Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 33

Chapter 33 enchant of FoolsTommy led them down a narrow down hallway and into a blown-up room beautifyed in rancid walnut and furnished with heavy, dark wood furniture. Paintings and bookshelves fill with leather volumes lined the walls strands of gold wire course across the front of the shelves to hold the books in place in blunt oceans were the besides evidence that they were on a gravy holder. on that point were no windows the only light came from small spotlights recessed into the ceiling that sh ane on the paintings.Tommy paused in the center of the room, fighting the urge to stop and look at the books. thresh about travel to his side.See that? Lash asked. He nodded toward a large painting lambent colors and bold shapes, squiggles and lines that hung between two doors at the far goal of the room.Tommy said, Looks similar it should be hung on a fridge with ladybug magnets.Its a Miro, Lash said. It must be worth millions.How do you know its an headmaster?Tommy , look at this yacht if you can afford a boat care this, you dont hang fakes. Lash menstruumed to an early(a), smaller painting of a cleaning woman reclining on a pile of satin cushions. Thats a Goya. Probably priceless.So whats your point? Tommy asked.Would you leave aroundthing like that unguarded? And I dont come gumption that you can point a boat this size with let on a crew.Swell, Tommy said. Jeff, let me have that shotgun.Jeff, appease shivering from his dunk, turn over over the gun.Shell in the chamber, Jeff said.Tommy took the gun, checked the safety, and started forward. fete your eyes open, fatheads.They went through the door to the right of the Miro into a nonher hallway, this hotshot gameboarded in teak. Paintings hung along the walls between louvered teak doors.Tommy paused at the first door and signaled for Barry to back him up with a speargun as he opened it. Inside, row upon row of suits and jackets hung on motorized tracks. Above the tracks, shelves we re change with hats and expensive shoes.Tommy pushed aside some of the suits and peered between them, looking for a fix of legs and feet. No one here, he said. Did anyone bring a flashlight?Didnt reckon ab pop verboten it, Barry said.Tommy backed forbidden of the closet and moved to the next door. Its a bathroom.A head, Barry corrected, looking around Tommys shoulder into the room. thithers no toilet.Vampires dont go, Tommy said. Id say this guy had this boat built for him.They moved down the hall checking each room. There were rooms full of paintings and sculpture, crated, labeled, and stacked in rows another with oriental carpets furled and stacked a room that looked like an office, with reckoners, a copy machine, telefax machines, and filing cabinets and another head.They followed the hallway around a gentle crimp to the left, where it traced the line of the bow of the boat. At the apex there was a teak spiral staircase that led to a deck above and one below. Light spill ed down from above. The hallway curved around the bow and back to the stern.The hallway must go back to that other door in that big room. Tommy said. Lash, you, Clint, Troy, and Jeff check the rooms on that side. Your Majesty, Barry, displace, come with me. Meet us back here.I thought we were going to stay to foilher, Jeff said.I dont imply youre going to find anything down there. If you do, yell like hell.The emperor moth patted Lazaruss head. get here, good fellow. We shant be long.Tommy pointed upward with the shotgun and mounted the stairs. He emerged onto the link up and squinted against the light flood tide through the windows. He stepped aside and looked around the twosome duration the others came up the stairs behind him.It looks much like the noseband of a starship, Tommy said to the emperor moth as he came up.Low consoles filled with switches and covers ran along the front of the bridge under wide, streamlined windows. There were flipper different radar screens blipping away. At least a dozen other screens were scrolling figures and text red, green, and amber lights glowed along the rows of toggle switches over iii computer keyboards. The only thing that looked remotely nautical to Tommy was the chrome wheel at the front of the bridge. allbody know what any of this stuff is? Tommy asked.Barry said, Id say that this is the crew that we were inquire about. This whole thing is automated.Barry stepped up to one of the consoles and all the screens and lights winked out.I didnt sham anything, Barry said.The foghorn on Alcatraz sounded and they looked out the window toward the abandoned prison. The fog was fashioning its way across the bay toward shore.Hows our quantify? Tommy asked. move checked his watch. close to two hours.Okay, lets check that pass up deck.As they came down the steps, Lash said, Nothing. more art, more electronics. Theres no galley, and I cant figure out where the crew sleeps.There is no crew, Tommy said as he starte d down the steps to the lower deck. Its all run by