Chapter 162

Kansas City, Missouri, 1986
Elliott was perched on the top of a ten-story office building in downtown Kansas City, and while it wasn’t the highest building around, it was perfect for him to be able to survey the parking lot and still be able to reach the ground in a hurry when he needed to. In the distance, he saw the mark approaching and used his walkie-talkie to call it in. Aaron answered that he had visuals, and Elliott settled back to watch how this went down. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to engage unless there was a problem, not until the show was over, and that’s when his part of the operation commenced. He’d spend a few minutes dealing with any onlookers and then cart out his handy Extracto 4000 to clean up the mess if need be. It was sort of like a Dustbuster, but he’d modified it to be much more efficient and a lot quieter. It still needed a few alterations, but overall, it did the job.
In the last year since he’d decided to join the LIGHTS team, he’d been involved in his fair share of Vampire hunts, and most of the time at the beginning, he was down on the ground like everyone else. But then Aaron had decided it might be better to have him in the rafters, so they’d tried that, too, and it just seemed to click. Elliott called it as he saw it, and Aaron and the rest of the team got the target. Sometimes, he’d used the modified weapons at his disposal to pick off a target or two, but for the most part, he just watched. Until the end. He was the only one capable of the final act, and that might have been one of the reasons why he loved it so much.
The team didn’t waste any time closing in on the mark, and within a few minutes of the Vampire showing himself, he was dissolved into a pile of ash at the hands of Rusty, a redheaded Hunter who appeared to be in his mid-fifties, which told Elliott he was actually closer to a hundred at least. There were a few pedestrians on the street, and Elliott took his cue to pop down from his perch, using the fire escape to make two giant leaps, and headed over in the direction of the commotion, clapping his hands loudly as he did so.
The crowd of about five women and men who appeared to be on their way to a nearby club had stopped at the sight of one man apparently ripping the head right off another. Of course, there were other team members helping to shield the situation from view, but he could tell by the whispers and shocked expressions some of them had seen part of it. His clapping not only served as a distraction, it also helped with his storyline.
“Great job, guys,” he shouted. “Next time, we’ll need to film that from another angle. I’ll get the guys down here to move these stationary cameras.” He gestured at the top of the buildings as if there were cameras nearby and then distracting the crowd from his empty motion, he drew them all in. “That looked pretty real, didn’t it? But what you actually just saw was the filming of a new television pilot.” Some of the spectators oohed and ahhed. “That’s right. You’re going to want to tune in to NBC right after The A-Team on Tuesday nights, okay?”
There was a smattering of clapping, including the team of four Elliott was working with, and the group of clubbers headed on their merry way, commenting about how cool it was to see a TV show being filmed and how it had looked so real.
Elliott pulled the Extracto from inside his long black duster and vacuumed up the mess as quickly as possible, though the fact that the nozzle clogged once made it take slightly longer. He’d need to fix that.
“Why do you do that?”
He glanced up to see Christian standing a few feet away, his hands in the pockets of his black pants, and tried not to roll his eyes. “What do you mean?” Elliott asked. A glance over his shoulder told him that Hannah, Aaron, and Rusty looked ready to go.
“Point at cameras that aren’t there. People will notice there’s nothing there.”
Elliott had been right in thinking he wouldn’t like this guy. There was just something about the tech guy that drove him nuts. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t have much faith in the Extracto when Elliott had first mentioned it, but it was probably more his shifty eyes and the way his dirty blond hair never seemed to move. He claimed not to smoke but always smelled like an ashtray. He didn’t trust him. Not one bit. “It’s the power of suggestion, man. It worked didn’t it?”
“This time. That doesn’t mean it always will.”
Shaking his head, Elliott headed off toward the rest of the team, Christian following along. “It’s worked the last eighty-seven times. If it stops working, I’ll let you know.”
Christian made a humph sound but didn’t say anything more, and the team headed down the street to where they’d parked the passenger van. Elliott drove, like usual, and there was a little bit of chatter from Hannah and Rusty, but mostly they were quiet for the ten minutes or so it took to return to base.
Headquarters was surrounded by a massive stone wall and the gate was manned, though Elliott had a clicker that opened the wrought iron gate as he approached. The road wound back to the buildings, passed the intake building where Vampires were required to report and be tagged, the gymnasium, and a few office buildings, including the building where Jamie and Christian had offices and the tallest of the office buildings where Aaron’s office took up the top floor. Elliott had been told during his orientation that you never wanted to be called into Aaron’s office—that was bad.
