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  “What happened to this guy when his coercion didn’t affect you?”

  “Incredible pain when I impaled him and threw him down on the concrete. He was very surprised, I assure you. In fact, we used a sniper on that job to get me close enough to Adrian. That reminds me, I wonder where Killian is. Have you seen him around the ship?”

  “Yes, he was up top in his hide a couple of hours ago.”

  “That’s right, I forgot he is always on duty up there. Or it seems like he is up there all of the time.”

  “Well, there are a lot of boat bunnies out of the smaller yachts that float around a yacht this big. I imagine he needs to confirm that they are all not hiding an AK-47 in their bikinis?”

  “Yes, I see where that might be a benefit to an otherwise incredibly boring job” Bethany Anne started doodling on her paper.

  Todd thought about that statement, “I don’t think you understand the makeup of a sniper. They have patience that is beyond understanding. I’ve known a few to go out and get in position for a hot LZ days in advance.”

  “Hmmm, I’ve ever held a long conversation with Killian to understand what makes him tick. I might have to locate him sometime to have a discussion. However, this isn’t getting me closer to my goal of figuring out how to take Anton out.”

  “Well, anything that talks, even tangentially, to the subject has the chance of providing an idea. You mentioned that you don’t know how to find him. Does he have any attributes which we can look for?”

  “You mean, like a missing arm?”

  “No. For example, we know he has to get around at night, or I guess be very covered up…”

  Bethany Anne interrupted, “Holy crap, that could be a point.” She put a hand to forestall anything from Todd for a second. “If I was Anton, I would move around covered up during the day from one location to another. Easy enough to do, jump in a covered van in one garage and get out at another garage.”

  “They don’t sleep during the day?” Todd asked.

  “It isn’t necessary. It is practical, if you can’t walk in the sun you will probably start staying up later at night when you can move around more freely. However, a lot of Anton’s power comes from his persuasion or mind ju-ju, whatever he has. I need to see if Gabrielle knows more about it. Hell, I should just ask TOM.”

  “The alien?”

  “Hmm? Yes, sorry. TOM is an acronym for his full name. However, he has insights into the way vampires have changed and how their different powers might conceivably work. We have a specific injection that we could use on Anton. If we shot him with this stuff, he would die within a couple of weeks. It is a slow death, but an assured death.”

  TOM, did we make sure that Gabrielle is protected against the same serum used on Adrian?

  No, everything was corrected, but I did not think about protecting her from what we did to Adrian.

  Ok, it is something we need to deal with for those who are on our side. If we thought about changing the nanocytes in Forsaken, the idea can be used against us as well.

  Wouldn’t they first have to figure out how to work with the nanocytes?

  Yes, but this technology is something that scientist’s are working on right now. I’m pretty confident that the earth doesn’t have something as advanced as what you have implemented, but that doesn’t mean they can’t figure out enough to turn it against us.

  You humans are a challenging species.

  That we are, that we are.

  As far as Todd could tell, Bethany Anne was still in his conversation. “How else could we inject him?”

  Bethany Anne got her head back into her conversation with Todd, “So long as we injected him with enough nanocytes, they would eventually saturate his body. If he drinks blood, he would…”

  Todd recognized the ‘eureka’ moment, “What are you thinking?”

  Bethany Anne turned back to face him. “If we could figure out how to get his blood supply contaminated with the nanocytes if would work, However, that has to be, like, plan ‘F’ or something. Why can’t this mother-fucker be an arrogant ass that just has to show himself all of the time? He sure is messing up my life right now.”

  “You could always just skip killing him, but make it so that he is impotent.”

  “Sounds like a great plan, but then he would just make more kids. Since he is first generation vamp, they would be powerful. No, we have to neutralize him, we just don’t have enough information to make a plan. This sucks.” She sat back in her chair, feeling defeated before she began.

  Todd thought to some of the teams operations. “Seems like you need to grab some of his inner circle and ask them.”

  Bethany Anne sat back up. “That might be possible.” The next thing Todd knew, he was in an empty room and the door behind him going out to the hallway was open.

  He turned around and started walking and mumbling to no one in particular, “How the hell are you supposed to guard someone that can run so fast you don’t have a fucking clue where they went? I need to GPS tag her ass…”

  You could hear him asking people every few seconds as he passed them walking down the hallway, “Have you recently seen Bethany Anne? No? Thank you.” It took him a few minutes to find her back in the conference room with Ecaterina getting contact information for Clarita’s kids.

  She was talking as Todd came into the room, “Yes, I know I have to wait based on the time. But they should be up in a couple of hours, right? Good.” She turned around, “Oh, Hi Todd. Sorry, I should have told you where I was going. Good job on the idea, by the way.” She started walking past Todd again. “Heading to the suite, see you there in a minute!” She blitzed away again leaving Todd staring at Ecaterina and Nathan.

