The man immediately stepped aside. “Mi Casa es su casa.”
Jared looked on the lawn. “There’s seven of us total…”
“The more the merrier, brother. I’ve got plenty of beer and I was just about to make some pasta. You guys eat, right?”
We all chuckled as he led us into the house. Ryder waved for the boys to come in off the lawn. I was glad to finally unclick these heavy camping backpacks and release the weight from my shoulders. I was grateful we would have a roof over our heads tonight.
After handing out water and beer, the old timer introduced himself: “I’m Brian, but my buddies call me Shark Bait.” He smiled and Jared shook his head, chuckling.
“How do you guys know each other?” I asked, trying to make small talk.
Brian gave the Aussie enforcer a somber look. “Jared saved my life when a shark in Australia took my leg clean off.”
Okay, so “sexy surfer hero” was totally my new nickname for Jared. Always knew he was a brave one.
Brian nodded. “I heard Queensland had some killer waves, so I sold my VW van and bought a one-way ticket to Gold Coast in the ‘80s. Met Jared and his mates on the water. Barely knew him six hours, and when the shark pulled me under Jared swam after me like he had known me all his life.”
Jared raised his beer. “Surfer code, bro.”
Brian clinked his beer. I had a feeling we were going to be hearing lots of bros over the next twenty-four hours.
“What happened?”
Brian shrugged. “The second I got dragged under and felt that crunch, I passed out. Woke up with Jared hovering over me, tying off my leg.”
Jared looked haunted at the memory. “You still surf?”
Brian smirked. “What do you think? I’m the best damn one-legged surfer in the Pacific. No shark’s going to take surfing from me.”
It hit me then, how you had these moments with people, these bonding moments that could literally tie you to someone for a whole lifetime. Jared and Brian had one. And I’d had more than one with each of these enforcers. I’d known them only a few months and would die for each one of them, no questions asked.
Over the next few hours I helped Brian cook, and except for the silver gray hair, forgot about his age. He had this contagious personality, always happy and chill – probably the marijuana. I learned that he’d had a live-in girlfriend of thirty years, but she’d died a few years ago of breast cancer. Now it was just him and the waves and he was more than happy to help Jared out in any way.
After buttering the garlic bread and popping it in the oven, I went in search of the boys to see if they needed a beer refill. I heard their voices outside. Stepping into the back yard for the first time, I was completely struck by the scene. Ryder was on the hammock napping, Oliver and Sam hunched over the phone, Markus coloring in his book, and Kyle and Jared sitting on the grass having a nice chat. Just like a normal family, no evidence that we were about to rain hell on the vampires.
I inhaled the salty air and decided then that if we survived this whole thing, I wanted this life. A small blue beach house with white picket fence and a hammock, preferably with Ryder inside. When I had first heard I was an ash, it’d dashed all of my domestic dreams. But we had a chance to change all of that. We didn’t have to be slaves to the Hive. We could live among humans again. At least I hoped.
Long after dinner was done and Brian had retired for the night, Sam finally cracked the code into the underground network. I was impressed. It had only taken him a few hours to maneuver through what he referred to as one of the most insanely encrypted paths he’d ever encountered. He, of course, was annoyed it had taken him that long. Think it gave him an entirely new level of respect for Zack though.
All of us waited, tense and silent, as he started to shift his way through the information. After some time I couldn’t stand the waiting.
“So anyone can access the network to receive information, but how do other ash or enforcers normally put information on there?” I asked.
Sam was busy, so it was Markus who answered me. “Either they do what we did and track the Controller down via the clues to his whereabouts. Or the other option is to send a letter. Snail mail is pretty much untraceable. There’s a mailbox which is monitored by someone. Then that letter is posted again to someone else, who then posts it to a final, secret, destination. It’s slow as hell. But everything else was always being interrupted by the vamps. Then the Controller is supposed to assess the importance of your information and post it up on the forum.”
Well, that explained why we needed to come out here in person. We did not have time for that weird runabout way of getting information out to everyone.
“What about the network that Sam was using to figure out the Quorum hired Sanctum to kidnap me? Looked like anyone could post on it.”
“They can.” Sam said tense. “But it’s not a network for ash, it’s one for all the Hives and it’s the dark web. You don’t want to know what other stuff is on there. It’s not a place we can post this sort of information. The vamps would have it in seconds and they would rain blood down on the world. Zack’s network is for ash only, very separate, very secure. This is what I’m accessing right now.”
I liked that. Always have a backup plan. Except we didn’t really have one for our “annihilate vampires from the face of the Earth” plan. Oh well, if it failed I’d think of a plan B. I always did.
“Sam will be the first ash, beside the Controller, to be allowed a backdoor access into the network,” Ryder said. “Zack gave us much more than we expected. I thought we’d have to try and get the message to him and hope he would load some of the information. Instead—”
“He’s allowing us to post our own message and information,” Sam said, cutting him off. “He’s giving us full access.”
Sam’s fingers were flying over the phone’s keypad then, and I knew he was posting now. “I’m warning all Hives that the vampires are killing ash. Locking them down. I’ve told them that we are planning to wage war on the vamps, that we will infect their blood and donors with the cure, and that war will probably ensue after this and to be ready to fight.”
