Dead Matter

by Anton Strout

  “Door didn’t hold as long as I thought,” Aidan said, sounding a bit disappointed.

  Godfrey looked at him, adjusted his glasses, and looked closer. He turned to me and started to whisper.

  “Is he . . . ?” He held his hand up to his mouth, making little finger-fangs with it.

  “I’m undead,” Aidan said, turning from the stairs to Godfrey with a scowl, “not deaf.”

  Godfrey backed away, the awe on his face bordering on comical.

  “Now would be a good time to get going, kid,” Connor called out. “Those Shadowers aren’t getting any farther away.”

  I reached out and put a hand on Godfrey’s shoulder. He jumped with a start but turned his focus back to me.

  “Just show us the way out of here,” I pleaded. “I swear . . . Aidan’s one of the good guys.” I gave Connor’s brother a look, but he just gave me a testy smile back. “Well, goodish, at any rate.”

  Godfrey nodded his head over and over, a little frazzled, but starting off down one of the darkened tunnels lined with ancient filing cabinets and books. “Absolutely. Sure. No problem.”

  The three of us followed close behind him as the archivist wended his way back through the ages of history. After the first three quick turns, I lost all sense of direction, but several moments later, the look of the older archives turned familiar. We were definitely headed back to where the blueprints had been, the place where I had heard the distant shuffling of creatures scurrying to and fro. When Godfrey produced a flashlight as conventional lighting came to an end, Connor spoke up.

  “Jesus, kid. Where the hell does this lead to?”

  “Not sure,” I said, noting the cavernous echo of my voice down here, “but it’s away from those guys following us.”

  “Good enough for me,” Connor said, and we dashed along behind Godfrey in silence for several more minutes.

  The cabinets came to an end, Godfrey’s flashlight showing only faint glimpses of distant caves leading off under the city.

  “This is it,” he said. “This is as far as I know. Beyond this point, your guess is as good as mine.”

  “I’m sorry,” Connor said, pointing off into the distance that spread out before the four of us. “You want to run that by me again? You don’t know what’s out there?”

  Godfrey shook his head. “Sorry.”

  “Or where it leads?” Connor continued.

  “Again, my apologies,” Godfrey said. “I can tell you that there have been some signs of things that kind of slither around, but I haven’t come across anything lately.”

  The sound of the men pursuing us echoed throughout the cavern. It was impossible to tell how close or far away they were.

  “Fine,” Connor said, after a few seconds of sulking. He held out his hand. “At least give us the flashlight.”

  Godfrey looked hesitant.

  “What?” Connor asked, sounding perturbed.

  “It’s the only one I have on me,” he said. “How will I find my way out?”

  “Oh, for God’s sake,” Connor said, shaking his head.

  Now it was Godfrey who was angry. “Well, excuse me for not being prepared to aid and abet two agents and a vampire in escaping members of our own Department. Do you realize what trouble you’ve probably gotten me into . . . ?”

  “Enough,” I hissed, silencing the two of them. I turned to Aidan.

  “Take your brother,” I said, “and go. Get him out of here.”

  “What about you?” Aidan asked.

  “I’m staying,” I said. “I can buy you some time if I keep them chasing me around here. Maybe I can reason with Allorah. I know her. If she catches up with you when she’s all prepared, I think things will get real ugly real fast and we’ll end up with a full-scale vampire war here in New York City.”

  “If you’re concerned about these men that pursue us, I can handle them,” Aidan said.

  “That’s the problem,” I said. “I know you can . . . but trust me, it’s better if you two get out of here. Now.”

  From what I knew of Aidan so far, I thought it must be killing him to walk away from a fight, be it male machismo or some kind of vampiric showboating.

  “Kid’s right,” Connor said, patting his brother on the shoulder. He looked at Godfrey. “Now, about that flashlight.”

  Before Godfrey could speak, Aidan said, “Forget it. I can see fine down here. I feel more myself now.”

