“Oh, certainly not, Senator,” the Director quickly agreed. “So how shall we proceed with our good Senator Pachy?”
“The GAO review will require you to provide specific information.”
“And the level of discretion?”
“That won’t be an issue . . . are we in agreement?”
“I’ll coordinate with the GAO after you open the proper channel.”
“You’ll be contacted tomorrow. The meeting with Senator Pachy will take place Tuesday, so we’ll need to act quickly.”
“I’m quite sure we can provide a most persuasive argument to him,” the Director said.
“Very good. Now what else have you learned about her?”
The Director leaned forward on his cane and grinned. “She has alarming abilities in terms of telepathic bridging with a target. This talent alone makes her extremely valuable.”
“Any idea how it’s done? Please don’t tell me it’s some dark supernatural power.”
The Director shook his head. “We’re working on that and I’ve added a new member to the evaluation team, a physicist.”
“No need to tell me the details.”
“Thank you, Senator.”
“And her speed and strength?”
“We have not formally tested her in these areas, but we have video of her rolling a van on its side. Extraordinary footage, I must say.”
Senator Asinas scratched the back of his head. “I feel almost emasculated by her.”
“Ooh, Senator, you wouldn’t want to be emasculated by her.”
Senator Asinas laughed. “No, I’m sure you’re right.”
“We also have video of her changing her physical appearance while asleep. It appears that as she dreams she unconsciously changes her looks. We think it’s related to her REM activity.”
“She can control this consciously?”
“We believe she has total control over it.”
“And when do you believe we’ll have her complete loyalty to the committee’s efforts?”
“I’ll begin negotiations with her tomorrow morning when she wakes.”
Senator Asinas leaned back in his chair and interlocked his fingers together. “If you can’t assure the committee of her total cooperation this entire effort will be terminated. Do you understand?”
“Not to worry, Senator, I intend to make her an offer that she can’t refuse.”
“I would expect nothing less.”
Chapter Seven
“Biology has at least fifty more interesting years.”
—James D. Watson, American Biochemist
An annoying electronic buzz woke Ryan up. He reluctantly rolled over and slammed his hand down on the alarm clock knocking it off the nightstand. He didn’t sleep well. His attempt at synchronizing his circadian rhythm to coincide with Calida’s nocturnal existence needed more time. He had tried to adjust too quickly and his mind and body suffered for it.
The small clock on the floor continued to buzz. He bent down, picked it up, and placed it back on the table. With more respect than it deserved, he turned it off, got out of bed, and went to the bathroom.
Feeling better after his shower he started to get dressed and had managed to get his pants on when someone knocked at his door. He walked from his small bedroom over to the door while taking a towel to his hair.
Ryan flipped the door speaker. “Yeah?”
“It’s Siri, we need to talk.”
“Okay.” Ryan slid the bolt and opened the door. Siri stepped inside and appeared concerned.
“Something is going on with Calida,” she said. “I went over to check on her fifteen minutes ago and I wasn’t allowed in the isolation unit.”
“You weren’t allowed in? I thought you were running this project.”
“So did I. Right now the Director is in the cell having a discussion with her.”
Ryan digested this. “I guess he can talk to her whenever he wants. Still, why wouldn’t he want you there?”
“I needn’t tell you that the man is nefarious, or haven’t you noticed?”
“Nice joke . . . so what’s he up to?”
“I guess he’s starting the recruitment process.”
“I had a phone discussion with him yesterday. He mentioned it, but I figured we’d have weeks if not months.”
“So what do we do?”
“Nothing?”
“I know you’re right. It’s just that I feel we’re gaining Calida’s trust. I know it sounds crazy, she’s a vampire, but I believe it.”
Ryan quickly went over his hair with the towel again and said, “I know, I’ve been thinking the same thing, especially after she promised not to mind-lock with me anymore.”
“She told me.”
Ryan stopped fussing with his hair and looked squarely at Siri. “Yeah? And what else has she told you? Besides the fact she wants to eat me.”
“She hasn’t said that about you, exactly. In many ways she’s a young woman in her mid-twenties. The fact that she has nineteen hundred years of life experiences to draw from gives her a serious advantage over us.”
“It has made her extremely successful at what she does, I’ll give you that.”
“Ryan, you’re a competent scientist, but you don’t always see what’s obvious.”
Ryan tossed his towel onto the sofa. “For instance?”
Siri walked over to the sofa, picked up Ryan’s towel and folded it. “You seem to have missed the obvious fact that Calida . . . well, she appreciates you in her own unique way.”
“She appreciates I showed her kindness. I’m not as thick headed as you think.”
“Oh, but you are,” Siri said and sat down on the sofa. “It’s more than that. Calida may be developing feelings for you, feelings that she’s struggling to understand.”
Ryan absorbed this. “She’s talked to you about these feelings?”
“She has. She thinks you’re sweet.”
“She’s already told me.”
“Not only that way. She likes you.”
