“Charles,” Lucius called him, giving him the cue he needed to begin. “Whenever you’re ready.”
Standing up, Special Agent Charles Lewis walked next to the screen. “You can go to the next slide, Josh,” he said. In front of him, the image changed. “Well, as you know, I’m here because we received a unique Intel earlier this morning in our office in Texas,” on the screen a picture of a handwritten piece of paper was displayed. Its contents were short, but it was enough to understand that a werewolf attack on a person of interest would be happening later that day.
Persephone Hall
1213 Hudson St.
07/08/00
1830 hours
1 target - Hicks
5 operatives
Request asylum - WW
Dylan finally took his eyes off the document to face Lucius, “We know it’s written by the same source,” he pointed at the bottom of the note, “This… WW.”
Lucius remained static, but Charles Lewis nodded in agreement as he looked at the screen again, “For twenty years we have been receiving these letters with what has been accurate information. This guy has been giving us everything,” then he turned to look at the audience. “Only now he wants us to bring him in, which is unexpected, to say the least.”
“Excuse me,” Rebecca started; all eyes were immediately on her, including Dylan’s, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to interrupt, but who is the target? Who is Hicks?”
It was Lucius who answered, his tone calm. “Senator Roger Hicks, Ms. Sawyer,” he began, “a man who has just won the presidential primary and is a favorite to win the election.” Seeing Rebecca’s expression, the director closed his eyes patiently to say, “It is likely he will be our next president.”
“Oh,” Rebecca said apologetically, “Thank you, sir.” Then she added softly, “I guess I haven’t been following many events since I came here.”
Rebecca turned just in time to see Dylan smile in amusement at her under-her-breath comment.
“Quite all right,” Lucius added, “although I suggest that’s taken cared of soon.”
Making sure the director was done talking, Charles Lewis continued, “Sir, I do need two agents this time. I’ve seen the floor plans for Persephone Hall and the building and not only are there too many exits, there is a grand lobby area outside the hall which will need a vampire’s skills to keep in check.”
Lucius was nodding as he heard him, “Yes, I read your memo.” Then, “You will use Rebecca. I’m sure Agent Sawyer is more than ready and eager for the task.”
“Wait a minute, she-“ Dylan was cut off by the director’s defying gaze.
“Yes, Torrence?”
“She isn’t ready, sir.” He stated decidedly.
Lucius took his time to answer, everybody in the room waited for his final word, “Ms. Sawyer has been here for months. Anton cleared her as a field agent three months ago, Dylan. You’ve been training her as a werewolf hunter and she has been an observant in missions. According to your reports she should have been out there weeks ago. Now, what is it you’re so afraid of?”
Dylan pursed his lips. Rebecca feared he would tell the director about the events of the night before when she had gone berserk over a dream. “She’s just… not ready, sir,” he said quietly.
The director seemed to be absorbing this information, although it did not take him long to make his final decree. Ignoring Dylan, he turned to face Lewis, “You have your two agents, Charles. Believe me, Agent Sawyer here is as ready as she’ll ever be. I know we won’t be disappointed.”
“Sir,” Lewis prepared to protest, but Lucius did not have time for it. Beside him, Rebecca sat in utter shock and silence.
“Sir,” Dylan began when Lewis didn’t. “There will be five werewolves today. I can handle them.”
Lucius took a deep breath, Rebecca could tell he was a trying to contain either his anger or displeasure. “Agent Lewis?” he asked again, “In your professional opinion, is Agent Torrence all you need for the complete success of this mission?”
Lewis looked at Dylan, both they both knew what his answer would be. “No, sir.”
“Then it’s settled,” Lucius sat back on his chair, “Take Sawyer, secure the senator, bring back the infamous WW and take him to the Pecan.” He wasn’t done, “Also, take the collar and a scanner, I don’t want him being tracked once you move him. Understand? If any of it smells like a trap or if our informant looks, feels, sounds or breathes like a spy, kill him.”
Charles and Dylan replied in unison, “Yes, sir.”
“Wonderful,” the director prepared to leave, “I will meet you at the Pecan, let me know when you’re on your way. I can’t wait to meet our informant.”
Lucius gave a last quick glance around the room making sure everybody knew what their job was. Finally, he stopped to let Josh know he was ready to leave. Rebecca watched all of it happening too quickly for her to understand, the only thing was clear in her head was that, for the first time, she wouldn’t be waiting in a van watching the action behind the screen. A few minutes ago she had been complaining about not getting out much, now she realized she should have been careful what she wished for.
Right before he disappeared, Lucius turned to look at them one last time, “And gentlemen, try not to have too much fun. Remember, the media is always watching, especially where Senator Hicks is involved.”
“Yes, sir.”
At last, Lucius was gone.
It took the three of them a while to react after the director had left the room.
“Well,” Charles Lewis began, “You better keep it together, Sawyer. These are werewolves we’re talking about. Professional werewolves.”
“If you don’t think I’m ready-“ Rebecca began.
Dylan stood up and began walking to the door. “It doesn’t matter what we think, Lucius thinks he knows whatever it is he believes he knows and you’re going,” he sounded displeased. “You better be ready. Keep it together. Use the skills we taught you.”
