G.H.O.S.T. Teams: Book 1 - Magic

by Bobby Brimmer

  “Trap,” he finished.

  I took the exit for the George Washington Parkway. I went through the turn so fast that two of Vlad’s wheels came off of the ground. We were only on the parkway for a few moments before Visine signaled for me to pull over just after the railroad bridge. I locked up the brakes, turning off of the road and onto a grass shoulder. Dirt flew everywhere as Vlad’s tires destroyed the ground. We saw the Team van tucked into the trees, barely visible through the thick foliage.

  A flash of light illuminated the area deep in the trees. As we jumped out of Vlad I heard an engine roar to life behind me. I turned to see a speedboat heading off down the Potomac. It was too dark to make out the passengers, but somewhere deep down in my gut I just knew that some of the bad guys were on that boat. Instinctually I took half a step in that direction before another strobe like flash behind me brought my attention back to the woods. Visine and I plunged into the trees, making our way through the opening created by the van.

  Once we got past the dense foliage that hid this area from the road, I could see that my team was engaged in a large battle. The nearly full moon was sending light through the canopy as well as reflecting off of the pond. The rippling water caused the silvery light to dance across everything, casting long shadows, and giving the entire scene an ethereal feel.

  The first person that I saw was Timothy, lying slumped on the ground, smoke rising from his body. His back was to me, his silk shirt melted away to reveal burnt flesh. A dozen feet away, sitting on his butt and leaning against a tree was Freddy. He was desperately clutching his left shoulder, blood oozing out of the wound beneath his hand, his face twisted in pain. Another flash of light brought my attention further ahead.

  A stream of fire emanated from the outstretched hand of a sorcerer, illuminating the entire area. He was aiming for Erika, who managed to roll underneath the blast just in time. She came up behind a tree, a tomahawk in one hand and a gun in the other. There was a scorched hole in her coat revealing a smoking burn on the back of her left shoulder. I immediately started running towards the sorcerer, using the additional light from his fire blast to take in everything around me.

  Danny was laying flat on his back, smoke rising from his chest. There was blood coming out of his mouth, nose, and a nasty cut above his eye. The early signs of bruising were already visible all over his face, in addition to his nose being obviously broken. He wasn’t moving and in this light I couldn’t even tell if he was breathing or not. It was obvious that someone or something exceptionally strong had struck him in the face. Half a breath later, I located the thing that was most likely responsible.

  I don’t know if the knowledge came from movies, stories, my GHOST training, or maybe just the basic human instincts regarding monsters. But whatever the source of my guess, I knew that it was spot on, that was a Troll. The creature stood easily ten feet tall, with dark gray skin, and random tuffs of brown hair scattered around its body. He had huge floppy bat like ears, large yellow eyes, and a mouth big enough to swallow a person whole. His smile made me think of a boar, as his two lower canines jutted out of his mouth, thick and tusk like, and almost a foot long. Hands big enough to swallow my head ended in jagged bony claws. But more importantly, currently in his hand, was the neck of Kara.

  The troll held her off of the ground, her feet dangling in the air. She was grabbing his fingers, clearly tugging with all of her strength in an attempt to break his grip and get free. I instantly shifted my direction, turning towards the troll. That was when I noticed the sorcerer out of the corner of my eye. He was cupping his hands, creating a ball of blue electricity, and only a moment away from sending the thing at me. I heard Visine yell from behind me.

  “Down,” he shouted just as he fired.

  I instantly dropped, past experience teaching me to trust Visine in battle. I hit the ground and rolled, continuing my momentum forward, albeit at a lower angle. I glanced back at Visine and noted the absurd gun that he held in his hand. If the size was anything to gauge it on, the thing must have fired bullets the size of golf-balls. When the gun went off, it sounded like someone had fired a cannon. I heard the bullet whiz over me at the same time that the ball of electricity flew over my head back towards Visine. The entire thing was over in less than a second, and I heard the sorcerer scream out in pain. I was back on my feet at this point, looking at the sorcerer. There was a huge hole in his chest, his arms outstretched as his body fell to the ground, seemingly in slow motion.

