The Chupacabras Rises - Part 3

Chapter Five – The Contact

Oscar didn’t go home, not yet, though he did finally stop for that shower. There’d be time for that later. Being a man with good survival instincts, he did text Judith to let her know what had happened, and she called back a short time later. Together, they agreed that random attacks by furry monsters and gunmen in town was A ProblemTM, and they needed to get ahead of it.

With that taken care of, Oscar and Artu reconvened to discuss the matter at hand. Artuditu, looking a little better and bleeding much less than he really should have, said, “I’m alright. For now. I had a… well, you know.”

Despite the circumstances, Oscar couldn’t help but chuckle.

“A snack?”

“Yeah, something like that.” said Artu, shrugging his shoulders.

Oscar nodded and said, “Good. We need to talk to Eleanor. The gunman was speaking English.”

Artu raised an eyebrow, and asked, “Really now? I thought I heard something like that during the fight, but I was… busy.”

Oscar replied, “Yep. He tried shouting something in Spanish about a ‘monster’ when I shot at him. Frankly, that worries me.”

Artuditu was quiet for a moment.

“Do you think I brought this trouble here?”

“Either that or it came looking for you. But it found me. No worries, Compa, I’m not going to let this stand.”

With that, they went looking for Eleanor.

They found her in one of the local cafes, looking for all the world like nothing had gone wrong in the last hour or so. Oscar supposed she must be used to gunshots and the like, and had probably been in much worse places.

Eleanor Hall looked for all the world like a retired midwestern schoolteacher. Which she was, after a fashion, though “retirement” was something of a stretch, where she was concerned. She was wearing jeans, a blouse suitable for the weather, and had light-brown medium-length hair with blonde highlights that would probably need to be redone soon. She wasn’t thin, but her arms were toned in the way you get from lifting, carrying, and corralling children all day long.

She really was a teacher. When Oscar had given the school district enough money to start up an English learning program, she’d come highly recommended. She’d taught English in the town of San Nicolás for about twelve years at this point, and had become a known part of the community.

What set her apart from other teachers in the area—even the other English teachers—was… well there were two things. First, there were her piercing gray eyes. These were not the eyes of a kindly teacher, though she was great with the kids. These eyes had seen far more than the occasional schoolyard accident. These were eyes that had been places no human ought to be, seen things that would doubtlessly make Oscar wince in knowing sympathy.

The other things, was that she regularly helped Oscar to make deals. Oscar’s organization had plenty of trouble moving their illicit products these days, but having Eleanor around made it easier. What this hard-eyed midwestern gringa with the friendly voice was doing with thousands of kilos of drugs was a mystery to all but her.

Well, not entirely a mystery. Oscar was just too smart to ever use the letters “C”, “I”, and “A” together in that order where she could hear. What U.S. government agencies did to get extra funding was none of his business, after all, and it helped to keep the Feds off his back.

What was important was that they kept an open, honest (to a point), and cordial relationship with this unassuming envoy of their neighbors to the north. That, and she knew things. She had access to information Oscar could only dream of, and he had every intention of getting his hands on some of that information now. If random U.S. commando types with supernatural beings on their side were going to wreak havoc in his territory… well, they weren’t. He’d see to it. And Eleanor might be the key to stopping them.

Oscar took off his hat as they approached, and Artuditu kept back a little to let Oscar handle the meeting. Oscar put on his friendliest grin, one that had earned him many a mistress over the years, and stepped up to her table.

[“Eleanor, how are you today? Glad to be away from the kids for a bit?”]

Eleanor smiled back, and said, [“Oh, today’s fine, just fine. The kids were actually pretty good this week, bless’em. Hardly had to break up any fights, only had to clean up puke the once.”]

Oscar nodded. He had no experience as a teacher, but given his recollections of his own early childhood, this seemed like a pretty good week to him.

[“That’s great. Mind if I sit down?”]

Eleanor eyed him wryly, and said, [“Fine by me Oscar-man! Long as you cut the moose-poop and tell me exactly why you’re here.”]

[“Moose-poop?”]

[“I have to say something that’s not ‘bullshit’ in front of the kids.”]

Oscar chuckled, genuinely.

[“Ah, they’ll learn to swear at home, where they should.”]

He sat, and looked her straight in the eye for a moment. He was sizing her up, to be sure, but also he wasn’t entirely sure where to begin.

Eleanor took pity on him.

[“Quite a ruckus this morning, eh?”]

[“That’s one way to put it.”] Oscar replied.

[“And?”]

[“And I need information. I wouldn’t come to you unless it was… serious.”]

