“Yes,” she said, tears glistening in her eyes. “The Red Order hired the very best scientists. They spent tens of millions to fund radical genetic research and development. They created a ‘rebirth’ process in the 1980s, improving upon it every year. Not just new births, but therapy to fix genetic flaws in living members. Understand, Captain, the Upierczi are not immortal, but their lifespan is exceptionally long. Some are more than two centuries old. And there is one who is rumored to be three hundred and twenty years old. Grigor, the oldest and by far the most powerful of the Upierczi. He is the father of the new order of vampires. His genes—never tainted by inbreeding—became the alpha cell line in a course of gene therapy called Upier 531. It was developed by Dr. Dieter Hasbrouck. Now, the new wave of Upierczi is stronger, faster, more durable—and many will live as long as Grigor. Hasbrouck did extensive gene therapy. He amped up the wound repair system so the knights heal much more quickly, and they have a greatly enhanced ultraviolet light repair system as well. I believe it was an attempt to make them better able to tolerate sunlight, which weakens them, but instead he gave them virtual immunity to cancer and a resistance to radiation. If these bombs go off, any Upierczi not in the direct blast radius might actually survive. That,” she said, “is what we face.”

“Jesus Christ,” I breathed. My heart was pounding so hard that I wanted to scream. If Church hadn’t been standing right beside me, nodding as Lilith spoke, I doubted I would believe it. But his presence—the absolute solidity of everything that he was—made it all doubly real. Too real.

I licked my lips. They were dry as dust.

“You … left something out,” I said.

Lilith nodded, clearly expecting the question.

“You glossed right over the dhampyri. The hybrids. The ones who were forced to give birth to so many of the Upierczi. What happened to them?”

Lilith stared at me with bottomless dark eyes.

“I think you already know the answer to that, Captain Ledger.”

“The Mothers of the Fallen,” I breathed, and those words hurt my mouth. I swallowed a throatful of broken glass. “And … their children? The girls, the dhampyri? What happened to them?”

Violin had tears in her eyes, but her voice was fierce. “Our mothers escaped to save us.”

“Some escaped,” said Lilith sadly. “Most died. The rest … we dedicated ourselves to a single cause.”

“To destroy the monsters. The Upierczi, Nicodemus, the Red Order. All of them.”

I tried to say something. Anything.

All I could do was look into the eyes of these women. Lilith, Violin, each of them.

Violin stared at me, into me. So did Lilith. Looking for my reaction, for my true feelings.

But I simply could not speak.

Chapter Eighty-nine

Chapter Eighty-Nine

The Department of Military Sciences
Worldwide

THE WAREHOUSE, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND