part 8

It was two hours before they would let me see the prince. I burst into the room and faced him, shaking. He was perfectly calm.

"I have bad news, very bad news. It's a disaster, I don't know how to tell you this."

"Calm yourself, David, it may not be a bad as you suppose."

I blurted it out, "You don't understand, the registry is gone, someone opened my safe and took everything, the registry, your file, everything. They knew exactly what they were looking for and they knew how to open the safe. They didn't even bother with my stuff, they just picked it out and threw it on the floor. I don't understand it, how could they know it was there? They were good enough to crack the safe, but they used a prybar on the back door. It doesn't make any sense. I have no idea what to do, but we need to do something fast." I slumped in the chair, breathing hard. He hadn't moved a muscle.

"David, listen to me. Everything is fine. There is no need to blame yourself, this is something I anticipated."

"What?"

"I couldn't tell you about it until after it occurred. This is something that will . . ."

"What! You knew? You arranged it?"

"David, please . . ."

"You lied to me!"

"Just one lie of omission. If you will . . ."

"You set me up!"

"No, I know . . ."

"What do you mean, no? You set me up like some fucking rube!" I stood up as I said this, but the look in his eyes made me remember where I was and who he is.

I sat down and he waited until I composed myself before he spoke.

"One lie of omission is still a lie. I won't ask that you forgive me, David, only that you try to understand. I had no plan to deceive or manipulate you, I simply sensed an opportunity and took advantage of it. Let me explain.

"This and other organizations have been investigating us for many years. Recently, a correspondent for a national news agency discovered their interest and has been conducting his own investigation. I believe he may have had a hand in the events leading to my arrest. In any case, I have been compelled to reexamine a scenario I have considered for many years, and now that a powerful government agency has made us a target, the time has come for bold response.

"There is nothing incriminating or evidential in my home beyond my blood supply, as you know. I assumed then, that he would turn his attention to you, since you would be the one in possession of the items of interest to him. Whenever you were gone, he would have the opportunity, however illegal, to gain access to any documents you did not carry with you. It is then I decided to open a door to a possibility, and let fate shape events as she may."

"That's a cop out."

"Not entirely, I cannot act directly, all I could do was set a trap and wait. I arranged for you to retrieve the registry. It was quite safe, there was in fact no danger that it would be located, but in your home, it might be found by someone with the compulsion to go inside and look for information when you and the agents following you were gone. Of course the agency was aware you brought something from the bank, but I reasoned they did not know what it was and were not yet ready to go as far as breaking in."

"Why didn't you just have me hand it to him?"

"You could not go directly to the media, the legitimacy of what you offered would be suspect at best. At worst you would have been treated like a crackpot. I thought it best to let the media come to you."

"How did my name get on the safe deposit box?"

"I managed to send a message."

"How? Bribe a guard?"

"I'd rather not incriminate anyone. Suffice it to say I have enormous resources while others do not. Temptation can become irresistible when the message appears innocuous and the rewards are grossly out of proportion to the magnitude of the crime. My instructions also directed my confederate to determine the combination to your safe and leave it one turn from unlocking, as many people do. A signature is easily duplicated with some practice if the observer is untrained."

"You could have let me know what was going on."

"I have made a decision that carries grave risk for us all. If I were to ask you to act as my agent, you would share the responsibility for the consequences should my strategy succeed or fail. I could not permit that."

He paused again. Without a clear idea why, the words slipped softly past my lips, "What have you done?"

He looked at me again. "I anticipate you will see the story break this afternoon and instantly be picked up by every national and international medium."

"What about the registry?"

"The names and addresses will be made public."

My head started to buzz. Until now I had been preoccupied with the details of the burglary and my place in the scheme. Now my attention began to turn back to the implications of the release of what was contained in the registry."

"It will be a bloodbath. They will be hunted like animals by vigilantes who will know where to go and what to do and who to do it to. What could you possibly hope to accomplish?" Slowly an image took form in my mind. The words were almost a whisper now, "You've started a war! You want them to kill again!"

"No, David, of course not. You are not really thinking, you are just letting your imagination react. There may be some violence until things get sorted out, but this is not about killing, it is about life, life for everyone. Once I have made it clear what we will offer, everything will change."

"Offer? What are you talking about?"

"Sifter, sift. What is it we have that men would want?"

A chill went down my spine. Something was taking shape in my mind, something unthinkable, something monstrous.

"I want to hear you say it. For confirmation."

"I see you are apprehensive. Very well. For ages we have hidden from the human race. That is no longer possible, but that does not mean we must be enemies, there is no reason we may not be allies. We are a race of great strength and long life. These things we will share, and many will come to us David. Many."

I began to understand. He is going to share. He is going to offer to make men into vampires. What he has to offer is an eight thousand year lifespan, absolute immunity from disease, and the strength of a gorilla. It was brilliant. Hell yes they will come. They will come in a flood. It will start slowly, they are so few, but they will multiply exponentially. In time they will become a race of superhuman monsters, living in the dark, drinking our blood. They will change all aspects of life, finance, commerce, medicine, the arts, all patterns of human activity will mutate. I looked into his eyes and what I saw then was the end of human civilization we have known it since the dawn of time. Yes, they will come, and keep on coming, thousands, millions, hundreds of millions, but not all, no, not all. In the beginning they will screen new members, after all, they have taken a vow, and they will share this too. But that was when they feared us, when they still hid from our huge numbers. These new creatures will not be men, but they will be made from men. And since the beginning, men have committed genocide, kept slaves, ruled others. There are no blood producing organ clones. Blood comes from living humans. Six ounces a day, every day, for every bloodthirsty one of them. In the beginning they will buy it, from volunteers. And in the end?

I looked at the thing across from me. Through all of this, he said nothing, he had lived a thousand years, there was nothing he had not seen or heard or lived through, he was patient above all. And there was nothing I could say, or ask, or think of that had not already passed through his ancient mind.

"I have never been a violent man, but I know that if there were some way I could kill you right now, at this moment, I would."

"Yes, David," he nodded, "I know."