SUED FOR PEACE (The Kurtherian Gambit Book 11) (27 page)

She ran through a small group of trees and up a hill that had been destroyed by pucks. There were body parts all around. She jumped over one large hole, lithely landed on the other side and started leaping down the mounds and over other bodies on her way down the other side. Casting about for traces, she spent a few seconds to locate a trail of scent heading off in another direction.

One not coming from the front of the base. Her eyes glowed yellow for a second and then she took off. There was prey in that direction!

Stephen kept back ten yards behind the wolf in front of him. She was giving off mixed messages his brain was having a hard time deciphering. One thing he was pretty sure of, however, was that she was excited to be on the hunt.

She went through a small group of trees he dodged around, and as he came up, she was already to the top of the mound where the team must have set up. Stephen looked around and the destruction that had rained down and shook his head.

These soldiers hadn’t had a chance.

He stopped to review the damage and listen to see if he heard any heartbeats.

Nothing.

He turned his head, and his eyes opened wide, and he took two steps and jumped from the top towards the bottom of the other side of the hill.

The damned wolf had taken off!

The little she-wolf was fast. He grinned and admitted her desire to hunt was infecting him, as well.
 

At that moment, the moon peeked out from the clouds and shone through the tree leaves as a wolf blitzed through the undergrowth to be followed a few seconds later by a vampire dodging the trees and bushes that his body was too big to go through.

Anyone seeing either of their faces as they raced through the night would swear on a Bible that both had looks of glee shining from their eyes.

—

Chiang looked around the room at the twenty men ready to deal death to whoever came through the metal doors. They couldn’t shoot through the doors easily, and he didn’t want to give away their strength right away so his men remained silent.

Then, the pounding started, and the doors, ones he would swear were not going to budge for any normal man started bulging in with each slam.

“Commee OUUTTT” ... BANG ... “MMMMyyy Litttlllee Piiggessss” ... BANG ... “IIIIII” ... BANG ... “JUSSSTTT” ... BANG ... “WANT … TO … EAT … YOU!” ... BANG BANG BANG!

And then the bone-chilling howls started. Chiang wasn’t sure who started firing first, but before long damn near every man in there was firing indiscriminately at the doors. A few of the bullets ricocheted, and he even saw one man twist as a round hit him. Finally, the last gun clicked empty, and the men looked around at each other, smiling in embarrassment at their loss of control. A couple started to change their magazines when everyone’s face lost their smiles and turned back towards the door as a deep laughing, from a throat that wasn’t human, came through the door holes.

“Heee Heeee Heeee, The Queeeennzzz Saidd…. MAXXIMMMUMM CARRRNNNAGGEE!”
 

BOOOM! A slam on the doors, now weakened by the defender’s own bullets, crashed out. Two wolves charged into the room. Men quickly reacted to grab magazines as another two wolves growled and raced into the rooms, rounds fired from those attacking.
 

But not at the defenders, at the lights.

Chiang slammed his magazine home and pulled the butt of his QBZ-95 against his shoulder, the short bull-pup design an excellent choice for use indoors.

Men were already screaming as the wolves got behind their defenses and bullets ricocheted as the opposing team kept shooting out the light bulbs in the room.

Chiang twisted and shot at one of the wolves, sending it sliding as the round hit it in the chest, only to have the wolf growl and jump behind another defensive grouping when Chiang noticed something out of the left corner of his eye.

He turned and stopped, mouth open as a seven-foot monster came running into the room, “MYYY TURRRNN!”
 

Then the last light was shot out, and everything was thrown into darkness.

A minute later, the screaming died down, a scratch was heard, then the hiss of a red flare as a man came into the room and dropped it into the middle. He looked around and then up at the monster standing across from him.

Captain of the Guardian Marines, Todd Jenkins smiled grimly, “Next time, mother-fucker, leave some for us.”

Peter Silvers eyed his best friend and grinned, showing massive rows of teeth, “Heee Heeee Heee…” The Pricolici turned and started walking to the back of the room as the team got ready to continue searching the base.

