"Aine's power over me was in the summer of our

youth, when a girl's body magically changes in

wondrous ways. Her power over the boy was an

iron chain around his neck.

She taught me that girl's kisses hurt.

But Alfenwehr had forged me into something else.

Aine found that out in the dark and cold.

I was no longer the boy she intoxicated.

I was something darker, different...

bloodier..."

2/19th Special Weapons Group

Restricted Area, Alfenwehr West Germany

Late Winter- January, 1986

Day 11 of Repairs

Day 3 of the Second Incident

Evening

"Ant! Ant!" Nancy was already speaking when she came through the middle hallway and spotted us.

Just as I punched Aine in the face, throwing her onto her back. She sprawled out, looking at me in confusion, blood running from her nose and mouth. Her legs were open, her back arched slightly, but lust wasn't what was running through my veins.

Pure raw murder was.

"What the fuck is she doing in here?" Nancy asked, sliding to a stop.

I stepped forward, reaching down and grabbing Aine's long hair and yanking her up. "She's fucking leaving," I growled. Aine shrieked as I started dragging her, her bare skin squealing on the tile as she slid across the floor. When she looked up her eyes were full of fury, molten jade, and her face was ugly with anger. I held a clenched fist, covered in blood and with the knife held tightly in it, in front of her face.

"Give me an excuse and I'll tear you apart," I growled.

"Help me, Nagle, please," SFC Tashton whimpered from the floor.

"Shut up, baby raper," Nancy snarled, kicking his hand away and then stomping on it.

Aine was shrieking at me to let her go as I scooped up her dress, dragged her to the door, opened it, and threw her bodily outside. She bounced off the door across from mine and threw her dress on top of her.

"Bad boy!" she shrieked at me, sitting up. "Bad boys get punished! Bad boys get..."

"I AM NOT YOUR BOY!" I roared at her, "YOU HAVE NO CLAIM!" I slammed the door hard enough concrete dust puffed out around the frame. I stomped back into the room to see Nagle crouching down. She looked up at me, frowning.

"These two are almost gone, that one is already dead," Nagle told me. She stood up, dusting her hands off, and turning to look at me. "Goddamn it, Stillwater, did you at least question them?"

She looked at me for a moment when I moved up to them and looked down at the three men. Chuck was already dead, his eyes open and staring at the ceiling. His hands had been clutching his belly but were now limp at his sides. Tashton was crying, holding his stomach, and mumbling to himself. Ted was laying limp, blood spreading around his shoulder.

"Ant?" she asked, reaching for me as I knelt down next to Ted. I knocked her hand around and grabbed Ted up by his BDU top. "What the fuck?"

"Shut up," I snarled at her. I grabbed his left shoulder, digging my thumb into the stab wound and squeezing it as hard as I could.

Ted went from limp in my hands to screaming and trying to grab on me. I grabbed him by the throat and squeezed, the scream choking off as I squeezed hard and made his face turn purple.

"Get out," I told Nagle, digging my thumb into the stab wound. "Ted and I are going to have a talk." I felt something ugly surge up in me as I let go of Ted's throat and reached for my knife.

"Ant, those guys are gathering up everyone, I had to cut through the Lobotomy Ward to..."

"Ted, if you lie to me, Ms. Pointy Thing is going to join the conversation," I said, ignoring Nancy, who was still speaking.

"...they've already got Miranda and the LT, I had Bomber go and..."

"Nagle," I snapped, turning to look at her. My blood was pounding, my mouth tasted of iron, and I was breathing hard. She turned and looked at me for a long moment before her eyes grew wide.

"God damn that Aine," she said, and slapped me. My arm came up and blocked her arm at the wrist. She pulled back and slapped at me again, but we just repeated the same motions. "Stillwater!"

"What?" I yelled back, squeezing my hand tight. I heard something crackle and felt something give under my hand.

"Rear-D's in trouble," she said. "They've got your cousins, they've got Miranda, we don't have time for you to fuck around with this bullshit." She looked at the end of my arm. "Besides, he's fucked."

I looked back, seeing Ted clawing at my forearm, trying to rip at the skin under my BDU sleeve, his face purple and bloody froth coming from his mouth and running down his chin and the sides of his face. His throat was deformed in my fist, my fingers dug deeply into his skin, my thumb into his skin past the first knuckle. His eyes were bulging out and becoming bloodshot. I could feel his pulse hammering under my fingers and thumb.

