“I’m a Daoist because I know I may never have the answers, but I’m always looking for them.”
“You’re so sexy when you’re philosophical,” Shannon said, smirking. “So, what do you plan to do?”
“I need to break into Camp Zero and get proof the House is brainwashing its own agents.”
“That seems like the opposite of not getting yourself killed.”
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms. “There’s nothing I can do about the war against the vampires that’s coming up. Even if I believed Christopher’s statement about the majority of them being mesmerized, I’m not sure I should do anything. There’s a difference between killing normal people and those cursed with a disease that requires them to feed on the living. I can, however, put a serious wrench in the plans of the Committee to use brainwashing on the House’s members. If I can get photographic evidence and distribute it to the House’s members, they’ll be forced to discontinue its use—perhaps on everyone.”
“They’ll kill you for that.”
“They might. They’ll have to catch me first.” I paused. “I also need to see if I can secure Christopher’s wife’s freedom.”
“You still want to help him with that? After all he’s put you through?”
I snorted before saying sarcastically, “Not really. However, I’m just cursed with being a nice guy.”
Shannon snorted.
“May I borrow your cellphone?”
“Sure.” Shannon pulled it out and tossed it to me.
I pulled out a connection cord and attached it to the computer before dialing Penny’s number.
This was going to be one awkward conversation.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The image that appeared on the computer was not of my sister, but of Lucy Danvers-Hawthorne. The White Room scientist was lying in bed with her eyes half shut and wearing a Hello Kitty shirt (Kitty having fangs and wearing goth clothing).
“Derek?” Lucy asked, looking half awake.
“It’s three in the afternoon,” I said, staring at her.
“Not in Paris, it isn’t. I’m attending a conference hosted by your sister on mind-operated machinery.”
“Which sister?” I asked, thinking about how many had joined the White Room.
“Hoshi,” I asked.
“When we’re about to go to war with the vampires?” I asked, offended. “Shouldn’t you be preparing for DEFCON 1 or something? Hell, didn’t I ask Penny to come here?”
“Yeah, but your guy never showed,” Lucy said. “So she came back. Also, there were rumors you were on a killing spree so she assumed you had it under control.”
I felt a headache coming on. “I see.”
Shannon stepped behind me and waved. “Hi, Lucy.”
“Hi,” Lucy said, waving back. It was obvious she still wasn’t awake yet.
“Could you—” I started to ask her to get my twin.
Lucy blinked, as if now aware of what was going on. “Derek? You’re alive!”
“No kidding,” I said. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“What?” I heard my sister’s voice on the other side of the bed. “Derek?”
Penny bolted over the side of mattress and grabbed the side of the computer. My sister was wearing a red shirt with a black anarchy symbol on it. “What the hell, Derek? Where have you been?”
“Remember when we were sixteen playing Shadowrun and my Orc decker was possessed by a spirit of rage?” I quoted an old tabletop game session from back when I was a moody goth kid with no friends outside his family. As compared to a moody adult one with three.
Penny stared. “You’ve been on a rampage across Nassau, killing vampires?”
“Yeah,” I said. “Pretty much.”
Shannon rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Why on Earth am I stuck dating the world’s only geek superspy?”
“He is, by far, not the only one,” Lucy corrected. “I mean, look at Penny.”
“I need your help to do something treasonous.”
“Okay,” Penny said, nodding.
“Well, that was easy,” I said, taking a deep breath. I explained to her the situation.
Penny stared. “Wow, our world becomes more and more a dystopia every day.”
I was about to make a Shannon and Molly Millions comparison, but I decided not to. There were too many pop culture references in this mission already. “So, will you help?”
“I said okay,” Penny replied, shrugging. “The question is how we’re going to be able to get inside this place.”
“I have a few ideas,” I said, thinking about Malcolm and wondering if he could bring backup.
Lucy, meanwhile, looked sick. “I can’t believe the House would do something like this to us.”
“You haven’t been paying much attention, have you?” Shannon asked.
“Well, I know we do questionable things, but we’re supposed to be doing it for the greater good. This . . . isn’t.”
I nodded, thinking about what I’d read. “Everyone’s line for what is permissible and what’s not is different. Altering a mind is not any less moral than killing someone. Likewise, the Committee has never considered its agents more than disposable tools for the enforcement of its agenda. We’ve always been expendable. This is just us being expendable in a different way.”
“But you’re on the Committee . . .” Lucy trailed off.
“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Penny said, her stare cold and unfeeling. “I’ve seen too many agents die and found out too much shit from you, Derek, to believe the Committee has any fond feelings for us. We need to expose this to the rest of the House before they end up micro-chipping our brains and having us singing show tunes while we hunt draugr.”
“I hate draugr,” Lucy said, grinding her teeth.
“Did Christopher include blueprints for the facility?” Shannon asked.
I nodded. “He did. He never got to visit it but found the original contractors who’d been mesmerized into forgetting they built it. He doesn’t have any insight into who is guarding the place, but I suspect they’ll use Sons of Mars private military contractors.”
