Welcome To The Wolfpack

by Toby Neighbors

  “We found the stragglers,” Dean said. “Stand by, Staff Sergeant.”

  They were in a long, narrow hallway. Just outside the elevator the lone gunman, in full Swiss Guard formal uniform, lay unconscious with several tranq-darts in his arms, shoulders and neck.

  “They were down there,” Ghost started forward. “At least three, and they had someone in robes with them.”

  “Wait!” Dean shouted. Something was wrong even though he didn’t know what it was.

  Ghost froze and the three females took protective positions around Dean.

  “What’s wrong, Captain?” Ghost asked. “They’re getting away.”

  “It’s a decoy,” Dean said. “This is a kill zone.”

  “Can’t be,” Ghost said.

  “Oh yes, just like in old castles. Make the enemy come through a narrow corridor where your own soldiers can open fire with no risk. Dean was searching the hallway visually but couldn’t detect anything that might support his theory.

  “I don’t see anything,” Harper said.

  Dean switched on his radar. The walls were thick, but the radar revealed long rooms full of people on either side of the narrow corridor.

  “Oh yes,” Dean said. “Radar has nearly two dozen people in rooms on either side of the hallway.”

  “It could just be the palace staff,” Ghost argued, but it was obvious he didn’t really believe what he was saying.

  “No,” Dean replied. “They’re all lined up next to the hallway. They’ve got slots in the walls or something. Going down that hallway is a death sentence.”

  “Send Chancy,” Cat deadpanned, which got a laugh from everyone but Dean who was thinking furiously. He had to do something. The Swiss Guard wouldn’t leave troops here if they weren’t guarding something.

  “Damn fine trap,” Ghost said. “I should have realized.”

  “The shotgun blast wasn’t meant to kill us. Just piss us off so that we race down that hallway to our deaths,” Dean said.

  “It worked,” Ghost said.

  “What do you think they’re protecting?” Harper asked.

  “Either the Pope or his treasures,” Dean replied.

  “I would not die for treasure,” Cat said.

  “Shit no,” Ghost said.

  “But they would,” Dean said. “Either way, we have to get to the end of the hallway.”

  “We’ve still got grenades,” Harper said. “We could knock a hole in the wall and shoot a few in on either side.”

  “That violates our orders,” Dean said. “We aren’t here to kill anyone.”

  “I’ve got these,” Tallgrass said, holding out two flash-bang grenade canisters. “If they’re waiting for us to go down the hall, they have to have a way to see us, right.”

  “Could be video,” Ghost said. “The whole thing might be automated.”

  “I don’t think so,” Dean said. “Either way, we’ll only get one chance at this. I need one volunteer to go with me.”

  All four Specialists volunteered at the same time.

  “Alright,” Dean said, unable to keep from smiling. “We go together. Harper, Cat, you throw the grenades. Tallgrass, set them off at the same time. Our armor should protect us, but be sure and set your battle helmets for hostile ingress. Let me know when you’re ready.”

  Dean’s visor darkened until he could barely see and the world went silent. Cat and Harper threw the canisters, one arcing high and slow, the other racing down the hallway almost like a bullet. Tallgress remote detonated the grenades simultaneously. Even with his visor nearly opaque and his eyes closed, Dean saw a burst of light. Then all his systems came back online and he was sprinting down the hallway. He could hear the cursing and shouts from the kill rooms.

  Ghost and Harper raced ahead of Dean, who felt sluggish and slow, his chest aching and every breath he took burning in his lungs. Cat and Tallgrass stayed on either side of him, which fortunately turned out to be a needless protective measure. They reached the end of the hallway and split into two groups. Ghost and Tallgrass went to the right, in the same direction the decoy had fled. Cat and Harper went left, slamming the door to the kill room open and firing an extended barrage of automatic fire into the room. Ghost and Tallgrass did the same on the opposite side. There were several shots fired in return, but the guards were all nearly blind and deaf. They fired simply in response to the volley of tranq-darts that mowed down their comrades or pulled their triggers instinctively as they fell. Then, after a harrowing moment, everything fell quiet again.

  “Clear!” Harper announced.