—

>> Bethany Anne, we have four jets inbound to check on the status of the base.<<

Are they checking all bases?”

>>Yes.<<

Randomly select three other bases in non-populated areas, as equidistant from this one as you can and down those coming here and those traveling toward the other bases. You can put a puck on their nose and push them at the ground. If the pilot gives the Puck too much trouble, knock off a wing. Let them parachute free.

She paused a moment,
ADAM, find the air bases from which those jets took off and attack them. Puck the fuck out of their runways. Let me know if they try anything else.

>>Understood.<<
 

 
—

General Sun Zedong pursed his lips as he looked over the incoming reports. While the upper Committee generals were fighting these attacks, he knew whose neck would be on the line. He had been up in the air, heading for another base before the attacks started.

Perhaps he should not have sent the two missiles to take out the command base in Australia, that might have been a little overboard. He had no one to blame but himself. However, when the challenge was to kill her or surrender it left the options pretty one sided.

Now the burning had started. The attackers had taken out many of the Chinese satellites, and now he was receiving reports that the great Firewall of China was down.

“Sir?” he turned his head towards the communications specialist that was monitoring the latest updates and raised his chin. “We have reports that four groups of airplanes have been destroyed and the bases those planes fly out of have been attacked.”

“Do we know the status on the pilots?” Zedong asked.

“Yes sir, all but one parachuted to safety. The last sent back that he was fighting the crash, and then claimed to be pulling out of the descent. The last communication was that his wing was destroyed.”

Zedong nodded, allowing the communications specialist to turn back around. He murmured to himself, “There will be nothing left of your military but machines blackened by fire and people praying for the souls of your dead.”

What had they done and could they defeat her?

—-

Jennifer was running through the brush. The vampire was following when she came around a tree and slowed as she found the scent going into a small cave set into the mountain. Seconds later, the man was behind her, breathing a little fast.
 

“What do we have here?” He walked into the darkened cave, “Metal door, oh look…” there was a screech of metal and a sudden bang that hurt Jennifer’s ears, “someone left the door open.” She shook her head, willing the ringing to heal more quickly. There was a minor screech and then Jennifer could smell a slightly mustier smell coming out from the cave. She walked forward to see Stephen had pulled the door open and was peeking inside. He stepped back out and walked to the opening of the shallow cave and pulled out a phone and hit a button.

“Joel? Check my location, Jennifer found a back entrance they left unlocked.” He ran a hand through his hair, “You got us? Great.” He turned around to see two yellow eyes staring out of the darkness at him, “You want us to do what? Wait for backup?”

The two eyes disappeared into the darkness, and Stephen could hear the quickly receding sound of her paws, running into the base.

“Can’t do that, I’m following my lead for backup, and she just started on the scent. See you later, the chase is on!” Stephen closed his phone as he raced after the she-wolf.

Not, he thought, that he didn’t agree with her. The hunt was on and tonight, he didn’t want to share with anyone else.

Except, perhaps, her.

—-

Joel looked down at this phone for a second when Carl asked, “What did Stephen say?”
 

Joel looked up at Carl, “Call out and see what the other two groups have found. Jennifer and Stephen have decided to follow the scent.”

“Where?” Carl asked, confused.

Joel shrugged, “Into the base, I think.”

“What the fuck?” Carl exclaimed, “Didn’t you tell them to wait for us?”
 

Joel looked at him, “Are you planning on chewing out a thousand-year-old vampire if he chooses to continue to follow the scent into the base?”

Carl blanched and quickly shook his head, “No, that’s a significantly bad idea.”

“Yeah, and pissing off a vampire?” Joel said as he looked on the map to find the location Stephen provided, “I remember that is shit-my-mother-told-me-never-to-do.”

—

Inside the command center, the information was getting worse and worse. “General,” Xue was called, “We have a warning light that exit 0401 has been opened.”

