Chapter 133

THE NURSES' HOME

The wind had died down to an occasional hard gust, but they could still hear almost constant thunder in the distance as the sky to the south lit with multiple lightning flashes. The power was off and would remain so through the coming day as the power company repaired many downed lines throughout the area, and installed new transformers to get the substation back on line following the lightning strike.

"Oh, shit," Kayla said, hissing in a breath when she saw the result of the multiple full-power pulse rifle hits. The trunk of the big oak where the two snipers had hidden looked like a bomb had gone off in it, and the remains of the mercenaries were virtually unrecognizable as having ever been human. The largest piece she saw appeared to be about two-thirds of a chest. She made sure her mike was off as she took deep breaths to try and settle her stomach's reaction to the sight and stench. Too late to throw up now, she admonished herself. Everything is over. Suddenly she had what she had heard others call "the shakes."

Jeff apparently noticed, for he discreetly squeezed her hand, retracted his faceplate, waited for her to retract hers, and quietly said, "It's the result of all the adrenaline in your system having nowhere to go. It's normal. Most of us have experienced the shakes at one time or another, some more times than others. When you're new, it can really be a bitch. Try to relax; we'll walk around a bit to give your body time to settle down before we go inside."

As they walked over to look at the other tree that had been downed by a lightning strike, "By the way, well done, Lieutenant," the Prime said, formally. Then with a grin, "Looks like you're not a virgin anymore. Expect the team to kid you about your 'lousy shooting' and whatever else they can think of to deride you about. Please don't take offense about it. It's a combat team's way of welcoming you. You took out one enemy, and you didn't panic under fire. You continued to lay down cover fire while the team flanked, and you did not flinch from your duty in any way, despite the danger. The rest will come with time and training."

"The rest will come with time and training." Her mind hung onto his comment, repeating it over and over. Does that mean ... Is he going to let me train for a combat team — train with his team? Will they ever accept me as an equal? Crap, I felt like a fumbling idiot as soon as I started down that ramp. Half the time, I couldn't even tell what was going on. I was so busy trying to keep from getting my head blown off that I'm amazed I even hit one of them.

Jeff found a garden hose at the back of the house and they washed most of the mud off their gloves and all-weather uniforms. Sergeant Gomez walked over as they were finishing up. "I have another barrel for your weapon, Sir," Gomez said. "My AI shows that you were one of the ones who fired at max?"

"Yeah," Jeff said, taking the power pack from his rifle, then handing the weapon to the Sergeant.

"You, Ma'am?" he asked as he quickly took the near burned out barrel from Jeff's rifle, dropping the old barrel in a puddle to cool while he installed the new one in the rifle.

"No, Sergeant," Kayla responded. "I went through four power packs, but I didn't fire at max."

"Okay, it should be good, but I'll check your weapon properly when we get back."

"Thank you, Sergeant."

Gomez quickly reassembled the pulse rifle and handed it back to Jeff, who checked the weapon, put the power pack in and thanked the Sergeant. He picked up the nearly burned-out barrel, slung the water out of it, put it in his pack, and went looking for another trooper.

Jeff turned back to Kayla, "Ready to go talk to the people inside the house?"

"Me?" she said. "I don't know anything..."

"The agent might very well be living with us. From what the General has told me from his source, the guy had to have seen someone high up in the slaver organization. They obviously want the agent dead, and they seem to want him dead really bad. How long do you think those helicopters loaded with mercenaries would have lasted if they had approached Matthews' Mountain, hmmm? The General has asked that I take the agent home with us, at least for a while."

"How does Whitworth know all this..." Kayla started.

"I've never asked, but it's obvious from the things that have happened before, that Whitworth and someone pretty high up in the FBI have a ... working relationship that's been productive in both directions. I think we just paid that person back for past information, and chalked up a hell of a lot of good will for the future while we were at it."

He grinned at her. "Are you ready to meet some people now?"

Kayla realized that her shakes were mostly gone. Smiling, she wanted to kiss her husband, for giving her time to stop shaking, but that would never do at the moment. Thinking about kissing him made her realize that she wanted to do a lot more than kiss him. She was suddenly horny — major horny. Body's urge to reproduce after escaping death, her anthropologist education told her, but her body didn't seem to care that her mind knew the reason; it just wanted Jeff to lie her down and fuck her. She could feel herself getting wetter by the minute.

"Sure, let's go talk to them," she said, trying to distract herself, hoping no one would smell her while she and Jeff were in the house.

"Want to screw around with them a little?" Jeff asked, a hint of laughter in his voice. I'll never let her know just how well I can smell.

Screw? she thought. Hell yeah, I want to screw, but not with them. Aloud, "Screw with them? What? How? Uh, I imagine they're a little bit uptight from all that has gone on. It might not be such a good idea to tease them just now."

"The General just told me that he has talked to his source and the source has talked to the agent in charge in the house. He's going to meet us at the back door. The General said the guy inside — Grigsby is his name — has been told to tell his people to not have weapons in their hands because they were going to be facing combat troops who might still be on edge."

Kayla had never seen Jeff quite like this. He frequently teased, but he never played practical jokes. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

"This," Jeff said as he disappeared.

A second later, Kayla activated her camouflage again. "I thought all this was a secret — a big one."

