Back at the compound, Kelly and Heidi walked into the main meeting hall. When they saw everyone sitting at the table, silently, they became concerned. The atmosphere had changed and not for the better.
“You called for us, Jesus?” Kelly asked.
Jesus looked up at the two women and nodded. He had his hands folded. The others either mimicked him or refused to look at the newcomers. Something was definitely wrong.
“Heidi, I must apologize,” Jesus finally said. “But, we must hold off on your indoctrination into the group.”
Heidi’s eyes grew wide with surprise.
“I don’t understand, sir,” Kelly said. “I thought she had passed the initial checks.”
“Something’s come up,” Wesley interjected. “And it’s very serious.”
Kelly looked at Heidi. They both had fear in their eyes.
“It goes against everything I’ve worked for over the last ten years,” Jesus said, slowly, while glancing at Dolores, who looked away. “But, I feel I must do it for the safety of the group.”
Heidi shivered. Did they not trust her? Were they going to send her away?
“This operation is over,” Jesus said, in a heavy voice. “We’re pulling out.”
Chapter 9
Marcus was in no mood to make any changes to his computer files. Normally, he would be modifying the various contingency plans he created for attacking vampires such as Lin Tang and Louis Riordan. Now, he felt so disgusted at the recent turn of events he couldn’t even turn on the computer. He just sat in his room, brooding in the dark.
“Penique pues tus pensamientos, amigo.”
Marcus looked up to see Angelica standing in the doorway. Smiling weakly, he motioned for her to come in. She found her way to one of his spare office chairs and plopped herself into it.
“Penny for my thoughts, eh?” he mused. “Well, I think you’ll need a boatload of pennies. This is absolutely the wrong decision. We shouldn’t run.”
“Jesus had his reasons, Marcus,” Angelica shot back. “He’s got to worry about the entire operation. We weren’t looking so good trying to take down Riordan – but, now, add another fifteen clan masters in town, most likely with their most trusted lieutenants and security staff. Our task is virtually impossible. We’d be vastly outnumbered by them alone.”
Angelica had a point, but Marcus had not survived as a mercenary by running from fights. The whole nature of his profession was to take on superior enemy forces. Mercs countered such enemies by using extensive experience and superior tactics. More than once, a platoon of highly-trained mercenaries, together with one or two helicopters, had routed entire Third World armies.
Marcus had never run from a fight. Once, when he and two others had found themselves surrounded by Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwean army, outnumbered one hundred to one, he had fought on. After killing sixty Zimbabweans, he and the others had escaped the trap, having put fear into their lesser-trained foes. His reputation had soared after that, and, to this day, he still had a high price on his head from Mugabe’s ilk. Of course, he’d always joked, the price was in Zimbabwean currency, which wasn’t worth enough to cover the bullets necessary to kill him.
“So, we wait for the clan masters to leave, is that it?” he asked. “What do you think?”
“You don’t want to know what I think, Marcus.”
“Yes, Angelica, I do,” he said.
Angelica took a deep breath and thought about her words. This wasn’t one of her bodybuilding contests. It wasn’t even one of her bodyguard assignments. It was a virtual life-or-death decision.
“I think Jesus and Dolores are right,” she finally said. “There will be other fights against Riordan. He’s not going to pack up and leave Fort Worth to the clan masters. I say we wait until this little get-together is over and then come back.”
Marcus was disappointed. He really thought he knew Angelica. He could never imagine her backing down from any fight. He got up and moved to the back of the room so she wouldn’t see the look on his face.
“Oh, my God, Marcus,” she exclaimed. “Don’t tell me you want us to try to take on that many clan masters? I can see it with Cantrell, but you?”
Marcus moved over to a desk. Callously, he began tossing odds and ends into a small box. Behind him, Angelica folded her arms and fussed.
“You can’t make me go away with that distraction, Marcus,” she snorted. “You’re a mercenary. You live very Spartan. A few minutes from now, you’ll be packed and have nothing else to do but talk to me.”
