Homecoming (34 page)

“They’re about to break through,” Mac reported.

“Number?” Dom nearly shouted.

“Too many. Their heat signatures are crossing over each other. It’s just one big wave of…wait one.” Mac switched to another piece of hardware then came back on the radio. “I’m switching to Active IR.”

As soon as he activated the laser and pointed it in the direction of the tree line, the larger trolls turned their heads in his direction and stared into the large tree that he had set up in. Dom immediately took note of their attention being honed in and felt bile rise up in his throat. “Turn it off!” he shouted into his mic. “They can see the laser!”

The second troll broke its attention from the laser and began scanning for the yelling voice. Mac got his screen shot and began counting heads. “Holy mackerel. You’re not gonna like this, boss.”

“Clear your position!” Dom yelled as the lead troll took its first step toward Mac’s station. “All units, open fire!” Dom centered his red dot back on the pupil and squeezed the trigger as the staccato of weapons’ fire erupted around him.

The lead troll tried to blink its bulging eyes rapidly as hot, high speed projectiles pierced its corneas and entered the gelatinous goo that made up its visual organs. Large, three fingered hands swung up to swat away at whatever creature it was that continued to sting it about the face, but the stings continued.

Dom chanced a glance over his shoulder but couldn’t see Mac. “McKenzie, clear your station. They saw your location.”

“Almost there, boss.” Mac’s voice sounded hurried as he scurried down the mossy oak tree. “But you gotta know, active IR gave me a screen shot of at least a dozen more of those smaller ones working their way here.”

“Great,” Dom muttered. “All units engage the smaller trolls as they break the tree line. We need a body count of each one you drop. We can’t let anything get past us.”

“On it, boss. Repositioning,” Marshall replied. Dom could just make out the shadow of his form as he broke from behind a large willow and made for a position closer to the tree line to his right.

Hammer catapulted over Dom’s position and zig-zagged between smaller trees until he slid in behind a smaller rock outcrop and resumed firing on the second troll. “In position.”

Ben tapped Dom’s shoulder letting him know that his six was clear and Dom jumped to his feet, backtracking up the hill. “Mac, cover us.”

A flash of light and a loud explosion behind the retreating men both stunned and temporarily blinded the trolls as Ben and Dominic retreated up the hill and found new positions behind thick trees. Mac’s voice came across the radio, “I think that got their attention.”

“Good man, but save the rest of those in case we need them for the smaller ones. We can’t let them break away from us.” Dom reloaded his P90 from behind the tree then did a quick glance to ensure his point men on the flanks were still clear. “Try to keep their attention out this way so Sierra Two and Three can get clear shots at those big assed eyes of theirs.”

Ben shot him a smirk then stepped out from the tree he was using as cover. He raised his P90 and put five rounds into each side of the lead troll’s face. “Hey! You! Yeah, you big, ugly fish smelling piece of shit!” He waved his arms until the giant slow moving creature focused on him. “Yeah, that’s right. Come and get it.” He raised his carbine again and sent five more rounds down range, peppering the hide of the giant creature and hoping that the sinus cavity was a tender meat area.

The troll paused as it tried to study the little creature yelling and stinging it. It made the mental connection that the smaller creature was somehow responsible for the pain it was feeling and the death of its own. Ben watched as the troll’s face twisted up and started its advance, huge feet shaking the ground with each stomping step.

Dom yelled from behind the tree. “Get your ass to cover! Now!”

Ben felt the blood drain from his face as the troll advanced and bore down on him. He knew that no matter which way he went, it was only a matter of seconds before the monster would be right on top of him. “Son of a…” He turned and began to run for the top of the ridge as fast as his legs could carry him.

*****

The screeching of the tires on the tarmac reminded her of the sound of someone torturing kittens. Or worse, the short, frantic screech of a child as its throat was being ripped out. She didn’t know why the sound conjured these images, but it did.

