FALCON: Resistance (KBS Next Generation Book 1)

by Victoria Danann

  “Yes. Wives. Parents. Siblings. People who will wish it was them when they get the news.”

  “I don’t know, Kell. Maybe. Most of us have somebody like that.”

  “I don’t.”

  “No. I guess you wouldn’t.”

  “I saw two deadheads go into an alley door. I figured they were making their hidey nest for the night. Found U Team on the app and gave them my location. When they showed up, I led them into a giant nest.” He looked at Falcon again. “Never seen so many in one place. I didn’t know they gather like that. But I guess there’ve never been this many of them before.”

  “How many?”

  Kell shook his head slightly. “I’d be guessing wild.”

  “Do your best.”

  “A thousand.”

  Falcon’s lips parted. “That’s… impossible.”

  Jax took his glasses off and looked Falcon in the face. When Falcon was able to look into the vampire’s eyes, he could see that Jax was haunted by what had happened. Maybe because of the deaths. Maybe because of the horror factor of that many deadheads in one place. Maybe both.

  “I don’t know that I would have called it impossible before I saw it, because I’ve lived long enough to see a lot of things, but I would have said highly, highly unlikely.” His brows knit together. “If I’d thought there was a chance of it, I would have gone in alone.”

  “Scouted.”

  “Yes. Scouted.” Jax put his glasses back on. “I’m going to start walking in the direction of scotch. You’re welcome to join me.”

  “Telling you. They’re not going to welcome your patronage looking like that.”

  “Well,” Jax said slowly, “I can’t remedy that without going home.”

  “So go home.”

  “I don’t want to.”

  “You really feed bad about what happened, don’t you?”

  Jax gaped at him. “What’s that supposed to mean? What do you take me for?”

  Falcon shrugged. “A vampire?”

  “I was human before I was vampire. And I’m not a killer.”

  Falcon nodded slightly. “I’m getting that.” Jax looked away. “Listen, you’re probably not going to accept this from me, but this wasn’t your fault. If U Team had seen those two deadheads going into the theater, they would have gone in. Outcome would have been the same. And I’ll take that further. We patrol that neighborhood. If there are as many as you say, sooner or later that’s exactly what would have happened.”

  Jax looked down at the pigeons as if he was considering that.

  “You need to go home, get cleaned up, and get some sleep. You do sleep, right?”

  “Not very often,” admitted Jax.

  “Okay. Well, at least get cleaned up and get your head on straight because fourteen hours from now a new patrol will be hitting the streets for the night and they’ll be a lot more productive with you than without you.”

  Jax looked his way, but with the sunglasses in place, Falcon couldn’t read him.

  “We need to have a meeting with Glen about what you saw. If we could trap that many buggers, all in one place, and take them out at once, it would save an awful lot of lives.”

  Jax leaned his elbows on his knees. After a minute of silence, he said, “Okay. What do you have in mind?”

  “Buy the building. Evacuate the building. Implode the building.”

  “You don’t think a few questions would be raised about all the remains that would appear human?”

  “That’s a good point. Seal the exits and pump in carbon monoxide exhaust. There would be a lot of bodies to get rid of, but it could be done. Put a visual barricade at the end of the alley. Take them out in trucks and let Monq figure out how to get rid of them.”

  “Who’s Monq?”

  “Our resident genius.”

  “I really do need a drink.”

  “Go home. Get washed up. Have a drink as in one. I’ll call you in a bit.”

  “Alright.”

  “Alright? That’s what you’re gonna do?”

  “Yes. Go home. Shower. One drink.”

  “Call you later.”

  Jax nodded as he stood and walked away. “Later.”

  Falcon started the whister engine and called Glen while it was warming up.

  “Yeah?”

  “On my way back. Coming straight into the office. Right after I get coffee. You’ll be there?”

  “You found him?”

  “Yes.”

