The IRD had their mobile outpost set up in Collinsville, which was a short drive from St. Louis. The outpost consisted of two large campers, three covered trucks, and two helicopters. By the time Paige parked between the campers, another helicopter was returning from the St. Louis Riverfront. Its machine gun had been pulled inside and the landing gear lowered so it could touch down and unload the three soldiers who had been riding inside. Judging by the spring in their step, the men hadn’t left the helicopter to engage any Half Breeds. Although none of the higher ranking officers acknowledged Frank with more than a careful glare, the soldiers all sought him out so they could give him a grateful nod or wave. Frank’s thin, reptilian lips curved into something of a smile when he accepted their show of respect.
Paige and Cole stood outside of the second camper, stomping their feet and enjoying the hot chocolate that had been served to them in a paper cup. It was a thin and watery mix, but Cole preferred it much better than the salty yellow water that was supposed to pass for chicken soup.
Not only was the wind brutally cold, but the sun had been down long enough for the smallest remnants of its light to have been long forgotten. Both Skinners stood in the bracing chill and turned their faces into the wind. Cole closed his eyes and savored the way his nose tingled and the wind whispered directly into his frosted ears. Embracing his humanity by reveling in the simpler things was a habit he’d picked up from Paige. One of the good ones.
“What’s wrong with you two?” asked a man who stood in the doorway to one of the campers. “After all that’s happening, you want to catch your death in the cold?”
“Be right in, Ma,” Cole said.
The man who’d scolded them was somewhere in his early forties, dressed in heavy black and gray fatigues, his light brown hair buzzed down to a perfectly even layer. Although Cole had been clipping his hair to within an inch of its life, the shears he used paled in comparison to the fine military precision that marked Major Adderson’s hair as well as everything else he wore, touched, or said. Obviously not threatened by the cold, Adderson scowled at the Skinners and stepped aside while propping the door open with the side of his boot.
Paige and Cole drank their hot chocolate until it was gone, but knew better than to make the major wait long before entering the camper. Inside, the vehicle had been stripped and refurbished with a row of computers and monitors along one side, several televisions bolted to the ceiling used to monitor national and local news broadcasts, and a communications setup on the other side. At the back of the confined quarters was a space that had probably contained a bed. Now there was a small square table with a built-in illuminated touch-sensitive screen. Mainly it was used to display maps and objectives for the various IRD operations in which Cole and Paige had taken part. As soon as the Skinners were inside, Adderson led them back to join the two men who sat there.
“This has been a long couple of days,” the major said, “and we all look like hell.”
Cole chuckled at that. Compared to Adderson, he and Paige always looked like hell.
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 is a Half Breed! Not Class One, Two, Three, Four, or Ten! When we shoot one of those things, it stays down. For every one or two you guys chop up with a thousand rounds fired from a helicopter, you’re letting six or seven sneak around to flank you. Half Breeds aren’t the smartest, but even they know how to take advantage of an opening when you give it to them.”
“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?”
“A Full Blood? Not since Atoka.”
That was a lie and Cole knew it. The last time they’d seen a Full Blood was in Finland when they squared off with Liam. He still had nightmares about just how many times he’d almost been killed that night. Once the adrenaline wore off, it wasn’t so easy to say if he’d acted bravely or with extreme stupidity.
“That town is still being held by one of those things,” Adderson said. “One of our teams reported one major sighting before we lost contact. From what you’ve told us and from what we’ve observed, it seems that those Class Ones are controlling the Class Twos.”
“The Full Bloods are creating the Half Breeds,” Paige said. “That’s how it’s always been. Only now they’re creating Half Breeds without having to attack and infect each and every victim. The range for that seems to be between a quarter and an eighth of a mile. I told you this when we first agreed to work together.”
Adderson wheeled so quickly around to face her that Cole almost grabbed for the spear strapped to his back. Paige was surprised as well, but kept her instincts in check before they got her shot by at least half a dozen Marines.
“We’re not working ‘together,’ ” Adderson said. “You two work for me.”
“Is that how it is?”
“After all I’ve done to cover your asses and keep the rest of you Skinners out of the fire where the police, FBI, and ATF are concerned, yes. You’d damn well better believe that’s how it is.” His next words slid out of him like the cigarette smoke curling from his nostrils. “If you’d sign up with us in an official capacity, then you would of course be assigned a rank and could command specialized troops to help you in any number of missions that you would design.”
“Why are you so intent on getting us to sign up?” Cole asked. “Do you get some sort of bonus?”
“Honestly, I’d be able to command this entire team more efficiently. I’d also be able to explain to my superiors why I’m bringing along civilians on highly classified military operations. Funny how the brass tends to get real picky about procedure when the rest of the world is sliding into hell, but if we turn to anarchy, then the whole game’s over.”
