Page 22 of Tooth and Nail

“I’ve put that off for another couple of hours. His boyfriend, Sheldon, was just brought in and is in the infirmary. Derwin’s with him,” she said.

“Is he okay?” Ari asked before Eoghan got the chance to.

She nodded, picking up the message and rereading it. “This is from Doc Peters. He’ll probably be fine, but he has burns from that flypaper tape Derwin’s kidnappers wrapped him with. The doc wants to administer some IV medication to help him recover so we’ll put off the debrief for a bit. After you called in, I let the Agency know what happened and they’re lodging a formal complaint with his former colony’s queen. They weren’t happy.” She looked at the inbox on her desk, pointing to it. “Except for getting on the horn and calling the Agency back about John Townsend to make an appeal on his behalf, I don’t know what else can’t wait until morning.”

“But his escorts, ma’am,” Ari began, “they’re supposed to be here after dark, right?”

“Yes, but he’s not going anywhere until I have a chance to plead his case to the Agency. I can’t make the decision to release him independently. That decision is above my pay grade,” she said.

“Okay.” Ari looked over at Eoghan who met his gaze.

Eoghan nodded at his partner before looking back at the chief. “Okay, boss. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. See you both bright and early. Make sure Brown knows how to get back inside, Sapphire.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

They left the chief’s office and headed back out to the elevators. Eoghan was relieved to be mostly free for the rest of the afternoon. Once inside, he pushed the button for the next level down and then settled back with Ari at his side.

“We’ll do a quick tour if that works for you,” Eoghan said.

“Sure.”

“This next level down is administration.” The elevator stopped and they got off into another bright room, though, this one had black tiles on the floor. “I figured we could stop at the cafeteria last if that’s okay.”

“Yeah, no problem,” his partner said.

“Okay. This level is administration and technology. Our armory is also on this level.” He headed off to a huge room filled with cubicles. Tons of people bustled around, clearly doing office work and pushing paper. “Don’t ask me what any of these people do. They keep the place humming. Don’t ask me what that means. I don’t know. All I know is that they do, but there are two much more important places I wanted to show you this level.”

“Technology and the armory,” Ari said.

“Yes.”

“Okay.” Ari walked beside him as they headed to the end of the room, passing busy people in suits and ties.

The place had always reminded Eoghan of those movies where people were on the trading floor of a stockbrokerage. Everyone moved with a sense of urgency and purpose, none of it vital enough for Eoghan to have taken the time to learn about, but each and every bit of it important enough to keep him and other I.S.R. marshals alive.

“This is what I wanted you to see. You’ll be spending a lot of your time here.” The clang of a metal door rang in Eoghan’s ears just as he pushed open the door. “Welcome to the armory.” The moment they stepped inside the spacious room, he spotted Wordy walking away from the gun cage. He smiled at them, strolling over as they headed across the room, meeting them halfway.

“You finally made it to my neck of the woods,” the shorter man said in greeting. They both shook the hand he offered.

“So, this is the famous I.S.R. armory,” Ari said. “Take me on a tour, Wordy.”

Wordy nodded and pivoted, holding out both hands. “Left side of the room…standard human technology. Right side of the room, everything else. We’ll start with the human technology. If there’s a gun you’re not familiar with, now’s your chance to ask me.” He turned and looked him up and down. “You’re acquainted with guns, I guess? Even the human marshal’s service is familiar with most weapons, yes?”

“Brown was an Army Ranger, Wordy. I’d venture to guess he knows a lot about most guns.”

Wordy grinned. “What’d you do with the Rangers?”

“Scout sniper. So yeah, I’m a little familiar with guns.” Ari laughed.

Wordy threw his head back and laughed too, heading for the left side of the room. “A man after my own heart. I won’tbother going into a hell of a lot of detail except to show you what we’ve got. If you have a favorite weapon you’d like me to stock, let me know. Most human weapons don’t work with the kind of fugitives and protectees we deal with. If you have the right ammo, though…well, I’ll show you.”

“Great.”

Wordy stopped at a set of drawers, pulling out the first one. “Regular ammo in every size. There’s more on the shelves in the back. These drawers have a little of everything, though.” He shut the drawer full of small ammunition boxes before pulling out the second drawer. “Vampire ammo.” He pulled out a box, opening it to show them. The bullets looked exactly like regular ammo with the exception of the large V carved into each bullet. “The V denotes it’s a vampire round. They are made of wood which only kills if it hits them in the heart, filled with vampire blood to slow them down if you hit them anywhere else, and only to be used in self-defense. As your training officer will tell you, we don’t shoot to kill unless our lives, innocent humans, or those of our protectees or another marshal are at risk. There are other ways of taking down a vampire which are less lethal.”

“How does one take down a vampire in a less lethal manner?” Ari asked, taking the bullet to examine the V on the butt before handing it back.

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