The Darkest Night (The Second Dark Ages Book 2)

by Michael Anderle

  “Those assholes needed a little killing,” Jacqueline responded. “I was there, and I can tell you the world is a better place.”

  “It could be,” Eve answered. “I’m just saying that Akio isn’t going to change Michael’s predilection for fast and fatal response.”

  “I wasn’t suggesting Akio was going to change Michael’s style,” Jacqueline argued. “I’m suggesting that what little hesitation Akio had before is going to disappear around Michael.”

  “It will be like two kids in one of those candy stores I always hear about.” Mark agreed.

  “You hear about?” Yuko asked.

  “Sure.” Jacqueline shrugged. “Not much candy in the city states in the US. I suppose there are candy stores, but I’ve never been in one.”

  “Oh.” Yuko waved a hand. “Then we will remedy that tonight.”

  Mark pursed his lips. “Tonight?”

  Jacqueline turned to him. “Didn’t we tell you?”

  Mark looked sideways at her, his eyes narrowing. “No. Somehow in the short amount of time since we got on this craft, you have made plans, and the guy is the last to know.”

  “You should get with the program,” Eve replied.

  “What program?” Mark asked exasperated. “And are we going to leave any time soon?” He lifted his left arm and pretended to smell under it. “Because I smell kinda ripe.”

  “Not kinda.” Jacqueline said. “You are ripe.”

  “We have been in the air for more than five minutes.” Eve answered.

  ---

  Gerard exited a second time and glanced around to see if there was anyone in the vicinity. He listened for a moment but heard nothing, so he left the small church and walked towards the next building. The front door of this one had been ripped off and left on the floor. Stepping over the door, Gerard took the stairs to the top of the building. He wasn’t up there for more than a couple of minutes when he saw a large container box rise above the buildings and head almost straight up into the atmosphere.

  Gerard turned and spat to the side. He glanced one more time at the sky, then turned around and went back down. It took only a moment to listen again, then return to the little old church and make his way back to the last room. He pushed aside the old shelf and slipped into the crevice. Using handholds probably worked into the wood centuries before, he moved the shelf back into place.

  He took a small glowing ball from his pack and used it to help illuminate his way through the passages. Due to the Duke’s blood enhancements, he made short work of the trip to the minor passageway. On arrival, he reached up and unhooked the small latch that disengaged the trap set in the passageway. Twenty more paces and he re-armed the trap, then took off at a slight jog. The skulls seemed to laugh at him as he passed.

  The one vampire the Duke had been trying to hide from was here. Gerard didn’t know how Akio had figured out the plan or exactly how he had taken out the packs.

  However, they knew enough about that meddlesome pain-in-the-ass to know he probably had technology left over from his bitch queen that he used to stop the attacks.

  The Duke was not going to be pleased when Gerard woke him.

  ---

  Michael and Akio walked a quarter mile from the humans after leaving Sabine behind. The black x-wing Pod came down out of the sky as Michael turned to Akio. “Back seat?”

  Akio grinned. “I usually use the front, but I’m not sure it really matters.”

  “Nah,” Michael admitted as the canopy started rising, “I’m pulling your leg.”

  Both men pulled off their weapons and stowed them in the ship. Akio slipped into the front seat. “Where do you think he is?”

  “Somewhere down in the catacombs, behind a shit-ton of traps.”

  “Yes, vampires are somewhat diligent about being found when they sleep in the daytime.”

  “True,” Michael agreed.

  Akio whispered some commands to Eve, and the ship started to rise. He turned his head slightly. “Did you start that?”

  “I don’t remember,” Michael admitted. “I probably did some of that in my youth, but we all, human or not, tried to be safe back then. It wasn’t the best time in the world to be running around anyway. Everyone took precautions.”

  “So, we need to consider what a multiple-century-old vampire might use to protect his lair from you?” Akio asked.

  “You would have to believe your adversary was specifically me to be effective; only David ever caught me.”

