Crusader (MPRD Book 2)

by Andrew Chapman

  “Bullshit. Scabby little scumbags like you always have ways to pick things up. What else you know?”

  “Just a rumor! Just a rumor!”

  “What?”

  “Herr Sturmbannführer’s clients are supposed to be from Romania, rich vampires with money to burn. They’ve been throwing money around for weeks, buying things.”

  “Things?”

  “Women, virgins,” the vampire sobbed. “Please, I wasn’t involved, I didn’t know, I was just doing the job I was paid for! Please, you have to believe me!”

  I thought about it for a while before deciding that this little piece of sputum probably was telling the truth. Besides, I knew where he was if his story didn’t check out.

  I withdrew the knife and stood up. The vamp’s hands flew to his face, fingering the damage as he curled into a ball. I stepped out of the cell and locked the door behind me.

  At the end of the corridor my team was looking pretty relaxed, but Eva and Jeurgen were looking at me like I’d eaten a puppy in front of them. I wiped the blade of my knife clean on my trousers before sliding it back into the scabbard.

  “You guys hear all that?” I asked.

  “Yeah, good acoustics in here,” said John as he returned my guns.

  “Anyone know the club? Or heard of this Herr Sturmbannführer?”

  Eva nodded.

  “I know the club. It’s a vampire fetishist’s club.”

  “A club for vampires with fetishes or for people with a fetish for vampires?” I asked.

  After a while in my line of work you learned to ask that kind of question.

  “The latter,” she said, leading us up the stairs again. “People who get a thrill out of being fed on, people who get a thrill out of just being around vampires. People who like a little designer darkness, a little frisson of evil with their revels.”

  “Maybe we should go have a word with this Herr Sturmbannführer,” I said.

  “No need,” said Eva. “I think we may know someone on the inside.”

  “The Vatican has spies in the vampiric organizations?” I asked.

  “Yes, but this one is not a spy. She’s an … old friend.”

  “Okay, she might be able to help us?” I asked.

  “Yes, she might know something about these unusual characters that the vampire was talking about.”

  “Well, it couldn’t hurt to check it out,” I said.

  “We’ll catch a flight,” said Eva. “We’ll need to establish false identities for you and your team. It would cause trouble if the records showed The Pagan and his friends flying around Europe.”

  “Already taken care of,” I said. “The Ministry had the same thought.”

  “This is good,” she replied. “So, get in touch with your Ministry and ask them for the book, then we will catch the next available flight.”

  “Eva?” I said, quietly, jerking my thumb over my shoulder at the occupied cell. “You know he has to die, right? As soon as we find out if his information's any good.”

  “The rituals are already being prepared,” she said.

  CHAPTER

  12

  We were back in our rooms and I was on our laptop, conversing with someone in London. The Ministry hadn’t started scanning The Book Of Armin-Sang—in fact it was sitting in some dusty storeroom, virtually forgotten—but it had now been designated high-priority. I’d passed on everything we knew so far and promised to stay in touch.

  I was wondering about the situation. I’d been right when I said this wasn’t our normal gig. We were hunters, not detectives. We killed vampires for a living. Solving crimes was not, despite that TV show about me, the way I spent my days.

  Marie interrupted my thoughts with a feather-light touch on my arm. She smiled and nodded towards our room. I rose and followed her, shutting the door behind us.

  “Okay, who is she?” asked Marie.

  “Eva?” I said.

  I’d been dreading this.

  “I’m not stupid, Jack,” she said. “I may not be able to read Anna, but John walked into that room looking like he’d just found half a worm in his apple.”

  “Yeah,” I said, smiling slightly, “John never was good at poker.”

  “Jack?”

  “Okay, okay,” I said. “Eva and I worked together when she was in the Ministry. We had a … relationship.”

  “The kind of significant-pause relationship that you and I have?”

  “Not even close, sweetheart.”

  She sat down on the bed, staring off into space for a few moments.

  “Tell me about it,” she said. “When? What happened? How long did it last? Why did it end?”

  I slumped into a chair and stared at the carpet.

  “It was years ago. We worked together, fought alongside each other. I don’t even remember who made the first move, it just kind of happened. It wasn’t anything deep and meaningful, it was just … two people looking for comfort. The early years of the Ministry were … fairly dark. A scary time. Most of the time we didn't know if we'd see the end of the week, let alone the year.”

  I glanced up and found Marie looking at me.

  “It lasted three or four days, all told,” I said. “I wasn’t big on commitment in those days and she wanted something a little more reliable. She left a couple of months later, called to the Church, she said. Guess she was telling the truth.”

  “You miss her?”

  I snorted a quick, dismissive laugh.

  “Not in the slightest, love. In the few months we knew each other she spent most of her time trying to get me to go to church with her. I think she took my atheism as a challenge.”

  “Jack, straight answer, remember? Is she a threat to us?”

  “Nope.”

  “Good.”

  I stood up and crossed over to her, sinking to my knees and taking her hands in mine.

