The Strain: Another Season
Episode 4
Gets Rough
Chapter Two
West Berlin 1989
Dr David Kaplan's University Office
The two youngsters slope in, yawning, to find Setrakian already at a table by the window, poring over his illustrated vampire book. He's having trouble with his glasses, as if he can't focus very well. He takes them off and smiles at the arrivals.
'Sorry, Professor,' says Corey, dealing his four Nazi photographs onto the desk. 'We weren't sure what "first thing in the morning" actually meant.'
Sandra fishes a notebook out of her rucksack and sits down. 'So I said you'd probably not want us to leave the hotel before dawn,' she explains. 'Cos you were so determined I shouldn't be alone at night here,' she adds. 'Why though?' she asks with a puzzled frown. 'Do you think there's a vampire here in Berlin? One of these guys?' She points at Corey's pictures.
'Yes,' says Setrakian. 'I believe he…' He points to Eichhorst's photo. '…is here. I don't think he will look like the drawing in my book though. He will be wearing a suit and tie and he will have a normal-looking human face and hair. The wonders of modern make-up and prosthetics possibly – or the work of a mad surgeon. I don't know.'
'What about the doctor?' asks Corey.
'You don't need to worry about him,' says Setrakian simply. 'He is no longer a threat.'
They both look at Setrakian.
'What do you mean "No longer a threat"?' says Corey. 'Is he dead?'
'Not exactly,' says Setrakian. 'But he is…neutralised. I saw to it myself. If Eichhorst has company in town it is probably his Master.'
Setrakian now opens the volume to a drawing of a naked Ancient – elongated middle fingers and extended pointed pinnae being the main differences.
'He looks like Mr Spock,' says Corey.
'Yeah,' says Sandra. 'Crossed with Brother Lee Love. Look at those ridiculous hands.'
She looks up as Setrakian regards her uncomprehendingly.
'Oh yeah, I remember,' says Corey. 'The Ken-ny Everett Television Show,' he sings the theme tune. 'We got the BBC in the Netherlands. Bart would always be able to twiddle something and find it.'
Sandra and Corey dance around doing the Brother Lee Love hands, both singing, 'Brother Lee, Brother Lee, Brother Lee Love.'
'My favourites were Gizzard Puke and Sid Snot,' says Corey.
'Mine was always Cupid Stunt,' says Sandra.
Setrakian now looks like the new intern at a lunatic asylum.
Sandra continues, 'I can do the leg thing but I need a false beard.'
Corey does Cupid's voice and hands. 'And then all my clothes fall off…'
There is much flirting, poking and giggling between the two kids until…
Setrakian smiling indulgently says, 'Ah there's nothing quite like young love is there?' Then his smile fades in an instant as he turns back to the book. '…for getting you both killed!' he finishes sternly.
They stop mid-tickle and with Sandra poised halfway through 'But it's all done in the best possible taste.'
'Sorry!' they chorus, still giggling.
'You would not find him so amusing if he were sucking out your last drop of blood,' snarls Setrakian. 'Or turning your soul mate into an abomination like him leaving you to slay her with as much love and compassion as you can safely muster before you are yourself turned. He is the very essence of evil – not even Dreverhaven himself, in his most depraved moments, comes close.'
Sandra is once again genuinely ashamed of her flippancy. 'We're really sorry,' she says. 'It was just the hands…'
Setrakian is slightly mollified. 'I know it is hard to contemplate death and destruction when you are still so young and carefree,' he sighs. 'You think you have decades and decades of life and love before you both. And I hope that is the case. But you MUST pay attention to all I tell you to stand the best chance of that.'
Fet's Place, Red Hook, Brooklyn
'NORA! EPH!' yells Fet, holding Setrakian like a baby. 'It's the old man. I think he's…' he chokes.
Nora immediately runs back to them but Eph hesitates, looking at Zack. Neeva says, 'Come on,' quietly and beckons Zack to her. He slips his father's grip and goes to her and the Luss children.
Back in the shop area, Nora sweeps a metal table clear of rat traps and Fet gently sets Setrakian's lifeless body down on it.
'Take off your sweater,' Nora tells Fet. He gives her a look. 'You take yours off,' he says, affronted.
'It's for a pillow,' she says impatiently. 'Yours is bigger.'
She checks Setrakian's pulse and breathing while Fet strips and tenderly cushions the old man's head.
'He's alive,' she says, relieved. 'Loosen his clothes,' she orders Fet.
Fet is giddy with relief and grins, 'Him too? Is no one safe from you?'
Nora giggles at that and rummages in Setrakian's pockets for a nitroglycerine tablet.
Eph arrives and raises his eyebrows at Fet before he notices the prostrate Setrakian. 'Oh my God!' he exclaims. 'What happened?'
'He opened up the mail drop and collapsed,' says Fet, loosening Setrakian's tie. 'I thought he was gone.'
The patient's eyes flicker open on the bizarre tableau of a topless Fet removing his shoes while Nora's delicate hands explore his trouser pockets. 'Got them,' she says triumphantly, pulling out a pill pot and fumbling it open with shaking fingers.
'Oh no,' says Setrakian, struggling into a seated position. 'Did I faint in front of someone this time.'
All three turn to look at him.
