True Traitor (First Wave Book 7) (24 page)

The bartender chuckled.

“Don’t give me none of that, ‘sir’ nonsense. I’m just Sarge now. I know what you mean about that area though. Been out that way a lot myself. Seen a lot of . . . interesting things,” Sarge said, watching the young man closely.

Mikey looked up quickly and studied the man with narrowed eyes, trying to figure him out. “Yeah, I have a real affinity for the place and kind of needed the quiet after being gone for so long,” Mikey said, unwilling to say too much. If he’d learned one thing, it was to watch his back.

Sarge nodded his head sadly.

“I know what you mean. That place is good for helping you get things out of your head. At least for a little while,” Sarge said, knowing exactly how the young man felt.

He’d been a little lost after coming home from overseas as well. It never got easier either. It had always felt like he’d left a piece of himself behind and needed to fill the empty void left behind with something, but nothing ever seemed to help. The forest did though. Somehow, it helped to quiet his mind, ease the memories that played back in his mind, over and over again.

Sarge slid another whiskey shot over to the young man and slapped his palm on the bar top.

“I got some friends that might be able to find something out for you. Give you an idea of when you can head back out there,” he said, standing up and grabbing his cell phone from behind the bar and scrolling through his contacts.

Mikey tried not to get his hopes up, but he was definitely excited.

“You really think they can find out something?” he asked.

Sarge hit a button and put the phone to his ear. “If they’ve got the road shut down, then someone here would know. There has to be something about it somewhere,” Sarge said, waiting for his friend to answer the phone.

Sarge didn’t call the guy often, he was always busy. Doing what, Sarge didn’t know, but he was always there for him if he needed it and he’d do anything for him in return.

Several minutes later, Sarge hung up the phone and looked perplexed at Mikey.

“Are you sure it was shut down?” he asked, wondering if the kid was having hallucinations. He hoped not, he hated the thought of calling someone to lock the kid up for his own protection.

Mikey snorted and rubbed his hands over his face.

“I know what I saw. I’m not nuts. I have a little PTSD, but who the hell doesn’t after going over there and seeing what we see,” Mikey said, his voice hoarse with his conviction.

“Hey!” Sarge said, patting Mikey on the back. “I’m not saying you’re nuts kid. I’m only asking because no one has heard anything about it. In this day and age, it’s hard to fart on the battlefield halfway around the world without someone being able to put it on internet. So it’s a little strange.”

Mikey snorted and chuckled.

“Yeah . . . strange is a good word for it. But, I’m not crazy,” he said, his blue eyes holding Sarge’s brown ones.

Sarge nodded his head.

“I believe you, kid. Give me a second to refill those beers and you can tell me what you saw. Maybe we can figure it out. If not, then when I get off work, I may head that way with you and see for myself if we can get some answers,” he said, waiting for Mikey’s nod before he grabbed two more glasses and started filling them for a couple of other soldiers in the bar.

Mikey still hadn’t figured out how much he wanted to tell the Sarge about what he’d seen when the stocky man set a bowl of pretzels in front of him and another beer.

Sarge nodded at the bowl.

“Eat something. And no more whiskey. I want you to have a clear head so you can remember the details,” he said, grinning as the kid popped a pretzel into his mouth and nodded his head.

Sarge poured them both a couple of sodas and sat back down across from the kid.

“So, tell me what you saw,” he said.

Mikey shook his head. “That’s just it, sir. If I tell you, you will think I’m nuts. The more I think about it, the more it just seems too impossible. On American soil anyway,” he said, putting his head in his hands with a heavy sigh.

Sarge chuckled.

“Boy, let me tell you something, there’s been more scary shit that’s happened on this here soil than anyone would ever believe. There ain’t much you could tell me that I ain’t already seen or heard before,” Sarge said.

Sarge had been around a lot of blocks in his 50 years, and even the kid’s hallucinations wouldn’t surprise him at this point. By the end of the hour, he was helping the kid load his gear into his Humvee.

“Where did you get this?” Mikey asked as he stowed his gear and got into the passenger seat.

Sarge chuckled.

“Surplus auction. I paid about two percent of what the tax payers paid for it,” he said as he started it up and headed back to the forest and the roadblock.

Mikey looked over at the tough old guy.

“You sure you want to do this?” he asked, hoping Sarge wouldn’t change his mind but feeling obliged to ask him anyway.

Sarge grinned and gunned the engine.

“Boy, if half of what you saw is true, then I wouldn’t miss this for the world,” he said with a cackle of laughter.

On the other side of the state, Sarge’s friend had made another phone call as soon as he had hung up with Sarge. He was currently pacing as he waited for the helicopter that was on its way to pick him up and take him to the base where Sarge worked.

Lt. Col. Marcus Ballard, fisted the phone in his hand, forcing himself not to smash the damn thing on the ground. In his God Damn backyard! The bastards were playing in his own damn backyard and he had to find it out from his old friend Sarge, who heard it from a kid in his fucking bar!

He wanted heads to roll this time. There was no excuse for his people not finding out about this sooner, and if his team missed another chance to get one of those alien bastards, the nasty bastards at Dulce would have a whole new group of victims for their experiments.

I’m tired of these alien bastards making me look like a fool and this! . . . this
, he thought,
is rubbing my nose in it a little too much.
  

He watched the helicopter land in his backyard and waited for his security detail to tell him it was time to board. He walked through the door they opened for him and watched his assistant run towards him with a briefcase in his hand.

“Sir! We got the satellites heading to that area now. We’ve had no luck with communications, but our techs are looking for their signature. If they have something to do with this, we’ll know soon,” Major Kyle Morris said, handing the Lt. Col. His briefcase as he ducked the helicopter blades again and got in beside his boss.

