The Children of the Sun

by Christopher Buecheler

  Vanessa felt something inside of her rising up at the cavalier tone in Charles’s voice, but she made an effort to fight it off. This caused another coughing fit.

  “Yes, you’re definitely seeing the doctor as soon as we arrive,” Charles said, his voice amused.

  “Maybe we both should!” Vanessa snapped without meaning to, and then felt her cheeks warming. Charles looked again over his shoulder, one eyebrow arched.

  “Do you really think he hasn’t seen me already?” he asked, and Vanessa shrugged.

  “Last time I saw you, you said you were fine.”

  “Yes, well, I suspect the time for putting on a bold face has passed.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “That is something we can discuss later. For now, please … tell me what happened.”

  Vanessa took a breath – shallow, still, trying not to induce another coughing fit – and continued. “Burke shot the Ames woman, but it wasn’t a kill. I lost track of him after that, but I heard he took a blade to the head. Janus and Paulo were stationed at the exits as planned. I entered and engaged with the council leader. He didn’t have a weapon and adopted a large candlestick.”

  “I take it that went poorly?” Charles asked.

  “I cut off his head,” Vanessa said. She had felt satisfaction at the time, but felt little of it now. Too much had gone wrong.

  “Very good,” Charles said.

  “That was the last thing that went right,” Vanessa said. “I had a chance at taking Ames out as well, but another vampire fired at me. I didn’t get a good look, but I think it was the guy who showed up out of nowhere a couple of years ago with the blonde girl.”

  “Yes, we’ve been monitoring them. The woman has been in combat training, but her patron seemed uninterested.”

  “He’s halfway competent with a gun, anyway,” Vanessa said. “I saw him and dove out of the way, but the shot would have been good. After that, I crawled back behind the altar and lost track of them for a time.”

  “Did you have a firearm?”

  “I did, but the position was terrible. I was in a depression with limited visibility, and I was concerned that trying to fire from there would only bring a bunch of them down on my head. I saw Ames escape with the mystery vampire, and the blonde girl went with the two Ay’Araf into the office wing. I left my location and met up with Janus, Paulo, and Connors, and told them that the Ay’Araf head was the most important target remaining.”

  “An accurate assessment.”

  “Right, well, we followed them into the office wing and engaged them. I … Janus wanted to open fire, but I told him to wait for the Captain. It was a mistake and I take full responsibility for what happened next.”

  “What did happen next, Lieutenant?” Charles asked. His voice was light, but Vanessa could nonetheless feel the weight of his judgment bearing down on her. Surely he would be disappointed.

  “The two Ay’Araf attacked without warning,” she said. “I ordered Janus to fire, but … Charles, the speed of these things is amazing. It’s like watching the Captain, only this man moved like a dancer. He slid under the bullets and when he came up, he took Janus’s gun hand off in one swing.”

  Charles was nodding. “I trust you have a better understanding now of why we were so loathe to attack the vampire council before Captain Perrault fell into our hands?”

  “Very much so, sir.” Vanessa said, and began to detail the fight. She explained what had happened to Janus, Connors, and Oliveira, and finished by admitting her own inability to handle the Ay’Araf councilmember by herself. “He would have killed me if the Captain hadn’t arrived.”

  “You don’t sound particularly happy with the Captain,” Charles commented.

  “Do I have permission to speak freely?” Vanessa asked him.

  Charles laughed. “When have you ever needed my permission to do that?”

  “Where the hell was she? She hung back until half the building was on fire.”

  Charles looked over his shoulder again, this time favoring her with a sympathetic smile. “The Captain was obeying orders delivered to her by the Emperor himself. She was not to engage at all unless your team had not returned by a specified time.”

  “But why? She’s goddamned indestructible. I might still have my squad if she had been there from the start.”

  Charles sighed and shook his head. “Captain Perrault is not indestructible. Vanessa, I know it is difficult even for the most devoted of subjects, but you must trust in the Emperor’s wisdom and vision. He gave me those orders, and I relayed them to the Captain, and she followed them to the letter, as always.”

