The Alien Agenda (10 page)

“I'm sure his opium use
had
nothing
to do with his untimely death.”  I said with remarkable calm.  “It would have put us in a very serious position had the circumstances been different.”

“So now we are forever stuck with the stodgy side of the family!”

“A mix of strength and reserve.”  I said.  “I believe that is why we chose Malcolm De La Font in the first place.”  Malcolm was our first Human retainer.  His family and line had served us well, since.

“Boring.”
  Sonafi said, but she was only being difficult.  We had to trust our lives to our retainers and she no more wanted to take unnecessary risk than I.  An eternal life contains a lot of potential.  Too much to risk foolishly or needlessly.

“So am I stodgy, as well?”  I asked, attempting to be as difficult as she but failing miserably.  I could not help the smile which slipped onto my face.  I was smiling because I knew the statement to be very much true.  But would she admit it?  She smiled slightly.

“Yes.  You're stodgy.  In your case it's a good stodgy, though.  A stodgy I like.  I'm just a homebody Vampire.  I wouldn't know what to do with you if you were any other way.”

“Kind of how I feel about the Burns.”
  I said.

“Yes I know.  How could I not.”  She said then changed the subject.  “So this is our last night in this house.  I would like to think of some special way to commemorate it, but nothing is really coming to mind.  Everything is
packed away.  Nor am I in a hurry to proceed to Brid's home.  We will have to go there soon enough but I prefer that to being moved.

“I have never been particularly fond of havi
ng to rely on others to move me.”  I agreed.  It makes me feel weak and vulnerable.  The sun so close that it warms the wood of the casket.”

“Detestable things.”
  Sonafi said again.  “I am glad we have gotten rid of them.”  Vampires did not require coffins or the soil of the Old World to assure them a restful day’s sanctuary, nor were we the undead, as was commonly believed.  Coffins are simply utilitarian.  They quickly and efficiently serve our purpose, especially the newer, modern models which did not need carpentry modification to ensure a light tight seal.  We slept in a mechanically sealed room these days, in a normal bed like normal beings.  I had given in to her desires in this, though I was indifferent myself.

When I was a
Juvenile I had burrowed like the other wild animals I had encountered in nature.  Often times driving them from their own burrows or caves and I too fierce to be driven out in turn.  I had learned to be at ease in almost any environment, so for me, sleeping in a casket had never been any particular hardship.  Sonafi had never really ever grown used to it, despite the thousands of years she had done so.

“The river is always enjoyable.”  I suggested.

“You will take your Katana with you?”  She asked.

“We'll keep out of sight.”  I said by way of answer.  I had not packed it away and chances were we would not return here again once we left.  I had not packed it away because I did not want to be separated from it.  Not even for one day.  “I prefer to keep it with me.”

“I prefer you keep it with you, also.”  She said.  “I have seen what you can do with it.”

We soon found ourselves, once again, walking hand in hand along the river.  I carried the Cumosachi Katana within a back sheath that was mostly hidden under a black nylon hoodie.  Only a bit of the hilt could be seen above the rumpled
hood.  Still we avoided the trafficked areas and slipped down to the very water’s edge.  One of the few places left within the city where one might yet find the wild or untamed, besides those which walk upon their two hind legs.  The breeze blowing in off the water carried wisps of fog and the scent of living things.

“It is chill.”  Sonafi said,
then suddenly she stiffened.

I felt it at the same moment.  My blade was in my hand before I even knew I had moved.  I could not remember reaching for it, but it appeared there, as if by magi
c.  Sonafi was holding two long-knives, each nearly the length of her thighs, from their tips to the ends of their grips.  She went into a crouch and stared back up into the sparse tree-line above us.  I followed where she was looking and discerned just the slightest hint of a heat signature.  Then another and still more, a half dozen, even more.  They were all around us.

“I do not know what they are.  I can sense nothing.”  Sonafi said.  Her features were fierce and primordial in the moonlight.  The blades she held she held knowingly, almost lovingly.  I knew with what consummate skill she could wield them, as well.  She was ready to use them.

“Show yourselves.”  I said.  I assumed they had to be the Others, under the guise of some new technology.  I was hardly prepared for what happened next.

B
rid stepped out of the trees wearing a football helmet and strange baggy clothing.  Now even fully visible to me, under the decent illumination of the cloudless night sky, I could still only vaguely see the faintest smudge of thermal outline.  Only the smallest amount escaped through the front of the helmet.  Otherwise it was entirely thermally sealed.  I was furious.

“What are you trying to prove?”  I demanded, but then I saw the faces of the others as they stepped out to stand beside Brid, and I stopped mid-tirade, before I had even gotten started.

“Sorry.”  Samon Du Bon said.  “We had to know if these would really work.”

