Operation (2 page)

He sat down at the desk and prepared to go to work reviewing the information that he had been given at the initial SEAL briefing session. The folder lay in the center of the desk and when Reese reached for it, he spotted the card which had accompanied the rose. Reese picked it up and read it again:

May all your dreams come true.

He flipped it over.

Thanks for not having me arrested for breaking and entering. Christina

He smiled and laughed. Although there was a bit of irony in the note about his dreams, he could now at least find some humor in it—thanks to Christina. Since this morning he had not thought about her, but now that he had a moment, he found that his thoughts drifted in her direction and their unusual but revealing evening together. Her appearance at his home he had first considered an invasion of his privacy but that quickly changed as they discovered similar interests in ancient myths and legends. Now he wanted nothing more than to see her again. He wanted to call her to see if she wanted to have dinner with him tonight but with the way the op was going, he didn’t know if he would be able to make it; there was too much going on. The teams had begun the surveillance portion; however it would take several hours, if not days, to determine if the buildings they were watching were being used by the vampires or their captors. But when they did, it would be an around-the-clock op until completed. While the surveillance continued, he had to explore every possible contingency as to where they might be hiding. He knew that they, whether the military or the Agency, would be watching him. Apparently trust was something that didn’t exist in the world of dark operations.

But still he wanted to see her and he hoped that she would understand his situation without him talking any specifics. Even though he knew that with her background of ancient history she could be an immense help to the project, he knew that it would not be allowed by either General Morris or Samantha. Too many people already knew too much.

Still the thought of her remained fixed in his mind as if she had placed a spell over him. He snickered and thought there could be things much worse that could happen to him than a beautiful woman’s spell. He wanted to talk to her and most of all he wanted her to know that he was thinking about her. A lot. Taking the card she had given him last night out of his wallet, he reached for the phone and began to push numbers. Just as he was about to press the last digit, there was a knock on the door. With a sigh, he replaced the receiver.

“Come in,” Reese called; his voice containing a tinge of aggravation as he slid the card under the folder.

C
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The door opened and the familiar face of Lieutenant Colonel Sam Barkley peered around the door.

“Hey Sam!” Reese said. The joy at seeing a good friend quickly replaced the aggravation of the interruption. “Get your low-life Army ass in here.”

Barkley took a tentative step into the room. At almost six feet in height and about two hundred pounds, his large body filled the door opening. He stopped and eyed Reese for a moment taking particular note of the uniform he was wearing.

“I’ll be damned,” he began, “the Navy must be desperate if they let you come back in?”

“Let’s just say that they made me an offer I couldn’t refuse,” answered Reese. He got up from his chair behind the desk and walked over to Barkley. They shook hands.

“The last time we talked,” Sam began, “you were getting ready to teach or something. What the hell happened?”

“Yeah, well I got the whole first day under my belt before I had a visit from a wonderful gentleman named Mr. Smith. Have you met him?”

“Oh yes, and what a charming individual he is,” Barkley agreed.

Reese thought that Barkley’s voice and facial expression conveyed his true feelings, which were apparently quite similar to his own.

“Yeah, he definitely lacks in the social graces,” Reese added. “Well come on in and have a seat.”

The two men sat and for a moment there was an awkward silence between the two as if either one was afraid to ask anything. Finally Reese began, “I requested your help, Sam. I know you wanted to be finished with the op, especially after the last time we talked, but I can’t do this without you.”

“It’s okay John, I understand,” Barkley said. “It’s just like a bad penny. Will it ever end?”

“We can hope,” said Reese and then asked, “How much do you know?”

“They gave me a quick briefing about what General Stone did.”

“What do you think?”

“I’m pissed for one,” he shot back. “The bastards stole the bodies from me! I had to leave the medical tent in Kosovo for a few hours and when I got back, I was told the bodies had been removed for burial. Said it was local custom or some bullshit like that. I never thought to question it. I assumed that Idriz wanted to have his children buried. It seemed logical so I never bothered to ask him about it.”

“Nothing is ever what it appears to be,” Reese said feeling the phrase was familiar to him, as if he had heard it before. After a second or two, he remembered, Dimitri had used that exact expression.

“I guess not,” Barkley agreed. “Why exactly did you call me in?”

“I needed a familiar face just as much as someone who truly knows what we’re dealing with here.”

“If it was just you and General Morris, I could deal with this. But this crap with Smith and whoever he works for is rather unsettling. They scared the shit out of me with their little interrogation.”

“They interrogated you?” Reese asked.

“Sure did. It was not long after you and I met a few months ago. I got a message they wanted to talk to me.”

“It was probably because you came to my house,” Reese said thinking out loud. “Apparently they have been watching me as well.”

“Why?”

“Two reasons. Probably routine after the op we were on. They wanted to ensure we didn’t take the information outside or do anything stupid. Secondly, because we were players in the past op, they might have wanted to use us in the new one. However, I guess they originally didn’t want to bring us back into the fold for whatever reason.”

“But these girls, Idriz’s daughters, they’re just kids for Christ’s sake,” Barkley said. “Have you seen them?”

“On video but not in person,” Reese said. “They were innocent little kids, but now, they’re two very dangerous little kids. Especially if they fall into the wrong hands.”

“You think they were broken out?” asked Barkley.

“There’s no doubt about that. The question is, by whom.” Reese remembered seeing the blurred image of Dimitri on the surveillance tape. He couldn’t tell Barkley about that because Barkley believed that Dimitri and his team had been killed. It was best to leave that as is. He thought he knew Barkley well, but something like this could shift the balance from personal friendship over to an allegiance to duty. It was too risky to chance.

“How the hell will we find them?” asked Barkley. “This area is so damned big, and that is if they’re even still around.”

