‘I’ve been doing a lot of that myself. So, I heard there was another body?’
Dione nodded. ‘It’s been reported fairly heavily.’
‘And it’s definitely the same guy? No leads yet?’
Dione looked around at the scrawny man. ‘I can’t discuss an ongoing case.’
Silas looked away. ‘Oh. O-of course. Right. It’s just… After San Francisco–’
‘This is not San Francisco, Silas. This is not San Francisco thirty years ago. When the pogrom tried to get started in New York, I put a stop to it back then, and I’ll put a stop to it now. That’s all you need to know.’
‘Yeah… Yeah. I’m sure you’ll do your job. They say you’re the best there is.’
‘I’ve heard that.’
‘You were the Princeps Venator at one point. You have to be pretty–’
‘It’s not something I talk about.’
‘You don’t talk about much.’
Dione turned and looked at Silas. ‘I talk about a lot of things… When I trust the person I’m talking to. Tell Pat I’ll catch up with her later.’ And then she slipped off her stool and started for the door.
~~~
Pat saw Dione walking out and frowned, looking back toward Silas. She headed for the end of the bar, leaning over it to talk to her creator. ‘Why’s she leaving?’
‘She, uh, got a call,’ Silas replied. ‘Had to leave. And she doesn’t like me much.’
‘I told you not to ask about the case.’
‘I’m worried, Pat. I’m worried and–’
‘And if you’d shut up and listened, she might’ve told me how they were doing and set your mind at ease. Damn it, Silas, she’s my friend.’
Silas shook his head slowly. ‘Hunters don’t have friends, kid. They can’t allow themselves to have friends, someone they might care about and then have to end. No way they can do their job working like that.’
‘You don’t know Di. She’s not just any Hunter.’
‘I know. The once Princeps Venator. The woman who killed half the Summus Concilium and saved vampire society.’
‘Oh, God. You didn’t bring that up, did you? Look, just stay out of her way, okay? You’re my creator, but she’s my… She’s more than just a friend to me. Don’t make me choose between you.’
Silas held up his hands. ‘I’m just trying to find a place to call home, kid. I’d like it to be here. I just want to know it’s safe.’
‘It is. Unless you’ve got Dione pissed at you.’
14th March.
The call had come in from the Black Candle around ten a.m., from Tony, who had been on the door the night before when an informant had come looking for Dione. Tony had been disinclined to allow him into the building and had had the best excuse of all: Dione was not there. He had, however, agreed to pass on the message. The message was that…
‘Marty came looking for you?’ Mike asked as they drove across the bridge toward Queens. Marty had, apparently, found somewhere to squat not far from the Elysium Fields pascua.
‘That’s what Tony said,’ Dione replied. ‘Marty went to the Candle last night and said he had “vital information.”’
‘And you weren’t there?’
‘I left early. Silas was asking a lot of questions I didn’t want to answer.’
‘Generally or in front of Silas?’
‘The latter. I don’t trust him. I don’t trust him turning up out of nowhere just when we have a valentine killing people in the city. I don’t like the timing.’
Mike shrugged. ‘Well, I haven’t met him yet so I can’t really pass judgement. Didn’t you have Mary checking on him?’
‘She still is.’
‘Out of the office, in an unknown location.’
‘Yes.’ Dione’s tone suggested asking more questions would be fruitless. Mike had heard that tone before. He would be told what was going on when he needed to know.
‘Well then, I guess we wait, and in the meantime, there’s Marty.’
‘Yes… I wonder what the little pervert thinks is so vital.’
~~~
The area looked far too upmarket for the likes of Marty, but Dione pulled to a stop outside the address she had been given and climbed out of the car. Mike followed, peering up at the single-storey building with its shuttered windows and small front garden. ‘Doesn’t look occupied.’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ Dione agreed. ‘Let’s ring the bell.’
Mike took a few quick strides to get ahead of her, climbed onto the porch, and dutifully pressed the button beside the door. There was a muffled sound from within, but no one came to the door. Mike turned to Dione and shrugged.
Dione nodded and set off down the side of the house without a word.
‘But–’ Mike began.
