Retaliation

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Near NVG Base Omega, Russia

The fleeing and broken men fled the combat, trying to put the frightening battlefield behind them. The Spartans wisely chose not to block the routed force since it outnumbered them heavily, and because the panicked soldiers showed no signs of regrouping. Instead, Boris’ new allies moved aside and merely observed, making sure that no officer was attempting to rally a return.

Personal interviews with some of Boris’ vampire allies had convinced the Spartans that they had some idea of what might cause these men to flee. After talking to Boris, they felt prepared for the appearance of his ‘other form.’ It was still a large shock when a seven-and-a-half-foot tall human-bear hybrid emerged with deadly grace from the woods. Especially when it was not Boris, but Janna. Even knowing that the monster drawn from their childhood nightmares was on their side did not lessen the awe or reduce the fear.

They were glad when she turned back to the main battlefield.

Evgeni was getting used to the first name and rank that Boris preferred. He turned to Sergeant Yosif, and said, “I’ve never felt relief at an ally leaving before.” Yosif only shrugged.

“Better on our side than theirs, sir,” he replied laconically. “Sir, should we move back to the observation positions? Or move up towards the base? There are several abandoned trucks we could use as transport if we wanted, but if we overtake those sorry bastards they might try something.

“Never seen anyone flee so hard before, not even those poor pizda slavers we ambushed last year. The ones whose slaves started castrating the wounded.”

“On foot, I think, Yosif. There is no significant advantage for us in taking the trucks. Inform Danislav of the movement and our plans since he said something about supporting us after the main action.”

The sergeant started barking orders in rapid succession and within a couple of minutes, the Spartans were moving out. Evgeni was proud of how quickly his men responded and formed up. They had given him their best, and he was determined to be worthy of their loyalty.

Boris was exhausted. He’d spent the last ten minutes teaching Janna a calming exercise when she declined to change back to human in case she needed the power and ferocity of her current form to assault the base.

Don’t lose yourself my love. I could not bear the pain of that, he thought quietly to her.

I won’t. I wonder why we can talk to each other this way, though, she replied.

That she was showing curiosity was a good sign. When the rage took over, all a person thought about was violence and the hunger.

You need to stay here, Boris. You’ve received enough wounds today. I only got a few nicks from lucky bullets. You were mauled quite badly.

Boris could feel the concern behind her thoughts. He waved her off. Don’t mother me. You’re too young to do it convincingly. Take those willing to go with you, I will follow behind once the injured are loaded.

He felt her smile like a soft brush on his mind, and she was gone. Janna had changed her focus to the mission, moving on to further action and battle. His acceptance and confidence in her strength provided him a small moment of joy before he turned his thoughts back to war.

About four hundred men had volunteered to assault the base if Danislav deemed it worth the risk. Boris’ adopted son was still annoyed at having missed the big fight, but had been partially placated by the command of the base assault force. It helped his attitude that one of the drones had caught the battle on camera so anyone that wanted could watch the action later. Boris was quite sure it would be popular viewing by many.

Still, Boris doubted that any formal attack on the base would be necessary. Another thousand of his troops would be filtering into the area within a day, so they could stand off and reduce the base then if they needed to without the chance of additional casualties. To increase the one-sided nature of the encounter, the mortars were on their way with the reserves. Without the vampire leading the base forces, Boris suspected many who had joined the NVG would disappear into the forest or surrounding villages.

With the NVG force shattered, he would be surprised if there were anyone left living on the base when he got there. Janna’s appearance would spread the panic quickly, ensuring that those that had not already fled upon hearing of the death of their vampire leader and the decimation of the special Were troops would rapidly depart. Not one NVG Were had escaped, although they had caused forty of Boris’ fatalities. A bitter toll, but lighter than it would have been without Bethany Anne’s support on the logistical front.

He slowly got to his feet and went to assist those organizing the evacuation of the wounded from the area. Perhaps they didn’t need to move far… not yet at least.

Janna was shocked when she approached the base. There was no defensive fire, in fact, there was nothing but silence. It looked like Evgeni was right. The fear of the routed thugs had spread to the base defenders, and the news of Konrad’s defeat and death had caused widespread abandonment.

She had changed back to her human form when the main areas had been cleared and the defensive weaponry secured. Evgeni had been surprised and a little confused that it was her and not Boris. Janna promised to explain it later which seemed to calm him.

Danislav had brought her pants along with him. She was relieved more than a little. Being one of less than fifty women and the only one that was half naked had been kind of embarrassing, even if none of the men had looked at her inappropriately or commented.

They had two reasons to avoid any commentary she supposed. First, she could break any one of them over her knee. While that was scary enough, it didn’t even approach what Boris was likely to do to them if he found out they had disrespected her.

She heard the trucks with the wounded and the remainder of their force approaching in the muted growl of engines. The vehicles passed a group that was organizing the dead for recovery and burial. This late in the autumn, it was best to just cover the bodies and set guards. It had already been decided to bury them in the Romanovka cemetery before they left.

Boris had jumped out of the lead truck before it was fully stopped and immediately went to her.

“Have the buildings been cleared yet?” he asked

Janna replied, pointing to each of the buildings in turn, “The barracks, base hospital, and mess hall have all been checked along with the armory and towers. The main administrative building and base brig are being searched at this time by combined teams of Weres and Spartans.”

