Nomad's Fury

by Craig Martelle

  Joseph’s pale skin looked ashen in the sunlight. He shifted uncomfortably to better block the sun with the wide brim of his hat.

  “As you wish, Anjin-san,” Joseph said sarcastically.

  From Akio, it was a compliment. From Joseph, it made him furious. “Gene!” Terry yelled toward the Were-bear. “This thing needs to die.”

  Terry jumped two steps down and pulled Joseph off balance. With a twist and a heave, Terry threw Joseph over his head. The Vamp landed at the bottom of the steps. Gene lumbered forward and with the unnatural speed of the Were, he pounced.

  Joseph dodged the incoming freight train of a Were-bear and rolled to the side, jumping to his feet. He vaulted to the top of the concrete rail and ran the few steps until he could drop to the steps and hide behind Terry. He crouched and held onto Terry’s shoulders.

  Gene slobbered as he climbed the steps and tried to reach a huge paw past Terry Henry.

  “Call him off!” Joseph cried.

  “Why would I want to do that?” Terry replied.

  “I wasn’t going to help the other one, for piss sake. I told you that I’ll work for you, and that hasn’t changed,” Joseph said while dodging back and forth to keep Terry between him and the Were-bear.

  “Gene! Stand down. We’ll let him live a little while longer,” Terry said, trying to sooth the monster before him.

  Gene leaned close and roared in Terry’s face. He took it like a man, even though Were-bear breath left much to be desired.

  He could have done without the spittle, too.

  “Dude!” Terry exclaimed when Gene was finished. The grizzly cub growled from the bottom of the steps.

  Joseph closed his eyes and spoke softly, “Akio has found him.”

  ***

  Akio slipped the katana free. It sang as only the aged metal could, delicate tones, twinkling as if flowers danced across a piano’s keys.

  He slashed it through the air, comforted by how it was a natural extension of his arm, almost acting of its own accord.

  The Forsaken had a blade, too. Silvered, as if it was made to fight others from the Unknown World. “You’ve come to do the nasty yourself,” he taunted.

  Akio didn’t reply. That wasn’t his way. He darted in, slashing and stabbing to test the Forsaken’s style.

  He responded, blocking each attack, but it had taken an effort. Akio was only moving at half-speed in the darkness of the Forsaken’s lair.

  A lone candle flickered in the corner of the large room. Akio thought it was the workout room, which fit. He would abide by its intended purpose, while being wary of potential traps.

  The easiest way to avoid a trap was to quickly dispatch the enemy.

  Akio moved at blinding speed and ducked to slash at the Forsaken’s legs, but the creature had moved out of the way, almost as if he anticipated Akio’s attack.

  Not to be dissuaded, Akio feinted one way on a second leg attack and then slashed viciously upward. The Forsaken blocked most of Akio’s strike, but the blade tip sheered through the creature’s upper thigh, clipping the bone as it passed.

  Akio smelled the blood and followed his first strike with a vicious flurry of attacks. The blades seemed to intertwine as they rang a metallic drumbeat. Too fast to follow, the Forsaken was forced backwards. He dragged his leg, willing it to heal more quickly so he could maneuver.

  Akio didn’t stop. He flowed left and right as if he was a mist blown before a breeze. He swung his katana in arcs around himself at such a speed, it looked like a wall of solid steel.

  The sword kept swinging, a soft tone hummed, and the Forsaken felt fear. He was backed against a wall with nothing to protect himself beside his own sword. And it did not sing, but he thought it was time to try.

  He started the whirl in front of him and as the blade picked up speed on its first pass, Akio’s blade licked in behind it. The sword flew from the Forsaken’s hand and clanged from the wall, bouncing harmlessly across the room. The Forsaken grabbed his neck, to stop the blood from spurting.

  His heart beat only one more time. With Akio’s mighty slash, the Vampire lost his hands and his head, all the parts falling to the floor together. The body toppled slowly, landing with a wet thud.

