It was the press who had been the most difficult to handle. The DHS team leader had enlisted the help of the sheriff's department and the police department to set up a quarantine with a one hundred fifty foot perimeter from the building. The press had been relentless, hounding the police and the team about the deaths inside. It had driven them into a frenzy knowing that members of the press had been slaughtered at the same time.
While the press had been difficult to handle, the worst phone call Six had made was to Agent Smith at Section 28. Agent Smith had critiqued the actions of the team, pointing out where they had done well, and where they needed improvement. Smith had also informed him that there were two more new agents on the way and that one of them would handle media relations and function well as the team leader's second-in-command.
Smith had informed Six that he would send their dossiers to him electronically and that the new agents were already on the ground in Pueblo. Smith had then told the team leader that a DHS Black Hawk helicopter was being tasked to take the new agents to Trinidad within the hour. After confirming the landing spot, Smith had assured Six that he would have all of the support he needed to go after the remaining vampire, the young girl who got away.
After ending his phone call with Smith, Six took the opportunity to order God down from his perch on the roof of the hospital and call the team together, briefing them on the new team members. As they were stowing their gear in the War Wagon, they heard the distinctive sounds of an incoming helicopter. Six looked up as a jet black military helicopter slowed to a hover over the hospital helipad. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk touched down and two men climbed out of the open helicopter side door. As soon as their feet hit the pavement, four large duffel bags and two long gun cases were pulled from the open door and placed on the ground.
The larger man on the left from Six's point of view slung a rifle case over his back, reached down and grabbed two of the duffels, and walked toward the team as he hunched over to avoid a possible rotor mishap. The second man also placed a rifle bag over his back and visibly strained to lift the two remaining duffels. He did the same hunched duck-walk toward the team. The engine noise increased, and the helicopter lifted off with a roar from its twin turbines. Once the helicopter was in the air, the men straightened up and headed for the team. As they approached, Six was amazed when the mass of the man on the left seemed to keep getting larger and larger.
Arthur "Heavy" Murphy was a mountain of a man. His dossier said the man was six feet seven inches and weighed in just a hair under three hundred pounds. The DHS team leader could tell that all of the weight was muscle. The width of his shoulders barely fit inside his armor, and he had ripped off the sleeves of his uniform. The large, bald African American man smiled as he dropped one of the bags and raised his hand in a crisp salute.
"Special Agent Art Murphy. Reporting for duty, sir. So, what do you want dead?" The large agent's deep voice boomed.
Dragging the two duffels behind Heavy, the other man stopped and dropped the handles of the bags. While not quite as tall as the walking giant, the slender Jonas "Ghost" Vanhof seemed to disappear inside his voluminous leather overcoat. Between the black leather duster and the worn, black gaucho hat perched atop his head, Ghost looked about as far from a DHS agent as Doc did. Slender to the point of sickly, Six actually believed the reported weight of 190 pounds. Ghost reached inside his coat and withdrew his identification.
Flipping the ID open, Ghost grinned and announced, "Special Agent Jonas Vanhof. I hear you have a vampire problem?"
Six just shook his head at the levity as he introduced himself and the team. Reaching out his hand to shake the hands of both new team members, the team leader said, "Special Agent Burt Holstein. I'm your boss. And this is the rest of your team." Six pointed to each one as he introduced the team members by names and call signs. Turning to the new team members, he continued, "Team, this is Arthur 'Heavy' Murphy and Jonas 'Ghost' Vanhof. Heavy is our heavy weapons specialist, and Ghost is my second-in-command... and apparently he is an esoteric research prodigy."
Old and new team members exchanged handshakes and greetings. After a few minutes, Six quickly reigned the team back in. "Let's head back to the conference room. We don't want to give the press anything to waggle about."
