by Ian Hall
We checked the son’s room again, but got nothing.
“So is the daughter a vampire or has she a visitor?” I asked.
“Laundry basket.”
Now, it’s not every day I go around sniffing other girl’s panties, but it seemed to have worked its way into this particular job. Back in the daughter’s room again, we found the basket. The musky smell was predominant here; daughter was definitely a vampire.
“So maybe Mister Cusack’s being blackmailed because of the daughter’s vampirism,” I offered.
“I’ve heard worse reasons to fall into line. Maybe she’s controlling him.”
Satisfied that we would only waste further time if we stayed, we got out, leaving the guy sleeping in the living room.
Within minutes, we were back at the car, and Valérie switched the invisibility off. “That felt quite labor intensive.”
“Hard work?”
“More just tiring. I couldn’t do it for more than a couple of hours.”
“It’s a good tactic, though. It’ll come in handy again, I’ve got no doubt.”
We got home before Finch and Lyman, and sat for an hour sharing a well-deserved beer. Just after midnight, Finch came in, her face flushed, her breathing heavy.
“I lost Lyman,” she said calmly.
“What do you mean you lost him?” I’d closed the distance to Finch before I realized I’d done it.
“Seems he can stay invisible after I’ve let his hand go.”
“And?”
“We got outside the admin building, and I took off, thinking he was right at my heels. Of course when I turned around he wasn’t. That’s when two guys hit me – two vampires. Latinos. At first I thought they were just after a bit of tail, but they both drew guns on me.”
She pulled two IDs from her pocket.
“Both Mexican, from Chihuahua. They had circle tattoos on their wrists, like, with a big flower inside.”
Valérie nodded. “Four petals?”
“Yes.”
“The looped cross; it’s a Mexican cartel mark. Are they dead?”
“Oh yes, I dumped the bodies in one of the worst areas, took their heads off. Turns out they’d been turned like, yesterday, they didn’t decay one bit. Hopefully the crime will look gang-related.”
“And Lyman?” I brought them back to more important matters.
“Yes, we’ve got to go out looking for him.” Valérie pulled her hoodie from the floor.
“Does he have his phone?”
Finch shook her head. “He left his here in case it went off at an inopportune moment.”
I made for the door, but Valérie stopped me. “You stay here, Mandy, just in case he comes back.”
“I will not.”
“Mandy, we know what’s going on between you two, we’re not stupid, but you need to stay put. It makes sense.”
I sighed in anger, but I knew the logic in her argument.
Okay, I figured I’d been left behind. What else could have happened?
Although the hotel sat almost a mile away, five minutes by car, I thought I’d walk. I mean, if no one can see you, you can’t get into trouble, right?
So I set off in the direction of the hotel, and that took me past the student accommodation, and that made me think of Elena, and of course that made me think of sex, and Elena and Mandy. So, before you know it, I’d devised this great idea to get into Elena’s apartment and scare the shit out of her. I mean, I was invisible, right? What kid had never fantasized about that? And what a laugh that would be, right?
I mean, it’s every young person’s ultimate fantasy to do this kind of shit, so I just went for it.
I passed by a few students on the way and ear-wigged their conversations.
Vampires, all, of course, they chatted about the election and all its ramifications.
Inside Elena’s building, I got to her floor and knocked on the door.
“Yes?” The door opened, and it took so much concentration not to just answer and say ‘hi’ or something. Well, she came right out into the hallway to look down the corridor. “Alright then, no more tricks. Or I’ll kick your ass!” she hollered.
I slipped inside as Elena came in, almost brushing past me, her cell phone at her ear.
“Must have been a prankster,” she said into the phone, then launched herself onto the bed, bouncing up to the pillow. “No, he’s not here tonight. Pause. No, he had a strange smell on him this morning, couldn’t quite catch it.”
From a probable prank, my little evening had changed. Elena lay, talking to someone about me.
Wary of my smell getting to her, I sidled as close to the bed as I could, and leant over.
