Eldritch Ops

by Phipps, C. T.

  “I could try and show you.” Christopher dismissed his electrical trick. “We just need to find your knack.”

  “My father tried to show me how to manipulate minds like he could while Penny almost burned the house down demonstrating her skill. Believe me, everyone has tried to show me how to do it. I just don’t get the symbolism.”

  “Ah. Well, there’s your problem. Magic is all about the symbolism. It’s a language born from emotion, and you need to understand before you can speak.”

  “Thank you, Mace Windu. I am so enlightened.”

  “Please. I’m the hot and sexy Obi-Wan.”

  We were spared further discussion by the arrival of someone who seemed to warp my memory around her. Whereas everything else felt bland, dull, and colorless in my memory, the newcomer was a vivid and sharp presence.

  She was beautiful, surpassing everyone I’d ever seen in my life, save possibly Shannon. Each step she made wearing an ordinary black sweater and dress with stylish heels was like a note of music to my brain. Her cheek bones were finely cut and her eyes were the color of emeralds. A ponytail of blood-red hair hung over her shoulders. By the way Christopher showed no reaction and a vague awareness of how wrong this was, I made the mental conclusion this was not the person I met all those years ago.

  I found myself entranced and remembered encountering a fallen angel when tracking my renegade brother Stephen. I’d had to have months of psych evaluation, drugs, and low-level brainwashing to erase the mind-numbing beauty from my mind. Sometimes, even today, I had dreams of the demon’s glorious wings and his terrifying eyes.

  The woman smiled, almost as if she could hear my thoughts. She extended her hand, shaking it. “Evan.”

  I tried to remember who I’d met with that night. I seemed to recall it had been a semi-frantic overweight man in his forties. However, that memory was a distant second to the vision I was having now. Evan, whatever her real name was, was the woman in my dreams. The fact that this vision came so soon after making love to Shannon left me feeling unclean. Indeed, the features of the woman reminded me of Shannon and Cassandra with little touches of Ashley here and there.

  Remember, a voice whispered in my ear. Remember this night.

  Evan extended her hand and I took it. “It is an honor to meet you, Derek Hawthorne.”

  Christopher frowned and said, “And what am I, chopped liver?”

  “You have a certain reputation as well, Agent Hang.”

  “Nothing good, I hope.” Christopher gave a mischievous smile.

  “Then you’re in luck.” Evan fluttered her eyelids. “Because none of it is.”

  “How cold,” Christopher said. “You have information on the Network?”

  Evan said, “Yes, though not perhaps information you’ll find useful.”

  Christopher frowned. “That sounds very much like an excuse. You’re getting paid to provide actionable intelligence.”

  “The Network has been running an underground railroad—”

  “Can we not compare the Red Room’s monitoring of psychics and magicians to slavery?” I asked, frowning at the comparison.

  Evan batted her eyelashes in a way that was identical to Cassandra. “Would you prefer I compare it to the other people who have been driven into hiding out of fear for their families?”

  I gritted my teeth. “Go on.”

  “They’ve set up an underground railroad through New York. They provide psychic and sorcery-talented human beings with new identities, passports, and even new features or memories if the magic is available. They’ve established collaborators with the House as well.”

  “Can you confirm the latter?” I asked, not liking this. If I reported the latter, people would die. We had to nip this in the bud, though, or the House would come down even harder.

  “Yes,” Evan said. “But the network in New York is no longer going to be of any concern.”

  “How’s that?” Christopher said, tossing his hot dog away. “Are they shutting down? If so, we’ll need to know where they’re moving.”

  “The vampires have taken them.”

  “Excuse me?” I asked, a chill running down my spine. “The Vampire Nation has found a bunch of unprotected supernatural humans?”

  Christopher looked disgusted. “That’s one way of dealing with a problem like that.”

  “Dozens,” Evan said, shaking her head. “Their leader has been monitoring the situation for some time. Since these individuals aren’t under the protection of the House and are in defiance of it, there’s no violation of treaty to take them.”

