The Mammoth Book of Dracula (83 page)

“Were you surprised that I requested this meeting?” Dracula asked. There was a note of amusement in his voice; or was it the kind of barely hidden contempt some Europeans showed towards Americans?

“To be frank, yes. Especially the
mano a mano
bit.” Cydonian picked up his glass and drained it. He waved it at the holographic screen. “But I see you got around that.”

“I believe in taking precautions, Mister Cydonian. And it does no harm to ... show off, once in a while.”

“We know all about what your various corporations can do,” Cydonian said. “And how many thumbs you got stuck up whose asses.”

“You’re hardly in a position to be superior. What about your own Agency’s investments?”

“National security.” It was the pat answer. Nobody believed it any more, but Cydonian had seen it scrawled on the toilet-paper dispensers in enough washrooms back at Langley.

“Fascinating how far around the globe the USA seems to feel its national security is threatened.”

“You going to tell me you’re no threat?”

“Not when your Director seems to feel otherwise.”

“With respect, Count—that’s no answer.”

“I asked for this meeting because I’ve grown tired of your constant interference in my affairs.” His voice was curt and businesslike suddenly. If Dracula was irritated by Cydonian’s blunt manner, he wasn’t showing it. “Having to constantly keep an eye open for your frequently inept attempts at subversion is proving too large a drain on my resources ...”

“Thinking of giving in, Count?” Cydonian allowed himself a chuckle.

Dracula’s outlined head tilted fractionally. “Hardly. But I think the time has come to call for a cease-fire. Perhaps just a temporary one—a break in hostilities.”

“For what? You to regroup and plan another attack. Your friends in the Balkans have been playing that card for the past ten years.”

“I’ve not been travelling in that part of the world for many decades, Cydonian.” He paused and raised a hand to where his lips might be. “Ever since I quit my estates, in fact. How time does fly. They seem to be doing well enough without me, though.”

Cydonian resisted the urge to laugh. The constantly changing demands of the factions in that particular shitstorm had the vampire’s MO all over them. The latest cease-fire—to mark the birth of a new century—didn’t look as though it would be any more permanent than the rest. “Maybe the generals are quick studies.”

Dracula waved the hand. Cydonian saw long nails, and in the back-lighting they looked odd: more like a rat’s claws. “You credit me with too much influence, Cydonian. Humanity has rarely needed prompting to go to war.”

“Is that why you involved yourself in World War Two?”

The vampire laughed—this time in simple appreciation; there was no mockery involved. “So you found that out?”

“Didn’t look as though you meant to hide it. A volunteer RAF pilot, enlisting in 1942 under false credentials. You got a couple of medals.”

“In wartime, Cydonian, medals are handed out like candy. It gives the cannon fodder something to strive for. I simply survived all the night raids on cities such as Dresden and Berlin. Bomber Command seemed to think that was a feat worth celebrating.”

“Why should you care?”

Dracula leaned on his desk. Even though he knew the vampire was probably miles away, Cydonian felt himself draw back in his seat.

“Are we going to play dumb and dumber, Cydonian? Will you pretend that, at the time, the OSS didn’t know what Hitler’s more ... unorthodox scientists were trying to do?
Projekt Nachtzehrer?
The systematic eradication of all vampires throughout German-occupied Europe? Whilst at the same time trying to isolate whatever factor it was that created the undead.”

“Would these be the same scientists working on the flying saucers?” Cydonian began, then his mouth slammed shut at what he was seeing. Mary, Mother of God! he thought, his eyes really
do
glow!

“Under the circumstances,” Dracula said, his voice low and velvety, “knowing what we both do of the Agency’s involvement in military Black Projects, I would not consider it wise to mock.” He leaned back, some of the light fading from his eyes. “The
Führer’s
astrologers forecast that an army of vampires would sweep out from the heart of Europe and conquer the world. Hider chose to interpret that as meaning a personally selected regiment from the Waffen-SS—vampire soldiers that truly could be called
Totenkopf!”

“So you joined up. Didn’t think you were the vengeful type.”

“Then you’ve not done your research thoroughly.”

Cydonian didn’t rise to the bait. He wasn’t going to question why the vampire’s reprisals waited until all of his undead cousins had been beheaded with axes. Buried in huge pits filled with poppy seeds, coins placed under each head’s tongue—none of them was ever going to rise again. Despite the Count’s spoken sentiments, Cydonian couldn’t help thinking the vampire had let the Nazis do a little house-cleaning for him.

And maybe Hitler’s crazy eggheads had gotten closer to some kind of vampire factor than Dracula liked.

“Tell me, Cydonian,” the soothing voice interrupted his thoughts again. “What do you think is my greatest desire?”

Cydonian thought hard before replying. He had seen a phrase years ago, and it had sounded so right! Ah, yes—that was it...

“Illimitable dominion over all?” He couldn’t help being smug.

“Don’t try and sound literary, Cydonian. It ill suits you.”

He watched as the rat-claw hand dropped to the desk. Immediately, the light in the holographic room grew. No longer an outline, Dracula’s face was gaunt and pale. His lips looked too dark against the pallor—as did his eyes and hair. And Cydonian was surprised to see how little he had of it: just a thick fringe, leaving the top of his skull bare and shiny. He was wearing an expensive grey jacket, grey shirt and a chaotically patterned silk tie. Just like any other middle-aged businessman. You could pass him in the street and never know.

“No, Cydonian, just like any other thing on this planet, I want to see myself reflected in my children.”

“Vampires don’t have kids.”

“Not in the ordinary sense, no. But we can reproduce, as you know.”

“If you’re trying to tell me you want to turn the whole world into blood-suckers, that’s old news, Count.”

