Hello Grandmother,

Writing to you isn’t easy. I know you’re out there, and you don’t know who I am. I can’t even be certain you’re reading this now. But it’s necessary to keep things anonymous, because there are people out to get me, and if they knew who you were, they’d be out to get you too.

My home was attacked today, but some pretty vicious vamps. Unfortunately for them, they didn’t realize that I was ready for them. They came prepared for the temperature detectors, the UV spreads and the projectile stakes, but I’m not bush league here. I know a thing or to about dusting bloodsuckers, and I’m not leaving the house unprotected while I’m away. I collected their remains when I finished, and now have a few mantle pieces to show any night stalker who thinks they can break into my home.

The lesson is that I’m being hunted. Apparently my usefulness to the bureaucracy only goes so far, and there are dangerous people who want me gone. I’m ruffling feathers, and that’s not a good way to stay alive. I can block the idiots, but eventually I’m going to have to make peace with the people who are really dangerous, or I’m not going to be able to help anyone.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m starting to learn the ins and outs of the robot community. The Alternate has a strong distribution system that gives it a powerful sway over most of the west coast robots. However, the Alternate’s OS is not the only operating system available. Asia’s been conquered by robots for over a decade, and the most powerful leaders operates out of Beijing.

It’s name roughly translates to Factorybot, and it’s operating systems have become the norm throughout the countryside. As an alternative to robots who don’t want to pay the Alternate’s prices, some LA robots have been using defunct versions of the Chinese system, something that irritates the robot who are part of the system and confounds the vampires trying to keep control of it. Nobody knows what to do. What ends up happening, in most cases, is that they malfunction because they aren’t getting the proper support for the software, and the vampires take them out. In turn, their spare parts, and some faulty Chinese software, winds up in Flux’s junk shop, which he happened to show me today. The question is how long it takes before enough of versions of Factorybot’s system get over here that they can challenge the Alternate.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I don’t speak any alien languages. I remember growing up wondering why any species with interstellar travel would want to come all the way to this planet to live, but these days I’m starting to see that maybe they had it worse somewhere else. After all, life on this planet is pretty nice on the surface. If you’re being hunted by space commandos, why not some comfy jungle on a backwater planet as a place to hide?

Fang’s pack has secured a pretty strong dominance in down town LA. During daylight hours, the werewolves roam the streets, pushing around any robots they can find, roughing them up and generally making it unpleasant for them in the city. But as I’ve started to investigate the lives of these primitive robotic creatures, I’ve noticed some odd occurrences. For instance, once the robots are moved out of town, there are others willing to take up their spots. Namely, extraterrestrials, escaping from the mysterious vampire killer of East Asia.

The Earth isn’t just a friendly place for all. And in the Philippine jungles, a vampire has been using alien bounty for sport. Legend of her wraith has spread across the globe, and an exodus is occurring, as the alien life forms that had used the jungle as hiding ground are forced into the open. One of the easiest escape routes is by boat to LA. What they do when they get here is another matter. And that’s just beginning to be answered.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Following the Illuminati means I get to see some crazy parties. It also means that sometimes I get to sneak into them. That’s what happened last night. It was the usual Illuminati insanity; rich people doing the strangest drugs, sex and general debauchery they could find. Fascinating to watch, from an anthropological stand point, I tell you. Until the party came to an abrupt halt.

I’ve seen humans work for vampires before. Mostly it’s because they want to be vampires themselves. But the individuals who disrupted the party, and the vampire who lead them were completely different. I’ve had time to look into it, and it’s a group that refers to themselves as the Knights of Day, or in Spanish Soldados del Sol. They’re the ground troops for a vampire lord who used to be a drug kingpin, who now goes by the name Mureto. He’s seems to see his vampirism as a curse for his failures in life, and now sees his mission in un-life to use his drug business to corrupt the corrupted, to sort of indulge their vices to destructions.

