Blueblood 5: Exposed The Secrets about V5H Revealed - 14. All Hail To The Cheif

Part 2

“What!?” The General said looking at the three. “Vampires!?” He looked at George. “Why are you holding them?” He was reacting in fear. “Destroy them!”

George sighed. “Without knowing the problem?” George asked. “Destroying the victim without looking for a possible cure?”

“That’s not a very scientific approach, Scott,” Kevin said quietly.

“He’s having a natural reaction, Kevin,” I said.

“Yes.” Kevin nodded. “Are you done reacting?” He asked the General.

The blonde officer, a woman in her thirties with the General was just staring at the three Old Ones in horror. Any military bearing she had professionally was forgotten.

“You don’t end a disease by destroying the patient with it,” Kevin said. “They began an infestation among people and it spread around the world. George here is working to understand it and stop it. There are others…that are victims that carry this venom. There are vampires among us. Not the movie or story kind, but real vampires…people that need help. George is treating some…successfully, I will add. He’s done some brilliant work.”

The General was looking at Kevin and then back to the Old Ones. “Others…like them?” He pointed at the Old Ones.

“No,” George said. “We…are not like them.”

General Edwards looked at George startled. “We!? Are you saying…”

“I was bitten by a vampire. I became a vampire. I am…a vampire.” George said quietly.

“There are more of us in hiding around the world,” Colin said calmly.

The General looked startled again. “You, too?”

“Don’t worry, we’re under treatment,” Colin said. “There is an unknown amount of us untreated in the United States alone. We have encountered several dozen in England and Europe. Hundreds. Some are now getting treated like we are.” He jutted his head at the Old Ones. “They are the source; we are countless generations from them, but we are vampires.”

I frowned. “Here we go again.” I sighed dreading having to repeat ourselves. “We’ll start with what we know so far.”

For the next few hours, we recounted again all that we knew about the venom and the resulting vampires. General Edwards’ need to be somewhere else was forgotten. He might have been an ass like Kevin said he was, but he was listening now. Soon the jacket was off, he was listening carefully and not really asking questions as George explained and showed him what he found and had recorded so he could see. The female officer kept looking at the window like she was fearing the three would come at her any second.

When we finally got to where he was told a lot of what we knew. The General nodded at last and just looked at us for a moment thinking. It was a lot to absorb and he was having to adjust his thinking.

“I’m supposed to tell this to the President.” He said standing as he began pacing in a small circle worrying about how to do this.

“They need help, Scott,” Kevin said evenly. “I had a hard time believing it yesterday. I still am,” he chuckled, “but I can’t argue with the evidence. Neither can you.” He looked back at the window and the three Old Ones who were watching the screen again. They interacted with each other and in many ways, they were really children. They didn’t argue or anything, but I watched as Repetate tickled Iustina. Iustina pushed Repetate away, but was smiling at Repetate. They played! Did they always exist alone? There were hundreds if not thousands of them once. Did they live together at all?

“Devon has been working with them,” George said to the General. “He’s even teaching them sign language, something I never thought to do. He’s getting them to communicate; possibly for the first time in thousands of years.”

“Thousands of years.” The General nodded and looked at me. “Why?”

“They are intelligent creatures, General,” I said simply. “They’re no threat to me, Colin, George or John. They learned about cartoons and can’t get enough of them. They can learn. Once I get enough language in them, we can find out more from them.”

He gave a grudging nod. “I suppose so.” He ran a hand through his hair and looked around the observation room. “They are in a heavily populated area of the world. They could get out and threaten millions.”

“They’ve killed millions in the past.” Colin shook his head. “This place was built for keeping vampires. There is no facility more secure.”

“You need access to better labs.”

George chuckled at the General’s assumption. “You haven’t even seen my lab, General.” He did the “come with me” gesture with his finger as he rose and led the way. “I have every confidence you won’t find a better-equipped lab.” He said leading the General further down a corridor and waved him in the door to his lab.

Stepping in the dimly lit lab the General’s mouth dropped as he looked at the many pieces of equipment. There were computers and things he didn’t recognize there. Beakers and test tubes with chemicals that doing things I only guessed what was happening. In many ways, I was thinking of the mad scientists in movies and shows. It was very organized and clean, but I heard the “it’s alive” in my mind from Frankenstein or something like that. Monitors were displaying what was just unknown to me, but George knew what they meant.

“You need personnel.” The General said.

Kevin waved. “That’s why we’re here to help with that.”

The General nodded but was thinking. “You have things under control.”

“As much control as possible,” Colin answered.

Kevin looked at the General again folding his arms over his chest. “And before you go on, Scott. George Holms has been doing this before you were even born. He knows more about these creatures and the ones infected than we do. No government appointed doctor or scientist could ever know more than he does now.”

The General gave a long shrugging nod. “And how do I tell the President?”

Kevin smiled nodding. “Well, you show him, too.”

The General’s eyes grew. “The only way is to bring him here!”

“This is as important as any peace agreement or policy change,” Kevin said simply. “Don’t you agree?”

