Regenesis (Book 1): Impact (72 page)

“So
what do you do if you’re not looking for him?”

“I
do what Pyotr asks me to,” he muttered. “Or as much as I believe is sound to
do.”

“And
this is?”

He
nodded. “Cipriana is a murderer, a betrayer, a harlot, a sodomite, and another
handful or colorful words I would rather not rattle off at the moment.”

Rachel
stopped him and asked why Cipriana became the way she was.

They
were near an overpass with painted red columns with golden Chinese dragons on
them. He pulled her aside and agreed to reveal a bit more to her. “I mentioned
that Cipriana loved Constantine, correct? When he committed his crime against
humanity and left to begin his unnatural acts, Cipriana was one of the only
members of our group of friends who wanted to try to reason with him. Now,
neither I nor my comrades knew she loved him until years, rather, decades
later. She departed from our midst with the promise to find him and to possibly
act as a spy if needed, though it became evident much later that her promise
was a lie. Her search for Constantine took her across the world, through
different lives, nations, and cultures. I would imagine that over time she grew
impatient of seeking after him and allowed herself a few of the more carnal
things in this world, which over time grew to encompass anything she fancied.
She may even have lost her love for the man she set out to find.”

Rachel
frowned and asked if he doubted she was with Constantine. “It sounded like
Pyotr said she was with him, which could mean he is somewhere in the city,
right?”

Vladimir
said he was unsure, but doubted it. “If he was, Pyotr would be here with us
now. And if Constantine was here there would already be some form of disaster.”

“What
do you mean?”

“Constantine
brings death with him wherever he goes. When he was in Germany he aided in the
Holocaust, in Rwanda with the genocide there, and throughout the world in the
spread of disease, famine, and general death.” He saw her expression of disgust
and added, “If he was here there would be some dire matter at hand.”

“Then
do you think he could be in Africa? In one of the wars there?” she asked him.
“Or in the Middle East? Or–”

“Again,”
he stopped her, “I do not know.”

Vladimir
apologized and told her they needed to press on, but she stopped him and asked
if there was a simpler way for them to search for her. “Can’t you sense her
blood or something?”

He
shook his head and told her it wasn’t that simple. “There are too many people
here for starters, but more importantly, I do not know what her blood is like.”

“You
don’t?”

“No.
I gained my vampiric powers after she departed for India.”

“And
you haven’t seen her since?”

“I
have but since she has changed bodies her scent is useless to me now.”

Rachel
frowned and asked if he had any other skill he could use to find her. “You
can’t sense evil or anything, can you?”

He
sighed and said that wasn’t a part of his skill set. “Evil is something people
can sense when they are in tune with spiritual matters, or that’s what Pyotr
has told me.” Vladimir paused for a moment and examined Rachel. He cleared his
throat and asked how religious she was.

“Not
very,” she confessed. “I’ll go with my aunt on occasion, but–”

“Never
mind that,” he cut her off. “I still think this might work.”

“What
might?”

“Just
give me a moment to think this over…” he walked past her a few feet, stopped,
turned, walked back, stopped, turned, and repeated the process for a few more
paces before he stopped and asked her, “What do you think of me?”

“What
are you talking about?”

“Do
I feel different than other people you have met before?”

“I
don’t–”

“How
about Pyotr?” he quickly asked her. “How do you feel when he is near you?”

She
shrugged and said she felt at peace.

“And
when you are around me?”

“I
felt fine when I first met you, but now I only feel agitated.”

“Alright,”
he smiled. “After all the time we have spent in walking through this city I
believe I understand why Pyotr set us out alone and without any clues.”

“What
do you mean?”

“It
has to do with your power, or rather, another level within your power.” He
explained that some individuals are sensitive to energies that surround people
and can tell, often without a look, if a person is good or evil. “I believe you
have that power and that Pyotr set us out to discover this. Now, through all of
this aimless walking over the past few days, have you ever felt something that
bothered you to an exceeding limit? Have you felt something like a gripping
fear?”

She
paused and gave the matter some thought, but said she never felt anything like
that.

Vladimir
scowled as he tried to think of a better way to unlock her ability. He remained
still for a moment and had a second idea. “Close your eyes for a moment.” She
agreed and he turned her toward the little foot traffic on the other side of
the street and asked what she saw.

“I
don’t see anything,” she flatly told him.

“Besides
the obvious Rachel,” he sighed. “Now listen to me; there are people on the
sidewalk across the street, what do you feel from them?”

“What
do you mean?”

“Do
they make you happy? Sad? Angry? Anything?”

She
gave it a moment to sink in, but said she failed to feel anything from any of
them. “This isn’t working Vladimir.”

“It
will,” he told her. “Now listen, when your eyes are open you see the world as
it is, however you miss the second part of human beings when you see them only
with your eyes. The human soul is comprised of two things, which are a body of
flesh and blood, and a spirit. Your eyes see the body, but you can sense how
righteous or evil someone is when you try to feel them out with your heart. It
is something like how you feel at peace when Pyotr is nearby; since he is
righteous, you feel calm, which is a direct result of you being aware of his
spirit. So all you need to do is look past the simple flesh and blood you see
and look for the spirit within.”

Rachel
frowned and asked how he knew so much about that.

“It
is something Pyotr has mentioned before,” he revealed. “It was decades ago and
I thought nothing of it, but apparently I was wrong.”

“Okay,
but how am I supposed to see someone’s spirit?”

