Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky (20 page)

“Oh
yeah,” he said, smiling. “What outfit?”

“716
^th
Military Police Battalion, sir,” she said. “Sustainment Brigade,
101
^st
Airborne.”

“That’s
a good unit, the 101
^st
,” he said.

“Yes,
sir,” she replied with a smile.

“I’ve
got a nine o’clock with the ambassador.”

“Probably
end up more like a ten o’clock,” Clay said with a quiet laugh. “Heymann
didn’t get to bed till almost two this morning. Had a hell of a time getting
rid of Mayor Cobb.”

“I
can come back.”

He
shook his head. “Nah, you do that and he’s sure to get up early. Then he’ll
just be pissed at you and at me too.” He paused. “You want some coffee? Some
breakfast?”

“Sure.”
I had some questions for Clay. And Anna Thodberg, if she was
around.

Clay
took a final drag on the cigarette and dropped it on the ground. He stomped
the smoldering butt with his heel and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

The
galley he’d mentioned the night before was just beyond the ambassador’s
living room, where we’d met Heymann, next to the narrow spiral staircase
that went up to the second level of the trailer. Refrigerator, two-burner
stove and oven combo, sink, and a microwave oven built into the
cabinetry.

The
seating was two booths, like to those in Hanritty’s, though they weren’t as
wide, and the seats were covered in upholstery instead of vinyl.

“Have
a seat,” he said. “Coffee’s fresh, but all I can offer you to eat is MREs.
We’ve got limited storage space, so the ambassador is the only one who gets
real food.”

I
hadn’t eaten an MRE since I was in the army. Meals Ready To Eat had replaced
the old canned rations and they hadn’t been very tasty when I’d been eating
them. But food was food. Hanritty’s doesn’t open till seven, so I’d missed
breakfast.

“Sure,”
I said. “Just no ham slice, please.”

He
grinned. “They retired that a while back.” He looked at Martinez.
“Lita?”

“Whatever,
sir. Anything except the beef patty.”

“They
retired Mr. E Meat a couple of years ago too,” Clay said. He squatted,
opened a cabinet under the sink, and pulled out three packets. “How about
Beef Roast all around,” he said. “Veggies are a little mushy, but the meat
is pretty tasty.”

He
put the packets on the stove, filled a Pyrex bowl with water, and stuck the
bowl in the microwave oven. “Don’t have to mess around with the heater
packet,” he said, filling a couple of mugs with coffee from the
restaurant-style dispenser on the counter. “We have plenty of
water.”

Clay
put two mugs on the table. “No milk, no cream. Sugar if you want it and some
of that dried creamer stuff if you’re really desperate.”

“Just
a couple of sugars,” I said.

“This
is fine, sir,” Lita said.

He
tossed a handful of sugar packets on the table and sat down with his own
mug. There was a unit emblem on the side of the mug, a green shield with a
green band. I didn’t recognize it.

I
opened two packets of sugar and dumped them in my coffee, then took a sip.
It was strong, but not as strong as the coffee at Hanritty’s. Clay did the
same.

“I
forgot to congratulate you last night on your promotion, captain,” I
said.

“Promotion?”

“Paperwork
I saw said you were a lieutenant before the war.”

He
smiled. “Oh, yeah, that. Got the second bar a few years ago.”

“You
still stationed in Stuttgart?”

Clay
nodded. “Patch Barracks.”

I
took another sip of coffee. “What’s your assignment there?”

He
studied me for a moment, then grinned. “I know a little something about you
too, Charlie. Understand you used to be a cop.” He paused. “You asking an
official question, officer?”

I
laughed and shook my head. “No, just interested. We’re kind of isolated here
when it comes to information about what’s happening in the rest of the
world.”

The
microwave oven beeped and he slid out of the booth. “I’m sure,” he said. He
pulled the bowl out of the oven and dropped the three MRE packets into the
steaming water. “I’m attached to EUCOM, the European Command for U.S.
Forces. And I do whatever they tell me to do.”

