Automatic fire came, followed by the thump of a grenade against Esteban’s body. The explosive bounced away and went off among the Half Breeds. Fortunately for Adderson, Esteban’s body was tough enough to shield him from the blast. When the howling started, the firing stopped.
Rifles clattered as they landed heavily on the ground after being dropped by soldiers who only wanted to press their hands against their faces or clamp them over their ears. Next came the screams.
It wasn’t the first time Adderson had seen the Breaking up close. On some level, he wondered if he’d begun leading the charges because he got sick of hanging back at a safe distance while the soldiers he’d sent into battle dropped like flies. He’d heard the crunching bones over earpieces and headphones on missions across the entire country. That sound, along with the screams and howls that followed, meant another member of the IRD had died drowning in a sea of pain. They, like the soldiers who now fell after trying to save his life, could very well be in agony until some lucky shot put them down.
“I’ve shown you this before,” Esteban said in a Spanish accent that gave each of his words an exotic curl. “And still you continue to oppose us. Perhaps you need a closer look.”
“Stop it,” Adderson said. Even though he knew he was speaking to an animal, he pleaded, “Stop what you’re doing, you piece of shit!”
One of Esteban’s eyebrows rose as it he was taking a small bit of amusement from the automatic fire chattering through the air and the small explosions thumping all around him. “You would rather they die than be turned? That is more honorable than I would expect from a human. Usually, the rats would rather live no matter what that life entails.”
Behind Esteban, more soldiers dropped. The first ones to go down writhed on the ground as their bodies were reshaped and their teeth were knocked out by the tusks that grew in to replace them. In Adderson’s ear, a pilot announced, “Raven Two has a shot.”
“Take it, Raven Two,” Adderson said, before struggling to put as much space as possible between himself and the Full Blood.
The gunner in the helicopter opened fire. Large caliber rounds pummeled the ground in a path that led straight to Esteban and hit with enough force to push the creature back. Esteban dropped to all fours, put his thick back to the NH-90 and stared at Adderson with pure white eyes. The moment he closed them, the helicopter started to wobble. Adderson once more heard screaming through the radio as the pilot’s humanity was peeled away to become the broken, knotted form of a Half Breed.
“Deploy explosives!” Adderson commanded on the open channel.
Esteban clenched his eyes shut even tighter, looking more on the verge of a climax than amid so much death. The soldier in charge of detonating the charges that had been meant to turn a group of Half Breeds and hopefully the Full Blood into pulp was turned before she could even acknowledge the order she’d been given.
“Now that I am so close to a fresher source, all I need to do is reach out to them,” Esteban said, “and they fall. The wretches can be controlled, and if not, at least they won’t become filthy cockroaches that sully the world with their machines.”
Another helicopter went down. The pilot of Raven Three swore he could recover, just before losing control of his limbs and taking a nosedive into the ground.
The Full Blood stalked toward Adderson. “Watch and tell the others what is happening here.”
“What makes you think they don’t know what’s happening?” Adderson asked while struggling to reload his assault rifle. “There’s no place to hide.”
“We are not hiding. And if you told the rest of your army how hopeless your battle truly was, you would have all found better places to run to. Perhaps a better message would be sent if you were to be found scattered across this field.”
Adderson slapped another magazine into the AK and chambered the first round. “The more you kill, the harder we’ll come after you.”
“No,” Esteban growled as he rose up to stand well over seven feet tall. “Not you.”
Adderson tightened his grip on his rifle and steeled himself for one last burst. If he was going to be sent to hell, he wasn’t about to go without doing some damage. Esteban lunged at him with speed that was a surprise even for someone who’d been monitoring Class One movements for months. He barely had enough time to squeeze his trigger, and when his shots cracked through the air, they hit nothing.
