"Tales of Aegis STAR The Beginning--3" by James C. Oliver

I had reserved a conference room in the Hilton downtown, and had set it up so that no one side would have any perceptible advantage over the other.  We had set up two long tables facing one another, ten feet apart, joined at the top by another table that I was going to sit at with my team.

In the two years of working in the private security contracting industry, Aegis STAR has been involved in several negotiation details.  Never have we had to actually be the mediators.  I didn’t really like it all that much, either.  We had to put ourselves out there, it was our name, our reputation….

Well, honestly, I shouldn’t say that too seriously.  While indeed, it was our rep that was out there swinging in the wind, I did make some deals to guarantee that no one outside of our mutual parties would find out about this whole shindig.  First of all was stopping any talk regarding who was actually involved.  To the hotel, we were just a business conference, and Aegis was just providing close-in VIP protection.  I had an in with the cops, and so they were aware of our guys, and the circumstances; inasmuch as it concerned them, really, that we had received some very credible threats on our principles.  No guest or employee was going to be allowed past a certain point; we had no waiters, just some of my guys dressed up as if they were waitstaff.

So many details, so many things to go wrong.

I really don’t like putting faith in people that have already done and proven one way of acting and responding to stimuli; to essentially check all of that which they’ve proven to be as their normal pattern and do something completely different.  I had every assurance though from the vampires that the rats word was their bond.  After the first-hand experience of being chased by the group we were trying to court, I wasn’t so certain.

I woke up with a guardedly hopeful feeling on the morning before the “Bloods-Rats” conference, as some of the guys had taken to calling it.

Yeah, I had to shut that one down pretty quick, lest it get back to either side and then someone take offense to it, and the meeting go down the tubes.  I wanted this to be a success, if only so that we could mitigate the threat from the wererats against our principles.

When we arrived at the Hilton, the advance team was just finishing up its sweep for bugs and bombs (I know you’re thinking that the bombs are obvious, so why the bugs?  Well, for one thing, one side could gain an advantage over the other; the other problem is that it could give a third party valuable actionable intelligence on how to take out either side… not good).  Chaz and I walked around the specific parts of the operation, and walked through them, ensuring that all of my team knew their assigned jobs.  By making this whole thing one closely-held secret, it was vital to all parties well being that we as the protection to hold to the bargain.

Around noon, Mr. Russell showed up, along with the several members of his delegation.  Apparently, the head vampire did not consent to deigning to meet with the wererats.  Once they were inside, we quietly ushered them into the conference room and got them seated at their side of the table.

Twenty minutes after they had been settled, the first of the wererats showed up.  A tall man strode purposefully up to me, his neat European-styled shoes burnished to a high shine.  An Armani Exchange olive suit was perfectly tailored to fit his well-built body, a dark blue shirt provided an excellent accenting piece that went well with his dark green patterned tie.  A burgundy attaché case completed the outfit.  “I am the lead negotiator.”

“I’ll bet you are, Mister…”

“No names, please.  We do not wish to give anything away for free, especially to the Vampire’s contracted killers,” the man stated without visible emotion.  I was feeling glad that I could feel the heavy weight of my Kimber in my inside-the-belt holster.  This guy was downright abusive.

“How many in your party, Mr. Rata?” I asked, using the Spanish for rat, just to keep anyone who may have been listening off-balance.

He didn’t even blink, “They will arrive over the course of the next quarter of an hour; show me to the chamber.”

People like him really tick me off.  “Of course, Mr. Rata.  First, we’ll go through the security checkpoint.”

“No, I will not.  Take me to the chamber.”  He stared at me, his unblinking eyes barely registering in my head.

Did I mention before that people like this really tick me off?  “Sir, for your safety, and the safety of all involved, everyone goes through the security checkpoint.  Even me.”

He blinked again, but I guess he finally relented.  “Very well.  I wait for the rest of my team.  When we are all here, we will all go through to the chamber at once.”

I simply nodded, and excused myself, keeping one eye on the rat.  Checking my Doxia dive watch, I activated my hidden radio, “Center, Aegis Six; Romeo One is here, awaiting rest of Romeo team.  ETA, one-five mikes.”

“Aegis Six, roger, out.”

With the communication center now in the know, the information would get out to the vampires sitting upstairs that they would be kept waiting.  It was an obvious power play, and something that I really didn’t want to happen.  A few days before I had a sit-down with Mr. Russell to talk about it.

“I am aware that they are going to use anything that they can to their advantage, Mr. Cunningham.”

“Then you have to realize that you must not react to any of them.  It would not be in your best interests to bash them about it.  If they walk on this meeting, then we’re going to have a hell of a problem.  We might have a war.”

