by C L Amos
The man grabbed Pete’s hands and tied them together behind his back before pulling him up to his feet. The guard radioed in, “Caught a suspect in front of the main entrance, bringing him in for questioning.”
Pete called out, hoping the man would recognize his voice, “Vince it’s Pete… I just landed.”
Vince came back over the radio, “Bring him to my office and Pete, if it is you, then you will understand why I want to verify your identity.”
Pete entered Vince’s office. He had been in charge of their private security for nearly a decade and the two of them had spent a good few nights swapping stories around the fire as their relationship grew into a friendship. Vince slapped the new recruit hard on his shoulder and laughed, “You are lucky he didn’t resist arrest; now you’d better untie the man that pays your salary!”
The young recruit’s eyes were like saucers as his hands nervously struggled to find the right key, “Sorry sir, I didn’t know it was you!”
Pete rubbed his wrists, “Don’t fret, I am glad you are doing your job.” And with that he chased the young man out the office and closed the door behind him and looked over at Vince, “I gather you heard what happened this morning.”
Vince shook his head, “Yeah, bloody idiots! We have doubled security around the main house and have stationed extra guards to patrol the perimeter. Did you bring your kin with you? Where are they?”
Pete could see the concern in his old friend’s eyes and quickly pulled his phone from the pouch and restarted it, “I left them on the ranch …why, what’s going on?”
Vince pulled his face, “Shit, I hope they are okay…my informants have been abuzz, they are apparently arresting wolves in their thousands and killing those who resist arrest… it’s a bloody nightmare out there… Janey has even called for an emergency meeting!”
Pete spoke softly, “It’s exactly what those elitist bastards have been waiting for; a reason to wage a full-scale assault.” His phone finally beeped to life and he frantically tried to retrieve the voice messages… message after message from Tom. “First Message: They are coming for us and we don’t have much time before they arrive!” Second Message: “It’s about Sasha, Julia had a vision and it doesn’t look good for any of us!” Third message: “They are here, heavily armed and they have us surrounded! Fourth Message: Julia and I are going to create a diversion and try to buy the pack some time… hopefully some of them make it out of here…” Pete slumped onto the table and rubbed his head over his hand in disbelief… “I shouldn’t have left them…” He took a paper weight off the table and hurled it into the corner of the room.
Vince placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder, “Just remember that it’s always darkest before the dawn and that regardless of what happens, the sun will still rise.” He looked Pete in the eyes, “Now you’d better stop procrastinating and go find Janey. The two of you have a lot of work to do if you are going to make a stand against the HC.”
Pete shook his head, grabbed a pair of pants and shirt from the locker and buttoned the shirt, “I really hoped that it would never come to this.”
He left the office and followed the narrow little walkway to the house. He entered the back door as he had so many times before, and he could hear the heated debate emanating from the study. He took a deep breath in… and walked into the room. Several clans’ leaders loyal to the faction stood there… some arguing for war and some for surrender. He looked around the room for Janey, but to his surprise she was nowhere to be found. His heart dropped as he remembered Tom’s message… “Sasha!” he exclaimed as he catapulted himself around the door frame and hurled himself up the staircase to their bedroom.
The door was closed, but unlocked, he opened it slowly and saw Janey sitting on the edge of the bed crying. It felt as if his heart had cracked and shattered into a million little pieces, he sat down next to her and placed his arm around her. She snuggled into his large protective arm. She had always felt safe with Pete and even in the most distressing times he had a way of comforting her.
She blew her nose into a tissue, wiped her eyes and turned her face up to his… “It’s over Pete, I have lost her again and this time there is no doubt.”
Pete gently kissed her forehead … “What happened?”
She opened a chat and passed him her phone, stood up and wrapped her gown around her as he read the messages.
Dylan: Jim is in serious condition, but he is alive! The council is meeting as we speak.
Janey: Thanks – Keep me posted.
Dylan: This is bad … really BAD! The council has declared the bombing an act of war and Marcelle has somehow managed to gain full control over the High Council and all its resources. She has already sent out the yellow alert. She is mobilizing her forces.
Janey: Shit! Any idea of when or where she is going to start her assault?
Dylan: Waiting for orders as we speak.
Dylan: Forward Message – A plot has been uncovered which suggests that a large number of wolves - possibly even thousands of them - are involved in a plot to overthrow the High Council. This morning’s bomb blast was the first wave of attacks and with your help it will be the last. Every wolf, regardless of age or gender, is to be brought in for questioning. You are permitted to use full force and shoot anyone who resists arrest on sight.
Janey: That bloody bitch!! Thanks for the info we will spread the word as quick as we can. Hopefully we can save some lives.
Dylan: This isn’t a war… it’s an extermination!
This message was followed by a few blurred pics of skips. Pete zoomed in on the one pic and realized that they were filled with bodies.
Dylan: All the wolves that reported for the yellow alert were sent to gas chambers; their bodies are filling up the skips quicker than the furnace can burn through the corpses. You need to do something to stop this.
Janey: You have to find Sasha and get her out of there! I don’t care what it takes!!! I can’t lose my daughter again!
