CHAPTER 09


   It did not seem to take really long before the macho exterior had worn off. By Bruce’s estimations, all of that crap went right out the window about the same time as these kids had the first large caliber round fly past their head. A few of them had not been so lucky and that round had only gone by after going right through their body. Human bodies, even covered in armor, did not seem too do much in the way of stopping Orc munitions. Bruce still had his on anyway. He had procured a helmet, more of the special operators variety, and a ballistic vest from the consulate armory. He now had all of it on over his regular clothing along with spare ammo and any other gear he knew would be useful. The marines had laughed at him when he first joined them but, no longer. Now they were taking his orders.
As far as Bruce could tell, none of these kids had ever really seen combat up till today. They had been guarding this outpost of America and the combat missions were all being done by the army. On past visits, Bruce had noticed that it irked a few of the jarheads but, now they no longer seemed to care. The Orc had punched several holes in the perimeter and quite a few got in. They had attacked the operations center but, that crew did not get very far. The ones that overran the administration building was another matter. No one had ever thought it would be attacked so, it was not really defended. Now they had to go room by room and clear the bastards out.
The Orc were easy enough to find. Bruce simply had his improvised squad follow the trail of hacked up office workers. Listening to the stories from the ones they found hiding out, a lot of people in this building did not even believe they were under attack until they got split in half by the ax head of a staff. Even after the marines found this one guy, hiding in a closet, he still wanted to go back to his desk and grab his hard drive before leaving. It made Bruce wonder what the hell was on it and, he figured, it was probably not sensitive State Department documents. Naturally, Bruce had told the guy, “request denied.”
When they finally reached what Bruce thought was the end of the building, his little team had gotten quite proficient at clearing out rooms. The number of bodies laying around this last door told him no human was likely to be behind it and, the sounds coming from in there were an even better indication. Bruce nodded to Grace Morgan to do her thing just before he went belly down on the floor. She fired a burst into the wall just over Bruce. The reply was exactly what Bruce was hoping for. The Orc fired his staff weapon right into the wall, just about where the marines small arms had hit. It left a nice big hole in that wall and, also, the one across the hall as well. Bruce used it to fling a grenade into the room just before returning to his prone position. The explosion left the door off the hinges and marines went right past what was left it, hosing down the room with small arms as they went.
When Bruce heard the yells of, “clear,” he got back up and inspected their handy work. Judging by the separate pieces of anatomy, that was left behind, Bruce took a marker from his vest and made two black slashes on his forearm instead of just one. Grace Morgan had noticed him doing it and, while fighting back the urge to puke, she cynically remarked, “more trophies for the wall?”
Bruce knew exactly what the Marine corporal was talking about and he took no offense at all. He was, in fact, very condescending when he replied, “you don’t think it’s a good idea to know exactly how many we’re fighting and, more important, how many we’ve cleared? That’s tactics one-oh-one corporal.”
One of the diplomatic security operators, with the team, poked his boot in the pile of gore that was probably Orc intestine. He commented with an almost laugh, “damn they smell even worse on the inside.” He nodded to the bile running from the creatures belly and added, “hope that wasn’t anybody I knew.”
Grace put her hand over her mouth and fled the room.
Bruce just shook his head and told the guy, “let’s get everybody out of here. We’ll booby trap and mark the doors but, I think it’s a good idea to fall back on operations now.” The other operator thought about it but, an excessive amount of shooting changed his mind about what he was going to say. Bruce could figure what that was. The guy worked for State after all. His priorities were destroying the sensitive material in this building but, Bruce knew it was a fools errand. They weren’t fighting humans here. It was unlikely the Orc would understand, let alone care, about State Department spending vouchers. No one even knew if the damn things could read, let alone read English.
It was when Bruce got back to the operations bunker that he found out what the source of the increased small arms fire was. He should have known that Gabe Foster would have been at the center of it. The guy had led another team off campus to take care of a few details and gather some intelligence. They were short on the last part since the phone lines were down and the radio’s were jerking them around once more. The intense fire fight, that Bruce heard, had been Foster’s team trying to get back in the wall. The enemy did not seem to have them surrounded but, there was sporadic staff fire coming from nearby buildings. How occupied they were was still up for debate.
Listening to Foster’s report, Bruce knew where he was starting to fall on the enemy disposition. As the State Department guys argued Bruce just looked to Gabe and said, “so they don’t control the city? That’s what you’re basically saying.”
“Right now,” Gabe replied with a shrug, “I don’t think anybody does. Everybody’s holed up and who was shooting at us depended on which district we were in. The dragons are digging in over at their temple. They’re moving some heavy duty shit over there. The human militia is all scattered and about fucking worthless.”
Steve Park, the lead State guy at the moment, was quite fearful and almost desperate when he asked, “what about the elves? The Notae? They patrol this district?”
Gabe just shrugged, “we didn’t see a single elf.” He then added as an afterthought, “and I mean not the first, not just their patrols.”
