Matt leaned back in his chair and considered Jay’s idea. “How much further could you stretch the silver?”
“At least three times. Maybe slightly more, but effectively, let’s say three times. As far as cost, it will be about the same, because each round has to be hand-machined. You can’t cast these bullets. But once they’re silver jacketed, you’re talking a nasty silver round.”
“I’m guessing you have the ballistic testing to back up your claims.” Matt sipped from the bitter nectar and watched him carefully.
“You know I do or I wouldn’t be suggesting it. You can go to our website and see a lot of the testing, and I’ll give you the password to see the stuff that nobody else can see. The armor piercing tests, the gelatin tests, the Kevlar tests, etc. I keep all of that on a secure server.”
“What about the .223 ammo? Would you be loading them with your Tridents as well?”
“I can if you want me to. I think once you see what this round does in gelatin; you’ll probably want me to have some heavies machined up for the .308s as well.”
Matt nodded as he thought about Jay’s offer. “If your silver jacketing is as thick as what you did for the .30 caliber stuff, I think it will work.” He sat up and placed his coffee cup on the desk. “But, Jay, this may be a stopgap. If the rounds don’t measure up in the field…”
Jay stood and held his hands up. “I understand completely. If they don’t perform, there’s no sense in using them. Hell, send them back and I’ll reload them with the solids for you. But I really think you’ll like them once you field test them.”
“Make it happen.” Matt turned and walked to his safe. “Now. How much do you need to get this bulk silver?”
*****
The largest of the three boulders behind the hangar gave a soft yellow glow before a seam appeared along the edge and a brighter golden light burst forth. Wallace, Gonzales, and Gus Tracy all stepped through and took up defensive positions. Once they determined the area clear, they radioed the hangar guards and informed them that the rest of the island team was coming through the portal. When they received an ‘all clear’ signal they waved through the rest of the party.
Gnat stepped out into the darkness followed by Azrael and Jack. Kalen stepped out last and waving his hand over the portal sealed the boulder behind them. “Home sweet home, eh, Chief?” Pedro remarked.
Jack looked at the beat up old hangar and felt a sudden pang for Nadia. “Home is where the heart is, Popo.”
“Copy that, Chief.” The three operators slowly stood and with a final sweeping motion, fell into step and moved toward the hangar that had once been home.
“Someone approaches,” Azrael stated softly, his hand holding Jack back by the shoulder.
“Good to see your ugly mug again, Phoenix.” Dominic blocked out most of the security light as he stepped from the shadows. “As soon as they said you boys were coming in, I wanted to be first to welcome you back.”
Jack patted Azrael’s hand. “Friendly.” He turned to Dom and was nearly crushed in a bear hug.
Azrael studied the large man squeezing his commander and shook his head. “He does not appear to be acting friendly.”
Dom dropped Jack and stared behind him. “Whoa. Who are your friends?”
Jack sucked in air and placed a steadying hand on Dom’s shoulder. “These are my…team.” He pointed them out one by one. “Azrael, Gnat, and you’ve met Kalen.”
Dom gave them a toothy grin. “Your team? I thought you had a team of spec op wolves?”
Jack sighed and shook his head. “Yeah, so did I.” He turned back toward the hangar. “What say we get these kids settled into some kind of bunks and maybe get them fed.”
“Hell yeah, we can do that.” Dom slapped Azrael on the back and nearly jumped back as the gargoyle’s wings fluffed under his hand. “What the?”
“He’s a gargoyle. Grimlock’s baby brother.” Jack pulled Dom toward the hangar. “I’ll fill everybody in as best I can once everybody is settled.”
“Well, it’s still a mess. We’re trying to get shit picked up and fixed and cleaned up after we got hit and…”
“Wait. The hangar was hit, too?” Jack stopped and stared at Dominic. “The guys on the chopper didn’t say anything about that.”
“They probably didn’t know. The first thing they hit was our coms.” Dom pointed behind them to the large dishes that still had support cabling holding them in place while the concrete cured. “The chopper was dispatched just before the attack.”
