Vampire Esquire's War (Book 2)

by Michael Wells Jr.

  "I believe I can win reelection, but I'm not sure about Congress. In fact, I am pretty sure the Republicans will have strong legislative majorities in each house."

  All thought: how can he win reelection if the Republican take legislative majorities in each house?

  The rich and powerful always controlled things. The United States' political system became less democratic over time because the people increasingly exerted less and less influence.

  “Gentlemen, no politician wants to lose elections—especially Presidents—but this election is about more than my political fate. And I fear the results of losing Congress will be significant in that the legislation they pass will make a vampire takeover easier. However, the Restoration vampires are likely to be the ones to start a war with their stores of newly made vampires. We have no real way of knowing when this threat will metastasize, but it will. And we need to be ready because it is coming soon. I feel it.”

  The room grew silent and darker somehow as the Sun peeked behind a cloud as if it were hiding from the truth, the inevitable clash between humans and vampires that would be both glorious and hideous at the same time.

  Magnum and Roland stepped forth and said, almost in unison, “We agree sir.” The Sun peeked out from the clouds again illuminating the room.

  President Elder smiled with more confidence. “Glad to have your support.”

  Pierre Leblanc let go a sly smile. “That’s what I like to hear.”

  Chapter 9

  Mark Inman arrived at Congressional Country Club fifteen minutes early. He always tried to be early so he would never be late. Inman could not afford to be late––not yet. He needed to be obsequious, something he excelled at even if he already was a vampire. The circumstances dictated he be both fawning and a hard ass at the same time. All politicians had to be this way. Romance the voters and donors and kick the shit out opponents and anyone else who stood in the way.

  Now that he was a vampire, however, it was easier to influence humans. He only needed to “glimmer” them, which mean he started into their eyes, entranced them and then control them. He didn’t know why it worked, but he did. And he enjoyed using the new technique.

  Inman knew it all centered on consolidating support, and, if he had the party's power brokers behind him as well as their money, he would win the nomination. He was aided by there not being any strong candidates, who had thrown their hats in the ring.

  The weak field made him uneasy as this usually served as an aberration. It often meant a landslide for the incumbent. Inman felt things were different this time. Lots of antipathy existed towards President Elder, although even Inman had to admit most of it wasn't Elder's fault. It was his predecessor's fault.

  The new RNC Chairman, David Taylor, sat at the white table cloth-covered table in the ballroom with crystal chandeliers and silk wallpaper. As Inman walked across the room, Taylor rose and extended his hand, a big, fake smile on his face. "Pleasure to see you Mr. Majority Leader, or should I say the Republican nominee in two years?"

  Inman smiled back. He’d heard that shit before. Even though he knew this was the reason for the meeting, it still sounded nice. Republican presidential nominee, he thought to himself.

  "I wouldn't go that far yet, but I appreciate the confidence."

  Taylor winked knowingly and gestured for Inman to sit down. "It's just me today. No one else could make it. To be honest, no one else needed to be here. You are one of our kind. We’ve wanted one of us to run for a long time, but the logistics of putting one of us up is tough."

  Whenever a party out of power fielded a candidate, a vigorous slate of primaries usually took place. Here it sounded as if the matter had been decided. Obviously Inman wasn't complaining, but it didn't mean it felt any less odd.

  "No one else wants to face you Mark––may I call you Mark?" Inman stuck his hand out with an open palm, signaling his acceptance. "You've got a helluva pedigree, and everyone wants someone who can beat that son of a bitch Elder. Guy's never held a real job in his life before he became a senator. But we need to start early."

  Taylor laughed gruffly, like the cigar-smoking, back-room dealmaker everyone knew him to be. In his former career, Taylor had sold commodities in Houston, and he'd made a small fortune. Somehow he'd also avoided being prosecuted even though he violated numerous election laws.

