by Alice Brown
“Hear, hear!” Mr. Atkins suddenly exclaimed, causing Erica to jump in her seat. She stole a quick look over at him. He was beaming with delight.
A short time later, the council was taking the matter up for a vote. Everyone liked the idea except for Felippe, and Erica was sure it didn’t matter what had been brought up as new business today, he would not have been in favor of it. Was it possible for a vampire to get up on the wrong side of bed, or was he always like this?
Right before the vote was taken, Charles added one last comment. “If we decide to pass this idea, I think we should establish a committee that heads up this village. They, of course, would be responsible to us. But, I would ask that everyone consider putting Erica on that committee since this was originally her idea.”
“By all means, Charles!” exclaimed Mr. Atkins. “This girl is a true treasure! You have my vote already!”
Voting proceeded, and the yes’s outweighed the no’s by nine to one. Felippe was the only one to vote no. The council also agreed with Charles to set up a committee to be responsible for the village. None of the nine members that had voted yes on the original plan even batted an eye on putting Erica on that committee. Several members even suggested that she be named head of the committee, with Mr. Atkins leading that suggestion. Charles walked out of the meeting so happy and pleased with the outcome that Erica briefly wondered if he was going to kick up his heels and dance his way back to the elevator.
Once they were on the elevator and on their way back up to the VCTF office, she decided to inquire a little about Mr. Atkins. “I didn’t know Mr. Atkins was on the council board,” she stated, hoping Charles would open up and fill her in on the information she was searching for.
“Mr. Atkins might be getting old, but believe me, he still can run circles around most of us,” Charles replied on a chuckle. “I had a call from him after you and Kate went to see him. It seems he was quite taken with you.”
“Well, he did seem to enjoy the company,” Erica replied with a smile. “He told me all about working with Abraham Lincoln and then his involvement in WWII. He also told me he worked with you for a short time, and helped train Kevin.”
“Yes, he ended up in this area shortly after the war. Back in those days the VCTF didn’t pay very well, but I liked his personality, and he was more than qualified. He worked with me for numerous years, and then when Kevin was ready to be trained, he played a large role in that. He and Kevin hit it off way back then, and he still thinks the world of Kevin today. You know, Kevin would have been very proud of you today. You even managed to surprise me going back at Felippe. I was ready to jump in, and you never gave me the chance. You did a really good job in there today,” Charles stated kindly as they stepped out of the elevator.
“I’m glad you had the chance to meet Atkins before today. Having his support helped us out tremendously. The retirement village probably would have gone through today, but having Atkins’s support made it easier,” Charles continued.
Charles and Erica arrived back home a short time later, with Erica feeling a glorious high. This had been her first major presentation, and it felt wonderful to have it go as successfully as it did. Her stomach was growling by the time they walked in the door and she quickly excused herself, heading straight for Kevin’s suite.
* * * *
Once the team arrived in the jungle, they set up camp amongst the trees and bushes, ensuring they remained out of sight. They carefully hid the bikes, making certain they would not be easily found should someone stumble across the camp. The next job was to start retrieving the necessary information Charles had for them. Kevin changed over to animal form at this point. He chose a cheetah, and quickly made his way through the jungle to the location marked on his map. He chose to go alone on this surveillance run. The remainder of the team needed to start retrieving the needed information from Charles. Kevin came across his target about twenty minutes later, right where it was supposed to be. Big, two-story white house, big bay window, large covered front porch. Description matched perfectly to what Charles had been able to obtain for them. The house looked deserted at this point, but Kevin was not going anywhere near it until he had the entire team ready. He now quietly backed away, and went to join the rest of his team. It was time to refine the plan of attack.
It was two in the morning when Erica’s nightmare sent her sitting straight up in bed, gasping for air. The dream seemed so genuine and graphic. It was as if she were standing on-site, watching everything happen without any way of stopping it. In her dream, she envisioned the VCTF team preparing to enter a large, white house. They were entering the house in order to make an arrest, only the house was a trap filled with explosives. The team knew nothing about this, and just as they started entering the front door, there was a huge explosion. Erica sat up in bed shuddering and sobbing, gasping for breath, recalling the faces of the team members in her dream as they were being burned alive from the explosion. She sat there trembling, her stomach threatening to heave at any given second, trying to force air through her lungs in order to calm herself. She tried convincing herself that it was only a dream, yet something about it kept bothering her. It just seemed too real. Going back to sleep now was virtually impossible. The dream stayed at the forefront of her mind, refusing to leave or be shut out, and she knew, even if she could return to sleep, she would only experience the same nightmare again. After a couple of minutes had passed and she had been able to halfway calm herself down, she decided to go downstairs and see if Charles was in his office. Maybe he would confirm the team’s safety. Maybe then she could go back to sleep peacefully.