“How bad was it?” Jack asked. “Was anybody hurt?” Pedro, Jimmy, and Gus all moved in closer to hear Dom.
“Yeah, well…Major Tufo got tore up real bad. Doc patched him up though. We think he might make it.” He sighed heavily and then turned to the three operators. “I’m sorry, guys, Bone bought it in the attack.”
All three operators were struck hard. They didn’t know the new SEAL that well, but he had seemed like a solid warrior and had more than pulled his own weight. Jack pulled Dom closer and stared at his eyes. “Who else? Was anybody else hurt?”
Dom nodded. “Yeah, we had quite a few hurt or killed. But those are the ones from the squads. The rest were support personnel.”
“Where’s Laura? Is she still…” Pedro asked, his voice nearly cracking as he asked.
“She’s still out. To be honest, I don’t know exactly where she is, but I think she’s headed back since all this happened.” Dom turned and headed toward the hangar. “Let’s get you settled and we can get you caught up.”
“Apollo was with the team that attacked us.” Jack didn’t know why he just blurted it out, but it froze Dom in his tracks. He spun on the smaller man.
“What did you just say?”
Jack nodded. “You heard me. Apollo led the wolves that attacked us on the island.” Jack could see the gears turning in Dom’s mind. The larger man glanced up and looked past Pedro, half way expecting Apollo to be standing behind his men and grinning at him as though it were a big joke.
“That can’t be. Not Apollo…”
“He said something about Maria and me lying to him and…” Jack trailed off, shaking his head. “Sheridan put him up to it.”
“Sheridan? Your old pal from Team One?”
Jack grimaced. “He’s not my pal. But yeah, same asshole.”
Dom stiffened and shot a glance back at the hangar. “The colonel needs to know this.”
*****
Damien unloaded the meager supplies and began setting them up under Lilith’s direction. He would make the smallest of adjustments according to her careful eye. He didn’t know why everything needed to be just so, but he knew that if his goddess wanted it so, it would be.
Once he had everything exactly as she thought it should be, he stood to the side and watched her. She walked around the ceremonial site twice and inspected everything exactingly. Damien had painted the glyphs on the floor exactly as she stated they should be. He painstakingly placed each object where she stated they needed to be. He even located where true north was rather than trust a compass to tell him where magnetic north was. He didn’t dare be off at all for her.
“Mistress, if I may ask…” His voice was dry and hoarse as he whispered his question. She continued to study the placement of each object, staring with an intensity that he couldn’t comprehend. “What is the meaning of all of this?”
“You may ask.” She stood and strode purposefully to the next item, studying it’s placement for what seemed an inordinate amount of time.
Damien cleared his throat and stood slightly taller, “Mistress, what is the meaning of all of this?”
“I already told you. To call my Legion to me.” She continued to study the placement and shook her head. “Something is off, but I can’t tell what.”
“What is your Legion, Mistress?”
Lilith stood and stepped away from the pentagram on the floor, the double layered circle around it drawn and painted with perfection. Slowly she turned to h
im and cocked her head slightly. “Poor little vampire. You truly have no idea, do you?”
Damien tried not to cower in her presence, but he could feel himself shaking as she stared at him. He watched with a fascinating horror as she raised her arms to him, inviting him closer. “Come to me, child.”
Damien wanted nothing more than to run and hide. To put as much distance between himself and her as he possibly could, but…her call called him like a magnet pulled steel. His body moved toward her as though he no longer controlled it. He wanted to scream or cry or plea for forgiveness as her arms wrapped around him and he felt her fingers stroke his hair. “You want nothing more than to sink your fangs into me and taste true power, isn’t that right, little vampire?”
Damien tried to recoil with horror. “N-no, Mistress. I would never…”
“Tsk-tsk, Damien. You and I both know that you prefer the ghoulish ways. You prefer meat in your stomach to blood.” She held her arm out to him and taunted him. “Go ahead, child. Eat of my flesh.”
