Ancient Blood: A Novel of the Hegemony (The Order Saga Book 1) (31 page)

I swallowed, trying not to think too much about that last option. “All right, the martyr for the cause thing is always cool but suppose you do it and survive? Then what? You’re willing to spend the rest of eternity like that poor bastard Bishop, stuck under Geoffrey’s thumb?”

“If Geoffrey receives Hegemony of North America, he’ll be killed within a month of assuming the office.”

I tried to smile. “I thought you promised no attempts for three years.”

Her eyes were as hard as the emeralds they resembled. “If anybody bears responsibility for Sebastian, it’s him. The assassination will be traced back to Faolan O’Connor, the East Coast Governor.”

“Ah. Any particular reason?”

She softened her attitude a little, seeing my reaction. “He killed a dear friend of mine to get his position. Once Geoffrey’s gone, the Governor of Canada will take over as Hegemon.”

“Why not DeWinter?” I interrupted.

“He doesn’t need the title to run things. Anyway, if Iago doesn’t take us on as his Adjutors, then I’ll be appointed East Coast Governor. We’ll have the freedom we need to be happy and enough power to keep ourselves safe.”

I sat back in my chair and considered.

“It’s not a bloodthirsty coup,” she added, a trifle defensive. “It’s a practical plan meant to put moral individuals back in charge of this Domain. In time, America’s global influence and the altered balance of the council might bring out the same qualities in the rest of the world. Once my research comes up with some solutions to sunlight and our need to drink human blood, I’m hoping those cures can be used as further incentives for The Order to change the way it operates. I want you to be there with me.”

“Well,” I said with a sigh. “I guess I always knew my romanticism would get me in trouble someday.”

Beaming, she nearly toppled her chair leaping over to give me a great big hug and a kiss.

“I guess Barnum was right about suckers,” Ash quipped.

Caroline raised an eyebrow, looking his way. “This from my first volunteer?”

He shrugged. “Never said I wasn’t one of them. Anyway, may I suggest we make some plans before you two lovebirds collapse into a comatose heap on the floor?”

“You’re right,” she said, disengaging from me with a yawn. Naturally, this made me yawn too. “Hand me my case, would you, Ash? We’ll need some time to find evidence to exonerate Iago. Where are Wilkes and his house guard cronies?”

Ash brought the case over. “Off-duty till eighteen-hundred, so they should be asleep or taking mess in the bunker. Hegemon Blackwood ordered that they be on night shift tonight. He also ordered me to make all necessary arrangements to transfer my authority as Bailiff to ‘Colonel’ Wilkes at that time.”

“He knows you’ve been helping us?”

“I’m sure he suspects,” he said. “But I know too much about the workings of the Domain to be left alive when he leaves and I’m too soft-hearted to be useful when he’s Judicis, so Wilkes is the obvious choice. Listen, it’s time for you to get out of here.”

Caroline didn’t respond except to take out a large hypodermic and fill it from her bottle of serum. “I lost my internet connection while I was checking things earlier. Did the storm knock out the dish or is this part of his plan, too?”

“It’s another top secret order I discovered last night,” Ash said, sitting on the edge of his desk. “The storm is the official story.”

“Is that why you’re acting like the captain of the
Titanic
?” she asked, injected me with a nurse’s skill.

Ash said nothing.

“What is it you haven’t told me yet?”

I knew I had something in my memories that might be related to this but I was having a hard time bringing it forward. I stared at Ash and remembered that somebody had said something about him, when out of nowhere, it hit me. “What’s going on in the security bunker?” I asked. “There’s something there, isn’t there?”

I saw by Ash’s reaction that I’d struck gold and when Caroline asked me what I was talking about, I gave her a summary of the story I’d overheard from Mr. Pissy concerning his encounter with Wilkes in the bunker.

Ash sighed and folded his arms. “Yeah, Steve came to me a few hours ago and told me what happened, so I checked it out. The Admiral of the Northern Pacific submarine fleet was brought to the island as a hostage while I was out capturing you two. He’s being held under the utmost secrecy in the Emergency Command Center along with all the current codes. He’s … been compelled to maneuver his boomers into strategic positions. The subs are under strict radio silence and awaiting orders but believe themselves to be involved in war games.”

