by Jan Stryvant
"Got that right." Chad keyed his microphone. "All units, return to the marshaling area. We're not doing this tonight. Ryan, take your team, strip down to your street clothes, and do a recon. I want find out what the hell is going on out there!"
"Sure thing, Chad."
"Jace, take us once more around the block, then back to the marshaling point."
"You got it."
"Wonder how they knew we were coming," Jonas asked.
"I think everyone knows we're coming now." Chad sighed. "Not like you can hide what we're doing from anyone who knows the real score."
"Well, gotta give them props for the way they're dealing with us. With this many people around, and the police presence, if we try anything, it'll be all over the national news," John said, looking at his displays.
"Well, at least it proves they're afraid of us." Chad sighed, looking at all the people walking around. It definitely looked like some sort of celebration was going on. "And they know that they can't beat us in a straight-up fight."
"So what do we do then? Move on to Spokane and come back later?"
Chad looked at John and snorted. "What do you think Sean would do to me if I did that?"
John shrugged. "I don't know, what?"
"I don't know either, and I don't particularly want to find out." Chad sighed. "I don't know if you've noticed, but our friend has changed, just a little bit."
John laughed. "He turns into a massive lion! Kinda hard to miss that!"
Chad shook his head. "No, it's more than that. You weren't there that time he lowered the boom on me."
"You just don't want to admit that your ego wouldn't stand the shock of you failing at something," John said, grinning.
Chad grinned back at him. "Well, yeah! Of course not! If I don't deliver, Sean might put someone else in charge, and we both know that would only lead to disaster!"
"And to think, the other wolves were afraid you wouldn't have a big enough ego to be an alpha!" John snickered.
"Hey, when you got it, flaunt it and abuse the hell out of it every chance you get."
Two hours later, Ryan came back and joined Chad and the others at their improvised headquarters.
"Brenna, stop abusing John." Chad yawned as Max woke him up.
"You should talk," Max said with a smile.
"I do! All the time! So, Ryan," Chad turned to his second in command, "what'd ya find?"
"They're celebrating the lunar equinox."
"What the hell is that?" John grumbled, firing up his laptop and pulling up Google.
"Something they made up, I'm sure," Ryan said with a snort, "but they're having all sorts of parties and shit, and it's not going to end for a couple of weeks."
"We don't have a couple of weeks," Chad said and gave Max a kiss as she got off of his lap.
"Doesn't matter if we did. They've got three new bars under construction, and with all the new traffic they're expecting to have in this new 'district', they're putting in a police substation as well." Ryan shook his head. "I think they out-maneuvered us, Boss."
"Notice how they always call me 'boss' when they think they're giving me bad news?" Chad whispered loudly to Max.
"You mean it isn't?" Max asked, smiling back at him.
"Course not. In fact, it's great news! If I can't use the whole army, I don't need to keep them here. I can send them off under Ryan to deal with Spokane, then Bend, while we take care of business here!"
Max laughed and shook her head. "Your exuberance knows no bounds."
"Neither does his bullshit." John yawned. "You're stumped, Chad, just admit it so I can call Sean and we can both enjoy a good gloat."
"Oh ye of little faith!" Chad said, looking disappointedly at John. "When have I ever failed at a task?"
"Well, there was that one time at Dairy Queen."
"Dairy Queen?" Max asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Don't ask, I was young and stupid."
"It was last summer!" John retorted.
"Two summers ago, actually," Chad reminded him.
"Still!"
"Uh-huh. Now, tell me, John, can you get an accurate list of all the people living in each of those compounds? A list of members and their families, along with their addresses?"
John snorted. "Piece o' cake."
"Fine, I want you to do that. Sort it by council, then by families. Ryan?"
"Yes, Chad?"
"Take half the men and head off to Spokane once everyone's rested. Leave me Baron's group and Ray's. Pick whoever you want for the rest."
"You already have a plan?" John asked, looking surprised.
"Course I do."
"What is it?"
"That can wait until the morning. We'll all think better after a few hours of sleep. Meet me here at noon. Now, off with you!" Chad said and yawned.
Max stood there and waited until the last of them were gone from the room.
"You don't have a clue, do you?" she asked him.
Chad grinned. "I will come tomorrow."
"You know, one of these days your braggadocio and bluffing is going to get you in trouble."
"When that day comes, I fully expect you to bail me out, my cute little fluff pup!"
Max growled. "If you keep calling me that, I don't think there's going to be any bailing."
"I only tease you because I love you. Now, let's go to bed and do some planning for the future."
"Trying to knock me up isn't planning!" Max said, rolling her eyes, but she couldn't help but smirk.
"Do or do not, there is no try!" Chad snickered and, taking Max's hand, they both headed off towards the bedroom. So today was a setback. Some days you just had to take it as it came, one thing at a time.
Chad stopped a moment. One thing at a time. One thing at a time.
"Oh no, it couldn't be that easy!" he snickered.
"You figured it out already?" Max said shaking her head.
"Hey, now I'm free to concentrate all my considerable attentions and thoughts on you, Dear."
"I think I like the sound of that..."
"Okay, so what's this big idea," John asked as he caught up with Chad and the others in their impromptu command center.
