They climbed a grand staircase that seemed to go on forever, each landing revealing more corridors, more evidence of the building’s transformation from hotel to vampire stronghold. Finally, they reached a set of massive doors guarded by two large vampires who could have been carved from marble.
“The Council awaits,” one announced, pulling the doors open.
The chamber beyond took Elliott’s breath away. It had clearly once been a ballroom, but now it resembled something between a courtroom and a throne room. Five elaborate chairs were positioned on a raised platform at the far end, each occupied by a figure whose presence seemed to bend reality around them. These were the Elders of the Council, five vampires so old their very existence predated most of recorded history.
The room was already filled with perhaps thirty other vampires, arranged in rough groupings by allegiance. Elliott recognized some from the New York gathering—Katarina Bathory, Javier Cortés, others whose names he’d forgotten but whose faces were burned into his enhanced memory.
“Lorenzo de Medici!” the centermost Council member announced. It was Viktor Romanov, the older, more powerful head of the Romanov family. His face appeared middle-aged, but in person his eyes were ancient beyond description. “You requested this emergency session of the Council to discuss what you have informed us is a matter of unprecedented gravity.”
“I have indeed. Honored Elders of the Council, I stand before you and beg your indulgence to consider a pressing matter that has been brought to my attention by one of my fledglings who is responsible for the scientific research that has led us to this juncture.”
“The potential exposure of our species,” declared Eleanor Beaufort from her seat to Viktor’s left. “A threat you believe is both imminent and inevitable.”
“And for which,” said Chang Wei from the right, “if we have understood correctly, you propose that we abandon six thousand years of carefully maintained secrecy.”
Elliott felt uneasy as he listened to the Council members. Every vampire in the room was older, more powerful, more versed in the complexities of their shadow world than him. He was an infant among titans, who was he to presume to lecture them on survival?
“Before we consider our options,” Amara Keita said from her seat, her African features regal and timeless, “we should first attempt to understand this alleged threat and determine if it is legitimate. Lord Medici, you called this emergency session. Explain.”
Medici bowed, his movements formal and precise. “Honored Elders, yesterday a reporter from The Wall Street Journal confronted Mr. Grahame with evidence that he believes could lead to our exposure. This reporter is experienced, persistent, and intelligent. He is aware of the various anomalies surrounding the acquisition of HemaTech, Mr. Grahame’s company, by my organization, and he is also beginning to look into the deaths of two scientists it was deemed necessary to silence. He intends to publish a story in six days. It falls upon us to decide what story he will write.”
“You summoned us for this? Just kill him!” Maslama ibn Marwan said from the fifth chair, his voice carrying the casual brutality of millennia. “Why would you even think to consider this a crisis?”
“The reporter is not the problem,” Medici answered. “He is merely the harbinger of it. However we deal with him, the situation is going to explode in our faces before long because the real problems are the development of the biotech industry, the advancement of genetic science, and the speed with which knowledge propagates across the Internet.”
“Tell us more about these problems, then, as you see them,” Viktor Romanov demanded.
“Forgive me, Honored Elders, but I am not the expert in these matters. My fledgling is. May I grant him permission to address you?”
Viktor looked at Elliott and studied him for what felt like a long moment. “He is the architect of this crisis, inadvertently or otherwise. Yes, let him speak.”
Medici nodded at him, and Elliott stepped forward, acutely aware of every eye upon him. “The journalist previously mentioned, David Porter, has already shared his information with his colleagues at the newspaper. I have reason to believe that the traditional methods used to enforce silence are likely to prove futile in this instance. But Porter is merely the proximate problem. The crisis, to which Lord Medici alluded, is the convergence of various human technologies that will make our discovery inevitable sooner than we’d previously thought.”
“Explain,” Chang Wei commanded.
Elliott took a breath he didn’t need, organizing his thoughts. “The human genome has now been fully sequenced. CRISPR technology allows for precise genetic manipulations. Machine-learning algorithms developed and utilized by large language models are now capable of identifying even insignificant patterns in vast datasets that human researchers would have only noticed by chance. Every year, these technologies become more powerful, more sophisticated, and more widely available.”
He nodded at Chiara, who slipped a small tablet out of her purse and used it to project a graph onto the wall behind him.
“If you will indulge me a moment, this is the current growth curve of companies in the genetic analysis industry. Five years ago, only a handful existed. Today, there are over three hundred, processing millions of samples annually. Each sample is compared against databases that grow exponentially. Eventually—inevitably—someone, probably an AI, will notice the specific genetic markers that distinguish our kind from the range of human sub-species, both ancient and extant.”
“How long,” ibn Marwan asked.
“The mean estimate is six months.”
“Six months!” someone exclaimed. Someone else whistled.
“Then we destroy these databases,” Viktor Romanov suggested. “Isn’t this precisely why we shut down 23 and Me?”
“There are too many of them now,” Elliott countered. “And more are emerging every day. It would be like trying to uninvent the Internet—the knowledge is already too widely distributed.”
“The young one is correct,” Katarina Bathory spoke up, surprising Elliott with her support. “I’ve been monitoring medical advances for decades. The acceleration is unprecedented. What once took centuries now takes years. What took years now takes months. And AI is particularly good at recognizing the sort of patterns that will tend to expose us.”
“Then what solution do you propose?” Viktor asked Elliott directly.
Elliott steadied himself. This was the moment everything hinged upon. “My recommendation is to begin implementing the process of controlled revelation previously discussed. We reveal ourselves gradually, on our terms, shaping the narrative from the beginning. We present ourselves as a parallel and kindred species that has coexisted peacefully with humanity for millennia. We emphasize our contributions to art, science, and to human civilization itself.”
The room erupted. Vampires who’d maintained rigid stillness suddenly animated, voices rising in a dozen languages. Elliott caught fragments—“madness,” “suicide,” “betrayal,” “global war!”
Out of the Shadows is available in Kindle, KU, audibook, and hardcover editions.