  I felt sick to my stomach. It was one of the policies of the House to inhibit vampires from taking people who had magical potential into their ranks. Vampires could learn sorcery, but for whatever reason, they weren’t able to learn much more than they’d understood in life—blood magic and obscuromancy exempted. Forty or so humans with magical potential they could turn into mystical agents meant a substantial shift in the power balance, like North Korea gaining a truckload of ICBMs.

  “Shit,” I said, disgusted. “Do you know where they’re being held?”

  “Yes, a dockside warehouse owned by a Vampire Nation shell corporation,” Evan said, lifting a Pantheon Corp tablet. “I was able to assemble a good deal of information on the situation.”

  “Tragic,” Christopher said. “We should report this and await further instructions.”

  “We need to rescue them,” I said flatly.

  “Excuse me?” Christopher asked, doing a double take.

  I took the tablet from Evan and started looking through her notes. “There are six vampires and a dozen blood slaves guarding this facility. It looks like they’re keeping their subjects drugged up and held in shipping containers. Basic human trafficking stuff. We can assemble a team, hit them, and recover the hostages before the Vampire Nation knows what hit them.”

  It was exceeding our orders, but that was one of the benefits of being a senior agent. You were trusted enough in the field not to be micromanaged and had broad latitude to make decisions based on your perception of the situation. The Vampire Nation and the House had been longtime enemies, so while it was better to seek permission, striking at them in a way that couldn’t be traced back would be considered worthy of a medal rather than recrimination.

  “Derek, can I talk to you in private?” Christopher asked, gesturing behind us.

  “Could you hold on a minute, Evan?” I asked, handing her back her tablet. I’d already memorized everything inside.

  Going to a nearby corner, Christopher and I pulled out our Rings of Veritas and put them on. It would be impossible for our contact to know what we were talking about now.

  I started speaking first. “I know what you’re going to say. You don’t think it’s wise to waste the lives of operatives on traitors.”

  “Actually, no. I’m all for rescuing the poor unwashed masses from being mind-raped, actually raped, and then turned into bloodsucking monsters. You know they mesmerize every new member, so their loyalty is to the Vampire Nation?”

  “I think that’s a rumor.”

  “Trust me, it’s true.”

  “So, what is your problem, then?”

  “What do we do with them after we rescue them?” Christopher said, pointing at my chest. “The best-case scenario is they get shifted off to Division Zero for brainwashing.”

  “Division Zero is a myth.”

  Division Zero was a supposed multi-room black site that existed as a prison camp for agents, scientists, and assets of the House that were too valuable to kill outright. It was also a place that monsters were taken for experimentation or interrogation. It was an urban legend as far as I was concerned, as freedom from brainwashing was one of the perks of being a House member. Likewise, there was no one too valuable to kill outright. Having grown up the son of a Committee member, I was pretty sure if Division Zero existed, I would know about it.

  “Now who’s being naive?” Christopher rolled his eyes. “The fact is
these people have been running from the Red Room’s recruiters and are attempting to join an organization designed to overthrow us. Nothing good will come to them, especially if we bring a bunch of Red Room heavies to back us up.”

  I thought about what he said, looking over at Evan. “You’re right. I need to make a few phone calls. I think I can set us up with a group that’s willing to keep this off the books.”

  “Mercenaries?” Christopher raised an eyebrow.

  “Mercenaries.” I nodded.

  “Things just got a lot more complicated,” Christopher said, smirking. “The vampires won’t know what hit ’em.”

  Neither would we, in the end.

  Chapter Twenty

  Once my call was made, it took twenty minutes for a black SUV to arrive outside the subway station and five of the most dangerous people in the world to step out. As Evan and Christopher stood behind me underneath a street light, I looked the newcomers over.

