Blood Thirst

by Lena Hillbrand

  It had been raining when Byron had gone out to talk to her, which only made his mood worse. And he hadn’t found anything important, so he’d gotten soaked for nothing. The only good thing to come out of the visit happened when the woman showed Byron her best breeder sap, who didn’t look nearly as impressive as the one Byron had rented. But the woman told him the breeder had the highest success rate of any breeder she’d had, and even better, seventy-five percent of his offspring were female. Byron got the name of her farm in case he needed to rent a breeder next time his female needed one.

  Byron had combed through all the records dozens of times and found little to raise his suspicions. One missing person had disappeared along with his sap. Neither registered as having arrived anywhere else. They simply vanished, like Milton said. The number of male and female disappearances didn’t differ significantly. Occupations were random. Two had been travelers, another visiting an old friend. The most noticeable files were two Enforcers. One had worked on the case, which only made Byron more convinced that Kidd was involved. An Enforcer goes to talk to suspects, finds Kidd, gets suspicious, and the boy simply kills him and does whatever he does with the bodies.

  Byron was sitting at his desk when his pod flashed. Milton’s face popped up and Byron accepted the call.

  “Byron, glad I caught you. Got another case to add to our stack.”

  “Just what we needed.”

  “This one’s fresh.”

  “Good. Digging through these dusty files isn’t very rewarding. Everything’s been cold for too long.” Sometimes he still used the language common in his human years. But the other Enforcers had all lived at the same time, so they understood, unlike Thirds, who came up with their own dullard expressions.

  “This here is still warm, so to speak,” Milton said. “Man driving up here from down in your neck of the woods, in fact. Name’s John Shaw. Don’t guess you know him, but you never know.” The other Enforcers used antiquated expressions, too.

  “Never heard of him. Order?”

  “Third. Under Cause of Relocation he put ‘boredom.’ Guess he won’t be bored anymore.”

  “I guess not, Milton. I guess not. So what happened, he never showed up?”

  “Not quite. He’d heard from a friend who lives up here that there were jobs and skiing in the winter, and I guess John thought he’d try his hand at it. That was his reason for choosing Princeton. He was right outside of here, few miles west, and it looks like he got excited and registered that he’d already entered Princeton. The Entrance Officers gave him a few days to get settled because sometimes people don’t check in when they’re supposed to. But this John never showed up at the apartment he rented, and his friend never heard from him.”

  “Maybe he stopped along the way.”

  “We checked his pod and it was destroyed or deactivated, same way they’ve all been. But whoever’s responsible, this serial killer if I may use the cliché, must have gotten careless, because they left the electronic chip in his car. We found it at the bottom of a lake a few miles out, near a ghost town just west of here.”

  “Superior or sapien?”

  “Human settlement, I believe. I’ve been here since the War ended, and far as I know, no one had lived there a good long time when I settled in Princeton. It’s too small to be Superior, anyhow. Must be sapiens built it.”

  “You’ve never been there?”

  “No. Just hear stories now and then. Rumors.”

  “Has anyone ever checked out the rumors?”

  “Don’t know, sir. Not the kind of rumor with credibility.”

  “Such as?”

  “Oh, you know. Everything from ‘the town is a utopian paradise where sapiens and Superiors live side by side in magnanimity’ to ‘ghosts come and suck out your soul while you’re sleeping.’ Fairy tales, I’d say.”

  “Feel like checking out a fairy tale, Enforcer?”

  “Afraid I got some other things to handle in town. Got to keep the town up and running, even with y’all here. Been getting a few reports of a restaurant serving up sapiens for more than nourishment. Going to go check that out tonight, but I’ll send Caleb over there with you.”

  “Make it Drake, if you don’t mind.”

  “I’ll see what I can do.”

  By the time Byron had gotten ready to leave, Milton still hadn’t gotten back to him, so he went into his sapiens’ apartment and fed quickly. Their reek had started to bother him, but he hadn’t let them into his apartment, so at least their stench stayed confined to their own space. After he ate from both saps, he still hadn’t heard anything, so he went down to the Enforcement office.