  “Dammit, my favorite,” Visine yelled behind me.

  I glanced back to see that his hand was a melted gooey mess, his gun raining down to the ground in pieces. He grabbed his right wrist with his left hand, squeezing as if he could stop the pain from traveling up his arm. Dropping to one knee, he looked up with fire in his eyes. Visine was pissed but alive. I continued my sprint towards the troll. Kara was still struggling in his grip, but even from here I could tell that her strength was fading. Once Erika realized that the sorcerer was down, she too started running towards the troll. As she was much closer than me, she was going to beat me there.

  The troll roared and suddenly Kara’s body went limp. Erika was just about there when the creature hurled Kara’s body like rag doll, hitting Erika straight on. Unfortunately, as Erika was holding a weapon in each hand, she had to fling her arms out to the side in an attempt to keep from doing extra harm to either of them. This meant that Kara hit her full in the chest. The force of the throw sent both of them flying back through the air, striking a tree ten feet away. As Erika was in the back, she appeared to take the brunt of the impact. I heard a loud crack and both of their bodies slumped to the ground unmoving. As much as I wanted to run over and check on them, I knew that I needed to deal with the troll.

  He turned to face me, his large tennis ball sized eyes staring me down. His lower jaw was jutting out, drool dripping down around his huge lower teeth in an expression that I can only call a smile. He wore an animal skin, stretched across his body, slung over one shoulder in the same way that B movies depicted cave men. The animal skin had deep brown fur, making it look like a buffalo pelt. Across the Troll’s back I could just make out a large broadsword. Although the blade would have looked huge in my hands, it was dwarfed by the enormous size of the troll.

  I was running at the Troll full speed and I knew that the quicker I took him down the faster I could check on my team. Judging from the strength that he had displayed, it was obvious that this guy was much stronger than me. So as my left shoulder was still a bit sore from the earlier fight with the sorcerers, I decided to open with a kick. Leaping into the air, I gave my best impression of Bruce Lee, and drove my foot into the center of the Troll’s chest.

  The move caught him a bit off guard and I was able to land my kick full force into his sternum. I was hoping to hear something pop or break, but instead it was like I had just kicked a brick wall. The troll reacted quickly, reaching for my leg with both of his huge hands. His fingers just brushed my pant-leg as I pushed off of his chest and managed to back-flip out of the way just in time. He immediately lunged towards me, reaching out with his right hand. I ducked under his arm, and as much as I wanted to take the dirty shot, his enormous right thigh was in my way, forcing me to settle for an elbow to his kidney. It felt like I was striking concrete. I rolled immediately after the strike, just avoiding his swinging backhand.

  I kept my distance and the Troll started stalking towards me. At that moment, Visine arrived to join in the fun, sneaking up behind the Troll and punching it in the kidney with his left hand. The creature grunted from the impact, but otherwise seemed unaffected. I knew how strong Visine was and if the full force of his punch was only annoying the Troll, we might be in trouble.

  The beast spun around, swinging at Visine as he did so. Ducking under the blow, Visine, his right hand useless, drove his left fist in the Troll’s gut. The creature snorted in pain, but brought its fists down hard, striking Visine on the shoulders. The force of the blow sent Visine d
own to his knees and I took the opening to move in from behind. I ran up the creature’s back, careful to avoid the sword slung there. It took three steps, waist, back, shoulder to get me up and over. Then, as I stepped forward, I drove my right heel back with all the force that I could muster, striking the Troll square in the nose. I used the force of my kick to flip forward, and landed on the ground just behind Visine.

  As I turned I saw the Troll stumbling back a few steps. There was something green and blood like oozing out of its nose. It wasn’t falling down, but I could tell that my kick had an impact. He reached up and pinched his own nose, almost as if he was checking to see if I had broken it. He glared at me and I could see the rage welling up behind those huge yellow eyes. Visine got back to his feet, and stood next to me, both of us fixing our gazes on the Troll. We spoke without taking our eyes off of the enemy.

