Then, Year 3, After Spires
A loud bang jolted Florence Browning from an inappropriate One Direction dream. She thrashed about in the tangle of her blanket. Dimly, she realized that her baby brother was wailing in the next room.
Another jolt shook the house.
Earthquake?
She grumbled groggily. That was just what they needed to add to the monster apocalypse.
“Flo! Get dressed!”
Her dad’s voice boomed from the darkened hallway.
She squinted her eyes against the glare of the oil lantern on the cabinet near her open door. She hadn’t slept without some form of light in the past three years. She stumbled out of bed and threw on a pair of jeans before finding her shoes and slipping them on.
The constant drills her parents had insisted upon showed in the quickness Flo got dressed, grabbed her go bag and lantern, and stepped out into the hallway.
“What’s going on?” Flo rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.
“I don’t know, hon.” Her mother was scared. “Just hold on to your lantern and keep in the light. I’ll wake Floyd up… I swear that boy will sleep through anything,” she grumbled.
Florence jumped and nearly fumbled her lantern as a jarring crash sounded from outside. It was like a car crash. She could hear what sounded like people shouting, desperate, angry voices.
A fight?
A loud roar answered her question.
“Dad!” Flo’s voice shook. “I think there’s a monster outside.”
“I don’t know… maybe. Here, hold on to Fred for a second.”
Her father thrust her baby brother, who was whimpering, into her hands. Her father rushed back to the master bedroom and emerged a moment later with a pack on his back and an ax in hand.
“Dad, what’s going on?” Flo’s voice sounded like it was coming from someone else. It took her a split-second to realize that she was the one speaking.
Her dad managed a tight smile. “We’re just getting ready… in case we need to go to the emergency shelter.”
“But the monster—”
“I know, Flo. But I think it’s busy fighting someone else. Maybe those people from Davis that they’re saying are supposed to help us.” Her father turned to Floyd’s room. “C’mon Honey! We need to head downstairs.”
“I’m trying!”
Her mother’s voice was pitched higher than normal. Flo didn’t like how scared it sounded. It added to her own fears. She did remember hearing about the superpowered people from across the river. She clung to the hope that they would kill the monsters and keep her and her family safe. She had seen too much death over the last three years, extended family, friends, neighbors. So many hadn’t been as fortunate as her family.
“Floyd, Get your butt up now!”
Flo winced at her father’s angry shout. It was another thing that had changed with the apocalypse. Something she wished could just go away and vanish from her memory.
Her ten year old brother’s shaggy hair was pointing in every direction as he emerged from the room, while rubbing his eyes. Her mother was right behind and pushed him along.
Her mother leveled a cold frown at her father. Flo tried to pretend that she didn’t see it.
“Sorry, kiddo,” her father tried to smooth Floyd’s hair, “but we need to go.”
“Wha’s goin’… loud…?” Floyd mumbled something incoherently.
“Just like those drills we practiced.”
Her father smiled, but Flo wasn’t fooled. The shaking. The sounds from outside that felt closer by the second.
The family rushed down the stairs of their three-story row house. They moved quickly, but carefully. Flo’s father led the way with a lantern to push away the darkness. The tiny monsters that seemed to come out of the shadows hadn’t made an appearance in their house for nearly two years, but they weren’t taking any chances.
There was a loud bang and the house shook. Dust showered them.
“C’mon, we’re almost there.”
Flo winced at a sudden, high-pitched screech. It was the sound of rending metal, but she didn’t know that. All she was focused on was keeping her lantern steady and following behind her family as they rushed toward the kitchen and the back door. To follow the designated route, the quickest way to the emergency shelter for their block.
She nearly bumped into Floyd.
“Wha—”
“Shh.” Her mother snapped her head around and held a finger to her lips.
Two year old Fred whimpered while her mother hushed him and stroked his head.
Flo noticed that her father had stopped at the entry way into the kitchen. He was looking at the back door. She followed his gaze and noticed some movement in the moonlight through the slats in the boarded up windows. Footsteps rustled on the grass and scratched at wooden deck.
