by Alex Siegel
"Come on," Mia said. "We're already late."
Stony nodded, and the two of them trotted over to a waiting shuttlebus. They boarded without delay.
Robertson was standing at the front of the bus. He checked his watch and said angrily, "Five minutes behind schedule."
Stony just sat on the first available seat without comment. It wasn't like the plane would leave without him.
Mia sat across the aisle from him. Their equipment prevented them from sitting side-by-side. Kane and Ace were already on the bus, and they had the dull expressions of men who had ridden this ride many times before.
All four members of the assault team were dressed for war. Combat helmets and black body armor covered everything but their faces. Lighter gear was already hooked into carrying harnesses, belts, or holsters. They held onto the duffle bags with the big guns inside.
A PEA agent was driving the bus. He started the engine and pulled away.
Robertson remained standing and held onto an overhead strap. "Six field teams will be in position by the time you get to Houston," he said. "They'll lock down the perimeter and prevent any traffic from getting in or out. If you need backup, thirty armed agents can be at the house in under three minutes."
Stony nodded. The mission sounded pretty typical so far. His assault team would enter first, make the initial threat assessment, and neutralize any hostiles. Once the house was deemed safe for ordinary humans, the field teams would take over.
"What about the cleanup crew?" Mia said.
Robertson turned to her. "The nearest crew was in New Orleans. They're still on the road, but they should be ready to go in time."
Stony hoped that was the case. Missions could get messy and loud. The PEA had special crews who made the bloody evidence go away afterwards and kept the story out of the public media. Regardless, it wasn't his problem. His assignment was simply to capture Orcus, or if that was impossible, kill him.
The shuttle bus reached the end of its short trip and stopped. Everybody climbed out. They had arrived at a different part of Schonenberg Air Force Base.
A modified Boeing 727 was parked at the end of a runway. The airplane was painted white and had no markings except for the standard identification number. Upgraded jet engines allowed for takeoffs from short runways. Boarding stairs stood beneath the open hatch, and the engines were already spinning.
"Get moving!" Robertson barked.
Stony, Mia, Ace, and Kane jogged towards the airplane with duffle bags in hand.
* * *
Stony looked out a window at the ground thousands of feet below. Night had fallen, and darkness had swallowed the world, but he saw streetlights. The aircraft was approaching Houston.
He stood up and stretched his back until he heard it pop. Showtime, he thought.
The cabin had fifty comfortable leather seats which could swivel and lay flat. Only three other seats were occupied though. Employing such a big jet for such a small team seemed wasteful, but they had needed a fast aircraft that allowed skydiving, and the list of options was very short.
Mia had her nose in a paperback novel. She liked to read cheap thrillers before a mission. Her current book was a piece of fluff called First Circle Club.
"Get up," Stony said.
"In a sec." She tapped the page of her book. "I'm almost at the end of a chapter."
The engine pitch became deeper and quieter. At the same time, the nose of the aircraft dipped down. The pilots would approach the drop point as slowly and quietly as possible, as if they were sneaking up to it.
"You hear that? You don't have time for the rest of the chapter."
Mia sighed and put her book in her duffle bag. She stood up.
Stony walked down the aisle to check on his other two teammates. Ace was playing a handheld video game. Sweat was dripping from his forehead and his thumbs were a blur of motion. Excitement had turned his face pink. A big cup of coffee was on the tray for the next seat.
As soon as he saw Stony approaching, Ace hopped to his feet. "I'm ready! Let's do this!"
A snoring sound made Stony look at Kane.
Kane was a big man with a massively muscular chest. Spanish heritage had given him skin the color of a caffè latte. His shaved scalp gleamed in the cabin lights, and his mouth hung open as he slept. Big ears stuck out the sides of his head.
Stony walked over and caught a whiff of something that stunk like rotten meat. It was Kane's natural scent. He had the ability to cause decay in organic materials such as wood and flesh. He merely had to touch something to make it rot. He could turn a fresh apple into a sticky, brown puddle in seconds when he wanted to. His control over his power was spotty. If he ate with his bare hands, he had to do so quickly. He wore gloves during sex just to be safe.
