Night and Day (Book 2): Bleeding Sky (28 page)

“That
will be helpful,” she said.

I
nodded. Then I remembered something else Shuster had said. “Where is your
team, Brenner?”

“My
team?” He glanced at Takeda. She nodded, almost imperceptibly.

“He
said something that makes me think your team might be a target. Where are
they?”

“Apartment
on Grand,” he said. I saw Takeda stiffen. “Wanted them close by. You know,
if something went down in Jackson Square.”

“2173
Grand?” Takeda asked softly.

Brenner
turned to her and nodded. Before the nod was done, she was in motion. We all
followed.

“Secure
this location,” she said to the Security Force sergeant standing at the foot
of the steps. He saluted as we went past.

Takeda
jumped into the Hummer and Brenner got in the passenger seat, leaving the
back seat for me and Martinez. We were barely inside when Takeda threw it
into reverse, rolled back in a circle, then floored it.

“Guide
me,” she said to Brenner as she pulled the microphone from the dashboard and
keyed it. “This is Takeda. Patch me through to Lieutenant Robinson of the
Metro police.”

“Turn
left on First and go through the square,” Brenner said.

“Alternate
route,” she spat. “No checkpoints.” She made a wide turn onto First, and I
was thrown almost on top of Martinez.

I
straightened and said, “Turn at the next right, go a block, turn left on St.
Joseph and bypass the square.”

She
nodded and made the turn, tires squealing.

“This
is Lieutenant Lisa Robinson,” I heard from the dashboard speaker.

“Takeda,”
she said into the mic. “Did your men investigate the address on Grand
Street?”

“Yeah,
they checked it. Saw some blood on the stoop and made entry. They’ve got a
crime scene there. A lot of bodies. A detective unit is
responding.”

“And
when were you going to tell me this, lieutenant?” Takeda asked. “Out.” She
let the microphone fall from her hand.

Takeda
turned onto St. Joseph. We hurtled south, passing cars and dodging on-coming
traffic. I saw one of the on-coming cars swerve into a light pole. Takeda
never took her eyes off the road.

As
we turned left onto Grand, I could see the blue lights of the patrol cars
ahead. Takeda raced toward them and jammed on the breaks just before we got
there, skidding to a stop a couple of feet from the bumper of the nearest
police car.

We
got out of the Hummer as one of the uniforms came toward us. “This is a
crime scene...” he began.

“Area
Governor’s Office,” Takeda said. “Stand down and move back.”

Brenner
ignored them and went up the steps, disappearing through the open door. Over
the patrolman’s shoulder, I saw an unmarked police car pull to the curb. Two
detectives got out. I knew the driver, McAllister.

The
detectives ambled toward us. McAllister’s eyes met mine. “What’s going on,
Welles?”

“Takeda,
Area Governor’s Office,” she said as she started for the steps. “Have your
officers stand down and return to their vehicles.”

“Ma’am,
this is a police crime scene,” McAllister said. “Our jurisdiction, not
yours.”

Takeda
paused at the foot of the stairs. “Move your men back,
detective.”

“I
can’t do that, ma’am,” he said.

She
pulled her phone from the pocket of her long black coat and raised it to her
face. “Takeda,” she said. “I want a squad at 2173 Grand Street immediately.
Tactical Level 1, lethal force is authorized.”

McAllister
watched her, but didn’t move.

“And
I want District Chief Muldoon at this location in five minutes. Tell him
that if he’s late, he will have four dead policemen and I will have his
head.” She stared at McAllister. “Get your men to their cars, detective.
Now.”

He
held his ground for maybe ten seconds. More than I would have, but then, I
know Takeda.

Then
he took a couple of steps back. “Okay, guys, everybody back to your units
and standby for further instructions.”

“Thank
you, detective,” she said softly.

We
watched as the cops went back to their cars, giving us dirty looks as they
did. A few seconds later, a pair of Humvees came around the corner on First.
Eight troopers came out of them, their weapons ready. The cops looked at
them, then got in their cars and closed the doors.

“Secure
this area,” Takeda said to the corporal who approached and saluted. “If the
police officers attempt to leave their vehicles, kill them all.”

“That’s
a little harsh, don’t you think?” I asked.

Takeda
was silent for a moment, then nodded. “You are correct.” She turned to the
corporal. “If the police officers attempt to leave their vehicles, instruct
them to remain inside or face death. If they ignore your orders, then kill
them.”

He
saluted. “Yes, sir.”

She
turned and started up the steps. Martinez and I were right behind
her.

“What
about Muldoon?” I asked.
 

“I
disconnected the call before I gave that instruction,” she said. “I will
speak to Chief Muldoon and Lt. Robinson later.”

Brenner
was waiting for us in the open doorway at the top of the steps. “My entire
team is dead,” he said. “And there are a couple of extra
bodies.”

Chapter
Seventeen

“Sweet
Jesus,” Martinez whispered as we came inside.

The
room was filled with the coppery smell of blood and death. I counted five
bodies scattered around the living room. Human and vampire. It was easy to
tell which was which. The humans had bled.

“There’s
another at the end of the hall,” Brenner said.

I
looked over my shoulder at Martinez and Takeda. “Stay right here and don’t
wander around the crime scene,” I said. “I want to see if I can reconstruct
what happened.” I turned to Brenner. “Okay, which ones are
yours?”

He
pointed. “McKenzie,” he said. “Vampire. Hatcher. Human. Reynolds. Vampire.
Down the hall, Simmons. Human.”

I
followed his finger. “Okay, so we have one extra human and one extra
vampire.” I paused. “You run teams of either three or five, according to
Miss Takeda.”

He
nodded. “I had a five man team.”