“… sure exactly where he came from, but he’s only been on the system for a few days.”
“Well, he’s here with his sister, I think they’re staying together or something.”
“She’s in the same category, I’m afraid. We’ll have to do something about them tomorrow. Can you arrange a meeting? Maybe at your apartment, we’ll take him out there.”
I’m pretty sure I listened to Angela McCartney/Dean Ballantine, and she talked about killing Mandy and me. We’d been well and truly rumbled.
“Oh, I could get him here, all right.” Elena’s grin widened. “He’s so into me, I could get him to do anything.”
I shook my head, watching the little minx hatch her plot.
“Oh, and there’s one more thing.” She sat up on the bed, swung her legs over the end, facing away from me. “Remember I told you that he was always saying he was ‘old’? Well, when he disposed of Antonio, he did this trick….”
Oh shit, she was seconds from divulging our one real advantage. Our one real ace in the hole.
“… well, Antonio was lying on the table…”
I thought of grabbing the phone, but of course Elena would just disappear on me, and the chance to catch her would be lost forever, no point in that.
“… and George just put his hands over the body….”
Shit, I had to act quick, and to my chagrin, all I could see was the baseball bat that I’d hit Antonio with.
Crap. Hit Elena, or fuck up the mission?
“… and the body started to rise.” Pause. “I swear it’s true! And then…”
Bammo. Swung with all my might, and for the last millisecond, I closed my eyes. I couldn’t bear to watch. Elena just fell sideways against the pillows, the phone dropped onto the bed.
“Hello? Hello? What’s happened…? Elena….?”
Not a pretty sight, your ex-bitch of a girlfriend, lying on the bed we’d screwed on, her skull in pieces, and bits of brain showing through her pretty blue-black hair.
But, to be honest, I did feel relatively calm, on top of the situation. I knew if I left the situation as it stood, Elena would recover in a day and they’d get the ‘Invisible Man’ info the next day. Saturday. Way before the election. Far too quick.
And I knew that I couldn’t carry her past all the vampires hanging around outside.
I had to finish her off. Man, how far I’d come in a matter of seconds.
I battered the bat off the wooden post at the end of the bed, and of course, it snapped. Nice long pointy jagged edge.
I pulled her across the bed and pulled her shirt to one side, and placed the sharp, broken edge of the bat handle against her perfect milky skin. I did have a tear in my eye.
I leant over her, as the first vampire hit the door.
Bam!
I pushed hard, and the blade slipped between her ribs with ease, making a sickening squelchy sound.
She didn’t react, but I knew I’d hit her heart, knew that I’d killed my girlfriend.
Then splinters flew into the apartment as the door disintegrated.
Thankfully, the new vampire guy dashed straight to the bed, allowing me to slip past him, and get back out into the corridor.
I didn’t look over my shoulder.
With hundreds of vampires running towards Elena’s d
orm block, I ran. I ran as fast as my legs would take me.
Our little foray into PMU had been rumbled, and if they knew the address of our hotel, then the rest of the guys were in trouble. Cursing the idea that I’d left my phone in the room, I ran.
I felt exhausted when I got to our hotel room. Empty.
“Shit!”
Next door for Finch. Boy was I pleased to see Mandy open the door.
I tried to push past her, but she just stood there, barring my entry.
“Mandy…”
Well. To say she jumped would be an understatement. She shit her pants twelve ways from Wednesday.
“Mandy, it’s me, Lyman. I’m invisible.” I pushed past her, and she recoiled against my touch.
“Oh, Lyman!”
“No time, where’s Finch and Valérie?” I looked inside but the room lay empty.
“They’re out looking for you!”
“Shit. We’ve got to pack the gear, we’ve been rumbled.”
“What?” Her face went from side to side, looking for me.
“Mandy!” I held her face in my hands. “We’ve got only minutes before vampires descend on us. We have to pack our computers, anything that will give them clues as to how far we’ve discovered their plan.”
