Operation (30 page)

“I locked Samantha and Smith in the holding cells,” Dimitri said.

“Good,” she replied. She couldn’t help feeling awkward in some way for she had never been in the company of her own kind.

“It is our way,” said Dimitri, “the uncomfortable feeling of being in the company of others. If you are not used to it, it takes a while to become accustomed to it.”

“You can sense me?” she asked.

“Your feeling is quite strong,” he replied. “Come and sit,” he said indicated the table and chairs. They both sat at the table, their hands folded in front of them and their eyes lowered avoiding making contact with one another.

“Where do we begin?” Dimitri finally suggested. “We have some sort of connection which I suspect is through our creator although he never told me that he had created another.”

“I was created by Alexander,” she began. “He probably did not tell you because he didn’t want to share his failure with you.”

“I don’t understand,” said Dimitri.

“It was so long ago,” she said. “I am not proud of what I did. I tricked him with my anger into turning me into what you see. He did not know that my hatred was so intense that even as I neared death I was still able to attack him.”

“But later, didn’t he help?”

“There was no later,” she said cutting Dimitri off. “He left me that night probably hoping that his mistake would die without the knowledge of what I was. I was totally on my own. I struggled to survive and to learn what I had become. When I realized my strengths and the power it afforded me, I walked the path of revenge for many years killing indiscriminately under the guise of revenge.”

“He never mentioned it,” said Dimitri. “We spent many years together until his death.”

“You are lucky to have had the benefit of his wisdom. I wish I had. But I don’t blame him for what he did - his leaving me. He seemed to be a good man and I think he tried to convince me that my anger would destroy me.”

“This anger, do you still feel it?” asked Dimitri.

“No. I have finally rid myself of it and the chains with which it imprisoned me. I stayed with these people, doing their killing, because it offered me the opportunity to keep those feelings alive.”

“What happened to cause you to rid yourself of it?”

“I had some kind of vision. Alexander came to me. He showed me how I could be somewhat human again; showed me that I could love and give meaning to my existence.”

“Why now?” pressed Dimitri.

“This man, John Reese, he caused something inside of me to, I don’t know, awaken perhaps,” her voice rose slightly with the reflective question. “He made me think that it was possible to love again. He made me feel that I could leave my anger behind me and move ahead with these feelings.”

“But you sought him out initially because of what you learned from General Stone about the existence of others like yourself.”

“Yes that is true. I had no other goal in mind other than that in the beginning. I had planned to use him to get the information I wanted.”

“You simply could have taken it from his thoughts,” stated Dimitri.

“Yes I know,” she agreed. “But I didn’t want to do that. There was just something about him.”

“And now? What shall you do?” asked Dimitri.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I am still sorting some things out. But tell me, you’ve known John Reese longer then I have, what do you think of him?”

“He is, interesting,” replied Dimitri, “however he is a troubled man. He fears what life has to offer.”

“I don’t understand,” replied Christina. “What does he fear?”

“It is not my place to tell you,” Dimitri said bluntly. His change in demeanor did not go unnoticed by Christina.

“Why not, she asked, “why does this upset you?”

“What you seek is impossible,” Dimitri said his voice harsh and direct.

“How do you know what I seek?” she answered in a tone that responded to his.

“As I said earlier,” Dimitri said, “your feelings are known to me. I know that you believe that you love this man.”

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Christina felt the sting of the way Dimitri had said the word, believe. “You don’t know everything,” she countered. “You may sense my feelings but you can’t understand the motivation behind those feelings.”

“I know enough,” he said. “You have been consumed by your anger far too long to know the impossibility of what you seek. Would you turn him into a slave like the others you have used?”

“It’s not like that,” she said. “Those that I used were a matter of survival, there was no feeling beyond that.”

“Yet you used them freely and willingly. Perhaps you even thought you loved them as well. Like your latest, this man called Jake. All these years you used him and now he is dead because of your ‘matter of survival.’ What did you promise Jake? What was the lingering thought that kept him from any chance of a normal life?”

The way Dimitri used Jake’s name stung her like a sharp knife to the heart. “Yes I used him and I promised him life immortal - with me. It was wrong. Nothing I can do can change that fact. But that is all in the past. I have changed now.”

“Have you?” asked Dimitri. “Our kind does not give up the past easily. Our friend Josip followed the same path as you and it ended in his death because he could not give up his anger.”

“I have changed,” Christina said, her voice firm.

“Perhaps you have,” Dimitri said unconvinced, “but you have led this man to believe that you are something you are not. I saw the look on his face when he learned that you are a vampire. If you were so sure then why did you not tell him?”

“It was, I don’t know, maybe because I wanted to learn what he knew at first, but then it… it changed. I knew that if I told him, I would have to use my persuasion on him and I didn’t want that. For once in my life, I wanted this man to be of his own free will and to want me for what I am.”

“This is madness,” Dimitri scoffed. “Think of what you are saying. Even if he did love you, what would happen? Do you think there would be any form of a normal life for you? Can you watch him grow old and die? Or did you think he will become one of us?”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” she said.

Dimitri immediately shook his head. “No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“This cannot happen,” said Dimitri firmly. “Not now, not ever.”

“Why not?” she demanded.

Dimitri rose from his chair with such force that it flew out from under him and skidded across the floor for several feet. “Will you play God? Will you be foolish enough to think that you can make this man into the one thing he fears most?”

“What do you mean? What does he fear?” asked Christina as she braced her hands against the table as if preparing to fend off an attack.

