“Let’s go get them, and we’ll send them on their way. It’ll take however long it takes, and I pray that they all come through it. By the way, Cory may be able to help if there is a problem,” Terry suggested.
“My thoughts exactly, Terry-san.” The two left the engineers to their studies by telling them to call Eve with anything they discovered.
Terry didn’t take Akio around the power plant, but did show him some of the processes as they passed them on their way out.
Once in the pod, they dove into the screens that Akio brought up showing the vast increase in communications activity. He scrolled around a map of the world, showing pins on all seven continents, even the frozen wasteland of Antarctica.
“They’re hiding in the noise,” Terry said. Akio nodded.
“Eve is parsing every signal, looking for unique signatures that would indicate which ones are real.”
“I’m afraid they may all be real,” Terry suggested. “I think there is just one true signal, but all the sites are rebroadcasting it. We only need to find the one,” Terry said, shaking his head at the number of signals. Two new signals popped up in North Chicago, not far from their pod.
“I’ll be damned,” Terry said. “Those things must have an internal battery in addition to the solar panels. I thought the panels had the battery integrated, but clearly I was mistaken. Plus, I thought Shonna had that one apart.”
Akio continued to look stoically at the map.
“I am afraid, Terry-san, that we may have to find and remove every single one of these devices. I don’t know if they can manufacture more. To me, it looked like New Schwabenland technology. I think we need to go to Antarctica,” Akio said softly.
Terry pursed his lips. He had almost died on his last trip to the southern continent and the old Nazi cave complex known as Schwabenland.
“I guess so. By we, you mean me, Char, and the pack, don’t you?” Terry realized.
“Yes, Terry-san. I will address the signals closer to Japan. I do not want to be far away while your children are undergoing the process.”
“I’d appreciate that, Akio-sama,” Terry said, resigned with the emptiness he already felt, and his children hadn’t even left. He sighed heavily.
Akio flew the pod to Mayor’s Park, where he landed and they both walked off. Terry hurried to the billeting that he called home, where the pack lived, where his kids were currently staying. He felt like a thief coming in the middle of the night to steal them from their dreams and send them on a nightmare journey.
He breathed heavier as the anxiety worked its poison into him. Every step he took seemed to be one step closer to a headache that threatened to explode his brain. His legs struggled under an increasing weight. He finally stopped to catch his breath.
Char appeared and leaned against the wall. She hadn’t gone back to sleep after their return, as Terry expected. “Is it time?” she asked quietly.
Terry nodded. Without Terry and Char having to do anything, the others emerged from their rooms. Auburn stayed in the doorway. Kae and Marcie’s kids were still asleep. They didn’t want to uproot them a second time that evening.
Kae looked excited. Marcie walked with him, turning to the colonel when they got close.
“I won’t be going with them,” she said bluntly. Terry looked questioningly at her. He selfishly wanted her to be by his son’s side.
“If I go, we decapitate the platoon. We’re not ceasing operations just because they’re gone, are we?” she asked, already knowing the answer.
“No, we’re not. With the new development, we’re going to be even busier. I’m sorry, but we won’t be moving you to the tac team. You’ll be the platoon sergeant. Pick your new squad leaders in the morning and then we’re going on a mission to Antarctica. Fall them out with gear for the deepest cold they’ve ever felt in their whole lives, soul-sucking cold. No exposed skin,” he told her.
Cory and Ramses stopped by Terry, Char, and Marcie. “Akio would like you there, just in case something happens,” Terry told his daughter. She smiled and nodded.
“Nothing is going to happen,” she said. Kae slapped his dad on the back and kept walking. Akio had turned and was heading back to his pod. Kimber was the last to stop.
“Take care of my platoon,” Kim told her sister-in-law. Kim hugged her parents and then followed Akio into the night.
Marcie watched them go. Cory must have turned to look back as the blue glow from her eyes was faintly visible before the group turned a corner. In another minute, the pod blocked the stars as it passed through the sky above.
“I’m not sure that could have sucked more,” Terry shared. He looked down at the ground and said in a low voice, “In the morning, we deploy to Antarctica.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Schwabenland, Antarctica
The pod had landed in the cave mouth. The windblown snow and deep cold pressed in on them. Terry held the ramp closed as he collected his wits. One last briefing to the recon platoon and tac team.
“When the ramp lowers, tac team leads the way into the cave. About one hundred yards down, we’ll find a big copper door. We’ll rally outside of that. Remain quiet. Aaron and Yanmei, you go first, watch out for any signs that the snow has been disturbed. Last time I was here, there were booby traps all over the place down there. Andrew and Joseph, you two are next. Then Gene, then the platoon. Char and I will be in the middle and the rest of the tac team will bring up the rear. You four might have it easier if you change into Were form.”
Terry rolled his eyes as Butch and Skippy had their clothes off before he could stop them. He immediately punched the button to lower the ramp. Before it hit the ground, six Werewolves were ready to cover the rear.