‘Marty is not exactly the most honest of people,’ Dione said before he could continue. ‘And in the time he’s been alive, he’s learned a few things.’ She got to the back of the house, where there was a larger garden, mostly grass, and walked up to the back door, bending to examine the lock. ‘One of those things is picking locks.’ Reaching down, she pressed the handle and pushed the door open. ‘I believe we have cause for entry,’ she said, grinning, and slipped inside.
Before they had made it out of the kitchen, there was the sound of feet scurrying on a wooden floor, and then Marty appeared in all his… lack of glory. He might have been living in a suburban house, but he was still the scruffy individual Mike had last encountered on a warehouse rooftop. He was still dressed in a coat which had seen better days. He still looked vaguely like a rat which had let itself go. He was clearly not taking advantage of the bathroom in his new home.
‘Hey, Hunter! You’re a hard lady to find. I’ve been looking for you.’
‘And now you’ve found me,’ Dione replied. ‘What are you doing here, Marty?’
‘I–’
‘Stop lying.’
‘I haven’t said anything!’ Marty whined.
‘You were going to and it was going to be a lie.’
‘Okay, so I heard that this place belonged to an old guy that died and it’s in probate, right? No one’s using it…’
Dione shook her head and then held a hand out, palm facing the short vampire. ‘Stay right where you are. You told Tony you had some information and I’d much rather you were in one piece to tell me what it is.’
Marty’s expression became pleading, and his hands began to twist in front of him. ‘I wasn’t going to–’
‘I told you to stop lying. You are constitutionally incapable of keeping your hands to yourself. What’ve you got, Marty?’
‘I was hoping for a little compensation…’
‘And you’ll get some. For example, if your information turns out to be as valuable as you claim, I won’t decide to inform the police of this break-in.’
Marty sagged a little more; he had remarkably poor posture at the best of times, but now it got worse. ‘I heard someone talking.’
‘That seems to be a theme,’ Mike commented.
‘I got good ears, okay, Poodle Boy?’
‘Marty…’ Dione said, her tone carrying a warning edge.
‘Yeah, right. Not just talking, bragging. Seems him and three buddies went out to the Hamptons recently and nailed a valentine. Literally. Like, to a wall. Seems this guy fitted the valentine’s security system so they could just walk right in.’
‘This guy have a name?’
‘Yeah…’
Dione reached into her coat and pulled five bills off a roll of them. ‘A hundred. If it turns out you’re lying to me, I will find you and I will extract this back, with interest.’
‘Trey Kott. He’s in the phonebook under–’
‘I know Kott.’ Dione tossed the notes down at Marty’s feet. ‘Good work, Marty. That was useful. I’m going to turn around and leave now. If you take a step toward me, you’ll be wearing your teeth on your nose.’
‘You know me, Dione. I’d never… Well, almost never
…’
‘Uh-huh.’
Mike turned to leave and took two steps forward before he heard the sound of someone being punched in the jaw. He grinned. ‘How’s your nose taste, Rat Man?’
~~~
Trey Kott ran a small security business out of his home, a house on Farrington Street in Flushing. Dione had made a couple of calls before they headed out to question the man and it was, Mike realised, the first time they had done this kind of thing since he joined the unit.
‘So, uh, what’s the procedure?’ Mike asked. ‘I mean, this isn’t going to be a regular interview, is it? The guy’s a vampire accused of killing a human. We aren’t going to take him down to the precinct and grill him for several hours.’
‘No,’ Dione said, ‘we aren’t. Back in the day, this kind of thing tended to get ugly.’
‘Back in the day, taking someone into the precinct could get ugly.’
‘Point taken, but vampires react to pain differently to humans. Beating a confession out of a vampire is an exercise in taking the skin off your knuckles. With this particular crime, there’s no possibility of a plea bargain. This is murder, straight and simple. There’s no way Kott can justify it. Generally, we used to get out the branding irons. Burns hurt. Or we’d start cutting off fingers and toes, and work our way in.’ Mike winced. ‘I have an alternative, however, but you’ll have to trust me.’
‘Uh, how?’
‘You can’t be in the room when I do it.’
‘Well… Would you mind telling me why?’
