Blue Moon III: Call of the Alpha (32 page)

Lion waited patiently while the seer took in their surroundings. There was not only the enemy to worry about – who was possibly already on high alert – there was wildlife all around them. Bears, wolves, jackals, panthers, and a number of other predators roamed and owned this territory, and they’d have to respect it.

“Clear,” Hawk finally answered after several tense, silent seconds.

“Backhander?” Lion called on Pierce next. He waited for the genius to scan for any electromagnetic waves around them. Ensuring they weren’t being tracked or monitored. It was another few seconds when they all heard Pierce’s calm, “Clear,” before they resumed moving.

They were keeping pace and setting good time. There was no need to sprint. And they had to keep a constant eye out for danger. On mile four they’d come across several wild hogs eating the vegetation, but Alpha instructed them to keep their eyes forward and stay on course. Most animals only attacked when provoked. There was plenty for those hogs to eat besides them.

They’d been jogging for two hours and were only a couple hundred feet from their designated checkpoint when Pierce’s voice cut over their heavy breathing. “Halt.”

Lion stopped suddenly and crouched down. He didn’t move a muscle or reach for a weapon.

“I’m picking up a transmission.”

The line was silent while they waited. When Lion looked back at his army, Omega was almost fifty feet from him. He didn’t like it, but it was Omega’s fight style to attack from the rear. Hawk’s eyes were flashing various colors while he stared down the quiet basin. He could hear the sounds of the forest but nothing that sounded human. He’d still wait until Pierce gave the clear.

“I’m not able to decode it before it bounces around again. I only caught it because I have an alert on the Russian satellite. They’re trying to communicate with the men you killed. They’re trying to verify your deaths. Time is running out,” Pierce informed them, and Lion was up and in a full sprint.

“Point five clicks to our destination.” Hawk updated them while they moved fast through forest.

Lion recognized their checkpoint, it was a small area along the mountain that dropped open, and although it was dark, he could hear the flow of the river and knew he was at the cavernous opening that would become their shelter. Thank their genius for those amazing geographic prints. Alpha ran up next to him and didn’t slow a beat as he dropped down into the opening, never a making a sound. Lion dropped the few feet and waited on Hawk and finally, Omega.

They had no time. Thankfully, none was needed since it was only an hour before midnight. They had their plan. It was risky and a gamble at best, but all the increased risk did was make Lion’s heart pump faster. The coolness from the river helped to cool him and center his tiger. He was so close to those disloyal bastards, he could taste their deaths in his throat. This was what he was trained to do. Bring the justice.

“Get set up,” he told Hawk and Call while he and his assassin brothers dropped their bags and pulled out their individualized weapons. 

Alpha’s knives where everywhere on him, his katana strapped tightly to his back. Omega was just as precise and deadly with his own knives, but he also used a variety of throwing spikes, Calvary crosses, and poison-tipped darts. Once their hoods were tightened around their upper and lower faces, only their eyes visible, they waited on Hawk to give them the go.

He only spared Omega a brief glance. He had to. He had to look into those confident, gray eyes just one more time. He turned to find Omega was already looking at him, waiting on his alpha’s command. Hawk gave them the go. Both of his large sniper rifles were set up on top of their cave. He had a clear view all the way to the rebels’ compound. It should be no problem for Call to set his explosives, Hawk’s cover firing keeping him safe. Alpha helped Lion with that part of the plan. He and Omega were to alert the enemy to their presence and let them capture and take them prisoner. Alpha needed to know who the leader was and how many there were inside. The images from the mini camera Pierce installed in Lion’s flak jacket would give them that intel, then Alpha would sweep in and they’d clean house.

Pierce’s voice came through their earpieces. “All their radios and surveillance cameras are down and power is cut. You have ten minutes.”

Lion winked at Omega and watched the amazing man take off into the darkness. Call was next to hit the ground, running in another direction. Alpha stood rigid as he waited for his time. Even from their distance, Lion could hear voices.

“Eleven came out. All in black,” Hawk told him, his eye in his scope. He was not permitted to shoot until instructed.

Lion bolted in the same direction as Omega. When he broke through the last expanse of bushes, he saw Omega had already thrown his knives and taken out three of the men and was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with two others. He was moving faster than Lion had ever seen any man move, even himself. They couldn’t keep up, couldn’t track his next move. Omega dropped low and flipped one of the men over his body, reaching his hand around and snapping his neck before his feet touched the ground. Two more were making their way into the darkness to join the fight and Lion was on them before they could reach Omega. He took out the first man, his sheer momentum ramming through the man’s body, his smaller frame flipping up into the air and hitting the dirt with a hard thud. Lion didn’t need to look back to know that traitor wasn’t getting up. He grabbed the second assassin by his throat and reached in his flak for a death nail and jammed the long spike into his opponent’s neck, again not waiting to see his body smack the hard Earth.

When six more men moved towards them, Lion and Omega kept them distracted while Call was moving fast, already setting his explosives. He was focused and swift, just like Alpha had taught him. When Call went around the back, Lion turned to Omega and signaled to him that it was time.

