A month passed. Peter and Charlotte were still helping the remnant of the coven which had destroyed Maria. Their creators had been destroyed by local wizards.
The Cullens were still wondering what had Vladimir and Stefan been trying to accomplish by the whole stunt. The whole conspiracy had been started a long time ago so maybe it had nothing to do with the current situation.
The bank which had been taken over by goblins prospered so far. Strangely enough, not one employee who was on the know attempted to expose the goblins. Perhaps they were all convinced that nobody would believe them.
One day, the Cullens received a secure call from Smith. Almost everybody was present at the time, only Rose and Emmett were away, hunting. Edward called them while Jasper talked to Smith.
"It's Mexico again," opened the wizard.
"What happened?"
"An underground military facility has been overran by newborns. Though overran isn't the right word."
Jasper waited for him to explain. Edward thought that Emmett would remark that such a setting was like from a zombie horror.
"Infestation is more accurate, if you don't mind me saying," continued Smith. "By that, I mean that most vampires involved were actually changed inside there. I don't know any details yet, we've learned about it just now. The report doesn't say much. I bet they don't know much themselves."
"Is the situation contained?"
"Affirmative. All the exits are sealed and guarded. Anybody trying to get out will be burned."
"And now they are asking for our help?"
"Not exactly. We are offering. That is, if you are willing to get involved."
"Depends who's behind this. If this was somehow staged by the Romanians, I'm not willing to walk into a trap."
"I don't think it was," divulged Smith. "I would prefer not to point fingers just yet. We'll know more when we'll get there."
"Very well. Give us twenty minutes to prepare and send somebody to pick our team up at the usual spot."
Emmett and Rose returned. They assembled in the dining room. Elizabeth was sitting aside.
"Very well, all of us are here," started Jasper. "That enables us to be generous and send three people instead of two. I'll be going, since it's my area of expertise. Alice, I need you to stay here and observe us. I wager that a medic will come handy. Edward?"
He nodded. He was a better choice than Carlisle.
"That makes two gifted," continued Jasper. "Bella, I think that you should stay here. If Alice sees something, you are the fastest way to let us know."
Bella didn't argue.
"And I guess we'll need somebody strong. Emmett?"
He nodded. Nobody mentioned Quileutes. It was clear they they were unsuitable for the mission and that their presence would needlessly disrupt Alice's vision. It also went without saying that Carlisle was going to inform them of the situation.
Fawkes didn't show up. It probably meant that the situation wasn't interesting to him.
The trio prepared their weapons and equipment. Asbestos suits were an obvious choice. They took incendiary ammunition mostly but packed up some explosive rounds as well. A few incendiary hand-grenades and under-barrel launcher grenades were an obvious choice as well. They expected to get more supplies later but wanted to have basic gear.
"We should take some plastic explosives as well," proposed Emmett.
"If the Mexican government wanted to blow the place up, they would have done that already," opposed Jasper. In the end, they took two charges, just in case.
John Smith came to collect them personally. They didn't teleport all the way to Mexico afterwards but to an airbase. Representatives of both countries were still discussing the situation. After all, they weren't talking about some rogue coven in a middle of nowhere but about an expansive military installation.
They were joined by an unit of specops. Jasper knew their commander George Powell. The two of them introduced the others. They didn't know whether there was going to be any work for humans but they were prepared for every alternative.
They stocked on grenades. Emmett saw a flame-thrower and wanted to take it along.
"I've got something better for you," told him Smith.
Emmett narrowed his eyes and passed the flame-thrower to Jasper. Both of them followed Smith to a secure storage compartment. An officer punched in a code.
"This is a prototype of a plasma infantry cannon," announced Smith and pointed inside.
Emmett leaned in. There was a big gun inside.
"Go on, take it," prodded Smith. "I'm afraid only a vampire can lift it."
"Oh," understood Emmett and retrieved it.
"What's it called again?" he asked. "Plasma infantry cannon? Can't we come up with a better name which would abbreviate to BFG?"
Jasper shook his head and asked, "Fancy names aside, what is it exactly?"
"It utilizes magic partially," explained Smith. "Thanks to it, it can efficiently contain a small amount of plasma in a magnetic trap. When you press the trigger, some of the plasma is shot forward."
"How many shots does it have?" asked Emmett.
"There's enough plasma for about three. Remember to press the trigger again after last shot in a case there's a little bit more. Also, it can't be in the field for too long or the containment will fail."
"Huh. This all sounds a little bit dangerous."
"If the gun gets damaged, just throw it away. There isn't enough technology in there to steal so we don't need to worry about it falling into wrong hands too much. But if you ever do want to blow it up on purpose, place a couple armour piercing or explosive bullets here." He pointed at a spot on the gun. "We've got some time before the plane's prepared. I'm sure you would like to test it. Come back to refill it when you are done."
The officer nodded at Emmett and asked him to follow him to a range. Jasper decided to accompany them. Edward contacted home to check whether they were still visible to Alice despite the plasma gun.
Their ride rolled out. It was a C-20 VIP jet. Given their cargo and the fact that they weren't needed immediately, it was a better option than a Portkey.
Smith asked a rather strange question when they assembled to embark, "Is there anybody who wishes to stay out of this?"
The soldiers didn't understand. Powell shook his head and ordered his men to get inside. They secured their gear and took off. Once they reached a height for maximum speed, they assembled for some planning. The flight was going to take almost two hours so they had time.
"Very well, there has been some development on the diplomatic field," opened Powell. "It's probable that we shall be going in. That doesn't necessarily mean all of us. Most probably only Mr. Whitlock and his team."
"Excuse me," asked Emmett. "Why don't they simply blow the thing up?"
"That would be very difficult to do and the installation is rather expansive."