  Ecaterina just shook her head, “You might get used to it, but I doubt it. She is usually better about not leaving her security behind if that is any consolation. What is she so worked up about?”

  “Trying to figure out how to take Anton down.” Todd replied.

  Ecaterina said, “You should ask her what the bait is.”

  “I’ll see if I can work it into any conversation.” Todd nodded thanks, waved to the two of them and started his walk back to her suite.

  Frankfurt, Germany

  Ivan got up and went into the bathroom, the incredibly small bathroom, and sprayed a little water in his eyes. It had taken him the better part of an hour to get to sleep after saying goodnight to Stephen.

  He walked out of his room to find Stephen sleeping on the couch. He had his phone in his hands and it looked like he just laid his head back and fell asleep.

  “Stephen?”

  Stephen’s eyes flew open and his head came upright and immediately surveyed the room. He finally focused on Ivan. “Sorry, I must have fell asleep.” He looked down at his phone, “Ah, it is almost 11:00 AM. The morning is already gone.” He looked at Ivan, “So, shall we get dressed and go get something to eat?”

  Ivan shrugged, “Sure, what is the plan for today?”

  Stephen stood up, “I’m thinking that we will deposit you in a safe hotel, one not connected to this one for tonight. If, for some reason, I do not make it through the night you have enough money to make it out of Frankfurt, correct?”

  “Sure.”

  “Well, I doubt anyone would be looking for you directly if they have taken me out. Unfortunately, individual humans do not normally rank very high on a vampires danger scale.”

  “Yes, I remember how Petre’ didn’t give Ecaterina a seconds thought even though he was running from Bethany Anne.” Ivan remembered a bit late that Petre’ was Stephen’s child. “Sorry.”

  Stephen waved at him, “It is no worry. After speaking with Josef yesterday, I am getting to a point I am regretting not taking care of Petre’ myself. I only have more appreciation for my Queen the more I learn about this underground Petre’ was a part of. However; that comment about Ecaterina. What is it she says about catching her prey?”

  Ivan smiled, “If you want to catch something, you need the
right bait.”

  Stephen smiled and played with his phone, “I think I know what the right bait is, or rather who the right bait is.”

  Ivan’s voice turned incredulous, “You would use Terry as bait to get Mathis to come to you?”

  Stephen shook his head, “No, but I would use Terry’s voice to get Mathis to come to her. Or, at least where he thinks she is. He is the type that won’t expect a double-cross, because at the end of the day what woman can contain herself around him? That she has been pushing him off is what makes him need her so bad. She is causing a disconnect with his ego. If he could get her to bed him because she wants to, it will set the world back in the right orbit. One that revolves around Mathis.”

  “How are you going to get her to play along?”

  “Well, I can use my vampiric powers of mental control and command her to say what I want her to say.”

  “Shit! You can do that?” Ivan’s face was the picture of surprise.

  Stephen paused, then answered Ivan’s question. “No. However; you should have seen the look on your face when I said it.” Stephen put his fingers to his lips and kissed them, “Priceless!”

  “You vampiric ass-munch.”

  Stephen just laughed at the embarrassed Ivan. “No, I cannot command her to do this, and Bethany Anne might find the idea repulsive as well. Terry has a personal stake in making sure Mathis is unable to harass her anymore. Plus, I told Mathis to meet me at 9:00 tonight and sunset is a little after 4:15. He will have plenty of time to meet with Terry, get his ego stroked and plan on meeting me.” Stephen paused as he thought about what he just said. “Maybe that was a poor choice of words.”

  Ivan just snorted, “How are we going to get Mathis’ phone number?”

  “Well, Josef should have it. If he doesn’t, I’m sure he knows someone who does. I haven’t informed him that we met Mathis last night, so hopefully I won’t raise any concerns asking for Mathis’ phone number. It would be a bit annoying if he turned my ambush against me.”

  Both men got ready and Stephen called Terry, he got her voice mail so he left a message where he said he would provide another drink if she would answer one question for him and left his phone number.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Las Vegas, Nevada - USA

  Jeffrey Diamantz and Tom Billings were closed up in the conference room at Patriarch Research. They had cold pizza and beer bottles on the table while Chinese food carcasses awaited their eventual retrieval by the late night janitors in the trashcan.

  Nathan Lowell had called them, and outlined the technology infrastructure he wanted to have built to bring on the software code that had caused them so many sleepless nights for the last two years. They changed the name of the project to Adam and all hoped they didn’t need to change it to Cain in the future.