As she reached Charles’s office, she could not see any lights on under the door, and she hesitated. Deciding to knock softly, she held her breath to see if it was answered.
“Come in,” answered Charles.
“Hey Charles, did I wake you?” Erica asked hesitantly, as she slowly entered the office.
“Sweetie, my kind generally doesn’t need much rest. I was just reading,” Charles responded kindly. He sat the book down he had been reading after studying her for a few seconds. “What’s wrong, Erica?”
“Do you know where the team is right now?” Erica asked. Charles noticed she was chewing on her bottom lip, and her face was very pale.
He sat up in his chair, moving towards his desk. “Yes, do you need Kevin?”
“I just wanted to make sure he was safe. I had a horrible nightmare.” Charles watched a shiver run down her spine as she spoke.
“Erica, sit down, you look like you are ready to collapse, dear,” Charles stated with concern. “Give me just a minute.”
He leaned over to the microphone and stated, “Freeze, mission is on hold until new info is confirmed.”
“What are you doing?” Erica asked. She knew he had spoken to the team when he had issued the order. “Is the team waiting on needed information?”
“No, I assume your dream concerned Kevin and the team. Am I right?” he asked, raising his eyebrow up at Erica.
“Yes,” she slowly answered.
He slid his chair over until he was seated directly across from her. “I want to know about this dream. Call it a hunch on my part, but as upset as you are, I need to know what that dream entailed.” He held out his hand in front of her. “May I?”
“What?” she responded as she stared down at his outstretched hand.
“I want to touch your hand so I can have access to your thoughts. It is the quickest and easiest way of retrieving your dream,” he explained patiently.
“Oh yes, of course.” Erica replied a bit nervously, as she slowly placed her hand in his.
Charles closed his eyes as he began to concentrate. Erica felt a light fluttering in her head, then heard his quick intake of air as his eyes popped open. “No wonder you are so upset.” He lightly patted Erica’s hand reassuringly. “No worries, dear. I’ll alert the team of the possible danger, and I promise they will take every precaution necessary.”
Char
les softly called out Rosetta’s name, as if she was standing on the other side of the room, then glancing back over to Erica, stated, “Thank you, Erica. You may have just saved our son’s life.”
Astounded to hear such a statement, she stuttered, “Do you think the dream actually had some type of real meaning?” Erica could feel the fear sweep over her before he Charles could even respond.
“I don’t want you to worry about it anymore. That is for me to do. I promise you, I’ll do everything in my power to keep them safe,” Charles stated.
Rosetta breezed into the office and came directly over to Charles. Charles briefly filled her in as to what was happening. Rosetta gently put her arm around Erica and gave her a motherly hug. “Erica, come, let’s get you back in bed and asleep. Charles will take care of the team.” She gave him a pointed look. “Someone will wake you if you are needed.”
“Of course,” Charles chimed in. Then looking directly at Erica, he stated, “Get some rest, dear. Everything is going to be okay.”
Charles rolled back over to his desk, and immediately started typing on the keyboard. Within seconds, information began to scroll up on the large wall screen. It was scrolling and changing so quickly, Erica was unable to decipher anything. At that particular moment, she wished she could be a vampire speed-reader. The only thing she did recognize was the “X’s” when they occasionally popped up. She knew they marked the current location of the team members. They were only up for a split second, and then the screen changed with more diagrams, layouts, and information.
Rosetta ushered Erica out of the office and back upstairs to Kevin’s suite. She guided Erica straight to Kevin’s bed then walked out of the room, just long enough for Erica to climb into bed. When she reentered the room, she handed Erica a glass of water. Erica took the glass without question and drank the liquid, barely realizing it held a funny aftertaste to it. She was practically asleep before her head hit the pillow.
* * * *
Kevin and his team had the house surrounded and were within a minute of moving in when Charles interrupted. Marshall immediately gave the hold signal, stopping all team members in their tracks. Frustrated, Kevin quickly changed back to human form to have a word with Charles.
“What is going on?” Kevin demanded from his second-in-command as he snatched the earpiece out of Marshall’s outreached hand and shoved it in his ear all in one smooth motion.
“Charles has new information regarding our target,” Marshall answered his boss smoothly. “Get with him regarding the details.”
His growl of frustration was hard to miss as Kevin activated his earpiece and all but barked at the man he called his father. “What is this new information and why are we just now getting it?” There was an immediate moment of silence from the other end, which Kevin found very unlike his father. This only added to Kevin’s perplexity and agitation at the situation. He could not recall ever being within a minute of a major sting operation and having Charles interrupt, bringing the entire team to a complete halt.
