“Oh, I think I want to hear them anyway,” I said. “How cool is that? Most girls have to worry about their fathers telling their boyfriends embarrassing stories about their own childhood.”
“She’s got a point,” Isaac said thoughtfully. Andre just shook his head, pulled two boxes off the pile, and handed them to us.
“Your temporary phones,” he said with a pained expression. “Unlimited talk, text, and data on the securest network available to the public.” I didn’t fail to catch the sarcasm with which he emphasized the word secure. “That being said, I’m expecting at least half of them to have malware by the end of the day. The IT guys downstairs made sure to tell me all the horror stories before handing them over. I don’t think I need to remind you that these are not only company phones, but also on a national network so the V-word is off limits.”
“Vomit? Volley ball? Vortex?” I smirked at my own lame joke. “Just kidding! I promise to behave myself. Oh my!” I had turned on the phone while talking and saw that I already had numerous text messages.
“Yeah you guys are the last of them,” Andre said handing phones over to Ingrid and Lance. “They’re probably all from Kaylee.” He turned back to me and gave me a light peck on the cheek. “I’m probably going to be busy for a while. This virus is pretty awful.”
“I’m stuck here until Abe gives me the okay anyway,” I said with an eye roll. “Go save the day… again. But Andre, if you hear anything at all about what’s going on, you better tell me.”
“You’ll be the first to know,” he said with a smile.
After Andre left, Isaac sighed lightly. “You know Lucy; I always hoped that one day I’d be the one to walk you down the aisle at your wedding.”
“I think you might be looking a little too far in the future,” I said with a blush.
“Oh I didn’t mean any pressure,” he replied with a wink.
“Uh huh,” I said unconvinced. “You parents are all the same.”
“Vampires that can change their appearance at will?”
“Ugh,” I said, but laughed anyway. “At least now I know where my terrible sense of humor comes from.”
Chapter 34
“Hey, I was just coming to find you!”
Cynda nearly ran into me as I rounded the corner to the observation rooms. I was finally cleared to leave after Abe realized that not only was there no need to keep me for observation, but that due to the high number of people in need of medical assistance, there simply wasn’t enough room. But after a sorely needed shower and nap, I decided to go back to the ward anyway and see how everyone was doing. Besides that, Evan still wasn’t back and I needed to take my mind off wondering if he was coming back and what would happen to all of us when he did.
Cynda appeared to have bounced back from her ordeal. She was back to her normal, healthy self and the smile she wore held no trace of sadness. I commented on this and she blushed.
“Yeah, I’m not psychotic anymore. I’m so sorry I tried to attack you, Lucy. I tried to fight it.”
“Cynda, you are not psychotic,” I assured her. “The monster that made you that way was psychotic. Given the circumstances, you were amazing. I’m just glad Anil knew about the monitor because I had no idea. I guess I should probably remedy that.”
“That’s why I was coming to find you. You were right about the trigger. Abe has me on a drug that will block the limbic thingy now, but he says he thinks he can stop the transformations for good. He’s just, you know, kinda busy right now. But I’ve been cleared to leave medical, so I’m going to find the biggest bowl of ice cream and go hang out on the roof. You wanna come?”
“That sounds lovely, but I was just coming down here to see how everyone is doing.”
“Most everyone’s asleep,” she informed me. I suppose that made sense seeing as it was pretty late. I guess I had slept longer than I thought. “But Lona’s awake. Wanna go see the baby?”
“I’d love to. And after that I guess ice cream in the garden sounds like a great idea.”
Lona was sitting up and breast-feeding her child when we arrived at her room. She smiled when she saw us and turned off the television with the remote.
“Oh thank goodness someone else is up. Do you know how awful late night TV has gotten? Another minute and I might have been hypnotized into ordering a pet grooming vacuum cleaner attachment. Did you know that was a thing?” She laughed sheepishly. “Sorry, I think I still have pregnancy brain. What I meant was, hi, I’m glad to see you both in one piece!”
