CHAPTER NINETEEN LINE IN THE SAND
CHAPTER NINETEEN
LINE IN THE SAND
"A people without a history is
like the wind over buffalo grass."Lakota
11:00 AM
June 18th
Red Basin Oil Rig #19 - Black Mesa
Greyeagle downshifted and began slowing as they approached the oil rig gate. Kade matched his move, and Sarah held up her hand to signal the others to slow down. The oil rig wasn’t in full production, so the rumble of so many motorcycles could be heard long before they arrived.
As they approached the gate, two men carrying automatic weapons and wearing body armor approached them cautiously. They both wore khakis and polos with the Praetorian Risk Management logo.
“Something we can do for you folks?” asked one of the men.
“I’m Deputy US Marshal William Greyeagle,” Greyeagle said, showing his credentials. “We work with Supervisory Deputy Wisdom.”
“I know who you are,” he said. “We were at Prairie Dog Eleven when it was hit. I’m Jim Newman, and this is my partner, Trevor Hume.”
“You guys saved a lot of lives that night,” Hume said, his voice thickly accented. “So, what brings you here?”
“We think we’ve figured out a pattern to the attacks,” Greyeagle explained. “If we’re right, this facility will be hit next.”
“Should we evacuate?” asked Newman.
“That, I can’t tell you,” Greyeagle said. “We don’t know if we’re right or not. Either way, that would be Red Basin’s call, not ours. But it might not be a bad idea to get everyone on alert, in case we do have to evacuate.”
“So, are you here to observe or to help secure the facility?” asked Newman.
“We’re here to help in any way we can,” Greyeagle said. “We’d like to establish a perimeter, if you don’t mind. Set up outside the work area, but where we can respond rapidly. How many men do you have on your detail?”
“Since Prairie Dog Eleven,” said Hume, “we doubled the security details. We went from twelve to twenty-four. All armed with heavy ordnance.”
“I can’t place that accent,” said Greyeagle. “Are you British?”
“No,” Hume said, frowning. “I was born here in America, but my father was Rhodesian.”
“I knew a Rhodesian when I was with the Rangers,” Greyeagle said. “Alistair McLaren. He was one tough Ranger.”
“I know Alistair,” said Hume. “He’s a mate of my father’s. Small world.”
“Hell of a soldier,” Greyeagle said.
“I’ll mention your name the next time I speak with him,” replied Hume.
“Do that,” Greyeagle replied. “Now, where do you need us?”
Hume took a step back and let Newman make the call. Newman nodded at Hume before speaking.
“Park your bikes over where the patrol vehicles are parked,” said Newman. “Then, should anything happen, they’ll be outside the rig perimeter and won’t be in the way if we have to get everyone out in a hurry.”
“Good call,” Greyeagle said. “What about positioning us?”
“Are you armed?” asked Hume.
“Yeah,” Greyeagle replied. “Mostly handguns, though.”
“Well, since we’re better armed,” said Newman, “why don’t you and your people stick close to the rig itself, and we’ll control the perimeter. If we’re attacked, you can coordinate the evacuation while we try to hold off the attackers. That’ll free up our team to engage hostiles.”
Greyeagle knew that wouldn’t do any good against the Ma’êstse-hóhkeso. Even rocket launchers would only do so much against a creature made from living rock. But then again, moving both packs close to the rig let them respond quickly in either direction.
“Done,” Greyeagle said, nodding. “We’ll get parked and set up.”
“Thank you for coming, Marshal,” said Newman, nodding at the gate.
The chain-link gate began to slide open, and the steel bollards just inside the gate were lowered into the ground.
As they began moving forward, Hume gave them a curt salute.
It was stiff and formal, but Greyeagle wasn’t sure if he intended it respectfully or dismissively.
Hume’s face was a stone mask, revealing nothing.
Still, there was something about Hume that bothered Greyeagle that he just couldn’t put his finger on. When they parked their bikes and shut down the engines, Kade looked over at Greyeagle and voiced exactly what he’d been thinking.
“I don’t trust that Hume bastard,” Kade said, frowning. “Something’s off about him. So, what about that guy you knew? Alistair something.”
“McLaren,” Greyeagle said. “He was one tough dude. When we were in Mogadishu, he took six rounds and never dropped. He stayed in the fight until we all extracted.”
“Wait,” Kade said. “Mogadishu? As in Blackhawk Down? You were there?”
“Yeah, I was,” Greyeagle said. “Took two rounds in that fight.”
“That was in the early nineties,” said Raven. “Just how old are you two?”
“The transformations keep us young,” Greyeagle replied. “I’m actually over fifty. I did twenty-five years in the Army before becoming a cop.”
Kade just shrugged.
“You never asked me my age,” he said, smiling at Raven.
“I’m twenty-two,” Raven said, shaking her head. “I’m with a guy over twice my age.”
