Before he left for Madagascar carrying Daphne’s limp body, Charly told me he’d be in an internet dead zone. Oh, goody, I thought. He promised he’d bring Daphne back alive and well unless his own head ended up on a platter. I told Charly that it would take nuclear-powered industrial-strength saws to remove his head from his neck, so I figured things should work out just fine.
I lingered with Moreland at her body shop for an hour discussing what we should do next. The discussion became moot when her face, reacting to her phone, contorted with the same anguish it showed when she had described the events in Jerrold Mountain.
“We need to get back to Singapore, Jade,” Moreland said.
“You’ll be compromised,” I said.
“Now,” Moreland said. “Look at your phone.”
My phone in general had become such a mess of alerts that it was impossible to monitor them. When I looked, there were about a half dozen messages from Dr. Chua within a span of three minutes. Most of them involved the word, “Help.”
“I gotta risk it, Jade,” she said.
“I’ll go there and scout first. I’ll text you if Chua’s in trouble,” I answered.
“He is. Text me as soon as you find out anything,” she said.
“I will,” I said. Then I scrunched my eyes.
“Don’t do that, it’s annoy…” Moreland began to say as I disappeared.
When I got to Dr. Chua’s lab, it looked like someone had sprayed it down with a firehose sourced by blood. The floor was soaked red, everything was knocked to the floor, tables and electronic equipment were turned over, parts of bodies were strewn around the place like they had been spat out of a woodchipper.
“Longtooth’s not here,” I texted Moreland. “His work is done. Bring rain boots.”
Moreland appeared a moment later. At first, as she surveyed the grisly scene, she didn’t say anything. There wasn’t much to say. It was obvious what had happened. It was also obvious that if Moreland hadn’t snatched Daphne, I’d be processing a much deeper level of grief than sadness over a kindly scientist who also happened to be a good man.
I didn’t know how many people were employed in his lab, but it looked like about thirty were there at any given time. They, too, were probably gone, but Moreland and I checked around in closets and under desks to see if anyone did what they do in the movies and managed to survive by hiding in a cabinet or something. They didn’t.
I wondered about the receptionist Philip had crushed on. Her name, it turned out, was Leia Tan. I thought about the stern security guard downstairs. Was he alive? If he was, would he blame me for this? That last part didn’t much matter, but I was morbidly curious.
“Now what?” asked Moreland. The floor under my feet was sticky and slippery from blood. I was only able to shake my head. It wasn’t just that a cool guy had been killed by Longtooth and his flying orcs, it was that our research into Longtooth died with him. And maybe Leia Tan and her colleagues.
“We should gather what we can,” I said. “Blood samples, any digital storage, laptops, anything that might help.”
“And do what with them?” Moreland asked.
“Beats the hell out of me, Moreland. Sell them on eBay?”
“Others will be here soon,” she said. “Local cops, who knows who else? Whatever we wanna grab we better do it and be quick. There’s a duffle bag on that chair. Or a backpack. Or something like that. We can use that to put stuff in.”
When I trotted over to the denim backpack, which was resting on one of Dr. Chua’s research tables, I nearly slipped a few times. The lab was disgusting, even for vampires. Personally? I like to drink blood. Not walk in it. I pulled the backpack as if it would be empty, but it wasn’t. It was packed full of stuff. I looked inside and saw two laptops. I looked further and saw a few thumbnail drives, three glass vials full of blood, and a Wurdulac claw inside a big plastic bag. Like I said, full of stuff. “Dr. Chua, you crazy, brilliant man,” I said out loud.
Moreland was on the other side of the room, but she could hear me because of that keen vampire hearing. “He’s alive?” she asked.
“No, but he left behind a gift.” When I turned the backpack over, the word “Bennie” was written in large letters made from blood. “For his nephew,” I added. The blood writing had soaked through the denim to imply a permanence of sorts.
“I’ll be right back,” I said. I flashed to O’Hare airport because it was the first major airport that came to mind that I could remember in detail. When I appeared in an airport security X-ray device, I think you can probably imagine the reaction of the TSA guards. At first, they were too stunned to do anything, but then they ordered me to step out of the device. Instead, I raised my hands like an airline customer, holding the backpack in one hand.
One of them, quite alarmed, yelled something about a backpack, and another drew a gun. Another warned me twice to move aside before she finally shot me with a taser. I smiled, and said, “Thanks, that will probably help, for sure, for sure,” and then I flashed back to the lab.
“What the hell, Jade?” asked Moreland when I returned.
