Suckers

Suddenly, everyone was yelling at once. Ruth had gone purple with rage and was jabbing a finger in my direction, but I couldn't hear what she was saying because of the racket. Dino looked extremely pissed off at having lost the limelight. I'd had enough of being yelled at, so I tried to direct attention back to him. I said, 'Francine gave us access to some of your negatives.'

Everyone looked at Francine, who blushed and stared at her shoes.

Dino snarled, 'Who's us? You and the PLO?'

Ruth butted in. 'She's talking about Duncan. Duncan Fender, aren't you, Dora? So why isn't he here tonight?'

'Yeah, why isn't he here?' asked Dino. 'And why the hell did you give him those negs, you silly bitch?'

'I didn't,' Francine protested. 'She stole them.'

'We sent photos to all the newspapers,' I said, adding lamely, 'No one ran them. Except the Sunday Sport.'

Dino slapped his forehead in exasperation. He didn't seem too thrilled about his work appearing in something so downmarket.

'Why should we believe you?' asked Ruth, who was still looking quite flushed. 'You know who Duncan is. Why would he want to have those photos made public?'

'No, I don't know who Duncan is,' I snapped back. 'Or rather I do know, but I don't know why you keep going on about it as though all this is his fault.'

They were still staring at me, so I let them have it. 'OK, so he used to go out with a vampire. But as soon as he found out what she was, he put a stop to her. He did, you know. If it weren't for him, all this would have happened thirteen years ago, and we wouldn't be in a position to stand around discussing it.'

There was another uproar. I wasn't sure what had upset them this time. I had assumed that Ruth, at least, would have worked out the connection between Duncan and Violet by now. She was saying something, and she had to repeat herself several times. I finally managed to read her lips. 'Ask him,' she was saying.

'Ask him what?' I mouthed back.

Then I heard her say, quite clearly, 'He doesn't give a fuck what she was. He just likes beating the crap out of people.'

'Don't be ridiculous,' I said.

'He's a known sadist,' said Dino, his lip curling.

'Lulu had a shiner only the other week,' Ruth said. 'No wonder she left him.'

'Don't be silly,' I said. 'That wasn't Duncan. She banged into someone at her dance class.'

'Oh yeah,' said Dino.

'Pull the other one,' said Ruth.

I was about to protest again, but the meeting was on the verge of fragmenting into petty squabbling. Dino called for order with a sergeant-major roar. The bickering petered out. 'Perhaps Miss Vale would be so kind as to return my negatives as soon as possible,' he said sarcastically. 'But in the mean time, I think we are all in agreement that we are on the same side. If we're to survive, we must stick together. Now, I don't know how many of you know about Rotnacht…'

Someone volunteered the information that it was a little-known German expressionist film.

'No, no,' said someone else. 'It's a type of soft cheese.'

'Stop it!' snapped Ruth. 'This isn't funny. Now, are you going to be serious, or not? Because if not, we might as well forget the whole thing. We're history.' She drained her glass and stomped across the room for a refill. My little remark about Palestinians had ruined her entire evening.

Dino took over again. 'If we're not prepared to take this seriously, we'll end up dead, or changed into one of them, or worse.'

'What could be worse than being one of them?' asked the TV presenter. 'The idea of drinking blood makes me feel sick.'

'Is it true they never grow old and die?' someone asked. 'Do they ever get ill?'

'Great,' said someone else. 'I could cut out my BUPA payments.'

'Couldn't we give them AIDS?'

'Nuke them!'

'I know, let's emigrate.'

Dino called for silence again. 'Rotnacht, basically, is the night when the decks are cleared for action, when all opposition is wiped out in one fell swoop, when the garbage is disposed of, for keeps, with extreme prejudice. And when I say garbage — let's not be coy about this — I mean us. Rotnacht is the night our number comes up. That is, if we're not prepared to take a stand and do something about it.'

There was a shout from the back of the room; it might have been Desperate Dan. 'How come you know so much?'

This was Dino's cue. He smiled bitterly and said in his best Method actor voice, 'I used to be a part of it. I was part of the original Multiglom set-up. When I saw what they were up to, I got the hell out. They've been on my case ever since.'

He'd seen too many Marlon Brando movies, but I had the feeling he wasn't all bullshit. I wondered how close he'd got to Violet, and I wondered what had made him draw the line and opt out. Had it really been his choice, or was he just trying to save face? One thing was for sure; Dino was not playing at being a freedom fighter for lofty moral reasons. This was personal. He was getting his own back on someone. Just like the rest of us.

Ruth was beaming again, with only the faintest tinge of pink in her cheeks to suggest she had ever blown her top. 'What we really need is to know when Rotnacht is planned for. So we can warn everyone.'

Someone asked Dino how come he didn't know, since he seemed to know everything else. 'They didn't fix the date until after I left,' he said, with that shifty look you get when someone isn't giving you the whole picture. He stood there a bit listlessly, as though he'd run out of things to say, but Ruth was already gesticulating in my direction. 'Tell us what you know, Dora,' she pleaded.

'Not a lot,' I said. 'All the usual stuff. Don't invite anyone into your home. You know about the garlic, and some of you are already wearing crucifixes. Swot up on your Stoker. Watch some Christopher Lee. I would have advised everyone to wear black, so you don't stand out in a crowd, but I see most of you are dressed in black anyway.'

There were a few chuckles at this. Someone asked, 'Why black?'

I shrugged, but everyone was looking at me as though I was the expert. I realized I probably was. 'Something to do with absorbing the sun's rays? I don't know. I don't have a degree in biophysics.'

'What do you know about Rotnacht?' asked Ruth.

'I'm no wiser than you,' I said.

'But you're closer,' said Dino. No one was paying him much attention now, and he wasn't looking very friendly. 'You're in with the vampire's boyfriend.'

'Oh, for Heaven's sake,' I sighed. 'He isn't the vampire's boyfriend, not any more. He hates vampires.' I paused, and decided I might as well spill the beans. I couldn't have them thinking Duncan was a traitor to his race. 'As a matter of fact, we staked one only last night.'

There was a shocked hush, followed by an awestruck murmuring. I felt proud of Duncan. For all the fine talk here, no one had yet seen action the way he had.

'Lulu,' Ruth said quietly.

'Let's go get 'em all!' someone yelled.

'Where is this Duncan? We should raise our glasses to him.'

'It's no good plunging straight in without a plan,' said Dino, trying to regain the goodwill he could feel had shifted towards the absent stake-wielder. 'They'll just pick us off one by one. We've got to get ourselves organized.'