Age of Blood

32

It took a while for Triple Six to make it back to the castle. The streets were jammed with worshippers following the statue of the Virgin. J.J. had given the team robes, which covered their armor and weapons. But Holmes was limping badly. Not only had he taken impact on the armor on his thighs, causing deep bone bruises, but one of the rounds had penetrated his leg. How bad they didn’t know, but they needed to get him back to the castle right away.

Whatever the sorcerer had done was temporary. The rotting skin had gone with his death.

Jen met them at the front door, along with a pair of Knights dressed in scrubs. She insisted that all of them get checked out and hovered over them.

After a cursory triage, Walker and Yank were released. Walker had Yank secure the weapons and prepare them for mission. If Yank could find J.J., he would get his help as well. Laws was declared fit for duty, but he looked the worst for wear of them all. It turned out that Holmes had a through and through wound. It needed treatment and might hurt like hell, but it would let him RTD (return to duty).

Walker readied to leave. He wanted to check and see how YaYa was doing. He gestured at Hoover and the dog slunk behind him, as if she knew she was going to see the crazed man who was once her number one pal. They were almost at the door to the medical suite when Jen approached.

“We’ve barely had a chance to say hi.” She smiled, her face less than a foot from his own. “Hi.”

In another time, another place, Walker might have acted like John Wayne and snatched her around the waist, kissing her deeply. But this wasn’t that time, nor was it that place. So he smiled and squeezed her hand. That would have to be it for now. He needed to keep the act of killing and the act of loving separate. For how long, he didn’t know.

“Hi back,” he said. He saw hurt in her eyes, but didn’t know what to do about it. He went to a corner sink, stripped down to bare skin, and began washing away the stink of the kill.

She came up behind him and watched, her arms crossed in front of her in such a way that she gripped both elbows. “You didn’t find her,” she said rather than asked.

Walker shook his head. “She wasn’t there. As far as we can tell, there was no sign of her ever being there to begin with. When it was all done, we sent Hoover through the rooms but there was nothing.”

“So we don’t have any leads?”

“It’s as if she evaporated.”

“No one evaporates. Everyone leaves a trail.”

He grinned. “Tell that to the evaporated.”

“Seriously.” She stepped forward and pointed to a spot on the side of his head. “Missed a spot. What is that?”

“Probably skin. Not mine, from those lepers.” He hesitated as he considered. “Or it could be a piece of one of the men we blew up.”

She made a face.

Walker wondered what she was thinking. “Sorry, Jen. I’m still in the mode. Takes a while to turn it off.”

She was silent as he finished washing. He was about to apologize when Ramon burst into the room. Gone was his fur and back was the man in the white linen suit, clean as the day it came off the rack. He was making a beeline for Holmes, whom they were finishing up with on the table. Walker leaped in front of Ramon and grabbed him by his shoulders.

Hoover crouched by the door, growling.

“What the hell did you kill him for?”

“Get out of my way, kid,” Ramon said.

He tried to shove Walker, but Walker stood his ground. Then Ramon jerked backwards. Walker let himself go toward Ramon, allowing for the weight to create the momentum which took them both to the ground. Walker ended up on top and straddling Ramon, his left hand gripping the man’s collar, his right hand reared back for a punch.

Ramon growled, “Get off me, boy, or I’ll turn.”

Suddenly Jen was there, leaning down, pressing a shiny, thin blade against Ramon’s temple. Where it touched, Ramon’s skin sizzled. “This is silver, Mr. Ramon. You so much as harm that SEAL and I’ll plow it into your head.”

Ramon stared wild-eyed at the knife.

“Understand?” Jen asked.

Ramon nodded.

Walker lowered his fist and grabbed Ramon’s collar with two hands. “Why’d you kill him? He was our only lead.”

“He’s not our only lead.”

“Then what?”

“The other skinwalkers. They were in league with them.”

“But you killed them.”

“One got away. If we can find him, then we know where the girl is.”

“You know what I think? I think that you’re—”

“Walker,” came Holmes’s voice. “Enough.”

Walker turned and as he did, he released Ramon.

Holmes had a fresh bandage on his thigh. He stood in nothing but UDT shorts. Scars and muscles rippled across his body. “Let the man up.”

Walker allowed Ramon to push him off. He stood and reluctantly helped Ramon to his feet. The other man swiped at the wrinkles in his suit.

