The Visions
Ch 2
"This is going to be like trying to find a fucking needle in a haystack" Pam shouted. "Do you know how many humans are on this damn planet?"
"I am considering sitting with a police sketch artist and having her picture drawn" Eric said calmly.
"Not a bad place to start but what then?" Pam asked.
"We have the sketch run through data bases and pray to Odin that we get a hit", Eric plainly stated.
"You know that's a long shot, right?" Pam said with an eye roll.
"Clearly. Enough of this, get back out on the floor of the club", Eric said waving Pam off with a hand motion.
"Aren't you coming Eric? The vermin have to see you or they will start leaving" Pam all but begged.
"Give me a minute and I'll be out" Eric acquiesced.
Pam silently departed Eric's office but left the door ajar. Eric sighed and moved to shut the door but decided better of it and just strode into the bar. He knew that his "minute" would turn into an hour if he allowed himself to fret further upon the visions.
The moment he emerged from the employee's hallway, all eyes were on him. He plastered his bored look across his face and strode purposefully to his thrown. He whipped out his cell phone and began mindlessly scrolling through messages trying to drown out the noise from the humans.
Eric suddenly looked up from his phone and with his maker's call beckoned Pam to him.
"Master?" Pam questioned as she quickly materialized by his thrown.
"Compton emailed earlier this evening that he will be visiting Fangtasia this evening to discuss urgent business" Eric explained. "I grow weary of having to deal with that idiot".
"Maybe we'll get lucky and Russell will take care of him for us" Pam quipped.
"If only we'd be so lucky" Eric retorted with a short laugh.
Pam smiled relieved to see some levity penetrate her maker's shell.
"I'll tell the girl at the door to keep an eye out for Compton" Pam stated as she turned to resume her duties.
Eric turned back to his phone and scrolled through the remaining messages. There was nothing else out of the ordinary so he sat back and awaited the arrival of his "king". It pained Eric to think of that asshole Compton in such a way. It was not jealously of any kind behind Eric's emotion as he never aspired to be trapped by the political chains or ruling a kingdom. He simply did not respect Compton and knew that he was in no way an acceptable leader to the vampires in his area.
With that thought, Eric heard a ruckus at the door and saw Compton and his guards being ushered towards him. Eric rose, acknowledged Compton with a perfunctory "your majesty" and led the group back to his office. A collective sigh of disappointment could be heard in the bar as the master disappeared again.
Compton sat on Eric leather couch and motioned for Eric to join him. Eric bit back the growl that was threatening to escape from being ordered around in his own establishment.
Eric sat and faced Compton in silence waiting for the younger vampire to continue.
"The Authority is coming to investigate Russell's escape" Compton said with discomfort in his voice.
"How the hell did the Authority already learn of the escape?" Eric demanded.
"I was duty bound to inform them" Compton replied.
"Are you out of your mind?" Eric shouted as he jumped off the couch and Compton's guards moved closer to flank his sides drawing their weapons. "You could have waited until we formulated a plan and bought us more time!"
Compton motioned for his guards to draw back and calmly rose to meet Eric face to face. "Do not dare to question me" he snarled as he attempted to appear menacing. "What's done is done and I just came to inform you to expect a visit shortly".
With that Compton rose and departed quickly with his guards.
Once again Eric called for Pam through the bond to inform to be on the look out for the Authority in the days ahead.
Eric was not prepared to deal with the Authority again so soon. He knew there would not only be questions about Russell but they would be questioned about the disappearance of Nan.
Eric and Pam would need to work on their cover story quickly and then inform Compton so he did not say anything to undermine them.
Eric began to pace his small office in silence as he attempted to formulate a plan. Unable to quickly piece anything acceptable together he snapped at Pam to tell Ginger to close the bar and that they were leaving.
Not bothering to take his 'vette, Eric quickly scooped Pam up and flew them to his safe house. He did not want to take the risk of being followed. There was no way of knowing how quickly the Authority would move in their investigation.
"Where the hell are we going" Pam yelled over the noise of the wind as Eric quickly descended into what looked like a wooden glen. In less than a blink of an eye Eric placed Pam down on the ground, swept back a pile of leaves with his hand and exposed a hatch covered in sod. Eric effortlessly found the key pad and entered a complex code, scanned his retina and then swung Pam back into his arms. He hovered under the hatch to be sure that the locks reengaged properly and then flew through a complex set of tunnels until they reached another hatch. Eric repeated the procedure with a new set of codes and his fingerprint and they emerged into the basement of Eric's safe house.
Pam looked at Eric in amazement. "How is that I didn't know about this access" she demanded with a hand on her hip.
Eric did not respond and sat down in a chair and flipped open a lap top. A few keystrokes later he was looking at real time surveillance cameras of the rest of the home and ensured that they were indeed alone.
"Is this really necessary Eric?" Pam asked sounding a bit nervous.
"When we are dealing with the Authority it is. Don't you remember when they interrogated me the last time?" Eric asked.
"Of course I remember Eric. I just think that this seems a bit….James Bondish even for you".
Eric rolled his eyes, flipped closed the lap top and moved to his lower level living room. Pam followed and sat across from her master waiting for the plan to develop in his head.
"Too bad you can't find that seer chick now" Pam quipped.