"Come on, Ant, I need you," Nancy told me, standing up and grabbing my uniform to pull on me. Tashton grabbed at her and she kicked him the face. "Let go, baby raper."

I looked at Ted, still feeling the lizard snarl with the need to rip and tear, still hearing the echo of Aine's instructions to kill them, to brutalize them, to let her bathe in their blood.

"Finish off the baby raper so we can go help Bomber," Nancy told me, kicking Tashton again. When I let go of Ted, she let go of me and stepped back. "Goddamn it, Aine's fucked your head up again."

SFC Tashton was on his right side, his hands on his face. I put my hand on his side, feeling his ribs. He tried to push my hand away and I ignored him. I angled the blade in and pushed it deep into him, feeling a heartbeat that suddenly stopped when the blackened steel was 2/3rds of the way in. I still gave it a twist once it was sunk all the way in.

"Bomber and I got separated when some of those assholes came into the middle stairwell. I cut up through the Lobotomy Ward," She explained that she had to go up to the third floor and cut through the lower NCO section. I waited for a few moments before pulling the knife out, giving time for the pressure that the last heartbeat had put on the blood around the knife. I slid it out, wiped it on his sleeve, and stood up.

"The only way he could go was down, past the CQ Area, and if they went down to the Ready Room he's got nowhere to go unless he starts kicking in doors," Nancy said as I turned and looked at her. She stared into my eyes for moment. "What?"

I reached out at her, grabbing the front of her BDU's and going to yank her forward.

...smash rip tear shred breed crush kill meat yum...

"No," Nancy said, putting her hand on my chest. "Ant, Bomber needs us," she told me. I growled at her. "No. Not now. Bomber needs us." She grabbed me by the upper arms and shook me. "Rear-D needs us, Miranda needs us. Now."

The lizard backed off, letting his claws off the red button, and the rage faded slightly. The warmth that Aine's touch had left in me was gone. The smell of apple blossoms was gone, there was just the hot and delicious taste in my mouth.

"Change into your civvies, these are covered with blood," Nancy told me. I nodded and moved over to the locker, standing there and staring at the locked door to my civvie locker dumbly. Nancy moved up next to me and glared for a moment. "Oh, goddammit, did she totally shut your brain down?" She spun my lock, opening it, and turned to me. "Jesus Christ, strip."

I nodded, stripping down while she picked out some clothing. Long johns, a heavy t-shirt, a lined flannel, heavy jeans, and winter insulated socks. When she turned around she glanced down, shook her head, and flapped the T-shirt at me. "Has that gone down since we pulled you from Aine's room?" I shook my head and she cursed when she snapped my shirt at me again.

I dressed silently, the T-shirt thicker than a summer one and just dark blue without anything on it. The fire still filled me, a trembling need to hurt something. My cheek hurt, I could hear the voices of my mother, my aunts, the matrons, their voices running over one another and blending in my brain. Telling me I was a failure, I was a terrible person, but one word kept repeating over and over...

...animal...

They'd treated me like an animal, branded me like one, denied me the basic things that others took for granted without even realizing it, all in the name of power and control.

The lizard bared his fangs.

Nancy was standing up as I pulled on my Levi jacket over the insulated and lined flannel shirt she'd helped me dress in. She pulled my Kevlar vest out of my locker and handed it to me. "Come on, hurry up, Stillwater, they need us." She turned and grabbed one of the M-16's on the desk, tossing it to me as she grabbed the other, checked the chamber, and moved the fire selector to semi.

She pulled the LBE's off of Ted and Chuck, tossing me one. "Put it on," she told me. I pulled it over my Kevlar vest, which was over my Levi jacket, and watched her move past me.

Red tinged my vision as I followed her out into the hallway, aware of the weight of my knife on my combat boot. I didn't own tennis shoes, not even for PT. I hadn't owned tennis shoes since I was 12. I ran Cross Country in High School in combat boots and did good enough to make Varsity my freshman year.

The M-16 was different than the one I had stored in the Arms Room. It had a forward assist, the bolt wasn't chrome coated, the buttstock was slightly longer, and it lacked the M-203 underneath. It felt weird in my hands. A quick check showed the chamber was empty so I racked a round into it, hit the forward assist with the thumb pad of my palm, and held it tight as I followed her.

