Chapter 1 - Rejection And Betrayal
Malkah was messing with something absent mindedly. It was a very small something, about the size of a ladybug that he was making fly around. Duncan watched him for a moment then inquired about the device, Malkah wouldn’t be building toys, not unless they were toys for the teams on a hunt.
“So, what is that you have there?” Duncan asked. He would start with the flying thing and let Malkah open up to what was on his mind.
He glanced back to Duncan then to his mini flying thing. “Oh this is a bug, a listening device. It has a central pico-fan for a drive and a range of about 5 miles for listening. It even has a camera system that lets you see through to fly it. The frequency of the noise from the fan can’t be heard by vampires, I made sure of that.” Malkah brought the bug in for a landing on a small pedestal he had setup for it to land on.
After he landed it and turned off the power he looked to Duncan. “It uses some ideas from Lady Sadness’s organic lights for power.” He said blankly, he had something far more important on his mind. “Duncan, you did good, figuring this out. But have you been thinking on the how?” He asked.
Malkah was on the same scent he was. He was hoping Malkah would say something that pointed him in a specific direction. This was out of his league on the technical side.
Duncan nodded, looked down for a moment, that was the top question in his mind. “Yes, our phones use the same network as many other cell phones. Someone has to be accessing our network along the way somehow. There are too many people and links to trace. Every cell tower, network hub, could be anyplace along the network. I honestly have no idea how to narrow it down to find out who.”
Malkah shook his head at what he said. “No, not that simple, worse. Even if they jacked into our secured network, they wouldn’t be able to link the individual phones, they would need the security codes of each phone. Not something they would be able to pick out from the network.”
Malkah stood from the stool he had been sitting on and started pacing. “Each phone, has its own private code in it. Each one, programmed with the codes of other teams that is necessary, if you took your phone to another area, say back across the water, you would not have the codes for the teams there, you wouldn’t be able to track them or even text them.”
He stopped and turned back to face Duncan as he spoke. “Unless your phone had the counter codes to communicate with the other network phones, you couldn’t even call them. Very private, very secure.” Malkah sighed at the assumptions in his mind. “Someone has to have given out the codes.” He added bluntly.
Duncan stared off at the floor, having already arrived at this conclusion. Many thoughts were running though his mind right then. Malkah had done what Duncan hoped, the compass was showing him the direction he needed to go. The thought of betrayal had come up, but he had pushed it aside as it seemed very implausible considering werewolf programming by their creator. Apparently they could betray their own kind, but Duncan wanted to make sure. “Would a human have access to this information?” He asked.
Malkah was shaking his head again. “No, I have access to the codes, because of my job, but only ones needed for our phones. You have more codes than most of the other crews and their teams, like Sadness, you need them for communication. I put those codes in your phones, remote link, update on the fly, the others, can’t call other teams.”
His fingers went to his mouth as he talked. “The information is kept to only those that need it, should they need to communicate to another team, that is the leader or commanders responsibility. If they needed to talk to a commander across the country, I would have to ask for permission to get those codes, and also to allow the commander to have use of them. Many layers of security, whoever has done this, doesn’t need to go through the same channels I do.”
“What about emails, faxes and land line phone calls?” Duncan asked.
Malkah thought for a moment. “No, those would be the most secure, there you would need someone to tap the lines directly, fairly simple to detect. Emails, now those could be compromised more easily.” Malkah answered.
Duncan turned and abruptly left Malkah and his shop without a word. Malkah was smiling, he had sent the bloodhound off on a trail. “Get em.” Malkah said to the empty room, knowing he had helped Duncan.
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Duncan went out onto the main floor and looked around. He spotted Morning Dew and went up to him. “You’re looking for redemption though service, right?” Duncan said to him coldly.
“Yes, Sir Duncan.” He meekly responded.
Duncan looked the man over some, considered what he was about to do and if he trusted the man enough. He may serve Duncan’s purpose well. “Come with me, I have a mission for you, top secret.” He said to Morning Dew who followed Duncan to his office.
Duncan was counting on Morning Dew’s passport not being one that might be tracked by vampires or whoever was handing out secrets. Morning Dew was on a black list among the werewolves, not likely someone to be used for important missions. Any traveling he might do would be ignored. At least he hoped.
“You’re flying coach. Regular commercial flight. You are going to make your way to Europe, and take land transportation to Night Harvest. If you think for any reason you are being followed, burn this, eat it, whatever, make sure it is destroyed beyond any chance of being recovered, got it?” Duncan said to him handing him an envelope.
“Yes, Sir Duncan. Thank you for the opportunity to serve the clan.” Morning Dew said, his face showing his shock of being trusted.
“Bouncing around like this will slow you down a bit, but get there as fast as you can.” Duncan said and walked Morning Dew out of his office and to the den house where he used the phone. “Snow is on her way up, she will be taking you to the airport. Come straight back when you are done.” Duncan instructed and waited until Snow came for Morning Dew. She drove the McLaren, she could have used the GPS locators in the tactical vehicles as an excuse but she could have disabled that.
After they were on their way, Duncan made his way to Hovlek’s weapons shop. He was in the back at a forge that held a strange blue orb as a heating element to work the metal he was forming into swords. He watched for a few minutes, the sword actually seemed to form from the orb in the middle of the forge instead of being heated by it. He used no hammers or normal smith tools. The only tool he seemed to be using was a semi clear rod that appeared he was directing the forming of the sword with. Duncan stepped forward to where he worked when Hovlek looked over at him.
