The Power Stones

(16) Vampires from Venus

It was a warm and sunny after noon in the campsite when the letter arrived. Steven was now fifty years old, and had just begun to help with a church in South america. He had grown up in a christian household and the bible had always fascinated him, and he wanted to share that fascination with those who didn't have access to it. Truthly he probably just missed the thrill of spy work, but this was definitely close to that.

"Papa S, Papa S!" called out one of the native boys, he had gone from agent S, to Papa S(It was more of a title, he was not married but the children looked to him like the father they never had). "What is a child?" He asked. The boy, probably ten years of age hurried up the path to Steven's tent. When he arrived he took a second to catch his breath then handed Steven a letter. "For you." He said. "Thank you, do you know who it is from?" he asked, taking the letter from the boy. "No sir." "Ok, thank you, have a nice day." "You to Papa S." The boy waved and then turned to leave.

Steven fingered the letter, looking it over. "Let's see where you come from, eh?" he said to himself. He checked the address. "What!" he couldn't believe his eyes. The letter was from Toad.

He hurried into the tent, he didn't want anyone to see this. He made one final check of the letter to make sure that it wasn't rigged in any way before he finally opened it. He carefully read the letter, making sure not to miss a single detail. After finishing the letter he had to sit down, there was just too much to process. "How...How can this be?" was all he said.

Steven was snapped back into reality by the voice of one of the staff known as Rick calling for him. "Steven, are you ok? You've been in there for three hours now." He sounded concerned so Steven hid the Letter in one of his books and exited the tent. "I'm just fine." he said, then he turned and headed for the main operations building, he needed to make a call.

It was no more than twelve hours later that a young man came to his doorstep. He had a clean cut, and despised being dressed casually you could tell there was something shark about him. "You must be Tyler." said Steven as warmly as he could, he extended his hand. "Likewise," said Tyler, he took his hand. "Let's go inside, shall we?" "Yes, we shall."

Steven could tell by the way this man looked that he was one of Toad's elites, worked alone, very efficiently, and probably would not hesitate to kill or use force. "Is what the letter says..true?" asked Steven, he was a little hesitant because if it was it could very well change his life. "Every last word." "Very well then," Steven straightened up, he tried to bring back the authority that he once had. "You may begin your search immediately, i want the target Alive at all costs, Take your time, and don't activate her." "Understood."

Jacob and Margret were hard workers, but even so they were barely able to provide for their son Steven. They put so much time and energy into him that it so greatly painted them when they learned of his death. He had gone away to work for a small shipping company called Toad, but not even two months later they got a letter explaining that there had been an accident.

It took two years for them to dry the tears, but they could now look to provide for their new baby girl. That didn't last long either. They ran into some financial problems and were no longer able to provide for a family of three. That's when the venus project was launched. The government was looking for at least one hundred children under the age of three to fly to Venus, grow up there and colonize it within the environmental domes that had been built by the small tech company known as Shark.

With the continuous payments they would revive plus the free education for their child they couldn't say no, they were slightly abashed by this decision like many other parents, but who could blame them? Unfortunately the project was shut down after contact with the rocket was lost, and no one ever heard from the twelve adult pilots or hundreds of kids for more than ten years.