"Wh-what are you doing? What is this?" That was Louisa Svensen, trembling. 

"Louisa, I want you to head toward the Casino's main building and find a good place to hide. Keep your head down. Please, we aren't here to harm you." He tried to sound kind, but dead eyes and a robotic stillness, to say nothing of the rifle, did little to reassure.

She picked up her skirts, a mess because of the way Richard Mullen had taken shotgun flechettes to the gut, and ran for her life.

Dan continued grimly, even as he tracked a thrall moving to intercept Louisa; recoil from the rifle, at a kneel, rifle braced on the gazebo, would have been intense, but the same technology that created artificial muscle that his own implants used also cushioned the recoil of the rifle; a very powerful round disintegrated the thrall. 

"You know what is happening, right, Richard? You've got mail." He asked as he took the cell phone out of the vampire's pocket, showed him the mocking smiley, and then crushed it. "Sorry, didn't want your parents listening in. I suppose you Eternal don't fear, but I don't want them to know what they're being sucked into."

He got a hateful look, and Dan shrugged, knowing that he couldn't actually reply, not with the constant convulsions. He was speaking as he sighted his rifle, even as the traffic cams integrated with the HUD and created an overlay; the subroutines Blake introduced into the systems even identified the hostiles, moving quickly, recognized by the facial recognition software and then tracked carefully. The net was widening and threats were being identified very quickly; Anna put out the notice for the thralls to go active, to eliminate 'all' threats. Meanwhile, the Vigil agents were already working on them.

"What is happening is that you killed my sister. She was a tough girl; she wanted to be a federal agent like our father. You killed him too. Anyway, when you tried your little wooo-eeeee-wooo 1950's romance bullshit on her, she caught a creep vibe and cut it off. You became enraged, stormed the house, killed the whole family, except me because I tried to stake you. Guess I'd been watching too many vampire movies -- I loved that shit. Can't watch it anymore." 

Conversational tone, a bit too calm, eerily.

"My sister was a strong, lively, intelligent girl. You just saw her beauty, and appreciated her as prey, but she would have gone on to college and then a career. Perhaps she would have found a man, a real one I mean, and had some children. You snuffed her out before she could contribute her talents to society. But you Eternal," he sneered at the word, "are like all tyrants."

"You know how that works, Ricky?" Dan asked, glancing over at him with cold, chromed eyes.

"Rhetorical question, Rick. Tyrants tend to make their own enemies, and you unwittingly made the worst possible enemy you could find. No, not me," he told Richard, "but my grandfather. You're probably still racking your brain to remember my family's names, that's fine. My grandfather is a guy you never met, but he's a brilliant researcher and a renowned surgeon. You know what he did, Richard?"

He flexed his hand, removing the glove in the process to reveal the metal and polymer, "That's what he did. Replacement and enhancement. You left me a husk, you piteous motherfucker, but you sowed death and now you are reaping the whirlwind. You're squirming there on camera while my cell kills your thralls, and you're wondering how this happened, where we came from. We came from you, Richard. My mother's father ran the Manhattan Project of cybernetic enhancement. The goal was to put humanity at least on par with the likes of you, but the team my grandfather assembled? Well, they're very good. There aren't as many of us, we cost a lot more to make, but we're not a bunch of blood thirsting hedonists looking for a thrill. Everyone out there killing your slaves is one of your kinds' victims. Scores to settle. Lots of focus and motivation."

He turned to him again, eyes off the scope.

[indent][i]One thrall down, set the girl loose. I didn't want her to overhear useful intel. We might have to retrieve her and put her in safe keeping because she saw Richard getting taken down. Inform me when Anna and Carlo are dead, then I can dispose of this thing. Watch out for Anna; Carlo's older, but Anna's the brains here, guys. She's the adaptable bitch that wrote those books and runs the thralls. She ought to be the priority.[/i][/indent]

"Why am I telling you this, Richard? Because this is being recorded. That's the deal. They rebuilt me so I could kill you. It was the contract, and you're the blood it's written in. Also, this is a test run. We're seeing how the gear works and you're a good field test," cold smile to match the chrome eyes, "How's it feel to be the victim and the test subject, by the way?"