Nighter

by Magdalena Kozak

  He sneaked into the TV hall carefully, sweeping it with his eyes. Nothing; empty and peaceful. Only glasses with leftover blood stood lonely at the bar. Looks like the next shift nighters, pulled suddenly from their sleep, hadn’t even had time to eat properly and just went straight to work.

  He glanced at the control screen. Motion sensors, placed in critical spots, shone with a peaceful green. The monitoring center didn’t seem off at all, either. There were no strangers in the base, just their own people. Which meant everything was perfectly fine.

  But it wasn’t. It just wasn’t, and Vesper didn’t know what was wrong.

  For some time now, Vesper had had flashes of contact with a strange, wavy force. It was thanks to it, that he sometimes felt danger was near, or on the contrary, that he could sleep safely. He called it ‘intuition’ for lack of a better term. Now that ‘something’ nearly screamed, despite the seeming peace reigning around.

  Vesper walked up to the other door, and stepped out into the corridor joining the human part of the base with the nighters’. He took a step, and a wooden parquet squeaked mercilessly. The nighter rose up a little, and began to float through the air soundlessly.

  Some voices came from a nearby room, angry, shouting. Vesper clung to the wall, sharpened his ears.

  “Maybe you’d like to finally tell me the truth!” Umens was feverish. Vesper recognized him immediately. “Quit leading me on already, and tell me once and for all how things are!”

  Vesper widened his eyes in astonishment. It happened that Umens was furious, but to let it show? He was always so expertly in control... what was going on here?

  “Maybe you’re right,” a woman’s voice finally responded slowly.

  The eavesdropper frowned. He knew that voice, he knew it for sure. But for now, he couldn’t put its owner’s face to it.

  “So?” the captain insisted, fury almost pouring out of the word.

  “I won’t join you,” the woman choked out with clear desperation in her voice. “I’ve thought things over. Don’t count on it... I won’t join. Ever.”

  “That’s idiotic.” The man regained his control suddenly, and began to speak clearly and definitely. “You have nothing to lose. Everything to gain. Think it over again.”

  “On the contrary, I have everything to lose,” she replied with conviction. “Everything I used to believe in. All the years spent in this service. No, you won’t convince me. I’ve made my decision. End of discussion on that subject.”

  Heavy silence fell for a moment. Vesper clung to the wall in the overwhelming silence. His heartbeat seemed to pound noisily.

  “I have to go now,” Umens said slowly, in very strange voice. “The guys are waiting in the cars. I have to go.”

  “Me too,” the woman replied. “I have my duties. Like all of us here.”

  Brisk footsteps sounded, then the door was opened rapidly and Umens appeared in the hallway. He noticed the nighter immediately, and threw him a particularly unfavorable glance.

  “And what are you doing here?” he growled. “You were supposed to sleep. Would you like another shift?”

  “I wanted to see the new guy,” Vesper smiled apologetically. “I’ve had enough of being the dog, maybe finally someone else would take this honorable position in the herd.”

  Umens shook his head disapprovingly.

  “Don’t get hysterical here, okay?” he said dryly. “You’re not the dog anymore, or haven’t you noticed? Especially since that Polfa mission...” He waved his hand impatiently. “Go sleep, nighter.” He turned around and walked down the hallway, speeding up with each step.

  A woman stood at the doorstep. Vesper turned to face her quickly, and gasped instinctively under a new wave of astonishment.

  Maria. Human. From the recruitment cell. She watched him with red, teary eyes.

  “Go sleep, nighter,” she repeated like captain’s echo, who had already disappeared around the corner.

  What was going on, he wanted to ask, but stopped himself at the last moment. This wasn’t a good time to admit he’d heard anything.

  “Oh, Maria!” he smiled politely. “Gosh, I haven’t seen you in forever. I keep promising myself to drop in on you guys, but you know, this job...”

  “I know,” she said shortly, not reciprocating the smile. “Don’t worry, none of you ever drop in. As if you wanted to forget you once had a different life.”

  “It’s not like that,” he protested. “But, you know, this job...” he broke off, embarrassed.

