Solomon's Sieve Read Online Free Page A

charter to New York where he could jump on a company transport to Scotia.
    When he got to Simon’s office, Baka and heads of some of the other units that would be most affected by the news were already there. Sol thought he’d been in grim meetings before, but nothing compared to the somber vibe in Director Tvelgar’s conference room as he delivered the message that the tide had turned on the Inversion. Not only had the vaccine ceased to work, but the resurgent strain of virus mutation was stronger and faster than before, converting human to vampire within minutes of contact with the bloodstream.
    As they went over the projections, each man present had felt his heart sag as he realized that the short, hopeful reprieve was turning into a bigger problem than they had before. Instead of reducing the number of knights in rotation, they were going to be hard pressed to meet the increased demand. They would have to recall every able-bodied retired hunter to active duty and begin inducting the trainees sooner than optimum.
    The Hunter Division had developed a tradition of waiting until their knights-to-be were twenty-two before sending them into the field, although exceptions were made on a case by case basis. Though they might be physically capable by the time they were eighteen, they were generally thought to lack the judgment crucial to keeping them and their comrades alive. There were only three training facilities in the world. They were the units in London, Brasilia and New Jersey.
    Dr. Tvelgar turned to the three men who were Sovereigns of those facilities and told them that they were to go home and begin gearing up by submitting requisitions for support staff and sending formal notices to a lot of retired knights who’d gone to bed that very night believing they’d seen their last hunt. They were informed that the active duty knights who had been transferred would be returned to their former units with no additional paperwork being necessary. They were also instructed that they were to begin the process of selecting trainees to “go” early. They would each need to contribute three to make the numbers work.
    Somehow that was harder for the Sovereigns to digest than the idea of compelling retirees to return to a dangerous occupation from which they thought they’d successfully escaped and lived to tell the tale. They agreed they wouldn’t bring up any retirees over the age of forty, which was palatable enough. But the idea of sending the young against vampire before the age of psychological readiness was difficult. It smacked of sacrifice. And the training unit heads didn’t like it one bit.
    At the same time they were told that people were being pulled from other Order duties to expand Recruiting and that they should prepare for larger incoming classes of fourteen-year-olds. The Sovereigns – looking older and grayer by the moment - glanced at each other with a taciturn solemnness and even the least sensitive of them was aware of the air grown heavier in the room. Still, they looked downright giddy compared to Baka.
    Leadership had always required dedication and concentration, but the burden had never felt cumbersome, like lead weight. There wasn’t one person in the room who wasn’t silently wishing that they’d never heard of the vaccine. It was turning out to be three steps forward, ten steps back. And each step back represented deaths that they, as Sovereigns, would be responsible for cataloguing.
    As they filed out of Simon’s office, Sol looked at Baka. “Looks like you better make a bigger effort to stay human this time.”
    Baka turned toward Sol and cocked his head. “I suppose it could be said that the only good thing that came out of this was that I got my humanity back. No doubt there’ll be many in the future to say it wasn’t worth it.”
    “What’s the final verdict on the others?”
    Baka grimaced. “We didn’t have as much success with rehabilitation as we had hoped.” He looked away