“You’re all done as of right now,” Attwood replied. “I have already set the wheels in motion for ending this on my terms. You take your orders from me now. I will bring out my men with the civilians, then we’re going back to BoDex, where you and what’s left of your force will be sent packing to wherever the hell it is you came from. Now give up your goddamn weapons!”
Keville had slipped behind Collins. He gently pressed his handgun against the base of Collins’s skull. Collins, unfazed by death, still held his MP5N on General Attwood.
Black handed his submachine gun and SIG to Keville’s men, then turned to Collins. “Give them your weapons.”
Collins didn’t respond. “I said give them your weapons! Now!” Collins looked at Black, then grudgingly did as he was ordered. One of Keville’s men took his MP5N, while Keville slipped Collins’s SIG from its holster. Once Collins was disarmed, Keville eased his handgun away from the man’s head. Collins glared.
“Keville, you’re with me,” General Attwood said. “You other men, watch our guests closely. Tie them up if they give you any trouble. Let’s go!” General Attwood and Jim Keville hustled toward the resort.
“Incoming chopper!” Robinson yelled. He slipped his monocular under the curtain on one of the front windows. “General Attwood and the BoDex security guys just got out.”
Foster bolted upright with a groan of pain. “Are you sure?”
“Positive,” Robinson confirmed. “Definitely the General and…three, no…four security guys. Looks like two bad guys from the Humvee, and one, two…make it three more from the flight crew. Ten total.”
“What do you think is going on?” Mitchell asked Foster.
“I’d like to think he came to get us out of here.”
“We’ll know soon enough,” Robinson said. “He’s walking this way right now.”
The heavy wood door swung open just as General Attwood’s boots hit the front porch. Without breaking stride, he entered the lobby of Nature’s Haven Resort.
“Good to see you, Robinson, Mitchell,” General Attwood said. Jim Keville walked up behind Attwood and stood quietly. “Where’s the rest of the unit?”
“Sir, Sergeant Foster is in the next room. He’s been wounded, but he’s okay,” Mitchell said. “Serrafino is watching the rear of the building.”
Robinson jumped into the conversation. “Vincenzo and Cummings are out by the bridge. They have five of the Centurions with them. And somehow, Cummings seems to be able to control them, sir.”
General Attwood stood, a look of astonishment on his face. “Take me to Sergeant Foster.”
Attwood and Mitchell entered the dining room where Foster sat in a large chair, his wounded leg propped up. His head was tilted back, eyes closed.
“Sean.” Mitchell shook Foster gently.
“Yeah,” Foster replied, eyes still closed.
“General Attwood is here.”
Foster’s head snapped forward. He struggled to get to his feet.
“Easy, Sergeant!” General Attwood said. “Stay in that chair.” Attwood glanced at the bandage around Foster’s thigh and the small area of pink where blood had seeped through the dressing. “How’s the leg?”
“Fine, sir,” Foster answered. “Better have a seat, General. My report could take a while.” Attwood pulled a chair. Foster filled him in on everything that had happened since they lost contact with BoDex.
Sal Vincenzo was the point man, walking a short distance ahead of Cummings and the Centurions. As he rounded a bend in the road, he could see the resort. The blue Humvee and the olive-drab Black Hawk blocked their way. Vincenzo ducked back, held up his fist, and took cover in the foliage.
Cummings saw his signal and blew softly on the red whistle. He signaled with his good arm and commanded, “Stop, stop!” The Centurions came to a halt, milling about in the middle of the road.
A moment later, Vincenzo approached in a crouch. The Centurions watched him as closely as he watched them. He still didn’t have quite the level of trust in them that Cummings did.
“What have you got?” Cummings asked.
“The road enters the parking lot just around that bend, and blocking that entry is a Humvee and a Black Hawk.”
“How about personnel?”
“I counted five of those guys in black and three more from BoDex security.”
“BoDex? Are you sure?”
“Sure enough,” Vincenzo answered.
