Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 12:27:18 +1300 From: Arthur Subject: prince of house vladd 13 HOUSE OF PRINCE VLADD PART 13 BY ARTHUR The boys were alerted an hour later by the approach of levi. "Peter? the Vaga have arrived and are waiting for you down in the hall." "Ok Levi, thanks, we'll be down in a minute, get them some lunch or anything they need until we get there." "Ok, will do." Peter and Swiftwing left the comfort of their bed where they had been relaxing and dressed hurridly, a last hug and kiss and they were in the lift and going down to meet the new security boys. Once in the main hall, Peter introduced Swiftwing and himself, he then detailed the type of security he wanted from the mixture of boys and the two girls who were part of the avian group, it was the two avian boys that were the Owls, the two girls were Hawks. The felines were all boys, they looked young but Peter knew they had been hand picked for the night patrols.The last four boys were Canines, while they also looked young, they were all well built and even though they looked a little underweight, Peter could see that once properly fed they would fill out to be solid muscle, the four wolves lounged comfortably on a sofa as though they owned the place, it was a typical Canine attitude. Finally, Peter welcomed them and revealed what their salary was and what the conditions were for their feeding and accomodation, all of the new folk were in awe of the finacial reward and immediately agreed to the conditions, it was the first time in their short lives they had ever been given such a position of trust and such a good wage, all vowed to never let Peter or Swiftwing down and that they would defend the house and its occupants to the death. Peter Remembered Felix from the commitee meeting and asked him about the Van. "It's pretty overwhelming, My Lord, Jake is right now building a garage at the rear of the property to house it, he said it needed to be kept safe from anyone trying to interfere with it in any way, he said it would be finished by the morning, for tonight we're going to have someone watch it, just in case." "That sounds good, well there's no need for you to worry about transport anymore, tell Torson that it's in his name as the first driver and registered under the name House Vaga, when he finds an accountant, it can be a deduction as expenses, is there anything elese you need for now?" "No My Lord, everything is going better than planned, the superette will be ready to open in a couple of days and the club in about a week, I hope you will have no objection to us naming the club as a tribute to you and what you have done for all of us." "Thank you Felix, I don't know what to say." "It will be called Club Vladd, My Lord, we hope you will do us the honour of opening it for us." "It would be my pleasure, just let me know when the opening is and I guarantee I'll be there, thank you again for the honour. Now I have to let you get back, I have a meeting in the city in just over an hour so we will be close behind you." Felix shook hands with Peter and Swiftwing and then left, Peter called Caleb to tell the senior security guard to outfit the Vaga guards with communication devices and Levi to get the limo ready, one of the wolf boys asked Peter. "Sir, if you are going into the city, I think two of us should go with you as guards, the other two will watch the outer woods while we're gone." "I was going to take two of the security guards with us, but, yes, I think your idea is better, besides you could do with some new clothes so we can do some shopping after the meeting, might be an idea for you and your friends to think about what uniform you would like to wear when you're not working." The twelve new additions to the house immediately went into a huddle to discuss their needs, after a few minutes they had decided and, with little bows to Peter and Swiftwing, the two hawks and the remaining two wolves attached their communicators and left through the front door to begin their first patrol, the remaining Avians and the four Felines then followed Trantor to their new accomodations that had been made ready for them at the rear of the main house in an annex that overlooked the rear yard. Peter and Swiftwing, followed by the other two Wolves went out front and got into the Limo, Levi pulled away immediately and within an hour they were in the city and pulling into the underground parking lot of the office block where Centenial Corp was housed. Levi stayed with the limo and the two wolves followed Peter and Swiftwing into the lift and up the many floors until the lift bell chimed at the 30th floor, stepping out, the small group were met with a set of double glass doors behind which sat a large desk with two security guards, off to the side was another desk with a young woman seated behind it. The small group opened the door and entered, the two guards were on their feet immediately, their looks were frozen into stares of defiance, the older guard was the first to speak after he had given the group of young boys a good look over, two were dressed in worn jeans and shirts