“No kidding.”
It occurred to me I had no idea how to navigate Nassau’s supernatural quarters. “Despite that, would you like to help me out?”
“Not at all. But if I do, just for the sake of argument, will we kill vampires?”
I had to wonder just how long the natives of Nassau, werewolf or otherwise, had been fighting the Vampire Nation. If Dracula really had come over with the early pirate settlers, it made me think their struggle was centuries old. Combine it with the werewolves’ historical antipathy to the undead, and I’d probably stumbled upon the only supernatural group in the world that might view the Cleaver as an ally.
I still felt guilty when I said, “I just killed Skull Squadron. Their leader is currently spread out over the dining room floor.”
Malcolm’s eyes widened before he pulled himself up. “D, I believe this is going to be the start of a beautiful friendship.”
Or an alliance of convenience.
Chapter Seventeen
Malcolm and I left the Vampire Nation safe house and hijacked the Hummer that Skull Squadron had left outside the residence. We ditched that at a run-down motel before boosting a 1986 Chevrolet, which could barely run and smelled like someone’s personal pot farm but allowed us to get where we needed to go.
We stopped at a twenty-four-hour internet cafe and printed up a few dozen pages from Malcolm’s files, giving me all his data on the United National bank and the vampire’s defenses of it. From there, we did an hour-long survey of the building. I admit, it was because I hoped I would see Shannon come out. Instead, all I saw was the heart of Nassau in all of its vampire-run glory.
Downtown Nassau was a different sort of beast from Cable Beach and Night Row. The latter were designed for the consumption of visitors to Nassau. My father had taken me, Tessa, and our half-brothers Alec and Stephen on vacation here. Back when the vampires had been less solid in their control, downtown had been a beautiful mix of local culture and modern business from Junkanoo Beach to East Bay.
While the local culture still existed in landmarks like the Vendue House and Christ Church Cathedral, they were overshadowed with the Vampire Nation’s recent constructions. In addition to the United National Interests and Trust Bank, there were a dozen more skyscrapers that dotted the skyline with their ugly black mirrored windows. All of them were owned by vampires and represented the personal holdings of the undead who laundered their fortunes through the bank we were circling.
It was past two in the morning when we came to a stop and parked outside of the building’s western corner. Malcolm hadn’t been exaggerating—the United National Interests and Trust bank was a fortress. Even with all the supernatural powers I’d gained from my association with Bloody Mary, there was no way of sneaking in. At least not before morning, when the bank opened for business. A frontal assault, despite my bravado, was out of the question because it had hundreds of private military contractors guarding it.
“This is going to be difficult,” I said, looking through the papers Malcolm had assembled in hopes of finding a weakness to the building’s security.
“Try impossible, D. You should call your people and have them bring in the Marines.”
“I don’t try and involve my quote-unquote people in this sort of thing unless it’s necessary.”
Malcolm looked at me. “That fits with what I’ve heard, but I didn’t believe it.”
I looked up. “What do you mean?”
“They say you Che,” Malcolm said.
“Excuse me?” I asked.
Malcolm snorted. “Che Guevara. The Revolutionary.”
I frowned. “I know who Che Guevara is. I can’t say it’s a flattering comparison.”
“That’s because you’re American,” Malcolm said.
“Che wasn’t too nice to the homosexuals and I have two gay siblings. Then there was his desire to nuke non-socialist nations. The whole Butcher of La Cabaña thing. I could go on,” I said.
“Abraham Lincoln said he would preserve the Union by freeing no slaves if he could. You dislike Honest Abe, too?” Malcolm shrugged.
I realized this line of conversation was going nowhere. “History has a way of exposing the contradictions that lie in all men. Why are people comparing me to Che Guevara? Are they putting me on t-shirts?”
“They say you’re a reactionary pro-supernatural Committee member and the only reason they haven’t killed you yet is because you are too ornery to die.”
“That’s quite flattering. I’m not that reactionary, though,” I said.
“You want to kill all supernaturals?” Malcolm asked.
“No,” I said.
Malcolm laughed. “Then you might as well be waving the sickle and hammer in Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet as far as the Pact is concerned. Everyone knows the Pyramid-Heads want to kill us all and have done a damn good job of keeping us on the defensive all these years. Then you come along and say we should all play nice-nice.”
I wanted to ask any number of questions regarding his statement. Instead, I just said, “Pyramid Heads?”
“You guys rule everything from the top of the pyramid. The eye on the back of the dollar bill. The House, man. It’s all Illuminati bullshit.”
“The Eye of Providence is a Christian symbol representing the Trinity, dating back to at least the fifteenth century. It’s featured in the work of Jacopo Carucci and numerous other artists.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Malcolm said, raising his hand. “I just wanted to know how you really get along with the House. You seem like a nice guy, but I lost my dad to House hunters. They lured him out with his human sister and then put a bullet through his eye. I was ready to help you just to get back at the vampires who sold them the information, but you don’t act like one of them.”
“You’ve known me all of three hours, Malcolm.”