  “Bethany Anne didn’t provide any explanation when she and John were talking about it that one time,” Akio said.

  Michael allowed the comment to marinate a moment before responding. “Let’s just say I never gave her any information to pass along, and I’m a bit anxious, about running around in Myst sometimes. It was a rather humbling experience, to be sure.” Michael stopped a moment before adding, “Rather like my hair.”

  “Hair?”

  “Yes, as in the stuff that I lack on the top of my head?” Michael replied as the two of them gazed over the ruins of Paris. “Ever since I came out of the Etheric, I can’t grow any hair on my head, and it is pissing me off.”

  “Why?” Akio asked. His own head was clean-shaven.

  “Because I looked better with hair, to be truthful.” Michael told him as he switched from looking out the left side of the canopy, to the right. “I realize it is all ego, but I’m as fragile as the next…” Michael swallowed and tried again. “I’m as fragile…”

  Both men lost it, laughing at Michael’s inability to call himself fragile and keep a straight face. “Sorry. The real reason,” Michael finally said, “is that I hate being bald. It’s emasculating.”

  “Was that hard to say?” Akio asked. He pointed below. “Should we land down there?”

  Michael turned to look where he was pointing. “Yes, that’s a good location.”

  As the sun was setting, the black Pod slowly descended towards the remains of the cathedral of Notre Dame.

  Inside the Catacombs

  William Renaud woke up and opened his eyes immediately. He registered the steady pace of someone walking quickly.

  Straight for his room.

  He got up from the bed and grabbed his weapons. There was a quiet knock on his door, then Gerard’s voice called to him.

  He looked down at his watch; a candle burning in the corner was all the light he needed. “What is it, Gerard?” he asked. Then told the man, “You may enter.”

  His closest advisor opened the door and stepped in, then closed the door behind him. He turned to the Duke and spoke candidly.

  “My lord, we have a problem.”

  ---

  Michael watched as the lightning played across the sky. The storm clouds had rolled in as they landed, and he enjoyed the play of the light and shadows over the stonework of the old cathedral. He pulled his sword out, and unholstered one gun. Akio grabbed two swords and left his pistol in his holster.

  Michael was already walking into the church as the black Pod lifted into the sky. Akio headed towards the doors of the church as Michael disappeared inside.

  Akio made it into the building just before a deluge of rain started outside. He saw Michael in the middle of the church, looking around.

  Akio came up beside him. Michael turned and gave him a crooked grin. “I’m just seeing what’s different.”

  Akio turned to look at him. “From the last time you were here?”

  “No, from when we built it.” Michael answered and walked purposefully away. “Come this way. The entrance to the Catacombs is over here.”

  A moment later, Michael asked Akio, “Feel like a game of Hide and Go Kill?”

  Operations Room, Japan

  Eve was working on a few screens as Yuko came back in, using a towel to dry her hair. “Problems?”

  “When do we not have problems?” Eve answered.

  “I mean,” Yuko pointed to the screens, “are there any issues with the technology?”

  “
Well, no.” Eve said. “Although if the computers could talk, they would probably complain about how they are way out of warranty.”

  “Ok.” Yuko folded the towel and hung it over a chair to dry. “What’s going on?”

  “Two of our police contacts have passed us information that there will be a gang meeting tonight between Banri’s group and Choki’s.”

  Yuko stared at the little AI. “That doesn’t matter to us. That’s a police responsibility. What’s the real reason they are contacting us?”

  “They believe there will be Wechselbalg involved.”

  Yuko’s eyes narrowed. “That isn’t normal. Akio always responds when we get wind of something like this.” She considered options. “Ok, we both now think it is a trap, right?”

  “When did I say it was a trap?” Eve asked.

  “When you didn’t say anything and let me think. You are just as bad as Akio about trying to teach me something I learned over a hundred years ago.”

  “If you have learned it,” Eve answered, in a half-question, half-statement, “why don’t we think you understand it?”

