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Chapter 2b - Wraiths in the Night

Chapter 2b - Wraiths in the Night

Jordan led his team swiftly down the corridor, his mind and body balanced in such a way that he flowed from one moment to the next in a state of relaxed alertness. It had taken him years of training and combat experience to achieve this state of mind, where the world simply fell away and all that was left was the ebb and flow of action and reaction. For that reason alone, he wasn’t surprised when three armed men charged out of the stairwell toward them.

The part of his mind that weighed and analyzed risks noted that these men were surprised and unprepared to meet them. He could tell because of the way they reacted, skidding to a halt as they spilled onto the third floor. Not to mention that only two of the three men had successfully locked magazines into their rifles or that one of the men didn’t have any shoes.

The breakdown of knowledge flowed along the surface of his thoughts, there and gone in a flash as the recoil of his own assault rifle kicked three times, the suppressor reducing the typical roar of gunfire to mere pops.

Three bodies hit the floor as he, Wildfire, and Boon entered the stairwell, quickly descending to the second floor. Before moving into the second floor hallway, he paused, taking in the surroundings.

Nothing stood out from what he could see, but every neuron in his brain screamed there was an ambush waiting for them beyond those doors. While there were several options on how to handle such a situation, he chose to go with one of his most tried and true methods. When in doubt, call in the demolitions expert.

“Wildfire, you’re up,” Jordan called over his shoulder.

The fiery redhead gave him a wink as she passed, pulling two of her own specially made grenades from her pouch. He could tell they were of her own make because they were larger than normal and were wrapped in copious amounts of duct tape.

“I thought I said no more homemade explosives!” he hissed as Wildfire lobbed her creations down the hallway.

“They aren’t homemade!” she said with a smile, ducking behind the door.

Several loud cries of alarm echoed in the hallway before two rather loud and violent explosions tore through the hallway.

“What the hell, Wildfire!” Jordan cried, shaking his head to get rid of the ringing. “And what do you mean by ‘they aren’t homemade?’”

“She made them at the office,” Boon said with a laugh, patting his shoulder as he walked by. Wildfire gave him a ‘I know what you’re thinking and I don’t really care,’ smirk, before following Boon.

With a roll of his eyes, he fell in behind the others, once again finding that balance of mind and body as they cleared the second floor.

“Second and third floors cleared,” he announced over the radio minutes later.

“First floor cleared. Just breached the security center,” Mother replied. “Two dead and one incapacitated.”

“Acknowledged,” Jordan replied. “Nanny and Kid, you’re up.”

“This is official observer. Moving to first floor with Kid,” Vlad announced over the net in a clipped tone.

“Sounds like Nanny doesn’t like his new callsign,” Wildfire snickered.

“Good,” Jordan said, doing one more sweep of the area before heading down to the first floor. “Serves the man right after what he pulled in Morocco.”

“Major, this is Mother,” his radio crackled back to life. “I need you down in the control room immediately. I have eyes on who I believe are the Godfather and Dr. Death…”

“Moving,” Jordan interrupted, his mind racing as he picked up the pace. They had found him. After years of failure and pain, they had finally found him!

“There’s something else…,” Mother’s voice faltered as if searching for the right words. “I can’t explain. Just get here as quick as you can.”

“Acknowledged,” he replied, taking the stairs two at a time down to the first floor. “Doc, contact the ground team and let them know in case there’s a back door we don’t know about. We do not want to lose the guys.”

Moments later, a rich Nigerian accent came over the radio. “Major, this is Doc. Ground team has secured the perimeter and has overwatch of the facility. No hostiles visible. Request permission for myself and Musketeer to attend the wounded.”

“Approved. We’re moving to target now. See you there.”

Bodies were strewn throughout the hallway, a testament to his team’s ruthless efficiency. Before he knew it, he joined Mother and his team in the security center. It was a simple enough room with one wall covered in a couple dozen monitors and a couple of computer desks in the middle. A large observation window stood across from the monitors, where both Mother and Hero stood, looking toward the bay below.

It said something about his state of mind that he noticed the decor first before the bodies. Two bodies were slumped over the desks, both with gunshot wounds to the backs of their heads.

Quick, their female Chinese operative, had her weapon pointed at a man lying unconscious on the floor. As he neared, Jordan noticed the man had a massive goose egg on his forehead.

“Rubber bullets?” Jordan asked, turning away from the site to glance at the monitors.

