TO BLACK WITH LOVE: Quentin Black Mystery #10 Read online

  “A sound approach,” he said. “Have you begun introducing more information about vampires yet? What they are? How many there might be? Their agenda?”

  Kalri nodded, again in the form of a near-salute.

  “We have, sir,” he said. “We’ve floated a few test balloons during this conference alone. Conspiracy theories about ‘hybrid’ humans being built in government labs, mainly. We’ve got a few different versions, with one calling them a form of genetic ‘super-soldier’ being manipulated by outside governments. Another calls them the product of Satanic rituals being conducted by members of a global shadow government elite. We have a third set of stories that claims they’re aliens from outer space––”

  Charles grunted, clicking under his breath.

  “Which is sticking the best?” he said.

  “Right now?” Kalri appeared to be thinking, or perhaps consulting data with his light. “Strangely, they seem to work best in concert. They tend to reinforce each other, sir,” he added after a pause. “The religious overtones work best for the original Purists, since that’s a large part of their rhetoric already… but it doesn’t explain the numbers as well as the other two. They tend to merge the three things into an ideology of its own, which works well for our purposes.”

  The blond seer added,

  “We figure as long as it channels their fears and aggression in the directions we want, let them come up with as much of the specific mythology as possible. It’s likely to stick better that way. Anyway, like I said, most of us down here are still learning about the human population on this version of Earth. We’d probably just screw it up if we got too rigid or controlling at this stage. We can nail it down later, once they’ve given it their own flavor.”

  Charles nodded, thinking.

  “Let me get back to you on that,” he said after a pause. “I’ll see if I can get some of our people up here working on narratives that could help. They know the humans in this world better. Maybe we can come up with some ‘evidence’ you could use, too… maybe get the President hinting about such things in his next major media appearance.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Kalri said, exhaling in obvious relief. “That would be fantastic.”

  The blond seer’s gratitude startled Charles somewhat.

  The sincerity Charles heard there, the willingness to accept help without defensiveness, arrogance or resentment not only surprised him, it impressed him.

  “And what about military recruitment?” Charles said. “Where are we with that?”

  Kalri answered without hesitation.

  “A lot of interest at the lower levels,” he said. “Military targeting has been a priority, sir. We’re currently looking at some bigger fish to bring over now.”

  “They need to be willing to follow orders,” Charles warned. “At all levels.”

  Kalri nodded intently. “Yes, sir.”

  “…That means we absolutely need some hard-core believers at mid-ranks and above,” Charles added. “I’d like at least one general, preferably more, and preferably at least one who is high-profile, and respected enough that his people will follow him willingly. If the military doesn’t fall in line after the President declares himself a Purist, this will be all for nothing. The vampires will definitely counter-attack if they get wind of what we’re doing.”

  Pausing, he added,

  “We need them. Do you understand me, Kalri? I don’t want to make a move without the military in hand. We can’t rely on the President’s private security forces alone. C.I.A. and federal law enforcement won’t be enough, either. We absolutely need military support.”

  “Understood, sir. Completely.”

  Relaxing somewhat at the look in the other’s eyes, Charles nodded.

  “Good,” he said. “Is there anything else you need from us?”

  Kalri pursed his lips, thinking.

  Watching him think, Charles relaxed still more.

  He liked this seer.

  Not only did he not resent an adjustment to his strategy, he didn’t blow off any offer of help. Moreover, he clearly grasped the larger strategy of what they were doing here.

  Charles would be keeping the young infiltrator in mind for future postings.

  “What about a meeting, sir?” Kalri said, breaking Charles out of his thoughts. “I know the President isn’t coming out publicly, not yet, but what if we arranged a meeting between him and a few generals? Maybe a few admirals, as well. We now have a list compiled of those who might be open to influence. The President is a war hero, sir. His word would go a long way with these people. He’s very popular in all of the branches.”

  Charles frowned, turning this over.

  “It’s a good idea,” he said. “But I don’t think a group meeting, given the likely press coverage and the questions it would raise––”

  “Agreed,” Kalri said at once. “Private, one-on-one meetings would be preferable. And preferably outside D.C. Maybe he could come down here for a rally? Something that would provide a distraction, as well as an excuse for his being here? We can fly in those who are stationed in other areas.”

  Charles found himself nodding slowly.

  Again, he couldn’t help but be impressed by this young seer.

  “I like it,” he said. “But not a rally. We need a bigger distraction than that. Arrange for a riot… a big one. We need to start scaling up the violence anyway. I want the rest of the country to start to worry about what’s happening down there. The precipitating event is up to you. As long as it’s something that will enflame more fear of outsiders and agitators. And, of course, vampires,” he added curtly.

  Still thinking, he drummed his fingers on the back of Jalisa’s chair.

