SUED FOR PEACE

by Michael Anderle

  He pulled his own phone out and checked his account. Sure enough, he could see a pending transaction for the hundred thousand. He slid the phone back into his jacket and realized he needed to stop the request to find her that he had running on the streets. He wasn’t sure what a Ranger was, but he really didn’t enjoy having discussions with one.

  Nor did his cojones.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Washington D.C., USA

  Bai was on the fifth floor of the mid-level hotel in Washington D.C. He poured the hot water over the bag of Earl Grey tea that he had picked up on his first night in town. While he could get tea back in his home country, this was his preferred brand. He waited for four minutes before taking the bag out of the water and setting it aside.

  He had received his orders and cased his subjects. They had a varied route and could not be depended upon to take any particular path to any destination. He was pretty sure it was by design, not by accident.

  He took a sip of the tea and exhaled, allowed the peace to settle in his limbs. Taking the honey, he squeezed out a tablespoon and added it to the tea. Stirring slowly, he allowed the sweetness to saturate the drink. He set the hot spoon aside and continued his ritual.

  One should always have a ritual before killing another human. The only time Bai did not was when it was a firefight. In those situations, it was permitted to pray for the deaths after the fact.

  He looked at his wristwatch and confirmed he had fifteen minutes for the soul cleansing efforts he needed to take.

  Bai had learned a decade past from those who also undertook his tasks that if you did not honor those you killed, your soul hardened, and you would never be able to retain the ability to stay human. It was a most difficult responsibility to kill another, and Bai chose to never disrespect those he was sent to kill.

  Even Americans.

  He had dossiers on the three reporters, but little on the two guards they had with them. No one in their group was able to get more than a single name for either Richard or Samuel. Nothing about them suggested much. One report believed they came from Australia due to a high usage of Australian idioms.

  Bai had found this hotel across the street from their own a week ago. He had stayed here a week and left today. No security camera had him coming back into the building or this room again. Nor should it. He hacked the security cameras on his second night here. It took him another five days to decide that shooting from the bedroom window across the street through their windows was his best solution.

  He took another sip of his tea.

  Military intelligence suggested TQB would seek to hide the results of the attack, much like his own country would.

  His group had tried to attack a different TQB group in this town just a few days back and had been unsuccessful. His team’s bodies had been found by the person driving the escape van. The last group member alive was barely able to retrieve the dead men and leave before someone found them and called the police. There was too much blood to act as if nothing had happened.

  But, no bodies, no foul.

  His team, a specialized group of the PLA, based out of Gansu, were responsible for all operations requiring deniability. On their base, there were over five-hundred focused on highly-deniable worldwide operations and support. Their teams joked that the reason there were no other Army located at their base was so that the Chairman could destroy the base if needed and there would be no incriminating or annoying witnesses.

  Fortunately, a small group of high-level Generals worked out of their operations center. It helped assuage the concerns some had about whether the Committee would be willing to just bomb them out of existence if necessary. Those that were the most cynical suggested that the generals who were with them were not in the good graces of the Chairman, and it was a pointed comment that their next mistake would be their last.

  Bai hadn’t heard that anyone in his teams had been tasked with killing any of the generals at the base, but if they did their jobs, he wouldn’t.

  Finished with his tea, Bai cleaned up and put away everything in his little plastic sack. His rifle was ready in the next room. He walked into the darkened room and stepped close to the window to look through the drapes.

  The lights were on across the way.

  He looked at his watch, it was time. He opened his window in the dark and parted the sheer drapes and checked out the street. It was mostly empty at this time of night.

  Bai picked up his rifle and set it on the stand he had created to help hold it steady. He figured he would get at least one, perhaps two kills before he needed to disassemble his gun and walk out and disappear into the night.

  TQB Base, Australian Outback

  “I’m telling you, the operation is short, sweet and simple,” Malcolm told Jedidiah.

  “Says you,” Jedidiah replied, “You didn’t have to hump those two damned missiles this last week. Fucking a’ you asshole, even with the four-wheel drive help, the last two-hundred meters were a cock beating bitch.”

  The two men squirmed the last meter to carefully peek out over the rocky outcropping eighty-six meters above the Australian outback and two-thousand meters from the location of TQB headquarters. It was hard to believe that there was much happening at the base. Malcolm had seen snapshots from high-resolution photos and it looked like a bunch of ground had been tossed around is all. Not much on top of the soil at all.

