Vampire Trilogy Series (Book 3): Vampire Equinox

by Philip Henry

  Rek woke with a start. It was night. He had fallen asleep again. He shook the heaviness from his head. It must be the painkillers they gave him at A&E that kept making him pass out. His clothes were wet and he was cold to the bone. He pulled out a pair of night-vision goggles from his backpack and looked around the reservoir. There were no signs of movement.

  He must be underground.

  When Rek had given Sarah and Lynda the slip at the hospital he had used his GPS tracker to locate the transmitter he had shot into Kaaliz’s stomach. It had led him here, to Ballinrees Reservoir. Rek had searched, but the signal seemed to be coming from under the reservoir. He thought Kaaliz must have found an underground cave below the water. If he had, it was a hell of a big cave. Rek had watched him move two-hundred yards in one direction, then back. There was something down there, something big. Kaaliz didn’t need oxygen but he couldn’t imagine him lying on the bottom of the reservoir during the daylight hours.

  It was still early, so Rek had decided to visit one of his more disreputable contacts and pick up some supplies. He was still back two hours before sunset with his backpack bulging. He had picked a spot in some tall reeds with a good view of the whole reservoir, and waited. Wherever Kaaliz was, he would come out as soon as the sun went down.

  Now he wondered if he had missed him. He rummaged in his pockets and found his GPS tracker. Kaaliz was within 30 yards of him. Somewhere. Rek looked around the darkness again. The goggles highlighted everything in shades of green. A low hum came from his left. He turned and saw something rising from the ground. Some kind of box. A coffin? No, too big. He checked his GPS. Whatever it was, Kaaliz was inside it. Rek grabbed his backpack and ran across the grass towards the rising box as quietly as possible. Kaaliz rocketed up into the night sky, not even noticing him. Rek got to the box and ran to the front of it. It was an elevator car. The doors started to close. He jumped inside.

  The doors opened and Rek found himself in a large room. He fumbled for a light-switch and found one. Fluorescents flickered on the length of the room. The light also brought with it an orchestra of screams and growls. Rek cautiously approached the room with the cages. They were hybrids. Nicholl had killed one years ago on Dempsey’s Island and they had taken it back to HQ for analysis. It turned out to be a vampire/Che’al hybrid. It had taken Nicholl and a team of soldiers to kill one of them and there must be… He looked around. There must be at least forty or fifty in here. So Mand was right; this had been Sheridan’s work.

  There was no doubt in his mind now. Killing Kaaliz had been his objective, but he couldn’t let these things live. If they ever got loose they would be virtually unstoppable. He dropped his backpack and started unloading the C4. He would wire the whole place with plastic explosive, wait ‘til Kaaliz got back and then bury the whole fuckin’ place. Whatever magics Kaaliz had working for him that allowed him to instantly heal wouldn’t do him much good under a hundred tonnes of concrete and earth. It would at least hold him. Rek wasn’t about to make the same mistake he had made before. He would bury him and then get the whole might of the Ministry here as soon as the sun came up. With that tracker buried in his gut, they would be able to pinpoint him easily and drag his worthless ass out of there and into a box at Ministry HQ. Forever.

  Rek grabbed the GPS tracker to make sure Kaaliz wasn’t on his way back. He saw the dot cross the screen at incredible speed then slow down and eventually stop. It took the GPS a few seconds to catch up with him and map his location, but when it did Rek recognized the street he had landed on. He knew what house the vampire would approach, and he watched on the screen as he did. It was Mand’s sister’s house.

  ‘Too late, asshole,’ Rek mumbled to himself. ‘Nobody’s home.’ Rek smiled. Even a small victory at this point was something to celebrate. He set down the GPS and started attaching the detonators to the first block of C4.

  He didn’t notice the dot on the GPS screen was returning the way it had come at considerable speed.

  Nicholl ran into Chloe’s house first. ‘Rek?’ She shouted louder to be heard over the sound of the helicopter landing outside. ‘Rek, are you here?’ she shouted up the stairs. Claire was ushering Zero Squadron off the bus outside. Chloe had hired a luxury coach with a bathroom and had bought several dozen changes of clothes. They had all taken their turn in the bathroom on the return journey, getting out of their wet clothes. Claire had also taken an inventory of who everyone was and what special skills they might be able to bring to the fight. She was heartened by what she heard. They might just see tomorrow after all.