“Okay.” She seemed to be getting herself back under control.
“I’ll go get our things…”
“No!” I roared. “We don’t split up! We don’t ever split up!” I felt panic rise in my chest. “I want you where I can see you. At all times.”
She gave a wry smile. “You’re the boss.”
In less than five minutes, we were parked five blocks away, standing in the dark, waiting for Finch and Valérie to join us.
It had been an interesting night. We drove all the way back to Gregor almost in a panic. When we’d all told our stories, it sure made for a mish-mash of ideas, theories, to be sure.
But inside the facility we felt safe. Unicorps logos sat proudly on every wall, but the most important thing was that we were behind a secure vampire barrier. Two hours after we’d fled the Phoenix hotel, I sat wondering if it all hadn’t been a dream.
We’d burgled a Senator’s house and Finch had murdered two drug cartel vampires. We’d all been invisible ninjas, and poor Lyman had been forced to stake his girlfriend. Not that I really minded the getting-rid-of-the-competition part, but I sure didn’t like the dark clouds that floated behind his eyes. Part of Lyman changed that night, just a further dehumanization of a friend.
Sad, really.
Yeah, all that, and the vampire conglomerate knew that we knew about their plans for the upcoming election.
But despite all the chatter that took place that night, we couldn’t see them changing their plans; they’d murdered two people in power to get Ronaldo Cusack into his present position. All we could think of was they’d just strengthen the plan, and hope it worked.
Valérie, in her usual leadership position, had five pieces of paper on the table in front of us. Large black Sharpie letters drove the bullet points into our heads.
Sinaloa Cartel Vampires from Chihuahua.
(We’d looked it up on Wikipedia. Yes! Wikipedia has precise details of the drug cartels operating in Mexico and USA).
Are other election areas also being rigged?
We all knew was that the substantial Phoenix vote could sway an Arizona election, but we had no idea if the vampires had plans for other areas. Maybe Phoenix would prove to be only a small cog in a huge machine.
PMU Vampires know the Phoenix Election Rigging Plan is out in the open.
Seems that we all thought that just by staring at the papers, we’d get some inclination as what to do.
Antonio and Elena.
Lyman continued to scowl.
Judy Miller/Angela McCartney are in charge.
Suddenly Valérie’s phone rang.
“Hello, Howard. You’re on speaker.” She set the phone on the cluttered table.
“Hi, folks. We’ve chatted it through, but not sure that we’ve come up with anything that you’ve not thought about.”
I tried to be a part of the discussion, but I couldn’t help but feel out of it all. The whole drug cartel thingy seemed miles out of context, but it’d happened on the same night, so its consequences had to be considered. I felt like in a Charlie Brown movie when the teacher’s talking… blah blah blah.
Mark Brennan had been by from time to time, and had left some pills for Lyman, but the great lummox hadn’t taken them yet. ‘Knockout Drops’, Mark called them, but they sat on the table next to the Sinaloa Cartel paper.
I looked at Lyman again, and I’m sure he’d turned even greyer. If I’d learned one thing about Lyma-bean, he sure could prove stubborn when he got the urge.
“Let’s leave it until morning, and we’ll take it up from there.” Howard’s voice clicked off.
I nodded, and Lyman leant forward to the table. To my delight, he popped both pills.
Slowly, he relaxed back onto the long sofa. I watched him every second. His eyes never left those pieces of paper. Well, maybe just one piece. Maybe just one name.
Then his eyes gently closed, and all three of us relaxed a bit. I could feel the tension in the room drop a huge amount.
I got to my feet and lifted him. Quite light, really, although I suddenly felt the need to feed again. Not sure where that came from.
“You need a hand?” Finch asked.
“No, it’s all right. I’ve got this.”
In the next room, the bed looked little more than a hospital one, but I lay Lyman on his side, and pulled a white cover over him.
I probably looked at him for a few minutes, and never heard Finch at the door.
