Vigil by Craig Saunders, C. R. Saunders Read Free Book Online

too. He’s already got people talking and it won’t help. We need hard facts. We can’t risk lives on his hunches.’
    ‘I’m not talking about risking anyone’s life. I’m talking about protecting them. If we take these people in at night the vampires will know. They are working together, Jean. That’s a fact.’
    ‘It’s true,’ said Samson, reluctantly. ‘We saw it today. Much as it pains me to say it, the old fool is right. I wouldn’t put it past them to set a trap. They know they can’t get to us down here, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know we’re here.’
    ‘We can’t leave them out there,’ said Jean, but he didn’t sound certain.
    ‘We can, Jean,’ said Marie carefully. ‘We have to. We never open a gate at night. We know better. The risks aren’t worth it. We can protect the people from here. If they just stay where they are, we can cover them. But we can’t open the gate in the dark. It’s just too risky. I don’t trust this at all.’
    Jean rubbed a rough hand over his eyes. ‘We could be killing them.’
    Samson shrugged. ‘You want facts? Hard facts? Three people out there, people we can protect, maybe. Over two hundred in here. If we open that gate and we’re not fast enough, we could be letting in a whole heap of trouble. Kill them, leave them there, I don’t care. But don’t let them in. Marie’s right. It stinks. They’re bait.’
    Alain sighed heavily, but he nodded. ‘I hate it, but I agree. I think they’re bait.’
    Suzanne shook her head. ‘Alain…’
    ‘Sorry, Suze, but I don’t think we should risk it.’
    Suzanne kept her face calm, but she was trembling. ‘I do not care what you all say. We cannot leave them there. It is murder. Murder. Simple.’
    Jean held up a hand. ‘I’ve heard enough. Keep your eyes on the monitors. We’re going to do what we can from here. We’re not going to open the gates. We’ll shoot anything that moves. On sight, if it’s a vampire or a cannibal, even if it’s a god damn deer, shoot it. We have one priority tonight, and that’s to keep those people alive.’
    Jean picked up the intercom.
    ‘Tell Kappa his team’s on standby.’
    Marie put everything else aside in her mind. Tom was forgotten.
    She puffed out her breath and stretched her back straight again. She’d been hunched but the tension left her.
    Jean, as always, took the hub. He would run the operation, until the sun rose.
    Alain took northern turret, Suzanne watching over his shoulder.
    Sam took eastern turret, Marie controlled the west.
    Sam and Marie had the most ground to cover as south had been unprotected since the fourth turret had malfunctioned.
    Marie wasn’t worried. She was hunting. Sam had her back.
    This, she could do.
     
    *
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Twelve
     
    Perimeter
    Fallon Corp.
     
    The little girl stood where she’d been told to stand. Her name was Nicole. She didn’t move. Her father held her hand. His hand shook but hers was steady. She’d been born into this world and understood much that he did not. He was fifty-five. She was twelve.
    She had grown up in a small village many miles from Paris, hiding during the night and hunting during the day. She was too young to hunt vampires. She hunted small rodents. She was quick and could get places the adults could not.
    Nicole spoke French and English well. Her mother had taught her during the long nights, in whispered conversations while Gerard and Mikael and her father had guarded over them. It was the only life she had known, until men from the hills came and told them they could protect them. That had been when she was ten. The men from the hills had all died when she was eleven. Gerard and Mikael, too. Now she was here. Her birthday had passed forgotten, but she didn’t mind. Her father had other things to worry about.
    Like how they were going to remain alive until day break.
    She looked around but she could not see anything. She could not see them . She knew they