Oscar picked up the glass, noting how the dark amber whisky reflected the light and took a sip. “How many have tried to help before me?” he asked as he looked at the older cop.
“You are the seventh. Two are dead because they wouldn’t take my word for it. I’m sure that bastard Noah killed one and I think it was Thomas who killed the other. Four are on the force and waiting for our time, and the other was killed in a freak accident over off Carnaby.”
“Did I know any of those killed?” Oscar whispered.
“Sorry, son,” Leo told him. “One of them was your brother Jack.”
Oscar thought about the closed casket funeral he had attended. His mother crying as her oldest was laid into the ground. The number of police officers who had attended the funeral had surprised the teenaged Oscar. Seeing them all there in their uniforms had solidified his desire to be a cop—over the objections of his mother.
He lifted the glass to his lips and tossed back the rest of the whisky. When he had set the glass back down gently on the table, he looked at his partner, his eyes obsidian. “Just tell me what I’ve got to do, sir.”
Leo nodded. “Don’t think I won’t, young man.” He pointed his beer at Oscar. “We will both,” he pointed the end of the bottle between the two of them, “make damn sure that asshole is dead and buried.”
CHAPTER NINE
Peckham, England
Harry sniffed and reached up with his handkerchief to wipe his nose. “Damned dust,” he commented. He and his top three men were inside the core meeting room of their fortress.
Noah was to his left, George was in front of him and Thomas was to his right. They were sitting around their personal planning table. Two bottles of clear alcohol rested in the middle along with three bottles of stout.
George pulled up his shirtsleeves. The fabric did nothing for his lean physique. The vampire blood he consumed gave him excellent strength for what should have been a man you could break over your leg. The lids of his eyes were drooping. “So it’s true?”
George was never one to waste time.
Noah poured some of the liquor into his glass and put the bottle back down on the table. “Yes, it’s true.” He tossed the drink back and smacked his lips. “It took two of my men and three of theirs, but we got the right proof.” He reached into his pocket and tossed some pictures onto the table. “Watch the blood.”
Thomas oofed as he shoved his chair back to give him room to lean forward and pick up one of the pictures. “That’s the Dark Messiah?”
“The very one,” Noah agreed. “The team that had this information wanted too much money for it.”
“Who’s the other guy?” George asked. “Captain of the ship?”
“Yeah.” Noah reached for one of the stouts. “From what I can tell,” he held the bottle a couple inches from his lips and winked at George, “he’s English, and the vampire told him to shout out that he was coming for another vampire in Europe.”
“The Duke,” Harry said, his deep voice cutting through the talk. “We have dueling deadly vampires.”
“Either the score of the century,” Thomas commented, “or a good way to die.”
Noah leaned forward and put a downward-pointing finger on the tabletop. “I choose to think of it as a good way to rid mankind of a couple monsters and make ourselves the most powerful humans in existence as we sell their blood.” He looked at Thomas and George as he spoke. “We can get a shitload of money for mere drops.” Noah leaned back and smiled. “Drops, guys. Not ounces, drops. We lock these freaks down and feed them, right? We are damned near immortal, I bet you.”
George looked at Harry, his blue eyes contemplative under his bushy white eyebrows. It was quiet for a few moments. “It’ll probably be our final score.” Harry agreed and looked at all three men in order: Noah, George, then Thomas. “We need to either leave these two vampires to—no pun intended—duke it out, and we go after the winner if there is one. Or we go after the new guy who probably doesn’t know his way around too well, and once we have his blood, we go after the Duke himself.”
Thomas rubbed a finger under his nose while George pursed his lips. Noah just sat in his chair grinning. His mind, Thomas thought, was probably already made up.
“We got enough blood?” George asked, looking across the table. Harry nodded.
All three men looked at Thomas, who shrugged. “What the hell, we been together since we all beat the shit out of Charley William in fourth grade. We can beat another bully, right?”