“Hey! And you too,” I giggled softly. “So this is Miles Junior?”
“Actually there was a last minute change,” she said and gently moved the blanket to the side. “Say hello to Johnny Miles Bishop. It was Miles’ suggestion and I approve. Who knows if I would even be here if it hadn’t been for Johnny.”
“Hello Johnny Miles,” I said softly. The baby gazed up at me with his wide eyes and let out a sound somewhere between a hiccup and a giggle. It was too soon to know if he favored his mother or father, but admittedly, I was never really any good at seeing that in babies. “So he’s healthy, all the right number of fingers and toes?”
“You know, I didn’t even check, but yes, he’s been cleared as a perfectly healthy, seven pound, twenty-one inch baby boy. See? I told you he was going to be tall. He’ll be reaching things on the high shelves for me in no time.”
“That’s pretty amazing.” Despite my general awkwardness regarding my own broken biological clock, I couldn’t help but get a little emotional listening to the pride and love with which Lona spoke about her child.
“I saw online that they have classes at the community center to teach teens all about babysitting. I think I should sign up,” Cynda said surprising me, considering her initial reaction to seeing Lona pregnant. “I want to help,” she explained noting my odd look, “and I haven’t exactly had a normal education about child care. I want to have something in common with the kids at my school.”
“I think that would be wonderful. But don’t forget that once you start school, you’ll probably have a busy social schedule,” Lona said with a wink. “Not that I’m going anywhere for a while. Those… things fractured my pelvis, so I’m on bed rest for a few weeks. But on the bright side, that does give me time to work on my newest collection: fashionable maternity wear. Seriously, it’s a market that is sorely lacking.”
I laughed at that. “If anyone can make maternity clothes fashionable, it’s you.”
“Thanks,” she said with a grin. “So on to a more serious subject, I haven’t been able to get a lot of information about what happened, but any idea what’s up? I heard they dissolved the agency.”
I told Lona everything that I knew, which wasn’t much. “I know Evan suspects someone other than Benson was pulling the strings, but who, and what their objective is, remains an unknown.”
“You know,” she said thoughtfully, “it might sound crazy, but I’m wondering if it’s vampires.”
“Vampires? Don’t you think that would be a little hard to pull off?”
“Not really, considering they were bribing the Paris team,” she said with a shrug. “Think about it. Suddenly the agency is targeting genetic laboratories, destroying everything with impunity, and keeping us out of the loop. I’m not saying humans aren’t naturally predisposed to a certain degree of xenophobia when our race seems threatened. But I can think of another group concerned with keeping the purity of their bloodline, who also happened to have suffered a major setback recently.”
“You think The Eyes of the Sun are behind this?” It did sound crazy, but not entirely farfetched.
“You did say you saw them at the plantation.”
“True, but I assumed they were buying, not sabotaging.” I didn’t mention Andre’s suspicions or what he had found in Paris. Not because I was uncomfortable, though I was, but I wasn’t sure if that was something that was being kept a secret.
“Or they could have been researching,” Lona countered.
“I’m sure once they found out Bluebeard was adding human DNA to his creations, he went on the list.”
In a way, it did make a lot of sense. Not that this was a comforting thought. Though the ES continued to be a threat in Paris, I had hoped to avoid an encounter with them again myself, as cowardly as that seemed.
“That may be worth looking into,” I mused. “That is, if we’re even allowed to after all of this.”
“Do you actually think Evan’s going to care whether or not we’re allowed?”
“Good point,” I said with a nod. If nothing else, Evan was nearly as stubborn as I was.
It was two days before Evan finally returned. I had spent the majority of that time getting to know my father and Cynda, and helping Ida in the kitchen to take my mind off the unknown. I had barely seen Andre for more than a few minutes, but I was pleased to find that he had enlisted Ingrid to help in isolating the virus that took down the network. Between them, Mike, and Holly, they had successfully quarantined the issue, but it would take weeks of testing before they were comfortable going back online.
