Renegade (Ministry of Paranormal Research & Defence) (26 page)

I was watching him as he ranted. There was a clear madness in his eyes and the way he spoke, He may even truly believe what he was saying. It may even
be
true for all I cared. The world is as the world is. I'm not in this game to save people from themselves. I'm in it to save people from vampires. He was right about one thing. Letting the vampires get a legitimate toehold in the government was like giving a fat kid the keys to a sweet shop.

“
I'm not going to offer you the chance to join us because I know you'd just refuse, but you ever feel like the only sane person in the asylum? Ever look at the people in the the asylum? Ever look at the world and wonder just what drug everyone else is sniffing? Why would you try to save a world that isn't worth saving? That doesn't even want to be saved? That doesn't even acknowledge that it needs saving?

“
Do you know why the vampires came out? Really?”

Now I was slightly interested. I wanted to know why, and I wanted to know from a vampire. I'd heard the Vatican’s conclusion but somehow it didn't sit right.

“You scared the pee out of the vampires with that whole nuclear war thing. The Cuban missile crisis scared us out of their minds. See, if you blew each other up you'd kill us, too. So we stepped in there, took a hand, according to my sire. We put pressure on governments, made threats, influenced key people. Perestroika and Glasnost? That was us. And we did it. We pulled you idiots back from the brink, back from total annihilation. And the Soviet Union collapsed. Remember that? The Berlin Wall came down. Countries had free elections. Bill Clinton even managed to get the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland talking. The Israelis and Palestinians started to make progress. And the environment! Kyoto! We were so close. There was actual peace and progress in the world. All to stop you monkeys from killing everything on the planet.

“
And then what? 9/11. Iraq. Afghanistan. North Korea. It took the human race less than two years to undo all of our work. The hardliners were rattling their swords in the Kremlin again. The crazy lunatic fringe are taking over the US government again. Talks broke down. The environment could go hang because hurricanes and tornadoes and tsunamis are caused by abortion and homosexuality. Humans are crazy. Sometimes it seems like they deserve to die.

“
So the decision was taken: We'd come out and see if we could straighten you out. It worked, after a fashion. Crime is down, for one thing.

“
And the crazies are gone. Not much point in arguing about what you thought the founding fathers meant to say when we can produce vampires who were actually there. And then there's you. The British. Why you gotta louse everything up?”

I laughed bitterly.

“You really expect me to believe that you're motivated by nothing more than a desire to save the planet?”

“
No
!” Tunbridge yelled, leaping to his feet. “That's not what I said, moron. Listen – listen! We can't let humanity mess up the planet because it messes us up too. Humans may look at blistering summers and say that everyone likes sunshine so global warming isn't so bad even if it's true but we know different. We can remember what the Earth was like centuries ago. We
are
living memories.

“
We watched while humans hunted species to extinction and we didn't care. We watched wars and who gives a dang? There'll always be more humans sooner or later. But then humans gained the ability to kill themselves – all of themselves. And if they kill themselves, they kill us. This ain't no tree-hugging hippy crap, this is self-preservation. Nothing more, nothing less.

“
Unlike humans we don't have to worry about what kind of world we're leaving for our children. We have to think about the world we're leaving for
us
. We don't really care about money. Money is just a way of keeping score. We really deal in
power
. Influence.
Control
. And we play the long game, over decades, centuries. So it's cheaper to dump your toxic crap into the environment? Who cares? I want air to breathe and water to drink for the rest of a long, long life. So it's convenient for humans to drive around in gas guzzling SUVs to take the kids to school? They're not going to be here to reap what they're planting.”

Oh wow. Save the planet with fangs. It was making me sick. I think this character's mistake had been the leap from nuclear annihilation to crusading eco-vamps. Sure, I could see the cold war tensions scaring the crap out of vampires, but global warming? Sounds like a political sound-bite to me. Good for PR, not so good as the truth.

I'd subsided into silence, still furious at myself for allowing the vamp to goad me.

“
Nothing to say?” he asked. “Ah well, I suppose I get to kill you now.”

I snorted air in through my nose, causing a fresh flow of blood down my face.

“Something funny?” he asked.

I spat at him. Not an ordinary gesture of defiance but a mouthful of my blood. He flinched backwards as the spray hit his face, then screamed, blundering to his feet and clutching at his eyes.

I was going to be killed anyway. So why not?

C
HAPTER

45

“
Well there's almost nobody left at DeClerc's house, “ said Loki after he and Steph had returned.

I wasn't sure about Loki, but Steph I trusted implicitly. She had a lot of the same vibe as Jack. She had an aura of competence about her, a wary posture which suggested that if the room were to shake she'd be the only one to stay on her feet.

“There's a coupla guys in blue uniforms,” Loki went on. “They look like the guys that were there before but they're not. We saw 'em talking to a coupla cops, casual like. No drama. Seems like the attack never 'appened.”

“
And Jack?” I asked.

“
No sign that we saw,” he answered. “'But we did drop by and talk with the local PD. They confirmed. Reports of gunfire out that way, logged as 'not suspicious' because somebody very kindly called them 'bout an 'our before to tell the police they would be target shootin'. No fire reports logged. But one interesting thing. Somebody reported seeing an injured man in KnightStar fatigues being 'elped into a large 4x4. The officer who took the report called the mansion an' was told it was a minor slip an' fall an' the man was taken for treatment.”

