Chapter 10
I Miss A Big Battle
The border between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties was odd in that part of it ran in the middle of Tampa Bay. It made pursuits sometimes interesting, because the laws governing crossing into a neighboring county “uninvited” were very strict. Even amongst friendly counties, the penalties for the offending lycanthrope could be very harsh. Leeches, on the other hand, had no compunctions. Their council system was city-based, not county-based like that of the lycanthropes, and their power was a matter of what each council could grab and hold. So, even though the Pinellas Hunters Guild warned my Guildmaster that some TCV vamps had been “recruiting” in St. Petersburg across the bay, we could not go over and wipe out the “press gang.” Since Lady Thames had declared that Pinellas was neutral, she wouldn’t allow the fighting on her soil. From what I had been told, she had tried to stoke the Clearwater Council into attacking their rivals working in St. Pete, but the vampires had been unable to find their opponents. At least that was what they told Lady Thames. The Guildmaster of the Pinellas Chapter hadn’t been convinced, but had been unable to set his hunters on the interlopers. Thames was being strict on the neutrality issue.
The two Guildmasters conferenced on the problem, and I was dispatched to perform a slightly problematic job. Although I could have infiltrated Pinellas, found the leeches, and wiped them out, it would have been too bold of a job for Pinellas to overlook. Instead, it was decided that a limited incursion into Pinellas County that would be overlooked in order for me to do the actual takedown in Hillsborough. Real time intelligence would be fed to me from some Pinellas hunters. The mission was skirting the edges of Pinellas neutrality and would have some nasty repercussions if it was discovered exactly how much assistance the Pinellas Chapter was providing. Hence, the job was given to me. It was all part of being the Guildmaster’s personal hitter.
From what we learned from the Pinellas Guild – who was shadowing the press gang – the leeches were planning on leaving St. Petersburg by the interstate and crossing back into Hillsborough County on the Howard Franklin Bridge. So, I had to cross the bridge into Pinellas, turn around, and get back on the other span of the bridge – all without the permission of the Pinellas aristocracy. For the job, I needed to borrow a customized sedan. On the outside, it looked like a normal car. The customization was the installation of shooting ports on the windows and in the windshield as well as clips to hold weapons. The whole point of the car was to be able to accurately fire a weapon while the car was in motion. The weapon in question was a suppressed Colt M4 carbine.
The Howard Franklin was oddly peaceful. The orange sodium streetlights cast a dull pall over the concrete. The muscles in my neck tightened as the large rise of the hump of the bridge approached. Halfway up that hump, I would technically be in Pinellas County, and for the first time, I would be entering the county without an invitation. Going against the laws of our society wasn’t something that I did lightly. I made sure that I wasn’t doing anything that would bring unwarranted attention as the car crossed the invisible barrier that separated the counties. I relaxed for a brief moment – then flashing lights filled my rearview mirror. I didn’t panic, but my anxiety level was greatly heightened. I wasn’t speeding or changed lanes aggressively, so why was I being pulled over? It could be something as simple as a broken taillight that I hadn’t noticed when I took the car. The M4 was placed on the floor of the passenger side and covered with debris. The rigging could be explained, but it was going to be interesting to see if the police officer believed me. I slowed and pulled into the emergency lane. The police car pulled in behind me. I found the registration for the car and retrieved my license and insurance card from my wallet. Just as a precaution, I slipped my USP from its small of the back position to just under my leg. There was the possibility that the police officer behind me was a ghoul or a leech trying to assassinate me.
The police officer stepped out of his car, and I could see that he wasn’t a leech or a ghoul. I was glad that I wasn’t going to have a shootout on the Howard Franklin, but there was something about this that had my instincts screaming warnings. The police officer stepped up to my window.
“Good evening sir,” the police officer said with an almost bored tone, “May I have your license, registration, and insurance please?” I handed over the requested items, trying to keep the pistol concealed. The police officer inspected the documents for a brief moment before asking, “Do you know why I pulled you over?”
“Honestly, officer, I have no idea,” I answered, “As far as I could tell, I hadn’t done anything that would cause you to stop me.” The police officer gave me an almost predatory grin.
“Well, I guess I could pull you in for carting around full automatic weapons,” the police officer said, and my instincts began screaming furiously. “That wasn’t why I pulled you over, Mr. Ranger.” I tried to keep my face neutral amidst my mind racing. The only ones who called me Ranger were my fellow lycanthropes. There was no mention of it anywhere on any of the documents that I handed him. I wanted to go for my pistol, but my experience told me to stay calm. The police officer’s pistol was still holstered and lashed down, which told me that he wasn’t expecting trouble.
“I’m afraid I don’t know whom you’re talking about,” I said, keeping my voice calm and slightly confused, “My name is Marcus Smith. I don’t know a Mr. Ranger.” The smile on the police officer’s face widened.
“Okay, you can say that all you want, but we both know the truth,” the police officer answered, almost amused by my response, “Just to let you know, Lady Thames is aware of your infiltration of her county. Needless to say, she is not happy that her Guildmaster and your Guildmaster would come up with this plan. It would look very bad, especially considering her declaration of neutrality.” There was no point in playing the innocent any further. The police officer knew too many details for him to be just on the outside of our world. He wasn’t a kin, so it was very surprising that Lady Thames would use him.
“Are you warning me off?” I asked simply. I needed to find out exactly what was going on. Lady Thames would be fully justified in having me killed on the spot, but I strongly doubted she would have sent a human police officer to assassinate me. There was something more going on than I was aware of.
“Far from it,” the police officer answered, “Lady Thames was aware that her Guildmaster would assist yours for this kind of an operation. That said, you will never implicate her Guild or her involvement in this. If any other lord questions this operation, you will fully admit that you broke the law in coming here on your own volition – or under the orders of your Guildmaster. The lady doesn’t really care which story you go with. She won’t stop this, but she will not tolerate such shenanigans in her territory.” He handed me a paper that looked like a traffic ticket. On the paper was a phone number.
“The number is for the hunters tailing the vampires,” the police officer said, “Finish this quickly and do your damndest to make sure that none of the details of the operation ever leave the borders of the two counties.” Without another word, the police officer whirled back to his car. I didn’t waste time and rejoined traffic. I had lost time, and the phone number wasn’t necessary. The message that the police officer had given me disturbed me. Lady Thames had been acting truly strange since the beginning of the war, and there had to be more than what I was seeing on the face. Unfortunately, I had little time to deal with the aristocracy of Pinellas. I had to take out some leeches. I made sure that I filed the conversation in the back of my mind and made a point to talk privately with the Guildmaster about the whole thing.
The rest of the drive across the bridge was uneventful. I quickly exited on Ninth Street, did a quick u-turn, and drove back onto the bridge. As soon as the car crossed over the Hillsborough line, I pulled the car into the emergency lane on the bridge and waited for my prey to arrive. Normally, it was a bad idea to wait for a car to pass by at seventy miles an hour while you were stationary. The only thing I needed was to be ready to give chase when the leeches came by. I was supposed to wait until the leeches were well into Hillsborough County before I killed them. The bridge was only necessary as a means to locate the leeches and hunt them. If we had waited until the leeches were beyond the bridge, they could have gone to ground before we had their location fixed. My phone toned and a text message let me know that my prey was on its way to the bridge. A green minivan being followed by a silver muscle car. The Pinellas hunters had a thing for “old-school” muscle cars.
The cars flashed by me, and I flew into traffic. Horns fading in the distance told me that I had managed to cut off someone, but I really didn’t care. I needed to get to my prey before the end of the bridge. The car accelerated smoothly through the traffic as I slipped between the lanes. I might have problems if there were State Troopers out on the bridge, but I didn’t have much choice. There were a lot of cars from people coming home from their entertainment in Pinellas. I managed to come on the left side of the muscle car. We traded flashlight signals, and the muscle car backed off. They wouldn’t have any problems coming into Hillsborough. At least not from my side of the bay. The driver of the minivan didn’t seem to notice that he was being followed and continued sedately driving towards Tampa.
The hard part was following the minivan. I wanted to just pull up next to it and take it out, but that would have been too spectacular. I was going to have to be patient and wait for an opportunity to take down the minivan. We got off the bridge and continued down the interstate. I had expected the minivan to exit off on Westshore or even Dale Mabry, but it continued past downtown Tampa towards the infamous Malfunction Junction where I-275 met up with I-4. I wondered what the bloody hell these vampires were doing because they jumped onto I-4 and headed out to the east part of Hillsborough County. There was something odd happening, and it was making my instincts scream bloody murder. I decided it was important enough that the mission had to be changed. I hit the speed dial on my phone and waited for my boss to pick up.
“What is it Marcus?” the Guildmaster growled over the phone. He sounded annoyed, but I didn’t think it was at me in particular. The lycanthropes had been lowering the tempo of operations because of fears that the pathwalkers were going to intervene. All that meant was that the packs were attacking fewer and fewer targets while the hunters picked up the slack. I quickly related the situation to him. “So, bide your time and take them down. It’s not like you haven’t done this plenty of times.”
“That’s not it boss,” I replied, “Why are the leeches driving out to the east part of the county? Their strength is in Tampa. Out here, the lycanthropes can tear them apart and no one would notice. I got a feeling that something else is going on.”
“What?”
“If I knew that, I would’ve told you,” I answered sarcastically, “The only ones that I can see that might know something is the targets in front of me.”
“Can you secure them?” the Guildmaster asked. I looked into the minivan as best I could. From the heads bobbing in the windows, there were probably four leeches and at least that many recruits. The recruits wouldn’t be full vampires yet, but they could cause me more trouble than I would have liked to deal with on my own. I made a snap judgment.
“Negative boss,” I answered, “I need some assistance. Doesn’t matter who – with the glorious exception of Twisted Knife.” I heard the Guildmaster chuckle at the comment. He hadn’t said anything about my confrontation with Twisted Knife, but all that meant was that my performance didn’t warrant a reprimand. The Guildmaster was beyond stingy with his praise where I was concerned. As his personal hitter, the Guildmaster expected an extremely high level of professional aptitude from me. Sometimes I managed to go above it, but it was rare.
“I’ll see what I can dig up,” the Guildmaster informed me, “I may not be the one calling you back. Get this done quickly.” He disconnected without further words, and I watched the minivan. Either the leeches in the vehicle had absolutely no idea that they were being tailed or they were leading me into a very nasty trap. I half-hoped it was the trap. At least that would be a rational answer for the leeches’ irrational acts. My phone toned and I hit the receiver on the earpiece.
“Ranger.”
“This is Kyle Bloodscent,” said the soft voice into my ear, “I’ve got two vehicles coming up behind you with six warriors from Plant City. We’ve got your plate and description. We should be there in the next few minutes. What’s the plan?” I had to love modern technology. No need for long, drawn out conversations when all the information could be forwarded to a hand-held device like a phone or PDA.
“We need to snatch these bastards fast,” I replied, “You know this area better than I do. Suggestions on where to force them off the interstate?”
“As quickly as possible,” Kyle replied without humor, “We’ll force them into the next exit as soon as we catch up to you. Anywhere between here and the county line is good for us, but we can’t cross the county line.” Although Thames had declared Pinellas neutral, the other surrounding counties had more or less taken a containment approach. They provided intelligence and support to a certain degree, but they didn’t want the fighting spread into their own counties or to the vampires that they had to deal with. Hence, the strict bar against combatants entering other counties.
“Okay,” I replied and placed the M4 into the cradle on the passenger side of the car, “I’m going to burst into the car just before the next exit. I want you to exit and follow. I’ll head back around and join back up with you. We’ll find a nice place to do the take down. Remember, we need to capture these leeches, not kill them.” I saw flashing headlights in my rearview mirror. Kyle and his warriors had caught up to me and were ready. The problem was that capturing anyone, particularly leeches, is far more difficult than just killing them. I wished I had a hunter or even a shaman to assist me with the take down. Wishing didn’t make my situation change any, so I pulled up next to the minivan and prepared to force the minivan off the interstate. The M4 quietly stuttered and I heard the brass thump into the fabric covering the passenger seat. The rounds sparked off the body of the minivan, but the driver was clearly unhurt. That was fine, because the burst did exactly what I wanted it to do. It panicked the driver, sent the minivan off the interstate, and allowed for Kyle and his warriors to slip in behind them unnoticed.
Kyle kept me informed on the minivan as I worked my way back to his two cars. As I came up on the cars, we had past commercial buildings and come into a more rural part of the county. It was a good spot to do an interrogation. Even with Kyle’s warriors, there was little chance of me being able to get the leeches back to the Guild for a proper interrogation. So, I was going to have to perform an impromptu one with Kyle’s help. It was going to be nasty, and I really hoped that Kyle’s warriors would be up to the task. I asked the Guildmaster if there was another hunter available to assist. None were available because of some major job going on in Sun City.
“Kyle, we have to get the minivan off the road so that I can interrogate the leeches,” I said, “Have one of your cars pass the minivan so we can run a blocking maneuver.” I didn’t want to be too complex with the warriors because I had no idea how trained the warriors were in driving.
“I thought we were going to capture them so that you could take them back to the Guild or some other place,” Kyle said, sounding a bit confused.
“Not an option. No available proper transport,” I answered, a little annoyed that Kyle was questioning my orders. I needed to get this done and find out if my suspicions were correct. “Get your car going.” One of the cars raced in front of the minivan and continued on for about a hundred yards. Whoever was driving had good instincts on how to lay a road ambush. First and foremost, don’t let your mark suspect that he is about to get hit. The operation was relatively simple. The car in front would slow down until the minivan was within a car length. The warrior car to the rear would come up behind almost to the point of tailgating. When both cars were in position, I would race out from behind, come up next to the minivan. Once I was in a blocking position, all of the cars would slow down, and I would force the minivan to the side of the road. It should be a matter of simple crowding, but I was willing to use ramming or weapons fire in order to get it done. Once we had the minivan stopped, I told Kyle to have his warriors secure a perimeter and let me handle the most of the nasty work. I would need the help of some of his warriors in order to fully secure the vampires. If all of this was done with speed and ferocity, the vampires wouldn’t have time to react.
“I’m going,” I said, and floored the car. The sedan sped past the rear car and came up alongside the minivan. “All cars slow.” The three cars began to slow, and I could see the driver of the minivan realize what was happening. He was looking more and more panicked as the speed slacked off. I began crowding the minivan to the shoulder. The driver of the minivan seemed to be aware of what was happening. I pointed the carbine at his head, and the unspoken command was understood. He was talking rapidly to either the others in the minivan or on some sort of hands-free cell phone. If it was the former, it might make the takedown more interesting. Outside of the Bleeders, I hadn’t run into many vampires that knew how to fight. If the driver was talking on the phone, it could mean that reinforcements were on their way, or whatever operation was going on would be folded up quickly. All of it meant that my time was going to be extremely limited.
