Her private library was ornate and impeccably furnished, with inlaid bookshelves, oriental carpets, and colorful tapestries. The room also bristled with high-tech gear – banks of computers, faxes, electronic maps, and a highly sophisticated television set that did way more than anyone knew of.
Vanessa peered inside her office and observed it for a moment, making sure that everything was in place. It was something she always did any time she arrived in the room.
The light had been turned off. Strange. She'd never left her light turned off before. Then, it all came back to her. Travis, her trusted AI assistant was here. He must have turned the light off himself. He enjoyed his hyper sleep more when he was in darkness.
She reached out for the socket on the wall and turned the light on. In a flash, the whole room was illuminated by a hot glowing bulb.
She glanced to the side of her table and spotted Travis there. Just as she'd suspected, he was in hyper sleep. He snapped his head up at once immediately after the light came on and opened his eyes. Vanessa was heading toward him, a deep frown on his face.
Travis was still booting his system when she took her seat before the enormous table. It usually took up to a minute before he turned on fully. Vanessa chewed on the corner of her lips while she waited for him to come on.
"Booting in progress," The electronic voice of the robot announced. It added after a moment. "AI system coming on in five, four, three, two, one."
A sharp beep sound followed and Travis was totally back to life.
Vanessa looked at him, too immersed in her thoughts to say a word. He saw the way his eyes looked upon her fixating on her eyes, as if trying to read her thoughts. Travis was made with a software that understood human emotions. That explained why he could relate to her on such a human level.
"What seems to be the problem, ma'am?" The electronic voice asked, moving closer to her.
He was slightly taller than her and so, when he reached her side, he'd had to crouch down in order to be able to lay his strong arms on her.
Vanessa was sniffing unable to control her emotions. A second later, hot tears were rolling down her face while she did nothing to stop it.
Travis watched her for a moment, not knowing the right way to respond. Vanessa rarely cried but when she did, it only meant one thing. Those tears were genuine.
"They are plotting to kill me, Travis," Vanessa said, her voice sounding bitter.
"Who?" Travis asked quickly.
"I wish I knew," Vanessa said in despair. "I know that I have a lot of enemies but I never thought they would have the balls to attack me until now."
Travis was silent for a moment analyzing his thoughts. It was something he often did and very seldom did he say anything that did not make sense.
"Can you tell me exactly what happened?" He asked.
Vanessa sniffed in deeply in a bid to steady her voice. She took about five minutes to explain her ordeal with the assassin to Travis and by the time she was done, Travis shared her conviction with her.
"So you're saying you have no idea where the death threat is coming from," He said half in question.
Vanessa nodded without a word.
"Hmm," Travis said thoughtfully.
"I have an idea," He said after a long pause. "And from my analysis, it has a ninety percent chance of working. Do you want to hear it?"
Vanessa turned to face him at once, her eyes glowing up in anticipation.
*****
San Francisco clubhouse was one of the most popular clubs in the city. What made it even more popular was the fact that it was open to anyone; humans, werewolves, vampires, and even robots.
This was not a very acceptable feature elsewhere. Everyone liked to hang out with their kind and there were numerous clubs everywhere to make sure of that. But San Francisco clubhouse was free for all.
More often than not, fights broke out among the different species in the clubhouse and it always ended in bloodshed. The vampires and werewolves were always on the offensive side while the humans fought for their survival.
It was an open secret in the city that this was the hunting ground for humans but if one did not speak about it or pay much attention to it, such fate was unlikely to befall them, or not.
The man was approaching the front door when he saw a pair of guards standing by the door, their eyes looking as devilish as Dracula himself.
He was not the kind of man that was stopped in the doorway by guards. His face was well known by the men of the underworld. And so, with that conviction in his mind, the man strode confidently to the door until he was about an inch to the men when they stopped him.
The man stopped puzzled. He lifted his face and gazed blatantly at them, his eyes asking a thousand questions.
The guards looked at each other and communicated with themselves. In an instant, their faces were straight again and were now staring back at him. He looked more surprised than he had been a minute ago.
"What is the meaning of this?" The man inquired, his voice cold and steely.
"I'm terribly sir," The guard on his left began. "But we cannot allow you inside without a mask."
The man paused, unable to comprehend the words that had just come out of his mouth. Was this some kind of joke?
"What's going on?" He asked, trying his best to sound calm. Something told him that his hostile response to the men was not helping matters.
"It's the new club policy," The other guard explained. "And it applies to everyone," He saw the unsettling look on the man's face and added quickly. "We understand that there are people who have no idea about this recent development and will still show up here without their masks. So, we made a provision for that."
The man's eyes lit up at his words. "You do?"
The guard nodded. He lifted one of his heavy hands and motioned to a nearby booth.
"There. You can get your masks there and return here to gain entrance into the club," He said with a note of finality in his voice.
The man nodded and began to walk away. A few minutes later, he was speaking with another man in the booth he'd been directed to. He was more hostile than the guards. He had hurried off with his business and had returned to the doorway in no time.