‘Sure. This is one of those things we don’t tell Leeanne about and it isn’t targeted. Anyone who sees me is going to be just as affected as Kott and the after effects can be… unpredictable. You could just find yourself waking up after a few seconds wondering what happened. You could develop a fixation, probably on me. You could end up with serious personality alterations. I used it on Derren Norton in Los Angeles.’
‘And he jumped off a building.’
‘You see my point then.’
‘I see your point.’ Mike looked up as a dark van pulled up across the street. It was unmarked, but the driver was wearing what looked like an NYPD uniform.
‘Okay,’ Dione said, ‘we’re good to go. Remember, he may have a good idea why we’re here and may not be pleased. I’d like him alive, but if he comes at you, shoot to kill.’
Mike slipped his pistol from its holster as they walked up to the house, holding it down, behind his leg, but ready. There was a screen door and Dione pulled it open before knocking, hard, on the door behind it. A second or two later, a figure appeared in the corridor beyond. Apparently, Kott did not know, or could not quite see, who was knocking, because he opened the door with a vague smile on his face and then froze.
‘Hello, Trey,’ Dione said, smiling. ‘We need to have a little chat.’
Kott was a tall, dark-skinned man, African American though he had a somewhat narrow, high-bridged nose and eyes on the paler side of brown. He did have a fair bulk of muscle on his frame and he used that now to try to slam the door in Dione’s face. It slammed into her boot, bouncing back, and she was moving even before Kott had finished turning around. Her leg snaked between his and a second later, he was crashing into the table set under the staircase.
‘Cuffs,’ Dione said as she dropped one knee into the middle of Kott’s back and grabbed his wrists. She was a strong woman, but it still took both of them to get the cuffs on and then manhandle Kott into the lounge. They dumped him onto an over-stuffed sofa and Mike stood over him, covering him with his pistol, while Dione sat down on the chair opposite, crossed her legs, and smiled.
‘What’s this about?’ Kott asked, going for affronted innocence.
‘It’s a little late to be trying that defence, don’t you think, Trey?’ Dione said. ‘You could save me a lot of time and effort by just coming clean and telling me who your friends were.’
‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Seriously?’ Mike asked. ‘You make a bolt for it and then you want us to believe you aren’t guilty of something?’
‘Trey is fairly young,’ Dione said. ‘What is it? Twenty-five years since your conversion?’
‘Twenty-seven,’ Kott mumbled.
‘Twenty-seven. He’s not even old enough to have known what went on during the pogrom. He was alive back then, unaware that vampires even existed. Of course, he’ll have heard stories, but he doesn’t know. Which leaves me with two theories. One, someone older and too stupid to know different came up with the idea to end Andrew Quarry. Two, Trey did the security work for an old, wealthy valentine with a hot supplicant, and Trey thought “that bastard has it all and I’m gonna get me some.”’
‘Does it matter?’ Mike asked. ‘I mean, the outcome will be the same either way.’
‘It might make the difference between a quick end and a protracted one. Sword or bonfire, basically.’
‘I didn’t do anything!’ Kott exclaimed.
‘I guess it’s the hard way then,’ Mike said.
‘It seems,’ Dione replied, nodding sadly. ‘Would you step outside, Mike?’
‘Sure. Just… try not to make too much mess. I’ll probably have to clean it up.’
‘I’ll try.’ Dione watched as Mike left the lounge, closing the door behind him, and then she stood and took off her coat. Beneath it was a black blouse and slacks, nothing special.
Kott looked at her, pulling back as far as he could manage against the sofa. ‘What are you going to do?’
‘I’m going to show you what a real vampire is.’
Kott’s eyes widened as some sort of transformation took place before them. Dione was a stunning woman normally, but now… now she was a goddess. Faced with what he was seeing, Kott’s senses submerged in a sea of ecstatic bliss and he was still smiling when his vision returned and Dione asked, ‘Tell me, Trey, who went with you to help you end Andrew Quarry?’
15th March.
‘I got the names of his accomplices from Trey,’ Dione said. ‘All of them were transported here via the usual unmarked van.’
‘I looked in on them earlier,’ Leo said. He was the Princeps of New York today, sitting in his chair in the Concilium’s meeting room along with his fellow Conciliarum. ‘You could have just executed them on the spot.’
