Tye shook his head at her.
Fourteen Years ago
Malaysia
Mal stared at the mutilated body of the sailor they were sent to find in Malaysia, the young lady had been missing for three weeks. Taken by a street gang but not killed until yesterday from what he could tell, as she was still bleeding from every hole of hers. The four men holding her were in the corner frightened by the six men with assault rifles at the door.
“Leave…” Mal said to Tim as he stepped between Mal and them.
“Mal, just don’t…it’s not worth it.” Tim said but he wasn’t talking to Malcolm Daniels anymore, he was talking to The Wolf.
The SEAL wasn’t there, the killer was. Things like this didn’t happen very often but if you made The Wolf angry, you were dead.
“LEAVE!” Mal yelled as he punched the wooden hut’s wall, straight through.
Tim turned around and left the hut.
“Good luck boys,” Tim said.
Present day
“What happened?” Tye asked.
Jace shook her head.
“They all died from suffocation.” She said.
“Suffocation? That doesn’t sound very violent.”
“It is when you suffocate from your dick being shoved down your throat.”
Mal looked down at the bone sticking out of the man’s arm, pushing it slowly as the man grimaced.
I hate myself, cause I like this part. Mal told himself.
Don’t hate yourself for liking to punish those who deserve it. The Wolf answered.
“I have questions, you will give me answers or…” Mal said as he grabbed the man’s hand, slamming his boot into it, “this will be painful.”
The driver screamed in pain
“What do you want?!”
Mal ground his teeth as he pushed further into the driver’s hand.
“Where are these people coming from?”
“We grab them out of their homes, if they are colored, non-Christian, liberal or gay. Then they are placed in an internment camp. We pick out twenty of them a week and when I drop them off from the facility. That’s what they look like,” He said.
Mal grabbed the map.
“Point to me on this map the facility where they take them?” Mal asked while taking the pressure off the man’s hand.
He gingerly pointed his finger at the facility Mal had already planned on infiltrating.
“What happens to them in there?” Mal asked.
“ I don’t know…” The Man said, “I do know that the young Ares, is in charge of the program.”
Mal retrieved his knife from his pocket belt and straddled the man on the ground.
“I thought you said you would let me go?” The man asked desperately.
“Never said that,” Mal said as he gripped the Karambit and slammed it into the right side of his rib cage, puncturing his lung.
There it is…there’s that good shit. The Wolf stated.
The man attempted to scream but he found it much harder to breathe as his lungs filled with blood.
“You think because people are different than you, that you are better than them?” Mal asked as he lifted the curved blade and slammed it through the man’s knee.
Almost losing track of himself as the blood splattered all over his hands but, careful not to hit a single vital area.
“That’s why your death won’t be quick,” Mal said, “It won’t be painless, it will be long and no one will be coming for you.”
Mal slammed his Karambit down into his other knee, then raising it and slamming it into his abdomen and slamming it through his intestines. Mal grabs a keycard on the Man’s dead friend
“Enjoy your death,” Mal said as he threw him into the pit, “I am sure you will have some company soon.”
Mal pulled the lever on the truck as the bodies were pushed out of the truck and fell on top of the Truck driver. Entombing him where he would die. Stopping himself before he left, Mal took a deep breath, calming himself and then opening his eyes.
Goosfraba. Goosfraba. Mal said.
Oh come on! We were having fun! The Wolf exclaimed.
Without the other guy, it’s impossible for me to control you. Mal retorted.
Mal jogged to the edge forest, where he saw Tye and Jace sitting.
“We got the right place,” Mal said, “We need to be careful, with them chasing Jack down the border there should just be a skeleton crew. Jace I want you here overlooking the entire facility, Tye you are going to have to play it safe and just hold the exit, it seems that they are taking anyone who is of color and putting them in an internment camp. By myself I can get in there easier.”
“I don’t like this Mal,” Tye said, “once you are in there, if you get caught. It would be hard for you to get out.”
Mal put his pack and parachute down, rifling through his backpack before handing a set of rounds to Jace.
“Mark 8s?” Jace asked.
“Yep,” Mal said, “if you don’t mind I will keep the detonator. Hit some targets on the far side of the base please, that way I can run out the other way when they all run to the defend the other side.”
Mark 8 sniper rifle rounds didn’t actually penetrate much of anything. They are explosives that collapse onto a solid surface or penetrate a less dense surface, the explosive gel attached to a detonator inside would allow it to be remotely detonated.
“Tye, your job is to stay on the outside and take out anyone in the way of the exit zone,” Mal said.
Tye shook his head but understood that this was the only way they could possibly be successful. It was time to go to work.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Leviathan
Mal hated being quiet, especially in times like this because being quiet meant him having to control himself and after being the other guy, it was hard. The other guy was the Monster inside of him. The Wolf was the thing that made Mal believe he was bad for humanity, made him wonder why he got so many medals. Why he was lauded as a hero. Any person who came into contact with him? Pain was all they would get because that’s all he could give them. His son? Pain. His wife? Death. The hero he locked inside of himself was the man of action, the guy who tamed the beast to use him for good reasons. He wasn’t quite sure if they were real but he was sure that when the Monster came out, he was much more dangerous. All of those inhibitions that stopped Mal from shooting kids? Gone. Stretching his neck to either side, Mal breathed in and out.