“Alec is heading them off now,” Penny said, causing me to do a double take.
“How the hell . . .” I paused. “Listen, it doesn’t matter. What matters is it’s going to be well guarded, and stealth will be paramount.”
“The best solution for this would be to get in, take pictures, and leave without discovery. From there, we can figure out a way to cover up our involvement in revealing it. Maybe blame it on Christopher,” Shannon said, folding her arms.
“Cold, Shannon.”
“So was setting you up to die,” Shannon said.
She had a point there. “The best way I think we can get to the facility is with magic-resistant scuba gear, a fusion torch, and some chameleon pills. I’d like to be able to tap into their security feeds, but I’m not sure if we’ve got any equipment up to snuff given this seems to be top-of-the-line White Room surveillance.”
Lucy snorted. “Please, like the White Room ever puts into use the best stuff. Everyone knows we hold back the best until we’re done with the next generation.”
“I wasn’t aware. That seems like a very bad idea, and we’re going to have a talk after this mission.”
Lucy blanched. “Oops.”
“I can get you all the equipment you need, as long as you agree to take me on the mission with you,” Penny said, smiling.
“He’s going to say no, you know,” Shannon said, snorting.
“I don’t care if he says no now. All that matters now is that he says yes,” Penny said, confident.
“I feel like this conversation doesn’t need me,” I replied, looking between them.
“You’d be right,” Penny replied. “You’ve tried to shut me out of this mission from the very beginning. This despite its dire importance to the House and the thousands of agents in the field who are going to get compromised if you don’t find a way to
prevent this war with the vamps.”
I looked down at the keyboard. “I’m not sure anything I find at Camp Zero is going to make a difference, whether we go to war with the House or not. Christopher was our last chance at coming to a truce, and it turned out he wasn’t in any position to bargain.”
“I’m sorry,” Shannon said. “I never would have arranged this meeting if I thought he couldn’t be trusted. I just wanted . . . not to be the only good monster.”
“You’re not a monster,” I said, wondering if preventing the war had ever even registered with Christopher. Probably not. This seemed more and more like it had been all a diversion in hopes of finding out what happened to his wife. “I want you here, Penny.”
Penny stared. “What, really?”
I didn’t want to tell her about Bloody Mary over teleconference. My ability to fool my sister was nonexistent, though, so I decided to come clean. “Yeah, I may have a slight demon problem.”
“There’s a sexy redheaded demon in his brain,” Shannon said.
“Other than you?” Penny said.
“Oh, you tease,” Shannon said.
I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t kidding about the possession bit, Penny. I’ve got it under control for now, but I have no idea how long that’s going to last.”
Penny’s expression was even. “How bad is it?”
“Not Stephen bad, but she’s powerful. I don’t think she’s strong enough to take me over. She could do so before when I was half dead, but I’m recovered now. I think she wants me to work with her voluntarily.”
Penny wrinkled her brow. “Unusual behavior for a demon. They tend to go for the easy domination.”
“Know many demons?” Shannon asked.
“Too many,” Penny said, sighing. “Hazards of being a witch.”
“I need you to meet me with the equipment today. We’re running out of time,” I said, biting my lip. “If we’re going to war with the Vampire Nation soon, it’s probable any captives they have will be destroyed.”
“If they haven’t already,” Shannon said behind me.
She was right. “Yeah.”
“Expect me soon,” Penny said, nodding. “Do you want lethal or non-lethal weapons?”
“Penny!” Lucy said, shocked.
“Non-lethal,” I said, not missing a beat. “I’m not interested in killing people on my own side, even if that’s going to be a clue to who is spying on them.”
“Suit yourself,” Penny said, before turning her head. “Lucy, I’m going to need you to delete this conference from the record after we’re done.”
“Red Room conference calls are already impossible to decrypt except by me and six other people, but will do,” Lucy said, staring at me. “Good luck, Derek. Don’t get yourself killed trying to do the right thing. We don’t have enough people doing that already.”
My connection to Lucy and Penny evaporated, and I was left alone in the study with Shannon. We were taking a big step in terms of confronting the corruption at the heart of the House. The problem was it was very possible that doing so could end up getting us both killed—and all for nothing if we failed.
“You know, you don’t have to support me through this.” I stared at the blank screen.
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that. It’s better for us if I do.”
“I just don’t want you getting killed.”
“As opposed to you doing it after your proclamation of eternal love.”
“The timing is pretty awful, isn’t it?”
“Men love proclaiming love before going off to war or certain death because they know it’s going to make their girlfriend or object of affection feel guilty if they die. It’s why so many girls cheat on their spouses during this time.”
“That’s . . . terrible.”
“Hey, I just call ’em like I see ’em.”
Getting up, I turned to face Shannon. “I’m not comfortable with the way this mission is leading. So far, it’s been following someone else’s trail of breadcrumbs, one after the other. I can’t help but shake the feeling this is all a setup of some kind.”
“Then don’t go.” Shannon shrugged. “No one’s making you do anything.”
