Operation

O
PERATION
:

F
ACE
THE
F
EAR

T
ONY
R
UGGIERO

WWW
.
DRAGONMOONPRESS
.
COM

O
THER
W
ORKS
BY

T
ONY
R
UGGIERO

B
OOKS

Operation Immortal Servitude

Operation Save the Innocent

Alien Deception

Alien Revelation

Aliens and Satanic Creatures Wanted: Humans Need Not Apply

Coven

W
ORK
IN
A
NTHOLOGIES

No Longer Dreams. Poetry: “Waiting in the Garden.”

Writers for Relief. Poetry: “A Meeting with Destiny,” “Buried Treasures of Life,”“Celebration,” “Guard Them Well,” “Hello,” “Is There Anyone There,” “Pursuit,” “The Last Visit,” Up Another Step,” “Wind of Life” and “Yet It Did.”

Writers for Relief Volume II. Short story: “The Importance of Undergarments at Science Fiction Conventions.”

Breach the Hull. Short story: “Perspective.”

So It Begins. Short story: “Looking for a Good Time.”

N
ON
-F
ICTION

Contributor to the
The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy: Volume 2
.

Plus numerous short stories.

O
PERATION
:

F
ACE
THE
F
EAR

T
ONY
R
UGGIERO

Operation: Face the Fear

Copyright © 2009 Tony Ruggiero

Cover Art © 2009 Dragon Moon Press

All rights reserved. Reproduction or utilization of this work in any form, by any means now known or hereinafter invented, including, but not limited to, xerography, photocopying and recording, and in any known storage and retrieval system, is forbidden without permission from the copyright holder.

Dragon Moon Press

www.dragonmoonpress.com

www.tonyruggiero.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DEDICATIONS

Thanks to John Reese and the Team of Darkness for the opportunity to tell their story. Without them, I wouldn’t have much to talk about.

To my publisher who without her selfless determination this book would not have had the opportunity to see daylight. Thanks Gwen.

To my editor whose tireless efforts to correct my bad grammar and cut out those redundant words are very much appreciated. Thanks Barbara.

To my daughter Alexandra—they may not “sparkle” but they are my vampire to give to you. Love Dad.

Lastly to Mary whose help and encouragement somehow makes it all work—and I’m not just talking about the book. It’s about everything. Thanks hon.

P
ROLOGUE

Dear J:

I know it’s been a while, almost a year since I last wrote. How are you doing? I’ve missed those long talks that we had. I never heard back from you after we talked last time—did I scare you away with my story? I’m going to pretend that I didn’t and talk to you as I always have in the past. I hope that’s okay. You’re the only friend I have at the moment that isn’t part of this. Do you remember that letter or have you forgotten? The one where I said I thought that things were getting better. I honestly thought that they were. I thought it was over and maybe I could start over again. But it didn’t last—it never does any more.

I mentioned that I was going to be teaching again; unfortunately, that fell through. How do I begin this: it’s all happening so fast it’s hard to comprehend. Let’s just say that something has happened. The operation that I told you about, the one that I said was over—well, it’s not. General Stone did something quite foolish and now, I get to pay for his mistakes. They have brought me back onto active duty so that I can find two young girls. Why would a Navy Commander be searching for girls? If you remember the team that I led (those that had ‘the unique abilities’), well these girls are just like them. The General must have been completely mad when he came up with this plan. But he did and they were here in the States, but then they got away somehow and that’s why I was brought back to active duty—to find them.

If that’s not complicated enough, there are others involved that could make this situation sticky for me. They are from some government agency; I don’t even know which spook shop they’re from. I’ve only met two of them, a woman named Samantha, who says she is in charge, and a man called Smith. Talk about two for the nut farm; Smith is a real prize, he gets his jollies from making people squirm. It’s an obvious power thing with him only they won’t give it to him
—
not a lot of it, anyway, so he takes it out on anyone who can’t push back. Smith is the kind of guy that will always require a handler because he never knows when to stop. As for Samantha, I think she would kill anyone who disagreed with her. It’s the look in her eyes and the way she talks…it’s as if she’s living right inside the border of sanity but makes day trips onto the insane side as she needs to in order to get things done. Nice people, huh?