The older Englishman grunted but didn’t turn from the window. “Thought it best, but that isn’t why I asked you to down here…”

“Is that the Godfather and Dr. Death?” Jordan interrupted, seeing movement on the security feeds. Three men were sprinting down a hallway. One was an absolute monster of man, dressed in typical mercenary attire and had a woman carelessly thrown over one of his overly large shoulders. The girl was in obvious distress; flailing wildly while scratching, kicking, and in some cases, biting her captor.

Truth be told, he didn’t know if he was more impressed by the girl or the stoic man carrying her, but it was the others who drew his attention. A squat Indian man with disheveled white hair and wearing a snug lab coat lagged behind the others had to be Wildfire’s Dr. Death. Which meant, the last man, the one dressed in the Armani suit and walking brusquely behind the behemoth merc, was the Godfather.

“I’d say those are our targets. They’re in the basement you say?” Jordan asked, glancing back at his sergeant at arms.

“Look out the window, son,” Mother replied in an all too serious tone. It wasn’t until that moment Jordan realized his friend hadn’t so much as taken his gaze from the bay since his arrival.

Knowing Mother wasn’t one to be so easily distracted, Jordan turned away from the camera feed and looked out of the overly large, reinforced window onto something straight out of a science fiction movie.

Jordan’s eye twitched as he tried, and failed, to process what he was seeing.

“I’m fairly certain Tower didn’t mention anything about a shiny green portal in their report,” Mother commented dryly.

At that moment, Vlad and Kid walked into the control room.

“Bozhe Moi!” Vlad breathed. “What in the hells is that!?”

“We’re not sure…” Jordan began.

“Is that a wormhole?” Corporal Wolf interrupted, stepping past Jordan to get a better look.

Years of experience leading men and women in combat told him he had moments before Jordan lost whatever initiative and focus his team had. The Godfather and Dr. Death were clearly trying to make it to the shimmering green… something. While he didn’t know what it was, he knew at an instinctual level he couldn’t allow them to reach it.

“Kid, try and hack the systems behind you and let me know what you can tell us about whatever that,” Jordan waved a hand toward the floating green light show, “thing is.”

Just as he was about to give the others orders, the door to the bay below burst open, the large merc carrying the screaming woman leading the way, the Godfather and Dr. Death right on his heels. Five additional mercs broke from behind cover in the lab to meet them.

“Hero!” he called, his friend straightening up when he heard his name called. “See what you can do to open the window. We need to slow them down. When you do, aim for the big guy first. He’s got a captive that I would rather not lose.”

Turning around, he saw several of his team members standing guard. “As for the rest of you, it’s getting crowded in here and I really don’t want them figuring out we’ve decided to have an impromptu board meeting. Clear out and head to the bottom floor. We’ve got a fight coming and it’s going to get ugly.”

Multiple voices acknowledged the order as Mother took charge, leaving Hero and Kid with him.

As soon as the others left, Doc walked in, glanced at the two bodies and the unconscious man on the floor, grunted something about how the man would live, and turned to follow Mother, Musketeer following.

Jordan spared the Kid a glance as he got to work. The boy’s face had visibly paled at the sight of the dead technicians, which was reassuring in a way. Not only had he muscled through the discomfort, but he had also reacted in a completely acceptable manner.

Still, facing death on his first time out like this always takes its toll. Jordan promised himself that he would make sure to check in on him later. Those kinds of burdens were best handled sooner rather than later.

“Major,” Hero spoke up. “We won’t be able to break the window. It’s made of three inch ballistic glass. The only good news is that it appears to have a mylar coating, which means we can see them, but they can’t see us.”

“One way glass,” Jordan muttered, thankful that the armed mercenaries below couldn’t see them, but annoyed that he couldn’t get to them either. They were so close! Dr. Death was typing away at a computer while the Godfather was talking with his hired muscle. The only positive news was the group hadn’t started moving toward the shimmering pool of light.

“Any luck in finding a switch that opens the window?” he asked, his voice tense.

“You know, this would go faster if you weren’t admiring your reflection,” Hero said, his voice as calm and conversational as if he were talking about the weather.

With snort, Jordan turned to help. As they both scoured the walls for a switch of some kind, he couldn’t help but marvel for what was probably the hundredth time how incredibly lucky he was to have both Hero and Quick, his two Chinese operatives, as part of his team. Not only could they speak English flawlessly, but they were better than he was at, well… everything. They were also the most mysterious, rarely speaking about themselves or their home.

It was really unfortunate that their countries couldn’t further expand military partnerships due to their countries current political climate.

“Uh, sir… I mean, Major…” Corporal Wolf stammered, interrupting Jordan’s thoughts. “I have some good news and bad news.”

“Bad news always first,” Jordan called over his shoulder. It was obvious the Kid was nervous. Who wouldn’t be on their first mission? There was a reason why he had intentionally placed him in the most protected position within the team where he could do the least amount of damage.

