Chapter 13
Under several layers of concrete and earth lays the American government's second facility of hope and last chance. From here, the remaining staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the President and all his men plan to take back their country, and their world—the humans' world. From this large scale shop in Baltimore, Maryland—which is located under an old industrial park and railroad station—and through the internet, people are beginning to rally against the vampires.
A man is sitting at a computer, browsing through page after page of anti-vampire propaganda set up by hackers everywhere who are trying to enrage the people enough to finally become vigilant once again. He stumbled onto another page: www.geocities.com/elton_alwine/bladeisback.html, which made him jump out of his seat in elation. The mythical vampire hunter Blade had set hundreds of humans free from a compound in New York.
Another man in another room grabbed a bunch of papers and headed out of his office. He ran down the hall and entered another room where a few men and women were chatting. They looked up at him with disgust for interrupting their conversation.
"I think I got it," the man said spitting a pencil out of his mouth.
"Think you've got what exactly, Edwards?" The man at the top of the table asked.
"Well, Mr. Secretary Piper, I have about four different UV emitting devices that we can set up by day in rural and urban areas of the city. If it works here, we'll send the plans to all the major cities...but," the engineer stopped.
"But, what, Edwards?" the female next to the man asked.
"Well, it's gonna take a while to build, with such short resources. But I'm gonna get started on some preliminary samples right away so we can begin testing them on our subjects. We do have subjects left, don't we?" Edwards asked the group.
The group, lead by former Secretary of State Rod Piper, walked down a long, blue-white colored hallway. They were cleared at several armed checkpoints before being allowed into the next. Each member had to show a pass as they entered the next hallway.
"Have you ever been down here, Edwards?" Secretary Piper asked.
"Uh, no, sir. I haven't been down here before," replied Edwards looking at the other members.
"So, tell me a little more about these new weapons, Edwards," demanded the Secretary.
"Ok...well, one of the designs will be to set a few dozen UV-emitting bulbs in the air, scattered in strategic locations to consume as much area as possible, obviously; I'm talking several hundred watts per unit here. I have several ideas of how to do this: the more sensible way would be for us to hang them on the bottom of balloons, but the balloons could easily be shot down from a distance. The other way is to get them in the air and have them constantly moving, like under blimps, or other floatation devices.
"Troy downstairs is working on a few propeller-based projects now that are extremely light-weight and small as hell, but the batteries only have a limited amount of hang-time," Edwards said, catching his breath.
"And you have a sample ready to use downstairs?" the Secretary asked.
"Uh, yes, sir. We do...we do have something ready, just groundwork stuff though."
"Will you be able to give us a demonstration, Edwards?"
"Sure. Yeah, I can show, but...do you mean on a specimen?" Edwards asked in shock.
"No, Edwards, on us. Of course we mean on a specimen. How else can we see how it works?" the Secretary said as he entered a large double clear door and passed a couple of armed guards in fatigues. "Dr. Xaus. How are you?"
"I'm doing well, Mr. Secretary. What's the visit for?" the older Spanish doctor asked as he shook the Secretary's hand.
"I'd like to borrow one of your subjects, if I may."
"You'd like to borrow one of the vampires?" the doctor asked hesitantly.
"Yes. Edwards here, one of our engineers from NASA has a few new toys, and I'd like to see if they work. We need to get something off the ground here, and soon. It's been near two decades, and we're only getting older while they up there stay the same and get stronger. I'd say it's about time..." the Secretary finished.
"Ok...Neil, Chris. Let's grab one of the subjects," Dr. Xaus ordered.
"Which one, Doc.?" The taller of the two assistants asked.
"Crease. He's an asshole," said the Doctor who got everyone to laugh.
The shorter assistant beat on the thick fiberglass cage to wake the vampire who was sleeping off some drugs to shut him up. The cage was placed under the large bulb that was hanging from a makeshift crane.
"Crease. How are you buddy?" asked Secretary Piper.
"Suck...my...co—" but the vampire was cut off.
"Yeah, that's nice, who cares? Do me a favor, would you? Let me know how bad this hurts," the Secretary asked the vampire just before a switch was flicked, and the room lit up as bright as the sun itself. The only sound before the screams was of the humming of the electricity coursing its way to the monstrous human-sized bulb.
After five seconds, the light was switched off, and the group removed their safety glasses.
Ashes.
There was applause throughout the room, and the Secretary patted Edwards on the shoulder.
"Now, you and your team need to get busy building a lot more of these, things, Edwards," the Secretary shouted.
"Well, that's the problem, Mr. Secretary. We don't have the resources or tools to begin a mass-production assembly line.
"Let me know what it's going to take, and I'll talk to the man in charge, and we'll get this done," the Secretary said as he and his staff turned and left the room.
"Good job, Edwards," said Dr. Xaus with a thumbs up.
"Yeah, right on," said one of the assistants. The other gave him a wink.
"Man it was cool seeing that bloodsucker burn like that!" Edwards finished as he left the room.