Sounded easy. Sara was completely fascinated by the process—and hoped it worked out problem-free. Of course if it was less than perfect in this exercise, the flaws could still be dealt with.
First to leave the auditorium was the Alpha Force team. The shifters included Jason, Drew, Seth Ambers, Colleen Hodell and Jock Larabey. Their aides accompanied them, including Rainey Jessop, who’d apparently recovered from her illness.
Would five shifters be enough to stoke the distraction needed for the real mission?
Of course foreign forces confronted by wolves and a cougar would at least be unnerved—and hopefully scared enough to allow the creatures to reposition them away from their hostages...until all were rescued by the lethal, armed human forces of the USFT.
This exercise was being conducted at night, when it was easiest to hide the shifters.
Sara was there as General Yarrow’s aide, extra pair of eyes and backup. And as an enthralled observer.
At the general’s nod, she followed the Alpha Force members outside. They headed from the main office building into the wooded area at the periphery of Ft. Lukman.
There, in a clearing, aides removed vials of elixir and light from their respective backpacks.
After drinking elixir, the shifters repositioned themselves. One of them, Colleen, the only female, was sent off by herself for a little privacy, along with her aide.
And then the shifting began.
* * *
He felt free! Even though it hadn’t been long since his last shift, Jason had been aching to prowl again.
Besides, this exercise would be vital to the United States, and he would be a part of it.
Would its success provide him the ultimate redemption in the eyes of his cousin? His country?
He hoped so.
But for now, he would just revel in his ability to leap into a staged situation and help rescue pretend hostages...and wait until he could accomplish the real thing.
And the fact that Sara would be watching this exercise? Possibly watching him?
Irrelevant.
For now.
* * *
The exercise went smoothly. Almost.
There was a bit of chaos when the USFT members arrived after the shifted Alpha Force team had done a great job of scaring the pretend kidnappers. Sara knew that the supposed victims and their captors hadn’t been informed of all the details of how the rescue would be staged, so they didn’t realize that many wolves and a cougar would be scaring the bad guys off till they were captured by the armed and dangerous USFT members.
But it all worked—though, for a while, the shifters in animal form were dispersed by the pseudo-captors’ own use of unloaded weaponry. Sara watched them run off, glad about their caution.
She recognized, of course, which wolf was Jason. He moved away but stayed close enough to slink around to watch what was happening. So did the other wolves.
Poor Colleen, though. The cougar that was her must have been more unnerved. Sara didn’t see where she went, at least not at first.
But in the end, it all worked. The “kidnappers” were all rounded up and locked in an area of the base that had been fitted out to act like a surrogate jail.
All the shifters, including Colleen, regrouped along with the USFT members after changing back to human form. The “rescued” hostages reconvened at the “jail” area, where those who’d played kidnappers were also released. All participants soon got together to congratulate themselves. The generals, too, celebrated.
Sara saw how pleased Jason appeared. How he seemed to joke and enjoy the party. His cousin Drew patted him on the back for how well he’d done. Sara hadn’t been watching at the time, but apparently one of the “captors” hadn’t been fazed by the shifted animals until Jason virtually attacked him, knocking him to the floor as might happen in the real situation and keeping him under control till the human marksmen could take charge.
He was in his glory.
Sara was happy for him, but she didn’t want to stay there. Not then.
She slipped away.
She considered returning to her quarters but decided she needed face time with some of the dogs in the kennel, who hadn’t been invited to participate in this exercise with their humans.
She could take one for a walk. Maybe even Shadow. No problem getting inside; she’d brought her card keys along in case she was needed to help the shifters.
When she reached the building, she stopped and stared. The door was wide open.
She ran inside. The dogs remained in their kennels and started barking at her.
Sara knew that Jason had reported to Drew the other day about her having found this kennel door unlocked when no one had intentionally left it like that to help a shifter. Everyone was under orders to take special care not to allow that to happen again.
But this was even worse.
Worried, Sara went down the hallway to the door that led down to the lab.
It, too, was open.
She needed to report this. Not touch anything. Not go inside herself.
She could call the general. Or Drew. In fact, Drew was the one she probably should notify.
But Jason had been with her here the other night. They’d both talked to the major. She’d thought security would be beefed up—but on this night, with the exercise that had involved nearly everyone at Ft. Lukman, someone had either been completely careless...or had taken advantage.
Sara pulled her phone from her pocket. “Drew? It’s Sara. I’m at the lab. It looks like someone else has been here, too.”
“Like the other night?” he demanded.
“Maybe worse.”
“Wait there. I’ll join you right away.”
“Please bring Jason,” she said. “He also saw what went on here the other night.”
“Fine,” he said. “Oh, and Sara?”
“Yes?”
His words conformed with the sternness of his tone. “I hope you’re armed.”
* * *
Damn the woman.
Soldier or not, she shouldn’t put herself into dangerous situations without backup.
Jason was furious as he accompanied Drew back to the kennel/lab building.
At least she was waiting outside—with Shadow on a leash beside her. For company? For protection?
