Forever Young The Beginning (52 page)

Henri came to Ian later that
day with some disturbing news. It was suspected that there was a
serious rogue vampire problem in Vienna, Austria. Most of the
assets of the
Supreme Council
were occupied with still another problem in the
Balkans. He had been asked if he could persuade Ian to help with
the problem. People were missing around Vienna and Judge Wilhelm
Hoffmeister had determined that it was vampire related. If Ian
accepted, he would be put in charge of the whole thing.

“
It is an honor, Ian. I
suppose it’s one that most of us could do without though. You are
to get whatever you need to do the job.”

“
Sounds like they’re really
worried.”

“
Vienna has been a center of
culture since the renaissance period. News from Vienna travels all
over Europe. The situation is more serious than the Balkans given
that Vienna by contrast is not a place of violence. That raises
questions in the minds of those who hear of the missing people. In
the Balkans, such a thing wouldn’t be as significant since it is a
more volatile area.”

“
Whose territory is
Austria?”

“
Wilhelm
Hoffmeister.”

“
Hoffmeister? I like him. He
invited me to come and visit his home in Vienna. He wanted me to
show him some techniques with firearms.”

“
He thinks highly of you,
Ian. I count him as one of my most valued colleagues.”

“
That’s good enough for me.
What about the Inquisitor, Moreau?”

“
No one knows right
now.”

“
Do you think he’s
involved?”

“
He may be, but I can’t
understand why.”

“
Well, you did find his name
in Francoises’ journal. He was involved with that one.
Money?”

“
He’s been known to gamble.
It could be that simple. I would have thought though that he would
just kill his creditor. There has to be something to that which we
don’t see.” Suddenly he looked at Ian and said “You know, I own a
gambling establishment near Nice. I wonder if he fell into debt
while gambling there.”

“
That makes sense. In any
event, if we do this I want Hoffmeister to take part in it
also.”

“
He’ll come. I’ll talk to
Marie about staying home. You know how she is if children are
involved. A
Council
judge has never been brought in on one of these things in
recent memory excepting for me.”

“
This is an unusual
situation, and we’re the ones doing a favor for them after all. If
something goes amiss, I want at least to know that the
Council
judge for that
area was in on it from the beginning. I don’t want for this to go
bad and then for the council to have a sour taste in their mouths
due to my actions. That can have a lasting bad effect for you and
Marie. We’ll tell him that he is to find several good fighters from
Austria or nearby. They can’t be from the Vienna area though. Who
knows but what one of them might be involved?”

“
Good point.”

In the kitchen, Marie spoke to Sophia.
“We’re all going to Austria very soon. We’re likely going to raid a
vampire coven there which has been kidnapping people. Ian was asked
to put a team together to take care of the situation.”

“
So I’m going
too?”

“
Yes; you were left in Paris
for some nine days the last time we had to do this. You’ll recall
that you were still human then.”

‘
Yes. I’m glad that you
think enough of me to include me. I’m ready for this. It’s what we
trained for, isn’t it?

“
It is, and you’ll do well.
I’m well pleased with your becoming one of us. You’ve adapted well
and you fit in with us well too. We’re lucky to have
you.”

“
Marie, that is so important
to me.” She stepped to Marie and hugged her warmly. “I’ve felt it,
but it’s good to hear you say it. Is there anything that I can do
before we leave?”

“
Yes. We should make up four
fighting suits, similar to the one Ian made. You can help me make
them. We’ll also make up a few extra hoods for whoever helps us
over there. It isn’t like we can take plans to Picard the tailor
for something like this, is it?”

Sophia threw back her head and laughed
heartily, shaking back her wavy black hair as Marie laughed with
her. In seconds then she giggled and said “Can’t you just see old
Picard’s face if you asked him to make up those outfits?” Then she
did her best imitation of his whining nasal accent saying “What did
you say these suits are for, Madam Lafayette?” The two than laughed
raucously, prompting the men to come to the kitchen, which made
them just look at each other then and laugh all the louder as the
men stood staring at the two.

***

“
What have you idiots done
here? Do you not know better than to take local merchants and such
people? You should have only taken peasants from the countryside.
This is the kind of thing that will bring trouble that you don’t
want. What do you expect me to do for you now?”

“
We don’t know, Herr Moreau.
We hoped that you could invent an explanation for this. We have
three young vampires who don’t take direction well at all. We’ll
pay well, as you saw by the retainer we paid you. We got the young
girls you wanted too.”

“
I no longer need them. The
one who wanted them is dead. Getting back to this thing, the
authorities are involved, so I’ll have to persuade them with a
believable lie. I’ll think of something. You’re making more trouble
for me than you’re worth. Your coven has more money than brains! If
not for my younger brother, I’d have nothing to do with the lot of
you.”

The five of them departed on foot. It
was entirely too slow to go to Vienna via conventional human
transportation using horse-drawn carriages. They got there in five
days easy running, going cross country just south of the Italian
Alps. Maria being the slowest was the pace setter. They sometimes
would stay out of the sun if necessary in the valleys for short
spells. The mountain weather was cloudy at this time, so they
didn’t have to do that too much but they made better time by
night.

After arriving, they waited at a large
home three miles outside of Vienna which was property of the
Council judge for the area of Austria, Wilhelm Hoffmeister. Henri
and Marie had visited the place twice previously as his
guests.

