The Source Read online

  The Source

  By J.B. Stilwell

  Text copyright © 2012 J.B. Stilwell

  J.B. Stilwell does not own any rights to “Star Wars,” “Aliens” or “Spiderman.” References to these titles are made in good faith based on their cultural significance. All rights remain with the respective copyright/trademark owners.

  “Star Wars” – Lucasfilm, production company; Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, distributor.

  “Aliens” – Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, production company and distributor.

  “Spiderman” – Columbia Pictures Corporation, production company and distributor.

  Acknowledgements

  Cover design - Holly Earl

  Editing/Proofreading support - Lee Carter, Shawn Scott, L. Milton Hankins

  Feedback/Support - my husband, my daughter Maya, Erick Pullen, Nathaniel DeLong and in particular, Tamara Brooke Trout for answering all of my biology/medical questions.

  This book is dedicated to my friends who have given their love and support in the process of writing this book. There are way too many of you to name, but you know who you are. Love you.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  About the author

  Chapter 1

  I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing here. When I had answered the ad online, I really wasn’t expecting to get the call, but then again I’ve become a pro at selling myself short. Or maybe it was just because I didn’t think it was a legit posting. Seems legit. They gave everyone a white coat and name badge before seating us in this room. This stale, white room. No furniture except black folding chairs and a whiteboard. Minimalist to say the least. It seems more military than federal government. I had always thought the feds lavished themselves with things like two thousand dollar ashtrays made of Italian marble. Well, maybe not for their scientists.

  There are fourteen of us. Looking around the room, it’s hard to find anyone like me because we all seem so different. Except that we were all hired for medical research by the U.S. federal government. And we were all brought here, a secret government research facility in Rowan, West Virginia. Tucked away in the Appalachian Mountains, away from the skeptical eyes of the world. Men, women, thin, fat, white, black, Asian…human…vampire. How did I know? Well, some of that is obvious, but with vampires you just know. I have developed a radar over the past ten years, since vampires were accepted into U.S. society and given full rights. Still, sometimes I have been wrong. Nothing worse than being publicly reminded of how foolish making assumptions can make you look.

  The door to the left of the whiteboard opens, and a man in a black suit walks through to the center of the room. Now he looks like a fed. Closely cut light brown hair, styled in the most boring way possible. Cleanly shaven without a hint of stubble. Suit completely wrinkle-free and shoes polished so brightly that I could probably see my reflection in them. Yep, definitely a fed.

  “Thank all of you for being here today and accepting our offer to work on one of the most important medical research projects of our lifetime. My name is Robert Caulfield. I’m the director of the Federal Office of Human and Vampire Administration.”

  Bingo. I guessed another one right.

  “As you may know, the U.S. government has been looking for ways to address the criminal element within the vampire community. There are those within the community who continue to kill humans and are rousing a counter-movement to revoke the equal status of vampires in the United States. What FOHVA proposes is to begin research toward a medical solution to prevent any possibility of the counter-movement earning any legitimacy or gaining political backing. If this small group of extremists go mainstream, not only will we see the collapse of ten years of social progress, but vampires will essentially have to go back into hiding.”

  I can’t think. It’s hard to process everything that Mr. Caulfield had said. Surely such a lunatic fringe group could not become powerful enough that people would actually support them. Why make vampires go back underground? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

  “Each one of you has been chosen out of thousands of applicants because of your areas of expertise. You will be paired with someone with a complementary background to work as a team to develop a solution to the anti-vampire element. Keep in mind that what we are looking for is prevention. We need to remove the reason why a counter-movement would need to exist by addressing the high rate of human murders committed by vampires. The pair that succeeds in developing a viable option to address our problem will receive a fifty thousand dollar bonus in addition to the regular salary.”

  I can literally feel my eyebrows touch my hairline. I’m afraid to look around at the other researchers as I didn’t want to confirm that I was the only one who was reacting like the country bumpkin in the big city, eyes wide and full of wonder and hope.

  A woman in a gray business suit walks in and hands Mr. Caulfield a clipboard. “When I call your name and the name of your partner,” he begins, “please pass through the door to my right and you will be given further instructions as well as advised as to which research suite you will be using in the coming months. Any questions?”

  The room is dead silent. Either we all understand, are too afraid to ask or haven’t heard anything past “fifty thousand dollar bonus.”

  “Very good,” Mr. Caulfield continues, “ and welcome to FOHVA.”

  Chapter 2

  I walk silently down the hall to our research suite, trying not to look at the man that I would be working with for the next several months. Rick Allstedt. Tall, dark hair, eyes that I swear to God looked like lavender, and lips that could make you forget your name. It’s going to be rough working in these conditions. Talk about a distraction. Not to mention the fact that I never surround myself with men who are prettier than me. It’s just insulting.

