by Jon F. Merz
But that didn’t matter because Zero and I had them both in our crosshairs.
16
I still didn’t recognize the man with Nadi because his head was covered with some sort of mask that he must have used earlier to disguise himself amid the desert sands. It looked almost like a Ghillie suit worn by snipers. Whoever this guy was, he must have had some sort of special training at some point in his life. Even now, as he recognized that he and Nadi had walked into a trap, he retained his weapon and his body language told me that he clearly had no intention of giving it up without a fight.
I put a single round into the sand by his feet. “Drop the gun.”
His head swung toward mine and I heard Zero fire his gun. Zero’s round kicked up sand at the man’s feet almost in the exact same spot as where I’d fired.
“You heard him.”
The man lowered his rifle gently to the ground, with an almost tangible sense of respect. I had a suspicion about where this guy had received his training, but didn’t want to say anything yet because Murad was still around.
Nadi tried taking a step and nearly fell to the ground. The sniper helped him back to his feet and they both stood there as we drew closer to them.
Murad looked pleased. “Well, we meet at last, Mr. Nadi.”
Nadi spat on the sand. “Save your pleasantries. These men intend to kill me.”
Murad laughed. “I hardly think so. They want your money. Isn’t that why they came to see you?”
“No,” said Nadi. “They came to find me because they have orders to kill me.”
Murad glanced at Zero. “What is he talking about?”
Zero sighed. “More craziness. I think he’s delusional, frankly. He was saying inside that he was a vampire. I don’t think we can trust anything this guy says.”
“They’re not lies,” said Nadi. “They’re vampires, too.”
Nadi had clearly given up caring how many people knew about his true identity, which made him far too dangerous to leave alive. The only unfortunate aspect to this was the bullets our weapons fired wouldn’t be enough to kill him. Otherwise, I would have raked his body with rounds and called it a day.
“Who is the man with you?” asked Murad. “Take off your mask.”
The man with the sniper gear stood there for several seconds until Zero gestured for him to do as Murad had commanded. Then finally, he slowly unwrapped the head gear he wore and removed it.
He was older - much older - than I’d expected. Something about his face seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. Then I heard Zero’s intake of breath and knew he must have recognized him.
“Darius.”
Murad glanced at Zero. “You know this man?”
Zero caught himself but by then it was too late. He couldn’t deny it. “Aye, I know him. As corrupt a bastard as ever there was one.”
“This is definitely going to make for an interesting bit of interrogation,” said Murad. “Once I get the two back to my headquarters and allow my specialists to go to work on them, I imagine I’ll get a lot of useful information out of them.”
Zero looked at me and I saw the expression on his face. There was no way we were going to allow Murad to take Nadi and Darius with him. No way.
“I’m afraid we can’t let you do that,” said Zero.
And then before I caught the movement, Darius dropped to his knees, grabbed his rifle and put a single shot into Murad’s chest. The Egyptian intelligence officer caught the bullet just below his heart and dropped like a rock to the ground. He was probably already dead before he did so and fell face first into the sand.
Zero and I fired at the same time, our rounds catching Darius and causing him to lose his grip on the rifle, spinning away from the shots. But the bullets didn’t do any lasting damage to him, so we closed immediately after firing. I didn’t know if Darius’ gun had Fixer rounds, but I had to assume it did until I could confirm. That meant we needed to get it away from him as quickly as possible to ensure our own safety.
I charged, rolling right over Nadi who fell to the ground and started whining about his legs, and dropped Darius with a quick shot to his temple with the butt of the Misr. He grunted and dropped but as he did, he pivoted and swept my legs out from under me. I fell hard into the sand and knocked my head back against the dune.
Darius was on me pretty quick and I caught a handful of sand in my eyes that robbed me of my vision. I felt the first punches rain down on my head and saw stars.
But then Zero tackled Darius and the two of them went sprawling across the way. I scrambled to my feet, checked to make sure that Nadi was still unable to be a threat, then grabbed Darus’ rifle up. I got a bead on his back.
“Stop!”
Darius froze immediately and Zero clambered off of him, rolling clear so I had a clean shot if necessary.
“I’m guessing you have the appropriate ammunition in this?” I asked.
Darius nodded. “The rounds you and your mentor typically use. Yes.”
“Good, then we can get somewhere now.”
Darius stayed where he was while Zero gathered Nadi up and then dragged him back to his friend.
I glanced at Zero. “Is this the entire party?”
Zero took a breath. “I think so. Darius is on the Council, so it would appear that everyone is here at last.” He looked at Nadi. “Your guardian angel finally decided to show up, huh?”
“He missed a check-in,” said Darius.
“So you flew all the way over?” Zero frowned. “Just for him?”
“He’s my step-brother,” said Darius. “Family.”
“Who taught you how to dress like a sniper?” I asked.
Zero chuckled. “Isn’t it obvious? Darius was on-track to become on of us, Lawson.”
“A Fixer?”
“But he didn’t graduate training. Washed out before he could complete it. Performance drop as I recall. But then he was given the option to become part of a Spectre unit guarding our communities.”