Marcus looked at his assistant and sneered.

“I want information now, not another hour from now when the bastards will be gone and we’ll look like fools! Again! Now get me something concrete!” Marcus barked, enjoying the slight flinch of Kyle’s face as he shouted at him to be heard over the blades.

Kyle nodded his head and opened his laptop.

“Yes, sir,” he said, sending out an urgent message to their teams.

Kyle was tempted to wipe the drop of spittle from his cheek that had caused him to flinch, but decided he wouldn’t give the asshole the satisfaction. Besides, the jerk would think he was crying or something and Kyle wasn’t in the mood to be his whipping boy for the next few hours as the Lt. Col. proved his monumental incompetence. Again.

Kyle kept his expression blank as his hands flew across the keyboard, sending and receiving information so he could give the bastard an update the moment they landed at the base.

Not that it will matter,
Kyle thought.
The fool will handle it all wrong and we’ll look stupid. Again.
 

He’d tried to tell the idiot that working off of a playbook created 60 years ago wasn’t a good idea since times and technology had changed so much. But, the fool had refused to listen to his ideas. Kyle sighed, hoping that this was going to be the final straw to the “Powers that be” that finally makes them retire the Lt. Col. and Kyle was the next in line for the job.

Putting his daydreams aside, Kyle grinned at a particular piece of intel and closed his laptop as the helicopter landed. He waited while the Lt. Col. got out of the chopper then slid across the seat and hopped out. He ducked and jogged after his boss as he headed into a hangar that they had taken over, their teams waiting for them.

*****

Grai pulled out his comm and cursed as he read the message. Tricia smiled up at him and patted his hand.

“Go. Do your job and protect our people. Then come back and spend some time with us. We’ll be here waiting for you,” she said as she leaned up and kissed his cheek.

Tristan hugged his father with one arm, his other holding his sister tenderly.

“I will stay and make sure they are safe, Father. The energy here will allow me to remain in this form for a long period of time,” he said, sending his father love and comforting energy.

Grai hugged his son, careful not to crush his baby daughter. He pulled away and kissed her tiny head before pulling Tricia into a tight hug.

“I will be back soon, my love. Do not let little Grace forget about me while I’m gone,” he teased as he kissed the top of her head.

Tricia chuckled.

“You’re not the kind of guy anyone could forget easily, my love. But, I will remind her of her wonderful father anyway,” she said, looking up at him with shining eyes.

Mikal stood behind Tricia and put his hands on her shoulders. “Call me if you need me. I will be there,” Mikal said with a nod, his look telling his father he would protect his mother and siblings with his life.

Grai nodded at Mikal and patted his shoulder.

“I’ll be back soon,” he said, before turning away from the dock and sprinting towards the main building where Ivint, Reven and the others had gone.

He walked into a large kitchen and hated that he had to break up the happy and festive like atmosphere. He looked around for Thjodhild and Fiorn and strode across the room towards them, the room growing quiet as he passed everyone else.

“We have a problem. There’s been activity at the local military base. A group no one has ever heard of before has taken over a hangar and commandeered equipment,” he said, watching Thjodhild’s face pale as Fiorn cursed.

Thjodhild stood.

“We need to go. Now. Contact your people, we need everyone out of there,” she said as she headed towards the door, contacting Slate through the Shengari’ as she went.

Ivint turned to Grai.

“I’m telling Scaden now. We need transports to get our surface people out of there,” he said as he followed Grai and the others to the portal.

Grai nodded.

“I’ve contacted Dillon, they’re on deck and waiting for extraction locations,” he added.

Fiorn turned back to look at them.

“It may be better to put everyone in the folly,” he said, his long strides leading them to the portal room.

Grai shook his head.

“If they find the Folly, we can’t let them find everyone. Put most of your people on the transports with ours. Portal everyone else here,” Grai suggested.

Fiorn sighed and nodded. If the folly was compromised, they couldn’t allow anyone to be taken. It was better to abandon it for now than lose anyone to the government labs.

Fiorn looked at Blade, who was following with Niklosi and the others.

“Send the order. Anyone who can’t get into a portal, gets into a ship. Leave no one behind. I mean no one! And set the P4 contingencies in place,” Fiorn ordered.

“What is that?” Grai asked, wondering if they were in danger.

Fiorn nodded and entered the portal into the folly. He was waiting for Grai when he came out.

“It’s a fail-safe contingency plan. If any of the energy systems, either the computers or the ley lines themselves are breached by someone other than one of ours, then it will set off a chain reaction that will destroy all technology in the folly including the portals. It’s a last ditch effort to prevent them from finding our other bases or tapping into our systems,” Fiorn said, leading the way to the command center they were in earlier.

Ivint turned to his son.

“How close are you to finishing the cleanup?”

Scaden shook his head. “We were almost done. The road was cleared by the elementals after they settled the mountain and I think we’ve gotten all the debris that we could find. Jax said that she and Sam talked to the animals and if they find anything else that we missed, they’re going to hide it until they can show Sam or Jax where it is,” Scaden reported.

Reven shook his head and grinned.

“That’s my girl,” he said with pride.

Grai opened his comm to his brother.

“Koda, we got the military heading our way. Probably choppers, maybe some jets. You think you could provide a distraction for us while we clear this place out?”

Koda chuckled into the mic.

“Oh brother, you’re in luck. I’ve just tested our new toy and it might be perfect for you. We’ll stay cloaked until we see trouble,” Koda said before the comm went out.