Nosferatu

CHAPTER 17

Nosferatu was joined at the round table by Adrik. In the center of the table were four flat-screen monitors, one facing each of the chairs. They displayed the blood lab, where the supply Adrik had brought from Moscow was currently being worked on.

“Your headquarters was destroyed?” Nosferatu asked, his eyes on the screen. Adrik nodded. “Yes. The FSB assaulted it.”

“Why?”

There was a short silence, then Adrik shrugged. “I’m not certain.”

Nosferatu shifted his gaze from the screen to his fellow Undead. “I know you think me a fool. But I am the Eldest. I know you’ve met Vampyr. You’ve communicated with him. Do you know it was he who tried to kill you in Moscow and got the FSB to assault your headquarters?”

“I thought he might be behind it,” Adrik acknowledged.

“Vampyr has no honor,” Nosferatu said. “He is just like you. When you were Genghis Khan you had no honor. You killed all who stood in your way, sparing none. Vampyr did the same in his various incarnations. What did you expect from him?”

“I have honor,” Adrik disagreed. “I am bound by it.” “How so?”

“Vampyr saved me. When my palace guard revolted and entombed me underneath the Kremlin, he rescued me from a horrible fate.”

Nosferatu laughed, bringing a flush of anger to the other’s face. “Has it not occurred to you to ask why he was so fortuitously in Moscow at just the time your guard revolted and entombed you?”

Several seconds of silence passed.

“Even if you have honor,” Nosferatu said, “you do not have love. It is a trait of the humans, not the Airlia. It is what allowed them to defeat the Airlia here and elsewhere. It is more powerful than the Airlia virus that runs through our veins.”

Before Adrik could say anything, Nosferatu’s SatPhone chimed. He pulled it out and snapped it open, listened for a few seconds, then shut it. “Tian Dao Lin’s plane is in the air coming this way. He will be landing shortly. And my X–Craft will also be landing soon.”

The X–Craft was flying upside down to the planet, the crew checking their flight path with observations of the planet’s surface “above” them. Sure they were in the correct orbit, they then fired the maneuvering thrusters and the craft went tail over front, until the belly was facing the planet. Then it began to descend.

One of the scientists in the chamber turned toward the camera and gave a thumbs-up.

“They have processed what you brought,” Nosferatu said. He looked at Adrik. “Would you like to go first?”

Adrik glared back. “It is for the Eldest to go first.”

“Good decision,” Nosferatu said, “but that is not what will be.” Nosferatu stood. Adrik stared at him, waiting. “If you would indulge me, I propose that the first be Nekhbet. She has not seen the light of day in over five hundred years.”

Reluctantly, Adrik nodded his agreement.

Nosferatu left the conference room and headed for the subbasement lair to bring his beloved to the blood room and back to life.

On board the X–Craft, the pilot lifted the nose to get more lift as it entered the atmosphere. At the same time, the copilot watched the crosshairs on the computer screen in front of him. The copilot hit a key, putting the system on automatic release. A red digital countdown appeared in the lower left corner indicating they were slightly less than four minutes from the airfield.

Vampyr looked across the cabin at Tian Dao Lin as they were challenged by Nosferatu’s security force, requesting the proper code word to land. A tone was sounding in the cabin, indicating that a ground-to-air missile radar was locked on the jet. The Chinese was very pale, the loss of blood from his leg wound extensive. Vampyr had had one of his mercenary doctors put a tourniquet on the wound and the bleeding had stopped but Tian Dao Lin was barely conscious.

“Answer,” Vampyr ordered, as one of his men shoved the microphone in Tian Dao Lin’s face.

Tian Dao Lin whispered the proper code word. The warning light went out. Crowded into the rear of the jet were two dozen of the best mercenaries that Vampyr’s vast fortune could buy. They were armed with the latest weapons, and all had night-vision goggles on, as the only light in the cabin came from a single red night-light.

Vampyr looked at a computer screen on the small conference table in the center of the cabin. “Perfect,” he whispered as he saw the signal representing the X–Craft appear.

Nosferatu held the clear plastic tubes in his hands, feeling the warmed blood flowing through them and into Nekhbet. It had taken two minutes to completely drain her of her old blood and replace it with a partially frozen solution that cleaned out her system and kept her in stasis. Her entire body had been cooled down to a point where her cells were just about inactive.

Now, as the new, Airlia-rich blood flowed into her, the technicians began raising her temperature. The process proceeded rapidly to minimize the time when she was between her old and new blood. Within sixty seconds the four intravenous lines had completely flushed out the solution and filled her with the new-processed blood.

Nosferatu let go of the empty lines and leaned over her, waiting. Her eyes flickered, then opened, confusion reigning for a few moments until she could focus. Then her face split in a wide smile.

“My love,” she whispered.

Nosferatu leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips, then helped her sit up. He wrapped his arms around her tightly, her head on his shoulder. “It has been a very long time, but you are now immortal, as I will be soon.”

As Nekhbet held his hand, he took her place on the table. The technicians moved quickly and smoothly, sliding the intravenous lines into his veins as the rest of the blood that Adrik had brought from Moscow was prepared for insertion.

The lead doctor picked up a needle containing sedative to inject into one of the lines to knock Nosferatu out. The Eldest shook his head. “We don’t have time.”

“What do you mean?” Nekhbet asked.

“Trust me,” Nosferatu said, before he felt the chill of the solution pushing out his old blood hit his veins and the world went dark.

Nosferatu came to knowing that Nekhbet was standing by the table. He did not know if it was the power of the pure Airlia blood in his veins or her presence or the combination, but it was the most magnificent awakening he had every experienced.

