“Reginald, I am Colonel Mitchell, I think maybe you should go into a bit more detail here. If there’s a threat coming from the Council, I’d like to know about it.”
*****
Jack watched Gnat run through the rafters unrolling cables as he jumped through the narrow gaps. If he didn’t know any better, he’d swear the little guy had been doing it his entire life. He smiled to himself knowing that the performance his people were putting on would go a long way toward convincing those around them that they were who they claimed to be.
He lifted another stack of monitors and carried them into the office space and set them on the makeshift station that Viktor and Foster were setting up. “I’ll get the power supplies set up on the backside of the office here. The closer to the station, the better.” He gave Viktor a knowing look and the older wolf simply nodded.
Jack went out and picked up the crate with the power inverters and carried them to the backside of the office. With explosives embedded into the monitors and the power inverters, he hoped to direct the blast inward toward whoever was at the station, disintegrating them with one fail swoop.
He ran the heavy extension cords to the inverters and plugged them in, the outputs fed through the wall and to the computer station where Lilith could watch her attacks take place. He hoped that they could convince her to test the system prior to the attacks. If they could remove her and the Fallen one from the equation before any suicide bombers could detonate, maybe they could save a whole lot of lives.
He nearly fell over when he was told what the targets were planned to be. Every major Catholic church across the world and then political heads of state. Capitols, monuments, anything that they could think of that would shake up the people enough that they would lose faith in their leaders. The crazy bitch was adamant that the churches would be her first targets though. She was obsessed with making them pay for what was done to her in a previous life.
Jack mulled over the whole idea of her obsession while he ran the cabling. He knew what it was like to become so focused on something that you lose track of a bigger picture. He had become obsessed with revenge when he found out about the wolf virus giving them their strength. He was so disillusioned with the program and the people running it that he actually ran the opposite direction and joined forces with a vampire. He sighed as he realized once again that he’d set himself up to be let down. Disillusioned by the flaws of the four hundred-year-old being who saved him from the attack that killed his team, he wasn’t ready to admit that people can do the wrong thing for what they believe to be the right reason.
Jack paused as he ran out another run of cabling. He glanced at Thorn inside the office with Viktor and Foster. Was he really that different than Mitchell? The colonel had used the wolf virus to transform the men into fighting machines. True, he damned them, but he made them physically more capable of facing what was out there. Was Rufus that far out of line by creating the Doomsday weapon?
And Apollo. He was obsessed with Maria. When Sheridan got to him and twisted his mind…Jack closed his eyes and tried to shake the gut wrenching pain that he’d been ignoring since he had heard of Apollo’s death. He ground his teeth and clenched his fists as he fought off the urge to scream. One of Sheridan’s men had put a round through Apollo’s skull like he was a rabid dog.
He blew out the breath he’d been holding and let his body sag. At least Apollo didn’t suffer.
“What’s the hold up?”
Jack turned to see a rather large man staring at him. He had to assume it was one of Lilith’s demons. He tried to smile as he shrugged. “Sorry, just got a little frustrated. The cabling keeps getting twisted up…knotting up on itself.”
The man eyed him cautiously then stepped off, back to his own duties. Jack watched him walk off and turned back to his own work. He finished running out the cabling and hooked the proper ends to the power inverters. With power applied, it would feed the computers inside the office. For a little while anyway, before they overheated and shut down.
He patted the detonator in his pants pocket and smiled to himself. Hopefully it wouldn’t take that long.
*****
“Everybody out.” Jim Youngblood didn’t raise his voice as he spoke, but he had that commanding tone that made everyone in the room stiffen and take note. People started filing out of the room when he reached out and grabbed Laura by the arm. “You. Stay.”
“I’m not a terrier, Dad.” She glared at him as the others walked out and quietly shut the door.
He didn’t apologize as he released her arm, but he stood from his bed and pulled back the sheets. Her eyes fell on the dirt, detritus, and pine needles at the foot of the bed. “When did you go out?”
Her father crossed his arms and stared at her. “I didn’t.” He pointed to the mess in his bed. “But when I crawled back into bed, this was here waiting for me. It was stuck to my feet. Any idea how that could have happened?”
She looked to him and saw the accusatory look in his eye. “I have no clue.” She stepped back and shook her head. “What? You think I came in here and planted this stuff when you weren’t looking?”
“Crystal was asleep right there in that chair. I stood up and stared out the window. I get back into bed and…this.”
“Well I sure as hell didn’t do it.” She crossed her arms and stared at him.
Jim pointed to her travel bag. “Didn’t you?”
She glanced at the bag she kept the serum in and gave him a shocked look. “Really? You think that the shot did that?” She reached down and picked up a small handful of the dirt and pine needles. “You really think that this is a figment of your imagination?”
“Hell no I don’t. I know it’s real.” Jim Youngblood stared at his daughter and waited for an explanation.
“What do you want me to tell you, Dad?”
“Tell me how I can have a…a…vision of running in the woods, hunting down a rabbit. And when I snap out of it and climb back into bed, my feet are covered with the forest floor.”