“They really work.”  Sonafi said.  I wasn't looking at her but I recognized the sound of her blades sliding home into their hidden sheaths.  We were in no danger, of course.

They were testing Brid’s new Low Emission Magnetic Field Generators.  They worked well.  “The helmets aren't a bad touch, either.”  I said.  They were not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but they had allowed them to get within striking distance of us.  We would have been dead, no doubt.

“Thank you, Father.”  Brid said.  He sounded sincere.  I was not exactly sure how to respond.  This was some new Brid.

“You're welcome.”  I said.

CHAPTER 8

The Burns were still moving our things the next evening after dark had fallen, so after finding them still busy we decided to hang back out of sight, across the street, upon an adjacent roof.  There was almost no better place for a Vampire to slip out of sight, out of the hectic cares of the world, than upon some inconspicuous rooftop.  It wasn't as if the residents were going to come out onto the rooftop after us, or even know we were there, when we made no more noise than a bird alighting.  We were as comfortable upon its steep, slippery slopes as we were on Terra Firma herself.

“
I'm sorry.”  I said.  “I just couldn't stand to be there anymore.”  As soon as the light had fled Brid's front door had practically burst off its hinges as Vampires began to come and go, upon all manner of mysterious purpose.  Hauling in boxes and strange apparatus.  Receiving and disbursing orders.  I had no idea what they were doing, but it was too much activity for my taste, and I can say, in all honesty, that my presence wasn't helping with their peace of mind, either.  They had been happy to see us off.

The Burns were moving the last of the small stuff, it appeared, and would be finished shortly.  We were only known to James Ray himself, and though some of the older generations, James Ray's brothers and sisters, knew that they served an eccentric, strange family, they did not know just how strange or eccentric.  They certainly
did not know we were Vampires.  So even though we could pass as human, our perpetual youth would be impossible to explain.  So we waited.  We only appeared to the one who was chosen and never any other.

“There's Johnnie.”  Sonafi said. 
James Ray's drug using son.  To outward appearances he seemed normal.  He was well dressed, poised and confident appearing.  To my discerning eye however, I saw him for the arrogant, spoiled fop that he was.  He wasn’t doing much of the work.  He seemed to think he was supervising.

“A father's love has blinded him, I'm afraid.”  I said, seeing all of Johnnie
’s failings at a glance.

“I don't think that is it, exactly.”  Sonafi disagreed.  Just then the wind blew in a gust and Sonafi had to shake her hair out of her face before she went on.  “I don't think James Ray knew what to do with him.
  The two personality traits within the same bloodline, but in the end, so different and he simply didn't know how to deal with Johnnie’s energy and seeming oddity.  He wasn't built to be able to cope with it.”

“I suppose.”  I said, watching the recalcitrant Johnnie avoid all the work.  I watched as James Ray turned to Johnnie to say something, but t
hen thought better of it.  He’d probably gotten tired of saying things long years ago and now mostly accepted the situation for what it was.  It wasn’t a new story and emphasized a certain similarity to our and humanities present circumstances.  We had turned a blind eye for too long and now it might be too late. It was certainly too late in Jonnies case.

“Recessive genes.”
  Sonafi said.  I had heard of that term but didn't really know what it meant.  A throwback, I guess, like the Neanderthal or Cro Magnan features I could sometimes recognize clearly in what were otherwise very modern Humans.  Or like the Native Americans.  Mixed into the general population but far from gone.  They would always be there, just not as they once were.  The De La Font line carried two dominant traits like that.  How something like that occurred I could not say.  At some point a woman had carried the male traits of her line into the De La Font line, I supposed.  It didn't matter.  It was what it was.  That was all that mattered.  It was what it was.

The night was a dark one.  The sky
was cloudy, the stars and moon hidden from view.  The features of the workers were nearly indistinguishable except when they moved in and out of the light above the door.  One of those new LED lights that were so bright and efficient and that I did not particularly like, but you couldn't even get the old style anymore these days.  Too inefficient, they said.  They were all concerned with saving their world, but for who was the question.

“The
Others probably implanted the idea.”   I said, and felt as Sonafi looked into my mind to see what I was babbling about.

“Maybe if we destroyed the planet they would go away.”  Sonafi suggested.  Other than her thermal image, all I could see were her white teeth, formed into a malicious smile.

“If only it could be that simple.”  I said.

“The
Others are going to be furious if Brid’s plan works.”  Sonafi said, changing the subject.  It was something I had been thinking about myself.  We had never done more than run, hide and cower in our holes.  This was a thing entirely new, and a thing the Others may not be able to take.  There was just no guessing what we might be precipitating.  The only thing we could be sure of was that it wouldn't be good.

“They may decide to destroy the entire planet
,” I said, “if they can't have it for themselves.”

“Then why fight at all.”  She asked rhetorically.

“We must.  We have no choice.”  I said.  “They made the rules.  I don't see options here.”

