Milo walked out of his office into the main part of the building, there were several vampires around the room, sitting, talking, drinking from bottles taken from the heated cabinet at the back of the room. Milo did not want humans brought to the factory, so he kept a supply of blood handy for those who required regular feeding. He looked at them in disgust. Vampires made him want to vomit, the smell of them, the idea of aligning himself with them. He tolerated this only to achieve his goal; to control the vast fortunes of the vampires.
He wandered over to the room where McNair was being kept and looked through the bars. He had been removed from the body bag and he lay on the floor, still unconscious, the body bag preserving his modesty. Milo remembered the boy he had fought a few weeks earlier. He was strong, but untrained; with Milo's instruction he could become an asset. Milo relished the thought of having an ally who was not a vampire.
"Sir," One of the vampires approached him, it was Lloyd. "You wanted us to find the wolfs' bag in the woods. It's been found."
"Did you put the information in it?" asked Milo.
"Yes, sir." came the reply. "but why did you want to leave details of our location in his bag?"
"His friends will find it, and I want them to know where he has been taken. He is our bait."
"Wouldn't it have been easier to send the information to the house." asked Lloyd.
"It would, but I don't want them realise that I know where they live. They may disappear. This way they don't feel that they have been compromised." Milo walked back into his office, with Lloyd behind him.
"Do you think it's a good idea that they will now know our location?"
Milo sat behind his desk and looked up at Lloyd. "We are well defended, and they are not much of a threat."
"This is Lord Harry we are talking about. I don't think the threat could be much bigger." Lloyd responded, angrily. "I'm not entirely happy about him being able to walk in here at any time. You know his reputation."
"That is all in the past now. Hal is impotent. As soon as I have what I need from him, he will no longer be useful, and we can get rid of him. Then all of the Old Ones will be gone, and their legacy can be shared between us."
They looked at one another, each sensing mistrust in the other.
"Very well." said Lloyd. "We had better prepare for their arrival." and he left the office.
Milo stood and closed the door. He took a key chain from his belt and walked to a cabinet at the back of the office. He unlocked it and opened the bottom drawer. Inside was a metal chest with a strange locking device surrounding it. The chest was ancient. It was covered with strange symbols, and many scratches as though someone had tried to break it open. The lock had clearly been added recently because it was modern, but very unusual. There was nowhere to put a key, and no other visible means of unlocking it.
Milo looked closely at the locking device. It was created by a scientist who had been employed and then eaten by Mr Snow. Milo knew that it had been designed to open only when it was touched by the blood of an Old One. Mr Snow's blood flowed more potently through Hal than through any of the younger vampires. He was only Old One left, maybe the only vampire in the world who could open this chest. Milo hoped to persuade Hal to open it willingly, but he was prepared to use any means necessary to obtain what was required to gain access to whatever lay in this box.