Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky (13 page)

Stein
was silent for a moment, then said, “Clear, sir.”

“Thank
you. You’re dismissed.”

He
saluted again, turned, and hurried back across the square toward the command
trailer.

Jimmy
slowly clapped. “I’m impressed. You didn’t get angry, you didn’t threaten
him. You weren’t even scary. Last time you had that ID card, you came on
strong. What happened to you, Charlie, you getting mellow?”

“The
last time I had the ID card, I was an outsider. An important outsider, but
not part of the team.” I paused and laughed. “You haven’t spent enough time
with the Security Force, Jimmy. If there’s one thing they pay attention to,
it’s the chain-of-command. I’m like a god to them. My whisper can
kill.”

Jimmy
started to laugh, and every time he opened his mouth to speak, he laughed
some more. Finally he took a deep breath and shook his head. “You’re not
right, Charlie. I worry about you, I really do.”

I
smiled and checked my watch. “Yeah, somebody has to,” I said. “I have get
back to the office and go over the security plan again before the company
commander shows up this afternoon. Be here at two-thirty for the
briefing.”

“Wouldn’t
miss it.”

Chapter
Eight

The
knock at my office door came at almost exactly 2 pm that afternoon, at least
according to my watch.

I’d
been studying the security plan for more than two hours, comparing what I
saw on paper with what I’d seen in the square earlier. It was complex and
thorough, right down to the exact spot where each trooper would be
stationed, during daylight hours and at night. It also had one major flaw.
It had clearly been written by a Vee.

Vees
are accustomed to order and obedience. It’s built into their bodies,
hard-wired through their blood. Sure, there are the rare Unbound Vees that
don’t play by the rules, and not every Vee was on the same page of the
vampire playbook. But if the right person told them to do something, they
did it, no questions asked. And even if they weren’t compelled to follow
orders, they generally did so.

Humans
are another story. If we follow orders, we do it willingly. And I didn’t
think Dr. Konrad Heymann, former German ambassador to the United States, was
going to willingly meet the assumptions in the plan.

The
plan started and ended with the assumption that Heymann would stay in his
trailer and never venture outside, from the time he arrived to the time they
loaded it up and took it on to his next port of call. He would be allowed
visitors, of course, but they’d be thoroughly screened through a series of
security checkpoints and there would be no more than two at a
time.

It
all sounded good. If your instructions were ‘The ambassador will be here.
Protect him.’ it was one way to do it, and probably what seemed like the
right way. To a Vee. Limit all access, limit risk. If Heymann was a Vee,
somebody would tell him to stay, and he probably would.

But
Heymann wasn’t a Vee. And he was on a fact-finding mission. I didn’t think
he was interested how Vees were getting along these days. He’d want to know
how the human population was holding up. And he’d never know if he followed
the security plan.

I’d
been jotting down notes as I read the plan, ideas on how to handle groups of
visitors larger than two, what to do if the ambassador wanted to take a walk
around the square to press the flesh, or go for a field trip into the heart
of the city. It wouldn’t be possible to give him the same level of
protection he’d have stuck in the trailer, but that was always the issue
with executive protection details.

I’d
worked them before. As a uniformed cop, as a private investigator. The
client’s wishes always overrode security, at least until the bullets started
flying. Only then did the client suddenly want your guidance.

It
would have been helpful to have a couple of active-duty Secret Service
agents from their Protective Operations section. Human or Vee. Those guys
had a pretty good handle on protecting people who weren’t always willing to
play by the rules. But that had been suggested and rejected by Ambassador
Heymann. He wanted to travel free of ties to the U.S. government. Or the Vee
government.

“Come
in,” I hollered. I’d fill the holes in the security plan somehow. Unlike the
Security Force, I was used to thinking on my feet.

“Mr.
Welles,” he said as he approached the desk. “It’s good to see you
again.”

“And
you, Captain Bristow,” I said. I stood and extended my hand across the desk.
“Nice to see that you still have your head on your shoulders.”

I’d
first met Bristow when he was a lieutenant, a platoon leader under the
command of Security Force Captain Simon Hill, during the investigation into
Joshua’s murder. Captain Hill had exceeded his orders and ended up losing
his head to Miss Takeda’s sword. Bristow had moved into his slot.

“You
and me both, sir,” Bristow said, shaking my hand. “I see you’ve been
studying the security plan.”

“I
have,” I said. “We’re going to have to make some changes.”

“Sir?”

I
sighed. “You can drop the ‘sir’ shit when it’s just you and me, captain. I
know, for the sake of good order and discipline, you have to use it when
we’re in front of the troops. But when we’re not, lose it.” I paused.
“You’re Sid, right?”

He
nodded. “Yes, sir.” He smiled.

“Okay,
Sid, there are flaws in this plan, assumptions made that won’t survive the
first contact with reality.” I paused. “Are your platoons in place at the
square?”

He
nodded. “Forward platoon came in this morning, the other two combat platoons
about two hours ago. I took the command platoon in half an hour ago, got
them squared away, and came here.”

“Okay,
then we’ll do the briefing at the command trailer in the square. I’d rather
just go through it once, hear the opinions of your platoon commanders, and
move forward from there.” I paused. “What’s in the garment bag?”

He
smiled with some embarrassment and put it on the desk. “Miss Takeda sent
this along for you,” he said. “At General Bain’s request.”

“It’s
not a uniform, is it?” I had been joking about a uniform with Takeda, but
I’m not sure she understood that it was a joke. Her sense of humor was
sometimes elusive.

Bristow
shook his head.

I
sighed and zipped open the bag. There were three suits inside, all black,
all very nice. Expensive.

