The Alien Agenda (17 page)

Sonafi grabbed her by one shoulder and I by the other.  We turned her and steered her towards the front door.  There was nothing here that could not be replaced except her life.  Sonafi and I had gone through this enough times to know how painful losing all your belongings could be, and I sympathized, but it was now too late for anything else.  When Volga saw how very serious we were, she relented.

“All right.
  Give me a few moments.”

“Hurry!”
  I said, releasing her.  She hurried around, gathering things Sonafi's mind told me were storage devices, and other small items which were obviously keepsakes, and all of which she stuffed into two big duffel bags, and then there came a scream from the apartment below us.  The acidic remains of our attackers had finally burned all of the way through the floor and had likely dripped onto one of the occupants below.  I felt the psychic pain accompanying the screen. 

“It's time to go!”  Sonafi said.  She received no argument and
we got out of there.  We ran down through the building at hyper-acceleration but slowed to Human velocities as we exited the staircase onto the first floor.  When we walked out the front doors, the whole group of lounging skinheads turned to look at us.  The bags Volga carried caught their attention.

“You are going somewhere?”  Their leader asked.  It was he whom Volga had met at the door of her apart
ment.  He was now wearing a strange look as he struggled with himself to make sense of the events.  I felt the slightest sympathy for him.  I knew I would have a hard time dealing with it if others were able to manipulate me so easily.  This was, in fact, what all this was about in the first place.

“Yes.”  Volga said.  “I am going somewhere.  I will not be back.  You may take everything in my apartment.”  She tossed him her apartment key and he deftly caught it in the air.

“We will watch your apartment until you return!”  He said.

“I will never be bac
k.”  Volga repeated.  “There is seven hundred thousand rubles worth of computer equipment in my apartment.  You may have it all.  Thanks for everything.”  With that said she turned away and we three walked to her car.  When we turned back, they had disappeared inside the building.

“Where do we go?”  I asked as we drove out of the parking lot.  There was no way I could forget that we were strangers in a strange land.

“There will be someone within the Network we can turn to.”  Volga said, pulling her phone out of her pocket as she drove and activating a number on speed-dial.  She put the phone to her ear and listened as it rang.  “That is strange.”

She made a number of calls all with the same results. 
Until the fourteenth attempt.  I heard what was said even though she had the phone pressed to her ear.

“They're all dead.”  The voice said.

“Who is all dead, Nikita?”  Volga asked calmly, soothingly, using the mesmerizing tone technique of an Elder to soothe the Juvenile, even though she had attained only half of that age.  At a thousand years we considered a Vampire to be Elder; if they could survive beyond it.

Nikita answered, speaking rapidly in Russian.  I could speak Russian but it was simpler to eavesdrop through Volga's mind.  A Vampire could learn a new language almost overnight, but he could understand and make himself understood, within that language, immediately.  Thought was conveyed by words, but also in pictures and complex mental images, which made it possible to understand what the spoken words meant, that if you did not already know the language.  I already knew it.

The attack on Volga's apartment had not been an isolated incident.  They had made attacks all over.  Most of St. Petersburg's Vampires had gone missing, at least for the moment, but I was sure the moment would continue to stretch.  I could not say why I was so certain, when there had been no such similar incidents in many long centuries.  Some new chapter had been begun.  Some new ascension of our struggle was to be commenced.  I wondered if it were in any way linked to Brid's plans.  I did not see how it could be, but it would make sense, if that were true.

“Brid!”
  I said aloud as the thought of his safety crossed my mind. He was my son but more importantly he was the mind behind the Network and our one chance to strike back. Or did I have my preferences out of order. 

“We have to accept the fact that it may already be too late for him.”  Sonafi said somberly.  Her face was grim in the reflected light of an oncoming car, but my Sonafi is a realist before she is anything else, and within our long lives, we have seen the passing of many of our biological offspring.  This was a one truly bad thing about lives lived as long as ours; we could live to see many of those we care about pass beyond the short, corporeal life we lived, and there is nothing that we are able to do about it.  The gift of longevity was often a curse.  Suddenly I felt a constriction in my chest.

“I will not accept that!  Not until I should know it for certain!”  I said just as grimly.  I could not understand how Fate had conspired to have us on the opposite side of the world at the one time when we had really needed to be at home.  An insatiable rage filled me, but there was nothing, no one, to take it out on.  All I could do was wait.

“We need to find out what has happened in St. Louis.”  Sonafi told Volga as Volga told Nikita to hold on where she
was, that we were on our way.

“I have his number.”  Volga said, dexterously maneuvering the car while she sought through the digital phone book in her portable for Brid's number.  When she found it, she pressed
send
and handed the phone to Sonafi.  It was ringing by the time Sonafi put it to her ear.

It rang until the answering machine picked up.  Slowly Sonafi lowered the phone and thumbed the red
off
button.  She knew as well as I, better than I, that Brid never went anywhere without his phone.  That if he was not answering, it was unlikely to have any good connotations.

“It may not mean anything.” Volga said, but we did not believe that.  I was cursing myself for not getting one of those satellite phones before we just decided to up and travel halfway around the world.  I have never liked the idea of the things because of the GPS chip that came within them.  As if that would have made any difference!  The
Others have not attacked because they were preparing a new offensive, it seemed obvious to me now.  If we had carried the satellite phones, we would probably not now be in the dark as to what was going on.  I could only blame myself.

We remained silent, each lost in his or her own thoughts, as Volga took us through St. Petersburg to reach Nikita.  She attempted a number of other calls while she drove, but none were answered.  I sensed Nikita before we saw her.  Volga pulled over to the side of the street in what would be considered a middle-class neighborhood in America, and the Vampire materialized out of the darkness.

