Specters: A Monster Squad Novel - 8 (31 page)

“You knew they would not before you agreed to kill Lilith, didn’t you?”

Rufus inhaled deeply while he considered his answer. “I suspected their treachery. Much as they must suspect my own. I’m sure that they are aware that your wolves are in their territory. They probably assume that they are here to secure my escape should they back out on our agreement.”

Viktor nodded knowingly. “And the wolves will kill their guards, securing our departure once you have removed the Council.”

“
Non.
Once the Council is removed, their power should shift. The guards will either stand down and await their new orders or they’ll attempt to avenge their old masters.”

Viktor gave him a shocked stare. “One extreme or the other.” He shifted in his seat to give his full attention to Thorn. “And who will their new master be?”

Rufus shrugged. “They will either revert to their separate
familias
…or shift to the one who killed their masters.”

*****

Spalding peered over Little John’s shoulder and did a double take as a human shaped form sprinted from the thicket directly in front of them and leapt over a fallen log. The being moved with an awkward grace that surprised him.

He heard John yell, “Going live!” and the muffled report of his suppressed rifle belched as he opened fire on the advancing creature. Chips of bark exploded from trees and sprays of dirt erupted from the ground around the creature as it zig-zagged its way toward them. Spalding was still trying to capture the bouncing figure in the optics of his sights when it sprung into the air and leapt over them, swinging a large stick as it flew overhead.

Donovan yelled as the stick made contact with the side of his helmet, knocking him to the ground. The entire squad spun and tried to follow the creature as it disappeared in the darkness of the woods.

“Son of a bitch! I lost it,” Lamb reported first.

“Same here,” Jacobs replied, his rifle scanning the area.

Gus Tracy side-stepped from his position and checked on Donovan. “You okay, buddy?”

Donnie held up his ruined night vision goggles and swiped blood from his temple. “Bastard tried to crack my skull.”

Spalding kept his hand on John’s shoulder. He leaned closer and whispered in his ear, “Do you have it?”

“Negative. I lost it after it jumped us.”

Spanky sunk lower into the spongy peat moss and keyed his coms. “OPCOM, we lost contact with the tango. What’s the twenty on the eye in the sky?”

OPCOM’s static-filled reply broke up, but he was able to pick up pieces. “Delta
SHH
-tual,
shkrik
is approximately two zero mics
shkrriiict
.”

“Dammit.” He pulled his earbud and let it dangle while he scanned the area. “Did you catch any of that?”

“Sounds like we have at least twenty minutes.” Little John shifted his weight and peered back from where the creature had burst through the woods. “I think we should backtrack and see where that thing came from. Maybe we can find its lair.”

Spanky stood slowly and did a full sweep. He made a motion with his hand and waved his squad back into formation. “Donnie, you gonna survive?”

“Roger that, Spank. Might have a bit of a headache, but I’m good to go.”

“Copy that. Converge on Little John. We’re gonna see if we can track where that thing came from.” He tapped John’s shoulder and sent him forward. “Fall in. Gus, cover our six. I don’t want that thing creeping back on us.”

“Roger that.”

The column started forward with Sullivan stopping periodically to check for tracks and to read the terrain. The sound of the rushing water still acted as a white noise in the background masking most of the natural forest sounds.

Gus walked backwards the majority of the way. He continually scanned the area to either side of the team as they made their way through the thickets. He froze when leaves fell from the treetop around him. He glanced upward and saw nothing moving in the canopy other than limbs swaying slightly in the breeze. Still, the idea that the creature could be shadowing them from above stuck with him.

He continued to scan left to right, up then down. Left to right, up then down. Gus felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He continued to scan the area and saw nothing. His hand automatically went to his throat and keyed his coms. “Boss, check the canopy. I have a creepy feeling we’re being shadowed from above.”

Spanky stopped the column and began to scan the treetops. He detected no movement and was about to order the squad to move out again when a blur fell from above, tackling him to the ground and rolling him away from the others.

*****

“Dom, debrief your squad and copy me on the reports. We’ve got our own business to take care of down below.” Jack slapped the big man on the shoulder. “I appreciate the support out there, buddy.”

“Any time, Phoenix.” Dom shot him a wink before stepping over to the stowage table and removing his gear.

Jack motioned his team together and nodded toward Allister who was stepping into the freight elevator. “Everybody down below. We need to debrief before we start cutting people loose.”

He watched as the team began to meander their way to the stairwell. He instinctively reached out and grabbed Phil by the arm, holding him back. The Nephilim gave him a curious look, but Jack gave a barely perceptible shake of his head, his eyes studying the warriors as they made their way behind the steel door and into the stairwell.

Once he was certain they were out of earshot he pulled the Nephilim aside and took a deep breath. Phil cut him off by speaking first. “You
do
intend to return the angelic weapons as agreed, do you not, Chief Jack?”

Jack stared at him open mouthed for just a moment before shaking his head. “Yes, of course. No, I need to…there’s some bad news, and you need to be aware of it.” He turned and nodded toward the door. “Lilith survived the attack.”

The Nephilim gave him a surprised look. “I don’t see how. We have her remains in those crates and…”

“No, her…
essence
survived. She…” he trailed off as he tried to think of how to explain what happened. “She ‘took over’ Brooke’s body.”

Phil nodded with understanding. “The vampiress. Yes, that makes sense.” He rubbed at his chin as he stared at the doorway. “And now we must kill her again.”

“Do you know of any way that we can remove Lilith from Brooke’s body? Maybe some angelic device or weapon or…anything?”

