by Michael Todd
“I think because if something happens to Katie, he doesn’t want that to be the last thing he remembers from his time here. He will want to handle death however he handles it, with God.”
“Katie is too much of a badass, and Pandora…shit, she is like the ultimate badass. They will be fine, I just feel it.”
“I know.” Calvin smiled. “But when your leader is facing this alone, it’s hard to sit back and do nothing. We are a family here, and with that comes the need to protect each other. We have never sent one of our own into a situation like this. Hopefully, it will be the one and only time we ever have to do it.”
Timothy nodded and stared up at the screen. The room was full of soldiers, all armed and at the ready. In the center was the commanding officer of the base, standing at ease. In the corner of the screen they could see Pandora walking into the center, staring at the people around her.
“She doesn’t look scared at all,” Timothy murmured in awe. “I would have pissed myself twice and there’s a good chance I’d smell like shit...literally.”
Calvin chuckled. “She’ got bigger balls than any of us, and for the first time I trust her with Katie one hundred percent.”
As if Pandora could hear them talking, she stared right into a security camera. A smirk moved across her lips and she winked before turning back to the colonel. Timothy jerked back, slowly turning toward Calvin.
“Was that for us?”
Calvin began to laugh, shaking his head. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Chapter Nineteen
The hangar was large, but with the base colonel standing in the center surrounded by at least eighty men armed with automatic weapons, the space was almost claustrophobic. Pandora sauntered toward Lieutenant Colonel Wilson. She stopped and looked at the security camera on the wall, knowing the boys were watching.
She smiled and winked, turning back to the colonel.
Pandora opened her arms wide and looked around. “Here I am, right here in front of you. You tried so hard to find me, kidnapping me, chasing me down on the road, and all you had to do was ask.”
Don’t be too snide, Katie warned.
“Katie, welcome to the base,” the colonel shouted. “We were hoping you would do the right thing and come in quietly and peacefully. Now, first things first, I am going to need you to lose those weapons... Now.”
Colonel Wilson nodded to two of his men, who started to inch toward Pandora. She smiled and tapped her fingers against her pistols, turning her head right to the left and shaking her finger at the two men moving toward her. They stopped, obviously scared shitless, and looked at the colonel. He rolled his eyes and waved his hand at them.
“Go on, take them!”
“I don’t really think that would be in your best interests,” Pandora called. “In fact, I think that might be completely against your best interests.”
He turned, pointing around him in the large hanger. “Look around you, Katie. You have nowhere to go. These men are locked, loaded, and waiting on my signal.”
Pandora chuckled, looking around the room at the men. “If you believe that you and these hundred extra assholes with bullets scare me you are vastly mistaken, Colonel. I came here in good faith, and you have already destroyed that. The way I see it, you have two choices. Either we have a conversation like two mature adults, or I just say fuck it and blow this place the fuck up. It’s your choice, really. Which one will it be?”
Well, perhaps that was a little bit blunter than I would’ve put it, but hey—you’re driving now. Katie sighed, wondering just how hot hell really got.
Pandora visibly rolled her eyes, letting out a deep breath.
The soldiers looked at each other and back at her with confusion. The colonel narrowed his eyes, tired of playing games. He was ready for this bitch to just give up and stop the charades.
Pandora spoke to Katie. This is what I’ve been doing to you the whole time? Talking up a storm and annoying the living shit out of you?
Pretty much, yeah. Katie agreed.
God, I have been such a bitch! I guess it’s perfect though, because it looks like these boys aren’t going to fold very easily. I suppose a little bitch is in order. Maybe then they’ll stop and think about how ignorant a choice that is. Nobody fucks with my human or me like this and gets away with it.
That speech sounded both insulting and caring at the same time.
You’re welcome.
Colonel Wilson took a deep breath to try to keep his temper tamed. He was exhausted from the chase, and now this bitch was standing in front of him playing games.
She was strapped with weapons from head to toe, and he needed to get her out of them. He couldn’t really chain her up for testing covered in guns and knives.
“Katie, let me explain something to you, since you seem hell-bent on acting like you have us over a barrel. Look around you! These are eighty highly-trained men holding automatic weapons loaded with specialty bullets made specifically for that sweet little demon inside you. So you see, when I give the signal and they unleash those rounds, your demon will be so out of it she won’t be able to help you. Both of you will die right here on this hangar bay floor in a pool of blood.”
“Oh, okay.” Pandora nodded. “And what exactly does that prove? That you are this big hero who can shoot a defenseless person? Oh wait, I’m sorry, I mean order people to shoot a defenseless person so the blood isn’t on your hands.”
“Boys, does this woman look defenseless? Because I know better than that. In the last nine months, this woman and her demon have participated in acts side by side with military members, morphing her body into her demon and killing her own kind. Let’s see…let me think. What are some of my favorites, because there are so many? Ah yes, the incursion in Santa Monica where your demon grabbed a demon and slashed its throat. Then there was the Louisiana Incursion, where you destroyed one of their landmarks by throwing a demon from a five-story building and spearing him with a statue. Or the time in DC when you knocked the head off a demon and watched it roll into the Reflecting Pool. That one was classy. Or how about Incursion Day, when you lured that high-level demon to the town and left his head sitting in the grass. So many to choose from. But in the end, there are always dead soldiers and always dead civilians.”
