Mass hadn’t yet explained about the giant demon, and incredibly no one had asked. Things had just happened so quickly. He decided to explain now, but Tony held up a hand and stopped him. “We can talk things over and over, but right now, there are twelve men who are planning to shoot you. When they realise I’m not going to give the order, they’ll go into business for themselves. You and I need to make a plan before then and be ready.
“Okay, if you have a good plan, I’m ready to hear it.”
Tony nodded. “I do have one, but it’s not foolproof.”
“Then I guess we’re a bunch of fools. What are you thinking?”
Tony told him. “How sneaky are you?”
Tony lay in his tent, wide awake. His watch told him it was after ten, but no one really knew the time any more. He was knackered, having walked many miles that day, but the real deadweight was Mass. The muscled young man seemed exhausted to the point of coma.
After speaking with him earlier, Mass had become inexplicably weak, and Tony had needed to help him back to camp. Cullen and the others had taken him into their care, and he was now sleeping in a guarded tent. Eventually, Tony had ordered his own men to bed down for an early start, designating four sentries to keep watch in two-hour shifts. Eight hours of rest in the open was dangerous, but also peaceful. Birds chirped in the nearby trees, and somewhere a fox gave a demented mating call. Nature was alive and well, and so were they for now. The demons hadn’t found them hiding, which suggested they had continued down the road. Were they heading to Portsmouth? Was that giant monstrosity bringing war?
Of course it is.
During the camp’s brief downtime before bed, one of Mass’s guys, Smithy, had told Tony about a massive gate opening, and the giant beast that had come through. The lad had been reluctant to share more, ending the conversation with, “Just demon funny business, ain’t it?” Whatever the cause, a giant gate was bad news. The demons were back in force, and they had a leader. In the Middle East, the enemy had always been at its fiercest whenever led by one of the fallen – large, terrifying beasts that some claimed to be former angels. The one Tony had seen earlier on the horizon had been three times as big as any he’d ever seen. And it was likely to be a lot more than three times as dangerous.
Tony heard snoring from the nearby tents. Not from every man, but a few. The only people not in sleeping bags should be the guards on duty, but Tony could sense creeping footsteps coming from several directions. It might have been Cullen and his men – they were free to do as they wanted – but he doubted it. This was his own men sneaking around. They were preparing to make their move.
No one had built a fire – it was mild, and they didn’t want to risk giving away their location – but despite the lack of firelight, a shadow slid over Tony’s tent. It was cast by the unobscured moon. He held his breath as someone pulled down the zipper. A face appeared in the gap. It was Sergeant Pearson.
“Colonel, you’re needed outside.”
Tony sat up as much as his small one-man tent would allow. “What’s going on?”
“You need to come outside, sir. We’ve spotted a threat.”
“Demons?”
“Yes, sir.”
Tony shuffled out of his sleeping bag and crawled out of his tent. For a moment, it was pitch-black, but then his eyes adjusted and revealed the shapes of several men. His entire team was awake, rifles at the ready. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “Why is everyone—”
“This way, sir,” said Pearson. “Right over here. There’s something at the treeline.”
Tony hurried between the tents to the edge of the camp and searched for the trees, but it was too dark to see. No one had spotted a threat. It was a lie. Tony froze, not daring to turn around. “Sergeant Pearson, you have a rifle pointed at my back, don’t you?”
“Nothing personal, Colonel, but I have my orders – and they supersede yours.”
“Thomas ordered you to kill me?”
“Only if it seemed like you were planning to spare our target. Mass is still alive, sir, last I checked. You’ve disobeyed orders. I don’t understand why, exactly, but that’s none of my business.”
Tony kept looking forward, but he risked a dismissive chuckle. “A dozen Urban Vampires joined us on the road. The mission got risky. What would you have done, Pearson? Drawn weapons and gunned them all down before they had a chance to react?”
“Exactly, and that’s what’s about to happen. I just wanted you to see the job done properly before I shoot you in the head. Turn around, Colonel. Slowly. Hands on your head.”
Tony turned, fingers laced behind his skull. A rifle pointed at his chest, but he tried to ignore its presence. “This is a mistake, Pearson. We shouldn’t be taking each other out. Thomas is a danger to us all, and you’re doing his bidding.”
“I’m just following orders. If we don’t obey the chain of command, we’re no better than the demons.”
“I’m your superior officer, Pearson. Obey me.”
Pearson sneered, his thick black stubble now almost a beard. “You might call yourself a colonel, but we both know it’s a sham. Now, be a good boy and pay attention.”
Tony watched, a grim feeling in his guts as the mutineers moved between the tents, pointing their rifles at the canvas walls. They planned on killing Cullen, Mass, and the rest of the Vampires in their sleep. Tony could shout a warning, but it would make no difference.
Pearson kept his eyes on Tony and gave the order. “Fire at will, lads.”
Muzzle flashes lit up the night, illuminating the camp