  “You’re farther from the runes up in the offices,” I said. “I don’t think anyone thought to protect down here.”

  Aidan looked at Connor. “I can get us out of here.”

  “And what about all those creepy-crawlies Godfrey mentioned scurrying about in the darkness?” Connor asked.

  Aidan gave a dark smile and put an arm around his brother. “I defy you to find anything creepier and crawlier than me down here.”

  “Let’s hope not,” Connor said.

  “Just in case,” I said, pulling my bat free and handing it to Connor. “Here. Your brother might be the ultimate weapon, but you might need this.”

  Connor gave me a reluctant look. “You sure, kid? Maybe you’re gonna need it.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to be beating up any of the Shadowers looking for me down here,” I said. “Just take it and go.”

  Connor took the bat. He gave me a final look and said, “Thanks, kid,” before Aidan blurred into top speed, carrying the two of them away in an instant, leaving Godfrey and me standing alone in the single pool of light.

  “Well, this is eerie,” Godfrey said.

  I listened to the sounds of pursuit getting closer, but there was still no sign of light off in the darkened distance heading back from where we had come.

  “Please tell me you know the way back,” I said.

  Godfrey looked unsure. “I think so.”

  “That doesn’t sound promising, God.”

  “Only one way to find out,” he said and started off into the dark. I followed the small cone of light generated from his flashlight until we spied other lights approaching us. People were shouting, but they were hard to understand in the echoes that filled this area of the Gauntlet. A pool of light hit us, and the shouting became louder.

  “Stick close to me,” I said to Godfrey, grabbing the flashlight.

  “Hey!” he called.

  “Sorry,” I said, running off down the nearest aisle of books.

  “You’re never going to outrun them all,” Godfrey said, hurrying to keep up with me.

  “I can try,” I said. I turned at the next corner I encountered and ran on. “Besides, I don’t need to escape them. I just need to tie them up for a bit.”

  And that was what I did. At every turn, I switched directions, sometimes doubling back over areas I was sure I had already been through. Within minutes I was good and lost, which was fine by me. To my amazement, Godfrey had kept up with me. By the time we found ourselves trapped in one aisle between two different sets of Shadowers, we were both panting and wheezing but willing to give ourselves up.

  As one of the men forced my arms behind me and put them into restraints, Allorah came walking out of the darkness. She was the only one of my pursuers who wasn’t out of breath. Several of the other Enchancellors trailed behind her, all of them nervously clutching flashlights in one hand and stakes in the other.

  “Not too tight,” Allorah warned the Shadower cuffing me. “We’re civilized . . . and the head of Other Division seems to have a fondness for this one.”

  The Shadower did as he was told. Two other men moved to grab Godfrey, and he looked about to faint.

  “Leave him alone,” I said. “Godfrey’s innocent in all this. I threatened him and made him take me down here. I thought there might be a way out.”

  The Shadowers backed off Godfrey, who let out a deep sigh of relief.

  Allorah walked up to me, lowering her staking device, contempt in her eyes. “Where are they?”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, cocking my ear to one side as
if I was having trouble hearing. “Who?”

  “You know who,” Allorah said.

  I smiled and shook my head. “Just me and the books down here.”

  “Fine,” she said. She grabbed me by the shoulders and spun me around before grabbing the cuffs and pressing them till I could feel them pinching into my skin. I hissed as the sensation hit me. “You’ve seen what they can do, and yet you’re trying to help them? You want to play traitor. We’ll treat you as one.” She looked at two of the Shadower team. “Take him up to containment.”

  “Sorry, Simon,” one of them said as they started to drag me away.

  I dug my feet in and turned back to Allorah.

  “You know, you’re much more pleasant when you’re playing scientist,” I said.

  For a second, the Enchancellor actually looked hurt by my words, but only for a second. “Take . . . him . . . away.”

  The Shadowers started to walk, pulling me along, and then stopped to turn to me.

  “You don’t happen to know the way out, do you?” one of them asked.

