Welcome to the Fight: Silent Wars Read online

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  Timothy wanted to become a vampire. He knew the risks involved in being turned and the downside of being a vampire, but was willing to accept it all. He’d dreamed of being a vampire since he was a child. His father had been seduced by a vampire and killed when she tried to turn him. Later, Timothy’s mom tracked her down and killed her. For her crime, Timothy was left an orphan and placed in a state-run facility. As he was enlightened, he was spared the worst places, but his life was no picnic. He was playing the long game. He knew his every move was being watched for weaknesses. For the moment he had to survive the day.

  It only took about an hour to get all the traffic camera footage he needed to create his model. It took another hour to create the spell showing the 3D map of the area with all the traffic from the pickup site to where the bus would be intercepted. He replayed the images over and over again, watching it from different angles. Something was bothering him about the van that made the initial attack. He started back tracking the van and lost it a few blocks from the attack. He ran the plates on the van, fully expecting them to come back belonging to a different vehicle. He expanded the view of the van’s route until it disappeared. That helped pinpoint the time the spell was cast. The cameras could pick up the magical effect. He caught a break when he got the footage from the McDonald’s parking lot camera. It clearly showed an older woman as the van sped away and disappeared again.

  Seeing that, he knew he had information he could use, but he didn’t want Nigel to be the one that presented the information. A beeping at his computer confirmed his suspicions about the van’s plates, nothing.

  Timothy changed the image so that the woman’s face was distorted. He brought Nigel over to show him that he figured out what kind of spell was used. Nigel was happy enough with that news, but Timothy knew that he’d flip out when he presented the rest of the news.

  His computer beeped again with the name and known associates of the lady in the picture, one Tammy Stone. She was an elf, age unknown, with strong skills in the arcane arts; extremely dangerous: kill on sight. Timothy wondered how best to use the information.

  A faint buzzing sound started in his ear, a warning that his computer was being attacked. He knew he didn’t have much time before whoever it was would gain access to his separate investigation, and he shut down his computer. In his office, one had to think two steps ahead to live long enough to retirement. He’d seen Nigel taking credit for other peoples’ work by stealing it from their computers. After that, he’d installed a program giving him a warning if someone was trying to access his computer, and made an application for his phone that would shut down his computer remotely. That way, even when he was away, his system was safe. This bought him some time to cover his tracks, but he was going to have to come up with a better security method. He could only explain his computer powering down so many times.