"Hey!" Stony kicked Kane's boot. "Wake up! We're here."
Kane stirred, and his eyes cracked open. "Already?"
"We've been in the air for three hours."
Kane clenched his jaw and stood up.
The team made their way to the tail of the aircraft. They entered a chamber with a pressure door and an airtight hatch in the floor. Parachutes hung on hooks. The team put down their duffle bags and began their final preparations for the mission.
Stony strapped on his big guns and made sure the bindings were tight. He didn't want anything bouncing around or flying off while in freefall. Smaller items such as spare magazines went into a belly pack. He put on his parachute next, and managing yet another set of straps took patience. A lot of stuff was hanging off his body, and all of it had to be secured. The final item was a clear facemask which clipped onto his helmet. His hot breath threatened to fog the mask.
"How do I look?" Mia said.
Stony checked his girlfriend with an expert eye. The snug body armor showed off the curves in her legs and butt. He fought the urge to give her a friendly pat on the ass and tugged on her straps instead.
"You're ready to go," he said.
Mia also checked him. Kane and Ace checked each other. Dark stains indicated Ace had managed to sweat through his body armor.
A light on the wall switched from red to yellow.
"Thirty seconds," Stony said. "See you guys at the rally point."
He couldn't kiss Mia with the facemasks on, so he blew her a kiss instead. Then he squatted down and yanked open the hatch in the floor. A sudden change in air pressure made his ears pop. A blast of air hit his chest, and a roaring sound filled his ears. He looked into the hole and saw a narrow, steel staircase leading down.
The light turned green.
He ran down the stairs and leapt into dark, empty space. He curled his body into a tight ball just as he hit the fast-moving airstream behind the plane. It felt like a giant tennis racket smacked him across the night sky.
He tumbled for a few seconds before finally settling down to a straight descent. He arched his back and stabilized his fall. His body armor was too warm, or maybe he was too excited.
The streetlights of Houston stretched from horizon to horizon. The major highways were obvious, but he didn't know the city well enough to name them.
He had a navigation system on his wrist, and he carefully brought it to his eyes without upsetting his orientation. The bright display showed his position and altitude laid on top of a map. A red dot marked his target coordinates. He was a couple of miles south of where he needed to be. He turned his body until he was drifting in the right direction.
He twisted his neck to see if he could spot his teammates, but he saw nothing in the sky. They were wearing black, so that wasn't a surprise. The airplane had turned off its lights, so it was also invisible. Orcus would have no warning that trouble was on the way.
Stony faced down again. He was getting low enough to make out individual homes, and he saw that Orcus lived in a nice area. Big homes stood on big lots with big trees. The roads curved rather than forming a boring grid. A band of dense foliage ran along the east side of the neighborhood.
Stony pulled his c
hute at three thousand feet, high enough to give him plenty of time to fly to the target. Once he had his canopy under control, he aimed towards the red dot on his wrist map. Houses scrolled beneath his feet at a rapid clip.
He spotted a police roadblock at an intersection. Eight uniformed officers with their hands on their guns stood in front of two squad cars. Stony didn't believe they were real cops. The PEA liked to disguise themselves as police because federal agents attracted the wrong kind of attention. All agency operations were secret.
Stony turned on a radio integrated into his helmet. "Hey, boys. I'm right above you."
The "cops" looked into the sky.
"Who is that?" a male voice answered through the radio.
"Stony."
After a pause, the voice said in a quavering tone, "Good evening, sir. The area is secure. Just call if you need us."
"Will do," Stony said. "Is the cleanup crew ready?"
"Yes, sir. Everything is set. Good luck."
Stony looked for a good spot to hit the ground. He focused on a front yard with poor lighting and no lights inside the house. He swooped down and made a perfect landing in the center of the yard.
