Nomad Omnibus 03: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (A Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Omnibus)

by Craig Martelle

  They were the rescue team and they were sorely out of position.

  “We need to move now,” Ramses said.

  “Are you sure?” Cory looked at him, eyes glowing blue as usual.

  “No,” Ramses conceded. “We should have heard from her by now.”

  “Yes, we should have, but Kim will be fine. She doesn’t let too much get under her skin. Next to my mother, Kim is one of the toughest girls I know,” Cory said, confident in her assessment.

  ***

  “I think my stomach is going to explode,” Kimber complained as she leaned back in the chair. They’d inhaled the first four loaves and then purchased two more each.

  “You done eating! You go now,” a boy told them as he wiped off tables in preparation for the lunch crowd.

  Kim waved at the boy and signaled to her people that it was time to go. The men stood, swaying slightly.

  “I feel funny,” Dylan said.

  “Me, too,” Tony added, while Mack simply nodded.

  “What the hell is wrong with you? Sitting too long and eating too much is your problem. A brisk walk will clear you brains,” Kim retorted.

  The boy leaned close. “It’s the ganja, man,” he whispered conspiratorially. “Secret ingredient, you know.”

  “What’s ganja?” Kim asked. The boy shrugged and went back to work.

  “I don’t feel anything. Stop fucking around and let’s go!” she told them. They staggered in three different directions, until she ran them down and physically pulled them together.

  “Follow me,” she growled. She strode boldly away, turning after a few steps to see her men still standing where she’d left them.

  “Dammit!” Kim hung her head as she took hold of Mack and Dylan, aiming them toward the hills. “Tony! Lead the way home.”

  The tall man staggered in the general direction. Every time he tried to turn, Kim kicked his leg to straighten him. She kept pushing him while leading the other two by their arms.

  Once they were into the residential area and no one was around, she propelled them into a small stand of trees. “Sit!” she commanded. She pulled her comm device and looked at it before calling her father.

  “We’re on our way back out of town, but it didn’t quite go as planned,” she said softly. Terry didn’t reply. “I sold my boots to get money, then we used it to buy sweet bread, but then found it had something called ganja in it. And now my men are all screwed up.”

  “I see,” Terry replied simply. “Did you see the port?”

  “Barely. It’s as busy as San Francisco. This place is bigger than San Fran. And, Dad, someone stole my knife and one of our comm devices.” Kim hung her head in shame, grabbing Tony as he started to stray and pushing him back into the tree.

  “Yes, we already heard from the nice man who stole the comm. Eve gave him a piercing whistle and then disabled the device. It’s useless to him now,” Terry explained. “You know everything is my fault, right? I never prepared you for dealing with a big crowd of people It’s different. Big crowds chap my ass. I avoided them if there was any way, but that was before the WWDE. Anyway, get your people back into the hills and let them sleep it off. They’re stoned, that’s all. They’ll be fine.”

  “Stoned? Is that like being drunk?” Kimber tried to get her head wrapped around what was going on.

  “Exactly like it, except different,” Terry replied ambiguously.

  “Thanks for that, Dad.” Kim slapped herself in the forehead. She envisioned her dad leaning back as the sailboat slapped through the waves. Her mother sunning nearby, while watching everything and listening intently. She expected they’d have a good laugh at her expense.

  “There’s no need to return to the city on another recon. We’ll get Ted to do a nighttime fly-by and see if there are any Forsaken or Were in the city. Outside of that, I think we found ourselves a trading partner for New York City. We’ll send in Sue and Timmons and Butch and Skippy to negotiate with Kingston’s leadership and see if we can get something going,” Terry said.

  “I failed.”

  “That’s a steaming pile of crap,” Terry retorted. “Failure would have been shooting up the town. Can you go back in there if you need to?”

  “Sure,” Kimber replied.

  “Then you didn’t fail. Get back to your hide site and tonight, fly yourselves to Gitmo and meet us here. This mission was a win, Sergeant. And tell your stoners, no more ganja sweet bread for them. Out here.”