Eleanor, who knew well enough that Oscar had his own contacts, simply nodded.

After a moment’s reflection, she said, [“Tell me about them. I make no promises, but you’ve certainly done enough favors for us. We might be able to handle one for you.”]

Oscar told her. He spared no detail, save Artuditu’s vampire status. When he was done, she looked a bit puzzled.

[“You say one of the attackers was furry? Not just… a hairy man?”]

Oscar replied, [“I mean if it didn’t stand on two legs, I would swear it was an animal of some sort. In fact, it still might be.”]

[“But an animal that speaks English.”] she said, matter-of-factly.

[“That’s about the way of it. What do you think these people meant by ‘monster’? And do you know who they might be, and why they’d come here?”]

Eleanor eyed Oscar carefully. Then, she looked around the cafe meaningfully.

Oscar nodded to Artuditu, and Artu went to have a word with the owner. In minutes, the cafe had been cleared out, and the three of them were alone. All the while, Eleanor sipped her coffee, and made the sort of polite small talk that is designed to make anyone listening to it get bored enough to stop.

Once they were properly alone, Eleanor looked at Oscar levelly.

[“I can’t tell you exactly what’s going on. Not yet. But if I had to guess, the answers are ‘they were referring to your vampire friend’, ‘vampire hunters’, and ‘bad luck.’”]

Oscar put his head in his hands, [“Am I the only dumbass in this entire town who didn’t already know?”]

Artuditu, for his part, was shocked but wary.

[“Excuse me Ma’am, but how did you know that?”]

Eleanor couldn’t help but chuckle.

[“Oh come on, boys. Arturo, really? You both have some idea who I am, and what I can do.”] she said, using Artu’s given name.

Oscar looked up, [“That’s true enough. So your uh… associates… they know about?”]

He mimed having exceptionally large canines.

Eleanor nodded, [“Of course they do. It’s their job to know things. It’s my job to know things… come, Arturo, sit… and I’ve known about vampires for a long time. Plenty of other non-human sapients, too. That’s uh, that’s what the nerds back at the office call them.”]

Oscar, deciding it was time to be blunt, asked, [“Well, are these ones yours?”]

Eleanor shook her head, and said, [“If you mean American, then it sure sounds like it. If you mean ours, then no. We certainly have a few, but if they were going to conduct operations in the area, I’d be told. They owe me that much, at least.”]

This posting was, truth be told, something of a working retirement for Eleanor. She’d been a field agent, then an instructor at, well, that wasn’t important. She’d always loved kids, and was more than happy to spend her 60s teaching small people the basics of the English language, rather than teaching recruits how to handle an asset, or kill a man in five hundred different ways.

Her side job as a go-between for Oscar’s cartel and the CIA was just the price to be paid for a few years of peace and quiet. She was convinced that, if the company had really run an operation in her neck of the woods, they’d have approached her for local intel, and support.

Oscar believed her.

[“Alright,”] he said, settling back a little, [“if they’re not yours, can your people make them go away?”]

Eleanor shrugged.

[“That depends. If they’re in the community, so to speak, we might be able to reach out to them through their superiors. Generally speaking, though, the United States government doesn’t employ people who hunt vampires for fun. If one of them needs to be removed, the job is handed to a unit that won’t half-ass the job.”]

She turned to Artuditu and said, [“Not to put too fine a point on it, Dear, but if my people wanted you permanently dead, you’d be gone.”]

Artu nodded in agreement.

[“That’s what I thought. No, these feel… not like amateurs, but certainly independents.”]

There was a knock at the door of the cafe. The owner stood outside, patiently trying to catch their attention without appearing to have been listening.

“Yes?” asked Oscar, switching back to Spanish, “Oh, we’ve been taking up your cafe for too long. I’ll make sure you’re compensated of course.”

The cafe owner shook his head, “No need. I appreciate… the point is that Griselda is asking to see you. From the hotel?”

The town of San Nicolás had a couple of hotels, actually, but only one that was truly worthy of the name. Griselda was the owner, manager, and sometimes the janitorial staff, if she couldn’t get someone to cover for a sick employee. She had a full name, Oscar assumed, but it had largely been forgotten, left for some relative to uncover when they inherited her personal effects one day.

The old lady poked her head around the wall, and asked, “May I come in? It’s important.”

Eleanor said, [“There isn’t much more I can tell you right now anyway. I need to make some calls.”]

Oscar nodded, and Eleanor said her goodbyes, and left the cafe with a bit less than the usual bounce in her step.

