“She’s a lot nicer than her sister. I work my hardest to keep her satisfied, and we have a good relationship,” Christopher said, smiling. “A happy wife makes for a happy life..”
“We’re not married,” I said.
“Perhaps you should be,” Christopher said.
“Stay out of my personal life.” I didn’t like that Christopher had used Shannon against me, however innocently.
“As you wish.” Christopher nodded. “Partners shouldn’t lie to one another.”
“You always were an asshole, Christopher. Undeath hasn’t improved your attitude.”
“But you will help me,” Christopher said.
“Yes.” I didn’t let him know it was for reasons other than our friendship. I wished it could have been solely because we’d been friends, but we’d both changed too much for that.
Christopher reached into his suit and removed a scroll-case. “Take this and memorize the contents.”
I took the scroll case, unscrewed the end, and pulled out the yellowed parchment inside. “A treasure map?”
Christopher shrugged. “Forgive me. You hang around the Council of Ancients long enough and you start thinking like Long John Silver. I’m lucky I don’t speak in a Somerset accent with lots of arrs and ahoys.”
“Perish the thought,” I said, looking at the document. It showed the location of a Nassau bank with a safety deposit box code written above it. There was also a list of names on the back, including several Red Room agents the Vampire Nation had killed. “I take it these are your suspected Protocol Zero members?”
Christopher’s voice lowered, becoming almost somber. “Those are the names of people who caused those terrorist attacks against the House.”
“Excuse me?”
“A false flag operation. House agents assassinated by other House agents, then the blame laid at the feet of vampires. These attacks have been conducted against other Eso-Nations as well. Someone is attempting to turn the entire supernatural world against my kind. They’re doing a very good job of it, too.”
I looked at the names again. “These agents are dead.”
“Are they?”
“You’re saying the House is faking the deaths of agents to give them ease of movement.”
“Like James Bond in You Only Live Twice.”
“Not the time, Christopher.”
Christopher balled his hands into fists. “It’s larger than just a few renegade agents. I’ve been investigating this for years. Sleeper agents, millions of diverted funds, secret construction projects, and hundreds of supernaturals kidnapped only to emerge later as enemy agents.”
“Enemies of the Vampire Nation. Not the House.” My friend was sounding less and less rational and more like a paranoid lunatic. Which required a lot of effort when your listener knew for a fact the Illuminati, UFOs, and the supernatural were real.
Christopher frowned. “Yes.”
“You think it’s this Protocol Zero,” I said.
“A House within the House, yes,” Christopher said.
“Do you have any evidence?” I asked.
Christopher stared at me. “It’s all in that safety deposit box. Everything I’ve managed to gather.”
“Why not give it here?” I asked.
“I’m being followed by the Council of Ancients. There are people involved in it who don’t want this to be a renegade offshoot. Friends of John Ruthford who want to start an open war with the House.”
“This is starting to look like you’re leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for me to follow. Breadcrumbs that will end in a witch’s house in the woods,” I said.
“Are you doing anything more important?” Christopher asked.
I shook my head. “I’ve been hanging around with the Fairy Affairs Department. There was a nymph porn ring we were debating shutting down and they wanted my opinion on whether it was better to monitor it or not. Personally, I think they just wanted an excuse to spend months watching the stuff on the House’s dime.”
That was another area the House had been shuffling me off into: useless cases and pointless busy work. Since I’d ascended to the Committee, I’d been deluged with diplomatic missions and supervisory positions with no real power or importance. They took my advice to liberalize and thaw relationships with the other Eso-Nations under advisement, but genuine reform had been illusionary.
For every step forward in reforming the House, we took another step back and then one to the side. I hadn’t even warranted decent attempts to manipulate me, as they’d just sent a bunch of women to seduce me, cash payments, and gifts of property.
It was insulting, really.
How much of my desire to help Christopher investigate this was out of a need to prove myself actually worthy of a position on the Committee? I couldn’t say, and that was a dangerous attitude to have when you were a spy, let alone a leader of spies. The first thing everyone in espionage needed to remember was the old maxim: know thyself. If you ever forgot who you were, then you were doomed.
I wasn’t going to betray the House the way Christopher had.
Willingly or not.
“Nymph porn stars, eh? To think we could have been on that mission together,” Christopher said, showing a flash of fang. He looked positively hungry. “I don’t know who is responsible for this group, Derek, but you’re the only one I can trust.”
I was not particularly concerned with the Vampire Nation’s continued survival. “I’m not someone anyone should trust. I’m willing to investigate this, though. The question is whether or not you’re trying to destroy the House.”
“You think so little of me,” Christopher said.
“I don’t know who you are anymore,” I said.
“Did we ever know each other?” Christopher asked.
I frowned, contemplatively. “I like to think we did. It’s going to take a lot more than a magic sword and talk of old times to get me to trust you, though.”
“Then trust my reasoning.” Christopher walked around me, his steps never quite reaching the ground. “A war would destroy both our factions and lead to millions of human deaths, possibly billions, as humanity tears itself apart trying to figure out who is a monster amongst them.”
