(Third Person).
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 black jeeps rolled forward.
The convoy stopped sharply, headlights cutting through the dimly lit space. Security n 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 slamd 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 pressed 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 in lab coats scrambled to greet him, their nervous smiles almost painful to watch. They knew—every visit from Brackham ant sothing had gone wrong, and tonight, his expression confird it.
"Mr. Mayor—" one doctor began, but Brackham cut him off with a glare.
"I’m not here for pleasantries," he snapped. His voice carried, cold and sharp. "Tell . Has anything been created yet? Anything that can put an end to those bloodsucking demons called Vampires?"
The room went still. The doctors exchanged glances. 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 with the werewolves—only when we studied their anatomy could we engineer the right counterasures. Without it—"
Brackham’s palm slamd 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 the last ti he had walked in through these very doors.
The doctors froze. Brackham’s chest heaved as he fought back the rage boiling inside him.
"Do you know what happened tonight? Less than thirty minutes ago, ten vampires stord one of my governnt tech facilities. Twenty minutes of destruction—drones gone, equipnt obliterated, my people slaughtered like cattle. And you are telling you have nothing?"
Murmurs rippled across the team, shock plain on their faces.
Another doctor gathered the courage to speak, his tone firr though his eyes betrayed fear.
"Mr. Mayor, it’s not a matter of delay; 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 flared. His fists clenched at his sides. "So you’re telling 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 sa thods we used to capture the werewolves? The traps. The sedatives."
The doctor let out a weary sigh, adjusting his glasses. "No, sir. Based on what little we know... vampires are faster, more cunning, and far deadlier. Those thods would fail. Worse—they might backfire and get more of our people killed."
For a mont, 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.
The silence in the lab felt stifling, with the scientists shifting nervously under his gaze.
"Then give an alternative," he snapped suddenly, his voice cutting like a blade. "If your precious traps won’t work, then what will? Don’t stand there telling what can’t be done. Tell what can."
The team exchanged uneasy glances. 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 movents, 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 to send my n out to follow creatures that slaughtered 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 ans 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 sothing colder and sharper.
"Fine. If it’s intelligence you need, then you will get it. But understand this—" His glare 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 sa excuses, I won’t waste my anger on the vampires. I will take it out on every last 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 ti 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. His fingers tapped against his thigh, each strike a beat of suppressed rage.
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