All Rotting Meat

by Maleham , Eve

  ‘So, you own a company which is funnelling money into Rebirth, then?’ Banes asked.

  Rosemary smiled. ‘In name only; I own the shares, but I don’t actually do anything. And it’s far from the only company which does so, though we are the most generous.’

  They came to the end of the corridor and through heavy blast doors, as Banes considered just turning back and making a run for it. The rough walls turned into smooth, cement block walls and narrow corridors, all painted dark green. There was the taste of chalk in the air.

  ‘You seem surprised by that,’ she said.

  ‘It’s just,’ he said, ‘you expect a certain type.’

  ‘I can pretend,’ she said, ‘and I pretend for them. But, billionaires aren’t too much different to the rest of us, anyway. Plus, the best part of not ageing is that I’m not expected to act my age. Most people think I’m a student, or something.’

  ‘Yeah, I can see that,’ Banes said. ‘So, you’re reborn?’

  She nodded. ‘Yeah, back in the Eighties.’

  ‘And what is this place?’ he asked as they walked.

  ‘Bits of everything, really,’ Rosemary said. ‘Old bits of Tube, some sewers, some we dug out ourselves – but it’s mostly the remains of a nuclear bunker for the government that was decommissioned in the Eighties, when they decided to build deeper down.’

  ‘So, why do you need people for assets requirement?’ he asked, and as they walked, she guided him in the direction of a staircase, leading him down one floor, the top of her head barely reaching his chest.

  ‘How about we discuss this in my office?’ she said, smiling. ‘It’s not too far away.’

  They came to an office room full of just over a dozen desks, three-quarters full of people working. Some looked over in their direction as they entered, and a few nodded and greeted Rosemary as they passed over to Rosemary’s office at the back of the room. It was small, mostly taken up by a large desk, with just enough room at the front for a few chairs to sit. Along with a computer monitor, there was a typewriter sat at the desk, along with a few small statues of dragons and fairies, and another fantasy kitsch Banes expected to find in cheap gift shops. A pneumatic tube stood in the corner of the room.

  ‘You can’t hack a type-writer,’ Rosemary said, when she noticed him looking. ‘Digital technology is used to a minimum here.’

  ‘That was explained to us in training,’ Banes said, as he shuffled over to a seat.

  ‘So, assets requirement. The name’s a bit misleading,’ Rosemary said, the moment she sat down. The chair was high backed and dwarfed her. ‘I mean; we’ve got our finances now, but I could only bring in so much personal wealth,’ she explained. ‘And we needed investors, big-business investors.’

  ‘But you also would need the money to be kept off the books,’ Banes said.

  She grinned. ‘Indeed, stuff like offshore accounts and shell corporations, so the money wouldn’t be registered and taxed in this country. That’s not to say that the people in charge of all of that would have cared, but we could eliminate that risk at least, especially during the beginning. The money from our investors is wired to a shell corporation; a separate corporation legally owns the building above us.’

  ‘The building?’ Banes asked, pressing down the familiar overwhelming sensation of distress at the thought of Rebirth’s advancement. She nodded, brushing back a strand of hair back behind her ear.

  ‘A major expense, but worth it.’

  There was a pause where Banes had expected her to talk; he leaned slightly forward in his seat, as she adjusted a figurine of a fairy on her desk.

  ‘However,’ she continued, not looking up from the figures, ‘as we grow, we need more capital to keep us going. Now, most of our investors have been very generous. They’re nearly all American, what with the Blood Thieves controlling most of Eastern Asia, and the Shield of Scarlet with their territory in mainland Europe. These are people at the very tops of conglomerations, and corporations, and firms, and trusts, and banks, giving us large amounts of finances from their own personal accounts. Can you guess what we offered them in return?’

  ‘Vampirism,’ Banes said.

  Rosemary’s smile widened. ‘Exactly. We may have spun our myth a little, you know, as a selling point,’ she said, with a gleam in her eyes. ‘We sent in a few of our most attractive members, along with some photographs we had edited so that they appeared uglier and older as humans, to show them how vampirism restored your youth and made you beautiful.’

  Banes made himself smile, Rosemary looked at him and winked.