“Well, the tech’s left their computers unlocked before they, um… died,” Corporal Wolf explained, briefly glancing at the two dead men. “Which means I didn’t need to break into the system. The bad news is they don’t have any files or controls for the wormhole, but what I did find...” the Kid paused to type something into the computer, followed by four loud popping sounds coming from the corners of the wall Jordan and Hero were standing next to, “was the emergency release for the observation window.”

No sooner had the last lock released, than Corporal Wolf whipped around in his chair and gave him a massive grin with a double thumbs up.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Jordan had just enough time to give the Kid a look of utter disbelief before the window fell back into the lab.

Time seemed to slow as everyone in the bay looked up in surprise at the sudden noise. Knowing that time was of the essence, Jordan launched himself across the room, tackling a surprised Corporal Wolf to the ground as he screamed, “Take cover!”

In the moments it took everyone else to react, Hero quickly raised his rifle, got off a single shot, and ducked away from the opening.

A shout of pain echoed from below followed by a woman’s scream. Then, there was nothing but the roar of automatic gunfire tearing through the air above both Jordan and the Corporal. Monitors and glass shattered, sparks flew, and the lights flickered as a hailstorm of bullets riddled the walls.

Laying on top of the now stunned Corporal, Jordan leaned in close and yelled into his ear, “Next time, ask before you act! Now, low-crawl out the door and stay in the hallway!”

Without pausing for acknowledgement, Jordan rolled to the base of the wall under a now several foot-wide opening directly above him. He glanced at Hero as he grabbed his remaining flash grenades.

Hero nodded his understanding and readied some of his own.

Together, they pulled the pins and blindly tossed them through the opening.

Jordan smiled as there were several cries below to take cover, the flurry of bullets halting before several loud explosions rebounded from the floor below. Neither Jordan nor Hero hesitated as they stood, weapons raised, and looked for exposed targets.

The first person Jordan spotted was the Godfather, who was sprinting for all he was worth toward the floating green pool that defied physics. Jordan shot him first, taking him in the leg. He wouldn’t kill the man if he could help it, but he wouldn’t lose any sleep by maiming him.

Next, he shifted his rifle to one of the merc’s who was lining up a shot at Hero. He didn’t even hesitate in pulling the trigger, the recoil of his rifle all the confirmation he needed to know that another hostile had been eliminated.

He then began searching for Dr. Death. But before he could find the man in the lab coat, the remaining merc’s below resumed firing, forcing him and Hero to take cover.

From his count, there were only two armed men left.

“Mother, what’s your status?” Jordan yelled into his radio.

“Sorry sir, had to ask for directions,” his sergeant at arms voice crackled through the weak connection. “Musketeer should be making an entrance shortly.”

Jordan winced. Musketeer making an entrance was usually a bad idea.

A crash sounded below as the double doors were thrown wide open by a giant of man screaming at the top of his lungs as he charged straight into the lab. The remaining mercs panicked, spraying automatic fire wildly as they tried to deal with this new threat.

Jordan and Hero took advantage of the distraction, gunning the two down now that they were facing away from them.

“Clear,” Jordan reported, still scanning the room. From what he could see, all the guards were down, Hero’s first shot having taken out the guard carrying the woman after the window incident.

Jordan took a moment to admire that particularly challenging shot. While doable for him, it would have taken him several seconds to line up. Hero had made the shot without hesitation while being surprised. That kind of reaction speed was on a completely different level.

For the thousandth time, Jordan thought how grateful he was they were on the same side.

The remainder of his team poured into the large lab, executing their standard clearing procedures.

As he finished his scan of the room, Jordan turned to the shimmering green light at the end of the room where he found Dr. Death in the process of dragging the Godfather through the shimmering portal.

“Dammit,” he cursed over the radio before yelling, “somebody stop them!”

“Language!” Mother called out reflexively but was already moving. But it was too late. No sooner had Jordan pointed out that their primary targets were on the verge of escaping than they vanished, the liquid surface of the portal rippling in their wake.

“Secure the lab!” He growled, his frustration bleeding through the radio. “For those of you who didn’t see, both the Godfather and Dr. Death made it through the shimmering radioactive pool. We’ll contact Tower for their guidance, but until then the standing order is no one goes near it! Do I make myself clear?”

There was a general chorus of agreements.

“Mother,” he barked, looking at his sergeant at arms. “Set up a rear guard and make sure none of the mercs are playing possum. We don’t need any more surprises.”

“Acknowledged,” the Englishman stated crisply. “So, you know, Musketeer was shot again during his non-standard breaching technique. Nothing too serious, but he won’t be able to walk out of here on his own.”