"I see. My point is, what if we go in and they change their mind?"
"I would be more concerned about the Romanians," stated Jasper. "It's a perfect place for a trap."
"Well, I don't think they are behind it," disagreed Smith. "I've reviewed all the new information and I don't believe that there's any external force involved at all."
"What do you mean by that?" exclaimed Emmett. "Somebody had to breach the facility and start turning everybody into newborns. I just don't know how did they do it inconspicuously enough for no one to notice anything for three days."
"That's my point. There was no breach."
There was a moment of silence.
"I said before that most of the vampires were changed inside the facility," continued Smith. "What I'm going to say borders with speculation but I would like to correct that 'most' to 'all'."
"Excuse me, it takes three day to change into a vampire," reminded him Emmett. "What was everybody around doing during that time?"
Powell cleared his throat and cautioned, "Now, this is all only a speculation."
"There's nothing which indicates that any vampire entered the facility," maintained Smith. He turned his head to Jasper and asked, "Are you going to find any traces of vampires outside the facility?"
Jasper wasn't pleased that he was calling it out like that. Alice was their greatest secret - only the Denalis and the Quileutes knew about her. Still, it was clearer and clearer with their every exploit that they had somebody like her. He looked at Edward who nodded lightly. There was silence.
"What...?" asked one of the soldiers after a while.
"No, we won't," announced Edward suddenly. "Most probably. But there's a lot of people on the surface."
"Well, let's assume for now that it all happened inside the facility," concluded Smith.
"What kind of facility is that?" asked Emmett.
"A research one."
"I don't know about the rest of you but this stinks to me."
"Yes, and that finally brings me to the point I've raised before we took off," agreed Smith.
The soldiers remembered that he had asked them whether they wanted to back out.
"We don't know what exactly are we going to find and I have a feeling that the people who are talking to our people don't know it either. My point is, we'll need to rely on each other. A lot. Now, joint operations of soldiers, wizards, and vampires aren't anything new. Still, does anybody here has any kind of reservations to working with anybody else here?"
"No," answered Jasper. His ability told him that much.
"Good. It was just a rhetorical question. The thing is, we go into this together and we leave together. Only vampires will go in most probably but the rest of us will have things to do as well."
"Like what?" asked a soldier.
"Like guarding the topside and making sure that our Mexican allies won't do anything idiotic," suggested Powell. "Presenting a united front. And such. If we get a green light, we'll need to set some conditions. If they won't like them, they can incinerate the place for all I care. If they agree, we'll need to be prepared to enforce those conditions."
"Why do I have a feeling like this operation is complicated from a diplomatic point of view?" remarked another soldier.
"It is," confirmed Jasper. "That region was always hot when it came to vampire activity. That used to destabilise bordering states in our country as well. A good cooperation with our neighbours would shift the problem southward."
No one said anything to that. One of the soldiers raised his hand and touched his lower lip with his index finger as he thought about something. He didn't say anything in the end and lowered his hand again.
"So," drawled Smith lazily. "Does anybody want to back out?"
No one said anything. Powell received a message and opened a laptop.
"Finally," he said. "They've sent us construction blueprints of the facility."
"When did they start to build it?" asked somebody.
"More than two years ago."
"Did they know about vampires back then?"
"Most probably," theorized Smith. "Their president had even less contact with wizards than American president or British PM before the Voldemort crisis but I'm sure that they told him about the whole Volturi situation."
They looked at the blueprints.
"Are these accurate?" asked Smith Edward.
There was another period of silence. Some of the soldiers wondered what was that about but they understood that it was probably confidential.
"More or less," answered Edward. He seemed hesitant. "Though we shall notice soon enough that they've made some changes after the rough construction was finished."
"Well, let's get to it," proposed Powell.
They began planning the operation. They discussed all sorts of scenarios and contingencies.
Another message arrived. The Mexican government was asking for help with investigating the situation and rescue of any survivors.
They landed. There was a truck prepared for them.
When they arrived to their destination, they saw that the place was swarming. There were many combatants but even more of logistic personnel. It was logical.
The base itself wasn't very impressive on the surface. Just a fence, a few auxiliary buildings, some guard-posts, a radio tower, and such. The most solid building housed the main entrance to the underground.
Edward swept over it with his gift and attempted to reach underground. He hissed and pulled back.
"What is it?" asked Jasper.
"Something isn't right here."
The others waited for him to continue.
"Their minds aren't coherent. It's a complete chaos."
"Yes, that's normal," commented Jasper.
"No, not like normal newborns. This is even worse."
"Huh," snorted Smith and stroked his chin. He gave Powell a look.
Their driver parked near the building. Smith, Powell, and Jasper went to meet the man in charge. Edward followed them with his gift loosely.
While they were walking, they met a local wizard who was walking in opposite direction. Smith nodded at Jasper who asked for a moment of his time. The wizard wasn't used to talking with vampires but Smith showed him his wand. The wizard understood that Smith probably didn't speak Spanish. After a short exchange, the wizard continued in his walk away from anything electronic (so he could apparate without damaging anything).
"He's not going to stay?" asked Smith.
"No. And he advises us to leave as well. According to him, we ought to let them roll their noses in their mistakes."
"Well, we can't do that. Politics," mused Smith.
They continued to the Mexican officer in charge. They determined quickly that he didn't know much. Powell would be able to tell that even without Jasper's and Smith's abilities.
The commander had never heard about the installation until the previous day. Alas, they had to admit that he had done a great job of sealing all exits. A freight elevator which served as the main entrance was disabled and a blast door on top of the elevator shaft was closed. There were napalm bombs arranged around it. Apart from the main hall with the elevator, the building had a few auxiliary rooms. Guards with flame-throwers were stationed in them and outside the building as well.
