by Michael Todd
“Not a problem. We’ll get those bullets to your man.”
“And Katie?” the general said before hanging up. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, General. We all want the same outcome. How we get there is just details.”
They hung up and Katie sat there for a moment thinking about what had just been said. It was the first time the general had ever thanked her for anything.
Maybe the alliance wasn’t such a bad idea after all. The teams needed a bigger force, more eyes, and a better ability to obtain the tools they needed for success, and the military were just the people to make sure that happened.
Her only concern was what it would all cost in the end.
Korbin was reviewing the newest intel.
Nothing much was different from what he had talked to the crew about earlier that day. Incursions were down in numbers, but the ones that were coming in were crazy-difficult.
The demons were getting smarter. Whoever was sending them their way knew they needed to up their game.
If they had upped their ante, the team had to as well.
That meant more training, longer hours, and new tactics, and though the teams were already being pushed, they were going to have to work even harder.
He hated to do that to them, but that was their job.
Korbin leaned back in the chair and rubbed his hands over his face, exhausted by all the changes. Something was going to have to give somewhere, because everything was running hot at that moment. Just then the phone rang and Korbin stared at it for a moment, almost too discouraged to pick it up.
“Korbin?” the general began. “It’s Brushwood.”
“General. How can I help you?”
“I just got off the phone with Katie ten minutes ago. There’s a call in Wyoming and I’d like to know if I can have her and Damian. They would be the best people to take care of this situation since we don’t know what we’re facing.”
“Sure. So there isn’t much information on it yet?”
“No. It could be those damned mercenary demons again, or it could be just something simple.” The general groaned. “But I don’t want to find out the hard way and lose more good soldiers if I don’t have to. Katie and Damian can handle a hell of a lot more than these soldiers can, and if it’s bad there will be more than enough reinforcements. If it’s simple, they still won’t have wasted a trip.”
“Absolutely,” Korbin agreed. “It’s been quiet out here for a while now, which makes me nervous, but we’re thankful that we got a bit of recovery time in.”
“Katie told me,” the general replied. “Hopefully this isn’t a lead-up to something big.”
“I’m hoping it’s not as well. But yes, send me the info and I will get Damian and Katie geared up and ready to go. We have no time to waste.”
“Oh, and in case Katie hasn’t had a chance to tell you yet, I’m sending a man over to pick up ammunition this afternoon,” the general told him.
“Not a problem,” Korbin replied. “I will have the guys looking out for him. I’ll alert Charles since Katie won’t be here.”
“Thank you, and I’ll send that information over as soon as I can,” he replied.
They hung up and Korbin went to the intercom. The speaker squealed loudly and he winced, waiting for the issue to resolve.
“Katie and Damian, report to my office as quickly as possible. You have a call.”
Korbin walked back to the desk and pulled up the info from the general, printing a copy for them. Five minutes later they were in Korbin’s office, breathing a bit harder than normal from jogging through the tunnels to get there quickly.
“What’s up, boss?” Katie asked. “Local incursion?”
“Nope. The general called. Something’s going on in Wyoming.”
He handed the information to Katie.
“Wyoming?” Katie wrinkled her nose. “That’s not our area.”
“Yeah, and we don’t really know what it is yet. We’re just hoping it’s not the demon mercs. They don’t want to lose another band of soldiers by sending them into a trap.”
“So, they called the professionals.” Damian nodded. “Smart.”
“Pretty much,” Korbin replied. “I need you to leave as soon as you possibly can, so gear up and we’ll ready the chopper.”
“You got it, boss.” Katie nodded and turned toward the door.
Korbin sighed and shook Damian’s hand, knowing they were going into a dangerous situation.
He would have felt better sending the whole team, but emptying the base right then would not be wise. Without major security and with the presence of civilians they couldn’t take the chance.
Katie and Damian headed for the armory and started packing. Katie was already wearing her specialty knives but she twisted her quarterstaff apart and shoved the halves into the leg holsters she’d had made. Damian nodded in approval and holstered his pistols at his sides. Katie knew she should be nervous. She knew this could be what had been bothering her for days, but nerves wouldn’t do her any good at that point. It seemed like Pandora knew that too.
I am your inner Valium, she assured Katie. Just take deep breaths. No one knows what this is, and I won’t have a good idea until we get closer.
Aye, aye, Captain, Katie replied.
“You ready?” Damian asked.
“As ready as I’ll ever be, heading into a random incursion in a random place with no intel whatsoever,” she replied.
“I know. We need a better system than this,” Damian agreed. “If we had intel on every situation we might be able to cut the team, military, and civilian death rate in half.”
“Big dreams.” Katie smiled, throwing her bag over her shoulder. “We live in a world of big dreams.”
“More like big nightmares.” Damian scoffed and grabbed his bag and they headed out. “But hey, I’m gainfully employed.”
“You don’t really have much choice,” Katie commented.
“Sure I do,” Damian argued. “Death or lab rat are always available.”
