Lord Of Blood - Volume 1 Chapter 8 Responsibility
Around some urban areas in London on the right side of the River Thames, the mission was to find and eliminate the threat.
So Linus, Seras, and their Commander that was called Peter Fergason were scouting the area from the viewpoint of a larger company complex.
That rooftop had the advantage to give more field of view over the city without needing to scout around on foot. And it was not likely they had to take counter-sharpshooting into account so the most obvious and largest building was a go.
“So…How high is our chance of actually finding the target on the same night? Not only that, but considering the number of people here there could be witnesses.”, asked Linus while resting in a squatting position and staring down the city.
Beside him, on the right, Seras was lying flat on her stomach and had a sniper rifle ready at the go.
She still used her normal senses and tried to look through the scope. Linus, on the other hand, was already trying to get used to his heightened senses. The feeling of looking into far places was like an out-of-body experience more than anything.
“It really depends on luck. But from the forensics, it was stated that the body was not that long dead when it was found. And the time of death was set at around 4:50 am last night.”, answered an older man with an already balding head that had little white hair at the back and sides.
“I see. So we depend on the fact that they searched for a hiding place the rest of the time before sunrise and are still in this area…”
“Correct. So our chances here are very high actually.” Fergason nodded and looked at Linus with his brown eyes. His white mustache formed into a smile.
“Let’s hope we get it done before the rain arrives that is about to set in.” Linus looked up into the air for a moment before he observed the city again.
“Uhm, why am I the only one at the gun?”
“I am your spotter today, Seras. And the commander is only here to look at our performance.”, answered Linus to her question.
“But you don’t use gear?” She stated the obvious. Normally a spotter would need a special telescope for finding out range and wind pressure and such. But Linus just sat there and looked around.
“It seems she hasn’t gotten much training by Alucard?”, asked Fergason now.
“He didn’t. that is besides telling her that she is a vampire now. We are fresh recruits in that regard. Sorry to burden you with keeping some patience.”, chuckled Linus wryly.
“But why is it that you seem to know your way around?”
“I guess my instincts are a little bit better compared to hers? Well, she will get used to it, I think.”
Fergason only nodded and started to ask the others for a status report.
Seras was only looking at Linus with a confused look on her face.
“You are using the scope, so you may not have noticed that your vision is actually much sharper now. If you try concentrating you can easily see even that guy over there pissing at the wall 2000 meters away.”
“Huh? That far away?”
“Yep. I am actually more busy keeping out useless information than actually seeing something. Oh, wait…I think I found our target.”
“Where is it?”, asked Fergason.
“About 300m away. Female, red dress. Walking rather slowly. Possibly a wound at the legs. It is around the hotel there.”
Linus pointed to the place with one finger for her and Seras took aim and soon found the target. “Confirmed. But is that really our target? Could it not just be a normal civilian?”
“Bravo Team confirmed. There are also civilians exiting the building.”
“Charlie Team confirmed.”
“We will see it at the moment of truth. Has everyone sight on the target?”
“”Confirmed”” Everyone replied positively over the radio channel.
“…The target is getting closer to the civs.”, said Linus while narrowing down his eyes.
“Seras, In the name of God. Let this soul travel to the other side and be banished into eternal damnation, Amen. You are free to go. Aim for the heart.”
But even though she got the order to shoot, Seras actually hesitated and the target got so close that it started lunging at the civilians.
“Anyone else, take it out!” When Fergason gave that order a sniper from another group took the shot and pierced the target in its heart and head that also exploded. It fell down and lay dead in front of the still screaming civilian woman.
“Target is down.” Linus confirmed and looked at the heavy breathing Seras near him.
Linus knew very well what she went through right now. In her case, it may be even worse since her naive and friendly personality was fighting against that surfacing bloodl.u.s.t inside her.
She was fighting her very urges as a vampire and the feeling of having to shoot someone. The experience of having to shoot her comrades in the police force before this night didn’t make it better.
And even Linus own heart started rapidly beating while he had looked at the civilian woman being nearly ripped apart by that other vampire.
And to prove his own thinking even further he looked at her closer and clearly see Seras normally blue eyes glowing in crimson color. A clear sign of the inner beast showing itself. And that not only applied to her but to himself as well.
“Commence cleanup.”, ordered Fergason and stood up. “Seras, you should follow orders. That hesitating will cost us innocent lives.”
“Yes…sir…”
Linus placed a hand on her left shoulder and smiled. “Relax. Every start is hard…Let’s go and help with the cleanup. We still have a duty to protect the guys even if one target is down.”
He tried to comfort her a little and Seras looked at him and nodded. With her calm returning, she packed up the rifle and followed suit.
Down on street level, the cleaning was already proceeding with what seemed to be holy water. But Linus could in actuality smell the salt in that water. It was just normal seawater. It seemed to work just fine on lower creatures.
What was annoying him more was the stinking rotten smell that wafted from the corpse.
Pinching his nose a little he looked over at the witnesses. It was a man and a woman. That would be very normal but the look the woman gave him was that of someone completely out of it. And not the kind of terror but more the eyes of someone completely fanatic about something.
That could be trouble., he thought. “How are you dealing with them?” When he asked that Seras was also very eager to know.
“They are still civilians and we can’t just silence them. Handling them is already a job that falls into the jurisdiction of our police friends.”, answered Fergason.
“The police actually has that authority? Well…Lets hope our friends…don’t let this spiral out of control then. I got a weird feeling when it comes to that. I still know how much I loved to study supernatural things…So I wonder how they can keep others from doing the same…”
“Small incidents like these can be hidden pretty well. The punishment for not following the procedure is rather harsh. We are after all an organization that is working for her majesty. For the well-being of the common people.”
“Alright. A job well done then, I guess.” he massaged his neck lightly. He was not so happy about hearing that they were a toy of the crown. “Seras, you coming?”
Seras was now currently staring more at the corpse that was slowly vanishing from existence and didn’t react to his question instantly. “Huh? Oh, yeah.”
Linus thought about her being curious. “You probably wonder what she was.”
“No…Its just that I really thought she was just a civilian…I…”
Linus smiled wryly. “You just meant well. Don’t beat yourself over that. For starters, she seemed to be a rather new vampire. And rather weak in that regard. Her wounds were healing too slowly. Speaking truthfully she looked more like one of those ghouls we met in that church. So the best we can do now is find out who turned her and stop them before they create more.”
Seras nodded slowly and unconsciously looked at her own hands where there was still a small burned wound on one of her fingers on the right hand. She received that wound when she handled the silver-tipped ammunition wrongly.
It was clear what she thought at that moment. She was one of them as well now, wasn’t she?