“I am going in,” Mal said, “I have the clicker for all non-voice communications.”
Mal pulled out his liquid nitrogen spray canister and sprayed a semi-circle creating a little door for him to get onto this base.
“Good luck,” Tye said as he laid down into the grass.
Mal nodded and slipped into the darkness of the base, they had red lens over the lights on the base to probably hide it’s presence to any air units. Probably fearing that another Osprey may fly over and drop bombs on the place. Little did they know they are allowing someone to infiltrate their base because of their defenses. This was an unintentional symptom of Mal’s strategic plan but one he would take full advantage of. Mal slipped next to the building that the truck driver had pointed out to him. It was three stories tall but at night, one would think it would probably be close to empty. Mal reached to grab his suppressed pistol, he had left his XM-24 rifle with his pack, knowing if he got caught there weren’t enough bullets in his gun to shoot his way out of the problem. Mal pulled out the snake wire cam and stuck it up by the window in the door to see if it was being watched. Mal saw nothing in any of the doors but darkness.
“Entering,” Mal quietly said as he put the passengers keycard into the door and opened it.
Mal swung into the door with his pistol out front and was met by no one. Mal chuckled to himself a little bit. The audacity to even think that you can get away with an unguarded entry point to their super secret facility, is hilarious. Mal could understand why they would think that though, ther
e was a wall to stop most possible intruders and to their knowledge, any opponents were heading east along the wall. Mal stood up and walked inside to a computer set up along the wall that oversees a room that looks like a shower set up. Mal sits down at the computer as it asks for a password.
“I am guessing you are listening in, Wallis?” Mal asked out loud.
Wallis sighed.
“Yes, I am,” she said, “plug in the USB drive and I will do my magic.”
Mal looked down into the computer tower for a USB port, pawing around before grabbing a pen light and putting it in his mouth.
“You are in,” Mal said before swinging around and pointing his pistol at the door.
“Oh my god, this is actually a pretty decent security system,” Wallis said, “I am kind of impressed but, it’s just a mild impression.”
“Welcome, Doctor Leonard,” A voice exclaimed from the computer.
Mal searched the area.
“Anyone coming in this direction, Jace?” Mal asked into the radio.
“Nope,” Jace retorted, “I have those points pegged for exfil by the way.”
“Check Rog,” Mal said before turning back to the computer.
“What do we have Wallis?” Mal asked.
“You may want to check this out,” She said.
Mal looked at the computer screen as it buzzed to life, security footage of this very room.
“When is this footage from?” Mal asked.
“Time stamped the day before they made their swim into Mount Vernon, Mal.”
Mal watched as three women of varying ethnicities and a young autistic child were brought into the room and chained to the floor. Two men joined them in the room, they weren’t there by their own violation. They were pushed in, they were Reds.
“Start ripping this whole hard drive and the cloud it’s attached to onto the hard drive of this computer, Wallis,” Mal said, “I am sure we are looking at a couple hundred terrabytes of data and I am sure you can’t fit that all on your USB drive.”
“Actually it’s a petabyte,” she said, “luckily I am going to send a good portion of this into our own cloud via the satellite we are still able to use.”
“Be careful,” Mal said, “We don’t know what they are capable of, scrub all of it before we take into our systems for malware or ransomware.”
Wallis chuckled.
“I am impressed,” Wallis said, “I thought you were just a jock. I didn’t realize you were aware of these type of things.”
Mal didn’t respond, he was too busy staring at the screen. A purple, blue and green cloud infiltrated the room as the three chained subjects began to grow lesions, blisters and scabs on their bodies and bile came out of their mouthes as they fell to the ground.
“Oh, My. God.” Mal exclaimed as he heard the click of a door behind him.
Mal fell out of his seat to see the doctor in the doorway.
“Don’t shoot,” The doctor said.
Mal waived him over, waiting for the man to close the door behind him.
“Doctor Leonard I presume?” Mal asked.
“Yes, are you the team who was supposed to come here and save me?”
Mal turned his head to Leonard.
“Who sent me?”
“Commander Higdon?”
Kevin was an old friend of Mal and Tim’s who they served with and he was in charge of the forces over in Lexington.
“No, I am from BANS,” Mal said, “I don’t care about that though, I care about the fact that you created this weapon.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Leonard said as he collapsed into a chair, “they threatened to kill my daughter unless I helped them. David said if I made the weapon he wouldn’t harm her or my wife.”
“How does it work?”
“It targets genetic markers that they deemed,” Leonard said, “Like melanin or genetic markers for diseases and disorder. For you or me it would pass over harmlessly more than likely.”
Leonard seemed upset and that was when Mal saw the end of the footage as Doctor Leonard held the girl with Autism and one of the women in his arms, crying. Mal sighed.
“Sorry for your loss,” Mal said, “I am going to need you to tell me if David is back on this side or not though?”