There was only one escape shaft. They welded it and barred with iron beams. Once again, men with flame-throwers were guarding it. Apart from that, there was only one auxiliary shaft but it was too narrow for anybody to climb through it.
The three vampires went to search for any scent trails outside of the perimeter and for any secret exits. They also wanted to inspect how solid was the seal on the escape shaft. In the meantime, Powell talked to the commander some more. Smith and Powell's second in command went over available data with an officer which the commander assigned to assist them.
Jasper, Emmett, Smith, and Powell and half of his team assembled in a secluded spot to talk. The rest started to unload their gear from the truck.
"Edward says that our assumption is correct," started Jasper. "No one here knows anything."
"Maybe that's why they have been selected for this duty," theorized Powell.
"And maybe everybody who knows anything is down there," proposed his second in command.
"Well, it's all quite clear," stated Emmett. "They wanted to make their own vampire-corps. They screwed-up royally. End of story."
"As a matter of fact, they did ask for our help in that regard some time ago," divulged Smith. "The idea didn't get far. We explained to them that it isn't so simple."
"I guess somebody decided to try anyway," implied Jasper. "But where did they obtain the venom?"
"It wasn't from the one which I burned because I made sure to do it properly. The wizards who burned those last two have assured me that they were thorough too. Did you personally inspect all the bodies in that abandoned factory?"
"No."
"I guess that explains it," sighed Smith. "They made sure to do their experiments in a contained environment at least."
"There's another thing," announced Jasper. "We can't predict what are we going to encounter."
"Well, of course..." started Smith. Then he understood. "I see. What could it possibly mean?"
"Are we sure that it's vampires down there?"
"What else?"
"I don't know. Something like werewolves."
"That wouldn't make any sense. Ordinary werewolves are useless. And according to all available data, those are vampires down there."
They went over those data. The subterranean part of the facility had gone dark almost two days earlier. Shortly before that, they had requested reinforcements from the surface. After all the combatants from the top had gone down, they had sealed both exits and had commanded anybody left outside to make sure that they stayed that way. They couldn't access the internal surveillance system of the facility so they had no idea what was happening inside. Electricity and everything else had been cut but the facility had got a backup generator.
"I still don't like it," insisted Emmett. "What if these guys won't like what we find down there and decide not to let anybody out?"
"That's why I'm going to create Portkeys which will return you back here," rejoined Smith.
"Yes, we were thinking along those lines," revealed Jasper and pulled out three strange contraptions. Each was made of a single piece of a steel cable woven into some kind of a four legged spider with loops at the end of each leg.
Smith studied them for a moment before he understood their purpose. An user was supposed to put legs and arms into those loops. When activated, the Portkey would teleport the whole user even if he was dismembered.
"It's a kind of a slingshot Portkey with limited range," he explained once he was done. "It can transport more than one person so make sure not to let it fall into wrong hands. Alas, it would be preferable if we maintained control over the situation."
"I agree. That being said, we've prepared another way out for ourselves. But that's truly last resort measure. Or beyond the last, to be precise."
"What?"
Jasper leaned to him and whispered, "Edward has hidden an IR pointer aimed at the escape shaft."
There was no need to explain. A drone could blow the hatch up or damage it enough for the vampires to wrench it open themselves. The problem was that there were soldiers posted next to it who were merely following orders. On the other, if it was merely discovered, they would be able to claim that it was their insurance in case they needed to collapse the shaft.
"Let's hope it won't come to that," avowed Smith.
Jasper, Smith, and Powell returned to the commander afterwards. They confirmed to him that there were no vampires on the surface and that there were no other exits in vicinity. They laid out their conditions. A total control over the main entrance. They were going to work alone or autonomously at least. With a bit of Jasper's influence, the commander agreed. Both sides also agreed on a local officer to be assigned to Powell as an observer.
The Mexicans cleared the building and took their bombs away. The vampires took their place. Before Powell and Smith followed, they told the commander one last thing.
"Now, my friends have noticed that you've noticed that not everything is completely right here," said Powell.
The commander frowned as he pondered his meaning. It was obvious that nothing at all was right.
"If your receive any orders or communiques from your superiors, let us know," continued Powell. "In exchange, we'll keep you posted as well."
The commander still wasn't getting the full message.
"We rely on you to make sure that we aren't disturbed in our work. Even if you receive strange orders from above. If you can't do that, tell us and we'll leave right away. In exchange, we'll keep you updated about everything that we'll find down there."
The commander nodded. Edward noted that he wasn't sure whether he would be able to live to the promise.
With the help of the vampires, all the gear was moved inside in a minute. The observer made the mistake of not averting his eyes while they worked and got a motion sickness. Smith thought about using his magic to fry anything left behind by Mexicans but he saw little point in it. It wasn't like they had anything secret left to say.
The vampires and the soldiers "set up a camp". They installed their own security measures and unpacked terminals of a mobile command centre. The observer joined up with his laptop. They left a man stationed by the main door. They installed heavy machine gun posts.
"Aren't they facing the wrong way?" asked he observer in a good but somewhat wooden English. He was right, half of the posts were oriented away from the elevator.
"That's a standard procedure," assured him Smith. "What if the Romanians or Death Eaters were to suddenly attack? We don't know what happened and who's behind this."
"But we have people out there."
"I sure hope that they can take care of themselves."
They assembled for one last briefing. Powell opened his laptop and displayed the blueprints.
"This elevator should go only to the first floor," he started. "So I guess the first step is to scout the reception area."
Jasper murmured an acknowledgement. Obviously, it meant that the vampires were going to scout it.
"What we do next depends on what's discovered," continued Powell.
Everybody knew what he meant. They had talked about establishing a beachhead in there.