"First," Chad asked, "did you get all the data I asked for?"
John nodded. "Wasn't too hard. These folks have never heard of data security."
"Think you can get us pictures, too?"
"Already did. I hit the DMV up for their license photos, and the schools they send their kids to all do picture IDs as well."
"You hacked the DMV?" Max asked.
John snorted. "I wouldn't exactly call it 'hacked', I let Brenna do it as a learning experience. The schools were a bit harder, had to do those myself."
Chad nodded. "Okay. Today I'm going to have everyone take turns driving around the area, get the lay of the land, so to speak. Then starting tomorrow morning, we're going to start grabbing them, one at a time."
"The lycans?" Baron asked.
"No, the magic users. We're going to bag and tag as many of them as we can. We'll see if we can't hit a school bus, or however they get their kids to classes, as well. We'll mainly aim at women and children, though any of the men we can grab, we'll go for too."
"Why are we grabbing the women and children?" John asked.
"Easier targets. They won't be as experienced in magic or fighting, and they'll be worth more as hostages."
"And then what?"
"Then, once we get enough, and we have them too afraid to set foot out of their compounds, we offer a straight-up trade. They give us our people, we give them their families. Nice and simple."
"What if they don't want to trade?" John asked.
"We turn them over to their biggest adversary, or something equally face-shaming. Maybe we send them to Harvard or Yale so they can be culturally assimilated." Chad shrugged. "I'm sure we can think of something that's a lot worse than killing them, as far as their leaders are concerned."
John nodded, mollified.
&nbs
p; "Why not start tonight?" Ray asked.
"Because then they'll be on the lookout for us tomorrow morning. I want a full day of picking people off the streets in broad daylight. By the time night falls, they'll be confused, and odds are the word won't have spread around to everyone. By the next day, we'll have to get creative."
"You want us to pick people off the street in broad daylight? How?"
"John, think you can hack Uber?" Chad asked.
"Oh! Now that would be a challenge!"
"We should probably steal a couple of taxicabs as well," Baron said, "just in case."
"That's why I want you to spend today looking around. See what they use, how they get around. Come on, guys, I want to see the skills that made the chop shops of Reno and Sparks famous!"
"How the hell did you find out about that?" Ray asked, surprised.
"Dude, I'm your alpha," Chad said with a smile, as if that explained everything.
"Let's get out of here before he starts asking the embarrassing questions," Baron said and, grabbing his two lieutenants, he headed out with Ray and his lieutenants in tow.
"Lucky guess?" John asked as he fired up his laptop.
"Educated guess," Chad admitted. "Ever since word went out that Steve is mine and Sean's friend, there've been zero thefts from his lots."
"Figures."
#
Frank Kane looked at his partner, Norman Page. They'd worked together as United States Marshals for four years now.
"Why are they sending us?" Norman asked him. "Isn't this the Secret Service's job?"
Frank shook his head. "Best I can figure it, from what Cohen told me, is the Secret Service is opposed to bringing the kid in. So the Secretary decided to ask the Marshal's office to handle it."
"What, does she think they'd refuse an order?" Norman snorted.
"I don't know, Cohen seems to think they're afraid of him or something."
"Afraid of him? Why? He's not the first lycan we've had to bring in."
"I guess 'cause he's a mage as well," Frank said as he toyed with the amulet hanging around his neck. The two of them were loaded down with quite a few magical charms and other protections. They'd been in the Marshal's office for over a hundred years now. They didn't go after magic users or lycans very often, but when they did, they made sure they had the best defense that money could buy.
"Well I hope they're not expecting just the two of us to run up there and drag him out. From the sound of it, he's got something of an army up at his place."
"They're assigning us a full team from the office, twenty men, armored SUVs, the works."
"These guys read in?"
Frank shook his head. "Nope. Just the two of us. The local director's seat is still vacant, and the acting deputy director hasn't been read in, either. Didn't you read the file?"
Norman shook his head and grinned. "Why would I do that when I can just ask you?"
As they walked out of the building at the National Guard base their official jet had landed at, Frank was at least happy to see a string of SUVs with agents milling about.
"Frank Kane? Norman Page?" one of the men asked, walking up to them.
"I'm Frank, he's Norman," Frank said as they shook hands with the man.
"Lars Souther. So what's the story on this op? All we got was a notice we were going to roll up on a house in the hills here. That's it, nothing more."
"National Security," Norman said with a smile.
"Seriously?"
"That's why they flew us in from D.C." Frank sighed.
"I've looked over the address, house is owned by one Sean Valens, aged twenty-one. Paid for in cash, by the way. He's got quite a few people living up there with him, too. Are you sure you want to roll up there with just twenty men?"
"Worried?"
"This is a pretty gun-happy state, guys. Odds are, if they're up to no good, they'll have a lot of weapons up there. Hell, even if they aren't up to no good, odds are they'll still have more than a few."
"You look like a man with a suggestion," Norman said. "What is it?"
"Valens owns a building downtown, one that got hit by a fire a couple of months ago. We could have the city inspector say he wants to meet with him about the repair work he's doing."