  “We’ll send the President down to ‘calm things down,’” he said next. “We could use the distraction away from D.C. right now, anyway. We have a number of institutional and legislative changes we’d like to push through to lay the groundwork for stage two. That would be easier if eyes were focused elsewhere. If the incident got enough media coverage, we could likely speed things up significantly on that front…”

  Still thinking, Charles added,

  “Send out teams to capture a few more vampires––males, preferably, but either sex is fine, as long as they look like adults. I’d rather not use those we have in the labs up here. Get them front and center in media footage for the riot itself. Better yet, get them to kill a few reporters… or someone else relatively high-profile. Memories are short. The incident in Louisiana is almost six months old now. Let’s remind them what a vampire kill looks like. Try to do it in a way that won’t allow them to dismiss it as special effects or doctored footage. We’re not ready to have the President come out publicly against them either, but the more groundwork we lay, the easier it will be later.”

  “Yes, sir.” A faint humor reached Kalri’s voice. “We can do that. Timeframe?”

  “As soon as possible,” Charles said at once. “Just let us know when you’ve got everything set up, and we’ll take care of everything on this end.”

  Behind the blond-haired seer, the doors opened at the top of the auditorium steps.

  Humans began filing in, filling the auditorium with their murmurs as they flowed down the aisles. Within seconds, some began passing by where Kalri stood, close enough that he was glancing over his shoulder, distracted by their nearness.

  “All right,” Charles said. “Clearly you must go.”

  Kalri switched to English, his words colored with a distinctly Southern accent. “I’m afraid I must, sir. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your help.”

  Charles nodded, once. “Very good work you are doing, brother. Love to you.”

  The seer looked over, flushing in obvious pleasure.

  “Thank you, sir––”

  “Pull this off, and I’ll want you to join me here in Washington,” Charles added, his voice holding a denser pulse of light. “Excellent work. I mean it, brother. I am most impressed.”

  The
seer’s smile crept out wider. “Thank you, sir––”

  Someone grabbed his shoulder, and the blond seer turned, looking into the face of a flushed, red-faced man wearing a brown suit and a cowboy hat. The auditorium was filling up fast, and growing noisy as people filed in, now crowding Kalri where he stood in the aisle towards the back.

  Many of them were carrying signs, and wearing T-shirts with Purist slogans.

  “Sorry, sir,” Kalri said. “I guess I’d better get back to it.”

  Charles waved him off.

  “Go. We’ll talk again soon.” He raised his voice when the seer got grabbed again by an enthusiastic supporter as they passed, hearing a cheer go up in the nearby crowd as more of those passing by recognized him. “Good luck today.”

  The seer smiled, nodding. “Thank you––”

  A whole group of young men shouted then, seeing Kalri standing there.

  The screen went dark.

  Charles straightened, still gripping the back of Jalisa’s swivel chair.

  It struck Charles to check the seer’s online presence, now that he was considering him for a national role. He remembered now, hearing that Kalri and a few others had garnered quite a following on several social media platforms.

  Kalri, in particular, was popular with young human males. It was partly how he’d been invited to this event. Unlike many of the others, he likely would have been invited even without seers manipulating things behind the scenes.

  “He’s good,” Jalisa said, agreeing with his thoughts. “I think you’re right to bring him here. Maybe he could even run for office.”

  Charles nodded, thinking about that, too.

  It wasn’t a bad idea.

  Maybe Kalri could even replace Regent.

  Before any of that, however, Charles needed to deal with Black.

  He needed to deal with Black so he didn’t fuck everything up once Charles started rolling things out for real.

  4

  About Nick

  “ALL RIGHT.” BLACK glanced around the conference table, his expression hard. His voice was still lower than usual, a half-growl as he assessed the faces of his team. “Anything else I need to know about these fanatics? Who’s their leader? Is it this blond seer you were just telling me about? Kalri?”

  Yarli glanced at Manny, who pursed his lips.

  Sighing a bit, she returned her dark eyes to Black.

  “He goes by Jack Ranger among the humans,” she said, clicking under her breath in irritation. “And yes, he’s a problem. He’s clearly one of their most popular media personalities. He incites a lot of violence and fear among the humans through his in-person speaking appearances, television and webcast interviews, and online articles. He’s got a kind of cult following at this point. He’s definitely brought more attention to the movement on the national stage. His main focus is still in the South, though.”

  Shrugging gracefully with a hand, she glanced at me before adding,

  “Even with all of that, I’m not sure you could call him their leader. The seers assigned to this Purist thing seem to be giving most of the actual leadership roles to humans. You could argue he’s becoming the face of the movement in many respects, though.”

  Black grunted, glancing at me.

  “That is the leader, Yarli,” he said, adjusting his back in the leather chair. “Regardless of who they name President of Purity on their masthead, the King of Cleanliness… whatever… if he’s the face of the movement, the one the masses flock to––that’s the leader.”

  Yarli glanced at me, arching an eyebrow. I didn’t hear anything in my mind, but clearly, she wanted to know if I agreed with Black.

  I nodded, once.

  I did agree with him.

  Exhaling, Yarli frowned, then returned her gaze to Black.

  “If you are right,” she said. “Then he already has significant power. We had thought perhaps he would move out of the limelight once he had the humans better organized and more aligned in their ideology.”

  Black clicked softly, shaking his head.

  “Charles would never allow that. Not if this Kalri is as persuasive and charismatic as you say. That fucker passes. Hell, he looks more human than a lot of humans. Charles would never waste a resource like that. And Charles doesn’t trust humans. He would one hundred percent prefer having a seer in charge, if he thought he could do it without raising suspicion.”

