Operation (32 page)

“Perhaps, I don’t,” she mused, “but I do over him,” she said indicating Barkley. “If you try and spray me he will use that machete on you.”

Reese turned toward Barkley. His facial expression appeared confused and dazed. The machete in his hands trembled as if he was undergoing some internal struggle for control.

“Leave her alone, John,” he said in a voice that trembled and sounded unsure.

“Sam, give me the machete,” Reese said trying to keep his voice calm and even. Sam’s eyes remained focused upon Christina.

“He will only do as I say,” Christina said, her voice confident and sure. “We are, as you say, at a stalemate.”

“I don’t think so,” Reese said. “Before he can kill me, I will spray the elixir on you and you will die.”

“Are you really going to gamble upon your quickness over mine?” said Christina. “You should know better, John.”

“I should know better about many things,” said Reese as he looked upon Christina. “But this is one thing I am sure about. You may have used me before with your hypnotic abilities, but this time it’s different. You will allow Samantha to place the collar upon you or you will die.”

“Idle threat,” Christina said. “You can never kill me.”

“Now who is gambling?” asked Reese. “Are you so sure that you’re right this time? You used me and misled me. I thought you loved me but I know that was all a ruse and nothing more.”

The smile from Christina’s face faded slightly as she appeared to comprehend what Reese has just said.

Reese glanced over at Sam. His body was trembling; perspiration was pasted upon his forehead as he struggled to maintain some form of control over his body. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen soon, one way or the other.

“Before Sam can kill me, I will get off some elixir,” Reese said, “that will give Samantha enough time to get the collar on you. So either way you lose.”

Reese saw the effect that his statement had on Christina. Her facial features became stern and the red glow in her eyes became more intense. It was so intense, that even Reese wasn’t sure if she was getting ready to attack or if she was going to allow them to proceed. “Put the collar on her now,” said Reese to Samantha as he struggled to keep his voice even.

Samantha didn’t move. She appeared to be frozen, her eyes wide with fear. “Samantha! Move! Put the collar on her now!” Reese said firmly.

His voice apparently woke Samantha from her fear. She moved quickly placing the collar upon the vampire. During the process, Christina’s eyes never left Reese.

Reese didn’t breathe until he heard the metallic click of the collar as it closed tightly around Christina’s neck. When the collar was on, Reese heard the sound of a heavy thump. He looked to where Sam had been standing only moments before and saw that he was now lying on the floor.

“Put her with the others,” Reese said to Samantha. “I’ll take care of Sam.”

“Revenge will be sweet and painful for you,” Christina said, “that I promise you.”

“Shut up!” Samantha said to Christina. “You and the others will follow our orders or you will die!”

“I escaped your control once, I will do it again,” said Christina her voice sounding like a snarl of an animal.

“Not this time,” Samantha said as she pressed the orange button on the remote control device she held in her hand. Christina writhed violently upon her bed for several seconds. When her seizure subsided, Samantha spoke, “Now you see what the collar can do. That was only a small amount of the elixir.” Christina didn’t say anything. But the meaning in the look she gave Samantha was clearly evident.

“Now get up and let’s go,” Samantha said forcefully.

As Samantha led Christina out of the room, Reese kneeled down next to Sam. “Sam, can you hear me?”

“What the hell was that all about?” said Sam. “One minute I’m standing here next to the bed and then I’m somewhere else, with her,” he said indicating the now empty bed. “What happened?”

“Oh, not too much,” Reese said, “you were merely ready to cut my head off with the machete, but other than that everything is fine now.”

Sam gave Reese a disbelieving look. “You’ve got to be shitting me?”

“I wish I was, Sam. It was very close for a few moments there, even I wasn’t sure what Christina was going to do, but Samantha got the collar on her and now she is taking her to join the others.”

“God damn it!” Sam said. “This plan of yours better work, John.”

“I hope so too,” said Reese. “It sure looked convincing. Christina even had me wondering what was going to happen, Samantha probably bought it.”

“So now what?” Sam asked.

“We made it through the first part, but now we move onto the second which is the hardest part. If we screw up one thing, the whole plan will backfire. So we have to make sure we get it right.”

“Amen to that,” Sam said.

C
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After Samantha placed Christina with Dimitri and André, she rejoined Reese in the main meeting area of the underground cavern. “How is Lieutenant Colonel Barkley doing?” she asked.

“He’s okay, just a little shaken up. How are you doing?”

“I’m fine,” she said, “I was a little nervous back there. For a moment, I didn’t know if she was going to have Barkley use that machete on you or not.”

“That makes two of us,” he said. “But luckily it worked.”

“Yes it did,” she said, the exuberance of the outcome was evident in her voice. “Tell me, would you have sprayed her?”

“In a heartbeat,” he said without hesitation. “Now that they no longer have control over me, I hate them for the way they used me.”

“How can we prevent that from happening again?” she asked. “We need to be sure that they never get control again.”

“Sam and I learned that people on certain drugs are not susceptible to their influence. So he thinks he can come up with something that will deaden that part of the brain. I’ve read that some people, such as yourself, have a natural block to their influence, otherwise Christina would have used it on you.”

“How long will it take to develop?” she asked.

“Not long, he’s already on it.”

Her face took on a curious expression, “You seem to have changed your opinion of these creatures,” she stated.

“If they had taken you and forced you to do their bidding, wouldn’t you feel the same way?” Reese said the anger in his voice evident. “I was nothing more than a tool for them to get what they wanted. When they were done with me they would have simply killed me. So yeah, I hate them!”

“Yes. I suppose I would feel the same way.” She paused for a few seconds before going on. “And now you have the opportunity to do the same with them.”

“Are you offering me a job?” he asked.