A split second before the first bullet sped down Adderson’s barrel, something else plowed into Esteban’s side. All Adderson could see was a dark blur intersecting another blur. A gust of wind blew across his face and the earth rumbled beneath him. When the rumbling stopped, something other than the Full Blood was within his line of fire. Standing between him and the hulking beast that had been ready to kill him was a third, smaller creature with light brown fur and a more compact frame. Adderson was still trying to pick his target when the smaller of the two creatures that had just appeared looked to him and snarled, “Run!”
There was only one helicopter and a fraction of his men left, so Adderson took the creature’s advice. Along the way he keyed the long range radio and prayed that some of the equipment in one of the helicopters was still working. “We need that air strike now!”
“Negative, Major,” the voice on the other end replied. “F-18s are RTB.”
“Why are they returning to base? Who the fuck is this?”
When the voice responded, it was too tired to bother with official protocols. “They made three passes on two separate targets, Major. That’s three apiece. Each time, the shifters scattered before the bombs hit the ground. Pilots say the packs were scattered even before they fired a shot. Analysts think they knew they were coming.”
“What? Are you telling me those things have spies informing them of our movements? They’re fucking animals!”
“Not spies, sir. Looks like they saw the planes coming. Maybe smelled them. Either way, all the planes did was burn civilian structures and run up collateral damages. They’re RTB until we can figure something else out. Do you need transpo to get you out of there?”
Steeling himself while surveying what was left of his men, Adderson said, “Negative. We’re staying.”
Since the human could barely move at a snail’s pace, the Mongrel put herself between Adderson and Esteban. She was a lean feline with more bulk than normally found on others of her breed. The ground shifted as diggers burrowed to get a good position around the Full Blood. Esteban had dealt with Mongrels before, but was more intrigued by the tall man who stood beside the Mongrel.
“I heard the reptiles had emerged from their swamps, but hadn’t seen any for myself,” Esteban said. “Your kind have been hiding for so long, I’ve forgotten your scent.”
“Good for us,” Frank replied. His pants were cut from the same material as those worn by the IRD soldiers, but his chest was covered only partially by a harness that held two pistols, a knife, and a few other pieces of equipment.
“So you come out of hiding for this?” Esteban mused. “To protect a bunch of humans who are already dead?”
“They’re not dead,” he told him with absolute certainty. “Won’t be dead today.”
“If not today, then tomorrow.”
Esteban moved slowly as soldiers continued to scream and thrash around him. The first ones to drop were already climbing onto wobbly legs and yawning to stretch newly weaponized jaws. “If you don’t wish to die along with this Mongrel trash, then step aside and be dealt with when the fight is over. I’d say it won’t take long for that day to come.”
“There have been others saying similar things. We won’t allow this to continue. My people, the Mongrels, the humans, we will all stand against you. Things need to go back to the way they were.”
“Oh child,” he said through a wide, horrific grin. “It’s far too late to hope for that. Now that the Torva’ox is flowing, getting rid of you is the only way the rest of us will get what’s rightfully ours.” With that, Esteban jumped. He s
tretched out both front paws and opened his mouth as a wild sheen glinted within his milky white eyes.
The Mongrel tried to jump at him as well, but was intercepted before leaving the ground. Esteban was double her weight, and all of that muscle was put to use once she was wrapped up in his embrace and rolling on the ground with him snapping at her face, neck, and shoulders. Her instincts took over then and soon she was returning his attacks in kind. Once they both got their claws involved, the blood started to fly, until both creatures broke away and began pacing around each other.
“The war has already begun,” Esteban said. “What good do you think you can do now, apart from drawing the ire of those who could be your greatest allies?”
Rather than try to respond using a mouth filled with blood, the Mongrel curled her lips up in a fierce, protective snarl.
“The Nymar staked their claim,” the Full Blood said, “and if we don’t take what’s ours, there will be nothing left. Those humans you cherish,” he added while pivoting to bat Frank aside as the Squam lunged at him. “Do you think they will show their gratitude for what you do here by granting you immunity when the next armed attacks come? Do you think the Skinners will allow you to live peacefully in your swamps with whatever is left of your family?”