“Think they’re reinforcements for the guys in black?” Cummings asked.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“How do you want to play this?”
Vincenzo weighed their options, then made his recommendation. “I’ll walk right up to them and demand they surrender. If things go south, you ride in with the cavalry.”
“The direct approach, huh?”
“Sure.” Vincenzo smiled.
“Maybe the direct approach isn’t always the best approach, Sal.”
“What’s the worst that could happen?” Vincenzo took off toward the men near the helicopter. He waved to Cummings just before disappearing.
“Right, Sal,” Cummings muttered. “What’s the worst that could happen…”
“And that’s everything, sir,” Foster said.
“Thank you, Sergeant,” Attwood said. “I need to speak with the civilians now. I have to know exactly what they saw and what they think went on here today. When I’m done, we’ll get you and your men on that helicopter and back to BoDex for medical attention.”
“Yes, sir.” Foster hesitated. “General, I’m sorry about disobeying your orders regarding turning command over to Black.”
“Sergeant, I understand,” Attwood interrupted. “I would have been disappointed if you had gone along with his sick plan.” Attwood turned to Mitchell. “Would you please bring the civilians out here? And please have Serrafino, Robinson, and Keville come in here also.”
“Yes, sir.” Mitchell returned a moment later.
“Folks, this is our commander, General Attwood,” Foster said. “General, this is Jennifer, the girl we were searching for, and these are the owners of this establishment, Sara and Jack MacGregor.”
Attwood rose from his chair. “Pleased to meet you all. I hope we haven’t inconvenienced you too much.”
“I’d sure like to know what the hell is going on here,” Jack said.
“So would I,” Sara said. “It’s not everyday we have mystery men kick in our front door and shoot at us.”
“You’re right. You deserve an explanation. Please, have a seat and I’ll do my best to answer all your questions.” Mitchell again entered the room, this time followed by Serrafino, Robinson, and Keville. Attwood took a deep breath.
“First, I would like to start with you, young lady.” Jennifer squeezed Sara’s hand. Hard. “Now, there’s no reason to be nervous. I just want you to tell me what happened to you.” Jennifer looked to Sara.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. The general is here to help us,” Sara said. “Just tell him everything that happened to you.”
Jennifer spoke in a low voice, telling General Attwood what she could recall, spanning the time from when she saw the monsters attack her parents to when she woke up in the resort. There were periods where she had no recollection of events, like some of her time wandering in the woods and Jack finding her. Attwood was encouraged to discover she was vague about the Centurions’ attack on her parents.
“That’s all I can remember,” she said.
Attwood looked at Sara and Jack. “Can you continue where Jennifer left off?”
Jack began with his discovery of Jennifer passed out in the middle of the road and ended with a man in black fatigues who tried to run him through with a huge knife in the lobby of their resort.
“I think some answers would be nice, General,” Sara persisted.
This woman is not going to give up until she gets answers, Attwood thought, but with a few tweaks, I can make everything they told me fit into a tidy, bel
ievable package.
“Of course, Sara,” Attwood replied. “First, I’d like to clear up what happened to Jennifer.” He began his damage control. “You said you saw monsters attack your mother and father?”
Jennifer nodded.
“Could you have seen bears, not monsters?” he asked. “Think really hard. I bet things happened very quickly and what you thought were monsters were probably bears. What do you think?”
“I…I guess they could have been bears,” she said.
“That’s what I thought too, because that’s what we found when we went out to help your mom and dad,” Attwood said. “Had you ever seen bears before today? Up close, I mean?”
“Only once, at the Catskill Game Farm.”
“I bet they were just sitting or lying around, not chasing anyone.”
“Yeah. One of them even had a dress on and was dancing.” A hint of a smile brushed her lips, then faded.
