Midnight Squad: The Grim (11 page)

           
Katy, the witch, was having enough difficulty just
controlling her power. She was wildly unreliable, but the files said it was
possible that the Jinn's magic was interfering. I suspected that some of that
interference was intentional, but proving it would be impossible. Sometimes her
powers barely worked, and at other times her she had to fight to reign herself
in to keep from severely injuring her teammates. Katy might have been able to
fire a gun, but if we could get her to find better control then why give her a
gun when she had so much raw power at the tips of her fingers.

Janine
couldn’t hold onto a weapon because of the amount of energy she’d have to expel
to manipulate it. If she tried to carry a weapon then she’d be tapped out
before we ever reached the battlefield. In addition, there were several
negative performance reviews due to her unwillingness to kill or injure the
target. I was guessing that probably had something to do with the whole thou
shall not kill thing, but if she wasn’t willing to kill then giving her a
weapon would be a waste anyway. That was pretty limiting in traditional
warfare, but if we think a little out of the box and use her abilities in a
more unique way. She was very promising.
 

           
Janine wouldn’t have been pleased if she knew I scanned
Alhambra’s file for less than professional reasons. Sure, I took notes and
looked for the best way to implement her, but I also looked hopefully to try to
find a way to kill her. Apparently, the most anyone could do was contain the
Jinn. The file also made it clear that Alhambra couldn’t directly harm another
living being. It was beyond the scope of her power. That certainly explained a
few things about my time as her personal chew toy. It also meant she had found
a few loopholes. She was somehow contained on level nine. If I could find out
how they were able to secure her, maybe I’d learn a way to deal with her more
permanently if she got out of line. At least I could ground her to her room,
but how I’d get her in there was another thing altogether.

           
I was just finishing when DD knocked on my door.
“
Grimmy
?
You in
there?”
I stepped out. “Ms. Mann wants to give that demonstration. I told
her I’d go get you. I nodded and motioned for her to lead on. DD lead me to the
elevator. I followed slowly trying to stretch out my back and neck. Luckily,
they were the only parts of my body that still hurt from yesterday. Once on the
elevator she pressed the button for level three and we slowly descended. The
doors rattled open, and I stepped out into a small room with cement walls,
cement ceiling, and yes, a cement floor. There were three doors. Locker room
written in white lettering hung over the door to the right, and training room
written over the left door. Observation tower covered the steel security door
directly in front of us. DD pointed at the security door, “Ms. Mann and Dr.
Nowitski
will be waiting on us in there.”

           
I kept quiet and followed DD into the tower. Elizabeth
and the doctor were in the top of the tower overlooking the entire training
facility. Elizabeth was wearing a gaudy necklace. The Doctor looked almost
identical to yesterday. In other words, she looked bored, and irritated. The
training facility looked like a giant underground cavern. The whole area was
various shades of brown rock. Pits and piles of rubble made for plenty of
cover. There were also several caves that I suppose lead to other caverns. At
the center was what looked like a temporary
base.
There was a walkway leading to one central building. It looked cheaply made,
and easily replaceable.

           
Ms. Mann pointed out to several people wearing fatigues.
Dr
Nowitski
tapped a few keys and
my people popped up on monitors. They were all standing around leisurely, and
waited for the exercise to begin. Ms. Mann pressed a button and her voice
carried out over a loudspeaker, “The parameters of this exercise will be to
take the base, and press the button in the main office. There will be ten live
targets. Since this is a live fire exercise you should be prepared for real
ammo.” She then nodded to the doctor, and the doctor struck some keys to open a
door far in the distance. Ten men marched to the base and took up defensive
positions.

           
Dr
Nowitski
spoke, “Sergeant Reaper, before this begins I want you to listen very
carefully. Those men guarding the base are just clones. They are synthetic
soldiers used for testing. I don’t want you doing anything impulsive when you
see them being killed. Think of them like very lifelike dolls. It’s an
oversimplification, but explaining all the details tends to sound a little more
gruesome and
Frankensteinnish
than most people would
like to hear. The quick and dirty explanation is that they are a melding of
technology and biology. They take their commands from a computer implanted in
the early stages of their development. We wanted the training to be as
realistic as possible. The benefits are that we get a real time view of how
your team will react under real time conditions, and we can easily replace any
dead clones.”

           
“That’s amazing.” I stared as the clones checked their
weapons, observed the perimeter, and acted just like regular people. The doctor
shook her head, “No Sergeant, not amazing…science. Within a generation, we may
no longer need men like you. We’ll be able to grow our soldiers, and make
improvements. Someday soon you’ll be obsolete.” I smiled. I didn’t appreciate
her tone, but if they could make clones to take our places then that would
spare a lot of lives. I only wished that they had developed them sooner. Maybe
then I wouldn’t spend so many nights trying to forget about all the blood on my
hands.

           
A horn blew signaling the beginning of the exercise. I
watched as all of my people scattered. Penny and
Danika
seemed to be racing each other to get to the clones. Alhambra and Katy were
already far behind. I couldn’t see Janine anywhere. The clones spotted my team
quickly. They weren’t even trying to be quiet, or sneaky. It was just a dead sprint
into the teeth of the enemy. The clones opened fire on both the vampire and
werewolf.
Danika
, in her hybrid wolf/human form, took
three rounds to the chest before sliding into cover. She healed almost
immediately. I could only wonder what would have happened if there hadn’t been
a pile of rubble to duck behind.

