vampire and didn't tell him. It's the only explanation. That vampire must have been caught by the govern?ment and taken to the desert compound. I wonder if the mystery vampire is still in the place. My rescue effort has just been complicated.
I have to wonder if I'm already too late. Andy has--at the least--an outline of the DNA code of the vampire. How long will it be before he and his partners are able to create more bloodsuckers? The only thing that gives me hope is that the general struck me as a man who keeps everything under wraps, until it is time to make his move. Andy has said as much about him. Everything connected to vampires is still probably locked up in the compound.
In response to Andy's comment, I force a chuckle. Boy, do I force it. "Are you making a modern Frank?enstein monster?" I ask, kidding, but not kidding.
My question hits a nerve, for obvious reasons, and Andy sits quietly for a moment, staring at his drink as if it were a crystal bait.
"We are playing a high-stakes game," he admits.
"Altering the DNA code of any species is like rolling the dice. You can win and you can lose."
"But it must be exciting to be playing such a game?"
He sighs. "We have the wrong pit boss in charge." I put my hand on his shoulder. "What's his name?"
"General Havor. He's a hard ass--I don't think his mother gave him a first name. At least I don't know it. We call him 'General' or 'Sir.' He believes in order, performance, sacrifice, discipline, power." Andy shakes his head. "He definitely doesn't create an environment for free thinking and loving coopera?tion." I am the understanding girlfriend.
"You should quit then."
Andy flashes an amused, bitter grin. "If I quit now I'd be walking away from one of the greatest discover?ies of modern time. Plus I need the job. I need the money."
I caress his hair. My voice is soft and seductive. "You need to relax, Andy, and not think of this stupid general. Tell you what--when you get off work tomor?row, come straight to my suite. I'm staying at the Mirage, Room Two-One-Three-Four. We can play the tables and have another late dinner together."
Gently he takes my hand. His eyes momentar?ily come into focus, and I see his intellect again, feel his warmth. He is a good man, working in a bad place.
"Do you have to go now?" he asks sadly. I lean over and kiss him on the cheek. "Yes. But we'll see each other tomorrow." I sit back and wink. "We'll have fun."
He is pleased. "You know what I like about you, Lara?"
"What?"
"You have a good heart. I feel I can trust you."
I nod. "You can trust me, Andy. You really can."
Chapter 8
One of the saddest stories told in modern literature, to me at least, is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Because in a sense I am that monster. Knowingly or unknow?ingly, to much of history, I am the inspiration of nightmares. I am the primeval fear, something dead come to life, or better yet--and more accurate-- something that refuses to die. Yet I consider myself more human than Shelley's creation, more humane than Arturo's offspring. I am a monster, but I can also love deeply. Yet even my love for Arturo could not spare him from plunging us into a nightmare from which there seemed to be no waking.
His secret of transformation was very simple, and profound beyond belief. It is fashionable among New Age adherents to use crystals to develop higher states of consciousness. What most of these people do not know is that a crystal is merely an amplifier, and that it has to be used very carefully. Whatever is present in the aura of the person, in the psychic field, gets magnified. Hate can be boosted as easily as compas?sion. In fact, cruel emotions expand more easily when given the chance. Arturo had an intuitive sense of the proper crystal to use with each person. Indeed, on most people he refused to use crystals at all. Few, he said, were ready for such high vibrations. How tragic it was that when he had a vial of my blood in his hand, his intuition deserted him. It is a pity his special genius did not leave him as well. It took a genius to take us as far as he did.
A mad one.
Using the magnets and copper sheets, in his secret geometric arrangements,