  She was right, he suddenly realized, completely right. Exactly right. He doesn’t ever want to go back to that life, why would he want to? To that pathetic state, when he was weak, insignificant, when he was a simple human zero?

  “Sure it’s not like that,” she said in dead, impersonal voice. “Go sleep, nighter,” she repeated like a mantra. “You need to rest up to be capable of that job of yours.” She turned around and walked down the hallway slowly.

  He wanted to call after her, but all words got stuck in his throat.

  He turned back too, and returned to TV hall. He walked up to the bar, feeling each of the words overheard a moment ago sit in his mind with a strange weight.

  He grabbed a clean glass and filled it with blood all the way to the top. He lifted it to his mouth...

  A fleeting, familiar scent hit his nose. Vesper held the glass in place, staring at it in disbelief. His hand began to shake, and red waves spread over the liquid’s surface.

  This blood is...Oh, it smells so wonderful, so sweet and tempting.

  “Nidor!” he screamed in his mind. “Nidor, come here, quick!”

  He put the glass on the counter, staring at it in fear.

  Unclean. Contaminated. Poisoned blood.

  ***

  “I don’t smell anything,” Nidor said, scratching his bandages. “Vesper, really, nothing at all.” He picked the glass up, and smelled its contents once more. “Not one bit,” he shook his head with conviction.

  “Just don’t drink it, I’m begging you,” Vesper said tensely. “If you don’t want to, don’t believe me. But don’t drink it. Have it tested, please.”

  Nidor nodded.

  “Sure,” he said calmly. “We can’t take an alarm like that lightly. I’ll have it tested, of course. Meanwhile, we’ll take another container.”

  “It could be contaminated, too.” Vesper shook his head with unhidden worry. “Since this one here is...” The captain looked at him with irritation.

  “Listen, pal,” he said. “The container’s been checked, see? Stamped. You drank from it a few hours ago. Now you claim to smell a non-neutral mix in it. I don’t smell anything, but fine, I’ll have it analyzed. But tell me, in what miraculous way could someone have poisoned it?” He stared at him carefully. “Here, among us?”

  Vesper inhaled deeply, and slowly let the air out.

  “Umens is acting kind of strange,” he let out determinedly.

  “What are you talking about?” Nidor asked quickly.

  Vesper repeated the overheard conversation in one breath. He finished, seeing how his colleague’s eyes had narrowed angrily between the slits in his bandages.

  “We don’t have a habit of eavesdropping on our colleagues’ personal conversations here,” Nidor announced seriously. “Remember that no nighter has ever betrayed us. Ever!” he added strongly. “What you’re suggesting is a blemish on our honor! But I’ll put it on the account of your weariness.” He softened a bit. “You are overworked, stressed out, and it shows. You’re starting to catch paranoia. Well, that’s normal. Everyone goes through that after spending some time here. Go back to your room, I’ll take care of that blood.”

  “You decided that I eavesdropped on someone’s private conversation and called you over to gossip?” Vesper asked in disbelief. “What are you trying to say, Nidor? Besides, it makes no sense, Umens and Maria in a private conversation, yeah right!” he suddenly got furious. “And when I tell you that I smell that mix in the blood, the
n I do, and that’s the end of it! I have the most sensitive sense of smell in whole unit, when it comes to that. Of all people, you shouldn’t be surprised about it!” he broke off, realizing too late that it could sound like a reproach.

  Nidor took it exactly that way.

  “I didn’t want that to happen. For you to become so... oversensitive,” he said angrily. “And I’m really sorry, you know that. But how long do you plan to remind me of that? Grow up already! And stop being so hysterical, all right?”

  Vesper stared at his friend with mixed feelings. Nidor was as aggressive as Umens had been a moment ago... what the hell was going on here?

  “Did you drink this blood?” he asked his friend worriedly.

  “Sure did,” the other answered immediately. “So did you. Just this morning. Just like everyone on your shift!”

  “It didn’t smell like that in the morning!” Vesper parried rapidly. “Nidor, you are acting kind of strange, too!” he said point blank. “You’ve never yelled at me, not mentioning that suddenly you don’t believe me. I thought I could trust you, of all people. What the hell is going on around here?”