Marie came up with an idea to sling
two pistols under their arms and that way only three would be in
their belt sash. She and Sophia had completed five of those dual
under arm holsters and had made them before they had departed. They
were custom made for each of the team. The two had also made short
sword slings for each to keep a short sword hanging down their
backs between their shoulder-blades. They copied Ian’s and took
time to alter them until they fit perfectly.

Now in Vienna, they all practiced
drawing and cocking the unloaded pistols from their waist band sash
as well as from their under-arm holsters. They had gotten very used
to them and all could have pistols out in a flash after only one
afternoon of practice. They also went out by twos to roam the city
at night in the hopes of getting a lead on their
targets.

Nothing of any consequence was seen
after two days of looking. Henri thought that they should split up
into four groups to just look around until the Council judge and
his men would arrive. If nothing else, they would learn the lay of
the land, including roads and landmarks. Ian, Henri, and Li
separated while Marie and Sophia stayed together.

Council judge Hoffmeister arrived the
fifth day. Henri told him what was needed and he departed to get
help. He thought he could get two on short notice who weren’t from
that area and return in three days. There had been no further
reports of citizens missing in the area.

Three days later while in town, Ian
felt a prickling at the base of his neck. It was only brief and he
had had several others since arriving. He casually scanned
everywhere and his gaze passed over a tall husky man wearing a
black broad-brimmed hat with a peculiar looking feather in its hat
band. He let his eyes keep drifting and then he snapped his gaze
back to the man, remembering seeing that hat once where he had
gotten a prickly alarm. Shadowing the man, he stayed a half-block
behind him and the man turned into a building after a bit. It was a
building which housed the newspaper for Vienna.

By good fortune, Henri happened along
and soon they were paralleling him, while staying
separate.

Ian sat down on a bench as Henri
pretended to look at some merchandise in a storefront. He said
“That’s Moreau and we need to stay with him.”

“
I saw him in Lausanne one
winter. Li and Sophia have him.”

“
He’s a devious one. We need
to take care that he doesn’t realize we’re following
him.”

“
They know it. We’re going
to take turns.”

After buying a box of vegetables
including some apples as well, Moreau continued, moving away from
the center of Vienna. As he walked along, Ian realized that they
were leaving the city toward the east. He signed to Sophia to stop
following Moreau as he and Henri quickly separated and went to
where they both could parallel him. First they did so by simply
walking behind houses on either side of the road. Once they reached
a partially forested area they had an easier time of it. Li and
Sophia were now following Ian from at least a block
away.

They went about another mile when they
saw Moreau walk over a little hill with a lot of bushes on each
side of the road. Ian signed to Henri to stop as he crouched down
too. They waited a bit and then Ian detected some movement in the
bushes alongside the little hilltop. He had doubled back to see if
he was being followed. Ian knew then that he was going somewhere
that he wanted no one to know about.

He glided under cover to a place where
he could peer down into the thicket. Moreau was already away and
almost out of sight going around a bend. Ian followed, hoping that
one of his companions would see him moving again.

In a quarter of an hour, they had
fallen in behind Ian who had followed Moreau to a large stucco
home. It was in the countryside, with no visible neighbors. A
sizeable two-story building, it had numerous outbuildings behind
it. There was a barn but no livestock, and behind it a caretaker’s
house boarded up completely except for a single window over the
porch. He waited until the others had crept up to his location, and
pointed to the caretaker’s house as the others nodded. It was an
all too familiar vampire technique. He had Li and Sophia stay there
while he and Henri circled the place to explore it. Ian saw a long
network of rabbit hutches which was over half full of rabbits.
Henri had seen nothing. The main house didn’t appear to be boarded
up like other vampire coven houses they had seen.

Ian said “There are a sizeable number
of rabbits in hutches out back. More than at the chateau, if that
means anything. What do you think about Li and I staying here and
keeping watch?”

“
Should we just get our
clothing and weapons then?”

“
Yes. If Judge Hoffmeister
isn’t there when you get back, we may have to do this thing
ourselves. Tonight might be our night, especially if there are
hostages in the caretaker’s house.”

It was agreed on and the three
departed then. Li and Ian settled in, becoming as still as two
stones in typical vampire fashion. They let their hearing magnify
everything all around to better monitor the place.

In the later afternoon they both saw
Moreau walk out of the back door and he was carrying a box that
looked like the one with the produce he had bought earlier. He
looked carefully around and then in a bound was atop the porch and
through the window in a flash. Emerging in only three or four
minutes he bounded down after again looking around carefully. He
went back into the house and there was no further sign of
life.

It was dusk when Ian heard someone
approaching carefully. He and Li silently slipped their short
swords out and positioned themselves for an attack. It was Henri
and there were others behind him. Marie and Sophia were accompanied
by Wilhelm and a husky looking young vampire who he called Deiter.
Ian motioned everyone to move farther out into the woods away from
the house. When they had moved off around two hundred feet, Ian
reached out to shake Wilhelm’s hand

“
Ian, I am so glad that you
came. I am a little surprised to see two women in this group.”
Marie snorted “Oh, Willy! Ian and Li have taught us to fight very
well, thank you.”

“
You may be even more
surprised when you see them fighting, sir.” said Ian.

“
Well I’m past five hundred
years old, but I can still learn something new.” I couldn’t find
anyone else who is reliable on short notice. My other fighters are
in the Balkans.”

“
We’ll make do, sir.
Weapons?”

“
Deiter, tell him what we
brought.”

“
Yes sir. We brought two
blunderbuss long guns, four pistols, a saber and an
axe.”