As soon as we stopped, the two lycanthropes in the front car were out with pistols drawn. They both screamed for the occupants of the minivan to slowly get out of the car with hands up. Obviously, the lycanthropes had watched far too many episodes of Cops. I didn’t bother correcting them. I just climbed out of the car with the M4 cradled in my hands. The leeches in the minivan didn’t look like they were moving, so I placed a burst into the rear of the vehicle. The doors were thrown open. There were four leeches in the van, and they were being followed by four humans that had obvious bite marks on their necks. The driver was tall, but average looking vampire with brown hair and eyes dressed in fashionable clothes with a dark blue pattern. He followed the instructions that the lycanthropes were shouting with a look of resignation and determination. The front passenger looked like he was in shock, his blue eyes wide at the barrels of the pistols of the warriors. I suspected that he was completely surprised by the “sudden appearance” of lycanthropes. The other two vampires were giving me extremely hostile looks. I took a closer look at those two because there was something there that bothered me. There was a strong hostility, but it wasn’t focused or refined. They were thugs. The driver was probably the leader of the operation and the front passenger was a deputy or some sort of lieutenant. These two were the important ones.
The bursts into the two thugs caught everyone off-guard. The lycanthrope warriors gave me shocked looks as the two thugs fell to the dirt of the shoulder. That was one of the problems with working with warriors. They weren’t trained to look for the same things that hunters were trained to look for in our enemies. I didn’t have time to explain things to the warriors. I needed to get the leader and his lieutenant away from the rest of the group, and the two thugs would have just caused trouble.
“I need you two to cover the humans,” I ordered, pointing at the two lycanthropes from the first car, “The rest of you will take these two leeches into the fields. I have questions for them.”
“Too late,” the driver said, “I’ve already warned them that we were being intercepted. By the time that you get any information from me, they’ll be long gone.” I could tell by his eyes that he was telling me the truth. The difference was that I didn’t need to know the location of whatever was going on. I just needed to know why they had seized the humans and took them across the bay and clear across Hillsborough County. I didn’t say anything. I just motioned for the two vampires to move away from the minivan and into the grassy field beyond the highway. The warriors roughly shoved the two vampires into moving as I sedately followed. I had a nasty feeling that the driver was anticipating me using harsh interrogation techniques against him. He was smart, resourceful, and dedicated. I was glad that he was going to be dead before this job was finished. Leeches like that were extremely dangerous. His lieutenant, on the other hand, seemed to be around just to help out. He may have some information, but I was willing to bet that it was very limited and may be slightly incorrect. Just enough to screw up any further investigation.
We walked maybe fifty feet from the cars when I motioned for the lycanthropes to halt. The two leeches were placed on their knees. I have found that putting even leeches into a submissive posture helped with interrogations. One of the intel boys tried to explain the psychological reasons for why it worked, but I really didn’t listen. All I needed to know was that it did work. The driver was still looking defiant, but his companion was frightened.
“Are there others coming to get you?” I asked quietly, focusing my attention on the driver.
“What, no threats?” he replied, just a little too glibly, “No. No one is coming to rescue me or my companion. We have been considered expended.” He settled down on his knees into the ground. He was preparing for a long session. I didn’t have the patience for a long session.
“Why did you take those humans from Pinellas?” I asked, still looking directly into the driver’s eyes. His eyes darted up to their left corner. He was about to lie to me. No time to play word games. The M4 was placed to the driver’s left arm and I placed a single silver round through the driver’s elbow. The screaming from the vampire filled the grassy field. “I can tell when you’re going to lie to me. Lying means that you aren’t going to be useful to me. If you aren’t useful, then you’re dead. I will take you one piece at a time to get what I want.” He looked me in the eyes, and I saw the true fear in them. Something about my visage had apparently shaken the driver’s confidence and bravado.
“We didn’t think that Hillsborough hunters would get involved in us snatching humans from Pinellas,” the driver answered, “If you weren’t involved, then you probably wouldn’t notice what we were doing.” Okay, I scared him, but he had enough wits about him to try and delay me as long as possible.
“Who is ‘we?’” I asked. What was going on was important, but the players behind this scheme would tell me the nature of the operation and the ultimate goal. Assuming, of course, that the driver knew who was his actual patron.
“A group of us deliver humans to some older vampires in Thonosassa,” the vampire answered, “We don’t know who or why. The Inner Council told us to do it, so we do it.” It was something that the Inner Council was involved with, and it involved lots of humans. In more peaceful times, I would almost wonder if they were stocking up for a party. Now, it had a more sinister tone to it.
“Where were you to deliver the humans?”
“Doesn’t matter,” the driver answered, “They’ll be long gone by the time that you could even hope to get there. Completely gone and no evidence to find them.” His delaying tactics were starting to annoy me.
“Where?” I repeated, with a slightly more demanding emphasis in the question. I tried to keep my annoyance out of my tone, but from the fear in the driver’s eyes, I wasn’t sure if I had succeeded.
“It’s on the GPS in the van,” the passenger answered, frantically, “I saw him input the destination right before we left St. Pete.” I looked over at the driver, and I could tell that the passenger was telling the truth. It is hard to fake the vitriolic look of unanticipated betrayal. I looked into the pleading eyes of the passenger. He was still clinging to the hope that I would let him go since he gave me the information that I wanted. It was pathetic, and he really should have known better. His people and mine were at war. There was no way that either of these was going to leave this field alive. Or as alive as a leech ever was.
“Kyle, would you have your pack secure the GPS and confirm?” I asked, still keeping my voice as neutral as possible. I knew that I was going to kill both of the leeches, but I wanted both of them to maintain some hope that I would release them in exchange for their cooperation. The minute that hope vanished, then the two vampires would become unpredictable. Most likely, they wouldn’t do anything, but they might decide they had nothing to lose and attack. I wasn’t worried that they would hurt or kill me, but I was more concerned with the warriors holding the vampires. Warriors were okay, but they rarely had the situational awareness that would warn them that something bad was about to happen.
Kyle was talking with his two warriors that were guarding the minivan via a small Bluetooth headset. He held his hand to his ear and listened for a moment. Kyle looked at me and slowly nodded. The GPS had been secured and the waypoints were accessible. Before the vampires could do anything, I placed a burst into each of the vampires. The warriors looked stunned as the bodies toppled to the ground. I didn’t have time to waste.
“Kyle, have your people kill the humans and destroy any evidence,” I ordered, walking back towards the minivan. Bitten humans could be rehabilitated, but it was a dicey endeavor. Even doing it right had a better than even chance of creating a witch-hunter. During peacetime, the lycanthropes rehabbed humans and turned them over to the wizards. With the war raging across the county, the wizards were having nothing to do with us and we just didn’t have the resources to perform the rehabilitation. So, it was necessary to kill the humans before they sought out another vampire to complete the conversion into a vampire or even possibly a ghoul. Neither of those was considered acceptable outcomes.
By the time I had reached the minivan, the two warriors were moving the bodies of the humans and the vampires into the minivan. I climbed into the driver’s seat and accessed the GPS. The drop-off point was a small office near the fairgrounds. It wasn’t going to be hard to get there, but I was concerned about what I would find. I copied the address into my phone and waited for Kyle to rejoin me at the road. I replaced the magazine in the M4 and decided to check in with the Guildmaster. He might have been able to scrounge up a hunter or two to assist me, but I strongly doubted it. Whatever was going in Sun City, it sounded like it was one hell of a firefight. I hated missing it, but I had my job.
“What is it Marcus?” growled the Guildmaster, “I’m a little busy coordinating things here.”
“Sorry to disturb you boss,” I answered, “All of the objectives here have been taken care of. I found the drop-off point for these humans, and the intelligence I got says that this is some major operation for the vampires. I was hoping that you would have some assistance for me.”
“To be perfectly blunt Marcus, your job is a side operation right now,” the Guildmaster replied, “We’ve managed to find one of the major coven sites for the TCV in Sun City and its taking all of the spare hunters just to provide enough support for the packs involved in seizing it. In fact, I want you back here as soon as possible because I may need to send you out there.” I scowled because I could tell from the Guildmaster’s tone that the fight was not going how he wanted. Probably a stalemate. Lycanthropes couldn’t afford a stalemate in a battle. Vampires always had the advantage of numbers. Lycanthropes were just better fighters on a one-on-one comparison.