“If you want the job, it’s yours,” she said. “I need someone with your talents, someone who knows and understands the motivations of these creatures. We have a job to do John because this world is a terrible place. Now we have the opportunity to fix everything that’s wrong and make it right.”

“You’re really serious about this aren’t you?” he asked.

“Oh yes John. I’m quite serious about this. I’ve been planning it for a long, long time and now I can see it all coming to fruition. You and I can do this. That is, as long as you have the stomach for it.”

“You say, you and I, does that mean people like General Morris will not be included in this little plan of yours?”

“Like you said earlier, John, Morris has his plans, and I have mine. After what I’ve seen here today, I think we can do just fine on our own.”

“We will need some support staff types,” said Reese. “Lieutenant Colonel Barkley would be perfect for this.”

“We can discuss all of it later John. First things first, you said earlier that we should probably get all the vampires located in this compound. Do you still feel that this is the best plan?”

“The sooner we get them out of General Morris’s hands, the better off we’ll be. The longer he has them, the more ideas he will get on how to use them. That would endanger your own plans for them, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes. Yes it would,” she agreed.

“Do you think you can get them moved here tonight?” he asked.

She thought for a few seconds before answering. “He has possession,” she said, “even with my authority in this matter, questions will be asked and that might not be a good thing. It might be difficult if he doesn’t want to give them up unless I bring in more personnel to assist.”

“I don’t think we need any more people involved,” Reese asserted. “We still have an advantage.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“They don’t know that we have captured these three and as far as they know, we are still on the same side. We could just tell them we are taking them to be interrogated or on a training mission or something. Whatever story that gets them out of the way.”

“And if they don’t buy it?” she asked.

“Then we go to the back-up plan,” he said.

“And that is?”

“We take them by force.”

C
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He had some time to kill, so Reese went to the area the vampires were being held in their mock captivity. He entered the room and found Dimitri and Christina in conversation. The sight of the two sitting so close to one another, almost intimate in appearance, shot a bolt of jealousy through Reese. He tried to contain the feeling as he cleared his thoughts and pushed aside his mixed feelings about her. He tried, but many of those feelings refused to be pushed aside.

He thought how she had been with him, the intimacy that they had shared and how he could have missed all the signs that she was a vampire. He remembered her caressing touch and contrasted it with her appearance of a few hours ago when she threatened to have Barkley take his head off. The image of the inflamed eyes and the extended canine vampire teeth along with her threats of death resonated in his thoughts.

He cleared his throat. Both of them looked at him. Reese had never thought of it before, but their similar geographical physical characteristics made them appear almost as brother and sister. Neither one spoke, but rather just stared at him with questioning expressions. Reese found himself focusing on the collars they wore around their necks. The sight reminding him of the beginning of the original mission.

“Samantha is on her way to the compound,” he said, breaking the silence.

Dimitri and Christina separated, taking seats at opposite ends of the table that sat in one corner of the room. Andre sat off to the side examining a computer screen ignoring everyone else.

“So we wait,” Dimitri began, “to see if your plan will work. I have my doubts that she will be able to get them out so easily.” He rubbed at the collar that he wore. “I forgot how uncomfortable these things are.”

“It’s all we have for the moment,” Reese replied, ignoring the obvious dig about the collar. His eyes kept drifting toward Christina who sat at the table with her hands folded in front of her and her eyes focused upon them. He wanted to wait for an opportunity to talk to her; however, those opportunities were beginning to fade quicker with every passing hour. Reese continued, “But if she can’t get them out, then we will have to go in. All of us.”

“It will be…interesting,” Dimitri said as he stood from the chair. He looked at Reese for several seconds and then at Christina. “Andre,” Dimitri called, “we need to…” he hesitated, looking a bit uncomfortable, “we need to check the compound to see if there is any equipment we may need.”

Andre looked at Dimitri, his face briefly betraying his confusion at Dimitri’s request. They exchanged a quick glance and then Andre rose from the table he was sitting at and moved toward the door.

“We will be back later,” Dimitri said to Reese.

They left the room without another sound. Reese knew that what Dimitri had just done was to allow him time to talk with Christina alone. They knew each other too well, he thought.

He directed his gaze toward Christina. So much had happened over the last twelve hours that changed everything he’d been feeling and believing. He’d been waiting all this time to talk to her and now that the time was here, he found it hard to begin. There was so much he wanted to say, but so little he knew how to express. He was angry at her and yet still felt the attraction he had since the moment he realized he cared for her. He had questions, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answers. There was so much he wanted to say and no clue where to begin.

“Christina,” Reese finally said. “Why? Why didn’t you tell me?”

She raised her gaze to meet his. “Tell you what, John?” she asked. “That I was a vampire? That I was an assassin for your government? Or that I wanted to learn what you knew about others of my kind?”

“All of it,” he replied.

“And what would you have done?” she asked. “Would you have understood my motivations? Would you have still wanted to make love to a creature of the night that preys on others?”

Reese paused and then said, “If you had given me the chance I …”

“What? You would have changed your mind about my kind? Do you think you could have understood what it was that drove me to do what I have done?”

“I don’t know what your kind is capable of emotionally.”

“Do you wish to study me?” she said sharply. “Is this a continuation of your research? Is that what I am?”

“No! Damn it! Please listen to me!” shouted Reese. “Can you imagine how I felt when I learned you were a vampire? You know enough about me to understand that I don’t give in to my emotions. It’s not the way I am. But with you I opened my heart to feelings that I thought I could never have again. If you had told me perhaps it would have been easier than hearing it from the lips of Samantha the psychotic spook!”

“Would that have really changed anything, John? Would that have softened the facts about what I have done?”

“The past is the past,” he said.

“Not with you. For you,” she began, “the past is your life. You make it your reality. You give it the power to create your fears. It haunts you John.”