Laura shook her head. “I can’t.”
Jim sat down heavily on the bed and shook his head. “Do I have this to look forward to from now on?”
“No!” Laura sat next to him and cupped his hand. “Daddy, I’ve never heard of any of the others ever having this happen.”
He turned and gave her a questioning look. “What others?”
Her eyes widened and she swallowed hard. “The…men that I work with. They’re infected with the wolf virus, too.”
Jim nodded knowingly. “That’s how you knew what to expect.”
“Yes,” her voice was soft and nearly silent in the darkened room.
“And these men…how did they get infected? Were they about to die as well?”
She shook her head. “No. They were just…men.” Her eyes met his and she gave him a wan smile. “Extraordinary men. SEALs, Green Berets, Rangers…the best of the best. They volunteered.”
Jim Youngblood sat up and gave his daughter a serious stare. “And why would they do this?”
Laura sighed. “Because there are monsters out there that need killing. And to do that, we needed supermen.” She looked at him and shook her head. “I don’t expect you to understand. I don’t expect you to condone. Just accept that it happens.”
He looked to her and narrowed his gaze. “Something tells me that you and I need to have a much more in depth and serious talk about what you do for a living.”
*****
Little John pulled Spalding back from the edge of the warehouse. “We need to call this in and get the team out here.”
Spalding’s eyes went wide and he shoved John back. “Are you nuts? They could scatter in the time it takes them to saddle up and get here,” his whispered voice threatened to rise as he glared at the large man.
Little John cocked his head and shot him a quizzical stare. “Dude, you’re chasing the white rabbit. There is no way the two of us can handle this many of them with the firepower we have and a
mmo we brought. We thought we were reconnoitering an escape route, not facing down a small army.”
Spalding shook his head. “No, we have to find that British bastard and—”
Little John pulled him closer and slapped him. “Snap out of it.”
Spalding’s eyes widened and he set his jaw, prepared to go on the offensive. “I know you didn’t just—”
Little John interrupted his tirade. “You need to come back to earth. There are at least thirty operatives inside, all armed. We know that Bigby was SAS. That means Seriously Awful Sonovabitch in my book. There is no way the two of us can do this alone.” He pulled Spalding further back into the shadows and lowered his voice. “The team can be here in less than thirty minutes. We monitor these bastards and if they try to move, we pluck em off one by one.” He prayed that Spalding would see reason.
Darren Spalding stared into the eyes of the big man and almost accused him of being a coward. He knew better. He felt his heart rate and breathing and knew that he was amped up. He had to take a step back and reevaluate.
He stared off into the blackness of the night and tried to put everything into perspective, but all he could see in his mind’s eye was the spray of bone and grey matter from Apollo’s skull as the sniper’s bullet entered his skull. He shook his head and rested a hand on Sullivan’s tactical vest.
Sullivan leaned in close and whispered, “Look, man, I know. You want to charge in there and send them all straight to hell. Believe me, I know. If it had been you, I’d be feeling the same thing. But you’re the most level headed guy I know and right now, I need you to get your shit together and call in a strike. Get the team geared up and high tail it out here so we can do what we do best.” He pulled Spalding up and stared him in the eye. “As a team.”
Spalding took two long deep breaths, his eyes never leaving Little John’s. He nodded his head. “Call in the strike. Get them out here. We’ll go to high ground and take sniping positions in case they try to bug out.”
Little John smiled. “Now that’s the Team Leader we all know and love.”
*****
Bigby walked the warehouse and sighed. The constant sounds of construction and the men training on the completed ‘levels’ was enough to drive him mad. He wondered if these guys were ever going to sleep as they worked around the clock. It wasn’t until tonight that he realized they were working in shifts.
He stretched and yawned, fatigue wearing him thin as the constant noise and activity worked together to form the worst sort of distraction. He entered the office that he was now sharing with Martinez and fell into his chair. He reached for the headphones to his laptop and slid them over his ears. Pulling up his sound files, he put on Mozart and set the volume just high enough that he couldn’t hear the noise outside the office.
Slumping into the supple leather chair, his head slipped to the side and he was soon asleep, visions of revenge dancing in his head.
*****
Lieutenant Gregory slipped into the OPCOM and quickly shut the door behind him. Mitchell cast an accusatory stare in his direction as the man walked behind him. He approached Major Tufo and handed him a sheet of paper. “I just got off the horn with Sullivan. He and Spalding went to investigate a hunch. They may have stumbled on the group that attacked the OPCOM. They require backup pronto.”
Tufo read through the sheet quickly then shut down his station. “Colonel, I’ll be setting up the secondary Command Center for this.”
“Now, Major?”
Tufo leaned in close and lowered his voice. “They’ve already engaged. Outer perimeter guards have been neutralized. Eventually those guards will be missed. We need to get First Squad on the scene before shit hits the fan.”
“Go. Keep me informed.” Mitchell watched the two men leave the OPCOM and he ran a hand down his face. He prayed that Second Squad had seen the last of the action for the night. He turned back to the communications tech. “Open coms.”