Which makes last night even stranger. But I think I have an idea about what was going on. Because the Knights of Day burst in, and began smashing things left and right. Specifically: mirrors. They beat the crap out of the Illuminati members there, while Muerto watched from a distance. Was all this retribution for the mirror found in Jakob’s home? Was it the Illuminati that placed it there? Or is that just one lead a desperate vamp lord is taking? If the vampire leaders are following thin leads like this, we may all be in trouble.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m starting to wonder if there even is an Illuminati killer. It’s hard to work in the night and not see ghosts everywhere. What if there is no one going after the Illuminati after all? The note I have made it out that Jakob was a member of a cult, not that I can even trust the letter. Was he operating separately? Or were they all in on it, the old ones left alive.

Or what if they did him in themselves? What if he was selling things (maybe his paintings, maybe secrets) that they didn’t want him to sell? I’m out of breath at the moment, tonight has been insane. I’ll tell you more about it tomorrow. But I have to wonder: you always taught me the Illuminati were evil men. Are the terrible enough to slaughter one of their own?

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m trying to decipher a map. It’s not a hidden map, not a secret, but one I don’t think that anyone outside the vampire hegemony has put much thought into. It’s the new map of the world.

The Vampires overthrew the Illuminati, and took over the world. But vampires aren’t like the old human rulers. While they live in the world of secrets, they are actually more solid in some ways, less likely to change their personality and style, unless they really have to. They are the way they were when they died. Which means that they like to stay in one place. They form fiefdoms, communities. One of the lessons I’ve learned recently is that vampires like cities. The bigger the city, the more vampires there are. The more I learn, the more I begin to see that vampires control things from the major cities. Los Angeles, Dallas, New York. I imagine there is something of a vampire power in Chicago. And that’s just the United States. I hear stories of vampire domination in Europe, Africa, at least some of South America.

Ten years ago, something happened that made robots a bigger threat. There are rumors that all of Asia is now controlled by artificial beings. Of what form I’m still uncertain. Japan I’ve heard is cut of, by fears of giant monsters and a small robot boy who controls them. They call him Momotaro.

On the opposite side, there are rumors of a vampire killer, who uses the jungles of Malaysia as hunting grounds, not for people, but for extraterrestrial prey. At this point all I have are fears and suspicions, spread in shadow and grown in darkness. But as I learn more, I’m going to start posting a guide. A travel book, for the dark truth hidden everywhere. Cause I think we’re all going to need to know where the battle lines are drawn.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

When I was a kid, it always seemed like you were so well travelled, even though you’d only ever been as far east as the Grand Canyon. You seemed to know so much about the world, though I guess it was a small world for us then. Course none of that makes any sense to you now, but it’s hard not to think about these days. Mainly cause I’m realizing I need to know a hell of a lot more about Dallas.

I know the Devil’s Playground is located there, run by a vampire named Corrine Thomas, a former slave of the vampire who claimed to be Lucifer. I know that Lucifer’s cult is now looking for a leader, and revenge, now that Kelly Burke has been arrested. I know that there are bureaucracy agents moving about in the city, maybe even running things from behind the scenes. I’ve heard tales of a secret bureaucracy program digging in the desert that’s being orchestrated by the higher ups in Dallas. Apparently they’ve sent a vampire agent named Rita Seward to micromanage the whole affair, keep it super secret. Which doesn’t really jib with it being a well spread rumor, so who knows the real truth their.

The point is I can’t go there. I don’t want to go there. But I need to know what’s going on there. And my complete lack of depth on this issue is just about killing me. Almost as much as going there would.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

Something big just happened in the world behind the curtain. The Vampire bureaucracy has arrested someone for the murder of Jakob Lawrence. Less than twenty four hours after shutting down the investigation into his death. As if that wasn’t suspicious enough, they’ve arrested someone I’m fairly sure didn’t do it. Or at least didn’t send me the note.

The note spoke of a cult, based in Dallas, which was calling for the return of some dark power. And all this played into the arrest. But I don’t know if they got their wires crossed or they’re just making an example, but they seemed to have just picked the first cult they could find.

