Homecoming

by Heath Stallcup

  Laura rested her hand on her arm. “It never happened.” Although she couldn’t know for sure, she stated it as fact. Jennifer simply nodded as she continued to drive.

  “It’s not too much further.”

  “Where are we going?” Laura couldn’t see much but tall grass along the road and trees beyond that.

  “At the top of this hill is a small private airport. The pilot is a friend of mine.” Jennifer swerved along the side of the road and avoided a particularly deep wash in the steep dirt road.

  “An airport?”

  “How else did you expect us to get to Brazil?”

  *****

  Apollo stood in line at the BX, a small basket of essentials hanging off of his arm. Although he rarely got out, he still needed to get some deodorant and toothpaste. While he stood in line and waited to check out, he browsed through a small display of paperbacks along the side of the checkout aisle. Apparently zombie books were all the rage these days. He picked one up by somebody named Joe McKinney and thumbed through it. No pictures. That sucked. It wasn’t that he didn’t mind reading he just wished that they’d include a few pictures to help him get an idea of what the hell they were talking about.

  “What do they know of zombies, eh, mate?”

  Apollo felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end as he slowly lowered the paperback and placed it back where he found it. He turned and lowered steely eyes on the British bastard that had the nerve to simply walk up and speak to him. “I thought they buried you under a building?” He turned back and faced the line again.

  Ex-SAS Major Sheridan leaned against a folding metal cane and stepped closer to Apollo. “Oh, they wanted to. Trust me. But once I told them everything that happened, they put my family in hiding.” He broke into a toothy smile that didn’t fool Apollo for an instant. “They called it ‘witness protection’, but you and I know that’s not entirely accurate, don’t we?”

  Apollo exhaled long and slow and did his best not to lose patience. “Why are you here, Sheridan? Looking to get other parts of your body shot?” He could feel the corners of his mouth threatening to tug upward.

  “No, mate, I came here looking for you.” Sheridan stepped closer and leaned in toward Apollo. “To be honest, I’m surprised you’re still with this group.”

  “And why wouldn’t I be?” Apollo fought the urge to face the man, keeping his back to him to prevent his murder in front of all of these nice witnesses.

  Sheridan snorted behind him. “I don’t know. I think if the group that I called a family all lied to me about the woman I loved just to keep my head in the game, I’d…”

  Apollo spun on him, his finger jabbing Sheridan sharply in the chest. “Don’t you ever mention Maria again, you understand me? Not if you want to keep breathing.” His voice was low and deep, reminding Sheridan of a growl.

  He threw his hands up in surrender and painted a car salesman’s smile across his face. “Hey, I didn’t mean any harm. I’m not the one who lied to you about what she was up to with that sword swinging teacher of hers.”

  Apollo’s mouth formed a hard line. “Nice try, asshole. But they were just friends.” He turned back to the front of the line and felt the heat from his fury gather in his face.

  “Yeah, that’s what they told you, eh?” Sheridan pulled something from his coat pocket and flipped it open. “You know, you might keep on telling yourself that, but video doesn’t lie.”

  “What the hell you talking about?” Apollo spun on him and came face-to-face with a small LCD screen. Sheridan held it up and away at arm’s length, at eye level for Apollo. On the screen Maria and Hank could be seen in each other’s arms, kissing and caressing each other. He felt his throat tighten up and his chest locked up on him.

  “They lied to you, big guy.” Sheridan had the decency to keep his voice low. Apollo reached up and gently took the video player from his hand. “One of the guys…what was his name again? Oh yeah, I remember now. Marshall. Yeah, that’s it. He even walked in on them. Told them to keep it all under their hat until after the battle was over. ‘Need to keep Apollo’s head in the game, don’t we?’ And somehow, I got painted as the bad guy.”

  Apollo’s hand shook as he stared at the screen. “Where did you get this?”

