There were ten of us again and me. Tom, Kevin, Harry, Tim, Louis, Patrick, Frank, Jim, Jack, Matt. All men except me. We didn't know how many casualties there'd be if there was anybody there but the senator's daughter. I was sitting in the backseat. Our vehicle fit all of us and our gear, too. I had a heavy sports bag with me, another little smaller bag flung across my chest, too.
I had gear in my sports bag for Annabelle and my smaller bag was a medical kit, so it went with me always. I had guns on me, several of them, ammos, and explosives too. I was ready to do this, and whatever this required. I knew that after this mission, I would pretty soon go to my next as these were done pretty fast schedule too.
Frank was our medical man, and he had his kit on him too, and several tubes of my blood in case of emergency. I had given fresh blood just before the mission so it would be fresh and potent, too. I had no idea how long my blood kept its healing power and I was not gonna want to find out in the worst way, meaning not giving fresh blood but trusting that the old supply would be valid enough to work and then in mission notice its lack of potency, meaning lives might be lost, so it was better to save than sorry, no need to gigs on Lake Lanier for me.
The drive took two hours. We needed to drive through the back road in order to get close enough without getting noticed and alarming anyone; it was late night, dark and our car finally stopped, and we exited the car. I took on my gear and ran through a silent forest as we approached our target.
We moved as a team fast and made little noise as the forest floor was littered with old leaves and moss. Each of us was ready for this mission. When we reached a suitable spot, there was no perimeter fence here, only a building loomed ahead of us. We were still shadows in the forest as I crouched down, opened my bag, and took out my eight small drones. These looked like toys, but looks can be deceiving, and I put my fleet into the air.
I use my controller and this one took care of these eight, they could be flown in as a swarm or then they could be independent too. I split them into four pairs and we watched carefully everywhere. I showed everyone what they wanted to see, so it was good to go for attackers to get us in.
Our snipers were ready and took out the rooftop. There had been men ready to take us out, but we took out that hiding system. Magnum and Murdock had come up even smaller, and an effective bomb that was barely noticeable by bad guys and they had thought that their almost virtual reality-based cover kept them invisible, but not for long.
The men cleared the way in, and the roof was cleared. I ran into the building and began to search my way to her. I went up 7 floors before I found her and I had a bag with me.
Annabelle was small in size. She was sleeping or sedated in bed, restrained but alone, and somehow I knew she had been a handful before they had her subdued. It might be because she was the only one in this room and these restraints were strong enough to hold me down as well.
But I got them open and gave her an antidote for most of the sedatives used in these facilities. This had been one of Colin's leprechauns' ideas to make this all-purpose antidote, so it helped a lot in missions when you get victims on their feet with relative ease. She started to move, her eyes were starting to open a few minutes later, and I shook her gently, letting my alpha side, my alpha power I guess be upfront so she would sense it and not make a fuss.
She opened her brown eyes, looked at me and I said, "Shh, I am here to rescue you, I am Mimi, the flea and you need to stay calm and do as I say so you get out of here and back to your home. Now, you are free and I have some gear, and safety gear here for you to put on, so you are safe when I get you to our transport car to be moved out of here. "
She nodded and started to try to get up; I helped her to sit up, all the while telling her what was going to be happening next, not letting her decide anything. One look on my face told her everything. I was not one to be messed with. I was stronger than her and I would be in charge of things here.
She was not too tall, very slim, and now scared and confused, but I could sense the rage in her. I kind of negated that one with my own. When I let my rage peek into my gaze, I could feel hers sinking deeper, and she sighed noticeably. She had turned 18 not so long ago, and I helped her put on one Magnum-made jacket, as well as a bulletproof vest and bulletproof pants. They were the smallest that we got, but they were a little baggy on her slender frame.
I said, "These are not fashionable clothes, but they will keep you safe."
Her hair was mussed up, dark brown and her Spanish heritage could be seen in her Latina skin. She would be pretty enough, but right now, she was in a little awkward phase, not sure what she was going to be, and since she was a werewolf, she would not age that much. She might get a little more maturity in her face over time, but she would always look like a schoolgirl more or less.
The girl nodded, and I started to lead her out towards the second exit. I had planned our route and how to get her to safety and this was going according to plan, for now.
But as we exited from this patient room, the receiver in my ear cracked, I heard Jack say, " Careful flea, we have a lot of company here. "
I took my mic and said to it, "Roger that. The packet is in delivery. I will tell you when I am done, what is the situation with victims?"