that had seen better days, the other two were dressed a little better but were still not up to the standard of proper dress. "What are you kids doing up here, this isn't a play ground, now beat it." "I'm here for a meeting." said Peter. "Yeah right, and I'm gods gift, now beat it kid before you get into more trouble than you can handle." "What's your name, Mister?" "None of your business kid, now get." Peter ignored the man and turned to the woman sitting at the desk with an amused look on her face. "I'm Peter Vallison, we have a meeting in five minutes, now where's the board room." The woman looked at Peter and her smirk grew to a sneer. "Sonny, I've met Mr. Vallison before and he's a lot older than you so don't try to pull that sort of bull, now do what the guard said and get out of here, this is private property." Peter stared at the woman and then heightened all his senses until he located the right room, without further words he began to walk towards the room followed by the other three boys, the two guards moved to intercept them, one of the wolves moved quickly and drove his small fist into the sternum of the guard as the other wolf stepped towards the second guard with a smile on his young face. "Want to join him?" he said as the first guard crumpled to the floor gasping for breath. Fear suddenly showed on the second guards face as he saw the effect of the single punch, all he could do was stutter as Peter and his group moved towards the board room door, without further thought, Peter threw open the door and lead the others inside, of the twelve men seated around a long oval table, only one stood and gave Peter a small bow and, with a small flick of his wrist, showed Peter his house mark then sat down again, the rest of the men had not seen the quick action and remained seated at the table, their faces showing disdain at the four boys. The older man sat at the right hand of an empty chair placed at the top of the table, he stood again, "Welcome Mr. Vallison, please take your chair at the head of the table, everyone is here." Peter vaguely recalled the man from his birthday party but coudn't remember his name. "Thank you Mr?" "Vox, Mr. Vallison, I'm the managing director." "Ah yes, thank you Mr. Vox, would you please get an extra chair for my partner, place it beside mine, please." "Certainly Mr. Vallison, Andrews, another chair please." this comment was directed at the youngest man at the table, obviously a junior to the others sitting there, He still had the shocked look on his face from realising who the young boy was, quickly he got a spare chair and placed it beside Peters at the head of the table. Peter and Swiftwing, who was wearing his dark glasses to hide his eyes from the humans, quickly sat in the chairs, Peter began the meeting without further delay. "Firstly gentlemen, I want all minutes of the last meeting, including accounts, secondly, both the guards out front will be dismissed immediately, they will recieve the rest of this weeks salary but none of any benefits due, also the secretary will be replaced, also immediately, same conditions, next I want a full rundown on all your activities for the past three months that concern this corporation, Mr. Vox, perhaps you can see to the dismissals right away while these others tell me what areas of the company they are responsible for." "Certainly Mr. Vallison." the older man said with a smile as he got to his feet and left the room, the other eleven men were still in a state of shock at the quick sound of authority in Peters voice and the sudden actions he wanted done, most of them could still not get over the other two young men standing behind Peter with smirks on the young faces as they watched the assembled men. "Gentlemen, if you would give me your details now while we wait for Mr. Vox to return." pointing to the first man on his left, Peter said. "Perhaps you can start Mr.?" The other members related to Peter who they were and what position they filled on the board, while this was going on, My.Vox returned and handed Peter a stack of paper, using his newly developed sense of speed reading, Peter began to quickly flick through the pages of the last report. When the last man, Andrews, had given his details, Peter looked around the table, his face was neutral, there was no hint of what he was thinking. "Mr. Vox, it says here that you were the only one in disent with most of the decisions of the board and Mr. Andrews, while only being a member for the last six months, has abstained from voting, could you explain please?" "Yes Mr. Vallison, I was placed here by your Father, he put a clause in my contract that I could only be replaced at my own request otherwise I would have been voted off long ago, Mr. Andrews is my protégé and was following my orders in the interest of the corporation." "I see that all the other members have only been on the board for four to five years, any reason for that Mr. Vox?" "I will speak plainly, Mr. Vallison, the board was stacked against me by previous members, while they could not get rid of me they had the numbers to out vote any and all decisions that I