They unblocked the blast door and the vampires pried it open partially. The noise was loud enough to alert any vampires in the first floor. The shaft was empty. The elevator platform was at the bottom. There was another door separating the shaft from the entrance hall. Unlike the one on top, it was vertical, had two parts, and wasn't as thick. It was open partially. Broken light was flickering on the other side.
"Look how the light on the other side is flickering," remarked Emmett. It was like from a horror film. Smith and Powell looked at him with annoyance while Jasper told him to shut up.
A soldier lowered a camera. They looked through the opening. There was some kind of a receiving area. It was an internal security checkpoint which served as an entrance into the rest of the base.
Jasper pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. He put his finger on his lips and said, "Emmett and me will go first." While he was speaking, he wrote, "I smell a fresh vampire scent down there." It wasn't the only thing he smelled.
They attached small cameras on their shoulders. They took only their basic gear and weapons and left the plasma cannon behind for the time being. Two ropes were lowered into the shaft. It was more silent than jumping down.
"Well? What about the vampire? Is he still down there?" asked Jasper through his mind.
"We don't know," whispered Edward in vampire volume. Alice couldn't see properly.
Jasper rappelled down as quickly as possible. Emmett took his time and inspected the walls of the shaft. Everything was solid, there were no ventilation tunnels nor anything else.
The two of them opened the lower door a little bit more. They didn't see anybody in there and stealthily entered. It looked like they expected. There were two main exits. One was closed while the other was stuck open. The closed one led to a freight elevator which could reach other floors while the open one led further into the first floor. The elevator wasn't the only means to go down, there were supposed to be stairs on the other side of the first floor.
They noticed some differences from the original blueprint. For example, some of secondary exits were missing. It didn't look like a quick wall-off - the walls where doors should have been were as solid as anywhere else. Any smaller exits from the hall led to auxiliary rooms from which it wasn't possible to get anywhere else. There was a security booth on the opposite side from the elevator.
Another thing they noticed were the bodies. It didn't look like there was any kind of an epic last stand but there were several dead soldiers. Jasper wondered whether they were the reinforcements from the surface. Some of them were torn apart. Jasper noticed some of the torn pieces looked like somebody sucked blood out of them. That was disgusting. The vampire who had done that had to be really thirsty to stop caring about decorum in such a way.
Jasper caught faces of some of the victims on his camera and asked Edward by his thoughts to make sure that somebody identified them. The soldiers upstairs made snapshots of each face and sent them to the observing officer.
While he was identifying them, Jasper felt a presence approaching the door which was open. It was just like Edward had said - completely chaotic, incoherent. He tapped Emmett on his shoulder but both of them could hear footsteps already. Emmett raised his rifle. Jasper turned it down with his finger and shook his hand.
Jasper gave his gun to Emmett. The air was still, that played in Jasper's favour. He gestured to Emmett to walk around to attract attention. He himself silently positioned himself in one of the adjacent rooms.
The strange vampire arrived. He wore some kind of a hospital gown. It was stained with blood. Jasper estimated that it was about a day old. The vampire looked like he had been created from an older human who wasn't very healthy.
His behaviour was strange. He didn't even move like a vampire. At first, he merely shuffled through the door. Like a zombie. Suddenly, he accelerated and stopped when he had a clear line of sight on Emmett.
Jasper darted from his hideout and decapitated the vampire. That prevented him from shouting (no lungs). The tearing made noise but Jasper assumed that such a sound was nothing new for the area. Emmett picked the body up so its flailing limbs couldn't reach anything. He carried it to another room and once the door was closed behind him, he deprived the torso of legs and arms.
Jasper noticed something about killing the strange vampire: Its dismemberment bothered him less than killing an animal. That simplified things. He didn't like being in vicinity of any intelligent creatures at the moment of their death but it didn't seem like that was going to be a problem in this case.
Edward lowered down a crate. Emmett put all the pieces in there.
"We should burn this," advised Edward after he pulled the crate back up.
Powell nodded and commanded two men to take the crate outside and burn the pieces. "Don't let anybody stop you," he ordered. "If they try, it will tell us something." The observer said nothing to that.
Edward lowered a flame-thrower, the plasma cannon, and all their other gear down. He himself followed right afterwards. They started a more thorough search of the hall and neighbouring spaces. Emmett had his plasma cannon at the ready. He thought it prudent to empty it early on rather than leave it for later. Moreover, it was relatively silent when compared with normal guns.
The humans in the "base camp" prepared to follow. Powell's second in command and two other soldiers. Per previous agreement, Smith was going to accompany them while Powell was going to stay up.
"Do you wish to join them?" asked Powell the observer. It wasn't a serious question, he was merely taunting him.
"No, I'm supposed to stay with you," he answered.
The three soldiers rappelled down and their comrades lowered their equipment afterwards. Smith walked to the edge of the shaft, draw his wand, and raised his right leg as if we wanted to step into the empty space. Then he changed his mind, holstered his wand, and climbed down using a rope like a normal person.
"It's confirmed," told Edward the soldiers. "Enemy can come only through these two entrances."
They unpacked their gear and set up a minimalistic camp. They had two automated turrets and a machine gun. They positioned the turrets to cover the entrances. The machine gun was placed in front of the elevator (the one to surface). They checked terminals in the security booth. Most of its equipment was damaged but there was a functioning monitor. Alas, it could connect only to cameras in the reception area or in the topside building but those had been disconnected. A soldier was tasked with trying to connect to anything else through it.
After a short consultation with Jasper, it was decided to weld the door of the other elevator. That is, they weren't going to actually weld it but Smith was going to merge the halves of the door together in some places. Unlike welding, it was silent. Jasper had created noise before so it wasn't about stealth. They simply didn't wish to attract attention to the elevator. Jasper, Emmett, and Edward were going to use the stairs to go down.