Dolores came in, and said, “Excuse me, Sir, it’s just that I have a letter for, well, ‘the person in charge’?”

Oscar raised an eyebrow. This was unexpected, to say the least.

“Can you tell me who it’s from, Doña Griselda?”

“Well, we’ve had some young people at the hotel. About ten of them in different rooms. Um, two of them came running in this morning, after the gunshots, and told the others. They all left in a hurry. I didn’t think anything of it, you know? They seemed like such nice kids.”

“Kids?” asked Oscar, knowing well that this could mean anyone under the age of sixty, where Doña Griselda was concerned.

“Yes, well. They were young, strong, Americans. A lot of them had really short hair. Very polite, though.”

“And they gave you this letter?”

“Ah yes!” she exclaimed, getting back to the matter at hand, “Before they all left, one of the ones who came running in this morning—his clothes were a mess—gave me this. He said, ‘Give it to the person in charge around here, please.’ and left.”

Oscar thanked Griselda, promised to come visit sometime, and had Artuditu walk her to the door as he opened the envelope. Inside was a letter in English, which read:

[To whom it may concern,

We’d like to apologize for, well, the clusterfuck, if you’ll pardon my French. This may be hard to believe, but there is someone in your town who believes they are a vampire. Normally we wouldn’t care about this sort of thing, to each his own, right? But we’ve dealt with people like this man before, and we think he’s dangerous.

It’s hard to explain, but we don’t like waiting around for bad things to happen, and we took action. We apologize for the panic we must have caused. Old habits, you know? You see a problem, you try to shoot it.

Anyway, we won’t be doing that again. But we are going to make sure that this person doesn’t do any serial-killing because of this vampire delusion. You’re welcome, I guess. Just be safe, and don’t worry about it. And don’t get in the way.

Regards]

There was no name, or even a codename. Someone had taught this lunatic at least that much about operational security.

“‘Vampire delusion’ my ass.” scoffed Artu, reading the letter from over Oscar’s shoulder.

Oscar nodded and, without looking around, said, “They clearly thought this letter would reach someone who doesn’t know that vampires are real. Or they’re just being careful. They’re pretty insistent on killing you, though.”

Artuditu said, “Very thoughtful.”

“Yeah, it looks like we have an idealist on our hands.”

“As if life weren’t complicated enough.”

Together, they left the cafe and began to make preparations. Rogue vampire hunters were out for, well, blood. At least some of them seemed to be military. Oh, and they had what Oscar really hoped wasn’t a chupacabras on their side, because somehow, that would just make it worse.

Before they split up, Oscar got a call from Eleanor.

[“They’re not ours. Not in the company, that is.”] she said by way of greeting.

[“I figured as much. I just got a letter from them. They were staying at Griselda’s hotel and, honestly, I think they didn’t even know Artu was here.”] replied Oscar.

[“Oh dear, well doesn’t that just butter your biscuits? Target of opportunity.”]

[“Yeah. They’re determined to take him down. We don’t know how or when, but we can only assume they’ll try again. And soon. And with more people.”]

Eleanor sighed, [“Well, let it never be said that we don’t take care of our business partners. Sometimes. I’ll ask around, see if I can get more information about them. Griselda has copies of their IDs for the hotel stay?”]

[“She doesn’t do ID copies, but she should have their names. Who knows? She might even have some of their real names, if they weren’t planning on hunting.”]

[“I’ll see what I can do.”] said Eleanor, [“You take care, now. Bloodsucker or no, Arturo’s a sweetie, and I won’t see nothing bad happen to him.”]

Oscar snorted, said his goodbyes, and hung up. A sweetie. Artuditu was his right hand man, and they’d fought together, partied together, and on a few unfortunate occasions executed people together. Though he supposed that, being who she was, Eleanor wouldn’t think too much of all that.

He sent Artuditu on his way with a simple instruction:

“Get everyone together. Depending on how many surprises they have for us, this could get ugly, even if there are only ten of them. And Artu… you’ll need to tell everyone.”

Chapter Six – The Meeting

Proper town meetings would be held in the proper town hall. There, people would discuss things like how to allocate the town’s budget, which town maintenance projects had priority, and how to keep one man’s chickens off another man’s lawn.

This wasn’t that kind of meeting. This was the kind of meeting where every man, woman, and, well Oscar wasn’t up to date on all the new terms. The point is that this was the kind of meeting everyone who worked directly for his organization would gather in one of his fields, and they would discuss a more immediate, and potentially life-threatening sort of problem.

