“As gentle as the individual will allow before they see the errors of their ways.” Terry put his hand over his heart and tried to look contrite, before continuing, “It’s easy to see the bad in things. When we started this, I had such high hopes for humanity, for a new world.
“But people got in the way. Human nature is overwhelmingly helpful and good, but those people generally aren’t the ones in power. There is some secret sauce to power, whether there is a flaw in those who seek it, or once in power, their dark side takes over. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, or so they say. I think human frailty cannot withstand the positive reinforcement that comes from being in charge. It’s an addiction, but there’s no world police to keep the leaders on the straight and narrow.
“That can’t be us. It has been, but it shouldn’t be. Our whole focus is on giving the people a chance. For me, it’s heartbreaking to see, but I know that it’s out of my control. It would kill all of you if we raced from city-state to city-state to be the thought police. Where would we draw the line? It would be a slippery slope. Our way or the highway. I know that I’ve given those exact same dictates in the past. I know I’m right! Or am I? Think about what the next five years could bring and our role during that time. That’s all I wanted to say. Enjoy yourselves and stay the fuck out of my beer!”
Kaeden casually put the bottle behind his leg, before realizing that he was over one hundred years old and hiding the beer he’d snuck from the refrigerator.
He hoisted it high and proud. “Here’s to you, Dad!” he shouted.
***
The conference room was filled with all the tac team members, in addition to the regular platoons’ leadership. The people were leaning forward. Terry started right away.
“What do we do for the next five years?” he asked to get the conversation started.
“Track the Weres,” Timmons called out.
“Here, here!” someone shouted.
“Recce the cities. Watch and stay engaged,” someone offered.
The ideas ranged from everything to nothing. It wasn’t helping. Terry held up his hands for silence.
“We aren’t going to commit the resources as we have in the past. If we send a tac team in, it’s for a mission. They go in, do it, and get out. If we send in a regular recon team, we risk getting caught. I can’t have the city-states thinking that we’re their overlords. That’s almost as bad as being the overseers. I won’t be the one to create a state of paranoia and animosity with those folks.
“We can take a great number of vacations, though. Our people, visiting the cities of the world in between training. One month out. One month in. Tac teams in reserve in case we see anything. Teams of two going on vacation. Reporting in weekly. I can agree with that, but nothing official. This will all be off the record. We won’t even keep track here, just in case someone sees. We train. We stay in shape. We sharpen our minds. Bad guys will be back and for some reason, when they show up, they have big guns. That’s when people won’t even know that we exist. The problem will be taken care of before they know there is a problem.”
“They won’t see us coming. They won’t even know we were there. But justice will be done!” Marcie shouted.
The group cheered and yelled. Terry was good with it. He let the chaos reign for a while before calling for calm.
“Honor. Courage. Commitment. Always remember what those words stand for. Embrace your place in this world. Your thankless place. It is incumbent upon me and the leadership to make sure your efforts are recognized. Exporting justice to the world without letting anyone see will be tiring. Don’t let it wear you down. Lots of vacations. Lots of barbecues. And a relentless physical training schedule. Anyone gets soft on me? There will be hell to pay! Okay, you lazy bastards, obstacle course!”
The group stormed from the conference room. Char, Marcie, and Kurtz stayed behind.
“You don’t expect me to run the “O” course, do you?” Char asked. “These are new jeans.”
“You don’t expect me to dignify that with an answer, do you?” Terry replied with a half-smile.
“Fine. I’ll change. Don’t start without me.” Char sauntered away.
“We’ll be doing pushups until you arrive,” Terry said after her.
“Fine!” Char hurried out the door and started running.
“I don’t know why she puts up with you,” Marcie told her father.
“Because I am the cat’s ass!” he replied. “And she secretly loves the obstacle course.”
Terry winked. Marcie slapped him on the shoulder as she headed for the door.
Lieutenant Tyson Kurtz was waiting.
“What’s to happen with us?” Tyson asked, concern creasing his face. “Time is not our friend. With each day, we grow one day older.”
“I think that you’ll still be plenty young when we ramp up operations. I am going to need you, Tyson, more than you know.”
“What aren’t you telling us?” Tyson asked.
Terry looked down his nose at the man.
“If I told you, then there wouldn’t be something I wasn’t telling you. In the interim, you’ll have to trust me. The world is a hard place, and we can’t fix it all. What we can fix, we will, and we’ll make it right. If we don’t, then who will be the champion of the average person, the ones just trying to live their lives? It’s for them that we do what we do. When judgment day comes, we can’t be found wanting,” Terry explained mysteriously. The look on his face told Kurtz that the conversation was over.
“Yes, sir. Let’s go kick some ass.” Tyson held the door for the colonel before breaking into an easy run to the obstacle course.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
WWDE + 149
China
“The Qin Clan is real,” Aaron said into his comm device. “Finally. After all these years, we have what we need to act, but we cannot delay.”
“We can be there in a couple hours,” Terry replied.
“I look forward to seeing you, TH.”
“Likewise, my friend. And congratulations. What do you say we excise this boil?”
