Vivienne

Vivienne dashed from the roof down to the first floor and into an unused waiting room.  Alerts toned throughout the hospital as she pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Casey’s number.  Facing out of the window as nurses and paramedics rushed the back door, Vivienne sat quietly until Casey answered, “Vivienne, I have you on speaker.”

“Faye, mon amour.”  She paused as more staff bolted down the hallway. “We have a little problem.”

Faye heard the alarms and code calls over the hospital PA system, “What happened?  I thought we agreed to trickery.”

“Indeed we did, mon amour.”  Vivienne stopped talking as the gurney with doctor Smith rolled by. “One could say I altered the plan a bit.”  Vivienne walked out of the waiting room and began looking for the IT department. “The good news is that I got the card and his pin.”  Vivienne started running through the hospital following the little signs. “The bad news is, I tossed him from the roof and now he’s in surgery.”

Casey and Faye groaned at the same time. “You called me reckless, Viv.” Casey added quickly.

“Allow me to take this opportunity and express in no uncertain terms that we can reflect on my terminology about your drunken actions later.”  Vivienne stopped in front of the locked door leading into the hospital's server farm. “I found the place you wanted me to go, Faye.  Shall I use the card, or is it too dangerous now that the man is unconscious?”

“We might only get one chance to use it before the card goes dead.”  Faye commented flatly. “If we can use it from a terminal rather than just the door, that would be perfect.  Just don’t break down the door, find another way in or wait until someone comes out.”

“I have an idea, Faye.  Just tell me what to expect when I get in there.”  Vivienne took a moment to listen closely. “I count ten distinct heartbeats from the other side of this door.   Sounds like there are a couple air conditioning units as well.”

“Okay, that helps me quite a bit.” Fay looked down at the phone as another call popped on the screen. “Uh, Casey.  I think your boyfriend is trying to talk to you.”

She flipped her hand up and squinted, “What you are doing is more important, Faye. All he is going to do is complain about something.”  She added, “Finish up with Viv.”

Faye nodded, “Okay, like I was saying. Most NOC’s…um network operation centers…have a number of people working at any time.  There are people for backup, exchange, boundaries, security…”

“...Faye, I don’t need the complete list.” Vivienne cut off her partner and sighed. “Let me get in and control the area then I will call back.”

Vivienne didn’t wait for a response and hit the button to disconnect the call.  Quickly feeling the edges of the door frame, she found a spot where there was a light breeze coming from the bottom of the heavy steel door.  She closed her eyes and focused on the specific locations of all ten beating hearts. “I hope she can erase all of this.”  Vivienne whispered to herself, before dissipating into a small black cloud and funneling under the door and into the room.  

Entering the room, Vivienne’s gaseous inky cloud kept to the shadows and took in her surroundings. The layout was basic, with two long wooden desks in the shape of a half moon that contained six seats each.  The front of the operation center had six large screens with the various details on the status of the network, and one dedicated to the news and ongoing weather. Taking a slow lap around the room Vivienne spotted a secondary door in the back of the room and wafted her way below that door into a room filled with metal racks containing various circuit boards that Vivienne ignored in favor of the two steady heartbeats she heard in the far corner of the red lit room.

Reforming her body behind the two men, Vivienne drew a breath and blew her scented enchantment over both men, causing them to lean back in their chairs with a grin on their faces.  Partly drained from using her gas form for so long, the ancient vampire drove her fangs into one of the men and fed on his pulsing life essence until he turned to dust.  Vivienne breathed deep and licked her lips free of the sweet iron the man provided and focused on his companion. “Hello.  When you awaken, you will just know that your friend here left without a word and never returned.”  The charmed man nodded blissfully as Vivienne blew over his face once more. 

Quickly dialing Casey back Vivienne sat in the seat that the other man occupied. “Faye. I am in some big room with lots of what looks to be metal racks everywhere.”

“Does it look like a bunch of motherboards?”  Faye paused. “A bunch of circuit boards plugged into those metal racks up and down?”

“Yes.  I should inform you that in this room there were two men. One is currently charmed and the other, I drained.”  Vivienne paused to look at her charmed companion and then back to the phone. “The one I drained, the computer is unlocked and I can access whatever he could.  Do we still need Smith’s card?”

“Perhaps.  Let’s hold it in reserve for now.”  Faye started speaking slow and clear, “I want to get remote access to the terminal you are currently using.  Vivienne, is the other guy’s terminal open as well?”

Vivienne heard the shift in Faye’s tone and knew that her partner and progeny was in her element. “The other terminal is open, Indeed.”  Vivienne whispered in the man’s ear. “Oh..my dear friend, what is your name?”  

The guy slurred his speech in answering Vivienne, “Jackson.”  

Vivienne smiled and kept her enchanting words whispering in his ear. “When the time comes Jackson, I will need your help.  Will you kindly assist me?”

Vivienne smiled and spoke into the phone once more, “Jackson is with us if you need him, Faye.”