  Nicholl ran into the living room. The picture was hinged backwards. Nicholl ran towards it. The safe behind the picture was open. The Fist of Merlin was gone!

  Nicholl ran to the front door. Chloe was just getting out of the helicopter. She ran towards Nicholl as the rotors began to slow. Nicholl grabbed her by the arm and ran her into the living room.

  She pointed at the empty safe. ‘Please tell me you moved it.’

  Chloe’s mouth dropped open. She stepped in closer and looked at the empty steel box. ‘I don’t believe it.’

  Nicholl dropped into an armchair. She took a few deep breaths, staring straight ahead.

  Claire ran into the living room. ‘OK, do I bring this lot inside or are we going straight to…’ She saw the empty safe and the looks of despair on Nicholl and Chloe’s faces. ‘Oh, shit.’

  Chloe leaned her back against the wall and slid to the floor. ‘Our whole plan was based on this. Without it… we can’t…’

  ‘Don’t say that!’ Nicholl shouted. She exhaled deeply. ‘Just give me a second to think,’ she said quietly.

  Claire and Chloe watched her.

  Nicholl got to her feet. ‘OK, here’s what we do.’

  ‘I know what you should do.’ Dave and Lynda walked in from the kitchen. Dave was wearing The Fist of Merlin around his neck. ‘You should buy a safe that isn’t so easy to break into.’

  Chloe, Claire and Nicholl started laughing with relief.

  ‘What took you guys so long anyway? I’m out at that bloody temple all day rebuilding the feckin’ thing. I get back here and everyone’s gone. Then Lynda shows up but she doesn’t know the combination of the safe. Then it got dark and still no one’s shown up.’ He nodded at Lynda. ‘We thought we were going to have to go to Mussenden Temple ourselves.’

  ‘We ran into a few snags. I’ll explain later. Right, let’s get the bus loaded. Any idea where Rek is?’

  ‘He ditched Sarah and me at the hospital. Haven’t seen him since,’ Lynda said.

  Nicholl looked concerned. ‘I’d better give him a call.’

  Rek looked through the window in the door to the Raiders room. It was a huge space and he would need to set charges, but there was one of those things running around in there periodically trying to smash through the door, wall and floor. He didn’t think it was going to be easily distracted. He looked up and saw vents in the roof of the room.

  He climbed up and pulled the grating off the vent outside the room. He shone a torch inside. The vent seemed to run the whole length of the room. He clambered inside and quickly shuffled his way down to the far end of the room, pushing his backpack in front of him. The creature smelled him. He could hear it below, jumping up at the ceiling that it had no chance of reaching.

  When he reached the end of the vent, he took out a block of C4 and armed it. He began to scuttle backwards, leaving another block every ten yards or so. When he reached the vent he had climbed in, he still had three blocks of C4 left. He armed them and pushed them into the vent as well. He didn’t know how much reinforced concrete was up there, but hopefully that much plastic explosive added to the pressure of the water above, should be enough to bring the roof down on this place.

  He ran around the corner towards the elevator and found Kaaliz standing there, a struggling teenage girl in his grasp. Rek stopped in his tracks. The two of them faced each other, twenty feet separating them.

  Kaaliz shook his head. �
��Just can’t keep a secret hideout secret anymore? How did you find me? Some computer gizmo probably, right?’

  ‘Let the girl go.’

  Kaaliz smiled. ‘Why? Because this is between us? Because she has nothing to do with it? You’re a walking cliché, my friend. But you’re also my guest, so I’ll oblige.’ Kaaliz hurled the girl across the room. She slammed into the wall and fell unconscious on the floor. Kaaliz turned back to Rek. ‘Pretty cute, eh? She’s going to be my new bitch.’

  Rek started to edge toward the girl. ‘Doesn’t seem too keen to me.’

  Kaaliz shrugged. ‘Give her a hundred years, she’ll come around.’

  Rek knelt down beside the girl and felt for a pulse. He closed his eyes briefly, then turned to Kaaliz. ‘She’s dead.’

  ‘Oh, what a pity,’ Kaaliz said flatly. ‘I suppose there’s no point in me staying here, then. Now that the word’s out about this little subterranean getaway.’ He took out a swipe card and walked to a terminal that said EMERGENCY on it. ‘I guess there’s nothing left to do but let the kids out to play.’ He swiped the card through.

  Every door in Project Redbook opened simultaneously. The cages too. Though it seemed none of the hybrids had noticed yet. But it wouldn’t take them long.

  ‘I’ll leave you to it.’ Kaaliz smiled. He turned toward the elevator. Rek pressed a button on the keypad in his hand and the elevator exploded, blowing Kaaliz back against the wall. Kaaliz got to his feet as the smoke started to clear. Rek looked at him and saw Kaaliz’s burned flesh becoming new before his eyes.

  ‘If I’m going to die down here, so are you,’ Rek said. He heard a growl from behind. He turned and saw the first of the hybrids had realised their cages were open. They charged towards him. Rek ran down the corridor he had just come from. At the end of the corridor the door to the Raiders room slammed open and a hybrid jumped out. Rek tried the office door to his left and jumped inside. The door wouldn’t lock. He pushed an empty filing cabinet against it, then a desk.

  He sat down on the floor and put his back against the desk. The door was being slammed from outside. His barricade wouldn’t hold for long. He looked at the keypad in his hand. All the rest of the C4 was wired to go off at the same time. One blinding flash of light and it would all be over. He put his finger to the button.

  Beep, beep, bop, buh, beep, beep, buh, bop,bop.

  Rek reached into his jacket and pulled out his phone. It was Mand. He took a deep breath and answered it.

  ‘Rek, where are you? We’re ready to go here at Chloe’s.’

  ‘Your plan worked, then? You got the zeros?’

  ‘Of course it did. Zero Squadron are right here. Where are you?’

  ‘I’m not going to make it, Mand.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’ve got him cornered… and ironically, he’s got me cornered, too. Only thing to do is to take him with me.’

  ‘What? No, Rek! Where are you?’

  ‘I’m sorry, Mand.’

  ‘Don’t do anything! Tell me where you are. I’ll come and get you.’

  ‘This has to end.’

  ‘I agree, but there’s another way. I’ve got a plan.’

  ‘I love you.’

  ‘Rek, tell me where you are.’

  ‘Bye, Mand.’

  secret weapons

  ‘Shit!’ Nicholl ran back into the living room. Claire had brought in one of the women from Zero Squadron. She was a slim woman with short, black hair. She stood nervously in this company.

  Claire raised her finger like a shy pupil trying to attract the attention of a busy teacher. ‘Ah, Agent Nicholl?’

  Nicholl held a quietening finger up to Claire. ‘Dave, that program you used to find me on the island, could you use it to track a mobile phone signal?’

  ‘Er, sure. If I had the number.’ Dave dropped into a chair and opened his laptop. She showed him the screen of her phone. He read the number off it and typed it in. In a few seconds he had bypassed the phone company’s security and was overlaying the signal onto a local map. He turned the screen to Nicholl.

  ‘Ballinrees Reservoir? What the hell’s he doing out there?’

  Tom and Sarah ran in. Claire hugged her son. They turned and joined everyone else, looking at Nicholl.

  ‘OK, who took stock of our zeros?’ Nicholl asked.

  Claire stepped forward. ‘I did. I think we’re in pretty good shape. Five of them are ex-field agents and two of them were specialist sharp-shooters.’

  ‘I’m not sure what good a sharp-shooter is…’

  ‘They’re crucial,’ said Dave.

  ‘We’re very lucky to find two of them,’ agreed Dave. ‘We’ve brought some weaponry that we’ve been working on, but without sharp-shooters, things would be a lot harder.’

  ‘You’ve… invented some weapons?’ Nicholl asked.

  The Daves looked at each other and smiled. ‘Oh yeah,’ they said in unison.

  ‘Don’t they need to be trained how to use them?’

  ‘What’s to train?’ Dave asked. ‘Point the dangerous end at the bad guys. Works for most things.’

  ‘We’ll give them a crash course on the bus,’ Dave added.

  ‘OK, you better start loading your gear into the luggage compartment.’ The Daves nodded and left. ‘OK, Claire. Who else have we got?’

  ‘Another eight of them have some kind of hand-to-hand combat training. And of course they all had basic sword skills training when they joined the Ministry.’

  ‘I’ve got enough swords for everyone,’ Chloe offered.

  Claire smiled. ‘And then there’s Lee-Anne,’ she said, ushering the slim girl forward. The girl blushed as everyone looked at her.

  Nicholl waited but the girl didn’t speak. She cleared her throat. ‘And what was your role at the Ministry?’

  The girl looked around all the anxious faces before answering, ‘I was the Delegation Secretary.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Well, basically there was the problem of everyone wanting to use the Slayer for every little thing and she couldn’t be everywhere at the same time, so all the requests came to me and I decided where to send her, you know, where she was most needed.’ She looked around the shocked faces in the room.

  Lynda managed to speak. ‘There’s an active Slayer around?’

  ‘Yes. She lives a couple of miles from here.’

  ‘A couple of miles away?’ Lynda asked. ‘Anyone else get the feeling everything’s playing out exactly as it’s supposed to?’

  ‘Is that a good thing?’ Tom asked.

  ‘Not according to the Vampyre Corpora,’ Chloe said.

  ‘OK, never mind about that, we’re going to change it.’ Nicholl turned to Lee-Anne. ‘Go on with what you were saying about the Slayer.’

  ‘She got so fed up with people calling her that she changed her mobile and moved here so no-one could find her. Except me, of course. I’m the only one who has her number.’

  ‘Is she hot? Like Sarah-Michelle hot?’ Tom asked. Sarah slapped his chest playfully. ‘What? I was just interested, so I’ll recognize her.’ Sarah shook her head, smiling.

  ‘She’s gorgeous,’ Lee-Anne said. ‘Abs to die for, a cleavage that has made grown men weep and a backside you could crack walnuts on.’

  Tom smiled and said, ‘Good to know.’ Sarah slapped him again, grinning.

  ‘Wait, the Ministry must have tried to get her number out of you,’ Nicholl asked.

  ‘Damn right they did,’ Lee-Anne said. ‘But see, I knew they were coming to arrest me so I erased all my phone records and burned my Rolodex before they got there so that the only record of her number left was in my head. Six months they interrogated me for before they gave up and sent me to Section Zero.’ She hung her head and mumbled, ‘All they had to do was reinstate me and I would have given it to them. One silly little slip-up should not condemn a person to Section Zero for the rest of their life.’

  ‘Why were they sending you to
Section Zero in the first place?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘They were doing this research with different levels of ultraviolet light, to see what effect it had on vampires. Turned out at a certain frequency it temporarily disrupted their brainwaves and made them act... well, sorta drunk. Everyone was emailing the video footage around HQ – it was hilarious. So I… well, I… posted it on YouTube.’

  ‘Won’t the Slayer think it odd that no-one’s contacted her in – how long since you last called her?’ Nicholl asked.

  ‘Almost two years. I doubt it. She’ll probably be glad of the rest. She’s been inactive for long periods before.’

  Nicholl looked around the other shocked members, then handed her phone to Lee-Anne. She took it with a smile and walked out to the kitchen for some quiet.

  ‘OK, Tom and Sarah, I want you to take The Fist of Merlin out to Mussenden Temple.’ She threw the amulet to them and Tom caught it. ‘You know what to do when you get there?’ They both nodded. ‘It might take a while to fit so get going. We’ll swing by and get this Slayer, then pick up Rek and meet you there. Whatever’s going to happen tonight is probably going to happen close to that stone, so be careful.’

  Tom hugged his mum. Lynda stepped forward and hugged Tom too. He looked at her, a little confused, then smiled.

  ‘Be careful,’ Lynda said and kissed his forehead. She turned to Sarah. ‘Both of you.’ She kissed Sarah’s forehead too.

  ‘We will,’ Sarah said. She took Tom’s hand and they ran outside. Lynda and Claire exchanged a look full of unsaid fears they both understood.

  ‘Chloe, take one of the sharp-shooters and follow them in the helicopter. Are you OK for fuel?’

  ‘Getting refilled as we speak.’

  ‘OK, everyone else on the bus. Let’s go pick up the ultimate vampire killer.’

  Everyone shuffled out. Chloe and Lynda were the last to leave.