Boris nodded and waved the convoy towards the base hospital that Janna had identified. The trucks moved obediently toward their target. With over eighty moderately wounded troops that had not been treated with nanites due to a supply shortage, the most lightly injured might end up in the barracks. Still, none of those were life-threatening or critical, so there was no reason for concern.

One of the Spartans came running from the administrative building toward them.

“Sir, Ma’am, we have found a man being held in one of the basement offices that had been converted to a cell and office combination. We thought it best to inform you immediately and ask how you wanted to deal with the situation.”

Boris turned to Janna, who nodded. “Lead on. Maybe he knows something that could be useful to us.”

When they entered, the odor of both old blood and unwashed human was overwhelming. It was evident that the man in the room was a prisoner. One that Konrad had, for whatever reason, felt was valuable, but was not controlled enough to let roam free. The prisoner looked a little gaunt as if he had not been receiving enough food. He had distinctive East Asian heritage but was taller and more muscled than common in the area. His hair was a dark brown rather than the more prevalent black as well. After a few moments, they could detect the odor of a Werecat under the stronger smells.

Janna’s attention was immediately drawn to the desk. Despite having a laptop on it, her focus was the folders on the surface. On top of the filing cabinets, on top of every flat surface in the ‘office’. Folders and more folders. She opened the filing cabinet drawers to find even more files, most of which contained a mixture of printouts and handwritten notes. Showing obvious delight, her expression turned to disgust as she looked more closely. A variety of curses wafted around her like stinging bees.

“Goddamn, paranoid needle fucker,” she muttered.

“What’s wrong?” Boris asked.

“All of this is written in German or one of the Norse languages for starters. I know German but never studied the northern languages. Despite the ability to recognize them, I have not the capacity to translate anything in the language to something we can use. Even then much of it is in shortened forms that would take a team weeks to decrypt. Some of it also looks like code.”

Boris looked at her incredulously. “Why is that a problem? Why would we need a team to decrypt them? We send them up the chain and get them to sort it,” he said, very conscious of the prisoner’s presence. He thought to her, ADAM can probably help us there.

She blushed at slipping into her past role, and forgetting the resources available to her now.

The prisoner spoke up at this point. Softly and hesitantly he said, “Make sure you send the laptop with the papers then. He would often refer to it while writing. I suspect it has some of the code keys on it.”

“Who are you anyway? What had you done to attract the attention of these motherless bastards and made them give you such palatial accommodations?” Boris asked with irony in his voice. Before Shen could answer, Boris raised a commanding hand, speaking with absolute steel in his voice. “Before you answer, I’ll inform you now I want the truth and am feeling quite tired. Killing a powerful vampire is never easy. We will be checking the truth of your answers. But afterward, I will promise you at least a hot shower and a meal. Be aware, however, if you lie to us, it will be your last meal.”

Shen was worn out. He had meant to gloss over his past, but it wouldn’t be worth trying to fool the Ghost Bear. His reputation, as the saying went, preceded him. If he had defeated Konrad, as seemed likely given the situation, he was out of Shen’s league. Konrad had made Shen feel like a kitten. Not that fighting was Shen’s skill set.

“I was trading the location of a Soviet-era weapons cache for some quantum processors. Prototypes. When I turned up to make the deal, there was the smell of vampire. I was ambushed as I left and felt that changing in such a built up location to escape was a… bad idea. It was a painful discovery to find that the vampire was interested in me as an experimental subject. He’d take my blood at least once a week and try to make more werecats with it. Only had one success, a real shitjacker called Andrev.

“Between the pain and the boredom I was slowly going insane. When what I am assuming were your attacks started to be a problem, he gave me profiles of groups opposed to him and set me on pattern analysis. Basic stuff for a computer science major, especially since I’ve studied human to machine cybernetic interfacing. I came to the conclusion that you were a likely cause of his problems.

“He was convinced that if you were to attack one of his bases personally, it would be his research site near Archangelsk. His ‘most secret’ base he called it. I didn’t voice it but given the pattern of your attacks, switching from higher risk to low risk, the attack on the convoy didn’t make sense whether you knew the base was here or not. Unless it was a trap. I dodged the question when he asked me since I’d figured out by then he could tell when I was lying. So I took a chance. He’d already convinced himself and his second to wipe out the raiding force. Then you found me here.”

Boris looked at him thoughtfully and continued with his questions, “Your personal history?”

Shen looked uncomfortable. “My mother was a werecat who fell in love with a werewolf. Such couplings are taboo in China, so they fled to India. Dad runs a successful export business. I earn my way by representing the family enterprise. I do a few black market information deals on the side. Mom doesn’t know, and Dad doesn’t like it, but he accepts my choices. I think his attitude stems from how judgmental their families were. Maybe because he sees it as me making my own way in the world…”

Shen continued rambling through his family history for a few minutes. His exhaustion was evident so Boris called in Danislav.

“Take him for a shower and some food. Put him in a clean prison cell. Two guards at all times, suicide watch. We’ll need to take him with us. He might be useful, but we can’t have an information seller out there with data on us to sell to the highest bidder. He’ll probably sleep. Make sure the guards know if something happens to him before what he’s told us is checked out they’ll answer to me.”

Boris turned and left, looking for a meal and bed himself.