Scott G. Mariani - Uprising

‘Yes, well, that’s exactly the problem,’ Rumble said. ‘We can’t allow him to go on drawing attention to himself. I want you and Greg to go and have a word. Nothing too strong. Just refresh his understanding of the situation.’

Alex blinked. ‘Excuse me? And who is Greg?’

‘I should have mentioned it,’ Rumble said with a sly grin. ‘Greg Shriver. That’s Lieutenant Greg Shriver, formerly US Marines, just flown in. Your new partner.’

She groaned. ‘Don’t do this to me. I work alone, for fuck’s sake.’

Rumble gave her a stern look. ‘Hey. Don’t give me that “I work alone” crap. There isn’t an agent on this team I cut more slack to, but even you shouldn’t push it.’

‘Jesus Christ, Harry.’

‘He’s a fresh recruit, so he’s going to be a little raw. Show him the ropes, train him up. I know he’ll learn fast, and he’ll be learning from the best. I’m counting on you, all right?’ Rumble slid a file across the desk at her. ‘Read it. He’s good material for us.’

Alex flipped through it. Like all vampires, she could read ten times faster than a human. ‘And when do I get to meet wonder boy?’

‘Right now.’ Rumble stabbed a button on his phone and talked to the speaker. ‘Jen, show him in, will you?’

A few seconds later Rumble’s secretary, Jen Minto, ushered the new recruit into the office. Greg Shriver was about thirty-five, lean, dark and extremely nervous-looking as he walked in.

Alex stuck out her hand as her boss introduced them.

‘Special Agent Alex Bishop.’

When they shook hands, she noticed that his palm felt a little damp with sweat. Some very fresh vampires retained those kinds of human attributes for a while.

‘They tell me you and I are going to be working together,’ Greg said.

‘Yup. Lucky me.’

‘Baxter’s taken the Trafalgar Suite at the Ritz while he’s in town promoting the new Berserker movie,’ Rumble said. ‘He’s expecting you, but you’d best get going.’

‘Is that Berserker 6?’ Alex said. ‘I saw the fifth one. Complete piece of shit.’

‘Did you see him in Raptus, though?’ Rumble said. ‘Now that was a pretty damn good movie.’

‘We’re going to see Baxter Burnett?’ Greg asked, wide-eyed.

‘Let’s move, new blood,’ Alex said.

Back down in the car park behind the S&S building, Alex bleeped the locks of her black Jag XKR. She slipped into the driver’s seat and Greg got in beside her. He moved like an overgrown puppy, clumsy and too full of energy, and slammed the door so hard it made the glass shake.

She threw him a hard look. ‘Break my car, I’ll slice your head off.’

‘Sorry,’ he muttered. ‘I keep forgetting how strong I am now. Like the night-vision thing, too. I feel pretty weird, still kind of dazed.’

‘That’s hardly surprising,’ Alex said, allowing him a smile. ‘One minute you’re getting on fine with your human life, the next thing some vampire’s sticking their teeth in you. Kind of changes things.’ She started the car and pulled away aggressively, the acceleration pressing them back in the leather seats.

‘That how it was for you?’ he asked.

‘Etiquette lesson one. You never ask anyone how they turned. Unless it’s me, your superior, asking you.’

He mumbled an apology.

‘What’s that accent? Tennessee?’

‘Raised in Memphis. You’re good.’

‘I’ve done a lot of moving around in the last century or so,’ she said. ‘But never mind my story.’ She glanced sideways at him. His shirt was open three buttons, and she could see the slim chain around his neck and the pressed tin tags nestling against his chest. ‘Love the dog tags.’

He reached up and touched them. ‘Keepsake, I guess.’

‘So you were in the Marines. What happened?’ As she talked, she was speeding the Jaguar through the London traffic, darting through tiny gaps between buses and black cabs.

Greg took a breath. ‘Yeah, I was doing okay. Made lieutenant younger than my father did, things were looking good. There was this guy on my squad, his name was Tadd. Always screwing around with weapons, kind of obsessive about them. Anyway, one day we’re out on manoeuvres with an armoured vehicle division and Tadd is playing around with the Browning .30 cal on one of the Hummers. I was standing talking to my captain when, bang, Tadd lets off an accidental shot. Caught me right between the shoulder blades.’

‘Hero’s death. Nice.’

‘You said it, after I was decorated in Iraq and all. Anyway, I’m lying there in the military hospital and the pastor’s just read me the last rites. I haven’t got long to go. Then, when nobody’s looking, this doctor that’s been hanging around me giving me the eye comes over and whispers in my ear, “Psst! Wanna live a little longer?”’

Alex gave a short laugh.

Greg went on. ‘First I thought it was the morphine, fucking with my head. But now I see it’s for real, the guy’s telling me how he’s going to bite me and turn me into a vampire. Said something about recruiting me. I figured, why not, I’d nothing to lose. Only a jackass would turn down an offer of eternal life. Anyway, then I woke up and I was at the Federation rehab centre with my gunshot wound healed up like I’d never taken a bullet. That was two weeks ago. And here I am.’

‘I’ll bet the Feds had their eye on you the moment you were brought into the hospital,’ Alex said. ‘Good army record, no wife or kids, they’d have had you down as an ideal VIA recruit. That vampire doctor was there to pick out the right candidates. When the opportunity comes up to grab someone who looks like they’ll be an asset, they haul them on board. You know about the probation period, don’t you?’

‘A year, right?’

She nodded. ‘To see how you shape up. Then the Federation Board decides whether you can stay.’

‘And if I can’t?’

‘You don’t want to know.’

He sighed. ‘The only thing that really bugs me is that I’m never allowed to see my folks again, my sister, my friends.’

‘Yeah, well, think about it. One minute they’re weeping over their dear departed’s coffin, the next you show up on the doorstep. That’s why you were posted here to London, to keep you far out of temptation’s way. That’s how the Federation works. We can live among humans, that’s fine. But we can’t get too close to them, can’t get emotionally involved in any way. It’s too big a security risk, in case someone spills the beans. Strictly forbidden.’

‘So let me get this right,’ Greg said. ‘Since the Federation was formed in, what?’

‘Nineteen eighty-four.’

‘Since then, it’s been illegal for vampires to actually turn anyone else into a vampire, correct?’

‘Unless it’s an official recruitment, sanctioned by the Federation authorities. That’s to keep out what you might call undesirable elements. The kind of vampires that give vampires a bad name, draw the wrong kind of attention to us. The twentieth century changed everything. Internet, communications, surveillance. The world’s a pretty small place now. That’s why the Federation was created, to maintain a low profile for the community.’

‘And to protect humans?’

She glanced at him. ‘Protect humans? That’s our food resource you’re talking about. We’re not doing this because we love humans. This isn’t some politically correct thing. We’re doing this to survive.’

‘What happens to vampires that don’t play by the rules?’ Greg asked.

‘That’s where VIA comes in. Basically we go after them and kick their arses into line.’

‘We kill them?’