  Yarli pursed her lips, glancing at Jem and Manny, but I could see from her eyes that she was turning over Black’s words.

  I could also see from Jem’s face that he agreed with Black.

  Glancing at the blond seer’s image on the monitor over the table, Yarli scowled.

  “That makes sense,” she admitted. “Truthfully, it took us a while to realize he was a seer. Charles’ people have his light heavily shielded, and he just looks so damned human, as you say. One of our refugees recognized him from Old Earth, though. She knew him from a prison camp there, and saw one of his speeches on a webcast. Luckily, she gave the intel to our team directly, and didn’t assume we already knew who and what he was.”

  Black nodded, frowning.

  I saw him glance at me, then back around at the rest of the group.

  “He’ll move soon,” he said, blunt. “Charles.”

  He gave me another fleeting glance, scowling.

  “…He’s racing the clock now. He’ll want all of this in motion before the vampires can organize a real counter-offensive. Clearly, he intends to use these humans as shields. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns this into a full-blown political party soon. He’ll likely want to have his people in power at all levels. This is one way to keep the humans in line. It’s also one that works well with constructs.”

  Everyone around the table, especially the seers, exchanged hard looks.

  “Yeah,” Jem said grimly, after a pause. “We’re somewhat familiar with the strategy. Those of us who fought under the Bridge are, at least.”

  Black nodded.

  “Should we send someone there?” Dalejem asked, glancing between me and Black. “We were waiting for the two of you to return to ask. It seems like we’re at a point now where we might want to risk it.”

  Black exhaled. He gazed up at the main monitor, where some kind of talk or speech was going on at a huge auditorium somewhere in Texas.

  After another beat, Black nodded slowly.

  “Yes,” he said. “We need to send a team. We need more people in D.C., too.”

  Frowning, he glanced around at faces, his voice lowering back to a growl.

  “I want every candidate vetted through me,” he said. “They all need to know how dangerous this is. You need them to understand… there’s a good chance Charles is looking for me to seed people in his group, and he’ll have the advantage of the construct there. I think this is big enough that he’ll kill anyone he finds, anyone he thinks he can’t convert. At the very least, they could end up in a hole somewhere, and it might be a while before we can find them, or negotiate their release.”

  Waiting a beat, he added,

  “They need to be damned good at shielding, and they need to understand the risk they’re taking. And we should be looking at ways to tie them in to the construct here. Any thoughts on that from the senior infiltrators would be welcome.”

  There was a silence after his words.

  Yarli nodded then, “Understood, boss. I have some ideas. As for the candidates, I’ll pull a list together and bring it to you.”

  “By tomorrow morning,” Black said, his voice warning.

  Yarli nodded, giving him an odd hand-gesture that felt like another form of salute.

  The silence deepened as we all looked back at the crowd in the monitor. With the sound turned down, all we saw were the faces of the crowd. I saw them waving hats and arms, red-faced, yelling at something the handsome blond man said at the podium.

  A group stood around the rim of the auditorium, wearing black and red face masks. A number of them wore white
triangles on their chests and arms.

  We were all still staring at the screen when Jem spoke up, his voice a touch sharper.

  “I think that’s all we need from you right now, lao ban, in relation to the Charles problem,” he said, drawing all of our eyes back to him. “Can we talk about the other thing now?”

  Black turned, his gold eyes swiveling in the other male’s direction.

  “What other thing?” he said.

  I don’t know if Jem saw it, or heard it, but I picked up the flicker of warning in Black’s gaze. I also felt that warning in relation to me, although Black didn’t look at me.

  Then again, he didn’t need to.

  I knew why he was leery of talking about Nick while I was there.

  If Jem heard or felt either thing, he ignored it.

  “The Nick Tanaka thing,” Jem said, his mouth hard.

  Black glanced at me, and I quirked an eyebrow back at him.

  Well? I sent. Are we going to talk about it? I paused. Or were you planning on finding an excuse to order me out of the room first, so you could talk about it openly?

  Looking at me, Black clicked under his breath.

  I saw the defeat there, though.

  “All right,” Black said, facing the room. “Let’s talk about it.”

  He focused on Jem.

  “Well?” he grunted. “You seem like you have something to say, brother Dalejem. Are you going to regale us with your theories? Thoughts? Next steps?”

  Jem glanced at me, frowning faintly before he focused back on Black. Crossing his arms in front of his chest, he subdued his voice, but I still heard the edge there.

  “What’s the working theory now?” he said. “For you, Black. Is he dead?”

  There was a silence.

  Jem glanced around the table.

  He avoided my eyes, but I felt the flinch as his gaze passed my seat.

  “Well?” he said. “I know none of us want to talk about it, but I think it’s time to discuss what’s most likely, given how little we’ve found. There are really only four options that are logical, given the vampire’s silence.” Again looking at me, he gestured vaguely with a hand, his other arm wrapped around his chest. “He’s kidnapped by them, and being held for reasons unknown. They lost him somehow… which strikes me as rather unlikely. He’s dead, or…” He glanced again at me. “Or he’s a vampire.”