“And if you keep changing,” Greyeagle replied, “you might still be with him when you’re over two hundred. I know Grandfather fought in the Battle of Greasy Grass, and that was in 1876. I honestly don’t know how old he really is.”
Raven looked shocked.
“I never thought about that,” she said softly. “I just assumed we healed faster and got stronger. I never knew it extended your life.”
“Well, it slows the aging process,” Greyeagle said. “You can still be killed. We’ve lost several people over the last few years.”
“Will’s not wrong,” Sarah said. “He’s older than I am. He was still very youthful-looking when we met, but none of us had shifted. He taught us all how to do it. When the first change happened, it rebuilt us all into our purest physical selves. I can’t explain how or why. It just happened.”
“So, I won’t age normally,” said Raven. “That’s gonna take some getting used to.”
The ground beneath their feet rumbled slightly.
“Did you feel that?” asked Greyeagle.
“Yeah, that’s how it started that night at Prairie Dog Eleven,” Kade said. “They’re coming.”
“We’d better warn the security team,” Greyeagle said. “Let’s get ready to evacuate this place.”
“Aren’t we going to try and stop them?” asked Kade.
“You said it yourself,” Greyeagle replied. “You barely hurt one. I can’t see how we can do any better. But the fact that it hesitated to harm you once it knew you were Lakota might work to our advantage.”
“That didn’t stop it from knocking me through a building,” Kade said, shaking his head.
“It spoke after that, though,” Greyeagle said. “I think it won’t attack our people.”
“So, are you saying these big rock bastards are pro-Native?” asked Kade, grinning.
“No, but I think that means they’re tied to the land,” said Greyeagle.
“Or someone summoned them to protect us,” added Sarah.
“Grandfather said you couldn’t summon them,” Kade replied.
“No, he said he didn’t think they could be summoned,” corrected Greyeagle. “There’s a difference. He might not know the way, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.”
Another tremor went through the ground. Greyeagle swung off his bike and raced to the guard shack by the gate.
“Sound the alarm!” Greyeagle said, frantically waving his arms. “They’re coming!”
“Where?” asked Newman. “I don’t see anything.”
“We felt tremors that night at Prairie Dog,” said Hume. “Right before we got hit.”
“That’s right,” said Newman. “Sound the alarm. Full alert. Evacuate the facility, now!”
The alarms began sounding as a flurry of activity erupted inside the perimeter. Greyeagle didn’t wait for the officers to begin evacuation. He turned and sprinted back toward the others.
“They’re coming!” Greyeagle shouted. “Start evacuating the facility.”
Kade nodded and turned to the others.
“You heard him,” Kade barked. “Let’s move!”
“Should we transform?” asked Raven.
“Not yet,” Greyeagle replied. “But be ready to. We’ll only cause panic if we do it before the Ma’êstse-hóhkeso arrive.”
“He’s right,” Kade replied. “Big wolves equal big panic if that’s the only thing they see.”
“Tashunka,” said Greyeagle. “Can you, Mason, and Kodiak get in there and cap that well before it explodes?”
Tashunka glanced at Kade, looking for approval.
“Don’t look at me,” Kade said. “He asked you a question. Answer it.”
“We can,” Tashunka said.
“Go!” said Greyeagle. “If we cap it now, maybe we can avoid the worst of the damage.”
Tashunka nodded at Mason and Kodiak. They broke away from the group and headed for the rig.
“The rest of us need to start getting everyone we can outside the fence before the Ma’êstse-hóhkeso attack,” said Greyeagle.
“Might be a bit late for that, brother,” Kade said, pointing.
Greyeagle turned and looked just south of the facility. More than a dozen of the big, rocky Ma’êstse-hóhkeso were emerging from the ground. Apparently, the Praetorian Security Team had seen them as well, because automatic weapons began to bark and chatter as they engaged the creatures.
Greyeagle saw large-caliber rounds striking the creatures and doing little to no damage.
Then, two rockets streaked out and struck one of the Ma’êstse-hóhkeso in the chest, detonating inside of it.
They were AT-4 Anti-Tank rockets, designed to penetrate armored steel.
The creature exploded in a blast of rock and fire.
A brief cheer rose from the Praetorian Security team, but it was short-lived. Where the largest pieces of the creatures had landed, the ground shook, and six more of the Ma’êstse-hóhkeso emerged from the ground.
“Bloody hell!” shouted another guard with a Rhodesian accent.
Greyeagle took note of that. Before today, he’d only ever met one Rhodesian expat, and that was years before.
Now, in just a few minutes, he’d heard at least two here at this one facility.
That in and of itself wasn’t the odd part.
The real question was why so many seemed to be working for Praetorian.
But that was a question for another time.
“Shift and engage the Ma’êstse-hóhkeso!” roared Kade.