"It is," Jeff said as he started toward the house, "but they already know, anyway. This place has cameras everywhere," he continued as she remembered her AI showing her the camera locations — that she had ignored at the time because her mind had been focused on the bullets that were flying close over her head.

"So, anyway, there is no way they could ever tell anyone about this without making themselves look like nut cases."

"I'm right behind you," she got out on the command channel as she checked Jeff's icon that her AI was showing her so she could keep up with his location.

Shortly, Kayla had another reason to think that activating the camouflage wasn't such a good idea as she stumbled on the step to the back porch. Well, at least they didn't see me trip. Dammit, I can't see my feet. Until we started training with the camouflage, I didn't know I looked at my feet when I walked up stairs.

The back door was standing partway open, the light now on in the kitchen as Jeff stepped through, Kayla reaching out to touch him to keep track of exactly where he was as she took a step to the side and waited.

Grigsby, standing a short distance away, suddenly looked down at two wet places forming on the kitchen floor.

"Now," Jeff quietly said to Kayla over the channel.

The two seemed to pop into existence at the same instant. Sandra and Bobby, sitting at the kitchen table with agent Hanes, sucked in a breath.

Grigsby, Hanes and another agent who were standing in the kitchen said, "Shit," in perfect unison.

No wonder Whatley told me to make sure no one had a weapon in hand, Grigsby thought as he took a breath and focused on the faint emblem of a silver eagle on the chest of Jeff's uniform — the insignia of a full colonel. Grigsby had thought his tour in the army was long forgotten, but a part of him suddenly wanted to come to attention. Before he could do so, the faceplate retracted into the helmet and the tall man stuck out a hand to Grigsby. Kayla retracted her faceplate as Jeff shook with the agent.

"I had rather not tell you my last name for the moment, but I'm pretty sure you're Special Agent Grigsby. Am I right?" Jeff asked.

No name tapes on their uniforms. Who the hell are these people? "Uh, yes, Sir, Colonel," Grigsby stumbled out, hating himself. "You saved our ... Uh, we really appreciate what you did for us," he corrected, thinking of the pretty female Lieutenant standing beside the Colonel.

"They're Alphas — both of them," Jeff subvocalized to Kayla on the command channel.

Kayla almost asked if he were sure, but managed to curtail the thought before she voiced it. Of course, he's sure, you idiot, she thought.

"Good to meet you, Lieutenant," Grigsby said as he and Kayla shook. Grigsby was pleased to note that she didn't limp-wrist the handshake.

"And you're agent Hanes?" Jeff asked as he stepped toward the pajama-clad young man who was struggling to his feet at the table.

"Uh, yes, Sir," he responded as he took Jeff's hand. Turning to the nurses, "This is Sandra on my right, and Bobby beside her. They're my nurses — the best nurses in the whole world."

The sisters blushed as their eyes turned lovingly to Hanes.

Kayla was hard put to keep a grin off her face as she noted the nurses' reaction. Kayla and Jeff chatted with the four for a few minutes before Jeff turned to Grigsby, "I have orders to take the bodies with us. Suppose your people could give mine a hand out there? It's pretty gruesome, but it needs to be done if we have a chance of keeping this quiet. I suspect the folks on down the street have called the police about a war going on out here, although there are probably a lot of trees down that are blocking police and emergency crews from getting in right now."

Grigsby shrugged. "Well, the neighborhood is without power. Portable phones in the homes need electrical power to work, and it appears the whole neighborhood is out. These ladies," he continued, nodding to the two nurses, "have a backup generator, so we still have power. Judging from the violence of that storm, I suspect the power outage is widespread. Neither my private cell phone nor my agency phone can find a working tower. Total zero on bars. I've been talking to my SAC using my radio," he said, tapping his earpiece. "I doubt if anyone in the area has been able to report the battle, if they even heard it over the thunder. Besides, most of the people who live near — according to Sandra and Bobby," he said, nodding to the nurses, "are older retired people who probably had sense enough to head for the basement when the tornado sirens went off. My SAC tells me the weather people are still on with live coverage of the storm, and they started telling people in this area to go to their shelter or place of safety thirty minutes before you guys got here."

Grigsby hesitated for a second, then went on with, "My SAC has already initiated our program of misinformation in case the battle manages to hit the news. He has also, uh, 'suggested' the news media be careful about wild rumors."

"And the police?" Jeff asked.

"They and the Sheriff's Department have been told that a government agency is conducting a counter terrorism training exercise in the area. Any calls about gunfire from this general area will be diverted to the FBI."

Jeff nodded his agreement. "We'll take care of getting rid of the bodies, and the rain will wash away most of the blood. Suppose your people can dispose of the weapons and expended ammunition cases? No way will we be able to find all that brass out there tonight."

Grigsby grinned at Jeff. "Without you guys, we would be dead now. Before the public sees the area, it will be pristine." Grigsby paused for a second, and even though he had promised himself he wouldn't ask, "How did you take out thirty mercenaries that quickly?" But before Jeff could answer, Grigsby suddenly looked contrite. "Crap, I'm sorry. I didn't even ask about your people..."

Jeff looked at Grigsby, the Prime's face, unreadable. "Three casualties — one serious."

"Can we do anything?"

"They're being taken care of, and my, uh, medics got to the critical one in time. There are no worries."

Jeff turned back to Art, who looking weary, had reseated himself at the table with the nurses fussing over him. "Want to go somewhere where this won't happen again?" the Colonel asked the young agent?