“So this is how a werewolf sword is made, how does this work?” He asked.
Hovlek smiled, he seemed pleased Duncan was interested in what he was doing and actually bothered to ask. “Our swords are formed from a living metal, not forged so much as grown. Hovlek has been working this one for two weeks now. First, you must coax the hilt to grow, then work the blade.” Hovlek explained.
“Grown? Interesting, what are you doing with that rod?” Duncan inquired further.
“Hovlek is directing the sword on form Hovlek have in Hovlek’s mind of how sword should look. Hovlek points out areas that need more or less, a full grown sword takes a good three weeks to make. This one is about done for today, then Hovlek needs to let her rest. It will be a couple days before she is ready to be grown more.” Hovlek finished.
Duncan watched until he finished with the sword, then he laid it on a velvet lined shelf. He took a cloth and rubbed the blade down some, turned it over then did the other side.
“What is it Sir Galt that you have come to see Hovlek for?” He asked once the sword was resting comfortably.
Duncan walked with Hovlek to the front of his shop. When they were up near the front Duncan pulled the shotgun from its dimensional pocket. “I’d like some modifications on Betty.” He said as he laid the shotgun on a bench.
“Betty?” Hovlek said not catching Duncan’s implication.
“Bad Betty, my shotgun.” Duncan clarified.
“Oh yes, Bad Betty, shotgun, humans name their guns too? Interesting. Were-kind usually only name our swords.” Hovlek said with a soft chuckle.
The modifications Duncan wanted were quite simple, Hovlek assured him that he would have them done by the end of the week. There were modifications to the levers on the receiver that were used to manually load a round into the chamber, Duncan said they stuck out to far and could easily catch on things such as a uniform or environment they may be passing through.
He recommended a more low profile design that came up the entire side of the breach that could be operated with a finger or thumb. Hovlek understood what Duncan was indicating and told him he would work on it, he even said he was concerned about the levers breaking off should it get slammed into a wall or something hard enough to break the metal during a fight.
Duncan agreed on that point. The second part was a simple holder for a sighting mechanism that Malkah was working on that would work with the eyes up targeting system in the contacts. Hovlek nodded and said he would work with Malkah on this. Duncan thanked him and went back to his office to work on more dots.
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Snow returned a couple hours later and joined Duncan in their rooms.
“Duncan, can I ask you something?” Snow started.
“Of course, what is it Snow?” He said wondering what was up.
Snow rubbed her hands on her legs, then wrung them together. Duncan wondered why she was acting nervous. She had said to forget it and turned away, Duncan called her back. He told her to ask, saying no matter what the question he would give her the straight answer.
“Ok… you… when you connected your dots, you knew way before Kevashka was frelling nearly taken out, I know you knew, tell me about that and why did you wait?”
Duncan sighed. She could read him well and was right. “Clan Boxtemmill, know of them?” He asked her.
“I’ve heard about patriarch Boxtemmill, he is the oldest living patriarch currently, bit set in his ways, very, old school as humans would say.” Snow relayed.
“Right, here let me show you.” He pulled up a page with a bar chart on it.
The chart showed the deaths by clan. Boxtemmill’s were zero until two thousand eleven. Snow commented on this and asked what happened in two thousand eleven.
Duncan began revealing his dots. “Boxtemmill is old school, never had cell phones till forced to, even then he didn’t let his team use them in the field, in two thousand eleven the clans started providing strats from other clans via the smart phones.
“That’s when Boxtemmill had two of their teams wiped out, after that he stopped using the strats he provided ahead of time and filed an attack plan change just before an operation, it wouldn’t be posted immediately unless it directly affected another crews team. Boxtemmill already had their plans and made sure his wouldn’t need to be updated.” He motioned at the monitor. “Again, zero deaths. He doesn’t use smart phones for anything, hates them, and in an official declaration stated that he felt they were a weakness in the security of the hunt teams and clans as a whole. It was his statistics that tipped me off, got me looking at the numbers.”
Snow nodded as she fiddled with one of her lip rings and listened.
“I wanted a cell phone from one of the vampires or a day walker to confirm my suspicions. Unfortunately, I was only able to get one and remove the battery when the hit on Kevashka was attempted. That attempt on its own gave me enough to warrant calling off operations, if you would back me.” Duncan explained.
Snow nodded and shuffled her feet. Duncan felt there was something else on her mind. “What else Snow, stop beating around the bush, what’s on your mind.” He asked her.
“Nothing.” Snow said, her voice sounded nervous. “That was it, I’m going down to the floor for a bit, see you later.” She said then left quick without giving Duncan the chance to respond.
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On the third day after Morning Dew left to deliver Duncan’s letter to Night Harvest, a car drove onto the den property. The guards stopped the car and identified the person driving the rental car. He said he came from the Clan of the Highland Citadel, and that he had a personal delivery for Sir Duncan Galt.
After confirming his identity, the guard at the car said he would take the delivery to Duncan, the man refused stating the parcel was to be placed directly into Sir Galt’s hands only. The guard notified Snow as he could not reach Duncan by radio and they weren’t using smart phones. She told the guard she would find Duncan.
Snow walked onto the main floor of the den and looked around, she didn’t see Duncan there so she asked a couple team members if they knew his location. One said Duncan had gone up to his office about half an hour ago, that was the last she had seen him. Snow proceeded to their office area.