put forward." "Gentlemen, I see by the last report that you have, over the last year, voted and passed seven salary increases for yourselves and your bonuses have been raised to 30% of your earnings, while Mr.Vox and Mr. Andrews have been omitted from those same increase, any explanations?" "We both refused to be a part of it Mr. Vallison and turned them down." replied Vox. Peter looked around the table at the ten men responsible, very softly he invaded their collective minds and found all the infomation he needed, after glancing over to Swiftwing for agreement on what they had both seen, Peter began to speak again. "Gentlemen, you have in front of you scratch pads, you will use them to write out your resignations effective immediately, you will recieve one months salary but no bonus payments, if you don't resign immediately, you will be sacked right now and recieve nothing, your choice, Mr. Vox, you and Mr. Andrews are exempt." There was a palpable silence in the room as they tried to take in the full import of what Peter had just said, a large overweight man at the middle of the table began to splutter and threaten court action and all sorts of dire reprecussions, Peter sat and waited for him to run out of steam, when he became silent, Peter smiled at him. "You're fired, pack up and get out." The large man turned red in the face but a sudden movement by one of the wolves seemed to change his mind, with his head hung low he got up from the table and stomped out of the room while his other friends began to write frantically on the pads in front of them. When all nine resignations were handed to Peter he waved his hand at the men and dismissed them without looking at any of them. Peter looked at the two remaining men. "Mr. Vox?" "Yes My Lord?" A sudden indrawn breath from Andrews brought a dawning awareness of what he had just said to Vox, he looked at Peter in askance, Peter nodded. "Neville, Mr. Vallison is a Prince of a special House, 'My Lord' is the correct way to address him, as it looks as though you may be a permanent member of this board, it would be the right thing to address him as such from now on." While Andrews tried to take it all in, Peter smiled at Vox. "Thank you Mr. Vox, as to the board, there won't be one from today on, by your record you have always stayed true to the company and my fathers wishes, for this reason you are now CEO of Centenial Corporation, Mr. Andrews will be your assistant in whatever capacity you set for him, you will accept a new salary package effective immediately as will Mr. Andrews of an increase of 60% and you will accept a bonus rate of 30% of salary and a profit bonus of 2.5% of nett, Mr. Andrews will recieve an increase of 25% with a bonus of 10% of salary with a profit bonus of 1% of nett, also effective immediately, do you agree?" "My Lord, I don't know what to say." "Just say yes." "Well... uhm, Yes, My Lord." "Good, now next business, the Ellis Street property will be taken off the demolition list immediately, it is under developement by me and will remain as it is." "Andrews, see too it, what about the other four properties they've already started on My Lord?" "What properties Mr. Vox?" "The board voted six months ago to demolish four properties and build office blocks and condo's on them, two properties have already been demolished and are just about to begin rebuilding, the other two are in the process of demolition." "Put a halt on all of them immediately, who were they contracted too?" "All the companies concerned belonged to the other board members or were friends of theirs." "Right, I will take the action needed to recover all monies paid to them, you can leave it to me and cancel all and any future payments now. The rebuilding program for the demolished building will be done by my own contractors, as will the final demolition of the other two buildings, the other companies involved will cease work immediately." "Yes My Lord, I'll get straight onto it, is there anything else My Lord?" "Yes, this is my life partner, Armand swiftwing, at any time you cannot get hold of me, he has full authority to make decisions on my behalf." "Yes My Lord, as you wish." "Well that's it for now Mr. Vox, the corporatioon is yours to run, I know you will make a good business of it, I look forward to your reports." "Thank you My Lord." Peter and Swiftwing rose from the table and shook hands with the two men and then as he was about to leave, Peter said. "I will have two security men for you in the morning, the secretary is your responsibility, and, thank you Mr. Vox for staying loyal to my fathers wishes." "Thank you My Lord, he was always good to me and mine, I hope I can serve you as well." Peter and the other three left the two men to their business, once back in the limo Peter directed Levi to go to Ellis Street but only after stopping to do some needed shopping for the Vaga guards. Just as they were about to pull up outside Ellis Street, one of the young wolfs put his hand to his head and listened for a few seconds to his com device. "My Lord, there has just been an alert, two humans have been spotted trying to make