Though they stood near the building, away from the door and in an area near the back that was sheltered, neither would be protected from being shot from a distance—particularly if the attacker was one of the highly skilled marksmen of USFT.
That was where he and Drew found them—partly thanks to their enhanced sensory abilities. At least Sara and Shadow weren’t easily visible, but Jason quickly smelled the woman’s citrusy scent as well as the dog’s light canine odor.
“You okay?” Jason asked Sara immediately. Bending to give Shadow a pat, he watched Drew hustle around the building toward the open door to the kennel area and slip inside.
“Yes, I’m fine.” She looked better than fine—except for the paleness of her smooth skin. But there was anger in her blue-green eyes and a determined set to her mouth that told him she wasn’t lying. “But this attempt to get in was more successful than the other. There was even an intrusion into the lab area. The stairway door was unlocked. But the doors along the hallway downstairs that lead into the actual laboratories were still locked. I checked.”
Jason wanted to throttle her. Better yet, kiss her in relief to find that she was unharmed.
But even if he chanced Drew seeing them, Sara wouldn’t appreciate his touch or even his concern. Instead, he merely snapped, “You checked? Before you called us?”
“No, after. But I wanted to—”
“What if whoever broke in was still there?”
“I’m a trained member of the military,” she said slowly, as if she needed to remind him. “I also had a weapon in my pocket.”
“Good.” Drew was back with them. “Show me the unlocked door then we’ll go downstairs.”
&n
bsp; They did. All was as Sara had described.
After locking everything again, Drew called in the base’s security force to plant sentries outside.
When the security detail arrived, Sara, Drew and Jason again began walking, in the dark, toward the area where they’d left the participants in that night’s exercise.
“So who was it?” Sara asked. “Like before, with the cars, it’s unlikely to be a stranger from town who snuck onto the base. With all the activity here tonight, they’d have been noticed.”
“Unless they dressed like some of the others,” Drew reminded her. “A lot of the people stationed here were in disguise for the roles they played tonight—pseudo-hostages, tangos who were the false enemy terrorists. Not to mention the USFT members.”
“And even Alpha Force members, although a lot of us were shifted most of the time,” Jason said.
Sara shot a look at him that suggested she’d seen him shifted. Maybe even shifting. But any heat in her gaze dissipated immediately into the chill of the nighttime air.
“I still think it’s got to be someone in USFT,” Drew said.
“Yeah,” Jason agreed.
They walked on in the darkness, the silence broken by noises from the distance, including voices and cheers. Everyone was still celebrating this night’s activities.
Everyone but them.
“We need to figure out—” Jason began.
At the same time, Sara said, “Let’s see if we can trap whoever it is.”
Drew’s pace slowed as he laughed. “Great minds think alike,” he said. “I was trying to come up with a plan, too, to bring this to a close—and figure out who’s trying so hard, and getting so close to, breaking into the lab.”
“I have an idea,” Sara said as the three stood on a sidewalk facing each other under the dimness of a base streetlight. She looked gorgeous to Jason, despite the way the faint illumination cast shadows onto her face. “As you said, Drew, the most logical scenario is that it’s someone from the USFT trying to get in. Are those rumors still going around that the elixir can help regular people become shifters? If so, why don’t we add to them? Suggest they’re true, but because of the attempts to break into the lab, all the premixed stuff will be moved the day after tomorrow since you need time to figure out a safe enough place to take it. And then we’ll watch and wait for what should be the final break-in.”
Jason couldn’t help it. He grinned at her. “Hey, Drew and I are the ones with the woo-woo powers around here. Are you some kind of mind reader?”
“What, you want to claim my idea as yours?” Sara demanded. Though her tone was sharp, there was a twinkle in her eyes.
Damn, but he really wanted to kiss her.
Even more, he wanted to do exactly as she’d suggested—but find a way to keep her far from the site of their trap.
Though he couldn’t be near her anymore, he still wanted to keep her safe.
But he had a feeling that trying to prevent her participation would be as impossible as making love with her again...no matter how hard he strove for either.
* * *
Sara kept Shadow leashed beside her as she walked back along the darkened sidewalks of the base. Her goal was the area where she’d left the participants in that night’s exercises. Then, she had departed because she didn’t feel part of what had been accomplished.
Now she had another mission to accomplish.
With Jason, of course. He stayed with her on the walk. Even tried to take possession of Shadow’s leash and tell Sara to disappear.
A far cry from the times they had made love, and the last thing he’d wanted—either of them wanted—was for one of them to go away.
Drew was with them, too. As he should be. He’d need to be the primary one to start—actually, add to—the rumors that would hopefully result in ending the attempts at breaking into the lab once and for all.
Because the perpetrator would be caught and appropriately dealt with.
“So how will we handle this, cuz?” Jason had walked ahead to join Drew while Sara lagged behind as Shadow did usual dog things like sniffing the ground and lifting his leg.
“I’ll keep as close to the truth as seems logical,” Drew said.
