The Vampire Gene

Marcus had set up all his equipment and was running the last few tests on Simon's DNA. Fergus was still connecting wires to hard drives and various other bits and pieces I didn't recognise, as well as a couple of black leather coats I recognised only too well. I picked one up, noting its heaviness with satisfaction, and tucked it under my arm.

"So, did you kill them?" Fergus wanted to know.

"Nope. I found Eric, but I reprogrammed him. Then I came home to sleep."

Fergus looked up from his wires. "Getting soft, brother?" I knew he meant Eric's fate, and not my need to rest. I didn't deny it. "What about the other one?"

"I have his mobile number. Apparently he's been in contact with Jack for several years, and has even delivered another female vampire to him in the past."

Fergus' eyes hardened. "Give me the mobile - I'll try and trace the numbers James called recently, see if any of them could be Jack. If I can get a mobile number for Jack, I can track his movements, and hopefully find his base. If all goes well, I should have a solid location for you later today, and we can consider a strike tonight. Rebecca's family get back from their holiday tomorrow, so we have to move fast. I've ordered another one of those PSG1's. You seemed to like it the last time, and we might need someone on the periphery who can shoot. Plus Glocks for all of us, and those ballistic vests. Simon and Oliver appear to have some weapons cache nearby, so we will all be well-armed." He paused. "You should try and find James Colborne today, see what he knows."

"And kill this one," said Marcus flatly. "He delivered another innocent girl to Jack." Marcus was an academic, but I was reminded more and more frequently nowadays that he was also a vampire, and he could be as brutal as the rest of us.

"Right," I said. "Be gentle with Rebecca today, Marcus."

"I will," he smiled at me. "She's my little sister now, Angus. I would never hurt her."

I wasn't sure I believed him - I was his brother and I remembered enduring a fair amount of pain at his hands. I hesitated.

"I promise, Angus. She will be fine. Julia will be here to make sure she's fine."

Ah, yes. I had forgotten about Julia. My fears allayed, I left to find James Colborne. He had some explaining to do.

A couple of hours later I had James neatly trussed up in the back of the van, and I was heading towards Aberdeenshire. About twenty years ago Fergus had bought a derelict little farm a few miles from the family estate. It was isolated, and had an elderly tenant who was both very hard of hearing and a persistent recluse. It also had a few outbuildings that were sublet to an imaginary company, and which I used occasionally when I was in the area and wanted to keep certain of my activities undetected. I had no specific plans for James Colborne, apart from extracting information from him and then disposing of him as unobtrusively as possible. It was essential that we found out where Jack was holed up in the next twenty four hours, before Rebecca's family returned from the relative safety of Barbados. They would become potential targets then, and that would make this entire project far riskier. Not to mention the awkward questions the situation could generate from Rebecca's mother and older brother Joe. Mark would take it all in his stride, of course, but those two - probably not so much.