Phil shook his head. “I am sorry, Chief Jack. The only thing at the weapons cache is weapons.”

Jack sighed and rubbed at his eyes. “There
has
to be a way. There just has to be.”

“Why?” The Nephilim gave him a confused stare.

“What do you mean, why?”

“Why must there be a way to save the vampire?” He leaned upon his hammer and studied Jack. “She was fully aware of the risks when she agreed to go to battle.”

Jack shook his head. “There’s no way she could have known about this. If I had known I would have made her stay here.”

“And yet, here we be. Lilith yet lives, and you hesitate to kill her because of who she has possessed.” The Nephilim shook his head. “It makes little sense.”

“She trusted us. Trusted ME.” He jabbed a finger into the Nephilim’s chest. “I promised her…”

“What? That you would keep her safe?” The Nephilim swept the finger away and grimaced at the smaller man. “You should not have made such a promise.”

Jack sighed and felt the energy drain from him. “It isn’t fair. She’s just a kid.”

“Child or not, she is a warrior. Warriors know the risk they take when they go into battle. Whether cut down by the blade or cut down by the treachery of evil, there are always risks.”

Jack felt the Nephilim’s large hand gently squeeze his shoulder. “Let us do what must be done.”

Jack watched as the Halfling strode purposefully toward the stairs. He took a deep breath and fell into step behind him. As he stepped into the darkened stairwell he wished he could be anywhere in the world but here.

*****

Director Jameson sifted through the stacks of papers and sighed. “Good grief. We can’t even get an identification on half of these...whatever they are.” He slammed the files down and reached for the cup of coffee that had been cooling on the table. His eyes lifted and he noticed that the sun was rising outside. He had no intention of staying until daybreak and yet, here he was, sifting through raw data and photographs like an underling.

Ingram leaned across the table and slid the folder Jameson had been reading closer. He ran his finger along the lines of data and shook his head. “This can’t be right. The spectral analysis on these weapons…they don’t match anything on the periodic table.” He lifted his bleary eyes to meet Jameson’s. “Are we looking at alien tech here?”

“How in the hell am I supposed to know?” Jameson stood slowly and walked toward the coffee pot. He poured out what was in his cup and replaced it with fresh, hot brew. “There’s no telling what these assholes are using.”

“I know I’d like to have it for the Titans. Could you imagine how much more deadly they’d be with alien weaponry?” Ingram gave him a weak smile.

“We have no idea what these damned monster hunters have available to them.” Jameson plopped down in his seat again and ran a hand across his haggard face. “They’ve been operational for far too long.”

Ingram leaned back in his seat and yawned. “Who sits on their appropriations committee?”

Jameson shrugged. “I don’t know. I never got the report from Stevens.”

Ingram groaned. “Surely you have another hack who could get that for you.”

“And then what? Try to dig up dirt on whichever congressman or senator happens to sit on it? That’s a good way to find myself sitting before my own hearing. No, thank you.” He leaned forward and sipped at the coffee, his mind racing.

“There has to be a way to find out the inner workings.” Ingram stood and stretched before pouring his own cup of coffee. He glanced around the room and noted that only two of the techs still remained, and they were leaning across their consoles. “We’ve got so many pieces of the puzzle. We just need to figure out how they fit together.”

“Do we?” Jameson shoved a pile of loose photos across the table at him. “Do we really? Since when did they get a winged monster on their team? Since when did they have a sentient zombie working for them?” He shoved the rest of the photos harder and they scattered to the floor. “And what the hell are these other…
things
? What is this? A hobbit? A giant? They’re obviously part of the squad. See how the operators work as support for them!”

Ingram watched the photos flutter to the carpet and met the older man’s eyes. They were wide with anger and worry. He bent and scooped up a handful of the photographs and placed them back on the table.

“Look, Jameson, I’m not about to start second-guessing who these people are. Or even
what
they are.” He sifted through the photos and came to the image of the winged monster gliding over the warehouse. His face scrunched as he studied the photograph then he began to sift through the rest. Finally he pulled out the one he was looking for. The winged creature and the giant were dragging a second winged creature across the ground after the building had been destroyed.

“Here.” He handed the photo to Jameson. “Maybe they called in a specialist to fight fire with fire?”

Jameson studied the pictures and shook his head. “I don’t get it. What am I looking at here?”

“The winged monster flying around in these pictures is the same winged creature that is dragging…” he handed him the other photo, “this winged creature. Maybe they’re the same species? Maybe they called in a specialist to help bring down one of their own?”

Jameson studied the photographs, his head shaking as he switched from one to the other. “I’m not reading you.”

“Stay with me here.” Ingram sat down and took a long drink from his coffee. “We’ve had all kinds of reports on the Monster Squad for some time now, haven’t we?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Okay. So what if they were facing…well, whatever the hell this thing is?” Ingram pointed to the winged creature being dragged across the ground. “In order to bring this thing down, they had to call in one of their own to help hunt it down and stop it?”

“But they don’t look the same.” Jameson flipped from photo to photo. “This one has wings like a bat. Sort of. This one has…”

“So maybe they’re the same, but different. I dunno. Like comparing humans from different races. They have different physical attributes, but they’re still the same.” Ingram stood and pointed to the two creatures. “They’re both winged. They’re both large. Granted, their skin tones are different. This one has hair, this one doesn’t. This one has a tail, this one doesn’t, but, who’s to say they aren’t the same species?”

“And the giant? What is it? A juvenile? Hasn’t sprouted its wings yet?” Jameson asked in a snarky tone.