Alex answered the question with a question. “Where the hell is everyone?”
The other officer answered, “Maximum deployment. It’s open season out there. Section head called, wanted all able-bodied on the streets and cleared the prisoners over to National Guard custody.”
Constance helped clear the building? How did she even know?
Marcus talked to the old-timer, all business. “We need Roeland Jaap and his associates brought out of holding. We’re moving them into protective custody.”
“Feds are still talking to them. They’re bringing in backup of their own. I don’t have to tell you they ain’t happy with the manning situation here. They’d been talking about moving them. Guess they made up their minds.”
“Guess so,” Alex said. He moved around the desk.
“Not so fast. Like I’m gonna let a vampire go back there and take them out of here?”
“You think we’re here to what? Take them out?”
“Crossed my mind.”
Alex paused for a moment. How were they going to play this?
Marcus made the call for him. “Good thinking, Sergeant. That is exactly why we need to move this group as quickly and as quietly as possible.”
The sergeant smiled. “Still not letting you take ’em.”
“Okay, tell you what. You call back there and ask for Special Agent Summers. Tell him Alex Romer is out front and needs to talk to him. We don’t have time to waste, every second those guys stay here puts everyone at risk.”
Alex could see that the sergeant was still skeptical. He picked up the phone and called the interview section. His eyes never left Marcus and Alex.
Alex had to fight to keep himself from pacing back and forth. He couldn’t look nervous or impatient. That wasn’t the way to sell this. Marcus was as cool as ever. Apparently, it helped to have blood that stayed at room temperature.
After a moment, the sergeant spoke quietly to someone on the other end of the line. He seemed to get an answer that satisfied him, because as he hung up he said, “All right, you can head back there. Seems like he might have been expecting you.”
“Thanks.”
Alex and Marcus walked to the door, and the sergeant buzzed them in. They turned the corner into the hallway with the interview rooms and saw Trent Summers walking out of an interview room to meet them. He looked exhausted.
“Okay, what the hell is going on?”
“We’ve got to get their whole crew. We’re moving them to protective custody.”
“Bullshit you are. Jaap’s been spilling his guts since you were here.”
“Trent”—as Marcus spoke, Alex could feel some of that Ancient presence going to work—“we have a very solid tip that people are going to hit them tonight. Here.”
“You’re kidding me. How good is this tip?”
“The best kind. You can’t keep them safe here. We have to move them now.”
“No way.”
“Trent, listen to reason. You’ve got me and Marcus, two desk guys, and your task force.”
“Yeah, that task force consists of just me and Morris right now.”
Alex’s heart leapt, but he acted surprised and annoyed. “What the hell? I thought you had a whole team on the ground.”
“Had. Then that fucking bomb goes off and Homeland wants a federal presence on scene immediately.”
Marcus glared at Alex.
“And no one else could handle it?” Alex said.
“No one else has as much experience with nocturns as we do. Besides, there’s already media speculation that this is some kind of Abraham attack in retaliation for the attacks this morning.”
“Yeah, Lopez said something about that.”
Marcus took control of the conversation again. “So what I am hearing is we have six police officers at most. We cannot secure them here. They have to be moved.”
“Look, I know that. I’ve got a detail on the way. They should be here within the hour.” Trent was defensive.
“We just came from out there. With the riots and everything, it might be a couple of hours before they can make it here. It’s like the whole city has taken to the streets. Besides, we can get them to a protective-custody team.”
“Wait, you guys don’t have the manpower to properly guard them here. But you can move them? And secure them elsewhere?” Trent wasn’t going for it. “What’s your tip? I need to see it.”
Marcus looked at Alex. Time to roll the bones.
“You’re not cleared, Trent. Sorry.”
“Not cleared? What the fuck?” Then Trent picked up the clue Alex had dropped. Trent had wanted to believe something covert was going on, so it wasn’t that hard a sell.
“Oh shit. This is some UMBRA BS isn’t it?”
Alex made it look as if he were trying to keep a straight face. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. But you understand. Jaap and company. They can’t stay here.”
“Damn it. I knew that shit hadn’t been disbanded. What are they calling it now?”
“Look, can’t talk about it. You know how it is. It’s all politics and plausible deniability. We’re running out of time.”
“If it makes you feel any better, your team can escort.”
Alex wanted to choke Marcus for saying that. Then he could see the look on Trent’s face. Trent wanted back in, in a bad way. What Marcus said seemed to have done the trick. He could see that Trent had made up his mind.
“Okay. I’ll secure them for transport. What have you got to move them?”
“A hunter truck out front. I’ll move it to the rear,” Alex said.
“Better let Marcus move it. We don’t want these guys getting spun up. No offense, Marcus, but if they see a nocturn right now and we’re moving them, they might get the wrong idea.”
Marcus nodded.
“Okay. Let me go brief Morris and get Jaap.” Trent walked back into the interrogation room.
“I’ll wait here,” Alex called after him as Marcus went back out the way they’d come.
A moment later, the gray-haired desk sergeant walked in. “Your partner said you’re getting ready to move them?”