She turned slightly in her seat and tried not to think of what might come next. She couldn’t explain her feelings as of late and knew that Damien’s anger only grew when she spoke of giving up on their adventure. With each step closer to reaching their goal, the colder her feet became and the less she wanted to see it through.

Was it simply her grasping at some shred of humanity? Had it really been so long since she felt something like this? Rachel attempted to contemplate the depths of her feelings and found herself even more thoroughly confused.

She looked up to find Damien standing before her, a smug smile painted across his face. “It’s time.”

She could only bring herself to nod as he pulled her from her seat.

18

“Where’s that drone?” Matt couldn’t hide the urgency in his voice. The helmet cams from the ground team in Louisiana indicated a small army advancing on his squad and he knew that they didn’t have the firepower to complete the mission, much less overwhelm the much larger creatures that came up out of nowhere.

“Inbound, sir,” a tech responded as he punched up the visual from the Predator as it closed in on Sierra Team. Dark treetops could be seen zipping by underneath the Predator as it quickly closed the distance. Meandering creeks, bogs and waterways jetted by as the drone maintained a steady altitude.

“ETA?” Tufo barked.

“At this rate, approximately five more minutes, sir.”

Mark turned to Mitchell and shook his head. “With what’s coming out of that tree line, they’re going to need more firepower than what this Predator has to offer.”

“Is the Reaper still inbound?” Matt’s eyes never left the multiple screens above him.

“Affirmative. ETA twenty minutes.”

“Push it to its limits. I want it there as fast as we can get it there.” Matt’s eyes bounced from feed to feed as he assessed the situation. “Take it to higher altitude if it will buy us time.”

“Sir, we can’t break into civilian traffic lanes with…”

Matt spun in his chair and cut the tech off mid-sentence. “I don’t care if we piggy back it off a Pan-Am flight. Get it there!”

“Y-yes, sir!” The tech began punching commands into his keyboard and the operators for the Reaper pushed the drone to its physical limits, increasing altitude and air speed in response.

Mark stood from his chair and slipped in behind Matt. He glanced around the room to ensure nobody was paying too much attention and with a hushed tone, whispered, “I know you’re stressed, but let’s not bite the heads off the people who are trying to make things better.”

Matt turned slightly and considered his words before barking at his second in command. With a quick nod of his head he agreed. “You’re right. I’m just really not liking what I’m seeing down there.”

“Neither am I, but they’re working as fast as they can to get support there. Let them do their jobs.”

Matt lowered his eyes and nodded. “Lieutenant? ETA for the Predator?”

“Closing now, Colonel.” The young officer punched some commands into his keyboard and indicated the large screen. “There, sir.”

Matt looked up to see the red dot that was the borrowed Predator close in on the red dots that was his operators. “Gain altitude and get me some visuals. I want a thermal sweep of those woods.”

“On it, sir.”

All eyes not otherwise engaged were glued to the big screen as the Predator increased in altitude then panned left, indicating heat signatures for everything in the immediate area. “Sierra One, air support on sight. Paint your targets.”

“Roger that, OPCOM. Wait one,” Dominic’s voice responded amidst the mixed report of gunfire on the ground. “We’re having a bit of a problem with the lasers.”

Mark switched his coms to mute. “We could attempt a manual shot. It’s not like we’re trying to hit a small target.”

Matt rubbed at his chin as he studied the multiple images on the screen. “Not yet. We can’t be sure which heat signature is what down there. I wouldn’t want to drop one of those things on top of our boys.” He motioned to Mark to reopen the coms. “Sierra One, we need your targets designated.”

“Just choose one!” Dom yelled into the coms. “Um, I mean, sir.”

Matt shrugged and motioned to Tufo. “Make it happen.”

Mark sent the commands to the drone operators who switched the targeting to manual. “Take out the biggest one in the front.”

“Copy that, OPCOM.”

The room watched as the drone lined up for the shot and saw the white hot trail of the Hellfire missile shoot out in front of the craft. The entire scene washed out in white as the thermal camera was overloaded then a static feed came across the big screen. Matt was on his feet in moments. “What happened? Did we lose the drone?”

