The Vampire-Alien Chronicles (19 page)

There
was little doubt the U. S. Government would be setting up covert surveillance operations in every city they found the body-burns left by both Vampire and Other remains.  That meant they were here and watching.  It was the same ages-old story of the conflict between Vampires and Humans, set on a new stage. 

It was also possi
ble that Humans knew of both us but if so I was unaware.

In a very real sense it was a three way race for dominance of Earth.  The race might not seem to be very close to a casual observer, but with technological aid, at this point, I thought that the race could be won by any of the three.  The Others were stuck within the parameters of the conflict as they had created it.  Their DNA could only slowly be infused into the Human population, and meanwhile Human technology was advancing exponentially.  Vampires were evolving and becoming technologically advanced as well.  No.  The Others were trapped within the parameters of the conflict as they had themselves defined it.  It was a paradox of their own making, and they would have to see it through under the rules as they had defined them. 

For the moment, however, my thoughts were drawn to the hunger gnawing at me from within.  Sonafi was as hungry as I and it was time to do something about it.

We slipped away into the darkness, like lovers to a secluded bower.  Sonafi and I went one way, Volga and Nikita another.  Our new home was not so distant that we were not unfamiliar with the hunting grounds we now stalked.  Within short moments we were scaling a wall we had scaled in the past, and slipping unobtrusively in through a window which slid open for us at our approach.

We fed and then dissolved back into the night, the two swords on my back obvious to any that might observe us, but I did not care.  I was home and I would not be so foolish as to leave it again.  It would take an event of cataclysmic proportions to dislodge me again.  I preferred the dangers that were known to those which were not.  I knew what I could expect here.

We took our time and explored the night, for a time, scenting the remembered smells, walking the familiar streets, glad to be home, desp
ite what we knew we faced here.  We slid through the darkness and around to the back door of our new home, and used our keys to unlock the strange door.  Volga and Nikita appeared from the night to join us, and we all went in.  I turned on the lights.

The house had been ransacked.  It looked more like an act of savagery than any other, but within the chaos I could see a pattern.  This had not been wanton destruction.  This had been a thorough search.  Not a single thing had been left unturned, unpacked and very expertly searched.

“What is this?”  Volga asked.  Sonafi just looked at me, her awareness as acute as my own.  Then I felt them.  Then I heard them.  The powerful electric motors of their cars, approaching from every direction.  Humans.  Men.  The United States Government.

“It's a trap!”  I told them, though Sonafi was no more in need of enlightenment than I.  “Stay with me!”  I
said as I went back out the still open door.  There was no time to close the door behind us.  Whoever these Humans were, whatever organization they represented, they were serious, prepared and they meant business.

The houses here in the city were built one right on top of the next, nearly, no more than 3 feet separating each from its neighbor.  Headlights were spearing down both ends of the alley behind the house.  Tires were screeching on the concrete of the street up and down the block, and the beat and rotor wash of approaching helicopters all told me that we had very little time.  I ran to the North walkway separating my house from its neighbor there and leaped straight upward.  At the apex of my leap I reached out with hands and feet and wedged myself between the two walls.  My feet were on the wall of my own home while my hands were on the wall of that neighboring it, and quickly crab-walked myself to the parapet wall.  The girls were right behind me.

Most of the houses in this area were flat roofed, or if they possessed pitched roofs, had a flat patio area on the rear of the home.  With two steps and a leap I moved to the roof of the house adjoining mine, and then to the next, and the next.  In hyper acceleration I leaped the entire street from the last house on my block to the first house of the next block.  As I catapulted the span I watched the unmarked government cars speeding to surround us.  Surround a now empty house.

Sonafi was only a step behind me but we paused to wait for the girls.  Then we raced on, until we had put ten or eleven blocks between us and the now wildly, garishly lit neighborhood we had just departed.  Our neighborhood.  Two helicopters circled the house.  Intense spotlights probing and searching every crevice, thermal imaging cameras no doubt hunting out every hint of heat signature they might find.  The red and blue of flashing lights lighting the area garishly, but we were no longer there.  The quarry had slipped the snare.  We stood on a roof many blocks distant and watched the circus unfold.

“Our phones were in there.”  Sonafi said.

“No they weren't.”  I said.  “They would have gotten those the first time through.”

“What will our neighbors think!”  Sonafi mused facetiously.

“You'll be the gossip of the neighborhood.”  Nikita said, and they all laughed, though there was nothing funny about it at all.

“At least we can still laugh.”  I said.  We were quickly using up our options, but at least we still had our sense of humor.  At the moment, it was about all that we did have.

“I have my phone, but I'm not getting a signal.”  Volga said, and we all laughed again.  It was laughter slightly tinged with hysteria, but we did not have time to be screwing around, standing around and laughing it up.  The helicopters were quickly expanding their search, but I paused long enough to reach across the intervening blocks and probe the minds of the pilots in the helicopter closest to us.

It was a stretch, even for me, but I saw all that I was looking for, and more.  In fact, I found a great deal more than I had suspected.

“Let's get out of here.”  I said when I had withdrawn my consciousness and we slipped away into the night.  It swallowed us as if we had never been.

CHAPTER 16

We did not care to spend the entire evening running around on foot so we borrowed a resident
’s home, and their telephone, to ring up Brid.  Twenty minutes later we were standing at the curb as he pulled up.

“James Ray isn't answering his phone.”  Brid said as soon as we got in.  “They must have followe
d him after he dropped you off.”  I had asked Brid to attempt to contact him and to warn him.  Apparently the warning had come too late.

“He'll expose all of us.”  Sonafi said unnecessarily.  Loyalty would mean nothing under drugs and torture.  It wouldn't be his fault.  The thought had already occurred to me.