  The four behind the group’s leader were a mix of eccentric-looking individuals. The first were two women, one brown-haired and one platinum, dressed in white camouflage pants and gray jackets. Beside them was a seven—foot-tall black man who was made of muscle and whose eyes glowed in a way that wasn’t human. To the right was a five-foot-tall white-haired boy, seventeen if that, but whose eyes were void of any human emotion.

  The leader of the group was a beret-wearing man a few inches shorter than me with a goatee and small glasses—a very deliberate attempt to emanate Johnny Depp in looks. Unfortunately, for him, he was achieving French communist terrorist more than the star of my sister’s favorite movie (she was a Christina Ricci fan).

  He was dressed in a long-sleeved sweater and beige pants and had one of those new electronic cigarettes in his right hand. Underneath his sweater, I could tell he was wearing Kevlar armor, and the bracelets under his sleeve were transmorphic items capable of becoming all manner of weapons.

  This was Alec Hawthorne, my younger half-brother and the child of my father’s first affair after my mother’s disappearance. He was also one of the most dangerous men alive. Unlike myself, he’d been found to be too brutal and rebellious to serve as an agent, but had survived by becoming a contractor for missions the Red Room didn’t want linked to themselves.

  “Hey, Alec, did no one tell you electronic cigarettes combine the unhealthiness of smoking with the taint of neo-yuppie?” I said, offering my hand to my brother. I’d never been as close to my half siblings as I was to my twin but tried to maintain cordial relations with them. It wasn’t their fault our father was a sociopath.

  “You have a funny way of asking for a favor.” Alec took my hand and shook it, speaking while sucking on his cigarette. “My associates and I were planning an operation.”

  “It pays a million dollars.”

  Christopher coughed. “Excuse me?”

  “I have a black card. It was a gift last Christmas from my father. He can’t buy me, but it might as well see some use.”

  “And you let me pay for half our meals?” Christopher said, horrified.

  “Those are comped by the Red Room and you know it,” I said, wondering what the problem was.

  “Not the good ones!” Christopher said, shaking his head. “For shame.”

  “That’ll cover most ops,” Alec said. “What’s the target?”

  “Vampires,” I said, saying the word like I was cursing. “They’re smuggling people out of New York City harbor. We’re going to hit the warehouse, get the people out, and transport them to a secure location. Killing the undead is a bonus but unnecessary.”

  “We’ll need to leave no witnesses,” Christopher corrected.

  “Fine,” I said, handing over the information to Alec.

  Alec looked at the tablet, memorizing the information. “I don’t like messing around in the politics of the Vampire Nation, but this is the kind of mission my Raptors are made for.”

  “Raptors? Like in Jurassic Park?” I asked.

  “More like birds of prey,” Alec said, not missing a beat. “Not everything needs to be a pop culture reference.”

  “How’s the rest of the clan?” I asked, changing the subject.

  Alec didn’t bother looking up from his tablet. “You could find out if you just dropped by to visit every once in a while.”

  “You know that’s not going to happen. Nathan Hawthorne and I aren’t going to reconcile.”

  Alec sighed. “Gerald is still in the accounting offices, showing no sign of magic, like you, but smart enough to stay out of danger. Rebecca just finished her Doctorate in neuroscience. Her thesis was about mesmerism—”

  “Isn’t she like twelve?”

  “Nineteen, which you know,” Alec said, frowning. “You should come to visit her in Georgetown. She idolizes you.”

  “I’ll see about dropping by,” I said, wondering if I would. The rest of my family idolized Nathan, and it was difficult to listen to them try and convince me to reconcile with him as they had for the past few years. Penny was the only one I could stand to hear it from, and only because we’d shared a womb.

  Alec continued. “Hoshi is working in the White Room on nanotechnology. I’m quite worried she’ll destroy the world.”

  I smiled.

  “And the kids are fine. None of them have shown any sign of magic yet, but there’s still time.”

  “What about Stephen?” I asked, addressing the black sheep of our bloodline.

  “Still crazy,” Alec said. “Possession will do that.”