They’d had this sort of meeting four times that Oscar could remember. The first time was when he took over as the cartel boss. The second, he’d had to make examples of a couple of traitors. That had been a dark day, but not as dark as the third time, when he’d announced that they were going to war with another cartel. Obviously, as he was still alive, they’d won, but not without cost.

The fourth such meeting had, at his instruction, been a happy affair. He and Judith were celebrating their tenth anniversary, and they’d had a few good years. He’d made a point of showing his lieutenants a good time, even if it was a little tame. Children had been in attendance, after all.

This meeting was being held on short notice. Although Oscar had a few hundred people working for him in a direct fashion, they wouldn’t all be able to gather on short notice. They wouldn’t even all be in town. But if he could get fifty, maybe seventy-five of them, it might be enough.

It had to be enough.

Soon, it was late afternoon. He’d had another shower for good measure, changed his clothes, and had a quick nap, after eating his first proper meal since the day before. Judith had been nonplussed when he explained the situation, then infuriated.

“Who are these dickless bastards? Why do they think they have the right to come here, and kill one of our own?!”

Theorizing that they believed the town to be under Artuditu’s thrall hadn’t helped. If these young idiots ever came face to face with his wife, Oscar would pity them. They wouldn’t die easy.

All the better that he had other plans. But first, he had to get everyone on board. If they were careful, and smart, this would be the hardest part of the whole ordeal. It was for that reason that he’d invited the local priest.

The sun hadn’t set when he stood on a makeshift stage in front of his people. They’d managed about sixty of his best. Most of them were men, but a few women were in the group as well. As requested, they’d all come armed. Well, armed was an understatement. There were military bases in Mexico that were less well-supplied than the people arrayed before him.

Now for the tricky bit: to make sure they didn’t kill Artuditu themselves, and himself as well.

He took the mic from one of his younger sons, who had set up a couple of speakers, squared his shoulders, and began to speak.

“Ladies, gentlemen, my people. There is… a situation. As most of you know, some people started firing at Artuditu and myself in the streets of San Nicolás early this morning.”

He paused for the boos, and shouts of, “We’ll kill them!” and other threats. Gratifyingly, his people had plenty to say on the subject.

Oscar stopped them when he heard someone call out, “We’ll feed them their own dicks with chopsticks!”

“Yes, we will! We’ll get to that and… wow Gerardo, that was… graphic. We’re just going to kill them, it’s fine.”

Gerardo said, “Awww.” melodramatically, and everyone around him laughed. Amusingly, he was dressed as an Adelita. Appropriate enough, given that they would be going to war.

“The problem is… these aren’t like anyone we’ve fought before. For one thing, they’re U.S. citizens.”

That brought a measure of quiet to the field.

“Now, they’re not Federals, and they’re not here officially. They uh… they think of themselves as hunters.”

After a moment of silence, someone called out, “And they’re hunting… us?”

Oscar sighed, “This is where it gets weird. They uh, they’re hunting vampires.”

At this, the silence was more puzzled. No one would accuse Oscar of lying, or joking. He wouldn’t bring them all out for a meeting like this on a whim, or for a prank. So this was serious, if confusing. The questions came pouring in:

“So they’re crazy?”

“Are they hunting goth kids? Do we even have any goths in town anymore? I mean Laura moved away some time…”

Gerardo said, “I’m known for sucking but…”

“That’s enough of that,” said Oscar, before that line of thought could go any further.

“Look, there’s no way to explain this so… actually…” he invited one of his guards over with a wave of his hand.

“You all know Lalo?”

There were murmurs of assent.

“Okay, Artu, come on up here.”

Reluctantly, Artuditu approached Oscar.

“Okay, Artu,” Oscar said softly, “do the thing.”

Then he motioned for his son to come over as well.

“Now as we all know, Lalo doesn’t have a sense of humor. Also, he’s the worst liar we’ve ever seen.”

There were scattered chuckles, which turned to confused murmurs when Artuditu opened his mouth, and let his fangs out.

“Lalo, please look inside his mouth… no, you don’t have to get too close, just look. He won’t bi… LOOK!”

Lalo hesitantly looked inside of Artuditu’s mouth. He could obviously see no evidence that the teeth were anything but real.

Around his fangs, and with his mouth open, Artu managed to mumble, “Ca I ut e a i ow?”

“Not yet. Son, take a picture.”

His son took three pictures, which he quickly texted to everyone in attendance.

Artuditu closed his mouth.

“I hope that’s the last time we have to do that.”

Oscar smiled at his friend, “Not likely.”