Her father turned and pointed back the way they came. Basement, he mouthed the word.
Flo nodded with wide eyes.
Her heart hammered in her chest as she moved as quietly as she could to the basement stairs. She slowly pulled the door open, wincing at the slight creaking sound. She shined the lantern down the steps and descended.
Her entire world ended in an ear shattering explosion of broken wood and crumpled metal.
Flo tumbled down the stairs and by some miracle she was able to keep her lantern from breaking and going out. She grimaced at the pain as she groaned and sat on the cold concrete floor.
“What the fuck!” Flo’s eyes widened. She had said that out loud. She winced in preparation from her mother’s forthcoming scolding, but there was only silence.
“Mom? Dad?”
Flo struggle to her feet. She held the lantern in a shaky hand as she shined it on the stairs. What she saw made her heart drop.
“Floyd!”
Her brother was lying partway across the lowest steps. His head was face down on the floor. There was a small trickle of blood pooling around his head.
Flo rushed over to her brother’s side. She was about to flip him over when she remembered that you weren’t supposed to move someone with a head injury.
“Floyd? Can you hear me?”
There was no answer.
Flo placed her ear next to her brother’s face. She heard him breathing. It was faint, but it was definitely there. She let out a sigh of relief.
“Mom? Dad? Floyd needs help.” Flo called up the dark stairs.
Again there was only silence. She carefully stepped over her brother and shined the lantern light up the steps.
Flo screamed for a long time.
It was only when Floyd’s weak voice somehow managed to reach through to her that she stopped.
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“Shit!”
Cal dropped to the ground to avoid the gremlin alpha that he just sensed coming in for a flying tackle behind him. He pushed himself up to his feet in one motion and sent a telekinetic battering ram into the other charging gremlin alpha.
The force sent the monster flying into the front of a row house. This entire block was empty according to the interim state government, so he didn’t need to be too careful with collateral damage. Although, he realized that he should probably try anyways.
“Watch out!”
Remy’s voice. Cal didn’t turn to look. He reacted. He jumped to the side. Just in time.
A car missed him by feet as it crashed into the other gremlin alpha. He winced at the sound of twisted metal and shattered glass.
“Really?” Cal turned a baleful eye on Remy. “That was a little close.”
“Sorry,” Remy said. “I figured you had the reflexes and speed to get out of the way with my warning.” He held his hands out. “And I have been proved correct.”
“Getting a little reckless there,” Cal said. “What happened to mister ‘measure thrice and cut once’?”
Remy shrugged. “It’s situational. I figure in this case we want to kill these things as quickly as possible before they can disperse into the more populated areas and, you know, kill people.”
“Fair enough.”
A faraway look suddenly appeared on Cal’s face. It disappeared just as quickly.
“Trouble?”
“I just picked up a lot of malice and hunger a couple of streets over, regular gremlins,” Cal said.
“Damn it! We’ve got a squad headed that way. Can you check if they’re okay?”
Cal shook his head. “I can’t pick up human thoughts and emotions when there are so many monsters around. They tend to drown everything else out. Especially the alphas. Speaking of…”
“Oh, right,” Remy nodded.
The middle Cruces brother made a fist and lifted his right hand up. The chain wrapped around his arm jingled. He created a magnetic field over the ruined car. He then brought it up and slammed it down with tremendous force on the gremlin alpha. He did this repeatedly until the car was scrap and the monster was a red smear on the asphalt.
Meanwhile the other gremlin alpha had pulled itself out of the house Cal had thrown it into and roared a challenge.
“I got this one.”
Cal leapt at the monster with his ax raised high. The monster met him in midair. The ax blade sunk deeply. Clawed fingers sparked off his rough, steel chest piece.
Cal punched the monster in the throat. It gagged.
It swiped at Cal desperately, but its inability to get oxygen made the blows weak and easy to avoid.
Cal bobbed and weaved underneath. He chopped his ax into the monster’s thigh. Its tough skin and thick muscle was stronger than a tree trunk, but Cal was many times stronger than a normal man.
