“Spiddle. Fucker. Spiddle. Fucker.”
His flailing hands fell upon Harvey. At first, he recoiled, but then he paused, jerked, twitched, shuddered, then smacked his lips together. He sighed as he laid back. His hand fell against one of Harvey’s and he gripped it.
“Harvey, speak to me. Is that you, Harvey?”
A low husky voice said, “Marvelous.”
“Who is that?” Jakes asked.
“It was a female black widow. They attach themselves somehow to the ghost. It’s going to be confusing because we’re going to have to figure out which is Harvey and which is the spider.”
“That’s just weird,” Jakes said.
I didn’t point out that the weirdness should have started when we fetched a man with a metal box on his head that we kept in a special warehouse, but I was more intent on the mission at hand.
“Harvey Isaiah Goldsmith, talk to me.”
“Minding my own business and harvesting my babies when this happened. Can you believe it? Can you believe the luck?”
That was the spider. Harvey had been right. They were so melodramatic. But I had to play along. “Such bad luck. What was your luck, Harvey?”
“I waited and waited and waited. So many morsels. So many and now it’s over.”
“Such a tragedy.”
“It’ll be sad not to see them born.”
“Maybe the ghost isn’t there,” Jakes whispered.
I was getting ready to believe it, when the Box Man jerked and another voice joined the spiders as they took turns telling their stories.
“Following, following, following, following, being followed, got to get to a place where I can — never see how beautiful my children would have been, each of them impeccable and — strong, so strong, but how can she be — my mother was beautiful like me she — hit me, too hard, too hard, broken inside, I try and run, but it — strikes me funny that thing should end with the beautiful flash of light then — a moment of impossible pain then I’m gone — and then darkness, where I waited, and wondered, then was trapped, so trapped, so trapped. Tragic.”
The voices stopped. After a moment, I stood. “Yep. Tragic.”
Jakes stared at me, his forehead wrinkled. “Did you get any of that? So jumbled.”
I’d gotten enough. I now know that he was being followed. He’d either picked it up during his meeting at Lawrence Livermore or in Gilroy. Whoever it had been, it was a woman, and she was impossibly strong. And the light? It could have been anything, but then again it could have been something as well.
I headed out the alley.
“Where are we going?” Jakes asked.
“To get a massage. Bring Boxie and put him in the Van. I need you there with me.”
I conferred with Evans and Marshall. They’d made a log of the comings and goings of the various people, mostly men. They’d also used one of our SX-69 Polaroid Land Cameras and had forty pictures. They would have had more, Evans had explained, but they’d run out of film.
Nancy picked four pictures out of the lineup. One belonged to Countess Mizuki. She’d left at 3:13 PM and returned at 7:32 PM. One seemed to match the passport photo of one Vitoli Ryabkin. He’d entered with another man. Although I didn’t recognize him, I noted in the picture he was smoking a gold-filtered black cigarette. They’d gone inside an hour ago and hadn’t left. The last was Rachel Nakamura. She seemed upset in the picture, the snap catching her as she looked fearfully over her shoulder. She was inside as well.
My guess is that once they discovered that Harvey had gone to Gilroy, they panicked. They’d been so successful hiding her presence. If it hadn’t been for her failing to tell us about the other scientists, we never would have discovered any of this. That all of my targets were now under the same roof gave me hope. Maybe there was a god and maybe he was on our side. I hoped so, but I wasn’t holding my breath.
Nancy brought a suitcase and opened it on the trunk of the car. Inside were various bullets, knives, swords, machetes, hatchets, and even a wood saw. All of them were made from silver. According to our records, it was the only thing that could consistently kill a vampire. It didn’t work all the time, but it was the best weapon we had. Sunlight only affected a small percentage of them. Garlic had absolutely no effect and mirrors were something from pure fiction.
I loaded my .45 with silver bullets, then grabbed two magazines. I took a machete, which I strapped to my belt. Then I grabbed two hand grenades. Made from silver, they’d also been emptied and filled with silver fragments.
“What about holy water and crosses?” Jakes asked, holding up a silver cavalry sword.
Nancy sniffed, as he loaded his .38 Police Special. “Never heard of it working.”
I was itching to get inside. “Everyone locked and loaded?”
“Seven men around back, led by Brahm. Five in front, including Evans, Marshall, Jakes, you and myself.”
“Do we have backup?”
“SFPD is waiting with SWAT two blocks away, but per SOP, have been asked to wait until called.”
“Doris standing by to make the call?”
Nancy nodded toward the house across the street and down the block. “The nice residents have agreed to let her watch. If things go south, she’ll call in the cavalry.”
I’d emptied out the office and even with all of my men, we probably didn’t have enough. A vampire hive was about the deadliest thing I’d ever encountered during my tenure with the unit. My arm still ached from where it had been broken in three places by a sweet young woman when I’d been the first one in the Berkley sorority house.
Twelve of us were arrayed against it. We had the best weapons modern technology could offer. But even with that, I knew it wasn’t enough. Some of us would die this night. It might even be me. I’d told the men that earlier. I’d always believed it was important to go into a mission with the belief that you would die. That way it relieved you from the fear of the unknown. The fear of death was a strong enemy and I slaughtered it at every opportunity.
I checked my watch and glanced at the sky. I wondered what Neil, Buzz, and Michael were doing now. Were they on the moon yet or had they overshot and were now careening through space. A moon landing would be a great win for America against the Soviet machine.
Like them, I had my own dangerous victory to achieve. Not only that, but I had a life I needed payment for… check that. Remembering the scientists, I had four lives that needed payment. I drew my machete and hefted it in my right hand. I held my pistol in my left.
I nodded.
Jakes went first, followed by me, Marshall, Evans with Nancy taking the rear. The home was a two story California craftsman. City blueprints showed four bedrooms upstairs and one downstairs. The door opened into a living room with a dining room to the right, and a kitchen in back. The place seemed too small for what was going on there, so we were prepared that the basement, for which we had no blueprints, might be extensive.
Jakes’s bull shoulders struck the door at a run. It burst open as he roared, splinters from where the metal lock tore free from the jamb shooting forward. He lurched into the room, then paused. The only person in the living room was a beautiful young Japanese girl who was completely naked. She sat perfectly still on a four-cushion sofa, a small smile on her face.
“Move.” I pushed him, but he wouldn’t budge.
“She’s… she’s…”
“A fucking vampire,” I said, shooting her three times in the chest with my .45.