Dylan: What about the rest?
Janey: I have already called a meeting with the clans loyal to our cause. Dylan, I will do whatever I can to stop this, but you need to find Sasha and get her out of there before something happens to her!
Dylan: I’m sorry Janey… I was too late.
Janey: Are you sure?
Dylan: I saw her body being thrown down the chute…they are all dead!!
Pete typed a message on Janey’s phone: I need you to find out where they have taken Tom and Julia Blackberg. I need to know the address and more importantly if they are still alive.
Dylan: Will do! … and again…I’m so sorry.
Pete wiped a tear from his eye and walked over to Janey who stood at the window. He placed his arms around her as they watched the darkness chase the light over the horizon, leaving a black, barren void. “I asked Dylan to check if Tom and Julia were still alive. The last message I received said they were surrounded and that they were going to try and divert the sweepers’ attention so that the rest of the pack could try and escape into the woods.”
Janey’s voice stirred with anger; her fists clenched in anticipation. “I am going after Marcelle and I am going to kill that fucking bitch once and for all!” She shouted as she smashed her fist against the wall, the anger and pain blinding her with rage. “I am going to rip that fucking Sow to shreds… she will regret the day she placed a blade in my hand and taught me to kill!!”
Book 4
WAKING
THE
SNAKE
THE FLEDGLINGS’ MENTOR
Chapter 1 Jim’s Treasure Chest of Information
Marcelle walked into Jim’s office, took in a deep breath and smiled… his scent still hung thick in the air. She walked over to his desk and ran her hand over the exquisitely carved mahogany desk and took a seat in his chair. Marcelle had always kept her friendship with Jim close, and over the years he had proved to be an important and powerful ally as he slowly built a vast empire that supplied trained assassins
, mercenaries, armory and even biological weapons to countries and dictatorships around the world. With Jim’s untimely death, Marcelle found herself at the head of not only the High Council but also of this group of trained killers. Marcelle knew that with them standing behind her there was no one who could possibly pose a threat. The integrity of the High Council and their lineage would be protected as they moved forward to the new dawn led by Marcelle.
Marcelle booted up his laptop and began browsing through his recently opened files. She saw one labelled Sasha and clicked on it.
Agent: SashaAge: 27
Status: Active Duty (6 months remaining)
Missions Completed: 874Kills: 3497
Special Abilities….
Marcelle trailed off and clicked on the next tab labelled ‘lineage and attributes.
Changeling Status: Assassin Slave (Owned HC)
Description: Threeling - Wolf, Raven and Cobra
Marcelle continued reading first about Sasha’s mother, she shrugged - nothing surprising so far, but when she read
Father: Unknown - suspected paternal parent…
Marcelle’s blood ran cold. She shook her head… it couldn’t be. She grabbed her phone and called security. “Can you track Sasha’s whereabouts?”
The security officer answered, “Yeah, sure, hold on for a moment please.”
Marcelle waited for what seemed an eternity, “Have you located her yet?”
The security officer answered, “She is in skip two, currently in-route for disposal in Furnace Chamber 3. Vital signs are registering zero… she is dead.”
Marcelle barked, “Stop that skip and get someone to fetch her body and bring it to Laboratory Three’s autopsy bay immediately.”
She shook her head and thought, I am going to miss you Jim! You were always such a sly little devil…I can’t believe that you kept this from me!
She looked around and wondered what other secrets he had hidden in his little treasure chest. But they would have to wait for now; she already had more than enough to keep herself busy for the next couple of days. She glanced down at her watch and smiled… her new guests would probably be settling into their new accommodation in the holding cells, and the thrill of discovering Sasha’s true identity was just the cherry she needed to top off this extraordinary day.
Chapter 2 Under Lock and Key
Tom and Julia were led up the ramp and forced into the large building, which was humming with agitated voices and soft somber cries. To the left was a large detention center, where truckloads of wolves and their families had found themselves under lock and key at the behest of the High Council. Tom saw a small kid running from person to person frantically searching for his family, tears streaming down his blood-stained face and clothes. Tom watched as the small boy approached a guard; he stood sobbing, but the guard was filled with blood lust and raised his weapon. Tom shouted out… “Stop!!!” and pulled towards the cage surrounding the detention center, managing to free himself from his own captors, and he bashed into the cage. The guard got a fright and turned, staring Tom dead in the eyes. He lifted his weapon and aimed it at Tom, but the guard escorting Tom hit him hard in the back with the butt of his gun before kicking him back towards Julia. Tom glanced over; the little boy had vanished into the crowd and was at least safe for now.
Julia heard the commotion and turned to Tom frantically, “Are you alright?” but before Tom could answer her, she was pulled hard and forced to follow the guard leading them in convoy. They entered a large cargo elevator and as the doors closed, a cold, sterile silence hit them. They went up three floors and followed a well-lit passageway into a high-tech laboratory/testing facility. The room hummed with a thousand LED lights shining down as they illuminated even the darkest corner. In front of them was a large glass room, and a countertop running the length of the cage filled with high tech machinery, microscopes, and computer monitors. Off to the left of the lab stood 5 smaller cells, each equipped and fitted with heat sensing cameras and motion sensors. As they got closer to the glass room Tom noticed a body lying on the floor… the head looked as if it had been split in two, with the blood trail flowing down to the drain in the middle of the floor.
