Reign of Evil

CHAPTER 33

YaYa stayed by the window while Walker stacked behind Trevor, who’d assumed a kneeling position, his pistol locked in front of him. They slid their NVDs in place and dialed up their familiar green universe.

Walker reminded himself to be careful. It could be anything from a cat or a dog to maybe a couple of teenagers looking for a private place to do something frisky. He’d be mortified if they gunned down some kids by accident. But they didn’t have to worry about that.

The first sign was the sight of a rifle barrel. Walker immediately recognized it as belonging to a submachine gun, which meant the barrel was very short.

“Let me.” Walker’s voice was a hint of a whisper over the MBITR.

A balaclava-covered head appeared. Walker gave twin trigger pulls and sent a pair of suppressed 9mm rounds ripping into it. The man fell flat, his face planting on the top step.

“Watch for grenades,” Trevor whispered.

Walker didn’t like not knowing their situation. “Anything outside?”

YaYa responded, “Negative,” and Walker ordered him to prepare the fourth Black Hornet and to deploy it around the front. While Walker wasn’t sure if they’d have time, they might, if the man was either a singleton or paired. There was only one way to find out. He ordered Trevor forward to retrieve the body, an effort that would put the Section 9 man’s hand and arm at risk for as long as it took for him to grab and jerk.

Trevor held his pistol in his right hand at high ready as he squat-walked to the head of the stairs. He peeked around the corner fast, then turned and held up his fingers showing two.

Walker held out a fist, which meant to halt operations.

Trevor flatted himself against the wall.

Walker moved forward, his P229 at low ready, repeating his mantra, “Slow is smooth; smooth is fast.” He counted to three with his trigger hand, then put his finger back on the trigger and smoothly twisted his barrel round the corner. He put eight rounds into the two men, but only one fell.

When he pulled back, Trevor had grabbed the dead man and was pulling him into the room.

Walker backed to the door of the bedroom and took up position.

“YaYa, give me something.”

“Launched. Moving over the top of the house and—shit.”

“What is it?”

“One of those girls is standing out there along with two of the red-cloaked things. Uh, Walker?”

Walker cursed. Things were going from bad to worse. “What?”

“I feel something.”

“I feel it too, bud. Just relax.”

“It’s them, isn’t it? It’s their magic. Feels… greasy.”

Walker couldn’t agree more. “Trev, what do you have?”

Trevor had searched the prisoner. He found an amulet with a silver tree inside a circle, which he took a cell phone picture of, then pocketed. He also found a tattoo on the prisoner’s chest of three interlocked crescent moons. The man had nothing else besides equipment, which was top-of-the-line. He took pictures of the man’s face and the tattoo, then sent all three shots to Preeti.

“The feeling’s getting worse,” YaYa said.

Walker’s teeth were on edge. There’d been a time when magic or proximity to the supernatural would have made him fall on the ground and do the kicking chicken, like his first mission in the hidden snakehead sweatshop in San Francisco. He could only imagine how YaYa felt. It was so new to him.

YaYa cursed, “Fuck me.”

“What is it?”

“The naked girl with the sewn-shut lips pointed at the Black Hornet and it fell from the sky.”

Walker thought through his options. “Is the back clear?”

“For the moment.”

“Okay. We’re going to un-ass the AO. Trevor, you watch our six. Once we’re down, we’ll cover you.”

Trevor nodded and took up position at the door.

Walker gestured for YaYa to go first. The roof had a ledge outside the window large enough for a man to stand on. YaYa climbed out, then swept the area with his pistol.

“Clear.”

“Then move.”

YaYa reached out and grabbed the lip of the roof. He hesitated a moment, then pulled himself over the edge. Walker saw his fingers; then he was gone.

A moment later, “Clear.”

Now it was Walker’s turn to exit. He glanced back at Trevor, who gave him a thumbs-up. Walker nodded, then climbed out into the cold Christmas Eve night. Somewhere people were warm and celebrating. Somewhere people had already exchanged gifts or were preparing to do so the next morning. Christmas Eve had always been a time of joy, even at the orphanage. But he felt anything but joy at this moment, fear raging through his spine from the proximity of this strange Red Grove magic.

He lowered himself, then dropped the remaining five feet.

YaYa had already taken up position beside the trunk of a tree, his weapon sweeping both corners of the walled-in backyard.

“Clear,” Walker said into his mike, then moved beside YaYa. With the trunk to his left, he aimed toward the window. “Sectors of fire.” YaYa left the right corner of the house alone and concentrated on his 180 degrees.

“Come on, Trev. Move.” Walker glanced behind him. Wall with concrete blocks and lots of dead grass. He turned back to the window.

YaYa gave Walker a quick look. “What’s taking him?”

Walker was beginning to get a sinking feeling. “Trev. Radio check. Come in, Trev.” It had only been a moment. Not ten seconds.

Walker felt it before he saw it. “Something’s coming.”

YaYa was sobbing beside him as his whole body began to tremble.

Walker put a hand on him. “Control. Fight it.”

YaYa nodded, wiping unbidden tears from his face with the back of his hands.

When Walker looked again to the window he saw her, sewn lips, blue piercing eyes seeing through him, her long blond hair moved delicately by an unfelt breeze. He felt her power. His teeth began to chatter. He raised his pistol but couldn’t control his aim. He fired over and over and over, but the rounds never came close. He kept firing until the pistol clicked back at him.

A moment of panic took him, but he fought it.

He grabbed YaYa.

“Where is he?” YaYa asked through sobs.

Walker glanced once more at the window. She was gone. As was Trevor.

“They have him.”