Jasper and Emmett ventured further into the first floor. They found more bodies. Edward waited behind until the elevator was blocked and then followed. When he rejoined his brothers, he extended his gift forward for a moment. He informed the others that there were two vampires hiding further ahead. Both of them were as incoherent as the first one. Neither of them showed any intention of raising an alarm or fetching help. They had been probably in hearing range when the first one had been destroyed and had been attracted by the noise.
Jasper decided not to flush them out yet and told Edward through his mind to look around first. He himself and Emmett took positions from which they could easily attack the two vampires or intercept them if they attacked first.
Edward searched the area. There were some minor differences from the construction blueprints, just like Alice had predicted. It seemed that the first floor contained mostly offices. There were no laboratories.
"Try to dig out something," thought Jasper.
Edward closed himself in an office and called Powell. He told him to make sure that the observer didn't see his camera feed. He turned the camera sideways to be sure.
There were two work stations. Edward opened both computers and saw that there were no hard disks. That was hardly unexpected. He searched the office for anything else. He found some printed pages listing recently delivered supplies. The person who had printed probably hadn't shredded it because the trouble had started. He came to a conclusion that he was in a wrong office and was about to leave when he noticed something. There was a rather large amount of sedatives. He righted his camera and scanned the document.
He searched other offices. Some were smashed, others were intact. He found a body of a dead woman in a white coat. It seemed that she was hiding in the office when a vampire found her and drained her. Edward hoped to find a computer which was left turned on but it seemed that there was some security or economic measure which turned them off after some time.
One of the offices belonged to a psychiatrist. He could tell from magazines in a small library in a corner. It was there where Edward found a first solid piece of intelligence. It was a dossier of a military officer named Rodrigo. It was stored in an unlocked drawer, probably left there by the psychiatrist when the alarm had started. There was a sticker on the folder with a register number so it was probably supposed to be locked up in an archive.
The dossier itself didn't contain anything special. A normal career with no notable events. There was his psychological profile which didn't contain anything unusual either. More interesting were handwritten notes inserted into the folder. Judging by the scent and handwriting, they were composed by the user of the office. There seemed to be two sets of them - older and newer.
The older ones were his semi-official thoughts about Rodrigo and commentaries on sessions with him. It contained references to recordings of those sessions and his official reports. Alas, those were stored on the main server (unless it had been destroyed). On first glance, it didn't seem like there was anything extraordinary about the psychological evaluation of the officer. However, when Edward started to read between the lines, it became apparent that the psychiatrist had certain reservations. It looked like he didn't believe that the subject was completely open with him and that his official conclusions should be taken with a grain of salt. Edward wondered why he hadn't simply put it in the official report. Maybe he had not wanted to leave an electronic trace of his reservations?
The newer set of notes actually consisted of only two papers. Only one of them was finished. What was only insinuated before, was stated clearly in that note. The psychiatrist wrote that it was a gross mistake to select the subject.
The unfinished note contained only two lines. However, its last sentence was properly finished. Edward could see it in his mind. The doctor had been writing. He had noticed that there was disturbance but it had not sounded like anything serious. So he had finished a sentence and put the whole folder away. He had gone to find out what had been going on, expecting to be back soon.
This deduction led Edward to another conclusion. There had been no wide scale alarm probably. Or it had not started with it at least. So what could had possibly happened?
Edward captured basic information about Rodrigo on his camera and asked Powell to find out everything they could about him. He considered searching more offices when Jasper told him through his mind that the two vampires were growing restless. He checked it. Their thoughts didn't tell him much but it seemed that Jasper was right. Edward returned to Jasper.
Edward and Jasper started to walk towards one of the vampires while Emmett went after the other. The vampire smelled Emmett at jumped out of his cover with a snarl. The snarl was almost immediately interrupted when Emmett hit him with plasma right under his neck. It consumed his chest and his lower jaw. Emmett wasted no time and added another shot in his belly. The vampire fell apart.
The other vampire heard the shots but he was preoccupied by approaching Edward and Jasper. That enabled Emmett to flank him and shoot him in his head. Only then he noticed that it was actually her. He pressed the trigger again but nothing came out. Jasper and Edward leapt forward and deprived the body of arms and legs.
"This is ridiculous," commented Powell. "Normal vampires wouldn't let them to get a drop on them like that. Even my men could handle this. Theoretically."
"I doubt that," disagreed Smith on his walkie-talkie. "Humans smell differently and have a heartbeat. My theory is that these creatures would react to our trio only if they represented a possible competition for food or if they somehow irked them."
Edward and Jasper progressed slowly further. Emmett ran back to return the cannon to Smith. Jasper and Edward reached the stairs when Emmett caught up with them. They could hear footsteps and smell both vampires and decaying bodies from below.
"Well?" asked Emmett.
"I guess they know now that something is going on," replied Jasper. "We'll assault. I'll go first, cover my flanks."
He hoisted the flame-thrower and descended. The others followed. The stairs led only to the second floor and didn't continue to third.
"I sense two more crazy vampires near ahead," thought Jasper.
Edward merely nodded and pointed in two directions. Jasper grabbed an incendiary grenade from his belt and raised it. Edward prepared one as well. Jasper gestured to Emmett to stay put.
They crept forward and tossed the grenades. The vampires didn't react. Not even when the grenades rolled to their feet. They exploded almost at the same time. Two figures coated in flames started to trash around, screaming in agony. No fire suppression system kicked in. Edward wondered whether it was somehow disconnected.
"It's never pretty when you burn a vampire without dismembering him first," commented Jasper. "Be prepared for opposition from now on. Something in those crazy brains is surely starting to consider us a threat."
