STIGMA 2: Memory
Chapter 2: A Place Beyond the Sun
His name was Logan Di Massey and he was the new leader of squad eight.
"So how long have you been at STIGMA?" I asked him as the other cleaners were running around getting their work done. We were in the van, analysing our data and getting to know each other.
"Just over four years now." He replied while pushing back bits of hair off his face. "I got promoted two days ago and was told to head down here to take over the squad while Adrian was sent back."
I shook my head. "Four years? How have I never met you?"
Logan laughed while watching the video footage of the town. "You'd be surprised at how many people actually work for STIGMA. You probably won't ever know all of them. But everyone in my department has heard of the famous McCann twins especially the one twin who happened to execute a traitor in our midst."
"Ah so I have a reputation now. How wonderful." I deadpanned.
"It's a good story to scare any recruits with."
I laughed quietly. "You were pretty quick with that crossbow out there. You didn't happen to specialise in vampire slaying did you?"
He flashed me a grin. "As a matter of fact I did."
"It's a hard field. There are a lot of cleaners who chose it who don't survive past graduating to full time work."
His face darkened and he looked away. I realised I had probably brought up some painful memories of losing classmates who he had trained with.
"I'm sorry." I blurted out. "I shouldn't have said that."
"No it's okay. We should probably get back to looking at this footage."
"You're right." I turned my gaze back to my screen. "Not that it's giving us much anyway. That vampire that attacked me seemed like the only real clue here. I wonder where it came from."
"There haven't been any vampire reports in this area recently." Logan paused. His eye grew wide. "Has anyone been to the morgue yet?"
"That was where we were supposed to go once you arrived." I felt my heart speed up. "Are any of your guys down there yet?"
"No they're all still at the murder scenes. I was about to send Luke and Eric down there."
"Dita, Arkan; I want you to head to the morgue. You will join cleaners Luke and Eric and coordinate a joint investigation. If there's anything that isn't human in there, eliminate it and set the place ablaze."
"Yes ma'am."
I shut the radio off. "Once they're done I'll order in our chopper to take my team back home. I suggest you do the same. There's not much more to see in this hell hole."
"Trust me. We'll be right behind you." Logan yawned. "So what are you doing after this job is over?"
I shrugged. "Mission debrief, followed by next orders if any, hot shower then off home for some sleep."
"Any chance I could buy you a coffee in between all that?"
I couldn't help but smile. "Well I have an hour in between landing at HQ and debrief. I suppose I could fit you in."
"So then…" He drummed his fingers on the keyboard. "Your crappy cafeteria or mine?"
My pending reply was interrupted by an explosion. I ran outside. The morgue, which was at the end of the town was now on fire.
"Dita, Arkan…do you mind explaining what happened?"
"Out of the ten women who had been murdered there were only nine bodies. All nine corpses in there were vampires." Arkan was breathing heavily and sounded like he had been fighting. "They were trapped inside when Dita set the place on fire. One of them managed to get out. Luke and Eric took it down but Luke was bitten."
"Jesus." I breathed.
"I've shot him with silver shot a few times in his arms and legs. It should slow down any transformations to give us enough time to pump him with anti venom."
"Roger that, Arkan. I'll grab an anti venom shot and meet you. Radio the choppers to pick us up." I looked up to see that Logan was reaching into a cupboard above us for supplies.
"Anti venom shots and tranquilisers." His gaze was filled with concern. "Let's go."
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When Logan and I got to our team members, what I saw made me draw sharp breaths. Luke was being carried by Arkan and Eric. His arms and legs were bandaged to stop any bleeding but his face was pale from being bitten.
"Okay guys, put him down." Logan ordered. Luke was placed gently down on the snow covered ground, whimpering from pain. He was barely conscious. Logan unwrapped a syringe.
"Hold him still."
I knelt down by Luke and held an arm down, careful not to touch any bullet wounds. Although brutal and excruciating, shooting him was the only way to have saved him.
His white blonde hair was messy and falling about his deathly white face. He was becoming paler by the second. I watched as Logan injected the anti venom into his neck. He started writhing about until he was given a tranquiliser to offset the violent reactions of the anti venom.
"Choppers are incoming." Eric said. "ETA two minutes. They'll be landing at outside the town entrance."
"Okay lets go."
"Cleaners, we're leaving." Logan started transmitting his orders. "Grab everything that's important and get out of here. We have a possible rogue vampire in the vicinity. The van will be retrieved by our third chopper. You are all to report to the town entrance for extraction."
"Charlie, Melissa; did you catch all that?"
"Got it." Charlie's voice cracked through my headset. "Mel's with me. We'll be there shortly.
We headed out as quickly as possible while carrying Luke who seemed to okay for now but we needed to get him to our doctors asap. Thankfully the town was small and we made it out of there in record time and onto the chopper.
I watched as Luke was strapped to a gurney by Logan. Slowly a few other cleaners and my agents entered. Once the chopper was full Logan closed the doors to let the pilots know it was time to take off.
"It's a four hour trip guys." Logan yelled above the noise. "Take some time to get some rest."
I closed my eyes. Sleep was something that didn't come easily to me anymore and every time I did manage to enter the land of nod my dreams were strange. I kept seeing people I had never met, recognising voices that I never heard and most importantly there was one little girl I kept seeing.
Lariska. Her name was Lariska.
I didn't know who she was but she kept showing up. I had seen her parents, her brother, her home and two little boys that I know knew as adults; the Sparda twins Vergil and Dante.
Somehow through my link to Vergil I had possibly absorbed some of his memories. That prospect was not what I viewed to be pleasant considering our somewhat strained relationship. To say that we didn't really get along would be an understatement. I barely knew how to talk to the man most of the time. He was cold to the point of blanking people who he didn't consider worth talking to. I would avoid talking to him unless it was necessary. And occasionally it was necessary as he worked in our library with our analysts, researchers and techies to provide us with the information we needed for our assignments.
And yet for reasons I couldn't comprehend I loved him. I loved every moment of those icy information sessions. God I was such a masochist. I doubted he would ever give me the time of day. He would only ever look at me with those cold blue eyes with nothing but contempt for my humanity. It would always hurt but that was the way life seemed to be for now.
I blinked. I was no longer in the helicopter but in a warm house. A man with long silver hair relaxed in a red wine coloured leather arm chair. The girl named Lariska lay asleep on his lap.
"What are you going to tell her and Lawrence?" A blonde woman entered the room with a mug full of Jasmine tea in her hands. She sat on the armchair opposite the man. He shrugged.
"I'm not sure yet. We may have to purge their minds of the incident. But it may not be enough to protect them."
"Alex, wake up."
I opened my eyes to see Dita standing over me. She gasped.
"What?" My voice held more than just a touch of irritation.
"Your eyes just flashed dark blue."
I pushed her away. "Never mind that Agent Wetherington. What's our status?
"We're just about to land."
I took a look out the window. Sure enough STIGMA HQ in all its glory was coming up fast. The chopper would land on the pads near the back of the mansion.
As we landed I was the first out the doors, eager to smell the sweet breeze coming from the various flowers and plants that surrounded STIGMA. I felt like I was safe again but a more prominent feeling arose within me.
"I'm home."
Author's note: Not much to say here except for a slight change in chapter title which has also been accounted for in the A/N at the end of chapter 1 as I planned different content for this chapter but as usual please R&R.
Next chapter: Frozen.