  “Is Drake around?” Byron asked when he found Caleb.

  “He’s out on one of his daily wanderings. You ever notice how that guy never does any work?”

  “Yeah, all right. Well, I’ve got some work to do myself and I need a backup, so I guess you’ll have to do.” As much as Byron disliked Caleb, he wasn’t stupid enough to go alone into an area where a Superior had just disappeared.

  “So where we going?” Caleb asked as Byron pulled out onto the road. At least the rain had stopped. And maybe they’d find something big. Maybe the night would turn around after all.

  “Out to this ghost town where a man disappeared a few days ago.”

  “Oh, yeah, I heard about that place. I’ve been wanting to check it out for myself. I’m glad you chose me to come along.”

  “Wait, where did you hear about it?” Byron asked, surprised that the man knew anything he didn’t. Caleb never seemed to do anything but recheck all Byron’s facts. Particularly annoying because Byron didn’t make mistakes.

  “It was in the files. One of the missing saps was found dead there. File said a wild animal killed it. I say serves the damn thing right for running away in the first place. Though it is a shameful waste of food.”

  Maybe Byron had judged the man too harshly. Caleb rechecked all his facts, but he also noticed different things than Byron. Byron had focused mostly on the saps that remained unaccounted for. He hadn’t paid too much attention to the ones who had been recovered, dead or alive. And he wouldn’t have thought the ghost town important anyway, since only a sap had turned up dead in the place. Saps would run any which way, with no plan and no destination, like panicked animals that ran in front of moving vehicles. They didn’t have any sense about it.

  “You check out every place a dead sap is found?” Byron asked.

  “No, I just like this kind of thing. I used to read all these ghost stories when I was a boy. I read anything I could find that was supposedly a true story about hauntings and ghosts and that kind of thing. I thought it would be neat to see a real ghost town.”

  “You do know a ghost town isn’t a town full of ghosts, right?”

  Caleb laughed. “Sure, but there might be a few. Besides, I might see something you don’t.”

  “Like a ghost?”

  “No, like something in the dead man’s car.”

  “How’d you know we were going to look at a car?” Byron asked. He hadn’t said anything about a car.

  “I hear everything you do, Enforcer. We’re on the same team, remember? You aren’t keeping secrets, are you?”

  “Of course not. I forgot about Milton knowing,” Byron said, although he was still suspicious. Maybe he just wanted a reason not to like Caleb.

  The trip only took a few minutes. They came to the lake with the submerged car before the town.

  “This is a disappointment,” Caleb said. “Maybe we can go check out the town afterwards.”

  “Maybe,” Byron said, though he kept thinking about the strange sound his car had been making since he hit a bad spot in the road. No one came out this way anymore, so the roads hadn’t been maintained, and his car didn’t handle that kind of driving too well. “Come on, let’s have a look at the car.”

  Whoever disposed of the car hadn’t been subtle about it. They had rolled the car from the road down an embankment where the trees ha
d been felled during a mudslide. The car had left tracks, but the night’s rain had washed away most of them. If only they’d come out the night before. Byron and Caleb picked their way over the muddy patches to the water. Two work vehicles had already arrived on the site and drudged up the car. The burned-out shell now sat on the shore of the lake.

  “Go on and have a look, sirs,” one of the men from the work crew said, swinging down from his vehicle. He was a Third, like all manual laborers, and dressed in work gear and a cap. “Not much to look at, but go on and do your thing, Enforcers. We haven’t been inside to disturb anything yet. Once you fellows get done with her, we’ll take it in to the scrap yard to take the metal parts if there’s anything left we can use. Sirs.”

  “Did you see where it was burned?” Byron asked.

  “Up on the road,” Caleb said. Byron glanced at him again, suspicion mixing with surprise. Surely he wouldn’t have missed that. But then, he hadn’t known the car had been burned, so he hadn’t looked for a burnt spot on the road.