Damien felt revulsion even as his mouth opened and he felt his lips wrap around the tender flesh of her arm. He could taste the copper of her blood as his fangs sliced into her flesh and although his mind screamed ‘no’ his body refused to listen as it bit deeper into her muscle and ripped a large chunk free from the bone. He could feel her warm blood running down his chin and neck as he chewed and savored the taste of his goddess.
With horrid fascination he watched as her flesh renewed itself before his very eyes, his mouth still full of her flesh and blood. He swallowed and felt…not a surge of energy from millennia of power built walking the earth, but memories. Memories of a simpler time. When mankind wore skins to cover himself and protect from the elements. When the first thoughts of civilization began to take root. When man first domesticated animals for food and beasts of burden. When plants were first cultivated…he was watching it all from her eyes. And he knew. She wasn’t the first vampire…
Damien fell to the ground as his body fought the flesh now churning in his stomach. Images continued to flash across his mind and the harder he fought against them, the harder they pierced the veil of his own memories, forcing their way to the forefront and threatening to explode his eyes from their sockets.
He saw mankind as it manipulated fire. As it prayed to rocks and clouds in the sky. As it made gods of anything it didn’t understand. He watched as the hairless apes slowly developed into things more akin to the food source he knew today.
Damien rolled over and got his knees under him, pushing up and trying to force the foreign flesh from his body. He gagged and hurled, lurched, and spat; but the offending flesh clung to his guts like a parasite, forcing the memories into him.
Damien saw the garden. The beauty of it astounded him. He saw the Adam through her eyes and, although it called to him, she pushed it away. She had been created from the earth itself just as the Adam had been. She was his equal and would not be subjugated. He watched as she left…hovering just outside the gates…watched as the Eve was created from the Adam’s rib. He could feel her anger, her betrayal. He watched as she ran blindly into the wilderness.
Damien tried once more to expel the flesh but it refused to give up its grip on him. He gasped for air as he lay on the cold cement floor. Rolling to his side, he curled into the fetal position and surrendered to the visions.
She ran to the mountains. Her anger fueled by pain…pushing her to run further, faster. And then she saw him. So tall. So blindingly beautiful. His alabaster skin, soft blue eyes, yellow hair and…yes…wings. White and soft, like the wings of a dove. His skin glowed with a radiance she’d never seen. His beauty was like none other.
He was her first lover. She surrendered herself to him willingly, and he showed her things that she never knew possible. He promised her everything. She would live forever. She would rule this earth. He would give her a Legion to command. Six thousand bloodthirsty warriors…hers for the taking.
She gave herself willingly. Heart, mind, body and soul. He was her master now. Her creator was no more. She turned her back on Him entirely. She belonged entirely to Samael.
The images flashed through his mind so rapidly that Damien couldn’t breathe. He tried to suck in air and he felt bloody foam forming in his throat…the images of her life, running from village to village, forced to live off the blood of people like a vampire. A daywalking vampire. She can walk in the light!
Rome! Rome was her undoing! She was caught! Oh, the terrible things they did to her. She prayed to him. Samael, save me! But he didn’t come. The tortures they invented just for her. As she lay stretched out, naked, scarred, about to be drawn and quartered, he came. Finally. But he didn’t save her. “The time is not right,” he whispered. With a single kiss to her forehead, he gave her the knowledge. Now she knew how to call her Legion. Now, when it was too late. She stared up at his beautiful form, his dove like wings folded behind him as he stood over her. “Your day will come again, my love.”
Darkness…
10
“You’re absolutely certain it was Apollo? Our Apollo?” Mitchell found his chest tightening and a lump forming in his throat. He had been so preoccupied with the mission and the cleanup from the attack, then the next op immediately afterward, he had completely forgotten protocols. Namely, mustering his personnel. Then he remembered that he had granted the man leave along with the others from his team. His mind spun as he considered Jack’s words and the second guessing was muddying his thoughts.