  “You got his story?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Falcon got dirty looks from a couple of hunters on his way through the Hub, but nobody said anything. He got his coffee and his croissant and headed back to the elevator.

  Dunes got on with him. Instead of facing front as people customarily do on elevators, he turned toward Falcon. “Those guys were friends of mine. Came up through training with two of them.”

  Falcon looked at him calmly. “It’s a damn shame. Everybody will mourn them.”

  “The way I hear it, they’d still be alive if it wasn’t for that vampire you got us mixed up with.”

  Falcon shrugged. “In our line of work, things aren’t that simple and you know it.”

  When Falcon got off the elevator and headed toward Glen’s office, he could feel the knight’s eyes still on him.

  Glen looked up and saw Falcon come through the door. He got up and waved Falcon toward the conference room. Kris wondered why until Glen said, “My office isn’t soundproof. This is. I like to have sensitive conversations in here.”

  Falcon nodded and took a seat. “I hope you don’t mind if I have breakfast. I haven’t eaten for eighteen hours.”

  “Course not. That doesn’t look like much. Why don’t I call the kitchen? Have them bring something more substantial?”

  “You can do that? Like room service?”

  Ordinarily Glen would have laughed at that, but it wasn’t a laughing kind of day. He picked up the phone. “What do you like? Eggs? Bacon? Pancakes?”

  Falcon just said, “Yeah.”

  “Bring me an American with pancakes and the works, please. Soon as you can get to it.” He put his phone on the table and turned his attention to Falcon. “Got some answers?”

  Falcon told him about the old theater and what had happened, trying to repeat what Jax had said faithfully. He finished by saying, “He was going to get drunk and withdraw from the program. Figured we wouldn’t trust him going forward.”

  “And what do you think? Do you trust him?”

  “My take is that he didn’t want this to happen any more than you or I. Considering his speed and ability to not be seen when he doesn’t want to be, he got pretty roughed up himself.”

  “But he is alive.”

  “Yeah. He is alive. I told him that, sooner or later, one of the patrols would have seen vampire going in or out, considering the numbers. And the team who was there would have followed. Outcome the same with one crucial difference.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The knights who went in would have still ended up dead, but with nobody left alive to tell us what happened.”

  Glen tapped his fingers on the table. “You’re right, but getting the guys who are riled up to sit still while we thread that needle is going to be the trick.”

  “That’s why you get room service, Sovereign.”

  Glen looked at him. “This is what we’ve always wanted. Locating so many of them in one place at one time… U Team may have bought us the biggest win since…”

  “Since the underground hideout was destroyed.”

  “Makes you wonder if there’s someplace like that in Manhattan.”

  “Yeah. It does.” Falcon finished his croissant, glad that more food was coming. “Based on what I’ve seen so far, it may not be easy to persuade the hunters that working with Jax is in our best interest. The knights have to understand that we need him more than he needs us.”

  There was a knock on the door.<
br />
  “Come in,” Glen said. When nothing happened, he got up. “Sometimes I forget about the soundproofing.”

  He opened the door and a waiter wheeled a cart in with a smile. After setting it up, he asked if Glen needed anything else and left.

  Falcon smiled, shaking his head. “Must. Be. Nice.”

  “The job? Like most things, it has its perks and its downside. Dig in.”

  Falcon didn’t have to be asked twice. “How did they get this here so fast?”

  “Well, unlike the knights, there are people who are getting up and starting their day at this hour. How many years did you go to mess for breakfast on Sunday morning as a trainee?”

  Falcon swallowed the bite of bacon he was chewing and said, “Five years.”

  “So you know they were making breakfast downstairs anyway.”

  “What are you gonna do?”

  Glen cocked his head. “What do you think I should do?”

  Falcon stopped chewing and looked at Glen slackjawed. “You’re asking me?”

  “You have some ideas or not?”

  “Get everybody together. Tell them about the nest in Brooklyn and what this find means in our war against the, ah, deadheads. Tell them U Team bought us a big victory with their lives, but the only reason we know about it is because of Jax. Then tell them how we’re going to take them out.”

