Chapter 25
25
W hile Cole knew that his algorithm would eventually produce the desired results, he hadn’t expected it to work so quickly. Only a little over an hour after he’d fed the data into his computer, it spit out promising leads.
“Samson and Gabriel are ready to meet with us in the conference room,” Thomas announced, and put down the receiver.
“We’ll need my computer, so I can show them the data.” Cole closed the lid of his laptop, ready to take it with him, when Eddie stopped him.
“It’s all networked. I’m feeding your data from the cloud to the monitor in the conference room.”
Cole nodded, but wasn’t surprised. From what he’d been able to glean, Scanguards was extremely well-equipped when it came to IT, and both Eddie and Thomas were a step up from every IT professional he’d ever worked with.
He met Vanessa’s smile. “I knew you could do it.” Was that pride shining from her eyes?
“Your mate is a pretty smart guy,” Eddie added.
Cole blinked. Mate? Did everybody already know that he and Vanessa were made for each other? It certainly hadn’t been Vanessa who could have told Eddie and Thomas about it, since he’d been with her ever since he’d found out himself. Which only left her family.
“You guys know about that?”
“Good news travels fast,” Thomas said with a smirk.
“Guess it does.” Cole took Vanessa’s hand. “Lead the way.”
The four of them traveled several floors up in the elevator, before alighting on the first floor, where Thomas swiped his keycard and opened the door to a mid-size conference room without windows.
Inside it, Gabriel was already waiting for them. Next to him stood a tall man with black hair and hazel eyes.
The man extended his hand. “I’m Samson Woodford, owner of Scanguards. Nice to meet you.”
“Cole Whitlock, nice to meet you too.” Cole shook Samson’s hand, while he perused the guy in more detail.
Samson carried himself with the authority of a man who knew he wouldn’t be challenged in any of his decisions, even though he looked no older than thirty-five. So far, everybody he’d met from Scanguards looked extremely young, something he was used to from tech startups, but certainly not from a company that provided bodyguards. How could they have sufficient experience at their young age?
“Take a seat, Cole,” Gabriel said, pointing to the conference table. “We’re eager to hear what you’ve figured out.” Then he pointed to a large video screen. “Scarlet, my daughter-in-law, is joining us from home. Since we’re talking about the victim profile, I figured it best if she joined us. Scarlet, this is Cole.”
Cole looked at the screen and recognized the woman he’d seen exit the Victorian mansion. “Hi, Scarlet, nice to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Scarlet replied. “Sorry I can’t be there in person, but there’s nobody who can look after the twins.” She pointed over her shoulder, and now Cole could hear the sounds of two kids running around, laughing.
Meanwhile, Eddie had retrieved a computer from a drawer sunken into the table, tapped on a few keys, and a large monitor next to the one on which Scarlet could be seen illuminated, mirroring what could be seen on the laptop.
“Here you go, Cole,” Eddie said and moved the laptop in front of Cole.
“Thanks.” Cole cleared his throat. “I’m not gonna bore you with the technical aspects of what we did. If it’s all right with you, I’ll dive right into the results.”
When there were no objections, Cole continued, “Let’s start with the vampire Vanessa killed: Robert Nealy was 24 years old, unemployed, and still living in his parents’ basement. He dropped out of college, has no real friends, nor has he had any girlfriends. His IQ was average, and he spent his days and nights playing computer games with online friends. By all accounts he was a loser.” He let his gaze roam to see that everybody in the room was listening attentively, before looking at the livestream from Scarlet, who nodded in agreement.
“He was active in an online forum, and that’s where we see what was going on inside him. He had a deep-seated hatred for women, rooted in his inability to have a romantic relationship with any woman. The rejections he’s received appear to have turned him into a very bitter young man. The other men on this online forum show the same traits.” Cole paused for a moment to let the information sink in. “He’s what is referred to as an incel.”
He looked at Scarlet.
“An involuntary celibate man,” Scarlet added. “That’s a pretty typical profile. And unfortunately, nowadays with social media and the pressures that young people are under, there are more and more of these men that feel insecure and isolated, which then turns to bitterness. And eventually hatred for women.”
“Exactly,” Cole agreed. “My algorithm identified that because of this feeling of being a loser, unable to attract a woman, an incel is out for revenge. He craves power to show these women that they were wrong to reject him. He wants them to pay for his unhappiness.”
“So you’re saying this man will only attack women?” Samson asked.
Cole shook his head. “No. While women are his preferred target, he’ll also take out his frustration on men who he believes get any woman they want. In his eyes, they are his enemies too.”
Gabriel and Samson looked at each other, then at Scarlet.
