Page 7 of John’s Yearning

Savannah’s gaze snapped to it. “The sports car?” There was a hint of surprise in her eyes, as if she hadn’t expected him to drive a sports car or make enough money to afford such an expensive vehicle. Or maybe it was just appreciation for the fine German machine he owned. For whatever reason, he had a hard time reading her.

The black Mercedes AMG was a sleek two-seater and his pride and joy. It had also been made vampire-safe, its windows coated with a film UV-rays couldn’t penetrate, while still letting in enough light so the car didn’t look suspicious.

He opened the passenger door and waited for Savannah to slide into the leather seat, before closing the door behind her. Then he got in on the driver’s side and engaged the engine. Moments later, he merged into traffic on busy Mission Street, before turning North toward Cole Valley.

“We’ll start with the school,” he announced.

“There won’t be anybody there right now. It’s night.”

“Doesn’t matter.” In fact it was better if he could snoop around without any school staff asking him questions. Besides, a visit during the day was out of the question. “I’ll be able to see what I need to see.”

“You work nights a lot?” she asked.

“Mostly.” Though not by choice.

“Don’t you mind it?”

“You get used to it.” After a couple of hundred years.

“Hmm.” She looked out the side window and fell silent for a moment. “Yeah, I guess you can get used to a lot of things if you have to.”

He could sense sadness in her voice, and knew it was time to guide the conversation in another direction. Just as well, because he still had plenty of questions pertaining to Buffy. “You said there was no Mr. Rice. So where is he, Buffy’s father?”

She turned her head to him. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

“Because we can’t rule out the possibility that he might have kidnapped her. It happens all the time that non-custodial parents kidnap their own children in order to get back at their ex-spouse.”

“I was probably not very clear earlier.” She sighed. “There is no father. None that Buffy would know. I was never married.”

“Your ex-boyfriend then?”

From the corner of his eye he noticed her shake her head. “I wanted a child, but I didn’t want a man in the bargain. Buffy’s biological father has no idea he has a child. He donated his sperm to a sperm bank, and for all I know, he has lots of children he doesn’t know about. He was a very desirable donor.”

That news surprised him and made him curious. “What do you mean by desirable?”

She shrugged. “You can choose from profiles at the sperm bank. You know, to pick the kind of attributes you hope the donor will pass down to your child. He had a PhD from MIT, an IQ that put him in the top brackets at Mensa. I know some people would judge me for how I chose him. But I wanted the best genes for my child.”

Stunned at her words, John stared at her. “Those were the only criteria they gave you? Nothing else to identify him by?”

She shook her head slightly. “I knew he was Caucasian, had blue eyes and dark hair. But they don’t give you much else. No pictures, if that’s what you mean.”

“Hmm, I see. So I assume he would never find out that his sperm had resulted in a child.” Knowing how strict privacy laws were, John didn’t expect an answer. “Just like you don’t know his name, he doesn’t know yours.” A dead end then.

“No, sorry. Maybe I should have gotten more information on him back then, but I didn’t.”

He cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean? How?”

“Their systems are hackable.”

“Hackable? How do you know that?”

“I’m a programmer. I was tempted to find out more about Buffy’s potential father back then. I got into their system. It was easy.” She sighed. “But I didn’t go through with it. In the end, I decided it was best not to know too much. So I never accessed his file. What I knew was enough. The sperm donor was healthy, young, and intelligent. That was all that mattered.”

John nodded, contemplating her words. She’d made a wise decision not to pursue the matter any further, though one thing made him curious. “Do you still use your skills as a hacker?” After all, it could be entirely possible that by hacking into a system, she’d drawn somebody’s attention on herself, who now wanted to hurt her by kidnapping Buffy.

She shook her head. “I actually work in cyber security now. That experience showed me how vulnerable certain organizations are. So I made it my business to help them patch those areas that are vulnerable to a cyber attack. One of my first independent jobs was to shore up security at the sperm bank.”

“You run your own business? As a cyber security expert?” He glanced at her, running a long look over her feminine features.