“When I scanned the Hancers auras, they had flecks of white which would be explained by the vampire protein,” I said.
“White? Takata asked.
So I explained. “Humans are blue, weres are blue and green, vampires are white, and demons are black, which I also saw flecks of in the Hancer’s auras.”
“Demons? Is that what twisted the protein?” Chet asked.
They all looked at me, like I was some kind of expert or something.
“Look, demons thrive on chaos, despair, anguish and other negative emotions. Spreading a street drug that causes its users to freak out in the most violent ways possible makes a lot of sense, if you’re a demon.”
It was quiet for a few minutes as everyone started in on their salads and pondered the new information I had provided. No one had mentioned my abnormally adroit intervention with Jacobella's near fall, and I certainly wasn't gonna bring it up, but I knew it hadn't been missed. Maybe they would just chalk it up to the rest of my strange nature. I hoped so, because I didn't want them to suspect that the purest form of the protein Hance was based on was circulating through my veins and arteries. Something must have been said in the kitchen though, because the whole family came out to serve our main entrees, and clear our now empty salad plates. I just tried to keep my head down and concentrate on the huge calzone Adriana deposited in front of me. I thanked her without looking up, hoping she would choose to ignore me. Alas, it was not to be, because as I took my first bite, I became aware that that Tony, Carlotta, and Jacobella were all waiting on my reaction.
“Um, this is excellent!” I said.
Apparently, that was the right response because they stopped staring and went back to their other customers. I looked up to find Chet watching me with a grin. “Damn, Gordon, I've been here five times and they -- “ he nodded in the direction of the Russo family, “-- never waited on my opinion. You are one smooth son of a bitch!” he said. It was just dumb luck on my part that I had helped their daughter in law from falling, but I didn't want to bring that incident back up, so I just grinned at him, shrugged and kept eating. The calzone was really good and I was pretty hungry, although not as bad as I had been the last few days.
The rest of lunch was uneventful, although my soda glass was always full and nothing would do for Mama Carlotta, but that I eat a full dessert on the house.
We headed back to One Police Plaza. I was riding with Takata, who was driving, Sommers and Fran, who seemed glued to my side. Apparently, I was providing her first relief from the constant attentions of the dead in years. Sommers got a cell call just before we arrived back at headquarters and turned to Takata.
“Roma wants us to take Gordon straight to the range without going to the office.”
“He say why?” Takata asked.
“Olivia called. Duclair and Adler are waiting for Roma.” Sommers said. “They're all worked up about the Hance raid and shit. You leave your stuff in the office?” he asked me.
“Yeah, I threw my duffel in the copier room, but I have my Glock with me, of course.”
“I'll get it and I'll grab your stuff too, Brian. You take Chris right to the range. Roma doesn't want him anywhere near the Feddies.”
The nice thing about a Glock 18 is that it looks just like its semiautomatic parent model, the 17. The only visible difference is the selector on the left side of the slide. When holstered on the right hip, it is indistinguishable from the standard service piece.
As Brian led me through yet another warren of tunnels, I threw a question at him.
“Who are Duclair and Adler, and why shouldn't I meet them?”
He didn't answer at first and I thought he was going to ignore me, but after a dozen steps he finally spoke.
“Briana Duclair is the head of Homeland Security's Directorate of Anomalous Activity, our federal counterparts. Eric Adler is her second in command.”
He paused to punch in a key code at a locked door.
“Anyway, she's wicked jealous of the Inspector, always trying to scoop him to prove her importance to her chain of command. They have a huge budget, try to get all the best people and gear. By now she'll have heard rumors about the Hance raid, the Damnedthing, and seen some of the intell that we scored. She's here to sniff out Roma's ace in the hole.”
I thought about that as we trudged along quiet corridors. “What's his ace in the hole or can't you tell me?” I asked.
He looked at me sidelong without breaking stride.
“You don't know?” he asked back.
“Brian, this is like my second day on the job. I don't know crap.”
“Well, Chris, you're his ace in the hole.”
I hadn't seen that one coming and it left me speechless. After a moment, he spoke again.
“You know, you could pretty much write your own ticket with the feds. Be a real big pay increase, not to mention perks and really cool stuff.” he threw out.
“They are based here in New York?” I asked.
“Yup, but they travel all over the country. They have their own Gulfstream on standby at JFK International. Big league stuff.” He was watching me to gauge my reaction.
“Well, that's out then. Me traveling around the country wouldn't sit well with my girl. She might get...anxious.” I said.
“You ironed out your differences then?” he asked.
“Yeah, pretty much.” I replied. “Besides, their group’s letters are D.O.A.A., that's kinda nerdy.”
He laughed. “Yeah, we refer to them as 'Dead on Arrival, Always'!”
Sommers joined us at the simulator range and we changed out of our dress uniforms in favor of tactical khaki's. I started running the scenarios, keeping my gun semi auto. I could tell that Steve and Brian were talking about me, but between the gunfire and hearing protection, I couldn't hear them. Steve was relaxed and friendly when we finished the first one though, so Brian must have relayed our conversation. I ran it again to see it I could get a better time. Finishing the shoot, I headed back to the gun table to reload my mags and noticed the Inspector was there, observing and talking with Takata and Sommers.
“Chris, you shaved about three seconds off your time with that run.” Sommers informed me.
“How was my accuracy score?”
“Fine,” he said without elaborating. “Ready for the last scenario?”
“Sure, bring it!”
The first five scenarios all had human looking pop up targets, some stand alone and some holding hostages. You had to avoid shooting innocents bystanders and correctly take out the thugs, while avoiding getting shot by the computer controlled paintball guns the dummy bad guys carried. The last simulation was designed just for our squad, and the guys would replace many of the pop ups with vampire and were look a likes, taken from a locked closet. They made me sit out in the hallway while they changed it up. Inspector Roma kept me company. “Chris, Brian told me about your conversation regarding the DOAA folks.”
“Well, Inspector, jetting around the country is not an option for me. I need to stay here in the city and work on those lines of communication we talked about. Tatiana would insist on going with me and frankly, I don't want her anywhere near the feds.”
“Well, I can't tell you how relieved I am to hear that, although you should know that the Commissioner himself approved a significant pay raise for you.”
“Ah, thanks sir.” I said. “Brian said that this Agent Duclair was kind of a thorn in our group's side.”
“Well, Briana is tough, that's for sure. And a little too Machiavellian in her methods for my tastes, but she does want to protect her country.”
Sommers opened the door. “Alright Chris, we're ready.”
I entered the darkened room, put on my safety glasses and hearing protection, checked my loaded mags and holstered gun and pronounced myself ready. Takata gave the order to proceed and I slowly walked into the shoot zone. This range was one hundred and fifty yards long, with popups all down its length. Designed to look like a typical New York street at night, you simply walked toward the far end and engaged targets as they came. The first pop up was a glaring vampire, but it didn't rush me so I held my fire. After a second it popped back down out of sight. The next was a fast rushing werewolf and I automatically gave it a burst of nine rounds, full automatic. The rest were similar, with rushing vampires and charging weres, monsters holding human victims and even a flying vampire, although I hadn't heard from my vampires that flying was possible.