Snow entered their rooms and called out for Duncan. Not hearing a response she headed towards the room they shared as an office and called again. When she entered the room the monitors were on and Duncan was not there. Seeing a small box looking device on the right end of the desk Snow walked up to the desk, there sat Duncan’s radio pack. She sighed and was about to leave when she noticed the thick wire bound college ruled notebook she had often seen Duncan writing in.
It was beneath a pile of papers and a book. He always kept it tucked away, would hide it whenever she walked in. Curiosity took hold and Snow carefully lifted the papers and mess of work and slid the notebook out. There was a number three pencil with a white eraser on the end stuck in between the pages, a little ways into the notebook. She opened the notebook to that page and looked to see what Duncan had been writing.
Across the top of the page in larger letters, like a title, was written ‘20 Things I Love About Snow’. She read over the page, smiling softly as she read, laughing a couple times at what he had written. The poem was continued onto another page but Snow didn’t finish reading it, instead she flipped through the pages to see what else he had written.
The notebook was a collection of poetry, mostly about her, or a poetic recount of things that they and endured together. She stopped at one and actually read it, this one was titled ‘The Wolf At The Foot Of My Bed’ and it extended onto a third page.
The words touched Snow deep inside. She’d wondered about how Duncan really felt about her, often he would become distant from her and she would question if he really wanted to be with her. Wondering if he stood beside her because he had to, because she had been forcibly mated to him. Was his loyalty to her out of duty, or were there real feelings behind his actions.
Snow no longer questioned this. On the page where the poem ended there was a hand written music score that he’d started. Duncan had drawn the lines of sheet music on the page and drew in the notes. Lyrics were also hand written in. Snow tried to play the music in her head with the words. She placed the pencil back where it came from, closed the notebook and returned it to where she had found it, leaving no evidence that she had looked at it. Snow was just reaching to open the door out when it opened, causing her to jump a little. Duncan walked in.
“Hi.” He greeted her.
“Hello, you know, you would be easier to find if you had your radio on you.” Snow said taking a stance with her hand on her hip and giving him a look. She couldn’t hold it long and started laughing at him.
“Yeah, sorry I forgot it. Earpiece only has about a ten foot range.” He said with a guilty smile.
Snow could tell it wasn’t by accident he ‘forgot’ the radio, but rather an ‘accidentally on purpose’ type of thing. She couldn’t be to hard on him about it, she herself was guilty of the same thing once in a while. “Someone up top to see you, courier from Night Harvest, has something for you only.” She informed him.
She came with him as he went to meet the courier. The man handed him a small manila bubble lined mailing envelope. After Duncan took it the man quickly went back to his car and drove off.
Duncan tore off the zip strip sealing it then squeezed open the envelope and tipped it over his hand. A small black USB flash drive fell out. There were no markings on it but Duncan seemed to already know what was on the drive. He quickly walked off to the garage and headed back to the rooms in the den he and Snow used for office space. In the elevator Snow asked him what was on the drive.
“Well, I haven’t looked yet, but there should be all the personnel files for everyone, stateside and overseas, every werewolf, human, everyone.” Duncan said.
Snow reached over and pressed the stop button on the elevator.
“Hold on.” She started. “You have been given everyone’s complete personnel file?”
“I hope so, that is what I asked Night Harvest for.” Duncan replied, looking over to the buttons in the elevator.
“Those are very classified documents, no one gets those unless they work in records, and then only the ones for the people in the clan, no one outside of Lord Leyland, Night Harvest and the Bishop have access to all of them, they just gave them to you because you asked?” She asked, her voice carried her dismay.
Duncan reached past her and pulled the stop button back out allowing the elevator to return to operation. “Like I said, not sure yet, haven’t had a chance to look. I am going to grab some stuff from the office and head to the den house, I’ll meet you there and we can find out exactly what’s on the flash drive, okay?” He told her as the elevator reached the den and the doors started to open.
Snow rode the elevator back up to the garage and waited in the den house for Duncan. When he returned he had his laptop with him and a folder that was bulging with papers. He set the laptop down then put the folder over near where his keyboard was at for the computer in the house.
Then he opened the laptop, plugged in the power to it and brought it out of sleep mode. He went to his chair and sat down opening the folder and shuffled the papers around, distributing them to where he wanted them. Snow was getting a bit anxious waiting for him to confirm what was on the flash drive. Once he finally had himself situated, he inserted the drive into a USB slot and opened the main folder. There was a personal note from Night Harvest. The note said that all personnel files were on the drive and to use a stand alone computer to access them instead of a network terminal.
Duncan must have anticipated this which is why he moved to the computer at the house. There was a LAN connection to the computer, but it used its own hard drive and memory, not the mainframe that was in the den, which everyone had access too. Only Snow and Duncan had access to this computer, it wouldn’t even show on the network should someone map it.
“Okay, explain to me why you were given complete files on everyone? You must be onto something major, Night Harvest wouldn’t just hand you these because you asked, there has to be a very good reason.” Snow pressed looking expectantly to Duncan. Her face was hard and serious.
Duncan opened the main folder on the flash drive, it asked for his security code. He entered it and all the files came up in the open window on one of the monitors. He minimized the window once he had it unlocked and looked to Snow.
“Yes, there is a very good reason. And Night Harvest gave these files to me with a ‘my eyes only’ order. I am working on figuring out how our security has been breached, I needed these files for that reason. Night Harvest knows my reasoning and approved my having the files.” Duncan said very formally. “But my eyes only does not include you.”