Sara enjoyed watching both men from behind. They were of similar height and build. They strutted in their camo uniforms as if proud of who they were and what they represented.
They looked all military, even if Jason was just pretending because he had to.
And the fact that both men—dark haired with silver highlights that glowed now and then as they walked beneath streetlights—happened to be shapeshifters? That wasn’t obvious at the moment, but Sara was well aware of it.
Everyone they eventually met up with would know it, too.
“I’ll tell them you went to get your cover dog Shadow to take him back to your quarters for the night, and you found evidence of an attempted break-in at the kennel. Since the lab is below, you checked there, too, and found there was an apparent attempt to break in to the refrigeration storage unit.”
“Will you mention that it wasn’t the first time an Alpha Force member became aware of possible tampering?” Sara had moved up, urging Shadow forward, so she wouldn’t have to speak loudly to be heard.
“That’s not necessary now,” Drew said. “We’ll hold it back, use the knowledge when and if it makes sense for trapping our bad guy.”
Jason had stayed quiet all this time. That wasn’t like him. Sara expected a quip of some sort.
When he did speak, it was to Drew. “I think it’s important, cuz, to make it clear I was the one who noticed the attempted break-in. If we do get our bad guy to make himself visible, he may not be happy. It’ll be better if I’m the one who has the fun of fighting back.”
He didn’t even look at Sara, damn him. He ignored her. Pretended she wasn’t even with them. What, was Shadow walking himself?
“I appreciate your attempt to protect me, Jason, if that’s what you’re doing,” Sara said coldly. “But as you know full well by now, I can take care of myself. I’ll definitely be prepared.”
“Maybe so,” Jason retorted, “but since when have you become a shapeshifter? Or maybe you want to buy into those rumors we’re about to exaggerate—that all you gotta do is take some of the elixir. One of us is a lot more likely to be able to—”
“Enough,” Drew cut in. They had reached the exterior of the sham jail area of the base. There were still a lot of voices emanating from inside, so clearly the party wasn’t over. “We need to present a unified front. My orders, for now, are that Sara will be our lead since she’ll represent not only Alpha Force but also the general. I’ll start things off by making the announcement that hopefully will result in our capturing whoever’s doing this.”
“Fine,” Jason snapped, but Sara was glad to see he was addressing Drew’s back. She followed with Shadow. Jason was left to follow them into the concrete building usually used for storage that now represented triumph and unity in the two units’ working together.
Yet they were about to be torn apart again, Sara thought.
Temporarily. But when the thief was caught, everyone else, in both units and otherwise at Ft. Lukman, would be able to cheer.
Chapter 22
“Everyone, listen up,” Drew called from the front of the crowd.
If Jason had been in charge, he’d have let out a loud whistle to get the crowd’s attention. But his cuz was a major in a crowd of mostly subordinates, except for the generals. So everyone listened up.
Jason did, too, although he kept a sideward gaze on Sara and Shadow, who stood just behind Drew. Like it or not, and notwithstanding Drew’s outranking him, Jason would do what was needed to keep Sara out of whatever was about to explode.
Sure, she was one fine military officer, trained and all that. But despite her skills, this wasn’t her war.
It was Alpha Force’s, since it involved someone attempting to undermine it by stealing its best underlying weapon: the elixir.<
br />
“You all need to know what’s going on,” Drew continued loudly. “We’ve just uncovered an incident at our laboratory where apparently someone tried to break in and possibly steal some elixir. Right now we’ve set some guards there. We need to move the premixed elixir to a safer location, though. We’ll figure out where first thing tomorrow morning, then get it done.”
General Yarrow joined him at the front of the throng. Good, Jason figured. That would give even more authority to what Drew was saying.
And most of it was true.
Except maybe the part about moving the elixir. That was just a ruse to smoke out whoever would attack the formula in motion and try to take it then.
If that didn’t do it—well, they’d use wherever the stuff was theoretically taken to keep the trap set. Whoever it was would undoubtedly move soon.
Maybe thinking that all he had to do was steal some of the elixir, drink it and turn into a wolf who could be vicious enough to ward off all who would stop his theft.
Not gonna happen, you goon, Jason thought.
“If whoever tried to steal the elixir would come forward and confess, we’ll make sure things go a lot easier on him,” the general said calmly. “We’ll need to take precautions that the elixir, and the secrecy of Alpha Force, haven’t been compromised, but that person might even be able to help us. Advise us on why you did it and how we can better protect our people and our Alpha Force supplies and objectives.”
That, too, wasn’t reality, but Jason still felt admiration for the general. Something like that just might make the bad guy step forward to protect his own butt.
No one in the large crowd remained in disguise after the exercise. All stood watching as if they gave a damn. None leaped up and confessed.
No matter.
The bars would be lowered tomorrow. Whoever it was would be caught, confession or not.
And Jason, on behalf of Alpha Force, would be there to lay his paws all over the guy.
* * *
Sara felt exhausted.
Though she had only been part of the Ft. Lukman exercises as an observer, that had still been tiring—to make sure all seemed to go well.
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