He
slipped back into the booth and picked up his coffee mug. “Food will be hot
in about five minutes.”

I
nodded. “They tell you to act as bodyguard to Dr. Heymann on this trip or
did you volunteer?”

“I
think you’d have to say I was volunteered,” he said with a thin
smile.

“Why
didn’t you come home, sir?” Lita asked suddenly. “When the order went out
for all U.S. forces to return to the United States.”

Clay
studied her. “Where were you at that time, Lita?”

“Nashville,”
she said. “They sent a company up to Louisville and the rest of the
battalion to Nashville to help organize the defense of the city. We were
there when the order came to stand down.”

“Didn’t
that order strike you as a little odd?” he asked. “Vampires sweeping across
the nation, cities being overrun, people being killed. And you get an order
to rack your weapons?”

She
glanced at me, then back at Clay. “I get a lot of odd orders, sir,” she
said. “But I don’t get to choose which ones I follow. This one came from the
Commander in Chief. Our colonel said stand down, we did.”

“And
how’d that work out for you?” He shook his head. “In my case, it was pretty
easy. Order came to return to home, European Command said no thanks. So we
stayed.” He paused. “Chow should be warm enough.”

He
slid out of the booth and went back to the stove.

“So
who does your general take his orders from now?” I asked.

Clay
laughed. “I’m not sure he takes orders from anybody,” he said as he opened
the MRE packs and dumped the contents on plates. “He’s in touch with Pacific
Command in Hawaii, some of the other smaller commands outside the
continental US. And he consults with NATO, EU, Russian Federation from time
to time. But there’s nobody above him calling the shots.”

He
came back to the table and put the plates on the table. There was a fork on
each plate. “Dig in,” he said.

We
ate in silence for a few minutes. Clay was right. The potatoes and
vegetables were soft, but the meat was surprisingly good.

I
had my coffee cup to my lips when I saw movement to my left. Anna Thodberg
was coming down the stairs, barefoot, wearing a white nightdress that went
to her ankles.

“You
should have warned me that we had guests, Ron,” she said when she reached
the bottom. “I would have dressed.”

“Morning,
Annie,” Clay said.

She
smiled. “Hello, Charlie. Nice to see you again.”

I
nodded. “Anna.” I jerked my chin at Martinez. “Trooper Lita
Martinez.”

Anna
smiled broadly. “Hello, Lita,” she said, stepped forward, her arm
outstretched. Martinez took her hand, then quickly dropped it and sat back,
her mouth open.

“How
delightful,” Anna said with a laugh. “You didn’t know I was a
vampire.”

“No,
ma’am,” Lita said quickly.

“Please,
call me Anna.” She turned to me. “Is she your girlfriend,
Charlie?”

It
was my turn to laugh. “No. Trooper Martinez is my aide for this
assignment.”

“Yes,
older men always choose younger women, whatever their needs,” she said.
“That’s why my bloodfather chose me to be his assistant. My age. I was old
enough to work, but not so old that people would think him my husband or
lover. No embarrassing questions, you know.”

“What
kind of work?”

“Hermann
was a chandler, a candle maker,” she said. “And a chemist. We had a shop in
Hamburg for a time, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Prague, Krakow.” Anna shook her
head. “We were forced to move around a great deal, you understand. I worked
in the front of the shop, and eventually people would notice that I wasn’t
getting any older. And they would begin to wonder if the windows were
bricked up to enhance the effect the candles that burned in the shop or for
another reason. So, night would come and we would leave and move on to the
next city, begin again.”

“How
old were you?” I asked.

“In
the beginning?”

I
nodded.

“Thirteen,”
she said. “Maybe fourteen. I came from a small village, and my parents
didn’t care about exact dates.” She smiled. “But they did care about money.
Two rigsdalars and my parents were happy to send me off with Herr Vogt. I
believe they were disappointed when he wouldn’t buy my brother too, but it
was a long time ago and my memory may be colored by my continuing
resentment.”