  “I was with you right up until that last sentence. You could be my speech writer. I just don’t know the best way to accomplish that last part of the plan.” He got up. “Stay and finish eating then get some sleep. I’m going to talk to Monq. I’ll probably be calling an assembly around three this afternoon.”

  “Business as usual tonight?”

  “Business as usual.”

  “Okay. I told Jax I’d call and let him know.”

  Eruptions from the assembly of knights were more frequent and rowdier than any in the memory of those present, including Rev Farthing, who’d been at Jefferson Unit the longest. Some of the outbursts were borderline hostile.

  Glen was willing to be patient with it. Up to a point.

  He knew that everybody had been on edge even before the early morning’s incident that had taken the lives of an entire team of well-liked and respected knights. Feelings were fever pitched and raw.

  “You’re saying we should trust that thing that led U Team to their death?!?” Sir Sagrimore spoke for a lot of the room.

  The discussion had been going on for an hour and they weren’t getting anywhere. Glen was speaking from a podium on the floor level. The knights sat in front of him in graduated rows of bench seats that might remind some of the Roman senate.

  “I’m not doing it!” somebody yelled out.

  Glen turned his head in the direction of the insubordination, but not fast enough to see who said it. But that particular comment was the straw that ended Glen’s patience. Seeing that order needed more assistance than usual, Storm rose, stepped down onto the floor and walked over to stand at Glen’s left, facing the assembly. Kay, Rammel, Elora, and Rev Farthing followed, taking up posts to Glen’s right and left.

  The visual of Glen fully supported by the former Sovereign and the elite B Team made a powerful statement that said, “Either you’re on our side, which is the right side, or you’re not.”

  Glen didn’t acknowledge the show of force outwardly, but he knew his job would be easier when the knights digested the caliber of his support. “I’m not going to ask who said that,” Glen grated quietly as he glared in the general direction of the jibe. “And I’m not going to ask those of you who know to give me a name. I’m simply going to say this.

  “If you were scheduled to patrol tonight, you will patrol as directed. That means that, if you get a call or text from Jaxon Kell directing you to a particular location, you will respond immediately. You will treat Kell with the respect and gratitude he deserves.” Murmurs broke out. “Yes. Gratitude. Kell sustained wounds and bites from the attack just like the knights. He didn’t ask to become a vampire and be immune to the virus. He did, however, ask to help us overcome a scourge that is growing exponentially and threatening to be the end of humanity.

  “If you feel like you can’t comply, step forward and give me your verbal resignation. It doesn’t give me pleasure to say this, but at this moment in time, he’s worth more to Black Swan than you are.”

  A quiet descended on the room as the result of the Sovereign’s shocking statement, so that it seemed that everyone present was holding their breath. After a protracted silence, with no one coming forward, Glen said, “Good. I’m taking that to mean that you’re all in. Please be assured that I am very serious about the way Kell is to be regarded. Whether you personally think that Kell is a friend of Black Swan or not, you will come to accept that in time.

  “We are conferring with Dr. Monq on the best way to rid ourselves of an estimated thousand targets in the Brooklyn Theater. That’s huge, gentlemen. It not only means your futures are more secure. It also means countless people will never become victims. As we mourn the fallen members of U Team, we give thanks for the life-saving information their sacrifice has bought us.

  “One change in policy. Do not pursue targets into buildings without sending an airbot to scout first. Each team will requisition one from Monq before going on patrol. You are responsible for the bot. As you know the technology is classified. So don’t lose it.

  “There will be a memorial service for the members of U Team tomorrow at two o’clock before their bodies are shipped home to their families.

  “You’re dismissed.”

  The aggregate noise of dozens of conversations immediately broke out.

  Glen turned his back on the podium and said, “Thanks,” to Storm where no one in the theater would see or hear.