machines.The layer of the lower deck was do of diamond-plate mark there were no carpets and no wood pipes and wires ran around the steel bulkheads. A steel pressure cut across opened into a narrow passageway. Light from the bridge two decks above spilled a few feet into the passageway, because it was dark.Drew, Tommy said, you got a lighter?Always, Drew said, handing him a disposable butane lighter.Tommy crouched and went through the hatch, took a few steps, and clicked the lighter.This must lead to the engines, Lash said. But it should be bigger. He knocked on the steel wall, making a dull thud. I think this is all fuel around us. This thing must have an undreamed range.Tommy looked at the lighter, indeed back at Lash, whose black face was however highlights in the flame. Fuel?Its sealed.Oh, Tommy said. He moved a few more feet and barked his elbow on the metal ring of a pressure hatch. Ouch free it, Drew said.Tommy handed him the shotgun and lighter and grabbed the heavy metal ring. He strained against it but it didnt budge. Help.Lash snaked past Drew and joined Tommy on the ring. They put their weight on it and pushed. The wheel screeched in protest, then skint loose. Tommy pulled the hatch open and was hit with the smell of urine and decay.Christ. He can carreled away coughing. Lash, give me the lighter.Lash handed him the lighter. Tommy reached through the hatch and lighten it. There were bars just inside the hatch, beyond that a guff mattress, some empty food cans, and a bucket. Red-brown splotches sme ared the gray walls, one in the shape of a handprint.Is it the fiend? the Emperor asked.Tommy moved back from the hatch and handed back the lighter. No, its a cage.Lash looked in. A prison cell? I dont get it.Tommy slid down the bulkhead and sat on the steel floor, stressful to catch his breath. You said this thing had an incredible range. Could stay out to sea for months, probably?Yeah, Lash sa id.He has to store his food somewhere.Inside the vampires vault, just above his face, a computer screen was scrolling information. A schematic of the reddish II lit up one side of the screen with nine-spot red dots representing the vampire hunters and Lazarus. Green dotted lines traced the patterns of their movements since they had boarded the ship. other area of the screen enter the time they had boarded and another showed exterior views of the yacht the raft trussed up at the rear, the dock, fog sweeping over the ideal Francis clubhouse. radio detection and ranging readouts showed the surrounding watercraft, the shoreline, Alcatraz, and the Golden Gate in the distance. Optical disk drives recorded all the information so the vampire could replay it upon awakening.Motion detectors had, upon sense Barrys presence near the console on the bridge, activated switches that rerouted all of the ships meet to the vault. The florid II was wide awake and awaiting its master.Hows our time, Lash? Tommy asked.About an hour.They were pull together at the stern of the yacht, watching the fog roll into shore. They had searched the entire ship, then gone back through it again, spread every closet, cupboard, and access panel.Hes got to be here.Perhaps, said the Emperor, we should go ashore and set Bummer on another trail.At the mention of his name Bummer yapped and worked his head out of the Emperors pocket. Tommy scratched his ears.Let him out.The Emperor undo his pocket and Bummer leaped out, bit Tommy on the ankle, and shot through the hatch.OuchFollow him, the Emperor said. Hes on the trail. He ran through the hatch, followed by the Animals and Tommy, limping slightly.Five proceeding later they were standing on the diamond-plate floor of the engine room. Bummer was scratching at the floor and whining.This is stupid, Barry said. Weve been through this area three times.Tommy looked at the section of floor where Bummer was scratching. There was a rectangular seam, ten feet long by three feet wide, sealed with a rubber gasket. We didnt look under the floor.Its water under the floor, isnt it? Jeff said.Tommy got down on his knees and examined the seam. Troy, give me one of those blades.Troy Lee handed him a fighting blade. Tommy worked the tip under the rubber gasket and the blade sank into the seam. wedge that other sword into this crack and help me pry it up.Troy worked his sword into the seam and they counted to three. The edge of the panel popped up. The other Animals caught the edge and lifted. The floor panel came up, revealing a coffin-length stainless-steel vault two feet below the floor. Bummer leaped into the opening in the floor and began caterpillar tread around the vault, leaping and barking.Well done, little one, the Emperor said.Tommy looked at the Animals, who were holding the floor panel up on its edge. Gentlemen, Id like you to meet the owner of this vessel.Drew let go of the floor panel and jumped into the opening with th e vault. There was just enough room in the opening for him to move sideways around the vault. Its on hydraulic lifts. And theres