Incubus Dreams   ::   Гамильтон Лорел

“Not tonight, Marshal, tonight, you go in with us.”

I smiled at him, it was a good smile, not flirting, though some men take it that way, just a good, open, honest, happy to have you smile. He smiled back, he couldn’t seem to help it. “Good, great,” I said, “but can we move it along? We’re burning moonlight.”

He gave me a look like he wasn’t sure how to take me, then he laughed. The moment he laughed, all the other men relaxed, I could feel it, like a sort of psychic sigh of relief. “You are a pushy damn woman.”

“Yes,” I said, “yes, I am.”

He gave a smaller laugh. “You’ll follow orders once we’re inside, yes?”

I sighed. “I’ll try.”

He shook his head.

“If I just say yes, it’ll be a lie, but I will do my utmost to do what I’m told. I promise.”

“That’s the best I’m going to get, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “Yep, unless you want me to lie to you.”

“No, truth from a federal agent is downright refreshing.”

“Well, then I am just going to be a breath of fresh air.”

He looked at me, shook his head, and started back toward the dry erase board. “Now that I do believe Marshal, that I do believe.” They went back to their briefing, and I went back to counting the minutes and wondering if there was going to be anything alive in the condo by the time we hit the door.



76

At my suggestion they put the sniper where he could see the windows, not at the front door. One, we didn’t know what they looked like, so the sniper couldn’t just drop the people coming out the front. There might be law-abiding vampire citizens in the building, so the sniper couldn’t even just shoot vampires. If he could tell for dead certain they were vamps. Even I wouldn’t want to say yes or no on the vamp question through a scope. I mean, what if you’re wrong? High silver content, there would be no apology. But anyone that flew out of the windows of our condo, they would be bad guys, and the sniper could drop them with impunity. Green-light city.

The rest of us were huddled around the van. In the movies the van is sleek and roomy. In real life, it’s narrow, cluttered, and looks like a cross between a plumber’s van and the Good Humor truck, if it sold guns instead of ice cream. There wasn’t room for us and the guns.

Hell, as empty as it got, most of us wouldn’t have fit. It was an equipment van, not a transport vehicle.