They found out that the second floor contained a server room and an auxiliary archive for physical documents. It was the place where the dossier Edward had found in the psychiatrist's office had been taken from. The second floor also contained a backup generator, security centre, and other things. Jasper decided to secure the server room first.
A snarling figure clad in a hospital gown blocked their way. His chin was covered in dried blood. Jasper pressed the trigger of his flame-thrower and the vampire was engulfed in flames. They braced themselves for a possible suicide run but it didn't come. The creature merely started to scream and flail his hands in an attempt to beat the flames down.
They found more soldiers scattered around. They noted that none of the bodies showed any attempts to change them. If the purpose was to create an army, why had the instigators wasted all those people?
They reached the server room and found out that everything in there was smashed. All the staff had been slaughtered. It was unclear whether the servers had been destroyed accidentally by rampaging newborn searching for blood or whether it was done on purpose. They considered salvaging any hard-drives but Edward had another idea.
"Let's check the archive," he whispered.
They destroyed another attacker on their way there.
"How many of them are there?" wondered Emmett.
"I have a feeling that we are going to find out," uttered Jasper.
They had to break into the archive. It was obvious that it wasn't used much and neither the newborns had breached it. Everything had been on the servers, after all.
Edward went straight to a spot where Rodrigo's dossier had been. He checked a folder which was its direct predecessor in the indexing system. It was a medical folder of some insane criminal. Edward noted mentions of a history of drug abuse and attempted escapes from a prison.
Edward returned the folder and checked following ones. More medical folders. Those people weren't criminals but they were all asylum wards. Another trait they had in common was that they had been lobotomised.
"This is insane," exclaimed Emmett. "Why would they change these people?"
"It's not sure whether they did," cautioned Edward.
To be honest, he believed that the only person who had been changed on purpose was Rodrigo. Maybe some guinea pig first. He called the base camp.
"Do you've got anything about Rodrigo yet?" he asked.
"Well, actually not," answered one of Powell's boys. "We asked Mexicans for info and they sent it to us. The problem is, there's nothing extraordinary in it and nothing you don't know already. They did confirm that he was transferred here. We are trying to look for more."
"Maybe you won't find anything more in his career," pondered Edward. "Try to look deeper into his past. His childhood."
"We'll do our best."
Edward contacted Bella and asked her to ask the others to look into it as well. Maybe they could find something that Powell's people would miss.
They checked the security centre next. They found it smashed and burned out. There were charred bodies of soldiers and ashes of a vampire. It seemed like a "successful" last stand.
To get to the third floor, they needed to use either the elevator or a staircase which was next to it. Jasper guessed that there was a special reason for that.
The three vampires discussed shortly whether they should go down or search the floor some more for hiding enemies. Jasper decided quickly to go down. Any vampires on the floor had probably attacked them already and they could afford to let some slip pass them. After all, they weren't janitors and their goal was to stop the people responsible for the outbreak and to search for survivors.
They descended and entered a small antechamber. There was another security checkpoint. People who arrived both by the stairs and the elevator had to go through it to enter the rest of the floor. The checkpoint was smashed. It seemed that newborns didn't care much for protocols. The stairs continued down.
Jasper nodded at Emmett who placed laser triggered mines on the stairs. They wanted to search the floor before continuing to fourth and last floor. Jasper decided to stay back and guard the rear. Edward and Emmett ventured forward.
The third floor housed laboratories. Their noses told them what had been worked with in there - vampire venom. There was none left, everything was thoroughly smashed. Any venom was long dried up and its molecular chains broken.
They found a dead scientist. Somebody had tried to change her by biting but she had been too badly hurt and had lost too much blood to survive the change. Bodies were everywhere. Scientist, soldiers, and other personnel.
Edward found a camera recorder. Any electronic materials were supposed to be stored on the server so the memory card was probably empty. The real question was, had there been enough time to shred the empty space before the outbreak? He removed the memory card, pulled out his palmtop, and connected the card. Everything had been erased, as expected. He searched the empty space for video files.
He ended up with a bunch of chunks. A human would start by piecing them together by the time shown in a corner of the video but vampires had no such need. Edward sent everything he had up and returned with Emmett to Jasper. They played the videos.
The latest one captured the insane inmates when they had been still human. More or less. They were in their cells and weren't moving. The cameramen was baffled. It took a while before Edward and the others understood that they were in an early stage of changing. Their stillness was strange. Maybe it was caused by their lobotomy or maybe they were drugged.
An older video was an interview with Rodrigo. He was human (in the video at least). There wasn't enough material left to determine what was being discussed but Edward guessed it was about his upcoming change.
There was only one chunk of a third and oldest video. It captured the insane criminal which Edward had read about. Judging from the time-stamp, he had been a vampire two weeks ago already. He had been locked in some kind of a cell. It looked strong enough to hold a vampire but the vampire in question had been locked in some kind of a contraption anyway. In the video, he trashed around wildly.
"I think we are going to find something about your Rodrigo," told Bella to Edward.
Edward was about to respond when Jasper raised his finger. They heard sounds of enemies approaching from the opposite side of the third floor. Jasper quickly pointed to his mates where he wanted them. He himself with the flame-thrower and Emmett with his machine gun in the centre and Edward on a wing. His task was to flank the attackers if possible.
They appeared soon enough, moving in spurts, like an old film with missing frames (that's how it would appear to a human spectator at least). Like before, they were dressed in soiled hospital gowns and had wild expressions in their faces. Unlike before, they all moved in the same direction which was strange. Jasper and Emmett opened fire. The inmates didn't even bother to evade.
"Jasper," called Edward. "There's one behind them."
"One who thinks?" thought Jasper.
Edward nodded. Somebody was herding the inmates towards them. Edward crept more to the side and forward. Before the one he talked about arrived, the mines arranged at the stairs exploded.