  “We’re clear too,” Ghost said.

  Dean looked down the hall they were in to what appeared to be a massive wall of concrete. In the center of the wall was a door that looked like it belonged on a bank vault. Dean checked his chrono. They had two hours until daybreak. He hurried down the corridor and stopped beside the door’s control panel.

  “Tallgrass, can you hack this?” Dean asked.

  She stepped forward and looked at the black, glass plate with a outline in white in the shape of a hand for palm and finger print analysis. It was set inside a metal casing that was recessed into the concrete.

  “It’s possible,” she said. “I’ll need to cut the panel off.”

  “You can use the laser,” Harper said, handing over the Focused Light Energy Weapon she carried.

  “It will take some time, Captain.”

  “Do what you need to do,” Dean said. “If the Pope is hiding in that room, we have to get him out.”

  Dean brought up the vid feeds from the AAV’s still circling the compound. The city beyond was dark, which meant they hadn’t gotten the power back on. Unfortunately, there was very little movement inside the compound. Dean guessed there were at least a hundred Swiss Guardsman that were still unaccounted for, but there was no way to know for certain. Chances were they had fled, which means that the Pope was probably gone as well, but Dean couldn’t alter that fact.

  Instead, he checked on Chavez. The big Staff Sergeant was no better, but no worse either. He had found a chair in the walkway that overlooked the reception room with its massive, curving staircase. Chancy was at the railing, his weapon held ready.

  “Adkins,” Dean said. “Any sign of activity?”

  “We’ve got the doors closed, Captain, but no one has come knocking.”

  “Excellent. D’Vris, what about at your end.”

  “We found a door through the kitchen area and few of the cookstaff. They all surrendered. No sign of movement on our end.”

  “Alright, good work platoon.”

  Dean knew that he needed to make radio contact with Major McDowell, but he earnestly hoped to have something better to report. He didn’t know how much good it would do to simply have control of the Pope’s compound. The city was filled with people and there was no way to know who they were loyal to, or if they might be hostile. Still, he had achieved his mission, even if that mission wasn’t a complete success.

  “I’ve got the panel off, Captain,” Tallgrass said, as she handed Harper the small laser.

  Dean watched as she pulled the control panel out of the wall and then cursed.

  “Something wrong, Sergeant?” Dean asked.

  “It’s a decoy sir,” she said. “It doesn’t control the door.”

  Dean looked and saw just a single power line running from the control panel. He wanted to curse as well, but then a thought struck him. If the door had no controls, chances were it was a decoy as well.

  “Look around,” Dean said. “There might be a hidden passageway.”

  The four Specialists searched the walls. And it only took them a few minutes before Cat discovered a panel that responded to her touch.

  “Captain,” she said.

  Everyone turned to where Cat was pressing the panel in. It only recessed a few inches and then stopped. Dean was on his way over when the Fast Attack Corporal managed to slide the panel to one side. Gunfire exploded from the opening, sending Cat whirling ar
ound before she collapsed onto the floor. Dean tried to jump out of the line of fire, but he wasn’t fast enough. One slug crashed into the shoulder plate on his left arm, and another ripped through a gap in his armor near the elbow, tearing through the lower part of his bicep.

  Ghost shoved the barrel of his utility rifle into the opening, which was only a foot wide and sprayed an entire magazine of tranq-darts, but the gunfire continued unabated.

  Dean was holding his arm as blood oozed between his fingers. His TCU was sounding a faint alarm and Dean could tell his shoulder was out of socket. The pain was so intense he could see sparks of light, as he slid away from the opening.

  “All Heavy Armor Specialists,” Dean said in a shaky voice. “Move downstairs, to my position, immediately.”

  “Captain!” Tallgrass said as she rushed to his side.

  “It’s nothing,” Dean said. “A scratch. How’s Cat?”

  “Alive, but barely conscious. Some of the bullets found the gaps in her armor. Harper is with her.”

  Ghost kept firing down the corridor which was belching a steady stream of lead projectiles, but his fire seemed ineffective.

  “Hold your fire, Sergeant,” Dean said.

