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

by Smith, J Gordon

“Let’s see what they are up to.” We got out of the car and Garin leaped with me on his back over the gully followed by Branoc. We flitted through the brush until we came to the edge of the building.

  Branoc looked for security cameras and it seemed eerily vacant. “Garin, do you recognize this building?”

  “No, why?”

  “I saw “Beautiful Bottle Molders – a subsidiary of Beautiful Molding Compounds” on the sign out front.”

  “Quite possible. Run under the corporate umbrella. It’s recently constructed. Out here away from a lot of other facilities and prying eyes.” Garin looked around the corner of the building. “There’s a cement pad back there with several plastic pellet storage silos.” He looked at me, “So they set up a plastic molding plant using feedstock from Beautiful Molding Compounds.”

  “We should see what bottles they are making,” I added, “and why a virus researcher is showing up for work here.”

  Garin swept his eyes around the corner of the building again. “I see the shipping containers we marked with paint after loading with Reginald. This must be the place.”

  “We’ll have to wait until it’s dark. With the bright light outside and a darkened warehouse inside then if we open any of those doors it will be like setting off a camera flash.”

  -:- Fifteen -:-

  “You should go back into the house.” Uncle Tremper said. Curling hot steel cut by the metal lathe peeled off the chunk of spinning metal. The curls smoked and changed color from the vicious bite of the carbide cutter. The horizontal feed screw spun bringing the cutter across the face of the work piece. Red numerals spun on an overhead display showing coordinates in three dimensional space plus other important characteristics like the speed of the lead screw pushing the cutter plus the work piece revolutions per minute.

  “Where did you get this equipment?”

  “Late last night I ran to my airplane hangar near North Port and loaded up my tools into the plane and brought them here.”

  “I didn’t hear a plane.”

  “Then I did my work well.” He flipped a lever on the lathe that returned the cutter to the start location. He spun a dial bringing the cutter a few parts of a millimeter closer to the work piece. He dropped the lever and the cutter scoured across the face of the work piece. More curling hair-like coils of metal spewed into the scrap tub under the lathe. “I parked it in a nearby hobby airport a mile or two away.”

  “What are you making?”

  “A tool to stop this nonsense.” He looked at Brett while the metal hissed off the part. “Are the kids keeping quiet?”

  “Yes. They are coloring now.”

  “Good. Glad their mom can keep them doing things. They are likely to remain in the house a while yet.”

  “Why didn’t you take the truck?”

  “I thought it better to have the truck handy here. Besides, I can run fast, if nothing else.” He flipped the lever, reset for a deeper cut and released the machine to shave again across the part’s surface.

  Brett picked up a few items on the nearby workbench. Some finished, some raw steel bar stubs, and a bag of electronics and wire. “This looks like it will be pretty elaborate.”

  “No. It is one of the simplest things.”

  “What’s that?”

  “A bomb.”

  Brett stopped touching anything. A vampire building a bomb, likely for their vampire enemies. That will be a scary device.

  “So is that why the patriotic songs are playing on the radio in here?”

  “Yes.”

  “How, what –?”

  Uncle Tremper reset the lathe cutter and turned to Brett, “To end this mess. Theron has broken the three laws of the vampires, among others. I’m going to fly the plane and drop this bomb on him and his carefully built production plant.”

  “How do you know where to drop it?”

  “We’ll do a reconnaissance first to get the exact location. I’m expecting Theron and his other key workers will be there soon if not already. I watched equipment get hauled in and stacked inside. It’s a building called Beautiful Bottle Molders – I found it by tracking a worker I remembered from my days at Rhino Labs. They seem to have employed him to help with installing the systems. And yes, this bomb works on vampires. It severs the neck if they are farther away and generally vaporizes a vampire if close to it.”

  “How close?”

  “They won’t need to be too close, not like horseshoes.”

  “And how fragile? If I drop it or bang it, will it go off?”

  “Not a good idea to do either, but this detonator,” Uncle Tremper held up an electronic device still inside its plastic clamshell packaging, “requires a drop of ten feet to concrete or more to light it – a safety precaution. Don’t hit it with anything by accident or the impact will make it think it fell ten feet and it’ll go off!” He chuckled, touching the lathe controls again. “This is the inner ring that will separate the charges. The outer shell is on the floor and complete already.”

  Brett rocked a small open top wooden keg filled with two inch long pencil sized hexagonal steel bars. “What are these?”

  “Shrapnel. The charges are mounted to this inner ring and then those bars are poured in the spaces between. They come flying out of there and buzz-saw through anything they hit. They are heat treated for hardness and toughness.”

  “Nasty.”

  “But that’s the way to kill vampires with a bomb.” Uncle Tremper picked up some bits of metal on the work table. He reached over and stopped the lathe. Then he took the cylinder out of the lathe and put it on the table. “Don’t touch that until it cools.”

  “I wasn’t planning on getting in the way, only helping if I could.” Brett looked again over the parts, “What have you figured out that Aravant is doing?”