"We'll go up, cut through the Lobotomy Ward, head down," she told me. I just followed her to the middle stairwell. She paused just inside and we listened for a moment. There was the moaning of wind from below us and a faint screaming noise from above us. We headed upwards, to the next floor, and Nancy checked outside quickly. "Hallway's clear, but the temp is dropping fast and the lights are starting fail." She cursed for a moment. "These stupid lights are supposed to be rated for extreme cold weather and they're already failing. Let's go."

I followed her down the hallway, my mind running what I'd done in my room over and over. Stabbing the two fake SEALs, taking down Tashton.

Punching Aine in the face.

The feeling of the shock running up my arm, my damaged shoulder flaring with pain, kept replaying.

It felt good.

Nancy stopped us at the door, turning to look at me for a long moment. "Are you with me, Stillwater?" I nodded. "I'm serious, do you have your shit together?" I nodded again. "Goddamn it, Stillwater, you need to be sharp, this might be ugly."

I just nodded again, she swore under her breath at Aine, and we kept moving down the hallway. My mind kept replaying everything. Over and over. My brain added what happened out at Atlas, all the incidents, the taste, smell, and feel of the entire thing. I could taste the cordite, smell it, remember the feel of the weapon in my hand, remember working with my Leatherman in the tall grass trying to clear a jam that had bent the brass cartridge in the chamber.

The lizard purred and showed its fangs.

There was a scream down the stairs when the door opened. Snowflakes were drifting down from the floor below, a steady breeze went from above and down the stairs past us, making the snow dance in the dim lights of stairwell. I could see the black of the windows and knew that the sun had set. I could vaguely remember that the clock had read twenty-hundred hours.

That meant it was dark and cold now.

When we moved down I glanced up between the stairwells and could see that the window on the fourth floor was broken, snow blowing in to dance in the stairwell. We moved down the steps, watching for ice.

"At least six entered the stairwell and went down. I heard the CQ Area door open from where I was up on the third floor, I know that Bomber went straight down, trying to get ahead of them. That means there's between one and five of them that are following," Nancy said, pausing on the landing between the bottom of the steps and the first floor. "You ready?"

I just nodded again, tightening my grip on the pistol grip of the M-16. She looked at me and shook her head. "What the fuck is with that goddamn smile?" I just stared at her and she shook her head again. "Whatever. Just remember. Don't shoot me or Bomber or anyone else on Rear-D. Got it?" I nodded and she made a disgusted noise. She thought for a second. "You go first, go left at the Ready Room. I'll sweep the Orderly Room."

She pulled open the door. "Go."

I went.

The snow had blown into the hallway, leaving at least an inch in a fan shape from the window, the rest of the hallway coated in snow. The flakes were thick and large, and the wind screamed for a second as I took two steps forward and went right into the Ready Room, moving into the darkness to the right of the entryway.

The room was large. Big enough for most of Group to fit in the room if we had to, easily holding a platoon. On the left wall were the Arms Room, NBC Room, and Secure Items Storage. On the far wall were the Ready Stocks, which were new bolts and parts for the weapons and NBC gear that we could use to make sure our weapons were working well. On the right were the double doors to the Supply Room, which led to the loading dock on the far side and to the secondary War Stocks Room. The room was barely lit, only two of the lights on and those two just giving a sullen glow.

The double doors were open, which they shouldn't have been. The area around the lock of the Supply Room was broken out on the door, and I knew that Bomber had probably opened the door with a solid kick. Snow had blown in from the Supply Room, the wind blowing it past me. The whole Ready Room was filled with dancing snow, and was dark and cold.

I moved into the Supply Room, listening closely, and looked around. The lights were out, when I hit them I got nothing. I could see dim flashing red light from the far side of the Supply Room.

There was someone in BDU's laying on a tipped over desk. I moved over to check them, lifting up the head. I prayed it wasn't Bomber. One of the Colonel's men. Blood down his face and the jaw obviously broken. Nancy had clipped a knife to my side, and I slung my weapon while I drew it. I cut the guy's throat, just to be sure, and nodded to myself in approval when blood just oozed out of the wound. I wiped the blade off and resheathed it.

The far wall was easy to reach when I'd skirted two desks. One tipped over and everything that PVT Smith had on her desk scattered on the floor in the dark. At the far wall I found the door was pushed into the room, the lock shattered, and a bootprint next to the locking mechanism. Snow was blowing in, and I couldn't tell if there were any footprints out there. The sirens had cut out, even though the red lights had all kicked on. That meant that the wind was over 30MPH, the temp had dropped dramatically, and the doors had failed.

