by Michael Todd
He sighed, lowering his glasses and wiping his eyes. He was worn down, and there had just been another incursion in LA. From the report it looked like the casualties were under a dozen, which was probably because Katie had been in the area.
From what he’d heard she had been on “vacation,” which had meant she was free to help out. She had ended up taking down two large demons on her own, another large one with assistance, and fifteen or more smaller demons.
She had done the work of ten on the field.
Brushwood put his glasses back down and continued reading. When he reached the fifth page he stopped and set the papers on his desk, then leaned forward and read through it again twice to make sure he had read it right.
He picked up the phone and called his contact at Katie’s base.
“This is General Brushwood. I need to speak to Staff Sergeant Barrow, please.”
The general sat there shaking his head, not believing what he had just read. It was like no one could catch a break. If only these people knew what Katie and her team had done to protect them over the last year, they might think twice about going after her. Not only was what they were doing illegal, but it put the whole operation at risk.
A new voice came online. “General, what can I do for you?”
The general got to the point. “Staff Sergeant Barrow, are you alone?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. You are the only person on the team right now I know well enough to trust. I need your men to add a very important duty to their ever-growing list. I need them to protect Katie at all costs.”
There was a short pause. “Is everything all right, sir?”
“No, and until I get to the bottom of it her life is in danger. I want you to understand this very clearly: you cannot assume that just because they wear our uniform they support her.”
The grunt of exasperation was easy to hear. “Jesus, we have a war going on, and people on the inside are trying to sabotage us?”
“Exactly. There is someone, or a group of someones, attempting to carry out several plans to abduct Katie. The intel does not specify where the threat is coming from exactly, but with some research I know I’ll be able to find out. Until then, I need her to be under watchful eyes at all times. I know she is currently on vacation, but she will be back soon. I will make sure to give her a heads up as well, but this is imperative.”
“I understand, General. Do you think you could spare twenty more men to send over here? This base is large, and I’m afraid if I sacrifice these men and shift them to protective duty we will leave holes in the perimeter.”
The general sighed and leaned back in his chair thinking about it. Twenty men for their sector of the government was like the regular military asking for an entire division. There were no bodies to spare at that point, no matter how important it was.
“I’m afraid I can’t,” the general finally replied. “I’m sorry, I really am. It would mean robbing other locations of twenty troops to protect one asset. There are just too many battles going on across the country right now.”
“Okay, I understand, but if we don’t have extra guards, it is imperative that she be told what is going on. She needs to know that there are issues and plots afoot in the political arena that threaten her very independence. If she is aware of what’s going on, she can add to the protection. We will do our best to keep her safe in any case.”
The general chewed on the end of his cigar and considered the sergeant’s words, knowing she would take this a lot more seriously if it came from Staff Sergeant Barrow, the head of her security team. She was stubborn, but the crew couldn’t lose another leader—not with the intensity of the battles increasing almost every day.
“Here’s what I want you to do: I want you to let Katie know the issue without letting her know the whole story. She should be told that she is in danger, and she will take it more to heart if it comes from you.”
“I can do that, sir,” he replied.
“Good. Call me when it’s done,” he finished and hung up.
Timothy sat in the IT room where he was always to be found, clicking through the different security screens’ footage. For him it had been very quiet lately, just sitting in his computer room collecting random intel.
He was pretty sure from the sound of the news that the rest of the team were not bored at all, though, and that worried him.
Ever since Incursion Day, Timothy had a hard time imagining going back out on the battlefield.
He had gone with them that day, livid after listening to a recording of the death of a young boy. He had done pretty well helping to take down the demons in the town, clean up, and anything else that needed to be done, but when he got back the nightmares had started.
Instead of focusing on his job he was plagued with visions of the fallen soldiers, constantly remembering how terrifying it had been. He knew he would get over it, but he had picked one hell of a day to get brave.
You just need to suck it up. Timothy’s incubus was kind of an ass.
I would if I could find a hot man.
That’s disgusting, the incubus retorted.
No, what’s disgusting is you constantly throwing women at me when I am as obviously gay as gay can be, my friend. I’m gayer than a guy who makes out with other guys one at a time and your fuggly ass jumped into me, not the other way around. So stop being so judgmental you heterosexual entity from Hell.
A tap drew his attention to the doorway where Staff Sergeant Barrow was standing. Timothy cleared his throat and ran his fingers through his hair as he flashed the military man a big smile. Barrow straightened and coughed, noting the roaming eyes.
“How can I help you, Staff Sergeant, or is this a personal visit?”
“Uh... Um... No, not a personal visit. I wanted to talk to you about your intel.”
Timothy’s eyes narrowed. “All right. What do you need to know?”
“It’s less about what I need to know and more about what I need you to find.”
Timothy waved a hand in the direction of his keyboard. “I can find just about anything in this system. I just need to input some keywords, and voila—it starts pumping out data.”
Barrow nodded. “Perfect. This isn’t an official order or anything I want to be on the record, if you know what I mean.”