“Are you going to apologize?”

“No. Are you?”

“Walker?” came Holmes’s stern voice.

“What?” Walker gritted his teeth and turned toward his boss.

“Enough.”

Jen still held the knife in front of her, ready to use it if needed.

Ramon regarded it with a baleful eye, but turned nonchalantly to Holmes. “I guess you are glad I was there, no?”

“You’re right. I was glad you were there no.”

Ramon’s eyes narrowed as he made out the gibe. “You didn’t need my help?”

Holmes leaned back on the bed. “You have this way of killing people we want to talk to.”

“That thing never would have spoken. He had the spirit of Xipe Totec in him.”

“Nevertheless, we’re the sort of people who like to try. You’d be amazed at how many people and things we can make talk.”

Walker watched with increasing appreciation as Holmes began to effortlessly dominate the other man.

Ramon seemed about to remark, then held his words. He spread his hands. “Now I know. I thought I was helping.”

“I’m sure you did.” Holmes stood straight and for the first time gave Ramon a look much like he’d given Walker the first time they’d met. “But this is a military unit and to function as such we need order and command. I command. Everyone else works to execute my orders.”

“Orders?” Ramon wasn’t quite sure what Holmes meant. Either that or he was being intentionally obtuse.

“Yeah. Orders. As in if you ever kill a prisoner again you’ll have to answer directly to me.”

Ramon stood taller as well. “And you think you can take me?”

Walker watched Holmes with concentration. He knew his boss well enough to gauge the look, which said to all the world get the fuck out of here, but he also watched as it softened. Then Holmes did something uncharacteristic. He chuckled. He stared at his open hands. “I have a feeling we’re going to find out sooner or later, Ramon. Until then I am in charge. Understood?”

“Oh, yeah. Understood loud and clear.” Ramon turned to go, then paused. “Can I go?”

“Not yet. Tell me about the skinwalkers.”

Ramon paused uncomfortably, a far cry from the king of cool he’d been back in Cabo. He glanced at Walker, then moved to recover some of his lost attitude.

“They’re Zeta hit men like I used to be.”

“What were they doing with the lepers?”

“Protecting them. They were assigned to bring in the girl.”

“Wait.” Holmes eyes had narrowed to slits. “Do you mean the Zetas are directly involved?”

Ramon nodded.

“So then we do have a lead. You point out the local Zeta headquarters and we go there. If the girl isn’t there, we take the leader hostage until they deliver the girl.”

“Won’t work that way. This feels different. It could be a power grab. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Zeta leadership wasn’t even aware of it.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Usually the Zetas take care of their own problems.”

“Can you be sure?”

“Not yet. If I can get my hands on the other skinwalker, I can get the information.”

Holmes nodded. “What about the girl?”

“I’m betting Mexico City.”

“Just like that,” Walker said, surprising himself. “Mexico City.”

“Yes. It’s the only other place I know where the leprosos are.”

“So it’s a WAG?’

Ramon frowned. “I don’t know this. What is this WAG?”

“Stands for Wild Ass Guess,” Jen said. “We’ve been tracking communications from the asylum for the last twenty hours and have had limited success. Most of our resources are on the other side of the world. But we did track a communication between someone in the building and someone due south by fifty kilometers.”

“What’d they say?”

“Didn’t say anything. It was a beeper.”

“So someone in the asylum called to alert someone south of here,” Holmes said, working it out out loud.

She nodded.

Laws interrupted. “Let’s get someone to go back to the scene and see if they can find the phone that made the call. Is there any way to track it?”

“Only if we call it.”

“Then call it.”

“Now?”

“No time like the present.”

Ramon started to leave.

“Where are you going?” Holmes asked.

“To track down the other skinwalker. Timing is critical. It’s already been too long.”

Holmes nodded, letting the man leave. Once Ramon was gone, he turned to Walker. “What do you think?”

“I think he’s hiding something.”

“Me, too. The question is, is it a big something or a small something?”

“My guess is it’s something big.”

“Me, too.”

Laws suddenly burst into the room. “You’re not going to believe this.”

“What?” Holmes, Jen, and Walker said simultaneously.

“YaYa—they did it! While we were gone they performed an exorcism.”

“They what?” Holmes’s face turned red and creased with anger. “Is YaYa all right?”

“He’s good. He’s great. He’s back to normal.”