  Storm likewise turned so that he was facing the same way as Glen. “Anytime, Sovereign.”

  Falcon watched the proceedings from a seat at the end of the second row. Wakey had sat next to him, Sin and Spaz on the level just above.

  “What do you think?” Wakey asked.

  “As always, I’m glad to be alive,” Falcon answered.

  “Truer words…” he said in return.

  Sin leaned forward. “I think it’s wacked.” He rose abruptly and left the Chamber. His three teammates watched his retreat.

  “I’m telling you, Spaz,” Falcon said, “he’s a pressure cooker about to blow.”

  “Nah,” Spaz laughed it off, “he’s just temperamental. Doesn’t like changes and doesn’t like to be reminded of our mortality.”

  “Mortality?” Wakey said. “What do you mean?” Spaz pushed his shoulder playfully. “Wish it wasn’t our night to patrol. I could use a drink.”

  “Yeah,” Falcon said. “No rest for the weary.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean? You up all night entertaining the beautiful Director?”

  “I was up all night flying a whister.”

  “What?” they both asked at the same time.

  “Jimmy’s wife was squeezing one out. Mart’s got the flu or something.”

  “You okay?” Wakey snapped his fingers in front of Falcon’s eyes.

  Falcon slapped his hand away. “Get away from me.”

  “You look a little punchy.”

  “You didn’t think so until I told you I was up all night.”

  “Yeah, but now you do. Information alters perception. Funny how that works.”

  “Funny. Let’s go eat. Tick tock.”

  Fortunately for everyone working out of Jefferson Unit, the next couple of nights were peaceful. It was almost as if fate agreed to provide a break to ease the tension that was pulled taut as a bowstring ready to release. The memorial service didn’t help much with morale, but at least it was over.

  After the assembly, Falcon hadn’t been subjected to any more provocative behavior. He hadn’t talked to Jax and, so far as he knew, Jax hadn’t contacted any patrols with sightings.

  He’d asked Gretchen for a dinner date out on Fr
iday, but she had a friend coming into town from San Francisco. That was the bad news. The good news was that he had her to himself all day, and hopefully all night, on Sunday. Whenever he wasn’t deliberately focused on a task, he caught himself reliving kisses, touches, and the promise of firm pressure.

  “Where are you?” Wakey said. “Always up in the clouds lately. Why don’t you let the rest of us in on what you’re fantasizing about? Sharing is caring.”

  “You first.”

  Wakey laughed. “I’m not a fantasy kind of guy. I’m all about the action.”

  By Friday night, fate had apparently decided that was enough of a respite. A little after two, Falcon got a call from Jax. They were only a block and a half away from the location he gave.

  The four of them sprinted and were there in less than two minutes, but Jax had already engaged. Apparently he thought there was a chance of saving a young woman, but only if he intervened in what the two deadheads had planned.

  It only took seconds for them to assess the situation. Jax had wrested the girl away before she was harmed. She’d run past K Team looking like an army of ghosts on horseback was right behind. Jax was fighting the two vampire, who were in a snit because their meal got away.

  Falcon and Wakey were starting forward to give Jax assistance when they heard Spaz yell, and turned just in time to see him charge his partner. Sin had drawn one of the specially made pistols that shot greenwood bullets and was taking aim. Spaz launched himself at Sin in what would have been a mid-air tackle, but Sin’s reflexes kicked in and he countered with a taekwondo throw that he’d learned from none other than Elora Laiken. Of course, nobody ever expected that someone would use it on a partner. In earnest.

  Spaz slammed into the brick wall and dropped like a sack of feed, unconscious. While Sin stood immobile, unable to believe that he’d knocked his own partner out, Wakey turned Spaz over and shined his pen light in his eyes.

  Falcon already had his phone out.

  “You calling it in?” Wakey asked.

  Falcon’s answer was to speak into the phone. “Need pickup at 46th in between Park and Broadway. Ambulance. Not cleanup. Knight down.”