White Winter (The Black Year Series Book 2) (34 page)

“This is Fox, tangos down. Thanks for the heads up, Bravo.”

Jonas reached up and keyed his radio twice to acknowledge without tying up the channel. He looked at Billy. Billy gave him a thumbs up.

Fox continued. “Rook, be advised we found the entrance to a tunnel. Looks like it leads to the sewers.”

Jim shoved Frank’s shoulder. Frank shoved him back. They made rapid hand gestures and exchanged a flurry whispers that included the word “Mogadishu.”

“Hey, sir. Got any intel on our target?” Charlie team’s leader whispered, touching Jonas’ shoulder.

Jonas scanned the building. “Couple of junkies on the second floor. Rest of the building looks clear, but there are some spots on the fifth and sixth I can’t see into.”

The team leader’s face tightened. “Fifth and sixth, got it. Thanks, sir.” He waved his team forward. They dragged an empty pallet to the fence and used it as a ramp, then started up the building’s fire escape.

“Clan leader?” Kieran said, nudging him.

Jonas looked up and realized Frank and the others were waiting.

They made their way through the yard. Frank had told him several of the buildings were stone importers; sheets of marble and granite lay stacked in rows, sometimes blocked by trash or discarded pallets, turning the yard into a maze. It would have slowed them down if Frank hadn’t just climbed over anything under waist height in his path.

They reached the fence.

“Hold up,” Frank whispered.

A woman built like a werewolf was talking to a man in front of their objective, beneath a street light. She gestured animatedly. The man was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Jonas felt something brush his barrier, like walking through a spider web. The man frowned and looked toward them.

“Charlie, breaching.”

There was a creak, then a crack as Charlie team took a crowbar to the boarded up door on the fourth floor. The werewolf turned, and the vampire looked up.

Frank and Jim raised their rifles.

A woman with short, platinum blond hair and wearing full red motorcycle leathers materialized next to the vampire and rammed a knife into the side of his head, up to the hilt. He turned to ash, the werewolf spun, but Red had already shifted behind her. Red reached into a pouch at her right hip, brought her hand to her mouth, and blew as the werewolf came full circle. A cloud of sparkling dust flew into the werewolf’s face.

The werewolf staggered, choking. Her eyes had turned solid black. Red grabbed her arm, pivoted, and hip-tossed the wolf to the ground, then knelt on her chest until the big woman stopped breathing.

“I am both scared and aroused, right now,” Carlyle said.

Thompson elbowed him in the ribs.

“We’re in! Heading upstairs,” Charlie’s team leader said.

Red stood, looked in Jonas and the others’ direction, and wiggled her fingers at them. Then she vanished - no sign of blurring, just disappeared like she was never there.

“Up and over,” Frank said.

Kieran got on his knee and gave the others a boost, being careful with his claws. Once everyone was over, he jumped the fence and caught up.

“Bravo’s in position,” Frank said.

Alpha and Delta said the same.

“Charlie moving to next floor, three tangos down.”

“Fox on overwatch; eyes on Alpha, Bravo, and Delta.”

“Rook copies. Proceed with Colorado.”

“Jonas?” Frank asked.

“They haven’t caught on yet,” Jonas answered. Their objective was a five-story brick building with a central tower that rose another two stories. It was actually 14 separate buildings, but the Order had knocked holes in the walls that divided them. There were close to 40 people that he could see, and pockets of nothing he could only guess at. After Jim’s comment about Mogadishu, he tried to focus underground, but he couldn’t see anything, not even things that should have been there, like plumbing.

Jim started drilling the lock.

“Hey, Frank!” Thompson hissed.

“What?” Frank said.

“Carlyle wants to go in first.”

“I do not!” Carlyle protested.

“You’ll be fine,” Thompson said.

“I’m not going in first! I’m funny, lovable, and new to the team; I’m the red shirt!”

Thompson grinned. Jim stepped back and hooked the drill back to his belt.

“You two are idiots,” Billy said, reaching for the door.

There was a
whump
and the sound of breaking glass.

“Shit!” Billy spun to the side.

“That wasn’t us,” Frank said. Jonas looked back toward the building Charlie team was clearing.

The sound of someone emptying the clip of a Kalashnikov filled the air, then silence.

“Rook, this is Charlie. Five more tangos down; lost two of mine. Tell everyone to watch for booby traps.”

“Rook copies. Say status, Charlie.”

There was a pause. “Charlie is green.”

Boom!
Alpha and Delta team breached their buildings and started clearing them. More gunfire. Inside Bravo’s objective, people were grabbing their weapons and forming into teams. Then a massive ward blacked out everything Madoc could see within half a mile.

Madoc?
Jonas asked. No answer. “Cherries, cherries, cherries!” Jonas said on the radio, trying to remember the direction from which the ward had expanded.

“Rook copies. Music is on; Black Queen is in play.”

“Everyone inside!” Frank said.

Jonas followed him through the door.

“You know where we’re going, kid?”

“That way,” Jonas said, over the increasing sound of gunfire. He took the lead, trying to feel for the ward. He could hear the pops of Agency rifles and the flat whump of a frag grenade as Alpha and Delta teams unloaded everything they had, clearing the four warehouses. They’d brought pre-shaped strips of C-4 to blow their way through the walls instead of worrying about doors. The plastique went off with a sharper
crack.

Jonas headed up the first staircase he found. Frank yanked him back by the collar as someone fired a shotgun around the corner. Jim and Billy fired back, then Kieran went tearing up the stairs. Frank chased after him, and Jonas followed. They reached the top - Frank almost tripped over a body - and saw Kieran fighting two werewolves on the landing.

