DIE ANOTHER DEATH :- THE UNDERWORLD RELOCATED

DIE ANOTHER DEATH: CHAPTER 11

           Gareth nodded. “I guess I can’t pass up your offer. We aren’t really in a position to do that.”

          “Alright, I’m going to release you. Don’t try to hit me again- ‘cause it’s not gonna work.”

           Sean removed his choke hold and Gareth breathed easier. Then he reached out and switched off the tiny camera mounted on Gareth’s shoulder.

           “Now tell me who you are? Why are you here? Be quick.”

           “I am Special Agent Gareth Caine, F.B.I. A week earlier vampires and werewolves ran amok in Jacksonville, killing people, destroying property, taking hostages and somehow managing to cut off Jacksonville from the outside world. State Troopers sent in to investigate after the local police couldn’t be raised with repeated attempts at communication, were never heard from after they entered Jacksonville. We’ve got real-time satellite uplinks and the disturbing nocturnal imagery in the town got my superiors into a tizzy. We’re assembled, briefed about the situation and sent here to do a recon, gather intelligence about the missing townsfolk and police force and capture a few of you to bring back to our scientists back at the HQ. They wouldn’t risk sending in a task force without knowing what they are up against. We’re equipped with some fancy ammo from the R & D department to handle eventualities. But clearly, we didn’t account for your brute strength, exceedingly fast reflexes and sixth-sense sorta instincts in our plans.”

          “Man, you don’t know what you’re up against. You guys have screwed up big-time,” said Sean, shaking his head.

          “I didn’t get your name, friend,” Gareth prodded cautiously.

          “‘Friend’ should suffice,” shot Sean, not intending to give this brief association any personal overtone.

          “So......are you still going to help us?” Gareth crossed his fingers out of Sean’s sight.

          “That’s what I intend to do. I’ll create diversions, distract my people. You get hold of your men and get the hell out of here,” replied Sean.

          It was a strange feeling for Sean as he said ‘my people’. He realized that a wide chasm had formed between his make-believe persistence of his human existentiality and his vampire form, so much so that he now subconsciously regarded himself as a member of a species he had come to loath in the past few days. He realized that Gareth’s initial reaction on seeing him was the first concrete proof that he had truly become something that he so much wished to be a pseudo reality- that he was now a vampire- through and through, and there was no denying it.

          But that did not mean that he lose his humane self and condone, or even participate in the killings of innocent people. He would rather perish than start taking lives that weren’t his to claim.

          Sean had often wondered how it was for double agents, how they survived the intense scrutiny of either side, how they felt about what they did. He now visualized himself as a double agent at the moment who held some really important cards as regards one side. The feeling made him heady and he sat almost in a trance as bullets ricocheted off trees all around.

          Gareth shook him, uncertain about the suddenly rigid vampire. He lifted the rifle off the ground keeping as still as he could.

          Sean snapped out of his thoughts. He frowned when he saw the rifle in Gareth’s hands.

          “In situations such as these, you must learn to trust,” he told Gareth calmly. The latter was embarrassed.