30 Days of Night: Light of Day Read Online Free Page B

media, would be certain to draw attention. They would keep it up until the real bloodsuckers found them, and then they would ask to be turned.
    The plan should have been foolproof. It wasn’t as easy to carry out as Walker had hoped, but that didn’t mean the concept was bad.
    He spat on the floor and knelt beside her, trying to avoid broken glass, and he started to cut.

4
    “Y ESTERDAY ON THIS BROADCAST I told you that the vampire scourge—if it exists, and isn’t simply a fiction made up by a liberal administration forever looking for new ways to spend your hard-earned tax money—is the inevitable result of a secular society that has turned away from religion and conservative values in favor of an anything-goes approach to governing and to life. When people ignore the teachings and tenets that have brought America so far and focus only on their immediate gratification and self-satisfaction, the results are dire.
    “Needless to say, I got a lot of email from viewers. Some of it was complimentary, and some, mostly from the usual haters on the left, called me the usual names. People, you can save yourselves five minutes—I’ve heard them all before and nothing you write can shock me anymore. And if you are going to write, please consult a dictionary, because with some of you it’s hard to tell exactly which word you’re trying to use. Four-letter words aren’t that easy to misspell, but the lefties always seem able to manage.
    “The point I want to leave you with tonight is this: the liberals and secular humanists among us have onceagain made America less safe. To make things worse, you can be certain that in the weeks and months to come, we’ll be hearing card-carrying ACLU types telling us that vampires have rights, too, and so-called progressives telling us that we can’t tap their phones or imprison them without trials or use intensive interrogation techniques to find out where vampire cells are or what plans they have. It’ll be up to us, the citizens of Real America, to protect ourselves and our families, because we can’t count on big government to do it for us.
    “Until tomorrow night, this is James Callahan, Mayor of Real America, saying God bless the USA— but keep your powder dry, just in case!”
    Callahan snatched the earpiece from his ear and dropped it on the ground. A tech was there unclipping the unit from his belt as he rose from the chair. “Great show, Mr. C,” she said. Callahan ignored the comment. The tech had a decent rack, but she would be gone by next week, if history was any guide, so he wasn’t going to bother learning her name or conversing with her.
    He brushed past Louis Orszag, the show’s producer, who was feeding him a variation of the same line. Of course it was a great show; he didn’t do bad ones. He had heard it all before, just as he had the insults from the unthinking, unimaginative leftists in the audience. As he had tonight, he liked to mention those degenerates from time to time; it worked them up, kept them from tuning out, and Nielsen didn’t differentiate political leanings when its ratings were reported. He meantto hit management up for a hefty boost when his contract was up for renewal. His dressing room was just across the hall from the set, so he thanked Louis for the feedback and let his door swing shut.
    In his dressing room, he wiped his face down with cold cream to remove the makeup, then took off his jacket and shirt. He hung them on the rack. Someone would come in later and take them away to be laundered. He pulled on a ribbed turtleneck and a leather coat from Barney’s and called Serena to make sure she would be at his place when he got there. Sometimes Callahan needed a little rough sex to come down from the buzz of a show, and she was the best there was, always willing and ready.
    In the studio hallways, he had to run a gauntlet of well-wishers, the kind of people who needed a moment’s contact with a celebrity to validate their existence.