Running into minus seventy Fahrenheit made their breath catch in their throats, but they pushed on, counting on the scarves wrapped over their faces to keep the cold air from going directly into their lungs. But it was still brutally cold. It was ten seconds before Terry and Char ran into the cave, fifteen before the pod was empty and the deck closing.
Aaron and Yanmei ran quickly ahead to get as far from the cold as possible. They vaulted over the largest drifts as they tried to avoid getting snow on themselves. As Weretigers, they preferred a warm and humid climate, but they had remained in human form for this operation, wearing coats and sweaters as better layers than just their pelts. The extreme cold still assaulted their senses.
Gene didn’t seem to care, which reinforced Terry’s opinion that he was part polar bear. He also ran straight through the drifts, clearing the way for those behind him.
Seventy-five yards down, just as Terry remembered it, there was a snow break blocking the wind and snow drifts. They continued to the door where Aaron and Yanmei stood, stamping their feet as they tried to warm up.
They’d been in the cold for less than a minute and both looked miserable. Terry laughed behind his face covering. Char wasn’t laughing. She was cold, too.
She shook her head when Terry looked at her to see if she sensed anything.
With the gloves that the platoon was wearing, they couldn’t fire their rifles. They could barely move.
“Sergeant, put the platoon back on the pod. We already know what we need to know. You stay here, but it’ll be better for us if they are on the pod in reserve.” He couldn’t see their faces, but expected that some were disappointed, while others would be happy to get out of the cold.
They headed up the cave the same way they’d come in, going a little slower this time around.
“Move back. I’m going to pop this open,” Terry said as he gripped the door handle. The green patina around it was just like he remembered it from more than fifty years earlier. The more some things changed, the more they stayed the same.
He had been there with Melissa last time. She was a happy memory for him. He was sorry that she was gone, but everyone had to move on. She could have died of old age by now, had she survived.
Terry felt guilty thinking that way, but he forced those th
oughts back into the recesses of his mind. Joseph showed up next to him. “Stay back. This could be booby-trapped,” Terry tried to explain.
“Open it up and let’s see,” Joseph said in a friendly voice. “Really cold out here, TH. The sooner the better?”
Terry pulled the door open, keeping it between him and the opening. Beyond was a hallway with two doors. He remembered the switch on the wall. It was in the same position from the last time he was there. As were the five buttons that were still red. The doors were open and inside one vast room were the metal caskets, but the power was no longer on.
The people had been revived, although not all had survived. The strange technology that Terry remembered as being there was gone.
But that had happened sometime after he left.
He couldn’t be sure if it happened before or after the WWDE, but there weren’t any signs that the Forsaken had come through and stolen the technology.
Somewhere nearby was an active transmitter. They’d disconnect that and take it with them on their way back to North Chicago.
Three sites checked, and not a single Forsaken found. Terry saw how exhausting the search was going to be.
The Forsaken had been playing chess the whole time. Only Terry and the FDG were playing football.
“It’s as cold as a witch’s tit in here!” Joseph bitched.
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” Terry ordered grimly.
North Chicago
Terry threw the box down on the workbench.
“Take it easy there, Lurch!” Shonna jabbed, immediately pulling the box to her to remove the cover and disconnect the two power sources to keep it from transmitting.
They’d found that the main battery supported a primary battery that was attached to the transmitter. Everything else within the box was secondary to the smallest component.
“Anything new?” Terry asked.
“If you want to know where the technology came from to make these, I can’t tell you. It looks cutting edge, from fifty years ago. I can’t tell you if there’d been any advances since. You found this in Antarctica. How would anyone get there, TH? You have one pod and Akio has the other three. That’s it. They must have put most of these in place well before you were taken, when they still had use of the New Schwabenland pod. That’s the only thing I can guess. Where they got these? Anyone’s guess. The solar panels look like they are straight out of a Best Buy. Maybe someone found an untouched warehouse and turned everything over to the Forsaken.”
“You make a lot of sense, Shonna.” Terry nodded once, winked at Char, and together, they walked out. They continued through the plant and began the walk back to the community. They weren’t in a hurry.
Terry wanted to clear his head. Char didn’t feel any better about the enhancements on her three children, but she knew it was the right thing to do.
“When we get back, let’s set up a rotation with the pack so we aren’t asking all of them to go all the time, Joseph and Andrew always, and then rotate through the squads, bringing two at a time as we start dismantling the comm network.
“I hope to hell that more don’t crop up. That could put a real crimp in our op tempo. We’ll be worn down from chasing ghosts when the Forsaken launch whatever the real attack is. I’m afraid to think about that. So, we need to get to them before they get to us.”
“Agreed,” she said as she stared into the distance. “Kaeden should be in the pod now, starting the process while the others wait.”
“And we’ll wait, too, for the good word that he’s recovering and starting his training to learn how to work with his new body.”
***
The pod departed with Terry, Char, Shonna, Merrit, Andrew, and Joseph, along with two squads and Marcie.
They were heading to Cancun. Shonna wondered how their engineering was holding up. Merrit was looking forward to seeing how the city had progressed since the pack was last there. Plus, he wanted one of those drinks with the umbrella in it.