I felt it an instant before the hands would have touched me. The lizard hissed and slapped the GO button. I whipped around, slapping the reaching hand aside, and moved inside the reach. A hand smacked the M-16 to the side and I let go of it, grabbing at the other person and pulling them close.

I went to headbutt and collided with the other person's forehead as they went to do the same thing. A fist hit me in the ribs as I slammed my left fist into theirs. Both of us broke the grip and fell back.

"Motherfucker." Both of us said it at the same time?

"Ant?" Bomber's voice.

"Bomber?" I asked.

Bomber laughed in the darkness. "Yeah, man. Shit, I thought you were the guy who went out the door after me." The red haze fell away, and my brain kicked in. I could think, instead of just react. I shook my head, trying to clear away the cobwebs and the residual effects of Aine's touch.

"How many were in here?" I asked, squinting in the dark. My glasses had come off.

"Three." I felt him come closer. "Here." His hand bumped me in the chest and I took the handoff. My glasses. He kept talking. "I took out two of them hand to hand, but the other took off and I don't know if he went to get help."

"If he went out there without cold weather gear, he's fucking dead," I said, flipping up the plastic cover on the switch. "I'm gonna close the blast doors."

"Yeah. Both of the idiots hosed off their mags, and I haven't had a chance to get their ammo," Bomber told me as he moved away. The klaxon cut on, and I knew that the panel in the CO's office would show that the blast doors in the Supply Room were being shut. The klaxon at the second door cut in as my door began to slide shut. Three inches of solid steel, wedge front edges, sunk into the floor and ceiling, designed to take a nuclear blast long enough to absorb some of the force before it exploded into the supply room.

Cold War Bullshit designed to supposedly enable us to survive the opening salvos.

The klaxons cut off when the doors met each other with a deep thud. The wind was cut off and it felt suddenly warm in the room. A false warmth, but it beat the wind cutting at me. Two of the emergency lights in the supply room cut on, and I covered my eyes and turned away from the bright seeming lights.

I could hear another klaxon cut out, which told me that Nancy had dropped the blast shields on the windows in the Orderly Room, or maybe the CO room.

"Help me strip the LBE off this asshole," Bomber said. I looked over, he was bent over a guy that was lying next to the locker that held field dressings and other smaller supplies that were field expedient and that we went through like water. When I walked up and looked down, I noticed that the guy was bent backwards too far.

Bomber stripped off the LBE and put it on while I patted the guy down, finding a wallet in his back pocket. I shoved it in my pocket.

"Psst. Atlas." Nancy's voice.

"Over here," I called out softly, waving my hand. I could hear Nancy's boots coming up as I stood up and looked at the lock on the wall-locker. It had a padlock on it, but a brass one, not a steel one. "Anyone know where Schmidt keeps the keys?" Neither did. "Dammit. Stand back." I popped out the magazine and racked the round out of the weapon. Bomber handed it back and I took it from him, snapping it into the magazine and dropping the magazine in my pocket. Two sharp hits with the butt of the M-16 popped the lock off and I locked the magazine in my weapon before unlocking the locker.

Batteries were on the third shelf, the packages wrapped in tinfoil and paper, and when I shook the D-sized batteries out they were wrapped too. Nancy had grabbed flashlights and handed them to me. While I loaded the flashlights, she dragged the guy with the cut throat over to where we were.

"Here." I handed the flashlights to them. She was stripping the LBE off of the dead guy and fixing where the pouches went. They were set up more Hollywood or old web-gear than actual LBE, and it made a difference. Bomber was checking the load.

"Asshole only has four spares," Bomber bitched, shrugging into the LBE. I closed the wall locker after grabbing out three compasses and handing two of them over.

"Lemme check something." I knelt down next to the one with the cut throat and patted him down.

Cigarettes. A lighter that worked. A working Zippo in his shirt pocket, which meant his brown T-Shirt was a fake, not military issue. A wallet in his back pocket. An ID folder under the insole of his boot, matching the one I found on the other guy when I checked. Dogtags that didn't match up to ours. They were close, but they felt 'off' to me. One had a folding knife, the other had a knife in his boot in a leather sheathe. It was a cheap one, looked tough, but useless for anything but show.

I flipped open the wallets, and began spreading them out. Bomber and Nancy kept playing their flashlights over the contents.

Military ID cards. Driver's Licenses. Photos of women and children. Nancy snorted, picking up one photo.