“How
long ago?” Lita asked.

Anna
walked to the refrigerator and removed something. She glanced over her
shoulder at Lita and smiled. “November, 1631.” She paused. “I’m a bit older
than I look, dear.”

She
came back to the table and sat down next to Clay. In her hand was a thin,
flexible plastic tube, about the length and diameter of my thumb. It was
filled with blood.

“Didn’t
you just eat a couple of days ago, Annie?” Clay asked.

She
scowled at him. “Ron, not fair.” She looked back across the table at us and
smiled. “He’s such a spoil-sport.”

“How
so?” I asked.

Anna
ripped through the top of the plastic tube with her teeth and sucked down a
mouthful of blood.

I’d
seen a lot worse. I’d seen Vees cutting and licking from a living human.
Compared to that, this was like watching puppies play.

But
not so for Martinez. She leaned back in the booth, eyes wide, watching Anna.
She obviously hadn’t seen a vampire feed before. And seeing it was a lot
more immediate than just knowing about it.

“Isn’t
that a little like drinking a flat beer?” I asked, looking at
Clay.

He
was watching her too. “Nobody thought it was a good idea for her to get her
meals on the hoof,” he said. “Anyway, Annie’s just looking for a reaction.
She likes to be shocking. Maybe it’s age. Do vampires get senile as they get
up in years, Annie?”

She
squeezed the rest of the blood into her mouth, then dropped the empty tube
on the table. “No, Ron,” she said with a humorless smile. “The blood keeps
our brains in perfect working order. Forever.”

“What
did you mean about her having eaten a couple of days ago?” I asked, looking
at Clay.

“Our
bodies are very efficient,” she said. “We do not require large quantities of
nourishment, as you do. A new vampire brought into our life rarely has to
feed for the first month or so. The blood uses whatever portion of the human
blood is required to complete the transformation, then stores the rest in
the body’s soft tissue and draws upon it as needed.”

She
turned to Clay. “Yes, I was going for a reaction, Ron. You know I like to
watch humans and their reactions. But I did not sleep well last night. I
could feel them, outside, so many of them. Worse than Washington. So I was
hoping a bit of extra blood would make me feel better. What’s the term?
Comfort food.”

“Felt
who outside?” I asked.

“The
other vampires,” she said. “It was quite unsettling.”

“Yeah,
Miss Takeda was quite unsettled by you last night. What were you doing to
her?”

Anna
laughed. “Doing to her? Charlie, the only thing I did was be there. It was
nothing conscious or deliberate on my part.” She shook her head. “I almost
felt sorry for the poor thing.” She paused. “Almost.”

“I’m
afraid I don’t understand,” I said.

She
sighed. “You live in a country filled with vampires? How do you know so
little?”

“There
are a lot of things they don’t share with humans.”

Anna’s
eyes were on Clay. “And you’re hoping that I’ll give you some
answers?”

“Hey,
don’t look at me,” Clay said. “You can tell them anything about vampires
that you like.” He’d put an slight emphasis on the word ‘vampires’. Which
meant there were other things she could talk about that he’d rather she
didn’t.

Her
gaze came back to me. “All right, Charlie. I can act as the vampire
encyclopedia for you and Lita. Perhaps you’ll find it interesting. Perhaps
you’ll even find it...useful.”

She
smiled. “We are solitary creatures, and were few in number before the
incident in America. We remain few in number, fewer than five thousand
throughout the rest of the world.” She paused. “We are not social. We do not
seek each other out. A vampire might have a bloodchild, if the bloodparent
feels a need for one, but normally only one. We generally know of other
vampires nearby. And by nearby, I mean those that make their homes within a
thousand kilometers of our own. But we see them infrequently. Once every
twenty years, fifty years, one hundred years. To exchange news, what we’ve
heard and seen since last we were together. Not for
companionship.”