“Dylan,” Charles stopped him, “do we stand a chance with her?”
It took Dylan a while to decide, but when the answer came, he said, “Yeah, we do. Now, let’s go.”
Rebecca followed them down the hallway still trying to decide how afraid she should be when the time came to confront a werewolf. In front of her, the men were discussing the mission not paying much attention to her.
“You think W is one of the five werewolves?” Charles asked.
“Usually isn’t.”
“But he is a werewolf, right?”
“Possibly, can’t imagine how he has survived that long with them if he wasn’t.”
The F.B.I agent considered it. “All right,” Lewis agreed, “Well, the scanner is already in the chopper, so I will go get a collar from the weapons room. I’ll do that and then go wait outside while you two get ready. Don’t take too long,” he smiled, “I hate waiting.”
Dylan nodded, “Right behind you.”
They had stopped in front of the elevator. Rebecca watched Charles Lewis leave through the door at the end of the hallway. The compound that served as headquarters to the vampire agency was in the middle of a wooded area. Outside, Special Agent Charles Lewis would use a secret set of stairs to arrive at the first underground level. The first floor below was mostly used for a parking lot, but it also had a weapons room where they stored basic armory in case of an emergency. Once he got what he needed he would return to the main floor, follow the path to take him to the hangar area a quarter of a mile away and then to the landing field. She had never been an active part of a mission, but at least she had ridden the helicopter and been on site. She was glad to at least have that experience behind her belt.
“I had breakfast,” Rebecca announced knowing what their destination was.
“We need blood,” Dylan told her, shaking his head solemnly. “Sublevel 15,” he addressed the elevator. The elevator complied and began to descend. “You don’t want to face a werewolf on a yo
gurt.”
“How did you know I had yogurt?” Rebecca asked, bewildered. Dylan glanced at her with a knowing look. The effects of the light breakfast she’d had were already wearing off making her hungry again already. Vampires like her could survive without blood only as long as they kept eating every few hours. If they satisfied their hunger then the craving for human blood was manageable. Ingesting food also made them more human, which was a side-effect Rebecca fought to retain. Eating like a regular person made their bodies change, their hair grow, and even caused the need for sleep; drinking blood took away those human traits and in return made them more efficient killing machines. Blood gave vampires power and clarity while making them less human in every way.
They stepped out of the elevator and began their way across the underground park; the scent of wet grass and soil was now more than familiar to the vampires who lived in the underground compound. Rebecca heard the soothing sound of the water running from the fountain in the middle of the park and knew not even that could help relax.
At last, they arrived at the blood bank; the words BLOOD BANK were carved on the glass door. Rebecca wished she could say she seldom visited the place, but she had gone down to take a bag of the synthetic liquid more times than she wished to accept. There had been many things she disliked about being a vampire, yet one of the facts she had known about before agreeing to become one was she would be drinking blood more often than not.
Dylan, on the other hand, had drunk nothing but blood before he met her. Before meeting her, he hadn’t slept in years and there had only been a trace of humanity left in him. Her presence had changed that.
Rebecca accompanied him inside the blood bank; a dozen refrigerators with hospital bags of synthetic blood were displayed before them, waiting to be used. After Rebecca had drunk the contents of two bags, feeling the power run through her veins, Dylan asked, “Is there anything else you need?”
“No, thank you.”
“It’s your first time out in the field, I want to be sure that-“
“A little more confidence in me would help,” she cut him off.
Dylan stopped, it was clear he hadn’t appreciated hearing that. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing,” she turned her head, clearly letting him know it wasn’t nothing.
Dylan scoffed, “You wanted me to tell him you were ready?”
“Acting like I was a loser didn’t help.”
“I didn’t say you were a loser. You’re just…” he stopped his thought, “We don’t have time for this, Becca. Not now.”
“There’s never time for anything anymore.” Then, “Funny, since we’re supposed to be immortal.”
All Dylan did was roll his eyes, and making sure the empty blood bags were rightly disposed, he exited the blood bank.
“That is very mature,” Rebecca said under her breath running to catch up with him.
“Are you all pumped up, agents?” Charles Lewis joked loudly as he peeked from the helicopter’s pilot seat. Just as they climbed onboard, he started the engine and the helix began to turn. Rebecca took the pair of headphones handed to her by Dylan to protect her hearing and to keep in communication with the two men. The chopper belonged to Charles Lewis, a personal gift from Lucius many years ago. He used it to travel to and from his office every time he needed to work with the vampire agency. From the back, Rebecca could see the pictures of Lewis’ family on the dashboard. He was a father of two boys and a little girl who couldn’t be more than 5 years old. One day, when the time was right, Rebecca planned to ask more about them. But it was like Dylan said; there wasn’t any time for that now.
The helicopter finally took off. Below her, Rebecca saw the tall trees becoming smaller and smaller until they became a big, green blur.
They flew quietly for a few minutes, Rebecca going over all the possible outcomes of facing a werewolf, anxious to know what her real role in the mission was going to be. In fact, she thought Dylan would make sure to kill all of the monsters to assure she didn’t have to face one was both a relief and an insult. Part of her wanted to prove her worth but she was also terrified to face a seven or eight-foot tall werewolf.