  I walk into the suite and set my purse on the table. Rick walks silently in and stands a few feet to my side. I glance up and give him a brief smile. That is his invitation to talk, and he takes it.

  “I’m Rick. As you heard from Mr. Caulfield. And you’re Emma?”

  I nod, still not trusting myself to speak.

  “Well, Emma. I think it would be good for us to get to know each other a bit before we dive into how we are going to approach this project. Especially since we’re going to be spending every evening for the next several months together. It might make things a little more comfortable. Tell you what, I’ll make us some coffee, and you think about what you would like to know.”

  What I would like to know? The nerve! To just assume that I would want to sit and hear all about him. I don’t think I like this first impression. Either he’s going to piss me off or bore me to death, neither of which I find appealing.

  Trying not to roll my eyes and fall into the angst-ridden prattle of a teenage brat, I sit at the table and open my notebook. Maybe if I look ready to begin brainstorming on possible hypotheses we could test, I won’t have to sit through the history of Mr. Wonderful.

  Rick calls over to me, “Do you want any cream or sugar?”

&n
bsp; “No, just black,” I respond.

  Rick returns to the table with two steaming mugs of black coffee. Mmmmm. He scores a few points for this, but not enough to make me less cranky.

  “So,” he says, “what would you like to know?”

  I inhale deeply while biting the tip of my tongue. I swear I taste blood.

  “Actually, I was hoping that we could start discussing any possible theories or angles that we can come up with and work into a testable hypothesis.”

  Rick nods with a slightly amused look on his face. “Want to jump right in, eh? Don’t even want to know about my credentials or curious as to my interest in this project?”

  I fold my hands on my notebook and look straight at him. “We are pretty much in a competition here with the prize being a lot of money. Maybe you don’t need the extra cash, but I would like not having to worry about paying off my student loan, much less my monthly bills. I think that the sooner we start and get ahead of the others, the better off we’ll be.”

  Rick continues to look amused when he says, “You’re right, I don’t need the extra cash, and it’s not bills that I have to worry about. Just my life. Whether I’m here today and in hiding tomorrow. Or worse. Attacked in the street. Or rounded up into some refugee camp because I’m no longer safe around humans because some wing-nut bureaucrat thinks it’s in the public’s best interest.”

  I suck in my breath, staring deeply into his eyes, pulling my arms closer to my chest as the reality of what he was saying sank in. He’s a vampire.

  “Yes, I am. I am a vampire. I didn’t choose this. I was chosen. But now I’m making the best of it. And if I can use my talents to prevent going back to where I was eleven years ago, then do not be mistaken. I take that just as seriously as someone who needs extra cash to pay their bills.”

  Ouch. I hug my abdomen as my stomach does somersaults. I feel like a complete fool. Again with the damn assumptions.

  I sit up in my chair, hugging myself tightly, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything bad. I just really want to do well on this project. Not just because I need the money, although that’s really nice. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t agree with the reasons behind the project.”

  Rick nods as a sad look mists over his eyes. Not a look meant to garner pity, but a look that says he had seen way too many bad things in his life…er, existence…and he doesn’t want to see any more.

  “Okay,” he says, “Let’s start again. I’ll go first. My name is Rick Allstedt. I got my PhD in Genetics from Stanford where I specialized in studying viruses and bacteria. Before getting my PhD, I was in hiding like most other vampires. I got my undergraduate and graduate degrees while I was still alive, but thankfully with the recognition of vampires, my degrees were accepted so I could continue on with my doctorate.”

  “How long…”. I start hesitantly.

  “How long did it take me to finish?”

  “No,” I continue, “How long since you…um, became a vampire?”

  “Oh, approximately fifty-two years ago, give or take a few months.”

  I don’t really know what to do with that information. It just seems like an important question to ask. I just look at him with what must have been the most stupid expression on my face.

  Rick laughs softly, “I was twenty-five when I was turned.”

  I can feel my face turning bright red. My radar is not as good as I thought. Yep, country bumpkin in the big city. Look at me, I have no sophistication nor do I know what I’m talking about. God, can we please just get to work?

  “Why don’t we talk about you?” Rick says with a brief smile on his face. I can’t tell if his eyes looked kind or pitying. Either way, I don’t really feel in the mood to open my mouth again.

  “Um, well,” I stumble over my words, “Um, let’s see. My name is Emma Burcham. I…uh, got my PhD in Environmental Science from, um, Drexel University,” I say while looking anywhere but at him, “I specialized in Environmental Engineering.”

  I look at my notebook and wait.

  He sits silently staring at me. At least I think he’s staring at me. I really wouldn’t know since I felt too uncomfortable to look up. How long are we going to sit here?

  “Well, Emma Burcham. It’s very nice to meet you. I look forward to working with you and getting that fifty thousand dollar bonus.”