“I have to check out this drop site boss, and then I’ll get my happy ass back to the Guild,” I told my boss, “I’ll see if I can whip up some support from the packs out here.” As I disconnected with the Guildmaster, I looked for Kyle. I would need to see if he could get me some more help. I wasn’t expecting trouble at the drop site. The driver was probably right that the vampires had packed up and melted away into the county, but I would have left a nasty surprise or two in their place. I always had to assume that my opponents were at least as nasty and as devious as me. I have found when I didn’t, the bastards proved me wrong. Barely escaping death looks really neat on movies and television, but in reality it was painful and exhausting. I avoided it whenever I possibly could.
The first thing I needed was intelligence. Thankfully, the humans always managed to provide technology that lycanthropes needed. I pulled out my phone and downloaded the satellite images for the address that the GPS indicated. The target was actually a barn or a large storage shed on a farm. According to the property records, the farm was owned by a small agribusiness firm based out of Tampa. Getting onto the property wasn’t going to be difficult. That much wide open space would be difficult to completely secure. The barn, on the other hand, was either a dead drop of some sort with no security or it was going to be completely secure, and I could expect a nasty fight. A building that large would hold a lot of nasty things. I was going to need some more help.
“Kyle, can you give me some more support?” I asked the warrior. He nodded without hesitation. “We need to get to this drop site. More than likely, it will be nothing. That said, there is a damned good chance that the leeches might have a trap waiting for us.”
“My fiancée belongs to a pack out that way,” Kyle said, looking at both the GPS and the satellite picture on my phone’s screen, “She can get some of her packmates out there with some weapons to help us out. What’s the chance that this is a trap?” There was an undercurrent of concern in his voice. I couldn’t blame him. Lycanthropes may have casual flings with humans or kin, but relationships between true lycanthropes are very serious matters. There are too many issues surrounding the relationships for them to be simple, casual affairs. It was less than a century ago when only arranged marriages were allowed between lycanthropes.
“Maybe four or five to one,” I answered, “I don’t know who was running the operation. If the Bleeders are the party responsible, then there will be a trap and it will be nasty. If it’s just an operation run by the Council, better than even that the operation is already folded up and disappeared.” I looked Kyle dead in the eye. “Bottom line, we’re going to have to assume that the bastards are ready and waiting to kill any lycanthrope that shows his or her face anywhere near that barn. Any lycanthrope that comes to this little party had better be ready to do exactly what I tell them, and be ready to fight hard. Can you do this?”
“I’ll make sure of it.”
The farm had absolutely no security around its perimeter. The farm itself was primarily raising cattle with some fields for growing of hay and sod. The barn was near to the cattle grazing fields, which meant it was flat and open. No real concealment, but we did have the dark. The twelve lycanthropes and I that were approaching the barn were spread out. I had them shed for true form before we began our incursion. Kyle had his five warriors on my left while his fiancée, Renee, had another five warriors on my right. Renee had brought a small mix of shotguns and hunting rifles. All of them seemed to have understood my instructions, but I was still a little worried about the Murphy factor on this job. The war had made the warriors more proficient, but they still weren’t at the level that I was comfortable. Still, a beggar can’t be too choosy about what he asks for.
As we approached the barn, I began scanning the outline of the barn and surrounding area. I was looking for anything out of the ordinary. Something that would make my instincts scream that we were creeping into an ambush. The nice thing about being a well-trained hunter is that you pick up some of the tell tale signs of a trap. Another is that being in true form negated the need for night-vision goggles. I motioned for the warriors to stop and crouch. Nothing about this barn seemed to indicate ambush, but my instincts were telling me different. Not the normal screaming warnings, but the kind that remind someone to look both ways before stepping off a street corner.
“Kyle,” I whispered, “I want all of you to slowly spread out and encircle the barn. Just hold at about forty yards or so. I’m going to go in and infiltrate the barn.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want a couple of us to go in with you?” Kyle asked, with a look of concern, “I know a couple of my boys that could do all right.” I shook my head. If a firefight broke out, I didn’t want lycanthropes that I hadn’t worked with before in the middle of it. I would have no idea of how they would react. At least if the warriors were coming in from the outside, I would have a better chance of managing the battle.
“If something goes down, I want your folks to close up the circle around the barn,” I told him, “I’ll let you know where I want you to enter. Do your best not to kill me.” Kyle smiled at the comment, but he understood the truth of the statement. The chaos of a firefight was intense, and a lot of the times warriors would fire at anything that moved that wasn’t on their side of the battle. Since I would already be in the thick of it, there would be a damned good chance of being caught in a crossfire. This would be what hunters like to refer to as a “bad thing.” Kyle moved back to give my instructions to the rest of the warriors as I crept forward.
The barn was actually a long single-story building that was actually more of a large garage and storage shed. It was used to hold the expensive tractors and numerous mechanical implements used on the modern farm. On the north face was a graded concrete slab that led up to two large doors where the tractors would enter and exit the barn. From oil and other fluids on the ramp, there had been more recent vehicles here. It was the first confirmation I had that this was actually the drop point for the vampires. The doors were closed and they had no windows to peek through, so I slowly moved to the east side of the building. On the east side of the barn was an access door and a well beaten path that led out to the farm’s main house some three hundred yards off. Another reason why I didn’t want the warriors involved if necessary. I had a suppressor for my weapon. They didn’t.
There weren’t any obvious security features on the access door beyond a basic dead bolt lock. I looked to see if the deadbolt had been thrown. I didn’t see the glimmer of brass in the slit between the door and the frame. The door was completely open. I slung the M4 and drew my USP. I wished I had brought up one of the warriors to help with the entry because I hated having to do covert entries on my own. It was difficult and I was vulnerable for far too long of a period for me to be comfortable. I pushed the door open and let it go through on its own inertia. I swiftly slipped through the door, and heard the chattering sound of a sub-machine gun opening up on me. I heard as bullets whipped around me and felt two rounds slam into my vest as I leapt for a pile of equipment. I didn’t have time to discern what the equipment was, I just needed the cover. A second sub-machine gun opened fire. Uzi, my mind rapidly concluded. There were very few sub-machine guns that had that uniquely high rate of fire. Riccochets filled the area around me as the two sub-machine guns were emptied. I holstered the pistol and brought up the M4. It was my turn.
Raising myself just over the farm equipment with carbine at the ready, I spied two ghouls reloading full size Uzis. I placed a burst into the left ghoul. He toppled over as the other ghoul ran for cover, still trying to reload his Uzi. I fired at the ghoul, only to see my bullets deflected by various bits of farm equipment. I crouched back down behind my cover. I listened and heard the ratcheting sound of the Uzi’s cocking handle being roughly yanked back. The ghoul was reloaded and ready to fire. I slipped to my left, looking for the ghoul. I didn’t see the creature, and I didn’t get any fire directed my way. I found new cover and listened again. I couldn’t hear the ghoul’s breathing, but I did hear the sound of his Uzi clanging against the tractor the ghoul was hiding behind. I judged the distance, and pulled out a flash-bang. I had learned my lesson and always carried the devices on my jobs. I pulled the pin and carefully arched the device behind the tractor.
The loud bang launched me towards the ghoul’s position. Flash-bangs gave me two to five seconds where my target was disoriented. After that, the target would start to regain his faculties. Most would be slow to regain their wits, but Bleeders and other trained individuals would recover far too fast for my liking. The ghoul had dropped his weapon and was stumbling. I didn’t waste time and placed a burst into the ghoul’s chest. I wanted to get information, but a ghoul wouldn’t betray its master. The only thing more zealous than a ghoul was a witch-hunter. My only hope for getting information would be to scour the two bodies as well as the barn and hope to come up with something useful. For this, I did want the help of the warriors. I called to Kyle and told him to get his warriors into the barn.
