“Same here,” and hung up.
Caxton put her phone down, then laid her forehead gently against the steering wheel. Her body convulsed with sobs that she fought back, sobs of grief for what she’d thrown away and the people she’d lost. Sobs of fear, too. True fear. Fear of what was still to come. Because as soon as Clara told her about the coal dust, she’d already put two and two together. She knew where the lair was.
Vampire Zero
Chapter 53.
A coal mine. That made sense. Vampires liked their lairs dark and quiet, and far away from human interference. A coal mine, an abandoned coal mine, would make the perfect spot. There were thousands of coal mines in Pennsylvania, however, and hundreds of them were abandoned. Caxton could never have checked them all even if she’d had unlimited time.
When she added what Carboy had told her, however, she could only think of one abandoned coal mine where flowers grew in the middle of winter.
She wanted to go right there, but it wouldn’t be that easy. She needed special equipment. Jameson had said humans couldn’t survive inside his lair, and he hadn’t been kidding. Getting that equipment was going to be a problem. What she needed was in ready supply at the HQ building, but she wouldn’t be welcome there—and Fetlock would watch her every move if she showed up, even if he didn’t already know what she’d done with Carboy. She thought about approaching a firehouse and trying to bluff her way into getting what she needed, but she knew there would be too many questions, and probably too many phone calls made.
In the end she was reduced to going shopping. There was a place in Harrisburg she knew, an army surplus store that stayed open late. She arrived just as they were closing, but she flashed her state police ID and the night manager nodded and let her in, locking the door behind her. She stared at the racks of camouflage clothing, let her gaze run across glass display cases full of butterfly knives and night-?vision goggles. She could use a pair of the latter, but she knew she couldn’t afford them. She was willing to go into debt—she’d lost so much already her credit rating didn’t feel terribly important—but there was a pretty tight limit on her Visa card.
The manager was a young guy in a plaid shirt and horn-?rimmed glasses. He sighed with impatience and asked her what he could help her with.
Caxton cleared her mind by rubbing at her face with both hands. Was she really going to do this? The lair was underground, probably full of carbon monoxide gas, and the temperatures down there could reach a thousand degrees. Nothing in the store could keep her alive through that. If she could just get close, though—close enough—
“I need a Nomex flash-?resistant suit,” she said. “Gloves, booties, the whole package. I need a face mask, too, and a hard hat. And a portable air supply, the longest-?lasting one you’ve got.”
The manager stared at her openmouthed. “You fighting a brush fire, ma’am?” he asked.
“Worse. I’m going into a coal mine fire.”
“Like the one in Centralia?”
Caxton gave him a weak smile. “Exactly like the one in Centralia. You have what I need?”
He shrugged and walked down an aisle, calling over his shoulder, “Is this going to be cash or credit?”
Fifteen minutes later she was back in the car, headed northeast. Toward the closest thing to hell you could find in Pennsylvania.