  “Pretty complex, took me quite a while of night time forays to investigate but he has two basic attacks. The first is to thin the vampire population with an improved Massai-type poisoning and that is likely an aerosol spray that could be gassed across a treatment area and kill the vampires fighting him or hiding from him.”

  Stan rocked back on his heels, “That’s amazing.”

  “The second route is a virus that transforms humans.”

  “Into what? Vampires?”

  “No, not vampires. He wants to make humans docile. On the one hand easier to manage and on the other he avoids the risk of any uprisings against the vampires. Very insidious.”

  “Docile? You mean like domesticated animals?”

  “Exactly, or rather more domesticated than animals like a dog because some dogs can be trained to attack. Like transforming grown and independent untamed wolves into clingy puppies that girls cart in their handbags.”

  “That’s reprehensible!”

  “At least. But it solves many problems handily. The weakness in his plans is they are too complex. Complex by necessity to keep the secret, and it took me a while to understand the pieces, and give him more time while he constructed. The delivery needs to be secret since the delivery demands maximum exposure.”

  “How is he doing that?”

  Uncle Tremper halted, remembering his contribution to Aravant’s weapon. “It starts with a tailored militarized virus that gets packed into a ring of nano-tubes. The virus is fragile and while protected by the insulating nano- tubes they still cannot take much heat so the plastics they are incorporated into are blow molded bottles like milk jugs. But milk is too acidic and some consumers are lactose intolerant so they would never be infected in the first wave. The next targets are those ubiquitous water bottles.”

  “Oh, wow.” Brett didn’t know what else to say to the plan.

  “And the initial virus foundation research for their plan is based on work I did for Rhino Labs years ago. They twisted the science into a weapon but impossible without the work I did.”

  “And that’s why you are destroying it.”

  “Yes.” Uncle Truck pulled together pieces to begin assembling while
determining what the next fabrication step should be.

  “So I’ve been curious,” Uncle Tremper picked up the cylinder, went to the drill press, and locked the work piece in the clamps. “What is your relationship with Anna?”

  “I thought well until she got around your nephew.”

  “Garin is quite an exceptional individual with a lot of talents. Many of his talents I taught him.”

  “You did?”

  “We have to train each generation, whether human or vampire, to eventually take over and carry on.”

  “How much more do you need to teach him?”

  “He’s quite young yet but he learned quickly. Only a little left is all I can teach him. He’s put that training together well with his own interests and talents.” Uncle Tremper flipped his finger through a small drawer of drill bits until he found the one he needed. He twisted the chuck, fit the bit into the drill, and tightened it.

  “That’s what Anna finds attractive.”

  “She finds a lot about him attractive.” He paused with his finger over the power switch. “But he has an affliction that you are free of at the moment.” He pressed the button and the drill whined getting up to speed. Uncle Tremper dribbled some oil on the part and set about drilling the many holes required for his project. When done he took out a hand tap and die set and threaded half the holes.

  “How does that help me? Garin lives forever and I do not.”

  “Anna will make her own decision in the end. Will she remain human? Will she ask Garin to make her a vampire? Will you remain human? What might you be as a vampire?”

  “I won’t be a vampire – no offense.”

  “None taken. I’m putting up a difficult set of facts and questions. Here, give me that wrench and one of those bolts.”

  Brett gave him the items and Uncle Tremper test threaded the bolt into the tapped holes making sure they worked. Satisfied, he put away those tools and pulled out a sheet of steel and scribed lines for a cutting pattern across it guided with a steel rule.

  “Now what would you think of Anna if she chooses the vampire life? She’s twenty-one now.”

  “What is it about twenty-one that is so magical?”

  “Humans get their wisdom teeth. Chemical changes in the body trigger them. Some have those teeth earlier and some later but usually it’s quite active in your body by the time you’re twenty-one. Those same chemicals tend to influence and enhance the reaction of vampirism. You have to grow your vampire fangs,” he flicked out his vampire canines. Brett reacted with a certain uncontrolled surprised fear, “sorry. I’ll put them away.” He slid the rule aside and looked at Brett again, the teeth having receded. “And your general metabolism changes as you leave the rapid growth of childhood behind and assume the mantle of adulthood. Some could be vampires earlier than twenty-one, some when they are sixteen or seventeen as they are basically completed as a human adult but by twenty-one nearly have made the transition, physically.”

  “What if a vampire tries to make a vampire out of a younger person?”

  “That’s bad. The first is they cannot build teeth necessary to survive. I suppose with Massai they could survive now but they would be forever weak. They would not have the physical vampire strength. At times vampires fight, like pairs of cats with our fangs and claws biting and scratching with immense strength. Youth does not achieve that final strength. So earlier turned vampires are not durable. They soon realize it and either gets snuffed out soon or get self-destructive and endanger the rest of the vampire community.”

  “What do vampires fight about?”

  “Anything. Think of any human interaction ending in a fight. Now add severe independence, immense strength, a sense of entitlement, extreme territorial protectiveness, and no respect for the death of others brought about by the constant killing of humans for food, and selfishness. Young gods confronting and clashing each other. It never ends.”

  “Doesn’t sound that romantic of an existence. So how did you end up as a vampire?”