Harry smiled and leaned forward, grabbing a beer. “To our last Charley William!”
All men grabbed a drink, the sound of clinking bottles and glasses hitting each other breaking up the quiet as the men toasted.
“I’ve got home fort,” Harry told the three. “Each of you take a team and a copy of the pictures and find this Dark Messiah. Let’s crucify him on the cross of pain and agony.”
Noah grinned as he pushed his chair out far enough to stand up. “That’s down on dungeon level three, right?”
Nagoya, Japan, Hirano Residence
Hirano was surprised but excited when Yuko rang his bell at eight o’clock the next morning.
She made her way to the second floor to find his door ajar and the smell of coffee wafting into the hallway. She went in, closing the door quietly behind her.
“You drink coffee?” he called from the kitchen.
“No, thank you,” she responded. “I can’t stay long, but I thought I needed to say this in person.”
The clattering of cups in the kitchen stopped and Hirano emerged into the living area drying his hands with a dish towel. He slung it over his shoulder, now looking concerned. “Why?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”
Yuko stood motionless, her eyes fixed on the floor, trying to find the words.
Hirano approached her. Before he got within two steps of her, she looked up and spoke, stopping his advance. He dropped his arms to his sides. He’d been reaching out to her.
“I’ve been thinking about the incident last night,” she started.
Hirano nodded. “The army of ninjas you took out single-handedly. Hard to forget.”
She dropped her eyes again, clearly distressed. “I… I can’t see you anymore,” she blurted quietly. “I’m sorry.”
He stepped forward again, but she shrank from his outstretched arms. “Why?”
“It’s too dangerous. You were in danger last night because of me. And if they find out that you mean something to me, then we might not be so lucky next time.”
“Is this because Michael is back?”
Yuko nodded solemnly. “It may be. We just don’t know anything yet.”
Hirano looked pained. “But I don’t want you to just disappear.”
Yuko looked back up at him. “I don’t want to either, but I have to. I have to get my team away from here, and we need to let you be safe.”
“When will I see you again?” Hirano asked, now moving closer and holding her shoulders between his hands.
Yuko shook her head, looking down again. “I don’t know. Maybe never,” she confessed.
Hirano frowned, holding her more tightly. “What do you mean?”
Yuko sighed and stepped back a little, forcing him to let go. “Well, if our mission goes according to plan we’ll be leaving Earth soon,” she explained.
He looked bewildered and torn up inside. “So that’s it? You just leave?” he pressed, unbelieving.
“Yes,” she confirmed. “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten in touch. It was unfair. I wasn’t thinking of the repercussions. I was selfish, I wanted to see you.”
Hirano moved closer again and put a finger on her lips. “No, you weren’t,” he told her firmly. “And whatever happens, I will always be glad that you came to see me, even if our time was brief.” He dropped his finger from her lips and leaned in and kissed her, just as a tear ran down the side of her face.
—
Yuko headed out the front door of the apartme
nt building and back to her Pod. Hirano’s last words rang in her ears. “Always know you can come back to me. I will wait for you. Come back to me when you feel ready. We have something that is worth holding onto.”
She swiped at another stray tear as she hopped into the Pod. She thumped down into the seat and contemplated not even doing up her harness. Right now she didn’t have the energy for trivial things in light of what she had just had to do.
Her heart ached with a pain she had never known before.
Happiness, she thought to herself. Is it really worth all this hurt?
The Pod lifted off, and Hirano looked out of his living room window in time to catch sight of it out of the corner of his eye before it was gone from his world for good.
Otsu, Japan, Lake Biwa
The large black box rested on the lush greenery on the banks of Lake Biwa. Given the relocation into the middle of nowhere, Jacqueline had encouraged the team to take a day off to rest and recoup from the excitement of the city.
Eve suspected it had more to do with Jacqueline wanting to spend some time with Mark, but there were many things Eve could do given a little downtime from the incessant battling they’d been doing since the return of Michael.