“So you are a recognized branch of the military,” Paige said.
Despite the attack helicopters, campers stuffed full of high-tech equipment, Marines and Army personnel behind him, Adderson somehow managed to keep a straight face when he told her, “I’m not able to confirm or deny that.”
Shaking her head, Paige said, “He wants to be able to tell us where to go and what to do, Cole. More than that, he wants to study our weapons and probably us as well. Didn’t you have your chance when you had Cole on the operating table?”
“He was taken from our facility before we could make an incision.”
Those words alone were enough to make Cole’s gut clench. More specifically, the memory of what was wrapped around his gut made him clench. The Nymar tendrils were still there, but he’d learned to deal with the cinching pain reflexively tightening around him. He felt better after some rest, but it was still easier if he just didn’t think about the part of him that had been infected by the vampire spore.
“And speaking of that procedure,” Paige said, “you guys never did get around to making good on your promise of fixing him up.”
“That’s all right,” Cole said. “Forget it.”
“Which is exactly what he told our medics when they approached him to undergo the next proposed operation,” Adderson pointed out while holding his cigarette between two fingers and watching the tip smolder.
She looked back and forth between them and finally flapped her hands against her sides. “All right. Fine. You’re the one that called us out here, Major. What’s on your mind?”
“I asked about the Class Ones because we seem to have lost track of them,” Adderson said.
After somehow walking away from being encased in stone, the Full Blood named Esteban had kept himself busy by returning to Colorado and tearing apart two small towns and three correctional facilities in his quest to find more storehouses left behind by Jonah Lancroft. All he’d managed to do back then was create several dozen Half Breeds to keep the humans busy and level the town of Canon City.
“We need a better way to get to those bastards,” Adderson said. “Do you have any ideas?”
Although Paige only paused for a few seconds, Adderson bristled as if she’d turned her back to him and walked away. Finally, she said, “There was a weapon called the Blood Blade. It could cut through a Full Blood well enough. We’ve been working on a way to coat a bullet with melted fragments of it.”
“Similar to what’s inside those Snapper rounds?”
“That’s right. We’ve had some success, but haven’t had a chance to test them in the field.”
“With all the wolves running around, you haven’t had a chance to test them?” Adderson asked.
“Things have been messy lately,” she replied.
That was an understatement. Even with the werewolves running loose, the Skinners had been thrown into disarray with the emergence of the splinter group called the Vigilant. Professing to subscribe to the beliefs of Jonah Lancroft—known for capturing specimens, chopping them apart over the course of months or years, and mixing up toxins that killed almost as many civilians as monsters all in the name of survival—the Vigilant redefined the term “hardcore.” Since Adderson wasn’t privy to insider Skinner business, “messy” would have to cover it.
Adderson grinned around his cigarette. “You seem to be losing sight of the whole reason I wanted you people on board. You have the know-how, and we have the manpower and equipment to put that knowledge to work. In exchange for that—”
“No,” Paige said sharply, but politely. “We’re not signing on to become official military.”
“What’s your problem with the military?” Adderson asked. “Your daddy in the service and he moved you around too much?”
“We’re working with you to get through a tough time. We’re not going to hand over everything we are to the government. Any government.”
“Fine. Believe it or not, that wasn’t even what I was going to ask. We’ve already put together something that should bring the shifters to us. Class Ones and Twos.”
“Uh-huh,” Paige sighed.
Surely, Cole thought, she was thinking along the same lines as he was: that somebody in the IRD had gotten their hands on one piece of the Amriany device that was used as Full Blood bait in Atoka.
“What do you mean ‘should’ be able to bring them to us?” Paige asked.
“It’s a sonic emitter,” the major explained. “Experimental. Works on a frequency that’s had some success with the Class Twos. It didn’t take a whole lot of tweaking for us to find the frequency for Class Threes.”
Getting sick of the cold, Cole summed it up: “So you guys made a dog whistle for Half Breeds and Mongrels?”
“More or less. When cranked up to a certain degree on test subjects, it seemed to produce some pain.” Adderson gripped his cigarette between two fingers, exhaled some smoke and watched it drift up to the frozen stars. “After collecting enough data, we may be able to have a weapon capable of neutralizing these things before more drastic measures become necessary.”
“All right,” Paige said. “Two questions. First of all, what test subjects?”
“Just some Class Twos we trapped here and there. Despite some differences between the ones that have tusks and the ones that don’t, they all seem to have the same ears.”
“Second,” she growled, “what do you consider to be drastic measures?”