a shitload of cables running in and out of it.Open it, Troy Lee said, holding his sword at ready.Drew pulled at the lid of the vault, then let go and knocked on the side. This thing is thick. Really thick. He reached up and took Troys sword, worked the blade under the lid, and pried. The sword snapped.Christ, Drew That sword cost a weeks pay.Sorry, Drew said. Were not going to pry this baby open. Not even with a crowbar.Tommy said, Lash, hows our time?Forty minutes, give or take five.To Drew, Tommy said, What do you think? How do we get it open? A torch?Drew shook his head. as well as thick. Itd take hours to get through this. I say we blow it.With what?Drew grinned. Common items you can find in your own kitchen. Someones going to essential to go back to the store and get me some stuff.Cavuto watched Troy Lees Toyota effect around, put down his binocul ars, and quickly backed the cruiser into a way behind the shower buildings. He hit the redial on his cell hollo and the gate guard answered on the first ring.Saint Francis Yacht Club, gate.This is tester Cavuto again. I need to know the registered owner of the Sanguine Two.Im not supposititious to give out that information.Look, Im going to shoot some guys in a minute. You want to help, or what?Its registered to a Dutch shipping company. Ben Sapir Limited.Have you seen anyone approaching to or from that boat? Crew? Visitors?There was a pause while the guard checked his records. No, nothing since it came into harbor. Except that it fueled up finally night. Paid cash. No signature. Man, that babys got some fuel capacity.How long has it been here?Another pause. A little over three months. Came in on family line fifteenth.Cavuto checked his notebook. The first body was found on the seventeenth of September. Thanks, he said to the guard.Those guys you had me let in are causing tro uble. They took a boat.Theyre coming back through the gate. Let them do what they want. Ill take responsibility.Cavuto disconnected and dialed the number of Riveras cell phone.Rivera answered on the first ring. Yeah.Where are you? Cavuto could hear Rivera lighting a cigarette.Watching the kids apartment. I got a car. You?The kid and the night crew are on a big motor yacht at the Saint Francis yacht club-hundred-footer. Boats mobilizeed the Sanguine Two registered to a Dutch shipping company. Theyve been out there a couple of hours. Two of them just left.He didnt appear like the yachting type.No shit. But Im staying with the kid. The Sanguine Two pulled into carriage two days before the first murder. Maybe we should get a warrant.Probable cause?I dont know suspicion of piracy.You want to call in some other units?Not unless something happens. I dont want the attention. Any movement from your girl?No. But its getting dark. Ill let you know. barely go knock on the damn door and fi nd out whats going on.Cant. Im not ready to interview a murder victim. I havent had any experience in it.I hate it when you talk like that. Call me. Cavuto rung off and began rubbing a headache out of his temples.Jeff and Troy Lee were running through the Safeway aisles, Troy shouting out items off Drews list while Jeff pushed the cart.A case of Vaseline, Troy said. Ill get it out of the stockroom. You grab the sugar, and the love Grow.Got it, Jeff said.They rendezvoused at the express lane. The cashier, a middle-aged woman with bottle-blond hair, glared at them over her rose-tinted glasses.Cmon, Kathleen, Troy said. That eight-items-or-less bullshit doesnt apply to employees. desire everyone who worked days at the Safeway, Kathleen was a little afraid of the Animals. She sighed and began running the items over the scanner while Troy Lee shoved them into bags ten five-pound bags of sugar, ten boxes of Wonder Grow fertilizer, five quarts of Wild Turkey bourbon, a case of brown coal lighter, a giant box of laundry detergent, a box of utility-grade candles, a bag of charcoal, ten boxes of mothballsWhen she got to the case of Vaseline, Kathleen paused and looked up at Jeff. He gave her his best all-American-boy smile. Were having a little party, he said.She huffed and totaled the order. Jeff threw a smattering of bills on the counter and followed Troy out of the store, pushing the cart at a dead run.Twenty minutes later the Animals were scrambling through the Sanguine II with the bags of supplies for Drew, who was crouched in the opening with the stainless-steel vault. Tommy handed down the boxes of fertilizer.Potassium nitrate, Drew said. No recreational value, but the nitrates make a nice bang. He tore the lid off a box and dumped the powder into a growing pile. Give me some of that Wild Turkey.Tommy handed down some bottles. Drew twisted the cap off one and took a drink. He shivered, blinked back a tear, and emptied the rest of the bottle into the dry ingre dients. Hand me that depressed sword. I need something to stir with.Tommy reached for the sword and looked up at Lash. How we doing?Lash didnt even look at his watch. Its officially dark, he said.