Special Ops Shifters: Dallas Force: The Complete Series Collection (Shifter Nation)

by Meg Ripley

  “Anyway, on a slightly different note, I’m getting shipped out again in a couple of days. A potential terrorist cell has popped up in Illinois. It should be an interesting operation, considering Winston Anders is involved.” She was somewhat grateful to have another assignment so quickly, since it meant that at least someone was taking notice of her, but she also wished she had a little more time to recoup.

  Andrea slammed her Coke down. A bit sloshed out onto her fingers, and she licked it off. “You’re getting to work with Winston Anders? Girl, now I know you’ve hit the big time in the intelligence world. That man’s been everywhere and done everything.”

  Erica felt her face heat up and decided not to tell Andrea that Winston had specially requested her for this mission. She didn’t want to rub it in her friend’s face. It was nice to have someone to talk to about work who had the same security clearance she did. Most people could go home and gripe about their customers or their bosses all day long, but as soon as Erica left the building, she had to keep her lips sealed. “It’ll be interesting, for sure. I was really excited when I found out I was going to be working with him, but when I went in for my briefing this morning, I was also informed they’re bringing in an outside consultant.”

  “That must mean it’s one hell of a big deal,” came Andrea’s conclusion.

  “Maybe, or maybe Randall has told enough people how much he doesn’t trust me and Winston’s convinced I can’t do the job myself. I instantly want to be insulted, but that won’t do me much good.”

  Andrea shrugged. “The one thing I can tell you is that I’ve never heard a bad word about Winston. Everyone loves him, men and women alike, and the rumors about his skills are everywhere. You’ll have a blast.”

  “Maybe.” Erica leaned forward, glancing aside as someone walked to the trash can just to make sure no one was listening. “But if Winston’s so great, then why are they bringing in a consultant? Who could possibly be more experienced than him?”

  “I guess you’ll just have to find out,” Andrea replied with a smile.

  3

  Jack watched the ground disappear under the helicopter. “I have to admit I’m still not sure about this.”

  “What, working with the government again? I can’t say I blame you,” Max said with a laugh from the pilot’s seat. “You won’t catch me letting those assholes boss me around again. I’m happy to keep my work in the private sector from now on.”

  “Yeah, I get it.” Sweat constantly beaded on his skin in this humidity, and Jack wiped his brow. He’d thought a lot before accepting this job, and even once he’d officially taken it, he hadn’t been sure. The Army had given him a purpose in life and he’d enjoyed that, but even more so, he’d enjoyed the freedom of the Special Ops Shifter Force. He wasn’t sure if this was a good idea, but his urge to keep the country safe from terrorists outweighed all uncertainty. Fortunately, he knew he’d have at least one shifter on his side. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough if I’ve made a mistake.”

  Max shook his head. “Don’t think about it like that. You didn’t have much choice.”

  “Thanks, man.” At least there was someone else who understood. He wouldn’t have expected it from Max, who’d always been so full of anger and turmoil. The pilot had calmed down a bit over the last few months, though. “Just do me a favor.”

  “Sure.”

  “Keep this chopper warmed up to come pull me out if things go wrong.” His stomach twisted, and not from the movement of the aircraft. His fox was telling him something. Jack was about to dive into something deep.

  “You got it.”

  A short time later, Max descended the helicopter into a swampy area where thick cypress trees arose from the shallow water. There was a small grassy spot that was slightly drier with a gathering of small cabins. They didn’t look like official government buildings, but these were the coordinates they’d been given. “This chopper’s too heavy for me to land here safely. I don’t want to risk sinking in. Think you’re okay for a short jump?”

  Jack spent most of his time in front of a computer, but there was nothing like the rush of zipping down a fast rope from a chopper. “Yeah, I can handle it.” In fact, he looked forward to it.

  The rotors thumped overhead and echoed in his bloodstream as he affixed the rope to an anchor and pulled the door open. He braced himself against the hull, feeling the wind swoop up in his face as the ground swiftly drew closer.

  At Max’s nod, he let go. It was a short jump, nothing like he’d done when he was still in the service, but the rush of air past him send a thrill of exhilaration through his body. He landed perfectly, bending his knees to absorb the impact. Jack let go of the rope and turned to give Max a thumbs up before stalking toward the cabin.

  The place could’ve just as easily been a wilderness retreat or a scene from a horror flick. Bushy weeds grew up around the foundation, and vines twined themselves around the bowed wooden steps leading up to the porch. The rounded logs that made up the siding had seen better days, but the chinking was still in good condition. It could’ve been a house that belonged to anyone, except for the small security cameras that’d been mounted within the recesses of the eves. Without looking for them, Jack was sure there were other perimeter sensors in place as well. It wasn’t as though he’d tried to make his arrival a secret, considering a chopper had just dropped him off, but it was clear to him that whoever was there was intent on keeping the place secure. His inner fox tensed, watchful and wary.

  The porch boards creaked under his weight as he stepped up to the door. Jack knocked twice, paused, and then knocked twice again. The hinges creaked in protest as the door swung open, revealing a tall man with a slim face and brilliant blue eyes. “Jack! I was starting to think you wouldn’t show up.”