  “Is there a trick to beating this thing or should I just keep kicking it until either my leg falls off or he surrenders?” I asked.

  “No trick kid,” he replied.

  “It feels like I’m punching a rhino.”

  “Rhino’s go down easier,” he replied.

  I smiled and Visine couldn’t help but do the same. Cheesy battlefield lines are always so good for morale. We both knew that we were going to have to work together to take this thing out. On the plus side, the Troll was the only threat left, so I tried to take some solace in the fact that we had him outnumbered two to one. That bit of reassurance faded as soon as the ten-foot behemoth started charging towards us. I could feel the ground shaking with each step. Visine and I had worked together before, so I trusted that he would follow my lead.

  “I got high,” I said.

  I was pretty sure I knew where Visine would strike if I gave him the lower body. That meant that it was up to me to create the opening. I dove under the Trolls right arm, planted my foot on his thigh, and pushed off. Using his right arm for leverage, I spun myself far enough around to bring the bottom of my foot into the side of his head. My plan was to strike flat footed, sending as much of a shockwave as I could. Sort of the foot equivalent of getting clapped on the ears. My foot connected with a popping sound and the Troll let out a roar. That was when Visine struck.

  As I was flipping back to the ground I was able to watch Visine drive forward into the Troll. Then, using the most devastating technique that every young boy learns on the schoolyard playground, Visine kicked. I could see that he was putting the full force of his weight behind it. The sound of the impact was loud enough for me to hear it over the roar of the Troll. Suddenly everything went silent as the Troll froze. Although it didn’t seem possible, his eyes got even bigger and both of his hands clutched his groin. In case there was any doubt, I think we now confirmed that this was a boy Troll. He slumped to the ground on his knees, a weird screech coming out of his mouth.

  I landed and stepped forward to strike, Visine did the same on the other side. While the groin shot might have stunned the creature, until it was unconscious, we weren’t going to assume that we had won.

  “Temple,” I yelled.

  I timed my strike to perfectly coincide with Visine’s, and as he punched the left side of the Troll’s face, I hit the right. Now without knowing anything about Troll anatomy, I couldn’t be sure what kind of effect this would have. Honestly I was hoping that any strike to the head would give us a good chance to knock it out. As luck would have it, I apparently picked a good spot as the creature’s eyes started to flutter and it was slowly swaying side to side. Visine gave me a shrug, so I followed his lead. We struck again, the same temple attack. That one did the trick as the Troll fell forward, his face smacking the ground as he went unconscious.

  “Nice to know you still fight dirty,” I laughed.

  “No rules in a fight, kid,” he said with a straight face.

  I checked to make sure that the Troll was unconscious while Visine secured the broadsword. We figured if the Troll was playing possum, then we didn’t want to leave him armed. Not that his muscle alone wouldn’t count as a weapon. He appeared to be breathing shallowly and by all indications, out for the count. I then stood and took off running towards Erika and Kara.

  “I got the girls,” I yelled back over my shoulder.

  “Of course you do,” Visine replied.

  I heard him laughing as he headed over to check out the rest of the team. I could see Erika giving Kara CPR before I got there. The second I arrived, I dropped down and started helping. It took us about a minute, but we managed to get her heart going again. I could see the color returning to Kara’s face as her chest started slowly moving up and down with each breath. Erika looked at me, a mixture of pain and relief on her face. I tried an inappropriate comment in the hopes that it might bring a smile to her face.

  “Breathing or not, if you two wanna keep kissing I won’t stop you.”

  The barest hints of a smile started on her face before a flush of pain took her whole body. I reached forward trying to help support her body.

  “No,” she whimpered.

  I could only watch as she slowly lowered herself to the ground, laying flat on her back. She was taking small shallow breaths and clearly doing everything in her power to keep her body still. I looked both ladies over, confirming that they were at least out of danger for the moment, before standing and heading over to check on the rest of the team.

  “I’m gonna check on the others. I’ll be back,” I said as I stood.

