“You’re dismissed.”
No doubt the discussion would be carried on over dinner. Some of the knights present would be meeting the vampire for the first time that very night. Some were curious and eager. Others were reserved. All were full of anticipation and that, in itself, was a good thing.
Morale had started to flag when the knights realized that they were working harder and harder, but no matter how hard they pushed, to exhaustion sometimes, the numbers of missing young people kept growing. The idea of something, anything, that could make a difference, gave them the one thing they desperately needed.
Hope.
At ten o’clock K Team was waiting in the exact spot where Falcon had turned around and come face to face with Jaxon Kell. It didn’t seem possible that only three nights had passed since then.
Kell seemed to materialize out of the shadows and sauntered toward them with a smile and hands in his pockets like he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Evening, gents,” he said.
“Jax,” Falcon greeted him. “This is the rest of my team. My partner, Rolfe Wakenmann.” Falcon looked at Wakey who tilted his chin up at Jax. “This is Sinclair Harvest and Kellan Chorszak. Just so you won’t ever be confused. They usually answer to Wakey, Sin, and Spaz.”
“Spaz?” Jax looked up at Chorszak’s size and athletic build.
Chorszak grinned. “Long story. Let’s just say we go all the way back to our awkward tweens when some of us were trying to get used to long legs and arms.”
Jax smiled. Kellan Chorszak was the sort of guy who presented as likable through and through. It appeared that even talking vampire were susceptible to his innate charm.
Spaz was as warm to Jax as Sin was cool. His philosophy was to give people, or talking vampires, a chance. If they disappointed him, he could do rage that mimicked berserkers.
“So here’s the phone.” Falcon produced the prize that was the reason for the meeting. “It has the contacts the Sovereign told you about. Here’s the charger. There’s also an app that shows you where the teams are. It’s both private and proprietary on a secure network, something we really wouldn’t want shared. We’re taking a big risk with you. Just so you know that a lot of people are nervous about this.”
“As they should be,” Jax said. “A healthy skepticism is one of the tools that should always be at the ready.”
“In short, we really hope you’re on the level with us. If you’re not, we’re going to get the immortals involved,” Falcon said.
Jax laughed. “So you’re palming an ace. Good for you. It should make you a little less anxious. I think we understand each other. If I get out of line, you’ll call the equivalent of Mommy and Daddy.”
“Something like that.”
“Alrighty then. Show me the app.”
A vampire and four vampire hunters stood huddled around a smartphone looking at the app Glen had commissioned. He’d given the tech department twenty-four hours to come up with it.
After gallons of caffeine, several false starts and one product that Glen vetoed, they had an app that was more than just practical function. To the creators, it was a work of art.
It was a map of Manhattan color coded by patrol with an active legend for each pair of hunters that was cross-referenced with their contact on Jax’s phone. He could pinpoint a team in the area of a sighting and have them there within minutes, if not seconds.
“This is brilliant!” Jax said and sounded like he meant it.
“Yeah. Very cool,” agreed Wakey. “So,” he looked at Jax, “welcome to Black Swan. Don’t let us down.”
Jax smiled. “Wakey, is it? I’ll do my best to deserve your confidence.”
“Can’t ask for more. Let’s get to work.”
“Oh, one more thing,” Falcon said. “Glen said to tell you that the two of you never got around to discussing pay.”
“Pay?” Kell said the word like it was a foreign language.
“Yeah. He says there’s something in the budget for freelance work. He said to call him.”
Kell scowled. “I’m not doing this for money.”
Falcon felt out of his depth in the capacity of liaison. The last thing he wanted was to muddle a perfectly good deal because of saying the wrong thing.
“It wasn’t meant as an offense. It was meant to indicate that Black Swan values your contribution.”
“Okay.” He shrugged. “Thanks.”
So K Team walked away, leaving Jax standing where he was studying the app. Halfway down the block Falcon looked back to see that he was still in the same place. When he looked back again, after a few steps more, Jax was gone.
“Bombs away,” Wakey whispered. “Man. You almost stepped in it.”
“I know. How did I manage to stumble into the role of go-between? I’m like the last guy at Jefferson Unit who’d be good at the job.”
“I don’t know,” Wakey said. “You seem to be doing okay. But as far as the ‘how did this happen’ part, it happened because you didn’t go to the party with us, remember? By the way, what were you doing?”
Sin and Spaz had veered off to go around the block, so he felt more free to talk. “I went to the movies.”
“The movies,” Wakey said drily. “You know, sometimes you act like an old man.”
“Well, sometimes you act like a toddler. So what?”
Wakey laughed. “Maybe if you put us in a bottle and shook us up, what would come out is one well-balanced, psychologically healthy dude who acts his age, but is sometimes perceived to be stodgy. That’s because your over-the-hill ways so overpower my youthful outlook and energy.”
“Horniness, you mean.”
“No question about it.”
The night was uneventful. Dead you might say. K Team finished their shift, had a wind down nightcap in the knights’ lounge at J.U., then went to bed.