Marcus sighed and turned.
“Okay, hear me out on this,” Angelica said, pushing herself to her feet. “Be the rational mercenary I’ve grown to care about. You said that, on paper, we should be as organized as the clans. And then you emphasized on paper. In reality, we’re paper tigers. You know Jesus and Dolores recruited most of us over the past three years. We don’t have the cohesion to take on such a large task. Maybe, at one time, we did, but not now and you know perfectly well why.”
Marcus did know. It was the untimely deaths of sixty members of the now-defunct Moonrise, Inc. in a cataclysmic explosion in California three years earlier. The effects of that disaster were still being felt.
The mercenary knew just one and possibly two percent of the world’s population was actively aware that vampires existed. Discounting victims, most of those in the know were familiars or corrupt people on the take from vampires. The rest were hunters, outnumbered ten to one, sometimes worse depending on the geography.
By nature, hunters tended to be loners, pariahs in a civilized world. They rarely came together, but when they did, it was often for some huge mission. So, losing sixty in one event was devastating. A huge chunk of the most experienced hunters were suddenly gone.
From what Marcus had learned of the Hunters, at one time, the group had almost thirty-five members, second in size only to Moonrise. After the latter’s demise, all but one person – Manuel Acevedo – left the group. Some got cold feet. Others figured it was safer to hunt alone or in pairs, so that any losses would be smaller.
“I wish Ryker would hurry up and get back,” Marcus blurted, shifting to find a more comfortable stance.
“If that’s your ace in the hole, amigo, we definitely have to get out of town,” Angelica retorted. “Ryker will never convince Jesus to stay, if only because of the bad precedent it would set by having Jesus agree with Cantrell on anything.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Marcus said, with a heavy sigh. “It just galls me to run like this. I didn’t run from Gaddafi or Mugabe or Gbagbo or the Junta in Myanmar. But, I have to run from a scumbag like Riordan.”
“Look on the bright side,” Angelica said, as she got to her feet and moved toward the doorway. “It will take the rest of us a few days to get packed and moving. Who knows what might happen in that time?”
Michael Lee couldn’t type anymore than Marcus could design another tactical plan at that moment. Now that the mission was being abandoned, he had the staggering task of packing up the compound’s computers for storage. That meant sanitizing them of sensitive information, like personnel identification, with special computer programs.
What bothered him is that he normally sanitized the computers when the group either finished a successful operation or moved onto another one. Doing so now, only reminded him that they were running away from a mission.
He walked into the underground compound’s surveillance control room. He knew he could not sanitize these computers because of the security issue. He was just here to talk.
“You can’t be starting here with the sanitizing?” Garvey asked, looking up in surprise at Lee’s entrance.
Jessie, who had been leaning back in her chair playing solitaire on one of the room’s computers, glanced at Michael and then returned to her game.
“He’s not, bumpkin,” she replied, with a yawn.
“Just came here to talk,” Lee said, grabbing the only empty chair. “Everybody else is busy. Jesus and D
olores. Kelly is helping Heidi, and Marcus and Angelica are having a long discussion.”
Jessie suddenly sat up.
“Where’s Ian?” she asked. “With Dr. Patel or Elvis?”
“Naw,” Lee answered. “Elvis is trying to convince the doc to pack up. I think Ian is bailing.”
“Shit,” Jessie spat.
She jumped to her feet, rudely pushed past Lee’s chair and stormed out of the room. Lee stared after her and gave Garvey a questioning look. The former Marine just shrugged.
“Don’t ask,” Garvey said, simply. “Now, what do you want to talk about?”
“But, you can’t stay here, Patel.”
Patel let his shoulders sag as he took a deep breath. He’d been listening to Wesley’s reasons for packing up and leaving ever since Dolores and Jesus had made the decision. He sought what he thought would be the peaceful security of his lab, but Wesley had invaded the sanctity of it anyway.