“What are we looking for?” Kyle asked as his warriors filed into the barn. He looked relieved that his group didn’t walk into the fire of the ghouls. I didn’t blame him at all. His warriors didn’t have vests or any other kind of protective gear. The two bullet-hoses could have chewed them up before the warriors managed to fire back.
“Anything that will tell us who was responsible for this drop,” I answered, “If it looks suspicious, grab it. I’d rather have to look through a bunch of stuff than miss an important piece of intel. Good work by the way.” Kyle looked at me with an obvious look of confusion.
“Good work? We didn’t do anything,” Kyle said, almost startled.
“Exactly. You did what I told you to do and didn’t risk your warriors coming in trying to rescue me,” I answered, “I’ve seen too many times when warriors try to intrude during a hunter job. Warriors tend to die.” I hoped my solemn tone conveyed the gravity of what I was trying to teach the warrior. He nodded, but I couldn’t read the expression on his face. The warriors watched the exchange in silence, and then quietly began searching the barn. I was impressed by their discipline, and I made a mental note to tell the Guildmaster. If possible, I wanted to get a hunter or two out here to do some more in-depth training. I had a suspicion that this group of warriors would take well to the training.
After half an hour of searching, we had found a lot of nothing. At least that’s how it seemed from my initial scan. I would turn over all of the stuff to the Guild’s intelligence section to see if they could make anything out of it. I doubted that they would have time with all of the other demands that the war had placed upon them. Still, they were very good at finding the needles in the haystacks that hunters threw on their desks. Good enough that it was worth taking five hunters out of the field just to do the intelligence analysis. I would also ask the Guildmaster if he wanted me to send copies to the Lord’s intel group. Not as good, but they weren’t as overworked as the Guild’s intel section. I collected all of the various pieces of paper, as well as the two Uzis and some of the spent brass, and loaded them into a sack that I had found in the barn. As I hoisted the sack, Kyle had already directed two of his warriors to pick up the ghoul bodies. I had already photographed them and sent the pictures to the Guild to see if we had their faces on file. Satisfied that we were clear, we quietly left the barn.
As we walked back to where our vehicles were waiting, I looked over one piece of paper that, for some reason, kept drawing my attention. One of the ghouls had it in his breast pocket. The paper had taken some bullet and blood damage, but the part that I could read led me to believe that it was instructions to the ghoul from his master. I couldn’t make out where the humans had been taken, but the ghouls were to send some papers and other materials that had been blotted out by blood to an address in Tampa. The address wasn’t complete, so I began trying to fill in the blanks and use my phone to determine where the ghouls might have been going. It didn’t seem right that the ghouls would have a hard copy unless it was something that they were unlikely to remember on their own. Ghouls weren’t mindless. They had the normal intelligence and reasoning capabilities of their former human selves, and the vampires didn’t choose idiots to be their servants. There had to be a reason that it was written down rather than committed to memory. As I played with various combinations of what the address could be, I kept coming up with destinations that were worthless. I knew it was important, but I was damned if I could figure it out on my own. I was going to need help.
I arrived at the Guild just as the rest of the hunters were coming back from their huge job down in Sun City. From what I gathered talking to my fellow hunters, the job had been a marginal success. The coven had been a major stronghold for the TCV outside of the Tampa city limits. Almost all of the packs in southern Hillsborough County had been committed to attacking and eliminating the coven. Doing so meant that the TCV would be cut off to the south, or at least that was the tactical thinking. The initial hunter support had been minimal because the Guild was simply stretched thin across the county and the pack leaders had grossly underestimated the strength of the vampires holding the coven. The pack leaders had also completely dismissed the idea that the TCV would have committed any of their Bleeders to the coven. Granted, the Bleeders were disorganized and had their numbers severely depleted. The Guild’s initial attacks on the Bleeders had been far more successful than even we had expected. That said, there was still a significant number of Bleeders still in the TCV, and the TCV was quickly learning how to properly employ their lycanthrope-fighters. Needless to say, the initial attack was less than successful. The Guildmaster pulled every hunter he could find and sent them down to Sun City to rescue the packs and to continue the attack. Apparently the shaman had also sent down a contingent. There were conflicting reports about whether or not Lord Vollen had joined the battle, but I doubted it. The Red Knights would have had fits if Lord Vollen had been within range of such a fierce battle. By the end of the battle, three hunters were dead and we had nearly twenty wounded, six of which were serious enough that they wouldn’t be able to perform jobs for some time. Things were going to have to change soon or simple attrition would destroy the Guild. We started the war with about a hundred active hunters. We had received maybe ten or so new hunters since the war started. We had lost over twenty hunters and had another twenty out of action. We couldn’t expect any more hunters for at least another year. It took a long time to train hunters and there were damned few lycanthropes that had what it took to become a hunter. Usually there were about six or seven pups a year that were allowed to attend the Rite of Initiation. We had maybe one every other year that could be sent to the Hunters Camp to be trained. The camp had rushed the few we already had there so that they could return, and they had brought some friends that were willing to fight with us. That left us with one or two still at the camp, and none of the pups currently in tysach were close to being ready for the Rite of Initiation. I was musing on this when I walked into the Guildmaster’s office. The Guildmaster was looking at something on his computer and had someone on the phone.
“Hi boss,” I said as I slumped into a chair. The Guildmaster motioned for me to sit and be quiet as he continued to work. I had no doubt that my Guildmaster would go down in the history of our chapter as one of the best to occupy his position. He had managed our scarce resources with an unbelievable efficiency. It had probably cost him ten or fifteen years of his life from the way he looked. I wished his wife was at the Guild to help him, but he had her running around as a liaison between the Guild and the packs. She was a hunter, but she had not joined the Hillsborough chapter. I knew there was some political reason for it, but the Guildmaster had never taken me into his confidence about the matter. So I did what I always did. I accepted it and asked no questions. I still wished that she would show up and help take care of the Guildmaster. The last thing the county needed was for the Guildmaster to fall over from the strain of the workload he was carrying. I listened as well as I could to the Guildmaster’s end of the telephone conversation.
“We need to take time and see what the fallout of this battle will be,” the Guildmaster cautioned. His tone was one I had heard before. I guessed he was speaking to Lord Vollen, or at least someone over at the Manor. Lord Vollen had a few advisors including the Spiritmaster, Dennis Matric who was the Guild’s representative, his eldest sister Elizabeth Vollen, and two of the more powerful packleaders. The Guildmaster told me that he trusted the coterie of advisors to be giving the lord useful advice, but they tended to be demanding. It was hard for the lord to understand that although the war had been going well for him so far it didn’t mean that it would continue to do so. Apparently the battle in Sun City had been worse for the lycanthropes than I had thought. The Guildmaster paused as he listened to the lycanthrope on the other end.
“Yes, we won,” the Guildmaster said, with a hint of frustration in his voice. I doubted whomever he was talking with would have detected it, but I had been on the receiving end of it too many times not to immediately hear it. “Unfortunately my lord it was almost a Pyrrhic victory. I’m looking at the casualties for both the packs and the Guild.” The Guildmaster stopped abruptly as Lord Vollen said something. An angered expression crossed the Guildmaster’s face for a brief moment.