  “I would never question the Emperor. I had no idea she was acting on his orders, sir. She didn’t tell me.”

  “No, I suppose she wouldn’t have. Captain Perrault is not particularly talkative.”

  Vanessa gave a small laugh. “Uh … no.”

  “It is to my great pleasure that she arrived when she did, and so kept us from losing you. I lament the loss of your men and can only assure you that their sacrifice was not in vain. We have struck a blow to the vampires of America that the Emperor and I believe will prove fatal.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Vanessa told him. She was tired and hurt, but it was the truth. If all they had done in the past few weeks really meant the eventual elimination of vampires in America, she knew her men would’ve considered their lives well spent.

  “So the Captain killed the senior Ay’Araf?”

  “Yes. She cut his head off.”

  “Very good. What of the two women?”

  Vanessa sighed. “This is where it gets complicated.”

  Charles glanced back at her, one eyebrow raised, but opted not to speak. Eventually Vanessa continued.

  “The Ay’Araf woman moved out of my sight while fighting Paulo. She must have … they had a secret exit that we weren’t aware of. She was able to rendezvous with another vampire, who then attempted to rescue the blonde woman.”

  “It seems as if they must have been far too late for that.”

  “They would have been, but the Captain … Charles, she recognized the blonde woman.”

  Charles did not look back at her again, but she saw him grow stiff, as if holding back some much-stronger reaction. At last he said, almost casually, “She what?”

  “She stopped dead in her tracks and said, ‘I know you,’ and the blonde woman agreed. She seemed surprised the Captain hadn’t already realized this.”

  “I see,” Charles said. “What then, please?”

  “The Captain became severely agitated. The blonde woman called her by her first name and asked what we’d done to her. It was pretty obvious she knew the Captain. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I waited, but the Captain seemed to be busy trying to recall her memories. I asked her what to do and she shouted that I should kill the blonde woman, but the tone of her voice … I’m sorry, Charles, but she sounded scared. I’ve never heard her like that.”

  “Fear is not an emotion she deals with frequently,” Charles said. “Vanessa, did you kill the blonde woman?”

  “I tried. Just as I was advancing on her, the other vampire – the one from the passage – called to her. She turned and ran, and she’s very fast. She made it to the secret passage and I caught up just in time to hear them lock it from the other side.”

  “Damn it,” Charles muttered, the words barely audible. Vanessa didn’t like the tone of his voice one bit; it sounded defeated, the voice of someone already under a great deal of stress who has been informed of some new, terrible thing. For a time they drove in silence, the mile markers on the highway moving by.

  “You told me that everyone she knew from that part of her life was dead,” Vanessa said.

  Charles sighed, the sound old and papery, and passed a hand across his brow. “I did.”

  “Was it a lie or an oversight?”

  “Even the Emperor’s vision failed to see this possibility,” Charles said. His voice sounded distant and dazed.


  “That doesn’t even remotely answer my question,” Vanessa muttered.

  “She was human. Her part in this was done.”

  “Charles, what the hell are you talking about?”

  Charles seemed to force himself out of his reverie. He turned again to Vanessa and said, “The blonde woman is almost assuredly the one who killed Abraham. We should have realized. She must have found another patron and returned to their ranks.”

  “That little thing killed Abraham?” Vanessa asked, aghast. For most of her time with the Children, Abraham had been a figure of near-mythic power and evil. The idea that he had been brought down by a girl barely into her twenties seemed beyond ridiculous.

  “I can see no other possibility,” Charles said. “I did not lie to you when I said that all of the vampires from Captain Perrault’s life were dead. I merely failed to mention that one of the people involved was no longer a vampire. The Eresh-Chen, the daughter of Abraham’s heir … she returned to humanity and we had no way to track her. We didn’t even know her name, and we never could get Captain Perrault to divulge it before … oh, damn it all.”

