40

Regis led them into a hall behind yet another door hidden in the mirrored wall.  Kendra thought that they were opposite and a few panels down from the door that led to the greenhouse tunnel, but she couldn’t be sure. 

Regis walked quickly through the dimly lit hallway.  Alex walked ahead of her, and kept one hand behind him to hold her hand.  She wasn’t sure if he meant to comfort her, or to hurry her along.

Kendra knew that she had nowhere near the grace of a vampire, but even her steps made no sound in the thick carpet.  It was so thick that she quickly felt as if she were jogging in sand.  She was tired, and had begun to sweat by the time Alex pulled her into a sharp left turn onto a ramp that spiraled steeply down, more than two stories she thought.  The ache in her quads increased to a burn as she controlled her hurried step at a pace just below a jog.  Before long she dragged at Alex’s hand, her mouth open to beg him to stop for a minute, when he did stop, abruptly.

Kendra bumped into his back with a grunt.  She thought she saw Regis glare at her, but in the next instant the shadowy figure of the vampire leader left the hallway.  Alex followed, and pulled Kendra with him.

She could not take in more than the room’s dark wood paneling while Alex led her quickly to the far end of a massive rectangular table.  He drew a chair from the table and held it for her.  By the time she was seated, Regis was settled at the head of the table, near the door.  Alex sat across from her in the only remaining chair.  Between them, at the table’s foot, was stern Asian vampire, who seemed very grumpy about the delay, or perhaps it’s my presence he finds distasteful.  Kendra looked toward Alex for reassurance, but could hardly make out his face.  The room was lit by only four candles, each in a sconce mounted in the center of each wall.

All heads turned toward Regis, who stood.  Evidently he spoke too, but so softly that Kendra could not make out what he said.  She studied the room instead, and counted ten vague figures on each side of the long, dark table.  Unable to glean any more information from her surroundings, Kendra explored the facing just beneath the table’s top.  She felt thick whorls and sharp-tipped ovals that she guessed were leaves carved in bas-relief from the wood.  The grain in some of the whorls had separated, and the varnish felt crinkled, as if it were old.  The wood of the facing, like the tabletop, was very thick.

Regis talked for what seemed like forever, but was probably only fifteen minutes before he slid back two of the wooden panels behind him to reveal a screen.  He clicked through some dimly lit slides. The slides flew by, and Kendra wondered just how fast Regis was speaking.  One looked like a snap shot of her rescue from American Missile, yes, she made out her huddled form as it rocked back and the vampire behind her reached down to lift her.  Next came a headshot of Xenopoulos, and finally the first page of Kendra’s time travel equation showed on the screen.

“Hey,” Kendra objected and stood up.  The vampires around her clapped their hands over their ears.

“Ms. Tanagawa,” Regis said loudly enough for her to hear him, “surely you have realized by now that our hearing is very acute.  Your normal speaking voice borders on being uncomfortable for us.”

“My apologies,” Kendra whispered, and struggled to keep the scorn out of her voice.  “Would you please do me the courtesy of informing me how you obtained my research and what you intend to do with it?”

“Of course,” said Regis, “and had you managed to restrain yourself, I would, by now, have finished that explanation.”

“Not that I could have heard,” Kendra muttered as she resumed her seat.  Instantly she regretted her sarcasm.  In confirmation of her misstep, Alex shot her a look and shook his head.  The bared fangs of the stern vampire seated between them gleamed for a second in the dim light.

“I beg the forbearance of my illustrious guests as I shout slowly for the human,” Regis said.  “As I said, we have both the data necessary for time travel and the scientist who has accomplished it.  I see no reason that our own expert shouldn’t be able to duplicate her results once we recreate her lab on the premises.”

“What?” Kendra whispered.

“Yes, Ms. Tanagawa,” Regis said coldly.  “You hold the key to our continued existence.  Do you really think we would leave you, a human, on your own?  Just trust you to see us through this crisis?”

The room rippled with soft, cruel laughter.  The hair on Kendra’s neck stood up.

“You can’t steal my research,” she said.  “It’s…it’s mine!”

“It was yours,” Regis corrected.  “Our own scientist was very nearly there himself.  Isn’t that so, Alex?”

Alex nodded, and avoided Kendra’s eyes.

“You?” she said in disbelief, “but I thought you were on my side.”  Her voice faded to a whisper.

Quiet laughter rippled through the room once more.  Alex shifted in his seat.  He seemed guilty or at least uncomfortable, but Kendra wished that she could see his face clearly to be sure.

Regis continued the meeting at a pace and volume that suited the vampires.  Kendra crossed her arms and stewed.  She had to escape.  Right, from a secret complex filled with strong, fast, and dead kidnappers.

The meeting ended.  Every vampire in the place zoomed by to shake Alex’s hand or pat him on the shoulder.  They moved so fast that the room emptied in ten seconds.  Kendra was alone with Alex.

“You stole my work,” she accused.

He did not reply, but walked to the front of the room and pinched out the candle there.

“Answer me!” Kendra shouted.

Alex flinched, but only walked closer to her to pinch out a second candle.  Without a word he came around the foot of the table and snuffed out the third.  Kendra felt as though she were suffocating.  Panic mounted within her.

“What are you doing?  You’re going to leave me here in the dark to die, aren’t you?”

“Of course not, darling.”  Alex offered his elbow.

Feeling more vulnerable and dependent than she ever had, and hating every moment of it, Kendra took his arm with a sharp, punitive jerk.

Unfazed, Alex led them toward the door.  He paused at the fourth candle.

“You see?  I am merely turning out the lights.”