by White, Gwynn
“End of this era, huh?”
She nodded. “That’s what she said. Now, what about my promise?”
“I really don’t want to make that promise,” Girard said.
“I know, but I’ll extract it from you anyway and then you should go and let me rest.”
* * *
Borona was hard at work examining the computer, while Marcus and Lila oohed and aahed over every single thing in Yadikira’s reception room. Marcus kept trying to touch things. Between Josette and Lila, he’d probably had his hands smacked away at least two dozen times already. Girard was torn, wanting to listen to Lila as she recounted what she knew of history in relation to some of the artifacts, but also needing to hear what Borona found.
He settled for switching back and forth, darting into the other room to check on Borona when Lila got to an artifact he recognized from his lifetime. Marcus was laughing over some dark ages trinket and Girard was about to head for the little computer nook when Borona came in.
With a dark look, he said, “I’ve got what I need. We can go.” That he didn’t say more spoke volumes about what he might have found. Given Yadikira’s hearing ability, it wouldn’t do to say much while in the house.
Lila clearly didn’t want to leave, but Marcus was already growing bored. He also kept asking for food, which was embarrassing. He’d polished off the entire bowl of fruit left on the table, leaving an untidy pile of banana peels and orange rinds. Josette was being polite, but it was obvious that she was ready for them to leave so she could return to caring for her friend.
She demurred when he suggested going up to say goodbye, and in his heart, he knew Yadikira needed her rest. This much activity wasn’t good for anyone with a heart in such poor shape. Rather than leave them at the door, Josette followed them outside, then glanced up at the house before whispering in his ear, “I know you promised, but keep one nearby if you can.”
He knew she meant a body, but doing what she asked would be near impossible. Vampires took only the dying, and the biggest problem with dying people was that they died. Of course, with Yadikira living within easy driving distance of some of the most populous cities in the northeast, there was a larger supply than elsewhere. Upstate New York did have that advantage.
“I’ll do what I can.”
Borona didn’t say anything until they neared the main highway, but as soon as the traffic noise began, he started right in. “She’s definitely planning something and she’s in contact with other vampires, though I’m not sure how she got in touch with them in the first place. There are emails. She deleted them, but I retrieved them. They’re all throwaways from free services, so those accounts aren’t going to lead us anywhere, but I got a few names. Maybe we have a record of them somewhere.”
“What names?” Lila asked.
“One called Minotaur. Another was Hercules. I recognize those from ancient fables, of course, but some of the other names are from people who actually lived. Ramses, for one, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s the same one from history. I don’t know if those are code names or what.”
Lila nodded as he named them, then said, “It’s long been supposed that at least some of those ancient tales originated with vampires. The Minotaur wasn’t one ever considered as a vampire source, but I can’t help but think about what Doran said…about vampires going into animals. The Minotaur is part bull. Hercules could simply be a vampire giving strength to an already strong man. Ramses has been discussed before, though fairly idly. Some think he might have been a vampire who simply took on the guises of sons as time went on, or perhaps he even inhabited a family over generations. It’s not like that hasn’t happened before. I’d have to check the records—”
Marcus broke in and said, “All of those names are really old though, before me even. So, they’re all ancients and far enough back that no one really knows if they lived or not. Not even me. I’ve never met anyone by those names. I knew at least half a dozen human woman who claimed Hercules got her pregnant, but that’s another thing altogether.”
The nervousness that had been turning Girard’s belly now coalesced into fear. “If these vampires are awake now, all at the same time, then there’s something far deeper going on. That isn’t coincidence. And if anyone of that age with the dumper physique had been awake in the last few hundred years, we’d know. If for no other reason than that we’d hear of deaths because of the way dumpers eat. So are they awake by some previous arrangement or did she wake them because of her plans?”
Borona made a face, as if he had more bad news. “Well, they’re all writing to each other in English, which means they all somehow managed to wind up in bodies that spoke it. They were pretty cagey in their emails, but the subject kept rotating around something they’re calling “The Turning of the Wheel,” which makes me think of all that business with the Cave of Creation. Plus, they all addressed Thalia as Mother. Not sure what that means, maybe that they believe she’s really the mother of vampires or whatever.”
Girard gripped the wheel tightly, now wishing he could take an airplane and get back to the compound more quickly. If Thalia was planning on sending them all back to the Cave of Creation, then she also meant to destroy humanity in the process. Mother, indeed. The Mother all things evil.
Thalia might be trying to re-create the vampire version of the Garden of Eden. That couldn’t be allowed. No matter what, they would have to stop Thalia.
22
Alien Invasion?
Pod People Are Real!
Body Snatchers From Outer Space!
Those were just a sampling of the headlines and they were everywhere in some form or another. On every channel, on every news site, on every blog, and social media platform. The Council was in absolute disarray, profusely thanking every fiction writer since Wells that humans imagined aliens instead of vampire parasites. At the same time, they were putting a clamp down on vampires all over the world just in case that tune changed.