“Yeah? Just great,” Ryan said, sarcastically. “The most beautiful woman on the planet likes me but I can never take her home to meet my mother—because she might eat my mother.”
“How do we deal with this?”
“I’m going to deal with it by ignoring it.”
“I don’t think that will work.”
“She’s not the kind of woman I’d go for, besides, why would she be attracted to a boring scientist?”
“You can’t blame her,” Siri said. “You’re relatively tall, you’ve got nice, dark hair and . . . .” Siri watched as Ryan put on his shirt. “You’re in okay shape. For a scientist you’re not too unpleasant looking.”
“That’s enough.” Ryan half squinted at her. “Do you know how much success I’ve had with women? My work always gets in the way and it always ends with me feeling lousy about it.”
“But this time it’s different, Calida is your work.”
“Have you noticed those four extremely sharp fangs when she opens her mouth?”
“Actually she has six, but that’s not important right now.”
“Six? I’ve only seen four and none of the documentation described—”
“It’s not important right now, Ryan. Anyway, I’m not advising you to start a relationship with her, all right? I just think you should know what’s going on with her.”
“I appreciate the warning. So what else have you noticed that I haven’t, besides the two extra fangs?”
Siri gave him an exasperated look. “What I’ve noticed is you don’t even realize that you’re responding to her.”
“That’s because she’s playing around inside my head,” Ryan said, defensively. “Has she made any attempt to get inside yours?”
“I’ve felt something a few times, but it’s never been obvious to me.”
Ryan yawned and stretched his back. “Our newest member will be arriving Tuesday,” he said, changing the subject.
“I received the message
same time as you,” Siri said. “I’ve already arranged for quarters to be made available in this building. His equipment arrived an hour ago and I had it delivered to your lab, temporarily, of course.”
“I can only hope. All right, I’m going to finish up here and head over to the lab. I want to see what this special equipment is all about.” Ryan paused and then asked, “She’s not going to be awake much longer anyway, right?”
“We’ll have to wait until nightfall, but this thing with the Director still bothers me,” Siri replied. “I’m going to head back over to the isolation unit and see if I can get in. I’ll let you know what’s going on if anything happens.”
“Just keep me updated. Something tells me this is going to be an interesting day.”
Calida sat on the edge of the cot with her legs crossed and listened to the strange man meander on about meaningless things. She noted the slight yellowish hue of his skin and surmised that his teeth were discolored from years of tobacco use, which meant his blood would be bitter. Yet even through his foul smelling cologne and the strong odor of tobacco on his breath, she could detect the presence of disease. She decided, as he continued to drone on, that he was food even if he wouldn’t taste very good.
The Director sat on a chair twenty feet from the plexiglas barrier. They were alone with the door to the cell closed.
“. . . And so, my dear, this would be a mutually beneficial arrangement,” the Director said, cheerfully. “As I see it—it’s your only option really.”
Calida offered him her sweetest smile. “Killing isn’t a problem for me,” she said. “But I don’t kill for sport.”
“Oh, yes, yes, you wouldn’t be expected to kill for sport,” the Director said, fondling his pipe. “Of course you may feed on whoever you kill, understand?”
“And you’ll just let me leave this place?” Calida asked, and she reached out to the man’s mind.
“You’ll be granted citizenship in this great country along with employment. Your life will have a new purpose. This is a great opportunity to give back to mankind from whom you have taken so much.”
Calida shuddered for a brief moment and withdrew. The man’s mind was a disturbing series of incoherent images. She hadn’t detected the clouded presence of the pills that everyone else was taking. But she did sense the man was an immediate and deadly threat to her. She couldn’t tell how or why. Calida uncrossed her legs and leaned forward.
“So you want me to be an assassin?” she asked and again smiled.
“You would be an operative with this agency protecting the interests of your country.”
“Maybe I don’t want to be a citizen of this country. Why should I care about mankind’s inability to get along with itself?”
“Think of this as an offer you cannot refuse.” The Director returned her smile.
“If I refuse you’ll just keep me in here like some kind of pet?”
“My dear Calida, I would never think of you as a pet, but even this agency doesn’t have bottomless funding. After your scientific value comes to an end there will be no more use for you.”
“You think like a vampire,” Calida said, and she casually slid her flip flops off and pressed the balls of her feet on the concrete floor. “If I don’t accept this offer you’ll just kill me when the time suits you?”
“It would be terribly unwise to have an unsupervised vampire running—”
Calida sprang forward and crashed into the plexiglas. The barrier shrieked as it bowed outward but held. Calida rebounded backward onto the cement floor and jumped to her feet with inhuman speed. She started to laugh as blood spurted from her broken nose.
The Director remained seated and smiled at her. “Well done, I wondered what was keeping you from making an attempt at me. I am, after all, just a weak old man with a cane,” he said. “And I’m certainly no match for such a remarkable creature as you.”
Calida wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. “I think I can get to you if I just keep trying,” she said, and turned her shoulder toward the weakened barrier, but hesitated. She was surprised the man remained seated.