She only faltered a moment as she came near to the car and sensed Sonafi and I inside it.  She had not been among those who we had already met and our presence nearly overwhelmed her.  Her hand paused in mid reach as she leaned over to open the door, but then a larger fear gripped her.  She had seen the Others, I saw looking into her mind, and they had scared her more than any member of her own kind could, no matter how Elder and no matter how badly her body and her instincts warned her to flee from us.  She stared at us through the window a moment then leaned the rest of the way to reach the handle and open the door.  She opened it and got in beside me.  Slowly she closed the door.

“This is Nikita.”  Volga said, and then turn
ed to the newcomer; “I think you have heard of Marcel and Sonafi.”

“Yes.” The girl replied overcoming her fear.

“Do you know of a safe place to go?”  I asked Volga.

“I really don't know.”  She admitted.  “All of a sudden I am not sure of anything!”

We had not fed yet so we pulled into a residential neighborhood to feed before further considering our plans.  Sonafi and I went one way while Volga and Nikita went another.  It was still early evening, despite all of which had occurred, and most of the lights were on in the houses around us. We chose a home and the Humans residing therein.  We knew exactly what we went to.  We walked right up to the door.

This was a young couple who had never been visited by Vampires.  They opened the door for us and stood back as we entered.  Anyone watching would have seen what would have appeared to be welcome house guests walking up and being invited directly in. 
Just one young couple visiting another.  We went in and I closed the door behind us.

They waited for us as if they had been anticipating
this their entire lives.  Part of the mental instruction we used when we commanded Humans to open their doors to us was a kind of mental visualization of what was to come.  We gave them a taste of the adrenaline and endorphins which would be their reward for their submission.  The relationship was a completely parasitic one, however.  They received nothing from the relationship except that jolt of pleasure.  We used them, but we had no choice.  We only did it because we had to.  If there was any other way, I for one would embrace it readily.

The man was big. 
Three hundred pounds and muscular.  I drank my fill yet barely reduced his blood pressure.  The woman was small, blonde and petite, so after Sonafi drained off only a small amount finished her meal on the man, using the puncture marks I had created.  We had both drunk our fill and barely diminished him.

“They'll have an appetite,” Sonafi said, “but that's about all!”

“Should we stay here?”  I suggested.  I knew that they were not expecting anyone.  We could send them about their normal business tomorrow without their having any knowledge we remained in their house, but Sonafi waved her hand in the negative.

“The night is still young.”  Sonafi said.  “I suggest we spend the remainder of
it trying to find any survivors we can.  I have a really bad feeling this was far more widespread than we know.”

Sonafi had decided we would keep moving so I nodded my agreement and we departed.  The light spilling from the open doorway thinned to a slice and finally vanished as one of the Russians closed the door but could not help one last, longing look at our retreating forms.  We waited in the shadows for the return of the two
Juveniles, but did not have to wait long.  I smelled the fresh blood on their breath before they drew near.

“Has Brid returned your call?” Sonafi dema
nded as soon as they joined us.

“No.”  Volga said, not looking happy at having to be the bearer of bad news.  Not after what we had done for her.  “Are there others you might try to reach who would know what is occurring?”

“Yes, but I need Internet access.”  Sonafi said.  “I have all their numbers in my e-mail address book.”

Volga's phone was web enabled but it was actually simpler just to return to the home of our erstwhile hosts and print it out at one shot.  Sonafi deleted the browsing history after she was f
inished.  We left for the second time and got back in Volga’s car.

“Maybe we had be
tter stay here.”  Sonafi suggested after the eighth or ninth call she attempted still had raised no one.  “I am not sure what more we are going to be able to accomplish this night.”

“We should try to find a house in the country.”  Volga suggested, starting the car and heading it out of town.  “The St. Petersburg police are only inefficient due to a stud
ied indifference.  If they are roused, and I think there will have been much to rouse them this night, they can be much like a hornets nest.  They may also get a description of my car.  I seriously doubt it, but it is not a possibility we should overlook.  We should dump it.”

“Do not forget the eyes in the sky!”  Nikita said.

“Eyes in the sky?”  I asked.

“Russia has a very sophisticated satellite surveillance system.”  Volga said.  “It's possible they will be able to follow every move we have made, once we have become persons,” she chuckled a little at this, “of interest.”

“You are right.”  Sonafi said.  “We had better get rid of this car and quickly!”

We drove to the outskirts of town and left the car in another residential area.  This one an upper middle class neighborhood of large houses, several acre lots and barking dogs.  If the police followed our car to this neighborhood, they would have their work cut out for them searching door-to-door.  I did not envy them the task.

I found a length of rope and used it to tie Rostov's sword to the harness of my Cumosachi Katana.  I was now armed with two of the finest weapons ever produced on Earth, plus my cane sword, a weapon supple enough to bend nearly in half, but I was still a stranger in a strange land.  Far from anyone I knew or cared for and not sure that any of those even still survived.  They were in a different time zone and it was possible all would prove to be okay, that they were asleep now and would soon be returning our calls, but somehow I did not believe this to be true.  I just had the worst feeling. 

I envy the
Others the freedom of movement their ships gave them.  They were not confined as by the boundaries Earth's gravity and the necessity of a breathable atmosphere constrained us.  They came and went as they pleased.  Compared to our present predicament, on foot, no friend anywhere we might turn, their position to ours was as modern industrial man to aboriginal savages.  This was hardly any different than my first days upon this world when, directly after my birth, I had been cast adrift by my own mother, the face which had been supposed to be nurturing had instead viewed me with horror and revulsion.  I’d nowhere to flee to then any more than I had now.  Life had come full circle with the suddenness of the blink of an eye.