THE DARKEST HOPE

Chapter 12

"I am telling you, the vampire thread is much higher here, inside The City than we originally thought!" Chief of Police Jin, dressed in his official uniform, trying to look as representative as possible was already starting to lose his temper. After almost a week of waiting outside the doors of the City Council, constantly filling some stupid forms about admission he finally received a meeting with the Mayor and his advisers. Although he did expected some part of the annoying and unnecessary bureaucracy while trying to get his meeting with the leaders of this town, he did not expect the ignorant and careless behavior of these people at the meeting itself.

"Chief, please try to hold your voice down or I will have to ask you to leave this hall, with or without your consent."

The Mayor was a tall elderly man with gray hair. While listening to Jin's resume he was constantly looking at his watch like he was in a hurry for somewhere. The other members of the City Council were Mister Lee, The Big Albino, the famous rich district restaurant owner and naturally Tae's father The Old Kim. Mister Lee was still smoking his long cigarettes, looking disapprovingly at the imposter before them, while The Old Kim looked almost angry and impatiently interrupted Jin's monologue.

"You should know your place, Chief of police. Your place is in the poor districts, fighting crime, not here bothering us with your nonsense. And from the reports that we've been receiving the Police isn't doing their job very well. Maybe we need a new leader of the police force, one who knows how to manage social transgression."

"Let me explain myself one more time, I feel like you don't understand me completely" Jin tried once more "although I don't feel that you areyou listening to me at all!"

"Five more minutes, Chief, you are wasting our time for a long time now!" The Mayor cut off.

"All right, I'll summarize. After a raid in the sewers, organized by the the Police force in The City we discovered a large gathering of vampires in the sewer system. The creatures live there in packs of about ten to twenty individuals. Although we originally were certain that the beasts act on a random urge, without much thought in it, the analysis of their behavior at our last encounter led us to believe that they are much smarter and much more organized than we originally believed. The main problems before our city's security are these; first the vampire thread seems to be really stronger inside the city walls then on the outside and second the discovery that the vampires, or at least some of them can actually think logically, set traps, do ambushes and probably much more."

"Yeah, yeah, we already heard that..." the Mayor was once again glaring at his watch. His annoyance grew bigger. This obtrusive policeman was bothering him a lot, and just when it was time for lunch. He impatiently lifted his gaze and asked "Now, what do you want from us? You lead the police force, go in the sewers and clean them for the infected."

"That is impossible with the current live force and equipment we have. The policemen under my orders are no more than twenty men. Plus several freelance vampire hunters. All the available military force is situated on the walls of The City or in the Rich District. And these men follow your orders. I need more men and money so I can hire additional vampire hunters. That is the only way we could even start to explore the sewers and cleanse them..."

"What you require cannot be done. The zones that are protected by the military are important and we cannot neglect them. Not for your ideas and unproven suspicions. Guarding the city walls is important and there is no way we will weaken our defenses here in this district, where the leaders of this community are gathered!"