The monster tried to push Cal away. He ripped his ax out of the monster and grabbed its wrist.
He combined his physical strength with his telekinesis and sent it flying into the side of the row house.
“Oops,” Cal winced as part of the wall collapsed and crumbled.
The gremlin alpha pulled itself out of the rubble a few seconds later and rushed at Cal. This time one arm was limply hanging at its side.
Cal created and sent a telepathic bullet into its brain. The monster gave a pained cry and tripped over its legs. It tumbled to a heap in front of Cal and struggled to rise.
“Heh. Mind bullets.”
The pain to its brain was only temporary since the telepathic attack had no physical component. Cal put an end to the monster with a single well-aimed ax chop to the back of its neck.
“What a difference a few years makes,” Cal said.
“These things almost killed us the first time we fought them,” Remy agreed.
“Well, maybe for us… Eron had no trouble.” Cal’s gaze perked up towards the back of the house.
“More monsters?” Remy was wary.
“I don’t know… I thought I got something different… nope,” Cal nodded. “Just a bunch of normal sized gremlins.”
“Okay, you handle those. I’ll head over to that group you spotted a few streets over. I’ll stick with our people if they’re over there,” Remy said.
“Makes sense. I move faster without people to watch over. My powers will lead me to any monster groups.”
“Let me know if you find any more alphas.” Remy patted the walkie-talkie at his belt.
“You too,” Cal said.
“Oh and try to be more careful.” Remy gestured at the block of row houses. Their battle with gremlin alphas had damaged all of the houses in some fashion. “I know they said that the houses were empty, but…” he shrugged.
“I know, it’s kind of a dick move to ruin people’s houses. Even if we don’t know that they’re alive to come back to them.”
“I just want to avoid blowback. This is a goodwill mission after all.”
“Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be more careful, but if an eleven-foot tall monster wants to play Mighty Joe Young with the houses there’s not much I can do. I can’t really prioritize property damage with lives at stake.”
Cal exchanged a fist bump with his brother. He hopped over the rubble that buried the narrow alley between the two row houses and took off in the direction of the gremlins.
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Now, Thenosh World
“So, what’s your plan?”
“We will be following orders under Senior Commander Saldin Flats 326.”
Cal scratched his head and leveled a blank gaze at Caretaker’s unblinking eyes.
The corners of Caretakers lipless mouth shifted ever so slightly upward.
“Somehow I don’t think that they’ll make proper use of the team.”
“You are correct, Honor. I am certain that command will outline general duties and expectations for us. How we go about fulfilling them will be at my discretion. Ultimately we answer to you and Prime Custodian 3.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“You know that as far as I’m concerned you can call your own shots as much as you want,” Cal nodded. “Except, maybe don’t say that part out loud. The Collective won’t like it if word gets back to them. They’d see it as downright seditious,” he laughed.
“That is not high on my list of concerns, though I hear your words,” Caretaker said.
“Good. So, who are you taking with you?”
“All, aside from the individuals you will select for your Task—”
“Quest,” Cal interrupted.
“There is no appreciable difference in the terminology.”
“True… please continue.”
“I intend to take everyone except for the ones you select and the newest recruits. The latter will not be strong enough.”
Cal drummed three fingers on the clean, steel desk top. He stopped abruptly and with a motion brought up the holographic projection of a small city.
“Cold Plains City. I wonder why this is the first place that the Collective is attempting to take back from the dominion? There’s nothing particularly important about it. Not in a strategically important location. It doesn’t produce anything vital to your society. I mean, I’m not a strategic or tactical expert, but I’d say there are at least three or four other more important cities that you’ve lost to the dominion in the last six months.”
“I believe that this operation will serve as a trial run. To learn more about the enemy and develop proper tactics and strategy,” Caretaker said.
“Hmm, makes sense. They want to run it like an experiment. Develop a hypothesis and see what works. You target a place that isn’t that important in the scheme of things, so if things go really bad it won’t be a big loss.” Cal frowned. “I don’t like that this is the first operation that the Collective is bringing our team in on.”