  Akio carefully wiped his blade clean on the dead body’s clothes and then put it away. He reached into the etheric and found nothing to threaten him or the others. Even Joseph was under control. Akio walked up the stairs and out the front door, stopping by Terry and Joseph.

  “We can leave any time you are ready, Colonel Walton. We have the females to rescue, do we not?”

  Terry let go of Joseph. “You know where they are?” Terry asked, smiling, before thrusting his arm in the air and whirling it in a circle.

  Time to saddle up.

  “Akio-sama, you have done me a great personal favor by finding those who were taken and allowing me to keep my promise to a small boy.” Terry bowed deeply. Gene sniffed at Akio’s shoes.

  They probably had the Forsaken’s blood on them. Clyde barked from somewhere nearby and Bogdan ran toward the sound. Rifles fired at a steady pace.

  “If you’ll excuse me, Akio-sama, I’ll be along shortly.” Terry tipped his head and ran toward the sound of gunfire. Char yelled at the others to get back to their pods as she dashed after Terry. He was headed down the narrow patch between the brownstone and the building next to it. Situated in the back alley were Sue, James, and half his squad.

  Those who’d been chased out by the CS gas were returning and this time, they carried clubs, rocks, and any other weapon they could get their hands on. When Terry and Char squeezed through to get into a position where they could see what was going on, they knew they would run out of ammunition before the mob ran out of people.

  “Retrograde!” Terry ordered as he and Char took up firing positions. They popped their last CS grenades and tossed them into the path of the approaching mass of humanity.

  James directed his squad down the narrow path, then followed them from the fight. Sue went next, then Char, but not before firing both pistols until the slides locked back on empty chambers. Terry fired judiciously at those who covered their faces and bull-rushed through the tear gas.

  Char worked her way between the buildings and Terry did it backwards, which held him up. But once he shot the first person who stuck their face into the crack, it held them back. He had a hard time squeezing his shoulders between the buildings and settled for working his way sideways while watching toward the alley.

  Once into the open, he breathed a sigh of relief and ordered the others to their pods. He pulled the pin on one of his precious fragmentation grenades and let the spoon fly as he tossed the device into the space between the buildings. He ran before it blew and collapsed the walls, blocking the space.

  He yelled at the oldsters guarding the detainees. They weren’t sure what to do with those who were tied up.

  “Leave them. Their friends will be along shortly.” Terry picked Boris up and carefully draped him over his shoulder. When he boarded the pod, the most important task he had was to account for everyone who should be there.

  Clyde nuzzled his hand, just like the old days. Terry called everyone by name then gave a thumbs up to Akio.

  The ramp closed as Aaron sat next to Char with Kaeden. The little boy climbed into her lap and hugged her.

  The pod departed and through the window, Terry could see the second pod also lifting off. Into the sky they went, turning west as they gained altitude.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Terry maneuvered his way across the pod until he was able to kneel in front of Akio.

  “The girls, Akio-sama. What do we need to do to help them?” Terry asked, pleading.

  “We found a compound in northern Minnesota. It has an unnatural ratio of women to men and appears to be in the style of an old prisoner of war camp.”

  Terry clenched his jaw and his lip curled of its own accord. He wanted to kill somebody. He looked back at Boris lying on the floor of the pod. Some
of the others stared at the body as if they’d never seen death before.

  “Just tell us what we need to do, please.” Terry pronounced each word carefully and slowly. He was angry at another injustice in the world, but he was getting his chance to fix it.

  “We will land outside the range of their weapons and then you will have a free approach to the facility. They have two guard towers which are manned intermittently. Eve was unable to determine a pattern. There will be a total of eight to ten men who are running the compound. They may or may not all be there when we arrive,” Akio said softly.

  Terry leaned back on his heels and imagined the compound, two guard towers. “Fences? How many girls? Where might the men be?” Terry asked the series of questions, his eyes still closed as he built the image in his mind.

  “Barbed wire, gulag style. Twenty-five girls and women. The men could be anywhere, but I expect you will know them when you see them, Anjin-san.” Akio kept a straight face, but Terry wondered: had he made a joke?