  “So this means the Captain has a friend on the other side?”

  “Not if she can’t remember her,” Charles said.

  “Charles … why can’t the Captain remember?”

  “The moment you are cleared by the doctor, I want you working on your report,” Charles said, ignoring her question. “Give exacting detail in all areas, but pay special attention to the Captain’s encounter with this woman. Scour your brain, Vanessa, and make sure you report it exactly as it happened.”

  “OK, but—”

  “Further, I must insist that you watch the Captain carefully and report to me at once if there is any change in her behavior. This is vitally important to us and our cause. You must understand that.”

  “I understand. I’ll watch her. Of course I will. But Charles, please …”

  “When she first joined us, Captain Perrault underwent a series of conditioning drills meant to improve and enhance her abilities. Some of these drills were mental in nature, and an effort was made to divorce her current self from her previous lives, both as a vampire and as a human.”

  “So you brainwashed her?”

  “That is an ugly, simplistic term for a beautiful, complex process,” Charles said, his disdain evident in his voice. “What the Emperor did was free her. He freed her from the awful chains of her past and allowed her to realize her full potential. I must admit, I am disappointed to hear that she has any recollection of this woman whatsoever. I can only assume that we stepped down her conditioning too quickly. Those who were in charge of her development will hear from me about it.”

  “What do I do if the Captain brings up the encounter?” Vanessa asked.

  “Change the subject if at all possible, and downplay the event if not. Should that happen, report it to me at the earliest possible moment. Day or night, Vanessa, do you understand?”

  “Yes, Charles.”

  “Very good. My girl, you are a truly superior member of our organization. I am so very glad you were not lost in the battle.”

  Vanessa felt her cheeks warming despite the reservations she still harbored about these new revelations. Compliments from Charles had always made her feel like this.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “You are most welcome. Now, I think I shall meditate. You have given me much to think on, and we’ve still quite a bit of driving left. I trust you don’t mind?”

  “No, not at all,” Vanessa said, though she felt a minor flash of annoyance. She was being dismissed, even though she wasn’t actually going anywhere. She supposed that she, too, should be meditating on the events of the previous night. How unfortunate, then, that she felt meditation to be a worthless waste of time.

  Charles had already disengaged from the conversation, and Manuel didn’t seem to be the talking type. Vanessa put her oxygen mask over her face and took a few deep breaths, exercising her lungs as the medic had told her to. This made her cough, for a bit, but the pain was nowhere near as intense as it had been before. After it was done, she rested her head against the window and closed her eyes.

  * * *

  Charles was waiting for her in the hallway when she finished with the doctor, which surprised her. He hadn’t spoken to her after her debriefing in the car, and she had expected him to go immediately to his office.

  “Still here?” she asked as she left the infirmary. Charles looked up and smiled.

  “I care about your health, Vanessa. Additionally, there was something else I wanted to speak to you about, but I wanted to wait until we were sure you were checked out. Has the doctor cleared you to—?”

  “He said I was fine, which I could have told you in the first place,” Vanessa said, but she was glad Charles had made her go. Hearing the news from Doctor Chambers was much more reassuring than hearing it from a field medic whose name she didn’t even know.

  “Of course. Forgive an old man his concern,” Charles said, smiling at her. They began to walk along the hall, moving slowly. Charles did everything slowly now, it seemed.

  “You’re not old,” Vanessa tried, and Charles gave her a wry smile.

  “I feel old, lately.”

  “You going to tell me what’s wrong?”

  “No, I don’t think so. Not yet. Tend to yourself, Vanessa, and remember that no one else will ever do so with as much care. Not even me. Not even your brother.”

  “My brother can go to hell,” Vanessa growled, and Charles turned his gaze upon her. Sick and weak or not, it still reminded her very much of being sized up by some large, predatory bird, and after a moment she looked away.

  “Do you mean that?” Charles asked her, and Vanessa sighed.