Yuko, on the other hand, was busying herself in distraction from her brief encounter with actual happiness.
Eve cocked her head, processing something abnormal.
Yuko noticed. “What is it?”
Eve held up one finger, and then a moment later resumed normal functioning. “I was communicating with Akio. We have new orders.”
Just then, Jacqueline stepped back into the black transport box, cum office. Her hair and skin were wet, and it looked like she had just slipped a dry set of clothes over the top, that was consequently now damp in patches. Around her neck, she had slung a towel from the gear that Eve had issued them when they entered the box.
Yuko glanced up from her computer terminal. “Where’s Mark?” she asked casually.
Jacqueline’s eyes narrowed. “Why?” she asked suspiciously.
Yuko shook her head. “Jacqueline, it’s ok. I’m not after him. I was just inquiring.”
Jacqueline’s face relaxed a little as she caught herself acting like the needlessly jealous girlfriend.
Eve turned to join the conversation, adding a semblance of logic. “She’s not interested because she’s got the hots for Inspector Hirano, remember?”
Yuko lowered her eyes, her cheeks flushing a bright shade of pink. “We have a job to do,” she said, changing the subject.
Eve agreed. “We have new orders from Akio,” she explained. “He’d like us to investigate the whereabouts of the pieces of the Kurtherian ship.”
“The Kur-what-ian-what-now?” Jacqueline asked, her mouth skewed to one side, perplexed by the strange words.
Yuko smiled at Jacqueline’s reaction. “The Kurtherians. The name of the alien race. Didn’t Michael explain this to you?”
Jacqueline shrugged. “He may have mentioned something, but as you know, he’s not the most wordy or explain-y of people.” She pulled the towel from around her neck and ruffled her hair vigorously, drying the dripping ends.
Just then Mark came stumbling up the steps into the black box, grabbing Jacqueline’s butt surreptitiously. Jacqueline’s face lit up at the attention of her boyfriend, which Yuko and Eve could only imagine she had spent the morning trying to exhaust.
“What did I miss?” he asked, pulling a t-shirt on over his enhanced vampire six-pack.
Jacqueline turned to look at him, his arms now around her waist. “We have another mission. To find some pieces of a boat.”
Eve shook her head. “Not boat. Spaceship.”
Mark’s eyes widened. “No shit?”
Eve nodded. “Yes shit.” She realized what she had just said and clamped both hands over her mouth, giggling at herself.
Yuko stretched her legs out a little as she began to explain. “Ok, it looks like there are a few things you still need to know. You might have heard how Michael’s love, Bethany Anne—our Empress—is off amongst the stars?”
Jacqueline and Mark nodded. Jacqueline spoke for both of them. “Yeah. I mean, it’s pretty intense, but we’ve gotten that much of the story.”
Yuko bowed her head slightly before continuing. “Well, the Kurtherians took over the Yollins, and sent them to Earth with the hope of subjugating the human race the same way.
“Bethany Anne and her team of scientists were able to get into space and took out the scout vessel before it could bring through the rest of the army. And when I say ‘through,’ I’m talking about through a gate which joins two distant points in space.”
Mark’s eyes flashed in amazement. Yuko continued her story. “Bethany Anne and her team effectively chased the Yollins off, following them back through the gate that had brought them here from a far region of space. But then it exploded, leaving them stranded.”
Jacqueline had stopped drying her hair and was listening intently, her eyes betraying uncharacteristic signs of distress at the lovers’ plight. “So how will they get back to Earth?”
Yuko jumped in. “They’re rebuilding now, but it’s taking time. I understand the distance is considerably farther than anything which Bethany Anne’s Kurtherian technology could handle.”
Jacqueline became more agitated, emotion welling in her chest. “But she knows that Michael is alive? She’s coming for him?”
Eve continued to explain calmly. “Yes. We’re able to get short messages to her, but our communications with her are limited to a few words.”
