The Vampires Of Livix Twin Pack (Volumes #2 & #3)

by Smith, J Gordon

  “They knew we went to that plant?”

  Garin spoke first, “So what do we do? They will be putting together the equipment we saw evidence of moving.”

  I looked at them, “Where do we think they would build that?”

  “I’m not sure. So much manufacturing and warehousing around here and ways to hide such equipment that we could search for years not finding anything.”

  “What do we know about the facilities we’ve found?”

  Branoc grabbed a stick from the dried mud and banged the dirt off it. He drew a diagram. “Attack on the vampires: Massai delivery medium with source material from Vermilion Genomics.”

  Then he drew another set of diagrams. “Attack on the humans: Rhino Laboratories of Livix, Ramsburgh Industries, Advanced Aura Coating Technologies, and Beautiful Molding Compounds.”

  “What is the delivery mechanism for the plastic fillers from Beautiful Molding Compounds?” Garin asked.

  “It must be some common plastic item that people buy in quantity.”

  “Oh my god! They are going to put it in plastic bottles. Pop? Water?”

  Garin jumped, “That’s quite possible. But not pop, too acidic. Water bottles are quite likely.”

  “Why so complex of a supply chain? Seems like a simpler approach would be less likely to get caught.”

  Branoc said, “Actually, spreading around the processing to specialists might camouflage the activities better. No single group of workers knows the whole process. That’s how some food companies protect their famous recipes.”

  Branoc said, “We need to monitor Rhino as they are the most dangerous link.”

  “There aren’t enough of us to track every place –”

  “Maybe locate the central point from any of the threads and attack there?”

  “That will be the best defended location.”

  “Can you get any backup Branoc?”

  “No, vampire field ops are put out alone, like wild west sheriffs.”

  “Can you deputize anyone?”

  “That’s –”

  Tires squealed on the main road. A pair of black SUVs running down the road backed up and rolled onto the headland before snapping into the field. We could hear the beating ears of corn on the hood as the trucks sped through the field toward us. Garin looked to the sky and saw a small drone helicopter nearly too high for a vampire to see when no one expected such a device might be there.

  Garin scooped me onto his back, “Branoc, we should get them,” he motioned like a steering wheel.

  “Yes, if they haven’t compromised it.”

  Our speed through the field blinded me. I closed my eyes and curled my head into the back of Garin’s neck. We flew forward and changed directions on tight turns that I worried I’d go tumbling and they would never find me under the corn stalks. They dodged like football players carrying a football into the end zone. We got to the car and buckled in. The two trucks bounded into view. Branoc pushed the pedal down and a rooster tail of black dirt spun out behind us but we rocketed into the corn field. The hardening ears banged onto the hood dimpling it like a hail storm and stalks flew across our windshield. The dangling tassels exploded in pollen when hit.

  My thoughts bubbled and I kept thinking how sad the farmer would be when he sees the destruction in his crop. Mashing our food supply into the dirt – wasteful. “Can we get on the main road?”

  Garin leaned forward in his seat to tell Branoc, “I know where we need to lead them.” He looked out the back window, “Get on the main road and go east.”

  “I’d have you tell me but …” he shrugged.

  Two more swerves around the trucks and out of the field Branoc rocketed onto the main road. His car accelerated in frightening riffs that hurtled us away from the field. The two SUVs bounded out of the field and onto the road behind us.

  “Make a left at the light.”

  “Turn left at the second light.” He looked back through the rear window, “Let the trucks catch us a little.” Garin tapped Branoc’s seat. The investigator eased off the accelerator and made the turn.

  “Ok, now speed up. That last curve is treacherous. We need to time it.”

  I recognized the road. The blinking light at the last intersection floated overhead.

  Branoc accelerated and backed off slowly draining their speed down. The SUVs followed quickening their pace on the straight and flat section of road. But even flat, the minor undulations in the blacktop at fifty miles an hour became little ramps and jumps at the speed they chased us. Branoc’s car absorbed the roughness. The SUVs bounced.