Snow looked like she had just been slapped in the face. Was Duncan doubting her loyalty? He had been acting very aggressive lately, and cutting her out of things, not wanting to be as open as he had been before. Since they came back to the den, he had really been keeping her out of what he was doing.
“Then why did you ask me to meet you here? She asked trying to act normal after the abrupt way he shut her out.
Duncan stood up and walked over to the door to the room and opened it. “You wanted to know if they were in fact complete personnel files on everyone, that much I can tell you, and that you need to keep this knowledge to yourself.” He stated bluntly, he was still holding the door open, but didn’t look as though he intended to leave the room.
Snow stood looking at him, she was unsure of what to make of the situation. Duncan pointed out the door. She made a small sound of being shocked he was telling her to leave. She felt hurt but was trying to be understanding.
He motioned out the door again, Snow slowly started to move then walked to the door. As she passed the threshold he started to close the door behind her. Snow stopped and put a hand on the door, but not forcefully, just enough to let him know she was going to say something. Duncan turned his attention to her.
“Do you love me?” Snow asked point blank.
Duncan was shocked by the question and his face showed it. His scent changed. His eyes moved to the floor. He was unsure of how to answer the question, he wasn’t prepared to explain his feelings, his mind was filled with other things. Moments passed as he was trying to sort out what he wanted to say.
“I love you, just so you know.” Snow said in a vexed voice, then pulled the door closed suddenly with a mild slam, leaving Duncan to his thoughts and the dots.
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Snow had Malkah busy building more radio packs, as many as he could in his shop. She had wanted to have a manufacturing clan make them but Duncan had insisted no, not until a specific matter was solved. He wouldn’t explain what, just that for now, he wanted to keep as much information about what he had discovered hidden.
He explained they wanted to use the vampires ability to track the teams to their advantage, this meant no one outside of their operations center could know. Snow accepted his reasoning and put herself to work with Malkah. By the end of the week they had enough radio packs built to supply forty people total.
Kevashka worked up a strategy that used several of the teams from Trust Operations One and some from another clan near where they had been working before they pulled out. Couriers were being used heavy, the crew leader from the clan they would be working with was instructed to ready his teams and keep all communications on the operation to in person only.
Snow took the helicopter out to meet with the teams that would be part of the mission personally. She followed the same procedure they had at her den, having everyone leave their cell phones in their rooms then coming to the surface and meeting out in the yard of the den. No explanation was given as to why they were to leave their phones below ground.
The teams were hand picked, they were older members who could be trusted, though any werewolf should be able to be, they were taking extra precautions, and using people who came from across the water and had been part of recon and special operations units prior.
Kevashka’s plan entailed the teams Snow was meeting with forming up around a location. They would be carrying their smart phones, no mention of not carrying them was made. They were told other teams would also be working in the field again, but nothing as to where or how many.
They were not told that teams from Trust Operations One would be in close proximity to them, and would actually be the strike force. This was Kevashka’s plan, to have the other teams be a diversion, the vampires would track them while Snow’s forces moved in without any smart phones on them. The diversion forces would have radio communications, though theirs would be separate from Snows teams.
Duncan became a ghost around the den. Snow had the office in the den to herself, Duncan seldom left the den house. Even when she was with him in the house, it didn’t even seem like he was there. He spent all his time in the upstairs office at his computers.
He did call for her once, but only to have her go to the den office and retrieve the book that had been delivered to him from the Bishop. Then he disappeared into the office in the house again. He even took all his meals in the office.
The only other visitor Duncan had was when he sent for Malkah, who met with Duncan for about twenty minutes then left. It was just over two weeks before Duncan finally crawled from under his rock, this was when the guards patrolling the large yard caught two young men in their early twenties coming out of the woods.
“They’re human Sir Galt, they claim they got lost in the woods, they’re asking for directions.” The guard told Duncan as he came to them from the house, he stood a good thirty feet back.
“Keep your weapons aimed at them and get back now! Back as far as I am.” Duncan ordered.
The guards looked over at him and back to the two men again and started moving back, slowly. Duncan pulled his pistol and took aim at them. Both had their arms raised with their hands above their heads, one had is hands in closed fists while the other had his open palmed.
“Get back here now!” Duncan yelled. “I’ve got them covered.”
The guards turned and ran back to where Duncan was then returned their weapons to the two men. Duncan watched as the one man with his hands closed into fists kept looking towards the garage. They both were wearing jackets appropriate for the cool season. They could have a heavy frost at any time. The grass was turning brown already.
Snow was coming up behind them. Duncan ordered the men to shoot and take them out.
“Hold!” Snow yelled. “They are human, they aren’t day walkers, what has gotten into you Duncan?” Snow said to him coming to face him.
“Get behind me Snow, we need to take these two out.” He said as he stepped to the side, getting Snow out of his line of sight.
“We will do no such thing! Not without just cause, and you don’t have any.” She said back.
The man with his hands in fists was closest to the garage. He started to make a run towards the garage while the others were distracted and looking more to Snow then him. Duncan’s pistol fired twice at the man who had started running. Then he brought the barrel around to the other man, two more shots rang out. Duncan plowed into Snow tackling her to the ground. “Down!” He yelled while doing this and the guards hit the dirt with him.