Vladimir
confessed that he did not know. “This is honestly something Pyotr is far better
suited to teach.”

“Then
why don’t we wait until he’s here to help?”

“Because
we have wasted enough time for one thing,” he whispered, “But something tells
me Pyotr planned for this.”

“But
I don’t know what to do,” she reminded him.

“You
have mentioned this before and it has yet to change,” he muttered. “Try to
imagine what the people have done in their lives, who they are, where they are
headed, both immediately and in regard to their lives, and try to feel how
moral and spiritual they are.”

“I
don’t know what you’re talking about Vladimir,” she said. She finally opened
her eyes in defeat, but found a startling change in everyone around her. Each
and every person on the street or in their car was wrapped in a wispy
silhouette of differing hues of gold. She excitedly explained the development
to Vladimir and told him she discovered the ability.

“Perfect,”
he said with a bit of relief. “Now try to find someone that doesn’t match the
rest of the people in this city.”

She
looked at him and saw that shade around him was of a lighter color, and asked
whether Cipriana’s would be the same color.

He
asked what she meant and reminded her that he could not know what she saw or
anything of the matter. “This is something you are going to have to discover
alone, as I cannot know what to look for.”

Rachel
took a breath and asked whether they should continue their search, which
Vladimir quickly agreed to. She led the way this time and scanned the crowds
and city for any sign of someone who would stick out from amongst the rest of
the souls in Seattle. Vladimir quietly followed after her.

---*---

10:50
PM

Baltimore,
Maryland

Ten
hours passed since the man who claimed to be Agent Ryuzaki Miyaza abducted
James Resnik. After ten hours no one at the Baltimore Police Station had a lead
to where they could be. To make matters worse, all radio transmissions within
the city were locked by an unknown source, which Detective Felton and his team
assumed to be the work of the stranger who kidnapped Resnik. None of the AM or
FM radio frequencies were available, GPS systems were down, cell phones were
blocked, as were all other forms of wireless transmissions. The communication
breakdown encompassed all of Baltimore and a few miles beyond the city limits
as well. To make matters worse, what started out as little more than robberies
and scattered assaults erupted into full-scale panic as the sun set. Reports
came to the station about riots, vicious attacks, murders, and arson throughout
the city.

Because
of the frenzied state of the city, Chief Johnson called for every officer to
help reclaim control of Baltimore. However, he ordered Bryce, Mia, Detective
Felton, and Sergeant Murdock to continue their manhunt for James Resnik’s
kidnappers.

Chief
Johnson partnered Mia and Bryce together and the pair spent their day in search
of anything that might lead to Miyaza or Resnik. Bryce drove and drove well,
contrary to his excited and restless nature, especially in contrast to the
panic on the streets. Mia kept her eyes on the roads and noted the chaotic
nature of the citizens, as they all realized how minimal communication was.

“You
don’t think this is part of Cladis’ plan, do you?” Bryce asked Mia as he weaved
through the streets in avoidance of pedestrians, stalled and abandoned cars,
and whatever blockades they happened to meet.

Mia
frowned and said this was something else. “If he had the power to do this from
the start I think he would have.”

“Really?”

She
nodded even though he didn’t see it. “Think about it; if there was a disaster
of this sort, no one would have thought to look for any possible patterns in
anyone’s death because the deaths in the city would be far more numerous than
before. Not to mention the crime wave would be overwhelming and we would never
see it.”

“Do
you think Cladis wants the attention?”

She
shrugged, which he did notice, and said, “I don’t know. If he did then I feel
like he would make a larger effort to publicize his carnage.”

“Then
what does he want?”

Bryce
rounded a corner and found another blockade. He swore as he nearly hit it, but
quickly realized there was more to worry about as a group of people brawled in
the middle of the street for reasons beyond his understanding. He parked the
car and dashed out, Mia followed after him and shouted to him to get back in
the car.

He
turned back momentarily to tell her the people needed his help. “We can’t
ignore them Mia, someone has to save them.”

“What
about Resnik?”

Bryce
said he doubted they would find him in time. “There’s only an hour left until
he’s dead, Mia. What hope do we have of saving him? He could already be dead
for all we know. But those people,” he pointed at the group that ganged up on
one or two people at a time, “We can stop them and save someone.”

Bryce
turned to sprint over to the brawl, but a ragged man stopped him. He told the
officers to focus on their task at hand. “It isn’t too late. James Resnik is
still alive.”

“What
are you doing here?” Mia asked Twelve.

“Wait,”
Bryce frowned, “You two know each other?”

“Yes,”
Twelve muttered, “But there isn’t time for this. Are you listening to the
broadcast?”

“What
broadcast?” Mia asked. “The whole city’s being screwed over.”

“The
group that captured James Resnik is broadcasting a transmission of their
conversation across the city,” Twelve told them. “It started a few minutes ago,
Resnik is still alive, as are they, but from the sounds of things they intend
on combating Cladis alone.”

Bryce’s
jaw dropped. “Do…Do you think they can do it?”

Twelve
said he wasn’t sure. “Either way, we need to find them and recover Resnik
before Cladis finds them.”

“How
do you expect us to do that?”

“Head
to your apartment as quickly as you can and listen to the broadcast,” Twelve
instructed the two officers. “There could be some information that might lead
us to them.”

“That’s
it?” Mia asked. “You’re asking us to hole up and cross our fingers for
coordinates or something that their group might give up? Bryce was right. We
should help regain control over the city.”