  “Get ready for gravel on the turn. It will be difficult. Anna, cinch your seatbelt tight and keep your back against the seat. I’m not sure how good the suspension is under this car. I barely made it last time with my Camaro.”

  Branoc gritted his teeth, “This has the racing suspension upgrade but we’ll find out.”

  “That’s a lot of confidence.”

  We came to the curve. Branoc spun through the deeply banked turn at the end of the straight section and fought hard with the car up the tightly twisting road. At the second corner the charcoal remains of what had been an impressive oak tree thrust like broken fingers to the sky – angrily accusing the heavens of the lighting that rained down destroying it. Branoc’s rear quarter panel slammed against the charred trunk spinning the car in ever widening circles.

  “Turn the opposite way!” Garin demanded.

  Branoc brought the nose around at last on the flat gravel gaining a slight level of control and drove up the hill.

  “Stop here.” Garin said. “Do you have your swords?”

  “Yes.”

  “We’ll need them.”

  A pair of quick dull thumps like the sound of heavy circus mallets striking the elephant tent stakes echoed about us. Jangling metal and plastic debris scattered through the air until the vehicles hit the ground. The first truck tumbled end over end banging and smashing with pieces of bumpers and sheet metal and glass shedding from it at each hop. The second truck rolled like a hot dog then curled up on its side to cartwheel across the path of the first truck. Broken and unbelted vampire bodies split through the air settling into the dirt and dusty grass. Dust-covered bodies ripped to pieces remained starkly red at the tears tumbling across the ground.

  “Pop the trunk.”

  Branoc pressed the button and Garin retrieved a long rifle and loaded a round into it from the cushioned case. He sighted up into the air overhead and fired. A puff of plastic debris sparkled in the sunlight like a small firework. “No more of that camera.”

  Garin tossed the gun back into its foam case. He pulled one of Branoc’s swords from a holster and gave it to the investigator while taking a second for himself. “Anna, stay here.”

  “Like before – I’m going.” I looked over my shoulders concerned with the shadows I might not see around us. We ran to the trucks. The vampires still alive tipped around disoriented, rolling to their sides, and crawling to their knees. They wiggled and jerked back to animation wracked with furious knitting of healing flesh. Branoc and Garin used their swords to make sure they stayed permanently dead.

  “How did you know about this spot?” Branoc asked.

  “I used it before.” Garin’s eyes still incensed as he pointed the sword to a greasy spot nearby with a few sheared bolts and feathery slivers of broken plastic that hadn’t been removed.

  I only remembered the rain and our first kiss on the bench at the top of the hill.

  -:- Thirteen -:-

  “Doctor Gale,” Jorg wrapped his meaty fingers through Gale’s sweat-soaked mop of hair. “Stay with us, Doctor Gale.” Gale’s slack face oozed blood through the encrusted grime from the brutish treatment at Jorg’s fists.

  “Doctor Gale, this is Theron. We could use your assistance. For some reason the formulation you worked on at Rhino Labs does not grow in our pilot plant. We are missing some step of the process.”

  Gale rolled his eyes around in his
head and licked his cracked, blood caked lip as if whetting it to say something – but he remained silent.

  “We need your help Doctor Gale.”

  Gale shrugged his shoulders and stared ahead. Jorg pulled his fist back to the extents of his muscled arm, bulging like a super villain about to strike a comic book hero.

  “– Jorg, hold a minute.” Theron came forward to peer closer into Gale’s swollen eyes. “Doctor Gale, you already lost your daughter for not cooperating, unfortunate for us both. A pretty girl and I know what you and your wife went through conceiving. But we do know where your wife and son are staying –”

  Gale’s eyebrows lifted in fear and he moaned.

  “I cannot tell what that answer is, Doctor Gale.”

  Gale struggled to speak. How many weeks had they held him? In this underground darkness. He cooperated for a while after his daughter’s murder. But they talked of actions that threatened not only his family but also the whole country. The world. He grunted.