After a few minutes of flight, her thoughts were interrupted by an incoming transmission coming from her headset. It was Lewis.
“You think he’s a man or a woman?” The question came in and Rebecca knew it wasn’t meant for her.
“Who?”
“This W. Who else?” Lewis said, “I think he’s a he. I’ve not seen many she-wolves.”
“Probably a man,” Dylan agreed offhandedly.
Lewis continued, “You think he’s old? Young? Married? Single?”
“I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out.”
Rebecca felt the need to interrupt their banter. “The room will still be full of people, right?” She felt the need to clarify, “I mean, the hall. Persephone Hall.” It was an easy name to remember.
“They’ll be having some sort of event. A lunch,” Lewis clarified.
“Can’t we evacuate everyone?”
Sitting in front of her, Dylan began shaking his head from side to side. “We can’t change anything,” he reminded her, “We need the event to happen without interference.”
Lewis added, “If they see we’re there, they will abort and then we won’t be able to stop them. They’ll just try again and our source may not be able to get in contact with us.”
Rebecca asked, “How many people will be there?”
“They tell me around three hundred.”
“Three hundred people?” she repeated in concern.
Dylan said, “Charles and his team will evacuate the civilians once we have secured our targets. His priority is the safety of everyone in that building. It’s not really ours.”
That made some sense to Rebecca, but she still thought there could be so many things going wrong by having all those people act as bait. “And W?”
“I hope he will identify himself somehow at some point,” Dylan stated. “That or… we’ll have no choice but to take him down with the others.”
She heard Lewis’ voice now, “It’ll be five werewolves against two vampires. Should be easy as cake.” Pie, Rebecca corrected him in her head.
She looked at Dylan in a panic knowing he was right, she was not ready.
The helicopter landed about three hours before the event was to take place. The experienced Lewis landed the chopper with no problem on a helipad on top of a tall building in the middle of the city. As they got off, a crew of five fully suited military personnel were waiting for them. One of them stepped forward and introduced himself to them.
It was Lewis who took over from there, “My name is Special Agent Charles Lewis and I’m in charge of this operation.” He said so while showing his identification.
The soldier nodded and directed them inside the building, guiding them downstairs and through a hall until they reached a wide room that appeared to be empty except for a few computers and a table. Several other soldiers were working the computers and getting analytics ready. Lewis went with the soldiers to get debriefed while Dylan went over to the weapons closet he spotted a few feet away to check it out.
Rebecca, being left alone in the middle of the madness, did nothing but look around and be overwhelmed by the smell of human blood and gunpowder in the room. The more she saw, the more she understood why Dylan didn’t think she was ready.
“You’ll like this one.” It was Dylan behind her. Rebecca turned around to face him. He was offering her a gun.
“I already have a gun,” she said, absentmindedly touching the holster and the gun crafted specially for her under her jacket.
“Take this one, put it on your back,” Dylan explained. “It’ll make you feel better.”
Rebecca didn’t see the harm in it and did what she was told, although nothing about having another gun made her feel better about anything.
“Dylan, I-“ Rebecca began too late. At that moment, Lewis was ready to address
the room.
“My name is Special Agent Charles Lewis,” he announced to the room just like he had said after coming out of the helicopter. “These are agents Torrence and Sawyer,” he pointed to each of them as he named them. “Before you start with your questions I must warn you that most details about this mission are classified and I’d appreciate if you followed my orders, no questions asked until this mission is over to avoid anyone getting hurt. Understood?”
There was a round of yes, sirs going around the room.
The soldier who had first approached him gave a step forth, “My crew has their orders, sir. The building in question is five blocks away. We are ready to get in position.”
Lewis turned to Dylan, who nodded in agreement. He then addressed the soldiers. “All right, let’s move.”
“Just remember, Becca,” Dylan was saying as they followed Lewis down the street, “A shot in the head will paralyze them long enough to get to their hearts.”
Rebecca nodded rapidly not sure if Dylan actually expected her to reach for the heart of a werewolf with her bare hands. The expectation was high and unfortunately, she knew the werewolves would keep healing and attacking until they were dead. Taking their hearts out wasn’t the only way to kill them, but cutting off their heads was more work and burning them inside a building wouldn’t be a wise choice.
Lewis didn’t stop walking as he turned around to face them just before reaching their final destination. “See that van,” he pointed to the black van they seemed to be approaching. “That’s where we’ll be waiting. We are already connected to the building’s video surveillance. Inside you’ll get an earpiece to be in constant communication with us.” He then added, “Easy as pie, right?” At least he had said it right this time.
They quickly entered the van, making Rebecca think she was part of some old spy movie. It all fit the picture perfectly; the sounds, the sights, even the black and white screens in the van showing the activity inside the building. In a way, it was reassuring to know someone would be watching. Perhaps if she was in mortal danger someone would go in to rescue her. Too bad it wasn’t really a movie. Having someone yell cut! when things got hot would have been a dream.
Werewolf Phenomenon: N.A.V.S.A. Series Book Two (The North American Vampire Secret Agency) Page 3