The six men encircled them, each with their own unique weapon. No firearms. They yelled at them in Persian to put down their weapons. Lion and Omega stood back to back while the men waited to see if they were still wanting to fight or if they were going to do what they were told. Lion put his hands up first in surrender and Omega followed his alpha’s example. One of the men inched in carefully, being extra vigilant just in case it was a trap, but Lion and Omega allowed themselves to be cinched around their wrists and behind their backs by a constrictor’s knot – supposedly the most complicated binding knot to untie.

Once they were bound, the men led them inside in a single file line. Lion immediately begin working on loosening his knot, sure that Omega was, too. All was quiet in their earpieces. The compound looked like a three thousand square foot hut. The outside was so ramshackle it was easy to assume it was desolate from a distance. The men that aggressively pushed them down the hall were dressed like assassins but they weren’t from their Order, and the way they fought told Lion that they weren’t efficiently trained. Their fight stances were sloppy and inconsistent with their choice of weapon.

The place was dark and the men walking beside them already looked nervous. Pierce had hacked into Great Tehran Electrical and cut the power over the entire grid to kill any of their perimeter cameras. Candles burned and oil lamps were lit to guide their way. If Lion’s counting was still on track, the lights should be back on in four-and-a-half minutes.

When they reached the end of the hall, there was only one door and Omega was kicked in his back, forced inside first. Lion ground his teeth together to tamp down his urge to come to Omega’s defense. When he got to the entrance and saw Omega making his way back to his feet, the man went to kick him as well, but Lion was ready for it. Right before that foot could connect with his spine, he flexed his back muscles. Instead of the man pushing Lion’s large frame forward, his foot hit hard muscles that knocked him back on his ass. The man cursed, and lengthened his six-foot bo staff, slamming it across the top of Lion’s shoulders. The hit stung, but he didn’t make a sound. He was hit again and again until he crossed the threshold where four men sat, cloaked in dark red. Their clothing, even their flak jackets, were identical to Lion’s in every way except for the color. It was their defiance. No longer wearing the jet-black colors of the Order. These were the rebels they were looking for. It was only four trained fighters and a handful of vagabonds dressed like assassins. It might not seem like it, but the odds were definitely in their favor.

Omega

He couldn’t wait to kill every one of these motherfuckers, and if Lion allowed it, he was going to do it slowly. The men in red stared them down with only their obsidian eyes visible. Omega could see they were of age and mature, just like Lion and Alpha.

The lights came back on with a pop and the minions looked all around them as if expecting a flood of men to come bursting through the doors, but the red assassins hadn’t moved a muscle or averted their eyes from their prisoners. Omega’s gray eyes were forward, but in his periphery, he could see crates of weapons lined against the far wall. There were three men dressed like peasants in front of a multitude of computer screens. One of the men had bruising along the side of his jaw, like he’d been recently slapped and the other two kept their eyes on their monitors, as if afraid to look away even for a second. They were preparing for something big. It looked like Lion formed his army just in time.

“Do you want me to kill them?” one of the wannabe assassins asked. The same one who’d kicked Omega in his back. This guy was not disciplined. His first thought was to kill them instead of questioning them.

“Not yet.” The red assassin in the middle spoke in Persian, but his accent indicated Nigerian descent. When he stood, his broad body was just slightly smaller than Lion. He walked with confidence and when he stood in front of them, he was mindful to keep his distance.

“There’s no point in asking your names. I know you won’t give them. I know you are Imuma Aga Kahn, but your identifiers aren’t visible to me. Regardless, you are the two I saw take down my drone. I also know you escaped the explosion and killed my men. Only a master could do these things. Therefore, I knew you were coming. If you want your lives spared, you can join us.”

Not on your fucking life
. He and Lion watched in silence. At any minute, they were going to get their countdown and they’d be able to attack.

“Are there more of you?” he asked in Persian, then in French and Spanish. He didn’t know if he was understood or not because they remained silent. Looking him in his eyes, neither Omega nor Lion answered a single question. It seemed they’d destroyed the drone before it could transmit all the images, so they hadn’t seen Hawk, Alpha, Call, Viper, or Pierce.

“You two work alone? Are you a pairing?”

The same man that kicked him leaned close to Lion’s face and barked in Persian, “Answer!”

Omega could feel Lion’s rage, but Lion was too disciplined to foil their plan.

“We’re not malicious killers. We want peace. I would hate to destroy two extremely valuable men such as yourselves. You would both sit on the high council.” The red men watched them, gave them a minute to think about it.

The man had his bo staff extended, ready to strike Lion. “Speak!” he ordered again. When Lion kept his mouth closed tight, the man whirled his bo around, that hard white oak wood sounding like a crack of lighting when it connected with the side of Lion’s face. Lion’s head whipped to the side from the impact. He still hadn’t made a sound, but Omega feared the hit may have done some damage.

Omega couldn’t take any more of this, he was just about to divert from the plan when one of the technology peasants blurted out a warning.

“They’re bringing in another one!”

Finally.

Bo staff pulled back and ran out of the room with the other minions, the red assassins waiting to see what was coming.

Omega’s hands were still working the complicated knot, only a few more seconds and his hands would be free. From the way Lion held his arms tight, it appeared his already were.

Come on, Alpha, goddamnit.
As soon as Call was safely back to their cave, he was supposed to make his entrance.