The guard saw Tom’s disgust and laughed as he pushed him into the open cell, “This beautiful apartment just became available… aren’t you the lucky fuckers!”
The cell contained one small mattress, a toilet and a basin. Tom led Julia over to the mattress and sat down next to her.
Julia asked cautiously, “Is this place as horrible as I imagine?”
Tom nodded, “It’s probably worse.”
Julia lay down on the bed; she pulled her knees up to her chest, curled into a fetal position and sobbed quietly – her senses were simply overcome with feelings of utter helplessness and despair.
Tom placed his hand on his sister shoulder and rubbed it gently, “It’s been a long day, sis… try to close your eyes and get some sleep, I have a feeling tomorrow is not going to be much better!”
Chapter 3 Body Recovery
The driver finally climbed out of his truck. It was already dark, and the smog hung thick in the air around him; the flood lights were even straining against the heavy smog. Standing next to his truck, he lit a smoke before flicking the control. He took a deep puff and slowly exhaled as he watched the bodies rolling out of the skip onto the conveyor belt, which ran down a narrow walkway and into a small opening which was marked with red, warning people not to enter or go beyond that point. To his surprise, the conveyor belt suddenly screeched to a halt and the bodies started piling up one after another, forming a large heap as they landed on top of each other.
Two security guards approached him at speed pushing a gurney. One started to scan the bodies with a handheld sensor, while the other man approached the driver, “Have any bodies gone past the red line?”
The driver shook his head, “I have been waiting for over two hours to offload! What the hell is the holdup now?”
The security guard ignored him, “Have any of the bodies gone past the red line?”
The driver shook his head, “No! I just started offloading.”
The guard nodded and ran over to the piled-up bodies, and asked his colleague, “Anything yet?”
The other guard rolled a body over and pushed it out of the way so he could scan the corpse lying underneath. “Not yet; start rolling the men to one side, it will make it easier to find her body.”
The driver saw this and started moaning, “I hope you aren’t going to just leave their bodies lying next to the conveyor belt like that… I don’t have time to move them all back.”
The officer didn’t even look up to acknowledge him as he rolled and pulled another man off the pile so his colleague could scan the woman lying below.
About halfway through the pile of corpses they heard a loud beep. The guard ran his sensor back over the corpse, and when it beeped a second time, he checked the info on the small LCD screen and lifted his head, “Get the gurney, we have her.”
They placed Sasha’s lifeless body onto the gurney and strapped it down before speeding off as quickly as they’d come.
The conveyor belt lurched back into action and the truck driver called out to the guards, asking them to come back and clean up their mess, but his pleas fell on deaf ears and he was forced to pull and roll the bodies back onto the conveyor by himself.
The guards loaded Sasha’s body into the back of an SUV and drove it down to the same loading ramp Tom and Julia had walked up only moments before; if they had arrived just 10 minutes later they would have seen Sasha’s body being pushed up the trolley ramp in-route to the autopsy room.
As they pushed her body past the detention room, it fell strangely quiet as the arguing and chatter ceased; everyone turned their heads slowly, gazing at the corpse with intrigue and sadness, perhaps even with a sense of knowing that they could be next to ride the gurney.
They pushed her into the same cargo elevator and pushed number three. They exi
ted into the same well-lit corridor and passed the lab on the left where Tom and Julia had been taken moments before. The wheels squealed on the shiny floor as the gurney was pushed through the large swing doors into the autopsy room. The air was cold, kept just above freezing point. They pushed the gurney next to the steel table, undid the restraints, and rolled her body over onto the examination table. A man in a white coat came from the office off to the side and greeted the guards.
He took his mobile sensor out of his pocket and ran it over Sasha’s neck, checking the credentials, and as they came through onto his screen he said, “Thank you gentlemen, I will take it from here.”
He returned to his small office and pulled out his phone, typed in a message and pushed send, then waited in his office for Marcelle to arrive. Minutes later the doors to the autopsy room were flung open and Marcelle entered. He put the phone back into his drawer and went to meet Marcelle.
Marcelle stood at the table and took Sasha’s face into her hand and twisted her head left and right, trying to see if she could see any resemblance to her father.
Dylan piped up, “Good evening Marcelle. What do you need me to do?”
Marcelle looked up and passed him an airtight canister containing liquid nitrogen and a suspended vial, “I need to know if this person’s DNA matches that of the girl on the table.”
Dylan took the canister and examined it; it had come from their cryogen lab. He knew that all the members of the High Council, both past and present, were obliged to provide samples of their DNA, eggs and semen for preservation. He saw the label A0-10959287-FDS P0139. He raised an eyebrow, “Anyone I know?” Dylan knew immediately that he shouldn’t have said that and awkwardly raised his hand and pushed his glasses back on his nose, “Ignore me, please. I was just born with social awkwardness… I don’t care who it is! I will run the tests and should have the results for you by lunchtime tomorrow.”
