Chapter 21 #2
Steve shook his head. “We’re going hunting.
But we have to do it the way the Variant want it done while they’re here.
It’ll give us some answers, and possibly a direction to follow after they leave.
Then we do it our way if we don’t think they’ve done enough.
Just hang on a little longer. There’s a reason for all this — I promise.
I hope they’re wrong, but if they’re not, you’re going to want to be there for this. ”
Dean stared at Steve.
Steve stood up and opened the door, pulling it wide as he waited for Dean to get out.
Dean’s gaze touched on everyone waiting for him to get out and join the group. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he finally got out and accompanied Steve to stand quietly as they listened to Frenzy outline what they planned to do.
“Once more, we’re going in from the opposite direction.
Approaching from across the highway. Just want to be sure we didn’t miss anything.
Two groups, both from behind. Shifters go in first. Every step could be on top of the people you’re looking for.
Step lightly. Assume every blade of grass, every leaf, every blow of the wind is waiting to slice you in half.
No sound — at all. The Variant will follow.
Everybody keep your earpieces in,” Frenzy said, as he finished typing up a quick text and made sure it was sent.
He looked up and glanced around the group waiting for his next order. “Any questions?”
“This is a bit much after what we all just went through,” Hugh said.
“Has to be done. Let’s see what happens when we’re not here.” Frenzy hesitated, then looked at Storm, grinning at her before crooking his finger at her to bring her closer to him.
Storm walked over to Frenzy, who put his arm around her shoulders and walked her away from the group.
“We all know your team can read males better than any of the rest of us. What does your gut say?”
“Three going in with us are ‘sus’.”
“Three that are suspect?” Frenzy asked. “There are five.”
“Negative, sir. There are three. Steve is above suspicion, and the last one to get out and join us a couple of minutes ago… Dean? He’s above suspicion, as well.”
“How’s that?”
“Steve is mourning, but he’s doing his part.
Helping us locate and lay to rest his people.
Giving us insight to all we’re seeing. Knowing what to look for, etcetera.
He even implicated himself as one of the Alpha’s most trusted.
Dean… he’s detached, no doubt about it. No emotion.
But his is a different kind of detached.
He’s raging. He’s trying not to lose his shit.
The other three, there is no emotion. They’re not detached.
They don’t fucking care. There’s no emotion at all.
But they’re anxious, edgy. They’re evasive if you try to speak to them or include them.
They’re not participating, but not walking away either.
Quiet, not contributing a thing. Why agree to come if you’re not planning on contributing?
Wouldn’t trust them as far as I could throw them. So, it’s three that are ‘sus’.”
“I hear you. Very perceptive. I’ll take it under advisement.”
~~~
Valor’s phone pinged as he sat at his personal command station and watched the mission targets through a series of close up focuses he’d brought up on his computer screens while overseeing Frenzy’s ‘mission’.
Was it Alliance sanctioned? No. Was it a favor to a friend?
Yes. And that in and of itself was why this was happening.
That and the fact that Frenzy’s friends believed there could be still captive Variant males involved.
“Hate fucking interruptions,” he grouched as he begrudgingly snatched his phone off the desk behind himself, and swiped the screen.
“Better be worth distracting me,” he muttered.
He read the message, thought about it, then read the message again.
“Going back in, believe we’re being watched. Field across from the original target is the focus. Earpieces 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… wearers could be compromised.”
“And the plot thickens,” Valor said to himself, redirecting the satellite to concentrate on the area Frenzy had given him.
That done, he set aside his keyboard and reached for a smaller one that sat to the far right side of his desk.
He tapped in a few commands, and the twenty one blue dots on the screen changed.
Five of them turned red. “Alright, let’s see what you fuckers are up to that has Frenzy worried about you.
” He typed a few more commands in, and then suddenly he could hear conversation.
A small box appeared in the top right corner of the monitor screen the dots and map schematics were shown on.
Within that box were five volume controls, each indicative of a different ear piece, numbered one through five.
Each of those controls recording whatever conversation it picked up from its wearer.
Valor typed a few more commands, and another box appeared in the upper left hand corner of the monitor screen, each box was numbered, again, one through five.
In each was a series of numbers. Those numbers indicated heart rate, temperature, and blood pressure.
He minimized the box recording the conversations of wearers of ear pieces numbers one through five, and sat back to watch.
~~~
As quiet and stillness descended on the Gamieyon property yet again, three males continued to lie silently in their hiding spot beneath the leaves, limbs and decaying debris across the highway from the Gamieyon Pride lands.