Dracula’s dark lips thinned into a warm smile. It got nowhere near his eyes. “I’m the new red menace, am I? And you’re wrong, Cydonian—all of you. What use to me is a planet of vampires? Off what would I live? Any of us? If you’ll forgive the analogy, the human race wouldn’t survive long if it killed or ate all of its cattle in one go. The predator must allow some of its prey to survive.”

“What are you trying to say? That you don’t intend to prey on us any longer?”

Dracula leaned back in his chair. He waved an arm at the room. “This is the twenty-first century, Cydonian. The rules have changed; are changing all the time.”

“So?”

“A few years ago someone, I forget who, commented that each century has its own sciences; disciplines which define that particular era. In the nineteenth, it was engineering; in the twentieth, chemistry and, naturally, physics; but the twenty-first would have biology. In the new millennium, man will not only conquer all disease, but find new ways to exploit the foundation of life itself.”

“Like bio-chips.”

Dracula waved an expansive hand. “Already a reality, to all intents and purposes. Several of my subsidiary companies own the patents on thirteen processes which are part of a bio-chip’s manufacture.”

“Useful combination of interests, right, Count? Paradis-LaCroix gets an arm-lock on wetware manufacture, whilst all the satellite, communications and electronics businesses you own tie up the hardware.”

“Which of us can exert the most influence on the modern world?” Dracula’s smile broadened. Cydonian thought he looked like a Great White about to strike. “Me, or the Agency?”

“You might have Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange kissing your ass, but we have all the secrets no one wants told.” He turned the facts over in his mind. “I guess it’s a stand-off. Between us, we’ve got the world tied up: finance and intelligence.”

“Quite. Whilst a stalemate continues, neither of our great houses can hope to benefit. We are like two giants throwing rocks at each other: neither can hurt the other, but the irritation value is high.”

It all seemed so clear, suddenly. The Company had something the vampire wanted, or he thought he could buy himself some kind of angle. “What do you have to trade?”

“I have no need to trade. I give you a present.” He steepled his long fingers. “The cure for AIDS.”

Cydonian remembered in time, and stopped himself jerking forward in his seat. It wasn’t smart to show too much interest.

“Just like that?”

“Call it a show of faith. Faith in the future. And a demonstration that whatever bungling strikes your department tries to make at me, I am quite capable of setting it right.”

Cydonian settled back in his chair. He wanted another drink, but didn’t dare make one. It didn’t surprise him the vampire knew of the Company’s involvement in the AIDS disaster.

“Of course, I could always send my gift elsewhere—China, for example—whilst letting it be known exactly who released the HIV variants. Black Projects initial coding
ASV2a, b
and
c.”

“No one would believe it. That rumour’s been doing the goddam rounds since the virus was identified.”

“I have proof. Memos from your own department, balance sheets, Presidential authorizations. The idea that the government could release a deadly biological agent before it had been adequately tested—or even an antidote prepared—would sound perfectly reasonable to some paranoid minds ... Although, I would draw the line at who the original target was. I doubt even the most rabid conspiracy buff would swallow the idea of an anti-vampire virus.”

Cydonian licked his lips. “If you’re going to let us have the cure anyway, why the threat?”

“To show you what Paradis-LaCroix can do. As I indicated, I hope the new century will see an end to all disease. I want PLC to be the lead player.”

It didn’t ring true. No one was that generous. “What do we have to do to get it?”

“Get it? Nothing. Watch.” Dracula reached down below the desk surface and looked as though he slid out a drawer. His clawed hand dipped out of sight and touched something. All the images on the plasma wall blinked out, and then came on again. Parts of one image. It looked to Cydonian, more than anything, like a huge computer monitor.

Dracula touched something else, and words scrolled rapidly down the video wall. Much too quick for Cydonian to make them out. But some kind of programme was active.

“Twenty years ago, who would have thought of sending massive packets of data along telephone lines, or satellite links?” the vampire was saying. The image changed. Now Cydonian could make out diagrams and formulae, columns of figures and scatter-charts. Dracula tapped out more commands on what Cydonian had belatedly realized was a keyboard, and the lines of text vanished. A confirmation note nagged up.

Dracula returned the keyboard under his desk and leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers again.

“There. Every item of data on the cure is now awaiting your Director’s attention on his private terminal. Formulations, test trials, methodology. Call it a present from the Paradis-LaCroix corporation. And don’t worry about eavesdroppers: all of my lines are perfectly secure.”

He was baiting Cydonian again; Langley had been trying to bug PLC for years, without success. “Call me cynical, Count. But I can’t imagine you just throwing something that’s potentially worth billions of dollars to us. Does it kill the patients after ten years, turn them into shit-eating zombies or something?”

The vampire laughed softly. “I admire your bluntness, Cydonian. I always have. No—it’s a genuine therapy, With few, if any, side effects. Nothing worse than those associated with, say, normal chemotherapy.”

Cydonian changed track. “If you think this makes up for all the past years—”

“I know: the Agency cannot be bought. Such quaint devotion to a demonstrably untrue concept. I repeat: this is a gift. All I ask is a ...” he waved a hand as though it helped him frame an unpleasant request”... small favour.”

Here it comes, thought Cydonian. Now we get the horse-trading. “How small?”

“Nothing that will cause any drastic alteration to the Agency’s foreign policy.”

“Which one?”

“Russian.”

“I can’t make promises.”

“You’re trying to be clever again, Cydonian. You’re fully empowered to deal, or you wouldn’t be here.”

Cydonian took a deep breath. “What do you propose?”

“Russia is about to suffer the worst civil war since the final days of Rome. It’s likely that the recent terrorism will escalate into open rebellion. Every general who can find so much as a working tank will make a bid for the Kremlin.”

“That’s not exactly insider information, Count. Anyone with two eyes and an IQ bigger than a shithouse rat could figure it out.”