  “Indeed, Akio-sama. Both pods will land side by side?” Akio nodded. “When we land, I will have a plan.”

  Terry returned to his seat and the pod started its descent. Less than ten minutes to come up with a plan of attack.

  The first thing he did, which was what the best tactical planners did, was to take inventory of his supplies. He looked at the crates of weaponry in the middle of the pod. He thought what they’d find on the other pod, then he reviewed the objective.

  He couldn’t risk the lives of the women, so no fragmentation grenades or HE rounds for the grenade launcher. Net grenades and weapons tight. Don’t fire unless fired upon.

  The Weres would once again be his shock team. He fingered his M4, wishing he had a different weapon, like a real sniper rifle that he could use to pick off the enemy, one by one.

  But he didn’t have one of those. He didn’t remember seeing one inside Cheyenne Mountain, but there had to be. Someday he’d make another trip back there and find an M40 or maybe even a fifty caliber sniper rifle.

  Until then, he had two minutes. He’d have to tell everyone the plan. He closed his eyes and thought through what he wanted to say.

  ***

  The pods touched down and when the back ramps opened, Mark and the group on his ship were confused. It wasn’t Chicago. They were in a field of dark green that looked like winter wheat. It was the early afternoon, judging by the sun, and it wasn’t oppressively hot, although it was hotter than New York.

  They had no idea where they were.

  Terry strolled down the ramp of the second pod and waved everyone to him. The menagerie of the group was hard for Terry to fathom. All of them would run into the gunfire if he so ordered.

  Except Billy Spires. He saw the small man standing on the ramp, so he could see over the others.

  Kiwi was in the middle of the group, holding her husband’s hand. James and Lacy had also found each other. Kaeden was riding on Aaron’s shoulders. Gene stood to the side with Bogdan between him and Blackbeard. Sue threw a stick for Clyde to chase.

  All was right with the world and in a few minutes, things would be right with those inside the compound.

  “When we found Kae, he told us that men had taken the girls from his group. We believe those girls are in there.” Terry tipped his chin toward the compound where two men had assumed positions within the towers. Terry could see that they carried long rifles.

  He motioned for Aaron to put Kae down behind him.

  “We’re going to go in there and free the girls and the women. The men? They surrender or they die.” Terry looked at the grim faces of the group that had just gone through a tough battle, and Terry was asking them to do it all over again.

  “This is why the Force de Guerre exists, ladies and gentlemen: to protect the people who can’t protect themselves. Our cause is just. We will not harm any of the women, no matter what. We will die ourselves before we harm those we’ve sworn to protect. Do you understand me?” Terry yelled.

  A chorus of oorahs and shouts followed. That wasn’t what Terry had been looking for. He only wanted them to know that they weren’t to harm the women.

  “First squad, left flank, net grenades in your launchers. Third squad, same gear on the right flank. Second squad bringing up the rear. Gene? Are you and Bogdan ready to tear down a fence?”

  “Sure, we tear fence, but Bogdan no good at being shot,” Gene replied in his heavy Russian accent.

  “We’ll take care of the men on the tower before we get close. Char? Can you bring me a couple AT-4s, please?”

  Char raised one eyebrow, but disappeared into the pod, returning a few moments later with two anti-tank weapons.

  Terry tried to take both of them, but Char kept one for herself and signaled that she was ready to go. “Stay safe, Kae. Watch for our signal and when we’ve cleared things up, we’ll wave you in so you can make sure that we’ve found the girls that you know.”

  The young boy nodded hopefully. Aaron put a protective hand on the boy’s shoulder.

  “Billy, Kiwi?” Terry asked. Billy lifted his rifle and made a walking sign with his two fingers. Terry nodded and Kiwi started walking with Billy.

  “As soon as we take care of the men in the towers—until then, you two are civilians and need to stay here!” Terry barked and pointed at the ground. Billy held up his rifle as if he was okay to go to war. “No flak jackets. Everyone else has them, so no, you stay here. This won’t take too long.”