  27

  After a half hour of wandering, the distant promise of electric lighting became apparent and the Shadower team headed me toward it. Without too much manhandling, they escorted me back upstairs and took me to one of the rarely used rooms up on the second floor that looked a bit like a professorial lecture hall. I was forced to sit down in the first row with one Shadower on either side of me and two directly behind me.

  “Isn’t this a little overkill?” I asked. “I’m not going to run.”

  None of my guards responded. Time passed in silence for quite a while before I heard the door at the back of the tiny lecture hall open, and voices approached. Dozens of members from various divisions of the Department crammed into the space, filling the seats and lining the walls. Director Wesker came in with Jane trailing behind. I gave her a weak, weary smile, and even though she smiled back, she looked nervous for me.

  The two of them sat together in a section off to my far left. Last in the room were the thirteen members of the Enchancellors, with my accuser, Allorah, coming down the stairs last and remaining standing while the others seated themselves at a long table along the front. As Allorah waited for the room to settle, Inspectre Quimbley entered and moved down to my row, taking the one empty seat two people to my left.

  Another of the female Enchancellors, this one much older than Allorah, cleared her throat and the room went silent.

  “Due to the specific nature of this inquiry, we are deferring to Enchancellor Daniels, given her knowledge of vampiric lore and taxonomy.”

  Allorah nodded to her, then turned to address the assembly. “I have conferred with the rest of the Enchancellors on what I have seen this evening,” she said, her face solemn as she raised her voice, “and we are meeting on the grounds that a member of Other Division stands accused of treason.”

  The assembled crowd let out a dull murmur, and I felt the eyes of everyone in the room focus on me. I felt my face go flush and all I wanted was to sink into my seat until no one could see me.

  “Will the accused please rise?” Allorah said, not even bothering to look at me.

  I stood, despite a weakness in my knees and the sudden racing of my heart. Allorah stepped toward me.

  “What say you?” she asked.

  “I don’t wish to offend any of the Enchancellors,” I said, “but ‘what say you’? Are we at the Salem witch trials here?”

  “Salem is not in our jurisdiction,” Allorah answered, humorless. “But I take it your willful betrayal of the trust of this Department strikes you as humorous?”

  “Not at all,” I said, sobering. “What strikes me funny is the tone of these accusations.”

  “Did you or did you not willfully invite a vampire into this building?” Allorah said, her voice rising in anger.

  I took a deep breath to keep my cool. “I did,” I said, drawing another murmur from the crowd.

  “A known enemy of this Department,” she continued. “A creature of the night who, I might add, is also a known enemy of the Fraternal Order of Goodness, of which you are a part.”

  Inspectre Quimbley stood up. “In the boy’s defense, Allorah, I saw no aggression from this creature when the boy brought it to my office.”

  Allorah ignored him, her eyes still focused on me.

  “You are aware of the sign hanging high on the wall overlooking the main section of the office floor, aren’t you?”

  I nodded.

  “Would you kindly tell the assembled Enchancellors what it says?”

  The blood in my veins started to race. I was losing patience with this whole affair.

  “It numbers the days since our last vampiric incursion,” I said, very slow and pointed. “I believe it’s almost at eight hundred now.”

  “Until today,” she said. “Yes. It was.” She turned away from me and walked down the line of seated Enchancellors. “Mr. Canderous here has had his issues with that sign before, calling in a false vampire alarm a few months back, if you will recall. Tell me, Mr. Canderous, did you think we put that sign up there just for fun, or do you think maybe we had a reason for doing it? Like maybe the fact that vampires are considered a threat in New York City, one that must be eradicated.”

  I felt myself getting defensive, especially with what I knew about Allorah. “Given your personal history with this cause, Allorah, I feel I must warn the Enchancellors that perhaps your judgment is clouded on this matter.”

  Allorah’s eyes widened. “Oh, really? Do you now equate experience with poor judgment?”

  “When it is a deeply personal matter, yes.”

