Demon Accords 6: Forced Ascent (11 page)

I shrugged.  “I’m pretty good at crashing things.  But disarming it?  Well, let’s say I did the best I could,” I said.

“Your best is usually very, very good,” Arkady said from behind and to the Major’s right, making him and the troopers closest to him jump.  As close to seven feet tall as he is to six, Arkady is pretty scary without even considering the vampire part.  “Is US Tomahawk cruise missile, no?” he added.

One of the agents with Gulden was nodding.  “Navy TLAM-D sub munitions variant,” he said.  “I worked on them in the Navy.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?  A goddamned Navy Tomahawk was just launched against us?” Leland asked, equal parts outraged and shocked.  “Just what the fuck did you do?” he asked me.

“I told them no,” I said.  Arkady snorted and the men all looked his way. “My Queen’s Chosen destroyed a secret underground fortress and now politicians are scared,” he said.  With his thick Russian accent, he sounded like Boris from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle shows… a giant, vampiric Boris.  His words, size, and pointy teeth all reminded them that he was, perhaps, a real vampire.

“Where’d it come from?” Gulden asked.

“Probably an attack sub off the Jersey coast,” the ex-Navy agent replied.  Funny he should say that.  Grim was probing the area around and above us.  The origin of the missile was far to the East, and I got an image of a deadly black torpedo shape slicing through the waves.  I felt my dark half’s attention switch to the satellite sitting overhead and suddenly a dormant part of my brain opened up and started running math… fancy math… the kind of math that had obliterated a portion of New Hampshire forest not so long ago.

I almost stopped it.  Just shut down the equations.  But a second set of equations showed me the most probable results.  Very little of the small satellite would actually make it to earth intact.  The probability of actually hitting the submarine was ridiculously low and the sub was submerged.  It would be more of a message, and it would remove a watching asset from sitting overhead.

My reserves were already low, used up by closing the portal and splashing the Tomahawk with aura to negate the explosives.  So it took a while and it was more of a gentle nudge out of orbit and some interference with the spacecraft’s maneuvering rockets to effect my goal.  Each time I would move the spy sat, the ground controllers would fire off its rockets.  So Grim just spun it around and let the rockets provide the push.  When the sat’s operators caught on, Grim shut down all the rockets.  Finally it was on course and gravity took over.  I sat back.  Thirty-five minutes had gone by.  A tall figure stood behind me, arms crossed.

“Where is Tanya?” I asked, noting her absence.

“She went to get the reporters.  She said that this needs to be broadcast,” Arkady said.  “You send message?”

I looked up at the night sky and he looked, too.  A thin streak of moving light flashed across the sky heading east, a robust shooting star that burned bright before disappearing from view.  I don’t think any of the cops saw it, too focused on the ground.

“Yeah, I sent a message.”

Leland was talking rapidly on his cell phone, pausing and saying “Yes sir,” a lot.

“Where do you two think you’re going?” he threw at Arkady and me as we headed for the SUV.

“We’re leaving, Major,” I said.

“You’re gonna leave me with this mess?”

“We’re leaving you alive and well. If we hang out, they may launch another one.”

Everyone around him stopped what they were doing as my words hit them.  Then the Major nodded once, sharply.  “Right, good point.  Don’t let the door hit ya in the ass,” he said, pulling out a smart phone and raising it to his ear.

Stacia was at the SUV, sitting on the open tailgate while the two SWAT guys she had both saved and embarrassed were talking her up.

Awasos lounged on the ground, head on his paws, watching the busy crime and now crash scene.

“So as long as I’m clear on this… you’re not one of them?  With the fangs and all?” one of the troopers asked.  He was big and blond, maybe a few years older than me.  His friend was probably thirty, with reddish hair and freckles.

“I’m not what I appear to be, but I can’t tell you any more.  I don’t have permission,” Stacia said patiently.

“How come the bossy, black-haired one could talk about it then?” the blond asked.

“Because she
is
the boss—at least of them.  I’m not,” Stacia said.

