by Robert Brown
The Angel looks at her fellow mutant representatives and back to the president with a perplexed expression on her face before bursting out in laughter. The tension built by the doctor and the president’s words washes away as the assembled group all begin to laugh or chuckle in some form of release.
“You should have removed your caps so I could read your minds, it would have made this a lot less awkward.” Cora smiles softly. “This is an area some of the mutants have spoken about with their parents, but I see now it is a matter of national importance as well.
“This past year has been a difficult one on those of us that mutated. It was not just our bodies that grew the days we endured Shatterbones, our hormones surged as well. The world was filled with teenagers who suddenly had adult bodies, and we were forced in many instances to be without clothes until we could find items that fit our new shapes or appendages.” Her wings lift behind her in response. “Things have happened between many of us; they are private moments, but I can tell you there is hope for human kind. I will personally work with Dr. Usachova so she can record the progress of my own pregnancy. Lloyd and I conceived a child over three months ago, and I believe the gestation period for mutant pregnancies will be different than that of regular humans; it will take longer to reach full term.”
Dr. Usachova stands up in anger. “How could you keep this a secret from us, Cora? There are things that must be done, supplements that you must take to ensure your baby’s health.” Raising her voice almost to a shout, “You were pregnant and fighting in a war? And you almost left again to fight in Europe, how could you be so reckless!”
“Please calm down, Doctor. This was a private matter that I discussed with my family. You are aware my mother is a nurse, and you should know my powers give me the ability to self-monitor my baby’s health. I didn’t know my pregnancy or any other would become a matter of national importance, but I will let my fellow vampires know the significance of what it currently means.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Friend and Foe
Three Months Post Haze
Washington D.C.
“Mr. President, this is our chance to get rid of the mutants. They are weak, and we have the weaponry to eliminate them for good.”
“How many times do people have to tell you everyone’s genetic structure has changed?”
“They are lying to you, Mr. President. That Usachova woman is being controlled by the mutants. They are manipulating her thoughts to tell you what you want to hear. Our genes may have been altered, and they may not have. The scientists I’ve spoken with all believe the children conceived from this point on will be born normal now that the haze is gone. They will be born and grow up like us. Real humans!”
“Bradley, we have been through a lot of things together. I accepted your premise that we had to kill the civilians in Richmond to win that battle, it made sense and it worked. I agreed with your idea to use a nuke against the enemy in Washington…”
“And if you did what I told you to do and blown those monsters to hell in that battle, we wouldn’t have this problem now. You could have eliminated all of the arch-vampire leaders, and now we could do what we want with the rest of them.”
“There was no one hundred percent guarantee the bomb would destroy all the enemy vampires and then we would have been facing other new threats without The Angel to direct her forces.”
“But we’ve won the war now and we can finally eliminate them.”
“Are you listening to yourself? These are the nation’s children you are talking about, they are our future. Are you really suggesting we should kill every child that was born before the blue haze?”
“No, Mr. President. I want you to kill every child that was born before or during the blue haze. In fact, my information suggests we should end the term of any current pregnancy. Only those children that are conceived from this moment on should be considered viable.”
“Bradley, I want you to tell me where you are.”
“Why, so you can send one of your mutant controllers out to get me? The joint chiefs agree with me. The Chinese and Koreans have already begun purging their lands of mutants and children; if we don’t do it as well, we will lose everything.”
“The Chinese and Koreans have been enslaved from day one by vampires. They haven’t had the opportunity for freedom or the choice to work with their mutants before. Don’t confuse the Chinese people’s actions of revenge with the correct course for all of humanity. Of course they would use the new weakness of the vampires against them. I would have as well if the haze lifted before our people were freed by The Angel.”
“The Angel? Listen to what you call her, and tell me she isn’t controlling your mind. She is no angel, Mr. President. That woman and her kind are demons and must be eliminated.”
“I will give you one more chance to come in and discuss this face to face.”
“I’m not coming in, James. I think your unwillingness to deal with the mutants as the threat that they are shows you are under their control. I will not follow the orders of a president whose mind is being manipulated by those pale freaks.”
“Bradley, you’re fired.”
“I don’t recognize your authority to fire me, your mind has been compromised.”
The line goes dead, and President Thomas looks around the room at the assembled advisors.
“Admiral Pembroke, you are my new director of intelligence.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“First question, what can he do?”
“He has access to all surviving military personnel; names and current addresses. He will know their dispositions and whether they are someone he can trust and count on.”
“Can’t we block his access to our databases?”