their way through the trees to the outer wall, they don't seem to be trying to enter, it looks more like a recon, what are your orders?" "Is there any danger to the house or personel?" The wolf spoke quickly and waited for the reply. "No My Lord, it looks like they are just looking the place over for now." "Ok, leave them for now but keep a close watch on them, don't let them know we're watching them, and what's your name?" "Allan, My Lord, and we'll keep an eye on them, while they seemed well trained in a human sort of way, to us they're damn clumsy, My Lord." "Well, Allan, it looks like you just got yourself the job of leader for the security folk, tell all of them that they report to you direct and you, directly too me, ok?" "Thank you My Lord, it shall be done." At Ellis Street, Peter lead the others in his small group inside the building, raising his voice, Peter called for Jake, moments later a very dusty Jake lumbered out of a back area. "Hey Prince, you got here just in time, that back lot is bloody filthy but we've got the garage finished, what do you need now?" "I've just come from a meeting and was thinking about you and your friends, are you interested in forming a contracting company of your own, instead of looking for work from others?" "We've thought about it before but, for something like that you need good contracts to keep paying your men, we only ever had bits and pieces of work so it wasn't viable, besides none of us have the management skills to run a company." "Hmmm,...what if you formed a new company with the human contractor, he has the management skills and can be trusted, his family has been working for my father for a long time, together you could have quite a good thing going." "Sounds good but what about work, we still don't know how to get contracts?" "There, you're in luck, I have four properties that are ready to go, two rebuilds and two under demolition, you do, do demolition right?" Peter said with a smile. "Demolition is our speciality." Jake replied with a grin, "But will he be willing to work with us?" "Well he knows about the folk so I think you will have any problems on that side, as to his own workers, well you could do the same as you did on this job, they do what they can and you do what you guys do best, if you agree I'll go and talk to him now, so what do you say?" "If he agrees then it's a deal, always wanted to be my own boss, what about the tenders for the four rebuilds?" "No tenders, the new comany will be registered as the official contractors for all my companies, at the next meeting of the five states I plan to propose that we all use just one comany for any construction, that way we keep everything in house for all five states, less chance of infiltration from outside." "Sounds good Prince, I'll talk to the other two and if your human is in agreement, then I don't see any holdups, we're nearly done here and can start on the other projects whenever you want." "Ok, I'll go talk to him now, thanks Jake, for this and for all you and the guys have done here at Ellis Street." "No problems little Prince, by the by, when you coming down to watch the fights again, there's some good bouts on Saturday night if you're not busy." "Well things are hectic just now Jake, but if nothing comes up I'll try to be there, last time was fun, I might even have a bet this time, see if i can get some of my money back from you." Peter said with a broad smile. "Well little man, you can always try." laughed Jake. "Right I'm off to see Felix now, talk to your guys and let them know what's planned." "Ok, will do, I'm sure they will agree." "Thanks Jake, see you later." Peter and the others left the building and made their way around to the new club building, he had seen Felix's truck parked outside earlier, looking around the new building Peter saw Felix looking over a set of plans, Peter called out a greeting to Felix and went to join him, over the next ten minutes Peter described his idea to Felix, after a short consideration, Felix agreed to meet with Jake and see what they could come up with. Finally Peter and Felix had an agreement and Peter left to return to the limo for the drive home, it had been a long day and he wanted some time with his boyfriend before the night descended and the busines of running a vampire conclave continued. On their return to the house, Peter found Leon waiting for him, the hacker had a flash disc in his hand. "Hello Leon, how is it going down there, anything you need?" "My Lord, no we need for nothing, everyone has been great to us, here's the infomation you were wanting and there's some other stuff here you may find very interesting." "Thank you Leon, I'll look it over right away." "I would advise you too do that as soon as possible, My Lord, some of it could be vital to your security." "Want to give me a short version, Leon?" Leon smiled at Peter and began to give him a quick report on the two hackers busy day. --------------------------------------------- Gilliard Thomes sat in front of the many monitors in the operations room, there had been a weak attempt to hack their system earlier in the afternoon