“Before you make another senseless charge I want to show you something,” the Director said, and motioned for Calida to come closer.
Calida relaxed and stepped up to the plexiglas still trying to figure a way to get to the man.
He reached inside his suit and took out what looked like a cell phone. “What I have here is simply an insurance policy. You don’t seem to understand so let me explain this policy to you in simple terms.” He opened up the device and revealed two large buttons, one white and one black. “When you were first brought here you were, of course, a mess . . . my apologies. Our surgeons closed some of the larger wounds to help with the healing process, but they also performed one other important procedure.”
Calida stared at the device in the Director’s hand. “You are a little monster in your own way,” she said. “What did your bastard doctors do to me?”
“They merely left something behind, something small that they attached to the inner wall of your skull. And thanks to our good Doctor Ryan your system can’t reject or expel it like a bullet. And yet this is a very special bullet in its own way.”
“Ryan did this to me?”
“Doctor Ryan doesn’t know anything about your little guest,” the Director replied. “He merely devised a way of coating a small electronic tracking device that a vampire’s system wouldn’t reject and force out of its flesh.” The Director looked at Calida. “You have two of these in your body right now from that small encounter you had with one of my agents two months ago, remember? You were shot twice at a very intimate range with a small caliber pistol before you escaped.”
“I guess I should thank you for the meal,” Calida said with nearly two thousand years of practiced contempt. “What does the one in my head do? Kill me if you push your little button?”
“Precisely, my dear, but only if I push the right button. The device inside your skull contains a small and yet powerful explosive charge. It would turn your lovely head into a jumbled mass of brains and bone in a fraction of a second. Even your remarkable healing ability couldn’t deal with that.” The Director stood up. “Of course I don’t need to push the button. The implant has a proximity sensor that will set off the explosive if you get within five feet of me.” The Director stepped forward until he was several feet from the plexiglas.
Calida suddenly reached up and placed her hands on the sides of her head.
“I’m sure that it’s quite uncomfortable,” the Director said. “When you’re within ten feet of me that little warning will go off. The device has a high frequency sonic alarm that rapidly heats up the surrounding tissues. Must be terribly painful.”
Calida backed up past her cot until the far wall stopped her. She fell to her knees and gasped. The intense pain subsided, but the after effects were nearly as bad.
“I can also administer this punishment by pushing the other button on my little hand held friend. I can send the signal from either button anywhere in the world at any time using agency satellites. There’s nowhere on the planet you can go that’s beyond my reach.”
Calida slowly got to her feet and leaned back against the wall. “What do you want from me?”
“I’ll accept the trembling of your voice as a sign we understand each other. Do you accept my country’s generous offer of service?”
“You’ve left me no choice,” she replied, her eyes still blinking away the effects of the device.
“Excellent decision, my dear.” The Director turned toward the observation window and waved. “First we’re going to take down this awkward barrier. You’ll be given clothes and anything else you desire. You are not to attempt any physical contact with members of my staff. If they need to touch you they will only do so if they’re wearing gloves. We don’t want any of that imprinting nonsense to happen, do we?”
“I won’t touch anyone.”
“You must a
lso make no attempt to leave this cell or this facility until given permission and your training is finished. Sensors have been installed throughout the complex that can—how did you say it?—push my little button. Only after I personally disarm the system will you be allowed to walk out of this cell without being harmed.”
“We both know what I am, but you . . . you’re something much worse.” Calida drew her lips back and exposed her fangs. “You’re a pathetic coward.”
“How very kind of you.” The Director returned the handheld detonator back to his suit pocket. “So we understand each other at last . . . very good. Now go to your bed and sleep. When you awaken the barrier will be down and Doctor Lei will bring you some fresh cloths. We still need to study you for a time so your cooperation will be expected.” The Director watched as Calida walked over to her cot and sat down. “One last thing, my dear, you are not to tell anyone about the device in your head. That will be our little secret. Is this understood?”
“Just leave. Your stench disgusts me.”
“You are such a lovely creature.” The Director turned away from Calida and walked toward the door which opened.
Calida sat on her cot for several minutes waiting for the pain inside her head to fade away. She didn’t want to sleep but there was nothing else for her so she laid down and shut her eyes. As the day-sleep enveloped her, she surrendered to the dream paths that she had traveled down countless times over the years. Her last thought before she slipped away was if her nose would be healed before seeing Ryan again.
After Siri left, Ryan finished getting dressed and made a bowl of instant oatmeal that he sprinkled with brown sugar and washed down with a cup of black coffee. A light rain fell amid the grey backdrop of the early morning sky. He closed the door to his apartment and headed over to the laboratory. Even at 6:00 AM the complex grounds were busy. The business of keeping the country safe never slept.
Ryan entered his lab and was confronted by three large crates. He walked up to the nearest one and looked around for a shipping manifest.
“Don’t bother,” Henry said, looking up from a workstation near the lab’s entrance. “No bill of lading, papers, nothing.”
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