The Children of the Sun (39 page)

“So what were you thinking about just now?” Lewis asked.

“I am wondering whether I should go,” Naomi said. “I am not useless in a fight, but neither am I a great warrior. I don’t have the tactical skills necessary to direct battles, and it may help our cause if I were to remain here, should anyone be watching.”

“Do you want to go?” Theroen asked, and Naomi made a scoffing noise.

“I would sooner pull out my toenails,” she said.

“So that’s a no, then?” Two asked, and Naomi gave her a small smile.

“The last time I went on one of these adventures, one of my greatest friends was stabbed to death in front of me. I’ve no flair for commanding troops, so if you don’t need me there, I will gladly sit this one out.”

“We should hold off on any definitive plans for ourselves until we have arranged for all the others,” Theroen said. “Still, I see no reason why you would have to accompany us. My primary concern is leaving you alone and exposed.”

“I don’t have to leave my apartment,” Naomi replied. “I think if they had that under surveillance, we would know by now.”

“She’s probably right,” Lewis said. “It seems like they’ve pulled almost everyone back, probably getting ready for another attack. It’s the best time for us to hit them, while they think we’re still scattered and disorganized.”

“So, fine, Naomi stays,” Two said. “I’m all for it. We still need to figure out how we’re moving hundreds of vampires to Chicago.”

“Waukegan,” Leonore corrected.

“Dude, I’m from Brooklyn. It’s all fly-over to me,” Two said.

Lewis laughed, shaking his head. “The good people of Illinois – Chicago’s my home town, I might add – thank you for your assessment of our fair state. Anyway, I’d recommend we start working on this now. Tonight, if possible. Naomi, forgive me, but is it safe to assume the council has the funds to cover all of this?”

“Yes,” Naomi said without hesitation. As William’s apprentice, she had access to all of the council’s most sensitive information, including its finances.

“Do they, like … submit expense reports?” Two asked, and Naomi laughed a little, shaking her head.

“Lewis tells me where to book the rooms, and how many of them to book, and under whose names. I pull out my little black card with no limits on it and make some phone calls. Then I transfer some money from the council’s accounts to my own and report doing so at the next official council meeting, assuming we are successful and the council still exists.”

“Nice,” Two said. She remembered the black card; Naomi had used it to buy her an entire new wardrobe after the Burilgi had ransacked her apartment.

“It seems like everything is settled, then,” Sasha said. She drained the last of her martini and glanced around at the others to see if they concurred.

“Everything except the date,” Theroen said.

“Two weeks seems a reasonable window,” Leonore said. “The Children are unlikely to redeploy so quickly, and we should be able to move any Burilgi or Ay’Araf who are willing to help within that time.”

Lewis and Sasha were nodding. Two glanced at Theroen and Naomi, but neither seemed to have any objections.

“OK,” she said. “Theroen and I will talk with Kanene about getting in there. Once we pick a day, I want a promise you won’t hit them until midnight. That’s all I’m asking. After that, assume we’re dead and come at them with everything you have.”

“And if you’re not dead?” Sasha asked.

“Then we’ll still be working to get Tori out of there, and if that’s just not possible, well … so be it. You know whose side we’re on. You know what we’re willing to do if it comes to that. Both of us have fought and killed for the council already.”

“What if you have to fight and kill Tori?” Naomi asked, and Two glared at her.

“I told you, you know whose side we’re on,” she said. “You don’t have to worry about that, OK? Even if Tori won’t come with us.”

“I have never doubted your loyalty for one moment, Two,” Naomi said. “I was merely curious. It may come down to the two of you versus her. That’s the simple truth.”

“If she tries to kill us, then she tries to kill us,” Two said. “It’s not really a hard choice. If it’s me and Theroen or her, I’m choosing the two of us. If she threatens him, then I’ll kill her myself.”

“My hero,” Theroen said quietly, his voice dry, and there was some laughter around the table. Two glanced over at him, shaking her head.

“It’s not funny,” she said.