“I realize that you want to press what you believe is a strong momentum,” the Guildmaster said with an almost forced calm, “However, that is not what we have. What we have is the vampires never having a chance to be fully committed to this war. We’ve managed to keep them off-balance through a combination of speed, ferocity, and just plain luck. That has been changing slowly as the vampires have been regaining their footing. They have always had the numbers on their side, my lord. They can produce their numbers faster than we can. The rage over your father’s death had sustained us so far. That rage is fading as we fight and lose numbers.” The Guildmaster paused as Lord Vollen said something. “No my lord, I am not making your case for you. I am telling you that the war has entered its next phase. This is where both factions will begin grappling for position. We will fight, but with the depletion of our numbers both in the Guild and the general lycanthrope population, we must prepare to have to be on the defensive while we regroup.” I knew that the lord didn’t like hearing that. I didn’t like hearing it from the Guildmaster. The thought that we wouldn’t continue our mostly strong string of victories against the leeches went completely against every instinct in my body.
“Thank you my lord,” the Guildmaster said, and I could see the relief physically wash over my boss, “I will keep you updated on the Guild’s status and we should be able to try and keep the leeches off balance as best we can.” The Guildmaster hung up the phone and looked over at me. I couldn’t read his expression, and that worried me. I was usually really good at reading my boss. “I am fairly certain that your job tonight is not going to be important in the long run of this war, with the possible exception of forcing Lady Thames to expressly stating her position on helping us during this war.”
“Did I lose us some covert help from the Pinellas Guild?” I asked quietly. I knew that sometimes the way that I did jobs had repercussions that I normally didn’t have to deal with. Since the war started, I had tried to keep my normal flamboyance under control so as to not to force the Guildmaster in having to deal with more problems.
“We probably lost their covert help, but not exclusively because of you,” the Guildmaster, “Any of the jobs we would have needed to do in Pinellas to curb the TCV’s incursion into that county would have forced the same result. I knew that it was a possibility when I gave you that job. Now, that said, I will say that I am glad that you were harrying off on some wild guess rather than joining that battle down in Sun City.” I wasn’t sure how to take that comment. Part of me was slightly offended that the Guildmaster didn’t want me in a firefight where I could have probably have done some good, but most of me was just uncertain. My uncertainty must have shown on my face because the Guildmaster smiled.
“Relax Marcus, I have no doubt that you would have made yourself known during that fight,” the Guildmaster said, “Unfortunately, you also have a nasty habit of finding yourself in the middle of the nastiest part of the fighting. In this instance, I have a suspicion that you would have been one of the casualties, and I can’t afford to have you out of action at the moment.” The Guildmaster was pragmatic if nothing else. “What did your investigation turn up?”
“Nothing substantial, but I just dumped a bunch of mostly useless stuff onto the intel group that we recovered at the site,” I answered, “I want permission to release copies to the aristocracy. I don’t think they will come up with anything, but with the overwork we’ve laid on intel, the backup might be necessary. There is something there, whether we can find it or not.” The Guildmaster looked at me with a hard look of skepticism. I didn’t care if my boss wasn’t sure of my hunches. I was used to defending my actions to the Guildmaster on a regular basis.
“What’s your guess about what was actually happening with the humans?” the Guildmaster asked. His voice was still skeptical, but at least he was willing to give me a chance to defend my hunch.
“Truthfully, I don’t know. My best guess is that they are stocking up on food so that their soldiers don’t have to go out to hunt and get caught by our warriors,” I answered, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that was how we caught a lot of the leeches so far. The warriors have been too successful for it not to be stupid decisions on the TCV’s part. I have a partial address that may be where the leeches are taking all of the humans. I was trying to fill in the blanks, but I couldn’t make it work.”
“Okay, let’s see what the intel group digs up,” the Guildmaster said, “I doubt its quite that complex, but you have a plausible theory. If we find – let’s call it a supply depot – then I will probably need you on the job. Go rack out and get some rest. I will probably have a job for you later.” I nodded and left the Guildmaster’s office. With our strength depleted, I could foresee my workload increasing in the near future.
Nick doesn’t ask for my help very often, so when he does, I tend to move heaven and earth in order to help him out. Intel wanted to confirm that their suspicions about the location of a leech sleeping hole in Tampa. Lycanthropes liked knowing where the leeches slept during the day. It was much easier to hit the bastards when they didn’t have a real chance to fight back. Plus, the sleeping holes were targets that we could reasonably expect one of the packs to deal with, rather than having to detail a hunter to the job. Confirmation, on the other hand, needed to be done by a hunter. We were just much better at doing the sneak and peeks than the general lycanthrope. Deadeye asked Nick to handle the sneak and peek on the target. Usual set of instructions – do enough recon to confirm the intel group’s suspicions and to get a basic feel for the target, and then quickly extract. Engage only for self-defense. Nick wasn’t supposed to go after the leeches by himself, he was just to make sure that they were there. According to what Deadeye told him, there was a pack of warriors ready to do the attack as soon as confirmation was made. With hunters becoming scarce, we needed to do our jobs quickly and get ready for the next one.
“So that’s the basics of the job,” Nick concluded after he found me in the training room of the Guild, “Do you have anything on your plate right now?” I thought for a moment. I had no jobs at the moment, but that was due more to the fact that I was supposed to be on “down-time” for resting and training than the Guildmaster had no jobs for me. Since the war started, the Guildmaster was being more forceful about hunters not doing jobs when they should be at least resting. He was being especially forceful with me because the Guildmaster was aware of that I really hated inactivity when there were jobs to do.
“Better question is whether I’m supposed to do anything right now,” I answered with a half-smirk on my face, “Doesn’t matter. Don’t ask, don’t tell. What do you need me to do?” Nick looked at me skeptically. He knew the restrictions that the Guildmaster had me under in terms of jobs. He also knew that I routinely ignored them, much to the annoyance of the head of our chapter. He seemed to weigh asking me for a favor he knew that I would do without hesitation against whatever backlash he could suffer when the Guildmaster found out that I was assisting a job when I was supposed to be resting. He must have decided that I would be the one to suffer the full wrath of the Guildmaster – which I would, considering what happened every other time I ignored my boss.
“The target is in the middle of Tampa, and even during daylight, I would prefer not going in alone,” Nick said, “Especially if I’m going after what could be a leech sleeping hole. I just want some backup. Nothing real intensive if I’m just going to be doing a recon job.” While I didn’t mind helping Nick, there was something about this job that was starting to bother me. Nick had never asked me to help him on something unless he thought there would be some real problems. Little things, Nick just handled with his normal aplomb. The few times that I had been invited along to one of Nick’s jobs had ended up into heavy fighting.
“What the fuck, Nick?” I asked, “No time have you asked me to help you out unless you think that bad shit is going to erupt. Are you expecting trouble?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then,” I answered, “I’ll go get some toys.”
The target was in West Tampa, a predominantly Hispanic part of Tampa. It was probably best known as the home of Alessi’s, a well-established cafeteria and caterer. It was considered a landmark in the community for its Spanish dishes and strawberry shortcake. The target was a small home off of Himes Avenue, which made the recon a little more difficult. Many of the residents in this neighborhood had lived here for decades, and they would know if something out of the ordinary came into the brick-laid streets. So, Nick and I had to be a bit more covert than normal. So, instead of a sedan or our motorcycles, we had borrowed one of the utility vans from the Guild’s motorpool and attached the TECO logo to the side. Masquerading as the local power company wasn’t something hunters did normally, but we had all the gear available when we decided it was necessary.
