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Our operation against the Brotherhood of the Dark was codenamed Doctor Beak after medieval European doctors who treated bubonic plague patients during the Black Death. Apart from a long leather overcoat, gloves, and a hat, their picturesque costume included a bird-like beak mask. It was supposed to scare away the plague with its looks, but also served a practical purpose – the beak was filled with a mix of strong-smelling herbs to relieve the doctor of the horrible stench of decay.
The disease we wanted to infect the primes and their followers with was called the Red Plague, and the Brotherhood itself was like an epidemic that hit humankind, so giving our operation the face of the plague doctor seemed appropriate to all of us. During one of the many Order meetings, Rettle even made a quick sketch of Doctor Beak, leaving it afterward on the table with the rest of the papers. I liked the drawing, so I picked it up and kept it. The plague doctor looked quite formidable – a giant, dressed in all black, with an eerie mask hiding his entire face. He would make a great character for a new Silent-Hill-style horror movie.
It took us an entire month to prepare the operation. Lumberjack and Fleming went to Salem, which in the past was famous for its widespread witch-hunts and nowadays hosted the nearest to us mass grave of the Red Plague victims. The professor managed to extract the infectious agent from the remains and started to develop the vaccine. It was never our plan to start an epidemic that would kill all vampires on the planet, including us.
When the vaccine was ready, it was sent to every division of the Order around the country. Every US daytimer was made immune to the Red Plague. At the same time, we were trying to pinpoint the primes' blood-bottling factory. We got lucky. The enterprise named Teta-2 was located only twenty-five miles east of our headquarters. Fate seemed to have given us a gift. Next, we did a recon and worked out our plan. We needed to secretly enter the facility, infect the blood supply of the primes and leave the factory without anyone catching sight of us.
That’s why it was decided that our highly noticeable Lumberjack would stay at the headquarters. At first, uncle Mike wanted to keep me on the sidelines as well, but then Rettle stood up for me. He said that three men would never be enough for such a complex operation. Also, Fleming was supposed to join us since he was the only one who knew how to properly infect the blood supply with the Red Plague.
Stoker was charged with covering the professor, while my uncle, Rettle, and I had to secure the perimeter. Unlike the main office of Blood Inc., the primes' factory was guarded exclusively by vampires. Rettle even brought some explosives on the job. In case we'd get made and have to retreat under gunfire, the coach would at least blow up the factory. Operation Doctor Beak was scheduled to take place on Sunday at midnight.
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