There was a thunderous explosion from the man who had tried to make his way to the garage. Dirt, sod, and rocks pelted them on the ground. When everyone stood they took in the sight of a crater in the yard about twenty feet across and a good six feet deep in the center. Had the blast been in a confined area, such as the den, it would have collapsed it.
Snow looked like she might get sick herself. This was the second time she had doubted Duncan’s rash judgment, and the second time he was right in his actions.
“How did you know?” Snow asked, her voice reflecting her apology for doubting him again.
Duncan took one of the rifles from the guards, he aimed at the body of the second man and fired. On the third shot, the bomb he was wearing detonated. Everyone was staring at him now. There was a distant sound of gun fire followed by only what could be an explosion.
Handing the rifle back he looked at Snow. “On the outside parameter of hallowed ground about ten feet back, there’s a twenty foot high chain link fence with a V of barbwire, correct?” Duncan asked Snow. She nodded. “If you’re lost in the woods, are you going to climb a fence that high and deal with the barbed wire? The other options would be to cut your way through, or walk around.”
Duncan received a report over the radio. “We found the car, you were right, vampire in the back, been dealt with, good call Sir Duncan.”
Snow’s face said she figured out what happened. There were three ways a vampire could control a human. The first was by turning them and making them a vampire, the second was by using the excretion from their brain to make a day walker, the third was direct mind control that mimicked hypnosis.
The last option worked on weak minded people the best, though this could be enhanced with drugs. The vampire would have to be in fairly close range for this to work. Day walkers wouldn’t have been able to set foot onto hallowed ground, and a human wouldn’t go in on a suicide mission unless they were insane.
“Remember they put bombs on the chopper, you need me to explain further or have your figured it out?” Duncan said harshly to Snow.
Her face showed the verbal slap he’d given her. She didn’t like his hostile attitude. Snow turned and walked from Duncan and into the den house. She walked fast, hurt and anger propelled her. Duncan followed after he ordered the guards on patrol to shoot first, ask questions later.
Once they were in the house together, Snow got in his grill. “What the frell is with you Duncan? You could have said, they have bombs or something.” Snow said. “You’ve been way to aggressive and quite frankly mean. I am considering pulling you off duty for a while, I want you to see Doctor River Stone.”
Duncan’s face started to redden. He snarled at Snow. He could see in her eyes this bothered her. “I think Night Harvest might have something to say about my remaining on duty, you forget, I’m the one that figured out they were tracking us and how. And as to telling you they had bombs, you would have only questioned me more, not taken action.” He retorted.
“You could stay on your research and not be second in command, Max could take that position.” Snow replied, ignoring his last true statement.
“Really, what about what just happened in the yard? What if they made it to the garage, locked the door and used the elevator? Or don’t you think they would have been able to find it? I mean they only found a den that isn’t on the map, how is it the vampire knew right were to look for your little hidey hole?” Duncan’s voice was very aggressive, his body language amplified this.
Snow shook her head at him, her eyes narrowed slightly, she didn’t know the man in front of her right now.
“As far as being aggressive, they just tried to bomb my clan, what am I supposed to be like? All happy and giddy?” Duncan lashed back. Suddenly he turned and ran to the downstairs bathroom. It was about five minutes before he returned to Snow.
“You’re going to see River Stone, now.” She informed him. “How many times is that today? Five, more?”
Duncan glared at her. “I’m not going to see the doctor, I’m fine.”
“It wasn’t a suggestion, it’s an order. You can either come with me to his office now, or, I can have the guards help you there.” She said, her voice becoming cold and heartless to match Duncan’s attitude as of late.
“Nice.” He said, then he lowered the stairs in the entry and held his hand out. “After you, princess.” He said, his tone mocking.
Snow refused to take the lead down the stairs and told Duncan he knew the way and that she would follow him there, just incase he decided to vanish off to another area to try and delay the appointment.
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“Been being a bit feisty I hear.” River Stone said to Duncan.
“Yeah, so what of it? Been puking my guts out, makes one a bit testy, wouldn’t you think Doc?” Duncan replied.
“I think it’s a bit more than just that, I think it’s time you started taking something.” River Stone said. “I’ll be right back. Don’t bite anybody while I’m away.” He said with a smile.
River Stone returned with a prescription bottle and handed it to Duncan. “The label says something different than what is actually in here, just incase someone happens to check and see what you are taking, will keep her little nose out of your business.” He told him and smiled knowingly.
“Thanks Doc.” Duncan said as he looked at the bottle. He opened it and River Stone handed him a glass of water and he took one of the pills.
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Duncan was in a better mood when he arrived back to the den house. Snow glared at him when he walked in. It was easy to see she was still hurt by his recent outbursts at her. He came up to her, he lowered his head some when he spoke.
He sighed deeply. “Snow, look, I’m sorry for how I have been acting lately, it’s just you know I haven’t been feeling well, I’ve been putting a lot of stress on myself. Just like you I care about the teams and our people, I want to solve this problem. There is still another missing piece to this puzzle, I need to figure it out.” Putting his hands on his hips he sighed hard and looked away for a moment to collect his thoughts.
“Our teams have been having success with the new strategies, but that isn’t going to last long unless I figure the rest out, they are going to figure out that we know about the tracking. And when they do, werewolves everywhere will be in grave danger, they will take any of us out they can.” Duncan turned away from Snow when he finished, shaking his head and walking a short distance away.
They had done two missions, using the other teams as decoys carrying their smart phones. The third was going on tonight. They had been able to eliminate two major coven operations. The third one was sure to draw full attention on them, and whoever was giving out their secrets, would be hot to find out what was going on.