  Sheridan glanced about and lowered his voice even more. “I’m sure they told you my ulterior motive for being there. I took the liberty of placing wireless cameras all over the place.” Apollo looked up from the screen and narrowed his eyes at the smaller man. “I needed to know where my target would be. His habits, if he had any, his routines, that sort of thing.”

  Apollo’s breathing became labored as he stared at the screen. He could feel his hand tightening on the hard plastic case and Sheridan reached up and tried to pull it from his grasp. “No!” Apollo jerked the device away. “I need this.”

  “I can make you a copy.” Sheridan reached again and Apollo held it over his head.

  “Beat it, Gimpy.” He gave the man a slight shove and nearly sent him onto his ass.

  “Wait, Apollo—”

  “I said, vamoose!” Apollo raised his voice, drawing much more attention than he preferred. He glanced around the exchange and huffed. Shoving the small basket of items he had into Sheridan’s arms, he stormed off and out into the lobby toward the parking lot.

  Sheridan dropped the hand basket and followed as quickly as he could. As soon as he got outside he called out, “Apollo! Wait!” The large black man continued storming out toward the parked cars. “We need each other, you overgrown…”

  Sheridan sighed as he watched Apollo throw open the door to a black Humvee and climb inside. As the big diesel engine started and the vehicle roared out of the parking lot, he leaned heavily on his cane.

  “Well, that didn’t exactly go as planned.”

  *****

  Paul paced quietly in his room, his mind racing. What if the council can somehow still track the device? He knew that he had never turned it on, but what if there was a GPS built into it? What if, because it was no longer moving, they decided that he must be with Rufus? He sat on his bed then suddenly stood and began pacing again. Should he tell Rufus? Just, come clean? Explain that he had been tempted by the council? Stretch the truth a little and say that they came to him, rather than the other way around. Yeah…he could do that. And since Rufus didn’t release him from the covenant, he was powerless and nearly penniless. He was just SO tempted. But he didn’t do it. He changed his mind. He would swear his total allegiance to his brother.

  Paul sat on the bed again and held his head in his hands. Rufus would never believe me if I swore my allegiance to him. Hell, I wouldn’t believe me. He felt like weeping.

  A knock at the door broke him from his somber pity party and he ran his fingers through his hair and wiped at his face. “Yes? Come in.”

  His door opened slightly and a woman stepped inside. “I brought you some blankets and some fresh blood as a bed time snack. Monsieur Thorn said that you liked this particular blend.” She smiled sheepishly and set the pitcher down beside the bed and placed two folded blankets at the foot. As she turned to leave, Paul reached out and touched her arm. He was shocked when she didn’t cringe from his touch.

  “Pardon me, I don’t know your name, but…” He cleared his throat and lowered his voice. “My brother, he is a good man, yes?”

  The woman smiled broadly and nodded. “Yes, Monsieur Thorn is a very good man.”

  “He is forgiving then?”

  She nodded again. “Yes, he is very forgiving. He is a kind and gentle man to work for. He values trust and honesty above all other things.” She patted his hand and gave him a sweet smile. “You come from a good family, Mr. Foster.”

  Paul felt his heart drop, but he did his best not to show it. “Thank you.”

  After she left he sat beside the bed and poured another goblet of blood. With just a sip, he smiled to himself. “It tastes so much like human.”

  Slowly he drank from the goblet unt
il he had his fill. He noticed that his stomach still cramped slightly, and that he didn’t get nearly the rush from it that he got from human blood. But he could see being sustained from this mixture.

  Paul stretched out on the bed and stared at the exposed beams of the ceiling. “He values trust and honesty above all else…” He shook his head as he realized that he couldn’t come clean. He could swear his allegiance to his brother and mean it, but he could never allow Rufus to know that he had been sending messages to the council. He could never let him know that he had brought a homing device here with the intent of leading the council assassins to his brother’s door.

  As he closed his eyes and prepared to sleep, his final thought of the day was of what he might do if the council betrayed him in front of his brother once they reached Geneva.