  “From what we figure, sirs,” the workman said, “the car was torched up on the road, then let to burn a while before they sent it down the hill. It sunk slowly, looks like. The bottom of the lake is a real gentle grade, so the car slowed when it hit the water and only went in a little at a time. You can see how the bottom is still mostly intact, on account of being in the water, we’d guess. That’s the only reason your officers were able to track the pod. If it had burned…” The Third shrugged.

  “Thank you for your expert opinion,” Byron said, holding out a tin of cigarettes. “Would you care for a smoke?”

  “Are you sure, sir?”

  “Yes, take one. You’ve earned it.”

  “Thank you, sir. Haven’t had one of these in years.”

  Byron handed the man his lighter, and they stood smoking and looking at the car. Caleb circled the car slowly, touching it here and there and inhaling deeply. When he’d finished, he came back to where Byron stood. “The scents have all been lost in the fire. Even on the bottom. The floor is intact, but the carpet melted. Everything is black and smells of smoke.”

  Byron finished his cigarette before he and Caleb looked over the inside of the car. Caleb was right. No scent except that of fire remained. Much of the inside of the car had burned away and the remains washed into the lake. Who would do that? Kidd? It made no sense for him to kill a Third Order Superior with no livestock to steal.

  If Kidd collected humans, it made sense for him to kill an Enforcer who had gotten too close, too suspicious. Byron made a note to be more careful. Kidd could hire anyone he wanted to take Byron out so he wouldn’t have to do it himself. Not that he would mind—Byron had a sense that Kidd was a bloodthirsty kind of man, one who might enjoy a little leisurely conversation while he dismembered his foe. But if he wanted to keep his hands clean, he could have bribed anyone, maybe even Caleb. Or maybe he’d hire Third Orders to do the job and then get rid of them. But why kill John Shaw before the man had even reached Princeton? He couldn’t have failed Meyer already if he hadn’t even reached the target.

  Byron’s paranoia made him a little jumpy, but he finished the obligatory search of the car before giving the workmen the go-ahead to take it for parts. The metal was the only usable material left—the only part left at all, really. The two Enforcers watched the men load the car onto a trailer before they headed back up to the road. Byron looked for the black spot he hadn’t noticed. If he didn’t see it, he’d know Caleb had let slip the details of the burning with no evidence to point that way. But no such luck.

  The spot remained black despite the rain, although the sharpness of it had blurred like a watercolor painting. Byron kept glancing at Caleb, trying to decide if the man was a traitor sent to kill him, or if he’d gotten paranoid and edgy because he wasn’t making as much progress as he would have liked.

  “Wanna go check out the ghost town?” Caleb asked as soon as they got in the car.

  Byron thought a moment and then said, “If the road’s not too bad, and it’s not too far.” He’d rather go back, but if the ghost town held even one clue, he couldn’t pass it up.

  The town lay only a few miles further, but the road was so bad it took a while to get there. When they pulled up, the town looked even worse than Byron had imagined. The buildings crumbled into the street, which was blocked by a large brick building that had long ago collapsed.

  “I guess this is as far as we can go,” Byron said, turning off the car.

  “Wanna go sniff around?” Caleb was already halfway out of the car when Byron said no. Byron sighed and got out, too. The night smelled like rain, and Byron knew they had only an hour or so before dawn. He wanted to get back to Princeton before daylight.

  “Don’t take too long,” he called to Caleb, who picked his way over the collapsed pile of rubble. Byron followed after a wistful look at his car. He left the car unlocked, since he doubted anyone would be stealing cars around here. Except maybe a human ghost. The thought made him smile as he stood atop of a pile of cement and brick refuse. The town had been demolished. Most of the buildings had been ransacked and the steel supports reconstituted during the war years or during Princeton’s construction. Only a few buildings remained, and they didn’t look much better than the piles of debris that marked the ones that had fallen.