Bruce almost snorted out a laugh but caught himself. With anarchy out there, it was a sure bet that any elf living here was in hiding. Without their goon squads it was very likely that if another species caught one alone, they’d gut the bastard in short order. None of it was surprising but, it was also irrelevant. It meant that the Elves had hauled ass but, the important question was, to where? That information might become important and it was because of something else Bruce noticed on his way back to Operations, “I didn’t hear any artillery going off up in the hills.”
Steve Park was still sounding desperate, “it’s quiet over by the airbase too. That’s good news, right?”
Gabe ignored the guy and looked to Bruce and the few military types in the room, “word we got was that the crews out on the perimeter were running south with their tails between their legs.” That made Gabe actually laugh and say, “I guess here, that was a literal statement.”
Park snapped at the Gabe, “that’s not funny!”
Bruce moaned in pain and then sighed, “god I hate being right.” Bruce then stopped Park from saying anything else by pointing out, “the cities defenses collapsed, dumb ass. That means we’re going to be up to our necks in Orc shit, any time now.”
The ranking Marine saw the implications as well and he looked to Park and told the guy, “that means we need to evacuate, sir, and I mean now. If they get in here with a real army, there is no way I can hold this campus.”
Bruce added, “we barely managed against a couple of suicide squads.”
Now Park was almost at the point of full panic, “I can’t! I don’t have any orders and… Where do we go?”
Foster weighed in, “Seau-Neaut, I saw choppers going in and out of there so, we still hold it. If First Brigade is going to defend any point, that’s going to be it.”
Bruce was not so cheerful when he pointed out, “and what if First Brigade gets overrun? You know those guys were spread to hell and gone when the attacks started.”
The Marine added, “and we still have US civilians that are unaccounted for. Some of them made it here but, according to the list, Mister Park has, we still have a dozen or more than didn't.”
Foster sighed and picked his weapon up off the dusty table they were standing around, “I’ll handle that part. I suggest we start planning an exfil and, right now.” That started another round of discussions that sounded more like an argument. It was, also, not what Bruce was most interested in. He followed Gabe and was surprised to see that the guy wound up in the security office, in front of a video monitor, and searching through old footage. It also seemed as if Gabe was well aware he had been followed, “what do you want Arbuckle?”
Bruce wandered closer now that his tail had been made, not that he had ever really tried to hide it. He looked at the image on the monitor and recognized what used to be one of the side gates. The gate was no longer there, along with a good section of the wall, and Bruce suspected the car that Foster was most interested in was the reason why. Foster was looking at the video in reverse and he only stopped it when he saw someone walk up backwards and get in the car. That meant in real life, the person had just gotten out.
Gabe froze the image and the enlarged the face. He mumbled quietly under his breath, “son of a bitch.”
“I don’t get it,” Bruce added, “it’s just some girl. I mean…” Suddenly Bruce realized why that was wrong, “why would a human do that?” Foster got up from the chair and left without so much as a word. Bruce followed him and found that he almost had a fight on his hands when he cornered Gabe in a hall and told him, “you know something. The way things are looking I might need to know too.” When Foster looked as if he was going to outright refuse, Bruce got in his face, “you’re playing with my life too. Who the hell was that girl?”
“I don’t know,” Gabe burst out with.
Bruce did not accept the answer, “but you know…”
“I might know what she is,” Gabe explained. “That’s all, ok? Oh come on Bruce, you’re not that dense. Put two and two together here.”
Suddenly a light came on and Bruce said, “a fairy fucking god mother?”
“Well it makes sense,” Gabe sounded pleading when he said that.
This led Bruce to ask the obvious question, “that’s why you’re here? You got an op running on the Tylwythen Deg?”
Gabe pointed out by asking, “did you see the hair?” He then stumbled and added, “I mean she had it mostly stuffed under that hood but, what I saw looked red.”
Now Bruce felt like slapping the guy, “I’m the one taking heat for that goddamn fairy dust and you’re the one moving it?”
“NO,” Gabe growled and then he huffed, “would you keep your voice down.” More subdued, Gabe told him, “we were mapping out their network, ok?”
Bruce waived that notion off in a hostile manner, “I could have told you who the entire network is, you didn’t need to go to this kind of…”
Very subdued, Gabe cut in with, “Balfour is only the tip of the iceberg. Besides that, he doesn’t know everything going on. He thinks he does but, think about it Bruce? If they can use that network to move drugs then what else can it be used for?”
Bruce was not that impressed, “or more to the point, what can we use it for?”
Gabe thought he made a breakthrough, “exactly!”
“Bullshit,” Bruce shot back, “that might sound good but, what are you not telling me? There is no way in hell the NID sanctioned this kind of op. Not without me finding out about it, anyway.”
“Oh come on,” Gabe responded with the same condescension and hostility that he was getting, “you know how this game works. Don’t hand me that crap. I can’t tell you everything and you know it. So don’t even start Bruce.”
As Gabe walked off, Bruce was still angry, “well, we shall see what we see.”
Gabe only laughed from a distance and, after he turned a corner, he yelled back, “good luck with that. Let me know how it turns out.”