  “Stoners. That’s what you three knuckleheads will be called from now on.”

  The men chuckled peacefully as they closed their eyes and made to sleep. She rousted them and forced them to resume their march into the hills.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Guantanamo Bay

  Both squads were standing on the remaining pier as the sailboat slipped into view. The warriors jumped up and down, waving. Terry Henry Walton turned the boat, pointing the bow shoreward and withdrawing sails as they slowed their approach.

  Three men worked the sails along with Char while Terry handled the wheel and called out commands. The sailboat drifted toward the pier with Terry working the wheel to bleed off the last of their speed. The boat bumped gently. Lines were thrown to warriors who tied the boat to broken concrete and stalwart cleats that had withstood the rigors of the ocean air.

  The deckhands came ashore first, looking oddly at the two squads, while the warriors looked back. “Meet Louie, Jose, and Archie!” Terry called from the deck. He and Char jumped ashore together, waving as they headed to Kae and Marcie.

  “Where’s Ted?” Char asked after hugging Kae and his wife.

  “He wouldn’t leave the pod. He knew you were coming,” Kae said defensively.

  “Of course he did. Oh well.” Char looked over the faces, unable to picture what Jack looked like. Terry didn’t have that problem. He saw the young man’s face all too clearly.

  “Barbecue this afternoon, in celebration of our fallen,” Terry said loudly. “And then tomorrow, two days of training with all four teams.”

  ***

  Ted opened the pod when his alpha told him to. She stood at the bottom of the ramp with her arms crossed and looked at him. He barely took notice.

  “What are you working on that you couldn’t meet your alpha on the pier?” she asked coldly.

  “Look at this,” he said. She trooped into the pod, skeptical that she would see anything important.

  “Here’s what Eve and I have come up with, after removing the signals from known sources,” Ted explained impatiently as he jumped back and forth between different Mercator projections of planet Earth. The first one showed thousands of pinpricks of light. The second was completely blank.

  “What am I looking at?” she said, pointing to the blank screen.

  “Known or suspected Forsaken signals.”

  “Nothing.” Char crossed her arms and stared at the screen, but that didn’t change anything.

  The Forsaken had disappeared in a way that even Eve couldn’t find them.

  “We’ve already been doing it the hard way. At least we know where they aren’t,” Char said.

  “Yes. We know where they aren’t currently awake. If they’ve all gone to sleep, I fear we could walk over top of one of them and wouldn’t know it,” Ted explained.

  “Not only do we have to cover the surface of the Earth, but we have to keep retracing our steps. I’m pretty sure my hatred of the Forsaken has ratcheted up to a whole new level.”

  Ted nodded. Char started to leave, but stopped. “Tomorrow, we become Werewolves to fill the aggressor role for our four squads.”

  Ted finally looked at her, a blank expression on his face. “Four?”

  “The others will join us tonight,” Char replied as she turned and left.

  San Francisco

  “Terry wants us to go to Kingston, Jamaica, and talk trade,” Timmons said. Sue chewed on the inside of her cheek as she shook her head, leaning back in her over-sized mayor’s chair. Timmons sat i
n the chair across the desk

  “I guess he thinks running this city is easy,” she replied.

  “I’m sure he doesn’t think that. You do have a council to lean on, or are you wearing a crown and being the Queen of San Fran?”

  Sue gave him the finger.

  “How do you think the others are doing?” Timmons asked, enjoying the air conditioning for the moment. Temperatures were cooling off and soon, they would need the heat turned on.

  “We could call them,” Sue suggested. Timmons looked smug as he mashed the buttons on his comm device.

  “Merrit, my man! How goes things?” Timmons listened for a while, nodding occasionally.

  “I’ll be damned! Same old here. Sue is killing them with kindness. We’re ratcheting up the imports and started to send stuff further afield. We’ve got good power and that’s it. I’ve got air conditioning blowing on me, but it’s a little cool. I should shut it down. What? Fuck me? Well, fuck you!” Timmons laughed.