At least there was one bright note. One of Thalia’s followers, or whatever they were, was dead. As in permanently and totally dead. Why any of them thought it was a good idea to infiltrate the CDC was a mystery. It was like they were savvy about modern things, yet utterly ignorant of basic facts. It was exactly the sort of surface knowledge that comes from stealing a modern body, but not understanding that what they saw in the movies was not the entire picture of reality.
Their attempt at getting into the CDC hadn’t gone well. Taking a body was something any vampire could do and stay hidden, so long as they acted as the person inside had always acted. One of them—and no one knew which vampire had been inside the body—took a researcher at CDC, one that had access to the deepest level of biocontainment.
The problem had been heat and retina scanning. Thermal detection inside the building had registered the excessively high temperature of the human host. It was another reason vampires rarely flew internationally. Most airports had thermal detection used to detect people coming into the country who were sick. While not monitored at all times, they were during times of increased vigilance, like the Ebola scares or the MERS epidemic in the Middle East. Many a vampire had been left stranded because they couldn’t fly home. Now, they used boats like they had in the era before commercial flight.
Though it was generally not known, it made sense that the CDC would use that same thermal scanning for anyone entering or exiting biocontainment. Perfect sense. The problem was exacerbated when the vampire was confronted by security after failing a retina scan. All those tiny tendrils connecting to the eyes messed up a retina pattern in a big way. It was another reason that vampires were finding it increasingly difficult to maintain professions that required higher security.
Rather than talk like a normal person when confronted, the vampire instead went full dumper, an open and horrifying display in front of security cameras. Whether by luck or design, there were armed guards in the facility. If you fill a vampire with enough lead, the body will die and with it, the vampire i
f there is no suitable host nearby.
In this case, a lucky shot into the base of the neck hit the vampire in a vital location. Unluckily, it managed to extricate a big part of itself from the body before it died. So not only did they get a wild tentacle and hose waving monster on film, the media also got that same tentacle waving monster pulling itself out of a dead host body like a nightmare puppeteer.
And now it was big news. It probably wouldn’t have been if not for a few workers who couldn’t resist the amount of money they—no doubt—got for the footage. Given that it happened in the most secure part of the CDC, they probably would have immediately stuck the vampire and host into cold storage for study if not for the leaked footage. Like Area 51, it might have become a conspiracy theory in time, but those kinds of conspiracy theories were rampant and usually no danger. Video, on the other hand, changed everything.
Marcus was shoveling unholy amounts of fresh pineapple into his mouth while they all watched the news. The noises he made were a distraction, little grunts of pleasure and other such sounds. Lila turned even further away from him in her chair and focused on the screens.
“Everyone knows what they keep down in the bowels of CDC. Diseases. Lots of terrible and horrible diseases. World-ending stuff. I wish we knew which one he was after,” she said. An extreme close up of the vampire’s final slimy wriggles made her wince a little.
“Or which ones,” Doran added somewhat absently. He had printed pictures of the screen captures and was comparing the vampire on screen with the physiology of a normal vampire. Only one document existed about vampire anatomy, with one copy in every Guardian library. It was heretical to dissect a vampire…which would probably change given the current situation.
Borona was working all the feeds, a dozen different channels rotating around the different screens. Whenever there was something of note, he switched that channel to the main feed so everyone could hear it. He jabbed at his keyboard and said, “Got something.”
A news channel came up that looked no different from the others until the screen labels indicated this commentator was a renowned scientist in the field of biology. It was clear that this interview was one that had been urgently arranged. Rather than the nice backdrop and new suit, the scientist was sitting in what appeared to be an office. Instead of a professional camera, it was clear he was using a computer. The man appeared calm, but there was a gleam in his eye that sent a shiver up Girard’s back.
“Uh oh,” Girard murmured, then turned up the sound.
“…let me get this straight so there’s no misunderstanding for our viewers. You’re saying that we shouldn’t immediately assume it’s an alien because it was capable of going into a human body? If not alien, then what is it? And why would being able to go into a human make that obvious to you?”
“Biology is relatively straightforward, even if it’s complex. Everything inside us has a purpose and hundreds of millions of years of evolution—heck, billions of years—have perfected and narrowed those purposes and functions. Every event, every change in our climate, every shifting landmass or ocean has played a role in that continued process of refinement. The same is true of every other living thing on this planet. That also means is that we are extremely tied to this planet. One of the most significant challenges we face in searching for life elsewhere is that we have no idea what might develop elsewhere. If there is life beyond Earth, it may be entirely unrecognizable as such to us—”
“Pardon me, but I’m still not clear on your point. Clearly there is life elsewhere and we’ve all just seen it.”
“Actually, what you saw was something so compatible with human biology that it was able to somehow insert itself into a human body and either control that body entirely or influence its behavior. It was able to change the physical form of that person too. And it did it without killing it.”