'Yeah, you did,' says Fet crossly. 'You gave us all a scare.'
'What do you mean "this time"?' frowns Nora.
'I'm not as young as I used to be,' says Setrakian, laying it on thick. 'Sometimes, if I get a shock…' He stops, remembering what the trigger for his episode was. 'Where is the catalogue?' he says.
Fet locates it halfway under a poison cabinet. 'There you go, pops.'
Setrakian finds the Occido Lumen's entry and shows it to them. 'I thought this artefact was destroyed,' he says. 'Or that it had never existed beyond my wishful credulity.'
'It's just an auction listing,' Nora points out. 'The item itself might still be fantasy.'
'It sounds like an Eldritch Palmer–conceived trap, if you ask me,' says Eph.
'I don't believe that,' says Setrakian. 'At any rate, I have to see for myself.'
Fet is studying the entry. 'What is an Okeydokey Lumen anyway?'
'The Occido Lumen is a book. About strigoi.I believe it will contain certain valuable information concerning the Ancients - of which the Master is but one - and how to kill them. This…' says Setrakian, his eyes gleaming, '…This is the key to victory. This is IT. We need this book.'
'25-40 million?' says Fet noticing the estimated price. 'That's roubles right?'
'Dollars,' says Setrakian redundantly.
'Well, we'll just have a whip-round then shall we,' says Eph sarcastically. He pretends to call his son. 'Zack! Go and get your piggy bank.'
'That's Stoneheart money,' says Nora.
'Palmer must not get it,' says Setrakian, adamant. 'He would give it to Eichhorst and thence it would come to the Master. We must possess this book. It will tell us how to end the Master. It is the ultimate weapon of mass strigoi destruction.'
'Woah, woah, woah!' says Fet. 'Back up there a minute. The Ancients "of which the Master is but one"? There are more of these things? Like him?'
'He is one of seven Ancients…' explains Setrakian.
'Seven!' exclaims Nora, shocked.
'They are not all as rapacious as he. There are three here in America and three somewhere on the Eurasian continent. While still strigoi and therefore inherently evil, the other six have lived in balance with humans for millennia – killing their prey once drained in order to prevent the creation of more of their kind. The Master has been repressing his native lust for pain and destruction for centuries too – as desirous of secrecy as the others. But now, all of a sudden, he has travelled here from Europe and is spawning thousands, eventually millions of his demonic offspring. That is no coincidence and neither is the reappearance of this ancient tome,' he points at the catalogue.
'How did he get here?' asks Fet. 'If they can't cross moving water.'
'They can with human help,' says Setrakian.
'Like an invitation?' says Nora.
Setrakian nods. 'He came here in an ornate earth-filled coffin on Regis Flight 753,' Setrakian tells Fet.
Eph and Nora look away, ashamed.
'Jim said it had all been planned,' says Nora.
'Eldritch Palmer did the inviting,' scowls Eph.
'How'd he get from JFK to Tribeca?' asks Fet.
'Jim was coerced into allowing a van carrying the coffin out of the airport,' says Nora.
'Coerced by Eldritch Palmer,' adds Eph.
'Yeah, I guessed that part,' says Fet. 'Dutch said he boasted to her about achieving immortality.'
'That explains a lot,' says Eph.
Setrakian draws their attention back to the Lumen. 'I will go to the auction house tomorrow morning in order to verify this item's authenticity.'
'I'll come with you,' says Fet.
'Me too,' says Nora. 'Eph, you should stay here with Zack and the others.'
He nods, distracted.
Poland 1944
Eichhorst leads a squad of guards into Dr Dreverhaven's medical clinic. Dr Maurer and his assistants immediately stand to attention and salute.
'Ready for inspection, Herr Sturmbannführer,' announces Maurer. 'But we are not operating yet as Dr Dreverhaven is not here.'
Eichhorst looks at him coldly.
The squad clear everyone from the clinic - sick and injured guards and medical personnel alike - and move through the empty surgical suite into the laboratory.
Cages full of prisoners line the walls. They have horrific injuries. Many are identical twin children, some are Roma, most are Jewish and one is a man with dwarfism. He is blond and calls for help in German. A guard strikes him with a baton and shouts him into submission. Eichhorst ignores this and says calmly, 'Euthanase them.'
He retreats to the operating theatre while this is done and studies the dimensions. Then he examines the fixtures and fittings, pushing and pulling the instrument cabinets and opening all the built-in cupboards. The theatre is clean and organised - presumably because the doctors also treat Germans.
Eichhorst next turns his attention to the floor. There's a circular drain in the centre and a couple of manhole covers. He inspects the anaesthesia induction and patient preparation area in the same detail and moves to the surgeons' scrub-up section and then the recovery room.
He returns to the theatre and sighs. He is joined by half the squad because the rest are still noisily throwing up after witnessing Dreverhaven's handiwork. He paces to and fro and one of the manhole covers yields to his weight. He makes another pass, testing it and then orders a guard to lever it with a crowbar. Steps lead down into darkness. He selects the men with the strongest stomachs and descends.
What he sees down there brings him to a frozen halt. The guards do their utmost not to run into his back.
'Oh, Werner,' he whispers, horrified. 'What have you done?'
