Chapter 16, Teaser #3: Christmas present for readers

Chapter 16, Teaser #3:  Christmas present for readers



I hope you all are enjoying your holiday season.  As promised, here is the winner of the contest - the first 4 pages of Chapter 16.  Please remember this is a first draft, so please excuse punctuation, grammar and whatnot.  The winner of the contest to get an advance read of Chapter 16 is....Jenell Peterson. 

“The fucking Security Division?… I…I can’t believe that… they’ve taken oaths to uphold the laws of the Alpha Council,” Tristan said as he slowly exhaled and the others stood in stunned silence. 

                         

“Gabe did say he felt betrayal around him.  We have to wonder though, why didn’t they warn the three Packs of the upcoming raids?  Is it a play for power and money or something else?” Carlo asked quietly before turning to Paulo.  “Can you find who accessed the account?”

“Unfortunately no, all I got was the IP address but it doesn’t tell me who was using the computer only the area it originated.  The ACSD changes IP addresses randomly so I can’t target a specific computer.  I can access the video and narrow it down by seeing who was using computers at the time,” Paulo said with a sigh.  Ten minutes later he said, “The video’ll start five minutes before the alert.”

“Look at their body language,” Savannah said as she sat next to Paulo and stared at the laptop monitor.  “You’re looking for someone who’s trying to hide what they’re doing, looking over their shoulder, is tense and displays agitated movements, like running his hands through his hair, deep breathing and rolling his neck.”  The men turned to stare at her and she shrugged, “I’m a criminal attorney, I see this type of behavior on a daily basis.”

“Alpha Carlo, while you’re doing this I’d like to take Rain to the roof so he can do his recon,” Ed said as he looked at his watch.

“Take Frank, George, Brad, Aldo and Jeff with you,” Carlo said as he continued to stare at the screen.

“I’ve got everything I need,” Rain said as he nodded to the bag he had kept at his side the entire day.  The men headed to the third floor and went down the hall stopping in front of the door to the center column.  “Frank, this is the first time I’ve been anywhere but the cafeteria and gym.  It’s freakin amazing.” 

“Aldo and his men have done a wonderful job maintaining the building and all the updates have been historically accurate while upholding current codes.  That’s why it’s considered one of the more important historical buildings in Maryland,” Frank said with pride as Aldo smiled.  Jeff walked ten feet down the hallway and removed a piece of baseboard molding revealing a keypad, after he typed in the code the door opened revealing a staircase leading to the tower room. 

Aldo removed the third tread on the staircase revealing a keypad, after typing in the code he replaced the tread and proceeded up the stairs opening the trap door and the men followed him into the tower room.  The only furnishings in the room were a small table with two chairs and a two door metal cabinet.  “We keep tools here, so we don’t have to run down to the maintenance shop,” Aldo explained with a shrug as he moved to the front wall and removed the window molding.  He typed the code in and part of the rear wall swung open on hinges.

“Follow me,” Jeff said as he stepped through the door onto the flat roof.

Rain set his bag down and got out a notebook and pen before turning to Aldo, “You have the exact dimensions and plans of the roof?”    

Aldo turned to Frank who said, “Get him a copy of the external specs.”  Jeff nodded and headed to the maintenance department in the basement.

Aldo opened his notebook and followed Rain to the roof’s edge where he crouched down to check the decorative iron railing that ran along it.  “Doesn’t provide much cover does it?” Rain asked to no one in particular.  “We’re going to need solid planks, like an inch thick of lead.”

Aldo asked, “How high and is it to cover the whole roof line?”

“We don’t want them to cover the entire surface, we’ll need to leave sections open so we can shoot and use them for cover.  At the corners, leave a 1’ section open on both sides.  We don’t want them to be visible, so lay them out and when we need them we’ll insert them in ‘U’ brackets,” Rain stopped talking and looked at Frank, “We’re the two broadest guys, lay next to me and they can measure us to see how wide the planks need to be.”  After they lay down, Aldo pulled a tape measure out of his pocket and Ed measured them and Aldo wrote it down.  Rain got up and looked at the measurements and said, “They’ll need to be 6’ long and 2’ high.”   

“I’ll go over the plans with Tristan and we’ll send the schematics of where we want them set up,” Rain said as he continued walking around the roof line until he arrived back to where his bag lay.  Crouching down he pulled out Steiner binoculars and went to the right side of the tower room.  “What are you looking for?” Frank asked as the men moved to stand next to him.