“You can’t help him right now, you know.”
I’m not sure if I ever felt the weight of the world on my shoulders at any point in my life, but right then, right there in that room, it felt close.
Alone, my only tie to the world lying in that bed, I don’t think I’ve ever felt lower. In the rise and fall of his chest, lay my only friend.
And he wasn’t even the same species.
Judgment Day
The room looked clinical in the extreme. Not that I wasn’t accustomed to ‘sterile’, I mean, we’d lived out of suitcases for months now, it almost felt like the new normal. Brennan looked in when I woke and took some blood from me.
“Just since you’re here,” he said, but I knew better.
Our story did seem a little crazy in parts. I mean, I had screwed Elena on Wednesday night, and killed her two nights later.
Yeah.
In the common room, the girls looked better than I felt, all hunched over the table, still looking like I’d just left them five minutes ago.
“How long have I been out?”
Finch laughed. “Oh, just most of a whole day. Almost twenty-four hours.”
“What?”
“Yes, sir. It’s Sunday afternoon.”
I almost choked on my words. “What about the election?”
“It’s okay, Lyman,” Valérie said, that knowing smile on her face. “We’ve all been busy while you were, out. We’ve got a plan.”
Glad for the chance to get to work, and maybe get those images of Elena out of my mind for a while, I sat down, and got busy catching up.
“From McCartney’s diary, we’ve ascertained that the plan is actually more than two years old, and therefore, probably Amos’s plan originally.”
“Wow.” I hadn’t seen that coming.
“And we were right about the connections with the drug cartel; they’ve been supplying money for the university for some time.”
“What do the Mexicans want with a University?” I asked.
“Well, the budget alone is a good money laundering system, and to have the University as the base of operations, so close to the border, yet in Phoenix.”
I waved my hand at the huge conglomeration of papers on the table, and the floor. “The plan?”
�
��Well, the election’s less than two days away, and as far as we know, there’s only two Blanche vampires left; McCartney and Judy Miller. We plan to take them out on tomorrow night, leaving the vampire part of this leaderless. We’ll also take away all peripheral contacts, so hopefully we’ll get more than just the top two.”
“Sounds good.” I looked at Mandy, but her attention seemed elsewhere. “Same tactics as before, we go invis…”
“Yeah!” Finch interrupted me, her hand grabbing me harder than it needed to. “Same tactics.” She shook her head, her eyes flashing high from side to side. I got the idea right away. For some reason they didn’t want me to talk about the new invisibility trick out loud. I nodded.
Valérie had watched us carefully. “On Tuesday morning, Election Day, we hit the Phoenix streets. Howard has been kind enough to give us a few of his Arizona personnel, and he’s organized clean up teams in other high-traffic areas where the vote could be close. We need to take out as many vampires as we possibly can. But we also have to be careful of any cartel bodyguards. From Angela’s diary, it’s clear that she’s paid for muscle to be on hand, and these guys don’t hesitate in open violence. Each of our teams will have a nearby vehicle for dumping the bodies, staffed by seasoned Unicorps people. We bring the bodies, they do the dispatching.”
“So what’s the main objective?” I asked. Mandy still hadn’t said a word.
“For us? To get a hundred vampires off the streets in one day. Maybe more.”
The sheer number staggered me. The fact that the PMU vampires had managed to get this far without their self-destructive tendencies kicking in had been impressive.
“We’ve also got two more operations planned for the same morning,” Valérie said.
“You have been busy.”
“Unicorps has a team hitting the university. Their objective will be to destroy the blood bank. Simple, straightforward. The other mission will be to secure and detain Cusack’s daughter, Anastase. She’ll be taken to Unicorps in Chicago for treatment. So even if Cusack wins the election, the hold on him will have been lessened.”
“It’s going to be a busy day.” I gave Mandy a long stare, but she still didn’t look in my direction. “Hey, Mandy, want to take a trip to the house? Maybe get some clean clothes for the gig?”