“Of course not,” Theroen agreed. “None of it is funny, and if I joke, Two, it is only to keep from giving in to despair. For all her troubles and flaws, Tori is my sister and I will forever regret the part I played in what she has gone through. If it comes down to it, we will try to kill her, but I would no more do violence to Tori than you would. It is because I hope so much to avoid this that I have agreed to go with you on this mad adventure.”

Two’s expression softened, and she nodded. “OK, you’re right. It’s not funny, but if there’s anyone here who should shut up about making jokes under pressure, it’s me. Sorry.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about,” Theroen said serenely.

“Two weeks from now is Saturday, August second,” Sasha said, glancing at her phone.

“Do you think a Saturday night is the right time?” Lewis asked.

“Pretty sure it’s fine,” Two said. “I don’t know if they’re allowed to go out, but it might actually be better if some of them are hitting the bars.”

There was general agreement with this statement, and for a moment the group found itself at a loss for words. Finally, Leonore spoke.

“So, are we finished here, then?” she asked.

“Not quite,” Naomi said, and she reached forward, taking the bottle of wine and refilling Theroen’s glass, and Leonore’s, and her own.

“What’s left?” Two asked, and Naomi grinned; it was one of the genuine smiles that had become so rare from her of late.

“Nothing,” she said. “I simply refuse to let this council disband so long as there is any wine left in this wonderful bottle.”

Chapter 18
Final Thoughts

“Where you been, Ness?” Carrie asked as she came into the room where her squad slept, and Vanessa gave a kind of cynical laugh but didn’t respond, choosing instead to drop onto one of the unused lower bunks – she thought it had once belonged to Connors – and lie staring upward, breathing slowly. Carrie, who had been sitting on her own bunk and cleaning her service pistol, glanced up in surprise.

“You OK?” she asked.

“Been better,” Vanessa said, still staring at the mattress above. Carrie set aside the pieces of her gun, crossed the room, and hunkered down next to her.

“Did Charles … I mean, is he …”

“He’s still alive,” Vanessa said. “He’s even awake. We had a lot to talk about. That’s why I missed practice. Was Dillinger pissed?”

“Nah. I mean, he said if you didn’t have a good excuse he was going to tear your arms off, but then he said you probably did have a good excuse.”

“When the Emperor’s Left Hand tells you to stay and listen …” Vanessa began, and Carrie nodded.

“You stay and listen. Got it. What did he have to say?”

Vanessa considered this question for a time. “Not sure I want to talk about that.”

Carrie seemed momentarily unsure how to respond to this, and Vanessa glanced over at her as the silence expanded. As she did so, she caught the tail end of some emotion – she thought it was disappointment – leaving Carrie’s face.

“Hey, sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like I don’t want to talk about it with you. It’s just some crazy shit. I’m still trying to figure it all out.”

Carrie made her best effort to look baffled by Vanessa’s concern and said, “You do what you gotta do, Ness.”

Vanessa smiled at her. “Thanks. Listen … I know you didn’t tell anyone about the Captain and the bat we met that she thought she knew. I would’ve heard about it by now if you did. I really appreciate that. I’m glad I can trust you.”

Carrie smiled, a bit of a blush rising to her cheeks, and glanced away. “You know, you can’t just call her ‘the Captain’ anymore. You’re one of those now, too.”

Vanessa had completely forgotten this fact amidst the revelations that Charles had shared with her earlier, and she smiled.

“Guess you’re right. Going to take me a while to get used to that.”

“How’s Charles? You said he’s talking?”

“Yeah … least he was when I left. It’s bad, Carrie. It’s really fucking bad, and he’s not going to last much longer. This is another one of those things that I need you to keep to yourself, OK? I have to tell someone because I can’t deal with it all alone, and I really trust you.”

Carrie’s blush deepened, but this time she didn’t look away. She only smiled, and nodded, and said in her lisping voice, “I understand, Ness.”

Vanessa sighed and glanced up at the mattress above her before speaking. She was startled to feel tears spring to her eyes – and by the effort it took to push them back.