“A stab in the dark. I got into one of those X-ray devices they use at airports to maybe hope that it will disable the nanobots in the blood in the vials of this backpack.” I explained to her what I found. “Especially the tracking stuff. Because we need to get this stuff to Bennie.”
“Who the hell is Bennie?” she asked.
“Chua’s nephew.” I showed her the name written in blood.
“That’s grim,” she said.
I texted Bennie, telling him I’d meet him outside of the kopitiam.
“The what?” asked Bennie in Malay. Dude didn’t even know his own country’s lingo.
“You, know, that café where we met,” I wrote back.
“Ah, haha, why didn’t you just say so? Kopitiam. You Singapore vampire now?” he asked in English.
“Bennie,” I texted back. “This is crazy serious. Please meet me. Bring Philip.”
“You got it boss,” he texted back. Good God, it was going to be hard to tell these kids about their uncle.
It was harder than I imagined. They both cried and held against me, one on each side, in a warm, steady Singapore rain. I was wearing a black trench coat that Philip was pulling on as he sobbed. Rain danced off a black Stetson safari hat I had found in a nearby shop while waiting for the brothers. Bennie pounded on me from the other side, blaming me, I thought, but not saying so.
“I’m sorry, Bennie, Philip, I should never have gotten you all involved in this.”
“It was our idea,” said Bennie, but he was still hitting me as he sobbed into my sleeve. He pulled away and sniffed. He looked into my eyes. “It was our idea. It was the right idea. The right thing to do. It’s okay, Jade Mourning.” He sighed heavily, tears squeezing out of his eyes in a downpour that matched the hardest of Singapore rains.
I handed him the backpack. “He left this for you. Don’t ask me how. How he put it all together. I’ve seen these things that got him, man. Been under attack by them. So. I don’t know how he did this.”
We found an isolated spot at the café, which was filling up with students getting ready for morning classes. Bennie started peeking into the backpack. I gave the boys details about what had happened so far and reported my hopes that the airport security device disabled the nanobots in the blood vials, or at least the trackers.
“Good thinking,” said Philip through a nose congested by a half hour of unrelenting grief.
Bennie nodded, sniffled, and then sniffled some more.
“Look. Possession of this bag puts you in mortal danger. Just like your uncle. He left this for you, though, for a reason.” I shrugged. “You don’t need to be a hero here, guys. It’s ok to let me hold on to this, and stay safe, and finish your studies, and I’ll be on my way.”
“I can avenge my uncle’s death and finish my studies,” Bennie said firmly without hesitation.
“Me too,” said Philip. “And I can keep telling stupid jokes because Uncle would want me to.”
“He mostly would not,” smiled Bennie softly.
“That’s why he would,” said Philip.
Bennie nodded sadly, then pulled out one of the two laptops from the blood-stained backpack with his name on it. “Random choice, no more time to grieve, not yet,” he said as he flipped it open. He pulled one of the thumbnails from the backpack and inserted it into the laptop’s USB port. “Random choice again.”
I nodded.
“Hey, check it out,” he said after running his fingers on the trackpad and typing a few things. I scooted my backless round stool over to his side of the table. Philip, sitting in a white plastic chair, did the same.
Dr. Chua was staring into the camera, looking stoic and unworried. “Hello, nephews,” he began in Malay. Then, in English, he said, “If you are watching this, I am probably no longer in service to this world, and have been brought into service to the next. I want that if this is so, for you to be glad for me, and I wish for you to know that I will serve this next world with honor and will think of you daily.”
“Oh, shit,” said Philip, a new tear streaming from an eye nearly swollen shut from previous tears.
Dr. Chua continued: “It also means that my work is unfinished. It is work I will need you to complete because the facts are dire, and time is quite short, I’m afraid. Everything you need to complete your tasks is within this backpack. I know this because I was determined to include the thumbnail containing this video last, to include only in the case that I might come under duress. Apparently, I have, because you are watching it. So. As I have said. Everything you need that I can provide is in the backpack I have left for you.
“I’m afraid I am unable to tell you what happened to me. I prepared the backpack and recorded this merely as a precaution. Perhaps I was consumed by Wurdulacs, or perhaps a squad of government agents seized the lab. I’m afraid I cannot know as I record this.”
More sniffling from the brothers.
