“Hooah. Rock out.”
Church made similar calls to the other teams. It was only Toys’s guess that Grigor would be coming to Aghajari. It was closest; Grigor’s Kingdom of Shadows was a mile below Tehran. However, all of the teams had to be prepared to encounter Upierczi.
When he was done he called the president.
As he ended that call, Bug rang through.
“Okay, Boss,” said Bug, “here goes. Oil refineries by nation are as follows. For I we have Iran, Iraq, Israel, and Indonesia, Ireland, and Italy. By ‘J’ we got Japan, Jordan, and Jamaica. And for S we have South Africa, Sudan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Korea, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland, and Suriname. But like you said, this mixes things from the order of the codes.”
Church pursed his lips. “Give me all the countries that start with those letters.”
“For I we have nine countries: Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, and Italy. For the ‘ J s’ we have six: Jamaica, Jan Mayen, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Juan de Nova Island. And the big list is ‘ S ’: Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia and Montenegro, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, and Syria.”
“Did you run it through the CT package?”
“Got it, sending it to you now.”
There were multiple potential targets on the list from the counterterrorism software package, but MindReader was designed to look for patterns and probabilities. It weighted its choices, and at the top of each list was the most likely target, the one that would have the greatest economic, social, cultural, or political impact.
Church scanned the list.
“My God,” he said.
Lilith saw it too. And then Circe.
Rudy and Bug said, “What?”
And then they saw it.
“This isn’t about the Holy Agreement,” murmured Circe in a small, shocked voice. “They may have wanted the bombs for some purpose before 9/11, but this has nothing to do with that.”
“No,” said Church. “This is about the Upierczi. They are without doubt the ones with the bombs.”
“But why?” demanded Rudy.
“They were monsters and slaves for centuries,” Lilith said in a hollow voice. “They had become weak and almost died out. Now they are stronger than they ever were. Much, much stronger.”
“But-”
“We are about to go to war with a new nuclear power. The vampire nation.”
Chapter One Hundred Fifteen
Aghajari Oil Refinery
Iran
June 16, 6:16 a.m.
There were thirty or forty of them standing at the edges of the spill of light, but I could see indistinct shapes moving in the darkness. More of them. Many more.
Their ranks parted and one of them walked toward me. He was taller and more muscular than the others. His skin was milk white, his eyes the color of bright blood. He wore black clothes and a crystal teardrop on a silver chain. In the center of the teardrop was a brilliant ruby.
I aimed my gun at him, but I heard soft, furtive footsteps on either side of me. And behind me.
The lead Upier studied me for a moment. Around him his people were whispering to each other: “White dog… white dog!” They all made their protective signs, touching hearts and tracing lines on their eyes.
Their leader half turned and silenced them with a growl like a wolf. The silence was immediate. He turned slowly back to me, and a slow, broad smile spread over his hideous face.
“I know who you are,” he said in a voice that was every bit as cold as a Halloween wind. “You are Captain Ledger.”
And I said, “Oh shit.”
It is never going to be good news if a vampire knows your name.
“You are a traitor to your own people,” he said, “and an enemy of mine.”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
“Our friend told us,” he said, smiling so that I could see his teeth. Those teeth were scaring the living hell out of me. “He said that you conspired with Rasouli and the Red Order to keep us in chains.”
“I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about, pal. I’m here to keep this bomb from going boom. When I’m done with that, we can sit down with a latte and talk about it.”
I’ve always marveled at my own ability to be a smart-ass when there is neither a good reason to be one or time to screw around. It’s way high on my list of character flaws.
“Do you know who we are?” asked the leader. The other vampires had me completely surrounded. Ghost whimpered and shivered beside me.
“At a guess? Grigor, chief bloodsucker of the Upierczi,” I said.
He didn’t blink, just gave me a nod of approval.
“Then you’ll know what an honor it is to die by my hand.”
“That’s actually not on my day planner.”
His eyes cut left and right. “Bring him to me.”
The Red Knights closed on me.
“Ghost- hit! ” I yelled, but Ghost simply stood there. Trembling, drooling with terror. His bladder let loose and he peed all over the floor. Again.
Not exactly the response I was hoping for.
The Upierczi stared for a two count, and then they all burst out laughing.
“Oh shit,” I breathed.
The closest Upier darted in and kicked Ghost in the side. It looked like a light kick, but it lifted Ghost’s hundred pounds and flung him against the side of the bomb case. Ghost slammed into the hard metal with a terrible yelp of pain, rebounded, and fell. He lay whimpering on the floor.
The vampires laughed and laughed at Ghost, but they were looking at me. Red eyes and red mouths surrounded me.
I pivoted and shot the Upier who had kicked Ghost. I hit him in the balls because I wanted him to suffer. He screamed and fell, and the bullet punched all the way through him and hit another Upier in the thigh. Two down. Their screams were so high, so shrill that it wiped the leering smiles from every face.
I liked the effect, so I kept shooting.
I wanted Grigor, but two Upierczi threw themselves into the path of the gunfire and died for their king.
I shot the gun dry, and in the confusion I swapped out the magazines.
But I never had a chance to fire the gun. A pale figure moved toward me with such insane speed that I couldn’t bring the barrel to bear. Grigor. He swatted the Beretta out of my hand and it went spinning away.
He grabbed a handful of my shirt and pulled me toward him. I used the impetus to hook a palm-heel shot across his temple. It turned his head but it didn’t drop him with a sprained neck like it should have. All that I accomplished was to shake loose of his grip, though as we staggered apart the whole front of my shirt tore away, exposing the Kevlar vest beneath.
With a snarl he darted forward and punched me square in the center of the chest. The blow slammed into me like a cruise missile and literally plucked me off the ground and hurled me ten feet through the air. I hit the flat front of the bomb housing near where Ghost had struck, and a twenty-one-gun salute burst along my spine. My feet landed flat but my knees buckled and I went down hard on my kneecaps and then fell forward onto my palms.
One punch.