but his men had made short work of getting rid of another weak attempt by some idiot in Yugoslavia. Gilliard listened to the reports of his two man team as they watched over the kids property, the insertion had been easier than he had thought it would be, it was obvious the kid had no real experience in security. His men were now just inside the tree line, they had a clear view of all of the front of the property, their cams were sending live feed pictures to his monitors and detailed voice reports via saltelite communications, everything was secure. They had reported that there had been no ouside patrols and apart from a couple of hawks high up in the sky and a pair of wild wolves deeper in the trees, there was no one around, the area seemed deserted apart from a limo leaving earlier and just returning as Gilliard watched, as yet they had no inside veiw but as soon as it was dark his men would clinb the wall and instal some small cameras around it's uppper edges so by tonight they would have an unobstructed view into the compound. Gilliard sat back and gave a sigh of satisfaction, although his vampire 'friend' had told him who the boy was, he had not passed it onto his men, the less they knew the better, this was turning out to be better than he thought, the obvious inexperience of the little vampire boy would be to his advantage, after a few days of intelligence gathering, he would set up his raid and get them all in one great scoop, Gilliard rubbed his hands at the thought of his upcoming victory, with the power of the government behind him, he would see the end of this little cell of horrors and depravity. Thomes was sure this little excercise would at last give him the top job, his superior was getting old and was out of touch with most of the day to day events going on in the country, it was time he was replaced and Thomes knew just who should replace him, at last all his dreams were begining to be realised, in a months time he would be running the department and reporting only to the President himself, Gilliard sat and watched as his men kept up a running commentary on their observations, suddenly a short burst of static blacked out the monitors and voices, it lasted only a second and Gilliard relaxed again, it had been happening on and off all afternoon, 'must be sun spots' thought Gilliard, it happens sometimes, especially with having to use satellites. ----------------------------------------------- "Well My Lord, we set up an attack on their system with some friends in Europe, they pelted their computers with attacks while we slipped in by the back door, Carter inserted a virus that will keep interupting their feed at intermittant times so they will eventually think its just some natural interference, when we need to we can shut them down for as long as you need, while that keeps their attention elsewhere we have full access to all their files and live feeds, we can isolate any area of their investigations and download them to a flash disc for you, if they finally catch onto us we just hit a button and crash their whole system, as I said My Lord, Carter is very good at what he does." "Excellent Leon, you've both done very well, I look forward to more of your work." "Thank you My Lord." Leon beemed with pride at their success and the compliment from the Prince. "Come on love, lets go and see what Leon has found for us." said Peter as he and Swiftwing made their way towards the lift, the shutters would be dropping in half an hour and his other guardians would be up and about as well as the change over of his outer guards, it had so far been a very interesting day, Peter had never thought he would be able to handle so many different aspects of being a Prince so easily, it all seemed to come naturally and he knew it was mainly due to his Fathers imbedded memories and experiences over a long life time. Peter sat at his desk with Swiftwing behind him, his slender arms wrapped around Peters shoulders as they both watched what was on the flash disc, both boys smiled at the same time as they realised just how good Leon and Carter were at their job, everything was top class, Peter decided to get the boys to relay the live feeds to his own console for the duration of this little exercise. Just as the thought struck him, Peter felt Sin Yu and the other guardians rise and start moving around, Peter sent out a call for Sin Yu, when the guardian had arrived, Peter relayed what he wanted and Sin Yu left to go and talk to the two boys down stairs, minutes later, Peter watched as his monitor flickered and then cleared to show the live feed from outside. "Those two work fast." Peter said to swiftwing with a smile as they both watched the screen and were just in time to see the two dark figures move from their cover, above the two Peter saw an owl settle on a tree branch another owl slowly circled above the roadway near the wall, the two men in black didn't take any notice of the wildlife around them, if they had, they would have seen the green eyes watching them from the treeline, the lythe black bodies of the animals almost invisible in the growing darkness. Peter