  "Anyway, Mark. There isn't a whole lot left to say. You are our guy, and no one serious will oppose you. You won't have to spend your money in the primaries, though we may run some people for show. Country's pissed. They want this guy out."

  Inman nodded in agreement. He wasn't sure it would be this easy though. The nomination may be, but not the general election. It was hard to defeat a sitting president regardless of how tough things were, and things could change.

  Taylor stood up and excused himself. Short meeting, Inman thought. Inman finished his food, and then he left. Taylor picked up the tab of course.

  As he walked to his car Inman felt the excitement boil up from deep within his core. He was the Republican nominee for president, and he had two years to build a war chest. Two years was an eternity in politics, but it wasn’t an eternity to raise money. He stood an excellent change of being president.

  It didn’t matter he wasn’t really in control.

  _______________________________

  Vladimir Lenin sat at his Louis XVI desk and smiled. The plan had unfolded nicely. Agent Watson would prove useful as would all of the money he was pumping into the United States. If they could win the presidency, then there would be nothing stopping them. And they would win the presidency. The odds favored Inman, his “Manchurian candidate”.

  Lenin didn't hate Americans. He preferred them to most other humans. He should love them, he thought, chuckling. They were the key to his plan of world domination. He would use their system against them.

  His bloodline would become the dominant bloodline, and it would allow vampires to rule. His minions would help him to expand his control to the far corners of the world. Because all would flow from his bloodline he would be able to sense them and control them, his children, wherever they were.

  Despite the positive start to his plans, Lenin's mind drifted to the negative. He was ashamed to admit the negative thoughts were a form of self-doubt. However, these thoughts were rare, and they tended to focus on one individual. What happened to Quintus? Why did he leave?

  Lenin knew Quintus still existed, but several hundred years ago he’d lost the ability to connect to his thoughts. Quintus had a strong will, and he had turned away from Lenin. Other children had done the same over the years, and Lenin knew this kind of thing happened. A vampire couldn't have so many progeny without a few kinks along the way. Lenin tried ruminate on Quintus.

  Children needed to leave their parents. They couldn’t grow up otherwise.

  But Quintus remained a disappointment. Together they could have ruled the world. Lenin knew Quintus could do great things. He knew it when he observed Quintus in the Roman law courts so many years ago.

  Not useful to dwell in the past, thought Lenin, especially when his plan continued to unfold so nicely.

  "Monique, please get me Fletcher Turner on the line," Lenin said harshly into his speaker phone. "Yes sir," Monique said. Even though Monique possessed little common sense she understood Lenin's moods. And she knew not to upset him. She had aroused his ire before and been chained in his dungeon for three days with only water and a few soggy croissants to eat.

  The phone rang three times, and Fletcher picked up. Monique transferred the call to Lenin. "Fletcher, I thought I would check in and see how things are going. Is our boy ready to run?"

  "He met with David Taylor today, and he knows the nomination is a done deal."

  "Great," Lenin said. "I knew David Taylor would prove useful one day. He doesn't look it, but I made him a vampire in 1871, the year of German reunification. He's a good German, which means he always obeys his elders."

  Fletcher laughed. He didn'
t know David Taylor was a vampire too. Eventually his ability to pick out vampires would improve, but, as a baby vampire, his skills were not that acute yet. In time they would be though. He had all the time in the world to develop these skills. He didn't plan on going anywhere.

  "Anyway Fletcher, I know things are going well. Apex is going to allow us to buy every congressmen we need, and the human trafficking is swelling our numbers." Lenin smiled as he considered the brilliance of his own plan.

  "You are correct sir, but we need to defeat or assassinate President Elder. Even if we gain super-majorities in both houses, we are going to need enough votes to override his veto. And he will veto our legislation."

  Lenin had studied American government ever since the Revolution. If possible, he wanted to take power legally and control things legally, but that may not be possible.

  Lenin understood you cannot only have one plan because sometimes things didn't work out. The goal of vampire domination had to be achieved. The ends were more significant than the means, although the means had always proved difficult.

