Promethean

by P. S. Power

  There was no announcement that the people inside were probably dead. Liam simply accepted that, which was, he thought, probably very sad for the others. They weren’t talking about it, but the group demeanor had changed a lot in a very short time. It was different for Liam, of course. All of the FBI people he’d met to talk to were right there with him, except for one. The AIC, Ridley. The Agent In Charge.

  He’d only met her one time before, himself, so didn't really have a solid attachment to her, on any sort of personal level. Not that he would have wanted her to be harmed or killed. That she was, almost certainly, inside that building among the dead, simply seemed likely to him. Otherwise she would have been outside, with them, trying to free the people that had been taken by whoever had done this thing.

  People, criminals, who seemed to be gone, already.

  That idea had Liam looking at the scene in front of him. The large brick building was big enough to have what sounded like fortified interior spaces. The attackers would have had to get in and out of the place though. Even if they simply went to a different room inside, it wouldn’t be enough for them to get away.

  Looking at the police, the ones dressed in all black with body armor all over their bodies, as well as special helmets and rifles, which looked fancier than the one that had shot him earlier that day, Liam counted their numbers. It seemed that there were eight going in. That he could see. The idea that others were around back or even inside the building already made sense to him.

  Then, after that, there was a very long seeming wait. The man with the short hair spoke occasionally, into the device on his chest, with words coming out of it after a while. When a long line of words came out, finally, about ten minutes later, everyone paid close attention.

  “Leader one… We… have visual on the door. There is a device on it. We need bomb disposal on this. There is… no visual from here as to the hostages. No movement inside.”

  Sanchez hissed a bit then, nodding. Strangely he turned to Liam.

  “We have to wait now. The bomb squad will take about an hour or possibly two. There’s no help for it. Are you pulling the men back, McClaren?”

  There was a nod then, though it was the other man, the one dressed for battle, who answered, doing that directly.

  “Pull back. I want a description and pictures of the device on the door. All the way outside. Let’s clear away from the building…”

  That caused people to start yelling, telling everyone to move back. Mitchel had to run, since his car was parked in the wrong spot to allow anyone easy movement. The police were doing the same thing, though only the civilian looking elemental was glared at over it. Interestingly, Kim Simpson took his arm, firmly enough for him to feel as painful at first, then moved him away with the others.

  “Freaking hell. That’s a third of our people in there. I can’t believe this shit.” She wasn’t speaking to him directly, though her hand shook a little as she pulled him along. Her face was hard, with no tears seeming ready to fall.

  At a loss for what to say, as well as knowing that he might not be heard at all, Liam simply reached over to her and patted her on the shoulder. It wasn’t comfortable for him to do, but got a tight nod in return. When they stopped walking, they were across the street from the building. Which meant that nothing hit them when the bomb went off.

  That was almost directly after the twelve policemen came out of the building. Running, if not that quickly, as it happened. Everyone else ducked down, or stared at the building, which was producing smoke after the mighty bang. It didn't try to fall down yet or anything. None of the exterior walls did anything visible at all, either.

  For his part, Liam watched the men who flooded out, smoothly. They scattered a bit, with four of them moving away from the rest. They all had face masks on, and seemed to be dressed up in the same way, with their clothing and armor being black and the word police emblazoned on them in multiple places. The only difference was that the main group that had gone in moved right, heading for a specific rally position, near their leader. He was about fifty feet from Liam just then.

  The other group headed into the parking lot, trying to move around the building.

  The only person near enough to hear him was Simpson, so he took her arm, trying to get her attention. She shook him off and looked at him angrily.

  “What?”

  He pointed, just as the four men managed to vanish behind the building.

  “I only saw eight go in. Twelve came out. Then four of them went in a different direction. That could mean anything…” He didn't know how to explain what he was thinking in a fashion that would be fast enough to do anything.

  Luckily, he didn't have to.

  Kim shouted.

  “We have four potential bogeys behind the building on the east side, dressed as CERT. We need eyes on them. Rayford, how many men did you have on the insertion team?” The words got the buzz cut headed man to look around at them. He answered though, seeming angry.

  “Eight. Why?”

  Simpson shouted back, using her superior ability to make noise.

  “Twelve came out, that’s why! I think we have our baddies.” She started to run then, pulling a small side arm as she moved. Foolishly, everyone else there did something similar.

  Meaning, as the large truck came around the edge of the parking lot, already in the street, they were in the open as the men fired on them with their official and dangerous looking rifles. People shot back and tried to hide behind cars, or lay on the ground.

  This time nothing hit Liam, personally, so he nodded to himself and ran. Toward the very dark green vehicle. It was far away from him, and moving down the street rapidly as he pumped his legs, his large feet slapping the ground gracelessly.

  There was squealing from tires as he tried to pursue the vehicle. For a moment, as they turned around the corner onto the larger street, Liam closed with them. Then, past that, even moving as quickly as he could, they moved away from him. That didn't stop his attempt to see them, and to get what information he could.