“Better to destroy the planet than give it to them.”  Sonafi said bitterly.  I could see that she was serious.  The sharp edge I knew she could bare when necessary sh
owing itself.

“I've tried not to think so fatalistically, but nor would I be willing to just give them this world.”  I said.  “This is our world.  I would not give it
to them without a fight.  Do you think our future is as gloomy as all that, that we must consider such extreme countermeasures?”

“I don't know.  I don't know what to think anymore.”  Sonafi said.  “It seems we are backed into the corner and must consider all options.”

“But to destroy the planet?”  I asked.

             
“It's not just a matter of ourselves that I think of.  If we allow them to succeed here, we'll be the stepping stone they use to do this to someone else.  It's a hard thing to think, to contemplate, but it's even harder not to.  I have really been thinking about it recently, because only recently has it really become possible.”

She meant anti-matter, of course.  I knew enough of current events to know that much, at least.  A limited nuclear exchange might damage the planet, but had very little chance of destroying it completely.  The anti-matter they were making in the several particle colliders now in operation around the globe, and using to powe
r the space craft they were colonizing the moon, Mars and various other chunks of rock in our system with, would be more than sufficient to do the job, with only a small quantity of the volatile material.

“Let's hope that it does not come t
o anything as final as that.”  I said, though thinking that if it did come to that, we would probably have no difficulty in pulling it off, nor would many of the Community be likely to dissent.  Vampires could be vengeful, ruthless beings.  I would know.

“It looks as if they are about finished.”  Sonafi commented.  Just as s
he spoke a small insect-eating bat swooped near us and I reached out and plucked it from the air.  It set up a terrific squeaking then tried to bite me, but its jaws were inadequate to the task and it could not break my skin.  I let it go before by some fluke it should succeed, and it flew off into the night.

“It might not be wise to create real Vampire bats.”  I said.

“Possibly not.”  Sonafi agreed.  “This world is faced with enough problems as it is.”  The Burns had heard the bat’s frantic squeaking and paused to look up into the darkness for the cause of the disturbance, but unable to determine what had caused it and the bat no longer squeaking, quickly returned their attentions to what they were doing.

My cell phone vibrated in my pocket and I scuttled over the peak before answering it.  It was Brid.

“I've arranged your transportation.”  Brid said without preamble.  “By private jet tomorrow night.”

“Airplane?”
  I asked immediately unhappy with the prospect.

“Yes.  You'll be shipped as freight.”

“Freight?”  I demanded.

“
Would you prefer First Class?”

“I don't like risk.”  I said.  “In fact, I do not think I would like to fly at all.”

“I could charter a small boat.”  Brid offered.

“I do not like small boats.”  I said.

“It could be a fast small…“

“No.”  I interrupted him, suddenly regretting my decision to go at all.  Maybe I would, after all, simply pick up the phone and call them.  Or weren't there enough, already, to grab one single
Other?

             
“You would be aboard a ship for a week or more.”  Brid warned.  “You know the dangers of that as well as any.”  He meant having to feed on the passengers and crew within a closed environment, where everything that happened was that much more obvious.

“I am aware.  I do not like any of the options.  I would like to skip it altogether, to be honest.”

“Then don't do it.”  Brid said.

“I must.”  I admitted.  “The telephone is simply inadequate.” 

“The private jet is already chartered.  My people will crate you and load you then others will be waiting in Europe to deliver you.  Everything is already prepared.  All you have to do is give me the go ahead.”

“Your people?”
  I asked.

“My network.
  Yes.”

“Network?”
  I was beginning to see that there was more to my son than I had ever imagined.  He was eager to explain.

“It’s a Network o
f us younger, computer literate Vampires.”  Brid said.  “There are hundreds of us, representing every branch of scientific endeavor known to Humans or Vampires.  Working together, there is almost nothing we can’t accomplish.”

“Impressive.”  I said, meaning it, but having no idea how such unity could exist amongst us.  There had never been anything of its sort in all of our history, and I marveled that it had been Brid who had put it together.  “I would never have imagined Vampires would ever be able to come together like this.”

“Thank you, Father, but it was the computer that made it possible, and not so much anything I did.  We learned unity while on the net.  If it had not been for that net unity, we might never have learned it at all.  It is not easy for any of us but we are working through it.”  Brid explained at length.  Then; “I am confident there will be no problems with the arrangements I have made for you.  Do you wish to finalize them?”

“I'll have to call you back.  I have to ask the boss.”

“Sure.”  I heard him say as I lowered the phone and was reaching for the red
end
button.  I put the phone away and returned over the peak to the front deck.  Sonafi was watching the Burns drive away as I rejoined her, the big rental truck lumbering away down the street and taking a left hand turn at the first corner.
“Brid wants to ship us air freight.”  I said.