Rachel Caine - Fall of Night

‘Well, if your question was, did it work … it works.’ Jesse started to stand up, and – incredibly – suddenly faltered and braced herself against the wall. ‘Whoa. It also makes you wicked dizzy, in case you didn’t know that.’

‘I didn’t,’ Claire confessed. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Fine. Just have to shake it off.’ Jesse pushed away from the wall and smiled at Dr Anderson. ‘I’m not a wilting flower, unless that gets me extra special treats.’

‘It might,’ Dr Anderson said. ‘I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked you to do that, but I needed to know if this was something that had potential, or just another empty promise.’

‘Oh, it’s got potential all right,’ Jesse said. ‘If I’d been hungry and that thing had hit me, I’d have gone for your veins, and you’d have had to stop me any way you could. So be warned. It’s not a toy, and it might make an angry vampire damn angry.’

‘The idea is to reverse those emotions,’ Claire offered. ‘To make an angry vampire less angry, a hungry one less hungry … and like you said, it’s disconcerting. I suppose it could be used kind of like a vampire stun gun, I guess.’

‘You’re looking for something non-lethal to use to defend yourself,’ Jesse said. ‘Well, that’s not a bad goal, and it’s not a bad start. I suppose I’d be okay with testing it for you when you take it to the next step. But just remember: I’m not the usual vampire, either. I’ve got a pretty good grip on myself. The next one you run into might not be quite so in control.’

‘Jesse – I’m not ready to report to Amelie about this thing. Myrnin kept it from her for a reason when Claire was working on it; I’m quite sure she’d have shut it down if she’d known. I’d really like to proceed with this line of enquiry, but I’m afraid that she would object. So can we agree to keep it quiet, for now? Please?’

Jesse was silent for a long, long moment, frowning. She crossed her arms and paced a bit, and then finally bit her lip and nodded. ‘For a while,’ she said. ‘But you know I can’t keep it from her for long. And if she asks me a direct question about it, I can’t lie.’

‘I know,’ Anderson said. ‘You’ve always made it quite clear where your real loyalty lies.’

There was something strange in her smile, something almost a little angry, and she and Jesse locked stares for a moment that stretched on too long for comfort.

Then Jesse smiled, too. ‘You know, this is super fun, but I actually have to go sling some drinks tonight, and I need to get ready. Being this gorgeous ain’t easy, you know.’

‘So you tell me,’ Anderson said. ‘Go on, and stay out of the sun.’

‘Nag. I’m wearing the super sunblock, don’t you worry.’ Jesse stuck her tongue out, just like a three-year-old, and Claire had to laugh. There was something oddly childlike about her, considering she was also capable of turning cold at a moment’s notice, like any vampire. She was certainly old to be so nonchalant about roaming around during the day, and she wasn’t even wearing the thick layers of protective coats and hats that most vampires preferred. ‘You two don’t get up to anything funny around here. I’m done bailing people out of trouble for the next couple of days. It’s been busy.’

‘Yeah? Who’d you bail out today?’

For no apparent reason, Jesse smiled, and made a locking motion at her lips. ‘Can’t say,’ she said, ‘but he was real, real cute. Maybe I’ll tell you the story later.’

‘You’d better.’

Jesse waggled her fingertips and swiped her badge to get out of the lab, and it felt like half the light had left the room, somehow. She was … intense, Claire thought. And really, kind of cool.

Dr Anderson certainly thought so; she stared at the door for a full ten seconds after Jesse was gone, then snapped out of it and cleared her throat, put on her glasses, and walked back to stare down at VLAD. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘We have some work to do. First step is that we disassemble, label and scan every part of this so that we can make a virtual model. I want to be able to prototype this on the 3-D printer next time.’

‘The – what?’

‘3-D printer,’ the professor repeated, and pointed to a big, strange-looking thing in the far corner of the lab. ‘It takes a solid block of paper, plastic or metal and repeats a design. With good enough specs, you can print anything. The guys down the hall are working on 3-D printing of human organs. You remember the replicators on Star Trek that could make anything you wanted, from a roast beef sandwich to a phaser? We’re working on it. And actually, we’ve made a daunting amount of progress.’

That was … new. Claire thought about Myrnin, clinging to his antique microscopes and time-tested tools, and wondered what he’d think about all this. He’d probably feel it was too far from nature and the cycles of the moon and sun; that’s what he always said about things that he didn’t quite grasp. For all his brilliance, and he was brilliant, he just couldn’t shake off the bonds of his background in alchemy.

Maybe he’d change his mind if she brought back a new, shiny, 3-D printed, working copy of VLAD. It might solve the weight problems, too, if they could machine it out of some very lightweight materials. Maybe, with enough imagination, they’d even be able to model a vampire brain and print an artificial one to fit inside Myrnin’s computer, eliminating the need for anyone to die for science ever again in Morganville.

Well, she could dream, anyway.

Dr Anderson was putting out a wide selection of tools for the disassembly, and pointed Claire toward a rolling 3-D scanning device; her job, as each piece was disassembled from VLAD, was to tag it with a number and description, scan it individually, and put it in a bin. Dr Anderson was very careful; when she got to the little vials of bubbling liquid – Myrnin’s addition, along with all the whirling gears – she kept the liquid as well, though she siphoned off a bit for testing. Bit by bit, the device came apart into its component pieces, and the lab began to smell like hot solder and cooling metal.

By the time it was done, Claire yawned, stretched and glanced up at the clock. It was already five o’clock. She hadn’t intended to stay so long, but there was still more to be done; the scanner had to download into the mainframe, so that Dr Anderson could begin to work with the component pieces in wireframe form.

‘You should go,’ Dr Anderson said, and yawned. ‘Sorry. I got up early, and I know it’s been another long day for you. I can handle reassembly tonight.’

‘Want me to put the parts away?’ The bin was full now, and just as heavy as the whole device had been. Dr Anderson nodded, and Claire carried it back to the concealed panel, which was still open. She slid the bin inside and, on Anderson’s instruction, pressed her hand to the panel on the side. It lit up red, and the door slid shut.

‘I programmed it for your palm print,’ Anderson said. ‘You can open and close it on your own now. But only if there’s no one else in the room but me. If someone tries to force you to open it, it’ll simply stay closed, so you just tell them you don’t have authorisation. Without authorisation, you wouldn’t be of any use to them.’

She’d thought ahead, Claire thought, and it was a little chilling that she’d thought as far as someone holding a gun to Claire’s head and forcing her to try to open the hiding place.

But that was someone from Morganville for you – always thinking of the worst-case scenario.

Claire said goodnight, and started for home.

She was walking down the street from the Mudd Building, dodging excited groups of students who were apparently headed to the Biopolymer Lab, when her phone rang – no, it hadn’t, actually, because she had a voicemail, not a call. Dodgy reception in the lab, she guessed.