The next day, when Falcon got off the elevator that opened into the Hub, he knew it wasn’t just any day. The Hub was usually alive with pedestrian traffic since it was the ground floor central meeting, eating, drinking place. But that particular day the noise of aggregate conversations raised the volume to Grand Central proportions. Knights stood in clusters in animated discussion.
Falcon approached the group nearest him. They were knights who’d been inducted just a couple of years before K Team. Batiste looked over at Falcon.
“Joo hear?” Juste Batiste was a black-haired, blue-eyed Cajun from bayou country in Louisiana. He’d been at Jefferson Unit since he was fourteen, but had never lost his accent. His first name, so appropriate for a Black Swan knight, was pronounced like zyousta.
“About what?” Falcon asked. “Just got up.”
Batiste grinned at Falcon with teeth so white they weren’t just dazzling, they looked veneered, as in too good to be true. “Sixteen kills last night. All three clean up vans in play, dewen triple duty.”
“Sixteen vampire?” Batiste raised an eyebrow as if to say, ‘What other kind of kills would we be excited about?’ “Anybody…?”
That’s when Batiste realized what Falcon was asking. He shook his head. “Look at it this way, you. Lot of future victims no longer future victims.”
He meant that there was no way of estimating how many people’s lives would have been forfeit to the vampire removed from the equation the night before.
“Looks like you made the find of the millennium.” Batiste grinned.
“I didn’t do anything. He’d decided to make himself known to us. I just happened to be the first one of us who was out by himself.”
The cajun looked at him with a closer interest. “Which means you cudda bought it right then if the vamp was up to no good. Would’ve been easy for him, no?”
“Yeah. I guess that’s what it means. Don’t be making me out to be a hero just because I was the dumb fuck out late at night by myself and without weapons.”
He laughed. “Well, glad you still be ‘round to tell about it.”
Falcon chuckled. “Me
more than you.”
“No doubt. Be careful out there, you.”
“You, too.”
As soon as Falcon had sat down with his coffee and croissant, Spaz took a seat at his table.
“You hear?”
“That we had a record night?”
“Yeah. This thing with the talker, it could work out. We might even be able to start dreaming about things like vacations, holidays, long slow hand-in-hand screws in the woods.”
Falcon chuckled. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It was one night.”
Spaz was shaking his head. “No, sir. It was not one night. It was a big score for our side. What’s the matter with you?”
“Just don’t want to get too excited. Give it some time. What if Jax just started this out of boredom? What if he does it for a couple of nights and decides it’s not everything he hoped it’d be?”
Spaz slumped in his chair. “You’re kind of being a bummer. You know that? Between you and Sin…”
“What’s up with that anyway? I mean, I know it sounds kind of crazy for one vampire hunter to tell another he was rude to the vampire, but you know what I mean. Sin wasn’t exactly welcoming. Or even polite.”
Spaz nodded. “He doesn’t get it yet. But he will. Like you said, we need proof time. On both sides.” Spaz stood up and pushed the chair in. “So. See you at dinner?”
“I’ll be there.”
“K. Later.”
Falcon pulled out his phone and texted Wakey.
Falcon: Wakey wakey.
Wakey: You know, that joke got old about ten years ago.
Falcon: Not for me.
Wakey: Whatever. Yes. I’m awake.
Falcon: Coming up. You want anything.
Wakey: Where are you?
Falcon: Solarium.
Wakey: Stay where you are. I’m in the elevator.
Falcon watched Wakey walk over to the barista. Five minutes later he arrived at the table with a huge coffee, a banana, and a toasted bagel with peanut butter on it.
“Tell me you’re not using that banana like I think you are.”
“If you think it’s about to marry the peanut butter bagel, you’d be right. You don’t have to look. Remember you invited me.”
“I didn’t invite you to eat peanut butter and banana in front of me. I invited myself to your place,” Falcon said, wanting to turn away from watching Wakey slice banana and carefully arrange it on the open bagel smeared generously with peanut butter, but feeling compelled to watch the gastric catastrophe in progress.
“Oh, yeah. What’s up? You heard about last night?”
“I did. It’s not about that.”
“Okay.”
“It’s about Gretchen.”
Wakey looked ridiculous trying a huge smile around a huge mouthful that looked like an episode of “Bagels Gone Bad”.
“Got a date Saturday. I asked her what she wanted to do and she wouldn’t even give me a hint. Said something about masterminding the date being part of the test. I don’t know what that means, but the word test is kind of…” He trailed off, searching for the right word.
“…alarming?”
He nodded. “Makes it sound like I’m getting one chance at a time. I have to get this right. So. Help.”
“Well, old man, just so happens you came to the right place.”
Wakey’s eyes were sparkling as he tapped his temple with two fingers as if to say he was the genius who was going to save the future of his partner’s love life. Falcon wasn’t about to be dismissive because he knew there was a halfway decent chance that he could do it, if anyone could.
Wakey slouched back in his chair putting his back to the Courtpark window so that he could survey the Hub, which he no doubt thought of as his kingdom. He looked down at his nails. “Just so happens there’s one thing you’ve got that no other knight has.” He looked up at Falcon with that oh so familiar look of mischief on his face. “Except me, of course.”
“Alright. I’ll bite. What’s that?”
“License to fly a whister.”