The van was similar to the one I had used when I had helped raid the harem before the beginning of the war. It seemed so long ago, but it had been maybe six months since Lord Vollen had declared war on the vampires. The front of the van looked like a standard service van. The back was set up with a pair of small camcorders and a parabolic mike, all of which were linked to a small computer. In addition to the surveillance gear, there were a couple of firing ports in case the lycanthrope in the back needed to engage the enemies. Nick would be driving and was dressed in a TECO uniform. I would be in the back watching over Nick in case something happened. Since I wasn’t supposed to be seen unless the shit hit the fan, I didn’t bother with the TECO uniform. Instead, I wore jeans and a t-shirt with my new Kevlar vest covered by a tactical vest. I had my USP Tactical in a thigh holster. I had my Commando carbine clipped to a holder on the inside of the van. I chose my Commando over a regular submachine gun, like my normal MP5, because I wanted the additional hitting power of the 5.56 mm cartridge. I didn’t know what we were going to run into, but I had a nasty feeling that I would need something that would go through normal body armor. Plus, Boomer had managed to convert some RIS’s so that they would fit my Commando. The Rail Interface System, developed by Knight Armaments Corporation (KAC) and built in Tampa, was a unique system of four ridged rails that took the place of the forward hand guard on the M16 weapons. It allowed the quick attachment of a variety of electronic or subsidiary weapon systems. Now I could quickly attach anything from a nightvision system to a grenade launcher (well, the grenade launcher really wouldn’t fit under the extremely short barrel of the Commando – but Boomer was working on that). At the moment, I had attached a Surefire flashlight to the underside of the Commando. I didn’t need the light if I was in true form, but the extremely powerful light had the dual use of being able to temporarily blind a target if I managed to hit it in the eyes. It was useful in the close-quarters combat that I anticipated if Nick ran into trouble. I also had a few knives, and of course, a couple of flash-bangs.
As we pulled up to the target house, Nick rubbed his throat across the concealed microphone. I heard the double click in my headset to let me know that he was starting his job. I made sure that the surveillance gear was working, and watched Nick as he approached the front door. In his hands was a device that looked like one of the oversized PDAs that TECO used for its meter readers. It was actually a sensory device that detected various microwave, infrared, and laser emissions from known security systems. I kept watch on both Nick and the area as he continued to sweep for telltales of a security system beyond the basic home alarm system. Nick was being his normal systematic self, which meant the work was slow and tedious to watch, but I couldn’t argue with his results. It didn’t make my job any easier. Guard duty was one of the hardest things for a hunter to do. It required a hunter to be always vigilant under conditions that would drain the concentration of even the most conscientious hunter. There were tricks to keep your mind focused on the job at hand. All I had to do was to constantly remind myself that it was Nick out there, and he had a nasty tendency to attract trouble like a magnet in a steel yard. The house itself was a single story home with a covered carport. A chain-link fence surrounded the back yard. From what plans we could retrieve from the Guild database, the house had a living room/dining room in the front of the house with a large kitchen behind it. Two small bedrooms were off to the right of the main room with a bathroom in between them. A master bedroom was located off the kitchen. There was a small utility room in the carport, but it had no door into the house. There was a front door, a side door from the carport, and a back door that led out onto the back porch behind the utility room.
Something flickered at the west corner of the building where the carport started. It wasn’t distinguishable, and I don’t know what actually caught my attention. Nick hadn’t seen anything, or else he would have contacted me or stopped what he was doing. I checked the monitor again to see if whatever it was had made another appearance. I didn’t see it, so I opened a new window in the monitor so that I could view the playback while still keeping an eye on Nick. The flicker was a dark spot that could have been any number of things, such as a pet or the local wildlife, but I was sure it was something bad. “Nick, there’s something on the west corner.”
“What?” he asked in response, as he stopped and mimicked looking at the reading on his sensory device. I replayed the image again, but it was a blur that the computer couldn’t refine.
“Don’t know,” I answered, “Saw something, and I don’t think it’s friendly.” Nick looked at the corner of the house. Part of the device was a digital camera that could also be used as a spotting device. Nick zoomed in on the corner, but neither he nor I saw what the flicker was. “Do you want me to come out to back you up?”
“No. I’ll investigate, but get ready to get out here in a hurry,” Nick answered in his normal, calm tone. Nick hung his sensory device at his belt and made his way to the corner. I could tell that he was ready with his revolver if something appeared out of nowhere. With that monster, Nick could take down anything that our world could throw at him. Just to be on the safe side, I unclipped my Commando from the wall of the van and made sure that it had a round chambered. My instincts were telling me that something bad was happening in that house. I watched as Nick moved to the corner of the house. He looked like he was doing a casual inspection, but I could see that he was ready in case something happened – like a firefight. Nick rounded the corner and saw – nothing. There was no car in the carport and no sign of anything that should have made the flicker that I saw on the monitor. I could see Nick relax, but my instincts were still screaming that something was wrong.
“I’m going to check the back of the house,” Nick told me as he walked just beyond the view of the cameras of the truck. A small window opened on the computer monitor as Nick turned on the small camera on his device. It was a small digital video camera that was linked directly to the computer in the van. It wasn’t the best and it took a lot more battery power, so Nick and I had decided to save it until Nick was beyond the view of the cameras in the van. The back porch was empty and the backyard looked like it hadn’t seen a lawn mower in some time. The grass was easily a foot to a foot and a half tall.
“Watch that grass Nick,” I murmured over the radio link, “There might be some passives in there.” I know I would have either put in some passive sensors or some defenses – like caltrops or small pungee pits – in the tallish grass. Nick double clicked his mike in response. With any other hunter, the double click would have been a simple acknowledgement. With Nick, I knew the unspoken message was more of the I-already-knew-that-dammit-and-call-me-Nicholas. Nick walked around the back of the house and came out from the other side of the home. I felt a little better as Nick came into view of the cameras in the van. I didn’t trust the tiny camera in the sensor device to give me enough warning that something was about to happen to Nick. With my unease about the situation, I really wanted as much warning as possible.
“Okay Ranger, I’m going to do my infiltrate,” Nick said quietly, “I’ll peek through the windows first, then I’ll go through the side door if I can’t find anything.”
“Do you want me to move up when you go through the door? If something happens while you’re inside, I don’t want to be sitting out here by the curb.” I watched as Nick took a moment to think it over.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Nick answered, “If I don’t see anything in the windows, why don’t you move up to the back porch. There’s a door on the back porch you can do an entry on if you need to come and get me.” From the floor plan we had of the house, the back door would give me a nice entry point. It would allow me to flank anything that was trying to kill my friend, which I considered a very good thing.
“Okay, give me a few moments to make sure my gear is ready,” I said, “If I have to move, I’m going to need to do it very fast.” Nick pulled out his cell phone and mimicked talking on the phone as I moved some of the gear around on my body. I had most of my gear situated so that I could grab it fast and so that I could sit in the back of the van for a long period of time. If I was planning to move on scene, then I could move some of my gear to places that were uncomfortable while sitting, like the small of my back, and grab some more items, like ammunition for the Commando and the USP. You can never have enough ammunition. Plus, I could add another couple of flash-bangs. Suitably equipped for combat, I moved to the rear doors of the van and waited for Nick.
Nick used the small camera on the device to peek into the windows. I grimaced as I saw the picture appear on the monitor. Whoever was inside had placed a film on the inside of the windows. It wouldn’t appear as anything out of the ordinary in a casual inspection, but it distorted the clarity of the windows to the point that Nick and I couldn’t see inside the house. Nick looked over at the van with disgust on his face. I had to agree with him. This looked like the first indication that something was wrong with this job. Nick casually walked over to the empty carport and murmured into his throat mike. “Ranger, go ahead and move up.”
I raced out of the back of the van, using what little cover was available to dart onto the back porch. The back yard looked clear. The back porch was a cement-floored area. Steps led up to the door into the kitchen. The door had a window with the same film applied to it. I didn’t think that anyone was waiting for me, but I couldn’t be sure. The real bad news for me was that the door opened outward. What that meant for me was that I was going to have a hard time if I just tried to kick the door in. I gently tried the door knob. Damn, it was locked. Contrary to popular conceptions, shooting out the lock wasn’t a good option. There are specialty loads for doing just that, but most of them were for shotguns, which I wasn’t carrying. Unfortunately, my best option would be to break the window and unlock the door. It would be a slow and vulnerable entry, but I might make it better with the judicious use of a flash-bang. It wasn’t a particularly good entry plan, but I would try to keep Murphy’s influence to a bare minimum.