When Evan did arrive, he was not alone. Several severe looking men and women accompanied him straight to his office and it wasn’t long before Dara and Abe were called to join them. Finally, after three hours, the rest of us received a request to join them for a briefing. When I arrived in the lobby a few minutes later, most of the hunters and security staff were already waiting for Evan’s door to open. I spotted Hugh, who caught my eye and smiled widely. I waved and made my way to where his wheelchair was parked.
“Hugh! It’s great to see you moving around!” I leaned down and gingerly hugged him. Though he was off breathing machines, there were still visible monitors sticking out of the collar of his shirt.
“You know it’s gonna take more than a couple of lousy bullets to keep me down,” he joked. His deep baritone voice still had a hollow, wheezy characteristic that made him sound a lot like an old jazz musician who spent a lifetime playing in smoky bars.
“Well you still scared me, and a lot of other people too.”
“All jokes aside, I have Abe to thank for being here today. I don’t pretend to know anything about the medical profession, but I know it sure felt like I was a goner.” His eyes darkened. “I wish I could have been there though, Lucy. I can’t help wondering… Sorry,” he wiped a tear from his eye and continued. “Carlos was my partner before Edgar and Lance joined up.”
“I didn’t know that. I’m sorry, Hugh.” The autopsy had confirmed that Carlos was killed by one of his own CPAs. His neck was broken after the fact, probably out of sheer spite. At least I knew that the vampire who killed him met the same end.
The door opened and Andre stepped out of Evan’s office. I hadn’t realized he was there already, but it wasn’t surprising. He stepped aside and nodded, indicating for everyone to enter. As I made my way through the door, he reached out and grabbed my hand, pulling me off to the side.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, expecting horrible news, but to my surprise, he smiled.
“Does something have to be wrong to want you near me? It’s going to be crowded in there and I didn’t want to have to try to find you.”
“I think I like this being in love business.”
When everyone else had gone in, we entered, hand in hand, and found a place to sit near the back wall. The first thing I noticed was that Evan was standing, albeit with crutches, but it was a good sign.
“Before we begin what I promise will be a long and confusing meeting, I’d like to address the tragedy that has befallen us. Carlos Trevino was a valuable asset to our organization, and I’m sure I speak for everyone here when I say, I am proud to have known him as a colleague and a friend. As we each take our own path toward reconciling his untimely death, keep in your hearts the knowledge that Carlos died as he lived; fighting for those who could not fight for themselves. I feel it is only appropriate that we take a moment to remember him.”
The silence was punctuated by the occasional sniff. Though I didn’t know Carlos as well as the others had, his death was no less painful to deal with. He had always been friendly and never once acted uncomfortable with what I was. What really hit me though, was the reality that this was truly a dangerous life. Sure, it was always there in the back of everyone’s mind, but Carlos’ death really drove home the point that the organization had been running on a twenty-one year streak of good luck. It was inevitable that at some point it was going to run out, and for Carlos, it had. I pushed aside the negative thoughts as Evan cleared his throat.
“Now, over the course of the last few days I have learned a lot about the government organization that we have been collaborating with. Some of this may come as a bit of a shock, so I’ll start with some history first. As you are all aware, I started this organization at the bequest of the New Orleans police force twenty-one years ago after my own attack. In the early days, there were just four of us hunters. But over the years, as we learned of the wide spread vampire problem, we recruited more hunters, and eventually brought into existence the Paris division.
“In 1994, I was approached by members of the US and European governments and ordered to stop what was seen as disorganized vigilantism. As you all know, I took that as a challenge and proved to the government officials that not only were we organized, but also that our track record was better than their own. In 1995, we were officially coopted into the Eclipse Project. In the sixteen years since, we’ve had nothing but cooperation from the project’s agents including the director, Jack Benson. That is, until recently. I know many of us have come up with a few different theories as to why things have changed, and we weren’t that far off.
