Cronin's Key II by N.R. Walker Page A

her book before standing up. Eiji laughed and said, “You’re bossy for a human.” They were still smiling as they disappeared toward the office.
    And all Cronin could do was smile at him. Alec simply grinned back as though he didn’t have a care in the world. He collected his laptop and threw himself onto the sofa beside Cronin, putting his feet on the coffee table and scanning internet sites on Genghis Khan. He jotted down points of interest and dates into his small notebook while Cronin was supposed to be reading Chinese news sites for anything of interest. He wasn’t really. He was watching Alec.
    “Are you just gonna watch me all day?” Alec said, not looking up from his laptop screen.
    “I was thinking I would, yes,” Cronin replied. “I like watching you do your detective thing. It’s fascinating.”
    Alec snorted. “Fascinating?”
    “Yes, the cognitive leaps your mind makes are remarkable.”
    Alec raised one eyebrow. “Leaps? I think your version of leaping is enough for both of us.”
    “Not that kind of leaping,” Cronin said, amused. He leaned in and whispered, “Though I could leap us to bed if you’d so prefer.”
    Alec laughed and playfully pushed Cronin’s shoulder. “Work, remember? We have a new psycho vampire to stabilize, if you recall.”
    “Stabilize?”
    Alec grinned. “It’s the politically correct way to say kill an enemy.”
    “Tell me what you have so far,” Cronin said.
    “Well, I only know what human history tells me of Genghis Khan, but as you guys said the other day, the numbers of deaths by his hand or in his name were staggering. He was very powerful and his power of persuasion must have been even more so. Or, persuasion was his literal vampire talent. Is there any way we can check that?”
    Jodis and Eiji were suddenly in the room. Alec was getting used to their vampire speed. “The talent of influencing another vampire’s behavior is called manipulation,” Jodis said. “A manipulator is not welcome in any coven. In more cases than not, they are killed as newborn vampires, quite often by the one who made them. They cannot be controlled and come to power quickly.”
    “Could Khan have been a manipulator?” Alec asked again. “From a profile study, I’d say it fits the bill.” He didn’t wait for an answer. He stood up and walked to the whiteboard and wrote ‘manipulator’ under the name Genghis Khan. Then he circled the word blood and did the same to the word stone.
    “So,” he went on to say. “Blood, we assume is mine. But stone,” he tapped the whiteboard with the marker. “What does stone mean? And what does it mean for Genghis Khan.”
    “The Great Wall of China is constructed of it,” Jodis offered.
    “True,” Alec said. “Though how does that relate to vampires? Are they buried in it?”
    “No,” Eiji said. “It was constructed by humans in a vain attempt to keep vampires from crossing into their lands.”
    “Hmm,” Alec frowned. “Well, clearly they weren’t too bright.”
    Cronin snorted out a laugh. “Not impressed by a constructional wonder of its time?”
    Alec shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong. I mean the wall itself is a masterpiece, but not for the purpose of keeping vampires out….” He frowned again, as he obviously thought of something, and stared out the glass wall as he collected his thoughts. “Of course!”
    He dashed to his laptop and tapped the keyboard, bringing up several tabs at once. “Why didn’t I think of this before? You told me in the beginning,” he said looking right at Cronin. “It makes perfect sense.”
    “What makes sense?” Cronin asked.
    “Pyramids. You told me in the beginning when we were dealing with the Egyptian vampires, there are burial pyramids all over the world, including China.”
    The three vampires stared at him, waiting for him to piece it all together.
    “Now the Chinese government has kept these pretty quiet, but there are a few photographs of the Chinese pyramids leaked