  Byron caught up with Caleb standing in what used to be the main street through town. Caleb held up a hand and Byron stopped and looked around.

  “I smelled something,” Caleb said very quietly.

  Byron inhaled and turned in both directions, but only the scents of dirt and rain and the trees further off greeted him. “What is it?” he asked. “Dead sapien?”

  “No,” Caleb said. “One of us.”

  Byron looked around, more alert now. A dead Superior had been found a few miles away, and now Caleb said he smelled another one in this supposedly empty sapien town.

  “You savor it?” Caleb asked after another minute of scenting.

  “No,” Byron said at the same moment that he did. “Yes.”

  They both looked in the same direction, towards a crumbling building on another street. They walked quietly in the direction of the scent, both searching. The scent was definite now, not just a trace. A slight breeze brought it more clearly, and they increased their pace. The building stood in a long row of crumbling buildings, but it alone angled out of the rubble in one last defiant stand. It sagged to one side, and the air of decay around it hung as heavy as anywhere else. The building had a second story, the roof collapsing inward.

  As they approached, the smell coming from inside the building grew stronger. In a live city, Byron would never have detected the scent, but with no other live scents around, he could spot a single one with ease. He’d never encountered a scent like it. It wasn’t just unfamiliar, though. Something about it wasn’t right. What kind of Superior would live here, alone in a town even sapiens had abandoned, albeit not willingly? Maybe he was trapped here. Maybe Kidd had burned the car and brought John Shaw here for some purpose. What had he hidden inside?

  Before Byron had time to imagine, the door on the second floor opened and a boy stepped out.

  37

  “We’ve got to get out of here,” Cali said. She and Shelly were digging potatoes and stacking them in the walkway of the garden.

  “Girl, keep dreaming,” Shelly said.

  “I’m not dreaming. I’ve done it twice before.”

  “You’ve run away, twice?” Shelly asked, spinning on his heel to look at Cali.

  She shrugged. “Yeah.”

  “How?” he asked, his eyes wide.

  “I don’t know. I got lucky, I guess. Or unlucky. I got away and I ran, but both times I got caught. It wasn’t that hard. We can do it again.”

  “I don’t know, girl. I don’t like Master any more than you do, but we gotta get used to it. I mean, we can’t run away.”

  “Why not?”

  “Well, for one, we’d get sent to the blood bank
. And I don’t know about you, but that just doesn’t sound like fun to me.”

  “It’s not.”

  “You were in the blood bank?” Shelly stopped working to stare at Cali again. “How come you never told me this before?”

  “I don’t know. But I know I can’t stay here.”

  “Girl, I know it’s bad, but we’ve got each other. You honestly telling me it’s worse than the blood bank?”

  Cali paused and rubbed a spot of dirt off a potato. “I guess not.”

  “See? We’ve gotta stick together. We’ll make it, girl.” Shelly loosened the dirt around a potato and tugged it out of the soil.

  “No,” Cali said. “You can say that because Master’s not sending in some huge monster to mate you until you have a baby.”

  “Hey, you wanted to have a baby with me, anyway. Maybe, I don’t know…you’ll get used to it.”

  “I’ll get used to it? Is that the best you can do? Shelly, I don’t want to get used to it. I’d rather risk the blood bank. Maybe one of these times, I’ll make it.”

  “Make what?”

  “You know, make it out of here. Be free.”

  “And do what?”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never done it.”

  “How would we eat? Where would we live? Where would we get clothes and food and a house, and a bed, and things to cook with, and ways to protect ourselves from the cold and animals and being caught?”

  “I don’t know, Shelly. But I’m tired of this, and next time that…breeder comes, I don’t know if we’ll be able to fend him off, and if he’ll keep his mouth shut. We were lucky that time he didn’t tell Master.”

  “Maybe Master will just think you can’t have babies.”

  “He already bought me. You really think he’s going to give up after one try?”

  Shelly gathered an armload of potatoes and stood. “Well… maybe not. But hey, maybe after you have a couple babies…”