“Marcel?” Curt Irving asked. I had not told him my name.
“Curt.” I said.
“I was not sure you would call.” Curt Irving said. “You might not believe with what anticipation not only I but the entire Agency have been awaiting your call. They accepted my evaluation with a great deal more enthusiasm than I had expected. They are eager to meet you!”
“I just bet they are.” I said, but I wondered how they would go about lying to Irving without his being aware of it. The same way, I supposed, that I did not really know he was telling me the truth now. Though we are both telepathic, there are limitations to these abilities. I could sense nothing of what he was thinking now. Not over a telephone line, but the lie could be passed down the chain of command and he who passed the lie to Irving no more aware than Irving, who now passed it to me. I told it straight the way I saw it; “You do realize that I neither believe, nor disbelieve, what you're saying. You may be as much an unwitting puppet as your masters wish to make of me. I am not even sure now that I see the merits of such an association. Humans have almost no power to affect the Others, one way or another. I am not sure what advantage there would be in it for me.
“Perfectly understandable. I knew these thoughts would occur to you. To be honest, I was not sure you would even call. I am not sure I would have, had the roles been reversed.”
“So you have a convincing argument with which to attempt to make the sale?” I asked, sure that he would. I was wrong.
“I wish I did.” Curt Irving said reluctantly. “The truth is, and this is obviously as clear to you as it is to myself, that we need you more than you need us. Humanity is dealing from a position of weakness.”
“So why should I try to help?” I asked but I felt that he had probably given the best answer that he could.
“We know that we need you.” Curt Irving said. “We are actually more aware of what is happening than you may believe. I was not aware of the depth of the atrocity being perpetuated until you showed me, and I told no one, that the blind test of how far my superiors would be willing to open up to me. That is why I now believe they are truly serious. They raised my Clearance all the way to the top and opened all the files to me. I was briefed by the President himself, if only by a closed circuit camera. So yes, I think they are taking this thing very seriously, and now knowing everything, I can see why!”
“All right.” I said. “We'll meet.”
CHAPTER 20
“Just like that?” Sonafi asked.
“No guts, no glory.” I replied with a brave smile.
“I suppose you are right. But someone else should go.” Sonafi said.
“Someone else?” I asked.
“Are they sending the President?” Sonafi asked.
“The President of the United States?” I asked.
“He's your equivalent.” Sonafi said simply. “They send their top man, we'll send hours.”
“I see what you are saying but it must be I who goes. I have the best chance of walking out of there alive if it turns out to be a trap. I think I owe it to the Community. Who else could I send that I would not be sending to their deaths if it did turn out to be a trap?”
“Since I see that you have made up your mind,” Sonafi said, “and that you will not be talked out of it, I will be going with you.”
“Dammit Sonafi!” I snapped.
“You have something to say?” Sonafi asked.
“I would greatly appreciate it if you would not.” I said. “Who will come to my aid if you get caught beside me?” She stared daggers at me for a moment but then relented.
“I'll stay back, but I am coming.”
“I can live with that.” I agreed.
“I'll no doubt have to rescue you.”
“It won't be the first time.” I conceded.
“Nor will it be the last.” Sonafi said. She could chop it up with the best of them, my Sonafi. I kept my mouth shut unless I did not ever want to hear the end of it.
I turned to James Ray. “I want you to go back and tell Brid that we are going to the Federal Building. Agent Irving has guaranteed safe passage. I believe him.”
“I think we could accomplish a lot more if Humans and Vampires worked together.” James Ray said. “I hope they are able to see that.”
“I hope they do, too!” I said. “I'm the one walking in there.”
We found a cab and gave the driver a downtown address. A club we were familiar with, not far from the Federal Building and soon enough we were there.
“Positive you want to go through with this?” Sonafi asked as we looked down the broad avenue towards the Federal Building ahead.
“No, but I'm positive that time is running out and we have to do something.” I said. “We have to explore every avenue open to us. Like it or not I don't see many alternatives.”
“I agree with you, even if my mouth doesn't. My mouth always has had a mind of its own.” Sonafi said.
“A very contentious mind of its own.” I said with a laugh.
We made our way to the same building we had used before and after leaving our shoes in the shadows next to the wall went up the same way as we had before. It was generally never a good idea to create a pattern by which someone else may predict your movements, but I was hoping that in this way I might discern if a trap had been laid for me before I got all the way into the snare.
Carefully we went over the parapet wall, searching every nook and cranny as we went, but there were no telltale signs of tampering, nothing out of place whatsoever, that either of us could see. The old roofing material had not been so much as scuffed. Attuned as Vampires are to the world around us, we would have known if any Human had been there. None had. Still not satisfied, we went back down the way we had come, then flitted around to the next building. We went up this building and made the same search as that previous, with the same results. We found no traces of intrusion anywhere along the original path we had traveled. If there was a trap, it was in the Federal Building itself, or not at all.
“Going in the roof access-way?” Sonafi asked me then.
“I think I'll just go in through the front door.” I said.
