returned his gaze to Jamie. “Your father was one of my closest friends,” he said. “Did you know that? No, of course you didn’t. But he was. When I joined the Department he was already a legend. He was one of our finest operators. For it to end the way it did…”
Jamie waited for the admiral to say more, feeling the heat beneath his skin, pushing his anger as deep as he was able, but the old man appeared to have finished. The glaze had returned to his eyes, and he seemed to be lost in his memories, remembering better days. When Jamie could take the silence no longer, he tried a new approach.
“What about my mother?” he asked in a low voice. “Why didn’t she tell me the truth about what Dad really did? After he died, I mean.”
Frankenstein spoke in a low rumbling voice, like a landslide. “She never knew anything about Department 19. It’s forbidden to tell anyone that it exists.”
“So he lied to her his whole life?”
“Yes,” said Frankenstein. His vast face was expressionless, but his eyes never left Jamie’s.
“It’s not so unusual,” said Seward, and the teenager and the monster turned their attention back to the wide desk. “All the Security Services require it: MI5, SIS. And Blacklight is classified far beyond either of them.”
“So how come I would have been asked to join?” Jamie asked. “Don’t you have to be selected, like for the SAS?”
A flicker of admiration passed across the admiral’s face, and he nodded. “You’re very sharp, Jamie,” he replied, “just like your father was. The document that founded Department 19 entrusted the protection of the Empire to the five founder members and their descendants, in perpetuity. It was later amended to include your family. Over the years, we’ve needed to expand way beyond just the members of six families, and those men and women we draw from the armed forces, the police, the Security Services, just as you suggested. But descendants of the six families listed in the original document are always asked to join, automatically. A tradition that has served us well; a descendant of the founders has headed Blacklight during every year of her history, from Professor Van Helsing’s founding reign until now, when the honor has fallen to me.”
Curiosity temporarily pushed concern for his mother from Jamie’s mind.
“Were any of my family ever in charge?” he asked.
Admiral Seward sighed. “No,” he said, and his voice, which had swelled with passion as he talked about the history of Department 19, now sounded deflated. “That was part of the problem.”
“What problem?”
Admiral Seward’s gaze flicked toward Frankenstein, and Jamie followed it. The huge man’s jaw was clenched tight, the veins in his neck standing out, but he nodded.
“All right,” the admiral said, a resigned look on his face. “I suppose it’s better you hear this from me than from one of the soldiers.”
“Hear what?” Jamie asked, knowing as he did so that he didn’t really want Seward to answer.
“Two years ago, the day before he died, your father betrayed us. There was an attack, here at the Loop, and a number of men were killed. The attack was carried out by Alexandru, the same vampire who took your mother last night, who ordered Larissa to kill you. Your father gave him the information that allowed it to happen.”
A terrible icy cold crawled up Jamie’s spine and into the back of his head.
Impossible. There’s no way Dad would have done that. Impossible.
“I don’t believe you,” he said, his voice little more than a growl.
“I know it must be hard for you to hear this-”
“No. It’s not,” interrupted Jamie. “It’s easy. You’re wrong.”
Seward looked at Frankenstein. “You see? He’s too young to understand this.”
“I’m not too young,” said Jamie. “I just don’t believe you.” He looked at Frankenstein and continued. “There were things in our garden the night Dad died. I saw Larissa through our front-room window. There were vampires there just before he was shot. If he sold you out to them, why were they there?”
“There were no reports of any supernatural activity in the area around your house that night,” said Frankenstein, softly. “There were-”
“I don’t want to hear this!” cried Jamie, his voice suddenly loud in the small room. “I don’t want to hear any more. Why are you saying this to me?” He turned to Admiral Seward. “You told me he was your friend. Why are you saying this about him?”
“I was his friend,” replied Seward, but he dropped his eyes to his desk, unable to meet Jamie’s furious gaze.
“I was his closest friend, Jamie,” said Frankenstein. “I knew him for almost twenty years. What he did broke my heart. But it’s the truth.”
“But why? Why would he do it? You said he was a legend. Why would he have done it?”
“A year before he died, he led a mission into Hungary,” Frankenstein replied. “He was following a lead on Alexandru. When your father’s team arrived at an estate outside Budapest, Alexandru was gone, but his wife, Ilyana, was still there. Julian destroyed her and brought the team home. But he knew Alexandru would stop at nothing to have his revenge-on Julian and on you and your mother. So he made a deal; he sacrificed us so you would be safe.”
Frankenstein looked down at Jamie, and the teenager was shocked to see tears pooling in the corners of the monster’s eyes.
“I don’t feel very safe,” he replied. “I really don’t. If he made a deal with Alexandru, what happened yesterday?”
Admiral Seward answered him. “I think we can assume that Alexandru is no longer honoring it.”
“But in the tree. The night he died, there were-”
Seward slammed his hand down on the desktop, and everyone jumped.
“Enough!” shouted the director. “That’s enough. Documents were found, documents in which Julian very eloquently-and at great length-described his hatred for the founders, for the way he believed his family, your family, had been treated over the years. He betrayed us, and good men died, men who deserved better. So you can see why not everyone in this base is pleased to see you and why finding your mother is not a high priority.”
A thick red fog descended over Jamie’s vision, and he was up and out of his chair so quickly that Frankenstein didn’t have time to react. He flew across the room and lunged over the wide desk. The director shoved his chair backward, and Jamie’s fingers gripped empty air where Seward’s neck had been. Then he was pressed flat to the desktop as Frankenstein tackled him from behind, wrapping his arms tight against his sides. He was hauled upright and stared with blazing hatred into the beetroot face of Admiral Seward, who returned his gaze with one of utter fury.
“How dare you?” roared the director. “You little brat, how dare you?”
“My mother did nothing!” yelled Jamie. “She didn’t even know who my father really was, you said so yourself. And you would just let her die? Then let me die, too, trying to help her!”
“I can’t do that!” Seward shouted. “Much as I might like to at this moment.”
“Why not?”
“Because, you angry little child, you are a Carpenter, and no matter how much your father may have done to blacken that name, you are still a descendant, and it is still my duty to keep you safe, even from yourself!”
Jamie slumped in Frankenstein’s bear hug. His head was spinning.
It can’t be true. I won’t believe it. I won’t. He was my dad. I can’t believe it.
“What would you do?” continued Admiral Seward. “How would you get your mother back? You have no weapons, no training, and no plan. Did the vampire tell you where they have taken her?”
Jamie shook his lowered head. Frankenstein cautiously loosened his grip on the boy, and he stood unsteadily in front of the desk.
“No,” he said. “She says she doesn’t know.”
The admiral snorted. “Of course she knows,” he replied. “She’s just not telling you. Well, we can make her. Ten minutes, at the most.”
“I don’t think so. She doesn’t know where they were going. I believe her. I don’t see why she would be loyal to Alexandru after what he did to her.”