Looking down into the room Jordan saw the Frenchman lower himself to the ground, cradling a bloody leg.

“All I needz is one more, until I beatz my father’s record!” Musketeer replied in his thick French accent, his smile. It was obvious he was in pain, but his tone was one of excitement, not regret.

“Gents, not sure ‘bout you, but me thinks our friend is not quite a full shilling, if ye know what I mean,” Wildfire said over the line as she walked up to the computer Dr. Death had been working on.

“Doc, look at Musketeer, then check the woman,” Mother said as he began arraying the others in defensive positions around the room, most of whom were facing the green light.

“Idiot Frenchman,” Doc muttered over the open line, tossing a bandage to Musketeer who immediately began binding his own wound. “I told you I wasn’t going to bandage you anymore if you did something stupid. Why anyone would want to get shot to beat a silly record is kolo.”

Jordan recognized the word for what it was. Crazy. And he couldn’t disagree. There was a fine line between what Doc called kolo and brave. But then again, they were all a little broken. That’s what made them family.

“Major,” Doc said over the radio, “you need to come see this. The woman… Well, she is not normal.”

“Acknowledged, I’ll be down in a few…”

“Major, ye need to see this now!” Wildfire interrupted in a panic. “Bring Kid!”

No one questioned the Irish woman’s interruption.

Jordan grimaced as he looked over the lip of the window, judging the 15-foot drop in full gear to be less than an ideal way down.

A tap on his shoulder drew his attention.

“Tied a rope. Much faster to get down,” Hero said with his usual enigmatic smile. “I’ll help Kid.”

Jordan saw the cord hanging over the edge, thanked his friend and climbed over and down with practiced ease. He was fortunate to have so many able-bodied men and women on his team. Each one had shown initiative and capability that proved they could easily integrate into a well-oiled fighting force despite political and cultural differences.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, running up to Wildfire.

“I canna be sure, but from what I’m see’n there was a command sent out from this computer. If ye look up on the wall next to us, there be a black box with a green flashing light. You see the one with no wires?”

“Yes…” he began, but before he could say anything more, Wildfire plowed on.

“I done seen this kind of set up before when we were in the Philippines. It be a wireless receiver with some right nasty explosives. Specially designed by Dr. Death himself and meant to detonate when the timer runs down.”

Jordan eyed the black box, taking an unconscious step back. “Can you disarm it?”

“The box in front of us? Sure,” she said, her voice strained. “Not so worried ‘bout that one. It be the rest that ye should be concerned with!” she waived her hand in a circular motion above her head, indicating the rest of the room.

That was when Jordan realized there were dozens of the black boxes mounted all over the walls, their little green lights all blinking in sync with one another.

This was bad.

“This is bad,” he heard himself say out loud.

“Ya think?!” Wildfire shouted back at him.

“Ok, new question. Can you disarm them?” Was it just him, or did his voice sound like it had raised an octave with that last sentence?

“What ya think I been doin? Acting the maggot!?” The red head snapped. “What we need ta do is find the blasted command to send the cancellation signal! For that we need Kid!”

There was a loud crash, causing them both to jump. When he turned around, Jordan found Corporal Wolf lifting himself off the floor where he had fallen trying to climb down the rope.

“I’m fine!” he called, dusting himself off.

“Get yer scrawny backside over here, now!!” Wildfire yelled.

Ignoring Corporal Wolf for the moment, Jordan turned back to Wildfire.

“Would shooting the computer stop the countdown?” he asked, nudging the machine with the tip of his rifle.

“No ye cadger! Put yer blasted rifle down afore I make ye! All that would do would be ta make it impossible to stop the bloody countdown!” She spat, before muttering under her breath, “Typical man. Always thinking that breakin somethin be the thing ta solve yer problems.”

“Sir, is everything ok?” Mother asked in a strained voice.

“It nah be ok!” Wildfire yelled, moving out of the way so Corporal Wolf could access the computer. “Dr. Death just signed our death warrants, that he did!”

The Kid slipped in a thumb drive before pulling up what looked like a black screen and some scripts. Jordan had seen hackers work in the past, but the speed in which the kid was operating was impressive. Though, given the circumstances, he wished the Corporal would work just a bit faster.

“Umm, sir?” Corporal Wolf said in a strained voice. “Whoever initiated this sequence sent it to over 300 nodes. Given the strength of the Wi-Fi, it could easily cover this entire compound.”

“How much time do we have?” Jordan asked, his nerves fraying. This could be catastrophic. His entire team was in the bowels of the facility, who knew how long it would take them to get to safety?