“I concur,” Caretaker said with a curt nod. “Be assured that I will not allow our team to be sacrificed.”
“I trust you.” Cal squinted at the holographic projection. “It’s bugging me that I’m being locked out of the detailed live view.”
“Yes, that is strange. Has Prime Custodian 3 stated the reason?”
Cal shook his head. “Said it’s out of their hands. The Collective,” he spat out the word, “made the call according to PC3. The only thing they’ve given me were the recordings of the battle. Although it seems to me that they were edited, which is suspicious as hell.”
Cal brought up another holographic projection. It showed the snarling face of a large humanoid. Strong and brutish, it had fair skin visible through the Y-shaped opening in the steel helmet. As he played the recording the humanoid climbed up a crude, wooden ladder, basically a tree and pulled itself up over the lip of the city’s wall. A Threnosh in baseline infantry armor poured projectile fire from their recoilless rifle into the humanoid. He, at least that’s what the humanoid looked like, took the bursts without stopping. His plate armor appeared to be thick enough to withstand the tiny projectiles. He grabbed the Threnosh and threw him off the wall.
“How much does one of those normal infantry soldier weigh?”
“Assuming standard loadout, seventy-five kilograms.”
Cal instantly did the math in his head. “One hundred and sixty-five point three-four-seven,” he murmured. “That giant ogre dude chucked that poor bastard one-handed. Didn’t look strained either.”
“Yes, These thinking Invasive Organisms are quite impressive from a physical standpoint.”
“Don’t underestimate them,” Cal warned. “Not just their strength. I’ve been looking at their weapons and armor. They look pretty good. Quality metal. Standardized even.”
“Primitive.”
“In some respects,” Cal said. “However, it takes craftsmanship to forge blades and armor like that. Standardization implies some level of industry. I’m not an expert, so I can’t really say how much.”
“Acknowledged.”
“They need a proper name though. I already forgot the number you assigned them,” Cal lied. He hadn’t forgotten. Telepathy and whatever improvements his brain had undergone in the past six to seven years since the spires appeared on his home planet meant that it took effort to forget things. Often he wished that wasn’t the case. “Giants? Nah, not big enough. They’re ogre-sized, but look way too civilized for ogres.”
“I am uncertain that I concur with the assessment on their level of civilization,” Caretaker said.
“I’m warning you, Caretaker. Don’t underestimate them,” Cal chided. “Giogre? Ogriant? Goliaths?” He shook his head. “Too cool for an enemy. What do you think?”
“Invasive Organism 1867 is adequate.”
Cal sighed. “Can’t do it. Too clinical, staid. Ogrynt? With a Y? Although, maybe its better with the giant as the first part. Giagrynt? Gigrynt?”
“Well, recordings we have obtained indicates that they refer to themselves as People of the Unyielding Crags. Of course, that is only as the automatic translation system provides. There must not be an equivalent word in the Threnosh language.”
“Yeah, I heard the same thing. Still don’t understand how Threnosh translates into The People for me.”
“Such mysteries are the providence of the spires.”
“At least you’re not saying god hair anymore.”
“Is there a difference?”
“Nope, don’t want to get even more confused.” Cal regarded the holographic projection of the enormous humanoids marching in orderly blocks. It was certainly intimidating. He wondered where his physical strength stacked up with them. “Crags huh? Cragant? Cragre? That’s settled. We are calling them Cragants. That seems perfect for some reason.”
Caretaker gave the Threnosh version of a sigh, which was essentially a flat look. “I shall update our database. Although I doubt that it will go further than our team.”
“That’s okay,” Cal grinned. “Don’t care about the rest. So long as I can call them that. Right, so on to the Orchestral Meridian Quest… thoughts on who I should bring?”
“Yes, but first, I have a question.”
“Shoot.”