He immediately stripped off his parachute, rolled it up, and stuffed it under a bush. Then he ducked into the shadow of a tree and checked for witnesses. He saw no movement. The only sound was buzzing insects.
He checked his navigation pad. The target was one block to the north.
Stony jogged in that direction, staying in the shadows as much as possible. He avoided backyards where dogs might be waiting. The animals couldn't puncture his skin, but they would make a lot of noise. Stealth was essential.
According to the map on his wrist, Orcus lived in a house on the extreme edge of the neighborhood. His backyard bordered on a big chunk of undeveloped land. A perfect place to bury the bodies of children, Stony thought.
He finally came within sight of the house and recognized it from the picture in the conference room. Shades, curtains, and shutters blocked all the windows, but lights were on inside. Somebody was home.
He slowed down and moved even more cautiously. The rubber soles of his boots didn't make the slightest noise. A detached, two-car garage stood beside the house. He headed towards the side of the garage, where a jumble of garbage cans provided a little visual camouflage. He crept forward and slipped into a dark space between two cans. The nauseating stench reminded him of fresh manure.
Stony didn't see or hear any of his teammates, but he wasn't worried. They would come. He waited patiently and listened to the buzz of insects.
Mia was the next to arrive, and she crept past without seeing him. He wanted to jump out and grab her from behind as a joke, but he realized that was a very stupid idea. She had a shotgun in her hands, and the safety was off.
"Hey," he hissed softly.
She spun and faced him. "Nice hiding spot," she whispered as she crouched next to him. "Stinky though. Does Orcus put shit in his garbage?"
Kane and Ace arrived a moment later.
"Any trouble?" Stony said.
The two men shook their heads.
"Then let's do this. Follow me." Stony led his small team out from behind the garage.
They circled the house first and looked for signs of security. The backyard had plenty of trees and helpful patches of darkness, so Stony started in that direction. The constant drone of chirping insects meant he didn't have to be perfectly quiet.
The home needed some minor repairs. Green paint had peeled off the wooden siding in spots, revealing sun-bleached wood. A brick chimney on the side had cracked and settled. A green shutter hung at an odd angle, and a gutter had broken off completely. Kudzu vines had swallowed an entire wall.
Stony heard the sound of an animal snorting. Curious and concerned, he spotted four horses tied to a fence in the backyard. The big animals appeared healthy and recently groomed, certainly in better condition than the house.
"Horses?" Stony whispered to his team.
Mia shrugged. "Satanists do crazy things. Maybe the horses are part of their rituals."
He frowned. That theory didn't sound likely.
The four of them continued their slow, cautious inspection of the exterior of the house. Stony didn't see any signs of security such as burglar bars, sensor tape, motion detectors, cameras, or lights. The place seemed completely vulnerable to attack.
That observation didn't make him more confident though. Orcus probably had a nasty trick or two for dealing with intruders.
The team stopped short of going all the way around. The open front yard would expose them too much. They huddled near a wall of the house.
"Kane," Stony whispered. "We'll enter here. Do your thing."
Chapter Two
Kane put his bare hands against the wooden wall. Within seconds, Stony heard the soft sounds of wood creaking and crumbling.
Stony prepared himself for battle. He hardened his skin over critical areas such as his chest, abdomen, and head. He couldn't protect himself completely everywhere because that would make him as rigid as a statue. His joints at least needed to remain somewhat flexible.
He also readied his shotgun, which was loaded with buckshot shells. He had five in the magazine and one in the chamber.
Green smoke was seeping from Mia's nostrils, and he made sure to stay upwind of her. She could exhale noxious gas which had the same effects as tear gas. She could blind an enemy and incapacitate him with a coughing fit. In strong enough doses, the gas was lethal.
Ace was shifting from foot to foot like a child who had eaten too much candy. He held a pair of Heckler & Koch HK45 pistols with suppressors, one in each hand. The weapons were semiautomatic, but in his hands, they were as fast as machine guns and as accurate as rifles. Stony had seen Ace clear entire rooms full of enemies with those guns.