“And
Shuster had three in his,” I said. “He’s the only one who made it out of
here.” It explained the dried blood on the laundry hamper in my apartment.
There was plenty of it to pick up in this room.

“I
think I recognize this guy,” he said, nudging a body on the floor with the
toe of his boot. “Clarke. Human. Special Collections, Area
Seven.”

“So
he pulled from more than one area for his team.”

Brenner
nodded. “We’ll ID the other one pretty quick. My guess is the dead vampire
from another area entirely.” He paused. “Makes sense, though. Pull
operatives from different areas, less chance somebody notices it. I did the
same thing.”

“Why?”

“Because
I knew I’d probably be facing my own people. No reason to give the other
team your stats.”

I
stepped over the bodies and peered down the hall. I could make out the
corpse on the floor near the end. He was face down.

“What’s
the layout in the back of the apartment?” I asked.

“Kitchen,
bathroom, two bedrooms, one on either side of the hall. Vampires bunked to
the right, humans to the left.”

“Okay,”
I said, coming back to where he stood. “When was the last time you were
here?”

“About
nine o’clock tonight,” he said. “Woke up, got dressed, went to the command
trailer to meet with Commander Takeda, see what she’d found out about the
guy you know as Shuster.”

“Where
was the rest of your team at that point?”

“Everybody
was in the living room when I left,” he said. “Shift change. McKenzie and
Reynolds were relieving the other two.”

“Would
Hatcher and Simmons have gone to bed?”

“Eventually,”
Brenner said. “Normally everybody hung out here in the living room for an
hour or two. Shoot the shit, watch some TV, that kind of thing.”

“Right,”
I said. “I think it’s safe to say that Shuster’s team came in through the
front door. And it probably wasn’t long after you left. Definitely within
that hour or two when they’d all be gathered in the living room.”

“And
he wasn’t worried about getting all of us. Specifically, he wasn’t worried
about getting me.”

“What
do you mean?”

“They
knew where we were. They’d have this safehouse under observation. So they
knew the routine and knew I was gone.” He turned to Takeda. “You should have
some men check the apartments on this block. Walkups, apartments where they
could come and go easily without running into nosy neighbors in the
hall.”

“You
think they were right here?” I asked.

“Yeah,
observation post. Probably not their safehouse. Special Collections is a
fairly small community. Too much chance of them getting recognized coming
and going if they lived on the same street as us.”

Takeda
nodded. “Is it possible that Shuster is there?”

Brenner
shook his head. “Not with those cops here,” he said. “If it’s an observation
post, he’d have no reason to come back. And even if it is a safehouse, he’d
have seen the cops and known that he was
burned.”
 

“Understood,” Takeda
said. She turned and left the apartment.

“So
why wouldn’t they do this when they could get all of you?” I asked. “If they
were watching, like you said, why not strike while you were still
here?”

“Opportunity,”
he replied. “They were two humans and a vampire. They could only operate at
full strength after dark. I’m out of here less than half an hour after
sundown. Not enough time to factor in activity on the street or other
variables.”

“And
when you came home tomorrow morning?”

He
shook his head. “Time limit. What are they going to do when the sun rises,
stay in the apartment and hope that nobody stops by to see to see Hatcher
and Simmons?” He smiled. “You have no concept of how frightening the sun is
to vampires, Charlie. We last maybe twenty seconds in sunlight, and our
bodies seize up in the first three of those seconds.”

“Then
what happens?” Martinez asked. “Do you catch fire?”

Brenner
laughed. “You’ve seen too many vampire movies, sergeant,” he said. “No, we
just die. The blood dies. And we go along with it. It’s terrifying to us.
And almost as terrifying is the idea of being trapped with the sun outside
and no place to run.”

“So
they had to take what they could get,” I said.

“Yeah.
Most of my team.”

“Two
humans and a vampire against two vampires and two humans doesn’t seem like
good odds.”

“They’re
not,” he said. “And this guy Shuster was lucky he survived. I don’t think
they knew they were going up against four. They probably thought it would be
two.”

“What
do you mean?”

“Three
is the standard team size. Two humans and a vampire, two vampires and a
human, depending on the job. Shuster’s team was set up to operate primarily
in the day time, which makes sense. Heymann is human.”

“And
you had a five man team,” I said. “Leaving four behind when you left instead
of two.”

He
nodded. “Yeah, because I’m dealing with a potential human or vampire threat,
I decided to beef up the team and add one more of each, to give us more
flexibility.”

“And
they wouldn’t know that because your team stayed inside all the time. You
were the only one who came and went.”

“Right.”

“Okay,
so it’s nine o’clock or so. Their observer, probably Clarke, the human, sees
you leave. What does he do?”

“Contacts
Shuster, tells him I’m gone. Or if they definitely planned to hit us
tonight, which is the more likely scenario, they’re all at the observation
post already. They see me leave, they pick a time when the street is quiet,
and they make their move.”

“So
they pick the lock on the front door or kick it in or whatever.”

Brenner
looked over his shoulder at the open door. “It’s not damaged, so they
probably popped the lock.”

“They
come inside, guns blazing. Hatcher, human, more vulnerable to gunfire, goes
down quickly. Simmons makes a break down the hall and gets a bullet in the
back. What’s he going for?”

“Special
weapons,” Brenner said after a moment’s pause. “Automatic rifles, grenade
launchers, even a couple of sniper rifles. We keep our gear in the bedrooms
so we can come out shooting if there’s trouble. The rest of the time,
everybody just carries personal sidearms.”

“Too
bad Shuster didn’t wait for Hatcher and Simmons to go to bed,” I said. “So
now it’s three on two.” I paused. “Or probably two on two. McKenzie and
Reynolds would have tried to take out the humans first, for the same reason
Shuster’s team did, right? Eliminate the most vulnerable targets and even
the odds.”