The admiral motions to one of his aids, “Get it done; have Bradley Hoskins locked out of everything.” The man leaves and Pembroke looks at the president while shaking his head. “Bradley didn’t do this on a whim, Mr. President. We can lock him out of our systems, but he likely already has all of the information he needs. If I were him, I would have compiled all of those lists before I discussed the issue with you. He knew what you would say, that’s why he did it over the phone.”
“Bring The Angel in here, let’s see what she has to say about this.”
“Before we bring her in, Mr. President, may I have a word with you privately?”
Taking a deep breath and rubbing his forehead, he nods. “Everyone, give us a few minutes.”
“Mr. President, this will sound harsh, but we should consider some of what Hoskins was saying. There is still a great deal of animosity among the general populace over what the mutants put us through this past year. We missed an opportunity to weaken the power structure of the vampires in particular. I’m not suggesting we do anything to directly harm them, but it might not be a bad thing to allow the people to get some form of revenge against the mutants for what they’ve been put through.”
“The ones working with us aren’t the bad ones. They fought and died to free us.”
“We have some continuing problems that make me question how honestly they have been working with us. From day one of this freakish calamity, the Navy has been losing ships. At first, we thought other nations might be sinking our vessels in retaliation. Perhaps because they believed we were responsible for the haze and mutations. But our ships continued to disappear over this past year. The vessels that went missing didn’t have children on board who could mutate, they didn’t approach any shores, and they took no aggressive actions against the vampires.
“Several of the groups that disappeared were anchored or adrift in deep waters to conserve fuel and were no threat to any of the mutants. In fact, the arch-vampires would have been the only ones able to reach them and would have had to make quite the effort to fly out to where our ships were located. They must have seen them as quite a threat to carry out the attacks that sunk them. You should ask The Angel how innocent she and her mutants are regarding our missing ves
sels.
“Another area you must consider is about the things the mutants did before the war. They may have fought these battles to free us, but they still have the blood of millions of humans on their hands from the first day of The Shattering. If it were a human, if a human murdered someone and then went on to save others, wouldn’t we still require that person to be held accountable for his crimes?”
“What could we do to hold them accountable?”
“Let the people work through their hatred of the mutants. We could let the people rise up in certain circumstances. Let them take out their aggressions, and then after a time, arrest the people that commit crimes against the vampires. The human populace will gain sympathy for the mutants for what happens to them, and we get some criminals that are itching to cause problems off the street. It is something you should consider. Our nation is hanging together by a thread right now, we need a win in the human corner for once.”
“I’ll consider it. Now have everyone come back in and send for The Angel as well.”
*
The Angel and her people listen to a recording of the call.
“What do you have to say about this, Cora? Is there any truth to what Bradley was saying? Is Dr. Usachova being manipulated by you and your kind? Are any of us?”
“I think there is some mind control happening, Mr. President.”
“What!” Admiral Pembroke stands up and takes a step toward her in anger before being knocked back into his chair by her wing.
“I am not manipulating anyone. You need to relax, Admiral, if you want the longevity of your position to last more than today. What I meant is I believe a mutant might be controlling Mr. Hoskins. Someone must be tipping his personal prejudices to the breaking point. I sensed that his thoughts were his own, but they were twisted somehow while he was speaking. He never would have disrespected you like that without manipulation, Mr. President, no matter how greatly he felt about our kind.”
“Perhaps he is reacting to vampires eradicating our peaceful Navy.”
Head cocked to the side, The Angel’s expression belies curiosity then becomes one of concern. “I don’t know anything about problems with the Navy. What has been happening?”
“We have a large number of ships and their crews missing.”
“How long have they been going missing?”
“They started sinking or being destroyed on the first day of The Shattering, and the disappearances have continued throughout the war. Two days ago, we lost another cruiser, and a submarine failed to make contact a week earlier.”
“Were they close to shore?”
“No, all in deep waters as agreed. They remained away from our shores and made no attempts to attack mutants.”
“Only vampires could make it out that far, but none of my people have attacked those vessels; we consider them our allies. I will check into it but still do not believe Mr. Hoskins was influenced by the missing ships or he would have mentioned them.”
“Explain to me why a vampire would manipulate Hoskins to have him suggest we start killing other vampires?”
“We must have missed someone during the war. There may still be vampires out there that want humanity enslaved but with enslaving you being off the table because of our victory, the next probable step would be to start a war between us to make us want to enslave or kill you. There is a tremendous level of animosity by humans growing against us in the country, so it doesn’t take great skill to push someone like Mr. Hoskins over the edge.”
Looking directly at the president, she continues. “Even now, there is no way for humans to fight a war with vampires and win. We are weak but even with our vulnerabilities, we could remove humans as a threat within four weeks if we wanted. We would sustain losses but could wipe out your kind within a month if we tried. If the plans Mr. Hoskins are being pushed toward succeed, all of humanity could end up enslaved again or more likely, dead.”