“You’ve seen his nightmare,” Dimitri continued. “The man has become tormented by what he has learned of us. He loathes and cherishes our way of life! He wants to be like us but he cannot bear the loss of humanity his short life offers. To force him into this would be asking him to go against what he believes the most. He would live his life as a vampire with endless regret for what he gave up.”

“You talk nonsense!” Christina countered.

“No, you talk foolishness,” he shot back. “You refuse to face what you are. You believe that loving this man will return to you what you have lost through your anger.”

“And that is what?”

“Your humanity.”

“I think not!” she cried.

“You are a vampire, Christina! You are no longer human nor can you re-attain that through him. You belong to our kind now and for the rest of the time that you choose to continue this life. There are no other options, no halfway points that you can rejoin humanity.”

“You can’t talk for me!” she screamed at him. “I can choose my own way of life.”

“Perhaps, but I will not allow you to make him into one of us!”

Christina rose from her chair and faced Dimitri. “You do not control me or what I choose to do.” Her fingers dug into the sides of the table sending the sound of wood cracking and splintering echoing through the room.

Dimitri lowered his voice and tried to speak calmly, “Alexander made us with the intent to save our lives because he sensed that it was not our time to die at the vicious hands of others. He did not make us to create more pain and anguish in a world that already has as much as it can handle. There are things we need to do to help our own kind as well as humanity.”

“And how would you help humanity?” she asked.

“By leaving it alone. Our kind was not made to interfere with the choices of the humans.”

“Yet we kill them,” she said pointedly.

“At times, but I believe this in an odd way is part of the process. We are not drawn to those that are full of life and participate in their society. It is the outcasts that we take. In addition, my men and I have not taken any humans in quite some time. We are content with the blood of animals.”

“You speak as if you know precisely what we are and what we are meant to do. Who deemed you to be an authority?”

“While your life has been here in this country for many years doing the bidding of a few humans, my life has been one of discovery through the ancient texts. The one thing that I have learned and confirmed time and time again is that out kind has realized the importance of ignoring the humans and their existence. We have left it behind to pursue a quiet existence. This quiet existence ensures our survival through the centuries.”

“You call what you have done, quiet? You were a pawn for the humans as much as I.”

“All against our will, we were taken from our homes when Josip ignored what I have been telling you about. He got involved where he should not have. What happened to us should not have happened. I thought we could exist here but lately I have come to realize that we do not belong here. The West is too complicated. This place is all wrong. It is impossible to not get involved within the sphere of human existence.”

“Maybe that was meant to happen. It is a part of our evolution.”

“If we had arrived here of our own free will, then perhaps I might agree. But we were forced out of our natural environment.”

“And what shall you do now?” she asked.

“We shall go home. I have decided to return to the Balkans with the girls. They have just begun their adjustment to their new way of life. I think it best to have them in an environment they are familiar with.”

“I would agree with you on that,” she said remembering her own time when she had to deal with her change. “They should be near home.”

“And you should come as well,” Dimitri said.

Christina looked at him sharply. “And do what?”

“You belong with your own kind. You can join us and be part of our group. The girls will need a mother figure to help them.”

“And what of Reese?” she asked.

“He stays here. Where he belongs. He will have his books and research to occupy what remains of his mortal life.”

“I will stay here!” shouted Christina.

“Will you not see the truth in what you suggest!” demanded Dimitri.

“I love him.”

“You love what he represents: A mortal life. If you stay, you will watch him die. You have your own kind that needs you. The girls must have the guiding hand of a woman to help them transition.”

“Dimitri,” Andre said as he entered into the room holding a cell phone. “They have captured Iliga and the girls.”

“What?” asked Dimitri. “We had other houses that they should have gone to first.”

“Somehow they figured out where we were,” said Andre.

“I sent them there,” Reese said as he staggered out from the bedroom. “I had them do a search in the real estate records under your real name just for the hell of it. Apparently something came up and that’s where they went.”

“That was a foolish mistake on my part,” said Dimitri. “I underestimated you again Commander.”

“It doesn’t matter now. We have to figure out some way to get them back,” Reese said.

“You should not be up,” Christina said to Reese as she rose from her chair.

“I’m all right,” he said avoiding looking at her directly. “We have bigger problems to worry about. If they have Iliga, then they will figure out that the whole team survived. They will go all out to find you now.”

“We can go to the compound and get them out as we did before,” Dimitri said.

“I wouldn’t count on that,” said Reese. “They have strengthened security a lot since your break in.”

“But we are still more powerful.”

“Be that as it may, the chances of getting out of there alive would be slim. We have to take a different type of approach.” Reese turned to Christina, “Who knows about this place?”

“Only Samantha and the people she works for,” she said.

“That sounds about right, considering it’s the agency. How are our friends?”

“Unconscious,” Andre said. “I just checked on them a few minutes ago.”

“Good,” Reese said. “I need to make a call, and then I will go down to the cell and let Samantha out while you are all sleeping.”

Dimitri, Christina and Andre stared at Reese.

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Samantha awoke in her cell on a cot that smelled of mildew and decay of many years. Turning her head to one side she could see an array of cells that lined the corridor of the area she was in. It looked like some kind of holding area. She sat up and winced. She felt bruised on just about every inch of her body. She remembered being thrown back from the explosion and then being knocked unconscious by Christina, who should have been killed by the explosion, however apparently she had removed the device from her body and planted it on the man she had wanted to kill. What a smart bitch!

“Samantha,” a voice called to her pulling her from her thoughts. She turned and saw Reese coming toward her cell. She noticed that his head had been bandaged, a red splotch stood out from the blood that had saturated an area of it.

“We have to move fast,” he said. “They’re asleep.”