“Or alive,” Reese added. “They may have already been killed by either their captors or by the collars. We just don’t know for sure.”

“So what do we do?”

“We wait and keep looking. If I were you,” Reese began, “I would clear your calendar for quite a while.”

“And what do I do until we find them?”

“Until we get something for you to specifically look at, I want you to do so some research for me.”

“Research? On what?”

“I want you to see if you can come up with something that could neutralize the elixir that was used in the collars.”

“What?” Barkley asked. “We used that to control them and now you want to find a way to neutralize it?”

Reese explained, “If they escaped, the collars would have to be removed in order for them to survive, right?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“If whoever took them wants them alive, they’d have to get the collars off. If the perpetrators at the compound knew as much as they did about the facility, they had to know that the collars would be activated as soon as it was realized they had escaped. I’ve reviewed the time log; the collars were activated in less than fifteen minutes. There is no way they could have gotten them out of the range of the transmitters that quickly. This means that the girls are dead, or someone had to come up with an antidote or some way to block the reaction of the elixir. Do you see what I mean?”

“Got it now,” Barkley agreed. “It’s an interesting idea.”

“That’s what I want you to look into,” Reese continued. “When we were involved with the Team of Darkness op, we never really cared about it as long as it worked. I think maybe someone did look into that aspect and found a way to neutralize the elixir and prevent it from killing the girls.”

“I don’t know if I’m smart enough to do this John. I’m just a general MD; what you need is a full time chemist.”

“Then find one. There are several major military hospitals in the area; Portsmouth Naval Hospital is probably the closest. I want you to examine the civilian sector as well or maybe we can have our good friend Mr. Smith perform that aspect. It’s a long shot, but maybe someone might remember being brought the elixir to have analyzed.”

“Someone like that won’t be willing to part with the information,” Barkley stated firmly.“If money convinced them the first time, it’ll probably work just as well the second time,” replied Reese.

“I see what you mean,” agreed Barkley. “Okay, I’ll work that angle. So what’s the plan if they’re alive? Capture or kill?”

“Whichever ensures the best chance of success,” said Reese.

Reese watched as Barkley became quiet. He appeared to be thinking about something. “What’s bothering you?” asked Reese.

“Too many unanswered questions. Who did it? There’s a possible antidote for the elixir? How did they know the compound so well? How did anyone ever learn they were here in the first place?”

“I know,” Reese agreed. “The ramifications of this run deep.

“Christ John, it almost sounds like it was one of us. We knew all these things. You don’t think that they believe we had something to do with this, do you?”

Reese thought carefully before he spoke. “Look, this goes beyond the military sphere we understand. Back then, we knew the rules but now we don’t. And I tell you, General Morris is scared as well. The man has bodyguards. Can you imagine that?”

“It’s rather ironic,” Barkley said and snickered. “The man has all the spec-ops in the world at his disposal and yet he feels the need for personal protection.”

“Yeah, ironic,” agreed Reese. “There seems to be a lot of that around these days. This agency involvement is, I don’t know, strange in some way and I think it runs a lot deeper than it appears on the surface. The bottom line is we need to try and resolve this so that we don’t become a permanent fixture in this organization. One way or another, the only way it will end will be with either the return of the girls or evidence of their deaths.”

“That’s the only way we can truly clear ourselves, isn’t it?” asked Barkley.

“No one knew as much about the op as I did,” Reese began. “Do I think someone is watching me? You bet. Smith’s lurking around here somewhere. I haven’t seen him yet, but I know he’s here.”

“So what are we to do?” asked Barkley.

“Just do your job. We give them what they want and they’ll be happy.”

“This is getting uglier than I first thought it was going to be,” Barkley said as he stood and turned toward the door. “I’m going to check out the lab facilities here and see what kind of shape they’re in.”

Reese rose and walked with him. When Barkley was halfway out of the room, Reese said to him softly, “It’s only going to get uglier.”

“Hmm, going ugly early,” Barkley said. His voice tried to sound light and amused but it came across stiff and forced; the humor was obviously meant to lighten the mood. “Isn’t that a Navy thing? You guys have been known for your, how would you say, lack of discretion in picking women.”

Reese smiled weakly and said, “Let’s hope that our discretion saves our asses this time.”

Barkley nodded but said nothing. Reese saw the fear in his eyes.

C
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The irony of Crema’s book choice made Dimitri’s head spin. The book was Dracula. In the book the vampire promised revenge and yet in real life, it was the vampire, he, who suffered from the revenge that one human being had brought upon another. Where would it all end?

Dimitri sat down on the bed and for a brief moment, thought he felt a nagging pain course through his body. He knew and understood that as a vampire, he could not feel the passing of time. He’d remained unchanged the past ninety-three years or so and he was still physically twenty-three. He understood the physical effects that aging brought to humans and thought that what he was feeling right now similar to that. His mind grew fatigued as he thought about the girls forced to become vampires. They were so young. He cursed Josip under his breath for the cruelty of what he had done in seeking out his revenge against Idriz Laupki and the senselessness of the generational feud. But Dimitri also could not let General Stone and his military accomplices off the hook for their lack of compassion. They could have ended it all but instead they nurtured this craziness to fulfillment by bringing the girls into the picture.

All Dimitri and his two friends, Andre and Iliga, wanted, was to go home.

They had broken free of the captivity that they had been borne into by Commander Reese. Ironically it was Reese’s own guilt that allowed them the opportunity to escape. Their past year of freedom had been spent amassing money and various assets in order to purchase a secure way to get them all back to Kosovo. The plan was relatively simple but secrecy was always expensive and bribes best paid in cash. In the interim, they had secured a safe place to feed in this area of Virginia and things were progressing as planned. That was until they had discovered the dead body. The traces of a vampire kill led them back to the compound, their former prison, and the discovery of the young vampire girls.