Retaliation

CHAPTER NINE

NVG Base Omega, Russia

Shen was nervous. His captor had been pacing and ranting around his cell for days. Finally, after nearly a week of the ranting, the vampire called him over and started demanding answers from him.

“You are from China originally, right? Your clan borders the lands claimed by this, this Werebear that claims Siberia. What do you know of him? What resources does he have?”

Shen stood for a minute, shocked by two things. Why was the vampire asking him something, rather than using him as a living experimental blood supply? Amazing, and odd. Then there was the question. There were legends as to why the clans had never moved into Siberia. The legends and stories told about the Siberian Bear were truly terrifying. Most agreed he was truly ruthless against any Asiatic Weres.

With cause, Shen had to admit.

The last major incursion by the clans had been more than three centuries ago and had been a disaster. The stories were often told to children as a warning against having contempt for a foe. Those who had attacked had gone in sure of victory, but not one in ten of the Werewolves that had been involved had returned alive. Even fewer of the Werecats had returned.

Even the vampires of the East had been cautious about sending people into Siberia. It was as if the area was a black hole for Asiatic members of the UnknownWorld. He suspected it was part of the reason why there was so little transfer between the Asiatic UnknownWorld and the rest. His personal experiences were somewhat different, but that might be because he was simply traveling as a businessman, not acting as any kind of threat.

At his hesitation and the glaze-eyed look on his face the vampire cursed and left the room. He came back quickly with a large amount of smoked meat, which he passed through the bars. Shen broke out of his reverie at the smell and started to wolf down the food. He had been hungry for so long that the food was all he could focus on.

After he had finished eating, he looked out of the bars at the vampire who repeated his questions to Shen again, this time with forced calm in his voice.

Shen considered his answer carefully. He was in this vampire’s power, and he really didn’t want to piss him off.

“Just answer with the truth, Were. I have no reason to punish you. Anything less puts my plans at risk. Answer honestly and I will provide more food for you.”

Shen nodded his understanding, if not his belief, “If it is the same one that my people encountered centuries ago, then I have to say that this Werebear is dangerous. He managed to turn back several attempted incursions by the clan over the last three centuries with massive losses on our side. Only one of the Weres sent to take and hold the territory returned. He was insane, kept mumbling that a bear attacked his forces, taking them apart a piece at a time. That the bear could not be touched. He was missing an arm when he returned to us. His mind never recovered.”

“Even vampires attempting to claim dominion over Asia were cautious about provoking him.”

“He became known as the Ghost Bear. Some people doubt that the original one is still alive, but the fear he has caused over the years is such that people still are cautious when thinking of entering Siberia.”

“Vampires from China became more and more cautious about their travels to Siberia. It is said that they behaved impeccably or ended up dead.”

Konrad swore. The Ghost Bear was the pack leader in Siberia? The man had led a very successful campaign against the Weres and lesser vampires on the Eastern front. He had killed two of Konrad’s brothers. He’d never been able to find out more than the code name. Peter had refused to tell David, stating that it was war, and people on both sides had died. Even though the Ghost Bear was only a Wechselbalg, Peter had offered to take it to Michael for arbitration. David had backed down. He did not want Michael involved on the off chance he might find out some the formula survived.

This whole project suddenly became personal, not just a power grab. He wanted this Ghost Bear, Boris, dead. He would have to be careful, though. Boris’s pack was reputed to be very loyal. The setback at Romanovka had him out of position and his troop strength lower than he truly liked. Konrad needed to come up with a plan.

His thoughts turned to the refugee column and the Border Forces Spetsnaz unit whose commander he had subverted. Yes, perhaps by distracting him he could still improve his position enough to succeed in his plan. Once that was done, he would be in a far better position to get revenge. With control over key areas, he could force the President to change Russian policies to what he wanted over time. And to send as many teams and assassins as it took to kill Boris.

Major Yerokhin had called together the five Captains of the teams that were available and could be spared from the reserve. He had four of his fifteen teams already acting on drug interdiction operations, one gathering intelligence. He needed to maintain a reserve of four teams. His contact with the NVG had managed to arrange orders from the Ministry of the Interior to mobilize his available forces to interdict and delay the column of civilians en-route to make an illegal border crossing.

He had been promised a promotion by his contact in addition to his usual payment if he managed to delay the convoy ten days. With his other responsibilities, he needed to be here in case his other units needed the reserves. He’d be sending in five teams to operate independently. It gave them more flexibility and him more cover if the government decided to disavow the orders. He had career goals of his own that did not involve any sort of time in jail.

He started issuing movement orders. The troops would insert by helicopter tonight and start operations immediately.

Captain Evgeni Dubrovsky was not comfortable with his orders. His team wouldn’t be either. Taking down drug traffickers and thwarting slavers — that was why he had joined. Killing civilians fleeing something was not. If they were fleeing illegal paramilitary troops, as was the most common rumor, he liked it even less. Harming civilians, Russian civilians, put into an impossible situation was not what he’d signed up for. He’d run any man without similar feelings out of his team. A team needed to know they could rely on each other. He was aware that there were many corrupt people in the forces but made sure there were none amongst his team.

After they had landed, he was going to head straight for the refugee column and attempt contact. His men would follow him and his orders, or not. He would not have his honor stained with innocent blood if he could help it.