“Well you can boss me if you like,” the redhead threw in.

“Me too,” the blond added.

Catching sight of Arkady and me, she stood up and dusted off her clothes.  She hadn’t appeared dirty but her actions brought the attention of both cops, Arkady, and myself to her lithe form.

“Sorry boys, looks like we’re leaving.  No time to play,” she said with a smile at them and a glance at me.  Both cops spun around and stepped back at the sight of me or more likely, the giant vampire at my back.

“She can’t give you her number, fellas, but you can give her yours,” I said with a smile as I waved Awasos into the back of the Denali. 

“They already did,” Stacia said to me as she slid into the backseat. Arkady moved to the driver’s door and I closed the tailgate before climbing into the front passenger seat.

We found Tanya and Lydia talking to the reporters out by the access road entrance, the troopers on duty still blocking the road. Trenton was standing guard behind his young queen.

From what I could understand of the half dozen simultaneous conversations, at least two of the cameramen standing on top of their new vans had caught some of the missile crash.

“The major is all right with them heading back to the site,” I told the cop on gate duty.  He looked dubious but called on his radio for an update and then raised both eyebrows when the answer agreed with my statement. The press, sensing something was up, watched our exchange, various cameras trying to record it through the tinted glass of the Denali.  When the gatekeeper trooper told those nearest him that they could proceed up the road to the crash scene, there was a mad scramble for vehicles and gear.  Arkady pulled our car onto the road, moving slowly to avoid crushing any frantic journalists.  Almost clear of the confusion and chaos, we were just starting to accelerate when I glanced at the side of the road at the very last reporter crew there.  A familiar face turned my way, her head doing a fast double take as she recognized me.  Brystol hit her photographer’s shoulder but he took too long to turn his attention where she wanted it.  We pulled away into the dark, her pale face receding into the distance in the passenger side mirror.

“I need direction, my Queen,” Arkady said, looking at Tanya in the rearview mirror.  I turned and looked back, meeting her eyes when she glanced my way.  She nodded, unbuckling her seat belt and stripping off her leather jacket.  Opening the soft brown garment across her lap, her fingers moved across the fabric to the intersection of the nylon lining with the leather edge at the bottom back.  A tiny, hidden zipper opened a pocket about four inches long.  She reached in and pulled out a flat wooden box about six inches long and three inches wide with a mere half inch of depth.  The wood was a checkered pattern of light and dark squares, polished by wear and time to a smooth sheen. It looked old. Slim white fingers tipped with blue polished nails manipulated the box with nimble skill, pushing on this dark spot, pressing on this light square.  I realized it must be one of those puzzle boxes, the kind with no apparent method of opening.  Sure enough, the final press of those adroit digits caused a slight click, and a tiny section at one end popped open.  She pulled it like a little sliding drawer and it came smoothly open, a folded rectangle of expensive parchment tucked inside.

The folded notes turned out to be several pages of old letterhead, each packed with tightly handwritten lines of numbers and letters.  I could see the papers clearly, even in the dark of the car, courtesy of my enhanced eyesight, yet they were gibberish.

“Code?” I asked.  Tanya looked up at me and nodded before going back to scanning the pages rapidly, but it was Lydia who explained.

“It is called an
absconditum
by Darkkin. Latin for hidden thing.  It can mean many things, but mostly it is a list of assets that are deeply hidden within society.  Absconditum are bought, sold, and traded among Darkkin.  This one is a coded list of safe houses and the trust funds that support them.”

“Wait, what?  Houses and trusts?” I asked.

Tanya nodded but didn’t look up and I didn’t need my bond to know she was deep in thought, decoding lines of text in her head.

“Hiding from mortals becomes a sport, an art form and a science all rolled into one when practiced for thousands of years.  Setting up caches of money, identification, weapons, and equipment is second nature to vampires.  The more complex examples include trusts, managed by stable banks or law firms, which supply a stream of income to generations of humans who hold and maintain safe house properties.  Some properties are managed by the trusts themselves, some are owned and run by human families, who receive a generous salary for living in and maintaining these properties.  Once set up, they tend to take care of themselves. Darkkin will trade these groups of hidden assets among themselves.  That list was established at the turn of the nineteenth century.  Tanya got it as a gift years ago.  She has many more tucked away as well.”