  “As far as I’m concerned, I’m wildly pissed off.” The other stated openly, “Everything is falling apart around us, we lose points, one by one. Aranea has a plan, and she’s following through with it slowly, step by step, and all we can do it sit around and wait for her move. She knows everything about us, and we know nothing about her. She’s holding us by our balls. And I’m fucking grounded here!” he finally exploded. “I sit on my ass like an old wuss and can’t stick my nose out of the door! And that Alacer is gonna school me on how to lead a mission. Me?! I watch the house! Me, a nighter captain! Soon I’ll start to cook and clean and paint my nails!”

  Vesper smiled in relief. Considering the tough situation, Nidor was holding up pretty well anyway.

  “And everything fucking itches me!” the captain complained in the end. “It’s unbearable, you have no idea...”

  “Easy, I’m a doctor,” the other answered instinctively. “I have some idea.”

  “You were a doctor,” Nidor riposted. “Now you’re in ISA’s night service. Forget that other life; you walked over to this side, and don’t look back.” He suddenly got serious. “That’s exactly Umens’ problem,” he added quietly.

  Vesper stared at him, not understanding.

  “He and Maria met, when they were both still human,” Nidor said. “Then the Lord spied out Umens and invited him to us, and she stayed on the other side. After some time, he began to miss her. He asked the Lord to recruit her as well. Yes, she came here... but she decided not to cross to the nighter side.”

  “Why?” Vesper widened his eyes in astonishment.

  “Because knowing herself and her ingrown aggression, she decided she would soon join the renegades if she crossed over,” Nidor stated, shaking his head with disapproval. “I think it’s bull; the woman has some sick complexes. Ultor said that one of the lords would definitely take her, but no pressure. We need to wait for her conscious decision. And its stayed that way. Umens waits like a moron, hoping that maybe she’ll think it over. And the woman, like a woman, sometimes she changes her mind and wants to join him, then backtracks immediately... I’m not surprises the guy’s pissed off,” he broke off and glanced at his friend wearily. “So how’s that, Mr. Conspiracy Theory? That explanation’s enough?”

  Vesper nodded, clearly ashamed. He must have really wound himself up too much. Noting strange, after all. Everyone around walks around pumped, and is entitled to some small emotional crisis. He sighed heavily.

  “But that blood...” he muttered shyly. “It really smells weird...”

  “We’ll check it, don’t worry,” the captain promised. “But also take into consideration that you could be oversensitive. From wariness, stress... Besides, you’re still developing your parapsychological abilities, which destabilizes your mental balance. Do you feel those strange waves of pulsating force?” he stared at him attentively.

  Vesper nodded zealously.

  “Exactly,” Nidor agreed, “You’re growing up, brother.” He yawned, covering his mouth. “All right, just so you can have a piece of mind, we’ll check something else too,” he added. “I’m pretty sure that nobody strange got onto the unit’s grounds. But let’s ask Staszek, just in case. He sat here, in TV hall, when we weren’t here. Maybe he saw something, who knows? Maybe an unexpected, secret renegade landing,” he joked a little maliciously.

  “Yes, exactly, let’s go,” Vesper said. “Maybe I got hysterical like some chick, I’m sorry. But... You know, I couldn’t sleep peacefully. And maybe something will clear up this way.”

  “No problem,” Nidor sighed, walking toward the door. “Ladies first,” he made an inviting motion with his hand.

  Vesper glanced at him wolfishly, but crossed the doorstep without a word.

  ***

  “If vampires existed, they would be weak, helpless creatures,” the recruit was trying to prove when Nidor and Vesper entered the room. “Sensitive, cowering in fear of light. Without any chances in a confrontation with modern humans equipped with the newest technological wonders. They would be kept in reservations, like the North American Indians after being dominated by a white man.”

  Maria and Wojtek sat staring at their computer screens, ostentatiously not talking to him. They jumped up with obvious relief at seeing the nighters.

  “Captain...” Maria straightened up officially for the recruit’s benefit.

  That one lifted himself from his seat too, though quite reluctantly. He glanced at Nidor with doubt. He probably debated whether this guy in rumpled sweats was really a captain, or maybe another trick from his colleagues.