  ‘Couple that with immortality, the raw power, and the chance to become part of a superior elite…We make a bit of a show to prove it, and they completely fall for it. They give us a very generous investment, on the understanding that once we have stability and a country, we will bring the ritual to transform them into a vampire, and they’ll be welcomed as part of our grand council.’ She yawned and stretched out. ‘Humans are easy enough to flatter and fool. Tell them that the gift of the Gods deserves to fall on their laps, and they’ll eat it up.’

  ‘What are you planning to do with them once we’ve succeeded?’ Banes asked.

  ‘Get as much out of them as we possibly can, then kill them,’ she said. ‘We’re vampires; we bleed things dry, and they’re no exception.’

  ‘That’s a good plan.’

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, her eyes sparkling. ‘You see, Banes, by ‘assets,’ we don’t mean things of capital interest and finances. We mean stupid humans who will support our cause at their own expense. Do you understand?’

  He nodded. ‘I do.’

  ‘Then, there is the flip side to all of this – the liabilities. Humans who have outlived their use to us and are now a threat,’ she said, leaning back in her chair, ‘or just an inconvenience. Intelligence sorts that stuff out for us. You know, a PA who overheard something they shouldn’t have, a journalist getting too close, a human sticking their nose in somewhere they shouldn’t.’

  ‘And hunters?’ Banes asked.

  Rosemary cocked her head to the side slightly.

  ‘Sometimes. We generally liaise with intelligence when that happens, but we’re capable of taking them on ourselves. Usually, we’ll take the body with us and give it to the kitchens, or we set up the deaths to look like an accident. House fires, gas explosions, car crash…stuff like that. Again, that’s something intelligence sorts out for us, and there are other departments who can deal with that, too.

  ‘Now, a bit about this place,’ she said, gesturing around the room. ‘I keep saying we need a map, but they won’t hear of it, so you’ll have to make do with the signs. There are several level floors in Rebirth. At the moment, you only have access down to Level Four, which houses command. We’re on Level Two, and the rec room and canteen are on Level One. Intelligence is on Level Three. If you need anything else, just ask someone to point you,’ she said. ‘Understand?’

  Banes nodded.

  ‘Good,’ she smiled. ‘It’s easy enough to figure out. Now, you were in the independence class; I read the report made about you, and it’s quite impressive. But you’re going to have the basic work for a while, just to break you in, the same as any job, really. Sorry – it’ll get more exciting as it goes along.’

  He smiled. ‘This is already pretty exciting, to be honest.’

  ‘I’m glad,’ she said, rising to her feet. ‘C’mon, I’ll show you to your desk.’

  * * *

  By the time it was one, and they had stopped for lunch, Banes felt prickly and slightly disappointed. He had spent most of the evening scanning profiles of the lower-level would-be investors.

  He headed for the canteen where Kojo had arranged to meet him, where he caught sight of Robin, who gave him a wave.

  ‘Having a good first day, then?’ Banes asked. Robin rolled his eyes.

  ‘Uneventful, but it beats dying. You?’

  Banes shrugged as they walked. ‘It was alright, nothing overly
special.’

  They entered a low-ceilinged, long room, with rows of benches that were already semi-full. As they stood in line for their meal, he noticed Kojo sitting towards the back of the room, who smiled at him. The portions weren’t as heavy as they had been in training, but the food smelt delicious; stew made from pork and human flesh with dumplings, with thick slices of white bread, and a cup of blood.

  ‘I’m glad the food’s still good,’ Banes said. ‘It feels a bit less deserved, though, just being sat at a desk all night.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Robin said, ‘just enjoy the moment.’

  Banes glanced around as they walked, his eyes darting across the room, glad to see that most were complete strangers to him, then as they neared Kojo, he spotted an awkwardly familiar face sitting two tables ahead. Malik looked up from his laptop, his eyes narrowed as he saw Banes approaching.

  ‘Wow, Malik,’ Banes said as way of a greetings, ‘I was not expecting to see you here.’

  ‘Weren’t you?’ Malik said, his voice flat.

  ‘Well…perhaps I should have realised you might be a part of this,’ Banes said.

  ‘And I suppose that I’ve got you to thank for that.’

  ‘Are you doing okay?’ Banes asked. ‘You look good.’