“You’re sitting here, in a car with a werewolf, trying to rescue your succubus girlfriend. Plus, the Network says you’re not to be targeted.”
I hadn’t been aware of that last fact. “Oh?”
Malcolm realized he’d said too much. “I want to know what you believe, D. I owe you my life and would be very disappointed to find out you’re a genocidal ass hat like the rest of your group.”
I ruffled the papers a second and closed my eyes. I should have been focused on figuring out a way to get Shannon, but I’d need time to work this out in my head. Until then, I just had to trust that Shannon knew what she was doing and had managed to infiltrate the bank with a plan. It was difficult, though. I wanted to be there for her. Unfortunately, I’d driven her away. With her help, I might have avoided this lengthy comedy of errors.
“I believe the only differences between vampires, humans, shape-shifters, and dragons are biological. In their heart, everyone is the same,” I said, lying. I kind of hated vampires, no matter how much I still felt for Christopher.
Malcolm snorted. “That’s stupid.”
“Is it?” I asked.
Malcolm stared forward. “I’ve never met a vampire who I didn’t want to kill, a Rakshasa who belonged in this world, or a human who wasn’t secretly an asshole. Likewise, having met the spirits, I can tell you they don’t think anything like us.”
“I was just saying what I believe,” I said, continuing to lie.
“Hey, don’t let me get you down. I think it’s admirable, even if stupid. As much as I hate the vampires and the Raks, they’re a part of this world. Destroying them all is a decision that’s way above my pay grade. Likewise, you can respect something even if it’s different from you.”
“Afterschool specials aren’t really my thing. Yeah, I don’t like the fact the House treats all supernaturals as inherently dangerous regardless of whether they pose a risk to civilians. I also don’t like the way the House exploits its power to enrich its leaders and control the minds of others. I don’t even like its suppression of science and magical study in the interests of keeping a monopoly, and I sure as hell don’t care for forcing every hum
an with magic to join.”
“Man, why are you with the House then?”
“If you can’t be with the group you love, love the group you’re born in.”
“Ah.”
“I have real power in the organization for the first time. I can’t change everything on my own, but the world itself is changing, so that gives weight to my words. If we can broker a lasting peace between the various factions, then when the regular humans of the world find out that they’re not alone—well, it won’t end in a bloodbath.”
It wasn’t the first time I’d articulated my philosophy and motivations, but it was the first time I’d said them to someone who wasn’t human. Until my reliving of my experience with Ashley, I’d never thought about how much she’d influenced my worldview.
However, as much as I respected her views, I didn’t hold to them. The Red Room was necessary to keep the worst of the worst in line. In a world where people lied, cheated, murdered, and stole, you had to be better at it than them all in order to make sure the world didn’t come crashing down.
Malcolm looked at me, pity in his eyes. “D, I don’t mean to bring you down, but for every dollar you guys spend on saving the world, you spend a hundred on being at the top of the food chain. I’ve been in your files. The Red Room manufactures bombs, backs up dictators, and puts addictive stuff in cookies to keep their foot on the neck of regular humans. You may not rule the world, but you own a big-ass chunk of it. People like that aren’t going to be interested in peace.”
I thought about revealing my investigation of Protocol Zero. I decided against it. Malcolm was my ally today, but tomorrow, anything I told him could end up killing my fellow agents. “War is not what television depicts it as. My favorite books, The Lord of the Rings, are about good versus evil as well as the temptations thereof. The thing is, though, there’s no such thing as a good war. If I’m going to bring peace, I’m going to have to bury a few bodies and enrich a bunch of already wealthy reprehensible movers and shakers. If it keeps this world from spilling into chaos, though, it’s worth it. The eternal conflict between the supernatural races and the House has to end.”
“Then why you killing so many vampires?”
“Because I am shit at peace-making.”
Malcolm laughed aloud, but it wasn’t all that funny. I’d spent the past year trying to build up a détente with the other supernatural factions. I’d blackmailed, bribed, seduced, made reparations, and signed off on murder in order to try and make things better. Relations with the other powers had been softening since World War 2, perhaps because of the realization that regular humanity had the power to destroy the world.
The only difference between my actions now and the ones when I was a junior agent were the fact that I was choosing what I did now and why. God, Jesus, Shang-Di, Lao-Tzu, and the Son of Skywalker help me, but I’d probably started a war. If the Vampire Nation and the House came to blows, there was no way the Truth wouldn’t come out.
The world would burn.
You must find these agitators and destroy them, Bloody Mary whispered in my mind. To achieve a greater peace, you must accept a little war.
I pushed Bloody Mary away from my mind and rubbed my temples. Things were getting out of hand, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. I needed information, and the only way that was going to happen was getting it from the source. This was a stupid idea, and I should never have come to Nassau. Christopher was worse than dead and could not be trusted. I needed to return to friendly territory and come up with a new plan.
“Ahem,” Shannon said, knocking on the window.
Shannon was still wearing the same clothes she’d worn in the live feed. The difference was she was now holding a flash drive in her right hand that was a good three times the size of a normal one. She looked less than pleased at my presence.