“So, what you’re saying is that—”
“I’m saying that if it’s that compatible with humans, then its biology is sufficiently like ours to make that possible. It’s unlikely to the point of near impossibility that evolution would grind through billions of years exactly like ours on some other planet. We probably wouldn’t even be able to eat food from another planet, or get sick from whatever passes for germs there. Anything from another planet—or humans who went to another planet—would be essentially invisible to the web of life. If it’s compatible with us in a biological sense, then it’s from Earth.”
Even Marcus stopped his relentless chewing to listen, his mouth a little parted and his chin shiny from the juicy fruit. The pause was so silent that Girard could hear Lila’s heart beating.
The news anchor was trying to maintain that journalistic composure needed for television, but the tremor of his hand on the surface of his anchor desk and the way his neck paled behind all that makeup conveyed how difficult it was. Someone must have said something into his earpiece, because his hand lifted toward it and he got himself together enough to say, “So, what you’re saying is that this thing…this monster…evolved here on Earth, that it’s simply a member of a species we haven’t seen before. You’re saying that they’re here and always have been.”
The researcher moved closer to his camera, making his nose appear larger and his eyes almost greedy. “Yes, I’m saying that where there is one, there are enough to form a population that sustains itself. Watch that video again. That man raised no suspicions until he got to that location. Someone has already leaked his name too. He had a family, a career. He went to school and had friends. He had children. Yet no one noticed anything amiss. He woke up, got ready for work, drove there, chatted to people in the lobby…he was normal. And then he wasn’t.”
The shaking had spread from the news anchor’s hands to his arms, and his chest moved in a most non-anchor-like fashion, his breaths uneven. “You’re saying that anyone could have one of those in them? You’re saying that we wouldn’t even know.”
Leaning away from the camera again, the researcher said, “You could have one and I would never know it. Maybe you wouldn’t even know it. We don’t have that information yet. I think there are more of them out there. They could be watching this program even now. They’ve remained hidden all this time for a reason…survival. This revelation is shocking and frightening for us, but imagine what it must be like for them.”
There was more. A brief discussion of the various appendages, the strange chemical reaction in the body, the goo that leaked from his mouth afterward, plus the general appearance of the vampire. Most of their talk was decidedly incorrect, but there would be examinations, an autopsy, and endless testing. Humans would find out some of the truth from that body. Given that the body had very clearly only been recently taken, the acid pouches had not had time to fully grow, so the body had not cooked and burned, but instead only gone a bit gooey and shiny looking.
Girard knew it wouldn’t have been enough to erase all evidence of the tendrils. Given that a vampire actually lived pressed up against the spinal column on the inside, flattening and spreading to fit, but immediately sending thousands of tiny hair-like tendrils up into the brain, they would likely understand that a vampire did a lot more than simply go along for the ride.
Life had just changed for vampires. Things would never, ever be the same again.
23
Gear up, people!” Marcus shouted when he marched into the conference room. Some of the council members on the screens even jumped when he did that.
Lila held her hand up to ask for patience from the council and said, “Hold your horses there. We’re not done.”
“Oh, you’re done. That kid Borona figured out why they stole the elephant and traced the equipment sales back to a warehouse outside some place called Hoboken. Chicago is just where they took the elephant. Basically, they’re next door to us.”
Now, Girard was confused. Marcus had been a jovial, somewhat excitable, vampire since he’d gotten this new body, but that easy-going boyishness was gone. Instead, he looked like a general go
ing to war, his face serious and his manner abrupt. Also, what he said made no sense.
“Explain,” Girard said.
Splitting his attention between the screens and those assembled in the room, Marcus laid it out. “That elephant was in isolation because it had tested positive for a new and very dangerous strain of TB…tuberculosis. That disease is a major problem with elephants that come into contact with humans nowadays. This body knows what that disease is and I remember it from before, though we called it something else back in Rome. Anyway, this version is not only resistant to all forms of modern treatment, it’s also fast. As in, very fast. Most cases of TB take years to kill a person, but this version can kill in months. Even worse, because the disease takes so long to show itself, it can be spread far and wide before anyone realizes it’s out there. This version of TB is like the worst-case scenario for TB variants. The elephant was supposed to be put down as soon as a special container could be brought.”
Doran’s face blanched and he said, “It’s a living disease sample.”
Marcus nodded grimly. “Exactly. And while they’re based out of Chicago, a bunch of equipment was sent to an old lab complex in Hoboken. There’s more, but Borona can explain that if you need it. Either way, he’s sure it’s them. The bottom line is that they’re working on whatever they’re working on in Hoboken, so that’s where we need to go to stop it.”
Girard looked up at the screens, filled with the worried faces of council members. Edicts had been coming down fast and furious, with all the councils agreeing on a course of action for the first time ever. Vampires were on lockdown. No flying, no international travel, and generally nothing that would draw any attention whatsoever. Even free-feeding was now strictly forbidden, which meant serious diets for a whole lot of vampires as the blood banks kicked up production. There would be a vast uptick in the sales of chocolate-heavy ice cream and candy as vampires all over the world tried to assuage their cravings and hunger with cocoa based sweets. It was one of the few food items that worked on that sort of craving. Chubby vampires and gym memberships would follow.