  Chapter 3

  We move our notebooks over to the whiteboard so that we can brainstorm any ideas to solve the problem. But, what really is the problem?

  Taking a deep breath I try to forget the first impression of a young and inexperienced girl that I provided Rick during our one-on-one meet-and-greet. I pretend to be the serious researcher that I am.

  “So we know the criminal element within the vampire community is the problem,” I begin, “But what exactly is the nature of the problem, aside from committing crime? I mean, are we talking all forms of crime or is FOHVA focusing on something specific?”

  “Well, from my early discussions with Mr. Caulfield, FOHVA is initially focusing on vampires who kill humans. Of course, any innovation that would deter all vampiric criminal behavior would be ideal, but stopping needless human deaths is the first priority.”

  I cross my arms and try not to sound too offended, “Early discussions with Mr. Caulfield? Was this something that was done for all researchers and I just missed the memo?”

  There’s that brief smile again. Is my ignorance so amusing?

  Rick says, “Not at all. I was brought in early, like some of the other researchers, because of our first-hand knowledge of the subject in question.”

  “I hope you mean vampires and not violent crime.”

  Chuckling loudly, “Yes, vampires. FOHVA wanted some initial information from us regarding various issues surrounding vampire behavior. Mostly what you would call subcultural characterizations.”

  Okay, something else that doesn’t make sense.

  “Shouldn’t FOHVA already know all of that? I mean, vampires have been accepted for ten years. That’s enough time to gather data.”

  He nods slowly, “Sure. But FOHVA itself has only been in existence for a little over four years. When vampires first came out, as it were, the first inclination was to treat them the same as humans. It took a few years for the U.S. government to acknowledge that there are some rather significant differences between humans and vampires. Enough differences to necessitate the creation of a federal office to deal with those differences.”

  Okay. Although I would like nothing more than to ignore it, for the benefit of the project, I need to try to act like an adult and admit my ignorance. Ignoring your own ignorance is the currency for bravado.

  “You were right,” I say.

  “I beg your pardon,” Rick replies, a perplexed look on his face.

  “Getting to know one another actually was the best idea because I realize that I am beginning a research project to solve a problem with a population that I know nothing about. I wouldn’t even know what questions to ask to begin our brainstorming.”

  Rick smiles. “I’ll get more coffee. Let’s go back to the table.”

  I pick up my notebook and slouch my way back to the table. Why is it that admitting that I don’t know everything feels like admitting defeat? What exactly am I fighting? That is the question, I guess. Hard to conquer your enemy when you don’t even know who your enemy is.

  Sitting at the table, I open my notebook and stare at the blank pages. In a way it’s like looking at my life. Nothing much to say. But that’s going to change. I’m going to start taking note. Not only of what I learn in this research suite, but in life in general. At least figuratively, as far as my life is concerned.

  Rick sets our cups on the table, “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything,” I say, “Everything about being a vampire.”

  He laughs, “That’s rather broad.”

  I smile, “I don’t know where to start if I don’t know anything about it.”

  “Touché. So you do
n’t have any vampire friends?”

  I put on the best poker face that I can, “No, I do not. I have seen vampires and have had brief interactions with them, but talking to you has been the longest I have spoken to one.”

  Rick nods, “Well, let’s start at the beginning then. Well, at least at my beginning.”

  Chapter 4

  “I was turned in the winter of 1959. I was twenty-five at the time, which means that I was born in 1934. At least I think. I stopped keeping track after the turn. I was living in Lexington, Kentucky at the time. My parents were both dead, so I was on my own. I had just finished my graduate program at the University of Kentucky and was working with a research team to train chimpanzees for the space flight program. It was a really exciting time because the project integrated the mystery of space travel with research into the intelligence and genetic comparability of chimpanzees. I was literally having the time of my life.”

  Rick’s eyes are big and bright as he continues recounting his story. He seems to becoming livelier as he talks. A vampire becoming livelier when talking about becoming a vampire. I need to forget every story I’ve read because it doesn’t look like Rick is beating himself up too much about being a creature of the night.

  “I felt like I was on the brink of something great. Like I was doing what I was born to do. I don’t know, it was like I was building a scientific legacy that people in the future would read about. I practically lived night and day at the research facilities. I was always on campus either working or walking the grounds postulating about what COULD be. And that’s when I met him.

  “It was while I was walking around campus, thinking of all of the scientific possibilities and implications of what we were doing, when I saw this young man passing out fliers to anyone who would take one. I was surprised that he was doing it since it was so cold. Snow covered everything that stood still, and some things that didn’t, which is why I liked to walk the campus at that time - the apparent solitude. But there he was, walking about, searching the barren grounds for someone to take a flier and practically mobbing each unaware individual that passed by. It was amusing to watch from a distance, but I was inquisitive enough to want to know what was going on.