“Surely, you realize the breakthrough we have just made,” he said. “The serum has been proven to work. It now needs to be tweaked so that it can serve as a vaccination for all of us. If we pack up and move now, that momentum is lost. Jostling the equipment might throw off the calibration and affect the results. No, I simply cannot move now. Please impart that information to Jesus.”
Wesley leaned back against a bench and scrunched his eyebrows. He wondered if the dull ache in his head was the beginning of a migraine. He’d never met so many stubborn people in one organization as this one – and he’d been a Marine drill instructor.
“Okay, Doc,” he conceded. “Let me see what I can come up with. I still have a few connections in town. Maybe not as many as Marcus or Angelica but I might know someone at PJS who can help.”
At that, Patel’s ears perked up. Turning from his microscope, he looked at the former Marine with newfound interest. Peter Jaysmith was the main public hospital in Tarrant County and one of the top medical facilities in not just Texas, but the entire Southwest. It was also famous as both a teaching hospital and a research facility for the area’s college medical programs.
“Well, Staff Sergeant, I might actually be persuaded to begin packing,” he said, with a smile.
“Finally, a ray of sunshine in an otherwise dreary day,” Wesley quipped as he stood tall.
“By the way, has anyone informed Cantrell?” Patel asked.
“Thanks for raining on my parade, Doc,” Wesley groaned.
“I’m confused.”
“Join the club,” Kelly said, as she flicked a stray tress of black hair out of her eyes.
She and Heidi had retreated to the compound’s cafeteria, which actually consisted of a few tables and chairs, two microwave ovens and a small refrigerator. Kelly had very few items to pack and Heidi, of course, had none.
“Let’s see,” Heidi said, holding up fingers to count. “In the course of a few days, I’ve been on the worst blind date ever, gotten attacked by a vampire, watched Ryker cut a guy’s head off, became a vampire, got cured by a mad scientist, got recruited into a secret society, and, just when I was finally pumped enough to start kicking vampire ass, found out my new leaders are wimps.”
Kelly sympathized with Heidi Nguyen. She had signed on with the group in hopes of taking down Lin Tang. Now, it seemed that chance would pass. Oh, sure, she knew Jesus and Dolores had promised to return once the clan masters left, but Kelly wasn’t stupid. Something big had to be occurring for so many clan leaders in one spot. She doubted things would go back to the way they had been; certainly not enough for the Hunters to slip back into town and set up shop with nary a notice from the powers-that-be.
“Not wimps,” Kelly retorted, though she didn’t sound sure of her own words. “Over-reactive maybe, but not wimps. You don’t know the hell they’ve been through or the hell they’ve dished out. If anything, with most of us having joined piecemeal over the past couple of years, they might have felt we didn’t have the organization to take on such a big threat.”
Heidi sighed. Maybe she was overreacting herself, but, at least, she had a good excuse. She’d had not one but two life-altering moments in the past couple of days. She was angry, first at herself but, mostly, at a scourge she had no idea existed a few days ago. She needed something to vent her rage on and now she was being asked to put that rage on hold for God only knew how long.
“Look at it like this, Heidi,” Kelly said, placing a hand gently on one of her new friend’s shoulders. “We’ll have more time to see those fantastic moves you keep telling us about. Akira jitsu.”
“That’s aki-jitsu,” Heidi corrected.
She smiled weakly, gave in and started laughing.
Jesus knew he’d find his wife here. She did not turn at the sound of his footsteps, as he approached the holding chamber that had once caged Heidi Nguyen. Even when he put his arms around her shoulders and gave her a reassuring kiss on the left cheek, she did not respond. Taking the hint, he stepped back and gave her some space.
“I thought we both agreed that it was necessary?” he asked, looking frustrated.
“We were on top of the world, weren’t we?” Dolores murmured. “We cured Heidi and it looked like we finally found an edge in our long war. Now, it all might have been for nothing.”
“It’s just for a short time,” Jesus said.