“A gift?  It has to be worth, like what?  A million?  Two million?” I asked.  “Who gives gifts like that?”

“This one is actually from the big guy next to you,” Tanya said, glancing at Arkady before looking back down at the lists. “And I think it would sell for more than five… if I was ever willing to sell it.”

I too looked at the big vampire, who was staring straight ahead as he drove.  A tiny smile twitched at the corner of his mouth.  Uncomfortable, I turned and looked ahead, seeing the forest on either side of the dark road through the Barrens.

Did I know that once?  About the lists of safe houses and caches of money?  About vampires giving my vampire multi-million dollar gifts like I gave… bracelets?

“Stop that.  You know I’ve been given things of great value.  How would it be different than if my last name was Gates, Buffett, Hilton, or Kardashian?” Tanya said.

I didn’t answer, which caused a sigh of exasperation from the back.  But the next voice that spoke wasn’t hers, or even Lydia’s.  It was Arkady who quietly started to speak.

“I was reborn to this life over four hundred and twenty or so years ago, in Russia during Time of Troubles. My sire was one of Senka’s.  Makes her my babushka as well as my queen’s. Birth father was soldier, as was I, before this life. I served my Elder as bodyguard and warrior. When word of the birth of a vampire was eminent, I offered myself to Senka.  Told her it would give honor to my life to be a guardian of such a miracle.”

“So you’ve guarded her since birth?” I asked, thinking I must already know this… knew this.

“Yes, always,” he agreed.

“But a five-million-dollar gift?”

“Bah, what is dollars?  She is most important vampire ever.  Plus, I am over four hundred years old… you never heard of compound interest?” he asked.

“Yeah, it was a frequent lesson from Gramps,” I said, thinking of someone who had money growing for four centuries.

“Actually, didn’t you take this one from the body of a vampire you killed?” Lydia asked.

I looked at Arkady with raised eyebrows and he glanced my way.  “What?  Darkkin spoke in front of vampires that Young Queen was evil and should be destroyed.  He spoke it twice.  Never a third time,” the giant said.

“Arkady, head to Philly.  Let’s ditch this car and then we’ll head into western Pennsylvania.  I think I found a farm that will be about perfect for a few days,” Tanya said.

Chapter 11

An hour and twenty-two minutes later, we pulled up to a combination garage and storage building behind a Presbyterian church in Holmes, Pennsylvania.  Trenton hopped out and punched a four-digit code that Tanya gave him into a garage door opener keypad and the door rolled open.

Inside the garage was a pair of cars: an older Honda Accord and a fairly new Subaru.  Moving quickly, Trenton and I backed the two cars out while Arkady maneuvered the Denali into the newly open garage space.  Tanya opened a portion of the wooden wall in the back of the garage, revealing a small safe that opened when she dialed the correct combination.

Inside were stacks of cash, older style bills.  She took several sheaves of bills and left one on the front seat of the Denali.

Then we all climbed into the two cars.  “Chris, please ride with Lydia and Trenton in the Subaru. Arkady, you drive the Honda.  Wolfgirl, you’re with me.”

I must have looked dubious because Tanya stopped and smiled at me.  “We—” She pointed at Stacia and herself, “—both have a connection to you.  Putting us in one car and you in the other will guarantee we never get separated and need to break cell phone silence.”

I nodded and climbed into the Subaru’s back seat, then moved aside to let Awasos climb over into the back.

We hadn’t been using any cell phones since the meeting in Albany and the supply of un-activated phones we had with us were all sealed in a metal canister to block all signals.  Her point about our connections made sense, but keeping Stacia in the same car with my very territorial vampire seemed dangerous or at least a bit tortuous for the blonde werewolf.