           
Penny was a blur, darting in and out between the bullets.
It was like a ballet. She moved with the grace of a prima ballerina, but as
fast as she moved, eventually the bullets were faster. It wasn’t long before a
couple of rounds struck her and she was forced into taking cover. My jaw fell
open watching the bullet wounds close immediately. The only evidence was a tiny
hole in the fabric where the bullet passed through, and a tiny red ring of blood.
It was amazing to see, but one well-placed sniper round could take her head
clean off her shoulders, and even she couldn’t grow that back.

           
Elizabeth was playing with her necklace while watching
the monitors. It was another thirty seconds before Alhambra and Katy scrambled
into the fire zone. Katy raised a hand and…nothing. She looked frustrated, and
became angry when Alhambra raised her hand and a stiff wind blasted the clones,
sending them all rolling. Alhambra laughed at the men tumbling at her whim like
angry clowns. Katy shoved the Jinn. I couldn’t hear them but by the body
language I imagined a stream of four letter words peppering Alhambra‘s ears.
They were in the middle of a battle, and both women were more interested in
arguing with one another than achieving their goal. It would be funny if it
wasn’t so painfully stupid.

           
“They’re fighting again.” Ms. Mann rolled her eyes. It
sounded like this was a lot more common than it should be. The doctor
responded, “There is only so much energy that they can draw from. Between the
two of them, there just isn’t enough. We should cut loose the witch. The Jinn
can do anything the witch can do, and she can do it more effectively.” Ms. Mann
rubbed her eyes in frustration. Clearly, they’d had this talk before as well,
“Katy has a lot of potential, and I am not prepared to remove her from this
project.” The doctor hissed, “You won’t cut the witch, at least cut the ghost.
The funding we waste on her should go to other, more beneficial areas, but
you’re in charge of this project.” The Boss-lady growled through her teeth,
“Yes, I am.” I really thought those two got along better.

           
I turned my attention back to the fight. Katy and
Alhambra were still shoving one another back and forth. It looked like two
children arguing at the sandbox. I expected a teacher to step in at any moment
and give them both detentions. If this was going to work, I’d have to separate
those two in the future. I already began adjusting in my mind how to best
implement those two.
     

           
Penny snatched one of the clones and started tearing into
its throat. It was like watching a snake strike a mouse. She was efficient in
the strike, and then brutal in how she finished him off. She twined her limbs
around the body and squeezed, forcing more blood into her mouth. She seemed
single minded in getting her meal. Well that explains how she stays so well
fed. There was no way she’d be able to eat so much out in the world without
drawing attention to
herself
. Here it was like
thanksgiving and Christmas
everyday
. There was still
one clone
laying
on the ground.
Danika
bull-rushed the crowd and stole away with the man. I realized that she was
operating just like a wolf in the nature shows. She’d picked the weakest, most
defenseless prey, and attacked. It was instinctual. I’d have to remember that
during battle. She carried him behind some cover and started eating the man
alive. I was glad we had soundproof glass. The remaining clones divided their
fire into three zones. Three clones fired at Penny, three rained down bullets
on
Danika’s
position, and the last two were taking
careful aim at Katy and Alhambra.

           
Penny was completely lost in her feeding. Bullets struck
her, tearing through her beautiful features. A few rounds even struck her head,
but they weren’t a high enough caliber to put her at any risk. Bullets tore
huge chunks from her skull, and ripped at her face, but she kept blissfully
feeding as the wounds healed almost instantly. Penny’s file said only complete
decapitation would kill her, and nobody out there had anything powerful enough
to do that. The most they could do was slow her feeding.

           
I turned my attention to the rest of the action. My
stomach tensed. The witch was about to get mowed down by two submachine guns,
and she was too busy arguing with Alhambra to notice. “Damn it, the bitch is
baiting her! Alhambra is trying to get Katy killed. Call it off now!” I
screamed. Elizabeth stared out in horror as two laser sights made tiny red dots
on the side of Katy’s face. The doctor said, “
It’s
better here than in the field. If she can’t handle herself here then she’d just
be a waste of manpower there.” DD stared at us, eyes wide and afraid, looking
from us to the monitor and back again.

           
I slammed my hand against the window in frustration. I
was helpless…again. It was like being back in Afghanistan. That fucking cunt
was going to take more of my people…again, and I couldn’t do anything about
it…again! I slammed the glass again, and it splintered under my hand.
Alhambra’s eyes turned up to me, a broad smile played onto her face. She was
enjoying this. The sick bitch was enjoying this. Then Janine appeared, and I
thanked God that a dead nun was watching out for her teammates, even if they
weren’t smart enough to watch out for themselves.

           
She jumped up and down between Katy and the clones like a
spastic kangaroo. It drew the two men’s attention, and they opened fire on
Janine. I watched as bullets passed through her as if she was smoke. Thank God,
she drew their fire away from Katy. The gunfire snapped the little witch out of
her part of the argument. She turned and with a wave of her hand a fountain of
fire boiled across the ground around the two clones. Alhambra, not to be
outdone, blasted another shot of wind at the two men. The wind picked up the
fire and roasted the men alive. The file said Alhambra can’t hurt anyone, but
she knew loopholes big enough to drive a bus through. Sure, she couldn’t burn
the men, but if she blew wind across the fire, and the fire just happened to
roast the men alive…well technically she hadn’t directly injured them. She had
been acting on the fire, and the men just become collateral damage.

           
Danika
had finished eating her
quarry, and now she was circling. She was looking for another victim. Meanwhile
Penny was a blur of dancing movement. The vampire moved from cover to cover
avoiding the bullets. Her red hair fluttered behind her like a comet trail.
Unfortunately,
Danika
and Penny were moving towards
each other. They didn’t notice this until it was too late. Without realizing
it, both women had accidentally sandwiched themselves right between the last
six clones.