“I haven’t seen him since that day,” Leonard said, “I would have killed him if he showed his face. I wish I could find that kid’s family and murder every single one of them.”
“That’s my kid,” Mal said, “not proud of it but that’s my kid.”
Mal touched his radio.
“Complicated exfil,” Mal said, “We have a doctor here who says he has information on this…”
Mal reached out to the man for a name of this weapon.
“Leviathan, it’s named Leviathan.”
“Leviathan, it’s a chemical weapon of some sort that targets genetic markers that they don’t seem to like.”
Tim piped onto the line.
“Say what?”
“It will wipe out every disabled, person of color within it’s strike Radius,” Mal said.
“There’s one weakness here,” Leonard said, “The gas is flammable. Hypothetically, you could explode their reserves, if you give me the explosives to do it.”
Mal realized that this man had never asked to get out of here, he was asking for a good way to die. Mal reached down into his pocket and pulled out a bar of C-4, he grabbed the detonation chord and stabbed the detonator into the block of the plastic explosives. Stopping himself from throwing the C-4 to the man, something that would sign his fate.
“You want to die here?” Mal asked.
Mal already knew the answer to this question but he had to ask anyways.
“I want to hurt them,” Leonard said with anger piercing his voice, “I am sure a few of them here will be affected by this. I want them hurt and if the explosion kills a few of them and then I am okay with that.”
Mal handed the IED to Doctor Leonard.
“Give us five minutes,” Mal said, “I will get out of here. Is there anything we can do to help?”
“It would be helpful if you got everyone over to the other side of the base,” Leonard said, “I don’t know how you could do that but it would help.”
Mal grabbed a snub-nosed revolver from his ankle holster and handed it to Leonard.
“Just in case,” Mal said.
Leonard turned the corner to a doorway and stopped halfway in the frame.
“This won’t stop their attack,” Leonard said, “they took the concentrate after the successful test. They will try to cause havoc before hand, I heard their plans, they want to get as many people in the concentrated areas as possible. They will start by attacking the innocent, a hospital maybe but once it starts you won’t be able to defend yourself. It will be too late.”
Mal nodded his head.
“Your son, he can’t be saved,” Leonard said as he shut the door.
Mal sat down as he heard that, still believing that it could be possible but, the odds dropped with every second.
“Mal, what are we doing?” Jace asked over the radio.
“I am going in,” Tye said.
Mal sat there paralyzed by the reality of this situation.
“Don’t, I am on my way out,” Mal said as he slipped out the door without checking.
Mal came face to face with a guard as he drew his weapon as a bullet went through his brain. Mal pulled his detonator out of his pocket and blew the explosives on the other side of the base.
“Maybe pay some attention Jackass!” Jace said.
“Ticking clock, we have to be at our packs in four minutes,” Mal said as he ducked under the wire and grabbed Tye as they sprinted through the forest towards their packs.
Mal turned on his jets and started sprinting.
“Why are you in such a hurry?” Tye asked.
“If they made as much of that Leviathan stuff as I suspect,” Mal said, “It could be similar to a bunker buster going off.”
Mal broke through the tree line and had a quick thought. He pulled his digital camera out of his pocket and took three photos of the bodies dumped. Mal ran over to his back and slipped into his pack, he was tightening the straps when he felt the explosion. Explosions of this size, you can feel before you hear them. The ground shook as Tye and Jace put on their Fulton Recovery Device shooting into the sky. Mal looked to his right as a Fireball raises where the base used to be, he pulled the Fulton Recovery device button as he shot into the sky like he had rockets on his feet.
Mal was careful to check his altimeter, if he got too high into the sky, who knows where the wind would take him. As he kept raising into the sky, Mal shot past the wall and saw that the Evansville BANS units had set up a protection unit on the opposite side of the wall. He did the mental calculus of how high he would need to be before he could deactivate the recovery device. The wind began to push him over the wall the higher he got, once he saw that he could clearly make it to the other side of the river, he pressed the collapse button for the delivery device as the balloon deflates into small piece of Latex.
Mal knew that he had to get under the scope of whomever was on their watch towers right now before he could deploy his parachute, he placed his altimeter in front of him in a dive as he saw the numbers drop. At 400 feet on the altimeter there is a red mark, notating that this was the point that his chute had to be deployed. The wall being 500 feet high, he had about a hundred feet to play with there.
700.
650.
600.
550.
500.
450.
Mal pulled his chute and felt the parachute rip him straight up as he angled across the river into Ellis park. It was an old Horse racing venue that was pretty much abandoned at this point, though technically still part of what used to be Kentucky, they used the river as the border definition between BANS and Reds in this area. Mal used his technique of landing that he was taught in jump school to curl onto his side to protect his knees. Ground greeted Mal like a large, angry man that he owed money too.
“Fuck!” Mal exclaimed as he finally came to stop.
A jeep ran up on Mal and he saw a medic get out of the truck and start running towards him. Mal unhooked his parachute rig and rolled out of it, pulling on his parachute to gather it up, making sure it wouldn’t fly away with the wind.
Monsters Page 14