Once the team had walked back into the building and was settled around the conference table, the lead agent looked up and said, "Ok. We have a major situation here. We've got at least one vamp still on the loose. We have a media feeding frenzy due to the latest attack, which we need to address A-S-A-F'in-P. The national media is now paying attention, and our faces will probably be on the news, if they aren't already. We will be holding a press conference shortly. What are our options?" Six briefly looked at his secure phone to read a message from Agent Smith. "As if things weren't complicated enough, the FBI has dispatched a Hostage Rescue Team to this area. We are still in charge... barely. We need answers."
Ghost spoke up almost immediately. "Simple: terrorism. Blame the attack on some crazy terrorists and say that there is still a danger to the public. The media will draw that conclusion anyway from the arrival of the HRT. Hold the press conference and institute a curfew from sundown until sunup. During the day, we can sleep and prep, and we'll hunt tomorrow night. If you want me to, I can be spokesperson for this conference. I even have a suit with me for the occasion."
The team leader thought for a bit and nodded his assent. He looked around the table and asked, "Are there any risks, or anything we're missing?"
The team's priest spoke up softly, "What if someone talks to the media? What is our contingency?"
Six looked at Ghost and then back at Doc. His face was grim when he spoke, "Our contingency is pretty simple. We do what DHS does best. Stall. Obfuscate. And if nothing else works, ship 'em to Gitmo. This entire operation is classified as 'Top Secret, Need-To-Know.' We just need to remind the couple of players who know something that they face federal prison time. Will that work?"
The priest nodded and said, "That will have to do."
"Alright. Ghost, you go do the press conference," said Six. "I'll go with you, but I won't answer any questions. I'm going to take the time to talk to the locals. They will be in charge of the perimeter around this building. Absolutely no admittance to this. After Ghost does his song and dance, we'll catch some rack time. Any questions?"
When nobody raised any questions, the team leader stood up, signaling the end of the meeting. The lanky new second-in command stood up, grabbed one of his duffel bags, and headed for the bathroom to change. A few minutes later, a very different agent emerged from the restroom. Dressed in a suit and tie, he looked like a respectable bureaucrat, exactly like the public information officer he should look like.
Six and Ghost walked toward the waiting mob of reporters, more of whom were arriving by the minute. Stepping forward, Ghost nodded to the undersheriff and raised his hands for quiet. He addressed the assembled crowd.
"I am Special Agent Jonas Vanhof. That is V-A-N-H-O-F for those of you who can't keep up. I am the press liaison for this operation, and I will be issuing a very short statement tonight. I will not be taking any questions during or after the statement.
"At approximately nine o'clock p.m. last night, a special Department of Homeland Security action team was notified of suspicious activity at 1749 East Main Street, the Trinidad Animal Clinic. As the team responded to the reported activity, a group of suspected terrorists entered the back door of the South Central Council of Governments building. There they attacked and killed Sheriff John Klooster, Mayor Scott Jennings, four agents from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, and three members of the press. This attack was pre-planned, and the distraction was designed to draw the DHS team from the building."
Ghost ignored the rising murmurs from the crowd and continued, "When the DHS team realized that the SCCG building was the intended target, they responded as quickly as possible. When they responded, they were able to take down two of the terrorists. At least
one of these terrorists got away. We do not know which group these terrorists represent, nor do we know how many remain in the area. Until we capture the rest of the terrorists, we are going to continue the curfew from sundown until sunup. This curfew applies to all citizens of Trinidad. The only exceptions are on-duty law enforcement personnel and on-duty emergency responders.
"If you notice someone who appears suspicious or who acts irregularly, please contact your local law enforcement agency. These suspects are considered heavily armed and very dangerous. Do NOT attempt to apprehend them by yourself.
"As I mentioned. I will not be taking any questions today. Good day." Ghost walked away from the press to the wild cacophony of shouted questions and accusations—real and implied.
Six joined him as they walked back to the ops center. His admiration for his new second-in-command was evident in his voice, "Great statement. You're already worth your weight out here. So how did you become an expert in chasing monsters? Your file says you got busted for killing a werewolf. Just a hobby?"