To the crowd he said, “So now you know, as I only recently discovered, that Artuditu is a vampire. It happened about three years ago… remember that little blonde thing at the bar? When those gringos were lost?”

Surprise and mirth unexpectedly washed through the crowd. There were shouts of, “Wait, can I see them?”, and “Seriously, Artu?”, and “Rabo verde!”

Artu put his head in his hands and yelled, “I know!”

The questions continued.

“Can you turn into a bat?”

“If I can, I don’t know how.”

“Can you fly?”

“Wouldn’t be here if I could.”

“So you’re gay now? I’ve seen the movies, vampires have to be…”

Oscar interrupted then, “No, he’s not. I’ve been over this with him.”

“Are you sure?”

“He might be a little gay…” said Gerardo.

“I’m bi, for fuck’s sake!” yelled Artu.

For a moment, silence reigned once more. Then just as quickly as it came, it vanished.

“Oh, good to know.”

“Yeah, that’s cool I guess.”

“Do we have a party, or…”

Oscar waved them all to silence.

“The more important question,” he said, “is what are we going to do about these so-called vampire hunters? I have to warn you… they’re not all human. There’s only about ten, but they could be dangerous as all fuck.”

The mood in the crowd turned serious. What would they do indeed?

“Listen, and listen well. You all know Artu. Most of you have known him for decades. I still believe, undead or not, he is my best friend. And he doesn’t hurt people. He has, it’s true, drunk a little human blood which he needs to survive. But he hasn’t killed anyone… for blood.”

Murmurs of discussion began to swell.

Eventually came the expected question, “How do we know he hasn’t hypnotized you or something?”

Oscar conceded, “You don’t, not for sure. But if I was hypnotized, I don’t think I’d be giving you all a choice. That’s right, I’m giving you the choice. I’m going to fight for my friend, and if you join me, your lives will be on the line for someone who is, technically, dead already. You’re my people. I won’t ask you to fight and die without knowing the situation.”

The discussion turned thoughtful. Oscar had, in fact, been sparing with the lives of his own people. It was one of the things they liked best about him. While they talked, and argued Father Rivera came to the stage. Upon seeing him take the mic, the crowd settled. Father Rivera was known and loved in San Nicolás. He was pious, but he didn’t judge them for doing what they needed to survive. No one had a bad word to say about him.

Father Rivera spoke, “People of San Nicolás! I have known about Arturo’s condition for some time. To tell the truth, ummm…”

Father Rivera put down the mic, and quickly asked Artuditu a question. Artu nodded.

Father Rivera picked the mic back up, and spoke, “With his permission, I can tell you that Arturo came to me, soon after his transformation. Under the seal of confession, he told me how it happened. He asked me if he was already dead, would it be a sin to end his own existence? Would it be better to cease to be, than continue on as a demon?

“I told him the truth as I see it. The fact that he can ask himself these questions means that he is no demon. I tell you, he means you no harm. As Oscar has told you, he does drink some human blood. He can’t avoid it.

At this, the priest cracked a smile, “But mostly, he drinks from his goats. They do not seem to mind, much.”

As if on cue, Gerardo called out, “Wait, are you the fucking Chupacabras?”

Laughter spread through the crowd. Oscar took over again.

“Thank you, Father. I think it says something that Arturo has been to church, and is still alive. Sort of. And if you’ll look up, carefully, you may notice that the sun is still out. If God, who made the sun, sees fit to let Artu live… well so do I. And I’m glad for it. But what say you?”

There were some grumbles, some murmurs of assent, but no consensus.

Judith joined her husband on stage, and said, “I have an idea. We’ll vote on it. Everyone who’s willing to fight these gringos, some of whom aren’t human, for Artuditu, whom we know and love… raise your hand. NOT YET!”

She turned to Artuditu, “Turn around, cover your eyes.”

“What? Why?” he asked, suspiciously.

“Everyone knows vampires hypnotize people with their eyes. Cover your eyes, dummy!”

Artu shrugged, turned around, and covered his eyes.

“Should I count to one hundred while you all hide?”

“Baboso!” she said in reply, “Alright, now everyone who agrees with my husband and I, raise your hands.”

Nearly all of them went up.

“Alright, Artu, turn around, open your eyes.” she instructed.

Artu turned, and saw all but a few hands in the air, and the crowd smiling at him. He began to cry, and the tears were red like blood. They were blood.

“Grooooosss!” came a shout from the crowd, and they all began to laugh, cheer, and generally shout threats at enemies who couldn’t hear them yet. Oscar breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe the hard part was truly over.

TO BE CONTINUED