“I was surprised to discover that you were not going to be a part of the operation to retake Cold Plains City. Why pursue this Ta— Quest now? You can do so after. Orchestral Meridian has been silent for nearly ten years. It will still be the same once we defeat the dominion force occupying Cold Plains City.”
“True, but I talked it over with PC3 and we agreed that my presence might attract unwanted attention. The last thing we want is to add Zalthyss to the mix.” Cal didn’t voice the hidden fear that made him reluctant to face the angelic alien again. He tapped the remaining fingers on his left hand against the desk. A discordant drumbeat the mirrored the turmoil in his thoughts. “A fight between the two of us might just ruin the city and who knows what sort of collateral damage to the rest of our forces.” It all made sense from a tactical standpoint. That’s what Cal kept reminding himself. He wasn’t a coward. He had proved that on countless occasions since the spires appeared. Right?
“Acknowledged. Although, should you not be at least be on standby in the event that the Zalthyss entity engages?”
“You’ll have the prime for that,” Cal said. “So, I’ve got a preliminary list for my lineup.” He sent the information to Caretaker’s PID with a flick of his hand.
The first name on the list had Caretaker snap their head up. “Are you certain of them?”
Caretaker’s smooth brow was perhaps the highest on their forehead that Cal remembered ever seeing.
“They need experience and I need to keep them safe since PC3 can’t babysit them. They’re not ready to go along with you and they might attract that attention we were talking about. Can’t leave them here or let them join the other newbs on their tasks. Again, because of potential unwanted attention.”
Caretaker took several long seconds to consider Cal’s words. “I concur.”
“Good,” Cal grinned. “So, what do you think about the rest of my team?”
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Now, Earth
“What the hell, Vee?!” Tessa snapped
Veronica glared right back at her older sister.
“Yeah… how did you even follow us this far without me noticing?”
“Shut up Johnny,” Bastien whispered. “Let’s stay out of this.”
The words were prescient as the two Cruces sisters both turned identical baleful looks on the two young men.
“Fine, whatever.” Johnny threw up his hands and allowed Bastien to pull him away to join the rest of the team.
“Sorry.” Bastien gave a weak smile.
Gene and Olo were smart enough to keep their distance.
“Seriously, Vee. You can’t be here.” Tessa’s voice simmered with barely contained anger.
“Why not? I’ve got powers too.”
“You’re eleven!”
“So, I’m stronger than most everyone else here!”
“Look, mom and dad are going to get at mad at me,” Tessa grumbled. “For some stupid reason they decided that since I’m the oldest then I’m somehow responsible for your bad behavior. So unfair,” She sighed then grabbed Veronica by the arm. “You’re going straight home. Then you’ll tell mom and dad what you did.”
Veronica dug her heels to no avail. So she switched tracks.
“You can’t send me back by myself it’s dark and there are dangerous mutant animals and monsters.”
Johnny’s snort was audible from a dozen feet away.
“Nice try,” Tessa rolled her eyes. “You followed us just fine.”
“Mom and dad won’t see it that way.” There was an evil, triumphant gleam in Veronica’s eyes. “You’ll all get in trouble for making me walk back by myself.”
“I can take her back,” Mads raised her voice from where she was standing watch at the rear of the group.
“No,” Gene said as he approached. “We need you on overwatch.”
“I don’t like how this is turning out. Why don’t we just all head back and let Officer Lawrence know about what Bastien discovered,” Olo said. The big, young man loomed large over the rest of the team as they came to cluster around the scene of sisterly bonding.
Gene shook his head. “I don’t think it’d go anywhere. The council won’t want to hear anything bad about the Frisco people.”
“So?” Mads cradled her custom over/under shotgun as she relaxed. “They haven’t given any reason for you to be so suspicious of them. It’s been good for morale to know that there are people in San Francisco and that they’re doing well.”
“My neighbor has family there and she’s been talking about making the trip,” Olo said.
“And I agreed with your general sentiment. Up until Bastien got a hit with his ‘evil sense’ when he got close to one of them,” Gene said.
