Bloodshot Part 22

We made a point to dress blandly and refrain from skulking, pretending to take in the sights and occasionally check the walking map of the lawn, as if we really gave a s.h.i.+t. n.o.body looked at us twice, not that I noticed.

Not until I heard the soft clearing of a throat. It could've been any throat, cleared for any reason at all, but it wasn't. It was a signal from Cal, projected from the bottom of the steps-where he stood beside Ian. I'd known it as surely as if he'd sent a text message. You can write that off to my middling psychic abilities or to my expectation that he'd arrive any minute, or you can a.s.sume I'm lying, and that's fine, too.

I gave them a friendly wave-acting so aggressively normal that it must've looked weird, but I couldn't stop myself. I gestured them up to join us, and within a few seconds they stood before us while the thin nighttime crowds milled around us.

Ian was as tastefully dressed as always, in expensive and well-fitting clothes plus a slim black cane and the ever-present gla.s.ses. Cal could've been wearing the exact same thing he'd worn the last time I'd seen him. I couldn't tell and didn't care.

"Ian," I said, beginning the introductions. "This is Adrian. Adrian, this is Ian and...um...Cal."

"A pleasure," said Ian through lips that were a little too tight to have meant the sentiment, but he did not seem frightened or even angry. Just uncomfortable.

"Cal is Ian's a.s.sistant," I explained with a hand-wave indicating that yes, I knew I was being vague, but no, I didn't intend to be any more precise.

Adrian said, "Nice to meet you both." He was every bit as stiff as Ian and even more nervous.

Everyone stared back and forth awkwardly, except Ian, of course-but I'm pretty sure he would've been right there staring awkwardly along with us, if he'd only been able. So I said, "Well!" with too much forced cheer, and then I went on to suggest, "There's a bar a couple of blocks away-not far, and it's still a nice part of town, with a fireplace and everything. Let's adjourn there, shall we?"

Anything to get the conversation moving along, even if that meant moving us along, too.

We walked in relative silence except for my vain attempts to get people chatting, which mostly fell on deaf ears. The winter air was cold anyway, and it froze my throat when I tried to breathe or cough sociably, so I gave up and instead of being the conversation instigator, I settled for shepherd. Together, in an unfriendly clot, we found our way to the Revolutionary-a joint that was hopping with posh-looking tourists and overworked civil servants, with a smattering of lobbyists on cell phones.

I ushered everyone over to a table near the fireplace because I liked the warmth and glow of it, and the blend of orange shadows with flickering yellow light made Ian and I look more alive and less suspicious than usual. Not that we usually looked dead and suspicious, but you know what I mean. Firelight is like Photoshop for the flesh.

Wait. I already said that about vampirism.

So I'm redundant. Sue me.

We all sat down, though Cal looked as if he'd love nothing better than to resume a spot somewhere out of sight rather than hang out with this group of loonies. If by force of habit he usually lurked in the background, tough noogies. He could stay quiet if he wanted, but for the moment, he was stuck with us.

Wine arrived for me and Ian, and a double whiskey neat for the ghoul. Adrian had a Guinness because I guess he felt like drinking a loaf of bread or something. That's what it smelled like, anyway.

Finally we were all settled, served, and left alone, and there was no further excuse to keep us from talking. I broke the ice, since n.o.body else would.

"All right, guys," I opened. "I know this is awkward, but we're going to have to have a civilized conversation about some uncivilized stuff. Speak in euphemisms if you feel the need, since we're in public, but there are some things that have to come out into the open."

Ian bobbed his head gently, and asked, "Did you bring the paperwork? Do you really have my files?"

Adrian answered for me. "We have them. I've been sitting on them for years."

The vampire's head continued to bob as he took this in. He said, "I understand you had a sister in the program." It came out with difficulty, and I almost felt bad about having pushed this. But I thought it couldn't hurt, and maybe it'd even help him to have someone to tell...and it'd definitely help Adrian, hearing about his sister, even if what he heard wasn't very nice. Without even thinking about it very hard, I trusted Ian not to share anything too jarring.

Adrian said, "Yes. Her name was Isabelle. Did you know her?"

"I knew no one by name. And after the first few weeks, I likewise did not know anyone...on sight," he finished softly.

"She was...she was quite young," Adrian tried a different approach. "Sixteen or seventeen, or at least that's how she would've seemed. Since she had become...like you. She would've sounded like a girl, still. With an accent," he said suddenly, as if it'd just occurred to him. "Like mine. But hers was stronger."

If I were to guess, I'd say he'd spent some time deliberately uncultivating his own, in order to better hide himself. But I didn't accuse him of it, in case it was a sensitive subject. And anyway, it was none of my business.