“Yeah.”
“You’re going to need someone to let you out. There’s no one back there.”
“Thanks.”
The sergeant walked past him down the hall and out of sight.
Alex couldn’t shake the feeling that something else was going on. Even with manpower extremely low, they wouldn’t just empty out the whole facility like this. Even under Constance’s orders. He tried to shrug it off. Luck was on their side.
Soon Trent came back out of the room with Roeland Jaap, his hands cuffed behind him. Another agent stepped out and crossed the hallway to one of the other rooms. The agent gave Alex a quick once-over.
Trent handed Jaap over to Alex—who put a hand firmly onto him—and made introductions. “Agent Morris. Detective Romer.”
They nodded at one another, and then Morris walked into the other room.
Trent went into a different room, leaving Alex and Roeland alone.
Alex knew he’d only have a brief moment to get his point across. He looked Roeland dead in the eye.
“Roeland. One vampire killer to another. You’re a smart cookie. If you want any chance of getting out of this, you’ll keep your mouth shut and play along, okay?”
“This is some sort of trick?”
“Yes it is. And it is very dirty. But it’s not the kind you’re expecting. If you want a chance for payback at the real bastards behind everything, you’ll keep quiet.”
Agent Morris came out of the other room. He led over a hulk of a man, a guy Alex figured Brit gangsters would employ as muscle. The man had a patch over one eye, and a nasty scar ran down his face, telling the tale of how he’d lost it.
“Who is this beauty?”
“Meet John Seward. Nocturn Killer number two.”
Seward glared at Alex. This guy might be trouble. If anyone was going to try to make a
run for it, it would be him. Before Alex could say anything, Trent returned, leading a man in his fifties with a sizable paunch. He looked as if he’d be more at home at a pub than in his professed line of work.
“Let me guess. Arthur Holmwood.”
“Yeah. I’m getting Gallier.” Trent left again.
Agent Morris and Alex lined up the three men against one wall of the hallway.
“All right, fellas. No funny business and we can get you safely out of here.”
In a moment, Trent reappeared, leading a small, shapely woman. She glared at Alex from under a peroxide-white mop of hair. Alex didn’t like what he saw there at all. He’d seen killers before. He was standing next to three of the most notorious in recent memory. Yet there was something—something just wrong about her. It wasn’t the crazy gaze psychopaths got, the look that highlighted their insanity, and signaled that they experienced a different reality. This look simply said, “I could kill you all right now if I want to.” And meant it.
Alex shook the moment off.
“Okay, listen up. You all know that the vampires aren’t crazy about you. We’ve gotten a reliable tip that an attempt is going to be made on you here very shortly. The government has graciously decided to move you into protective custody. We will be the most vulnerable during transit. So obviously, the faster we move the better. And just in case any of you are thinking of trying anything funny”—he looked deliberately at John Seward and Rhuna Gallier—“we will use deadly force.”
Alex turned toward Trent, but caught sight of Rhuna out of the corner of his eye. Was she smiling?
“All right. Let’s go.”
The group headed to the rear entrance, where they normally transported criminals via special buses to more permanent incarceration facilities. The desk sergeant was waiting to buzz them out.
“You ready?”
“Ready as ever.”
He buzzed the door open and Alex stepped out into the gated garage first. The hunter truck idled a dozen feet away with its rear door open. Marcus stood near the back, and the rear door opened. When Marcus saw Alex, he stepped behind the truck out of sight.
Alex looked right and saw the other desk officer—the one with his arm in a sling—standing off to the side of the door. The officer nodded at him. Alex nodded back.
“Okay, it’s clear. Let’s move.”
The group headed out the door, Alex on point. He was making a good show of it. Of course, he wasn’t really expecting anything, but just going through the motions put him on edge. Halfway to the truck he knew something wasn’t right, but couldn’t place it.
He kept moving. It was all he could do. Keep moving and try to see what was setting his instincts on fire. The officer was moving toward him. That was wrong.
Now Morris was helping Seward into the back of the truck and Trent was lining up Holmwood to go in after him.
The desk officer suddenly spoke up. “You’re actually gonna transport them? Lelith said to do them right here.”
Everyone froze.
Goddamn you, Constance.
So she’d just emptied the building so her Lightbearer friends could do the dirty work, and Alex and Marcus had just beaten them to it. Marcus was going to get an earful about whom he trusted.
“Right here?” Alex’s eyes met Marcus’s as the Roman stepped out from behind the truck.
Roeland saw Marcus, recognized him as a vampire, and spat at Alex, “You bastard! You were working for those sangers all along!”
Agent Morris jumped down from the truck. He had his weapon in his hand, pointed at Trent.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Winston,” he said to the officer with the sling, who pulled out his own sidearm. He had it pointed at Trent, too.
Rhuna Gallier made a sound. It was part growl, part hiss. It wasn’t the kind of sound that should come from a human throat, let alone a woman’s.
Trent had a betrayed look on his face. His eyes met with Alex’s. It looked like he was thinking about going for his gun. Alex couldn’t let that happen.