  “Marie, that’s the second time you’ve asked that question about someone. Trust me on this, there’s only one person in the world who can take away what we have, and that’s you. It won’t be me ‘coz I’m in this for the duration. I’m yours for as long as you can stand me.”

  “That’s sweet, Jack,” she said.

  She took my face in her hands and kissed me.

  “Just don’t hurt me, okay?” she said softly.

  “I promise,” I said.

  “I’m still not sure I like the idea of us visiting Paris with your ex girlfriend, though.”

  “I think I can keep my hands to myself, sweetheart.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you, Jack? I trust you. It’s her I don’t trust.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, either.”

  “It better not be. I’ll break her arm if she touches you again.”

  I smiled and kissed her, lingering over her soft lips.

  “Come on, let’s see if dinner’s arrived yet.”

  It had been decided that, seeing as our presence here was supposed to be something of a secret, it would be a bad idea to eat in a public place. Dinner was being sent up to the room from the kitchens and we would stay in our suite as much as possible.

  We went outside to find that the food had, indeed arrived. The Vatican didn’t stint on food for its visitors.

  We sat down around a dining room table that looked big enough to launch fighters from and tucked in to the best meal I’d had in a long while.

  It was getting dark and we passed the time swapping stories and telling jokes before we eventually went our separate ways.

  Marie and I retired to our room and she disappeared to check out the bathroom. I took off my gunbelt and hung it from the headboard. My usual spot. I had just finished getting undressed when Marie grabbed my arm.

  “Follow me,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  She was naked and had a very enticing look on her face.

  “Have you seen the size of the bathtub in here?” she asked.

  “No, I haven’t,” I said.


  “Take a look.”

  The tub was huge, old, made of porcelain, and filling up with sudsy water.

  “Want to take a bath with me?”

  CHAPTER

  13

  It was very early in the morning when Marie shook me awake.

  “Jack, your phone’s ringing,” she whispered.

  “Hmm?”

  “Your phone.”

  “Bugger the damn phone,” I mumbled.

  Now that I was awake I could hear it buzzing on the bedside table. I groaned and rolled over. The clock said it was a quarter past three.

  “Bloody hell,” I said as I picked up the phone.

  “Yes?” I said.

  “Jack?”

  It was Tilehurst.

  “Boss, do you know what time it is over here?”

  “This is important, Jack.”

  “Of course it bloody is,” I said, sitting up.

  “We have the scans you asked for. They’ve been transmitted to your laptop, but you need to look at them right now. This is not good news.”

  “That was quick,” I said, trying to blink the sleep out of my eyes.

  “Yeah, well, we only scanned the pages you asked about. We’ll do the rest and send them, but get your butt to the computer. If you have any questions, call me back. Oh, hang on. One more thing: that dragon tattoo on the vampires you were asking about?”

  “Yeah, I remember.”

  “It’s the symbol of a medieval group called ‘The Order of the Dragon’ and I’m guessing I don’t have to tell you what that means.”

  “No, boss. You don’t.”

  “Okay, good luck.”

  I stared at the phone and sighed. Beside me Marie sat up and stretched.

  “We’re getting up?” she said.

  “Seems that way.”

  I grabbed my trousers and yanked them on.

  “Where’s the bloody laptop?”

  “Out in the sitting room,” she replied.

  “Okay.”

  Marie grabbed a pair of panties from her bag and looked around as she pulled them on. Laying on the chair was the t-shirt I’d worn yesterday. She slipped into it and it fell halfway to her knees.

  “That all you’re wearing?” I asked.

  “What, too sexy for you?”

  I grabbed a handful of the shirt and yanked her forward, planting a kiss on her lips.

  “Come on, let’s go find out what was so damn important we had to get woken up at quarter past what the fuck in the morning.”

  The laptop was sitting on the coffee table, a message box blinking on the screen. I entered my ID and password and the computer thought about it for a second, then popped up a random question from the list of fifty kept in my security file.

  >What was your first car?

  I typed in the answer:

  >Austin Metro 1.1L

  and hit enter. The computer thought about it for a second. If the answer was wrong it would flash up a second question. If I got that one wrong it would flash up a third, and a fourth, and a fifth, ignoring the responses while it wiped its own hard drive. I got it right so it went to the next stage.

  >Please enter verification code.

  I smiled and typed:

  >No verification code has been entered.

  That had been John’s idea. If someone managed to hack the security file and retrieve the information, that code would confuse the hell out of them. The computer digested the response and then flicked up a download box.

  “Hmm,” I said. “This is odd.”

  “What is?” asked Marie.

  “It says that before the download can be completed I need to be kissed.”

  She shook her head and smiled.

  “Yeah, I bet.”

  “Seriously, look,” I protested.

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  She leaned in and gave me a lingering kiss.

  “We interrupting?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But we’d probably have to get you guys up soon anyway.”

  John and Anna had come out of their room, John looked mussed and half asleep, Anna looked fresh as a daisy.

  “We got a phone call from the Ministry,” said Marie.

