’t hear it over the shouting. Must have been some kind of sport on TV, from the cheering.
Just call Dr Florey and let him know, Anderson had said. There wasn’t any doubt in Claire’s mind that she meant Jesse and Pete.
Well, if they wouldn’t answer the phone, there was only one thing to do:
Go there.
<
br /> Claire had never been to Florey’s – she wasn’t old enough to legally drink, and exploring places full of ominous strangers after dark … well, in Morganville, that would have made her survival-deficient. Here, she supposed, it just made her more socially inept, but she was okay with that. She hadn’t felt any urge to explore the local party places favoured by students, and Liz wasn’t the going-out-to-party type, either. Given the stalking, she was way too paranoid for that.
That didn’t mean Claire didn’t know where the bars were, though; it was just part of the landscape, like the textbook stores and bubble tea shops and Laundromats. Alcohol was an essential student service, she guessed. At least for some.
She didn’t dare take time to walk, so she flagged down a cab and paid the fare to Florey’s; once she got there, though, she was more than a little taken aback, because the place was packed. There was a football game on TV, and through the open door she could see that the small space inside was packed with drinking, cheering people. She couldn’t even glimpse the bar, much less see if Jesse was working behind it.
There was a guy sitting on a three-legged stool outside of the single wide door. It wasn’t Pete, but he was obviously an official bouncer; he gave Claire a blank, assessing look as she walked up, and said, ‘ID.’ That was all, no hello how are you. Not the chatty type.
She quickly took her wallet out and showed him her identification, and he glanced at it and nodded. ‘Drinking age is twenty-one,’ he said. ‘In case you’re a foreign student. No, we don’t care if it’s sixteen in your home country. Five bucks cover.’
He held out his hand.
‘I just need to go in and talk to somebody.’
‘Really? Never heard that one before, cutie. Five bucks or get out of line.’ Because there were people queued up behind her now, she realised; they were all older than she was. Claire fumbled in her wallet, pulled out a five dollar bill, and passed it over, and he reached down and grabbed a bright neon-green armband out of a box, and snugged it tight on her wrist. ‘Water, soft drinks, tea, coffee. Got it?’