I did a double take. “Well, that was convenient timing.”
Rolling down the window, I saw Shannon glaring at me.
“Where the hell have you been for the past week? The entire House thinks you’re dead, a prisoner, or AWOL.”
Malcolm leaned over and spoke to Shannon for me. “He’s been possessed by a demon for the past week, one that has the hots for him and has been using him to kill vampires. He just resumed control and killed a ton of dhampir back at my place. Oh, and the leader of Skull Squadron. D was coming here to rescue you.”
Some of that he shouldn’t have known.
“Rescue me?” Shannon’s incredulity couldn’t be understated.
“That’s what you focused on?” I asked, looking between them.
“Everything else could be called Thursday for us,” Shannon said, shrugging. “I got the information from the safety deposit box.”
“Really? How?”
“My powers work on the majority of men and a minority of women,” Shannon said, waving the flash drive around. “I can even press it to work on all of them if I don’t mind burning out their minds. Anyway, Penny sent me to do an infiltration and recover the safety deposit box’s contents. Dracula had the whole thing watched, but I was able to distract the guards. Come on, Derek, we need to get out of here before they clue in.”
I looked over at Malcolm. “Is there any way to get in touch with you after this?”
Malcolm produced a card between his fingers like a stage magician. “My phone number. Useful for those in dire need of help.”
I took it. “You run a tech support service?”
“We all got to eat. I’m going to tell the Elders about you, D. Be warned, they may order me to kill you.”
“Would you?”
“No, but I wouldn’t stand in the way when they send someone else. I owe you, but the Pact’s members are my brothers.”
“Good luck, my friend,” I said, giving him the car keys. “I’m sorry we didn’t meet under different circumstances.”
“I’m not. I would have killed you.”
I smirked. “Probably.”
Opening the door, I stepped on out and shut it behind me, looking at Shannon. “How much time do we have before they catch on to you?”
“The vampires have been trying to cover the entirety of the island in CCTV cameras. I managed to disable quite a few of them before going in, but I’m pretty sure the ones in the United National building were still watching me. It won’t take them long to figure out who I was.”
“I suspect I may have distracted them.”
Shannon nodded. “That doesn’t make up for you being a complete bastard to me back in Aspen.”
“What?”
“You tried to shut me out of your plans.”
“I don’t seem to recall it that way.”
“Men.”
“Sorry?”
Shannon rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
My, my, she’s attractive. Bloody Mary purred in my mind.
You’ve already seen my memories, I said.
The real thing is different, Bloody Mary replied.
I didn’t argue with Bloody Mary. I was too focused on Shannon and the fact that she was there, in front of me. “I’ve been going through hell the past week and need to talk with you about a lot of things.”
“Word on the street is you killed Dracula.”
“No, I just blew up the plane we were on.”
Shannon sighed. “This seems like a story I need to hear.”
Malcolm started the car behind us and pulled out.
“It is,” I said, sucking in my breath. “Is Penny here?”
“She’s moving back and forth as developments with the Committee spiral out of control. The Vampire Nation is on DEFCON 1, and the House is talking with a half-dozen other major powers for a joint strike.”
I stared at her. “Other groups are talking about allying with us?”
Shannon nodded. “The fruits of a year of extending olive branches. A bunch of supernatural nations are interested in joining forces with the House to crush the weakened Vampire Nation. By the end of the week, you
may have just laid the groundwork for the genocide of the vampire race.”
I stared at her. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“Neither do I. Come, let’s get on my bike.” Shannon grabbed me by the arm and led me off.
Chapter Eighteen
Shannon had managed to appropriate a 2012 Hayabusa motorcycle, which she drove, and I rode on the back. We took a circular route through the city streets, weaving past several dead cameras before heading into the countryside. I welcomed a chance to ponder the weight of my situation in relative peace.
Genocide.
Is it accurate to call it that when your enemies are already dead? Of course, I couldn’t use that excuse with Lucy’s research. Even if that were true, I already knew they were thinking and feeling beings. The Vampire Nation might be corrupt, but human history was littered with evil governments and cultures that went on to become decent ones.
What would human history have looked like if aliens had come down to the Earth during the Roman Empire or the Confederacy, and judged everyone worthy of death? The Council of Ancients was composed of ruthless evil beings, but was the average vampire complicit in their crimes? The fact that I didn’t know made me sick.
You sympathize with supernatural beings that prey on your race, Bloody Mary said in my mind. I do not understand.
I thought about how best to express my feelings. William Blackstone said in the seventeenth century, “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffers.” I happen to agree with him. If one vampire is innocent of murder and destruction, then the destruction of their race is not warranted.
Even if those guilty parties go on to kill hundreds of innocents? Bloody Mary asked. You have a strange morality.
I closed my eyes, shaking my head. It’s pretty much the same morality from the Old Testament, Miss Cain and Abel.
I didn’t say I found the Creator’s morality comprehensible either, Bloody Mary said.
“Where are we going?” I shouted to Shannon as the wind washed against my face. We were passing a bunch of low-income houses within spitting distance of ones that cost over a million for just the property.
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