That would explain why Darius wasn’t a big talker. Specter units were renown for their ability to be largely invisible in the areas surrounding vampire communities. They acted as a sort of security force, ensuring that the people who lived there remained unmolested by the humans. They’d been used on Fixer operations in the past, but not all that much. There was a lot of resentment normally between my Service and the Spectre units because they were comprised of people who had made it to a certain point in Fixer training but then failed for one reason or another. The feeling was typically that the Spectre units were on a lower level than Fixers. This was true only because we had more training than they did and could do more. But the Spectre units were fierce; partly I was sure, because they felt they had to prove their worth all the more.
“How in the world did he end up on the Council if he was Spectre?”
Darius grinned. “Because someone finally saw my true worth and elevated me out of that regrettable position I had found myself in.”
“Whose ass did you save?”
Darius shook his head. “You’ll never know, I assure you. And besides, she’s long since departed from this life.”
“Sexual favors?” asked Zero. “Was that it? Some bored housewife who had nothing better to do than give herself over to a strapping young stuff like you? You bedded her enough times to make her so willing to use whatever influence she had to garner you a position in power?”
“She meant more to me than that,” said Darius. “But your kind will never understand such a thing. Fixers hop from willing participant to willing participant without any thought for what you leave behind.”
“Says the guy who never became one,” I said. At the same time, I was struck by the statement given my desire to quickly wrap this up and get to Santorini. I had to be honest with myself; I hadn’t given much thought to ever finding Miss Right. I was usually fixated on finding Miss Right Now.
But that was also the nature of the work. You couldn’t settle down wit
h someone when at any moment you could get a recall notification and find yourself halfway around the world within the next twelve hours hunting down a bad guy. Stable relationships and being in this line of work didn’t go together all that well. It was just the cost of doing what I did.
And to think, I’d been born into this. Free choice went out of the window once I’d had my centennial sit-down with the Council and discovered I was slated to become a Fixer. So that was another problem.
We made the best of things, obviously, but I’d be lying if I said it was a cake walk. Fixers wanted love, too. The question was where to find it?
“We need to wrap this up,” said Zero. “The longer we stay out in the open like this, the less I like it.” He looked at Nadi. “I take it Darius here is your only contact on the Council?”
“Would it matter if I said no?”
Zero shrugged. “Probably not. I don’t expect that you’d tell me the truth anyway. You’ve already proven you have no integrity whatsoever. Announcing to the humans about the existence of our people…not just once but twice.” Zero shook his head. “Honestly, I can’t even fathom it.”
“It was a desperate act of self-preservation,” said Nadi. “You probably would have done the same thing if you’d been in my place.”
“No,” said Darius. “They wouldn’t. They’re Fixers. They live for the goal of going to the grave without ever hurting their precious Balance.”
“It’s an honorable goal,” said Zero. “Something you’d never understand.”
“I know what honor is,” said Darius. “It’s exactly what compelled me to fly over here in an attempt to rescue my step-brother.” He sniffed. “What’s it like not knowing how to sacrifice for your family?”
I frowned. It was true that most Fixers didn’t have much in the way of family. For some strange reason we all seemed to come from homes where parents had passed early or something tragic had happened. I didn’t know if it was the universe sparing us the heartache of doing a job that we couldn’t tell anyone about, or preparing us to have fewer vulnerabilities in the event of capture or being killed in the field. Either way, I missed mine, such as it was.
“I admire your willingness to try to save him,” said Zero. “But I do not admire your willingness to sell our people out by protecting Nadi and his activities that could easily jeopardize our kind.”
“Who’s to say that his actions aren’t sanctioned by the Council?” asked Darius. “Maybe they want him doing exactly what he’s doing so they can keep tabs on what the Soviets are up to when it comes to backing terrorist groups.”
“I doubt that,” said Zero. “The Council has Ferrets they can turn to for that information.”
Darius laughed. “Please. You know as well as I do that they need intelligence from the ground. Nadi is in a position to do just that.”
“Unfortunately,” said Zero. “He won’t be in that position much longer.”
I looked at Zero and he looked back. It was time to end this and get the hell out of Egypt. I raised the rifle Darius had been using, made sure the safety was off, and then sighted down the barrel.
17
But before I could squeeze off a shot, another volley of gunfire tore the night air apart.
I dove left using Murad’s body as a shield while I tried to ascertain where the gunfire had come from. Zero dove straight ahead at Darius and Nadi, rolling into them both and using them as shields as well.
Bullets kicked up sand all around us. Who the hell as firing at us now? It couldn’t have been any of Murad’s men since they were all dead as far as I knew. Hopefully, it wasn’t another unknown guardian angel of Nadi’s.
That left only one real possibility: Salah.
He must have managed to get his hands on some weapons and decided to come back and finish the job he needed done. Specifically, killing Nadi.
We wanted him dead as well, so even as the ground tore apart from the impact of bullets, I brought the sniper rifle up and sighted into Nadi’s chest.
A single shot ruined my chances of killing Nadi when the round splanged off the barrel of my rifle and opened it up. The impact tore the rifle from my grasp and then the gunfire ceased.