“Don’t lie to me,” Dolores shot back, turning to look at him with tear-stained cheeks. “I know you – you’ve never run before. And make no mistake, Jesus, we are running. Not laying low for a few days, but running away.”
“He who fights and runs away…” Jesus wisely let the idiom peter off.
Throwing up his hands in frustration, he began pacing back and forth. It was true that he was in a very unfamiliar position. For ten years, he and Dolores had fought the good fight. They had always taken that fight to the enemy and refused to let the enemy intimidate them.
Except now.
“Why is now any different?” Dolores asked, as if she’d read her husband’s mind.
“Well, you have to admit the sixteen clan masters have a lot to do with it,” Jesus replied, trying to remain cool and collected. “Surely, you can’t expect us to take on that many masters. We need more training. Marcus and Elvis are working on it, but we need a lot more time.”
Dolores turned away.
“We knew that when we started this whole thing,” she said, slowly. “It’s why I pressed you to allow Cantrell in. We knew Riordan was up to something big, just not this big. We agreed he had to be taken down but the whole operation has been a foul-up from the start. What the hell were we thinking?”
Jesus held his tongue. What could he say, really? He had been as gung-ho as his wife putting this operation in motion. Riordan had to be stopped before he realized whatever plan he was working on. Only, Jesus had thought their foe was trying to expand his territory to include most of Texas. He certainly could not have contemplated the man bringing in fifteen clan masters.
Dolores was right in one respect. The whole mission was a cluster. He had been assembling the team little by little, bringing them along slowly with limited missions in outlying areas against relatively weak master vampires. He had hoped to cultivate a fighting force that was close to, if not as good as, the group he’d led before things went to hell in a hand basket after Moonrise Inc.’s horrific demise.
Now, he realized he fooled himself and the others as well. He’d unnecessarily risked all their lives. Simply put, while each of them was very good in his or her respective field, as a team, they were simply out of the league of Lin Tang, much less the clan masters. Assassinating Duke was bold, and it had been a coordinated effort that had left no trail to his group, while baffling Lin Tang. But, it was just one success.
“All the more reason to pull back and regroup,” he blurted out. “At the very least, we can lie low until Lin Tang cools down. We can go someplace far from here and train. I mean really, really train. Make ourselves a force to be reckoned with, not one going against impossible odds
, hoping to get lucky and take Lin Tang.”
Dolores said nothing and Jesus knew why. It wasn’t the money they had wasted setting up the compound or the valuable time lost. It was the notion that the vampires were going to win again. Even Jesus couldn’t guess what those clan masters were planning with Riordan. He couldn’t tell how bad things might be after the Hunters left or if they’d even be able to return once they did get their act together.
Worst of all, for Jesus, he had blown a golden opportunity. It was rare for a large group of hunters to set up shop in any clan-controlled territory without drawing notice. A man like Riordan had an army of familiars, along with crooked cops and politicians, spying for him. And Lin Tang’s half-deads only made matters worse, for they often prowled night clubs, strip clubs and bars looking for recruits. Meaning the main places that the Hunters counted on for inside information were compromised.
Suddenly, Dolores turned, walked quickly over to her husband and threw her arms around him. She buried her head on his shoulder and let her tears flow unhindered. Jesus said nothing, but just held her tight.
“It’ll be okay, baby,” he cooed. “We’ll make it through this like we always have.”
“Promise?” she sniffled between sobs.
“I promise,” Jesus replied, though he wondered how he’d ever be able to keep it.
“Things have definitely taken a turn for the surreal,” Ian Hendricks said to himself, as he walked toward the staircase that would lead up to Manuel’s garage.
He really didn’t know what to say about Jesus’ decision to pack up and leave. One part of him said it was a wise decision as this group was no match for Riordan. The other part of him was angry because he’d been risking his life as a double agent, so to speak, and the thought all of that effort had been for naught was enough to make him burn up inside. True, he was being paid well for his services and he didn’t like losing clients – especially ones that paid – but this was an entirely different game.
Dark Tidings: Volumes I & II Page 19