Obsessions: A Monster Squad Novel 7 (38 page)

“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 ammo 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.”

“A witch, you say?” She chuckled low in her throat as the words bounced around in her mind. “A witch?” She laughed now, deep and hearty. “What do you know of witchcraft?”

Samael sneered at her. “I know of witchery. Or have you forgotten that it was I who cast the spell for—”

She snapped around, interrupting him. “I have not forgotten! You bowed to your brother like a sniveling snot. Rather than stand up for me, you allowed me to be tortured, drawn and quartered…my innards ripped from my body and scattered across the face of the earth.” She spat at his feet. “All because your brother said it would make me more bitter?”

Samael lowered his eyes, his shoulders slumping. “I told you it was not what I wanted.”

“But you allowed it. You refused to stand up for me. After all that we went through together.” She turned her back on him again, not wanting him to see the tears forming in her eyes. “I gave up paradise for you.”

“I did not ask you to give up paradise.” His voice cracked as he spoke, his mind racing back across the millennia to when they were first together.

“You didn’t have to. I chose to.” She sniffed back the tears that threatened to fall. “I did it for you. I did not want the
Adama
. He wanted me to prostrate myself to him simply because he was created first. I refused to submit to his whims. I refused to bow to him and I…I rejected his…”