  Jack shook his head and stepped inside, the animal that resided within him relaxing considerably. “Hell, I’m not even late, Winston.” He gripped the other man’s hand firmly, pleased to see his old comrade. As many doubts as he’d had about the mission, Winston had been the tipping point.

  “But you’re only five minutes early,” Winston joked. “Come in and we’ll get started. We’ve got a lot to go over.”

  Jack grinned, pleased. “Sounds great.” He surveyed the open floorplan of the cabin. A small hallway jutted off to the left, probably leading to bedrooms and a bathroom, but the kitchen, dining, and living rooms were all one large area. There was little sign of how the previous occupants might’ve lived since the place was now filled with various castoff metal desks and battered wooden tables, each covered with computers, equipment, and stacks of files.

  This was what he was used to, and Jack instantly felt better about the situation. He stepped past a pile of foreign language dictionaries to follow Winston, ready to get to work. But then the man stepped aside and gestured at a woman seated behind a desk. “Jack, this is Erica. She’s quite talented in the field, and she’ll be working with us.”

  She rose from an office chair well-patched with duct tape. Her long dark hair draped down over her shoulders, a sharp contrast to her lucid green eyes. She watched him carefully as she extended her hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Winston has told me so much.”

  His inner fox went mad as he reached toward her, focusing all his control on his hand so he wouldn’t crush her in his fingers. She was beautiful, no doubt, but why should he be reacting this way? It was as though every impulse he’d ever felt had come rushing to the forefront of his mind, demanding that he act on them. Jack gritted his teeth and split his lips in what he knew was an awkward grin. “I’m sure he has.”

  There was something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. His vulpine half was utterly captivated; that much was obvious. But he was also on defense. Something was different about this woman, and he was determined to find out exactly what.

  He held onto her hand for just a moment longer, trying to deduce if she was a shifter as well. It wasn’t always easy to tell, but Jack prided himself o
n knowing people and how to read them. He searched for some animal inside her, maybe not necessarily a fox like his own inner beast, but something else. Slowly, reluctantly, he let go of her hand. If not a shifter, then what?

  “Jack, I’d also like you to meet the head of the CMC, Roger Worth.” Winston brought Jack around the back of the room, where a man worked at a large table instead of a desk.

  Dressed in a polo and khakis, he didn’t look like any of the bigtime government officials Jack had worked with before. His sandy hair was mixed with gray at the temples, and he offered a warm handshake. “Great to meet you, Jack. I’ve heard a lot about you, and it sounds like you’ll be just who we need on this case.”

  Jack managed to sneak a pointed look at his old comrade. Winston had talked him up just to get him approved for this mission, he was sure, but he didn’t know if he should appreciate it or not. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Let me clear a little of this paperwork out of the way and we can get started.” When the four of them were seated at the table, Roger turned his computer monitor around for them to see. “This is Ben Jones, or at least that’s what he goes by now. From what we can tell, he came to the U.S. in the late nineties. He’s currently living in Illinois, running a used car dealership. Ben’s record is absolutely immaculate. Not even a traffic ticket.”

  Jack studied the face on the screen. The photo wasn’t a mug shot or a candid image, but a headshot that’d clearly been taken to promote his business. He smiled kindly at the camera, ready to sell a Buick.

  “Jones has gone to college and received a bachelor’s degree,” Mr. Worth continued. “He hasn’t been stockpiling weapons or making any open threats, and as far as we can tell, he’s not even in contact with anyone back home in the mountains of the Middle East. The one thing that’s odd about him is this particular website.” Roger clicked to the next screen.

  The website was a standard one, the kind created with a free template for those who didn’t know how to code. Jack scanned the screen as quickly as he could, reading Ben’s glowing words about fellowship, peace, harmony, and understanding. The man was asking those who wanted to live in such a utopian society to come and see him so he could show them the way. A couple of links to videos were included at the bottom. “Interesting. Sounds more like a cult following than any of the religious extremist stuff we usually find.”

  “I know,” Roger said with a nod. “We have a few other small pieces of evidence that indicate something weird is happening, but nothing that’s actually illegal. We’ve got satellite images of a big compound he’s built in the Shawnee Forest about half an hour from his car dealership. Again, no law against that, but it’s practically like a small village. More and more people are moving in, too, considering how much traffic we suddenly see on these back-country roads that normally don’t have much more than the occasional tractor on them.”

  Jack tipped back in his chair and folded his fingers together in front of his stomach. “No offense, but this doesn’t really look like anything the DHS would poke their nose into any further.”

  Winston spoke up now, far more serious than he’d been back at that dive bar. “I’ve been at the dealership several times, as a few different people, of course. I’ve inquired about several vehicles and asked him questions about things like financing, where he gets the cars, his family. He comes across incredibly confident and pleasant. He never offers anything unusual when it comes to money, and he hasn’t exactly invited me back to his compound to discuss the matter further. He acts like a regular guy, but we know from our satellite imagery that there’s more to it than that.”

  “There’s also the fact that the people who do seem to be living in this little village don’t leave very often,” Erica added. Her voice was smooth, like she was speaking to a wild animal she was trying to tame.