“Listen, Trent,” Morris was pleading, “we’ll cut you in. We didn’t have a chance to talk. But Zagesi’s got the cash, he—”
Even as he was speaking, Alex’s hand shot out and deflected Morris’s sidearm away from Trent. He lashed out with a knife-hand strike at the agent’s throat and heard a sharp crack come from the man’s windpipe. The agent fell, gasping. It was child’s play to wrench the pistol from his hand.
Alex tried to bring the pistol to bear on Winston, but Marcus had blocked his shot. He could see the man’s sidearm pinwheeling through the air as Marcus got him in a death grip, draining him of blood. Alex didn’t like that. Marcus had always been a seducer; he didn’t kill to feed. Something in that club had changed his partner for the worse.
Alex whipped around to cover Roeland and the others. It was just in time. The pistol actually struck Rhuna in the forehead as she was making a move toward him. Even handcuffed she was fast. She fell backward hard and fixed him with that feral stare. Alex tried to play it as if he had planned the move. He hoped she couldn’t read the surprise in his face.
“Nobody do anything stupid!” He needed to reassert control.
“What the fuck is going on, Alex?” Trent screamed.
“Trent. The less you know the better. It looks like the vampires really had arranged an attack on these guys. They have enough pull they were able to empty the building and draw most of your team away. My guess is, we just beat their hit team and these two idiots gave themselves away thinking that’s who we were. No telling when their real friends will get here. If I were you, I would get the fuck out of here most ricky-tick.”
He threw a light kick into the side of Morris, who was choking and turning blue, hands clutched around his throat.
He turned his attention to Roeland. “And yes, I am working for bastards. Just not the ones you think. I’ll fill you in on the way. Get in the truck. Now!”
“Alex, what the hell will I tell people?” Trent asked.
“Tell them anything you want.”
“No. I want in. You know I can run with you guys.”
“Not a chance. Trust me, Trent. This one’s going to Hell and back. And we’re not so sure about the back part.”
He pointed the pistol at Trent. “Now get out of here. You done there, Marcus?”
Marcus dropped the officer’s now-lifeless body to the ground, turned, and wiped the bloody drool from his mouth. Trent took one look at him and backed away. Alex knew he didn’t need to be told again.
Trent turned and ran.
Trent’s career would be over after this. It was shitty, but that was the way things went. At least he’d still be alive.
Marcus threw Alex a bloodshot glare as he walked by him to get into the driver’s side of the truck. Alex satisfied himself that their charges were secured in the back. He sighed and looked out into the night at the glare from the fires reflecting off the clouds.
What a fucking mess. A choking sound caught his attention.
Almost as an afterthought, he shot Agent Morris.
39
11:40 P.M.
The information exchange in the truck went a lot faster than Alex expected. The incident at the Doral facility had inadvertently created a bond between the members of Abraham and the two former UMBRA operatives.
Alex gave the Nocturn Killers the short version. He told them about the methamphetamine-augmented blood products designed to poison unwitting vampires into a blood frenzy to kill innocents. He told them about Aguirre’s leads.
Roeland reciprocated and together they were able to put together a theory that tied Haley House to the Lightbearer Society and to the Confraternity of Admah.
Then Alex had to give them the hard news. He told them how he suspected that Zagesi had influence over Abraham’s contact in the Lightbearer Society. While Roeland and his cohorts thought they had been striking at the vampiric conspiracy, they’d probably been eliminating its adversaries.
“So there it is.” Alex let it sink in.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Arthur said.
“There’s still a chance to make it right. Believe me, I know all about atonement. We’re going up there and we’re going to finish what we started. What we need to know now is, are you in or out?” Alex asked.
“Bollocks.” John spoke first. “Like we have a choice, eh? We say we’re out, and we wind up on the side of the road with our throats ripped out by your pale friend here.”
“Not so.” Marcus turned to look to the back of the truck from his position in the driver’s seat. “You can walk free and always take your chances with the Confraternity. I assure you, they will hit you when you least expect it. And you will never see them coming. But this way, maybe we can do unto others before they do unto us.”
“And there’s the small issue of trust,” Arthur added, acting as if he hadn’t heard Marcus. “You didn’t leave us to the sangers back there, sure. But that’s only because you need us to charge in there like the bloody Light Brigade.”
Alex looked at Roeland for his input. Two out. He was hoping Roeland would be feeling vengeful enough to be on board.
Roeland didn’t disappoint.
“I’m in. I want to deal a deathblow to these bastards.”
“Even if it means your life?” Rhuna asked. Her accent was light and tripped off her tongue easily. It made her voice sound prettier than it was. Alex couldn’t place it.
“What life?” Roeland replied. “What life do you think any of us will have if a race war between vampires and humans breaks out in America? All they’d have to do is keep turning people. They could probably create youngbloods faster than we could kill them. Then what? Once people have their sides chosen for them … it’s over before it even begins. No. We can strike a decisive blow, here, tonight. Send them a message that we will not suffer their manipulations lightly.”
Graveyard Shift Page 28