Mr. Russell sat there very still for a few beats.  I used to think that it was just a skill he had honed through long periods of practice; while partially right, now I knew better.  “Mr. Cunningham, while I am concerned about any conflict, the master is less concerned.  I feel that it will be most contrary to the objective of something approaching an agreement that both sides can live with.”

“So, it boils down to the fact that the master doesn’t care, and you all are going to act as dictated by higher authority,” I made the statement without sounding terribly dismayed.

He simply nodded.  A signal that he wasn’t about to go on record as opposing what his master wanted, but it was the truth.

“Mr. Russell, when am I going to finally meet the master?”

“Hopefully, you never do, Mr. Cunningham.  I really mean that.”

Another man walking up towards the first wererat negotiator snapped me back to the present.  The new man was equally well dressed as the first, but there was a different sort of fluidity to his movements, as if he had trained in the Bolstoi or New York Ballet; whereas his predecessor had moved with a potent hostility that only came from training as a soldier.  I approached the pair and extended my hand.  “Hello there, sir.  How many more people are there in the negotiation party?”

Bolstoi met my hand, and shook it with just enough force to make it manly, thankfully not so much to make it as if he was crushing my hand.  “Good to meet you, Mr. Cunningham, I’m the number two, but there are fi—“

“Aya!  Shut your trap, they must not know!” the first negotiator interrupted him, grabbing his shoulder.

The new man gave Mr. Rata a nasty look, “Unlike you, I feel no threat from any man, especially this one.  We cannot fear humans forever.”

I was concerned with this slight outbreak of disparity between what I assumed to be the top two negotiators in the wererat hierarchy.  If there was a problem that was creating disunity amongst negotiators that they would air the dirty laundry in public, what the hell was going on behind the scenes?  “I’m sorry, what?  Who feels threatened?  This meeting is not to be intimidating, nor are you supposed to feel threatened.”

Bolstoi answered before Mr. Rata.  “The Wererat leadership, as I’m sure the vampires have told you, is of the feeling that they—the vampires—are working on an attempt to control and dominate the rats.  Since we cannot contain the vampires, especially seeing as the Master of the City’s animal to call is the alligator, and we are in New Orleans, it seems plausible.  There are rumors that there is another Master vampire whose animal to call is the rats.  If those two vampires were to get into a fight for supremacy, you see where that leaves us.”

“I see, indeed, it could be a cause for some concern, to us as well.”  I filed it away to think about it later.  “Is there such a problem in the leadership here that it could result in a civil war?”

“Civil wars are rarely either civil or wars, sir.  As to the foundation of the vampires, only your handler could answer that,” Bolstoi said.

During the conversation, Mr. Rata’s face went very, very red.  I could tell that some of the information that had been given out here wasn’t exactly supposed to be simply given away.  Rumors of insecurities or not, I was glad he told me.  Everyone was very quite for another few minutes, before another three people joined the group silently.  “Our group is complete, we will now go to the conference room,” Mr. Rata ordered.

“Security first, sir.  There is no access to the conference room except for the way we will show you,” I calmly yet firmly told the hack.  “If you five will follow me.”  I could tell that Mr. Rata’s was seething as I yet again refused to simply allow him into the chamber.  Once we arrived at the security checkpoint, I pulled my Kimber TLE/RL II out of its inside-the-waistband holster.  Clearing the weapon, I handed it and the two spare magazines past the metal detector.  I walked on through, receiving it back from Josh Miller, Aegis Three India team leader.  I slipped everything back into place, I turned to face back at the metal detector about five meters away.  Bolstoi went through next, his graceful stride practically waltzing through the frame.  He was followed by the three other negotiators.  Finally, it was Mr. Rata’s turn.

He attempted to hand the briefcase to Josh, but Josh shook his head and told him that he needed to use the x-ray machine.  Strike one.

He put it on the machine, walking through the frame, setting it off.  Stan Radfeld, a fellow former member of CAG, asked him if he was wearing anything with high metal content.  Mr. Rata took off his watch, a few pens, and his wallet, placing them in a small bin that Stan held.  Walking back through the frame, Mr. Rata walked through again, again setting off the frame.  Strike two.  “Anything else you might have on your person, Mr. Rata?”

He actually looked sheepish.  “I have several piercings… silver, of course, in some…ah, delicate places.”

“I understand, sir.  I’m going to have to ask you to submit to a wanding.  If you’ll step over here please?”

“I do not understand the reason for all of this security,” he said, even as he complied with the order.

Greg Brackett, operating the x-ray machine caught my eye and gave an almost imperceptible nod to me.  I made it look completely natural and headed back over to the x-ray machine.  Greg whispered, “Boss, there’s something in there, its not inside the case, but in the case itself.  It’s interfering with the machine.”

I had been listening while glancing over to Mr. Rata’s figure.  I noticed him straighten up while Greg was speaking, and I figured it was not a good sign.  “Take it out and manually search it,” I told him.  Raising my voice to a normal level, I directed my next inquiry to Mr. Rata.  “Find something interesting in our conversation, sir?”

Bolstoi’s eyes looked between us for a second, before coming to a serious relevation.  “Oh, you had best tell me that you did not, Tomas,” he hissed.  No, seriously, Bolstoi hissed, as if he was actually a rat.  Jesus…

Guns were drawn just at the mere suggession of a threat.  They were all trained on Mr. Rata, and even I had mine out.  “Hands where we can see them, Mr. Rata, do not move.”

He spun around anyway, but was tackled by Josh and Stan.  They were sitting on him, putting his hands in flexcuffs.  I put the barrel of my pistol right up on his face between his eyes.  “Move again…” I said, pulling back on the hammer.

“Your bullets cannot harm me.  Only silver can harm me…”

“Well then it’s a damn good thing I’m packing silver ammunition, huh?”  I glared into eyes that were no longer human, but they bled back to normal eyes, eyes that were actually full of fear.  He believed my bluff… hadn’t there been something in the briefing packet about lycanthropes being able to smell the truth?  Guess that was a load of it…

We got him bound and left him lying on the floor.  “Any tricks or traps to opening your briefcase, Mr. Rata?”  I got a negative shake of the head.  “OK, if there are, and one of my guys gets hurt, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

Josh, who had done EOD for several years in the Israeli Sayaret Maktal, carefully opened the case.  Nothing popped, fizzed, or went bang; good so far.  He quickly scanned the interior for wires and lasers that might trigger a device.  “I’m telling you, there is nothing in the case!”

“Mr. Rata, I would suggest keeping your pie hole shut.  I’d hate for one of my men to slip and kick your face in.”  Josh continued opening the case, finding only files and a few pens inside.  He flipped his wrist and pulled out one of his special non-magnetic throwing knives, using it to lift and poke around the files and the pockets on the top of the case.  He carefully withdrew the contents and set about tapping the interior.  I watched as he tapped on a section of the case and it opened up, revealing several items.

“Well well well, what is all of this, Mr. Rata?  I’m sorry, but you will not be permitted to enter the chamber.  Strike Three, yer out.”  I turned to Bolstoi.  “I’m sorry, sir, but I cannot permit this man to enter the conference with you.  I’m sorry.  Do you require anything out of the files that he had?”

Bolstoi shook his head.  “Not at all.  Tomas will be punished later.  I figured something like this would happen, Mr. Cunningham.  Its something that I would have liked to avoid, but apparently I underestimated the determination of Tomas’ faction to disrupt these negotiations.”  He waved to the three other men.  “They will escort your ‘Mr. Rata’ out.”

“You will negotiate alone?”

He smiled.  “Originally that had been the plan, but Tomas’ group persisted.  They added him, and I chose to then bring along these assistants.”

I stood alongside Bolstoi as his assistants escorted Mr. Rata out.  Once they were at the base of the elevator two more of my men took up flanking positions on them to ensure that they were leaving.  “Well, let’s get you into the chamber.  Josh, make sure that you dispose of that thing properly.”

“With pleasure, Boss.”

When everyone was finally in the conference room, it was time to get the show underway.  I stood up in behind my seat at the top of the horseshoe.  “Ladies and Gentlemen, I requested this meeting because there have been two physical attacks on Aegis STAR, once while escorting a principle of ours, a member of the vampire clan; the second, an ambush laid in my company’s own parking lot.  The first attack was explained to me by Mr. Russell of the vampires as retribution for poor negotiations of one of their personnel.  The second attack is not as easily explained away.  It resulted in several thousands of dollars of damage to equipment and infrastructure belonging to Aegis STAR, and unknown casualties for the wererats.  This cannot continue, and so I’ve asked both sides to the negotiation table to attempt to alleviate some of the problems between both sides, as well as to discuss why Aegis was targeted independent of an escort mission.  I’d like the wererat side of the story first, and then we’ll go from there.”  I looked at Bolstoi.  “You may proceed.”

Bolstoi spoke.  “Before I do, I would like to introduce myself, as it is silly for me to know your names, and you not to know mine.  I am Henry Ferdinand, I am the second to the Roi of the wererats.  I personally am in charge of this series of negotiations, having been charged by the Roi himself to speak on his behalf.  Any agreement I make will be binding.”  He stopped, looking first at me, then at the vampires.

“Thank you for that, Mr. Ferdinand.  We appreciate knowing who you are, and that any agreement reached here today will be respected within your group,” I said.