  Sue rolled her eyes.

  “Thanks, pal. Stay safe and stay frosty.” Timmons signed off and lifted his head.

  “They’ve taken over the food processing industry of Cancun,” Timmons started. “They’ve moved into the royal suite, whatever that means. He said to send some air conditioners their way. They have no way to recharge the Freon, although they could use ammonia. It’s just a little more dangerous, that’s all.”

  “They probably want real air conditioners, not some science experiment.” Sue looked at the papers on her desk before pushing them away. “Do you think a ship could get through the Panama Canal or would they have to sail around Cape Horn?”

  “Without power? I think they’d have to go the long way around. Is there enough shipping to make it worthwhile? It sounded like the fishing industry was doing okay, but I think ours is better. Every once in a while, I think we might be able to convince Fuji to take a ship to Cancun and hit Kingston while they’re over that way. Sounds like Jamaica is happening.”

  “You just talked yourself around in a circle. Remember the part where we have too much to do here to go gallivanting around a tropical paradise?” Sue said.

  “I find your argument unpersuasive and your lack of desire for a mai tai unbecoming.” Timmons stood so he could look down his nose at his mate.

  “Who said I don’t want a mai tai! That’s slander. I’ll sue!” She slammed her hand on the desk as she smiled.

  Timmons leaned across to give her a kiss. He grinned afterwards. “Sounds like we’re going to Jamaica, man!”

  Guantanamo Bay

  The pod carrying the two teams from Jamaica arrived without fanfare, landing next to Ted’s pod on the roadway. The ramp dropped and Terry and Char greeted them when they exited.

  Char’s smile evaporated with the first whiff. She swallowed heavily. Terry wrinkled his nose. Kim sauntered up and greeted her parents warmly.

  “Did you know that monkeys throw their poop with remarkable accuracy?” she asked pleasantly. “Maybe there’s some fresh water around here where we can wash up?”

  Terry pointed toward the jungle where there was a stream not far away.

  Ramses sent his squad after Kim and her people. Cory joined Terry and Char, with Ramses not far behind.

  “It wasn’t a complete goat rope, but close,” Cory offered.

  “I guess as long as it wasn’t complete…” Terry let the thought trail off. “It’s great to see you both.”

  Char hugged her daughter and they walked away. Ramses watched them disappear into the dark of the night.

  “What are you thinking?” Terry asked.

  “We didn’t get a chance to prove anything except that our people had a hard time in the heat and humidity. We found out that spider bites hurt, too.”

  “Shit happens. You lost one of your people and still carried on. That’s what you learned. You didn’t crawl into a shell and disappear,” Terry said softly, putting a hand on the young man’s shoulder. “We learned that this is going to be a very long war. You’re going to have a great deal of time to learn and improve.”

  Ramses nodded and then excused himself to follow his squad to the stream to get cleaned up.

  ***

  The four squads stood on the pier where the sailboat called Heywood was tied up. Terry stood tall on an abutment to be visible to all. Char was already in Were form with Ted, somewhere in the jungle behind them.

  “Today’s exercise is two-fold. First, I want to know what’s in all these buildings. Is there anything worth salvaging? Second, I want you to do it while being ready to engage the Werewolves. Team leaders, inspect all weapons. No ammunition, people, just aim and yell ‘bang.’ Anyone shoots the major with an actual bullet will be fed to the fish. Keep your gear on and tight.”

  Terry pointed out the sectors and turned the squads loose. The team leaders had a vested interest in ensuring that all chambers were free of rounds and all magazines were secured in their people’s backpacks.

  When that was complete, they hiked away. Within ten seconds, two Werewolves burst from the jungle and ran down Marcie’s squad, bowling over eight of the ten people. Not a single person was able to aim. Ramses’s squad was behind Marcie’s and Kae’s was in front. The two reacted, but slowly. Only a few of the warriors were able to aim, but they never ‘fired’ because the Werewolves were running through and between friendlies.

