Starting on page 83, the heroes hunker down for the night in an abandoned drug house on the Chilean beach. Ernesto Guerrero finds a guitar and sings a lullabye to his son Diego:
“Sleep, sleep, dark little boy. Your mother is in the fields, dark little boy. She's going to bring you lots of things… and if the dark little boy doesn't go to sleep, the white devil will come… and eat his little leg!”
(Francisca) “He's sleeping. I'll stay with him, Ernesto. You go ahead.”
“Thanks, Francisca. Everything will end for the best, you'll see.”
(Harlan) “Has he fallen asleep?“
“Diego never falls asleep without me singing him a lullaby. And today has been a hard day for him.”
“A melancholy song… I think I've heard it before.”
“Congratulations, Detective Baldwyn. It was censored by the dictatorship, like all those sung by my poor friend Juan Lopez. This house belonged to a drug dealer, you say? But he had a guitar. A criminal who loves music… isn't that strange?”
“Not at all. Life is full of contradictions.”
“Yeah. That guy who's following us, the killer… He wants to kill me, but he didn't hurt my son.”
“He's a professional, almost certainly. You're his target, Guerrero. Maybe he wanted to gather information from the child, before taking action. Then our presence must have messed up his plans.”
(Harlan) “If he was watching the house, he must have already seen us enter. In my opinion, he approached the child because he intended to use him as a hostage.”
“But then he didn't.”
“It's true, he didn't.”
“Professionals don't act so irrationally.”
“Who knows. So, maybe he's just a talented amateur.”
“I don't follow you. Why would the Condor employ an amateur?”
“For the Masters of the Night, loyalty is what counts first. The man we're dealing with is not a professional criminal, but the human ally of an immortal vampire. Not turned into an undead slave… but something rarer and more precious. An intelligent and capable man who has chosen to work for a dangerous, non-human creature.”
“Maybe it's not a choice. Maybe he's forced to do it. The Condor may have power over him.”
“Yes, it's always a question of power. What we need to find out is the nature of the bond between the killer and his Master.”
“I don't understand. Why did we stop here? What are we waiting for? If the killer really has followed us here to Vina del Mar, we might still be in danger.”
“You forget that we already are, Ernesto. When you play a difficult match, you have to take a few risks to gain the advantage.”
----------
Here on page 86, Kurjak stands guard on the beach with a assault rifle. Detective Teresa Lopez seeks him out: “Hey, how’s it going, Emil?”
“Teresa! This place is lovely. I'd rather be here under different circumstances, though.”
“And with different company?’
“The company? No, that's perfect. But you'd better go back into the house. It's dangerous out here.”
“Hey! Who do you think you're dealing with? I'm a police officer… and I'm armed.”
----------
On page 87, Erwin Rogers spies on the beach house through a sniper rifle on a rented boat:
“Two are outside. I could take them out in an instant, but then the others would hunt me down, and that rogue undead is among them. I would be no match for her. If the Master's vampire slaves failed, I have even less hope in a head-on confrontation than they did. The undead woman is surely looking for me around the mansion. I'm relatively safe out here, but you never know.” (To the boat’s captain) “I've seen enough. Head back out to sea and then turn toward the city.”
“Si, Senor.”
----------
Inside the beach house, Harlan and Baldwyn have noticed the spying boat. “Strange behavior from that fishing boat.”
“Do you think our man is on board, Harlan?”
“He surely knows what happened to his Master's undead. He's too smart to approach the mansion by land.”
“If he knows we're here, this place isn't safe. He's probably contacted the Condor.”
“Probably. But I don't think there's going to be another attack.”
“The carabineros might pay us a visit.”
“Yeah, time is running out. I saw a speedboat down in the shed. Do you suppose it's in working order?”