"I've got it," snapped Jasper and turned around. There was yet another lobotomised vampire, mostly in pieces. Jasper moved in the range in a split of a second and doused him with flames. He heard more from downstairs. He tossed an incendiary grenade there and poured a generous amount of flames from his flame-thrower to dissuade anybody from going up. He turned his attention back to Emmett's side.
A relatively normal vampire arrived to the fray. Being normal meant that he behaved like a typical crazed newborn. On top of that, he actually wore remains of some kind of a straitjacket. The most picturesque thing about him was that he wielded another vampire's arm like a club. Edward recognized him. It was the insane criminal.
Jasper and Emmett went into offensive. Jasper emptied the rest of the tank and switched to an assault rifle. He warily noted that he had started a fire. The suppression system still didn't react.
Edward opened fire on the newborn. Unlike the others, this one actually recognized gunfire as a threat to him and took cover. Edward tossed a grenade. The newborn instinctively exploited the pause to rush him. Edward fired a few more rounds and evaded him at the last moment. He ran back to his comrades, firing over his shoulder.
"I'll get him!" shouted Emmett at Edward through his mind.
Edward led the newborn straight into Emmett's ambush. He tackled him from a side and deprived him of an arm. The newborn couldn't take as much advantage of his strength with one arm missing. Edward and Jasper destroyed the rest of the other vampires while Emmett took his one apart.
"What's with the arm?" wondered Emmett, examining the limb wielded by the newborn. He decided to keep it, in case they found its owner.
Edward searched around with his gift. It was noticeably lighter around and Bella reported that Alice was able to see them again. In the meantime, they also went ahead and verified the information which Alice had seen them finding.
"Maybe we could hold onto it for the moment," told Edward to Emmett. "Its owner is downstairs. And we know a little bit more about him now. I'm convinced that Rodrigo was behind all of it. Nor we nor his superiors found anything bad in his military records. Alas, looking into his childhood told us a lot about his character. He attended a catholic school when he was little. He was linked to several incidents in there but always as a bystander or as a presumed victim. However, the presumed culprits always marked him as the instigator."
"Let me guess, he was always considered innocent," commented Emmett. "Sounds like a smart kid to me."
"Well, it reminds me of young Tom Riddle a bit," mused Jasper.
"Or of Bella," added Emmett.
"Not quite," disagreed Edward. "Bella would make sure not to get linked to anything at all."
"Very well, let's split," proposed Jasper. "This is drawing to the close so we need to start securing our way out. Two of us will confront Rodrigo. Third will return to the beachhead."
"I'll go up," volunteered Edward. There was no way Emmett would miss it out and Edward could watch the whole thing telepathically.
Jasper took the arm from Emmett and held its frayed end above fire for a few moments. He returned it to Emmett and they descended into the fourth (and last) floor. They encountered no resistance. It was immediately clear what was its main purpose - containment of subjects and inmates. There were rows of cells meant for humans and Jasper was sure that somewhere deeper were cells capable of holding vampires.
In the meantime, Edward joined Smith and the soldiers in the reception area. He checked whether the feeds from shoulder cameras were being recorded. He thought about making sure that the Mexican observer couldn't see them but they weren't playing sound anyway.
Some of the cell doors were ripped open. Emmett peeked in one of them and found a dead scientist. The strange thing was, it seemed like somebody had injected the person with venom first and then somebody else had ripped it apart.
They tracked Rodrigo down soon. He was sitting on some kind of a throne. It was actually an armchair on top of a bunch of rubbish. Just as expected, he was missing an arm. He had red newborn eyes but it seemed that he had been feeding a few days ago too.
He spotted his arm in Emmett's hands and cried out commandingly, "Give it here!"
Emmett was about to give him a nasty retort but Jasper stopped him and answered himself, "We've got some questions first, if you don't mind."
"Give it here!" shrieked Rodrigo. It seemed like he wasn't entirely sane.
"Make sure that the Mexican doesn't hear this yet," thought Jasper to Edward. He didn't know what was Rodrigo going to spill.
"Questions first," refused Emmett.
"We'll give you the arm then and you'll tell us anything you are willing to tell. Deal?" added Jasper, playing the good cop. He hit Rodrigo with a wave of amenability.
"Deal," agreed Rodrigo after a while.
"It's simple. What happened here? Who changed you? Who changed all these people?"
Jasper nodded at Emmett who tossed the arm to Rodrigo. He caught it and pressed it to his shoulder immediately. Unfortunately for him, it had been detached for too long and with Jasper's treatment of it, it was going to take a long time for the flesh to grow together. Rodrigo didn't think about licking it first. As it was, both of his arms were either unusable or occupied.
"Go back to stairs, let's not make him jumpy," whispered Jasper.
Emmett didn't like it but he didn't argue. At least he was going to be able to listen.
"Where's he going?" asked Rodrigo.
"Forgive him, you scare him a little," explained Jasper. "The things he has seen here today, he has never seen anything like it before. But I have. Similar things."
Rodrigo grinned viciously. "They planned to keep me locked up," he divulged. Observe me. That's not what I've signed up for."
"True. They were foolish to waste the time when you are at your strongest."
Up in the first floor, Edward leaned to one fo the soldiers and whispered, "The Mexicans must not listen to this. They would think that we are recruiting him."
"Yes, of course," hissed the soldier and returned to observing the feed from Jasper's camera.
"How have you done it?" inquired Jasper, using his gift to make Rodrigo more talkative.
"Gave them no choice," smirked Rodrigo. "The other one escaped. Thanks to me. Arranged for it while I was still human. No one knew it was thanks to me."
"Let me guess. They released you so you could fix the situation. Quietly. So this project wouldn't loose support. Typical bureaucrats, protecting their asses first."