The FDG warriors had no idea what an ocean resort was all about. They’d never experienced anything like it. After the WWDE, every day was a fight to survive. For the FDG, every day now was a fight to keep others free to thrive.
Their vacations usually weren’t relaxing, or vacations. Terry decided he needed to rethink his policies to make sure that his people got real time off.
A month at a time. “Maybe San Francisco can be a vacation spot,” he told Char.
“Not Cancun?” she said with a half-smile.
“I haven’t seen Cancun. It could be overrun by cannibals,” he suggested, earning himself a punch in the arm.
Terry’s communication device buzzed. He looked at it. Cory. “Is everything okay?” he asked. It had only been a few days since Kae had gone into the pod.
“Everything is just fine. I’m calling to check in and tell you that we’re training here and that Yuko-san is teaching us Japanese. Domo!” Cory said happily.
“We’re fine here, too. Inbound on an op to Cancun, but you probably already knew that. I expect this is the same as the others, a device set on automatic, but we’ll be checking out the mojitos. Tell Akio I said ‘hi.’ Here’s your mother,” Terry said, handing the device to Char.
Terry could hear them talking at the same time. He understood none of the conversation before she disconnected and returned the device. Terry looked at her and shook his head.
“It’s mother-daughter stuff, lover,” she whispered.
The pod was descending over the ocean. The peninsula on which Cancun anchored its eastern tip was dead ahead.
“Listen up, people. We’re calling these operations ‘grab and goes.’ We secure our landing site, go in, find the device, and leave. Our tac team will know if any enemy are in the area. If so, we’ll come out with a real plan. Otherwise, grab and go. In and out as quickly as possible. Questions?”
No one had any. They knew to look at the highest point first, one of the old hotels that looked ready to fall down. The pod’s sensors were sufficient to detect the signal when it broadcast to confirm their presumption.
Those who could sense the etheric reached in and looked, but found nothing. Char shook her head.
“Grab and go,” Terry called. He set the controls for the pod to hover instead of setting down completely. He carried a wrench while Shonna carried a whole toolkit.
Terry vaulted to the roof and stepped carefully to the obvious solar panels. Terry wasn’t certain that the roof would support his weight, let alone his and Shonna’s.
They quickly realized that that wasn’t the worst of their problems.
An arrow fired from the roof access door hit Shonna in the side. The Werewolf flinched and grunted. “Damn, that burns,” she said as Terry quickly pulled his pistol and fired a random pattern into the door. He was rewarded by the sound of a body falling down the stairs.
Terry cut the cable to the box and then pulled the arrow out. “Poison,” he said.
Shonna clutched at her side as she shambled back to the pod. After climbing aboard, Terry studied the rooftop from that vantage point before closing the ramp. Marcie looked confused.
“What were you shooting at?” she asked. Terry pointed to the bloodstain on Shonna’s side.
“My fault, Sergeant. I put us where you couldn’t see the roof access. We should have dropped a line and slid down. I got complacent,” he told her, feeling guilty.
“Well, don’t do it again!” she replied angrily, before adding, “Colonel.”
Terry sat in his jump seat and clenched his jaw, angry with himself for losing his edge. Two months of training with Akio and here he was, strolling into danger with his brain disengaged. He had carried a wrench into a possible battle with a Forsaken.
Secure the area first and then go signal hunting, dickhead, he told himself.
San Francisco
“There is absolutely no way,” Sue told the council.
After a week, they’d become more vocal, but in the spirit of Terry Henry Wal
ton, they only met for half a day and were assigned work details for the other half. Sue didn’t overdo it. They worked less strenuous activities, like serving food at a few of the communal restaurants or working within the banks.
Sue had been shocked to see that San Francisco had banks. There was one printer operating out of the San Francisco central mint. Imports and exports were handled on a strict barter basis. After that, key goods were assigned values by the bank’s actuary team and money was disbursed. The government bought most of the goods imported by paying the farmers and ranchers for their goods.
Barter was still used in many circles and not discouraged. The government took a five percent cut of the import value of the goods arriving from overseas and that was used to fund the government.
“I like the limited government you already have in place and can’t allow it to grow further. I suggest we cap the numbers based on a percentage of the population. One government employee per one thousand population, but none of them will work exclusively for the government.” Sue leaned back in expectation of the usual firestorm of dissent.
“We can’t run a government like that. You’ve only been here a week and don’t see all that we do!” one of the female council members sneered.
A couple of her colleagues backed her up by nodding vigorously and casting angry looks at Sue.
“There are two choices here,” Sue said, leaning forward with her forearms firmly braced on the table. “I could disband the council and then you can be free to go someplace else and work for a living. But you wouldn’t do that, would you?”
Sue smiled at them and tossed her hair, tucking an errant strand behind her ear. She assumed that anyone kicked off the council would try to incite a rebellion. Politicians did not go away quietly.
“I will never let any of you forget that you work for the people. You have done a laudable job running the ranch so far, and the government already has plenty of people, so we’ll take another week for you to convince me of how everything you’re doing is beneficial for the people.
Nomad Mortis: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Book 8) Page 23