  His TCU was offering him pain suppressors but he declined. Every movement brought horrible waves of agony that made Dean tremble. He needed his shoulder reset, but to do that he would have to get out of his armor and he didn’t think he could stand the pain of moving that much.

  “Help me up,” Dean told Tallgrass.

  She took hold of his good arm and Dean had to clench his teeth to keep from screaming as he stood. She helped him lean against the wall and stayed by him.

  “Thanks,” he said in a shaky voice.

  “You need a med-evac,” she said.

  “No, we aren’t finished. How’s Cat.”

  “Her armor injected pain killers and we’ve slowed the bleeding, but she needs a doctor.”

  “Right,” Dean said.

  He knew two things. First, his platoon needed medical assistance as soon as possible. He couldn’t help but think of the sniper from his first platoon, Corporal Buwana. She had died because Dean couldn’t get her the medical attention she needed. He was determined not to let that happen with Corporal Katherine Valosky, or Staff Sergeant Chavez.

  The second thing Dean knew, was that there would be no help until they found who was in the tunnel. There was still hope that they might capture the Pope. And if so, he had to do everything in his power to make it happen.

  Dean heard the HA Specialists before he saw them. They had to come down in the elevator two at a time, then they moved as quickly as their heavy armor allowed, to Dean’s position.

  “Captain!” Adkins said hurrying over to his side. Sergeant D’Vris was with him.

  “You’re hurt,” the big frenchman said.

  “I’m fine. I want that hatch open and the firing neutralized.”

  “Yes sir,” the two men said in unison.

  “Ghost, get the door for us,” Adkins said.

  They moved into position close to the door, their backs turned to the enemy fire so that their big shields nearly touched the opening. Sergeant Brodus, the lanky sniper, carefully reached for the edge of the door. At the same time the two HA Specialists, their shields overlapping side stepped to cover the opening. Ghost heaved on the door, sliding it toward himself and both of the HA utility cannons began firing.

  The chatter of the utility canons was overwhelmed by the projectiles smashing into their impact resistant, titanium-hydrogen alloy shields. Dean could see the shock absorbers that held the big metal plates to the HA harnesses the Specialists wore, rocking from multiple impacts. But it only took a minute for the enemy fire to slow. Dean enlarged the vid feed from the utility cannons controlled by Adkins and D’Vris. The tunnel was dark, with shielded lights shinning at them from the tunnel and leaving the rest of the space in darkness, but the muzzle flashes from the Swiss Guard manning the tunnel showed alternating barriers along either side of the tunnel. The guards were using the barriers as cover but the HA shields allowed Adkins and D’Vris to take careful aim and pick off the assailants one by one.

  “Looks clear,” D’Vris said.

  Perhaps,” Dean said. “Or it could be another trap.”

  “Can’t see shit with those lights shinning at us,” Adkins said.

  “Shoot them out,” Dean ordered.

  “Already tried that,” Adkins responded. “This non-lethal ammo won’t break through the glass.”

  “Probably shielded,” Ghost said.

  “Can we get down that tunnel?” Dean asked.

  “One at a time,” D’Vris said.

  “Good, we’re going. D’Vris, you take lead. Then Ghost, me, Tallgrass, and Adkins bring up the rear. I want you on full alert Sergeant D’Vris. Everyone else stays in line with him.”

  “You’re in no shape to go,” Tallgrass said.

  “I’m going,” Dean said through clenched teeth.

  Ghost opened a private channel to Dean and spoke compassionately. “Captain, you sure you’re up for this?”

  “I’m fine, Sergeant,” Dean said.

  “What’s wrong beside the bullet wound?”

  “My shoulder got dislocated, but I can handle it.”

  “You’re armor can lock it in place by magnetizing the grieve on your injured arm. That will keep it from moving. And the pain suppressors will take the edge off.”

  “Can’t afford to get foggy right now,” Dean said.

  “I’ve used it before, it’s not like the dope you get on earth. It’s localized, just enough to curb the pain so you can think.”

  Dean spared a second and took his Sniper’s advice. It hurt like hell when the electro magnets came online and his forearm snapped against his chest plate. It was a small movement, but the pain was intense. Then he released the suppressors and was relieved as the pain subsided. His arm still hurt. The pain radiating from his shoulder up his neck and all the way down his left side, but it became more of a dull ache than a constant, throbbing agony.