All hands scrambled as they tried to reconnect the Predator’s camera to the screen in the OPCOM. One of the techs had the bright idea to switch to a helmet cam and caught the last moments of the troll falling…and the helmet cam blanked out, to be replaced with static once again. “Oh no…”

*****

Pedro ‘Popo’ Gonzales stepped into the lounge and tapped Gus Tracy on the shoulder. “I just got an email from Jack. He wants us to show up early so we can go over stuff with him.”

Tracy nodded and ran a hand over his short cropped hair. “That works to our advantage.”

Popo glanced around the lounge, and convinced that nobody was within hearing range, sat beside the larger man. “Yes it does. I think we need to take him up on it, ASAP.”

Gus glanced at his watch and kicked his feet off the table in front of him. “I think the major is still in the OPCOM. No way we can get clearance for an early departure if there’s an op on the ground.”

Popo nodded, rubbing his chin. “We could still pack our gear and be ready. Once they give us the go-ahead, we bail.”

“If this notebook is as important as they’re letting on, I’m surprised they didn’t think of it first.” Gus stood and stretched his massive frame. “I’ll grab TD and have him pack his stuff. Be ready to bug out.”

“I’ll email Phoenix and let him know that we’re on standby.” Popo stood then turned back to Gus. “I don’t guess you know if we’re supposed to supply our own weaponry?”

Gus paused and thought about it. Shaking his head he answered, “I don’t think so. Technically, we’re all on leave.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. I would just ask…” Popo paused and looked around the lounge. “Have you seen Apollo lately?”

Gus shrugged. “I’m sure he’s around somewhere. You know how he gets sometimes.”

“Yeah, but even then, he’s usually down in the gym bench pressing small trucks and shit. I haven’t seen him in a while.”

“We may not see him again until we get back,” Gus said as he turned and headed out of the lounge. “If we’re lucky.”

*****

“Your friends arrive before you leave for Geneva,” Loren’s eyes twinkled with mischief as her reflection addressed Jack. “They were most eager to take part in this…endeavor.”

Jack stifled a smile as he took in her news. “Thank you, Loren. You can’t know how much I appreciate your acting as go-between for me.”

“It was definitely my pleasure, Chief Jack.” She quickly glanced aside and nodded to somebody that he couldn’t see. “I am late for an elder council meeting.”

“Excuse me, Loren. I apologize for keeping you.” Jack suddenly felt guilty for having taken her time.

“Do not think of it, Chief Jack. I would have the elders wait longer if I could inquire of you.”

“Anything,” Jack offered. “Whatever you wish is yours.”

“What made you think of asking Grimlock and his brothers to assist you in this matter?” she asked, a smile forming at the corners of her mouth as she spoke. She knew how much the gargoyles hated vampires and simply keeping them from destroying every one that they met would keep Jack busy.

“Honestly?” Jack shook his head as he remembered reading the email that Major Tufo had sent him suggesting the additional ‘air support’. “A friend suggested it. He knew that we were going to have trouble getting into this location and I needed troops that had experience with parachutes and since gargoyles can fly…it just seemed a natural fit.”

Loren considered the basic logic of his words and nodded. “Yes, I can see how it would seem that way. Although…you might have difficulty reining in Grimlock and his people.”

Jack could almost picture the mayhem that the huge gargoyle could unleash. “Understood. And yes, I realize that it’s a risk. But Grimlock is a warrior. Warriors know how to take orders. Even if those orders go against their nature. I think they’ll be more than trustworthy.”

“I hope, for your sake, that you are correct, Chief Jack.” Loren again looked to the side and nodded to an unseen person then returned her attention to him. “I fear I must take my leave. Good luck to you, Chief Jack.”

“Thank you, Loren. Peace be with you.”

“And with you.”

Jack watched as the stone slowly dimmed and became simply a stone once more. He felt the familiar longing of wanting to see her face one more time as he carefully wrapped the stone and placed it back into the box then slid it under his bed.