The esoteric specialist shook his head. "That was not my first," he said in a low voice. "You could say that this is a family curse to hunt creatures."
When he realized that the gaunt man was not going to elaborate, Six looked questioningly at his second. "And?"
Ghost shook his head. "Let's just leave it at that for now."
The lead agent slowly nodded. He could wait for a better time. As they approached the War Wagon, they could see the entire team lounging on, or in, the truck. Six climbed up into the truck and sat in the jump seat next to Boomer, and Ghost took his seat in the back. As soon as the back door was closed, Boomer fired up the engine and dropped it in gear.
The hotel arrangements were made at a small motel just off the interstate, close to the team's ops center. The exterior of the single-story motel was white against the glare of the sun. The motel was shaped in a right angle like the letter "L", roughly splitting the rooms along each axis, with access to the rooms along the outside from the parking lot. There were only a handful of rooms in this hotel, and it was chosen for access to the interstate, as well as its location close to town. Taking up one entire side of the motel, they quickly divided up into pairs for security on Six's order. The two female agents, Doc and Boomer, took one of the rooms. Six and God decided to share a room, which left Heavy and Ghost in the last room.
Directly outside the block of rooms, the War Wagon sat, occupying multiple parking spaces. Nestled inside the truck, Spooky had refused to sleep anywhere that was not surrounded by heavy armor. Six had only acquiesced when the young agent brought up the fact that he was the only one who knew how to use all the sensors and defensive perimeter gear in the War Wagon. That made him the logical choice to sleep there.
The team had been up for over twenty-four hours by the time the lead DHS agent had requested a pair of officers in a patrol car to watch their rooms so that they would be undisturbed. Other than running off the occasional reporter, the police officers had a very quiet day watching the sleeping DHS team.
17
HUNTING
AVE MARIA SHRINE, TRINIDAD, COLORADO.
On a hill just south of the hospital stood a two-story white structure, a shrine. From its inception in 1934, the shrine had seen the ebb and flow of the area for nearly one hundred years. A black armored truck was parking in the shrine's parking lot. And around the back of that truck stood four gentlemen wearing black tactical armor and carrying military rifles.
Inside the truck, Six leaned over the projected landscape that Spooky was showing on his displays. "According to the UAV, we've got four of these cold spots just a half kilometer due south of here, on the other side of this ridge. We'll be silent from this point on."
He looked at each of the men as he assigned the marching order. "God, you're behind me. Heavy, you're behind God, and Ghost, you've got rear guard."
All of them nodded, and Ghost pulled at the collar of his armor vest. "You know, boss, I'd rather be in my duster than this armor stuff. It's way too restrictive for my movements. And I guarantee that I'd be better armored."
Six shook his head and sighed. "Not tonight. Take the armor. We'll discuss it after this strike."
The team leader looked at his team. "Let's move out. Spooky, you've got eyes on the targets?"
Spooky looked back at him. "Yeah, boss. Still being stupid."
Six shook his head. It felt like a trap, but he had no other choice than to spring it. He flipped his night-vision goggles down and began to walk due south. One by one, the others followed him into the rapidly darkening night.
He made his way slowly and carefully through the scrub brush that carpeted the area. As team lead, Six was constantly scanning all around him, but he was unable to shake the feeling of walking into a trap. The men behind him were nearly silent, attesting to their care and training. Reaching the spot marked on his navigational display, Six raised a closed fist to halt the team and spoke softly into his throat mic, "Spooky, this is Six. Target status?"
The agent replied almost immediately. "They're still sitting dumb and happy. You're all clear."
"Copy." Six raised his hand and waived it forward. God moved up on his right, walking parallel and about two yards away from the team leader. Heavy moved forward to Six's left, opening up the same spacing to the team lead. Ghost drew closer to his leader, still on rear watch, constantly looking around the team for danger. As they got close to the summit of the ridge, Six raised his fist again and motioned for a halt. Stepping tentatively closer, his head just barely cleared the summit. Switching to his thermal optics, he scanned the area in front of him where the creatures should be, and came up empty.