Dr. Chua went on: “Bennie, I have laid out for you a specific mapping structure for you to counter the gene manipulation that needs to be done to defeat your new enemy. The schematic is very detailed, and one that can be parsed quickly only by someone with the skills you are learning, and the acumen you have demonstrated. You will need to follow my instructions for, essentially, creating a new organism. I believe I have cracked the DNA code. You will confirm my findings or reject them as if you were in the most rigorous organic chemistry research laboratory in all of Asia.
“Philip, I’m afraid your work, equally substantial, has, also, substantially less foundation to it. I have determined that the beings who are attacking human settlements are infected with nanobots that I have not had sufficient time to reverse engineer. I also do not have the skills you have for this task. I believe you to be fully capable of reverse engineering these microscopic devices. Your schooling at the integrative sciences and engineering program for one of Asia’s finest universities prepares you for this!” Dr. Chua said the last part with a commanding tone. He then leaned toward the camera, and whispered with a smile, “I suggest you invite your new friend, Leia Tan, to collaborate with you. She is a very good student, as well.” He leaned back. “I have sent her away for a time. I’m afraid she thinks she is being punished. I have provided some alternative contact information in case she is not available through her primary contact number.”
I was enormously relieved at the likelihood that Leia had avoided the slaughter. Philip was surprisingly expressionless at the news, but I knew he had bigger things on his mind. Or, perhaps, he was still worried for her. Understandable.
“The two other thumb drives I have provided include all the information I have, including a roadmap for you, Bennie. You are under the strictest of deadlines, my dearest nephews. Do know that I will continue to guide you as best I can from afar, from that place we must all rest in peace. Alas, I will not be able to rest in such peace until I see you through this process in whatever way the masters of my new domain allow.” For some reason, I was comforted to know he believed such a domain existed.
“I ask one final thing,” he continued. “Please be sure that the video file I have included on this drive for my wife remains private. It can only be opened with a hash key I provided her a few days ago, but I ask that you treat it with utmost care, regardless.
“Finally, please maintain great control of your health and safety, and know that I will always love and respect you, whether your moments are dark requiring great bravery, or silly, requiring others to be brave in the face of your most unfortunate humor.”
With that, the screen went blank before it showed a logo of Dr. Chua’s company.
“Shit,” said Philip.
“Yeah. Shit,” said Bennie.
“He wants us to be Niels Bohr and Charles Darwin overnight,” said Philip.
“Worse,” said Bennie, “He thinks we’re up to it.”
I gave them a vial of Moreland’s blood. They knew the story and knew what to do with it. I texted Moreland: “Where are you?”
“Cairo International Airport,” she replied. “Getting zapped.” She displayed a photo of several confused Egyptian security personnel. She called me on the Telegram video channel. “I can’t get to you. I’ve never been to this café of yours.”
“Where are you now?” I asked.
“Back at the ranch,” she said. I assumed she meant her autobody shop. “I need to feed. I don’t think I’ve got another flash left in me for a while. Do you think this airport trick of yours works?”
“Doesn’t have to be an airport. I could have used the courthouse I went to with Owens, but I knew it wouldn’t be open. And I have no idea if it works. Bennie and Philip think there’s a good chance it does.”
Philip clearly knew what I was talking to Moreland about. He blurted out, “Works for pacemakers.” Then he played dead at the table, but she couldn’t see because the phone cam was facing me.
Bennie said, “Yeah, it’s like a mini-EMP device.”
“EMP?” asked Moreland over the phone.
“Yeah,” said Bennie. “Electromagnetic pulse. Aliens always use it when they attack earth in science fiction movies. You know, where everyone suddenly can’t start their cars.”
“Of course, that,” said Moreland, rolling her eyes. I anticipated her reaction, so I made sure they didn’t see her do it.
“This is Bennie. And Philip.” I waved the phone screen at them.
“Hi Bennie and Philip,” she said in a less than friendly voice. She bared her teeth as if meeting two new vampires for the first time.
“She’s intense,” whispered Bennie.
“I’m right here,” said Moreland.
Philip jumped out of his chair and whispered almost silently into my ear, “She’s supposed to be a friend?”
“Right here,” repeated Moreland. “And yes. Necessity is the mother of invention, as they say.”
“Frank Zappa!” said Philip. Moreland gave a curious look mixed with an annoyance that only I may have recognized. “Never mind,” added Philip with a look of concern. Someday, I’ll have to ask Philip about his awareness of a musical genius from America’s 1960s. Zappa wasn’t exactly on the lips of his generation. At this point, though, I was just hoping for any kind of someday.