The Mongrel’s teeth were not only bared, but elongated, as her snarl became a wild, rasping groan.
“Ahhh,” Esteban mused. “So there is not much left of your family. A regrettable certainty among our kind, I’m afraid. They would have died off soon enough no matter what you did to try and save them. Just like these humans here. And since we now see that humans are the only thing preventing us from fully absorbing the Torva’ox, we must put them out of our way. It is the nature of things. The cream will always rise. These loud, filthy creatures and their machines were simply too stupid or too arrogant to realize they’re not the cream.”
Frank had been using every one of his senses to pick the opportune moment to strike. He could hear, see, even smell the overconfidence within Esteban as he spoke. And when it seemed the Full Blood had regarded him as nothing more than one of the insects to which he’d referred, Frank launched his next attack.
The werewolf made no move to avoid him. He stood his ground, watching him and the Mongrel carefully as clawed hands reached up from beneath the ground to grab his legs. The IRD soldiers who’d been broken had already turned to attack their former comrades, leaving the Full Blood to deal with Frank and the Mongrels. Now that they’d snagged Esteban, the diggers emerged to grab any part of him they could, and when the Full Blood’s limbs were ensnared, Frank and the feline Mongrel charged. The Mongrel darted straight at Esteban while Frank leapt high to throw himself at and quickly through the massive werewolf.
When he passed through the space that Esteban had occupied, Frank felt a chill move in a wave through his body. Unlike the winter chill that barely made it through his scaly flesh, this was a cold that seeped all the way down to the bone. But it was more than a change in temperature. There was something insinuating the cold upon him like a thousand little needles injecting it directly into his core. Beside him, the Mongrel seemed equally confused as she landed and was thrown off her feet by her long tail.
Esteban flung her through the air and turned toward Frank. “I have taken the form that had been all but forgotten by our kind. I have mastered not only changing my shape, but shifting between form and shadow. The few weapons that could kill a Full Blood will now pass through me just as you did. Just as I passed through the stone shell the Skinners used to take Minh prisoner. Flee now or take your chances with these humans once they eventually take you prisoner as well. They are getting stronger and will eventually find a way to bring the fighting to a level that will make this world uninhabitable. Although,” he added while glancing around at the field, now filled with wreckage, charred mounds of dirt, and milling Half Breeds, “today brings only death.”
Frank launched a flurry of attacks while the few remaining soldiers piled into the last helicopter. His claws either scraped against a body that was almost as solid as steel or passed completely though a form with less substance than a memory. After brushing him aside with a few clubbing swings, Esteban clamped his jaws around a Mongrel that had reached up to grab him from underground and tore a large piece of the digger off, to be spat out. Then he calmly walked toward the Half Breeds that had clustered reflexively out of striking distance.
“There is much to do,” he announced casually. “I have heard Cecile’s cry, which means she has finally broken free. Perhaps she will be more open to the truth than you.”
The Mongrel struggled to stand as she shifted into a mostly human form. Now a woman somewhere in her early forties, she enclosed her arms around herself more as a way to stanch the flow of blood from her wounds than to try to cover her naked body. “It’s not supposed to happen like this,” she said. “I know the Full Bloods and Mongrels have never fared well together, but now is a time we can hold a council or—”
“Council?” Esteban snapped. “Why would I care what you or any of these others have to say? I would rather tear the face of this world apart than bargain with the likes of you.”
“What about Randolph Standing Bear?”
That name stopped Esteban in his tracks. When some of the Half Breeds began approaching him, he warned them off with a brutish snarl that sent them scattering, to nip at each and establish a crude pecking order within the newly formed pack.
“Randolph has not been seen since . . .” Esteban’s voice trailed off as a slow breeze brought new scents to his nose. “But I know now that he has recently returned. And he’s found the trickster. Do you expect me to believe he’s suddenly overcome his distaste for your kind?”