“It’s actually called Sense Evil and I’m not sure how it works exactly. If it’s based on the universal understanding on what constitutes evil or if it aligns to my own personal morality. All I know is when I got close to that guy I got all nauseous and sick to my stomach. Like every fiber of my being was telling me there was something wrong.” Bastien’s face grew pale as he spoke.
“See,” Veronica pointed at Bastien, “you need me. They’re evil and we have to uphold justice!”
“Oh my god… seriously? This?” Tessa palmed her face and made a sound of pure frustration.
“C’mon people. I don’t want to waste my night off of patrols just to stand around arguing on a dark sidewalk,” Johnny said. “Why don’t we just take Vee along?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Tessa said. “Maybe because she’s eleven, you dumbass!” She snapped.
“Factually correct.” Johnny was undaunted. “However, I’d like to point out that aside from you and Olo, she is the physically strongest one here despite being less than five feet tall and maybe sixty pounds. And Olo is like six-five, two-fifty with an Enhanced Strength passive.”
“I’m ninety-five pounds,” Vee chimed.
“Shit! Really? You don’t look it,” Johnny said.
“It’s cause I have greater muscle and bone density or something.”
“Oh right, totally forgot.” Johnny put his arms around Gene and Bastien’s shoulders. “Bottom line… the three of us are probably in way more danger than Vee. Mads is fine since she’ll be sitting safe far away shooting at shit if things go down.”
“Johnny,” Gene warned.
“Huh?” Johnny belatedly noticed the dark look Tessa was sending him. “Uh… okay. Shutting up now.”
“Tessa, since she’s your sister you’ll have to take her back,” Gene said. “I, for one, am not about to get on your dad’s bad side, which I can definitely see happening if he thinks that I was okay with taking her along on this off the books scouting mission.”
“Oh no. You’re not shoving this off on me,” Tessa said. “You need me if this turns out as badly as Bastien thinks it will.”
“Um… for the record I didn’t say anything in that regard. I merely related my feeling. I have no idea how bad it might be.”
Johnny clapped Bastien on the back. “Way to take a stand oh holy one.”
“Something is off with those Frisco people and I’m going to get evidence.” Tessa made up her mind. Her Uncle Eron once told her that sometimes it was better to ask for forgiveness later than to ask for permission first if the stakes warranted it. In her mind this fit under those criteria. “Vee. You can come along.”
Veronica brightened.
“But, you’ll stay close to Mads. You follow her orders and stay out of her way. First sign of trouble you run all the way back home.”
The youngest Cruces sister nodded her head vigorously.
“Alright. Let’s see if we’ve got some evildoers that needs some justice delivered upside their heads,” Johnny winked at Veronica.
It wasn’t too hard to figure out where their target was headed. There wasn’t much outside of the western limits of the city. A lot of unused farmland thanks to the larger, more dangerous monsters that roamed the spaces between claimed pockets of civilization. What it took to claim land? No one had figured it out yet. And so useful land was left to the monsters.
There were many farm-related structures still standing. A farmhouse, barns, processing buildings, a garage for equipment, a warehouse or two.
The team crossed the overgrown field in a tight formation. Gene never would’ve considered doing this, especially at night, had Tessa not been with them. Those wyverns were scary bastards and he wasn’t going to risk running into one without a big gun that could knock them out of the sky.
As they reached the edge of the farmland bordering the cluster of structures, Gene held up a fist. He beckoned Bastien over.
“Can you tell where they are?” Gene kept his voice low.
Bastien shook his head. “Too far away.”
Mads cleared her throat lightly. “There’s some light coming from in there.” She pointed to the pitch black darkness.
The clouds were out in force and had blocked the light from the stars.
“I’m sorry, Mads. I don’t have enhanced vision. I have no idea where you’re pointing,” Gene said.
“No, I sorta see something. Bit of light. Can’t tell much more though,” Johnny said.
“Well…” Gene looked at Johnny expectantly.
“What—” Johnny sighed. “Right. I’ll be right back. Hopefully.”