Tufo marched down the darkened hallway, his eyes scanning the report again. “Has the secondary command response team been notified?”
“On their way, sir.” Gregory was a half-step behind him.
“Notify First Squad to make ready and get their asses over there. If we can get…” Mark paused and let out a long breath. “Both drones are in action.” He looked back toward the OPCOM and considered going back to see if the second drone could be redirected but thought against it. “Notify First Squad that air support will not be available.”
“Aye, sir.” Gregory turned and took off down the hall as Mark kicked open the door to the secondary command center. He flipped the breakers bringing the smaller version of OPCOM online. The red lights overhead switched on almost immediately as the computers and monitors began booting up. Mark stepped up onto the command console as personnel began to file into the command center.
“This is gonna happen close to home and we have zero air support. This one is by the books, gentlemen. No mistakes.”
He spun the chair and tested the controls built into the arm. Monitors on the main wall came to life and he switched views, keyed coms and tested the various functions. He quickly realized Mitchell’s frustration with the shortcomings of the unit he was using. “Communications, feed Delta One’s coms to the overhead.”
“Sir, Delta One isn’t online.”
Mark spun the chair to shoot a questioning stare at the tech. “How the hell did they call in the report?”
“Uh…cell phone, sir,” the tech reported, obviously flustered.
“Then pipe that in until we can get him coms.” Mark shook his head as he punched up the secondary satellite feeds. “Give me their location the big screen. Go to IR.”
Within moments the main screen showed a familiar scene and Mark’s brow rose as he stared at the facility where Apollo was shot. “Is that…?”
“Yes, sir. Apparently the bad guys decided to go back once we cleaned it out.”
Mark grunted as he zoomed the image in. He made a mental note to set up motion sensors and cameras at future locations where they clean out bad guys. “I wouldn’t have thought they’d return.”
“Probably why they went back, sir.” The tech brought up the satellite controls and switched the feed to IR. Almost immediately the screen went to shades of black with orange, red, yellow and white hot spots.
“Mark our people and start painting designators on the bad guys.” Tufo spun back to the communications tech. “Do we have that cell feed yet?”
“Negative, sir. They’re…they aren’t answering.”
Mark groaned and leaned back in his seat. “Let’s assume that the two assholes set up in sniping position are ours.”
“Safe assumption, Major.” The tech marked the two snipers as friendly.
Mark squinted at the screen and zoomed the image to a cooling mass outside the gate. “Let’s assume those used to be the guards.”
“We have another on the roof, sir.” The tech painted a red ‘X’ on the cooling figure sprawled on the roof of the warehouse.
“Somebody give me their best guess on numbers here.” Tufo began typing intel into the scrambler to feed to the squad’s ruggedized PDAs.
“Best count at present is twenty-five, sir.”
“Very well.” Mark entered the info and sent it to the commandos who were now en route to the scene. “Saddle up, gentlemen. Time to make the doughnuts.”
*****
“What a strange and eclectic group.” Lilith watched as the newcomers went about making her dream a reality. She smiled to herself as the strangers worked diligently, installing things, running black wires, connecting electrical things and just…working as a team. “And they’re so quick.”
“Another truck is ready to leave.” Samael scowled as she beamed with pride.
She gave him a furtive glance and waved him away nonchalantly. “Then send them on their way.”
“What of the others? The ones you would have work in Europe?”
“Charter a plane. Surely
they are capable of doing that.”
“Planes take money,” Samael sighed, realizing that it was the one thing they lacked.
“Then have one of your damned demons jump into a pilot and have him steal the plane. I do not care. Just get the devices and the bombers there and have them ready.” She threw her hands into the air and stomped her foot. “Must I think of everything?”
Samael bit his tongue and took a long, deep breath. Her unreasonable attitude was wearing very thin with him. She had invited the vampire into their stronghold, allowed him to see everything they were doing and even though he showed himself to be a threat to them, she embraced him as a long lost trusted advisor. He glanced around the warehouse and saw the vampire’s people working about the place, free rein to do what they wished, as they wished and nobody watching them. He felt his lip curl into a snarl and tried to fight the growl rising in his throat. “You’ve become too trusting, my love.”
She spun on him and glared at him. “What do you mean?”
He clenched his jaw and waved his arm about before him. “I mean, these people are doing as they wish.” He lowered his voice and leaned closer, “They could be plotting against us.”
She rolled her eyes and turned her back on him. “And what if they were? Do you truly think that I wouldn’t have a plan in that event?” She spun and pointed a finger at his chest, her long nail poking against his flesh. “They are but a handful. If I sent two-thirds of my demons to the task, I’d still have over three hundred minions left to rip them limb from limb. Or do you think they are so mighty that they could beat three hundred of your best demons?”
Samael stiffened and squared his shoulders. “Never!”
“Then why do you worry so?” She poked him harder with her nail. “Why do you fret like an old maiden?”
Samael grunted with frustration. “You were not the one being lead about like a puppet on a string. I was.” He bent lower and stared her directly in the eye. “That vampire has the touch of a witch.”
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