"Spanish," Ian murmured.

"Cuban," Adrian clarified. "Our mother came over on a raft before we were born."

"Such strange stories we have. All of us." Ian sipped at his wine. He grimaced faintly, but not at the vintage, I didn't think. And he said, "Please understand, Adrian-I am a vulnerable man in a dangerous position, even now. It is not in my nature to discuss my past and my infirmities with anyone apart from my doctor."

Adrian almost cut him off. "But-"

"But in a case like this," he carried on, "I suppose I must make an exception. Though I'm not entirely sure what you'd like to know, or what I could possibly tell you."

"Anything. Everything."

"I can't tell you much; I saw almost nothing. And I never saw her her. But I heard her, as you said. And her scent..." His nostrils flared so barely that I could hardly see them move. "It was something like yours. I believe you, when you call her kin."

Eager and desperate, and reining it in with some difficulty, Adrian asked, "She was there, with you?"

"Yes."

"What did they do to her?"

"I..." Ian hesitated. "I could not say. Most of us there, we were different different, as you can guess. Someone, somewhere, had the idea that our abilities could be tapped-and taken. Or at least designed for use in a less...conspicuous person. For example, they wanted my night vision. There was talk of developing a bio-hack that could be introduced to soldiers, to special forces. To men like you once were," he added quietly.

Adrian glared at me.

I shrugged. "Yeah, I told him. We're operating on a need-to-know basis here, and he needed to know. But don't worry. I'm pretty sure he's not going to lord the information over you. Or...I don't know. Use it to get you into trouble. I mean more trouble than you're already in."

Ian said, "Now, now, Raylene. Do you mind if I call you Raylene? I feel like surely we've endured enough together at this point that first names shouldn't be so far out of bounds."

"Go for it."

"Raylene," he said again, and I kind of liked hearing it. "I have not at any point used any of my information to bring you harm, have I?"

I said, "No, and I'm trusting you to stay that course. Adrian, it's okay, really. He's covering his a.s.s, that's all."

"You can explain the politics to him later," Ian said toward me. Then to Adrian, "I do not know what they wanted from your sister, I only know that she was there, and that sometimes she was in the same holding area as me. There were two others like us, also. I never saw them, either."

"Where were you kept?" he asked, and I thought it was a strange question until I remembered that yes, he was a special-forces-type guy himself and maybe he had more than a tangential interest in the particulars.

Ian shuffled his shoulders in a move that was halfway between a shrug and a hand-wave. "Underground? Someplace without windows, I a.s.sume. It was dark and quiet, with...with..." He struggled to recall. "Fluorescent lighting. I could hear the hum and buzz of it, all night, and all day when I tried to sleep."

"And this compound was called 'Jordon Roe'?" Adrian asked.

"That's what they called it, yes. It was on an island off the coast of Florida-a tiny, vegetation-covered sandbar with no bridges to the mainland. Everyone who came or went came or went by helicopter, or by boat."

"Did you ever talk to my sister?" Adrian wanted to know. "Did she ever say anything? About me, or about anybody? About anything?"

Ian's eyes were all but hidden behind the tinted lenses, but I think I saw them tense, and soften. He said, "I heard her crying, sometimes. And I tried to talk to her, once. I asked her who she was-I was only trying to distract her. We were all lined up in these cells, you see, with walls between us. We couldn't have seen one another even if I hadn't been blind by then. But I heard her, yes. And I tried to engage her, but she only told me to go perform anatomically improbable acts on myself. I didn't take it personally," he added. "We were under so much stress and uncertainty. She was terrified, that much was obvious. I felt sorry for her. She gave me someone to pity other than myself."

Cal, who hadn't yet said a word to anyone, lifted his hand like he wanted to pat Ian's shoulder in a show of sympathy, but he restrained himself.

Ian sighed, took a mouthful of wine too large to call a sip, and swallowed. "I heard her talking to other people, mostly begging to be told what was happening, or arguing, or screaming to be let out-before she figured out that no one was listening, and that help was not coming from anyone, inside or out."

"Did you leave her there? When you escaped?" Adrian asked, his hands gripping hard on his gla.s.s, leaving a fog halo around his fingers even though the beverage inside wasn't very cold.

The vampire shook his head. "I escaped after...a storm destroyed the premises. I was in no position to look for her, or anyone else. But I called out to her, and to everyone else who remained-and if she heard me, she did not respond. If she survived, she must have been injured. Or perhaps she escaped, but was recaptured. I wish I could tell you more, but that's all I know. She didn't answer me. No one answered me."