They’d been rushed to the site that morning and dug a shallow pit in the field, lying in the cool, wet clay that would disguise not only their scent, but their heat signature in the off chance anyone scanned the area — not that they expected it. No one knew they were involved.
Their orders were simple — observe, identify, to later track and destroy.
They’d hesitated only once. That was when they saw others like them, but wearing a different uniform, arriving with more shifters.
They’d silently made eye contact among themselves, questioning what they were seeing.
They’d been told they were the only males left — all others having been disposed of due to lack of ability to follow orders.
And they themselves were alive only on a probationary basis.
One step out of line and they wouldn’t even be a memory.
Yet here was proof they weren’t the last.
Two, their leader, lay to the far left, Four and Five to his right.
Four and Five shared an intense glare, then together looked over at Two, then toward the place they’d just seen multiple males, just like them, arrive and leave.
Five opened his mouth to speak, and Two gave a fierce shake of his head. The last thing they needed was their handlers overhearing their questions and taking it as a question of their authority. Insubordination could get them killed and that part wasn’t a lie.
“We’re not the last,” Four mouthed to him.
Two slashed his hand in a short strike through the air in front of Four, ending his commentary.
He knew as well as Four and Five that they were obviously not the last as they’d been told.
That meant one of two things; either their intel was bad, or they’d intentionally been lied to.
Either way he and his males were in a precarious situation.
~~~
After a round about hike back to the targeted field across from the Gamieyon property, Rance, Dane, Noah, Steve, Dean, Ted, Hugh, and Dillon went in first, in their human forms. They stepped silently, slowly, carefully, as they spread out in a line left and right, from one side of the field to the other.
Rance was at the center with several feet between him and each subsequent person with him.
Steve was beside him on the right, then Ted, Noah, then Dean on the end.
To Rance’s left was Dillon, then Dane, Hugh, and Storm.
They advanced as one, taking each step forward in unison, their senses heightened as they watched and waited for anything to indicate they’d found the individuals they were hunting.
Frenzy, Feral, Rage and Fierce waited at the back of the field. Savage and Grim were on the left side of the field, Menace and Harsh on the right, watching and waiting for their sign to rush the field when the time came.
“You know we’re out here like sitting ducks. We shouldn’t be out here like this! This is not a good idea!” Dillon whispered harshly.
Rance, lifted his weapon and aimed it at the male as he glared at him.
Dillon stuttered to a stop.
“Shut. Up,” Rance mouthed.
“I’m just saying, it’s not too late to …”
Rance still aiming his weapon at the male, placed his finger on the trigger.
Movement from Dillon’s peripheral vision caught his attention and he looked to his left, where he found Dane also aiming his weapon at him.
The male lifted both hands into the air to indicate he was done.
Rance pointed to the ground and took a step, everyone walking with him did the same.
Dillon hurriedly took a step to remain in line. He didn’t want to be here, but he didn’t want to be shot, either.
Back inside the tree line at the back of the field, Frenzy’s ear piece crackled to life.
“You got four about to go into cardiac arrest. Male two’s blood pressure is about to send him into a fucking stroke.
Males four, three and five are having not only blood pressure issues, but their heart rates and oxygen rates indicate extreme anxiety.
Especially male three,” Valor’s voice reported.
Frenzy tapped his ear piece to change its mode.
“Rance, you got three males out there with heart rates and blood pressure off the charts. Indicates a high level of anxiety — could mean anything, but could also be they’re worried about being indicated as involved in the deaths of their Pride members. Two to your left, one to your right.”
Rance lifted a hand, ever so slightly to indicate he’d heard, but didn’t break stride.
They were about two thirds of the way across the field, before Noah raised his hand, bringing the line to a stop.
He squatted down, and leaned his body to the left to get a better view of the ground to his right.
He raised his head and looked over at Dean, who’d knelt in his place several feet away and was looking at the same spot of ground from the opposite direction.
Noah raised his eyebrows in silent question.
Dean gave him a single nod and aimed at the spot they were looking at.
Rance lifted a hand and swirled it in the air indicating they would surround whatever Noah had found.
Then he and Steve began moving toward the space Noah had detected an irregularity with, while everyone to his left back tracked and moved up behind Noah and Dean.
They all raised their weapons, and simultaneously fired into the ground, around the perimeter of the irregularity.
“Out! Now! Before we fire again, this time we won’t miss!” Rance bellowed.