The blade was sharp enough to sever the fine hairs at the bridge of the scientist's nose before passing into the epidermis, surgical steel splitting one sweat pore precisely into two even halves before passing into the dermis and then the subdermal fatty layer, the edge passing swiftly and precisely into contact with the cartiligenous tissue and through. After parting the first bit of cartilege, portions of the blade reemerged into the air of two nasal passageways through the thin layer of mucous covering the lining. The man would experience no pain or terror in dying.

The thickness of the blade was such that portions of it now contacted the outer surface of the right, and immediately, also the left eyeball tear coating, passing instantly into and through the corneas.

The stroke, he had designed to follow a rule, known to many big game hunters, stating that two lines, drawn left ear to right eye, right ear to left eye, cross within the target's head, indicate the point through which a bullet fired will garuntee most certainly the kill.

The corneas, pupils, and lenses were divided in two vertically with the deepening cut. The face could now be called upper and lower, separated by steel.

By cutting as he did, he would sever the crosshair point along with the balance of the brain tissue surrounding.

A race had already started. Light blanked suddenly by the presence of the opaque steel blade had caused the receptors upon the retina to stop signalling light's presence to the brain. Damage registered as pain by the nerves surrounding the eye and upon the nose would come after the loss of light registered by the eyes, the retinas being both closer to the brain and reacting to a lack of light that arrived at the retina before the blade had bent the outermost hair. In any case, nervous impulse travels at about three hundred miles per hour and the blade nearly that.

While in his way brilliant, the man had proven inadequate and ultimately an unacceptable threat to security.

As the line of the blade's damage passed from each eye, through the intervening brain, bone, and hollow space to each respective ear hole, the impulses from the eyes found, upon entering the brain, nothing any longer capable of interpreting their vital, deadly information. The blade continued on through the head, slowed considerably, but with contradictorily considerable remaining velocity. Exiting, the blade held enough of its original keenness to slice shiny black hairs across the majority of the back of the dead man's head.

These, then, and the small amount of blood spilled in the process would be the only evidence of the incidence just now perpetrated. The victim had certainly not been party to an experience of pain.

At least there would be that. The killers own pain of regret still gnawed as he lifted the body and skulltop and shoved them into a very large suitcase, secreting the odd blade within his coat. The case he clamped shut, carrying its weight easily off into the night.

"Know that I am a vampire," the note began.

Terrance Bender, up-and-coming scientific mind in the field of cybernetics, neuromedicine, and neurosurgery, read the note in amusement. Which of his long-unheard from college buddies was perpetrating this gag?

"I have lived for several centuries and do not remember the occasion of my transformation, only its reality.

It happened that I was a simple, peasant farm hand when, one evening, I passed from waking into sleep upon my pallet. I heard not a word, sound, nor cry in the night that would prepare me for my emergent fate. I awoke with the first stirrings of dawn light, burning in between the cracks of the door. My first impression was that there was a fire coming across the Master's field, and that I must fight it.

Dashing to the door, I found myself unable to endure the barest paling of the night sky. I sought refuge in the hut's darkest corner. This soon proved inadequate and I began throwing the dirt floor over myself, trying to still the pain. As the dawn lightened, I became more and more in pain until I passed into unconsciousness.

For a night I had slept, and for the following day I continued unconscious until the night had fallen. I awoke raving with hunger. The water in its bucket had turned unbearably rancid and foul during my sleep. The food had become equally inedible. I cast about for food that didn't repulse my when I smelt of a delacy.

Coming from the house of some neighbor was an aroma I must follow. Running, I found myself outside of a window, staring in at a simple man, woman, and pot of some soup cooking over the fire. I knocked on the door.

The man answered and I grabbed his head, bent my teeth to his neck and gashed it open. My mouth fastened to his neck and I drank powerfully for not more than two heartbeats when I felt his life ebb to nothing. The woman had already begun her scream and I hadn't had the time to worry about her.

Now, I lept upon the woman and took her life in the same way. I was no longer famished and found myself considering the corpse in my arms.

A wolf sees nothing unnatural in its victim lying with broken hamstring, broken neck before him. I saw the woman as an empty plate with her neck ripped apart. My teeth were become sharp and deadly, judging from the rent.

I felt the change with my tongue, surprised that my canines and incisors had not felt unnatural earlier. I dropped the corpse.

There have been thousands upon thousands since that night. I do not remember what the sun feels like. I am the damned.

This offer I make to you. I will be a subject of experimentation, you will receive one half million dollars in the mail tomorrow. It will be in the form of a cashier's check and you MUST NOT cash it unless you consent to work for me or at least hear me out.

Should you refuse, place the check in the envelope provided with the check. If you accept, cash the check at the bank upon which the check is drawn. I will find you on that evening.

Dale, your patron."

Amusing. Bullshit, utter bullshit, but amusing, none the less. Tomorrow, then, the next letter would come. This one had been hand delivered without a return address or postage attached.