“Again, as you can see on this slide, this male has progressed in the transformation. This male has developed muscle tissue and the organs are now enlarged. You may also notice the texturing of the skin. At this stage, the carrier has less than 20% measurable human DNA. This group is more highly capable and cunning. They have been observed planning and using strategy in attacks. Next.
The room gasped, and people began shouting, causing the captain to again get to his feet and silence the crowd. The image on the screen showed a CGI-produced image of a humanoid. It had a pronged reptile-like head, scaled skin, a bold chest, and elongated arms.
“This is an artistic rendering of what we predict the final progression will look like—”
“Bullshit,” a man in a state trooper uniform near the back yelled. “You trying to tell us we’re being invaded by the Creature from the Black Lagoon?”
“Captain, I don’t care what they are; just send me back so I can kill them!” another shouted.
Captain Nelson slammed a hand on a table at the front of the room. “That’s enough; turn on the damn lights!” Nelson stood up angrily. “Listen for your name and assignment, and then get your ass on deck to be outfitted and briefed by your squad leaders. We assault at dusk.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Nervous men stood in long lines and crowded along the back deck of the freighter as squads were divided up, arms were issued, and ammunition handed out. Two tall Marines stood near crates of equipment, pulling men from the line to be fitted with protective armor. Jacob was snatched and, after a quick look-over, his police vest was refitted with a chest rig holding nine thirty-round magazines for his rifle and two fragmentation grenades. The Marine grabbed Jacob by the shoulder and spun him clockwise, pulling on straps and tabs, and then applying tape to anything dangling.
The Marine looked Jacob in the eyes. “How’s it feel?”
“Heavy,” Jacob said.
“Okay, you’re good,” the Marine said before shoving Jacob back into the line.
Jacob learned the invasion force, even though critically short of men, had plenty of ordnance, mostly flown in from Reserve and National Guard armories in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. Various sized watercraft were being positioned at the bottom of a long stairwell as cardboard boxes full of uniforms and boots were dumped on the deck. The empty containers were tossed over the side to make room for more.
The men were split into squads and waited in long lines; some at ladders to board the small boats while others were organized and led away to the stern to board helicopters. Jacob looked out over the water at the gathered freighters and ferries. Ships of all shapes and sizes stretched to the horizon while small leisure boats speckled the water, bobbing amongst the larger freighters and transport ships.
Standing at the center of the deck now, Jacob was near the middle of a stack of eleven men who were members of his recently formed squad. He looked around in the chaos; the only familiar part of his assignment was Murphy taking the position of squad leader at the front. Helicopters orbited the flotilla, dropping in to pick up teams, then rejoining the holding pattern above. Jacob stared up at a circling twin rotor helicopter, curious about its destination.
“You don’t want to be on them,” a soldier in line ahead of Jacob said, noticing his stare. The man was wearing sergeant’s stripes and the name Cass was written on the front of his helmet.
Jacob nodded acknowledging the man. “Why’s that?”
“Air assault. They are dropping inland off the beach, right on top of the bastards up near Michigan Avenue; a long way from where we’re going. They’ll be elbow deep in the shit before we even hit the beach. Higher ups are hoping to draw the things off of Grant Park and the lakefront, so we can safely get ashore,” the sergeant said. As he spoke, the man’s eyes followed a helicopter making an approach to the rear of the freighter where a tight pack of soldiers were waiting.
“That’s insane!” Jacob muttered. “They’ll be slaughtered!”
“Them’s the breaks,” the sergeant said grimly, shaking his head before looking away.
“What about us?” Jacob asked.
“Amphibious landing! We’re on the boat teams… going right through the breakwater then slamming into the wall. Hauling ass and digging in near the highway where it turns into Lake Shore Drive—traditional blocking action against an atypical force. It’s good though; we’ll have wide fields of fire and good cover over that stretch of roadway… but all that depends on the air assault boys pulling them off the waterfront.”
“This is good?” Jacob asked.
Jacob was nudged from behind as the line moved ahead and snaked around a container. His squad of eleven moved into an open staging area just shy of the stairs leading to the waterline. Murphy was there going over men’s equipment and dividing the group into two halves. Murphy then moved against a container and pointed at a sheet of plywood with a rough map sketched on it.
The map, which had four horizontal lines running across it, was oriented so that the lake was at the bottom; a straight line running along the bottom of the board represented the lakeshore. Above the shoreline was another line designated as the trail. A parallel line marked as 41 Lake Shore Drive was situated over the trail. A shaded area labeled park was sketched in between Lake Shore Drive and a final line near the top of the board. This line was denoted as Michigan Avenue and was marked with an X, along with the words Air Assault. At the far-left side of the board, at the end of the shoreline, was a box marked Castle.
“Listen up,” Murphy said, pointing at the board. “We will be hitting the shoreline here,
