“That, Admiral, would take more time to explain than I have,” he replied. “The short answer is that you should call it a biological attack.”
“Damn it, Masters, I brought you in to solve problems, not make more of them! Andrews says that you’re being attacked by American citizens!” Karson snarled. “Do you have any idea how many laws you’re breaking?”
“None, sir. The dead have no claim to citizenship,” Masters growled. “Look. I know it’s hard to understand over the radio, but the situation is what it is. We have a line on the source of the biological. Give us six more hours, and if we can’t get it locked down by then…well, just don’t send any more men up here to die, sir.”
“You’re not instilling me with confidence, Commander.”
“How do you think I feel up here in the middle of things, Admiral?”
There was a long pause on the line before Karson came back. “For God’s sake…I don’t know how else to put this. Do not kill any American civilians!”
“Admiral, most of them are already dead,” Masters said tiredly. “Hawk out.”
He pulled the helmet off and looked out the open door of the Coast Guard helo, down at the darkness below. He was tired, really tired. The last place he wanted to be was here, in an American town, faced with death the likes of which he’d never confronted before, even in the Middle East.
The pilot spoke up from just ahead of them. “We’re circling the airport now, ma’am. Orders?”
“How’s your fuel?” Judith asked, leaning forward.
“We’ve got time before we’re bingo for fuel, Captain.”
“Touch and go,” Masters spoke up. “You’re our only way out of this nightmare. Don’t spend any time on the ground if you can help it.”
The pilot glanced at Judith, who scowled but nodded in agreement.
“Roger that. We’ll touch you down just outside the main building, then circle until you’re ready for pickup. Be quick about it, though. We have fuel, but it won’t last forever.”
With that in mind, Masters led his team in a surprisingly textbook touch-and-go dismount from the chopper, and they took the airport in under a minute.
“Secure the doors, and kill those emergency lights,” he said as he headed for the administrator’s office. “I’ll get the computer.”
Security locks in an airport were a joke at the best of times, but here they were even more lacking. It took him only a few seconds to pop the lock and make his way over to the computer he was looking for. When the power was switched off, the airport had changed over to backup power, just as he’d been expecting it would. If it hadn’t — well, it would have taken a bit longer to get the intel he needed. As it was, the computer had been left on after its last use, and the password was actually stuck to the screen with a Post-it. He hadn’t been counting on that; Masters knew his way around most common security systems, and he’d been confident that he could get into this one, but he was happy to take the easy route.
“Anything?” Norton asked, making his way inside.
“Just a second. I’m checking the records now,” he said, tapping in a few quick searches. “All right. Normal flights check out, nothing unusual. Food, medical, and so on.”
“What about the medical flights?” Norton asked. “Sounds like a good way to ship a body.”
“Nothing recent,” Masters said. “A few caskets going out, that’s it. On to special flights…” He whistled. “Your Asatru buddies got a few things flagged here.”
“Oh yeah? Any caskets?” Norton asked, stepping over to lean on the desk and look for himself.
“No, small arms, axes, swords.” Masters snorted. “The swords were what raised a few eyebrows.”
Norton grinned. “Imagine that.”
“All right, that leaves the oil companies,” Masters said. “Lots of flights from them, mostly transport — people from what I can tell. Nothing logged in here looks strange, except…”
“Except?” Norton prodded.
“There’s a Gulfstream parked out in a hangar that came in a few days ago and skipped past the inspection team here. Nothing too unusual about that, but they did note that a truck pulled in and left a while later with a covered bed,” Masters said. “Could be our vampire.”
“Why in the hell would an oil company import a vampire, Hawk?” Norton looked genuinely confused. “It isn’t exactly good for business, you know?”
“Right now, I’m less concerned with the why than the where,” Masters mumbled, shaking his head. “There’s no extra info in here, just that it’s a Benthic Petrol plane. A British company is leasing the rights here.”
“Well then, I’d say that we check their rigs first, wouldn’t you?”
Masters nodded. “Yeah. We’ve got a target.”
The two left the office, heading out into the airport proper. Masters nodded at Judith as he approached. “We’ve got a target; call in the bird.”
Southwest of town, the fires of hell were burning.
Masters didn’t know what had lit off the wells, but he expected the news services would have a field day once this was exposed. The entire mission was turning into a nightmare, in more ways than one. Even tabling the fact that monsters were stalking the night around here, the aftermath was certain to be brutal.
“That’s the BP site, right there!” the pilot called back over his shoulder.
“You sure?” Judith asked, cocking her head to look out.
“Positive! Made more than one flight through here this year already. First time I had to dodge smoke plumes, though.”
Judith nodded, leaning back as she looked over at Masters. “I hope you have a plan.”
He was staring down at the site, where flames were erupting from the ground like a godly blowtorch.…It wasn’t exactly making him feel great about the situation. They needed a good firefighting team up here, though he’d put money on it that Keyz would be able to put those out in a pinch. Either way, he wasn’t about to call in for civilians or send Keyz off to play with high explosives until he knew the area was secure.
“Course I do,” he said before glancing over at Norton, whose gaze was fixed on the flames too. “We have a plan, right?”
Norton shot him a mild glare, then sighed and shook his head.
“Crap.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Norton said. “You don’t know what we’re dealing with, Hawk. Vampires, they’re something different. They’re not like most things you’ve seen, not even on our side of the veil. The old ones are rare and damned near unstoppable.”
“Nothing’s unstoppable, Alex,” Masters told him grimly.
“Death rejects these people, Hal. These people have done things so hideous that they’ve managed to change the very nature of the universe,” Alex said. “That just doesn’t happen. Death doesn’t just reject people, Hawk.”
“Alex.” Masters shook his head. “You know as well as I do that what happens beyond the veil doesn’t obey natural laws.”
“That’s bullshit,” Alex said vehemently. “Everything obeys natural laws.”
“I’ve seen you tell gravity to piss off, Alex!” Masters growled. “Don’t give me that. Hell, we’ve got a damned ice witch in the chopper with us. How is that any different?”
Alex just glared at him. “There’s a world of difference between playing the game and breaking the rules, Hawk.”
“In my book, all that means is that we don’t understand all the rules yet.” Masters shrugged. “These things have been destroyed in the past, right?”
“Yeah,” Alex said, nodding. “Yeah, they have. Supposedly.”
“Then I just need to know how.”
Alex sighed. “The best results have always been fire. Lots of it.”
Hawk Masters snorted, looking out the open door of the chopper at the well fires exploding from the earth like the devil’s own blowtorches.