“I thought you might say something insane like that.”
“Where will you post up?” I ignored her sarcasm. We were still on the roof of that closest building, within an easy leap of the roof of the Federal Building itself, and I thought she would decide to wait here, but she had other plans.
“I have decided to be as much a fool as you. If you are going in the front doors, I am going in them with you.”
“Sonafi!”
“Yes?” She asked. Her face was set and hard. Her mind was made up. That was what that meant.
“I wouldn't have it any other way.” I said.
“I knew you wouldn't.” She said. We climbed down, retrieved our shoes and then walked right down the sidewalk towards the front doors of the Federal Building. As we drew near to it Agents detached themselves from the wall where they had been waiting and stepped out to greet us.
“Good evening Mr. and Mrs. Velation.” One of them said. They both bowed slightly. There was no treachery in either of their minds, or within any of the Agents minds who were waiting for us just inside the front doors. They were all armed, but those weapons were for our protection! They were actually there to protect us! Other than that their orders were to protect us, they had no more idea what to expect from us than we'd had of them. We just walked in. There seemed little else left to do.
Inside were dozens of Agents forming two queues through which we now walked. If we were slightly uncomfortable, there was no good way to describe what they were feeling. These Humans knew what we were, of what we were capable, and their fear stink was rank upon our sensitive nostrils. Mostly they avoided our eyes but several of them let their curiosity get the better of their fears and looked us directly in our eyes. I don't know what they thought to find but after one glance every one of them looked away. I have always believed that a
Vampire’s soul could be more easily seen through the eyes than our Human counterparts, and whatever those few bold enough to look saw when they looked sent their eyes quickly skittering in other directions.
Was my soul that easy to see? Whatever they saw it was not recognized on a conscious level, but struck them at their primal core. Whatever it was it scared the hell out of them, right down to their deepest roots. I did not need to look in their minds to see that.
“Agent Irving is waiting for you upstairs.” A large man who detached himself from the end of the left hand queue said as we came to the end of the double row. “We did not know by which entrance you would arrive.” He was only able to hold my glance for a moment and then he had to look away. I could sense that he was normally a courageous man but was now in over his head. We were all in over our heads. “We are your guard detail. We will escort you.”
“Our guard detail? You will defend us!” I asked. He clearly missed the amusement with which I asked this question.
“Yes sir, Mr. Velation .” He said. “We will!”
“Against whom?” Sonafi asked.
“Against everyone and everything.” He said. “Those are our orders.” His name was John Strohinski. I knew that by looking into his mind, but I didn't have to. They were all wearing identification name-tags clipped to their shirts. They were all very professional and highly trained personnel. He was also telling the truth.
'Stay alert.' Sonafi spoke in my mind. 'These wouldn’t be aware of deeper plots!'
'I will remain alert.' I sent back.
“Shall we?” Agent Strohinski asked.
The Agents escorted us up the staircase when I waved off the offer of the open elevator. I would have no part of it. We went up the stair as quickly as the Agents were able, and though they exerted themselves in the process, it only took a moment for their breathing to return to normal once we reached the top floor. We exited the staircase and found Irving and several other Agents waiting for us in the corridor.
I had by then concluded there was to be no ambush. There were no secret forces lurking anywhere. I had been able to get a good feel of the entire building as I moved up through it. They were being as good as their word.
“I am so glad you have come.” Agent Irving said. “So glad you could trust us.” He added, sensing my sentiment, and possibly my shifting eye. I had hardly forgotten Brid's Field Generation Helms, and we were talking about the entire might of the United States of America behind this Federal Bureau, but no surprise attack made itself known.
“I was skeptical.” I admitted. Sonafi had been even more so, but there was no denying that I had come here understanding there was a very real possibility I might have to fight my way out.
“I have no doubt. Who could blame you!” Irving said. He turned to the two Humans who were with him, pointing first to one and then the other. “This is Brian McNichols. He is the Special Services Sector Branch Supervisor, and this,” Irving nodded to the second Human, who was standing back and looking as if he wanted to reach inside his suit coat for the gun I knew he had there, and not looking really very happy that he was there at all, “is Admiral Brice. He's from the Pentagon.”
“I'll be your Presidential liaison.” He said carefully while looking us over thoroughly. He was military, from head to foot. I knew the type well, having seen many of his stripe in my long life. His return scrutiny could find no flaw in my own bearing, my stature, or the way I carried myself. I knew I carried myself with the utmost confidence and I could see that he recognized it. Recognized that I was the most dangerous creature he had ever laid his eyes on, even though the source of that danger was not readily apparent. “We have a lot of questions to ask.” Admiral Bryce said boldly.
“We'll ask the questions.” Sonafi said quietly but said succinctly. I could see that the Admiral’s tone had set her hackles on end. “Then maybe we'll answer a few. If we like the answers you provide.”