  Erika gave a small murmur of acknowledgement as I left. Freddy had already gotten to his feet and he was leaning against a tree for support. I assumed that Visine had put the makeshift bandage around Freddy’s shoulder to stop the bleeding. As Visine was already heading over to Timothy, I ran to Danny.

  Danny’s chest was burnt bad, but I could see it moving up and down in shallow breaths, so that was a good sign. I leaned down and looked him over just the same. As near as I could tell he was unconscious but stable. I heard a few vehicles pull off of the road just on the other side of the trees by where I left Vlad.

  “Backup is here Boss,” I heard Vlad say in my head.

  I could just make out a couple of SIA vans in the background as agents headed our way through the brush. I assumed that Visine had called them and requested medical assistance and a prisoner pick up. I stood and was about to wave them over when I heard Visine call my name.

  “Bruce,” was all he had to say.

  I rushed over to see him crouched over Timothy. When we first rushed in, I saw Timothy from the back, and even then I could tell that his burns were extensive. But now that I could see his whole body, the damage to his front was ten times worse. The air was permeated with the smell of burnt flesh as the smoke continued to rise off of his body. It was not a pleasant aroma. I leaned down to check the kid’s pulse, but even before I put my hand on his neck, I knew what I was about to learn. Timothy was dead.

  “Shit,” I whispered.

  “Yeah,” Visine replied softly.

  Chapter 14

  Between getting the Troll secured in the prisoner transport van, helping the team into the medical vans, securing Timothy and the sorcerer into the coroner’s van, and clearing the area for any clues or evidence that we didn’t want left behind, it was about midnight when we finally got out of there. Vlad took Visine and me back to HQ, and I parked him in the spot that played the least havoc with our security systems. I thought about parking him on the street, but I didn’t want my fancy sports car drawing unwanted attention to our little offices. I was informed that Dutton had gone home for the night, so although I knew that I had a ton of paperwork to fill out and questions to answer, I decided it could all wait. First and foremost I wanted to see my team. Visine accompanied me.

  We took the elevator down to sublevel two and took the first left into the infirmary. Just before I stepped in the door, I gave a quick glance to my right, towards the morgue. I thought about Timothy’s body lying in there, a stark reminder of just how horribly I had failed. It was my jo
b to keep them safe, even if they were the ones running off on their own. At the end of the day, I should have been there. I tried not to dwell on that thought for now. Morale was important to any team, especially when they were down, so when I stepped into sickbay I did so with my warmest smile upon my face.

  It turned out that I didn’t need to put on the fake smile, as they were all asleep. Whether because of medication or exhaustion, I can’t be sure, but they were all out. Visine waited by the door as I slowly walked down the aisle, looking everyone over. They were in real bad shape. Freddy was in the first bed, his broken arm wrapped to his body to keep it immobilized. His left leg was done up in a cast, apparently he had broken it somewhere in the fight. The next bed contained Danny surrounded by a ton of medical equipment. His entire chest was covered in bandages and he had apparently drifted off into a coma. Numerous wires and IV tubes were coming from his body, and I noted the heart monitor showing a weak but steady beat. The doctor on shift was a little guy with bright red hair and a baby face and he let me know that they thought Danny was in the coma because his body needed to heal. The doctor kept his voice low, trying hard not to wake anyone.

  The next bed was Kara’s. Her neck was painful to look at. The bruises were so dark that they looked black and you could clearly make out that they were in the shape of the Trolls fingers. I felt anger start to swell up inside of me. I wanted to storm down to the holding cells and beat the creature senseless. But I knew that wouldn’t solve anything. Besides, with his strength he could have easily killed her. I figured I should be counting myself lucky that he held back. Carrot-Top-Doc, as I decided to remember him, let me know that Kara also had several broken ribs and a concussion. Thinking about Kara in pain made me cringe. I know that it sounds sexist, but the idea of the girls being injured upset me much more than the boys. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t want any member of my team hurt. But something deep down inside of me, something primal, felt like it was still the boys’ job to keep the girls safe. Let’s call it sexist chivalry. I took a deep breath before moving on.