Timothy waved a finger between the two of them. “Oooh, I see, secret stuff just between just the two of us?”
Barrow chuckled uncomfortably. “Yeah, sort of, but if you find anything you can feel free to tell whoever you want.”
Timothy pursed his lips. “Okay, you gonna give me a hint or am I supposed to guess?”
“A source, undocumented of course, leads me to believe that you should be looking for specific information regarding Katie that....well, might or might not be encrypted on military channels.”
Timothy stopped playing a moment. “Katie? Holy cow.”
Barrow nodded. “Yeah, this is the top priority for me right now, so if you could jump on that I would really appreciate it.”
Obviously, Timothy’s moment was over. “For you? Of course. I love doing favors for handsome men in uniform.”
“All right. Uh, good. I will leave you to it then. Just remember that this is very hush-hush.”
Timothy put his fingers to his mouth and acted out turning a key and tossing it over his shoulder. Barrow smiled awkwardly and stepped quickly out of the room. Timothy chuckled to himself, thinking about how hot that man was even though the sergeant was quite a bit older than him.
“I like experienced older men,” he whispered to himself as he began typing.
How am I going to cure you of this fascination with men like him around?
Timothy ignored the incubus.
Hacking into encrypted military files was highly illegal, especially by the mercenary team. Timothy knew this, but he didn’t give a damn.
He was one of the best hackers in the country, but he had been infected by an incubus and shipped off to some r
esearch facility.
That was when Katie and Calvin had shown up and taken him to his new home. Little did he know at the time that he would end up loving it here and really feeling like he had a family again.
Lately he had been down, though, because between the Incursion and losing Stephanie, his best friend on the base, he felt a little lost. This assignment was exactly what he needed; he could slowly feel himself getting back on track.
What Staff Sergeant Barrow had asked him was definitely not typical—hacking into military systems to find information—but if it had to do with Katie, they had to figure out what it was.
From the surveillance Timothy had set up across the base, he knew Barrow had just gotten off the phone with the general, which meant this order was coming from the top of the chain of command.
Brushwood thought of Katie as an important piece of the puzzle, and Timothy couldn’t help but worry that whatever he found was not going to be good for her.
Timothy cracked his knuckles as he stared at the system administrator’s portal for the government database. He smiled; he’d missed hacking into places like that. It was a skill he rarely got to use, but he found it to be the most interesting.
Maybe it was because of the excitement, or maybe it was because when he was finished he felt a sense of pride, having melded his brain with the computer to creep in through the back door and walk around invisibly.
Phishing the username and password had been easy. It was finding what he was looking for before anyone noticed that would be the hardest part. He grabbed a Twizzler and put the end in his mouth.
“All right, Miss Katie, why are they talking about you?”
9
Katie sat on her bar stool, holding a beer in her hand and staring out over the crowd. It was almost midnight on Saturday night and though she was pretty exhausted from the day, she couldn’t turn down the offer from the guys from the LAPDF and others who had been at the battle to go out and have some fun.
They went to a local bar that was known to be the fun zone for cops. It was a nice place, not dusty like the last one she had gone to, and she was pretty sure she didn’t have to worry about anyone drugging and kidnapping her there.
The guys were loud and rowdy, singing songs to the jukebox, taking shots, and telling stories about past battles that they had been in.
Everyone there acted like they were family and would do anything for each other. The guys standing around Katie were deep in discussion, talking about the level of demon-killing difficulty there was for each of the new slugs they received.
Katie wasn’t sure if they knew she owned the company, so she just listened to them talk.
“The rifle, that’s my vote,” one guy expounded.
“I don’t know, I like the 9mm. It’s accurate, and Katie showed us today you can kill a demon with one round to the head.”
“You could kill a squirrel with a marshmallow if you hit it hard enough in the temple but that doesn’t mean it’s the best tool to use,” another guy chimed in.
Everyone stopped and stared at him for a minute before bursting into laughter. The rifle guy shook his head, patting his comrade on the shoulder. “You know, that was the weirdest analogy I’ve ever heard.”
Katie laughed. “I’m over here picturing taking down giant squirrels with mini marshmallows. You know, that material had been made into some pretty rad shit now. There are grenades, large-round ammunition, swords, knives, and arrow tips. The coolest, in my opinion, are the smoke bombs. The smoke is the metal and they can’t do much after they breathe it into their lungs. Then you chop their heads off and watch em’ roll.”
“Hell, yeah,” the guys shouted, raising their glasses to her.
She laughed, clinking her beer against each of their glasses before taking a sip. She felt right at home here with everyone from the battle.
When she was in college, she had focused on grades and volleyball. She’d hated public speaking and being the center of attention, and she was pretty shy when it came to strangers, especially the handsome male variety.
After the infection, she had struggled to figure out who she was and where she fit in the new world. She had lost hope for a while, but the mercenary group had become her family and Pandora had helped her open up and be who she really was.