“
Did they say where?” asked John.

“
Nope, but I figure these guys din't come from nowhere,” said Loki. “You ever 'ear of these Redtooth guys?” he asked Aiden.

“
Not as such,” he said. “Redtooth is a political ideology, rather than a group, as far as we understand it. The nearest guy who is their main voice is George Stubbs. Real nasty piece of work if you ask me. Political lobbyist for vampire interests. No way he's personally involved in this but his boy might be.”

Both deputies looked uncomfortable and shared a glance.

“This goes no further you understand” said Natasha. “We're supposed to do things like this. The government would probably call it racial profiling, but Tyler's had us keeping tabs on the local vamps. And Stubbs recruited a new guy recently like eight or ten years back. Guy by the name of Michael Tunbridge. Guy really came out of nowhere. Best as we can trace back he was some nothing with nothing and suddenly he's a big player in vampire circles. He's really a socialite. He hosts politicians, celebrities and businessmen who want to hang out with vampires, but it's probably a front. What he seems to be doing is securing votes and campaign funds. The guy schmoozes and presses the flesh. Probably laying latent subconscious commands for people making them do things when they go back to Nashville or DC.”

“
No, doesn't work like that,” said Anna. “It would take a vast amount of skill and effort to plant a delayed instruction in people's heads. It's far easier to plant a good impression, so people think you're great and your ideas are all great and your arguments are persuasive. Less likely to go wrong, too. People might notice a politician who can only say “I'm going to veto this law.” if the conditioning takes over. Far better for him to be convinced that it's good and right to vote against the law even if he can't quite remember all the excellent reasons why.”

“
Well, however he's doing it,” said Aiden, “he's certainly been spreading his influence.”

“
We've 'ad an eye on 'im for a while,” said Loki. “And unlike the sheriff's department we don't have a problem with racial profilin'.”

“
And who do you work for?” said Aiden.

I remembered that Loki's status had been glossed over when he was introduced. I still wasn't sure what he was doing or how he knew Jack.

“Let's jus' say I have a certain amount of immunity, shall we?” he said evasively.

“
Uh-huh,” said Aiden. “And you don't think you're being watched?”

“
Oh yeah,” said Loki. “I know it. I'm bettin' that, right now, agents from the state department, in violation of Vienna Convention, are watching a devilishly 'andsome brother have dinner with 'is latest date. My mug is not well known.”

“
Okay, how does this help us locate Jack?” I asked.

“
Well, Stubbs' boy, who goes by the name Michael Tunbridge—not the name he was born with, I assure you—has  property not too far from the DeClerc estate,” said Aiden.

“
Tunbridge?” said Cam. “That's the guy that greaseball DeClerc said could be behind Marie's kidnapping.”

“
Well, it might be worth checking out this property of his,” said John, a hard look in his eyes.

“
A house?” I asked.

“
Not really. You ever hear of SeeTekUSA?” said Aiden.

“
The mercenary outfit?” said Loki.

“
They prefer private military company, but essentially, yes. Tunbridge runs SeeTek. They do security and strong arming for various companies worldwide. Violent, nasty bastards with lots of resources and lots of money. Rumor has it that they can put more boots on the ground anywhere in the world than the Marines.”

“
Yeah, we've been keepin' tabs on them too,” Loki said with a somber nod.

“
Well, they have a training facility here,” said Aiden. “Some sort of special resources instruction. Big area with lots of buildings. 'Bout four square miles in all.”

“
Fuck!” spat Loki. “How come we never 'eard of this?”

“
Because it's registered to a company that's supposed to provide rehab for vampires who are having trouble with the whole civilization thing.”

“
The Fairborn Estate?” asked Loki, incredulous.

“
Oh yeah,” said Aiden. “And I'd bet dollars to donuts that's where Jack is.”

“
So why are we still here?” I said testily.

“
Because it's protected by an army.” said Aiden. “An army toting some of the most sophisticated anti-werewolf weaponry in the world. Not that I think this information is going to stop you, I just wanted you to know what you're up against.”

I stopped and let out my breath. He was right. How could we possibly get in there and get Jack out?

“We could get some of the pack down here.” said Natasha.

“
And how many of them would you be willing to see die to get Jack back?” asked Anna, staring at me.

“
I can't ask anyone to come with me.” I said.

“
You're not asking,” said Aiden, “and if you think you're leaving me behind you've got another think coming.”

“
That goes double for me,” said John. Anna nodding firmly behind him.

“
Me too.” said Bolt

“
Pack protection, Ma'am,” said Natasha. “Do I have to remind you what that means?”

I couldn't believe it. I wasn't going to be able to leave them behind for anything. “Okay,” I said. “Then we need to come up with a strategy. Maybe we can use the pack. Think we could scare up a large anti-vampire demonstration outside? Pull as many people off of their duty assignments as possible. Make it big, make it loud, make it as peaceful as possible so they don't have an excuse to cause problems?”

“I don't think that would work,” said Bolt. “How many people would they need to cover a political protest that isn't violent?”

“
Not enough,” said Aiden.

“
How many people are in there?” I asked. “And do we have a map?”

“
I can get one,” said John, pulling his computer out of his bag. “As to how many, give me a second to figure that out.”