Chapter 41: Cooperate suits
The Federal Shadow Guard Headquarters occupied twelve floors of a building that had been designed specifically to intimidate.
Black granite facade, bulletproof windows, and enough security measures.
The structure rose from the heart of the capital district like a monolithic finger pointed at the sky, its shadow falling across government buildings and corporate towers.
Inside, the top floor conference room, round a large table, sat twenty-three other colonels, each representing a different metropolitan area in the ongoing war against vampire infiltration.
At the head of the table sat General Harrison Blackwood, a man who’d been fighting supernatural threats since before most of the colonels in the room had learned to walk.
Seventy-three years old, completely bald except for a ring of steel-gray hair around his skull.
His weathered face carried lines that came from making life-and-death decisions in situations where wrong choices meant body bags and congressional hearings. But his eyes remained sharp, alert.
He had four stars on his shoulders and enough ribbons to cover half his chest.
"Gentlemen. Ladies." He started. "Let’s begin with the quarterly performance reviews."
The general opened a thick manila folder and began reading from typed reports that represented months of combat operations of each unit.
"Colonel Aaron, Southwest District. Vampire elimination rate up twelve percent from last quarter. Civilian casualties down eight percent. Budget utilization within acceptable parameters." He looked up from the report. "Solid performance, Colonel."