  He had bitten Malik when Malik was nineteen, but he clearly hadn’t finished ageing until his mid-twenties at least. His glasses were gone, there was now a shadow of a beard around his jaw, his face was leaner and had lost the lingering, curved softness of adolescence, there was the swell of muscle visible under his jacket, his thick, black hair was shorter, and though his long, Roman nose, hollow cheeks and teal brown eyes were the same, his brown skin had a slight ashen look to it. It was clear he still had his penchant for monochrome clothing, though Banes recognised the label of his grey jacket and knew it to be on a much higher budget than Malik had previously had.

  ‘I’m doing fine,’ Malik said in a taut voice. ‘I changed species; why wouldn’t I be fine? Thanks for the letter, by the way, afterwards, it was really informative. It was just what I needed.’

  Banes didn’t have a response; he began to walk away, though Malik continued.

  ‘Of course, the idea of having to feed off blood took some getting used too,’ he said, ‘and the whole idea of being a vampire. I lost my faith, went through an identity crisis, walked away from my job…what about you? How have you been since we met?’

  ‘Look, I’m sorry,’ Banes said, ‘but you’re here now, aren’t you?’

  Malik’s jaw tightened; for a moment, Banes thought that he might leapt out of his seat and attack him.

  ‘Is there a problem here?’ a clear, stated voice said.

  Banes turned to see a tall, looming man, who had appeared silently by Malik’s side. He was incredibly well-built, with a heavily muscular body and broad shoulders; his dark brown skin had a rich, healthy glow to it, though his hair, which stood up around his head in short, soft spikes, had turned prematurely light beige, and he had lines around his narrow, black eyes.

  Malik’s shoulders dropped slightly. ‘No, James, he was just leaving.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ James asked.

  ‘Very,’ Malik said.

  Banes edged past him to where Kojo was sat, Robin joining him.

  ‘You know those guys?’ Robin asked as they sat down. Banes leaned over the table to drop a kiss on Kojo’s head.

  ‘Yeah,’ Kojo asked, with a tone of sceptic curiosity in his voice, ‘how do you know Faizan?’

  ‘Yes, welcome back to you, too,’ Banes said. ‘Kojo, this is Robin Taggart - Robin, this is Kojo Amoako.’

  ‘Nice to meet you,’ Kojo said. Robin nodded back, turning his attention to his food. ‘But seriously, Banes, how do you know Faizan?’

  ‘I bit him, made him into a vampire. It was a one-night stand,’ Banes said, ‘and I got carried away.’

  ‘You bastard,’ Kojo smirked. ‘I knew it was you from how Faizan described you.’

  ‘How did he describe me?’ Banes asked through a mouthful of the meat.

  ‘As some red-headed bastard with weird eyes and a shit-eating grin.’

  Banes laughed, glancing back to where Malik and James were sat.

  ‘Who’s that other guy, then?’ he asked.

  ‘Shepard?’ Kojo said. ‘He’s his husband.’

  ‘So, I’m assuming Malik does something with computers,’ Banes said. ‘He was studying engineering at university when we met.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Kojo said, ‘he used to work for MI5; he knows their system and how they operate, which makes him pretty indispensable to us.’

  Banes turned back to look at Malik who was talking to his husband. His eyes caught sight of another figure sitting further back in the room, his eyes bored and restless. The man was familiar, but Banes couldn’t place how.

  ‘Kojo, who’s that?’

  ‘That’s Clarence Marr,’ Kojo said, ‘Cecilia’s twin brother.’

  Suddenly there was no mistaking Clarence, he looked extremely similar to his sister; they had the same almond-shaped eyes and high cheekbones, same strong body, same pointed ears, same straight nose and full lips. His hair, impeccably cut with a side parting, was a lighter blonde, more towards a flaxen colour, his skin was slightly paler, and his eyes were a soft sea green. Like Cecilia, his outfit was old-fashioned, though it had the saving grace of being worn in a vaguely ironic manner; fashionably worn, and perfectly tailored, there was even a pocket watch along his waistcoat.

  ‘I think Cindy mentioned him,’ Banes said.

  ‘Yeah, she would,’ Kojo said. ‘He’s a diplomat for us. He mostly travels on Rebirth’s behalf, you know, representing Rebirth to international vampires and trying to get their support and influence.’

