Red Star, White Sun (7)

“You still don’t drive do you?”

“Carol, of course I can drive. If it has wheels, wings, or can be submerged, I can pilot it. I have driven chariots in Rome, elephants in Istanbul, horses in Mongolia, race cars in Monaco, tanks in Italy, planes for Pan Am. I like walking. I am in no rush to get anywhere in particular. When I feel particularly feckless, I will take a boat out into the middle of an ocean and swim the rest of the way.”

“So, you rode in my car because?”

“I was between cars at the moment.”

“How many people did you kill on the way here?”

“The whole trip or just since I got to New York.”

“Just New York, please. No need to exceed the boundaries of good taste.”

“Thirty-five assorted rapists, murderers and pimps since I entered the city.”

“Was there anyone you didn’t kill?”

“Yes, I’m always nostalgic when I come to the city, so in your honor I do my best to spare at least one person on any given day that I would have otherwise killed. I came upon a check point and found a group of men raping young men and women before allowing them past the checkpoint. One young man had just joined the checkpoint duties and was aghast at what he was seeing. As I strolled past the gates, I heard the cries and upon investigating, decided none of those so-called guards deserved to live.”

“What did you do to their victims?”

“Nothing, by the time I arrived, they were already past helping. Two bled out seconds before I arrived, the third was shot trying to escape.”

“Tell me the guards suffered. Something suitably nasty.”

“Oh, I love it when you talk vengeance. Ebola, with an accelerated timetable. Organs liquefy while you watch.”

“What happened to the last guard?”

“I instructed him in the proper destruction of their rape-mobile camping vehicle to prevent the spreading of the disease. I left him with the Mark of Caine and informed him a pious and respectful lifestyle was recommended. Should he ever consider harming anyone who had done him no injury, he would be consumed in a similar fashion.”

“You left him with a biological weapon incubating on his chest? How long will it last? What kind of life have you left him? Just when I thought you might be changing, you do something like this.”

“Calm down. I can create a Mark that does whatever I want it to. In this case, as long as he maintains his decorum, he will mostly have a slightly irritating rash which will flare up from time to time to remind him of our meeting. Should he experience symptoms of guilt, his body chemistry will alter the Mark making it significantly more painful. It will interact with his brain chemistry and cause him to have nightmares, terrifying ones. And should he be unable to reconcile himself to his deeds, he will eventually take his own life, since the idea of watching his organs liquefy will simply be beyond his capacity to deal with given our current climate. So it won’t save his victims, but it will ensure he creates no others.”

“He is a soldier monitoring security gates, how could you leave him in such a state? How can he do his job, a stress-related job without the risk of eventually blowing his brains out?”

“I suggested a different line of work. Gardening, food production, burning the dead, perhaps. He may show up looking for a job. I suggested he show the mark to the Senior Official at your particular hospital. I assured him he would be able to get a job.”

“Get out of my bed. Now.”

“Is that any way to show how much you missed me? We were doing so well.”

“You haven’t changed at all.”

“I am ten thousand years old. How would it look if I went changing for every woman I came across? It would ruin my reputation. Now come back over here. We can fight again tomorrow if it will make you feel better.”

“You promised me there would be no bloodshed at the hospital.”

“There won’t be. The Lord Oak is already planning his escape. Once he leaves the hospital, I will end the threat his knowledge presents.”

“Why not work with him? If what you suspect is true, wouldn’t he be a powerful asset?”

“The Lord Oak is a loose cannon. He does what he wants, when he wants. He is convinced there is a threat out there older than the Vampyr and it is the cause of the phage.”

“But you agree with that. So I still don’t see why you can’t work together. We have made some headway at the hospital as well. Pooling our resources, we might be able to…”

“No.”

“What do you mean no?”

“You are to discontinue any further research.”

“I am about to put you out of my bed, again. We think we are close to beating this thing.”

“I mean it. When you were far from anything that looked like an answer, It left you alone. The Lord Oak must leave here and look as if he has discovered nothing. If he stays, your work, your hospital and your lives are at great risk. I mean this. Your next papers, your next info releases to your masters must say nothing of your recent discoveries. Nothing. Write it off as a false lead, for now and the foreseeable future.”

“What if I don’t?”

“Please.”

“You never ask, my Shepherd, only command. Is it really that important?”

“Yes. This is a threat to everyone, and a threat with the power to erase anything or anyone it thinks knows too much.”

“This does not explain why you won’t work with Oak? You said he knows or suspects the same things you do.”

“Lord Oak wants to go to the Vampyr council in Los Diablos and plead a case beyond our scientific support. He wants to create a war council, and combine our military capacities.”

“They have an army?”

“Of a sort. How do you think they managed to build Los Diablos in the middle of the ruins of LA in less than three years?”

“I assumed we helped them. Keeping people busy has been a government mandate. Too busy to notice the dying.”

“No. There were no humans hired or used in the building of the Council City. It was built in the cover of darkness for a reason. The Vampyr are not just vampires, they’re a people, a collection of different creatures working together for a variety of reasons. They are a force to be reckoned with. If they wanted, they could take your government, any single government by force.”

“But it would spark a world war.”

“Yes.”

“Is your threat so dangerous, Lord Oak’s plan won’t work?”

“It is not the problem of his idea working. If he were able to convince both groups to work together, that would only accelerate Its plans.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Everyone likes to think of themselves as the Alpha predator. Humans think they rule the Earth. But until recently they were unaware of the Vampyr who both as individuals and collectively are far more dangerous than Humanity could ever be. They keep themselves hidden because humans are very poor at accepting their overall mediocrity. Present company excluded.”

“No offense taken.”

“But I have lived for ten thousand years and have seen things, especially recently, which make me believe the Vampyr are not the pinnacle of life on Earth.”

“What does this have to do with the phage?”

“When food becomes hard to find, what do hunters do?”

“They flush it out, chase it down.”

“The Vampyr had become so good at hiding, they were unable to be found, except as legends. So if you wanted to flush the Vampyr out of hiding, what do you do?”

“Considering their intelligence and capabilities, you have to threaten something they value or couldn’t live without…And if you know humans, they would never allow the Vampyr to walk freely; hence the Red Star program. Tagging your meals and letting them walk around in the open.

“I knew there was a reason I loved you. Oh yes, and these six hundred thread count sheets.”

“You love me for my sheets? What? Park benches a bit splintery for your old ass?”

“No my dear, I love you for your intellect, your sheets, and what you can do between those sheets.”

“Such open flattery will only delay this conversation.”

“I will take the delay. Let me handle this and draw the threat away from you.”

“I’m a big girl. I can handle things.”

“I’m counting on it. Turn off that light and get over here.”

“Yes, my Shepherd.”

Keep your mask on and proceed to House of Oak (8)