Finally, after a long drawn-out moment, Charles spoke, his voice coming through low and calm. “Kevin, I am going on my gut instincts here. Erica just left my office after having a nightmare involving your team. I read her mind and retrieved the nightmare. She had enough information to make me believe it was a premonition. If she is correct, the house is full of explosives. In her dream, your entire team was destroyed.”
Kevin didn’t know whether he wanted to explode at Charles or laugh out loud. He heard a snicker or two from his teammates. He could just imagine what they were thinking. What, are we flying this mission based on a not-so-pleasant dream from Kevin’s little human girlfriend?
“And you think she is on to something?” Kevin responded a little incredulously. “Couldn’t this just be the work of her human imagination?” He might as well ask the question flying through every one of his teammates’ heads.
“Yes, it could, however, she had too many details. She had a perfect description of the house, and I know for a fact she had no prior knowledge of that.”
With that news, Kevin took a deep calming breath, and quickly decided to reassess the situation. “Okay, you have my attention. What do you suggest?” he replied back to Charles.
“Send in the robotics first,” Charles replied smoothly. “They can be replaced easily enough. If they come back out again in one piece, then proceed as planned.”
Well, that would be the safest thing to do, and it would only cost the team a bit of time. Even if there was a remote chance of something hazardous waiting for them in the house, the robotics would be a good choice. Always better to be safe than sorry, Charles had hammered that into Kevin’s head since day one.
The robotics that Charles spoke of were two sets of robotic birds, which the team used on just such missions. Through the birds’ computerized “eyes” the team could see everything inside the house using a laptop. The team quickly activated the birds, and within minutes Marshall was guiding them into the house through an open window using commands given to his laptop.
The birds had just entered the house when the explosives were sighted. Kevin only had time to give a quick command for everyone to move back when an explosion went off so violently it knocked everyone off their feet.
Wood, glass, and other debris rained on the team for what seemed to be an eternity. When the smoke finally cleared enough to allow them to see, there was nothing but a slab of concrete where the house had stood just a few short minutes ago. Kevin found himself breathing a huge sigh of relief, grateful that the team had been able to move back just a little before the explosion went off. Although they all had plenty of debris rain down on them, the only injuries he could see were a few minor cuts that were quickly fading as he observed.
The entire team needed a moment just to allow relief to course through their veins. Everyone seemed too stunned to move for a long moment, while the realization hit that if Charles had not listened to Erica and taken her seriously, there would have been a good chance they all would have perished. That was not something any member took lightly.
Kevin finally stood up and walked over to where Marshall was sitting on the ground, attempting to reestablish communications with Charles. Yes, Kevin thought, he and his entire team owed this man hugely. They also owed one little human female, who for whatever reason felt the need to go share her disturbing dream with Charles. If she had waited another five minutes, it would have been too late.
As communications came back online, Kevin spoke into his earpiece. “Charles, you were right. The house was a setup. Birds destroyed, team is fine.”
“Thank God, son,” Charles replied. “I am working on new coordinates for your suspect. If you can give me about five minutes, I should have you with the necessary information.”
“Sure,” Kevin replied with a wry chuckle. “Take your time, I think we need a moment here, anyway.”
“I bet you do.” Charles chuckled in reply before the line went silent again.
Charles was back three minutes later. “Kevin, I just sent you the coordinates as to where I believe your guy is hiding. I sent it to Marshall’s laptop. If my heat-seeking radar equipment is correct, your guy is due south about a mile.”
As Marshall quickly retrieved the information from his inbox, Kevin glanced at the map and then replied to his father. “We’ve got the coordinates. Thanks for your help.” Kevin then gathered the team together once again for a new game plan.
This time they were not taking any chances, so the team fanned out, just in case their suspect made a run for it, or had any other nasty surprises waiting for them.
After dealing with problems ever since landing earlier that day, the actual capturing of their drug lord turned out to be easy. The man was hiding up in a tree. He found himself face to face with a cheetah, which was almost enough to give him a heart attack. The remainder of Kevin’s team quickly contained their suspect, and they were able to call the mission a success shortly after, as they started maki
ng plans to deliver him to the U.S. government and return home.
As his team wrapped things up, Kevin glanced around at each of them. It was easy to see they were still swallowing a healthy dose of remorse for their earlier thoughts and remarks. Marshall was the only one who dared to speak. He shot Kevin a grin as he joked, “So, are you planning on putting Erica on the payroll, or are you just planning on freeloading off of her?” He then lowered his voice as he became much more serious, “Look, we’ve got our man. He’ll be turned over to the local authorities within the next couple of hours, where we will continue keeping a close eye on him until the U.S. government arrives. That could take a couple of days. Why don’t you go ahead and fly home to surprise Erica? That way you can be at the beach by the start of the weekend.”
