Jonathan Maberry - Assassin's code

The disease and its possible cure explained two key parts of this puzzle. The viciousness was born out of frustration as a narcissistic megalomaniac lashed out from his deathbed. Vox wanted to light a nuclear pyre to mark his own death. Very dramatic, mused Church. Very Hugo.

Then there was the improbable amount of useful information on Rasouli’s flash drive. Vox had used Rasouli to provide the DMS with virtually everything it needed to hunt for the nukes. Why would he do that?

It made no sense unless Dr. Hasbrouck’s treatment had worked.

Hugo no longer wanted to burn the world because he intended to live in it.

Toys had not said any of this in plain language. The young man was more than half crazy with guilt and self-loathing-both for past actions and for betraying Vox with this call-but the essence of Vox’s plan was buried within Toys’s rambling confession.

One element remained obscure, however. Nicodemus. No matter how this thing was turned, the old priest-if priest he was-leered out at them.

Church called Joe Ledger, but there was no signal.

The most crucial thing was the leverage Vox had used to stall Grigor long enough in order to receive the full set of Upier 531 treatments.

The code scrambler. Without that, the nukes were dangerous, but they were sleeping dragons. He called for Lilith and briefed her and then used the team com channel to call Top Sims.

“Deacon for Sergeant Rock.”

“Go for Rock.”

“Sit rep.”

“Cowboy is at zero point. We’re converging on his location. No fuss, no muss upstairs.”

“Proceed with utmost haste. High probability that the nuke is not yet armed. Grigor may be on the way there with the code scrambler. Unknown if other activation codes have been sent. Regardless, obtaining that scrambler is now priority one, superseding all mission objectives and restrictions. Confirm understanding”

“Copy that.”

“Sergeant Rock, listen to me. The Red Knights are the hostiles. That is confirmed. All other combatants are secondary.”

“Copy that, too. We’re ready for them.”

“There are no time-outs, no rematches in this game. We win this or we lose.”

“Hooah. Rock out.”

Church made similar calls to the other teams. It was only Toys’s guess that Grigor would be coming to Aghajari. It was closest; Grigor’s Kingdom of Shadows was a mile below Tehran. However, all of the teams had to be prepared to encounter Upierczi.

When he was done he called the president.

As he ended that call, Bug rang through.

“Okay, Boss,” said Bug, “here goes. Oil refineries by nation are as follows. For I we have Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Indonesia, Ireland, and Italy. By ‘J’ we got Japan, Jordan, and Jamaica. And for S we have South Africa, Sudan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and Suriname. But like you said, this mixes things from the order of the codes.”

Church pursed his lips. “Give me all the countries that start with those letters.”

“For I we have nine countries: Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, and Italy. For the ‘ J s’ we have six: Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Juan de Nova Island. And the big list is ‘ S ’: Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Syria.”

“Did you run it through the CT package?”

“Got it, sending it to you now.”

There were multiple potential targets on the list from the counterterrorism software package, but MindReader was designed to look for patterns and probabilities. It weighted its choices, and at the top of each list was the most likely target, the one that would have the greatest economic, social, cultural, or political impact.

Church scanned the list.

“My God,” he said.

Lilith saw it too. And then Circe.

Rudy and Bug said, “What?”

And then they saw it.

“This isn’t about the Holy Agreement,” murmured Circe in a small, shocked voice. “They may have wanted the bombs for some purpose before 9/11, but this has nothing to do with that.”

“No,” said Church. “This is about the Upierczi. They are without doubt the ones with the bombs.”

“But why?” demanded Rudy.

“They were monsters and slaves for centuries,” Lilith said in a hollow voice. “They had become weak and almost died out. Now they are stronger than they ever were. Much, much stronger.”

“But-”

“We are about to go to war with a new nuclear power. The vampire nation.”

Aghajari Oil Refinery

Iran

June 16, 6:16 a.m.

There were thirty or forty of them standing at the edges of the spill of light, but I could see indistinct shapes moving in the darkness. More of them. Many more.

Their ranks parted and one of them walked toward me. He was taller and more muscular than the others. His skin was milk white, his eyes the color of bright blood. He wore black clothes and a crystal teardrop on a silver chain. In the center of the teardrop was a brilliant ruby.

I aimed my gun at him, but I heard soft, furtive footsteps on either side of me. And behind me.

The lead Upier studied me for a moment. Around him his people were whispering to each other: “White dog… white dog!” They all made their protective signs, touching hearts and tracing lines on their eyes.

Their leader half turned and silenced them with a growl like a wolf. The silence was immediate. He turned slowly back to me, and a slow, broad smile spread over his hideous face.

“I know who you are,” he said in a voice that was every bit as cold as a Halloween wind. “You are Captain Ledger.”

And I said, “Oh shit.”

It is never going to be good news if a vampire knows your name.

“You are a traitor to your own people,” he said, “and an enemy of mine.”

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“Our friend told us,” he said, smiling so that I could see his teeth. Those teeth were scaring the living hell out of me. “He said that you conspired with Rasouli and the Red Order to keep us in chains.”

“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, pal. I’m here to keep this bomb from going boom. When I’m done with that, we can sit down with a latte and talk about it.”

I’ve always marveled at my own ability to be a smart-ass when there is neither a good reason to be one or time to screw around. It’s way high on my list of character flaws.

“Do you know who we are?” asked the leader. The other vampires had me completely surrounded. Ghost whimpered and shivered beside me.

“At a guess? Grigor, chief bloodsucker of the Upierczi,” I said.

He didn’t blink, just gave me a nod of approval.

“Then you’ll know what an honor it is to die by my hand.”

“That’s actually not on my day planner.”

His eyes cut left and right. “Bring him to me.”

The Red Knights closed on me.

“Ghost- hit! ” I yelled, but Ghost simply stood there. Trembling, drooling with terror. His bladder let loose and he peed all over the floor. Again.

Not exactly the response I was hoping for.

The Upierczi stared for a two count, and then they all burst out laughing.

“Oh shit,” I breathed.

The closest Upier darted in and kicked Ghost in the side. It looked like a light kick, but it lifted Ghost’s hundred pounds and flung him against the side of the bomb case. Ghost slammed into the hard metal with a terrible yelp of pain, rebounded, and fell. He lay whimpering on the floor.