“If he’s still with Kawosa, he’s not striking any deals,” she told him with absolute certainty. “He is scheming while this war rages. At a time like this, someone like that is the most dangerous of all.”
Esteban took another slow sample from the air and frowned his disapproval. The helicopter blades of the last remaining AH-90 roared to a crescendo as the steel bird rose. “You can do nothing against me, child,” he said. “Best for you to find a place to hide or think of the best way to please me before it’s worth my time to end your life.” And then he broke into a run. The howl that exploded from his throat caught the attention of every Half Breed, a churning mass of bodies in his wake as they all ran for the nearby city.
The remaining Mongrels bolted after Esteban, leaving Frank alone with the dead and dying in that field. He reached down for a nylon belt clipped around his waist, removed a phone from a small pack and found he’d gotten a call. After pressing one of the preset speed dials, he was quickly connected to a familiar voice.
“Cole,” Frank said. “It’s me.”
“Where are you? Did you find any Mongrels to help Adderson?”
“Caught up with them outside of Shreveport, Louisiana. So did Esteban and a whole lot of Half Breeds.”
“How many Half Breeds?”
Looking around at the carnage, he told him, “I don’t know, but after Esteban howled at these soldiers, there were a whole lot more. Now they’re all running into the city.”
“Can you do anything about it?” Cole asked.
“We tried to stop Esteban, but he found a way to turn into a ghost, and I don’t think I or the Mongrels will be able to touch him.”
“Wait . . . what?” Cole stammered.
Frank explained what happened in quick, choppy sentences while jogging toward the city. Even after he was finished, Cole still seemed confused. Then again, in the time he’d known the Skinner, Cole seemed like that a lot. “Just ask your Skinner friends about Full Bloods being able to pass into shadow. That’s what he called it. What aren’t you telling me about him?”
“You think I’m hiding anything from you?” Cole asked.
“About Esteban,” Frank said in a snarl that surprised even him as it rumbled out of his throat. “You told me plenty about Rand
olph Standing Bear and Liam and even something about the female, Minh. Add the young Full Blood you and Jessup met in New Mexico . . .”
“Cecile,” Cole said with a regretful tone in his voice.
“Right. It seems you and Paige know a lot of these Full Bloods on a first name basis. Why is it you haven’t told me much of anything about Esteban?”
When Cole responded to that, his voice was more grating and intense, as if he was practically chewing on his phone: “Because we know next to nothing about him, that’s why!”
“He was the one at that prison where you, me, and Lambert were being held,” Frank offered.
“I remember.” Cole pulled in a deep breath and let it out. “From what you’ve told me, it sounds like Esteban said more to you a few minutes ago than he has to anyone else. He’s not like the other Full Bloods. He’s not making demands or finding one of us to threaten. Liam, Randolph, even Henry hunted us down, but this one just wants to kill. He didn’t say anything to us when he showed up in Colorado.”
“He was there for whatever was being held beneath that prison,” Frank said. “And judging by his newfound ability, he found it.”
“I don’t know about all of them, but Esteban and any shapeshifters following him are way past the stage of calling us out or forcing us to hand anything over. They want us dead. Plain and simple.”
“Have you learned something along those lines?”
“Yeah,” Cole said. “It’s too much to get into now, but the Full Bloods just want to wipe us out because they’re sick of sharing space with us and they don’t need to bargain or explain a damn thing to anyone else.”
Frank’s tan and yellow scales flattened against his face, and his creamy yellow eyes fixed upon the distant cityscape. “I’m going to see what I can do in Shreveport.”
“Thanks, Frank. Whatever you can do to help will go a long way.”
“Just make sure I’m not here on my own for long.” With that, he hung up, stuffed the phone into his pack and broke into a run to make up for lost time.
Extinction Agenda s-6 Page 14