  “You know, Eve,” Yuko put her hand on the shoulder of the AI, “You’re my dearest friend and I love you. However, I’ve been programming logic chains and hacking computers since before I was as tall as you are now. It is always easier to make sure that even my best friends underestimate me.”

  Eve seemed to be stuck in a logic problem; there were no movements from her body. It was times like this when Eve demonstrated that she was obviously not human.

  Yuko shook her head. “You should really use a small percentage of your computing power to keep up the semblance of being alive.”

  It was a full twenty more seconds before Eve came back online and looked at her friend in shock.

  “You have been out with more boys!”

  Yuko stared at her friend in shock. “How did you…”

  “It’s logical,” Eve took a step towards Yuko and stuck a finger gently into her chest, poking her each time she made a point. Poke. “You like boys.”

  “Ok, that’s not abnormal,” Yuko protested.

  Poke. “You don’t go out much with boys!” Eve continued.

  “Why would I?” Yuko argued. “I always have you two around!”

  Poke. “You are a shy person!”

  Yuko flipped her hair out of her face, annoyed. “I’m not shy, I just like my privacy!”

  Poke. “You don’t like Akio’s comments about your boyfriends!” Eve opined.

  “What comments?” Yuko shot back. “They are judgmental assessments coming from a man who can’t remember when he was two hundred years old, much less twenty!”

  “And…” Eve didn’t have a follow up.

  “And,” Yuko continued, “you were only too happy to help him find dirt!”

  “That’s…” Eve started before her voice softened. “That’s because no one is good enough for you,” Eve finally finished.

  “And that is why it’s easier to be underestimated, Eve.” Yuko, also speaking softly, told her. “When you guys believe me to be a bit slow, or afraid to kill, or needing more time with swords? It is a defense mechanism for me. I don’t want to have to explain myself.”

  Eve walked to a chair five steps away and sat down. Yuko stared at her friend, who was rocking back and forth, seemingly having an existential crisis.

  Yuko moved to put a hand on Eve’s back. “Are you ok?” she asked. Then considered where Eve was. “And you are sitting down.”

  “You mentioned using a portion of my computing power to seem real.” Eve looked up. “That portion decided a person in shock—like I am—might want to sit down.”

  “You never sit down.” Yuko replied, then modified it. “Well, incredibly rarely.”

  “I don’t need to sit. My body doesn’t get tired, and the position is inferior if I need to react quickly. Sitting is inefficient.” Eve concluded.

  Yuko looked up when she heard the clearing of a throat, to find Jacqueline and Mark at the door to the operations room. She smiled to the two of them. “Come in.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Jacqueline looked around the operations room and knew she had lost Mark’s attention for a while. Unless she were willing to strip down in front of him. Which was, she concluded, a plausible action on her part, but she didn’t want to try it unless it was absolutely necessary.

  It was an unfortunate truth that Mark might choose to explore the technology over playing with her naked body. That would be a large blow to her ego, something she didn’t want to deal with at the moment. Sometimes geeks were a challenge that way.

  There were seven different work areas spread out against the walls in a room about thirty feet by forty feet. It had a desk in the middle and two white boards at one end. It seemed rather large for the three people who lived in the complex.

  Mark was already walking over to a desk where four computer monitors were arranged in a large rectangle.

  ---

  Eve noticed Mark looking at the computer screens and the data on them, but he wasn’t touching and he couldn’t break anything over there without making a concerted effort. She put the chance of Mark purposely damaging something significantly lower than one percent.

  Of one percent.

  She smiled at that thought. Her own friend had fooled her for a hundred and fifty years. Well, probably less. However, Eve had to consider all ramifications of her logic systems.

  “You don’t have to do that.” Yuko looked down at her.

  Eve looked up. “What?”

  “Work to reset all of your logic systems, and don’t tell me you aren’t. When you do, the systems handling your body cause your right ear to twitch twice a second.”

  Eve moved a hand up to her right ear. “Are you making that up?”