  Malcolm put the high-magnification binoculars to his face, “Yeah, look. We just need to make sure nothing looks amiss, and we are out of here.” Malcolm looked around the location where the base was and could barely see the small opening used for people to walk into and out of the area. “Just those stupid rocks they brought in and some wire up in the air. Don’t know what the fuck that shit is about. Looks like they started a project and never finished.”

  “Probably the bloody winds and dust out here messed it up,” Jedidiah commented, “I’m itching something fierce right now in me bum.”

  “Information I’d rather you didn’t share,” Malcolm told him while still looking through his binoculars. “I don’t see anything else.” He handed the glasses to Jedidiah, “Your turn.”

  “Yes, you’re right.” Jedidiah looked hard at the wires, “They cover the opening, do you think they were trying to build some sort of shade cover?”

  “Oh?” Malcolm scratched at his beard and wiped to get some sand out of it, “That’s not a bad suggestion. That’s probably the reason. Hell, even underground the sun’s got to be making it a blooming oven over there.”

  Jedidiah gave the binoculars back, “Yeah,” he told him as he started to shimmy backward, “That’s not a bad plan. Shame they won’t need it.”

  Malcolm slid backward beneath the rock top, “There is that. Let’s get off this rock face and get the hell out of here. We’ve done our job.”

  —

  Lance Reynolds chewed on the unlit cigar, “I want those two sum-bitches!” He told no one in particular.

  Peter was standing next to him, with Todd Jenkins, his counterpart for the Guardian Marines on his other side who spoke, “Don’t worry Lance, they will be picked up as soon as they get off the outcropping. The Wechselbalg says they are talking about some sort of missile up there.”

  “So, we got possible inbound,” Lance considered what he wanted to do next, “E.I. Ares, do we have all defensive inbound railguns online?”

  “Yes, General,” the Electronic Intelligence, programmed specifically for the base’s protection, had the requested electronic voice imprint that Lance preferred. He wanted to make damn sure he knew that when he was talking to the electronic intelligence for his base, there wasn’t any misunderstanding that it was a computer. “We are live on all defensive and offensive armament.”

  “How about our defensive shield?” he inquired.

  “Yes, General. It will be activated according to the programming unless you care to change the parameters?”

  “No,” Lance said. “No need to show our hand, but whe
n was the last time you confirmed all connections and pieces were working?”

  “Ten seconds ago,” Ares answered.

  “How the hell,” Peter started saying before he shut his mouth as Lance glared at him. Peter was involved as a watch and see. Answer questions if asked, no comments otherwise. He was finding it hard to accomplish his orders at the moment.

  “The base defensive shield has seventy-two connections powered by nine medium level gravitic power sources. It is fairly easy to push a minimal amount of power to confirm we have proper connectivity, Guardian Peter,” Ares informed him.

  “And that,” Lance said looking at Peter, “Is why I don’t want you making comments.”

  Peter nodded his understanding.

  —

  Malcolm and Jedidiah walked ten meters from the rock face towards their jeep, hidden in a wash about a hundred meters away, when they heard a growl behind them.

  “Fast or slow?” Jedidiah asked him.

  “How the hell should I know” Malcolm responded, “That’s not a growl you hear in the Aussie Outback, you nit!” The two men palmed their pistols and turned around towards the outcropping, but there wasn’t anything there. They looked in the shadows as well as they could.

  “I know I heard something,” Jedidiah commented.

  “Of course, you did,” An American’s voice said behind them. It was punctuated with the cocking of at least four guns, “But it was a red herring you fucks. Lay the pistols down gently, hands up, or we get a plow and bury you out here.”

  The two men slowly placed the guns on the ground and stood back up, hands up in the air. Both swallowed when the biggest fucking wolf they had ever seen came out from behind one of the rocks and looked at them, tongue hanging out in the heat.

  “Malcolm, that isn’t from around here,” Jedidiah whispered to his friend.

  Malcolm barely shook his head, “No, no it isn’t.”

  The two men were led back towards their jeep. There were four men plus the wolf, who was strangely following them like it was trained when the one in command turned towards them. “Sorry old chaps, but you aren’t allowed to see the rest of this. I’m told you won’t wake up with a headache, but then I’ve never done this.”

  “Done what?” Malcolm asked, getting nervous.