He tapped one fingernail against the base of the winegla.s.s, considering something else. I was about to ask him what it was, but he spared me the effort. "Once I heard her talking in Spanish, very quickly, to one of the guards-or scientists, or soldiers, or whatever they were there. She might've overheard a Spanish name, or heard him speaking, or perhaps she only guessed by looking at him that he might understand her. Regardless, she attempted to sway him-she was pleading with him, one morning when most of the residents were already turned in for the day, and trying to rest. Even when we can't see the sun we can feel when it's up, you see, and when we can feel it, up there or out there for very long, it makes us want to sleep-though we can delay it if we're motivated to do so."

"Do you speak any Spanish?" Adrian asked.

"I'm afraid not. She was whispering, pleading. I couldn't pick out a single bit, except por favor por favor, and I know that means 'please.' She said it several times. But whoever she was talking to, I could tell by his tone that he was telling her no."

Adrian exhaled and leaned back, taking his drink with him and downing the last of it. He held the empty gla.s.s against his chest. "Thank you," he said. "I know you didn't have to tell me any of this."

"I wish I could be more help."

The part-time drag queen shook his head. "There's no help to be had, not anymore. She's gone, and I'm still here. And I've done everything I could to keep her death from being swept under a rug, but until Raylene here stumbled across me-"

"Hey-" I objected. There hadn't been any "stumbling" about it.

"I'd run out of ideas. I didn't know what to do with what I had. The government allegedly closed the program some time ago, but I suspect it's been reopened-maybe as a civilian operation."

"There's no suspecting suspecting to it," I sulked. "Someone's up to something again, and I've got a name-Ed Bruner. I even have a half-a.s.sed idea of how he's trying to drum up new subjects." to it," I sulked. "Someone's up to something again, and I've got a name-Ed Bruner. I even have a half-a.s.sed idea of how he's trying to drum up new subjects."

Ian asked with a hint of worry, "What do you mean?"

"One of my properties was broken into the night you and I met. I caught the breaker-inner, and he had a number on him that lead back to a guy named Ed Bruner. The same name turned up in Adrian's folders. You'll see it when you read through it-or when Cal does. I don't believe in coincidences. I think he's fis.h.i.+ng around for more test subjects, and he's using a group of urban explorers as cover."

"Urban explorers?" Cal asked. "What, like people who take pictures in abandoned buildings?"

"Yes, but worse. These guys-like the guy I caught on my property-they aren't looking around abandoned buildings. Bruner is using them to try and flush out people like me, or chase down leads that might lead him to people like me. I can't prove it yet, but I don't really have to. I know he's tied up in Project Bloodshot, and that makes him interesting enough to chase down, regardless of what his involvement in the burglary might have been."

Ian said, "Indeed," and he brought the subject back around to its primary purpose, from his point of view. "And for now, I'd like to ask if you'd let me have those files. I've come a very long way to see them. Or rather"-he made a self-deprecating gesture-"to have Cal see them."

The ghoul took his hands off his whiskey long enough to retrieve the blue folder stuffed full of that enigmatic paperwork and place it in front of Ian-and halfway in front of himself, so he could see it.

Ian couldn't read it, but he seemed eager to touch it, if only to know for certain that he'd finally found it. He asked Cal, "Is it ...?"

And Cal said, "Looks like it. I think so, yes." He flipped through the pages, licking his thumb for traction, and gave everything a cursory examination in the dim light of the Revolutionary. "It appears to be rather comprehensive," he muttered. "But coded, like everything else we've found so far."

"I've also included the paperwork regarding two of the other subjects who were featured in the Holtzer Point file cabinets. Your stuff is in there, but it's not much you don't already have. As for the other dossiers, they're coded, too. It's almost impossible to tell any personal details about any of them, except Isabelle." I'd given her paperwork to Adrian, in case it meant anything to him. I theorized, "And that might be because they knew she'd been reported as a missing person, and they figured out that someday, they might have to account for what happened to her...to someone."

Adrian agreed, saying, "Maybe. I made a big stink for a few years there, until I tracked her down and went after her doc.u.ments. Then I had to knock it off, obviously. But everything I ever found on Bloodshot was coded-and that's not so unusual, really. The military loves nothing more than muddling things that ought to be clear. Maybe you'll find something useful in it. I hope you do. It hasn't been doing much for me these past few years." He said it with irritation, but not directed at anyone at the table. I think he was irritated with himself for hanging on to it all this time and not knowing what to do with it.

"Thank you," Ian told him again. He dragged his fingertips across the pages as if he could osmose the text. "Cal, would you stash these, please?"