  “You mean lying?”

  “Yes.”

  “No.”

  “Good.” Eve concluded. “Because I registered that as actual truth and I’m not sure I can deal with making that many mistakes in one night.”

  Yuko chuckled. “You done with your existential AI crisis?”

  “Well,” Eve answered after a few seconds, “about 87.7% of it, and I should be done with the rest in two minutes and twenty-five seconds if you don’t confuse me anymore.”

  “Ok.” Yuko patted her friend on the shoulder. Eve had added all sorts of features over the decades, and she could tell a lot with the sensitive sensors. Yuko walked over to Jacqueline and Mark. “Questions?”

  “Yup.” Jacqueline jumped in before Mark could derail her with geeky stuff. “Am I seeing a chance to go bust up a gang meeting?”

  Yuko shrugged. “Either that, or an attempt to kill Akio in a trap.”

  Mark asked, “How would they do that?”

  Eve stood and walked over to join the group. “Usually they try to overcome him with violence. Twice they tried to capture Yuko and use her as bait.”

  “Only twice?” Jacqueline asked, surprised.

  “I’m considered a noncombatant.” Yuko answered. “So most bad guys don’t try to actually hurt me, and no one considers me dangerous.”

  “Why not?” Mark asked. “Seems like you can be very dangerous.”

  “You heard some of the conversation, didn’t you?” Jacqueline asked him, scratching his back. “Yuko hasn’t been much of a fighter these last hundred and fifty years.”

  “That she has told us about,” grumped Eve. “You can’t tell now.”

  Yuko pressed her lips together and looked down at Eve. “Wow, emotional manipulation much, Eve?”

  Eve turned to look at her. “I have to try out new methodologies to—hopefully—keep you safe.” Eve looked at Yuko a minute, then a small smile played on her lips. “You didn’t think I’d quit trying to protect you, did you?”

  Yuko smiled. “I can wish.”

  Eve shook her head. “That won’t happen. I was there when Bethany Anne brought you aboard, and I’ll be here when Bethany Anne comes back.” Eve answ
ered.

  “Well, I’m going to be harder to protect now,” Yuko told her. Mark and Jacqueline just watched the two as they finished their earlier discussion.

  “Because you will be in the middle of the action?” Eve calculated.

  “Yes.”

  “Wait, you were there when Bethany Anne brought her on board?” Mark asked.

  “Well, it wasn’t really Eve at that time,” Yuko answered him. “ADAM was my main friend. As a going-away present, he built Eve and based her powerful AI on his own code. Then, he gave the AI all of the memories he had of himself with me so I could speak about our past and not be lonely.”

  “That’s….” Jacqueline started, but didn’t finish the sentence.

  “Love,” Eve finished for her.

  Catacombs under old Paris

  “So, the Queen’s Bitch should be busy in Japan for a little while,” the Duke told Gerard as he hung up the phone.

  Gerard considered what he’d been told. “Do you believe they will be able to kill him?”

  “Of course not.” The Duke sniffed. “It’s only a distraction to help us get out of here.”

  “What if he doesn’t take the bait, or what if he isn’t really down here?”

  William Renaud considered the question. “I am sending my apostles through the catacombs to look. If they live, or find him dead in a trap, then we are fine. If they die, we need to be out of here quickly.” The Duke reached over to pull his coat off a rack in the small room that he had built under the ground. Over the years, he had stolen humans from Paris and drunk his fill. Unfortunately, that made them cautious and harder to catch. “If we have to continue running, I will admit that my idea of ‘live and let live’ was unwise and I should have killed him a long time ago.”

  He had focused all of his efforts on subjugating France and the areas around it, while keeping any evidence of himself from the humans.

  No need for more of the sheep to grow fangs.

  Germany was one of the most technologically sophisticated areas on the planet now. With the pre-war antigrav technology provided to them, they had rebuilt a remarkable society.

  It wasn’t as good as Japan’s, but it was more than enough for his plans.