“You don’t have another choice you would pick voluntarily.” She amended.
Worlds away in the fiery depths of hell, T’Chezz and Moloch sat in Moloch’s office discussing the most recent attacks and where they would go next.
As always T’Chezz irritated Moloch, but where it used to be a minor irritation it had now developed into full-blown loathing.
He kept his cool, though, knowing what they were doing was one for the books.
If worse came to worst and it all went south, he could pin the whole thing on T’Chezz and walk away scot-free. Lucifer would throw T’Chezz so far into the depths of hell if he fucked this up that he wouldn’t see the topside lava for millennia. And if he did somehow crawl out, Moloch suspected Lucifer would toss him back for further baking.
“Our second success was just as I planned—amazing,” T’Chezz boasted. “The team really has a handle on tactics now and they rolled in there ready to go. There were no survivors, or so I heard.”
“Nope, no survivors.” Moloch’s teeth clenched with annoyance at the sound of T’Chezz’s voice.
“I just wish they had been those Damned mercenaries and not idiot humans,” T’Chezz lamented. “But like everything else, there is always room for improvement.”
“Right,” Moloch agreed through gritted fangs. “And we will get it right. I am sure of that. If nothing else, it was a good warmup for the main event. These men are training harder and longer than any other team and it shows when they roll into a battle. They are more than ready.”
“Good,” T’Chezz exclaimed. “Now what’s for lunch?”
“I’m not sure,” Moloch replied. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable and I will see what I can find out.”
“Thank you.”
As Moloch stalked out of his office and shut the door behind him, a low growl came from his snarling lips. As he walked through the building he ran into Baal and paused to chat. Moloch sighed, feeling eve
rything bubbling over.
“How’s it going?” Baal asked.
Moloch lost it.
“That idiot! That motherfucking idiot who can’t even figure out which way his horns should go on in the morning has had the audacity to take credit, not only for what I am doing but for what generations of demons have laid the groundwork for us to achieve. He’s a fucking lazy coward, and I want to snap his big fat scaly neck every time he opens his damn mouth.”
“Why don’t you just get rid of him,” Baal asked. “You don’t need him for this.”
“He is the fall guy,” Moloch growled, shaking his head. “I really need him to shut the fuck up, though.”
“What happens if it succeeds?” Baal asked.
“Then I will cast him into the depths of hell myself.” Moloch smirked evilly. “Either way, when this is all over I don’t have to worry about that idiot making a mess of anything ever again. I will breathe easily at the top of the pack.”
“Sometimes when you want something done you have to do it yourself,” Baal remarked. “And you are getting to that point.”
Chapter Twenty
Timothy stood back and watched as the two women worked, impressed by their speed and accuracy. He was still bummed they weren’t hot shirtless men, but he would have to deal with it.
At least his demon wasn’t air-humping them or pushing him to stick his wang in either of them. They must not have been his type—although apparently every woman was his type, which Timothy found both desperate and gross.
He didn’t care what anyone else did, but this demon was in him—and he was really tired of dreaming about man-eating vaginas.
“Okay.” One of the women stood up and dusted off her hands. “That’s it.”
“That’s it?” Calvin asked. “You’re done?
“Yep. We locked and loaded all your servers, including OS updates and patches. Your firewall is locked down, and your connectivity is up and running, good as new.”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Timothy growled, turning to the computer and typing quickly.
Screens were popping up faster than Calvin had ever seen, but he wasn’t sure what he was looking for.
Timothy kept typing, clicking through pages, updating settings, and looking through all the work the girls had done. They stood there smirking, confident in the work they had done.
When he was finished he turned around and nodded.
“Nice work, ladies. We are good to go.”
“Thanks,” The other one said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. “Whoever did this before was a bit of an idiot.”
“Yeah.” The other scoffed. “Whoever they were, they didn’t even connect the firewall correctly.”
“Psst!” Timothy slid his hand across his neck to tell them to shut up.
Calvin cleared his throat and crossed his arms over his chest.
“The person who did that,” he pointed to the machines, “was killed in a gang fight when we were working with the police,” Calvin explained. “He was protecting innocent civilians and the rest of the city from falling into these mad men’s grasp. It would be good of you to show a bit of respect.”
“You’re right,” one girl agreed, hanging her head. “That was catty.”
“It was,” the other chimed in. “We had no idea, but that isn’t an excuse. Sorry about that.”
“No problem.” Calvin eased up.
“Just don’t let the chick in spandex hear that.” Timothy rolled his eyes. “She’s a snippy one.”
He raked his hand through the air like a cat and made a hissing noise. The girls stifled their laughs and looked at Calvin, who stomped forward, scaring Timothy.
“Come on, ladies, I’ll show you the way out.” He motioned toward the door and turned to Timothy. “And you better stay out of trouble while I am gone. There is nowhere you can go that I won’t find you.”
“Not moving a muscle,” Timothy replied.