"Of course," replied the hipster, gathering everything together and tapping it on the table to straighten the pages. Then he stuffed the lot of it into a satchel he'd left at his feet. "I can fax them to Dr. Keene in the morning."

"And then tomorrow night, barring unforeseen catastrophe," I said, tempting fate, "you and I can finally have that money talk."

"You'd rather not do so now?" Ian asked.

"No. Not while there's still work to be done."

"I'm not sure I understand."

So I made him understand. I brought him up to speed on everything that had happened since I'd left Seattle, including details on the initial breach by Trevor and the subsequent full-scale official official raid on my storehouse at Pioneer Square in Seattle. Then I told him about the Poppyc.o.c.k Review, and how I'd possibly been tracked by satellite. raid on my storehouse at Pioneer Square in Seattle. Then I told him about the Poppyc.o.c.k Review, and how I'd possibly been tracked by satellite.

"And you're certain Bruner's behind all this?" Ian asked, worried lines crinkling around the edges of his eyes, just beyond the frames of his gla.s.ses.

"More certain than I'd like to be. I'll grant you, half of it's hunch. But I haven't lived this long by ignoring my hunches, and I think the coincidence is simply too much to ignore. What's the old adage? I may be paranoid, but that doesn't mean they aren't after me. Anyway, moving right along, I'd like to bring another issue to the table of this little...meeting, or committee, or whatever we are. A little digging brought me to a couple of pieces of information that might be of use to us."

Adrian already knew about them, so he kept his mouth shut, leaned back, and signaled the server for another beverage. But Ian hadn't heard yet, so he took the bait. "What kind of information?"

"For starters, Ed Bruner's not in the phone book, but I know where his office is located. It's here in D.C., less than two miles from where we're sitting right this second."

Cal murmured, "You can't be serious."

"Oh, I'm serious. I guess he thinks he has nothing to hide, or maybe he's just that arrogant. From what I know of him-which admittedly isn't much, but none of it's flattering-it could go either way. Regardless, he's easy to find. At least his official offices are easy to find. How much time he spends there, I couldn't say and haven't the foggiest. But tomorrow night we're going to go take a look around and see if there's been any movement or revival of Project Bloodshot-under that name, or any other."

"Wait. We?" Ian asked.

"We meaning me and Adrian. He's got training and I've got moves. We're just going to take a quick poke around the premises, bust open a safe or two, rifle through some filing cabinets, you know. Stuff like that. Depending on what we find, I might need to borrow your expertise." meaning me and Adrian. He's got training and I've got moves. We're just going to take a quick poke around the premises, bust open a safe or two, rifle through some filing cabinets, you know. Stuff like that. Depending on what we find, I might need to borrow your expertise."

"My expertise on the project is rather regrettably limited," Ian said wryly.

"Oh, don't be so modest." I waved at him without looking at him, because I was reaching for my bag and digging around in it for a piece of paper. "You're a living witness to what went on there, and as you've demonstrated admirably, your ears and nose observed much."

"What are you doing?" Cal asked curiously.

I said, "I'm looking for something. Ah. Here it is."

I withdrew the computer printout of a website advertis.e.m.e.nt and slapped it down on the table. "I give you the District of Columbia's premier organization for parkour enthusiasts of all ages and skill levels."

Cal picked up the paper and read aloud, "Presidential Parkour?"

"Silly name, yes I agree." I then said to Ian, "It's not related to Northwest Parcours Parcours Addicts in Seattle, not in any concrete sister-organization way or anything. They don't even spell Addicts in Seattle, not in any concrete sister-organization way or anything. They don't even spell parcours parcours the same way-the D.C. group does away with that sissy French spelling and gives it a good old Anglo-Saxon the same way-the D.C. group does away with that sissy French spelling and gives it a good old Anglo-Saxon k k instead of a instead of a c c. In fact, the two groups only have two things in common: one, they're both chock-full of military wannabes who like to run around and climb on stuff; and two, they both have a surrept.i.tious connection to the army."

"Bruner's affiliated with this group, too?" Ian asked.

"Yup. And he uses similar groups in Seattle to recruit. This one advertises that it comes with soldier oversight in the form of Tyler Bolton, a lieutenant with somebody or another-they aren't too clear on the website as to who, precisely, he lieutenants."

Adrian made a harrumphing noise and said, "Tyler Bolton. What a name."

"I know, right? It's almost worse than Trevor," I mused aloud. "Regardless, we're going."

"We?" Ian asked. "You and Adrian, again?"

"Actually..." I gave Cal an appraising look. "Adrian's a poor choice for this particular mission, since he's been AWOL for quite some time."