No one had started asking questions yet; Duncan was hoping they would tip their own hand by doing so. Apparently instead, they had decided to try and take out the source. Duncan suspected this meant the leak already knew something was up, they just may not know exactly what yet. Time was getting short.
Snow walked over to where Duncan had moved to and came around to face him. Her face was sad. “Duncan, I don’t mean to belittle what you have done for us. You’ve saved our tails. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, I am very grateful for all that you have done. What I’m trying to say is, I understand and I’m sorry too.” Snow said with her own long face.
The two of them stood in silence for a moment, looking at each others feet. They had both been under a lot of stress. Snow understood Duncan was pushing himself hard, too hard, but he had to. Kevashka needed him to help figure out what was going wrong and to connect his dots.
He was the bloodhound, and a damn fair strategist too. Snow knew as well as either of them, time was running out to figure out the picture from the dots Duncan was putting down on paper. The ones he had connected already just formed a spiders web. Now they needed to find the spider.
Snow raised her head and put a hand on his arm. “We have a mission tonight, I would like it if you were there, you are part of the team.” She missed having him actively a part of the team she had fought so hard to get him on. Her head dropped with her thoughts. Duncan read Snow’s face. He could see the emptiness in her eyes. He had been so preoccupied with his sleuthing that he had forgotten to be a friend and partner.
“I’ll be there, you may have to remind me, I’ll keep my radio on me.” He said, putting a finger under Snow’s chin and lifting her head so she would look at him. He gave her a smile, “I promise” he said to her.
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“Sea Mist, give me your visual.” Kevashka called out over the radio. Malkah’s system had a very long range, the crystal pulse system would reach several states away, good thing since their phone network was defunct.
“I have two targets in sight, there are at least four more that went to the front of the building. I can see rifles on them. They have the backdoor covered.” Sea Mist came back with.
“This is Red Rabbit, we are in position now. Have targets in sight.” Another voice reported over the radio.
“Good, keep their attention.” Kevashka told Sea Mist then changed radio channels. “Red Rabbit, Blade Dance, what’s the main incursion site look like?” She requested. Red Rabbit was the diversion team. Sea Mist was untraceable by cell phone.
“All is calm here. They have the same guards out on the roof as before. There doesn’t seem to be any extra activity so far.” Blade Dance reported in. “I can see our teams in position.”
The teams reported in, some concerns from the decoy teams were relayed in due to changes in the vampire activity. It appeared that some were moving to flank the teams position. The vampires were moving early. They may be suspecting alternate activity from the previous two attacks.
The teams had been working between synchronized decoy missions to keep suspicion down. They would stage, take out a vampire site then scatter and head back. The ploy may not be working as well as they had hoped. Though the main site for their mission tonight didn’t give any sign that they suspected anything.
“White Raven, we have your back, if anything comes up, bug out and lead the vampires away, go blackout and get to a safe area.” Kevashka told one of the teams.
Duncan looked over at Kevashka. Snow looked to Duncan, his scent had changed, she felt that tingle she got from him again, like when he was about to disappear into his lair. Something clicked. “Watch your back.” She heard him whisper. He looked over at her and when their eyes met, both knew what the other was thinking. Duncan knew Snow knew he was about to leave. She could tell he had more dots to connect, but now had a direction.
Duncan went to Kevashka, his face was urgent, his voice calm. “Kevashka, have the decoy team strike now, hard. Don’t enter the building, take out the vampires on the outside, get Sea Mist to target the ones flanking. When they are down, bug out and have the other team start their attack, then have the decoys join them. Take the target down hard and fast and get everyone out.” He told her, then left the room while she questioned after him.
He didn’t stop to answer. He heard Snow bark out at Kevashka to do as she was told. Kevashka wouldn’t like it, but she knew enough about how Duncan operated now, she would accept what he said. She knew about dots now too.
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Duncan worked till the morning light. The mission was a success for the most part. A few members were hit but none died. After they hit the main target, they returned and took out the decoy target, two coven leaders went down. With the decoy team following, it gave the appearance of normal operations, Kevashka hoped the vampires would attribute their success to a good strategist.
Duncan went into the bedroom. “Snow, wake up!” He called into the room as he walked in.
Snow started to move under the covers. Duncan called to her again, she flipped back the covers and looked at him. Her hair was a mess. He smiled at her, she looked good with her hair mussed up. He shook his head clear.
“Get up, get dressed, need you to fly the chopper.” Duncan told her.
“Fly the chopper, where?” She asked as she rubbed her eyes.
“My house, I’ll meet you at the chopper.” Duncan said then left the bedroom not wanting to give her the time to ask questions and slow them down. He would be able to answer them in the air.
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They landed at Duncan’s house, they would need to make a stop for fuel once they left. There was a small airstrip near the small town that had the fuel they would need.
Duncan left the chopper and told Snow to keep it powered up and ready to fly, she throttled back on the engines some since he asked her to come with. They went to the side garage door. The house and garage had been boarded up. He had Snow rip the plywood off of the side door so he could get in, then told her to go back to the chopper.
Duncan used a flashlight to make his way through the garage and down the tunnel to the tank room. Water had run into the house and half flooded the tunnel but it was still passable. He climbed up onto one of the tanks and reached into a small vent above it and pulled out a plastic bag that had small book looking things in it, pocketed it and went back to the chopper. Snow took off and headed for the airstrip to refuel.