“Aren’t they? I can’t leave this alone either. The Committee has been hiding things from me from the beginning. They’re a reprehensible bunch of old wizards and witches who have as much respect for me as the Secretary of Education during wartime.”
“There have been some pretty badass Secretaries of Education.”
I gave a half smirk. Then I frowned. “The pieces don’t fit yet. Christopher brings me a fake peace offering and sends me on the trail of Protocol Zero. Except Christopher has a flash drive full of information about it not a hundred and fifty miles from Nassau. Furthermore, Dracula was waiting for me halfway down the road to the airport. Christopher’s mental homunculus says he’s been brainwashed. Then there’s the Bloodsword, which is an object Dracula should never have been willing to part with but is ready and willing to serve me.”
“It does sound like a setup.”
“I have a number of theories; the most prominent right now is this entire thing is an attempt to strike at the Red Room from the inside. The Wazir tried to get me on the Committee because he believed I’d serve as his catspaw against them.”
“And we killed the Wazir. If you think Christopher or Dracula are going to be using you, I’m guessing they didn’t learn from his example.”
“The confusing part is why now,” I said, walking to the window and looking out through the shades.
“What do you mean?”
“It’s been centuries since the last time the House and vampires fought a war against each other. The result of which, I remind you, was the destruction of every vampire in Europe. The House has bigger enemies to worry about than the undead, yet what they’re describing here is total war with complete disregard for civilian casualties. Why does Division Zero want a war, and why are the vampires pushing back when they look hopelessly outmatched with this new alliance?”
“Search me,” Penny said. “Politics aren’t my strong suit. You’re the devious mastermind.”
“I’m actually pretty crap at this mastermind thing,” I said, chuckling. “I’m good at unraveling the plots of others, but coming up with them? No, I’m a pretty clear point A to point B kind of guy.”
I kept looking for a mastermind, and none of my suspects were matching up. Dracula might want to start a war with the House, but only if he’d win. Christopher didn’t strike me as good enough to pull something off. He was close, but not quite talented enough to imagine something on this scale.
My father was capable of pulling something like this off, and the destruction of all vampires would benefit the House. However, my father never displayed any real desire to take the fight to the superhumans. He was a more “status quo is God” sort of individual, and anything that disrupted the supernatural balance of power was to be avoided.
Annabelle Jones. Bloody Mary’s voice echoed in my mind. You are missing the obvious.
“Ah, you’re back,” I muttered aloud. “I was wondering how long it would take you to manifest again.”
“Mary’s returned? Good to know,” Shannon said. “Wait, was she there when we were having sex?”
“No,” I said.
Yes, Mary said in my head, her voice containing no trace of anger despite my earlier assault. No need to lie, my love. It was an enjoyable experience. We should link minds, so I can participate next time. You’ll find my style a bit baroque but quite pleasurable.
“She mentioned Christopher’s wife.” I ignored Mary’s innuendo.
You wished to find a devious mastermind, one capable of manipulating not just the House and the Vampire Nation but also its leaders—veteran Machiavellian manipulators like Dracula and your father. I say you need to look no further than Annabelle Jones. The woman who engineered the conflict that destroyed the vampires of Europe and came close to destroying her entire
species. Bloody Mary seemed almost offended I hadn’t figured it out for myself. If you had given into my seductions, I would have presented you with the truth of this conspiracy upfront. She is the mastermind behind this, and you will find her at Camp Zero, working against her own as she did centuries ago.
Given what I’d learned from Malcolm, it shouldn’t have surprised me that Annabelle Jones was working with the Red Room against the Vampire Nation. That meant this entire mission was quixotic. Christopher had been chasing after the individuals who’d kidnapped his wife, only for her to be there voluntarily.
“Does Christopher know?” I asked.
No, Mary replied.
Fuck, I said, wondering what I was going to tell him.
The truth, I hope, Mary replied. Of course, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go to Camp Zero.
“Why? Christopher’s wife is in no danger. I just need to track him down and tell him he got played,” I said, shaking my head. “I can inform the rest of the Red Room about what I know without having to break into one of the most secure locations on the planet.”
“You know, it’s weird watching you have a one-sided conversation. Looking at you, one might be tempted to say you’re crazy.”
I looked at Shannon, biting back an acid response. She’d been joking, but this was not a funny situation. “I’m not Stephen. I can fight this.”
Indeed, I half wondered why my reaction wasn’t more severe. Most agents would have been freaking the hell out by the thought of being possessed. Normally, I would have been. Yet there was something almost comforting about Bloody Mary’s presence. Something familiar. I couldn’t put it into words.
Why? Bloody Mary replied. Simple, Derek. Annabelle Jones isn’t just maneuvering the Vampire Nation to be destroyed. She’s manipulating the House, too. By tomorrow morning, your organization and family will be burning along with every vampire in the world.
“And you couldn’t have told me this earlier?”
You didn’t ask.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“How do you know this?” I said, sounding calmer than I was. Bloody Mary’s statement that Annabelle Jones was going to destroy both the House and the Vampire Nation had my complete attention. Which was surprising since I’d intended to start tuning out my demonic friend.
Eldritch Ops Page 20
