“Everyone’s different, Brig. We all have our own appetites.” He trusted Brigid, but only Anne had the right to tell her friend of her more unusual needs. “I’ll keep an eye on her.”
“I will too.”
“You’re a good friend.”
“I know.” She eyed him from head to toe. “Looking sharp, boss.”
“Thank you. Now, let’s go wrangle information out of Vikings, shall we?”
TWO hours later, it was Anne who finally broke through the doublespeak that Jetta’s team had perfected.
“I don’t know about you,” Anne said, interrupting Jetta’s secretary, “but while the illegal weapons trade is troubling, that’s not something the human authorities can’t handle. Aren’t we here to talk about Elixir?”
“But the weapons are coming in through Russia,” the man said. Murphy couldn’t remember his name.
“But Russia is not attending the summit, are they?” Anne leaned forward. “I’m not a politician. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”
The man exchanged a look with Jetta, who nodded.
“We know that the Dutch have a special relationship with the Russians,” he said. “If they expect us to share information about the Elixir trade, then we want a halt to the weapons. Our human governments have very strict weapons policies and part of our responsibility is supporting that.”
Rens Anker had been silent throughout the meeting. The quiet man had arrived shortly after Jetta the night before, but with far less fanfare. If Murphy hadn’t known what Rens looked like, he never would have guessed the tall, academic Dutchman was anyone other than an assistant. He was thin in a way that led Murphy to believe he’d not been wealthy in human life. His angular face and dark hair should have made him stand out among all the Norsemen at Terry and Gemma’s house, but he somehow managed to blend into the woodwork.
It was a pleasant enough face. Kind, even.
But his eyes were wary.
Anker smoothed his tie down the front of his shirt. “The Russians will do what the Russians will do. To think that my brother or I have any kind of influence over them would be false.”
“So they do not use your satellites?” Jetta’s secretary—who Murphy was beginning to believe was her attack dog—pointed out.
“I didn’t say they don’t use our satellites,” Rens said. “Nor will I confirm it. I would do neither, as discretion”—he pointedly looked at Jetta—“is very much part of what my clients pay me for. There are many, many organizations, both human and immortal, who are valued clients. But that does not make their business mine.”
“What is your business, Rens?” Murphy asked quietly. “Your shipping interests have shrunk every year. Why are you here?”
“Mr. Murphy, I believe—as I’m sure we all do—that the stability of the human blood supply is a problem that knows no borders.” He spread his hands. “And thus I am here to offer what I can to stabilize it.”
And not answer questions.
“What exactly are you offering?” Murphy asked.
“Information. When I deem it useful.”
A few quiet sounds of frustration were scattered around the room.
“And who are you to decide what is or isn’t useful?” Jetta asked. “The Russians—”
“The Russians have their own problems, such as weapons proliferation,” Rens said. “And the lovely Dr. O’Dea is correct; this is a problem the human authorities can deal with. Elixir is not. And that—I am sad to say—has been as much a problem in our small country as it has been in any of yours. Possibly worse.”
Gemma asked, “What is your current status?”
“Our immortal population is very concentrated in our city centers. Many of the clubs and underground bars our donors frequent have been infested. We’re facing a real problem if we can’t find a cure. Hundreds of humans have been contaminated. The human authorities are baffled because we can’t hide all the deaths. This is the problem we are facing. Now, what problems are your countries facing?”
Anne slid Murphy a note.
So the spy offers information first?
He quickly responded. By doing so, he controls the direction of the conversation and puts all of us in obligation to him. Anker has laid out the parameters of what he is willing to share and avoided questions. Never underestimate him or his brother.
Understood.
Terry was the next to speak, looking to Gemma, who nodded before he began. “It’s no surprise to anyone that we’ve been hit in the UK. The North Sea and the Baltic countries seem to have been the first affected by this, which is why I wanted to speak to everyone at this table first. We’ll talk to France and Spain tomorrow. The Americans will be here later in the week. In Britain, I can confirm over three hundred human infections, mostly centered around three clubs here in London—and we’ve had thirteen vampire infections.”
Anne asked, “The status of the immortals infected?”
“Eight have living sires,” Gemma said. “We’ve sent them to their sires with the instructions we received from Katya Grigorieva’s lab in California. That’s all we can do.”
“And the humans?” Murphy asked.
“Isolated those who belonged to us,” Gemma said. “But we can’t keep everyone prisoner, especially if they’re not aware of our true natures. We’ve watched them. Our doctors don’t think it’s transferable, even by bodily fluids. We’ve tracked those in the general population, and so far, none of them have spread the infection to anyone else. Elixir needs to be taken directly for infection to occur.”