“All of that and then some.” Aaron put the device in his pocket. It had been his constant companion for a long time. It sat unused, but not forgotten.
With the spread of their business reach, their information network expanded. And finally, when they reached far enough west, strange things started to happen. Disappearances. Malformed creatures found dead. Dark areas where no one was allowed.
Sounded to Aaron like a Forsaken stronghold, but he didn’t go in. He sent one of his most trusted humans, one who knew about the Unknown World. It was from him that the information came. Many Weretigers roamed the area. The human subjects paid homage, bowing as the creatures passed.
Shin had bowed along with the rest. He played his role well. Not being enhanced, the Weretigers never knew that they’d been found out. At least that was what Shin and Aaron had hoped.
Tibet. The roof of the world. The home of the Qin Clan, those who may have once been the Sacred Clan.
“If they are in Tibet and not bothering anyone, why are we going in?” Yanmei asked again. She’d grown comfortable with the status quo. They ran their business and the clan left them alone.
“To make sure that our business can run long into the future. I believe we are on borrowed time, my love. We are building a large dam that will keep our valley from flooding. As long as the dam holds, we will be better off. The lives of our children will be better, which brings me to what I really wanted to ask. Can we leave it to the six of them and step away?”
Yanmei smiled and reached up to cup Aaron’s face in her hand. She was tall, but Aaron was more than a foot taller. “I know. We have been interfering for too long. I’m not sorry that I spoil my kids, but you are right. It is time to move away. We have the whole world to choose from.”
“That we do. We’ll look in earnest after we deal with the clan.”
San Francisco
“
Kurtz! Two squads whose sole mission will be to protect the pods. The tac teams are going in. That means you, Nick, Samantha, and Edwin are headed into the tiger pit with us. Silver bullets all the way around and don’t be afraid to use them. Weretigers don’t make easy targets. Go! Rally the warriors and meet us at the hangar in ten.”
Kurtz bolted. Too much to do and no time to do it.
Terry watched the man go. He’d been loyal and stalwart over the years. TH appreciated him and his commitment. He hoped that he’d be able to do something for the man when the time came. Terry had no idea what that would be.
What would happen when Bethany Anne returned? Had Terry been prophetic when he called it judgment day? Out of his control, but what was in his control was the upcoming confrontation with the Qin Clan. The tac team was on their way to the hangar where their packs waited. They’d been checked and rechecked over the years, weapons were always cleaned and serviced, metal surfaces oiled, and food and water regularly changed out. Their go-bags were always ready to go.
Otherwise, it would have defeated the purpose.
Terry fought the urge to run. He had plenty of time. The hangar was a five-minute walk away. It was raining, but he didn’t care about getting wet. He expected Char, Sue, and Cory, who had been shopping in town, to come screaming up in a taxi at any moment. If he was nearby, they’d send a wave over him. He expected they did it on purpose, but always denied it.
They had lots of opportunity. It was San Francisco and it rained a fair bit.
But no taxi appeared as he finished the last of his walk, joining a few of the others in the pod hangar. Kae and Marcie were closing their packs, having already verified their contents. They held their rifles loosely under their arms, having already set the combat sling so the rifle was at the perfect height and hang to be instantly put into action.
Kimber was helping Auburn adjust the harness over his body armor while the contents of their packs were spread on the ground around them.
Terry checked his own pack, taking only ten seconds to do it because he’d just checked it two days prior as part of his weekly routine. He looked at his body armor, not wanting to wear it but putting it on anyway. He never appreciated the do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do leaders.
The rest trickled in over the next ten minutes. Char, Sue, and Cory were still missing. He’d talked with Char personally, and she told him they were on their way. They needed the whole team.
And he needed Char by his side as much as he needed his Mameluke and pistol. Marcie looked impatient. “Relax,” he told her.
In the long history of the world, telling someone to relax has never worked, yet it was a staple frequently delivered to the anxious.
Terry put his pack on and stood, legs shoulder width apart as if he was going into battle. He closed his eyes and meditated on the engagement. He did not know enough to form any kind of plan. He only knew there would be a fight. He calmed his mind to open it to the possibilities of what was to come.
He felt a tapping on his shoulder. He opened his eyes to see the sparkling purple looking back at him.
“Are you coming?” she asked softly. She had her hand on his chest as if she could feel the warmth of his heart through his uniform and the armor.
He saw that the others had already loaded into the pod. “I am,” he replied, simply motioning for Char to go first. He always did that so he could look at her butt.
It was his thing.
And she knew it.
China
The pod landed in an open area that Aaron had directed them to outside the bustle of Shanghai.
They came in from a steep angle, landed quickly, made the pickup, and headed back out, racing west toward the roof of the world.
“Here’s what we know…” Aaron briefed the crowd cramped within the pod. Terry had an overhead image on the screen. Aaron tried to recreate what his man had observed. Yanmei added the details she remembered from the conversation.