“My God, Ash!” Caroline cried, jumping to her feet.

He put his palms out. “It’s a bluff. Even Sebastian’s not gonna just start tossing missiles. He knows Iago’s counting on Jade Tiger’s vote, so he’s gonna corner her before the meeting, show her some documentation of the sub positions and threaten to nuke Asia into the stone age if she doesn’t give him her vote. Yes, it’s still insane but Sebastian won’t survive if he doesn’t win tonight and once he wins, he can’t be tried for anything he did as Hegemon.”

Caroline sat down, thinking. That nagging feeling returned as I thought about the scenario Ash was describing. There was something wrong with it but I couldn’t figure out what.

“Even so, it was the last straw for me,” Ash said. “Once I get you two to safety, I plan to leave a note for the Judicis in his room explaining what I’ve learned and give Hegemon Julia’s servants a copy of the prints, an explanation of how it was obtained and the fact that the Judicis possesses a copy. Then, I’ll meet with Hegemon Jade Tiger and inform her of Sebastian’s plan. After that, I’ll gather up the men I can trust and take Wilkes and his psychos into custody. Once the island is secure, I’ll restore communications and contact Governor DeWinter’s people to let them know what I’ve done and why.”

“That’s suicide,” Caroline told him.

“No, it’s a pre-emptive strike that neutralizes Sebastian and predisposes the council to eliminate him. I’m willing to undergo the torture necessary to testify as to my knowledge but I don’t think they’ll kill me. Hegemon Plantagenet knows the information I possess and I expect he’ll find some pretext to keep me alive so he can benefit from it. If not,” he shrugged, “then my life is a sacrifice I’m prepared to make for my country.”

With that, he got up from the desk and knelt in front of Caroline, making her look at him. “If you and Avery are here when Sebastian’s convicted, you’ll be killed along with him. I may not have the political mind you’ve developed over the years, Caroline but we both know Julia’s too proud to accept a defeat like this without some casualties. She’s seen that the Judicis cares for you, so she’ll make sure that losing you is the price of his victory. You don’t need to be here today to do what’s needed but you do need to be here for the future. So, will you please let me get you off this island?”

Caroline went deep into thought, nodding at some silent argument. I think I would have been convinced if not for the memories and silent arguments rising up in my own head.

Sebastian:
“So, it’s blood thou crave, eh? Come to me after I’ve finished this damned Game and, perchance, thou shall have it.”

Caroline:
“This whole line of argument just conflicts so completely with his nature and every philosophy I’ve ever known him to hold. It’s … it’s almost as if he’s mocking them.”

Me:
“Why are you trying so hard to win a job that’s just gonna make you more miserable, huh?”

Sebastian:
“Thou see much for so callow a fellow but not as I see. There must be a reckoning, a righteous judgment cast in blood!”

Sebastian:
“With brave intent and cunning preparation, it shall be undone!”

Ash:
“Without the Hegemon, there’s nothing keeping the Governors in line. Just imagine America pulling itself apart in a new civil war, possibly while under attack from both Mexico and Canada … Historically, smooth operation of government is not what happens when vamps fight over a prize as juicy as North America. Power shifts, alliances are made and broken.”

Iago:
“Clearly I see in you the very seed from which our Sebastian sprang.”

And me, just a few hours ago:
Fuck ‘em all. Whole Order can fucking die for all I care.

I went so numb that I didn’t even notice Caroline slipping into sleep. Luckily, Ash did and roused her before she went comatose. He prepared another hypodermic and she allowed him to inject her. “Thanks. I suppose you’re right,” she said as he finished, sounding resigned if not happy. “What’s your plan?”

“Wait,” I said. “What if…”

I froze up as they both turned to look at me. The idea just seemed so far-fetched when I thought about saying it out loud. They’d think it was my overactive imagination or something out of a movie.