“What does that…?” Falcon wasn’t halfway through the sentence that was half question and half protest when he realized what Wakey was getting at. As realization dawned, he began to smile.
“Indeed, my feathered friend. The girl said she wants to see the Big Apple and who else can show it to her from the air?”
“Nobody.” Falcon grinned.
“That’s right. If you’re willing to lose a little sleep, you could get up a few hours early and have the whister for the whole day.”
He sat up suddenly, pulled his phone out of his pocket, and started what looked like a search.
“What are you doing?”
“Hang on,” Wakey said without looking up. “I’m turning you into the most romantic guy on the planet.” Falcon was smiling like a fool and trying to hide it. The idea of impressing Gretchen with a do-or-die dating test tweaked his challenge response and scared the hell out of him at the same time. Thank the gods for Wakenmann.
“Here we go.” Wakey sat up straight, faced Falcon, and leaned his elbows on the table. “You owe me big time, my man. First of all, take a look outside. What do you see?”
“Grass. Trees. Sky.”
“Right. Lots of greenery stuff and blue sky?”
“No. Lots of blue sky, but the trees are green, yellow, brown, orange, red…”
“And what do we call that?”
“Um. Fall color?”
Wakey nodded. “You were always on the sharp side, Kris. People come to New England from all over the world at this time of year to see the leaves turning because it’s beautiful and memorable.”
“And romantic.”
Shrugging, Wakey said, “Depends on who you’re with, but yeah. Could be. Definitely. So here’s the thing. This time of year the roads are clogged with traffic wanting to take a gander at the spectacle. When they get to a stopping place, what do they find? Crowds. But not you.”
“Not me. Why not?”
“Because it just so happens that The Order owns a place on the lake at Bluestone Wild Forest. A two-hundred-year-old stone house on fifty acres of private property. Seems the house has some kind of prankster spirits. The Order ended up deciding that, since the ghosts wouldn’t be rehabilitated and refused to move on, they’d just buy it, post the fences, and hire somebody to keep an eye out.” Wakey, still looking at his screen, smiled. “There’s even a canoe. So picture this. You get the mess to fix you a gourmet picnic. Fly the lady around Manhattan, over the fall color, then land at our property at this Bluestone Wild Forest. You’ll be like the only two people on Earth having a gourmet picnic next to the lake with fall color all around. If the girl doesn’t swoon over you, then you’re doing something very very wrong.”
Falcon studied Wakey for a few beats. “You really are a genius.” Wakey held up both hands like he’d just pushed through the tape and broken a record. “Of course all that rides on getting permission to use the whister.”
“You want me to ask?”
“No! Of course not. I can do my own asking.”
Wakey sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, as they say, don’t put off till tomorrow…”
“Already have a dad, Wakey.”
“Not so’s anyone could tell.”
The second it left Wakey’s mouth he could have slapped himself for not having his filter in place. The expression that flitted over Falcon’s face before he got his mask back on said that Wakenmann had spoken the truth and hit a giant cluster of exposed nerves.
“Gods, Kris. I’m an idiot.”
“Which is it? A minute ago you were saying you’re a genius.”
“I’m a savant. A genius at planning dates and an idiot at being a friend.”
“You’re not an idiot. It’s not like you said anything that wasn’t true.”
“Still sorry. It was a dumb thing to say.”
“Yeah. I should make you go talk to Glen for me.”
&n
bsp; Wakey looked as relieved as if Falcon had just taken his foot off his friend’s neck. “I don’t mind. While I’m asking, it’ll give me a chance to point out to our boss that you’re too much of a pussy to ask him yourself.”
Falcon couldn’t help a chuckle. He didn’t know anybody who could get mad at Wakey and stay mad at him.
Wakey looked down at his phone, thumbs flying. “I just texted you the location of the property. You’ll need to get clearance to use the whister and to land at Bluestone Wild Forest. I just texted you the location.” He put his phone in his pocket. “Gotta go. Got plans of my own.”
“Yeah? What kind?”
Wakey was halfway up, but he sat back down. He looked uncertain, like he was trying to decide how much to say.
“I’ve been seeing somebody.”
“Somebody with a vagina?” Wakey grinned in a way that told Falcon the somebody definitely had the interesting body parts. He nodded. “You want to talk about it?” Wakey shook his head and looked sheepish. “Knock me over. I didn’t know it was possible for you to keep anything to yourself. Either you’re ashamed of her or she’s special.” Wakey just looked away but didn’t say anything. “You ashamed of her?” Wakey shook his head. “Okay, then. Don’t forget to put a coat on it.”
“Same to you, big fella. And when I say big fella, I’m talking about your…”
“Yeah. I get it. And don’t worry. I have a wide assortment of wrappers. I’d offer to share, but I don’t have any smalls.”
“Ha. Ha. Look who suddenly decided he has a sense of humor.”
“I have a sense of humor!”
“Whatever you say.”
“But seriously. Thank you for the suggestion. You knocked it out of the park. I mean, assuming Glen says okay.”
“If he says no, just take it over his head.”
“Talk to Edinburgh?”
FALCON: Resistance (KBS Next Generation Book 1) Page 15
