God Touched - 01 (22 page)

Despite her awesome physical beauty, Tatiana seemed sad and withdrawn.

After a moment, Roma finally spoke.  “This is Tatiana Demidova, reputed to be Galina's daughter, although that claim has never been explained satisfactorily.  To the best of our knowledge, vampires are only mad
e, not born.  Yet Miss Demidova
resembles her mother to a very high degree.  Chris, what detail can you share?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but my cell phone buzzed with an incoming text.  I looked up apologetically. 

“Sorry, I don't understand how I could be receiving a signal down here.”

Chet spoke up.

“Easy, the building has been wired for secure wireless, even down here.”

I glanced at the name of the text sender on my cell then spoke.  “Ah Sir, I really need to answer this.”

Gina spoke first. “It's her, isn't it?  It's Tatiana!”

Detective
Velasquez
was proving to be uncomfortably perceptive.

“That seems rather coincidental.  Go ahead, Chris.” Roma said.

I opened the text.

T: Are U alright?

C: yes, why?

T: U just had some kind of shock?  It woke me up.

“Shouldn't she be asleep or whatever they do during daylight?” Takata asked.

“Yeah, she was.” I said.

“What woke her up?” Fran asked.

“I think I did,” I said, then answered Tat's last line.

C: Yeah, I did, but not bad or anything.  I'm fine. You should go back to sleep.”

T: What was the shock?

“Explain,” Roma ordered.

“I seem to have a kind of link with her.  She knows where I am and can sense strong emotion,” I said.

C: Just a picture.

T: Of what?

C: You.

“If she is at her mother's residence,” he looked at me for confirmation and I nodded,”then she is about two miles away.  And you woke her from a sound sleep?”

“Well, I haven't seen her in a few days and we've
been having some .....issues.  The photo
caught me off guard,”  I replied.

My phone buzzed again.

T: I really need to talk to you.  I didn't mean any of what I said. Please tell me I can see you tonight?  Please?

C:  We should talk.  Come by later.  I have to go now, I'm in a meeting.  Go back to sleep. Bye.

T: Bye, till later.  I love U.

I put the phone away and looked up into six pairs of questioning eyes.

“What would have happened if you hadn't answered her?” Roma asked.

“Most likely nothing.  My shock went by fairly quickly and she would know I was basically okay.”

“What if you had displayed fear or excessive anger?” He asked.

“That might have been a problem.  She's sorta protective.”

Gina snorted.  “You
’
r
e
understating it by a lot, judging from your expression.”

“Wait a minute.  It's the middle of the afternoon, broad daylight, and we're in the sublevel of friggin Police Plaza.  Are you saying she would try to come here if you were in danger?  That tiny little fox?”

Roma spoke before I could answer.  “Don't any of you get fooled for a second into thinking they aren't more dangerous than you can truly imagine.  And Chris, don't try to sell us that she's not a killer!”

“Actually  I was going to say  that tiny little fox is one of the most dangerous people on the planet.  It took the entire Coven of New York City to keep her away from the Hance lab takedown last night.  If she decided to come here, middle of the day or not, she would already be here.”

“And she sucks blood and all that?” Chet asked.

“Yup, but it is bagged blood from the blood bank that they own.  They're killers by nature, but killing is a bad move and they know it,” I said.

“You’re not telling us everything, there's more than just bagged blood,” Gina said.

“You are a pain in the ass,” I said, starting to get annoyed.  “But yes, she does drink from a donor, but only one and the donor is willing.”

“You!  You’re the donor,” Gina said.

I sighed.  It was unbelievable how easily she could read me.  “Yes, I am the only human she will drink from directly.  There, happy?” I said to Gina.

Now they were all looking at me with differing expressions.  Roma looked mildly disgusted, Chet's was admiring, Sommers and Takata looked intrigued, DeMarco was flat out shocked and Gina was frowning slightly.  Great way to start a new job.

     After the meeting, Chet pulled me into his workspace and started my orientation.

“Okay, this is my hub, my web.  The place from which all good information flows.” he said, gesturing at the multiple monitors, keyboards, computers and a lot of things I couldn't identify..

“From here, I monitor all the news feeds, as well as the NYPD and federal crime reporting systems.  I also, have programs to monitor various occult based forums and chat
rooms for key phrases.  I run all that data through filters to drill down on the most likely stories and crimes that we need to look into, as well as information that we might be interested in.”

“Like, Damnedthings?” I asked.

“Yup.  Did you know there's a very old short story by a man named Ambrose Bierce called
'
The
Damned Thing'
?
Popped up during my search.
”

“Er. no.  Never heard of it.  Anything to do with our Damnedthing?”

“Well it has a number of similar details.  Invisible monster, animal based, violent, and of course the name of the creature itself. “

“So you're saying the author might have been exposed to the real deal?” I asked.

“Possible, but anyway let’s talk about the one we're interested in.  You said it was originally a short faced bear?” he asked as his fingers flew over one of the keyboards.  Pictures and descriptions popped up on several different monitors. Chet read from the Wikipedia listing.

“
Arctodus simus
, short-faced bear, died out twelve thousand, five hundred years ago.  Largest bear, six to seven feet at the shoulder, over eleven feet standing upright, and approximately two thousand pounds. That sound like your monster?”

