Shadow Land

On Your Marks

Matthew and his two men, Theo and Zach, invisibly arrived at the security center of Division. It was hear that all the cameras and sensors were monitored, and where the computer that controlled pretty much everything in the compound were located.

Wordlessly, they opened the door and stalked in. there were five tech-heads manning the computers and three men guarding. With the discipline of men accustomed to fighting together, they crept up on the guards, grabbed their head by the sides, and snapped them to the right. It was a technique that would disable any species, if not kill.

All three guards fell limply into their hands and were slowly guided to the floor.

Matthew touched Theo’s shoulder and the other vampire dropped the veil that was keeping the three men invisible.

One of the tech-heads noticed their reflection in the computer screen and turned around to confront them. Before he could make a sound, Zach had his knife to the man’s throat.

“Every one step away from the computers now. Hands where we can see them,” Matthew ordered coldly, pulling out his favorite weapon: a Derringer  .41 caliber percussion pistol with a specially made custom silencer that even the best ears couldn’t pick up from a few feet away. The silencer had taken decades to make. It may not have been the best handgun in the world, but he loved it and it could still do considerable damage.

The tech-heads quickly obeyed, but one of them tried to ‘accidently’ hit the alert key on his keyboard as the stood up. In an instant, he was on the ground with a clean through his head.

There was no sound. No scream, no report, nothing.

“Would anyone else care to try my patience today?” Matthew asked, calmly reloading his gun.

The tech-heads gulped and shook their heads almost in unison. Zach took a step back from the tech-head whose throat had just been warming his blade.

“Good, now if you would all kindly line up over by that wall over there.” Matthew commanded, pointing to the other wall of the room that was empty save a small desk with a coffee maker, mini-fridge, and black corded telephone.

They complied wordlessly and Zach went to watching over them, pulling out his semi automatic 10.Beretta 92. This one had a silencer, but its report could be heard by any species with supernaturally enhanced hearing so he would do his very best not to use it. It did, however, serve the purpose of scaring the hostages into compliance. Theo grabbed the phone and moved it over to the computer desk, its cord stretching across the room.

Now that that was sorted, Matthew and Theo got to work on the computers. Once the codes came in, they would be ready.

“What am I doing here, anyway?” Jessica asked once it was clear that Alycia had nothing else to do.

They had ended up in a long room with a large computer-table in the middle surrounded by transparent chairs. It all looked highly expensive and modern and, no surprise given where they were, was completely white. Once they had entered the room, Xander had lifted the disguise, then started grumbling about how he wouldn’t be able to explain himself out of being here. Unless it was actually being officially used, the conference rooms were barely ever monitored, so they should be safe. And, not being able to see each other made conversation rather difficult.

“Well, you remember that gift you have that saved your life?” Alycia asked.

“You mean the…inception?” Jessica ventured skeptically.

“Yeah. Well, this is why it saved you. Right now in the next room over to our right is Damien, the head of Division and in a few minutes, Alex and Miranda will walk into that room and confront him. What we need you to do is get into his mind and make him reveal the codes for various things. Oh, and say one little phrase. Then, you are done, Miranda owes you one, and we can get to work on making you human again. If you still want that, obviously.”