  For instance, there was no rear plate at all. It was a similar truck to the one from earlier, but a different color. The men in the back just got down as the thing sped up, not trying to shoot him at all, even. No one else was giving chase yet, so he tried his best to keep up with the thing. He didn’t need to breathe while he ran, and unlike most people, didn’t seem to get tired at all. That didn’t mean he could move fast enough to keep up with the truck as it screamed and roared down the street.

  He tried. Very hard, in fact. Really, given the speed he was moving, it was impressive to him that he didn't trip and fall as he tried it. Then, the smooth and flat road was much easier to navigate than the log and rock filled deer trails he was used to. After several minutes, and two course changes, the truck vanished from sight. He kept going however, still able to hear it, moving away from him.

  Until, finally, a long while later, the sound of sirens behind him drowned out the faint sound of the speeding truck.

  Liam stopped, attempting to listen as well as he could. The sirens were loud, but going in the wrong direction. When they finally cleared, after a minute or slightly longer than that of confusing the situation, he couldn’t pick up the sound of the truck engine running at all. It was either too far away, or they’d simply stopped speeding as much, so they wouldn’t attract attention.

  What he had that the police didn’t was a general idea as to where the thing had been headed a few minutes before. That meant he was able to run in that direction, searching as he did it, looking for the right people.

  Meaning that he, and not the police found the thing, about half an hour later. Parked under a bridge, near a green space and a small river or stream. Hidden from view, without any people being in sight at all. That the thing was also on fire, and giving up billowing black smoke to the night also gave the whole thing away. The flames were the part that let him know where it was however, being dark out as it was.

  He whispered to
himself, since there was no one else there to hear him.

  “That’s not good.”

  Liam, naturally, had no way to alert anyone that it was taking place, or any way to put the flame out, meaning that all of the evidence was being destroyed right in front of him. Thankfully a police car pulled up not long after, with him waving to them, trying to draw attention to the fire. A thing that, of course, was probably doing that bit of work for him.

  Instead of securing the scene or calling for aid directly, the officer on the passenger’s side rather smoothly pulled his side arm and shot at Liam as soon as he was out of the car. Nothing hit him, though it was followed by incoherent screaming for some reason.

  “Get down! Don’t move! Get your fucking hands up or I will fucking shoot you! I said don’t move!”

  Liam hadn’t done anything of the sort, of course, not understanding the instructions. Or, he did, after a fashion. It was just physically impossible to do all of them at one time. Thankfully the other police officer just looked at his friend and shook his head.

  “What the fudge, Gary… This is just some kid walking in the park. There’s a car fire and an alert. We need to be cautious, sure. Pull it back a notch though, will you?” There was head shaking, and while the other officer had his weapon out, there was no trying to shoot Liam again.

  He figured that the whole thing was about the man reacting to him on a psychic level, except that, once his partner spoke to him for a while, Liam simply standing there, his hand raised, since indicating he didn't have a weapon seemed in order, the first man put his gun away.

  Then they both moved on him, the calmer of the two doing the talking.

  “What has you out here tonight?”

  He whispered, which made the scared seeming one reach for his weapon again.

  “I was in pursuit of that truck. It’s the same one that ran from the hostage situation about forty-five minutes ago. Can we call in Agent Brenner and Agent Sanchez? FBI.”

  The words got him glared at, by both men, then the driver, the one that wasn’t half crazed seeming, opened his car door and did exactly that. It took a while, but eventually, the older cop came back, his partner having been standing there looking ready to kill the whole time.

  “Are you Liam?”

  He nodded, working out what would have to be said. It was a lie, of course. Brenner had given the other police a fake last name for him earlier. So he had to use that again. Even if it didn't make any sense to him to bother lying.

  Then, if Mary’s last name was Stein, which he wasn’t certain of at all, and she’d told him his name was Liam Frankenstein, which was an obvious joke, it was possible that he didn’t honestly have a real last name at all. Not officially.

  “Liam Brenner.” He nodded, to show that he meant what he was saying.

  The cop just did that back.

  “That checks out, for now. This is a specialist that works with the FBI, Gary. For once your poor marksmanship is paying off. Not that I’m going to love the paperwork on this one. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to ignore that part, given the circumstances, Mr. Brenner?”

  From his face, lit by the blue and red lights, it seemed neither officer suspected that would be really happening. For his part Liam simply put his hands down. No one was aiming at him any longer, so that seemed to be fair. It didn’t get him screamed at or threatened either.

  “That works. We don’t really have time for that right now.” He was still being too quiet, which had the police looking confused, even if it was clear they could hear him. Even over the sound of the fire in the distance, under the bridge.

  They were, he thought, in a park. From the description it was the same space that Oaks had been staying under, while pretending to be a troll. It wasn’t his real home, since he had a place just outside of town that was nicer, being a real house. At least Liam had been told that, by the man himself. It could have been a lie, though there didn’t seem to be a reason for that sort of thing between them. Not yet.