  “He’s a traitor and a coward. Charles, we’ve been through this. The Children have my loyalty until the day I die. Wherever my brother goes, whatever he does, I don’t care.”

  Charles considered this declaration. They were nearing the elevators when he spoke again.

  “Your brother is in a holding cell on sublevel three. We found him in Atlanta three days ago.”

  If he was looking for a reaction, Vanessa wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction. She forced herself to continue breathing calmly, to continue walking, and to speak in a tone of vague interest.

  “Oh?” she asked. “What are you planning on doing with him?”

  Charles nodded, as if pleased with this response. “To be honest, we aren’t sure yet. We had high hopes for him, but we gave him the wrong mission. It was a poor decision. The question the Emperor has now, of course, is whether he can be redeemed.”

  “I doubt it,” Vanessa muttered. “Prime chance to kill a bat, and he just wanders off? How are you going to redeem that?”

  Charles shrugged. “Have you never made a mistake?”

  “Never one that dumb,” Vanessa replied. They had reached the elevators and were standing before them, but Charles had not yet pressed the button.

  “The Emperor can be highly persuasive, but only when he is roused to be so,” Charles said. “We were hoping you might visit your brother and speak with him, to help determine if it’s worth the Emperor’s time to pay a personal visit.”

  Vanessa didn’t know whether to be impressed or offended. What had her traitor brother ever done to deserve a personal visit from the Emperor of the Sun? Vanessa, a model soldier herself, had only ever been graced with his presence during a ceremony involving thirteen other people.

  “I don’t have the first idea how to evaluate him,” she said.

  Charles seemed unimpressed. He gave her a cool glance and said, “He is your brother, and if there is anyone in this building capable of judging him, it is you. I will not make you do this, Vanessa, but I very much wish that you would. He was a fine operative, and if there is hope for those such as Captain Perrault, surely there must be hope for him.”

  Vanessa considered this for a time and said, “OK. If it will make you
happy, I’ll talk to him. They’d better keep some bars between us, though, or I’m just going to end up strangling him. He never knew when to shut up, and I swear to God he makes a sport out of pissing me off.”

  Charles laughed a bit. “Yes, I remember.”

  Vanessa reached out and pressed the down button on the elevator.

  “The guards have instructions to let you pass,” Charles said. “Take as long as you need. You need not report to me immediately afterwards. I’ve no doubt you are exhausted. Get some rest, write your reports, and then schedule a meeting with me. We’ll discuss your brother then.”

  “All right. If you think it will help the Emperor, then I’m happy to do it.”

  “Everything you have done since you came here has helped the Emperor.”

  “Oh, come on …”

  “Truly, Vanessa. You are one of our finest soldiers. I understand that you are disappointed with last night’s action, but if you are in any way worried about the Emperor’s judgment, then let me assuage those doubts right now. He is very pleased. I have heard it from him personally, and I can assure you that your promotion to Captain is but a mere formality at this point.”

  Vanessa felt her cheeks warm again and turned away from Charles for a moment to collect herself. Captain? That was crazy. She had only been made lieutenant a few months ago.

  As if guessing her thoughts, Charles said, “It seems fast, I know, but you have proven yourself. Again and again, you have proven yourself. We are watching, Vanessa – the Emperor, the colonels, and me. He sees all, and through him we see as well. You are the very best we—”

  Charles stopped speaking suddenly and looked up, and to the left, as if receiving word from on high. His right eye twitched once, and then again, and he drew in a sharp breath. He began to make a noise, loud and high pitched, like an engine with a slipped belt that screeches, shrill, in the middle of the night. His lips pulled back in a grimace that made Vanessa wince.

  “Charles?! Are you OK?” she cried, dimly aware that behind her the elevator doors were opening. Two people stepped out and stopped, frozen in their tracks. A small, silver strand of drool had begun to run from the left side of Charles’s mouth, which was frozen in rictus, and Vanessa felt for one short moment the obscene urge to reach forward and wipe it away.