“When Francis Dodd released the virus that took down the network, he didn’t realize that he was taking down EJC Research’s entire network. This included the portion that is contracted to various departments of both the US and European governments. But the government does not rely on one, or even a handful of networks, no matter how secure they may be. So when the network failed, all communications were immediately rerouted to several others and were heavily monitored. To explain what was discovered I’d like to hand the floor over to Margaret Cervantes of the National Security Agency.”
Evan sat down and nodded to a severe looking woman, with a pinched face and a tight gray bun, who looked as if she’d rather be anywhere but the center of attention. She stood and cleared her throat.
“In 1992, the shadow organization known as the Agency for Investigation of Subversive Curiosities, this being the organization to spearhead the Eclipse Project, was officially disbanded due to the discovery of a long history of corruption. Several agents were tried and found guilty of crimes, including treason and accepting bribes. The Eclipse Project was moved to the authority of the Exotic Threat Investigation Agency, a shadow organization headed by a secret subcommittee, under the Department of Defense, that dealt with unusual risks to our nation’s safety. With the switch, came the appointment of Jack Benson as head of the agency. Benson had been a lower level executive in the AISC, but unlike most of his superiors at the time, Benson’s record was clear.
“As Mr. Conroy stated, when a network is compromised, it is redirected and heavily monitored in the event that information can be obtained leading to what caused the outage. We intercepted a communication between Dodd and an entity that referred to itself simply as, the Committee. We discovered that the Committee was comprised of agents who had previously worked under the AISC. All of the agents who had been identified had received guilty convictions and served sentences for their actions in the AISC. This led to a full investigation and seizure of agency computers.
“What we found was that the AISC was very much alive and well, and influencing the actions of the ETIA through a series of threats, most recently made against the family of Jack Benson. The rogue agency appears to have been privately funded through sources we are currently investigating, as well as a complex scheme in which they sold their services to rival vampire fa
ctions. Once paid for services, the agency would take money from yet another rival, to eradicate the one they had just worked for, and so on.
“At the present, we have no way to corroborate the evidence, as Jack Benson was murdered in his home three days ago in an apparent robbery. Those subversive agents who were captured, employed what we refer to as the Cold War solution, meaning they took their own life rather than face inquiry. In light of this, the Department of Defense has ordered the indefinite suspension of the Eclipse Project. However, as you may be aware, Mr. Conroy can be… persuasive if he sets his mind to it, so I will let him explain what this means for your organization.”
My head was swimming from the overload of information the agent had just imparted. Coming from the unique perspective of someone who was raised by a politician, the idea that the government could not be trusted always seemed like a catchall phrase to sum up economic and social issues that were unpopular. Even after a year of working for what I thought was a legitimate shadow organization, I still maintained a shred of faith in the idea that the government had the public’s best interest in mind, even if their methods were impractical or flawed. Everything Agent Cervantes had just said, confirmed what we had suspected for the last few weeks. For some reason, I found this to be disappointing more than anything.
“As you know,” Evan stated as he stood up again, “our responsibility is not to the government, but to the people of New Orleans and Paris. The promise I once made to the chief of police still stands. We are no longer under contract to the governments of the US or Europe, but we, the shadow organization of EJC Research, will continue to provide the same protection that we have for the last twenty years.”
A murmur of approval rose up from the crowd and Evan held up his hand.
“However, there will be a few changes that I will be discussing in the weeks to come. But I can say right now, that in light of an unknown threat to both humanity and vampire kind, I am planning on having everyone train with Ida’s outreach. Many of you in this room tonight are here because someone touched your life in a way that made you reconsider your priorities.” At that, Ingrid and Holly both caught my eye and smiled. “I’ll be sending updates to your calendars. In the meantime, I suggest hitting the gym, we don’t want to be caught unprepared out there.”
The Eyes of the Sun: The Complete Trilogy Page 62