smiled at the recognition of his new guards. "Those guys are good, I wonder where the two tigers are?" Peter mused. "Look down to the right, in the long grass by the side of the road." replied Swiftwing. Peter looked to the right of the picture on his monitor, sure enough, there hidden in the long grass were the tell tale yellow eyes of the two tigers. "I hope those four aren't hungry, those two men wouldn't see them coming." Peter laughed. "What are those two doing, looks like they're trying to climb the wall." Peter watched along with Swiftwing, as the two men climbed the wall and sat on top, after a few minutes they finished and dropped back to the roadway only to move along the wall until they were around the corner, again they climbed up and followed the same routine, Swiftwing gave a soft sigh of understanding. "They're setting up cameras to watch the inside of the grounds, should we get them out of there, Love?" "No leave them, let them finish what they're doing and then we'll have a chat to Leon and Carter, we may be able to make use of them ourselves if they can cut into the feeds." "If they're going to those lengths, what about satellite coverage, they have the use of govenment units to watch us as well." "Let's talk to Leon and Carter, see what they can come up with." "Good idea, love, those two are full of surprises." replied Swiftwing. The two boys watched the men in black complete their set up and again make their way back to their lair in the tree line, they were shadowed every inch of the way by the four invisible cats as the owls sat out in the open apparently disinterested in the affairs of man, one of the intruders made a gun of his fingers and aimed it at one of the owls, Peter could hear the chuckle in the mans voice as he joked with his partner about how easy it would be to knock off the two sitting birds, Peter wondered if he would be laughing if he knew there were two black cats less than five feet away from the two men. Minutes later, Peters monitor split into four, each window showed a section of the inner grounds, Peter smiled again at Swiftwing. "Yep love, those two boys are worth their weight in gold." Peter shut down the monitor and then both boys went to the lift, Peter had decided to go down and talk to Leon and Carter about the satellite problem that Swiftwing had mentioned earlier. After a long and detailed discussion, Leon and Carter began work on setting up and programming for a satellite intervention system, all they needed, they had told Peter, was a satellite dish and a few other electronics to begin their insertion. Peter contacted Lou and, after some bargaining about price, Lou said he would have all the equipment at Peters house in five hours, Peter had a feeling of his home being turned into spy camp, Swiftwing laughed when he was told about Peters thoughts. When the two lovers had returned to the office, Peters phone began to ring, it was Torson. "Hello Torson, what can I do for you?" "Hello My Lord, I just rang to thank you for transprot and to find out how the boys are doing?" "Your welcome to the transport Torson, I should have thought of it earlier, as to all the boys and girls, they're doing excellent, it's been interesting watch them all work, as you said, they're all very good at what they do." "It's our pleasure My Lord, especially after what you've done for us all." "It's the least I could do Torson, I don't see any reason why a vital part of our folk should be ignored, you may all very well be the future of our way of life." "We'll all always be in your debt My Lord, now the other eason I called is to ask if you would come to our house opening in four nights time, we plan to have a little party to celebrate the new home?" "I'll mark it in my diary right away, I wouldn't miss it for the world, one thing I would like to suggest though." "What's that My Lord?" "That you extend the invites to the other heads of the folk in the five states, I think that if they see what you have all accomplished they will start to take the Vaga and what they can offer to us, more seriously, I'm sure it would help to promote the same developement of Vaga houses in the other states." "It's certainly a great idea My Lord, I hadn't thought of it, I'll get onto it right away, even if they don't come, at least we offered and that alone might help in future." "My thoughts exactly Torson, now is there anything else you need?" "No that's all My Lord, and thank you again for everything." "My pleasure Torson, until Tuesday night then, good bye." "Good bye My Lord." Peter turned off the phone and leant back into Swiftwings arms, resting his head on the firm shoulder behind him, Swiftwing gently nuzzled Peters ear-lobe as the house began to echo to all the activity of another night, the lift doors opening made Peter and Swiftwing start a little until they saw Simon and Max enter and begin to clean the office before moving onto the bedroom and ensuite, both boys were giggling and chatting as they worked efficiently around the room cleaning and tidying as they went, Peter and Swiftwing watched them with a smile on their faces, it was