Chapter 208
Kansas City, Missouri, 1996
Christian’s cheers echoed off the walls of his laboratory, loudly enough to cause his own ears to ring momentarily. He didn’t care if he was bothering Jamie across the hall or anyone else who had an office here. He’d finally, finally figured out what was wrong with his prototype and was now one hundred percent certain his communication device would work. After a century of tedious work, including some other lesser ideal solutions, this little beauty was about to revolutionize the way they did business. And he could not wait to try it out.
“What the hell’s the matter with you, Major Numbnuts?” Elliott Sanderson, a semi-new recruit who absolutely made Christian want to run experiments on what could kill a Guardian, other than a willing Hunter, which would be too merciful, asked as he stuck his head in the door. “You finally get a date to the prom?”
Christian turned and glared at the bulky, barrel chested man. Elliott had at least a half-foot on Christian in height and probably weighed at least sixty pounds more than him as well. Not all of that was muscle either, thanks to his well-known diet of junk food. Mostly Cheetos and beer. “I’m not going to let you ruin this for me, you meathead,” he called, turning back to his baby. Using a large magnifying glass, he carefully moved the tiny device to the specially designed case he’d constructed to keep it safe until he could insert it into Aaron’s eye. As the Guardian Leader, Aaron had insisted he be the guinea pig, which made no sense to Christian. He should let someone of lesser importance, like the middle-schooler mental-equivalent standing in the doorway, go first. But Christian found arguing with Aaron over matters like this tiresome, so he simply agreed. He was confident enough in his ability to insert the miniscule device into Aaron’s eye and get it working that he didn’t have to fear causing permanent damage to those gorgeous baby blues the girls were always raving about--or brain damage for that matter. The Intelligence Assistance Communicator, or IAC as he was calling it for short, was especially designed to work with a person’s brain. All of the capabilities weren’t fully functioning yet, but its primary purpose would be to allow LIGHTS team members to communicate via thought, without ever even having to open their mouths.
The idea of Elliott not opening his mouth ever again was a pleasant one.
“Did you do it?” Jamie’s voice was much more welcome. Not that Christian would necessarily call the Healer a friend. But they had worked together closely for the last fifty years. He’d helped Jamie with a few of his projects, including making Transformation serum less painful, and Jamie had helped him with the anatomy of the IAC. They’d also both worked on Dr. Morrow’s project, which was still a work in progress. While Dr. Morrow had managed to create a serum that would allow a Hunter to turn back into a human, which worked about seventy percent of the time, with a ten percent casualty rate (the others who failed to become human simply staying Hunters) it was the Guardian serum that was proving to be so difficult, as they’d known it would be. After Jordan Findley was shot and killed by a Hunter a few years back, Janette had chosen to become a human again. Christian was sad to see her go, but he was angry when they’d appointed Aaron as Guardian Leader. He had deserved that position, yet once again that damn Irishman had taken what was rightfully his! At least Aaron hadn't had an easy time of it. There was still no Hunter Leader and no prospects on the horizon, so he was having to do both jobs at the same time, a task that was certainly weighing on his mental stability, which secretly delighted Christian.
Unfortunately, this little gem would make the entire process much easier. But there was nothing he could do about that. He’d been assigned a task, and finally, after much work and years of small improvements, it was done. He’d felt just as proud of himself when he’d created the Vampire tracker system a few years before. Now, there was even a Tracker Center where newly created Vampires were required to come in and receive their tracker and training. That didn’t happen too often, but responsible Vampires who accidentally created more of their kind were quick to escort their offspring to the facility, which was located here at LIGHTS, or at the very least give them instructions of what to do and how to get there. Since its inception nearly ten years ago, they had a steady flow of trainees, sometimes as many as ten a day. Most of those Vampires went on to be productive members of society. When they didn’t, they were easily found. If a new Vampire failed to come in, and their existence was reported by the creator, it made it much easier to hunt them down. Overall, Christian believed he’d made some lasting contributions to how they did business. It was a far cry from where he’d stood over two hundred and forty years ago, watching his father hack at a monster with a small blade.
Even the bullets had been improved. That was another project he and Jamie had worked on. Glocks and Berettas were their weapons of choice, and silver infused bullets made their job so much easier, as did the continual stream of liquid silver the Berettas fired. Sure, idiots like “Dr.” Elliott Sanderson could laugh at him all they wanted to, but Christian was a scientific genius, rivalling the likes of Leonardo De Vinci, Thomas Edison, and Albert Einstein.
Several seconds of reflection had passed before Christian realized he’d been asked a question. “Yes, it’s finished,” he told Jamie who was standing next to him now. “I just need Aaron’s eyeball, and we’ll be ready to go.”
“I think he’s still using it at the moment, but I can go check if you want,” Elliott said behind them, trying to be funny.
“I’ll call his office.” Jamie moved to the phone on Christian’s desk across the room and dialed Aaron’s number. “Christian’s ready for you.” He hung up and said, “Well, in a day or two, we won’t even need to use the phone anymore.”
“I don’t need it now,” Elliott said with a shrug, then he cupped his hands around his mouth and screamed, “Aaron! Come to Christian’s office!”
“Will you stop, you buffoon?” Christian said, shaking his head. Exactly what Aaron saw in this moron, he’d never know. Ever since he’d joined the team, all he’d done was crack stupid jokes and eat all the food.
Aaron walked in the doorway a few seconds later. “It worked,” Elliott said with a shrug.
“What worked?” Aaron asked.
“Nothing. Doctor Sanderson was just leaving,” Christian replied, wishing he could push the man out the door, but Aaron frowned upon antisocial behavior.
“You don’t have to say it like that. I am a doctor.”
“You’re not a doctor,” Christian said, not for the first time since he’d met the faux physician/psychiatrist. Elliott thought that just because he made a badge that claimed he had a medical degree it made him whatever he wanted to pretend to be.
“All right, enough, you two.” Aaron sighed like a parent exhausted from constantly having to chastise his children. “Are you ready then, Christian?”
“I am, but you're not really going to let him stay are you?” He looked at Elliott and scowled.
“He’ll behave himself,” Aaron said, narrowing his eyes at Elliott. “Remember, Christian’s gotta put this sucker in your eye, too. You might wanna be nice.”
“Good point,” Elliott said. “I’ll stay out of the way, Major Henry, I promise.”
Christian still didn’t trust him as far as he could throw him, and even with his superhuman strength, he didn’t think that was far considering the size of the object in question. Since it was Aaron’s eye, he let him decide who would be in the room.
It would take him a few moments to get everything set up. He and Jamie had discussed exactly how it should be done, the placement, the numbing involved, what utensils he should use. He’d practiced on hundreds of postmortem pig eyes and had got the hang of it. While it might make sense to let Jamie do the actual cutting and placement, this was Christian’s project, and Aaron had agreed he could do it. Jamie was just there in case they got into trouble. He could always heal Aaron’s eye if necessary.