Once back at the den, Duncan went into the den house and was packing a bag. Snow walked in and asked what he was doing. “I’m going to Ireland.” He told her. “I grabbed my backup passports from the house, ones that aren’t known and won’t be tracked by the CIA or anyone in our organization.”
“Then I’m coming with you.” Snow said.
“No, you’re not. For starters, you don’t have a backup passport that isn’t known. Second, you need to be here.” He told her. He handed her a piece of paper as he grabbed the bag and headed to the garage and pulled his truck out.
Snow read the scrap of paper he handed her. “Frelling piss, shit bag, monkey choking, donkey fart!” She yelled after she read it, then ran to the entry and dropped the stairs and ran down.
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It was about thirty-two hours later that Duncan returned from Ireland. His gate was rigid and quick as he walked through the den. Though people greeted him as he passed, he didn’t give any sign of recognition. Snow was sitting on one of the tables, as he walked by her she took to following behind him without a word.
He opened Kevashka’s door to her office and snapped his fingers. She rose from her chair and followed as he turned and walked away from the doorway. Next he walked into Malkah’s workshop. “Malkah, stop whatever you’re doing, come with us.” He said in a commanding tone.
He stopped by where Sea Mist and her mate were working on his ballista at, he ordered them to follow as well. He led his entourage to the elevator, up out of the garage and to the den house and into the sitting room.
“We have a situation. I need you all to pack your mission gear, Malkah, that includes you. I have a list of toys I want you to bring. Starting with your flying bug.” Duncan informed the young gadgettier. The young man’s face lit up.
“Where are we going?” Kevashka asked.
Duncan handed her an envelope. “Washington, DC.” He replied.
Kevashka read the letter in the envelope. What it claimed was difficult to believe at best. Snow probably would have exclaimed ‘inconceivable’ at the concept. A werewolf selling out to the vampires, Duncan had made his accusations. Night Harvest agreed with them.
Because of Night Harvest’s agreement, Kevashka knew Duncan had uncovered solid evidence to confirm this. She could question his logic, his deductions and try and pick them apart finding any flaw she could, but Duncan had been to the Grand Inquisitor personally.
Whatever happened between the two men when Duncan unveiled the dots he had connected, the final result was conclusive. Kevashka accepted what she read as fact. Duncan had proven his theory to the Grand Inquisitor, now Kevashka was responsible for trapping the traitor.
Snow stood silently. She needed no more than Duncan’s word. The only thing she was waiting on was Kevashka to formulate the plan they would use. She would rely heavily on Duncan now, she needed his sleuth abilities to backfill any gaps. His insight would enable her to close a noose on the traitor that he couldn’t get out of. Snow just wanted the opportunity to remove the traitors heart, then take his head. Decapitation would not allow regeneration.
Kevashka folded the letter up and put it in a pocket. “Alright, pain in the ass, I need you to explain, in detail, everything you figured out and draw the lines for how to me. You will leave no detail out or I will bitch slap you till you cry for your mommy in front of the entire den.” Kevashka’s voice sounded angry, though it was not with the passion that was usually there. Duncan had become a valuable asset to Kevashka, even when he didn’t have hard facts, his gut feelings were usually on the mark, or very damn close.
Duncan held up a finger. “Come with me.” He told the people with him. Kevashka was hot on his heals as he took the precession to his office. He asked Snow to bring in extra chairs so everyone could sit.
Duncan pulled up some files on his monitors. Right now the information was meaningless to them, just a collection of data with no visible link.
“We know the vampires were hunting us, tracking our movements and listening in on our conversations through our smart phones.” Duncan motioned at the gadgettier listening intently. “Malkah pointed out the fact that the only way to do this was if they had access to the security codes programmed into our phones.
“Due to the wide scale of vampires tracking us, this person would not be someone in Malkah’s position or something similar. This person would have to have access to codes from both the states and across the water. That’s when I started looking into positions that would have access to this information. There are quite a few. I wasn’t looking at direct access, I was looking for anyone who might have the codes on their phones because of their position, that being someone who might contact overseas field agents and hunt teams.”
Duncan looked to Kevashka. “I was at a loss for which direction to go, every path I took led to an unfinished end, no matter how I worked the lines, nothing came to a central point. To many variables, everyone became a suspect. Watch your back, that was the message given to me by a dying werewolf, when he was closest to the Light. It didn’t make rational sense to me at the time.
“At first I thought the man meant in the field, that he knew the vampires were tracking us, that he was trying to warn me about that. During the last operation we ran with decoys, you told one of the teams ‘we’ve got your back’, that’s when it clicked.” Duncan said indicating Kevashka had spoken the words he was referencing.
“In the field, we refer to our command and support people as ‘having our back’, that’s what the message was, not about what was going on in the field, rather that someone was betraying us, someone in our command structure.”
Duncan turned to one of the monitors and pointed at a report, this one was from Snow. “In her report, Snow mentions that the coven leader who took her to the bar ordered a drink for her, ‘you look like a beer person to me’, he had said to her. He ordered her a Stella, an import.”
Duncan looked back at his audience. “That’s a hell of an assumption, he already knew who Snow was, that much we know from the tracker, she would have been identified as the commander of the operation, what wouldn’t have been there is the fact she drinks imported beer, hates the mainstream American brands.” Duncan clicked to another page.