“She
said that the measurements were just an estimate, but she believes them to
be correct,” he said. “If anything is off, we have people available who can
make the alterations in about an hour.”

“Am
I supposed to change into one of these before we go down to the
square?”

He
smiled. “No, I think they’re for when you’re around the ambassador. You
weren’t planning on staying on-site until he gets here, were
you?”

“No,”
I said. “I figure a couple of hours for the briefing, then grab a shower and
check in with my staff. Miss Takeda is supposed to meet me here this evening
and we’ll go to the square together.” I paused. “I guess I’ll change my suit
before she gets here.”

“Very
good.” I could almost hear the ‘sir’ at the end.

“Right.
Let’s go meet the platoon commanders.”

The
command trailer was laid out in two sections. As you came through the door
in the middle of the trailer, the operational section was to the right, a
dozen communications consoles and computer terminals lining the walls, with
a large table in the middle, covered with a map of Jackson Square. Four or
five of the consoles and terminals were manned by a Security Force
trooper.

To
the left was a short hallway with a bathroom to the right. The hall opened
into a small conference room, half a dozen chairs around a table. Beyond
that was a small office with two desks and another door. The office on the
other side of that door was relatively spacious, with a large desk, a
smaller desk and a cot.

“That’s
your office, sir,” Bristow said as we stood in the doorway. “And Miss
Takeda’s too, of course. My lieutenant and I will work in the outside
office. Platoon lieutenants will be in the field with their
units.”

“They’re
on their way?”

He
nodded. “Just checking their dispositions. They should be here in five
minutes or so.”

“Somebody
is getting Captain Mutz as well?”

“Yes,
sir. I believe Lt. Alvarez is doing that.”

“Good.”
We sat down at the conference table. I’d already laid my copy of the
security plan there, with my notes.

“I
understand you had to issue a personal correction to Jake Stein earlier,” he
said.

I
nodded. “The lieutenant was a little over-eager with his interpretation of
the orders,” I said. “Like a certain captain we both used to
know.”

“Yeah,
Lt. Stein was promoted by the late Captain Hill. I guess he saw something of
himself in Stein. Hopefully not too much.”

“It
wasn’t a big deal and I don’t want anybody mentioning it to Miss Takeda.
This is my command. I’ll handle discipline, when required, my own
way.”

“Yes,
sir,” he said. “I also understand that you’ve requested Trooper Carlita
Martinez be assigned to the command platoon as your personal
aide.”

I
nodded. “Is that a problem for you, Sid?”

He
shook his head. “Not for me, sir. Martinez is a fine trooper. That deer
would have gotten through the perimeter fence no matter who was guarding the
sector.”

“Then
we’re agreed. She served her time in the doghouse. Case closed.”

“As
I said, not a problem for me,” he said. “If I’d been her company commander,
she would have gotten no more than a verbal reprimand, if that. But I’m not
assigned to the Operations Center. It was Captain Reed who approved her
platoon commander’s recommendation.” He was silent for a moment, then said,
“Her platoon commander is Lt. Stein.”

I
laughed softly. “That’s just perfect.”

Down
the hall, I heard the front door open and tromping feet headed in our
direction. Four Security Force lieutenants and Jimmy Mutz came into the
room. The lieutenants gave me a quick salute before they sat. Jimmy just
smiled as he slid into a chair.

“Gentlemen,
this is Charlie Welles. He will be in command of daytime operations for this
assignment. He was selected personally by General Bain.” Bristow nodded to
each of the lieutenants in turn. “Lieutenant Stein, First Platoon.
Lieutenant Grenowski, Second Platoon. Lieutenant Alvarez, Third Platoon.
Lieutenant Meyers, Command Platoon and my second. And Captain James Mutz,
Downtown District, Metro police.”

“Gentlemen,”
I said, standing. “This security plan...” I tapped the folder on the
conference table. “...is shit. We’re going to have to rework it and we’re
going to have to do it fast.”

Stein
was frowning, Alvarez and Jimmy were smiling, and the other two were
watching Bristow, looking for their cue on how to react.

“In
a perfect world, we could tell Ambassador Heymann to stay in his trailer.” I
paused. “This is not that perfect world. We have to assume that he will want
to meet visitors in groups larger than one or two, and that he’ll want to
leave the trailer and meet with people in the square, perhaps
elsewhere.”

I
slammed my hand on the folder. “There are no procedures here for groups of
more than two. There are no procedures here for protecting the ambassador
while he’s on foot in Jackson Square. There are no procedures here for
protecting him while in transit, or after he reaches his destination
elsewhere in the city.”

“We
have three threats to counter, “I said. “First, the lone crazy who wants to
kill the ambassador. I consider it unlikely, but we have to be prepared.
Second, the Resistance.” I paused. “You probably call them bandits. Whatever
you call them, they are a threat, one that may came in the form of an
individual attack similar to the lone crazy or a full-scale assault on the
ambassador’s trailer.”

I
was silent for a moment, then said, “The third threat is from within the
vampire command structure. It may take the form of an individual or a small
group, human or vampire. This threat is serious. They will be highly
motivated and highly trained. They will be assassins, gentlemen. Not
civilians, not Resistance fighters, not soldiers. Assassins.”

“And
they’ll be hard to stop,” Bristow said. “They’ll know our procedures and our
standard dispositions in this kind of assignment.”

“So
how do we stop them?” Alvarez asked.

I
smiled. “By not doing things the Security Force way. By doing them my
way.”

As
we talked and in some cases argued, for the better part of the next hour, I
got a good feel for the personality of the lieutenants. Stein was least
flexible, the one who lobbied for more men and a tighter cordon around the
square. Alvarez was most open to new ideas. And he came up with a couple of
his own, good ones.