  “That is too long a tale for anyone not a vampire to sit through.” Uncle Tremper flipped the metal sheet onto the workbench and took a pair of tin snips to it rapidly working around the layout. “The short story is I became a vampire when older which is plagued with danger. I had an advantage of experience in the beginning and cleverness ever since. But that’s too dark a tale to tell now.” He dropped the sheet under the jaws of a sheet metal brake and bent flanges up and down, twisting the sheet back and forth. He used tin snips to shear off completed bits. “These are pockets for the explosives and channels to hold the projectiles over them. Then we pack the rods at a high density.”

  “Like this?”

  “That’s right. Use the bolts to fix the pockets around the core. Then take the bucket of bars and fill these trays, stacking them like this and wrapping a strip of electrical tape around them to hold them from falling out during assembly.”

  “Like building a kindergarten craft project.”

  “Nothing like this in school.” Uncle Tremper said, “Have you been playing with Shannon’s kids too much?”

  “Yeah. They are fun but …”

  “You’ll warm to kids later. They can be enchanting if the kids are yours or a close friend. But if you’re not old enough or not predisposed to it then kids grate your nerves.”

  “I’m not ready yet.”

  “Quite alright. You’ve got some years to think if it means anything to you or not.”

  “I also have to find the right girl.”

  “That is true. Someone willing to take that particular life journey.”

  “How much of that modeling clay are you packing in there?” Brett looked at the plastic wrapped little bricks of explosives he carefully removed from protective boxes.

  Uncle Tremper molded the bricks together and stuffed them into the pockets around the bomb core. “As much as possible.”

  “This looks like enough to remove a city block.”

  “It’s not, probably three city blocks. And it will produce a crater like a meteor strike.”

  Brett stepped back.

  Uncle Tremper smiled, “You’ll have to step back quite a distance. This doesn’t get dangerous until the detonator is inserted. Well, at least not too dangerous. No electrical sparks or hot flames. I think I can drop it to the concrete and it won’t go off … well, maybe it could go off if the metal inner ring strikes a spark from the concrete when it hits.”

  Brett looked uneasy.

  “Sorry. We should practice proper safety techniques through the rest of this process.”

  “There. It is done.”

  Brett looked at the device. “That seems small.”

  “When I pick it up it is, but you try, and do not drop it.”

  Brett put his hands under the two conical ends. He lifted, his arm bulging and flexing. “Oh! That’s heavy. I’d have to roll that to get it anywhere.”

  “It must be heavy to have enough charge and rods to affect the damage we need done. I put striker buttons on both ends to make it convenient when it lands that it can bounce around and fire either one to ignite its heat of hell.”

  “Should we have caps over them for transport?”

  “I have those. Here.”

  “What are these from?”

  “Plastic peanut butter jar lids. I cut matching threads so they screw right on.”

  “I guess we already have those around because that is all these kids want to eat.”

  “Three meals a day except for macaroni and cheese and those are sold in cardboard boxes.”

  “There. I have them on, now what?”

  Uncle Tremper kicked out a wooden crate from under the bench. He retrieved several chunks of foam blocks from an old television shipping box along with foam from a computer monitor shipment. He arranged the packing in the wood container and then lifted the bomb off the workbench and nestled it down into the foam. The foam squeaked and sagged but the system protected the bomb from undue jostling. He put a lid o
ver it and then wrapped old seat-belts around the box clicking them together and making a handle he could carry it with. “Now to check out where to use it.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “You should stay and watch over Shannon and the kids.”

  “This is an important project, right? Then it could do with another set of eyes.”

  Uncle Tremper said, “Then go tell Shannon. We’ll take my plane. And choose some dark clothes. We’ll leave the bomb here until we know exactly where to use it and timing for the drop. They are building a new facility to house their equipment. We’ll take a look at that place first.”

  “Should we try to call Garin and Branoc to let them know?”

  “No. I don’t trust our phones. They will reveal our location to our enemies. We must keep absolute radio silence. We can tell them after we know this is the correct target and have used the device … from a different location of course.”

  -:- Sixteen -:-

  Darkness came abruptly over the surrounding forest. Then I saw why the sky above the tree canopy changed. The wind gusted shaking free a few splatters of rain from the darkening clouds racing high in the sky blotting out the light and intensifying the gloom.

  “It will be sloppy outside soon but it will allow us to get through the door more quietly.” Garin pressed the hard smooth Wakizashi sword sheath against my palm. “Backup in case something goes wrong.”

  Rain stampeded across the tops of the tall trees surrounding the plant and warehouse like an army blitz drumming wet boots through the green leaves only to fall and break against the steel sided building in a swirling wet madness. Branoc eased open the steel door at the back of the factory near the plastic pellet storage silos. The weight of the pounding rain pushed me through.

  Garin and I stood dripping inside the door. Wide shadows cast from sparse overhead lamps helped us blend behind the machinery. Large diameter pipes hissed with plastic pebbles vacuumed from the storage silos and transported somewhere ahead into the thrumming rumble of clanks and bangs from a row of plastic presses ahead. Branoc waved us to follow behind him as he flits ahead from shadow to shadow.