The Dark Edge Chronicles - Clan War

Unhappy Queens

Narcist felt her smartphone buzz against her hip and a ghost of a smile played over her lips for the briefest of moments. She didn't need to see the screen to know it was telling her Lash had made it to the command center undetected. Looking over at Truk, who had been keeping her in the corner of his eye, she made a slight nod.

When her eyes returned to the front, Narcist found herself looking at a tall, lean older vampire a couple paces away, his hair pulled into a tail and dressed in expensive, but low key, and tasteful clothing. Seeing that he had the technical expert's attention, he smiled and stepped forward, hand extended in greeting.

"You must be Narcist," he said in a dry, yet surprisingly firm baritone as she took his forearm vampire-style and returned the squeeze she got from him.

"I'm Vulcrum."

Narcist smiled as she recognized the name.

"Ah, Lash's spymaster," she said with a respectful nod. "The boss has told me good things about you, my lord."

Vulcrum immediately held up both hands.

"Careful there, young lady," he said with a deprecating smile. "I'm no lord. And I hope the young master didn't say too much. It's kind of important I stay beneath notice," the handsome old fellow went on to say with a wink. "Bad for business to be well known!"

Narcist returned the smile, finding the older vampire charming and likable.

"Fear not, Vulcrum," she replied. "Your secret is safe with me."

The older vampire bowed gracefully in thanks. When he straightened, however, all trace of his earlier joviality was gone.

"The master says you have a data vault containing information about this rogue human faction," he said, his expression intent. "May I see it?"

Nodding, Narcist produced the vault from an inner pocket and handed it to him. After giving it a cursory look, Vulcrum plugged it into a portable reader the size of cigarette lighter, the smallest and most advanced reader Narcist had ever seen. His long fingers nimbly manipulating the reader's hidden interface, Vulcrum frowned as the reader's small screen filled with dense encryption.

"Hmm," he said before looking over at Narcist. "Have you had the chance to look at this yet, young lady?"

Her eyes on the dense lines of text, Narcist shook her head.

Returning his attention to the reader's display, he pointed at the text.

"This is what we call in the business a neural encrypt. Each derivation of Humanity, no matter how far their mutation takes them from the original stock, has one." He held up the same finger as he prepared to make a point.

"But it's that species' mutation that makes the encrypt unique!"

Vulcrum paused to again point at specific lines of text.

"These markers here, and here tell me this neural print comes from a human. One with a very disciplined mind, but a stock human nevertheless."

Narcist slowly nodded.

"Lash said it was a scan from a high level White Flame commander's mind," she indicated.

"Ah, that explains the military precision in the streams," Vulcrum said. "Would I be correct in saying this scan was provided by a psionic? And a powerful one, at that!"

"How can you tell that?" Narcist wanted to know even as she nodded in confirmation.

"The precise way each set of symbols are clustered," Vulcrum revealed, using his finger to circle sets of similar characters. "Soldiers, lifetime ones especially, like things organized and categorized. Even their thoughts and memories. Many say it helps in decision making and reaction time."