  “Mr. Canderous,” the other female Enchancellor who had addressed the crowd said, “I think there is little doubt in the minds of our assembly that vampires are considered a threat in New York City.”

  I sighed. “That seems the current, if erroneous, impression that the Department has, yes.”

  Allorah walked over to me, livid. “And who do you think you are to dictate contrary policy to the governing board of this Department?”

  I actually laughed out loud at this. “Man, when an Enchancellor is pissed off, it doesn’t take you long to get all motivated, does it?”

  Allorah narrowed her eyes at me. “Would you care to explain that?”

  “Yeah,” I said, standing. “I think I would. How long did it take you to pull together this little tribunal? A half an hour . . . tops? When Connor and I called ‘vampires’ on that case a few months back . . .”

  Wesker spoke up from his seat next to Jane off in the general gallery. “You mean the one that turned out not to be vampires?”

  “That’s not the point!” I shouted back at him.

  “I do hope you are getting to one, Mr. Canderous,” Allorah said. She pointed at Thaddeus Wesker. “I’ll see to the questions, Director Wesker. One more outburst and you will be removed.”

  Wesker’s eyes looked like they could burn a hole into the female Enchancellor, but he kept his mouth shut and remained quiet.

  “My point is this,” I said, wanting to regain control. “When we called vampires back then, the entire Enchancellorship came to a grinding halt while it hemmed and hawed its way into action. The red tape you people generate around here is astounding. People could have been dying out there, and until you had a meeting, formed a committee to explore the threat, then followed it up with another meeting and a special subcommittee was formed, they’d still be dying.”

  “Young man,” one of the older male Enchancellors said, speaking up, “we have protocols in place for a reason.”

  “Is that reason ‘to have more dead people lying around’?”

  “Need I remind you,” Allorah said, “we’re not the ones who brought a vampire into our midst . . . ?”

  “I was trying to help the situation,” I said, “believe it or not.” I turned and looked at the crowd. “We live in extraordinary times, ladies and gentlemen. We’re not the Department of Affairs now, are we?
No. We’re the Department of Extraordinary Affairs. That means we all need to be thinking outside of the box on a regular basis. Maybe you’ve all forgotten that. The vampire menace of the past you all fear? That’s exactly what it is . . . in the past. They’re evolving, changing . . . They want peace, and last I checked, so did we.”

  “They?” Allorah asked. “You’re saying you know more than one vampire?”

  I shut my mouth, unwilling to give away more than I knew.

  After a moment, Allorah spoke up again. “Your silence tells me all I need to know. So . . . you’ve put your trust in vampires now, have you?” Allorah scoffed. “You take them at their word!”

  The rest of the Enchancellors looked around, skepticism etched on their faces.

  Allorah shook her head, her eyes cold. “It is not the policy of this department to negotiate with the living dead.”

  “Do you want the blood of this city on your hands?” I asked. “Is that really what you want?”

  “They’re the ones who shed blood,” she countered. “Or rather, drink it.” She reached down and pulled out her necklace, showing me the amulet again. “That is an indisputable fact. You’ve seen it using your own power. Now, tell us where to find them.”

  I paused and sat back down. “I can’t do that,” I said.

  “Can’t?” she repeated. “Or won’t?”

  “Won’t, if you have to put a point on it,” I said. “Look. What you want, I can’t give. I’m not going to be responsible for either side going off half-cocked and getting a lot of good people killed.”

  I felt the Inspectre’s hand on my arm as he stood up and reached over to me. “That’s the problem, my boy,” he said. “They’re not people.” His eyes were sad. The old man looked tired. “Just tell them what they want to know. This is a very serious offense you’ve committed. They’ll go easier on you.”

  “Inspectre,” I said, “I can’t.” My stomach was balled into a painful knot and I felt like I wanted to throw up. My brain was going in two different directions. “I can’t do that . . . to either side. If the Enchancellors would just listen to reason . . .”