The vampire base had been totally destroyed by the fighters. They had all been killed before they could call for backup. Ted and his squadron members, landed on the ash-stained bloody plain. “Well,” he said to George as he took a cigarette from him, “What’s the latest from the others?”

“Nothing yet,” George replied, “What about Kurt? What does he say?”

“No word.”

John’s voice came through all their communicators. “All units to the Atlantic. I repeat all units to the Atlantic. Stop whatever you’re doing and come here now! We need major backup and now’s the time to destroy this base!”

“Copy that,” everyone said in unison.

George sighed. No rest for the weary.

Romsky and his men reached the base and the aerial fighters gunned down whatever was left of it. His men surrounded the remaining vampires, “It’s over,” the general said.

“No!” The vampiric general spat. He was seven feet tall, weighed four hundred pounds, and wore no armor. His dark, maroon hair flowed in the icy wind and he bared his fangs as he smirked viciously. “In the next five minutes, fresh soldiers will arrive and you’ll be dead.”

“I doubt it. My fighters have probably already killed them en route.”

As he said this he looked up to see twenty fighters circling in the sky. “So I suggest you surrender and tell all ground and air fighters to stop. Tell them you’ve won.”

“No. I will not bow down to such scum!”

John’s voice came through the communicators, sending out a message to Romsky and his men. “Copy that,” Romsky whispered and then said to the vampire, “I guess you’ll have it your way then,” he turned around and went to the back of the army, “Kill them,” he said softly to his units through the communicator, “leave none alive.”

“Ranjit,” John said, “What’s the situation?” His voice was coarse from screaming. Ranjit could hear massive thuds and whipping sounds.

“We’re reaching the database. We’ve got one hostage and he’s going to take us in. When the files have been transferred and we’re out of there, I’ll let you know.”

“Alright, over and out.” The frequency switched off.

“Now,” Ranjit said, “wear these.” He handed the vampire two ear-pieces.

“What’s this?”

“Just wear them; they will block out the sound.”

The vampire laughed in disbelief.

“Wear them, damn it! They have been specially modified to block out the frequency but still allow you to hear us. Now just wear them!”

The vampire did as he was told and Evan flipped the switch. “That should stop any distraction,” he said.

They walked into a vast hall with shelves crammed to the ceiling with dusty old tomes. There were honeycomb shaped compartments stuffed with codices and scrolls older than any civilization on the Earth. The General and his men felt disheartened to know they would be destroying such a precious place. But they also knew they would be preserving all the important information digitally.

At the end of the hall was a metal door that required a coded entry with vampiric blood and a retinal scan. No ordinary vampire was allowed entry, unless he had prior permission. In this case, there was no one to give that permission and so the abandoned area was free to them. “Here,” the vampire said.

“Give the passwords and whatever’s necessary.”

“Nothing is required.”

“You take me to be a fool?” Ranjit said harshly, slapping him across the face. “Now do as I say and open the damn door!” The vampire said nothing and did nothing. “I said OPEN IT!”

He shook his head and spat at him. “No. What will you do?”

“You think we’re not prepared?” said Ranjit. He nodded to Evan who deactivated the earpieces. The vampire immediately covered his ears and his face creased and twisted. His mouth opened but nothing came out. The pain in his ears was so horrible that he couldn’t even scream. He grabbed Ranjit’s shoulder, then fell down and thrashed and rolled around on the floor. “That’s enough.” Ranjit said.

As soon as Evan reactivated the earpieces, the vampire’s facial contortions stopped. He gasped as the pain left.

“So,” Ranjit went on, “Are you helping or not?”

His blood red eyes looked at the General fiercely, and he nodded rapidly. “Yes, yes,” he said in a choked voice. He got to his feet and went to the door where he pricked his finger on an electronic pin. The first metal door opened. Then came the retina check. It took a few seconds. Then, a digital voice said, “Access Granted.”

The door slid up and they went inside. In the center of the relatively small white room, a large two ton computer that stored all the information stood. They saw that this computer connected to a network of smaller mini-computers. Evan went to work quickly. He sat down at the table and a touch-sensitive holoscreen appeared. These computers were in fact holodrives, or rather fiber optic holographic drives. Evan knew they were much faster and capable of storing hundreds of exabytes of information per second. They contained all the information in the library. The screen turned on and it asked for a password. “What is it?” he asked the vampire. “What’s the password?”

“I don’t know,” the vampire said. “Honestly.”

Singh asked, “Who does?”

“The one who has access to the computer is the master of the library. His name is Serayk.” The vampire said, staring at Evan who continued to search the drives of the computer.

“And where is this Serayk?” Ranjit asked.

The vampire shook his head, “I don’t know. He might have escaped.”

“Liar!”

“I’m telling you the truth.” The vampire said. “I have no idea what the password is.”

“Not to worry. We can hack into it,” Evan said, already trying his luck. “There must be a way.”

“Who is Serayk? Where is he?” Ranjit said, his dark eyes glinting and piercing the vampire’s.

“He...”

“Tell me!” Ranjit said.

“He is at the Council.”

“What?” Ranjit asked. “What Council?”

“The Council of Elders. We were warned by them about this and we took precautions. So he was commanded to be with them.”

“And where are they now?”

“No one but Regent Erik and President Daniel know at any time where the Council is. They keep moving from place to place, sometimes leaving their subjects uninformed, so that no one will keep a watch.”

“Did he tell you where he was going?”

“He was forbidden to tell us.”

“Oh, so he tells you he’s going to meet the Council but you don’t know where.”

“Yes. It’s the truth!”

Ranjit shrugged and sighed heavily. “What can we do?”

The beast spread its tentacles and John could make out its circular jaws and spiral teeth. From its mouth the squid spewed out dark acidic ink. It burned through the ground and gave off a foul odor. “Bill,” John said, constantly dodging the tentacles and acid, “Where are you?”

A plasma beam hit the beast in the back of its head. John saw Bill’s fighter pass by him.

“I’m right here!” Bill shouted and a large group of fighters followed him. He laughed and said, “Go and get your men. We’ll take care of this.”

John ran into the base and Bill and his squadron kept shooting at the monster that growled in pain and spat acid towards some ships. Bill flew into the mouth of the beast, launched a timed missile and sped back out. His squadron covered him constantly firing rounds of plasma beams that burned through the pinkish gray tentacles. The squid fell back and exploded from within the ocean waves, dirtying the landing pad of CCC1 with black ink, rubbery flesh, and blood.

In the elevator, John got a message from Ranjit, “John, we got a problem.”

“What’s the matter?”

“This computer’s got a password and obviously only one of them knows it. The vamp with me tells me that the guy isn’t around. What do I do?”

“Isn’t there anyway to crack it?”

“Evan’s trying some passwords and he has another three tries before it goes into total lockdown.”