‘That was unnecessary. They came quietly, or mostly quietly. The Concilium can pass official justice and the verdict can be publicised to deter more of the same.’
‘Yeah… That’s probably wise. But it means I’m actually going to have to talk to them.’
‘Delegate,’ Bella Tivoli suggested. ‘I know I’d love to have a little chat with them. I’m thinking of taking up smoking again, just for the occasion.’
‘Leave me enough to execute, Bella,’ Dione said.
‘I’ll try.’
‘Thank you. We also distributed a photograph and two new artist’s impressions of the Valentine Killer yesterday. His last victim was taken in a rather public manner. A number of people saw him leave with her.’
‘Does this mean we can expect results on that case soon?’ Randall Cartwright asked.
‘I’m more hopeful. There has been interference, we think from the CIA. The ghouls we destroyed in the sewers were not natural.’ Dione frowned. ‘If you can call anything about ghouls natural. Frankly, I’m worried. We suspected someone assisted with the Societas incident. Apollo was not something they could have come up with on their own. Now we have genetically altered ghouls. Someone does not wish us to be spending as much time as we should on Evan, and we know that the CIA are hunting him.’
‘You really expect us to believe that the Central Intelligence Agency is working with a bunch of fools like Societas?’
‘I don’t care what you believe, Randall. The facts suggest it, though the evidence is circumstantial. Whatever the case, SCU should be able to devote all its resources to catching Evan now. Unless something else is thrown at us.’
‘Very good,’ Leo sai
d before Cartwright could respond. ‘Keep us informed. We will examine the four ghouls we have in the basement and I’ll deliver our verdict as soon as we’ve decided.’
Dione nodded. ‘Try not to take too long, or we could have more of them to hunt down and dispatch.’
Part Four: Judas
New York, NY, 17th March 2015.
Lisa yawned. It was a substantial and quite loud yawn which produced a raised eyebrow from Dione. ‘You know,’ the vampire said, ‘you didn’t have to get up with me.’
‘I’ll take a nap later. Why are you up so early anyway?’
Dione considered a small lie, but Lisa knew what Dione’s job entailed. ‘Because formal executions are traditionally carried out at dawn. I have four to do, but it’s the general thought that counts.’
‘Oh. The men who killed that supplicant in the Hamptons?’
‘The Concilium ruled on it yesterday.’
‘I’m opposed to the death penalty, generally, but in this case… It’s a cliché, but death’s too good for them.’
‘Quite possibly, but–’ Dione stopped and lifted her head. ‘It’s mandatory under the circumstances,’ she finished just as a rather weary-looking Mary walked into the lounge and dumped a small bag on the floor.
‘Is the coffee fresh?’ Mary asked.
‘Just made,’ Dione replied, ‘but you look like you’d be better off in bed.’
‘After I’ve told you what I found. Some of it anyway. I’m not writing any of this down.’ Mary headed for the kitchen, returning a few seconds later with a mug. ‘Juliana hasn’t been a problem?’
‘As good as gold,’ Dione replied. ‘Which is what I expected.’
‘Yeah…’ Mary slumped onto the sofa opposite the other two women and sighed. ‘Okay… You asked me to look into Silas and I was getting nowhere the conventional way. He just didn’t exist in any records after San Francisco.’
‘So you went looking by unconventional means.’
‘Yeah, I hacked Langley.’
Lisa let out a little squeak. ‘Should I go hide in the bedroom or something?’
Mary waved the question away. ‘You may not be on the payroll, but you’re basically SCU and this affects you. We were right: the CIA is attempting to use vampires in espionage and warfare. The whole thing seems to be being run under a Project Stabledoor. There are various sub-projects under that headline and I wasn’t able to get details on all of them. The security on this thing is tight, but it has a fairly large, off-the-books budget and a reasonably large personnel count.’ She took a sip of her coffee and sighed thankfully. ‘As far as I could tell, they were formed in nineteen eighty-one. They started out trying to collect data on vampires, but in eighty-three, they decided to step things up. During the chaos in San Francisco, they were able to capture several vampires without anyone noticing.’
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