“There will be security concerns…Secret Service checks…” the General said.

“Which can be addressed,” Kevin said. “There are rare occasions that occur where they can be held back. They have their own security that will rival the best Secret Service Agent.” He pointed at the General’s uniform. “It was something like this that will help you earn you a third star.”

“But you seek backing?” The General asked George and then looked at Colin. “Any government funding needed?”

“No funding needed.” George laughed at his own thoughts. “We sort of came out, if you will, for that government backing...not the financial support.”

“We are seeking understanding,” Colin said seriously. “We will be spreading throughout the world further. The world’s governments need to know what we’re up against and see what they can do to help. We seek cooperation.”

“We have limited support by way of the FBI,” I said. “The support from a member in Congress and the Senate, but be clear…we will not allow anyone from any military or other group take control of them or what we do.”

“As there is no law regarding this sort of thing,” Colin began to point out, “no law has been broken. We pose no threat to anyone.”

George nodded. “We are trying to protect people.”

“Not just here in the United States, but the world,” John added.

The General shook his head as he was still processing it all. “This is all so…incredible.” He looked at Colin and me. “The others here are all vampires?”

George shook his head. “Can’t you tell?”

“No.” The General answered.

Colin chuckled. “And we’re not telling you.”

It was another hour more when we took the General and his assistant to the elevator so he could do his job with the military.

He shook our hands as he was about to get on the elevator. “How do I express appreciation for what you showed me? I’m not grateful for that.” He admitted. “I can see it is important, however.” He gave a lopsided smile. “I’ll be…in touch.”

Colin turned to George with a smile. “This isn’t going too badly.”

George grunted. “We just started.”

“Don’t be such a pessimist,” I told him.

Kevin looked at us. “He may be cautious, but he is right to be concerned.”

“General Edwards was pretty understanding,” Colin said. “He seemed reasonable once we got him down to earth.”

Kevin nodded. “He may be given no choice.” He said going through the possibilities in his mind. “The President could decide this can’t happen.” He shrugged with a sad sigh. “He is sort of a buffoon.” He looked at us. “We will begin helping immediately.”

“Thank you, Kevin.” George smiled shaking his hand.

There were a few days that passed where we hadn't heard a word from anyone about what we’d revealed to some very important people. Our lives didn’t really change. I continued to work with the Old Ones and they were picking up words. Nouns were pretty easy. You see something…an object. It is what it is. Adjectives and Adverbs were not that hard either like “pretty picture” or “walk fast.” The idea of self was not hard, but they would often refer to themselves by their own name. “Repetate food” or “Iustina cartoon Bugs Bunny.” But they were getting it!

The others in our family…those working with us at the VUN were kept at a distance for now for their own safety. We did, however, get together for dinner one night. I missed them and it was again crowded in our apartment.

“You’re not saying much about what’s happening, Colin,” Willie said to both me and Colin. “Do you think it’s going alright?”

Colin was serving himself from a platter and gave a reluctant shrug. “I guess. It’s still pretty early to tell.”

I looked at Colin. “They should be told about our probable guest.”

Colin looked a little hesitant but then nodded. “It may not happen, but…the General that was here reports to the President. He suggested to get cooperation from the military, we need to let the President know.”

“He might come here,” I added jabbing Colin lightly. “Don’t be evasive. It would give us a major push forward to have some more cooperation.”

“What!?” Stan blurted suddenly. “The President!? Here? At the VUN!?”

Colin nodded. “Seeing is believing.” He said simply.

Mark chuckled. “You know?” He looked at me and Colin. “As rich as he’s supposed to be…couldn’t he afford a better solution to his hair loss? It’s a combover!”

Stan looked at Mark shocked. “He’s the President!”

Mark patted Stan’s hand tolerantly. “Very good, Stan.” He grinned.

Stan rolled his eyes.

“He takes a dump just like everyone else does.” Mark shrugged. “Name one thing he’s done since coming to the office other than piss people off with his endless twittering?” He leaned closer to Stan and stage whispered. “I will tell you, his shit stinks, too.”

“I don’t care about the politics, but he is President!” Stan growled.

George shook his head with a chuckle. “Stan’s right. When Colin said he was going to tell others, I didn’t like it, but now…” he shrugged. “Now that it is. It doesn’t matter to me anymore.”

Colin smiled at George’s words. “Well, they know about more than I wanted to let them know about…” he looked at him, “George!”

George squirmed a little but smiled. “That was an accident.”

“And John?” Colin asked.

John nodded. “The same reason Devon agreed to let them know about him as you were with the truth.” He said logically taking George’s hand.

“The scientists that were here saw Wayne and Amasis go in with the boys,” Colin said. “They didn’t hear anyone say they were vampires, but…it was clear about what they were.”

“Don’t worry, Daddy,” Gabriella said understanding. “No one else will tell about us.”

It was just a day later as Colin worked again on the business part of Holms' Laboratories when Colin’s phone went off. He looked at the screen and opened the link. He was in the building, why call this way?