  Jack liked it, and once again, he found his fox reacting to her. He blinked and clenched his teeth, forcing himself to focus on her words.

  “We’ve set up some discreet cameras on the nearby roads so that we could more accurately monitor who’s going in and out,” Erica continued. “Ben leaves every morning, goes to work, and then goes back. That’s not unusual, but we’ve recorded at least fifty people going in and only a select few that actually come back out for supplies or to run errands. It’s always the same ones, which means the rest are either forced to stay behind or are brainwashed against leaving.”

  “Is it possible they’re being killed?” Jack asked. It was a terrible notion, since impromptu settlements like this often consisted of families in his experience.

  “We don’t believe so,” Roger said. “They’ve planted quite a large garden, something much bigger than only a handful of people could possibly need, and someone is taking care of the livestock, too.”

  Jack rubbed his jaw. Winston had mentioned shifters, and Jack very much wanted to know exactly what evidence had pointed him in that direction, but that would be a conversation for another time. “No offense, Mr. Worth, but all I see here is that we’re concerned about someone who’s bought a bunch of land and brought in people so they can help him run the farm.”

  “That’s exactly the problem.” Erica addressed him instead of Roger, and those viridescent eyes burned straight into him. “We know there’s something strange going on, but we don’t have any definitive evidence. The Department can’t just go charging in without the risk of facing some serious backlash. We have to go in and get that evidence, and once we do, we can dismantle this issue before it becomes a true threat.”

  Jack’s eyebrows drew together. “But how do you know?” he challenged.

  The steadiness in her eyes wavered for only a moment before she tipped her chin up slightly. “With all due respect, Mr. Denton, I’ve been working in this field for a long time. I understand you’ve performed plenty of extraction missions, and you’ve done your share for this country with your own counterterrorism efforts. An intelligence officer goes through extensive training, but it’s the experience of actually doing the work that gives one a sense of people. I don’t have concrete proof. That’s what we need from you. For right now, I just know.”

  Roger gave a bit of a chuckle. “It might sound odd, Jack. I know your service with the military meant most things were fairly straightforward. It’s not always like that with us, and Ms. Brewer has one hell of a reputation for sniffing out the bad guys. Just trust her. I do.”

  If the man heading up the Counterterrorism Mission Center could accept her feelings about this, then so could Jack. “Okay. So, what’s the next step?”

  “Direct infiltration,” Winston announced. “Spying on them from afar isn’t getting us the results we’re looking for, so we need someone to get on the inside. We want someone to become part of Ben’s little cult or whatever it is and discover what’s actually happening.”

  Jack raised an eyebrow. “Then why would you need me? I thought that was your specialty.”

  His old comrade gave a half-smile. “Yes, but I’ve already wasted it on all the times that I’ve been to the dealership. You know I do a killer job with my disguises, but our exposure rules limit me from diving any further into this personally.”

  “We don’t know what kind of security they may have at the compound, beyond a few watchmen here and there,” Mr. Worth added. “To keep things as safe as possible, we’d like to send two agents in. We’ve decided that’ll be you and Erica.”

  Jack tried not to jump up out of his chair and protest. He’d worked with all sorts of people before, and he’d never been one to think a woman wasn’t perfectly capable of this job. In fact, some of the women he’d encountered overseas had been the most critical in helping him. But Jack could practically feel the energy between himself and Erica crackling in the air. It was a recipe for disaster, and yet once again, he had no choice but to comply. “When do we leave?” he asked gruffly.

  “In two days,” Roger replied promptly. “We can spend tomorrow discussing the mission in further detail and packing yo
u up for the trip. In the meantime, we have all the cabins here rented out just for ourselves, so you’ll have a place to stay.” He picked up a key on the table near the computer and handed it to Jack. “There’s a path out the back door. Stick to it, because the land is pretty swampy here and you can ruin a boot without any effort at all. Take a right at the fork and you’ll find your place.”

  “I’ll walk with you.” Winston was on his feet, and the two men were out the door.

  When they were out of earshot of the main cabin, Jack glanced around him. “Do people actually rent this place out? It’s pretty primitive.”

  “Hey, it’s got Wi-Fi and cable. What more could you ask for?”

  “Maybe some idea of why you think shifters are involved with this Ben guy?” It was frustrating to know that even with the security clearances both he and Winston had, there were still some things they couldn’t discuss in front of Mr. Worth. That only made the job more difficult, and it meant Jack had to watch his back even more than he did when working with the SOS Force.

  Winston let out a long sigh. “You know, I’m surprised how you reacted to Erica back there.”

  Jack paused. Had Winston felt that tension between the two of them as well? “What do you mean?” he asked innocently.

  He lifted a shoulder. “She told you she just knew there was something suspicious about this Ben guy, and you didn’t seem very accepting of that. But it’s really no different than what we experience, Jack. I know you’re a shifter. I knew it from the moment I met you, just as you must have known about me. Sure, occasionally, we can’t quite tell, but you know how it is. I don’t think Erica’s intuition should be dismissed any more than our own.”