“It's not the first time we have been exposed.”  Volga said.  “Personally I do not think we are so great a secret as we would like to believe.”

“They've known about us from the beginning.”  I said.  “Their fables about us are more than just stories told around lonely campfires.  They know we exist.  They have always known.”

“They are going to know everything about us personally if we don’t do something about it.”  Sonafi said.  “Like as in right away!”

“Take us downtown.”  I told Brid.  “To the vicinity of the Federal Building.”

“I know where it's at.”  Brid said, glancing over at me strangely.  “Are we assaulting it?  Should I call in the troops?”

I thought about it.  They had come after us with overwhelming numbers.  They would not have hesitated to kill us all, and yet I balked at dealing with them in kind. In a very real way I felt sorry for Human kind.  They had been thrown into this against thei
r wills as much as we had and would make excellent allies if it weren't for the fact that we fed on them.  No.  My intention was not to slaughter them.  That would solve nothing and only cause a further furor.  Government agents would pour into St. Louis and we wouldn't be able to move a muscle without being noticed.

That may already be happening, I thought.  I had no idea how they had traced us to our new home.  No idea how they had traced us at all.  I had a lot of questions but few answers.  I asked Brid how he thought it had occurred.

“They must have been made aware by the fight at Samon Du Bon's house.”  Brid said.  “Did you know their blood will even dissolve concrete?”

“We were aware of that.”  Sonafi said.  “What we want to know is how they made the leap from Samon Du Bon's house to ours!  That's the question!”

“Probably satellite.”  Brid answered.  “They have really amazing capabilities.”

“I'm sure they do!”  I said.  “If they have this great ability, however, why don't they see the Others?”  I admit to being just the slightest bit frustrated.

“Oh they do!”  Volga interrupted, and we all turned to look at her in amazement.  “I hacked into a Russian spy satellite network once… entirely by accident…,” she smiled at this bit of wry humor, “and stumbled across a file devoted strictly to the Other’s Visitations.  Humans are very aware but there is nothing they can do about it.  The U. S. Air Force tried for years to catch and destroy these Unidentified Flying objects, but as we all know, they were entirely unsuccessful.  The major governments of the world have all shared this data.  They have not given up in their efforts to determine the origins of these extraterrestrial Visitations, only in their modus operandi.  They know the Others are doing things here on Earth, so they are now trying to determine what those things are, rather than wasting their time chasing after UFO's and bringing the secret conflict out into the open.  If it became public knowledge there would be worldwide panic so it has become a passive Intelligence Operation until they are in a position to make an effective resistance.”

“Was there
anything in those files linking Vampires to the Others?”  I was curious.

“I'm not sure that they recognize a difference.”  Volga said.  “They undoubtedly know of our conflict, but probably attribute it to some kind of inner power struggle.  You have to admit, that from their perspective, there is little substantial difference between our species.  My guess is that they do not know what to make of it.”

“All the more reason to get James Ray out as quickly as we can.”  Sonafi agreed.  “Before he clears the whole thing up.”

“Our place here could be severely compromised.”  I agree
d, thinking about the galvanic action to which such a discovery could propel humanity.  If they were to become aware of our very real weakness, our lack of technology, our miniscule numbers, our aversion to the Sun, I could go on, they could decide to hunt us completely to extinction.

Hunting us to extinction would not be easily done, but it could seriously stymie our ability to wage our own resistance.  For that reason and that reason alone (no more reason was required), though loyalty came in a close second place, I had instantly recognized the necessity of seeing James Ray freed.  The minds of the helicopter pilots had been open books.  They had revealed all I needed to see.  As thorough and efficient as I knew them to be, the government still suffered one major weakness.  Conceit.  They thought their own lair sacrosanct.  They were under the delusion that this was their world, that they could have strongholds, but
theirs was the most tenuous place of all.  Arrogantly they had taken James Ray to their downtown Federal Building stronghold, and with conceit were they assured they could not be attacked there.  If he was still there, he would soon be liberated.  If he was not there, they would divulge where he had been taken, and we would follow.  Then we would grant his wish.  We had no choice now.

“We don't want to drive too close!”  Sonafi warned as we came down the off
-ramp into the city.  “They may be expecting us.”

I disagreed but did not say so.  If we knew for a fact they were not expecting a retaliatory strike, still I would guard against ambush.  There is no such thing as a
fact
in this Universe.  The Universe by nature is transitory.  Sonafi's warning was conversation.   She knew how very careful I would be.  “They cannot be underestimated.”  I agreed.

Brid found a place to park some distance from the Federal Building and got out to put some coins in the parking
-meter.  We didn't want the car to be chocked before we had our chance to get back to it, but I seriously doubted we would be driving out of here this night.  Once the alarms within the Federal Building were sounded, all hell would break loose.  Federal Agents coordinating with the local Police would close down the entire city as fast as the radio could call in reinforcements.  We would have to go out on foot.

“We'll have to make some new arrangements.”  Sonafi said to Brid.  “Any place a Vampire has ever stayed in the past is out of the question.  We have to assume they know everything about us.”

“It wasn't so bad.”  I said, hiding my surprise, though I shouldn't have been surprised in the first place.  Brid had become much matured recently.  He had devised the strategy which we would use to attack the Others, engineered the Low Emission Field Generators and even constructed the apparatus which was the Resistance.  So I should have been surprised at nothing he did.  In only a short time he had already done far more to engender the success of our struggle with than I had ever done.  I was very proud now of Brid.  I had wholly and entirely underestimated my youngest son.  Here was living proof of living Evolution.