  “Alright, I’m ready,” he announced, his voice stronger. “Let’s move out. Harper, get Cat back upstairs. Let the Triplets help you. Keep this building secure.”

  “Yes, Captain,” Harper said.

  D’Vris and Ghost were already in the tunnel. Dean followed them and had to wait until he passed the lights to activate his night vision on his TCU. The field of view on his face shield went from black to green and Dean could see the tunnel sloping downward. There were more of the thick barriers on each side of the corridor, with an open space down the middle.

  Dean activated his radar and was alerted to movement ahead. More guardsmen were lying in wait, hoping that Dean’s platoon would hurry blindly down the tunnel where the guards could pop up and ambush them.

  “We have bogies ahead,” Dean said. “Seventy five feet. Once the shooting starts, everyone finds cover. No heroics. Let D’Vris and Adkins do their job.”

  The Specialists with Dean all acknowledged his order but Dean couldn’t help but worry that he was making a huge mistake. He was leading his platoon into danger without any assurance that their target was actually in the tunnel at all. If he’d had regular ordinance they could have shot gas down the tunnel and sent the guards fleeing, but he’d bent rules just to get the explosives for his demo team. They would have to clear the tunnel the hard way. He just hoped it wasn’t all for nothing.

  Chapter 25

  “Forward," Dean ordered.

  They had fallen into a rhythm of moving from barrier to barrier. D’Vris was perfect for dealing with the guards at a distance and the Swiss Guard were smart enough to realize they couldn’t stop the Heavy Armor Specialists by coming straight at them. Instead, they began to wait until the group approached, either popping up suddenly in hopes of finding an angle around the huge HA Specialist, or springing out of the darkness to flank the group. But Dean had expected such tactics. He used the Swiss Guard’s own strategy a
gainst them by flooding the tunnel with light. The HA utility cannons had small, LED spot lights that pierced the darkness of the tunnel with thousands of lumens. With their own night vision capabilities lost, the Swiss Guards couldn’t see what was happening past the big HA Specialist. Dean used his radar to identify the individual guards hiding behind the thick barriers while Ghost lived up to his name sneaking around D’Vris and incapacitating the guards one by one.

  It was slow work and Dean was exhausted. He was accustomed to long stretches of difficult work, often going with out sleep while in the OWFR, but he had never done so while injured before. His strength was waning, but he pressed on, determined to rid the tunnel of any threats.

  “Looks like we’re almost past the barriers,” D’Vris said, his utility cannon taking out four gunmen who had risen together and fired a massive barrage at Dean’s platoon.

  Dean checked his radar. There was movement far ahead, nearly five hundred yards ahead of the platoon. Still, he made the group use caution until they moved past the last barriers.

  “There’s enough room here for Adkins to join me,” D’Vris said. “We can move faster side by side.”

  “Alright,” Dean said. “Ghost go with them. Move as fast as you can, but don’t take any chances. Tallgrass and I will catch up when we can.”

  “You got it, Captain,” Ghost said. “We’ll catch the bastards.”

  Dean didn’t think the lanky Sniper was right. The Pope, and his guardsmen had time to escape, if that was their plan. Dean was determined to find out, despite his wounds and fatigue. Getting to the end the tunnel was his goal, once that was done he was calling for help.

  He sat heavily on the final barrier. There were five guardsmen on the ground at his feet. Unlike many of the others, who were dressed in ornate garb, or military fatigues, the downed soldiers wore dark suits and wielded sub-machine guns. Dean looked at the unconscious men and noticed that they had ear pieces.

  “Pull one of those,” Dean said, pointing to the small, flesh colored devices. “Let’s see if we can listen in to their comms.”

  “Good idea, Captain,” Eleanor Tallgrass said.

  She bent down and retrieved two of the small ear pieces. She gave one to Dean and they held them up to their battle helmets which had a wide range of audio capabilities. The microphone on Dean’s TCU picked up the sounds from the tiny device and amplified them so he could hear the communication between the guards clearly.