  Clarence didn’t seem to be the sort of man Banes could picture the hunter being in love with or even dating.

  ‘Oh god,’ Kojo muttered into his cup, ‘brace yourself.’

  ‘What?’ Banes asked as Rosemary sat down besides him.

  ‘Evening,’ she said brightly. ‘You don’t mind if I sit here, do you?’

  ‘Nope,’ Kojo said, catching Banes’s lie. He was lying.

  ‘I heard you were talking about Clarence,’ Rosemary said. ‘Couldn’t resist joining this conversation.’

  ‘You two know each well?’ Banes asked.

  ‘Yeah, he introduced me to all of this,’ Rosemary said. ‘We used to date.’

  ‘Really?!’ Banes asked.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘I was human when I first met him. I grew up on the Isle of Man, living with my mum and grandmother. Dad had already fucked on back to America. I met Clarence in the Eighties. I thought he was really cool at the time. Like, he seemed like a massive yuppie, but once I got talking to him he was a pretty chill guy. Then, he told me about vampirism I just couldn’t say no,’ she smiled. ‘You know, afterwards, I was a little disappointed when he told me that was it. That was all the fantasy in the world.’

  ‘What happened?’ Banes asked.

  ‘I think he was just lonely and wanted a quirky girlfriend,’ she said, draining her cup of blood. ‘Then, Rebirth came along, and he went off to play golf with Luan Yin and the rest of the Blood Thieves while I stayed here to channel money.’

  ‘He sounds like a bastard,’ Banes said.

  ‘Says you,’ Kojo muttered under his breath, leaning over to steal the last one of Banes’s dumplings.

  ‘Well, we all have flaws,’ she said, ‘but I got to be a vampire, so I didn’t mind. And I got the last laugh, he really fucked up on that assignment. He’s lucky to still be here.’

  ‘Why, what happened?’ Banes asked.

  ‘Well, it ended up with Luan Yin’s brother getting killed,’ Kojo said, ‘so he fucked up about as badly as you can get.’

  ‘I didn’t know he had a brother,’ Banes said. ‘And I’m surprised Clarence isn’t dead.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Rosemary said, ‘his brother was a guy called Yunru. He was slow, you kn
ow, in the head. He was retarded, behaved like a kid. Luan had him hidden away, but still kept an eye on him, so wherever he went, Yunru would follow and stay somewhere in the approximate region. Anyway, Clarence spent years on-and-off in the Blood Thieves’ territory, fostering a relationship with them, then Fan Xixue died, and Luan Yin took power.’

  ‘It was a rocky transition,’ Kojo said.

  ‘Anyway,’ Rosemary continued, ‘Luan stuck Clarence with the party protecting Yunru in Malaysia while he held talks across the border in Brunei. Anyway, Clarence became distracted by a local human and stopped paying attention to Yunru. Yunru got hungry, and no-one was around, so he decided to go hunting by himself. It didn’t go well.’

  ‘What happened?’ Banes asked.

  ‘A human managed to blind him with his keys, and Yunru stumbled away into the forest, unable to find his way back. He’d burnt up before anyone found him.’

  ‘Jesus,’ Banes muttered.

  ‘It was biblical,’ Rosemary nodded, ‘Luan had everyone in the group executed; they were stripped of their protection amulets and locked outside in a courtyard until the sun rose, and they slowly burnt to death. Clarence was only spared since he was with Rebirth, and Cecilia and Tycho convinced Luan to spare him and continue the talks. But that’s not the end of it. Luan was going to raze the village the man came from to the ground on the year’s anniversary, and kill him, his wife and kids,’ she said, as she tore her bread into smaller pieces. ‘But it got messy; turned out that Clarence’s new human girlfriend was the daughter of the man who killed Luan’s brother and, thanks to him, both she and her sister managed to survive. By the time things had calmed down and they realised what had happened, the girls were in England.’

  Banes frowned. ‘And he couldn’t have had them killed?’

  She shrugged. ‘The Shield wouldn’t have been too happy about Blood Thieves agents operating inside Europe, even if it was England. Plus, Luan doesn’t have any operations here, so it would have been all the more difficult to track them down. He still wasn’t overly keen on Rebirth afterwards, though.’