“That must have been funny to see,” Attwood said. Jennifer nodded, her eyes downcast. “Well, Jennifer, the bears you saw at the game farm were tame bears. They were around people all the time so they weren’t afraid of them. The ones that attacked your parents were wild bears, not used to being around people. They got scared when they saw your parents. That’s why they attacked them.” Sara and Jack looked on in silence. They seemed to be accepting Attwood’s explanation.
“We saw what happened on our surveillance cameras and sent men out right away, but we were too late to save your parents. I’m very sorry about that. One of the men watching the cameras saw you run away. That’s why I sent Sergeant Foster and his men to find you.”
“What happened to them?” Jennifer asked.
“Who?” Attwood replied.
“The bears,” she said. “What happened to the bears?”
Perfect! He had convinced her that she had seen bears! General Attwood leaned forward and continued. “Unfortunately, we had to kill the bears before they hurt anyone else.”
“But I saw more of them. I thought they were the same ones chasing me.”
“What you have to realize, Jennifer,” Attwood continued with a gentle academic tone, “is that in this part of New York State, there are between four and five thousand bears. They might have looked like the same bears, but the truth is, there are bears all over the place.” On this point, General Attwood was not exaggerating. Thanks to Arnie Vought and a quick check of the Internet, he was prepared with all the facts he needed to sell his cover story about the black bear population of upstate New York.
“So, they’re all dead?” she asked.
“Yes, they are,” General Attwood replied. “They won’t hurt you or anyone else again.”
General Attwood was being truthful, even if it was with a little tweak of the facts. He actually did have dead bears to prove his story. As soon as Arnie Vought had come running into the general’s office, Attwood had given him the Herculean task of locating a few bears, killing them, and getting their carcasses to the site of the Pruitts’ attack. Once that was done, Vought had the Pruitts’ remains moved back and staged the scene so it looked like a bear attack.
“What’s going to happen to me now?” Jennifer asked.
Attwood was reminded of the pain he felt when he lost his son. He took a deep breath. “I called the sheriff over at Eagle’s Notch, a nice man named Al Jarvis, and told him what happened. I let him know my men found you safe and sound. Sheriff Jarvis was on his way to BoDex when I left. When we get back there we’ll sit down with him. I’ll make sure you’re taken care of.”
“I know Al Jarvis,” Sara said to Jennifer. “He is a nice man.”
“You’re being very brave,” Attwood said. “Mitchell, would you please take Jennifer into the other room? I have some things to discuss with the MacGregors.”
Attwood had a more serious look, a harder edge to his voice. “Whatever we discuss here cannot, under any circumstances, be shared with anyone else. Ever. To do so would be a breach of national security, and you would be opening yourselves up to severe legal punishment, worse than you could ever imagine. Do you understand what I have just explained to you? The consequences you may face? And do you both freely agree to abide by my terms?” Sara and Jack nodded.
“BoDex Research & Development exists to perform work for the United States government. That’s no secret, however, the nature of that work is highly classified. Earlier today, Jennifer’s parents trespassed onto BoDex’s property. Because the Pruitts trespassed on government property where classified work is performed, standard operating procedure was to lock down the facility and automatically notify a high level security team. That was the group dressed in black fatigues. They immediately tried to locate Jennifer for questioning—to find out if her parents were trying to break in to conduct any subversive actions against the United States.”
“Oh, come on,” Sara said. “This is beginning to sound just a little too weird.”
“Weird or not, Sara, this is how the government works and that is exactly what happened,” Attwood said. He had hoped the MacGregors would accept this part of his story just as they had seemed to accept that the Centurions were nothing more than wild bears on a rampage. “My men, Sergeant Foster and his team, found Jennifer before the security team did and Sergeant Foster had concerns about what they had in mind for her. Sergeant Foster was not comfortable with these concerns, which is why he refused to turn her over. Things got out of hand between the two teams and mistakes were made.”
“And some people died,” Sara said.
“Yes, unfortunately, some people died.”
“And I was almost one of them,” Jack added.