Terry consolidated the data to form a plan. He overlaid the information on the map of his mind’s eye. A temple. Outbuildings. Extensive grounds. A dirigible spire, the likes of which were popping up around the world to take the place of the airports of old. If you build it, they will come.
They were coming all right, but they didn’t need the tower.
Char held up a hand for silence as she watched Terry think. The group waited. Terry stared unblinkingly at the screen as the plan came to mind.
“The hydra has seven heads,” Terry finally said loud enough for all to hear. “We will break into three groups from the tac teams. I’ll lead one group with Char, Kimber, Auburn, and Nick. We’ll go high, take the upper levels of the temple. Marcie takes the center with Kae, Shonna, Merrit, Aaron, Yanmei, Tyson, and Samantha. Timmons and Sue take the last group. You’re going underground. You’ll have Cory, Ramses, and Edwin. Smaller is better for the basement group. Stay together. I don’t expect you’ll find anything down there, but don’t be afraid to purge it with fire.
“Sergeant Garcia, you deploy your two squads to protect the pod. Don’t shoot any of us. Keep civilians away from the pod. If you need to challenge, our password is ‘beer is awesome’!”
Terry smiled. His passwords always included beer. It was his running joke, although not so funny since he was out. The wheat harvest had been bad the previous year and they hadn’t made any beer in Portland. Terry had avoided Europe in its entirety over the previous four years.
Which meant he hadn’t had a German beer for that long. After the op, he’d consider returning by way of Germany to pick a case or six.
“We won’t talk with Qin Clan because of the terrible things that Aaron and Yanmei confirm that the Clan has done. In any case, I doubt they’ll see our arrival as anything other than an attack. We’ll never know if they’re willing to talk. I’m okay with that. We’ll kill them wherever they choose to make their last stand. If they surrender, we’ll accept it and let them live. We can always dump them on one of the Hawaiian Islands to keep them away from humanity.” Terry grinned and started to rock. The pod was already descending toward the clan’s compound in Tibet.
The pod screamed in soundlessly, flaring above the ground, and the ramp started to open as it settled. The teams ran off and raced in three different directions.
Garcia deployed the squads in a layered defense, one group forward of a ring behind. He ran from position to position to check lines of fire. He ordered two men to cut down a tree that blocked their view. They attacked it with an axe while two others provided security.
Terry took his team to the right, where he could access the upper level of the temple using a ramp from the adjacent hillside. The majesty of the surrounding mountains wasn’t lost on him. He knew that he would appreciate the view later. Until then, they were inside the wire, in the enemy’s compound, where those who lived there would fight with claw and fang to defend what was theirs.
Marcie headed straight for a grand staircase that led from the grounds into the temple.
Timmons’s team ran alongside Marcie’s as the entrance to the underground was beside the main entrance.
Terry put the thought of the other two tactical teams out of his mind as he saw two people up ahead that Char had said were Weretigers. He pulled his sword and pistol and sped up. The others prepared their weapons. Nick focused solely on running. For him, it was a sprint, as fast as he could run and he was still losing ground.
The two changed into Weretiger form and screamed their warning. They charged fearlessly toward Terry and his team.
Terry stayed upright until the last second. Weapons fired and silver bullets cut deeply into the Were. Terry ducked and drove his sword upward as the creature leapt and passed overhead. Terry hung on, ripping the sword from the creature’s chest. TH stopped his momentum, turned, and charged, but held back when he saw the second Weretiger flop in its death throes.
He whipped around to watch the ramp as the others pumped a few more rounds into the dead Were.
Terry
waved Char to him and checked the others. The thumbs up was quickly given and he continued up the ramp. Gunfire came from the direction of the main entrance. Terry didn’t look. That was out of his control. He focused on what was within his sphere.
Char pointed ahead, holding up two fingers. More Weretigers were waiting.
***
Marcie spread her team across a wide front and slowed to allow those with rifles to bring them to bear. She had started carrying a Glock pistol like Char, but only one. She counted on her superior speed and a combat knife called a Kukri.
Of course the blade was silvered because her enemies were most vulnerable to it.
Kae, Tyson, and Samantha looked over the barrels of their carbines as they climbed the steps, filling them from left to right. A group of humans appeared at the top, looking like they were going to roll logs at the incoming tac team.
“Fire!” Marcie ordered.
The three carbines sounded as one and three people dropped. Two tried to push the logs, but a second volley threw them backwards. Marcie’s tac team hadn’t slowed down. They continued up the stairs and over past the bodies.
The log defense sat impotently on the top step, useless in how it exposed its operators, but the Weretiger masters didn’t mind sacrificing a few slaves. It told Marcie all she needed to know about the masters of the complex.
***
Timmons and Sue led the way around the side of the stairs. At the base of the staircase, leading under the main temple, an entrance stood dark and unwelcoming.
They rushed through without hesitation. The Werewolves’ eyes adjusted instantaneously. The enhanced humans acclimated to the darkness almost as quickly, while Edwin remained at the entrance to make sure no one came in behind them. He took a knee and looked over the barrel of his rifle as he swept it left and right.
Nomad's Galaxy Page 23