They usually met in a one-story building located closer to the two apartment buildings to prepare for hunts and to debrief, so that’s where he was headed now. He pulled into a parking spot and glanced over at the closest apartment building, where the permanent residence lived. His room was on the fourth floor near Jamie’s. He didn’t know or care where anyone else’s was, except for Aaron’s, which was in the penthouse. Next to that building there was an even taller one that temporarily housed the new Guardians and Hunters when they came in to train. Elliott usually didn’t take too much interest in those people. Unless or until someone made his team, he didn’t care about them.
The meeting was pretty cut and dry. No one had acted out of line or done anything stupid, if Christian opening his mouth didn’t count, and after about twenty minutes, Aaron dismissed them, and most everyone headed out the door. Elliott liked to stick around afterward. He and Aaron had become pretty good friends in the last year, and he realized he probably wouldn’t have stayed around at all if he didn’t like the guy. Sure, he was a complete control freak who had the organizational skills of a neurotic postal employee, but he liked him nevertheless. It helped that he was practically immortal.
“Elliott, I have something I need to talk to you about,” Aaron said as Hannah, who was the last one out the door, exited the building.
For once, Elliott felt like he had a reason to lag behind, rather than to just pick Aaron’s brain, though his tone was slightly alarming. “What is it, boss man?”
Aaron cleared his voice and sat on the edge of the table near where he’d been conducting the meeting, and Elliott sauntered over, his hands in his pockets. “Janette called me a little while ago. She had some news. She thought you should know your mom, Arlene, passed away.”
Elliott was shocked. He hadn’t seen or heard from the woman in thirty-five years. “Wow,” he said, dropping down on a table across from Aaron. “I, uh, didn’t even realize she was still alive.”
“Apparently. She was living with some man in Atoka. Janette wasn’t sure what the cause was, though she got the feeling it might’ve been some sort of overdose. I know the two of you hadn’t kept in touch, but she thought you’d want to know.”
“Yeah. Okay. Thanks,” Elliott stammered, not sure what to do with that. In the last year, he’d come to grips with a lot of things. It hadn’t been easy to get over the death of his friend Reggie, certainly not his brother’s passing. He’d mourned the loss of his marriage and his children, who were grown now and still wanted nothing to do with him, and pretty much decided he had been a failure as a person, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do more now. He was still new at this game, but he felt like he’d finally found his calling. And it wasn’t just about telling stories to cover up kills either. They were making a difference. He’d been in situations where Vampires were about to harm children or innocent people, and his team had taken them out, sometimes he had been the one to end them. He’d protected Hunters, too, something he wanted to do more of. Meeting with Hannah, who had been a therapist in her former life, had been a big part of him moving on with his life and accepting that the past was just that—the past, and he still had a wide-open future in front of him.
But there were some things he wanted to do first. “I, uh, think I need to go back to Oklahoma City for a visit,” he said quietly. “I’ve got some demons to face.”
“Of course, no problem,” Aaron said with a nod. “Do you want to go alone or would you rather have some company?”
“I think I need to do it myself,” he said resolutely. “Also… I want to finish school.”
“You do?” Aaron asked, clearly surprised.
“Yeah, I know I got lots of badges in my pocket that say I’m a doctor, but I wish that was the truth.” When Aaron had asked him if he’d be willing to take on some of the roles that required higher clearances and more power, like working for the Center for Disease Control, for example, he’d agreed, so all of his badges now said, “Dr. Elliott Sanderson,” followed by whatever initials got him where he needed to be.
“We can definitely make that happen,” Aaron nodded. “We’ll start with your GED, of course.”
Elliott nodded, glad to see he had his boss’s support. “Okay. Sounds good. I’ll, uh, head out to OKC then—if now’s a good time to go?”
“Now’s the perfect time to go.”
Elliott turned to leave, but before he’d taken a few steps he turned back. “I just wanted to say… thanks for believing in me, man. I don’t have a lot of friends—don’t care to have a lot of ’em. But you, you’re different. You see right through my bullshit but don’t seem to mind it either. Thanks for taking a chance on me.”
Aaron smiled and shrugged. “You’re not so bad. You definitely keep us entertained. I mean, I’m not saying I’m ready to move in with you or anything, but I think I’ll let you stick around for a while.”
Elliott laughed and patted Aaron on the back before turning to head out the door. Being not so bad was kind of good, and he’d take that over the other names he’d been called any day of the week.