  *****

  Team Two had just disembarked and was restoring their go packs. Putting away their gear, the men were solemn in the knowledge that the hunting party had slipped out while they were in transit. People had suffered that night. Some had died, simply because they couldn’t infil close enough to close the gap before the hunting party departed.

  Spalding watched Little John as he went through the motions along with the other men. The usual jovial attitude and jokes were absent. He wasn’t sure if it was the men coming down off the adrenaline rush, fatigue, or the realization that they were too late to save them all.

  Spanky felt like he needed to say something. Anything.

  He stopped packing his bag and looked up at the grim faces around him. “We did everything we could tonight.” He watched as each man paused in what they were doing and turned their attention to him. “We just didn’t show up in time.”

  One by one, each man slowly accepted his words and gave a slight nod or some other form of acknowledgement. Lamb finally spoke up as he shoved the final items into his bag. “Still doesn’t make it right, boss.”

  “I know it doesn’t. But there was nothing else we could do. You got the heavies out of the line of fire we saved the ones they brought back.”

  “We didn’t miss them by much.” Donovan leaned against the table and rubbed at his temples. “Sometimes I wish we could just go in guns blazing. Drop a fucking bomb on them from the 130 and be done with it.”

  Jacobs nodded, a grim smirk pulling at his mouth. “A MOAB from high altitude would be quicker.”

  Spanky held up a hand to stop them before it got out of hand. “You guys know why we can’t. We needed to verify they were in there. If there were civilians with them, we needed to make an effort to save them. Not to mention the clean-up crews.”

  “Screw the clean-up crews,” Lamb interjected. “With a big enough ordinance, they wouldn’t even be needed.”

  Spalding gave him a knowing look. “Right. And if there had been civilians in there? Or if they were in a populated area?”

  “Boss is right,” Little John finally spoke up. “We can’t save them all.” All eyes turned to him, some in disbelief. “All we can do is give it our best and save the ones we can. And make the blood suckers pay for hurting the ones we can’t save.” He shoved his knife into the Kevlar sheath and slid it into his pack. He turned and hung it back on the wall where he kept it stowed then turned back to Spanky. “I’m going to start my report.”

  Spalding nodded as the big man walked off then met the eyes of the other squad members. “He’s right.”

  Donovan watched the oversized man walk away. “He’s got ice water in his veins.”

  Spalding turned and watched as Little John disappeared around the corner. “I don’t think so.” He turned back to the group and met their gaze. “He just has other issues that he’s dealing with.”

  *****

  Mueller finished up his paperwork and was preparing to meet Babs for lunch when Jack’s office phone rang. He looked at the caller ID and plucked the receiver up from the cradle. “Dog Pound, Head Bitch speaking.”

  Matt pulled the phone from his ear and raised a brow at the flippant voice on the other line. “Is Jack in?”

  “Hey, Colonel, he’s around here somewhere. Let me see if I can find him.”

  “Mueller?”

  “Yes, sir.” Robert smiled as he leaned back in his chair. “It’s good to hear a friendly voice, Colonel.”

  “I was wondering how you were liking it there. Hadn’t heard from ya, son.”

  Mueller shifted the phone to his other ear and motioned to one of the Lycans in the office. Covering the mouthpiece he whispered, “Find Jack.” He returned his attention to the phone, “Yeah, we love it here, Colonel. Fun and sun, 24/7.”

  Matt grunted. “Yeah, I bet. From what I understand, Phoenix is a slave driver.”

  “Only to the untrained, sir. I’ve actually been helping him whip these pups into shape.” Mueller sat forward in his chair, his voice losing its playful tone. “I gotta say, sir, these guys could hold their own with just about any squad out there.”

  “And why exactly do you fellas need this private army?” Matt already heard Jack’s reasoning. He actually bought the story and for the most part agreed with the man. Curiosity had him asking again, just to see if the stories jived.

  “Sheesh, Colonel, Rufus is a pretty important guy with the Lamia Beastia. He’s like the head honcho. Plus, he’s got a death sentence on his head from the vampire government. He needs all the protection he can get.”

