SEAL Team 666: A Novel (34 page)

“Where’s the necklace?” Laws asked.

Before Walker could answer, a cry went up behind him. He turned to see a young man standing on top of a crate, holding the necklace high into the air.

“Oh, hell,” he said.

But he needn’t have worried.

The young man put on the necklace and for a single instant was Chi Long. But the power of the demon was too much for his frail human body. It burned to ash in an instant, the necklace falling to the wood of the crate. No sooner had it landed than it was taken up again. And again. And again. As each Karen wore it, he burst into flame and died.

Laws pulled Walker away. “Come on—hurry.”

Walker ran. His jerking fingers managed to switch on the radio.

“SEALs to the water,” Holmes screamed as the sound of jets rent the morning.

The Tornadoes flew in formation out of the west.

The SEALs hit the water and swam furiously.

Laws spied more than a dozen skiffs tied along the water’s edge and swam to one. He climbed in, shoved the fishing poles out, and got the outboard started on the second try. He revved the engine, then took off toward the SEALs in the water. He dropped the mooring rope off the left side so his teammates could grab on—first Yaya with Hoover in tow, then Walker, then Holmes, who was holding tightly on to Ruiz’s body. They made it perhaps a hundred meters away from shore before the
land burned black
of Kadwan erupted in a ball of effervescent destruction as one bomb after another ate away at those beings who would be demon until there was nothing left except the memory of a tattooed skin man who would be king.

Epilogue

CORONADO ISLAND. NIGHT.

Walker stood in front of his mirror, examining all his new scars. His actions during the final battle had scared him. The demon had demonstrated a power over him it hadn’t had over the others. Did that mean that there was some piece of the grave demon left within him? Was there a part of his soul that had been ruined and would remain forever stained because of it? If so, how much of a liability was he going to be to his team? Then again, if not for him, they never would have been able to stop Chi Long.

He found a T-shirt and pulled it on, then hurriedly tied his shoes. He went out into the main room, where Jen was waiting for him. When she saw him, she ran and threw her arms around him. He’d been back for two days and this was only the second time they’d been together. The first had been yesterday, when she’d made him meet her at the Homecoming statue. He’d arrived by taxi to see her standing in a summer dress, the wind picking up the hem of the orange and yellow material and the locks of red hair framing her face. He’d immediately felt a deep welling of pride and love as he strode toward her. She’d been right. Fighting for the living was much better than fighting for the dead.

“Hello, sailor,” she’d said. “Glad you made it home.”

She said the same thing now and kissed him on the cheek.

“Watch the PDA,” Laws said, laughing as he came into the room. Both of his arms had been professionally sutured. He’d been angry at first that he couldn’t get Purple Hearts for the wounds. He wanted to add to his collection, but was told that it didn’t count if another SEAL stabbed him. Unable to explain that it was because the SEAL had been under the power of a demon, he’d had to accept the judgment.

Yaya entered next, with Hoover beside him. The
qilin
that had dragged him into the jungle had been all but dead when it had tried to eat him. Yaya had managed to stab it in an eye with one of its own spikes. He’d ripped as many of them free as he could, then set out determined to save his fellow SEALs.

“Are we ready to go to McP’s?” Jen asked.

Laws nodded. “Holmes is already there setting things up.”

“Ruiz would rather we blow shit up than drink,” Walker said.

Laws smiled mischievously. “There might be some of that too.”

Yaya slid his mirrored sunglasses in place.

As they strode out the door, Walker couldn’t help commenting, “What worries me is that the spikes hurt Chi Long, but my bullets didn’t.”

“The spikes came from a supernatural creature. Maybe that’s why—maybe it could only be hurt by something supernatural,” Laws surmised. “But it’s Charlie Mike. Don’t dwell on something that’s over.”

“Sorry. I was just thinking. I mean, if my bullets didn’t hurt it, what makes us think that bombs did?”

They all turned and looked at each other.

“But the bombs cause fire,” Jen said. “Wouldn’t the fire kill him? I mean, nothing could have survived all those bombs, right?”

They all started walking again.

“God,” Walker said. “Let’s hope not.”

Suddenly they all stopped and turned. “Hoover!” Yaya shouted. “Get your ass in gear.”

The dog ran toward them, eager and happy as only a dog could be. She wasn’t bothered by her host of new scars, or the hundred sutures that banded her front legs. She was just happy to be home with her family, if only until the next mission.

As were they all.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WESTON OCHSE has won the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize for short fiction. He is a retired U.S. Army intelligence officer and current intelligence officer for the Defense Intelligence Agency. Visit Weston online at
www.westonochse.com
.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.

An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.

SEAL TEAM 666
. Copyright © 2012 by Weston Ochse. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.thomasdunnebooks.com

www.stmartins.com

Cover design by Lisa Maria Pompilio

Cover illustration by Sam Kennedy

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Ochse, Weston.

   SEAL team 666: a novel / Weston Ochse. — 1st ed.

         p. cm.

   ISBN 978-1-250-00735-3 (hardcover)

   ISBN 978-1-250-01346-0 (e-book)

1.  United States. Navy. SEALs—Fiction.   2.  Special operations (Military science)—Fiction.   3.  Demonology—Fiction.   4.  Cults—Fiction.   I.  Title.

   PS3615.C476S43 2012

   813'.6—dc23

2012034563

e-ISBN 9781250013460

First Edition: November 2012