Jasper wondered how had Rodrigo managed to get venom in the inmates. He guessed that it had been through their sustenance. It didn't matter, he learned all he wanted to know. Emmett was in position.
"Now," said Edward in his walkie-talkie. It was addressed to Emmett.
He (Emmett) charged out and opened fire from his machine gun. Rodrigo growled and attempted to cover himself. His arm still wasn't attached. Jasper used the distraction and fired an incendiary grenade from his under-barrel attachment. He wasn't aiming at Rodrigo, he was aiming under his feet. When Rodrigo noticed the approaching grenade, it was too late already.
He roared in pain when he was set on fire. Jasper and Emmett kept peppering him from their guns. Jasper loaded a high explosive grenade and hit Rodrigo square in his chest. Emmett tossed an incendiary grenade.
"He'll burn now," informed them Edward. "Get out of there."
Jasper and Emmett turned and ran. The third floor was on fire. They could hear animal like snarling of vampires cornered by the flames.
The soldiers in the entrance area started to pack their equipment. Edward left the turret guarding the door to the elevator where it was but he deactivated the other one. He planned to leave it behind before the elevator to the surface.
Once Jasper and Emmett arrived, Jasper told Emmett and Edward to return to the surface. He himself stayed behind until everybody was up. They resealed the entrance.
"Is it done?" asked the observer.
"The two original vampires have been destroyed, if that's what you mean," reported Jasper. "There are a couple of feral ones left but those are pretty much harmless."
The officer started to ask why they hadn't finished the job but Jasper wasn't about to explain it twice. He went outside, followed by Powell. The commander of the containment force was waiting for them.
"A fire broke out down there," informed him Jasper. "It seems like your fire suppression system was disconnected by the base personnel before they died. There are some boogies left. If they won't burn or get shredded by our turrets, you won't have any trouble mopping them out."
"What happened down there?" asked the commander.
"Your champion didn't feel like being your champion. Then he was betrayed by his accomplice. But, that's a lot of dirty laundry and I believe that your superiors would prefer to sort through it themselves."
A week later, all the Cullens (including Elizabeth) and Jacob were sitting in the sitting room of the Cullens' house. Jasper was giving them an update on the aftermath of the Mexican mission.
"They managed to stop the fire from spreading above third floor but the damages were significant," he reported. "Not that it matters much because everything was smashed anyway."
"And the remaining inmates?" asked Carlisle. He didn't say vampires on purpose.
"They managed to neutralize them even without us. Neutralize, not burn to ashes, I suspect. In other words, the Mexican government has more venom in their hands if they ever need it. However, I have my doubts that they would try something like that again any time soon."
"We won't be helping them out again, that's for sure," sneered Emmett.
"No, we won't. If those subjects managed to get out, it wouldn't be such a tragedy anyway."
"Jasper," admonished him Carlisle.
"I mean that there are already a lot of vampires on the surface. Vampires who don't like competition. Somebody would take care of such an outbreak sooner or later."
"What happened on the diplomatic field after your mission?" asked Bella.
"Well, our representatives are rubbing their noses in it. The Mexicans countered by claims that we've used excessive force and started the fire needlessly. They also insinuated that Americans enjoy protection of a sufficient number of vegetarian vampires and a whole tribe of shape-shifters while their people are unprotected."
"And what was the answer?" prodded Rosalie.
"That they can bring any cases of vampire feeding to our attention."
"Now that's an under belt," remarked Edward.
"Why?" asked Jacob.
They explained to him that the Mexicans had no way of telling whether somebody disappeared because a vampire ate him or because he got between two drug cartels. After all, American vampires were using the same tactics when feeding.
"However, I'm confident that the era of newborn wars is over," prophesied Jasper. "At least in Mexico."
They discussed the matter some more. When they concluded their discussion about Mexico and newborns, Bella opened another discussion.
"We've been working with John Smith for some time now. He has seemed like a straight guy so far. Do you agree, Jasper?"
"Quite. He doesn't rush to front lines but he doesn't mind being in second lines. He can be trusted as far as it doesn't clash with his duties and allegiances."
Bella nodded.
"What is this about?" asked Jasper.
"We've been thinking about something for some time now," replied Edward. "Me, Bella, and Elizabeth. Elizabeth has grown and doesn't look like a typical immortal child any more."
Jacob was silent. He had some inkling about what was Edward talking about.
"Surely, you can't be talking about disclosing her existence to the government," stressed Rosalie.
"No, surely not," assured her Edward. "However, keeping this just to us and Quileutes is becoming too risky. Maybe it would be better if certain people knew about her existence. By certain people I mean the Denali and Smith."
"Well, they are our friends and Smith truly seems trustworthy," observed Esme. "However, how do you feel about this, Elizabeth?"
"I've never met any of them," she answered. "Hopefully, Tanya and her sister will notice that I'm not a vampire. As for Smith, we might want him to give us an oath before he sees me. The fact remains that I can't stay hidden forever."
They discussed how to approach the matter and agreed that such a thing shouldn't be rushed.
"Speaking of staying hidden, I've got something to show you," announced Elizabeth afterwards.
She went to a wall and unrolled her sleeve. She put her hand on the wall.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Jacob when her whole forearm coloured like the wall. "You can change you skin colour?" He was thinking about Teddy's ability.
"No," disagreed Bella, whose vampire eyes saw more than Jacob's. "It's a skin-tight camouflage field."
"Indeed," confirmed Elizabeth. "Hopefully, I'll be able to expand it enough to encompass my clothes, gear, and possibly weapons."
"You know how this looks like to me, right?" commented Emmett. "Alas, I don't want to repeat myself." He was referring to the way Bella had dispatched those thugs in Port Angeles years ago.