  Matt nodded when Mueller’s story coincided with Jack’s. “Well, Bob, I’ll give you boys this, if you’re gonna throw together a werewolf army, I can’t think of anybody more capable of training them than you two.”

  Matt could hear the phone shuffling around on Mueller’s side. “Thank you, Colonel. That means a lot coming from you. And, Jack’s about to waltz in here, so…”

  “Understood, son. Good talking to you. Tell your missus and son I said ‘howdy’.”

  “Will do, sir. Here he is.”

  Jack shooed Bob from behind the desk and fell into his chair. “Colonel. How you doing, sir?”

  “Good, Phoenix, I wanted to touch base with you on this full moon op you got going on.” Matt took a sip from his coffee. “We’ll have one squad available but until we draw closer to the actual date, I can’t be sure which squad that will be.”

  “So you’re telling me there’s a chance you’ll have some guys with enough jump experience to loan me?”

  “Mark talked with them and it looks like all of the veterans are willing. Even some of the newer guys that you met when you came back are willing. We do have a handful of rookies that don’t know you, so we didn’t even bother talking to them. Besides that, they’re pretty green when it comes to stuff like what you’re asking.”

  “Understood, Colonel.” Jack made notes in the side margin of his desk calendar. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you doing this.”

  “That’s okay, Phoenix. You helped hold the squad together after you returned, and you stayed until we were finished with the Sicarii. I figure this is the least we could do.”

  “If you can, Matt, give me a heads-up on who you think will be available as we get closer and I’ll make sure the jet is standing by at Wiley Post.”

  “Will do, son.” Matt fought the urge to ask him about Dr. Evan’s notebook. He wanted to plant the seed and see if Jack could do a little checking on his own before the boys got there, but he didn’t want to tip his hand too soon. “Give me a call if you need anything else.”

  “Roger that, sir.”

  As Matt hung up the phone he contemplated the ramifications of Rufus having taken the plans. If he had, what were his intentions? Did he have a target in mind? Did he intend to actually deploy the weapon? Did he destroy the plans as a method of self-preservation? Too many thoughts raced through his mind at once and he couldn’t decide which one was the most plausible.

  *****

  Damien stood on the docks and watched as the different ships loaded for the short journey across the channel to the mainland. He wanted to try to find some
thing smaller that they could charter privately, but once the sun went down, most charter craft were shut down. He looked about until he saw a small container craft being loaded.

  He hopped the short fence and approached the men working the docks. “Where’s this one headed?”

  “You lost, mate?” a bearded man asked as he stepped down from a small forklift. “You’re not supposed to be back here.”

  Damien contemplated putting the man in his place, but instead, lowered his eyes. “My most sincere apologies, sir. I was just trying to find a ship headed to Italy.”

  “These aren’t passenger ships, friend. And you aren’t supposed to be on these docks. You could get hurt.” The bearded man slowly approached him and eyed him warily.

  “I know that, and again, I apologize.” Damien motioned back over his shoulder. “I have a few small crates that I have to get shipped to Rome. Obviously I’m not from around here and…” he looked to the man with pleading eyes. “Can you help me out?”

  The bearded man studied the American and shook his head. “I’m really not supposed to even talk to you.” He quickly glanced over his shoulder. “What all do ye have?”

  “Three crates. One weighs about eighty pounds and the other two are about two hundred pounds each.”

  The man scratched at the back of his neck and considered the possibilities. “The shipping clerks are all closed. I dunna think I can get you manifested.”

  Damien reached into his pocket and pulled a small wad of bills. “If there was any way you could take care of this for me, I could make it worth your while.”

  The bearded man stared at the small wad of bills and then back over his shoulder at his mates still working the docks. Finally he nodded his head. “Okay, look, bring the crates down to the edge of the fence there.” He pointed to the edge of the yard and the chain link fence near the gate. “I’ll be by in about an hour to pick them up and I’ll create some paperwork for you. But once they reach the pier in Italy, your people will have to come and pick them up.”