  “Jorg, get him some water. I think thirst is clouding his thinking.”

  Jorg let his fist drop and shook Gale’s head out of his grip, snorting like a mad mastiff. He took the pail from the bench scooping out a ladle of water. He held it to Gale’s lips and rattled it against his teeth. Gale drank in gulps.

  “Enough.”

  Jorg pulled the ladle away and tossed the pail down to the bench. He took up his grip on Gale’s head again. The pile-driving fist cocked back and white knuckled. His challenge became hitting with his vampire strength but not so hard as to fracture Gale’s neck, rendering him useless.

  “Doctor Gale. We need to know the steps in the growth phase that we might be missing. Jorg, care to explain where it goes to pot?”

  Jorg boomed, “We can get the initial dose to grow on the lab bench setup. Taking the initial batch from the bench into the pilot plant –”

  Gale croaked out, “It’s simple. You add the noodles to the hot water and then –”

  Jorg slapped his face, “That’s not right.”

  Gale grinned. He exhaled the pain from his face and sucked at a loose tooth. “Damn, I’ll have to see the dentist.”

  “That’s not who you will see.”

  “Doctor Gale, you’re trying our patience. We extended your life while we constructed the systems and ran the initial tests. But we are falling behind schedule now.”

  Reginald stepped forward, his hands open to get some help, and “We need your insight. The virus dissolves in the pilot plant growth medium.”

  Gale knew the problem well. He had worked it out over months and even celebrated with his family, including his daughter, the night he fixed it. The root cause originated from the corrosive pre-process materials that leached nickel out of the piping itself that carried all the raw ingredients to the mixing tanks and the nickel poisoned the aeration bubble columns so growth stopped. He suspected trace amounts of copper and lead from plumbing connectors and vales also caused issues but not as severe. Luckily, his research notes and test result files on that project had been stored in a flash drive that accidentally went home with him. His wife burned it in the fireplace and then ground the remains in a kitchen mortar and pestle after he talked with her between plane layovers the night their daughter died. The world would remain safe a little longer. “You are smart,” he lisped through broken teeth, “You’ll figure it out like I did.” he laughed a choking, chortling utterance burbling from his damaged and ill-kept body. “Better my family dies than I … help you destroy the world.”

  Jorg slapped him again. Spittle of blood blew to the floor with Gale’s exhaling breath.

  Theron walked forward. His suit impeccable as usual. He pushed Jorg aside and gripped Gale’s ears. “Doctor Gale,” he said directly into Gale’s eyes and repeated “ ‘Zeroth Law: A Vampire must not harm Humanity, nor by inaction, allow Humanity to come to Harm.’ Humans cause many problems in this world. I cannot stand by as one of the most ancient vampires alive and let my inaction ruin the world. Humanity will survive. A saner and fitter planet, improved, better evolved.” Theron leaned back. A grim line set by his lips across his face. “You are right. Reginald and Jorg are smart –” He swept his hand like a knife across Gale’s neck, separating his head from the body. “– They will figure it out.” Theron drank the twin fountains bubbling out of Gale’s neck until the blood slowed to an oozing trickle over the body’s collarbone. “And for you two. Figure it out.”

  Theron walked out licking his fingers clean.

  Not a spot of red shown on his expensive charcoal suit.

  -:- Fourteen -:-

  “There he is.”

  “Who?” I only saw a round beer bellied guy with an unkempt beard bend down to pick up his briefcase. A coffee in his other hand and a copy of the Detroit Journal folded under his arm.

  “That is one of the researchers at Rhino Labs. The one we need to follow.”

  I straightened my legs. The warm park bench slats did not burn like the last time I sat on them. But this bench had a shadier resting place closer to The Livix Cafe than the one Brett found me at when I learned he knew of vampires. I wondered how he got along with my sister and her kids and hoped for their continued safety.

  “Read your paper Anna,” Branoc said.