“It’s cancer,” she said. “It’s deep down in his brain, and there’s nothing they can do except try to make him comfortable.”

Carrie winced. “Ugh, Jesus, he’s not even old!”

“No. He’s not old at all, but he’s dying. I’m not sure he has a month left. Shit, I’m not sure he has a week left. Doc Chambers wasn’t even sure he was ever going to come out of that coma.”

“He’s tough,” Carrie said. “I think he’s tougher than a lot of grunts like me even realize.”

“You’re not a grunt,” Vanessa told her, and Carrie laughed.

“I’m not an officer. Haven’t even got a silver bar, and you’ve got two gold ones.”

“Yeah, but …”

“It’s never gonna happen. Look, Ness, I’ve made my peace with it. I’m great with the equipment, and that’s all they need from me. I don’t have the tactics to be an officer. I guess they’d give me a bump if I got out there and killed one of the really old vampires myself, like I always dreamed, but I won’t. One eye means shitty depth perception, and that means I can’t shoot. If you can’t shoot and you’re not a tactical whiz, you get to man the surveillance system in the van when the real hunters go after the big game. It’s all right.”

“Yeah, no, you totally sound like it’s all right,” Vanessa growled, and Carrie laughed.

“OK, it sucks,” she admitted. “But I can live with being a grunt, because at least we get to go out in the field. Captain Perrault’s the only one at her rank who’s out there a lot, and she’s a pretty fucking unique case.”

“I’m out there,” Vanessa said.

“You think that’ll keep happening?” Carrie asked. “How many other captains have any major confirmed kills? They’re going to make you start hanging back, Ness, and that’s fine. You’re too fucking smart and valuable to waste on some dipshit vampire that gets lucky. That’s what grunts are for. That’s what people like Janus and Burke and Connors and Paulo are for, may they all rest in peace. Not one of them made it past Corporal.”

“Are you
trying
to depress the living shit out of me, or is it just happening by accident?”

“I guess the latter.”

“Well, nice job.”

“Sorry, Ness. I’m just trying to tell you I’m not jealous. I’m happy for you. You’re a born commander and you’re going to keep on climbing. I bet you make colonel someday.”

Vanessa gave a harsh, disgusted laugh, and said, “No, I don’t think so. I don’t think that will be happening.”

“But you’re—”

“Trust me, Carrie. There is no chance that I will ever be a colonel. Fucking Charles … he made sure of that. He … God damn it.”

Vanessa could feel the tears stinging at her eyes again, and she rubbed a hand angrily across her face. God damn Charles, yes. The things he had told her could never be taken back, and they would never be far from the front of her mind. In preparing her to become the next Left Hand of the Emperor of the Sun, he had damned her forever to mental agony, the very same that he must have suffered all of these years. She wondered for a moment if the tumor in his brain was a direct result.

Carrie easily picked up on her distress. “Ness … what’s wrong? You can tell me, I promise.”

Vanessa shook her head. “No, I can’t. I made some promises of my own tonight that I don’t know how to keep. I promised things to a dying man who has looked after me for more years than my real father had the chance to, and I have absolutely no idea how I’m going to do the things I promised him. I just … want it to end.”

“What, like all the vampires dead?”

Vanessa considered this in silence for a long time, looking again at the coiled steel springs that held the mattress above her aloft.

“I don’t even know anymore,” she said. “Sometimes I just want it to be over. Right now. Today. But there’s still so much more to go.”

“Ness, I can’t … it’s hard to understand you if you won’t tell me what’s going on.”

“I know. I’m sorry. Look, it’s just a tough time right now. I’ll admit that. I lost four men, had a crazy situation with Captain Perrault, and was almost asphyxiated. Then I came home and tried to give my report to Charles, and he had a seizure and went into a coma. When he woke up, he told me he was dying and then laid a whole shitload of confidential information on me that I can’t share with anyone other than the Emperor, who I’ve never even talked to. I’m not in the best place right now.”