  Fletcher opined, "I hope he isn't reelected either, but I understand the need for a contingency plan. Even the best plans don't always work out."

  Lenin had heard this trite expression in the past. But he knew trite expressions became trite for a reason. Banality annoyed him.

  "This is true Fletcher. No one on this Earth knows this better than me," Lenin said as he gazed out the window.

  Fletcher thought sadness was a human emotion, and that only humans could feel human emotions. Since becoming a vampire, he hadn't experienced any emotion. Pleasure, but not emotion.

  "I know what you are thinking Fletcher. I don't seem happy to you. I read your mind. I'm sure you know I can do this." Fletcher didn't know this. No one had given him a tutorial in the finer points of the vampire senses.

  "When you are as old as me some day––and hopefully you will be––you will understand. If my plan manifests in the way I think it will, then we will all live forever. You will have lots of progeny. Not all of that progeny will make you proud. Some of them will embarrass you or even, yes, make you sad.

  "Vampires can feel emotion Fletcher. You are so filled with vim and vigor you do not believe you could feel anything other than the bulge of your massive, super-human––better yet vampire––cock. But you will. Your cock will go down after you fuck a truckload of hot human women. Soon you will grow tired of this."

  Fletcher didn't think he'd ever grow tried of all the sex he'd been having. How could it ever get old? He'd had so little of it during his life as a human. He couldn't turn it down now. He needed it. He needed lots of it. Otherwise, what was the point of being a vampire?

  Lenin is a master politician and tactician, Fletcher thought. He wished Lenin would have been behind the party the entire time. Bill Clinton would never have been president, and neither would Thomas Elder. But Thomas Elder wouldn't always be president. This was about to change.

  The genius of the plan was it wasn’t beholden to the vagaries of legislation. Human trafficking, planted vampires, cutting government programs and private prisons supplied the necessary population, but, more importantly, they did it under the radar screen.

  "I need roughly 60 million vampires to take over the United States anyway I can get them. Now this number is small because it doesn't account for those affected. This number will be much greater.

  "The government will lose the ability to keep track of a lot of these people because many they will be illegal or people who ‘ran away from home.’ This will make them easy prey. Also, I will pass corresponding legislation exempting all of these people from the tax system or from having to file at all if they aren’t taxed. They will become invisible to the IRS especially with the mass chaos generated by the vampires flowing from the prisons."

  Fletcher marveled at the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of the plan.

  The theory was analogous to the theory espoused by the Neo-cons for years. They wanted to keep certain segments of humanity down.

  The American people wouldn't notice a thing. The seeds of discontent had been being laid for decades now. The radical right wing, through its message of intolerance, had paved the way for the destruction of humanity. Ironic considering many of these people valued human life at least until it came out of the womb. The Tea Party provided the perfect cover.

  "I know you must find this exciting Fletcher. It is everything the Republicans have ever worked for or so they will think. By the time they realize what hit them, it will be too late. These people are nut jobs, and I never thought they would have enough clout to make this possible. I was wrong. They will be my Trojan horse." Then Lenin snorted before he delivered the punch line. "And most of them have no clue what a Trojan horse is.

  "I'm also aware this must sound terribly offensive to you. 've shit all over the party you love, the movement you believe in. Believed is a better word. But don't be offended. You were not gullible as a human, and you certainly are not now. Both parties have their lunatic fringe. Your lunatic fringe happens to be more useful."

  With that Lenin hung up the phone. Fletcher hung up as well. Lenin didn't offend him. He understood what Lenin had said, and he'd disagreed with the direction of the party for some time now. The Republicans, in particular the Tea Party, suffered from an intellectual vacuum where idiocy and radicalism were celebrated. This was a dangerous combination. Those who espoused these views presented a grave threat to the United States. They were the true terrorists even though they didn't know it.