Scanning all around on that side of the summit, his thermal optics failed to detect any unnatural thermal cold spots. Stepping back, Six again subvocalized, "Spooky, Six. Negative contact. Where are they?"
"They're right there, Six. I'm seeing them on the drone. Wait one second."
The wait seemed interminable for the team in the field. In the truck, Spooky was typing furiously and watching his screens. Suddenly, he saw five cold spots moving to surround the team on the ridge.
Spooky keyed his microphone to warn the team. "Alpha team, Spooky. Those were a decoy. Five, repeat five, cold spots closing rapidly. Look around you."
Six jerked and began sweeping his gun all around him as he looked through his optics. He quickly picked up two cold spots almost directly to his left, and they were closing in fast. Bringing his sights up and on target, Six keyed his mic again. "Alpha team, weapons free. Kill the SOBs." He released the microphone and grabbed the forward grip on his carbine and squeezed the trigger twice.
The muzzle flash from his rifle lit the night as the high velocity rounds entered the chest of the creature. The two silver slugs with their wooden payload caused the vampire to stumble, and it let out a fierce cry. Six silenced the screams with two more 5.56mm tumblers between the eyes and out the back of the creature's skull, along with the rotting meat in the brainpan.
Six pivoted to the next creature on his left as he barely registered God's rifle barking on his right. Four quick rounds through the creature's chest caused it to stop in its tracks. Six again took advantage of the pause to pull the trigger three more times. At least one of the three entered the howling creature's head, exploding violently out the back of the creature's skull.
To the lead agent's right, his sniper's first two shots hit the creature in the elbow and shoulder. God noticed that the vampire now had a stump of an arm. It ended where the specialized rounds chewed through the flesh. Mentally cursing, God took careful aim and began pulling the trigger. He casually walked the rounds right up the torso and into the cranium of the vampire, instantly killing it. The former HRT operator swung to his right to seek out more targets.
On Six's left, Heavy opened up with the Squad Automatic Weapon. Holding and aiming the large machine gun as if it were a rifle, he centered the sights over one of the remaining vampires,
and then he pulled the trigger for a relatively short burst. Using the same rifle rounds as the rest of the team, the heavy gunner smiled as the rounds seemed to make the vampire dance. With a final burst to the head, the vampire's body tumbled to the ground.
The vampire that ran toward Ghost was suddenly surprised to see his target drop to his knees in a crouch. Smiling a horrible smile with those razor sharp teeth, the vampire lunged at Ghost. With a speed that belied his build, a wooden stake appeared in the hunter's left hand while he drew his Webley Mark IV service revolver with his right. As the vampire loomed over him, Ghost shoved the wooden stake right through the chest cavity and into the heart. As the vampire collapsed onto the esoteric hunter, the weight of the body made it difficult for him to get out from underneath the stunned, but still dangerous, creature.
Ghost found enough strength to grab his revolver and point it at the forehead of the vampire on top of him. He squeezed the heavy double action trigger and was rewarded with a loud "bang" from the revolver. The 200 grain .38 caliber bullet split the forehead of the vampire open. Feeling the creature go limp, he fired again for good measure.
Suddenly the weight was lifted off him. Looking up, Ghost saw Heavy holding the rapidly decomposing body over him and then fling it off into the brush. Heavy extended his hand. Accepting the hand up, the lanky agent thanked the big man profusely.
Six stood and surveyed the area for the firefight. "I knew this was a trap. Someone is setting us up. Notice we're up over eight vampires so far, not just the one or two they said there were. We need to talk to Smith." He barked out orders, "Tag and Bag anything that didn't disappear, and then back to the truck."
INCURSION: Knightmare (Knight's Bane Trilogy Book 1) Page 14