The Oval Office
The White House
Washington, D.C.
Day 18 of the Red Storm
“What do you know?” asked the president.
“Enough,” said Mr. Church. “You are a hybrid of Slovenian pijavica and Bosnian tenatz, with some qualities of the English revenant. What Dr. Swann calls a ‘melting-pot’ vampire. Uniquely American, drawing on more than the cultural connections of your immigrant ancestors.”
The president said nothing. He sat with his hands on his desk, palms flat, eyes wide, color bad.
“We know that you presented as a vampire after your candidacy but before you won the election. Once Dr. Swann shared his observations with Captain Ledger I had my people run every minute of facial recognition footage through our computer systems. The facial tics common to the tenatz are there, as are the slight skin changes of the pijavica. There are other things as well, but what matters is that we know.”
The president said nothing.
“It was Captain Ledger who reasoned that someone in your administration knew, too. There is a pattern to the shifts in your policies, a movement away from your former tolerance toward a more militant stance. A stance, in fact, that favors the use of certain combat systems, weapons, and support equipment manufactured by a small group of companies. Once we identified those, it was not particularly difficult to work backward to the congressmen and high-ranking generals who were in the pocket of those corporations. This being Washington it wasn’t a stretch to assume that such corruption was in play. The cause and effect of those people getting the support of your administration and you making decisions that continued to support them was there to be seen for whoever looked. We looked. None of those power players are pro-vampire, and yet here you are, a vampire cooperating so completely with them.” Church spread his hands. “I don’t need to lay out all the math. They own you, Mr. President, and no one should be allowed to own the president. Any president. It offends me.”
“Offends you…?” echoed the president.
“Yes,” said Church with the ghost of a smile on his lips. “Idealists are rare in my line of work, but we exist. And Dr. Swann is proving to be a useful ally.”
The president looked from Church to Swann and back again. “It’s not just me,” he said hollowly.
“We know,” said Swann. “Your youngest son is a vampire, too. That’s why you took him out of school and put him in that private academy. To hide him.”
“Y-yes…”
“We can protect him,” said Church. “We can protect your whole family.”
“They’ll kill us all.”
“No,” said Church. “They won’t.”
“No, I mean they’ll tell people. The public. They’ll know what I’ve done.”
“No. Once you agree to make the right choice then my team will take each of those men out of play. It will be done very quickly and very quietly. No fuss, no press. No arrests. Quiet conversations.”
“How? That’s impossible.”
Church’s smile grew very cold. “You said that people warned you that I have files on key people in government. I do. Not because I play politics or because I enjoy abusing power. I have gathered information because situations like this happen far too often. I have those files because sometimes the good guys need a weapon to protect themselves against their own government.”
The president stared at him. “What… what happens now?”
“When you give me your word, I will send the go order. We will wait here until I get an all-clear from Captain Ledger. At that point you will tell your press secretary that you wish to address the nation tonight. You’ll tell your speechwriters to prepare something on the increasing tensions between human and vampires. That speech will be uploaded to your teleprompter. We will hack that system and a different speech will be there for you to read. You will announce that the United States of America is changing direction in this war.”
Church opened his briefcase and handed the president a thin sheaf of papers.
“This is a draft. Feel free to re-word it.”
The president read through it, then frowned, “But… this says that Maria Giroux will be with me on the podium during my speech. There’s a part here where I introduce her and let her make some remarks, but there’s no text for her. What’s she have to do with this?”
“Senator Giroux has been one of the strongest advocates against the V-Wars, Mr. President. Her presence there will be an act of unification.”
“Yes, but how? Why?”
“Because,” said Swann, “Senator Maria Giroux is the Crimson Queen.”