Here is the English translation of the provided text, preserving the original wording, style, tone, structure, and punctuation as closely as possible:
His sire stands nearby, an old vampire named Isabelle. She is four hundred and seventy. She still remembers the times when vampires were a legend, not the administration.
"They forget," she says quietly.
"An entire generation has already grown up not knowing any other world."
Kaël exhales smoke.
"Is that bad?"
Isabelle smiles, showing long fangs.
"No. It's perfect! When they finally forget completely, we will stop being conquerors.
We will simply become… the norm."
Kaël is silent, then asks:
"And if someone doesn't want to forget?"
Isabelle looks at him for a long time, almost with pity.
"Then we will find a use for that. Everything has a use, Kaël. Even humans."
Down on the street, another patrol lifts a man who went out after curfew.
The man screams, then the scream cuts off.
Library of Congress USA
year of data: Unknown
Document author: Sire Ulstein
End of prologue.
They were no longer sitting at the table. The room, which just a few minutes ago had seemed like a refuge, had now turned into a trap. Ethan stood leaning with his palms on the edge of the table, feeling how the wood absorbed the cold sweat from his fingers.
His heart beat heavily like a drum warning of an approaching storm.
"Damn, this is real, not a dream. They're here, and they know we just cracked these stupid files, and now they want to kill us."
Bruno slammed the laptop shut with such force that the keyboard cracked under his fingers. The screen went dark instantly, but the blue afterglow still hung in everyone's eyes, like lightning after a flash in the night.
He quickly stuffed the device into his backpack, zipping it shut with a sharp hiss.
"That's it," he said hoarsely, his voice echoing off the walls.
"The beacon signal map leads to the old industrial district in the east. Coordinates are exact: 45.6789 north latitude, 9.0123 east longitude.
But if we stay here even another ten minutes… They're already scanning the perimeter."
He didn't finish.
He didn't need to. Everyone understood the drones weren't just flying cameras. They were the eyes and ears of those who rule the night.
Ethan swallowed, feeling a lump in his throat.
"Ten minutes? We probably don't even have five. We need to move. But where? And how? I'm not a fighter like them. I'm just… a guy who lost his wife. But now that doesn't matter. What matters is surviving long enough to get to all the facts!"
Flash was already standing by the window, pulling the curtain aside with the tip of his finger just enough to see a narrow strip of sky above the rooftops of the opposite building.
His eyes, narrow and focused, scanned the horizon. The night was black as tar, only the distant city lights twinkled like stars in hell.
"Two," he said quietly, without looking away.
"Maybe three. Altitude, about one hundred and fifty meters.
Warm engines, they're circling in a figure-eight pattern, scanning with thermal. One is already over our block, the second is coming in from the north.
The third is holding in reserve, at two hundred meters. 'Whisper-4' models, silent, with infrared cameras and network traps.
They're already here."
"Where do you know all this from?" Ethan asked Flash, raising his left eyebrow.
"I taught him," Bruno declared, cutting into the conversation.
Ethan felt everything inside him contract into an icy knot. He looked at Pulya, who until now had been lying at his feet.
Now she stood by the door, ears pressed to her head, tail motionless, only the muscles rolling under her coat like waves beneath skin.
She knew before any of them, predator instinct. "Pulya senses them, she's ready to fight. And me? I have to be the same."
Gideon cursed through his teeth, tucked the stun gun into his belt and grabbed his backpack from the floor. Something metallic clinked inside, probably additional gadgets.
"Black exit through the basement," he said quickly, scanning the room.
"There the sewer comes out into the collector under the street. If we're lucky, the drones won't see us underground.
They don't see well in tight spaces, their propellers hit the walls. But if they launch mini-drones, the size of a hand, then we're done."
"If we're lucky," Flash echoed, letting the curtain go.
It gently fell back into place, but Ethan noticed how his hand lingered for a moment, clenching into a fist.
"And if not, they'll smoke us out with thermal in five minutes. Those 'Whispers' see heat up to three meters underground."
"We need to move fast, stay in cold zones near water, under pipes."
Ethan grabbed Maria's pendant the only normal thing left in this house and slipped it into his jacket pocket. His fingers trembled, but he forced himself to move.
"The pendant is warm, as if she's still here."
"Where do we go after?" he asked, his voice sounding resolute.
"We can't just run through the sewers forever."
"To the blind guy," Bruno threw out, already shoving the laptop deeper into the backpack.
"He has a jammer in his basement that covers the whole block. 2.4 and 5 GHz frequencies, plus it works on GPS.
If we make it there, the drones will go blind for at least ten to fifteen minutes. Enough to break away and go to ground."
Flash nodded, his movements precise like a machine.
"Then run!
Minimum talking. Pulya in front, she smells traps. I'm second, Ethan third, Bruno fourth, Gideon bringing up the rear.
If a drone appears, don't shoot right away, save ammo and hit only at point-blank range."