  “At ease,” Nidor said, and glanced toward the empty desk, “And where’s Staszek? We need to talk to him.”

  “He went out to town with an important task,” Wojtek said slowly. “He said you told him to do something, Captain.”

  The nighters exchanged uneasy glances.

  “He shamelessly took off,” Nidor decided, but without much conviction. “Taking advantage of Umens’ absence and me sleeping...”

  “Believe what you will,” Vesper parried immediately. “But to me, this whole smells more and more like renegades.”

  “Oh, finally some captain,” the recruit said suddenly, obviously convinced. “Good that my colleague said so, because you don’t look like an upper officer in those sweats. When will I get a serious mission?” He stared at Nidor with pressure. “How long will you keep me here, with my nose stuck in the internet, chasing some nonsense? It’s clearly idiotic to waste my abilities like that. I feel compelled to remark that the human resource management here is on a pathetic level.”

  “You got your assignment from your training officer,” Nidor responded, unmoved. “Please continue with your assignment.”

  “You really could just give it up already!” the other snorted disdainfully. “Yeah, a group of forest-cloister Bonds, fully equipped to fight overgrown bats. Will I finally find out what’s really going on? Because it’s definitely not those fairy tales I’m fed by this honorable company,” he waved ostentatiously at his coworkers.

  “You will find out,” Vesper couldn’t contain himself. “And you’ll die a moment later. How about that?”

  “Don’t threaten me, pal,” the other parried. “I’m not such a scaredy-cat. An ISA officer needs to have nerves of steel and to find himself in every situation...”

  “Then find yourself now,” Nidor suggested. “You got an assignment, so do it. That’s an order!” he barked briskly, sharply.

  “You’re not my training officer, so don’t order me around,” the recruit got offended, but sat in front of his computer again and typed, in huge letters, ‘STUPID VAMPIRES’ into Google search. Results 1-10 out of around 1,530 for search ‘STUPID VAMPIRES’. (Found in 0.39 sec.), the search engine said.

  “Judgement day,” Nidor growled, leaving the room.

  Vesper f
ollowed him without hesitation.

  “What are we gonna do now?” He asked quietly.

  Nidor stopped at some distance from the room, his eyes burning with fury. The recruit’s muffled prattle could be heard even from here.

  “First we’re gonna shoot that little smart ass, so Ultor doesn’t get offended that we present him with that little piece of shit!” the captain was furious. “And you wonder why Umens walks around pissed off? He’s with him a few hours every day! Eve-ry-day!”

  “I’m not surprised anymore,” Vesper admitted. “Everything’s clear. But...”

  “But what?” Nidor asked rapidly.

  “Just that blood still stinks to me” Vesper repeated stubbornly. “And Staszek’s sudden disappearance too. I can’t help it; I just have this freaking untrusting personality.”

  The other stared at him in silence.

  “I hope you’re not right,” he stated gloomily. “But fine, let’s check it out. You fly over... wait no, what am I talking about, it’s already day. Drive over to the hospital, to look in on our friend Crumbly, because... fuck, just because. Nobody will forbid two grown men to meet in a public place. Even without obvious reasons.”

  “Especially since he saved my life,” Vesper added seriously. “I have a right to have some brotherly feelings for him.”

  “You will have a lot of brothers like that in this profession,” Nidor sighed with slight bitterness. “But right, go. And take a look at the guys, and Umens, to see if everything is all right with them. And report immediately.”

  “Yes, Captain!” Vesper replied with a trace of relief in his voice.

  The door opened and the young recruit stepped out briskly into the hallway.

  “Oh, look, X-men- Polish edition,” he said mockingly. “So what are you waiting for? Aren’t you supposed to be out saving the world?”

  Vesper walked up to him slowly. Suddenly, with a swift move, he put his right hand on the man’s shoulder. In a blink of an eye, he glided behind the recruit, and placed his left hand on his right, pressing his arm to the recruit’s back. He locked his opponent’s neck in a classic nelson and bent down slightly, which caused the other to kneel instantly, choking and coughing.