“George?” He said puzzled as he gazed at me as he heard what was said making his eyes widen even more. “Now?” He turned to me. “The President’s here.”

“Well, he does live here when he can, in Manhattan.” I shrugged. “His place here is bigger than the White House.”

Colin looked down at himself. “He’s on the roof and George is heading up there now to greet him. There’s no time to even change.” He waved at his jeans and shirt.

I chuckled as I went to him bringing his face up from his sitting position. “You’re beautiful, Colin. You always take my breath away.” I said kissing him. I could still make him blush.

“He’s being escorted to the observation room,” Colin said.

I frowned looking at the light outside. It was only three o’clock. “Okay, it would be better after sunset. The President’s here and a busy man. We shouldn’t keep him waiting.” I took Colin’s hand. “We’re going to greet the President.”

We didn’t run, but we were moving a little faster than normal. When we arrived on the floor using the stairs the elevator dinged on the floor of the room with the Old Ones. As the door opened we saw George, General Curtis, and the President came out. George was in a white lab coat, the General in uniform and the President in a nice suit and coat for Manhattan winter. I knew there were no tags on his clothes.

“…simply tell me?” The President was asking exasperatedly. “I have meetings!” He was clearly annoyed.

General Curtis stopped. “If I could, I would, Mr. President.” He sighed trying to be patient. “I saw it and I still have a hard time accepting it.” He motioned for the man to go ahead of him. “A moment of your time and you’ll understand.”

The President sighed and began walking towards us. “I had to practically restrain my service agents. This is highly irregular.”

“As high as their security clearance is…they wouldn’t be high enough for this.” The General said. “You’re safe here.” He said and looked at George. “Isn’t he?” He said with a little edge in his voice. “If not, we all go down.”

George knew what he meant and nodded. “He’s safe.” George smiled at Colin and me. “This is Colin and Devon Wentworth, Mr. President. They both work here very hard.”

The truth was, the President looked at us impatiently. “He told me about a biological weapon…new that I had to see to believe.” He waved his hands. “Well, here I am.”

George opened the door to the observation room. “Step in here and you’ll see.” He led the General and the President to the observation window and turned the window on.

Whatever you thought of the President. He was human. He saw the three forms lying on their backs. Even in the Old Ones’…sleep…they did look odd. You could tell they weren’t really human…or expected some otherworldly explanation. Because they were on their backs, what one of the parts that were missing was clearly seen…or rather not there to be seen.

“What the Hell?” The President asked softly as his eyes widened, just as everyone’s did. He turned to George. “Aliens? Are those real aliens?”

George shook his head with a sad smile. “No, Mr. President. They’re human…sort of. Aliens might be easier to believe, but they are humans…they are vampires.”

The President’s eyes grew again as if they weren’t wide enough. “Vampires!?” He waved at the window. “Why do you keep them? Kill them!” He said to the General.

“Mr. President…” General Curtis began.

“That’s a Presidential Order! Kill them!”

“No!!!” I shouted sharply stepping in front of him between the window and the President. “If you kill them…then you need to kill me!”

The President turned to me in disbelief. “Why? If they are what you said they are, why are they still alive?”

“I’m a vampire, too.”

The President’s eyes could not get bigger as he was looking totally shocked. “You can’t be.”

Colin came over and took my hand. “My husband doesn’t lie, Mr. President.”

“Your husband!?” The President repeated.

“I’m a vampire, too,” Colin said. “You’ll have to kill me if you kill Devon.”

I cocked my head. “Which is part is harder to believe? That we’re gay or that we’re vampires?”

The President did pause a little. Why was it always hard to accept that there were gay people in the world? “The gay thing is just surprising, but you’re vampires!?” He said backing away a little. “You’re saying you are vampires.”

“No fangs now with treatment,” Colin said. “But there is a threat to not only Americans but the entire world. We are at last addressing it. Overdue for thousands of years.”

“I have proof,” George added. “I have medical minds now from around this world to verify this proof. I can share it with you if you’re willing to listen.”

“It has been going on for thousands of years in the dark, hiding,” I said. “We now have a treatment that will help those that need treatment.”

The President nodded. “There are more?”

George nodded. “More than even I guessed. I am one, too.”

The door to the observation room opened and in walked John with Vlad.

I had not really thought about Vlad, but he might be needed. I didn’t want to influence the President, but he had to listen. Vlad could make him listen.

“This man is a friend.” George pointed to Vlad. “Vlad Dragon, meet the President of the United States.”

Vlad gave a European bow and held his hand out. “It is a pleasure to meet you.” He had an accent, but I really didn’t notice it much anymore, but the President did.

“Vlad Dragon?” The President asked. “What sort of name is that?”

“His name, Mr. President. He works here.” I said.

George looked at John. “This is John Burke, my fiancé.” He took John’s hand. “He is also a vampire.”

The President was looking very uncertain. These people were claiming to be vampires, but all gay and…he was bothered by both things we revealed. “I see.”

“Your reactions are expected, Mr. President,” I said.

Colin nodded. “What we would like is help. React as needed, but soon…can we count on some action, instead of reaction?”