She turned to her computer screen and pulled up a new interface. Mark and Jacqueline shuffled over to see. Eve indicated with a nod of her head. “Here,” she told them. “This is what we showed her.”
The words within the message envelope, separate from some code that looked like a foreign language to even Mark, were clear as day to them.
“ArchAngel lives,” Jacqueline mouthed breathlessly.
A tear welled in her eye. There was silence in the gray office while the pair of newcomers absorbed the information.
Eventually, Jacqueline spoke, her voice cracking with emotion and determination. “We’ve got to help them!”
Yuko nodded, her own eyes a little damp. This conversation only accentuated the feelings she was already experiencing from her morning’s trip. “We need to find the pieces of the ship, put it back together, and get Michael into space.”
Mark took a deep breath, clearing his head. He frowned. “Hang on. Let’s say we manage to get the pieces of the ship put together and we launch it. How on Earth are we going to find Bethany Anne in all of space? And if the gate is destroyed and she’s trapped on the other side, then at best we’ll just be hanging around waiting for them to finish repairing it…in space?”
He shook his head, feeling foolish for even entertaining the possibility that he, a random out-of-place geek-turned-vampire, was now seriously talking about going into space.
Yuko moved to the computer that Eve and the others were gathered around so that she was in their line of sight. “We have maps. Kurtherian maps. We can find the gate. And as you said, Michael isn’t a detail kind of vamp. Getting through the gate is something we’ll figure out once we get to that…er…bridge.”
Jacqueline was nodding her head as she listened. “Well,” she said, pulling herself out of her brief emotional interlude, “I guess first things first. We need to find the pieces of the ship and get them put together.”
Yuko nodded. “Hai.”
Jacqueline flicked into tech-seeker mode. “Ok, so what can you tell us about the ship?” she asked. Mark noticed the change in her demeanor and looked at her.
Jacqueline noticed his gaze. “What?” she asked, a little distracted by the task at hand.
Mark shook his head. “Nothing. It’s just, you’re on the case all of a sudden. I’ve only seen you like this when you were ready to tear someone up.”
Jacqueline smiled. “You didn’t
know me before I met Michael. This was what I spent my life doing—scouting for lost technology.” Her smile widened. “This is what you might call ‘my gig.’”
Mark’s eyes widened. Yuko was sure she saw something else behind the new admiration he had for her.
Yuko sighed quietly to herself. “We know more, yes,” she continued. “The ship belonged to the third Kurtherian group, known as the Sacred Clan. We have some of the pieces safe in our warehouse already. However, the ship was broken up into sixteen boxes by the Queen of the Leopards before Bethany Anne executed her for her part in killing Michael.”
Jacqueline closed her eyes. “I think my head's about to explode,” she said, a little bewildered at this point.
Yuko nodded. “It’s a lot to take in,” she agreed sympathetically.
Mark’s face was lit by a grin, hardly believing his ears. He barely wanted to seek clarification in case someone burst his fantasy that this kind of tech might be real.
Eve started programming coordinates into her computer. “I guess it’s time to pay your friend in Yokohama a visit,” she called to Yuko.
Yuko nodded. “Yes, I believe so. Jacqueline, Mark, we should leave soon.”
Jacqueline glanced out the door at the green vegetation and the glimmering lake. She remembered that they had been trying to have some quality downtime, but nodded her agreement, trying to hide her disappointment.
Mark, on the other hand, tried to hide his excitement at the prospect of new, advanced, and alien tech. “Suppose I better go grab the rest of our gear then,” he said, keeping his voice as level as possible.
Jacqueline mumbled something about drying her hair and followed him out.
Eve smiled. “Looks like personal lives will have to wait just a little longer.”
Yuko paused, registering Eve’s reference to personal lives. “What do you mean by that comment?” she asked, somewhat suspicious.
Eve shook her head. “Oh, nothing. Just, Mark and Jacqueline will have to wait for more vacation time until this is squared away. And then they can resume. That’s all.”
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