Vampire Zero (Laura Caxton, #3)(11)
She turned and looked at the photos. At Arkeley’s eyes. She wondered, as she always did, about that last moment at Gettysburg, when he’d promised her he would come back. That he would let her shoot him right through the heart. He had believed, truly believed, that he could do that, that he could surrender to her like that. She’d believed it, too.
Yet somewhere between that moment and the dawn he’d changed his mind. He had run off into the shadows, to some place she couldn’t find him. What had he been thinking? Had he just been scared of dying? That wasn’t the man she’d known and respected. Had he thought he could control the bloodlust?
Yet he’d been the one who’d taught her that was impossible.
Off to one side of the room Glauer cleared his throat. She blinked rapidly and turned to face her audience again. “Arkeley is dangerous. He needs to be destroyed on sight,” she stressed. “The amount of damage he can do on his own is enormous. He’s much, much stronger than a human being and infinitely faster. He also knows every trick any human has ever used to kill a vampire. Worst of all, though, is that he could become a Vampire Zero at any time.”
She took a dry erase marker and drew a simple diagram on the whiteboard. Below Arkeley’s picture she drew two circles, each connected back to his picture with a short line. Below the two circles she drew four, then eight. She connected them all up. “That’s a term we invented for the SSU. We borrowed it, kind of, from epidemiology. When you’re tracing the progression of a killer virus you want to get as far back as you can, all the way back to the first person who was infected. That person is your Patient Zero. You need to find that guy and get him out of the way as soon as possible, before he infects other people.
“It’s the same thing here.” She tapped Arkeley’s picture. “Vampires can make other vampires. They do it because they get lonely, or to have someone to feed them when they become too old and decrepit to look after themselves. If they think they’re in danger, they make more vampires because there’s safety in numbers. This is the biggest danger they represent, their ability to cooperate and to increase their numbers. With enough motivation one vampire can make a couple of others every night. Each of those others can make more. The number gets very large, very fast. We’re talking about a pathological organism that can reproduce a new generation every twenty-?four hours. And each new vampire is just as deadly as the last, and just as hard to kill.
“The only way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to find Arkeley and Malvern now. Find them and destroy them, without hesitation, without compunction.”
She stopped, then, and looked around the room. A lot of people had heard this speech before. The new people, though, had the expression she expected from them. Their mouths hung open. Their eyes were very wide.
They were scared.
Good. They needed to be.
Fetlock’s hand went up again. She pointed at him. “You say we need to find Malvern as well. I thought she was in custody.”
Caxton shook her head. “She was in Arkeley’s custody at the time he changed. I went looking for her afterward, but she was gone. Clearly he took her with him when he disappeared. He may have wanted a mentor, someone to teach him about his new existence. He may also have just wanted to protect her. That’s something else we know about vampires. They stick together and look after their own. Now she’s out there, too, and in some ways she’s as dangerous as he is.”
“Wasn’t there a court order protecting her from execution?” Fetlock asked.
“Yes,” Caxton said. “After Gettysburg it was rescinded. The judicial system finally came through and figured out she’s a real threat. If I find her, I’m within my rights to kill her on the spot. That’s exactly what I intend to do.”
She pulled the cap off her dry erase marker, then shoved it back on with a popping noise.
“We have a plan on how to get them both. I’m interviewing subjects and following up on leads, with Trooper Glauer’s assistance. What I need from all of you is help with finding their lair. We’re hoping it’s somewhere in Pennsylvania, where we have jurisdiction. It could be just about anywhere, though vampires have very specific needs when it comes to their places of residence. It’ll be somewhere isolated, where nosy people don’t tend to go snooping during the daylight hours. It may be underground, or partially buried. In the past we’ve seen them use abandoned steel mills, hunting lodges, and disused electrical substations. Each of you probably knows a place like that in your community. I need you to check it out, but carefully. Only approach the place in the morning, when you have plenty of daylight. Be very careful even then—half-?deads are active during the day, and they’ll lay traps for anyone who threatens their masters. If you find anything, any sign of recent occupation, anything out of place, just leave, immediately. Call me, and I’ll come and check it out myself. This is how we’ll get them, people. This is how we’re going to make vampires extinct. Any questions?”
There were no questions. The cops and troopers got up and filed out of the room, some of them pausing to speak with her for a moment, most of them leaving without a word. Fetlock was one of the latter. She had expected him to stick around, but when she looked for him he was already gone.
Vampire Zero
Chapter 9.