“Did I kill those soldiers?” Pandora asked.
“Maybe not with your own hands, but by being there and taunting the hell-beasts. A folder came across my desk that described how you jumped in front of a group of demons and ripped their heads off right in front of the elementary school. Have you no shame? No moral compass? No idea of how dangerous you are to everyone around you? You see, men, this is not just some pretty woman, it is two beings with the capability to take down whatever or whoever she wants when she wants. That needs to stop.”
Pandora chuckled and waved a hand. “Wait, wait, wait. You’ve just now proven with your listing of my greatest achievements that I am one of the good guys. That I fight on the same side and protect men like these on the battlefield. So if I’m a good guy, what are you?” Pandora turned in a circle, pointing around the room. “You’re gonna actually stand there in all your military glory and tell these men to shoot down a hero?” She turned back to the colonel. “Is that what you’re going to do?”
Several of the men looked at each other, realizing that what ‘Katie’ was saying was true. Their own colonel had just admitted that she had been an important part of the fighting.
Heroic, even.
In fact, she had gone out there of her own accord and fought side by side with them, saving many military lives in the process. She had done all that at a great cost to herself but had never asked for recognition or understanding. She simply did it because it was what needed to be done.
The colonel knew the men were starting to question what they had been told. His anger boiled up in his chest; he was pissed that his own men were turning on him. He looked around, clenching his fists, his face growing redder and redder as the moments passed.
“Enough!” he called out. “Close in, men.”
“Does the general even know what you’re doing?” The men began to slow. “Because I spoke to Colonel Jehovivich, who works directly for the general, and she is positive that he didn’t give this order.”
The men stopped and looked around and a roar of whispers echoed through the hangar. Some of the higher-ranked soldiers standing behind the colonel stepped forward, looking at each other. They were perplexed. Every single one of them was confused by what Pandora was saying.
Finally, one of his subordinates spoke up.
“I thought the general ordered this? That was what you told us.”
“Yeah,” several soldiers hollered.
His eyes narrowed. “Silence! I am your commanding officer and you will obey me without question. I am the proper chain of command.” He speared Pandora with a finger. “Not this woman, spilling bullshit lies to get you to turn on me. When I give a command, you can be sure that it came from the correct person, and you NEVER defy your superior officer. This order came from a person above the general. I do not have to explain myself to you. That is why we have leaders and followers. Now, get back to your places, men, and pull it together. This woman is dangerous. My orders came from the top!”
Pandora smiled and cleared her throat. “Moloch? Because I don’t think Moloch has the authority to tell these men what to do. I’m just saying. If you want to instill trust in them, you might want to at least follow your own rules. A hell demon isn’t exactly in the chain of command—unless things have drastically changed.”
The men lowered their weapons, turning and staring at the colonel.
Oh, for fuck's sake! He gritted his teeth, realizing that she had infused his men with doubt. He needed them to not question this; it was what had to happen. He stepped forward and the crowd hushed.
“You think that you can come in here with your demon ways and spell my men into thinking ‘I’ am the enemy? Well, you are more than wrong. There is nothing wrong with where my orders came from. There is a group of nations, the US included, that are working toward killing and/or capturing demons for research and development. Without this program we would be nowhere in this war, still sniveling in our dirt-covered boots while we let the mercenaries come in and clean up the mess.”
Pandora frowned. “But aren’t these men soldiers of the United States Army? They aren’t soldiers of the International Army or the League of Nations Army, they are representatives of this country. Why would they take orders from someone who is taking orders from an international group? The general, General Brushwood, United States Army, is their leader.”
The colonel didn’t know what to say, so he put his hand on his pistol. Pandora smirked, tapping her hand on her own.
“Now, now, Colonel, I don’t think it would be wise of you to draw on me in a crowded hangar when you know that I am fast enough and tough enough that you will certainly die in the exchange.”
The crowd began to back up, leaving Pandora and the colonel in a faceoff in the middle. Pandora watched the twitches of his muscles; she could feel the fear roiling inside him.
He knew she could kill him, and he knew that shooting at her while she was armed was the worst choice he could make, but she had backed him into a corner and he was like an injured dog.
Just then the approach of more helicopters rattled the hangar bay and the colonel looked up, following the sound over the building and directly out front. The wind whipped against the bay doors as three choppers landed.
The colonel nodded to a soldier, who pulled open the doors, watching the blades of the helicopters begin to slow. Everyone stepped forward, curious who would land right out on the cement runway and not on the helo pad.
The middle helicopter door swung open and everyone went silent. The colonel took his hand off his gun and frowned.
The soldiers turned and watched the colonel as he backed up, stopping at the edge of the ring of his men. They weren’t going to let him pass or get away without the truth being known.