Jack replied," Over 150. Transport is ordered, but we are well on our way. Keep safe. They are very enthusiastic about shooting us."
I acknowledged that and moved on. Good to know. I kept my gun ready, hid Annabelle always in a safe place, and went to clear our way. I had to keep a careful balance because Jack had not lied. There were a lot of guys here, trying to capture or kill me, get Annabelle too, and these were very motivated when they recognized me. So this was one place again that was seeking me and I stumbled right into a hornet's nest, almost. But I had my team, guns, and skills to get me through to this.
I got pretty good at shooting bad guys and keeping my rage on full display because I'd already had four tranquilizer darts in my skin and knew the stuff had gotten through. I needed to keep calm enough to keep Annabelle fully under control and calm all the time, but not get her too clingy on me so that the transfer would go without a hitch.
My exit strategy worked just fine, and we were finally out of the car when I got her into the car and safety. There were two female medical persons there. Gina and Holly, and took Annabelle and looked her through during the drive. The receiver in my ear gave me updates all the time, and I heard I was needed, so I ran back inside and did what needed to be done, too.
I got on with the mission and told everyone that I was coming back in after I had got Annabelle transferred to the car; the car started to drive to safety, and I went to help my group, and we already had inured ones, several guys, so time for me to be trauma surgeon for Jack, Jim, Frank, and Tom.
I gave them all my blood more. They had their vials already, which had saved them more or less, and then dug the bullets out when I stunned them for a moment. I had my own instruments, and I had two guys keep me safe while I did my fast surgery.
It was done by bleeding almost all the time in their wound while I dug up the bullet, so I did not have to be careful, but I could be efficient. I had a little cannula in my neck. My blood was dripping more or less into their wound, repairing if there was some damage done while I poked around their guts.
This was painless for them, and messy for me, but I liked to save my guys. I did this inside the facility and got the bullets out of all four of them. They left for safety when I went to check on the rest of the gang. My sedative kept them down for 15 minutes so surgery was done fast and brutally but I was good at this.
Everybody was okay. I got a message on the radio, and I was on the ninth floor to check it out because it had not yet been checked. It was empty, but something nagged me when I looked at one wall, and it had a strange look to it. It was somehow out of place and my mind was trying to tell me something. I thought for a moment and realized that there was no wall at that point on the base drawing.
I went to investigate, and there was a wall panel that was hidden, but visible enough for more close-up inspection. The floor was otherwise empty and all the 194 victims were already en route to safety. Collectors had collected almost everything, and we were ready to wrap this up. Enemies had been slain, too.
Fine. I took a small explosive from my pocket, put a detonator in it, went a little further away, and blew the door open. It revealed a floor.
I said on the radio, "Go ahead, I'm coming after you. I have a backup vehicle reserved. I found a secret section on one floor, and I'm going to go through this."
The team acknowledged that and started to clear out. Several cars were on the move soon. The sniper team was still on standby. They would be always last to leave, only after the building had been blown up, or the team left the premises. So they remained. I had no idea what there would be, and I was curious enough to find out, but as there could be traps and this was an unknown part of the facility, I did not risk anyone else than myself.
I walked down the corridor. There were doors, so I started searching room by room, and this was probably a lab for Krycheck or something. There were drugs, files, and sample rooms too, so this was a secret lab or examination part. At the end of this corridor were the double doors, and I went through them and then I came into the hall.
I went to the table in the middle of this space first. There was a clipboard with the list. I recognized the names when I read through the list. There were 20 victims here, humans, and they were all fleas. They had announced that they were withdrawing from the fleas and going on with their civilian lives. I wasn't at all sure if that was the case or if they had been forced to say that.
Beds were lined in sides of this huge hall and middle of it was an islet, table, and computer, this was like some patient ward where there were multiple patients in one huge space except this was not for healing, or curing a disease, this was meant to torture, interrogate, test and maim. I said nothing yet to the mic, but I needed to see everyone myself first, and what I could do to do these. Everyone was in terrible shape and I had the nasty feeling, really nasty feeling, in my gut about this. I was professional, and I kept myself under control.
I approached the first bed on the right side of the room. This was Cindy. I had been with Cindy on many gigs. She had been one of my team when we had been at that bar where I had made that little show to Damon when I had been pissed off with him. So Cindy and I went a long way.
She had retired a few years ago, got engaged, and moved into the city to perfect life with Joshua. I guess not so happy life. I untied her from the drip and squeezed her ear. I took her restraints off too. She was skinny, wounded, and a very nasty color in her skin, greyish white. Her lips were almost bloodless too, white, dry.