“Or worse,” I said.
“Or worse. Anyway, you don’t have to fear me leading you into a trap.” Christopher spread his arms out as if he was going to hug me.
I asked, suddenly suspicious. “How so?”
“Because I’ve already done so.” Christopher clasped his hands together, stepping back. “I was the one who sent the Teutonic knights to kill you.”
I blinked. “If this is a convoluted plan to gain my trust, you’re doing a shit job of it.”
“Protocol Zero has my wife, Derek. I am under their control. I have to follow their instructions, and that included hiring killers to attack you. They knew of our meeting almost as soon as I arranged it. I coordinated the attack, so you’d have a chance of fighting your way out while making it look like the Teutonic Knights broke their conditioning and went after us both. I killed a lot of them trying to protect you. Now we have breathing room until they plot their next move against you.”
“You’re saying the reason I should trust you is not because you’re my former partner but because you’ve already tried to kill me but did a deliberately crap job.”
Christopher paused. “…Yes?”
“I’m rethinking staking you.”
“Orihalcum bullets are more effective.” Christopher was nonplussed. “For whatever reason, Protocol Zero thinks you’re a threat. That means we have an advantage.”
“I’m flattered you think so,” I said.
Christopher shook his head. “You should be. I need to know who’s behind Protocol Zero. They communicate with me using artificially disguised voices, and all the divination magic I use is blocked by powerful wards. Whoever they are, they’re good and have access to vast amounts of both technology and magic. I need to know who is threatening not only my wife b
ut the world as a whole.”
If he was telling the truth, the most likely answer was a Committee member. Arranging wars and starting conflicts between various supernatural factions was what the Committee did before I arrived, and probably still did. If they were behind it, they wouldn’t let it escalate to the level Christopher feared. Precious comfort to the victims caught up in the crossfire as such may be. I wasn’t about to let Christopher off the hook, though. “You killed sixteen innocent people and brainwashed another to provide a distraction.”
“Vampire hunters aren’t innocent to me, not anymore. I’m a child of the Dragon now. I won’t try and paint my people as innocent, but they are my people now. I’ll protect them against those who would destroy them.”
“Even me?”
“Don’t make me make that choice. King David loved Jonathan less than I love you, but he still killed him.”
“Yeah, well there’s a lot of messed up stuff in the Bible.”
“Sorry. I’m a vampire. Flourishes come naturally to us,” Christopher laughed, stretching out his arms. “You’re my only hope.”
“Don’t quote Star Wars at me.”
“Is The Princess Bride all right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I need a miracle.”
I shook my head, no longer sure Christopher was remotely the man I once knew. The man I knew wouldn’t try to manipulate me like this. He certainly wouldn’t have tried to kill me. Maybe the Professor was right, and this was just an imposter. Rubbing my temples, I made my decision. “I said I’d help you and I meant it. However, if you try and kill me again or hurt anyone I know, I’ll track down your entire bloodline and exterminate it. Are we clear?”
“Like the sea air.” Christopher put his arm over his chest. “Godspeed, my ungentle prince.”
“Right back at you.”
With that, I woke up on the snow, an oxygen mask on my face as a group of EMTs were about to inject adrenaline into my bloodstream. The scroll case was now in my hands, existing alongside the Bloodsword.
That was weird.
Chapter Six
It took a half hour to convince Lucy I was fit for duty and another two hours to convince the Professor to let me go. I could have overruled them, but I didn’t want to get in their faces about another stupid decision I’d made. I wanted to talk to Shannon about all this, but she’d decided to go investigate Christopher’s claims on her own—while I was unconscious.
Shannon left me a note encouraging me not to contact her, at least not for a few days. It was an overreaction to our conversation, and I privately suspected she’d gone off to investigate Christopher for me. If so, I wished her Godspeed. I needed a fresh pair of eyes on this, even if I would have welcomed her aid during my trip to Nassau.
Calling for a private jet to be fueled at a nearby airport, I sent feelers to individuals I knew I could trust in the analysis branches. If I was going to find out what was going on, I needed to follow up on the list of names Christopher supplied as to whether there was any truth to the allegations he’d made.
I needed to retrieve whatever was in the Caribbean safety deposit box and examine its contents. Back when I was a senior agent, I’d have gone “off the grid” and done my best to sneak in before picking up my package there. That wasn’t an option anymore. Since joining the Committee, my every movement was tracked by hundreds of people both friendly and otherwise.
In a normal, trustworthy organization, I’d just pass along the job to my subordinates. However, Christopher’s accusations meant I couldn’t trust anyone with the whole story. That meant I had to change the rules of the game so a member of the Committee doing this made sense.
Driving along the icy roads of Aspen in a borrowed black Cadillac SRX, I tried explaining my plan to my sister.
“Are you fucking insane?” Penny Hawthorne asked, her disdain carrying through my cellphone earpiece. She was my twin, half-human half-dragon, and the single person who still talked to me as if nothing had changed with my elevation to the Committee.