  Both had the frenzied look of people working on too much caffeine and not enough rest. If you had asked either one, they would admit it was the most important project of their life. They had asked for a project budget of two million to test the next stage. Nathan informed them that they had a thirty million dollar budget, released in increments of five million to get the building rented and the infrastructure done.

  CEO expected many assurances they would not bring about the end of civilization by doing this project. However; the CEO needed to know if they truly had the beginning of a Strong AI in weeks. They had expected a couple of years to work on the project.

  Cost, they were told, was not a concern.

  Both felt like they had been hand picked to help usher in the next stage of human civilisation. Now if they could just design a system that would protect the rest of humanity if the new entity was malevolent they were golden.

  They called it quits at two in the morning. They needed a few hours of sleep before they met the real estate agent at ten that morning to review possible buildings.

  Nathan had explained that the unnamed CEO had asked how they would move the new AI if they were successful? Both had been at a loss for words. Their assumption was wherever they built the infrastructure would be where it was housed.

  Nathan told them not a chance. Once it was proven, they should expect a new location to be named and that wherever it was, they would be asked to move to the new location to stay with the project. He had other, even more exciting information to discuss with them soon.

  Neither could figure out how you could top the possible existence of a new sentience.

  After the call was over and they had both whooped for joy at the challenge and the opportunity to see their project through, they talked about what could possibly be more exciting than a new AI?

  Tom mentioned the Tsoukalos meme from Ancient Aliens, “I’m not saying it was aliens, but ALIENS!” Both busted out laughing at that idea then quickly forgot Nathan’s comment as they got wrapped up in the effort to make his challenge a reality.

  Jeffrey was notified late that afternoon the companies account had a wire transfer for five million dollars pending which would clear the account by midnight.

  If he had any doubts on how fast Nathan wanted them moving, a wire hitting the same day was a clear indication that they had better push the gas pedal to the floorboard and never hit the brakes.

  The Queen Bitch’s Ship Polarus near Costa Rica

  Bethany Anne had spoken with Claudia and her brothers Juan and Scott. They had provided a good group of vampire names she could try to track down and ended up texting the names to Frank. Eventually, she would talk to the man.

  Ecaterina had spoken with him, however. They had received permission to fly Shelly into San Jose. Since Costa Rica abolished their military in 1948, there was not a base in the capital they could land at. The Juan Santamaria International Airport was too far away from downtown San Jose, and Bethany Anne refused the request from the police for them to land at that location. They finally found a landing spot close to a small hospital that was next to a metro train station near downtown. They would tell reporters it was a mercy mission to get someone to the hospital.

  If things didn’t work out well, they might have need of the place.

  This evening, Bethany Anne and Gabrielle both suited up in black with their swords and pistols. Bethany Anne had her leather pants on. Killian was on the bird with them, with Ecaterina taking on his responsibilities back on the Polarus. Nathan, Dan, Pete and Todd had stayed behind to help cover any security concerns.

  Bobcat had flight duties and John, Eric, Darryl and Scott were suited up in their team suits. Everyone had one pistol loaded with darts that put humans to sleep.

  Unlike Michael's interventions in the past, Bethany Anne’s group wasn’t here to just take care of Nosferatu whose makers had been killed, but also any Forsaken they could find.

  The San Jose Police had narrowed the search pattern for the Nosferatu to within twelve blocks. There had been three missing persons reported a week before. Then another two had been horribly murdered two nights ago. They corpses had looked like something had ripped their throats out.

  Those who were naturally skeptical blamed it on a wild animal. That was ludicrous, but for some it was a blanket to cover their worries before they became outright fears.

  They broke into two teams of three. Bethany Anne, John and Darryl went up the first street, while Gabrielle, Eric and Scott took the next block over. At ten o’clock at night, the stillness in a major city was disturbing. Everyone was scared to be out at night. The rumors had become outrageous enough that some had come close to the truth. However, the zombie stories were the most frightening to the populace. Bethany Anne’s teams were described to the citizens as a small American special operations force brought in to handle the drug addled citizens who had been taking cocaine mixed with a new drug which had calamitous side effects.

  Those that knew the missing argued that they were never into drugs. Between the police telling their story and the neighbors who wanted to believe the police, they got the ‘truth tellers’ to stay quiet.

  They were ab
out ten minutes into their patrol when Bethany Anne paused. They were in the middle of the street, trying to make sure nothing could surprise them too quickly when she spotted a human female walking towards them, five blocks away.

  She was rapidly walking towards them but was looking over her shoulder.

  She couldn’t be more than twenty five, but looked closer to twenty and pretty short. The guys were able to see her as she went under a street light three blocks away. That’s when they heard the screechs.