Paige crumpled up her paper cup and tossed it into a small receptacle that Cole hoped was a trash can. “If you guys want our help with these things, you gotta start listening to us!” she declared.
Adderson eased down onto a little stool bolted to the floor and sighed, “Do we, now?”
“Yes. Someone could have been killed. Just ask your pilot.”
A skinny young man wearing dark khakis and a baseball cap arched his back to work out a kink. Although the cap bore a Marine Corps emblem, the rest of his uniform was marked only by his rank on one shoulder and an IRD patch on the other. The Inhuman Response Division’s insignia was a half skull and half wolf’s head beneath crossed assault rifles on a field quartered into red and gray sections surrounded by a gold rope. The letters IRD were stitched on one side, and USA stitched on the other. “I don’t know what mission you were on,” he said, “but I wasn’t about to crash.”
“What about when that Half Breed clamped onto your helicopter?”
“That’s in my report, lady.”
“I’m sure it was. I’m not trying to call you out on anything. Just tell me one thing.”
Although Paige had made her intentions clear, the pilot still eyed her as if she were doing her best to get him in trouble in front of his boss. “I bet I can tell you plenty of things, honey.”
“Hendricks!” Adderson barked.
The pilot nodded toward his commanding officer and then met Paige’s eyes when he said, “I mean . . . ma’am.”
Paige walked up to the pilot, stood toe-to-toe with him and then leaned her chin forward just enough to make it seem she might try to bite his nose off. “Tell me how high a Class Two shifter can jump.”
When Hendricks looked over to Adderson, all he got was a steely glare. Shifting his eyes to Paige, he said, “Approximately five to six meters.”
“That’s what you were told when we made that first run into Nevada,” she replied. “It was wrong then and it’s still wrong now! Cole and I have told you as much as we can, but you still stick to your same damn guidelines.”
“We’re working on definitive profiles of all of these creatures,” Adderson said. “Your input is appreciated, but it’s not consistent. Until we can lock in some parameters for what we’re dealing with, we’ll work with the knowledge we have.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be able to deal with new intelligence as it comes in?” Paige asked.
“Sure, but when it changes according to who’s giving it, we have to take it with a grain of salt. Would you like to debate this further or shall we continue with the debrief?”
After shooting a disgruntled look in Cole’s direction, she crossed her arms, leaned against one of the monitors and allowed the soldiers to continue. For the next several minutes the pilot and crew from the helicopter gave their reports on what happened at the Riverfront. Then it was Cole and Paige’s turn to let them know what they did as far as the Half Breeds were concerned. When that was done, Adderson wrapped up by clapping his hands against the table and declaring, “We were called in to get a good idea as to how many Class Twos were positioned near the Riverfront and that’s what we did. Correct?”
Reluctantly, Paige nodded.
“Don’t give us the silent treatment, Miss Strobel. Is that what we did or isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” she replied. “Half Breeds aren’t exactly hard to find. Considering how the balance has shifted over the last few months, it’s tough to say what’s going on. Cole and I seriously need to get out there and see what’s happening so we can pass on some better information to you guys.”
“How do you propose to do that?”
Every eye was focused on Paige. Most of the soldiers respected what they did and had a good idea as to what they could offer, but they mainly treated the Skinners as just another thing that had gone wrong with the ecosystem.
“We could use some funding for supplies and weapons,” she said. “Maybe some transport to—”
“Our funding is limited as is,” Adderson cut in. “If you’d like to sign on as official members of the IRD, you’d have access to transportation as well as resources, including provisions and weaponry.”
“We don’t need your weaponry,” Cole said. “If anything, you need ours.”
“What’s that mean?” Hendricks asked. “Unless you missed it, we dusted plenty of those dogs tonight.”
“Shooting them is one thing,” Cole retorted, “killing them is another. Haven’t you realized that by now? They can take a lot of damage and shake it off unless you stick around to do the job right.” Recognizing the cocky glint in the pilot’s eye, he added, “And in case you missed it, I was dropping those things with one shot.”
“Enough, Cole,” Paige hissed.
“This isn’t bragging, Paige. It’s fact. These guys act like they’re the big men on the block, but we’re the ones that have been doing this since before anyone knew what a Half Breed was. And it
“Now that you mention it,” Adderson said, “some upgrade to our ammunition would be outstanding. I’m sure you could arrange that.”
Paige’s elbow jabbed Cole’s ribs like the business end of a stake.
Adderson slowly approached the Skinners. “I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how valuable those rounds would be if they were placed in the hands of one of our elite fire teams. In fact, I believe we could have wiped out every last shifter on that Riverfront. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Maybe, but we can’t exactly mass produce those things,” Cole explained.
“Perhaps we could. That is, unless you’re refusing to help outfit the IRD with supplies that could be considered vital to our long-term success.”
So far, despite the suspicion leveled at them by the uniformed soldiers and the constant pressure to sign up with the IRD on a long-term basis, Cole had been proud to serve with them. He couldn’t help but feel ashamed when he said, “I can’t do that.”
“Can’t do what?”
“Can’t promise more of those rounds. Rico was the one who put them together, and he—”
“Fine,” Adderson grunted. “Any more to report?” Since nobody spoke up in the fraction of a second he gave them, the major said, “Then get back to your duties. I want to have a word with our specialists.”
There wasn’t much space within the camper, but the five soldiers who remained in it sat at workstations or stood in front of monitors as if they were the only things left in their world.
“Walk with me,” Adderson said as he led the way outside. Cole and Paige followed him to a spot several paces from any of the other soldiers. The major fished a cigarette from a pack he’d pulled from his breast pocket and lit it with a Zippo.
“Does that thing have the IRD symbol on it?” Cole asked as he nodded toward the lighter. “If so, I want one.”
Smirking around the cigarette clamped between his teeth, Adderson held the lighter to show the hula girl engraved on its side. “Sorry, Cole. I can probably have one made up for you if you decide to sign up for the long haul.”
“We are in it for the long haul, sir. Couldn’t you even throw us one of those patches?”
“Collector, huh?”
“How about a T-shirt?” Paige asked as she rubbed her arms. “Or maybe some action figures? Any other way you guys want to market a supposedly secret organization?”
“Identification is all it is,” Adderson told her. “A man needs to know he’s part of a unit, and the higher-ups need to be able to identify that unit with a glance. Goes all the way back to . . .” He puffed on the cigarette and shrugged. “Hell, I don’t know. Goes back a long ways.”
“Plus it looks cool,” Cole said.
“That it does.”
Although Paige was clearly freezing, she stepped away from the heat spilling out of the vehicles so she could lower her voice when she said, “We can’t continue with these hit and run things.”
“Agreed. When was the last time you’ve seen a Class One?”
