slurred and hard to understand. 'Because of me.' He took three steps, leapt effortlessly over the eight-foot fence and disappeared into the forest.
'I want everybody evacuated from the barracks and into the main building, now!' I shouted at the approaching Hunters. Esmeralda's man Cooper was in the lead. He had his FAL shouldered, was fully geared up, and was sweeping his rifle from side to side. Behind him were a couple of real Newbies, one of the Haight brothers from Utah, Dawn the beauty queen, and one make-believe Newbie, Herzog, still trying to be incognito.
'What's going on?' Cooper asked.
'Doesn't matter. I want everybody inside. Button the place up. This isn't a drill.' I must have looked kind of weird, since I was just wearing shorts, a tee shirt, and sandals, but carrying Abomination in one hand and a Thompson in the other. I had tossed Earl's leather jacket over one shoulder, figuring that if he didn't end up committing any atrocities out there tonight while he was shape-shifted and insane, he'd probably want his stuff back in good shape.
All of us started back across the parking lot to the main entrance. Cooper was excited. 'Yesterday Julie started having us take turns, working in pairs, monitoring the security system. She told us to be ready for anything. We caught a couple of figures on thermal and went to check it out. We were just getting off shift and these guys were coming on. When we saw the undead we sounded the alarm.'
'How'd you know they were vampires?'
'I had two on thermal, but four on night vision,' Cooper explained. 'No body heat. Dude, that was like an ‘oh shit' moment.'
I bit my tongue. He had done exactly what he was supposed to have done. The timing had sucked, but it was what it was. 'You did good. Head that way and clear out the barracks. And no word about vampires to anyone, got it?'
'Sure thing.' Cooper ran off with the two Newbies in tow. Dawn hesitated, like she wanted to talk to me, but I had to hand it to her, she followed orders. Herzog, on the other hand, didn't give a damn about my MHI seniority and stayed with me.
'You better go keep up appearances.'
'Shut up, punk,' the undercover MCB agent snapped. 'What were you doing outside without coverage?'
'Taking a stroll,' I replied. 'I do love spring nights.' In the distance there was a terrible noise. A wolf's howl, but it was unbelievably loud and the pitch sounded too human. I had to remember that Earl wasn't just a werewolf. He was the friggin' king of werewolves, the ultimate alpha male.
Herzog almost leapt out of her boots. 'What the hell was that?'
I was terrified of werewolves myself because of personal experience, but I didn't let it show. 'That there is why I want everyone inside. For an agent, you sure are jumpy.'
The noise startled the stocky woman from her usual hard-core facade. 'Screw that. I'm no field agent! I'm not used to this crap. Let's go.' She took off, moving with the speed of somebody who figured they were about to be monster chow, stubby legs pumping.
Not a field agent? I frowned. That didn't make any sense. She'd been assigned to protect me. Myers had said they were some of his best men… handpicked. We were about a hundred feet from the front door and Hunters were piling out, throwing on weapons and gear in response to the alarm. I caught the short woman in a couple of steps, let Abomination hang by the sling, grabbed Herzog around her bicep, and spun her back to face me.
'Hey!' she shouted.
'Not a field agent? What are you?' I demanded.
She began to stammer something. I squeezed harder. 'I'm a clerk!' she squealed. 'Admin clerk. But… but I'm a fully sworn agent. I've been through MCB school. Let go.'
'A clerk?' I released her arm.
Her face fell. 'I was at the IRS and I came across some top-secret returns about PUFF. I did some poking around and that's how I found out about monsters. I've never actually seen one. Even the MCB needs somebody to shuffle paper, so they offered me a job and sent me through the academy.' Harbinger howled again. He was fully transformed now and he sounded relatively close. 'Please, let's get inside!'
'Why are you on a protective detail?' This didn't make any sense at all.
'I don't know. Agent Myers assigned me to Agent Franks' command for this mission.' Her beady eyes darted around nervously. She was really freaked out.
'What about Torres and Archer?'
'Oh no, Anthony's a full-on pro. He's been on all sorts of missions. But Henry's more like me. He's a crypto- commo geek. That's what he did in the Army. But he's cool and he's actually been on a few missions with real monsters, but I don't know if he's actually ever killed any. Please, let's get out of here, before whatever that is comes and gets us.'
She sure had been a lot tougher when she had been threatening me with a gun. 'Go.' I nodded toward the door. Something was fishy. Franks was a one-man wrecking crew, but the Goon Squad weren't the hardened killers that I had been led to believe they were. Torres had been by far the nicest of the bunch but he was the only one who had actually seen the elephant.
I would have to think about it later. A bunch of Hunters were fanned out, covering the entrance, weapons pointing outward in a rough semicircle of potential destruction. I had to remember that only the old-timers and the ones wearing Happy Face team patches knew about Earl's little secret. The alarm died off and two giant spotlights ignited on the roof, sweeping randomly across the perimeter.
It was a relief to see Julie come trotting out, brutal M14 in her lovely hands. 'What's going on? Are you okay?' Herzog's stocky form pushed past Julie and retreated inside the relative safety of the fortress.
'I'm fine. Your parents are here.'
'Damn them!' she shouted. Several other hunters jumped at that.
'And…' I raised Earl's empty jacket. She knew right away what had happened.
'Everybody inside now!' Julie ordered. 'Move! Move! Where's Dorcas?'
Our receptionist was leaning in the doorway in a flowery, old-lady nightgown. Her hair was up in curlers. The reason she was leaning was because she hadn't had a chance to attach her artificial leg yet. It was tucked under one arm. A massive stainless-steel revolver hung loose in her hand. 'Yep?'
'Once everybody's in, I want a full head count. We've got a Code Silver.' She gestured at Earl's leather jacket.
'Aw shit. Not this again,' Dorcas muttered. 'Let's go, kiddies.' She pushed off from the doorframe and hopped out of sight.
I stayed with Julie at the entrance until the last of the Newbies was roused from the barracks and herded inside. She glanced around, careful to make sure that there was nobody close enough to overhear us. 'Why'd he do it? The full moon was a week ago. He didn't have to change.'
'He did it on purpose. He was going after your folks,' I whispered. 'I think he was dead set on not letting them get away.'
'That was stupid.' Julie shook her head. She hadn't had a chance to tie her hair back, and it was so dark and shiny that it reflected the spotlights. 'Well, at least he should have some judgment right now. The closer to the full moon, the more out of control it is. He shouldn't wander into town and eat anyone. Sometimes I'm really glad we're in the middle of nowhere.'
'What about Skippy's village?'
'They know to get inside when they hear the alarm. Skip knows what to do and they've all got silver bullets. Earl goes in there and they'll shoot him. Nothing personal, that's just how it is, and Earl would understand. Their wargs will give them plenty of early warning. Let's get inside.'
The two of us were the last ones in. We pulled the massive doors closed behind us and threw down the bar. There were a bunch of really confused, half-asleep, heavily-armed, almost-graduated Newbies wandering around the reception area. The Hunters experienced enough to know about Code Silver were busy getting everybody calmed down and oriented. Julie rested her head on my shoulder briefly so she could whisper, affording us a tiny bit of affection amid the chaos. 'I hope he catches them…'
Wrapping my arms around her, I squeezed her tight. It would be really nice to have the curse of Susan and Ray removed once and for all. 'Me too.' Damn it, we had almost had a name. I had been right. The shadow man was somebody from MHI's past. If we knew who he was, we could find and destroy him, but that was assuming