He stood and stretched then stared out of his window. “We have an air force,” he chuckled. “God help the council.”

*****

Dominic watched as the troll continued its advance toward Sierra Five. Ben was moving as quickly as his legs could carry him and he soon crested the top of the hill, glancing over his shoulder only long enough to see if the creature still had him in his sights. As Charmichael ran full out down the back side of the hill, he slid into a shallow ravine that rainwater had washed out at one time and flattened himself against the ground. At some point during his trot over the hill and down the other side, he’d lost his helmet and shucked his excess gear to lighten his load. With the creatures not firing at him, he knew that the tactical gear was non-essential.

A flash and an explosion later and Ben slowly raised his head from the ravine to see the now headless troll teeter first one way, then the other, before toppling forward and crushing his discarded gear. “They better not take that out of my paycheck.”

“Sierra Five, report,” Dom ordered.

“Sierra Five, five by five, boss.” Ben climbed up from the ravine just as the briny funk from the troll washed down the hill and hit him like in a wave. “Scratch that. I think fish breath here is trying to gas me out.”

“Get back in the game!” Dom barked.

Ben choked back the bile that rose in his throat and began trotting back up the hill. As he passed the headless troll, he was awed by just how large the neck of the beast was. Ben saw the Predator circling in a stand-by pattern and couldn’t figure out why the machine wasn’t coming around for another pass. Did they expect them to drop the other big one with small arms fire? “Did somebody break the drone?”

Mac keyed in as Ben crested the hill. “I think it got caught in its own blast. Probably fried something in its little electronic brain.”

“Great,” Ben muttered as he slipped in behind the first large tree he spotted. He watched as the second troll continued to swat at invisible insects that were stinging its eyes. The smaller trolls were just beginning to crawl out of the woods and make their way to the feet of the larger creature.

“Concentrate your fire on the smaller ones. We aren’t doing any damage to Godzilla there.” Dom slipped out from behind his own tree and began working his way back down the hill toward the tree line. “OPCOM, ETA for the Reaper?”

All Sierra members continued fighting but paid special attention to their ear pieces as they waited for the reply. Nothing came across the broad wave and Dom shrugged. “OPCOM, this is Team Leader, over.”

“We may be on our own here, boss.” It was Marshall’s turn to play Captain Obvious.

“Thank you for that astute observation.” Dom switched magazines and concentrated on the closest trolls to his position. “Switch to frags. Let’s see if we can scatter pieces of these suckers.”

The gunfire stopped long enough for each member to hurl a single fragmentation grenade into the slowly advancing line of frog faced creatures. A series of concussive explosions later and those closest to the line were covering their heads from falling clumps of dirt, debris and fish flavored chunks of flesh.

“Somebody get me a head count!”

“On it, boss,” Mac chimed in. He shoved the Active IR back into his pouch and pulled the thermals out. Scanning the tree line, he counted six creatures still on their feet and advancing slowly. “We got a half dozen slow movers.”

“Easy-peasy,” Hammer sing songed. “We can snipe them from here.”

“Negative, Sierra Three,” Mac corrected. “There are still live ones on the ground. They just aren’t able to advance.”

Marshall sighed into his mic. “Damned brains are too small to be scrambled by the frags. They’re just like their bigger counterparts, only…smaller.”

“Again with the Captain Obvious. You’re on a roll today, Dave.” Dom spun out from one tree and shoved his P90 directly under the chin of the troll that had worked its way up the hill. He squeezed the trigger on the bull pup and watched the top of the creature’s head spray upward in a dazzling display of bone and flesh. Like its sibling earlier, it staggered slightly before falling onto its face and immediately oozing the same white snotty liquid from its skin.

Dom ran toward the advancing line, firing into those who continued to push their way past their fallen counterparts. The large troll hovering above him jerked its head like a bird as it tried to take in all of the action around it, each eye on either side of its wide head trying to focus on the different warriors darting to and fro, wreaking havoc. It bent and tried to grasp one only to find the men in black much faster than first judged.