This report had his name as the author. “The two day walkers that jumped us, the one where the girl who later died repented.” Duncan tapped at the screen. “The male called me a pig, a reference to a cop, or any law enforcement person, he knew I was associated with the CIA; when he threw down his weapon, he said I wouldn’t shoot an unarmed person.
“That’s a human rule for law enforcement. He even knew I was human, said so when I pulled the sword. He knew Kicks was a rogue, not renegade, specifically called him a rogue. I checked, that information is not on the tracker system. I show up as Commander Galt, no indication as to being human, Kicks shows as advanced reconnaissance, not anything about his clan status.
“This information would only be available from personnel files. That narrowed my search.” Duncan turned from them and worked on the computer some, changing windows and replacing pages.
He turned back to them in a quick motion. He pointed at Malkah, showing he played a part in his reasoning by some obscure statement. “The vampires overseas weren’t ceasing any operations, when hunt parties hit their holds and found them empty, it was because they knew the team was coming and moved out ahead of time, harvesting was still going on, only in the light of day, nothing would remain of the vampire recruits to show what had happened. Even the bishops said they could still count the souls lost.
“Clan Boxtemmill proved this for me, they still were having success on both hunt parties and on any raid on a coven hold. His change of plans were never put out on the network until the following day, since they didn’t affect any other teams. Activity in his area has slowed. Vampires have retreated from his lands.
“The only reason I could come up with for this was that someone informed them of how his attacks never followed his original plans, that he changed them at the last minute. Whoever was passing out our secrets, not only had access to the codes, personnel files, they also were able to access strategy plans for the teams.” Duncan reached over to a pile of papers on his desk.
He rummaged through it until he pulled out a book that had the seal of the Bishop of Clans on it. “The Supreme Bishop of Clans had this book delivered to me. It contains information on afflictions to werewolves. I read it thinking I had wasted my time with it, until I remembered something from a specific personnel file I had read.
“A werewolf had effectively lost his mate to a coma, and that could not be explained. The bishop of this werewolf’s clan investigated the coma, as there is a state the mate of a werewolf who has done something atrocious, dark and evil, can fall into. It is called an Animus coma.
“The mates soul is affected by the betrayal of their mate and they go into a coma. The bishop had realized this. He left the next day, and was going to meet with the Supreme Bishop of Clans, only his plane crashed. It was the subject of a bombing attack.”
Duncan pointed to one of the windows on a monitor. “This is the official report the bishop of the clan filed. It states that Animus was not the cause of the coma, that he theorized an environmental cause was to blame. It went on to say he was going to meet with the Supreme Bishop of Clans to have a healer with a specialty in such things brought to the clan.
“That didn’t make sense. He would have requested the specialist by phone call, email, or something much simpler, not flying across the water to make the request. The bishop’s son took over for his father after his death, read the report and never went further than requesting a specialist by phone. Nothing was ever resolved, this traitor’s mate still remains in a coma.” Duncan stopped and pulled up a document on the center monitor, it was a personnel file.
“Nine years ago, which coincides with the dramatic increase in werewolf deaths, Robert of the Clay’s mate fell suddenly into a comma while he was out on a field mission. After his dishonorable actions relating to my mate… my partner, he was pulled from the field. He had followed orders from above him, from Clan Clay. Robert Clay took a desk job Steve Rheineer told me, I found out where, he works as director of communications now. He oversees all networks and their security and data transmission. His transfer to this position also coincides with another spike in deaths of our people.” Duncan revealed.
Duncan went over more information he had uncovered, mostly for Kevashka, anything he could tell her might help in their plans to engage Robert. Word about his discovery about how they were being tracked had been kept under wraps, only Snow’s crews and whoever Night Harvest had confided in knew. They had been working together to try and figure out who the leak was. Now that it had been solved, the leak needed to be plugged.
Malkah went to his shop. Duncan had told him they would need his expertise in this, to find out who Robert had been passing secrets too. He was working with his new bug, making sure it worked as he said it would. Duncan had also told Malkah that Robert would have ears around him. Either to alert whomever he was working for that he had been made, or for help to come and bail him out.
Though Duncan highly doubted vampires would risk themselves for him, it was still an option. They had convinced him to help them somehow. Every possibility needed to be investigated. Duncan was waiting for word from Night Harvest to begin moving on Robert. The time would be soon, Malkah had to get his tricks ready.
Snow came and sat on Duncan’s lap when everyone had left and he returned from puking again. “How long?” She said to him with a sad face resting her head on his shoulder.
Duncan knew what she was asking about, could read the assumptions she had made in her face. “Couple months left.” Duncan told her.
Snow simply held him. She didn’t ask any questions deeper into the matter. Couple months, wasn’t very long. It made the irrational risks Duncan took understandable. She thought he wanted to get their work finished so he could see the end of it. Seemed to be all he was holding on to outside of her.
“Come on, let’s go shopping.” Duncan said to her after a few minutes.
“Go shopping?” Snow asked sitting up and looking puzzled.
“Yup, we’re going to the city and hit a toy store.” Duncan said as Snow slid off his lap when he stood.
Snow shook her head at him, she tried to figure out what possible reason Duncan would have for wanting to go to a toy store. With everything they were dealing with, he wanted to go shopping, and at a toy store on top of that. “Ok, going toy shopping. Am I driving or are you?” Snow asked.
“We’ll take the truck.” Duncan replied, Snow’s face showed her appreciation of him driving, she wasn’t in a mood to do so herself.