obvious the two young boys were very much into each other. -------------------------------------- The vampire looked down at the building plans again, why the Prince would go to all this trouble for a bunch of Vaga he could understand, it had cost him a lot of money and many favours to get his hands on the floor plan of Ellis Street and it had not been complete, some of the plans had disappeared, but it didn't really worry him, he had the main building and floor plan for the accomodation areas of the main floors. It seemed pretty simple, just rooms set out on each floor with a reception and office on the ground floor, while he thought there might be some form of security there was nothing on the plans about it, all the electrical and security plans were missing but he could see that at any time he wanted to he could take over the building and get rid of the Vaga, when he was ready. His plans had gone ahead with the human Thomes, his men would attack the Princes home and get the kid out of the way and then he could take over the boys fortune and position, by the time the council heard about it, it would be to late and if they wanted to cause trouble, he could use his human friends to make it very difficult for them to operate, at last after thirty years of planning, he was getting close to his goal and that was to be head of all the folk, pull down the old houses and replace them with one single house, his own. It would only be a matter of weeks and it would all come together, within months he would be settled in as the undisputed head of all the folk in the country, it was time for a new world where the ones at the top of the food chain would rule as they should always have done instead of hiding in the dark of night like scared little humans, it would be a great victory for Vampirism and the lesser folk of the Avian, Canine and Feline folk. ------------------------------------- It was just after midnight that Gilliard watched the arrival of a small truck at the gates of the kids house, it was let in immediately and drove around to the back of the building, a large man got out of the truck and was met at the rear door by two young boys, quickly they unloaded some large boxes from the back of the truck and disappeared inside the house, an hour later the driver reappeared and drove out of the compound and turned towards the city, his two hidden agents taking careful note of the number plate as the truck drove away. They would find the truck burnt out on the side of the road six hours later, the owner was never traced and Thomes never found out what was in the boxes it left, he supposed that, as he knew the house had vampires in it they had normal deliveries at night instead of during the day like normal people, he took a note of the delivery then forgot about it, he had more important things to think about than a delivery at night. Thomes pulled the sheets of paper in the folder, close to him again, carefully he went down the long list of names and qualifications of each name listed there, all of the men mentioned, were the best that he had, they had all been trained in infiltration and terrorist tactics, they would make short work of the few people in the house. Gilliard lifted his eyes to one of the monitors as a green light blinked on and off, sighing with satisfaction, he watched as the first of the satellite images began to come onscreen. He had been given permission to operate the satellite systems from his control room so that he could get whatever information he wanted, as the house came into view he zoomed in on the grounds and the first thing he saw was two boys holding hands as they walked around the garden, next he flipped over to infrared, there was a sudden burst of static and his screen went blank just as he caught sight of a small number of red images in the house, it was so quick that he didn't have time to count them, when the sceen cleared again, the infrared system wouldn't function, only the normal images were available to him. 'Damn satellites' he swore to himself, 'probably made in china' he grumbled. Gilliard continued his surveilance of the property in normal mode, there was not much to see as yet but he wasn't worried, he would contact the head of electronics and try to get the infrared system back on line so he could see how many were in the house, then at least he would know how many men to send in once the attack began, he was certain that there couldn't be more than ten or twelve living there and half of them would be human, with enough numbers on his side even the couple of vampires wouldn't be too much trouble, his men would be issued with silver bullets to make sure, he knew from reading about the fabled vampires that silver killed them so his men would be safe, plus the fact of being on offical government business, they just wouldn't consider fighting against the government. Gilliard smiled in silent triumph at his brilliance, his elevation to head of home land security was assured when this raid came off, he sat back in his chair and rubbed his hands together at the anticipation of his success. TBC artcart65@vodafone.co.nz