“They are here at our request.” Brian McNichols told Bryce. “We are beholden to them for their cooperation. If I were you, I would keep my hand well clear of my weapon. These Agents,” he indicated the Humans surrounding us, “are here for their protection. Then too,” he added, “you saw the video footage. Don't be an idiot!” Admiral Brice had been unconsciously reaching for his weapon, and he seemed to now realize what his hand, divorced from his conscious mind, had been doing on its own accord. He arrested it in mid-movement and then quickly put his hand down at his side.
“We have much to show you.” Agent Irving said. “Please excuse the Admiral. He has just arrived and we have not had a chance to brief him completely. Much of what we will be showing you we will be showing him for the first time, as well. Will you please follow me?”
“Assuredly.” Sonafi said sweetly, now very much willing to take command of the situation. I smiled graciously and followed Irving, Bryce and Sector Branch Supervisor McNichols. They led us into an office or conference room which was dominated by a big wall mounted computer screen. For the moment the screensaver was drawing a complicated three-dimensional design. There were keyboards placed strategically at several of the conference stations and Agent Irving seated himself in front of one of them. Sector Branch Supervisor McNichols sat in front of another. Sonafi and I sat at a small rectangular table while our guard detail spread out around us.
Agent Irving began his presentation.
CHAPTER 21
The FBI knew nothing of which we were not already aware, although they certainly had an abundance of data. Photography, video footage, the debris from the Roswell crash from which they had gained a technological advantage over most other countries via discoveries gleaned from the reverse engineering of technology recovered from that crash.
The FBI also had ongoing physical evaluation summaries covering hundreds of thousands of Visitation victims and a thorough genealogical understanding of what the Visitors were adding to the human gene pool. They understood that it was happening, but just not why or how to stop it.
“We know that it is the Visitors who are responsible for our rapid evolutionary progress.” Agent Irving said.
“But we do not know why.” Brian McNichols said.
“When I opened up my mind to you,” I said to Agent Irving, “and I showed you all of those things, you did not see the purpose behind their activities?”
“You know why they are doing this?” Admiral Brice demanded. He had not said a word throughout the entire presentation, but now he was ramrod straight in his chair, staring at me with all of the intensity of someone who had just experienced an epiphany of gigantic proportion, completely shocked from his stupor.
“No. I did not see that.” Agent Irving said, after showing a face that seemed to say he was looking inward, but was of course looking into my mind. I had shown him what he had missed. The reason the Others were here.
“Yes. We know why the Visitors are here.” Sonafi told Admiral Brice. A silence rebounded around the room upon Sonafi's pronouncement. They were all shocked. This they had not expected. They had thought they were the more informed, that they held the monopoly on Visitor’s secrets yet they had missed the most important part.
“Why are they here?” Admiral Brice asked quietly.
We told them. I do not think they wanted to believe, but they had no choice. Their psychic could see it and Admiral Brice, I noted with approval, grasped its reality instantly. Everything that had not made sense before now made perfect sense. It was the missing piece of the puzzle.
“We've been fools!” Bryce hissed.
“We thought their intentions had to be benign!” McNichols said.
“This is all the FBI's fault!” Admiral Bryce said. “It was your responsibility to determine the purpose of the Visitors presence here! You will be…“
“We will be nothing!” Agent Irving interrupted him coldly. “Hindsight is 20/20. We had no way to know this! Furthermore, let me remind you of your place here. Your status here is that of Observer only. You will report
to the President, but you have no authority here. This is the FBI's operation and we have jurisdiction. You will restrain yourself to your stated activities. Do you understand?”
The admiral opened his mouth to say something then shut it again. Something about the penetrating eyes staring at him completely unnerved him. He knew that Agent Irving was telepathic, of course, but it wasn't just that or the sharp words which made him hesitate now. He literally felt a shiver run down his spine under Irving's hostile glare. Very reluctantly Admiral Brice nodded; “Very well.” He said, and the moment passed. Irving turned to me.
“What can we do?”
“We have to coordinate our efforts.” Sonafi said. “You have a technological advantage in that you can track them, you can monitor their comings and goings, but you have no way to overtly affect them. That's where we come in. We are able to affect them. We are a match for them. If we work together, pool our resources and our efforts, we believe they can be beaten!”
I told them how the Others were able to control Humans. bout their ability to subvert the Human conscious and that Vampires were able to do the same thing. I told them how Vampires were created, and of our hope to be able to do the same thing to one of the Others. That all of our hopes at this point rested on this one relatively feeble hope. That we had no other viable plans of attack. These revelations were met with, not surprisingly, shock consternation and horror. It was quickly digested, however, and Brian McNichols filled in the pregnant pause which ensued.
“We have long known of their ability to take us without our knowledge, against our wills, and then leave us with no memory of what occurred. We call it Lost Time. It averages six hours, and the people in question never remember what happened to them. In some cases we have been able to retrieve those memories through hypnosis, but that has led us no closer to being able to stop them. We did not know how they did the suppression.” No one remarked on this, no comments were made, about our second revelation. It was almost too horrific to contemplate. Suddenly humanities importance in the cosmic scheme of things had taken a severe blow.
The Vampire-Alien Chronicles Page 17
