[Dept. 19 Files 03] The New Blood: 1919 Read Online Free PDF Page A

nothing.
    Morris and Holmwood arrived beside him, then trained their torches on the fallen man.
    “Vampire,” said David. “You got him, Quincey. Good work.”
    “Thank you,” said Harker. He was breathing heavily with excitement.
    “Damn good shot,” said Holmwood. “But for heaven’s sake, Quincey, you can’t have known he was a vampire. What if you had just shot some vagrant in the back?”
    “Why would a vagrant run?” asked Morris. “We don’t look like police, Albert.”
    “Any number of reasons,” said Holmwood, his brow furrowing into a frown. “He could have been—”
    “I knew full well what I was doing,” interrupted Quincey. “When he bolted, I saw his eyes. Vagrants do not tend to have eyes that glow red.”
    “You saw his eyes?” asked Albert. “From such a distance?”
    “You don’t believe me?” asked Harker.
    “I believe you, Quincey. Although you must have the eyes of a bloody eagle.” He grinned, then turned his attention to the stricken vampire. “You there,” he said, prodding the man’s ribs with the toe of his boot. “What is your name?”
    The man growled and bared his blood-smeared teeth.
    “You godless savage,” said Albert, looking down at him with an expression of obvious disgust. “How did you come to sink so low? Tell me now, and be quick about it.”
    The vampire spat a thick wad of blood into the air and let out a terrible screech of pain and misery.
    “That’s enough,” said Quincey. He slung the rifle back over his shoulder, pulled one of the stakes from his belt and dropped to his knees, bringing the sharpened wood down in the middle of the man’s chest. The vampire’s eyes bulged and David Morris yelled in warning as the wood slid between the man’s ribs and pierced his heart. There was a millisecond’s pause, before the man exploded in a roar of flying blood. Harker leapt backwards, but was too slow; the blood splashed across his coat and the lower half of his face, shocking him momentarily. Then he started to laugh as blood dripped from his chin.
    “One down, gentlemen,” he said. “God alone knows how many to go.”
    Morris and Holmwood looked at him with expressions of disapproval, which began to crack under the infectious refrain of Harker’s laughter. When the three men had regained control of themselves, Holmwood pushed his hat back on his head and regarded Quincey with a mildly reproachful expression.
    “The policy has been to attempt to subdue the vampires,” he said. “So they could be studied. Van Helsing requested it.”
    “Van Helsing is dead,” said Quincey, “so is unlikely to be studying anything. When my man Ellis arrives, I intend to set him to work on new procedures, as well as the continuation of the scientific study of these creatures. Until then, I see no alternative to destroying them.”
    “Quincey is right,” said David Morris. “We have no facility to store prisoners, and our combined scientific understanding amounts to very little. This was well done.”
    Holmwood nodded, but Quincey could see that he was not entirely convinced. “Albert,” he said. “I have a task of utmost importance that I suspect only you are capable of fulfilling. Will you hear it?”
    “Of course,” said Holmwood. “What would you have me do?”
    “I cannot believe that my squad mates and I were the only men who encountered these creatures during the war,” he said. “We need to review the reports from the front and identify any references to these things. When we expand, which must be our first priority, men with experience of these creatures will be the likeliest candidates.”
    “To examine every report will take weeks,” said Holmwood. “Perhaps even months.”
    Harker nodded. “And there is no time to waste,” he said. “Your position at the War Office will allow you access to the reports without arousing suspicion, will it not?”
    “It will,” agreed Holmwood. “When would you have me undertake this