  Stephen Hawthorne was another reason I’d come to loathe my father. The third-eldest Hawthorne brother had wanted to impress Nathan by following in his footsteps. He’d done everything he could to try and surpass me. Last year, when he was twenty-eight, he’d gone after a demon.

  He’d ended up possessed.

  Stephen killed a shopping center full of tourists in Dubai, then went on a seven-country killing spree. Marcus and Gwen, the other Hawthorne Red Room agents, had gotten themselves killed trying to bring him in—along with eleven other agents. In the end, Christopher and I had managed to bring him back alive.

  The problem was, by that time, he’d merged with the demon. No psychologist or demonologist could figure out where my brother ended and the monster within began. His demon had been the fallen angel I’d found so beautiful, and I still remembered its loveliness when I’d somehow managed to force it back into its host. The Red Room should have killed Stephen, but my father refused.

  He didn’t want to damn one of his children to hell. Like the shit we did for a living wasn’t going to. So, Stephen languished in an institute, gloating over all the horrors he’d committed. I couldn’t prove it, but I knew my brother had made a pact with the monster inside him. He’d willingly become a partner to the murder of his siblings and the deaths of thousands. Someday, I intended to figure out a way to banish the demon and make sure Stephen faced justice.

  Bastard.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said, wondering how much my belief in Stephen’s guilt played a role in my alienation from the rest of the siblings. Hating our shared father was bad, but believing your brother practiced infernalism was worse.

  “How many brothers and sisters does he have?” Evan asked Christopher.

  “A lot,” Christopher said. “It’s like the Brady Bunch except they’re multiracial spies.”

  I decided to get this show on the road. “Alec, do your people know the strengths and weaknesses of vampires? Not the stuff the Vampire Nation distributes through the media, but their actual capabilities.”

  “Old Ones and Ancients are irritated by sunlight but don’t suffer injury from it while younger ones will explode. Blessed and enchanted items from any religion but Satanism will hurt them. Regular bullets and injuries will just hurt like hell and be healed by their next feeding. Fire, decapitation, orihalcum, and destruction of the heart will kill young ones. Old Ones, though, will resurrect unless you place holy items on their corpse and burn the bodies to ashes. With some, l
ike Dracula, even that won’t work, and you’ll have to break whatever pact they’ve made with Tiamat-Abaddon. Blood Servants are always a pain being humans with half a vampire’s strength. They can also mentally control draugr so vampires who don’t mind cannibal corpses in their homes keep them as guard dogs.”

  I nodded, just making sure to dot all our i’s and cross our t’s. I’d learned everything I knew about vampires from Alec. “All accurate, but I don’t think we’re going to be facing any Elders. This is just a group of slavers. The eldest of them is less than a century old. We should take precautions, but I don’t think he’ll be a problem.”

  Alec said, “You should also keep two Greek funerary coins on your person at all times.”

  “What does that do?” I asked.

  Alec shrugged. “Fucks with vampire mesmerism and their ability to create illusions. It won’t help you too much, Derek, because you’re a trained resistor. I have enough for my people and your friend, though, if he’s not been cleared.”

  “I’m up to level six in mental conditioning,” Christopher said.

  “Derek’s a level ten,” Alec said.

  Christopher stared at me. “Jesus, did your father water-board you as a child? How the hell did you get a level ten?”

  Alec shrugged. “Beats me. I’m the biggest hardass I know, and I rate a level eight. Dracula’s the only monster I wager who could bend Derek’s mind. Him or Big Daddy Hawthorne.”

  “Don’t even think about it,” I said. “We don’t need to invoke trouble by mentioning his name.”

  “I killed Dracula once,” the brown-haired girl in the back said.

  “Quiet, Shannon,” Alec said. “Humans are talking.”

  The girl in the back gave him the finger. I, of course, didn’t know until much later that she was my future lover in one of her shape-shifted forms. It amused me that Shannon and I had crossed paths before “officially” meeting, but that just went to show you how small the intelligence community was.

  “What about physical capacities?” I said, making sure everything was set.