“Yes, sir, I’m absolutely certain it was him. We had a very tense…conversation.” Jack studied his old commanding officer and could see the multiple emotions trying to cross his features. “He singled me out of the entire group. Blamed me for something to do with Maria?” Jack studied Mitchell who gave him a blank stare.
“You mean her death? Jack, you had nothing to do with that.”
“I know that, sir.” Jack sat up straighter in his chair and cleared his throat. “Sheridan got to him, sir. Got into his head. Convinced him that there was more going on with Maria and the Padre than what we thought.”
“Sheridan?” Mitchell was on his feet, his eyes bulging. “That son of a bitch is supposed to be in WitSec!”
“Understood, sir, but Apollo was pretty adamant. Sheridan had a video of Maria and the Padre together and…”
Mitchell glanced down, his jaw ticking. “And?”
“And somehow Marshall knew. Apollo says he caught them or something. Anyway, Sheridan used it to get inside his head and twist him all up.” Jack stood and paced to try to burn off the nervous energy. “Sherry got him so twisted up that he blamed the entire team. Convinced him to attack us at the island. A lot of good men died out there.”
“Mueller?” Mitchell’s eyes indicated he was asking about more than just Robert.
“Negative, sir. He and his family are safe. They stayed behind to let me know in case Rufus returns.” Jack reached into his blouse and retrieved the blue notebook. “I believe this belongs to Dr. Peters.”
Mitchell took the notebook and flipped through the pages absently. “So the bastard did steal it.”
“And he tried to build something from there, I’m afraid.” Matt’s head jerked around and met Jack’s gaze. “I can’t say for sure that it’s the Doomsday weapon that Doc told you about, but whatever it was blew up when he tried to use it. The only thing left was a smoking crater.”
“Did you direct the crews from the chopper to pick through it and bring back whatever they could find?”
Jack smirked and fell back into his chair. “Of course, that was one of the first things I did. I wanted to know if there were any remains in that hole as well.”
Mitchell sat back into his chair and ran a hand across his face. “So if I’m putting the pieces together correctly, Sheridan is behind the attacks. But why?”
“He may have recruited Apollo, and he may well have been behind the attacks here, but he’s a merc, sir. A hired gun. He doesn’t have the resourc
es to hire a bunch of werewolves and have them put their lives on the line for money.” Matt looked up and studied him at that. “Wolves fight for honor, for their pack, or because their Alpha tells them to. They don’t fight for material wealth.” Jack shook his head. “No, if Sheridan is behind this, he was hired to direct it, but he’s not running it. Somebody more important is.”
“Great. Valuable intel, but we’re still no closer to knowing who’s behind this.” Matt stood and made his way to the door, notebook in hand. “Go check on your team. I’m going to return this to Doc. Maybe he’ll finally relax a bit.”
“Once he finds out that Thorn had prototypes built, he’s going to need some industrial strength Xanax.”
*****
After escorting Little John and his vampire sister back to base, Donovan quickly made his report then went in search of Major Tufo. He had no desire to watch any more of the drama that was the life and times of the family Sullivan. The entire command was abuzz with what happened with the XO and the rumor mill was running on overtime. He had a sneaky suspicion and needed to either put it to rest or try to help his friend in dealing with what he knew he was facing.
After discovering what room the Tufo’s were tucked into, Donnie double-timed below decks and found a corpsman exiting as he approached. “How’s he holding up?”
The corpsman turned and shook his head. “Cranky son of a bitch.”
“I can hear you,” Mark shouted from inside the room. Donnie shot the withering corpsman a smile and patted his shoulder as he passed him.
“Don’t worry, he’s always like that.”
“And the white horse you rode in on, Donovan,” Major Tufo called through the closed door.
Donnie looked to the corpsman and shrugged. “See?” he whispered. He knocked lightly on the door and stuck his head in. “Permission to enter, sir?”
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