I shrugged and responded to my sister’s accusation. “Well, my psychological profile does say I possess a mild case of megalomania and incipient sex addiction, but I think it comes with the territory.”
“Uh-huh,” Penny said, annoyed. “You want us to meet with representatives of the Council of Ancients in Nassau—while you’re investigating them.”
“More like while I’m planning to put one over on them. Make all the arrangements. Tell them how furious I am about the attack but confirm my commitment to peace and how I’m willing to meet with them at a non-neutral location. That way I can slip my way into the bank and get whatever Christopher was hiding from his fellows.”
“That is the dumbest plan I have heard from you, which is saying something. Nassau is the capital of the Vampire Nation. You’re going to be watched from the moment you step off your jet. Assuming they don’t just blow it up once it touches the ground.”
“They won’t,” I said, with all due confidence.
“Why?”
“It’d be too easy,” I said, shaking my head. “Vampires smell weakness but flee from strength. If I come into their territory throwing my weight around, they’re going to be cautious and wary. They won’t attack until they’re certain this isn’t a trick.”
“I’m coming down there.”
“No, that’s a bad idea,” I said, not bothering to explain it was because I was only half sure this plan would work.
“Someone needs to protect you from you.”
“Usually, that’s Shannon,” I said, regretting it the instant the words left my mouth.
“You’re too close to this, Derek, on every conceivable level. You need to stick other agents on it and resolve it from a distance.”
“I’m a rogue agent who doesn’t play by the rules. See Derek Hawthorne in Eldritch Ops, coming to a theater near you.”
“Ha ha,” my sister said, without a trace of amusement. “Christopher has already admitted to trying to kill you. I say track the bastard down, stab him, cut off his head, and hang it from the nearest sailing mast like Robert Maynard did Blackbeard.”
“A very appropriate reference,” I said. “You think he can’t be trusted.”
“He tried to kill you. Fuck him and the coffin he sleeps in. The undead asshole can’t be trusted.”
“You know, Lucy says vampires aren’t undead.”
“With all due respect to my wife, who gives a shit? They’re still untrustworthy inhuman bastards.”
I wanted to say Shannon wasn’t human either and neither was our mother, but I wasn’t sure I could convince myself with such an argument. Shannon would always put the House before me, and my mother abandoned me and Penny at birth in our all-too-inattentive father’s care.
Instead, I said, “A deal is a deal. Has the Ruthford situation got any news?”
Penny was silent.
“Penny?”
“Yeah, there’s news.”
It wasn’t like my sister to hesitate. “What happened?”
“There was an emergency session of the Committee as soon as the Professor sent his location up the food chain. They all voted to attack at once. They used their contacts in the CIA and Pentagon to have the U.S.S Van Buren launch a trio of Crazy Horse-class missiles onto Ruthford’s Maghreb-era estate.”
“And?” I asked.
“The entire place is ashes. Division Eighteen got infrared satellite footage that puts almost two dozen mobile body-heat neutral figures within the compound when it hit. Analysis thinks they managed to get Ruthford’s entire inner circle. They sent in a SEAL team to gather the ashes in special funeral urns so no one resurrect.”
“Ruthford wasn’t there?” I asked.
“No,” Penny said. “He posted a threatening video on YouTube a half hour ago. I’m surprised no one’s contacted you about it.”
“Well, I’m talking with you,” I said. “Admittedly, it’s a big oversight.”
The Committee con
sidered me a probationary member at best, often ignoring my advice and rarely contacting me for my vote. This wasn’t an example of such, though I wished it were. The Committee hadn’t tried to remove me—yet—and until they did, they insisted on me being treated by others as a full-fledged member.
Penny kept talking about the strike. “There was a big cost in terms of collateral too. That plantation had a hundred regular humans living on it. That’s not counting each vampire’s entourage of dhampir and blood slaves.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I’d killed dozens of monsters over the years, maybe as many as two hundred, but with the passing of a file I’d killed just as many innocent people. Even if it was justified by destroying one of the most ruthless vampire terrorist organizations in the world, that was a lot of blood on my hands.
You’d think having been raised in the Red Room, I would have a casual reaction to collateral damage. The fact was, I didn’t. I’d seen up close the aftermath of drone strikes, bombings, and indiscriminate fire. Part of the reason why I preferred to be an assassin rather than the guy ordering the killings was I’d always been very good at hitting my targets and no one else. I hadn’t always succeeded.
Hell, the Red Room had sent me after people I’d found out only later were innocent of any crime but standing in their way. But I’d done my best not to kill the innocent. It was stupid idealism, according to my father, who himself was the nicest member of the Committee, but I felt it was all that kept me from becoming a monster.
I wasn’t sure I could make that claim anymore.
Is being a monster so bad? I heard a female voice whisper in my ear. For a second, I could have sworn it came from the Bloodsword.
Then, strangely, the thought left my mind. Shaking my head, I said, “I see. Thank you for relaying that.”
I should have been there for making that decision. Instead, I was off preparing to do some work far less experienced agents could handle.
“That’s a lot of lives,” I finally said.
Eldritch Ops Page 5