Faye walked her girlfriend through the process of opening remote access and sharing the screen so that she could work. “Perfect, Vivienne.”

“What exactly did we just do Faye?” Vivienne asked and walked around the rest of the room eying the cameras. “Mon amour, would you put cameras in the same place you are monitoring?”

Engrossed in her task, Faye barely heard the questions that Vivienne posed and took a few extra seconds to respond. “What?  Sorry.  What you did was give me the access from here.  You saved me the time of having to figure out the firewalls and security, because I had you contact me and give me full access via remote.”  Faye paused a moment, “Simple terms?  We bypassed all of their security.”

“So we didn’t need to almost kill that other doctor?” Casey asked from the background.

“I didn’t want him hurt anyway, Casey.”  Faye commented and kept working. “Vivienne.  Yes.  Putting cameras up isn’t anything new.  The designer would want full coverage.”

Vivienne heard the keypad on the door start chiming. “We have company.” Placing the call on hold quickly, Vivienne stepped away from the well lit monitors and into a darker section of the red tinted room.  A buzzing noise radiated through the room and a woman walked though, quickly closing the door behind her.  

“Jackson.  Do you have…” Vivienne cut off the woman’s question with a soft kiss to her neck.  Leading the dizzy woman to the seat beside Jackson, Vivienne stood and looked at the pair. -Three missing people would be another mess.-  Resolving to let the events play out, Vivienne resumed the call with Faye and Casey. “My apologies.  I had to deal with another person.”

Faye stopped working from her location and looked at the phone. “Please tell me I don’t have more to erase, this is proving difficult as it is.”

“Faye, darling.”  Vivienne expressed calm and lovingly, “No ma’am you do not.  The intruder is safely dazed and sitting beside her companion, Jackson.” Vivienne took the time to feed lightly from the two workers, swirling the heavenly rust flavored blood on her tongue before swallowing. “Yummy.”

Faye worked her way through the levels of the network and eventually found what she was looking for. “Finally.  That took way too long.  I should have been able to figure this out much faster.”  Faye finished her tasks and sent a final command to stop all the cameras from recording. “I must still have gaps in my memory.”

“I have complete confidence in your ability, mon amour.”  Vivienne reassured Faye, “I am counting on you, Tigerlily.”

“Viv, I am trying to relax her now.” Casey added. “Faye, um…do you think you need to, well…”

“Casey.” Vivienne called over the phone sternly, “I know what you are thinking.  If she tries that now, she might go into a frenzy.  I am not overly concerned that you will be harmed, it is that she will want more and probably dash off before this task is complete.”

Faye spoke up for herself, “I am fine you two. You can say the word blood.” She paused for a breath, “Casey, no.  I don’t need to feed, I am perfectly fine right now.” Giggling lightly as she kept working, Faye followed up, “I will hold you to that offer when Vivienne gets back.”

“I do not wish to stop the little moment you both are having, but we do have a rather time sensitive issue, mon amour.”  Vivienne expressed playfully. “If more people come in here, it is going to be difficult to account for four people missing.”

“Keep your pants on…” Faye jokes, “...at least for now.”  She waited and heard the delightful purr from the other side of the phone. “Let me focus.  I am nearly done.” Faye closed the server window containing all of the hospital's backups, “Alright. I am going to disconnect.  What I want you to do is log that other user out and use Smith’s card.”

“If everything is erased, what are you doing?”  Vivienne forced herself to think about the task at hand and not the image Faye just conjured of her pants. “You, mon amour, are distracting.”

“What goes around, comes around.”  Faye laughed. “Alright you tease, back to business.”

Vivienne plugged the other access card into the reader and punched in Smith’s code. “Mon amour, would you like access once again?”

“Indeed.”  Faye giggled and watched as she shared the screen and started working once more.

“I enjoy hearing you laugh, Faye.”  Vivienne watched her partner open various windows and start typing what appeared to be gibberish. “By the way, that word is mine.”  Vivienne joked and checked on her two charmed victims. “I confess to not knowing what you are doing, Faye.  Please enlighten me.”

“Let me give you the short story.”  Faye kept typing the code, “I am creating fake log files for the servers, under Smith’s account, I am also setting the server time clock back a few hours to match his last login.”  She took a breath, “Then I am going to erase the remote session logs and make it look like the hospital records have all been exposed to a site in Russia.”  Faye laughed and executed the code, “Truly amazing.  It would have taken me days to do this before.”  She added, “Now pull the card, and get out.  Don’t worry about the cameras, they are all shut off.”

Vivienne disconnected the call and whispered instructions to the couple in the room. “I was never here, you two. Thank you, Jackson.”  Vivienne blew her enchanting breath once more over the couple before shifting back into her black cloud and exited both rooms.  Reforming outside the main IT door, Vivienne bolted back to Smith’s office and tossed the access card back on his desk. “Stars above, I love her.”  Vivienne thought to herself after thinking how easily the loose ends were tidied up. “Truly amazing.”  Vivienne made her way out of the hospital and fluidly changed into her raven form and flew home.