The Fall

Setrakian lifted the lid off a Styrofoam cooler, revealing the jar containing his slowly pulsing vampire heart. “I will segment the worm powering this organ.”

Eph said, “Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Only if I make a mistake. I have segmented the parasites in the past. Each section regenerates a fully functioning worm.”

“Yeah,” said Fet, returning from the poison closet. “I’ve seen it.”

Nora lifted out the jar, looking at the heart the old man had fed for more than thirty years, keeping it alive with his own blood. “Wow,” she said. “It’s like a symbol, isn’t it?”

Setrakian looked at her with keen interest. “How do you mean?”

“This diseased heart kept in a jar. I don’t know. I think it exemplifies that which will be our ultimate downfall.”

Eph said, “Being what?”

Nora looked at him with an expression of both sadness and sympathy. “Love,” she said.

“Ah,” said Setrakian, his acknowledgment confirming her insight.

“The undead returning for their Dear Ones,” Nora said. “Human love corrupted into vampiric need.”

Setrakian said, “That may indeed be the most insidious evil of this plague. That is why you have to destroy Kelly.”

Nora quickly agreed. “You must release her from the Master’s grip. Release Zack. And, by extension, all of us.”

Eph was shocked but knew all too well that she was right. “I know,” he said.

“But it is not enough to know what is the correct course of action,” said Setrakian. “You are being called upon to perform a deed that goes against every human instinct. And, in the act of releasing a loved one… you taste what it is to be turned. To go against everything you are. That act changes one forever.”

Setrakian’s words had power, and the others were silent. Then Zack-evidently tired of playing the handheld video game Eph had found for him, or perhaps the battery had finally given out-returned from the van, finding them gathered in conversation. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing, young man-talking strategy,” said Setrakian, taking a seat on one of the cartons, resting his legs. “Vasiliy and I have an appointment in Manhattan, so, with your father’s permission, we will catch a ride with you back over the bridge.”

Eph said, “What kind of appointment?”

“At Sotheby’s, a preview of their next auction.”

“I thought they weren’t offering that item for preview.”

“They are not,” said Setrakian. “But we have to try. This is my absolute last chance. At the very least, it will give Vasiliy the opportunity to observe their security.”

Zack looked at his dad and said, “Can’t we do the James Bond security stuff instead of getting on a train?”

Eph said, “ ’Fraid not, little ninja. You gotta go.”

Nora said, “But how will you all keep in touch and connect afterward?” She pulled out her phone. “This thing is just a camera now. They’re toppling cell towers in every borough.”

Setrakian said, “If worst comes to worse, we can always meet back here. Perhaps you should use the ground line to contact your mother, tell her we are on the way.”

Nora left to do just that, and Fet went out to start the van. Then it was just Eph and Zack, the father with his arm around his son, facing the old man.

“You know, Zachary,” said Setrakian, “in the camp I was telling you about, the conditions were so brutal that many times I wanted to grab a rock, a hammer, a shovel, and take down one, maybe two guards. I would have died with them, for certain-and yet, in the searing heat of the moment of choice, at least I would have accomplished something. At least my life-my death-would have meaning.

Setrakian never looked at Eph, only the boy, though Eph knew this speech was meant for him.

“That was how I thought. And every day I despised myself for not going through with it. Every moment of inaction feels like cowardice in the face of such inhuman oppression. Survival often feels like an indignity. But-and this is the lesson as I see it now, as an old man-sometimes the most difficult decision is to not martyr yourself for someone, but instead to choose to live for them. Because of them.”

Only then did he look at Eph.

“I do hope you will take that to heart.”

The Black Forest Solutions Facility

THE CUSTOM VAN in the middle of a three-vehicle motorcade pulled to a stop right outside the canopied entrance of the Black Forest Solutions meatpacking facility in Upstate New York.

Handlers from both the lead and trailing SUVs opened large black umbrellas as the rear van doors opened and an automatic ramp was lowered to the driveway.

A wheelchair was rolled out backward, its occupant immediately surrounded by the umbrellas and quickly shuttled inside.

The umbrellas did not come down until the chair reached a windowless expanse among the animal pens. The occupant of the wheelchair was a sun-shy figure wearing a burka-like habit.