It had all lined up perfectly, because by the time she had gotten comfortable with speaking up and speaking out she had been put into her current role as the team’s leader, and she couldn’t feel more comfortable in it.
You are doing a hell of a job so far, being a leader.
Aw, thanks, P. How about you? You’ve obviously been a leader in the underworld, but what about Earth-side. You’ve spent a lot of time here.
Hmmm. Well, my first time topside I met this really interesting woman. This was probably around 30 BCE. She was fantastic, and made the most amazing headdresses. She ruled Egypt, but to me she was just Cleo, or at least that was what I called her. I took her out and introduced her to some friends of mine, Marc and Julius.
Uh...
Another time when I came back, probably about 1420 I met this adorable girl, Joan. She was a badass; you remind me of her in a way. She just did not give a shit about the rule of man. She donned armor and led a revolt. She could be fun when she let her hair down.
Are you talking about Joan of Ar—
Then in the late 1800s when the war was going on, I entered the body of a woman named Florence. She was a nurse, and cared for wounded soldiers. She got so sad every time she couldn’t save one of them I started lending my powers to her. Just wanted to see old Nightingale smile among the shells and explosions.
Pandora, you realize she revolutionized treatment for wounded soldiers—
Pandora wasn’t listening; she had gone off on another tangent. And the last time I was here, which was in the 60s, I made friends with the most darling woman. Did you know that they wouldn’t let black people sit at the front of the bus? It was a mind fuck, so I sat her down and said, Rosa, you need to stand up for yourself.
You are really something else.
I just make friends easily. I wonder what ended up happening to them...
Katie was about to answer, but before she could a handsome guy in his police uniform walked by and flashed Katie a huge smile. She smiled back and took a sip of her beer, enjoying the atmosphere. None of the men there were going to try to take her home, but none of them had jumped away from her either—even when her eyes went red during the fun of the evening. They were the first people outside the mercenaries who had treated her like everyone else. They didn’t shun or fear her. In fact, she was pretty sure that after fighting in the battle with her that afternoon several of them respected her.
She wasn’t used to that. She hadn’t had that feeling since she was a kid, but she liked it. She hoped it would continue when she went back to Vegas.
“I can’t remember the last time we sat around and had drinks right here in our home,” Damian laughed, taking a sip of his whiskey.
Calvin nodded. “I know, but when we were at the other compound everyone was always racing off to Vegas. Here, it would be a hell of a drive for a beer and whiskey. I’d rather just relax.”
“I agree. And with the constant threat of incursion, the base on military lockdown, and our team’s lack of people it’s better to stay close to home. I don’t mind it much. The only thing I really miss from the old place is the roof. I would sit up there for hours just looking at the desert and clearing my head. Here the roof is the ground.”
“Yeah, but I was pleasantly surprised by this place. The first time I saw it, I was ah, hell no.” Calvin looked around. “But they really fixed the thing up. It’s like a mini-mansion underground.”
“Yup.” Damian clinked his glass to Calvin’s beer and sat back. “Man, time flies. We had almost a whole different team two years ago. We were grooming Katie and just hoping she would survive long enough to learn the extent of her powers.”
“Korbin was going crazy
, Stephanie was a madam, and half the time I thought I was going to lose my marbles with no battles on the radar.”
“That’s right.” Damian sighed. “We went through a serious dry spell there for a while. The most exciting things I was doing were exorcisms. I can’t remember the last time I had a call for one. I didn’t exorcise Korbin and Stephanie, Katie did.”
Calvin shifted in his seat. “Yeah, that was one hell of a party trick, strolling over to someone and ripping the demon out of them. If we’d had her back in the day, we might have been able to save a hell of a lot more people.”
Damian smiled. “Ain’t that the truth! We were killing people because the labs were full up and they were too far gone to become mercs. Who knows, she might not have been able to save those guys. Eventually, Katie will reach her limits. There will be something she can’t do.”
Calvin shrugged. “True enough, but for now I’m kind of enjoying sitting back and watching the evolution, to be honest with you. She has one hell of a demon inside her, but I’ve always had this feeling that she has more powers than we know. There’s something different about our girl. She has a gift, although I don’t know what it is or where it came from.”
They sat there quietly for a moment before Damian spoke. “Only time will tell, my friend. A teacher in seminary told me that everyone focuses on the past and the future when what they should really focus on is the moment they are in because it will never happen again.”
Calvin tapped his fingers on the table. “Pretty righteous advice. And speaking of churches, you never told me what was up when you were called for a meeting. I am assuming there were no demon battles?”
“No.” He laughed. “No demon battles, except the ones I have with my own demons.”
“Doesn’t everyone?” Calvin scoffed. “So what did they want?
Damian took a deep breath and looked at Calvin, figuring it would probably be good to get it off his chest. “They have an idea. They want to make us some sort of group of Constantines, running around the parishes all across the world to save them and their people. There has been an enormous resurgence of interest of the church, so much so they are afraid people will slip through the cracks. They do have a point; the church needs to be seen, especially in this climate.”
