Chapter 21 Cord
DANTE LOOKS OVER the map once more, his fingers tapping a rapid staccato on the desk. Ever since I brought him the information Asher’s PA gave me, he’s been holed up in his office staring at his computer. He glances over at me.
“What do you think?”
I toss the empty blood bag in his trash can and wipe my lips. Sure, it’s no substitute for live, especially the stuff Asher gets, but I’m taking every opportunity to refuel. After what happened in that alley, I’m not going to get caught short again.
Coming around the desk, I peer over his shoulder and point at the map on the screen. “We could station lookouts on the roof here and here. Then two small groups in vans could park on either corner and watch who comes and goes.”
“Reconnaissance only.”
“Of course. We don’t want to go in till we know what we’re dealing with. If the Python is in there, I’m sure security will be tight. I don’t want to go up against those fuckers we fought in the alley without numbers.”
“No, you’re right. I’m not going to lose any more men to this asshole.”
He looks across the room to his second, Gio. “You’ll take point on this.”
He rarely sends Gio out into the field on a mission with the men. When they go, they usually go together. If Gio is surprised, he schools his expression well.
“Anything you say.”
Dante calls out to his senior guard, Roland, who’s waiting outside the door. He pokes his head in the room.
“Yeah, boss?”
“Gather the men. That means everyone. I don’t care what they’re doing. This is top priority.”
“You got it, boss.” He ducks back out and Dante turns his attention back to me.
“You trust this intel?”
“Asher does, and that’s good enough for me.”
Regardless of our personal issues, Asher has never steered me wrong when it comes to my personal safety.
He insists Elaine is the best at what she does, so I’m taking him at his word.
I’m assuming she’s a hacker of some sort that Asher brought into his fold.
I always knew he played it loose when it came to business, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he had criminals working for him.
He believes in using any advantage he can get.
I find it ironic that he looks down on Dante when they’re cut from the same cloth.
“I thought you and Asher were over.”
I shrug; so did I. “It’s complicated.”
He nods. “It usually is. Still, I’m glad you had him to look after you.”
I still haven’t come to terms with why I went to Asher when I was injured, or what exactly is our dynamic now.
I’m not going to deny I crave him sexually, nor will I dismiss the fact that he’s gone out of his way to accommodate me.
Twice now he’s taken care of me without asking for anything in return.
Well, other than a good fuck, but I got as much out of that as he did.
But I’m still not ready to let go of my suspicions. It could all be an act.
It takes Roland about an hour to locate everyone and get them back to the warehouse. I spend the time doing mindless shit like sharpening my knife and helping Zeke prepare the bolts for the crossbows. We may not be going in yet, but we still want to be ready in case things go sideways.
When all the men are finally present, Dante lays out the plan and gives everyone their assignments.
Those who aren’t in the vans, on the roof, or patrolling the streets are to remain in the warehouse on standby.
No one goes solo, and under no circumstances is anyone to engage the Outliers without backup.
“I want full communication,” Dante insists. “Use the comms and check in every fifteen minutes. And report anything suspicious, no matter how trivial it may seem. This guy could be anyone.”
That’s the part that’s been bothering me the most. We have no idea who the Python is, what he looks like, or how much power he wields.
What if he’s not a vamp at all? What if he’s a mage?
Those men we fought in the alley were not your typical Outliers.
Unlike the two clowns we picked up outside Giovanni’s, these guys were trained and disciplined, like they had been doing this for a long time.
Makes me wonder how long the Python has been planning this.
Has he been operating right here under our noses for years? Or did he come from somewhere else?
Gio rides in the first van with two of Dante’s personal guards.
I’m assigned to the second van with Zeke and Uno, who I’ve never worked with before.
Apparently he’s a chemist, an expert in coming up with creative ways to incapacitate a vampire.
It was his concoction we filled the crossbow bolts with before loading them.
“It’ll take them down immediately and keep them out for hours,” he assures me with a chilling smile. “Plenty of time for some quality torture. Now if you want something more permanent, I have that as well.”
“What do you mean?”
“LTS3.0. Lifeblood Termination Serum. It’s a chemical that will incinerate them from the inside out.”
“You mean, like burn them?”
He nods. “Better than fire.”