He felt the warmth of her hand on his and opened his eyes to drink in her loveliness. He was surprised to see the concern on her face, and then looking past her toward the observation room he saw Vampyr standing there, staring down at the two of them. In his hands he held up a large case, and Nosferatu knew it held the blood Tian Dao Lin had recovered. Vampyr disappeared from view.

“There has been an attack,” Nekhbet said. “I heard explosions and firing.” Nosferatu sat up and swung his feet to the floor. “I expected our old friend to show up.”

Nekhbet gave him a hand as he got to his feet. He was growing stronger by the second but his system had still experienced an immense shock. The door to the chamber opened and Vampyr walked in, flanked by two men with, submachine guns.

“I want you out of the room,” Vampyr said. He pointed up at the observation window, where four more men with submachine guns could be seen. “They will ensure you do nothing while I undergo the procedure. You will be killed if anything goes wrong.”

When they reached the observation chamber, they found Adrik with his hands cuffed behind his back, seated near the wall.

“So much for allies,” Nosferatu noted. Adrik cursed.

Nosferatu felt as if every nerve in his body were on fire. He cared little for Adrik’s predicament. He wrapped his arms around Nekhbet and held her tight.

Vampyr stood up and stretched, flexing his muscles. He pounded a fist on his chest in triumph. He stormed past the technicians and down the corridor to the observation room, where Nosferatu sat with Nekhbet and Adrik.

“When does your X–Craft land?” Vampyr demanded.

“Why do you care?” Nosferatu asked in turn. “You have had your blood.”

“I have several very influential friends — humans — who would like to join the ranks of the Undead. Using the blood that would have been Adrik’s and Tian Dao Lin’s, I can make a handful of them half-breeds, Undead. They will serve me then.”

“I am the Eldest—” Nosferatu began, but Vampyr cut him off.

“You are weak. You have spent all this time pining for her—” He indicated

Nekhbet. “Well, now you have her. You can stay here in your hole with her forever as far as I am concerned. You saved me in the beginning, so I will grant you that, even though you betrayed me later.” He turned to Adrik. “I owe you nothing.” He pulled out a pistol and fired without hesitation, hitting Adrik in the center of his forehead, sending brain and blood splattering the wall behind him. He fired the rest of the clip, nine bullets, hitting like jackhammers, smashing into the limp body.

Vampyr went to the body and from a pocket pulled out a small vial of black sandlike material. He looked up at Nosferatu and smiled. “I took this off one of those who hunted me.” He sprinkled it on Adrik’s body. Within thirty seconds it was gone, except for the clothes.

Vampyr stood. “Now the next step.”

Nosferatu took a step toward Vampyr, the mercenaries swinging the muzzles of their weapons to cover him in response. “Can we leave?”

Vampyr shrugged. “You may go where you want. Just do not get in my way. It is the Fourth Age. My Age.”

The pilots of the X–Craft could barely make out the long landing strip. It was painted to mimic the surrounding desert, and only the faint straight lines on the edges allowed them to discern it. They gave up control to the ground computer that guided them along their flight path.

Nosferatu pulled a lever, and the overhead door above the helicopter began sliding open. He and Nekhbet were wrapped in dark cloaks, their faces covered with cloth and their eyes protected by dark, wraparound sunglasses. He’d always known he might have to evacuate the Haven, and the Dauphin helicopter hidden in the underground chamber was one of the preparations he’d made.

He and Nekhbet made their way across the hangar floor to the chopper. Nosferatu got in the pilot’s seat while Nekhbet sat next to him in the copilot’s. He fired up the engines and, as the blades slowly began to turn, Nosferatu pulled out a small handheld that gave him a link to the computer controlling the X–Craft. He checked the status. It was two minutes out.

“What are you doing?” Nekhbet asked, as he handed her the device.

“I am the Eldest,” Nosferatu said. He pulled back on the controls and the helicopter lifted out of the hangar into the night sky.

Vampyr sat in the conference room, surrounded by his mercenaries, watching the X–Craft appear on the video monitors. The powerful men he had negotiated with were on their way here also. With the alliances he had arranged, Vampyr had no doubt that he would achieve a new world order, with him at the head, an Immortal with a cadre of Undead around him.

“Press the red button,” Nosferatu said. Nekhbet did not ask why. She did as he said.

The pilot of the X–Craft cursed as it banked slightly out of the designated approach, an alarm rang through his headset, and several warning lights flashed on the console. He hit the button that would switch the craft back to manual control but nothing happened.

He and his copilot screamed in unison as the nose of the craft dipped below glide parameters. The craft hit directly above the Haven.

Vampyr survived. The heavy wooden conference table had taken the brunt of the force as the explosion tore through the underground base and into the room he was in. With one arm he shoved the table off his body and took stock. His other arm had a compound fracture, white bone sticking out of the punctured skin. Breathing was difficult, and he realized he had several broken ribs.

With his good hand, he reached across to his other hand and jerked hard, his body spasming from the pain as he realigned the broken arm. The Airlia virus was already at work, repairing the damage.

Vampyr smiled grimly and staggered to his feet, silently promising vengeance against Nosferatu. This was but a delay in the inevitable.

Nosferatu and Nekhbet stared at the flames that shot up from the top of the cliff from the safety of the helicopter. Nosferatu had them in a hover two miles away, off the coast. He turned and began moving away from the site, paralleling the coast.

“Do you think he is dead?” Nekhbet asked.

“No,” Nosferatu said. “Even if he was killed by the explosion, the virus will bring him back to life.”

“He will come after us.”

“No, he won’t,” Nosferatu said. “When we took off from the hangar, we crossed an electronic beam that began a countdown.” He glanced down at the chronometer on the control panel. “Just about — now.”

Behind them the Haven, and the cliff, was consumed in a fireball as a small tactical nuclear weapon went off, vaporizing the compound, and Vampyr.