“Those are averages right?  'Cause my bear is a bit bigger than that.” I said.

“Well of course there is always variation along the bell curve in any species, some bigger, some smaller.  The thing that interests me is that the species died out over twelve millenia ago.  If your Damned Thing originated from one of those than it is very, very old.”

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Well, generally speaking, we seem to find that among the paranormal, older is stronger.”

I thought about the vampires that I knew and Chet's theory fit in pretty well there.

“So, you're saying this one could be strong?” I asked.

“Based on what we witnessed in the lab, and based on what you tell me, plus the physical size of this thing when it's solid, then hell yeah I think it's powerful!”

“So what's the whole demigod thing?” I asked.

“Well, demigods are by definition, half god, half human.  Think Hercules, son of Zeus and a human mother.  We, the fed team and the other Special Situation squads around the country, have agreed on a standardized language to describe and compare the things we run into. Demigods are at the upper end of what we might run into.”

I looked a
t him for a moment, letting all the
information just sort of gel.

“See, I woulda thought a dude like you would have an easier time believing all this shit, but you look like your trippin,” Chet said.

“Well, I think I'm more bugged by the idea that the federal government and the largest police departments in the country have teams to deal with this.”

He laughed and then started to hand me books to read.

“There are a few more, but you'll have to read them here.  I don't let anyone take them outta my library, if ya know what I mean.”

     Next, I was scheduled to sit with Gina.  She was on the phone when she waved me into her office so I took a moment to look over the plaques on the wall.  She had a Masters in psychology from Columbia, as well as certificates of completion from various profiling courses at the FBI Academy at Quantico.  She also had a certificate of completion in Facial Action Coding System signed by a Dr. Paul Ekman. 

Next to that was a framed diploma from The Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research group.  As I finished the last title, she hung up the phone and looked at me for a moment.  Then she spoke.

“So, by now you'll have figured out that I am a psychologist as well the group's parapsychologist. I'm also the profiler for our little squad.”

“That's a lot of hats you wear.” I said.

She smiled. “Yes, but we all wear many hats here. Fran is our medium, but she is also our Case Manager.  Steve is our weapons expert, but assists Chet with technology, while acting as one half of our own little spec ops team.  Brian is the other half of that team and our close combat trainer.  Fighting with stronger, faster opponents takes skill, you know.”

Oh, how very well I knew that lesson.

“Brian also has Crime Scene Technician training, as does Chet.  Inspector Roma is our leader, but he is also the team Medic, although I am backup medic.  And even Olivia is more than she seems, acting as our logistics coordinator, and dispatcher.  So that brings us to you.  What hats do you see yourself wearing?”

“Well, despite living in the Big Apple, my favorite hat is a Red Sox ball cap, followed closely by a Springfield Armory hat.”

She didn't laugh. “Your humor tells me a lot about you, you know.”

She was under my skin, just that quick.

“Tell me, by all means, about myself,” I said.

So she did, in a calm even voice.  “You are angry and lonely, but you cover it with humor.  You feel set upon by God, perhaps cursed by Him.”

“Anything else?” I said through clenched teeth.

“Just one more thing.  You feel that you are a coward at heart.”

I exploded to my feet, my chair flying back, clattering to the floor.  In my peripheral vision, I could see Brian and Steve moving into the central conference room, but Gina's face remained calm and un-alarmed, and she spoke again before I could start yelling at her.

“And despite all those feelings, you still put your life in danger daily to protect others.  Why is that?”

Her statement and question deflated the rawest part of my anger.

“What the hell do you mean?”

“Why do you continue to help others?  After all that God has done to you?  Why haven't you just walked away?  Why did you help that little girl?”

“What kind of questions are those?  Are you saying I shouldn't help people?”

“It's a very reasonable question.  If God has cursed you and taken from you, why should you do His Will?”

“I don't!  I do what I do because I choose to!  My will, not His.  And how could I not help people, how could I stand by and let others go through what I had to.  To lose what I lost.”

“But isn't it easier and
safer
to just avoid the demons?”

My anger had bled away, replaced now, by cold calm and a stubborn resolve to keep from responding to her ploy.  I hadn't been prepared, hadn't been ready for her button pushing.  A tiny part of me was admiring her skill, while the lion's share resented her manipulation.  I righted my chair and sat, before answering.  “Sure, you
’
r
e
right.  That would be easier.” I agreed. 

“Then why not take that route.” She persisted.

“Maybe I will, at some point.  Hell, maybe I'll join them.” I said.

She surprised me by smiling.  My cell buzzed.

T: ?

C: I'm fine.  Mind games with a shrink.

T: O.K.  See u later?

C: Yes.

T: Can u come here?  They are fussy.

C: Sure.

    I really didn't want to go to Galina's house, but after meeting Senka, and hearing about last night's trouble, I understood why they didn't want her traveling about.

“That the girl who isn't your girlfriend?” Gina asked.

I refused to get caught in her games again, so I just nodded coldly.

She looked at me levelly for a moment, then continued in a different direction.

“Chris, has anyone ever told you what it's like when you exorcise a demon?”

Damn, she was confusing.  “What?  No one i
s ever with me when I exorcise demons
.”

“I'm talking about the people outside, the ones waiting.” She said.

“Detective
Velasquez
, I don't have the foggiest idea what you're talking about.”