Vamp-Hire by Gerald Dean Rice

stepped
away from the table and resisted the urge to wipe his hands off on
his pants.
    “When?” Dolph growled.
    “Two, maybe three nights ago?”
    “Interesting,” Lieutenant Leonard said. He
placed a hand beneath his chin. “Go on.”
    “I remember a guy in a panel truck. He called
out to her… with his mind, and she came.”
    “What color?” Leonard said. “The truck?”
    “White?” Nick wasn’t entirely sure.
    “You sure, son?” Dolph fixed him with his
eyes.
    “I think so. I mean, everything was through
his eyes. I don’t remember him looking behind him when he got
out.”
    “Behind him…” one of the doctors said. Nick
turned to look and saw the woman with glasses writing furiously on
a clipboard.
    “Alright, people.” Leonard clapped his hands
to indicate expediency. “Let’s get an APB out on a white panel
truck.”
    “What are you doing?” Dolph stepped closer
and asked. “You know that truck is stolen.
    “That’s right,” Leonard said loud enough for
the room to hear. “We’ll find all kinds of trace evidence and ID
this creep by his DNA. He’s a vamp, he’s been in a pen, and we got
a file on him. He’ll be locked back up in a pen by the end of the
week. Thanks for coming out, Adolphus,” Leonard said. “We’ll take
it from here.”
    Adolphus? Nick thought. The name almost rang
a bell. He got a good look at Leonard and the man had a smug,
holier-than-thou look all over his face.
    “Happy hunting.” Dolph nodded and they shook
hands. Nick hurried ahead of him, sweeping the black curtain aside.
Dolph’s face was a big angry knot and growing tighter by the
second. The guard was still waiting for them and he walked ahead of
them. Instead of taking them back the way they’d come, he took them
through what felt like a winding maze to a steel door marked
‘Exit’.
    “You have a good day, sirs,” the guard said.
Dolph didn’t stop. Nick felt like he should say something.
    “Yeah, you too. Thanks for having us.”
    It felt wrong, incomplete somehow. He should
have said something more… official. Dolph was getting ahead of him
with those long legs and Nick had to hustle to catch up.
    He could hardly believe it, but the man
looked even angrier in the daylight.
    “Sanctimonious prick!” he said.
    Nick only listened while he vented more
choice words, no doubt about Lieutenant Leonard. Nick had no idea
where they were. It seemed like they were going to have a long walk
ahead of them. Leonard had seemed a little jerk-ish, though not
enough for Dolph to be this angry.
    He dared to ask.
    “You don’t have any experience with
post-Conflict military from the inside,” Dolph replied. “‘Officers’
like that are the reason I retired.”
    “I kinda don’t get it. What happened in
there?”
    “He power-played me. We weren’t in there two
seconds before they were showing us the door, and the idiot is
chasing a dead end. Of course the panel truck is stolen. The
likelihood this guy is on any kind of registry is probably fifty
percent at best.”
    “This guy—the killer— is like me, right? I
mean, he had to come from the Center too, right? Or the Pens?”
    “Remember that one percent we talked
about?”
    “Yeah. You said it’s a rough estimate.”
    “Right. But the exact number of vamps—sorry,
I don’t know if that word offends you—who have been processed is
known.”
    A light came on in Nick’s head.
    “He may never have been at either place.”
    They rounded the building and were greeted by
several aisles of cars. The big Hummer was farther back right where
they’d left it.
    “The guy’s a killer, though. He probably has
a juvenile record or something, right?”
    “Possible. With the knots the legal system is
in that’s anyone’s guess.” Dolph seemed to be calming down. “It’s a
good lead, but it’s just that: a lead. That idiot Leonard seems
like he’s hanging his hat on what you told him.”
    “I didn’t think I’d given him a lot to go on.
I