John laughed. “Brilliant! Now you sound more like a journalist.”

Kurt gave a warm smile at this. “Well, you have to admit: it’s a bloody good story!”

“Yes,” John said. He got up and went over to the small bar where he poured some whiskey for Kurt and himself. “You know, I am very interested in this project of yours, Kurt. You have to tell me more about it,” he came back with two glasses in his hands, “But,” he gave Kurt one, “I want to get down to business first.”

“Of course,” Kurt said, sipping his glass, “Tell me what you had in mind.”

“How are your boys?” John asked, meaning the pilots Kurt had trained.

“As usual, in top shape.”

“Good. Can we have them ready by tomorrow?”

“Sure. So, you really are serious?”

“Of course, my friend,” John said, “This is the time. With Alex on the Earth, I will negotiate with the Regent and the President for his release.”

“Bit risky, isn’t it?”

“Well, that’s where you and your boys come in.”

“How many you need?”

“About a hundred.”

Kurt nodded, contemplating and beginning to make plans already. “And all of them, by the next day?”

“Yeah. I figure there’s going to be an attack, and you will have to come to cover Alex and me along with a few ground soldiers.”

“That would require about fifteen to twenty, I reckon.” He paused to see John’s reaction. John simply nodded. “So why the extras?”

“I suppose there will be a lot of defense in space itself, but very little in the atmosphere,” John said, “So, what we should do, is attack them when they least expect it. Take down their cities, destroy as much as possible, so they know we’re serious about it, and this will give us the advantage.”

“But how do we know where to attack and what to attack?”

“I figure the place of negotiation will be an important part of the Earth, somewhere the vamps deem special or vital for their security.”

“Why do you think that?”

“It’s just an educated guess, but I think that they won’t waste time looking for a God-forsaken area to negotiate. They will want to get the killing done with as fast as possible. I guess they think we are stupid and so they won’t really expect a heavy air strike.”

“Okay.”

“Just remember: first let out twenty fighters, so that they think that’s all we have and when I say so, let out the entire air strike.”

“Any places in particular?”

“Not really. When the time comes for that, you’ll know.”

“Alright. As you say, General,” Kurt said taking his glass and raising it in a toast.

The screen John had been looking at flickered and Daniel’s face appeared on it. “General Howe,” Daniel said.

“President Gareng,” John said, “how do you do?”

“We have reason to believe that you have broken clause number 108765. Because of this disobedience and outright audacity, there will be consequences.”

“Oh?” John said in a mocking tone.

“Yes,” Daniel pretended to not notice the sarcasm. “And since you have hidden the Falsifier from us, and now that he is in our custody, we ask you to destroy all your arms within the next twelve hours. We are prepared to be merciful this one time, since this is the first collective instant.”

“I see.”

“You have twelve hours,” Daniel repeated quickly.

Before Daniel disconnected, John said, “No, President Gareng. You are sadly mistaken. You have twelve hours.”

“Excuse me?”

“You have twelve hours to return Alex to his rightful place, or we will attack.”

Daniel laughed. “Is that so? Surely we can negotiate.”

“Negotiate?” John paused, acting as if he was considering the thought. “Alright. In the next twelve hours, I shall come, albeit with a few guards for my protection, to negotiate. I’m sure we will arrive at a decision that will suit both our best interests.”

“So be it,” Daniel said. “You may meet me here. I am sending you the coordinates.” As soon as the pictures had come up on the screen, Daniel flickered away. The map on the screen showed that the destination was in the Atlantic, somewhere near England.

“How can that be?” said Kurt, “There ain’t no land mass there.” “Yeah, but whatever is there, like I said, is of key importance.” “Hmm.” “Well, looks like there’s been a change of plans.” Kurt looked at him, his eyes unblinking. “We move out in the next twelve hours.”

Angel held the newspaper limply in her hand. The top story of the day covered John’s rise to dictatorial power and the appointment of Richard as Vice-Chancellor, but what had shocked and frightened her most was the news about Alex and the Rebels. According to the reports, Alex was a hybrid of vampire and human. She watched the television, waiting for Mr. Howe to come on for the coronation ceremony. She felt, like the others in Regnum, betrayed and hurt, but for her this was much more personal. She worried about herself and her mother, who was working silently in the kitchen. Her father grunted at the mention of John Howe and cursed under his breath. She felt constricted. She feared in her heart that they would soon tell her to abort the baby. In any case, they were waiting for John’s speech to confirm everything. His confirmation would more settle the matter and Angel would have little choice but to abort the unholy thing in her womb.

“Well, it looks like the Vice-Chancellor-to-be, Richard Bacon, is stepping outside of the Headquarters building,” the reporter yelled. There was immense cheering from the crowd. Bacon was smiling, waving to the people and as quickly as he had come out, he went back inside. It didn’t make any sense, until a few moments later. “Now remember, Joy,” the man on TV was saying, “About half an hour back, the General and Mr. Bacon visited the Central Hospital. It has been verified that they visited Jarad Hameed, whom, as we know, has been kept there since yesterday.”

“An interesting turn of events, isn’t it?” Joy, the anchor said, “Yesterday, the very same man who arranged a fake assassination attempt on himself, seemed to be down in the dirt, with his plans backfiring. And now we have Mr. Howe, who, as the Senate has confirmed, had no links to the attack. Mr. Howe is prepared to risk his own political career for the salvation of his people. Ultimately the people have decided. Kyle?”

The reported nodded. “That’s right, Joy. It looks like Alexander Howe, the nephew of the Council Leader, is in fact a hybrid... vampire and human. It seems implausible, but it is so. I spoke to people here earlier asking them what they made of it and some of them said they didn’t really care. Some gave examples of the battles fought in the past side-by-side with the Rebels, a group of vampires led by General Nikolas Gareng, the one who kidnapped Alex yesterday. Some people have made allusions to Aidan, a mysterious prophet who, according to some sources, was a direct son of the enemy, Anaxagoras. And speaking of Rebels, there is a proposal set in motion by John Howe that they be allowed to rejoin their old allies, the humans, on the Regnum.”

“And what do you suppose will be the...the basis of his speech and the major outlines of his proposals?”

Again, as there was an unclear signal, the reporter simply nodded. A few moments after the anchor had stopped speaking, the reporter started, “Right...well, we can only presume, in light of the speeches he has given before, that he will want war. War is good now, people say, and many here with whom I’ve spoken confess that over the years they have felt a longing for existence on their own planet and they feel John will deliver it. He will enforce new laws, as well, if we are to achieve this common goal. There will be the proposal to rescue Alexander and establish the Rebels as an integral part of our society.”