"And when Valens shows up, he sees us instead?" Norman smiled. "I like it. Whaddya' think, Frank?"
"Sounds good to me. Let's head back to your office, Lars, and make it happen."
"What about the rest of them?" Lars waved at his other men.
"We may need a show of force, a little bit of intimidation," Frank said after a moment's thought. "Hold on to half of them, we can use them to drive the point home that we mean business."
Lars nodded. "Well, come with me and we'll head back to the office."
"Sean, I got a call for you from the building inspector's office," Deidre said, coming into the living room and handing him the phone.
"Hello?"
"Mr. Valens?"
"Yes, that's me," Sean said. "What can I help you with?"
"There seem to be some issues with the building permits for your property. Seems some of the paperwork wasn't filled out properly. I'm gonna need you to come down here and sign about a half dozen permits."
"Is that all?" Sean asked with a sigh.
"Well, there's a few fees you're going to have to pay, so you might as well bring your checkbook. We got a few questions about a couple of things on the plans, as well."
Sean sighed and shook his head, bureaucrats. "Fine. When do you need me to come down?"
"Well, the sooner the better. We haven't sent anyone out to the job site yet, and if you could come down here in the next hour, we won't have to. Otherwise..."
"Otherwise I'll lose days of work," Sean replied. "I got it. I'll be there in thirty."
"Thanks, Mr. Valens, we'll be waiting for you," he said and gave Sean the address.
"What's that about?" Roxy asked.
"Building permits. I gotta go into town and sign some papers, pay some fees, and review some plans," Sean grumbled.
"Well, let's get Dae. If she can't figure it out, she can call her uncle who can."
"You're coming?" Sean said, surprised.
"If they're trying to pressure you into some bribes, I think having a well-known sheriff's daughter with you might help." Roxy grinned.
Sean shrugged and grinned back. "You might just be right."
"Cali!" Roxy called out. "Town trip! Grab your stuff!"
"Be right there!"
"Ah, for the good ole days when I could go places by myself," Sean teased.
"I seem to recall you didn't get laid much back then, either," Roxy teased back.
"Okay, you win! I'll go find Dae. Might as well take her 'Cuda."
Ten minutes later, they were parking in front of the building inspector's office. Walking inside, the secretary pointed them towards the back of the building. About halfway down, a pair of men in green flack vests over their uniforms with the words 'U.S. Marshal' and badges on them stepped out in front of them.
"Mr. Valens, we were wondering if we could have a few words with you?"
Looking down the hallway, Sean noticed several more men had stepped into the corridor, all dressed the same. He brought up his defense framework and fired up the monitor program on his firewall spell.
"From the show of force, should I assume this isn't a social call?"
"Just step into the room, please, Mr. Valens."
Sean rolled his eyes and sighed. "You know, you could have just come up to the house." He turned to the girls then. "Well, let's hear what the man has to say."
"Just you, Mr. Valens."
Sean looked back at the man, his nametag said 'Page'.
"Sorry, Marshal Page, but you don't get to make that decision."
"Do you have any idea who you're dealing with here, Son?" Norman said.
"Yes, Sir. I do. The question I have is, do you?"
"Apparently some punk kid..." Frank put his hand on his
partner's shoulder. "Let's not do this in the hallway, Norman."
"In the room!" Norman growled.
Sean gestured to the girls, and they all went in before him. Following Roxy into the room, it was a fairly sparse one; someone had hastily removed a lot of the furniture, leaving a table with one chair on one side, and two on the other.
"How nice, an interrogation room," Daelyn grumbled.
"At least there isn't a one-way mirror or any cameras," Roxy observed.
'Sit first.'
'Why?' Sean asked as he took the seat and the girls stood behind him.
'Because they really don't know what they're dealing with, and you're going to have to explain it to them.'
'Oh, joy,' Sean replied to the First and sighed.
"Mr. Valens, we're going to need to search you, and your, companions," Frank said.
"They're my wives," Sean replied, looking up at him from the chair; the man's nametag said Kane on it. "And no, you're not searching anyone. You said you wanted to talk, so sit your asses down in those two chairs and let's talk. However, if it will make you feel comfortable, we left our handguns in the car, seeing as this is a government building and firearms are not allowed."
The two agents glanced at each other.
"That's not how we do things, Mr. Valens. You're a suspect in an act of terrorism, and you will be searched," Norman told him.
"Oh? And which act would this be? The one where I was kidnapped by armed men in a van? Or the one where they tried to kidnap me in an ambulance? Or perhaps the men who tried to kill me in the mall?" Sean felt it when Roxy shifted, because she had her hand on his shoulder. Surprisingly, neither of the men flinched, so he continued.
"Or maybe the one where they burned down my building in the center of town? Or perhaps the army that attacked my home? Or should we go back to when my father was assassinated, and the government was complicit in bankrupting me and my mother with all those penalties and fines?
"Please, enlighten me, gentlemen."
"On Friday the twenty-second," Frank said, "a nuclear device was set off just outside Los Angeles, on the grounds of what was the Gradatim national headquarters."
Sean smiled. "How do you know I did it? Perhaps they were just messing around with something beyond their abilities, like they had been doing up in Eugene a couple of days before?"