I can tell you this as unbelievable as it sounds…General Morris, who took command after Stone was murdered, he’s scared of them. This is the man who commands all the U.S. Special Forces and he’s scared. Really scared. He’s actually commandeered a SEAL team to serve as bodyguards. I imagine that they have threatened him should he fail in his mission to recapture the girls. Those threats run downhill to me in turn. Basically, they’ve promised me a cozy little cell at Fort Leavenworth if I don’t produce. And if that isn’t enough, I think that they suspect that I let the original Team go. Smith is riding my ass and questioning everyone that was involved in the original mission again. This is like a game of dominoes and no matter which way they fall, I lose.

I know who took the girls of course: it was Dimitri and the rest of the Team. No one else could have done it. So if I do find the girls, the Team is found at the same time. The Brass finds them and then they throw my ass in Fort Leavenworth for lying about what happened. It’s a lose-lose scenario for me unless I can get to the Team first and get the girls from them. That’s if they will give them up, which is doubtful. Dimitri and I understand each other, there are no more get out of jail free cards left. Hell, he probably thinks that I had something to do with capturing the girls which he’ll probably kill me for. So unless I can figure a way to get the girls, either the agency, the military, or the vampires will kill me. Sound like fun?

But it’s not completely doom and gloom. I’ve met a woman named Christina. I can’t explain the way she makes me feel. She’s so captivating and so very interesting. All I know is, for the first time that I can remember I feel that there may be a chance for me to have a normal relationship with a woman. No one has been able to do what she has done in such a short period of time. She has been able to give me a reprieve from what was eating away at me and destroying me from the inside; the fear of facing my true feelings of the quest for the immortality of the vampire life and being able to live across centuries. That need no longer haunts me because the void has been filled by her. She is what I needed to quell the fear of what I lacked. Her warmth saves me from the cold and inhuman vampire world. If I can find a little peace by not having to face the fear that pervades my nightmares, then that is what I want and I will do anything to get it. Anything.

Well J, wish me luck. Thanks for being a good friend and listening to my ramblings. I imagine that you must wonder if I, like my agency friend Samantha, am the owner of mental real estate bordering insanity. If I am, I at least recognize that it is only a vacation house and not a permanent residence. Funny, huh? Look at me making jokes at a time like this. Regardless, if I am still alive after all of this ends I want to see you in person. It has been much too long and we must be reunited in the end in order to finish all that we have begun.

Warmest Regards,

John Reese

C
HAPTER
O
NE

Commander John Reese rested the weight of his body on the sink in the bathroom as he splashed cold water on his face. Raising his head and looking in the mirror he saw a tired and haggard man, but overall he thought he looked pretty good for someone that had been shot three times.

He lowered his face to the pool of off-red colored water and went back to splashing cold water onto his face. The water had obtained the pink color from the blood that was on his hands. The blood dripped from small punctures made by the rose he had crushed, a gift from Christina, which had apparently received the brunt of his physical reaction to being shot during the dream.

Right now he wished he could simply wash away the dream’s images. He looked in the mirror again; the circles under his eyes and the pronounced crow’s feet at the corners made him look older than his forty-three years. Even his salt and pepper hair looked haggard. Yet the fact that he was still alive easily countered these effects and a slight reassurance appeared within his eyes as he looked at them.

He had been in his office on the Naval Amphibious Base, a few feet from where he now stood in the male head when it had happened. The dream had been vivid and disturbing on so many levels. Of course, the fact that he had been shot three times had obviously jolted him the most, but there had been other things as well. Other things such as the dead body of General Stone, the talking dead body of General Stone, lying on the conference table making accusations at Reese for his involvement with the vampires—codenamed Team of Darkness. Also there had been the vampire Dimitri who accused Reese of being involved with the capture and detainment of Ishma and Crema, the two children turned into vampires at ages thirteen and six. Yet the puzzling surprise was that Christina, the woman that he had recently spent time with under somewhat unusual circumstances, was also in the dream. She said that he had to help the girls. That only he could do what needed to be done. But Reese never saw her—he only heard her voice, which was puzzling. And finally there had been Samantha. She was the point-of-contact for the mysterious government agency that had backed him into the corner to find the girls or as she so nicely put it, “if he was lucky, help Reese change his address to Fort Leavenworth prison.” In the dream, Samantha directed Dimitri to kill him, but Reese would not allow the vampire the opportunity which led to Samantha having to do the shooting.

Reese wiped his hands and face with the paper towels from the dispenser and returned to his office. He closed the door and moved toward his desk. His eyes focused on the scattered rose petals. He scooped up the remnants of the flower with cautious hands and placed them back in the box. When he was finished cleaning up as best he could, he closed the box and put it to one side.