“Several things.  I’m trying to figure out which way they’re going to come, the front gate is obvious but if they’re trying to sneak up on you, they’ll come through the woods.  You’ve got cameras and made funnels to direct them, that’s good but once they get to the wall, they’re going to look for the least resistance while still looking for cover,” Rain said as he turned to glance at Frank.  “That jump from the top of the wall will be difficult, but it can be done.”

“We’re installing an iron railing with ornamental spikes in front of the shrubbery and we’re also putting spikes inside.  Well, I guess it won’t be so ornamental if they get speared with them,” Frank said with a smile.

“Right before the battle paint them with liquid silver and shake wolfsbane on it when the paint is tacky,” Rain said as he moved along the roof, staring and then looking through the binoculars before writing in his notebook. 

“Where can we get wolfsbane?  I don’t know of anybody that has it,” Aldo said as he turned to stare at Rain before writing in his notebook.

“There’s a store in Leesburg, VA, called Esoterica.  It’s a new age store and they sell healing crystals, herbs, candles and other similar items.  I doubt they carry it but they may know of somebody who grows it.  They also carry Moonstone, you may want to buy some of the larger rocks, have Luna bless them on the full moon and place them around the grounds for added protection.”

Frank looked at Rain in amazement, “I never would’ve thought you believed in the power of crystals and rocks.”

Rain said in a quiet voice, “When you’ve been to some of the places I’ve been and seen some of the things I have… well, you learn to accept and believe in things you don’t understand.”  He turned to Aldo, “When you go, talk to the staff because there are crystals that will help center you when you’re meditating and help you focus.”  Frank passed the information to Carlo knowing Maeve wanted to find somebody to help her understand her gift better. 

After he finished his visual inspection of the roof and grounds, he went to his bag and pulled out a case containing a sniper rifle and scope.  He assembled it and handed it to Ed, “Joe already verified its empty, but before I do anything more I want you to verify it also.  I need to lie down at the edge of the roof to get a good feel for things.  I’ll do it on the back of the building, away from the football field.”  Ed took the rifle and verified the chamber and magazine were empty.  Rain lay down and put a small sandbag under the muzzle and moved several times until he found the position he wanted, “Aldo, here is where we’ll be shooting from, so you’ll want the planks here.”  He pointed to an area 8” behind the muzzle. 

Jeff went into the tower room and came back with spray paint and sprayed a small line.  “I’m not sure how many men Alpha Carlo and Tristan are going to put up here, but we should plan on 40 – 50, depending on how many are attacking and where they are.  The bullets we’re going to manufacture are lead-tipped silver with a wolfsbane core.  We need to find people to mine the silver from Swift’s and then manufacture the bullets according to our specs; obviously we can’t do it ourselves.  Tristan is going to talk to Carlo about that when we get more information.” 

Rain got up, dismantled his rifle and carefully put it into the case and said, “Now I need some pictures.”  He got out a digital camera and walked around taking pictures of the areas he had noted down.  They repeated the process in relocking the tower room and center column before rejoining the others. 

“Any luck?” Frank asked as they walked in the cafeteria which had just been finished being cleaned.

Carlo shook his head in disgust, “Every fucking computer was being used and Savvie says they all look guilty of something.  Paulo’s going to enhance it to see if he can get any more details.  We do have something interesting; ten minutes after the account was accessed Charles was served his tray.”  Paulo cued the video on the large screen and the men watched Charles howl before shifting. 

“We’re assuming that was his reaction to finding out the money was gone,” Tristan said with a smile.  “Losing $600 mil will do that to a man.”

“The question is, how did he find out?  Nobody spoke to him, the metal in the bars prevents the use of the bond, and his cell is away from the others … so again, how did he find out?” Savannah asked before taking a sip of sweet tea. 

“Had to be a note.  Look at the guard; when they open the cart doors he pulls out a specific tray and instead of watching the prisoner while he hands it to him, he glances down like he’s telling him something.  I’m getting a feeling of subservience; but there’s something off about it, like he’s doing this because he has to, not because he wants to,” Aldo said as he stood to the side of the screen.

After watching the video three more times, Carlo said, “You’re right Aldo.  It’s very subtle but it’s there.  When he sits on his cot that must be when he read it because he howled and shifted almost immediately.”

“How’d you spot it?” Savannah asked as she turned to Aldo.

“Twenty years of working here.  Even though the families use the bond, they still need to find ways to talk to their friends when they’re supposed to be studying,” Aldo said with a grin as the others nodded.