Pandora smiled and turned back around, chuckling at the expression on the colonel’s face.
She winked. “Got ya!”
Chapter Twenty
General Brushwood stepped out of the main helicopter, four soldiers armed with M16s following behind him. His eyes showed his mood; he was absolutely livid at the whole situation.
He couldn’t remember the last time he had been that angry.
The colonel was about to get an earful from him. When he reached the doors he looked at his guards and nodded, letting them know he wanted them to stay on the perimeter. They looked up angrily at the colonel and then back at the general, nodding back and spreading out across the doors.
The crowd of soldiers came to attention, making a path to the center of the bay. He walked up and looked at Katie, doing a double take before remembering the colonel had told him that Katie would actually be Pandora. He smirked, turning slowly back toward the colonel.
“Sir,” the colonel began.
“No.” The general cut him off, putting up his hand and turning to the troops. “Everyone, drop your weapons and stand at ease. There is no reason for you to be pointing your guns at this woman—and now at me, for that matter. I don’t know if any of you realized this, but she is dangerous with or without those weapons so disarming her won’t do much good.”
Pandora had to admit the general was a bit more of a badass than she had originally given him credit for.
He commanded the room, not out of fear, but because every person, young and old, respected the hell out of him. Not only had he served impeccably, but he knew what he was talking about and never put up with bullshit when he didn’t have to.
Immediately the soldiers lowered their weapons and swung them onto their backs. They parted their feet and put their hands behind their backs, watching both the colonel and the general.
“Who do you think you are?” the colonel yelled. “This is my company, my men. How dare you come in here and interrupt a mission and take over? You may be the general, but you do not understand your place in a company. These men trust me. They listen to me. You think that your fear-mongering can change that?”
General Brushwood turned back to look at the colonel. “That’s funny, because the way I see it, your ‘prisoner’ isn’t dead and all your men have dropped their weapons. It is pretty obvious that, thankfully, not a single soldier in this room trusts you. Have you not learned anything in your twenty-five years of service?”
“You...” the colonel hissed. “You may be higher-ranking than me, but it would be in your best interests to show me a bit of respect. I run this operation, not you. Your orders get carried out, but I am the one who puts them into motion. You are washed up, just clinging to the last bit of your career.”
The general pulled his pistol, pulled the slide, and pointed it at the colonel’s chest. He had gone too far. The general was a tolerant man, but when you disrespected his service and defied Article 90 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, he quickly lost his patience.
“I have been reprimanded and told that I am too valuable to be on the front lines. After the whole Incursion Day incident, they let me know that I should not be in the middle of any more battles. However, seeing as how I have a very insubordinate member on my team who took orders from someone outside the chain of command, I thought perhaps I would have to pay you a personal visit to handle your punishment.” The general waved his gun at the colonel. “So, do you want to drop your weapon and be taken into custody, or do you wish to challenge my authority and be tried for working with a foreign power?”
“That is not going to happen,” the colonel argued. “I am not in the wrong here. I did what I was supposed to do, following the appropriate chain of command. If you remember correctly we cannot skip a link going up, but we sure as hell are responsible for an order if it’s coming down. I have no control over the fact that you were skipped on this. I have no control over the fact that you weren�
��t given the proper notification of the mission. I promise you, General, that when it comes down to it, I followed it to the letter of the law.”
The general opened his mouth to respond when the alarm sounded over the speakers.
“Attention all hands, this is not a drill. An incursion is in progress. Report immediately to your squad leaders for further instructions. Repeat, this is not a drill. Report immediately.”
The siren continued to blare as the soldiers began to move, knowing that when an incursion call came it didn’t matter what was going on—they were to report immediately to their stations, ready for battle. The general stood firm, staring at the colonel. The hubbub around them was distracting, hurrying through the bay to their areas. As a group crossed in between them the colonel reached for his weapon, pulling it and aiming at Pandora. The general’s eyes went wide and he lunged at the colonel, knocking him to the ground—but not before he got one shot off.
It all happened so fast, yet the general watched it in slow motion. He hit the ground with the colonel and the gun bounced out of his hand and slid across the floor. The general pushed the colonel back down.
“Don’t move,” he hissed. “You have just terminated your career. All these years wasted because you picked the wrong side. I will ensure that you are given the harshest of punishments. You will spend the rest of your days in prison.”
Even through the blaring of the sirens and the shouts, the shot froze everyone in their places, then the colonel pulled himself to his feet and the general retrieved the colonel’s weapon from the floor. Everyone in the room ducked, unsure where the shot had come from. The only ones standing at that point were the general, the colonel, and Pandora.
Everyone looked at Pandora, who was clutching her abdomen. Blood flowed over her hand and dripped onto the floor. The general stopped, his eyes growing wide, unsure what the response would be. Slowly Pandora lifted her head, her eyes glowing a bright red that matched the blood steadily pooling at her feet. She growled, staring at the colonel, Katie silent on the inside. The pain was minimal for Pandora, but she knew Katie could feel the full effect of the bullet.