Flicking his cigarette to the ground and stomping it out, Adderson said, “Tactical nukes have been proposed for portions of the country that are overrun, but will only be approved in the event that such areas become complete losses.”
“You mean no humans left?” Cole asked. He chuckled more out of discomfort than any sense of humor when he pointed out, “We’re still a long ways from that.”
“Zero human population is well beyond what we’d consider to be a total loss,” Adderson said. “We’re looking more at the logistical certainty that we couldn’t retake those areas without having to level everything from buildings to shrubbery. We all know that Class Twos move too quickly for air strikes to be effective unless we hit an area at least five times larger than normal. So far, no strikes have had any success against Class Ones. According to spotters, they hear or smell the planes coming and are gone long before the pilots see their target.”
“So you want us to do something with those sonic things of yours?” she asked.
“Field testing. We need someone who can track those things down or at least get close enough to test its effectiveness as a viable option in a combat scenario. Seeing as how you know these things so well, you’re the ideal choice.”
“Plus,” Cole said, “we don’t have to roll in using helicopters and RVs.”
Adderson glanced back at the modified campers and nodded. “You got it.”
“Will you be sending anyone along with us?” Paige asked.
“Not unless you’d like it that way.”
“Will you be following us?”
“I doubt we could do so without your knowledge,” Adderson replied.
“What about satellite tracking?” Cole asked. “Electronic surveillance. Planting any GPS devices on us. That sort of thing.”
The major wasn’t the sort to twitch when someone struck a nerve, but the pause that followed that question, compared to the snap response he’d given them before, told Cole more than enough. “I’ll see to it that no such devices are planted on you. As far as satellite tracking goes, the military’s expense account is taking a big enough hit just mobilizing to respond to those new reports across the border.”
“You’re talking about those attacks in Brazil?” Paige asked, referring to a story that had found its way into the headlines over the last few days. Apparently, creatures resembling Half Breeds had been creeping in from the Amazon jungle led by a Full Blood that didn’t match any others photographed over the past few months.
“Correct. With everything escalating the way it has, you can’t even imagine the requests we’re getting from other countries for assistance.”
“How many other countries?” Cole asked.
“I’m not at liberty to divulge those details to civilian contractors,” Adderson said, without even trying to be subtle in his constant effort to recruit them. “Let’s just say that the U.S. is on the map for the majority of instances that have been made public, but there are plenty more leaking into public awareness from across the globe. Whatever these things are, wherever they came from, they’re obviously not contained within American borders. That’s what makes it even more pressing to create a more effective way of dealing with them that falls short of melting down or blasting apart large sections of civilian structures and population.”
With that, Cole was given a glimpse at why Paige must have agreed to sign on with the IRD in any capacity.
“Fine,” she said. “Count us in. Where do we pick up this sonic thing?”
“A mobile version is being put together now,” the major said. “I’ll have it prepped and ready to go by 0600.”
“That’s six in the morning, right?” Cole grumbled.
“Affirmative,” Adderson said with a sadistic grin.
“We could use some more clothes, some guns, supplies, and a vehicle,” Paige said. “Plus some money would be nice since we’re probably going to be on our own for a while. It’ll take a few days just to get the smell of all this equipment off us.”
“What are you talking about?”
“These things track by scent,” she told him. “Anything from gun oil, gasoline, to boot polish stands out from the norm. And we’ve also got to assume that they’ll probably see us long before we see them. Look, I can’t tell you any of that is certain, but if you want us to do you any good, we need to work our own way. And if you don’t trust us to do that, then we’re no good to you whether we get to wear the cool patch or not.”
Adderson thought that over and nodded. “All right. We’ve got weapons and ammunition, as well as a few changes of clothes for you. As to the rest, we should be able to scrape something up by morning. Is that good enough or should we air drop it in a field somewhere so you’re not seen with us?”
“Where could you drop it?”
The major’s tired grin wavered and dropped off. Apparently, he’d already been around Paige long enough to know when she wasn’t kidding. “We’re not air dropping anything, but if you have to play it that way, we can leave it at a secure location of your choice.”
“Perfect,” she said with a nod. “I’ll write up a list. You can leave it a few miles from here and we can pick it up after you guys roll out. You were planning on leaving soon, right?”
“You know damn well we were scheduled to move our mobile command into Kansas to check on those pack animals you told us about. The Shunkaws?”
“Yep, and you guys shouldn’t have any trouble clearing them out. Remember, they like sugar. They’re tough, but bullets should bring them down just fine.”
Seeing he wasn’t going to get any further with her than that, Adderson nodded and turned on his heels to step back into the main camper. When Paige started walking toward the open area, away from everyone else, Cole followed her.