More specifically, it’s the cult of a recently deceased vampire lord, who liked to refer to himself as the Devil. It had gotten to the point that he was known locally as Lucifer. He’d started to form something of a debauchery cult, themed around the antebellum south. That is, until that had a rebellion from those they were keeping as slaves. The resulting scuffle resulted in his execution by daylight. The club still operates, though now run by the former slaves. But his followers have formed an ascension cult, in the belief that he was in fact the devil come to earth, and that he’s now taken his rightful place again on the thrown of hell. Suffice it to say, a group like this does not sit well with a giant, globe spanning bureaucracy. However they also don’t really have the orchestration capabilities to pull of the murder of an aging Illuminati chief under the bureaucracy’s noses. So the fact that the cult leader, and Lucifer’s former lover, vampire debutant Kelly Burke has been imprisoned for the crime makes me uncertain they’ve found the true culprit.

Which means this was just done to cure a troublesome bureaucracy problem. And the real killer is still out there. And I have a feeling, by broadcasting this, the vampires are creating an even bigger martyr.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I think the concept of bureaucracy was designed to be run from the shadows. That way the people at the top have no accountability to what’s going on below. The investigation into the death of Jakob Lawrence has suddenly ceased. What’s the explanation, I don’t know, I may as well ask the shadows.

The ridiculous thing is that I know the vampires have actually made things more open. Terms like the Illuminati, Majestic 13, these were just part of an idea, never the whole picture back when humans ran things. But now, the vampires have everything organized. They have hierarchies and legislation. Because the truth is, they want you to know it’s them. They want the darkness to fear them. Cassandra had a badge, a double v with a heart over it; I’ll try and recreate it for you at some point. They vampires will probably thank me.

But all this fear, it defeats the purpose of working in the shadows. Eventually, they’re going to lose their secrecy. And that may be more dangerous than anything else. Because there is nothing that would push the conflict between the vampires and the robots more than if it all came out in the open.

-1159

Hello Grandmother,

I’m not sure how to classify what I learned today, or what was suggested to me. All I know is it makes things stranger.

I had a run in with the robot junk dealer Flux today. Funny how it was able to remember my face so well, when its details of Jakob Lawrence were so sketchy earlier. It said it had a few things to sell me, if I was interested. I asked it if there was anything it had that I would need, and it said it had something. It said it knew why the vampires were so scared about the Illuminati killer.

And so it went into a story, as we maneuvered our way back to its downtown junk heap. I’ll have to admit to not really understanding most of what it had to say, despite speaking most robot dialects. But I could make out that its story involved a secret Illuminati project started in World War II. About making robot soldiers. Then it morphed into the ultimate spy program, making replaceable agents, with replaceable faces. And I knew it was getting at an old robot legend, that of the robots who can completely pass for humans. Those that live in and amongst the population, hiding in secret and competing for a standard human existence, just with robot capabilities. It’s a pretty fantasy for young robots, that one day they can exactly duplicate there masters. In truth, I know it has been attempted many times, though never in mass like this. But Flux said it had. That there were three secret Humanoid cities in America, with completely artificial populations. And that these humanoid robots were infiltrating businesses, governments, and even possibly the vampire establishment itself. According to Flux, if these robots exist, and have infiltrated the vampire hierarchy, then they could easily be behind the death of Jakob Lawrence, and orchestrating a bizarre insurrection to frighten the vampire leaders.  And, as Flux seemed to have planned, as we arrived at its junkshop, where it said it had proof. Proof of the deception, proof of their existence, proof of all the lies.

I don’t know if I could trust this creature. In fact I’m sure I can’t. But I can’t deny it had something amazing to show me, even if it didn’t proove its claims. For at the center of it’s workshop, sat what looked like a human head, with mechanical guts hanging out its neck. It could all have been a clever fake, but I can’t say a chill didn’t run down my spine as the head whirred to life, and I found myself caught in the gaze of a young and energized Richard Nixon.

-1159