Luke Reardon
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Luke studied
the old camera¡¯s screen.? He zoomed the lens and more blurry images
appeared in the window.?
¡°Hard to
tell. At least two that I know of up there. It¡¯s dark in there or I wouldn¡¯t
see anything but a white glare.¡± He hunted the other windows but they were
either shaded or there was no activity to see.
¡°That¡¯s all
I got.¡± He noticed something on the ground and it gave him some
assurance.? A diving board.? That meant there was a swimming pool
filled with lovely water. He grinned in the darkness.
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Scarlett
MacAleister
?
Scarlett
gave Luke a nod. "Then see what you can see with your camera and get pictures
of anything interesting," she told him. "I'm going to take a little
stroll."
The redhead
turned toward the fence, crouched and leaped more than 10 feet into the air,
vaulting over the fence and landing on the other side with barely a sound.
She looked
back at Luke and gave him a wink before she turned and disappeared almost
magically into the darkness. The vampire slipped silently through the frees,
moving with unnatural speed and nimbleness through the trees and brush
surrounding the property. Reaching the edge of the trees, she looked across the
open yard and spotted several cameras monitoring the property.
Like a
black, shadowy blur, Scarlett darted across the yard, arriving at the outside
wall of the house, where she pressed her back flat against the brick and then
she moved along quietly until she reached a window. With her enhanced hearing,
she focused to see if she could hear anything going on inside the house.?
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New Javier
Delgado and Sani Redwind (Cartel NPCS)
?
Inside the
cartel owned house in Raconteur City, Javier Delgado was reading over reports
he¡¯d acquired on the various criminal enterprises at work in this area. Already
he was making headway into disrupting the activities of the yakuza and the Jamaican
Posse and as soon as they had been brought to their knees, he was ready to work
on the smaller operations in and around the city ¨C making way for his mistress
and her cartel to come here and take over.
The grizzled
looking Hispanic, his hair pulled back in a ponytail, dressed in a black
t-shirt and fatigue pants, sat at a desk in the mansion¡¯s study. Across the
room, seated on a mat on the floor was young Sani Redwind, a Native American,
who sat cross-legged, his eyes closed, deep in meditation.
Delgado
flipped a page in the report and continued reading, just as a knock came at the
door. He looked annoyed. His human mercenaries, though well-trained and
disciplined, at times tended to require more guidance than he wanted to give
them.
¡°What is it?¡±
he asked, the annoyance in his voice obvious.
The door
opened and a big, white male stepped through the door. He was dressed similar
to Javier, all in black, an H&K MP-5 submachine gun hanging from a strap on
his shoulder.
¡°We¡¯ve got
motion detected on the grounds,¡± he said. ¡°Cameras aren¡¯t picking up a thing¡even
on thermal.¡±:
Javier gave
a snort, ¡°Not everything gives off a heat signature, Mike.¡±
Javier stood
and started toward the door. Mike glanced over at Sani and frowned. ¡°That kid
is always meditating.¡±
Delgado
reached Mike and stood right up in his face, ¡°He has to if he wants to control
the beast inside him,¡± his hissed. ¡°Now, show me your disturbance.¡±
Mike nodded
and led the vampire to the nearby security suite where there were a couple of
mercenaries manning arrays of monitors, watching the grounds intently. Mike
went to his console, pulled up the motion sensor that had been trip a couple of
minutes earlier, then displayed the video recording of that area of the yard
which corresponded with the time on the motion detection hit.
¡°See,
nothing,¡± Mike muttered.
Javier replayed
it a couple of times, slowing it down over and over until there was a faint
image, almost like a shadow, that darted past the camera. Slowly, a smile
spread over the Mexican¡¯s face.
¡°We have a
visitor,¡± Javier said in a low voice.
Mike nodded,
¡°Not human?¡±
¡°No,¡± Delgado confirmed, standing and stepping back from the monitor. ¡°It¡¯s
her.¡±
The
mercenary raised an eyebrow, ¡°Her¡you mean the redhead we saw last night
watching from the street? The one you said followed us from the docks?¡±
¡°The same,¡±
Delgado told him. ¡°Take three of the men, take dogs, sweep the perimeter.¡±
Mike nodded,
keyed his walkie-talkie and called three mercs to the security room. He then grabbed
several magazines for his subgun. These clips were marked with silver tape. He
popped the magazine currently in his MP-5, cleared the chamber and loaded the
special clip.
When the
other three showed, he looked at them and said, ¡°Arm with silver. We may have a
special visitor.¡±
The men
nodded and armed themselves accordingly, before heading out the door. As they
left, Delgado loaded a silver clip into his sidearm and grabbed his sword off a
rack I the security office, next to the weapon lockers.
He returned
to the study and secured the metal shudders son the window with the push of a
button. As they closed, Sani¡¯s eyes opened and he looked to Javier. ¡°What is it?¡±
¡°Possible intruder,¡± Delgado told him. ¡°Possibly the girl we saw last night.¡±
Sani nodded,
¡°The vampire?¡±
¡°³Û±ð²õ.¡±
¡°Should I¡change¡.go
have a look?¡± Sani asked, standing up.
Delgado
shook his head, ¡°Not yet. Your transformation here, in the neighborhood our
employer intends to make her home at, could lead to some unnecessary attention.
I¡¯ll let you know when I need you to change.¡±
Sani nodded.
He armed himself with a pistol and a big hunting knife he put into the sheath
at his side. The two then waited for security to check things out.
Outside,
Mike Jablonski and his team of three mercenaries stepped out of the mansion
into the backyard. They had two big German Shepherds on leashes which they used
to guide them as they went in separate directions around the house¡
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Tag Luke,
Scarlett
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