Jonas hooked right, trying for a better angle while Frank fired several shots into the nearest Order wolf. The
clack
of the silenced carbine made it sound like a nail gun instead of a real weapon. The big gray was distracted long enough for Kieran to latch his jaws around the wolf’s neck and take him to the ground, clawing and tearing. Blood spurted as high as the ceiling. The second wolf turned to run and Jonas managed to hit him in the shoulder and chest, then she went down with one of Billy’s throwing knives in her throat.

“This one’s still alive!” Thompson said, kicking a small submachine gun away from the man on the landing.

“Shoot him. We need to keep moving,” Frank said, while Kieran stood, fur matted with black and red blood, and Billy yanked his knife out of the dead wolf’s neck.

Thompson looked at Carlyle. Carlyle shrugged. Thompson pointed his shotgun at the prone man’s head and fired.

Jonas was in the lead again, trying to see the hallway and the wards crisscrossing in the air at the same time. Whoever created the spells had them all connected, like daisy chained power cords. He focused on the brightest one.

A door opened to his right, and he shot the man coming out three times before Frank shoved him forward and out of the way of return fire. Jim, Billy, and Thompson rolled straight into the room without stopping, the clack of Jim and Billy’s carbines and the boom of Thompson’s shotgun-

“Kid! Snap out of it!” Frank shouted from the other side of the door. “Do you know where you’re going?”

Jonas turned his head to the left, trying to make sense of the lines. Sometimes it helped to look at them sideways.

“Clear!” Jim shouted. Billy and Carlyle echoed him.

“It’s here!” Jonas said. Pointing at the last door on the right. Frank nodded. He set up next to the door. Jim and Billy fell in behind him. Carlyle and Thompson went prone and covered the way they’d come.
Three, two, one…

Frank kicked the door open and charged straight ahead, firing as he went. Jim hooked left. Billy did too, but only took one step to the side before kneeling and firing.

The door across the hall from the room Frank was clearing opened, and two men ran out. Jonas was ready this time.
Clack!
The round took the man in the ear. His head snapped sideways and his body followed, tripping the second man. Jonas lined up the shot, but Kieran grabbed the second man by the face and smashed his head into the wall multiple times, denting both, then dropped him.

“God, you’re messy,” Jonas said, staring at the bloodstained wall.

Kieran grinned, tail wagging sinuously at hip level.

“Clear!” Frank and Jim said.

“Clear!” Billy said. He stepped back out into the hallway and waved Jonas in.

Frank and Jim looked at Jonas expectantly as he headed for the ward. “It’s the wrong one!” Jonas said.

“What do you mean it’s the wrong one?”

There were several more loud explosions from Alpha and Delta’s objective. To the south, Jonas could hear heavy weapons’ fire, which meant they’d noticed his mother. “Just… give me a second.” He stared at the ward. It was a little one, even smaller than the one in Van Dyke. It probably only hid this room. But it was also connected to the big one that covered the whole area. Touching the golden line with his mind, he could feel the whole network scattered through the complex and running underground. “I need the map!”

Frank handed it to him.

“Helsing, this is Viper flight, standing by for JCAS check-in.”

Edwards’ voice came on the radio. “Viper, this is Helsing, roll TAD.”

“Who gave him Helsing as a callsign?” Jim said.

“He probably picked it himself,” Frank said.

A few seconds later, Chief Grady said. “All teams, this is Rook, we are Delaware.” That meant the helicopter gunships had arrived. “Bravo, say status?”

“Standby, Rook,” Frank said into his radio, handing the map to Jonas.

“We need to go here,” Jonas said, pointing at the central building. “Ground floor.”

“You’re sure this time?”

Jonas felt his face heat. “Positive.”

There were several shots from the hallway. Kieran snarled. Carlyle and Billy returned fire.

“We need to go, Frank!” Billy said, sticking his head in. “Dammit, Kieran! Get out of the way!”

Thompson’s shotgun went off three times, as fast as he could pump.

Jonas followed Frank back into the hallway, toward the stairs. Four more dead werewolves lay on the ground, and Kieran was bleeding from his side.

“Are you okay?” Jonas asked.

“I’m fine,” Kieran growled.

“Rook, this is Bravo, heading to zero-niner. Request routing.”

“Copy, switch to TAC 2, Bravo.”

Frank changed his radio channel. He led them up the stairs instead of down, and jogged the length of a hallway before turning right.

“Rook, be advised Fox is pears.”

“Say direction and number of the enemy,” Chief Grady said.

“They’re coming out of the damned ground!” Fox’s team leader answered, firing.

Jonas’ mouth was dry. This was his fault for not finding the ward the first time.

“Fox, this is Charlie. If you can get to the roof, we’re in position to support.”

Frank walked past another hallway and Jonas grabbed his arm. “Frank, it’s that way!” he said, pointing down and to the right, toward the master ward.

Frank shook his head and tapped his earpiece, then pointed to the door ahead of them.

Kieran ploughed straight through it.

Crap
, Jonas thought, and followed the winter wolf.

The room was empty. “Clear!” Jonas said.

“Clear,” Kieran echoed.

“Fox, please respond,” Charlie team leader said.

Frank jogged to the window, undid the latch, and lifted. Jonas heard a pop. “Son of a-”

“Frank?” Jim said.

“Shoulder’s out again,” Frank said, his face pale. “Get the window.”

Jim got the window open in two hard tugs and climbed out. The others followed. Frank almost fell, trying to do it one-handed, but Kieran steadied him.

They were in a courtyard. Heavy, fat flakes were falling steadily, and the ground was completely covered.

“Rook, this is Charlie. No sign of Fox, I think they’re-”

“This is Delta lead,” Damien said, cutting in. “I have Fox. Four survivors, comm gear damaged. Pulling them back to my team, be advised their position is overrun, six hostiles in the building.”

“Rook copies.”