“None of you have to die!”
I recognized Salah’s voice. He continued speaking. “I just want Nadi. He and I have some unfinished business that needs concluding before I can afford to have him killed. Kindly send him over.”
I glanced at Zero. If we let Nadi out of our hands now, there was no guarantee that we’d ever get a shot at him again. I knew that Salah wanted to know who Nadi spoke to in the Soviet government and where his money was coming from, but if we let Nadi go, then he’d continue to spill his guts about our people.
And if we didn’t let him go, Salah was going to try to kill us all. That would prove difficult given that we were vampires and his bullets couldn’t kill us. And if he realized that Nadi was telling the truth, then we suddenly had a whole lot more people we would need to kill in order to keep the secret of our existence safe.
Great choices.
If you could even call them that.
I could see that Zero was having a hard time grappling with what to do. But in the end, there wasn’t much choice. If we gave Nadi up and he continued to spew nonsense about us being vampires, Salah would in all likelihood not believe him. But if we didn’t give him up and Salah opened fire and we didn’t die, then we’d pretty much just confirmed what Nadi had alleged.
“You’ll need to send someone down to help him,” called Zero. “His legs aren’t working that well.”
Nadi sniffed. “The hell.” He rose to his feet as if nothing had happened to him at all back in the chamber. He looked up at where Salah’s position was. “You see? You see how I walk now? Even after the drilling through my legs? Surely you recognize how utterly insane this is. Surely you know I speak the truth.”
What the hell was he driving at? Why was he continuing to talk about us all being vampires? It didn’t make sense. If anything, it would just make Salah fear him all the more-
Dammit.
That’s exactly what he wanted.
“You know now that I cannot be killed,” said Nadi. “Shoot me in the chest right now and I will prove that I shall continue to live.”
For a moment, nothing happened. I could almost feel Salah debating whether to do it or not.
Then a single shot rang out and punched Nadi right through…his left shoulder.
Nadi screamed out. After all, we still felt the pain of the bullet tearing into us even if the damage it did was minimal. There would still be an entry and exit wound potentially as well.
“I can’t take the chance of shooting you in the chest,” said Salah. “Your shoulder injury should prove to us on way or another if what you claim is true.”
I could read the expression on Zero’s face. He was completely disgusted with Nadi and I felt the same. But I had to hand it to him. He’d taken a bad situation and somehow managed to turn it around into a potentially interesting maneuver. Only time would tell if it worked out for him or not. But we couldn’t afford to wait.
Nadi winced as he tried to make his shoulder work. The pain on his face was clearly evident and I didn’t find the display particularly convincing. Nadi lifted his wounded arm and waved at Salah’s position.
Again, nothing happened for a moment. And Nadi kept moving his arm. Each time he did so, the movement got better and better and I was impressed. It normally took longer than that to heal a wound, but Nadi was clearly trying to impress Salah and convince him that he was, in fact, a vampire.
I didn’t know what sort of image Salah had in his head of what a vampire was, but I doubted he would go in for the whole night dwelling bloodsucker bit. Still, just seeing that Nadi could move his arm as well as he was must have impressed Salah to a certain extent.
“Do you see?” called Nadi. “Do you see how I am able to move it? My body is healing itself. I will be perfectly fine within a few hours. And you
will know that I am invulnerable. You should allow me to once again be in charge. Work with me, Salah, and we will take over the entire business of funding terrorists across the globe.”
A single shot rang out and punched through Nadi’s chest. I almost smirked, to be honest. I hadn’t been expecting it and clearly, neither had Nadi. But I couldn’t say that I blamed Salah for shooting him there. Nadi had asked him to earlier and now that Salah had seen the first gunshot not affect Nadi as it would have a human, he’d decided to accept his offer of shooting him right in the heart.
Nadi fell back on the ground and I saw a lot of blood spilling out of his chest. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought the guy was dead. But he wasn’t. And even as I watched, Nadi started moving again after the momentary shock of the gunshot had worn off.
He cried out from the pain that he no doubt felt enveloping his chest, but he’d live just as he had before. And this is where things got really bad for me and Zero. We now had a whole contingent of how many humans who had been exposed to the truth of what Nadi was, and by default, what we were as well. It was bad enough when one human might have known. Now we had a whole lot more of them.
Not cool.
I wanted nothing more than to stake him and be done with it.
Glancing down at the ground where the remnants of the sniper rifle lay, I don’t know what suddenly took me over. I dropped and grabbed a part of the wooden foreshock and ripped it off. It came free easily in my hand and I narrowly avoided the splintered end of it. I was already running toward Nadi at that point and I saw Zero moving on Darius at the same time.
Gunfire rang out but I ignored it and kept running toward Nadi as he started to try to sit up again.
No time.
I dove, somersaulted across the sand and came up plunging the wooden piece deep into Nadi’s exposed chest.
His hands clutched mine and he pulled me in close to him. Blood decorated his teeth and he sputtered into my face, not believing that I had just driven a piece of wood into his heart.