“No, sorry, it’s probably nothing.”

“Avery, what is it?” Caroline wanted a reason to stay, I realized. She believed that I might have come up with something she and Ash had missed.

She believed in me.

“Well,” I began. “Uh, what if Sebastian doesn’t want to be Judicis?”

Ash crossed his arms again. “Now that doesn’t make any damn sense.”

Caroline also looked puzzled but I stood up and paced, pressing on. “No, I’m serious. I think maybe we’ve been assuming that Sebastian wants to be Judicis because it’s what he wants everyone to think. Caroline, what if you were right when you said he was mocking the others?” I took a deep breath, swallowed. “I started thinking about what Iago said, how much I’m like Sebastian used to be and it made me think about what I’d do in Sebastian’s place. I think I’d do my best to take all these fuckers down with me and end The Game.”

I saw a spark of understanding in Caroline’s eyes.

“It’s ridiculous,” Ash said. “There’s no sense to it at all. Sure, he could kill the Hegemons but he couldn’t take control of their Domains. In the end, he wouldn’t gain a thing.”

“Freedom…” Caroline whispered. “My God, Ash, Avery’s right! He fucking conned us!” I smiled at her uncharacteristic dropping of the F-bomb.

“That’s what the hidden camera was for,” I said. “To make sure Julia hasn’t caught on!”

Ash stepped in front of her. “Caroline, don’t get caught up in this fantasy! It just wouldn’t work.”

“It would with a fleet of nuclear submarines prepared to launch on his command,” she countered, standing. “Ash, think it through. What would happen if America launched a surprise nuclear strike on multiple foreign targets while the world’s Hegemons were in America, out of contact?”

Ash didn’t respond but his expression spoke volumes.

“The North Pacific fleet, you said? That covers most of the major targets in eastern Russia, Japan, North Korea and China. Suppose one submarine was ordered to sneak past our fleet in the Gulf as part of the ‘training exercise’—oh, hell, that was in the orders you saw, wasn’t it? That puts missiles in range of most of our dream targets in the Middle East. Without the Hegemons, most of their underlings will settle grudges and make power grabs rather than try to keep the peace. It’s brilliantly ironic, using The Order’s very nature to destroy it!

“The human governments will respond in the way that makes sense to them and retaliate against America. With any other president in the last fifty years, there would be investigations and diplomacy but anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high. Nobody will believe Bush when he claims we didn’t order the launches and without contrary orders, America will defend itself. World War Three…”

“And Sebastian gets a nice
Mad Max
world where everything’s back to survival of the fittest,” I said.

Ash gave me his best Clint Eastwood glare and turned to Caroline. “What about DeWinter?”

“Sebastian would have to send his Knights out to eliminate the DeWinters so there can be the appropriate chaos here at home,” she said. “That’s something you can check.”

“Good.” Ash flipped through the reports on his desk and appeared to find nothing. Picking up the phone, he dialed. “Yeah, Sergeant Reading? This is Colonel Erikson … I’m all right, I suppose, how you doing? Good. Listen, Wilkes didn’t complete his shift report again, could you check your log sheet and give me your comings and goings?” He waited for a few moments and said, “Uh huh.” Then the color drained from his face and his eyes squeezed shut before he recovered. He thanked the officer on the phone and hung up.

“The Knights?” Caroline asked.

Ash just nodded.

The Knights were a unit of elite Dhampirs from all branches of the military, Sebastian’s private strike team. They were the guys Ash brought to capture us.

“They’re enroute to DeWinter’s compound in Virginia and the grandson’s office in D.C., armed with sealed orders from Sebastian to get them inside,” Ash said. “Okay, I’m convinced. If I can get communications back up, I can warn them. Get them to send a couple units to assist us.”

“That’s your main priority,” Caroline agreed, taking command. “Be careful, Ash, there’s no telling what other secret orders Sebastian has issued. Don’t wait for a reply, just round up the men you can trust and arrest Wilkes and his house guards. We’re also going to need the documents from the Emergency Command Center that prove our claims.”