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.?
?
?
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¡
Scott