  The two dashed back into the jungle. “Unfuck yourselves!” Terry bellowed. Each of the squad leaders ordered the warriors into tactical formations before moving out, two were slant right and the other two chose the inverted V.

  They headed into the ruins. Terry listened to the commands as they called out standard breaching and clearing terms. They methodically went from one building to the next.

  “Bang!” someone shouted, then a chorus joined in.

  “Good work, people!” Kimber yelled. “Back to it, more fish to fry!”

  The exercise took all morning. Ted and Char appeared from the jungle and joined Terry as he waited with Cory near the sailboat. The deckhands were fishing at the edge of what remained of a pier. They didn’t appear to care if they caught anything or not.

  Someone yelled “Bang!” and once again, a chorus joined in.

  Terry looked at Char and Ted. “An evil twin?” he asked, before getting up and walking quickly in the direction of the engagement. It continued until he arrived.

  “Who the fuck is shooting?” he called as he stormed up.

  “That’d be me!” Kae replied, rising from behind cover and intercepting the colonel.

  “Your targets are sitting on the pier waiting for you to finish, so what do you think you’re shooting at?”

  “Cease fire!” Kaeden ordered, feeling stupid for yelling at them to stop yelling. “Camilla! What do you see up there?”

  “In the brush, dark figures. They’re still there!” she shouted.

  “With me.” Terry pulled his pistol and worked his way through the squad. Kae took out his knife, enjoying the feel of it in his hand as he hurried after his father.

  Terry dove through the palms. Something thrashed beyond. Kaeden dove head first through the opening, nearly landing face first on a creature who looked barely recognizable as a person. Terry had a second one by the neck. Both were squealing and grunting.

  Kae caught the one he was face to face with, and pinned its arms behind its back. He couldn’t tell if it was a male or female. It struggled with him mightily, demonstrating a nearly unnatural strength for its size, but Kaeden was stronger, as was Terry Henry. They both held their prisoners tightly.

  “What do we do with you?” Terry asked, looking into the creature’s wild eyes.

  “Let them go,” he said, releasing his and giving a gentle push toward the jungle. Kae hesitated, a questioning look on his face. “I said, let them go!”

  Kae immediately removed his hands and held them up. The creature tore into the jungle after its fellow.

  Terry looked after them, sadness gripping his
features. “I guess we found some survivors,” he said slowly, taking a step toward the pier while looking back at the jungle. “Could barely tell they were human.”

  “Time to go home?” Kae suggested.

  “Exactly.”

  They talked as they walked. Kae told his squad to fall in behind them and then called for the other three squads as they returned to the wharf. Char waited.

  “Humans,” Terry whispered. “Feral, little more than Cro-Magnon. Let’s load the pods, the boat, and be on our way.”

  Char nodded in agreement. After a couple weeks at sea, her legs felt funny while she was on shore.

  Once he had everyone’s attention, the colonel spoke. “Let’s load up the best from the bunkers and get the hell out of here. The major and I will continue our sailing tour of the Caribbean, but I doubt we’ll find anything. We’ll be home in the fall. Keep your comm on you at all times and keep training. I’ll coordinate more reconnaissance from the boat. In the interim, I’ll need you to move everything from the bunkers here to North Chicago.”

  Ted nodded and started to walk away. Char grabbed his arm.

  “Are we going to fight?” Camilla asked innocently.

  Terry frowned. “The Forsaken have gone into hiding. Every single one of them around the whole world. If they haven’t, then they’re doing a damn good job of not being seen. This is why we’ll continue to deploy, look for something that is out of place. If we find one, they can stand the fuck by. We’ll show up guns blazing. Which, of course, will keep the others underground. We’re in for the long game, so strap in and make yourselves comfortable. Maintain your honor, your courage, and your integrity. What you do today is what others will remember tomorrow.

  “Sergeant, take charge of the squads and carry out the plan of the day.” Terry finally noticed that Kimber wasn’t wearing boots, but sandals. He remembered she’d traded them, but it had not registered. “Nice.”