Page 54 of Sinistram
“And there’s an active nuclear power plant twenty-seven miles from Pittsburgh,” Brent said. “I mean, we got through the Cold War and the Russians didn’t blow us up, so maybe it’s not worth worrying about.”
“But they weren’t crazy-religious vampire ninja priests,” Travis replied, a weak attempt at humor in the face of potential annihilation. “You’d think stuff like this would lower property values.”
“Far as I can tell, most people have no idea about the mines, the wells, or the missile sites, and the power plant keeps a low profile.”
Travis rose and started to pace. “Shit, shit, shit.” He stopped and looked at Brent, wishing he would wake up and discover this was all a bad dream. “What the hell do we do? This is so far above our pay grade?—”
“If we can stop Sinistram, we don’t have to deal with the explosives.” Brent sounded calm, but Travis could see the twitchin his partner’s jaw that revealed how hard he was clenching his teeth.
“Guess that’s what we’re gonna have to do then.”
“Did you get dreams or visions while you were sleeping?” Brent asked. “We’re grasping at straws here, so every little bit of information counts.”
“I dreamed about a large open field with the night sky overhead,” Travis replied. “It looked like stars were falling, don’t know whether that was meteors or space junk. It should have been pretty, but it made me shiver.”
“More omens,” Brent said.
Travis nodded. “Then tongues of fire burst out from the lawn, shooting up into the air. That’s when I woke up.”
Brent took another swig of his coffee. “Yeah, nothing creepy about that at all,” he said sarcastically.
“And I saw a book,” Travis went on. “It’s been in some of the other visions, very old, looks like a book of spells. But not one that I’ve seen at the Sinistram library. I’m not sure what to make of that.”
Travis’s phone rang, making him jump. When he realized the call came from Cassidy, he glanced at the window, unaware that the sun was already down.
“Hi, Travis, Brent. I have Sorren here with me,” Cassidy told them. “I’ll put him on speaker.”
“Travis, Cassidy said you had questions?” Sorren’s voice was deep and soothing, and Travis wondered whether it had sounded like that in life or if that was a vampire adaptation.
“Thanks for calling me back. Have you heard anything about vampires infiltrating and taking over the Pittsburgh chapter of Sinistram?” No matter how often he said it out loud, it still sounded absurd.
Sorren didn’t answer right away. Travis and Brent exchanged a look, and Travis wondered if he had exceeded the vampire’s patience and made him think this was a prank.
“It’s possible,” Sorren replied a moment later. “My kind are more solitary now than we were in life, and we tend to avoid groupings, because they present a target. But there are radical factions, something that, unfortunately, didn’t end with being mortal.” Another pause. “Tell me what you’ve learned, or suspect. If I know anything, I will confirm.”
Travis and Brent took turns laying out what they had discovered, as well as their theory on what the vampire-infiltrated Sinistram stood to gain.
“I know that sounds crazy—” Brent said.
“Less so than you might think.” Sorren sounded worried, which made Travis even more apprehensive. “While I considered such plans to be improbable, what you’ve pieced together is in line with rumors I’ve heard about the more fanatical players.”
Sorren paused. “Vampires are just people with special abilities. Unfortunately, the ‘dark gift’ doesn’t convey special wisdom along with the speed and strength. Vampires can be just as susceptible to misinformation and conspiracy theories as mortals.
“What you’re talking about sounds very much like a theory that I’ve heard mentioned over the years. I’ve never paid much attention to it myself, but apparently others did,” Sorren went on. “There was a monk in the 1700s who was said by some to be a prophet, and was widely also believed to be a vampire. His rantings were ignored by the Vatican, but they may have found their way to the Sinistram.”
“What did he believe?” Travis asked.
“He believed that the literal end of the world was coming, and that the only survivors would be vampires. After the endof everything on earth, the vampires would ascend to become demigods. I’m not sure what good that does if everyone else is dead, but that didn’t seem to deter believers,” Sorren said. “There were rumors of apostate vampire priests who looked forward to the Apocalypse and saw it as the eventual triumph of immortals over mortals.”
Sorren’s expression of distaste made his opinion clear. “I’ve outlived enough prophets to see their prophecies proven wrong. But there’s always a group that buys into that kind of thing enough that they sell all their possessions and go sit on top of a mountain waiting to be taken away from the stress of mortal life—only to end up deeply disappointed.”
“The elders chose to be turned into vampires so they would ‘survive’ the end of the world?” Brent echoed. “That’s dingo-ate-my-baby crazy.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time a crazy idea caught hold,” Sorren observed.
“I can see how the Sinistram elders could have found that appealing,” Travis said after a moment to think about what Sorren had said. “After all, they loved feeling more special than regular people and knowing secrets. And it’s definitely got roots in the idea that ‘believers’ would survive the ultimate destruction and take over a purified world.”
“The crazy just keeps on coming,” Brent muttered.