  Terry walked boldly into the field and headed past the others as he led the group forward. He waved at first and third squads to move farther away, give them more space. He signaled an inverted V and they assumed that formation without missing a beat. The squad behind him assumed that formation as well. Terry, the Weres, and the Forsaken walked up the middle as a loose group. Terry and Char carried the rockets.

  The men in the towers seemed torn. Terry wondered if they’d make it easy. He stopped when he was one hundred yards away, well within the effective range of the weapons the men carried.

  He pulled the safety pin near the rear of his AT-4 and flicked the sights up. Char mirrored his movements, then checked the back blast area, moving her pack out of the way.

  Once the AT-4 was ready to fire, Terry cupped a hand around his mouth and yelled. “Hello! We are here to free the girls. Please send them out or I’m afraid that we’ll have to kill you and then free them. In either case, they’ll be freed. Your only choice is whether you want to live or die.”

  Char looked at her husband. “What the hell was that?”

  “They made me mad. You know I can’t be trusted with diplomacy when I’m angry,” Terry explained, keeping his eyes on the men in towers.

  “Then let me do it next time,” she argued. He nodded.

  “Blow the tower on the right?” he asked pleasantly.

  “Sounds good.” Char checked her back blast area again and once sure it was clear, she aimed and let the unguided rocket fly. It wooshed from the barrel, sending a long flame from the back of the launcher. Shonna, Sue, and Merrit ran to the area to stomp out the small grass fires that had started.

  Joseph stood to the side and chuckled to himself.

  The rocket flew true and hit the cupola at the top of the tower dead on. It exploded in a shower of fire. The man in the second tower slid down the ladder and ran for one of the buildings. Terry used his weapon to blow the main gate. Terry and Char threw the spent casings aside and pulled their weapons as they walked—Terry, the M4 and Char, her two Glock pistols.

  Terry rested one hand on his whip, comforted by its feel on his hip. He turned back and saw Akio, Yuko, and Eve standing next to Aaron and Kaeden.

  “I think we have five men in that building to the left and the rest are mixed in with the women,” Char told him.

  On cue, shots rang out from the building to the left.

  “Damn, fresh out of rockets,” Terry quipped, then turned to first squad. “Kill everyone in that building!”

 
He pointed and made a chopping motion with his arm, showing them the optimal line of fire to avoid hitting any of the other buildings.

  The squad ran forward, zigzagging and crouching. Some dropped to the prone position and started shooting. Others fired from the kneeling position.

  “Get down!” Terry yelled. Those kneeling dove into the dirt and added their firepower to the others. They fired through the windows and then systematically shot holes in the building until they assumed nothing lived. Then they conducted a bounding overwatch, some moving while others fired, then swapped until they were through the gate and set up to breach the building.

  Terry recognized his training of the squad, knew they had matters well in hand. Terry motioned for third squad to take up a firing position within the compound, but only if an attack materialized from the bunkhouse where the rest of the people were.

  Terry didn’t want Char to go through the doorway first with him, but she insisted.

  He looked into her eyes, “If you are shot, will your nanocytes heal the baby?”

  She pressed her lips together and stepped back. Gene joined Terry, removed his clothes in a single motion, and became the massive Were-bear.

  Terry opened the door and found the women and girls standing in a line. Three men crouched behind them.

  “This is not what you want to do,” Terry snarled.

  “Hey, how about fuck you!” one of the men called out. Terry shifted around to see the men. They were armed with knives. “Come any closer and we start carving.”

  Terry turned his head and whispered where only those behind him could hear. “Get someone with a rifle to the side windows and shoot these fuckers, please.”

  He turned back to the line of women, seeing fear and sadness on their faces.

  “Drop your knives and you live. This is your final warning.”

  Gene stood on his back legs and roared. He ambled forward a couple steps and the women dove for cover. The men each grabbed a hostage and held them tightly between themselves and the Were-bear.