Scarlet chimed in, “Cole is right. Any man whom an incel believes to be more successful or desirable becomes a target, though in general, the incel will take his frustration out on women first.”
Cole lifted his hand toward Scarlet, in a sign of agreement. “An incel would be extremely susceptible to what a vampire can offer him: power, because power can finally give him the means to exact his revenge.”
Samson leaned forward in his chair. “It all makes sense. The other three victims apart from you were women. But it doesn’t explain why this vampire would offer these incels to be turned. What’s in it for him?”
“I’m afraid we won’t know that until we catch him,” Cole replied. “But what we do have is a list of incels in San Francisco who fit the profile. We found 13 men that are extremely likely to be turned.”
“Maybe they’ve already been turned,” Vanessa interjected.
“That sounds like a low number,” Scarlet interrupted. “I would have expected the number to be much higher.”
Cole looked at her. “We’ve run a very narrow search and at this stage only focused our attention on those men who tick all the boxes. If we don’t have any luck with them, we’ll widen our search.”
“Sounds good,” Scarlet said.
“So, we know where the incels live. If they’ve been turned already, it’s very likely that they keep coming back to their parents’ basements, since that’s where they feel safe.” Then he remembered something that he hadn’t asked before. “I’m assuming vampires can’t be out in daylight?”
Gabriel nodded. “Correct. Pureblooded vampires would burn in the sun.”
“Pureblooded? What does that mean?”
There was a second’s pause, before Gabriel explained, “Uhm, that’s just what we call them. So, if any of these incels got turned, they would have to stay out of daylight.” He exchanged a look with Samson.
Samson nodded. “Let’s put together teams to go to the addresses of these incels. It’s nighttime right now, which means if they’ve already been turned, they’ll probably not be home, but we can have our people wait for them there, and have all available patrol units use their photos to look for them in the city.”
“What will you do with the incels who’re still human? I mean, they have to be watched too, right?”
“Of course,” Samson said. “We’ll put surveillance on them to see who they’re meeting with. But our priority right now is to find the ones who’ve already been turned. And to bring them back alive. Only they can lead us to the vampire behind this.”
The plan sounded solid. Even Cole had to admit that. But he still had concerns. “These bloodsuckers are strong. I’m a big guy, and even I couldn’t fight a skinny hundred-and-seventy-pound vampire off. How are you gonna catch one alive? No offense but that sounds dangerous and pretty damn near impossible.”
“Don’t worry,” Gabriel said. “We have the right weapons.”
“Stakes?”
“No, that would defeat the purpose,” Gabriel replied. “We can restrain them with silver chains. It’s the only metal they can’t break. It burns their skin like acid.”
That knowledge calmed him a little. At least the people from Scanguards knew enough about vampires to fight them.
“When we have a little more time, you must tell me how you all found out about vampires,” Cole said, looking at Gabriel and Samson.
For a second there was only silence in the room, and all he could hear was the sound of the twins coming from the livestream. He noticed Gabriel casting a look at his daughter.
“Yeah, sure, when it’s a bit quieter,” Vanessa finally said. “But I think tonight we’ve got too much going on.”
“Gabriel,” Samson ordered, “get everybody up to speed, and have Quinn put together teams, so we can check on all thirteen addresses simultaneously, just in case they are communicating with each other. We don’t want them to tip each other off.”
“Got it,” Gabriel said and rose. He turned to the monitor, “Thanks, Scarlet. We’ll let you know when we need you.”
“Bye, guys.” The screen went blank.
Everybody got up.
“Nessie, why don’t you take Cole to the lounge? Maybe he wants to eat something while we get this mission set up. And then we need you upstairs for the briefing.”
“All right, Dad.”
“Gabriel, are you saying that Vanessa is gonna be one of the teams to hit the incels’ addresses? You know how I feel about—”
Gabriel put a hand on his forearm. “We need her at the briefing, that’s all. I won’t assign her to any of the search teams tonight.”
Relieved, Cole tamped down his pounding heart and took Vanessa’s hand in his. When he met her gaze, she looked less than pleased.
“You’re not gonna be able to stop me from doing my job,” Vanessa said. “This is what I do.”
“But not tonight.” And he would make sure to come up with plenty of reasons to stop her from putting herself in danger.
“Uhm, Cole,” Gabriel said, “you’re not gonna win that fight with her.”
“Yeah, might as well give in now,” Thomas added with a smirk.
“I don’t give in easily,” he replied without breaking eye contact with Vanessa. “Particularly when it concerns someone dear to my heart.”
And there was nothing and nobody dearer to his heart than Vanessa.