“I understand that, Jack, and I sympathize with you,” Attwood said. “Our system suffered a critical breakdown today. That breakdown will be examined ad nauseum so this never happens again. I guarantee you this: the parties involved will be held accountable and dealt with severely, but it will be done within our own government community. That’s the best I can do.”
“Just make sure the people responsible pay,” Sara demanded.
“I give you my word.”
Jack and Sara nodded.
“What say we get everyone back to BoDex so we can get Jennifer taken care of,” Attwood said. The general was feeling very confident now. Not only had he convinced Jennifer Pruitt that an unfortunate run-in with black bears had led to the demise of her parents, he had also given the MacGregors an acceptable explanation of the war that had erupted between Master Sergeant Foster’s team and Black’s Reapers. The last thing was to make sure Sheriff Jarvis interpreted the accident scene at BoDex the way Attwood needed him to.
A wave of submachine gun fire erupted outside the resort.
Vincenzo cleared the bend in the road and stopped. The Black Hawk and Humvee blocked the road ahead. The group of men near the helicopter seemed to be in a brawl. Knowing how the Centurions reacted to weapons, he had kept his M4A1 slung over his shoulder. Given the uncertainty ahead of him, he thought it was a good time to unsling his automatic rifle and carry it at the ready.
Sal Vincenzo crept toward the scuffle, more cautious than ever. One of the men in black suddenly pointed in his direction and yelled something unintelligible. Vincenzo waved.
“Hey! I think it’s time for you guys to give up!” Vincenzo shouted. They opened up with their submachine guns. Sal Vincenzo dove into the bushes, trying to escape the swarm of bullets.
Maybe the direct approach isn’t always the best. Lucky for Vincenzo, the distance was too great for them to land any accurate hits.
Cummings would be rounding the bend and attacking any minute, and Vincenzo did not want to get caught between the bad guys and the Centurions. He decided to sweep wide around the right flank and make his way around the hostiles. He rose to a crouch and took off, angling deeper into the woods.
As soon as he heard the gunfire, Mitchell stepped out of the kitchen, automatic rifle at the ready. “Stay there, Mitchell! Watch the girl!” Attwood ordered. “Kevil
le! Take the MacGregors to the kitchen! You and Mitchell watch the civilians!”
With the civilians safely out of the way, Attwood rushed to a window in the lobby. “What the hell is going on out there!” The brief torrent of gunfire had stopped.
Serrafino handed Attwood binoculars. The general saw Black’s fully armed men milling around the parking lot, while Keville’s three security men were on the ground.
“Sonofabitch!” How had Black and his men overpowered three armed security guards?
“Got a man incoming!” Serrafino yelled.
“I think it’s Vincenzo!” Foster shouted. “Robinson! Get on that front door. He’s coming in fast!”
Robinson unlocked the front doors and opened one of them just enough to see Sal Vincenzo take all three porch steps in one leap. Vincenzo went flying through the doorway, coming to a stop in the arms of Dave Serrafino, who prevented him from colliding with the check-in counter. Robinson slammed the door and turned the lock.
“Vincenzo!” Attwood barked. “What’s going on out there?”
“General,” he replied, “I was approaching those guys out there to ask them to surrender peacefully and next thing I know they’re shooting at me.”
“Where’s Cummings?” Foster asked.
“Heading down that road with the Centurions.”
Gunfire erupted again. Attwood raised the binoculars and looked through the window. “Oh my God…”
When Kurt Cummings heard the sound of gunfire, he knew the direct approach Sal Vincenzo used had failed. He hoped his teammate had gotten away unscathed.
With the opposition undoubtedly on full alert now, Cummings felt he had a better chance of overpowering them if he could lead the Centurions back through the woods and find a spot to launch an attack on their flank instead of a head-on assault.
Cummings looked at the creatures huddled together in the middle of the dirt road, their eyes wide open, ears twitching for any sounds. He fingered the red whistle hanging around his neck and wondered, Is this really all that’s keeping them from turning on me right now or do they know the difference between me and the enemy?
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