Kane finished destroying the wall. Rotten chunks of wood fell away to create an opening big enough to crawl through. Stony looked through the hole first.
An awful stench hit him square in the nose. It was like having his face buried in fresh dog shit. Hundreds of animal cages were clearly the source of the odor. They were stacked on top of each other, covering the walls of a living room. Hamsters, gerbils, lizards, rats, turtles, snakes, tarantulas, and many other kinds of small animals occupied the cages. The movements of the small bodies produced a constant rustling noise.
The living room was otherwise rather ordinary. A vinyl couch and a recliner stood in front of a television.
"Orcus likes animals," Stony muttered.
"Maybe he's feeding the kidnapped kids to them," Mia said.
He grimaced. She wasn't joking.
He didn't see any obvious threats, so he crept through the hole in the wall. Despite his best efforts to move silently, his presence caused the animals to chirp, chitter, and run around in their cages. Shut up! he thought.
Mia, Ace, and Kane followed Stony into the house, and they stayed close together. They would work as a single unit for the entire operation. Splitting up unnecessarily was a good way to get somebody killed.
Stony had the best natural defenses and the most experience, so he led the way. Mia and Kane were the most vulnerable and stayed in the middle of the group. Ace brought up the rear with his guns ready. He was almost impossible to catch off-guard.
Stony snuck into the next room. Then he froze in horror.
A naked boy was hanging from the ceiling upside-down. Meat hooks driven through his small feet were holding him. He was dead, but scores of cuts, bruises, and burns indicated he had suffered terribly before dying. Both arms had compound fractures. The eventual cause of death was clearly disembowelment. A sharp implement had sliced open the boy's belly, allowing guts and blood to pour into a plastic kiddie pool on the floor.
Four pit bulls were in the pool, eating noisily. Blood covered their stubby noses and square heads.
Stony forced himself to settle down and make an unbiased assessment of the situation. The boy was nine or ten-y
ears-old. None of the wounds had clotted, so they were all fresh. Orcus probably hadn't held the boy for long.
This type of human sacrifice suggested Orcus had made a deal with a demon. Demons often demanded blood in exchange for services. The more innocent the victim and the crueler the death, the greater the reward.
Stony slowly drew a pistol from his holster, intending to kill the dogs. The gun had a suppressor which would make the gunshots quiet enough to avoid alerting anybody else in the house.
He was too slow. The dogs spotted the intruders and attacked. They growled and barked as they dashed forward, their paws leaving bloody prints on the floor.
Ace picked off three dogs with his guns. The shots were so quick, they almost sounded like one long blast. The bullets struck the animals in the forehead.
The fourth dog reached Stony, but he just held out his arm and let the animal bite it. His body armor and stone skin prevented any injury. The dog growled fiercely as it clamped down with all its strength. Stony balled his fist and clubbed the dog on the back of its neck, breaking its spine. The dog whimpered once, and then it fell to the ground, twitching.
He looked and listened for more threats. Ace had suppressors on his guns, but the shots had still made some noise. The barking dogs had certainly been heard throughout the house. The mission was already off to a bad start.
"Move fast!" Stony hissed to his teammates.
He ran into the next room. More animal cages were stacked against the walls of a dining room. Some monkeys chittered loudly when they saw they had company. Stony thought they were marmosets, but he wasn't sure.
One of the cages held a little girl. She stared at Stony with terror in her eyes, too afraid to even ask for help. He curled his lip when he saw that she was sitting in her own feces. At least she didn't appear to have any injuries.
He decided not to let her out. She was safer in the cage until the operation was done. There could be plenty more killing, and the last thing he needed was a frightened child getting in the way.
Stony caught Mia staring at the girl with an expression of rage. Mia knew exactly what it felt like to be trapped in a waking nightmare at the mercy of an evil man.