  I brought that day’s copy of The Detroit Freedom Press up so I mostly hid behind section L but kept the large researcher in my sight. The guy looked familiar for some reason. Mostly the fuzzy beard and his girth. Then I remembered. A regular patron at the Cafe when I did my work there earlier in the summer. He usually read the Journal and sipped his coffee. But I didn’t know anything else about him.

  Garin said as we stood, “A vampire with a coffee habit.”

  “Habits are deadly for vampires.” Branoc looked for a clearing between cars so we could cut safely across the street. “Now you two stay back from me so it doesn’t look like we are together. I will tail him. You follow me. Otherwise he might spook and run.”

  I nodded.

  We followed the researcher’s swaggering pace. He read his paper while walking and carrying his briefcase. He occasionally stopped to hold his coffee with his teeth or set it on a storefront ledge while he refolded his newspaper to consume another article. Branoc stopped when the researcher stopped and pretended to window shop or admire the cars driving by. He came to a lot and found his older sedan. The car tilted after he squeezed himself behind the wheel. His coffee set in a cup holder and the newspaper tossed on the passenger seat on top of a dozen other papers from prior days. Empty coffee cups filled the passenger side floor to ankle deep.

  I could see this tailing getting severely difficult now. Branoc flashed back to us as the car twisted through the maze of spaces and ramps down the parking structure. Branoc said quickly to Garin, “Carry Anna back to the car and I’ll follow our researcher. What time do you have?”

  “Eight twenty-eight.”

  “Your watch is a few minutes faster than mine … Here are the keys. At Eight forty-eight power your phone and wait for my call. If I don’t call for two minutes then power it off and move. Then every ten minutes power it on again.”

  “And move. Got it. See you soon.”

  Garin picked me up on his back and Branoc vaporized as each of us went different directions. Garin opened Branoc’s car and slid me from his arms into the seat. He had the key shoved into the ignition and rolled the engine to life. A squeak of rubber and we zipped out of the alley and into traffic.

  The wind over the microphone shredded the words “Main and Valley, go Valley South.”

  Garin turned his phone off and spun the wheel. He scooted around a pair of powder blue low mileage Grand Marquis cars driven by white haired elderly women guiding the big cars between the lines and street parked cars. They exhibited none of a vampire’s reflexes or the urgent need to complete the project at hand, their hands on the wheel more akin to nudging ship’s tillers.

  The road cleared before us and Garin pressed into the accelerator.
I tightened my seat belt. We came upon a pack of cars meandering around the curvy road. Passing them proved difficult. Then I saw the sedan.

  “There he is. Third from the front.”

  Garin eased off the accelerator and we faded back letting the pack move farther away from us. I heard a knock on the car door window next to me. I pressed the window down control.

  Branoc scrambled through the window and tumbled into the back seat. I put my window up. “That worked out well.”

  “Think he saw you get in the car?” Garin turned the steering wheel to follow the banked curve.

  “No. He reads his paper while he drives.”

  “What, does he think he has the reflexes of a vampire if someone stops in front of him?”

  Farmland appeared by the sides of the road. Big walnut and oak trees lined the margin between the fields and the blacktop. Gravel at the side of the blacktop a narrow gray ribbon. The fields alternated with corn and soybeans and looked healthy in spite of the worried drought earlier in the summer. The rains must have saved everything. Then a swath of wheat stubble filled the next large harvested field. A small farm of goats and then sprawling horse fences with horses. One horse rolled in the dirt while a second shook their coat out after dusting himself or herself.

  The string of cars ahead of us reduced as side roads siphoned them off. Soon only our car and the researcher’s car cut and swerved on the black surface.

  “Brake lights.”

  “Already slowing.”

  “He’s turning into that driveway leading back to a pair of old hipped-roofed barns and a new steel sided factory building,” with the chalky white evidence of recent concrete pours and construction. Garin drove us passed the facility and pulled off the road after a bend that hid us behind a shock of weeping willow trees clutching at the road and dipping into a water filled gully.