He nodded slightly, then continued, “As you stated, there were two attacks perpetrated by wererats.  The first was an attack against Mr. Thomas, who is,” he glanced over at Mr. Russell, “Sorry, was, the liaison between our two groups.  In it, members of a faction of the wererats operated by Tomas,” he started smiling like it was funny, “Or as Mr. Cunningham calls him, Mr. Rata; attacked Mr. Thomas’ convoy.  Several of our rats were hurt, not that I am blaming Aegis STAR for that, the members in question recovered rapidly thanks to the lack of silver ammunition.  The reason that Tomas had his rats attack was because they were under the impression that they could get away with it, and send a message to the vampires that the rats were not to be trifled with.

“The second attack was also perpetrated by Tomas’ rats, in retribution for the casualties sustained in the previous attack.  The attack was supposed to catch several members of Aegis by surprise, kill them, and then leave the bodies to intimidate.  I doubt that it would have, as you are all former soldiers, and most of you were special forces soldiers.  I did not know the result of this attack, but there have been rumors of some members of the clan not reporting to work.  I am assuming that you must have managed to eliminate some of our clan…” He stopped, looking at me to see if I had anything more to add to his side of the story.

I shook my head while responding, “Only me and five other men were there.  We managed to get out, and stayed out until the next day.  Upon our return all we found was blood spots.  I’m actually surprised that they didn’t try and trash our vehicles we had in the motor pool.  What I’m wondering is why the rats feel this way.  How come Aegis STAR is a target?  Have we done something to draw your ire?”

“That is something that I have yet to find out as well.  I would believe that you were simply not on our team, and so you were on theirs.  While I am well aware that all you are doing for the vampires is providing security, some see your involvement as a way to better the odds in the event of war.”

Mr. Russell broke in at that point.  “Mr. Ferdinand, I assure you that there is no push on behalf of the vampires in the direction of war.  I feel almost offended that you would consider such a thing.  We have coexisted for decades together, and normally always had good relations.  However, your Tomas has decided that now we’re almost at war.  I would ask what might we have done that could have given him this idea?”

Mr. Ferdinand thought for a moment.  “I believe that we were under the impression that you had decided on war after the merger with Aegis STAR.  At that point, our relations began to degrade, we had numerous challenges in the leadership.  Our roi himself has been challenged three times in the weeks leading up to this meeting.  While all challenges have been put down, it is disconcerting.  The Roi has been in power for the past three years, and only had one serious challenge after his assumption of the throne.  To have three in almost as many days, it is unheard of.”  Mr. Ferdinand took a sip of his water, looking across the table at his opposite number.  “There were also rumors amongst the lesser rats that there was a master vampire that could call rats.  How can there be two master vampires of that strength level in one city?”

I watched Mr. Russell’s eyes remain completely emotionless.  He and most of the other vamps at the table had gone extremely still.  I spoke up first, “Mr. Russell, is this true?  What would it meant to have two master vampires in one city?”

Mr. Russell barely moved except to answer the question.  “Usually when a master vampire gains enough power to have an animal to call, he leaves for another locale to become its Master of the City.  The vampire in question has remained in the city, which most admit that they would view as a challenge to the original Master’s authority.  There has been no challenge issued, and therefore it leads to difficulty with regards to inter-preternatural relations.”

“So, all because of one vampire deciding to remain in the city, we have all of these problems, exacerbated by one wererat that has decided that the vamps are going to overrun the city, all because they now have an integrated security company?”

Mr. Ferdinand and Mr. Russell both nodded.

“Well, that’s good, now we have identified the problem, how do we fix it, Mr. Russell?”

He shrugged.  “I believe that the vampire does not need to leave the city.  It is the opinion of the Master of the City that the other Master is perfectly fine here.  This is also due in part to the opinions of the Council, who are concerned about the court case making its way through to the Supreme Court as we speak.  All of the cities and regions in the United States have leaders, and there is almost no where the vampire could go without it being seen as a challenge; nor do we want a challenge at home.  The Council does not want a challenge that could become ugly and end any chances for our kind to become legitimate.”

“The wererats would like to meet the vampire with the ability to call us.  Tomas will be punished for his indiscretions in attacking Aegis STAR without approval of the Roi.  We will consider this a matter of internal security and politics, and the Council hopefully will keep the vampires on their part of the bargain.” Mr. Ferdinand declared.

I looked over at Mr. Russell, “Is this acceptable to you, sir?”  He nodded, so I continued.  “Very well, I’d say that we’ve got the agreement.  If Mr. Russell and Mr. Ferdinand would shake hands, I’ll say that we’re done.”

I tell you, that meeting gave me and my teams a whole lot of insight into were politics.  Thankfully, it also made our security assignments easier, as our daily threat brief went from three pages to barely half a page.