  Chapter 10

  Pierre Leblanc walked with great confidence into Apex on K Street as "David Martin".

  Pierre had destroyed the real David Martin, who happened to be a vampire. One of Pierre’s powers—and the powers of older vampires too—was that he could alter his appearance to look like anyone he chose. Not even vampires could tell he was posing as someone else although a vampire would likely be able to tell he was a vampire. “Vampiredar” is what he and other vampires called it.

  Pierre would pose as lobbyist David Martin in an effort to learn more about Nero’s dealings with Apex. He had all the correct identification, special finger tips modeled after Martin’s fingerprints as well as special contacts that would reflect the image of Martin’s eyes for retina scans.

  "David Martin, the legendary lobbyist from Chicago is in our midst," came a voice from behind Pierre. A tall, dark haired man with intense brown eyes, a black Armani suit and wine colored Zenga tie flashed perfect white teeth. "Hey there David, I'm Erik Dixon, head of the office. I know, I know, I'm a bit young, but I've been in DC for over 20 years even though I'm only forty-two. I started right out of college, went to Georgetown Law at night while I worked on the Hill. I've got great contacts. That's the name of the game my man. You look different in person. More distinguished."

  Pierre found the false sincerity annoying. Politicians were similar to lobbyists. Sometimes he couldn't tell the difference between the two.

  "So Erik, what would you like for me to start on?"

  Erik smiled his devilish smile. "Okay, Nero Corporation is our client, but we have to keep this quiet. The press would have a field day with a foreign client dominating one of the most prominent lobbying firms in Washington. But it would be even more troubling to learn Nero dominates the Republican Party through its cash and influence over members of Congress."

  Pierre agreed with Erik, but he knew Erik did not lose sleep over this inherently undemocratic idea. Or maybe the idea epitomized democracy. The dark underbelly of democracy, thought Pierre.

  Apex also drafted much of the legislation passed by Republicans. Most people didn’t know this. Their legislative prowess was probably why Nero hired them. The takeover would be “legal” in a manner of speaking. Pierre knew that most of those working at Apex didn’t realize the true scheme; they could not have predicted the “vampire element” or that there were vampires. Most people would be surprised about this too when they eventually
found out, and they would find out.

  “Let me show you our war room,” said Erik.

  Pierre followed him down a hallway with inlaid parquet floors and flat screen televisions showing commercials for Apex’s clients, many of whom were pharmaceutical companies and gun manufacturers.

  Erik and Pierre reached the end of the hallway, and Erik opened a nondescript door. The door opened into a large room with television screens as big as the walls.

  “Same guy who designed Caesar’s betting room did this room. It is a way to keep track of everything.” Erik smiled a knowing smile.

  “You can see maps of key states such as North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, California and Florida. We need these states to win the presidency. But what we need to win working majorities in the Congress is to pick up seats in states Gerrymandered to more favorable districts. You can see that in North Carolina and out West.”

  Pierre nodded.

  “So you will be spending a lot of time in here.”

  Pierre believed it, but he wanted to know the details. This would help the president's plan to thwart this nefarious force. At least it would help from the political side, which was a large component of the plan.

  "Explain to me the details. I need to know what I'm working for if...."–– Pierre hesitated–– "I'm going to be fully motivated. Once I understand the efficacy of the idea, then I will push forward."

  _________________

  Erik thought for a few seconds. Then he responded. "So, David, what I'm going to need is for you to go meet with the various party leaders in these states and determine how we can make their candidates win. Because if these candidates win our legislative agenda––really Nero's––will be pushed through. It is what Republicans have wanted for years.Grover Norquist will shit himself from excitement. So the ends do justify the means."

  Then Erik described the deal further. "So the social welfare programs will essentially be abolished, and tax rates will be slashed for corporations. This will leave more money for defense contractors and big business in general. We will get stock in the companies that will benefit, but we will own the stock through a web of shell corporations. And the SEC won't be able to police us because they won't have the troops.