When I summarized the contents of Dr. Chua’s video for Moreland, she suggested round-the-clock protection for Bennie and Philip, preferably in America, but I wasn’t sure I trusted her friends with Dr. Chua’s nephews. But the nephews didn’t want to stay in America, anyway, because they didn’t think they’d be able to access the scientific resources they needed to do their research. America, of course, was a magnet for scientific research, but the brothers didn’t know anybody there.
For protection, I thought about a few vampire acquaintances in Goa, a state on India’s southwest coast that had once been a haven for the Mouras Encantadas house. Mouras Encantadas was a human name for a house of vampires that originated in Portugal before they hitched a ride to India with Portuguese colonists in the 16th century.
The Mouras Encantadas were stunningly beautiful female vampires who normally feasted heavily during the summer monsoon season but would typically lie dormant from the early days of November through February, which meant that I would need to act quickly if I was to solicit their services. These days, I was pretty sure there were only a few left in Goa, mostly because they never made any attempts to mate. Content to let their house perish with time, they fiercely resisted sexual encounters. I learned this the hard way while plying my trade as a merchant in Goa during the 17th century.
Despite a few awkward attempts at seduction that nearly resulted in my beheading, they loved my music. I was confident that they’d travel across continents to hear me play the white violin. All I needed was to persuade them to come to Singapore. My music would be the lure. The story of rampaging Wurdulacs, should, I reasoned, seal the deal. I explained my plan to Moreland, who, I knew, was rather fond of the Mouras Encantadas, possibly because she appreciated my stories about how they vigorously rejected my sexual advances.
Moreland liked the idea. Moreland was typically a solitary feeder, but she probably relished the idea of the Mouras Encantadas as feeding partners in Singapore. Or, more likely, partners in her attempts to torment me.
With Moreland aboard the plan, I sent her to Goa with my recruitment pitch. I wasn’t quite persona non grata in Goa, but I still felt the sting of those harsh rebukes from a few centuries prior. They were more likely to listen to her than me. Moreland noted that perhaps my white violin solo at the League of Legends tournament may serve a useful purpose after all.
I wanted to tell her that it served plenty of useful purposes, but I wasn’t so sure it hadn’t also triggered the series of events that followed, so I said nothing. By calling attention to Fang HQ, to my streaming activities, even to Daphne, had I initiated a brutal war against both humans and vampires? A rational person would have argued that all these events were planned well in advance of that evening’s musical session with Daphne. But I was experiencing the kinds of losses I hadn’t seen since my first days in Singapore centuries ago. I wasn’t feeling rational about any of it.
And now it seemed as though the fate of the world was in the hands of two young court jesters who were but infants in the kind of timeline I was used to. That may seem like exaggeration, but it isn’t. In the expanse of vampire lifetimes, they weren’t even toddlers. Yet they were supposed to be the nexus of a solution to problems never confronted by humans or vampires? Three towns, each snuffed out in a matter of minutes. A group of vampires who had mastered a process for nearly instant evolution. A human authoritative structure incapable of understanding their enemy, and a society of vampires reluctant to engage in hostilities with their own kind. The next attack was likely to be on a much grander scale. The President of the United States had just given a grand speech about America’s determination to end the threat created by the mysterious virus. The president’s next speech would not be one of pathogens and curfews. The word “vampire” would be on his lips, and the world of humans would be changed forever if it survived.
After two days, there was still no word from Charly or Daphne. Bennie and Philip were able to secure lab time from a university department professor who was retiring and only had one class. We greased his palms with a few thousand Singapore dollars for his trouble. We hinted at the kind of challenge we were dealing with, so the professor gave all his students As and cut the lab off from use by anyone not approved by Bennie and Philip.
The Singapore police had made a big deal out of the carnage at Dr. Chua’s lab but blamed foreign mercenaries for the attack. This was probably because they couldn’t think of anyone else to blame. Singapore isn’t exactly the crime capital of Asia. What happened at Dr. Chua’s lab was so out of Singapore law enforcement’s experience that their focus quickly pivoted to the task of cleaning the place up for the next tenant.
Meanwhile, two more towns disappeared off the map. One in Alabama near the Georgia border, which, of course, created problems for the Americans trying to establish Georgia as their quarantine zone. The other was another Serbian border town along the Danube near Romania. As news reports spread, people were beginning to question government responses. There were now enough photographs of Wurdulacs for people to believe they were being challenged by a new species of animal. There was still no consensus that vampires were involved. That possibility was too preposterous for modern humans to believe outside the domains of conspiracy internet groups. But something was up. There was consensus on that.
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