“Umm, 7 minutes...”

7 minutes? Jordan forced himself to calm down. 7 minutes wasn’t so bad. They could all get clear of the building in that amount of time.

“I mean to say,” Corporal Wolf winced, interrupting his thoughts, “the command was set for a 7-minute countdown, which was sent over 4 minutes ago.”

Wildfire kicked the kid. Hard.

“Ow! What was that for!?” Corporal Wolf yelled.

“Can you stop the countdown?” Jordan interjected, trying to get the kid to focus.

“I would need the password to authenticate the new command. I can hack it...” Corporal Wolf began.

“Do it!” yelled more than one person.

“If I had another 10 minutes or so,” he finished in a focused tone, his attention completely on the computer in front of him.

There was no way for them to know how extensive the building was rigged, which meant he couldn’t begin to judge if running was even an option. 300 nodes sounded like overkill, but that type of overkill fit what they knew about Dr. Death.

Half a dozen ideas flashed through his mind in an instant, each discarded just as quickly as the last, leaving only one potential option.

Looking at his team, they knew it well.

“As official UN observer,” Vlad said blandly, “Idea you are thinking is terrible and I blame the Durack.”

Everyone turned to give the Russian an incredulous look.

Jordan snorted. Leave it to Vlad to crack a joke during a life-threatening situation.

“Which Durack?” he asked with a smirk.

“Both.” Vlad said with a smile.

A chorus chuckles sounded through the group, along with the acceptance of their reality.

“Ok everyone,” Jordan said, steeling himself for the order he was about to give. “We’re going through the creepy green gate from hell. It’s our only chance. Doc, please relay what you can to the teams outside. Tell them to get as far away from the facility as they can. The rest of you, buddy up. We’re going in teams of two.”

There was a moment of hesitation as the group took in his command, looking between him and the portal, processing the reality of what he had just said.

“Move yer backsides!” Mother yelled, pushing Boon forward. “Major just gave us an order! Doc, grab Musketeer. Hero, get down here! We go through in teams. And if any of you see the devil on the other side, I call dibs!”

The entire team began moving. Hero leaped from the 15-foot height, easily transitioning into a roll as he hit the ground. The man recovered smoothly, even though he was in body armor, and began running toward the portal.

Quick, who had been keeping guard in the hallway, ran past everyone, easily catching up to Hero, proving how she had earned her callsign. They were the first to enter, each grabbing hold of the other’s hand as they passed into the rift.

Jordan quirked an eyebrow. He would have to ask about that new piece of information later.

Mother was helping Doc with Musketeer, each having thrown one of the injured man’s arms over their shoulder. They disappeared next with Vlad right behind.

Boon had to grab Wildfire, who had frozen with palpable fear in her eyes. The Thai officer had to half drag, half carry, the woman through the portal.

That left himself, the Corporal, and the young woman. Without hesitation, Jordan ran to the young woman, reaching out his hand to help her up.

“We need to get you to safety,” Jordan said as calmly as he could given the circumstances. He even got down on one knee so he could be at eye level with her.

To his surprise, the girl scrambled away from him, fear radiating from those incredibly bright, amber eyes.

“We don’t have time for this…” he muttered as the girl babbled at him in some intelligible language he didn’t recognize as she scrambled further away.

With a sigh, he let his rifle hang by its body sling and grabbed the girl with both hands, easily throwing her over his shoulder.

The girl kicked and screamed like he had seen her do to the large merc, but Jordan didn’t care. All he needed was to get her through the portal, preferably before they were blown sky high.

Turning back to the portal, Jordan stopped in his tracks, stunned to see that Corporal Wolf was still working on the computer.

“Kid!” he yelled, striding forward. “It’s time to go!”

There was no response.

“We really don’t have time for this,” Jordan growled, before yelling, “Move it Kid!” He then grabbed onto Corporal Wolf’s arm with an iron grip and began dragging him toward the portal.

“No! Stop! What are you doing?” The boy screamed as Jordan continued to drag him away. “This may be our only chance to get the data on the wormhole!”

He was about to tell the Kid what he could do with that data when the struggling woman over his shoulder smashed the heel of her foot straight into his nose.

Jordan’s head snapped back, the pain so intense he saw stars. In that brief moment of inattention, both the woman and Corporal Wolf broke free.

Growling away the pain and with the grace born from heightened adrenaline, Jordan grabbed the back of the woman’s dress as she tried to run, caught Corporal Wolf’s arm, then unceremoniously shoved both through the portal.

Jordan barely registered the cold in his arms before the world around him erupted into waves of light and heat before he was thrown forward into oblivion.