Johndrowâs end of the line. Â âThe blood drained from a vampire,â he whispered. Â âFrom a very old vampire.â
âVanessa fits that description,â Donovan said, softening his tone. Â âSheâs in more danger than you realized.â
âBut surely,â Johndrow said, âThere are other difficult items on that list. Â Could he have gathered them all without drawing attention to himself?â
âIt might have been a problem to find that out,â Donovan replied, âif technology hadnât become so advanced. Â Â I scan all of the books I acquire into my computer before putting them on the shelves. Â It allows me to preserve very old and fragile texts, and to protect against an emergency. Â I have a copy of the formula, and I donât believe heâs quite got everything he needs. Â We have some time, though not a great deal of it. Â The blood must be extracted immediately preceding the mixing process, so we can expect he is keeping Vanessa â alive -- until heâs ready.â
âWhat does he need?â Johndrow asked.  âIf I knewâ¦â
âLet me handle that,â Donovan cut in. Â There was silence on Johndrowâs end.
âThis is what you are hiring me to do,â Donovan continued. Â âI will have a better chance of tracing this without others blundering around muddying the waters, and despite what just happened here, I have the better chance of saving her once Iâve found her. Â Even if you managed to track him, what would you do? Â I have your letter â I know what happened with Kline.â
âWhat happened with Kline is the reason I donât feel comfortable trusting this to only one man,â Johndrow replied.  âKlineâs people have resources, and I can call in my own peopleâ¦â
âKlineâs people are not trained to work in the field,â Donovan replied calmly, âand your own people arenât trained for this type of work at all. Â Letâs be honest, Preston , itâs been a long time since any of your kind has needed to march into real battle. Â Even the elders, yourself included, are decades from the last serious conflict. Â This is what I do, let me handle it.â
âI will give you two days,â Johndrow replied. Â âI wonât lose her through foolish trust.â
âI understand,â Donovan replied. Â âI donât want this guy succeeding any more than you do, though admittedly for selfish reasons.â
âKeep me informed, Mr. DeChance,â Johndrow said softly.  âDonât leave me sitting at home and wondering.  Idle hands, you knowâ¦â
âIâll be in touch,â Donovan replied. Â He hung up the phone and stared at the wall.
He slid the computerâs keyboard and mouse back into place and tapped the keyboard. Â When prompted, he logged in and watched as the machine loaded. Â He smiled as mechanical drives whirred, lights flashed, and complex patterns of logical numbers whirled through machine. Â Men could say what they wanted about magic not existing, but they understood the concepts of ritual and reaction quite well. Their methods were slow and relatively crude, but the outcome was solid and workable. Â The Personal Computer was one of the finest magical achievements of the age.
Once the logon sequence ended he opened the encryption software he used to scramble the more esoteric texts heâd scanned. Â The computer had more than standard firewall protections, and a number of enhancements that had nothing to do with microchips or wires. Â A series of symbols rotated into place on the screen, and in the center a large gold colored disk spun lazily. Â Â At each point corresponding with the correct pattern, Donovan tapped the button on his mouse, and the disk slowed, stopped, and then spun the opposite
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