“Nick, if I have to go in, it’s going to be slow and nasty,” I told him over, and related the situation with the door.
“Just do it as fast as you can,” was Nick’s answer. This was going to get fucked up quickly. To break the window, I was going to use my right arm. My healing would prevent any real damage from the glass. Grasped in my left hand, I held a primed flash-bang. If there was something standing just behind the door, I would drop the flash-bang, let it go off, and continue the entry as fast as I could. I braced myself at the foot of the stairs, ready to race up them if Nick called me to assist. “I’m going.”
I heard the thump as Nick slammed through the door, and then was startled as the door in front of me slammed open. There was a figure crouched with some sort of small gun in cradled in its hands. Orange flashes erupted from the gun, and I threw the flash-bang directly at the figure. The rounds lanced through my body armor. I felt the sledgehammer blows as the rounds slammed through my body. Worse, they were silver rounds. Blood began pouring through the half-dozen holes in my gut as mind-tearing pain almost rendered me unconscious. My eyes were already closed when I heard the flash-bang detonate. Instinct and training forced me to look at the doorway, and I saw the figure grasping at its ears. With what seemed an incredible amount of effort, I raised my pistol and fired several rounds until the figure collapsed onto the kitchen floor.
I dropped my USP and reached into a couple of pouches. I had brought some healing cloths with me, and I quickly tore open the packaging to get to the foul-smelling patches. I swabbed out the wounds, doing as best as I could to ignore the intense pain from the wolfsbane. After a few moments, I felt some healing start. There was a small rush of energy as my body began to try to save itself. I used that energy to crawl up the stairs and into the house. I heard gunshots coming from the main room of the house, but none of it seemed to be directed at me. I pulled myself up to the body of the figure I had just killed. It was grasping a FN P90, which explained why it had managed to punch through my body armor. As I waited for my body to heal a bit more, I checked the body. It was human, which was very surprising. A quick search didn’t turn up any of the usual markings of a vampiric servant, which confused me even more. I didn’t have time to ponder the enigma, because three more humans came rushing out of the bedroom. They skidded to a stop in surprise as I raised the P90. It was nice to see Murphy was fucking with the other side as well. I triggered the P90, spraying the three humans with bullets. I liked the P90 because it had almost no climb on full auto, allowing me to keep the stream of silver aimed directly at the three humans’ midsections. As the three fell, I dropped the P90 and brought my Commando up. Using their dead comrade as cover/shooting rest, I placed accurate bursts into their exposed heads. As the echoes of the gunfire subsided in the kitchen, I heard Nick’s revolver boom three times from the main room. I shakily got to my feet and crept into the main room from the kitchen.
Nick was in the dining room that connected the kitchen and the main family room. He had overturned the dining room table and was firing at the corner of the room that led back to the two other bedrooms. I could see two bodies in the main room, lying in odd positions on the carpeted floor. I collapsed next to him. Nick gave me a quick look, which quickly turned into a worried expression. Bullets splintered through the table. Whoever was firing at us was using a Commando. I had been using the weapon far too long not to know its unique chatter as it was fired on full auto. Nick raised himself up slightly, and his revolver boomed twice more. The cylinder was already open and the empty casing spilling out as Nick crouched down behind the table.
“How many did you get?” he asked as he slapped a speed loader of those monster bullets into the cylinder of the revolver. I held up four fingers. I had healed quite a bit, but I was still leaking a lot of blood out of my back. There was still some silver poisoning on the exit part of the wounds, and my body hadn’t healed completely.
“Means three more witch-hunters,” Nick said as he swung the cylinder back into the revolver. Oh Christ. Of all the fucking things we had to run into, Nick and I had to blunder into a Sword of witch hunters. Witch-hunters organize themselves along military lines, with a group of ten witch-hunters called a Sword. The Sword is the most common formation encountered and the Sword was usually responsible for organizing operations in an area of major dispute. Usually we ran into a Sword every so often when the witch-hunters tried to eradicate the lycanthrope and the vampire. Four Swords comprised a Spear, a formation about the size of an Army platoon. Spears were responsible for recruiting and conducting operations in an area of several counties. Four Spears were called a Shield and there was thought to be one or two Shields in Florida. More likely two. We needed to finish this battle quickly before the witch-hunters realized how injured I was, or decided to call in another Sword.
“Where are they?” I asked, hoping I sounded stronger than I felt. It must not have worked, because Nick gave me that worried look again.
“I think that they are back in the bedrooms,” Nick answered, “There were more in the main room when I came in.” I lifted my head above the splintered edge of the table. Pain seared from my back, and I almost dropped my weapon. It took more effort than I wanted to admit just to push back the pain and keep my focus. “Are you going to be able to finish this?”
“Yeah, but we need to finish this quickly,” I answered, gripping the Commando tighter than I normally did. Nick nodded and began to rise from behind the table. Nick ran to the main room while I kept him covered with my Commando. There wasn’t any fire as Nick moved. I had a nasty suspicion that we were going to have to dig the bastards out of the rooms. A situation we really didn’t have time for. Fairly soon, additional witch-hunters would show up, at which point Nick and I would be completely fucked – and dead. Nick glanced over at me with a look that told me he was aware of our situation. He began motioning with his free hand
Any more flash-bangs? he signed. I looked down at my gear and nodded. Similar to the job when we rescued Jennifer Denton. Throw a flash-bang, let it go and then rush the rooms. Something about it made my instincts roar warnings. The witch-hunters weren’t like the leeches. They usually had some form of combat training, and they knew enough to properly fort up when confronted with real opposition, like Nick and me. The first flash-bang might have caught them by surprise, but now they knew we had them in our arsenal. It was time for something innovative. I raised my free hand and began signing to Nick.
Nick looked a little surprised by the idea, but he seemed to like it. I tossed the flash-bang in the front of the bedroom where the witch-hunters were holed up. I ducked down behind the table as the flash lit up part of the house and the roar shook the windows. Instead of charging into the doorway, Nick began firing his monster revolver into the wall that separated the main room from the bedroom at about knee level. We heard two distinct screams of pain and surprise. Nick opened the cylinder to reload as I rested the Commando on the edge of the table and let loose a magazine-emptying burst into the wall – right between the holes that Nick had made with his revolver.
The screams continued and a witch-hunter burst from the room with a shotgun cradled in his arms. Nick hadn’t finished reloading, and my main weapon was empty. I dropped the Commando and drew my USP. The witch-hunter shouldered the shotgun, aiming at Nick, and took a moment to pump a round into the chamber. It was a momentary delay, but it was just long enough for me to double-tap my pistol and place two .45 rounds into the bastard’s head. As the witch-hunter fell to the floor, Nick scooped up the shotgun and rushed to the corner of the bedroom. I staggered behind him as he began unloading shell after shell into the room. I dropped the magazine out of my Commando and replaced it with a fresh one from my chest. As Nick ran dry on the scattergun, I pushed him aside and let loose a long burst with the Commando. Nick had his revolver out and rushed into the room.
The two remaining witch-hunters were on the floor bleeding out from hits from either Nick’s Smith or my Commando. Nick dispatched them with single shots to the head. It was time for us to go, and I was really starting to get dizzy from blood loss. Nick helped me, half-dragging me, as we staggered out of the house and into the van. I felt the van start and jump as Nick slammed on the accelerator. I slumped down and let the darkness overcome me. This was why Nick didn’t ask me to help him a whole lot. Shit just happened when the two of us did a job together.