How? Xue wondered. How did they find a hidden external entrance and did they have the location for the second?

“We are going to be caught between their forces if we don’t keep a retreat open. Send teams four-two and four-seven to exit 0301 and tell them to stand ready to defend the entrance. In fact,” he stopped and considered, “tell them to exit and hold the position. They can come back in if they are under superior attack.” The man turned around to call the appropriate teams to tell them of their new orders.

How could it go so bad, so fast?

——

Jennifer heard the running steps behind her and slowed. She wasn’t sure if he felt the same as she did, but this was her kill, and she didn’t want to share.

Fuck ‘em if they couldn’t understand.

She arrived at a cross hallway, and she could turn either left or right. She heard four pairs of boots running toward her position from the left, so she backed into the corner and got ready to attack. She noticed the man was slowing and preparing as well.

Good, he wasn’t going to stop her.

—

God, she smelled good! Stephen thought as he came up to her. She was preparing to attack the four that he could hear coming down the hallway. He slipped two knives out and got ready.

He was the follower here. When she attacked, he would support her. If she didn’t attack?

Well, neither would he.

He chuckled quietly, like that was going to happen.

—

Ting was bringing up the rear as his group was trying to make it to exit 0301. They had to change their route twice. Once because of fighting ahead and another when the overwhelming feeling of fear stopped them from choosing a course that would have cut across the base.

Now, they were traveling the outside hallway.

He was watching the front when all four of the men tried stopping when a massive wolf with glowing yellow eyes sprang from the darkness of a side passage, grabbing the commander’s throat in its massive jaws.

Blood covered the wolf’s jaws as it bit through the man’s throat. His gun fired into the floor as death caused his hand to clench.

The three remaining in his group were trying to backup and bring their weapons to bear when another being entered the hallway from the same direction.

Ting barely had time to recognize red eyes when he felt the first knife enter his neck.

—

Stephen pulled his blade out of the second in line when Jennifer let out a blood-curdling howl in exaltation. She then looked at him.

“What?” he asked her, smiling, “I’m your backup, remember? Where you go, I’ll follow.”
 

Jennifer took off in the direction that the men had been running. Stephen trailed after her. “Good choice,” he murmured as they ran through the base.

—

General Xue walked over to the console and flipped up a small cover which protected a red, one-inch button. When he hit this button, he would admit he lost his base, and it was the final command that all should seek to escape. He flipped the cover back over and turned and walked back to the chair, but didn’t sit in it, knowing that the men were waiting for his command.

He sighed and had turned back when the fear hit. He looked around, to see everyone in the room acting as though fighting against their better judgment to run. One man was rotating through different video camera feeds until he found a group of seven people heading in their direction. Each time the group passed a video camera, one of the men shot it out.

One, a Hispanic man by his looks, would flip off the camera before shooting it out when it was on his side.

Xue decided to hit the button and took his first step when his body control was overwhelmed, and he dropped to his knees.

NO!
The voice spoke into his mind,
your men aren’t going anywhere.
 

Then unimaginable fear hit, and he found himself curled into a fetal position. If he could have looked around, he would have seen that many of his men were crouched protectively in fear also.

Most of them on the floor.

—

“I’m telling you,” Eric said, “It’s the most fun I’ve been allowed so far.” He raised his left hand and flipped off the next video camera before using the pistol in his right hand to shoot it out. “Nine out of nine.”

“Eric, if you miss a shot at fifteen feet, you deserve to go back to Boy Scouts,” Scott laughed.

Bethany Anne was letting her men vent while she sought the location she wanted. “Go left,” she told Gabrielle and the group hung a left. “Pass that hallway,” she commanded Gabrielle, then pointed to the left corridor, “Darryl, Scott.” The two men peeled off and traveled to the left. She looked to the right, “Akio, Eric.” Again, the two moved in the indicated direction.

John slipped behind Bethany Anne, trusting her to know why she had just stripped the group when he was hit with an overwhelming feeling of fear.