  “Yeah,” said John. “So did we. A certain friend of Jack’s asking me to make sure he didn’t just go back to sleep.”

  “Bastard,” I said. “It’s almost like he knows me.”

  “I think he does,” said John with a smirk.

  “Oh, yeah, whilst I remember,” I said. “Our revered leader had some info about that tattoo we saw the other day. It’s the emblem of the Order of the Dragon.”

  “The Order of the Dragon?” said John.

  “Yep. Vlad III was called Vlad Dracul because ‘dracul’ means ‘dragon’. He was called ‘the dragon’ because he was a member of the Order of the Dragon.”

  “And the Order of the Dragon was? Or is?”

  “Well, I’m guessing, given what we know now, that it was some sort of inner society of vampires. Or at least a front for one.”

  “So those vampires in the Escort Boy Racer edition are somehow connected to this?” asked Anna doubtfully.

  “Possibly,” I replied. “I’m guessing that the Order of the Dragon is still active. Maybe they wanted the heart because they revere Vlad.”

  “Either that or the chavs were simply fanboys and there’s no real connection at all,” John pointed out.

  “Also possible,” I conceded.

  “I mean,” John clarified, “what are the chances that this ancient and noble order of dragons would allow scumbags like that in their august ranks?”

  “Slim to none,” I replied.

  The computer beeped to let us know that the download was complete. The computer prompted me for a decryption key at the same instant my phone beeped. John’s phone beeped a second later.

  “This security is a little tight, even for us,” I said, yawning.

  John checked his phone, reading the text message.

  “Four two oh six,” he said.

  I brought up the message on my phone. It was a long string of numbers.

  “Okay, four two oh six adds up to twelve, one and two is three, three is odd so we put the code in backwards, right?”

  “Yeah,” said John. “It’s way too early for this shit.”

  I carefully typed the string of numbers into the laptop, checking them three times to make sure it was correct. Then I handed my phone to Anna and turned the laptop towards Marie.

  “Just verify the code’s correct, will you?”

  Anna smiled and read the sequence of numbers while Marie checked the screen. Satisfied, I pressed the enter key. A status bar appeared, filled, and disappeared. The computer paused for effect, then a scanned page of handwritten text popped up. It was written in a very old English dialect.

  “What? Didn’t Eva say the book was written in Latin?” I asked.

  “Uh, yeah, I think so,” said John.

  Anna nodded.

  “Weird. We appear to have got our hands on an English translation. Oh, wait, there’s a notation. It was translated just after the death of Vlad Dracul.”

  “Coincidental,” said John.

  I shrugged and started to read.

  Ande thee Marster vampyre sharl be lay’d low by thee Church, yet they knowe notte that Hys heart ys long since gone.

  By this means wyll He be return’d to lyfe, for He cannot be kill’d in sooth.

  The Lorde sharl rise if His heart be placed yn the blud of ane virgin sacrifyc’d upon ay night when ye moon is fullest.

  I shook my head and sighed.

  “Barry Boy said ‘he’s coming’. Guess he was talking about Dracula.”

  CHAPTER

  14

  “I can’t read a word of that scrawl,” John confessed.

  “It says,” I replied. “Someone called ‘the Master’—Dracula, I’d guess—will be attacked by the church—true, I suppose—but they didn’t know that his heart was alrea
dy gone so he can’t be killed. He can be brought back to life by putting the heart in virgin’s blood on a full moon.”

  “Why is it always blood?” asked John in a weary tone.

  “Why is it always a virgin?” asked Anna with a raised eyebrow.

  “Why is it always the full moon?” said Marie with an impish smile.

  “It’s always blood because blood is power to the vamps,” I said. “Blood is what drives them, what they thirst for. Blood is what makes us different to them, what makes us prey. It’s also what makes us alive. It’s always a virgin because purity is sacred.”

  “That’s true,” said Anna fiercely. “And it’s not just the vamps. Thousands of young girls in Africa contract HIV every year because some twat started people believing that sex with a virgin cures AIDS.”

  I nodded and shook my head sadly.

  “Yep, purity is special,” I said. “And the desecration of purity in the name of a dark rite always has a delicious thrill to it, I suppose. And it’s always full moon because the world really wants to piss you off, Marie.”

  She stuck her tongue out at me, setting everyone to laughing.

  “How long ‘till the full moon?” I asked.

  “Eight days,” said Marie promptly.

  “So, they’re going to sacrifice a virgin and dump this heart into the blood, and … what?” I said. “Dracula’s just gonna go ‘foom’ and there he’ll be? Cloud of smoke, ominous peal of thunder sort of thing?”

  “Jack, I don’t think you’re taking this seriously,” said Anna.

  “Oh come on,” I said, pushing the laptop away. “We might as well go home right now. It’s bullshit! Nothing’s gonna happen!”

  “Are you sure about that?” said Anna.

  I slumped back on the couch and gave the laptop a disgusted glare.

  “Yes, Anna, I’m sure. It’s a load of crap. It’s some fucking ancient vampire’s masturbatory fantasy.”