Cindy opened her eyes and said, "Flea, is that you, or am I hallucinating again? Did you stop this?" Her voice was a mere whisper, and it took a while for her to get spoken.
I said, "I'm here to save you. You are in quite a rough shape. I look you through and see what needs to be done first. Now just wait a minute, and I'll get some more people in here and get you out. "
Cindy said, "No, no, it's too late. He's in our head. We're the risk. Flea, end this quickly and painlessly. Look." she grimaced as she moved and said, "Implants in our body, they are trying to test new mechanical organs, turn us into cyborgs and then put us in fleas, but as spies, Krycheck's plan. He wants to kill our soul, so to speak, but not fully, but who we are and he has done too much damage. I don't trust myself, I am in pain and I want to die as me. Not as a killer cyborg."
Cindy showed her head, and part of her skull had been removed and replaced by a clear plastic through which I could see her brain with electrodes. I looked at the patient file at the head of his bed and saw reality. She had been brainwashed, programmed, and inflicted with pain, and brain damage. But I saw she hadn't said anything. What she said was true. I saw implants, or notes of them and Krycheck's written order to brainwash, destroy, and program them.
I went through all the victims and woke them up, and every single one of the 20 had been tortured, brainwashed, and destroyed. There was no other way. I tried to rack my brain to try to find a solution, some way to save them. I did not find any. Not one of them wanted to live like this.
The human brain is one place where a vampire's blood works very poorly. If some new brain grows, it will not have any memories or any personality and it will take a long time for the brain to get any function at all. There would be just too much damage in operation when removing these implants and electrodes, and it was very likely that they would die on the table. It would just prolong their suffering.
I went to the table in the middle of the space and I knew what I needed to do. I took some charges and put them near the computer and then put a few of them into the room too, where I saw gas pipes could be. We had no transport available to move these out and besides, most of my friends were in that shape. It would require a closed-coffin funeral, anyway. Some of them were not been able to talk even.
Finally, I took out my mic and said to the snipers, "Flea here, there are 20 fleas left except they were brainwashed and tortured and programmed. There's only one thing I can do. "
Adam's voice said, "I'm here, one sniper. You didn't notice. Do you want me to?"
I gulped and said, " No need. I'll be fine. "
Somehow, hearing Adam made my resolution waver just a bit. It made me feel some more, and I needed to get a grip and get this over with.
Adam's voice said over the radio, "I'm on my way. Hold on. Just a few minutes. Stand down, do not engage in any action yet."
I acknowledged he was now speaking as my alpha, and it was natural for me to obey. I sat down on the chair and took a few deep breaths. I knew that there was no hope, but a little part of me hoped that once Adam would come, he would tell me what to do to save these.
I heard footsteps, Adam's, and I had told him in what floor I was. I saw him come in, and he just nodded and started to talk softly to everyone. Most of these were Adam's friends too, and I gave him papers too so he could go through everything himself.
He came over to me and said, " Get going. You were right. I do what needs to be done. I'll be right behind you. Go."
I said," I will put a few more charges along the way. Do you want a detonator or not?"
He said," Give me those charges, and I put them on and blow this place up once I am done. You have taken a hit, so move out. I can smell those drugs in you and you have rage out. So go."
After I had given him enough explosives, or he had taken them from my bags, he pushed me out of the hall, and I started to go towards the front door, but I knew who all I had to go to again to write to Lake Lanier.
Adam came after me ten minutes later when I was already waiting in my car. I had an extra car brought here by the transfer team, just in case.
Adam came to the driver's seat and said, " You know what, Mimi? That was difficult. I thought it would have been easier, but no."
I nodded and said, " Nobody told anyone anything. Oh, that I want to kill Krycheck or whoever did that."
Adam pressed the detonators, and we saw the building coming down, burying our friends in deep piles of rubble, as this had been an old hospital that would be declared an accident. Since the city had a budget pretty tight, no clearing would be done, and the land had not been anything so valuable as there had been spillage and contamination. So this would be a pile of rubble for years to come.
Adam nodded, and we drove off. We drove to the base, and I updated the fleas, and Adam picked up Annabelle, and went to take her to her father. I knew I still had to keep my rage up and tomorrow there would be another gig where I would be the destroyer. Sometimes, I felt like I was writing and just putting one flea after another dead. Even though this gig had been a success and we had saved so many and Annabelle too, those losses felt heavy in my heart. This is the damnest, hardest part of my organization. Getting humans killed just because I lured them into my organization. Lets hope that the next gigs will be better.