“You’ve killed vampires like that before?”
“I have. It’s not pleasant.”
No, I don’t imagine it is. And the fact that he talks about it so casually gives me the creeps.
At least he’s on our side. When I ask Zeke about him, he tells me he recently transferred here from a Guild in Japan.
I’d heard about some of them experimenting with various forms of torture.
I imagine Dante saw his arrival as a coup.
“This Guild,” I ask Zeke. “Was it like a death squad?”
“Not sure. He doesn’t talk about it much.”
“Have you worked with him before?”
“Once.”
“And?”
He shrugs. “He’s an acquired taste.”
Yeah, maybe it’s a taste I don’t feel like acquiring. I resolve to keep my eye on him as we climb into the van.
? ? ?
The whole stakeout situation becomes tedious in short order, especially when it seems like the place we’re watching is abandoned.
We’ve been sitting on the street for hours and haven’t seen anyone come or go. We spotted the cameras around the perimeter of the building, which limits our movement, but the two guys we assigned to the roofs were able to get in position without being detected.
At least we hope they have. No one’s come out to challenge them.
It’s that total lack of activity that sets my teeth on edge. I’m about ready to say fuck it and go pound on the door when we spot headlights coming our way. A box truck turns into the complex and swings around to back up to the loading dock.
“About fucking time,” Zake mutters from the driver’s seat.
The comms crackle to life as one of the men on the roof calls out.
“You seeing this?”
“Everyone hang tight,” Gio replies.
The door on the truck opens and a man gets out and walks up to the back of the warehouse and presses a button on a keypad. From this distance I can’t tell if he’s human or vampire.
Almost immediately the side door opens and another man walks out and accompanies the driver to the rear of the truck. We can see them lift the roll-up door and disappear inside. After a minute they reappear carrying a large crate.
“What the fuck is in that?” I wonder aloud.
Zeke calls out to the guy on the roof. “Eli, can you get a better look at that crate?”
“Negative. It’s just a plain wooden crate. Got a stamp on the side but I can’t read the writing.”
The loading dock door slides up and the men struggle to carry the crate inside, so it must be heavy. We try to get a look into the room beyond but the opening has those plastic strip curtains hanging over it and the door lowers as soon as the men are inside.
“Well at least we know somebody’s there,” I muse.
The driver appears out the side door a few minutes later and gets into the truck and drives away.
It’s about that time everyone starts doing their check-ins.
Two guys on the street report that the truck heads east and want to know if they should follow, but Gio tells them to maintain their position.
“What do you think?” I ask Zeke.
“I’d like to get a look at that crate.”
“Yeah. It looked heavy. Could be guns.”
“Doesn’t make sense,” he says. “What would vampires do with guns?”
“Unless they’re looking to make a move on humans.”
“Now that would track. Or maybe they’re selling them to finance this little war they’ve got going on.”
I hadn’t thought about that. Unsanctioned vampires don’t have the capital backing of a Guild, so they would need to get cash from somewhere, and it most likely wouldn’t be anything legitimate. Dealing weapons or drugs would be a quick way to bankroll their operation.
The more I observe about these guys, the more I realize this is way more serious than a couple of rogues bucking the system. This Python character is running a full-scale, organized crime campaign that rivals the Crimson Guild. If I was Dante, I’d find it hard not to take this personally.
Everything goes quiet again for about an hour, then another vehicle approaches, this time a shitty white van.
It pulls up to the loading dock and two men get out and make their way around back.
They pull three women from the van, all looking terrified and worse for wear, and shove them in the direction of the side door.
“Well, would you look at that,” Zeke chuckles. “Gotcha, motherfuckers.”
One of the men punches a code into the keypad and pulls the side door open, pushing the sobbing women inside.
I look over at Zeke. “Looks like we got our proof.”
Eli’s voice comes over the comms. “They were vamps.”
“Good enough for me,” Zeke says, then calls out to Gio. “How do you want to handle this?”
“We still don’t know how many are inside,” Gio replies. He’s quiet for a minute, then continues. “Eli, Snipes, you two stay on the roof. The rest of you head back to the warehouse. If we’re going to take these fuckers, we need to be armed to the teeth.”
Finally, some action.