“Whatever vehicle they give us, we’ll need to check it from top to bottom just to make sure it wasn’t bugged with a tracking device,” he said.
“Bugged? Too many movies.”
“No, there’s about a dozen ways to get the job done using crap you can buy online or at Best Buy. I don’t even want to think about what the military could come up with. Actually, since the IRD may be some sort of shadow organization, we should probably insist on renting a car using their cash.”
She bent her right arm across her body and rubbed it with her left hand. The injury she’d sustained in Kansas City had been improving ever since she was able to reform her weapons properly. “You really get off on the whole shadow organization thing, don’t you?”
“I guess. I’ve written games about them for years and now I’m in one.”
“You’re a civvie. Don’t forget that. And as far as the whole car thing goes, we only need to drive it around long enough to make sure we’re not being followed. After that, we’re outta here.”
“Outta where?”
“Here,” she said, as if the ground itself had become inhospitable. “Away from these people.”
“But you’re the one that signed up with them.”
“That was out of necessity. The way things were headed, military involvement was going to happen whether we liked it or not. At least Adderson seems to be going about it the right way, but this isn’t the way Skinners are supposed to operate. I was hoping they might be able to get some surgeons who could help you with your problem.”
“I’ve got vampire tendrils wrapped around my guts,” Cole reminded her with a tired chuckle. “That’s not exactly the sort of thing you go to the emergency room for.”
“I know. It was worth a shot.”
“That’s not the only reason you started all of this, is it?”
Paige stuffed her hands into her pockets and whispered, “All of this was happening already. Adderson approached me with this whole IRD thing already in place. With everything getting too big to hide anymore, it made sense to help those who looked like they had the best chance of succeeding.”
“In the words of the great and wise Daffy Duck, if you can’t beat ’em . . . join ’em.”
She shook her head. “I thought they could help you, Cole. At the very least, I knew they could get you away from all of those cops who just wanted to string you up after we were framed for all of those cops who were killed by the Nymar.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself anymore, Paige. I get it.” Dropping his voice, he asked, “Where do you want to go once we ditch these guys?”
“We’ll field test their sonic thingie somewhere along the line, but I don’t think that’s going to turn the tide. I think we need to get back to basics and tackle this problem the best way we can. No helicopters. No fire teams. Leave all that for the mopping up.”
“What happened to that thing that was in Cecile’s arm?” Cole asked. “The Jekhibar. It was important enough for two Full Bloods to hide and another to tear up an entire state looking for it. Do we even know what it’s supposed to do?”
“Never got a chance to find out, but there’s at least one guy who does know. Didn’t Jessup tell you he had it?”
“Yeah. When I talked to him after the Breaking Moon set, he said Cecile was more than happy to get it out of her and that he and the rest of that Lancroft cult had it. The Vigilant.”
“That’s them. We need to check them out, and we sure as hell can’t afford to get close right now. They’ll be looking for it after Jessup announced his involvement with them in New Mexico.”
“You think Rico’s really turned on us?” Cole asked.
“You heard it yourself, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, but maybe he’s just looking for another way to do things. Just because he’s decided to tackle this apocalypse thing a different way than us doesn’t mean he’s an enemy.”
“Apocalypse, huh?” she scoffed. “You’ve been listening to the news again.”
“You’ve been with Rico longer than I have. Are you telling me you don’t trust him just because he decided to tackle the Full Bloods from a more aggressive angle? That’s not exactly out of his normal play book.”
Paige drew a long breath and chewed on it for a few seconds. It emerged from between her lips in a thin mist as she said, “There’s another avenue we’ve got that I think even the Vigilant won’t have, that is unless Lancroft had more foreign contacts than anyone ever thought.”
“The Amriany,” Cole said, being careful not to mention the name loud enough for it to catch any attention.
“They made the Blood Blades and I’m pretty sure they made the Jekhibar. If they don’t have answers about how we can deal with Full Bloods that can create Half Breeds with nothing more than a howl, then maybe we can at least get some more weaponry.”
“And if we’re going to approach them, I should see what I can learn from the guys around here in regards to what’s going on in Europe. Perhaps those satellites picked up Full Bloods, Half Breeds, or some other bit of craziness that the Amriany don’t know about yet. Information like that could be one hell of a bargaining chip.”
She nodded and rubbed his shoulder. “I have taught you well, young one.”
Cole put his hands on her hips and pulled her in close. Before she had a chance to react, he planted a kiss on her that made them both forget about the winter’s chill.
“What was that for?” she asked after finally pulling away.
“Seems like we’re gonna be busy,” he replied. “Just thought I should enjoy the quiet while it lasts.”
“You know me. Quiet never lasts very long.”