  Two men behind them pulled small pistols from their belts and shot the prisoners in their necks. The small darts impaled them in the back of their necks.

  The shooters caught the men as they started to fall. Thirty seconds later, four Pods came down. Tim changed from wolf back to human and pulled on some pants and helped put the two men into a pod with one guard each.

  They were about finished when all of their communicators chirped.

  “Team Alpha, get your asses in gear. We just registered two missiles inbound.”

  “Tim, here with me!” Jasper yelled, “Base, all lift but Pod two.” The other Pods disappeared, and Tim jumped into the Pod with Jasper, “Base, Lift!” The last Pod screamed up into the air as two missiles passed their location and dove into the bunker area.

  The daytime lit up, the explosion's fireball went over a hundred and fifty meters into the air with a cracking boom heard for many kilometers around their base.

  If there had been anyone there to hear it.

  Washington D.C., USA

  Richard, Mark and Samuel sat down to watch the late night news. The ladies had gone to bed, but the guys usually hung out and talked for a while.

  “I don’t understand,” Richard said as he passed Mark the beer he had asked for while Richard was in the kitchen, “how you like that dark stuff. You Americans will drink anything.”

  “What are you talking about?” Mark asked, looking at the bottle from the small local micro-brewery, “This is based on a German recipe, you should be asking someone from Germany that question.”

  “No,” Samuel cut in as he sipped on his blood. He had warmed it up in the microwave. While not as nice as fresh, Gabrielle had told them D.C. was a strictly no fresh zone. “Richard is right, the Germans don’t know any better. They did the best they had centuries and centuries ago. They’ve bred a people who don’t have anything but ale in their blood. You Americans aren’t old enough for genetic tendencies to take hold, so you have no argument except bad taste.” He shrugged to Mark as if to apologize for speaking the truth.

  “I’d say what the hell do you guys know, but you have probably known a few German beer makers in your lifetime?” Mark asked. He loved to get the two to open up about their exploits and it looked like tonight’s discussion might include something to do with Germany’s historic beer making.

  “Well,” Richard replied taking a sip of his water while warming up to his story, “the history of German beer has to start with ales. They have been brewing ale for over three thousand years. It’s why I say that ale is genetically in their blood, and they have a pass for enjoying dark beer.”

  “Damn, that’s some history,” Mark agreed.

  “Just so,” Richard replied lifting his drink in agreement, “You can’t think as much about the recent trends in beer making when you are in Germany. There, you can sit and drink in places that were brewing ale when Christopher Columbus was sailing the seas to find your country.”

  “That does put a point on…” Mark started to say when both of his friends started moving.

  But they were too late.

  —

  Bai listened to his heart beat, exhaled, and stroked the trigger.

  —

  Samuel had just touched Mark to move him when his head exploded like a watermelon slammed by a sledgehammer.

  Both vampires heard the report from the other side of the street, and their eyes went red. Richard hissed to Samuel, “Keep the women down in the bathroom and out of here. Command them, then grab the go bags.” Samuel nodded and moved at vampiric speed to the woman’s room.

  Richard’s eyes, bright red in anger greater than he had felt in a long, long time stared at the window with the small hole in it. He ground his teeth together and grabbed the small metal coffee table and flung it at the window, shattering it. The coffee table was lost in the night until Richard heard a car horn from the street below. Barely a moment later, Richard flung himself through the opening, aiming himself at the building across the street.

  He had violence on his mind.

  —

  Bai could see that his first shot was on target and started to turn his gun, but he had no more shots. The other two men were not visible.

  Then, he flinched when the window he was looking at in his scope crashed open. He jerked his head back in reflex and looked up to see a black body fling itself out of the window. Bai barely had time to register what was happening when he heard a loud metal clang from below his window. Like a heavy body had crashed into the outside of the building.

  His eyes opened in alarm as his training took over when his mind couldn’t process the reality of what was happening. Someone had just successfully jumped across the road, the two sidewalks and the setbacks for the buildings. Bai put his rifle to the side and was reaching for his pistol when the top of his own window crashed in.

  He stumbled back off the bed to the floor beyond when he saw a dark figure, with red eyes glowing, standing up in his room.

  Bai froze, this wasn’t possible!

  The dark figure radiated malevolence at a level Bai had never felt, “You will be the first I tell in hundreds of years,” it spoke, its voice gravelly, “My true-name is Auran the Merciless, and you have killed my friend…”