307 Several Steps Ahead

307 Several Steps Ahead

bi(/i/bbiThird /i/bbiPerson/i/bb)/bb. /b

Brackham and his head of security descended into the underground lot in silence, his jaw tight the whole way

down.

The elevator doors slid open, and before his shoes had even touched the concrete, three ck jeeps rolled

forward.

The convoy stopped sharply, headlights cutting through the dimly lit space. Security men in dark suits

climbed out at once, moving with precision.

One of them opened the rear door of the second jeep, bowing his head slightly. Brackham got in, his chief of

security following closely behind. The doors mmed shut.

The three jeeps moved together, engines humming, through the restricted underground passage.

In barely three minutes, they reached the checkpoint. Another set of guards saluted stiffly as the vehicles

halted.

Brackham stepped out without a word, coat swaying with his stride, and headed for the elevator ahead. His

head of security pushed the final clearance key. Two floors deeper.

The doors opened to a long, sterile hallway. White walls. Reinforced steel doors. The faint hum of machines

filled the silence.

Scientists inb coats scrambled to greet him, their nervous smiles almost painful to watch. They knew-

every visit from Brackham meant something had gone wrong, and tonight, his expression confirmed it.

“Mr. Mayor-” one doctor began, but Brackham interjected him off with a re.

“I’m not here for pleasantries,” he snapped. His voice carried, cold and sharp. “Tell me. Has anything been

created yet? Anything that can put an end to those bloodsucking demons called Vampires?”

The room went still. The doctors exchanged nces. No one wanted to be the first to speak. Finally, one of

them, a man with thinning hair and trembling hands, stepped forward.

“Sir… like we discussed earlier, to develop a weapon against vampires, we need a vampire body first. Just like

307 Several Steps Ahead

with the werewolves–only when we studied their anatomy could we engineer the right countermeasures.

Without it-”

Brackham’s palm mmed down on the nearest counter, making everyone flinch.

“Then what the hell are you waiting for? Find one!” His voice echoed off the sterile walls.

His brain simply refused to recall the details of thest time he had walked in through these

The doctors froze. Brackham’s chest heaved as he fought back the rage boiling inside him.

very

doors.

“Do you know what happened tonight? Less than thirty minutes ago, ten vampires stormed one of my

government tech facilities. Twenty minutes of destruction–drones gone, equipment obliterated, my people ughtered like cattle. And you are telling me you have nothing?”

Murmurs rippled across the team, shock in on their faces.

Another doctor gathered the courage to speak, his tone firmer though his eyes betrayed fear.

“Mr. Mayor, it’s not a matter of dy; it’s a matter of impossibility. We cannot build what you’re asking for without first understanding a vampire’s physiology. Without that, any weapon is guesswork. And guesswork

will not save lives.”

Brackham’s nostrils red. His fists clenched at his sides. “So you’re telling me you’re useless until I deliver

one of those monsters to your table?”

The doctor swallowed hard but didn’t back down. “Yes, sir. That is the truth.”

Brackham leaned closer, his voice dropping to a dangerous low. “Could we use the same methods we used to

capture the werewolves? The traps. The sedatives.”

The doctor let out a weary sigh, adjusting his sses. “No, sir. Based on what little we know… vampires are faster, more cunning, and far deadlier. Those methods would fail. Worse–they might backfire and get more

of our people killed.”

For a moment, silence weighed heavily in the room. Brackham’s gaze was icy, his fury barely held back. His jaw clenched as if he were grinding stone between his teeth.

The thought of starting again, of waiting, gnawed at him like a parasite.

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307 Several Steps Ahead

The silence in theb felt stifling, with the scientists shifting nervously under his gaze.

“Then give me an alternative,” he retorted suddenly, his voice cutting like a de. “If your precious traps

won’t work, then what will? Don’t stand there telling me what can’t be done. Tell me what can.”

The team exchanged uneasy nces. Finally, the lead doctor cleared his throat and spoke carefully.

“Sir, the only realistic path forward is intelligence gathering. We need to study their behaviour, their

movements, and their feeding patterns. If we can’t get a corpse, then we must observe the living. That will

give us enough insight to design a proper capture strategy.”

Brackham stared at him, his eyes narrowing. “Observe them? You want me to send my men out to follow

creatures that ughtered dozens of people in less than half an hour? Do you even hear yourself?”

The doctor flinched but didn’t retreat. “I understand the risk. But without information, we are blind. And

blindness in this war will kill us all. Even drones, once rebuilt, won’t work effectively if we don’t understand

what we’re facing. The vampires knew what to target tonight. That means they are already several steps

ahead of us.”

Brackham’s hands clenched into fists, veins prominent against his skin. He took a deep breath, channelling

his rage into something colder and sharper.

“Fine. If it’s intelligence you need, then you will get it. But understand this-” His re swept across the

room, making every doctor avert their eyes.

“You will deliver results. Quickly. If I have to walk back in here in another month and hear the same excuses, I

won’t waste my anger on the vampires. I will take it out on everyst one of you.”

A heavy silence followed, the weight of his words hanging thick in the sterile air.

“Get back to work,” Brackham barked, before turning sharply toward the elevator. His head of security

followed close behind, silent but grim.

As the doors slid shut, the scientists exhaled collectively, fear etched into every face. They all knew that time

was running out, and failure was no longer an option.

Brackham sat stiffly in the backseat of the jeep as the convoy moved back through the underground passage.

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307 Several Steps Ahead

His fingers tapped against his thigh, each strike a beat of suppressed rage.

308 Midnight Meeting