The Rogue took a deep breath and vanished. Johnny didn’t actually turn invisible. He was still there. It was just that others were having difficulty noticing his presence to varying degrees. It was easier for people like Tessa and Veronica, who had superior senses than the baseline human, and Mads, who had a skill that enhanced her vision.
“Is he gone?” Olo ventured.
“He’s at the shed,” Mads said. “I think… and I’ve lost him.”
“I can’t even see the shed,” Olo complained.
“It’s like forty yards straight ahead,” Mads said.
Gene counted silently.
Six minutes later, Johnny suddenly appeared next to the group. He was winded. As if he had just sprinted across a football field.
“Did you see?”
Johnny held up a hand in Gene’s face as he took several deep breaths.
“It’s fucked up man,” Johnny finally said. “Some weird cultist shit going on in a barn. Candles, torches, blood circles. Smells like rotten fish, like your mom’s pu—”
Tessa growled.
Johnny stopped. “Sorry. Forgot myself,” he titled a head toward Veronica. “I think Bastien was right and I think we need to do something, like now.”
Gene considered things for a moment. He ignored the hushed whispers around him.
“You scared me. I swear I thought Nila was glaring at me,” Johnny said to Tessa.
“What’re you talking about?”
“It’s true,” Olo nodded. “You made the same sound Ms. Nila does when she’s about to beat somebody down.”
“Why didn’t you take a picture?” Bastien accosted Johnny. “If you did then we can leave and get help.”
“It was dark and I think they would’ve noticed the flash, you dumbfuck.”
“Watch your mouth.” Mads pointed at Veronica.
“Sorry,” Johnny said.
“It’s fine, I’ve heard all the bad words,” Veronica rolled her eyes.
“Hmm, challenge accepted,” Johnny grinned.
“No, no it isn’t,” Tessa snapped.
“Quiet,” Gene harshly whispered. “I swear, children…” he muttered. “I’ve memorized the layout of this farm. There should be a house with a direct line of sight to the barn’s south door.”
“How the hell do you know that?” Johnny said.
“I printed up Google maps of the entire area on one of the days when the internet was working a while back.” Gene turned to Mads. “Set up in the house for sniping. There’s a clear line of retreat to the south. In case things go bad and you and Vee need to bail. As for the rest of us. Tessa you’re at the south door. The four of us will be at the north door. Johnny will sneak in and take video and pictures with his phone from the rafters. Once they discover him we’ll give them a chance to surrender.”
“I doubt that’s going to happen,” Tessa said.
Gene nodded. “Whatever happens, we can’t attack first. If they attack then they reveal themselves and we don’t have to rely only on Bastien’s gut feelings to explain it to everyone else.”
The team moved through the eerily silent farm as quietly as possible. Some did better than others, but fortunately for them their targets were fully immersed in whatever evil it was they were doing.
They reached the house, which was about fifty yards away from the large, gray-painted barn.
Gene beckoned Johnny over and directed him to the dark house with a gesture. He got a flat stare in return, which was difficult for him to see in the darkness.
Johnny rolled his eyes and rushed over to the house.
It took a few minutes before Tessa spotted him opening an upper bedroom window and climbing out. His movements reminded her of a mangy cat. Really quiet, stealthy, with lots of fleas.
Johnny dropped down to the ground from the roof and landed on the grass with barely any sound. He rushed back to the team and gave the thumbs up.
Gene nodded at Mads.
Tessa grabbed Veronica by the shoulder. She tried to impart a silent set of instructions through a piercing glare. Veronica frowned, but nodded. Whether the younger Cruces sister understood. No one knew.
Gene tapped Tessa on the shoulder. She kept her eyes on Veronica’s back until her younger sister disappeared into the house after Mads. Only then did she turn to face the impatient Gene.
He pointed to the south end of the barn and its imposing set of doors, which were shut tight.
Tessa hefted her custom, dad-made solid metal kanabo in one hand and silently stalked forward.
The rest of the team did the same as they skirted around the side of the barn to make their way to the north door.
Tessa settled in to wait.