“And you can assure us you aren’t manipulating our thoughts like Bradley suggested?”
“I can’t assure you of anything, Mr. President. My vampires and I are not doing any manipulation, but my saying so will do nothing to change your personal level of trust in me. If I was manipulating you, I would still tell you I wasn’t.
“The digital caps you and your men continue to wear are still working. I can no longer read your thoughts without physically touching you as I mentioned before, and I have no information that other vampires have greater powers than myself since the blue haze is gone.
“May I offer a suggestion for security?”
“Yes, please.”
“I imagine you do not keep your caps on all the time, and there could be other persons that have been manipulated the way Mr. Hoskins was. They could be manipulated when they take off their caps to sleep or bathe. This will require a great deal of trust on your part, but I would like to scan the minds of every one of the people in your administration to ensure there are no spies or assassins among the people you trust.”
The second the last words leave The Angel’s lips, a Secret Service agent steps through the doorway and draws his pistol on the president. The arm holding the firearm is severed by the quick blade of The Angel’s personal guard. The one bullet the agent fires flies wide with his arms awkward descent to the ground. The bullet hits Cora in the chest, and she scratches the wound lightly as if she has an itch. The bullet seems to work itself backward out of the hole and falls, bouncing on the table when her body finishes healing the wound.
The armless, bleeding man is now barely visible under a pile of fellow agents that are holding him down.
“He is wearing a digital cap, Mr. President. You should have your people check that his is functional, and I implore you to let us check the rest of your staff for others that might have been manipulated.”
“Check him first. See if you can look in his mind and find out who is behind this.”
She removes the digital cap from the wounded agent and places her hand on his forehead.
“I can see who it is, but I haven’t met him yet. This agent doesn’t know anything about the mutant that altered his thoughts. It happened a few days ago while he was at the store with his wife. I know this man just tried to kill you, Mr. President, but he wasn’t in control of his actions. Please keep that in mind when dealing with him. If there is nothing more you need from me, I am going to the store where he was shopping to see if I can pick up a trail of the vampire responsible for doing this.”
“What about checking my other people?”
“Brian will stay and do it. Brian, look into this man’s thoughts and see if you can find the mutant that took control of him.” While Brian leans over the wounded agent, The Angel shakes the president’s hand.
“Brian can’t see all thoughts, but is adept at spotting deception. He will be able to clear the rest of your personnel. You should change your protocols immediately and never allow one of your people to return to your side without first being scanned for altered thoughts.”
“I’ve got him,” Brian says while standing up. “When you get to the store, speak with the manager. I believe her memory was altered to erase the stores video of the event.”
“Thank you, Brian.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Betrayal
Four Months Post Haze
Undisclosed Location
The smoldering wreckage of two city blocks brings Cora to her knees.
“How many people were killed?”
“Ninety-seven vampires and their families were registered in the buildings when the fires started. Three hundred and eighty-eight lives altogether.”
“And you’re sure it was arson?”
“The fire started in the morning, just after sunrise. Gasoline trucks were apparently brought in, and the grounds around the buildings were soaked with fuel. When it was lit, the sun prevented the vampires from leaving, and the fire ensured that none of the humans were able to escape.
“Our fire departments tried to put ou
t the fires, but the size of the blaze and amount of accelerant used made the fire too strong. It engulfed the buildings too quickly for my people to have any effect. I’m sorry this happened in my city, Cora. I hope this doesn’t cause difficulties between vampires and humans.”
The man steps back from the look of fury expressed in his direction.
“This is the sixteenth fire I have been witness to in the last two days, Mr. Clyburn, and I’m afraid it will have a major impact in our relations. This is happening nationwide, and we won’t stand by and allow vampires and their families to be executed in their sleep. This is your community, and you need to find out who is responsible for this terrorism or my people will have to do something about it.”
*
“The humans will continue to kill us! We have to do something about it.”
The Angel and twenty arch-vampires are meeting in Washington D.C. The escalating violence against their kind is forcing their hand. In the past month, organized cases of arson have been increasing, and over three thousand vampires and their friends or family have been killed.
The mystery vampire, named Kevin, that had influenced the president’s director of intelligence and a Secret Service agent was found, but ended up being a dead end. Instead of uncovering a conspiracy to turn humans and vampires against each other, Kevin had been on a crusade of revenge against President Thomas. Kevin was orphaned shortly after the president declared humanities surrender early in the war, and he was only trying to have the president killed by using already existing tensions.
“There aren’t enough vampires like us to find the people responsible. Even if we gathered everyone we know that can read minds, there would be less than five hundred of us. How would we go house to house and search the minds of millions of humans in the few hours that the sun is down?”