  It took about an hour for anyone he recognized to get to him. That was Agent Douglas, instead of one of his people. The dark-skinned man drove up in an unmarked car, flashed a badge and then moved to him directly.

  “You weren’t able to see what they transferred over to, were you?” His voice was rich and full, the suit he had on showing that the man was average in build. Not that tall, being about five-nine or so. Five inches more than Liam.

  He shook his head.

  “It was on fire when I found it. No one was here then. I didn’t hear anything, so they weren’t racing off when I got here. I couldn’t keep up with them.” Even though he’d tried.

  That just got a nod from the FBI man.

  “Damn. Well, let’s get what information we can out of this?”

  Then, even if they weren’t strictly in charge, they did just that. The police on the scene seemed willing enough to help them with it.

  Chapter four

  Liam was taken back to the federal building where the FBI had their annex, instead of going home after the data, the little they could get, was taken down by Agent Douglas. Brenner and Sanchez were still there, both of them seeming miserable. It was clear that Tiffany had been crying, though she’d stopped by the time Liam was with her again. She moved over to him, giving him a hug before speaking.

  “The… We lost six people in there. Joan… AIC Ridley. She was drained of blood. The bodies all have bite marks on their necks. We…” She shook her head, not explaining what she wanted him to know or think.

  Liam got certain parts of it, of course. That they were supposed to think that vampires had done it, even though the initial attack on the house had taken place too near daylight for that to be practical. That kind of person didn’t go out in the sunlight. Given that they’d catch on fire if they did it, he could understand that idea. From the books on the subject that he’d read, even sunblock and good hats weren’t going to stop them from smoking and eventually catching fire if they risked too much sun exposure.

  That didn’t mean the people in the building that night might not have been that sort of person, of course. Except that it was likely that the attack on the house, near twilight, had taken place at the same time that the hostage taking had. He looked at Brenner and nodded.

  “Was it daylight when they attacked here?”

  The woman went still for a second, then nodded. It was slow at first, then sped up as she went on.

  “Yeah. It’s just possible that some of the stronger ones would have risked it, since it was nearly dark, but… That’s a good sign that it wasn’t, really. Which means… I can’t think. This…” She shook her head. Telling him that something was wrong with her.

  Sadness, and the loss of her people being what it probably was. He’d nearly lost his mother once and had felt a similar thing, for a while. As Brenner’s friend, which he thought was the case at least, it would be up to him to help her. He thought that was the case. Supporting her emotionally was indicated, but he really didn’t have a good idea of how to do that sort of thing. It would need to be looked up, when he got a chance.

  What he could do was figure out what he’d seen and what it would mean. That and some kind of action plan.

  Softly, he let the words flow out of him, thinking as he did it.

  “We… Should check that with the vampires. It almost certainly wasn’t them, but they’re being framed for it, so might want to help us. There was also an attack at two points. Why? I was shot, but… There was no attempt to really kill me or any of the people there. The ones here were executed though. Why? Also, whoever did it has knowledge of vampires. The real kind. They asked for Narran by name, then drained the blood... Is there any way to tell if the bite is real? Or even identical from one to the other?” Liam didn't know for certain, but had to doubt that a single vampire would be able to drink the blood of six people at one sitting.

  At most they’d be able to hold the blood of one, or possibly two people, if they really got most of i
t out. They weren’t alive and didn't handle food the same way, but still had physical bodies with an upper capacity for how much they could place inside of themselves. They could also eat food, so didn’t need massive amounts of blood for anything, as far as he knew.

  If the materials he’d been given on such things were correct, then all of the marks matching perfectly would probably mean some kind of object was used, instead of a vampire actually doing the blood removal.

  Brenner blinked at him, frowned then shook her head. He thought, for a moment, that she was going to ask him to be silent. That or suggest he learn more before commenting and annoying her. A thing that would be fair, given the serious nature of the circumstances they were in. Instead she closed her eyes for a second, then spoke, almost as softly as he had.

  Which meant no one was able to overhear her.

  “I don’t know. I’ll have that checked by the M.E. Um, the medical examiner. It’s a good point. I’ll do the thing with getting in touch with Nic and the others again, too. They need to know about this. It could be one of the other groups. Placing blame to deflect from…” She stopped talking, pulled her phone and walked away from him.

  Liam figured that he wasn’t supposed to follow her across the parking lot. That meant he just stayed in place, watching everything again, until Agent Sanchez moved over to him. There was a large hand on his shoulder for a moment.

  “How are you holding up? I heard that you were the one to find the truck that ran from here?”

  He nodded, since that was more or less true.

  “The police got there at almost the same time. I managed to follow them for a few miles, but they lost me.” He nearly explained that he might have done better, if there hadn’t been any sirens. Then he didn’t. Not because it made him look any better or worse to admit that. Just because it wasn’t going to matter. The police used that kind of thing and wouldn’t be changing their ways for him in the future.