Calvin walked out of the room and took the lead to make sure they didn’t make any wrong turns. He took them the long way through the tunnels to avoid walking past occupied rooms.
They went up the elevator and to their car, where he handed each of them an envelope of cash and a case of PBR. He shook his head when they got more excited about the beer than the money and watched until they had driven out of sight.
“Fucking white people,” he grumbled, getting back into the elevator.
When he got back to the room Timothy was typing feverishly and papers were falling out of the printer. Calvin picked one up and read it. It was intel—data streams—and only some of it made sense to him.
“What is this?” he asked, holding up a page. “What are you doing right now?”
“I am pulling in information, and data; everything I can get my hands on,” Timothy told him excitedly. “I’m implementing a few butler programs as well. This hardware is amazing quality. I have to admit I’m impressed, now that it is up and running.”
Calvin just stared at him, concerned that Timothy was doing something he shouldn’t, but Calvin couldn’t tell. “What’s a butler program?”
“It’s a program that a lot of hackers use,” he explained, still typing. “In simple terms, it’s a smart script that grabs the input and works to make my life easier as we hack for information. Basically, the system—Siebel in this case—is asking one user questions and getting the answers from another. Sometimes it is user-to-user, as in the same person, but for obvious reasons that doesn’t do much.”
“Like the fact that I can’t ask myself a question I don’t know the answer to and get a response?” Calvin asked.
“Kind of, but in a much more technical and complicated way,” he replied. “When I’m hacking, it helps if I know the answers before I get there so I can breeze through whatever it is I am working on.”
“Okaayyy,” Calvin agreed slowly. “And how will any of this help us?”
“It’s information.” He shrugged. “It’s what you people call ‘intel.’ I might have to spell some of it out for you here and there, but it’s going to help you do whatever it is you guys actually do…besides torturing the poor gay tech guy.”
“No one is torturing you,” Calvin grumbled. “Yet.”
Timothy swallowed hard but acted like he hadn’t heard Calvin’s comment.
He was used to being treated a certain way. He was a weirdo by society’s standards, but he had learned to live with that. He got back at society through its computers.
It was really the only thing he knew how to do. Calvin walked over to the phone and called Korbin.
“Korbin, come down to the server room. I want to show you something.”
“Uh-oh, calling in the big dog,” Timothy joked.
“He should see this. Time is of the essence,” Calvin explained, turning as Korbin entered the room.
Korbin’s eyes widened when he saw all the paper and flashing lights. “Wow, looks like things are up and running!”
“Timothy is pulling all kinds of information off… Well, wherever the hell he pulls it from,” Calvin told him. “I figured you would want to know.”
“I do,” Korbin agreed, walking over to Timothy. “Let me ask you a question: is this system capable of tracking people down?”
“Sure. I would just need some sort of reference point,” he replied.
“I have surveillance footage, and I want to know who the people in it are.”
“Oh, yeah.” Timothy nodded. “That will be pretty easy. I can just cross-hack into the police systems and start there. I can use their facial recognition software and get hundreds of answers within minutes. I mean, I have to hack into them first, but after that it’ll be a breeze.”
“All right. Good.” Korbin handed him a flash drive. “It’s on here, but you need to know that it’s top secret. I just want the identities of the men in that video.”
“There you go again, being more than prepared,” Timothy teased, taking the thumb drive. “I’ll get started on it
right now.”
“Good,” Korbin said. “Report to me as soon as you know any of their names.”
“Got it,” he replied. “Do you want me to call you on that old-ass intercom,” he jerked his thumb over his shoulder, “or tell my giant bodyguard about it?”
“Tell Calvin.” Korbin grinned. “He will contact me immediately. In the meantime, continue to collect intel on the groups listed in the documents on the drive. We want as much intel as we can get. Things are starting to heat up, and we don’t want to be in the dark.”
“You want me to stay here, boss?” Calvin asked.
“I know it’s not the most glamorous assignment, but yes,” Korbin replied. “Until we can trust this one on his own, we will need someone watching him. When he gets tired, his room has been set up. It’s two doors down from yours. I will send someone to relieve you eventually. Katie and Damian are on their way to a fight out in Wyoming.”
“Wyoming?” Calvin asked, looking shocked. “What the hell are they doing out there?”
“Taking in the buffalo, chillin’ on the ranch, eating some ranchers,” Timothy quipped, not looking at them.
“We aren’t really sure,” Korbin replied, ignoring Timothy. “There was no intel on it when they left. The general called down and asked for the two of them specifically. I guess we just have to wait and see.”
“Right, well, tell me as soon as you know something,” Calvin requested. “Things are getting much worse out there.”
The jet’s wheels touched lightly down on the runway and the pilot applied the brakes, slowing it way down as he taxied toward the hangar bay in front of him. Other planes lifted off and landed, all military. Once again they were the only ones in a private plane.
Katie took a deep breath and nodded at Damian as they taxied, standing up and tugging on her gear once they had stopped completely to make sure it was secure.