"This woman's in like half the picture frames at the PX," she said. "Either this guy married a model or he's trying to pass off these pictures as his family." She flipped it over. "Five bucks says her name isn't Tammy."

They both had just under a hundred dollars, in small bills. Bomber waved at the money. "Show me a single soldier that has a hundred bucks this long after payday."

I flipped open the hidden billfold and dropped it down. The second one matched the first.

"Well, they aren't military," Nancy said.

"And now we know." Bomber sighed. "Son of a bitch."

"Yeah. Now we know," I answered. I took a deep breath and scrubbed my cheeks with my hands. They smelled of blood. "Gimme a second to process."

I leaned back, shining the flashlight on the ID's that had been hidden.

"OK, so how does this change what we know?" Nancy asked.

We were silent for a second. The Supply Room was dead silent.

"We've killed four of them as well as Sergeant Tashton," I started.

"Who killed Tashton?" Bomber asked, looking eager. "Plese, please tell me a five year old girl shanked him."

Nancy laughed and shook her head. "Nope, Ant here shanked him."

"Good. Fucker was eyeballing Harkenson's daughter at the Halloween party and tried to get me to let him play Frankenstien in the haunted house," Bomber said. "You just know that sick fuck was going to molest her."

I pulled apart the ID billfolds as he kept speaking. "I hated that motherfucker so much, but hopefully he's burning in Hell."

"Ant gutted him," Nancy told him.

Aside from the ID's were two credit cards, a driver's license that matched the ID card, and a magnetic keycard.

"Think it's real?" Nancy asked.

"Yeah," I answered.

"So, how does this change everything?" Nancy asked, reaching out and stirring the ID's with one finger.

"That's four of them. That's a third. This means the Colonel is the Case Officer, and that's how they got to Tashton and Major Mallory," I said. "That means if we do this, it's gonna get ugly."

Bomber picked up on of the ID's and glared at it. "Doesn't matter, we've got our duty. We're supposed to protect all of the data or destroy it in place. We're not the rogues here, they are."

I looked at Nancy. "You said they're rounding up Rear-D, and already have the LT and Stokes prisoner. Can you amplify a bit?"

Nancy closed her eyes. "All right. They were dividing everyone up. Stokes and the LT and PFC King were over by the trophy case. Some of the enlisted were over by the doors, the upper enlisted and some of the NCO's were over by the CQ desk. They've been divided up, and Lanks and Meeks are with two of the SEALs getting everyone out of the rooms."

"We'll hit them first," I said. "We'll check through the window and see if the CQ is OK. If they are, we'll go after the two with Lanks and Meeks, arm those two, and take out the rest of them."

I looked at both of them before speaking, the pause to stress the importance. "We need either that asshole with the captain's bars, or the Colonel alive." I smiled. "I have some questions for them."

"Ant," Nancy said, reaching out and taking my hand. "Are you OK?"

"Why wouldn't he be?" Bomber asked.

"Aine fucked with him again."

"I'm fine."

Nancy squeezed my hand. "All right. We need you back. We need you high speed low drag."

I smiled and squeezed back. "All right, we've dropped the blast shields. If we hit the CO or First Sergeant's office we can drop all the blast doors, which will seal us up in here with them." I looked at them both. "If we do this, there's no way we can go back."

"That means it's bloodbath time?" Bomber grinned.

"Yeah."

Nancy held up her fingers. "If we lock it down, what about the War Fighter tunnels?"

I thought for a second. "We pull back to the War Fighter tunnels all bets are off."

"Can we open them?" Bomber asked.

I nodded. "Yeah."

"How do you know?" Nancy asked.

"The system hasn't been redone yet, the old codes will still work," I told them. "If we hit the War Fighter tunnels it'll lock down all the buildings until we get the control stations in the tunnels up to speed and unlock them from there."

Nancy nodded. "All right, we'll keep that if it all goes to hell. There's a med-bay in there if shit goes downhill."

"Can you use it?" I asked. Nancy nodded. "All right, so if everything goes to hell we pull back to the War Fighter tunnels and take the fight to them."

"Are we going to try to defuse this shit?" Bomber asked, patting the rifle in his lap.

"Fuck that. We go in full bore, extreme prejudice and all that shit," Nancy said.

"If we do this, we run the real chance of getting thrown under the bus when all this falls apart," I warned.

Bomber shook his head. "Doesn't matter. Group General Orders is that secure data cannot be allowed to fall into unsecure or enemy hands. Shit, those vaults is why CQ is fucking armed. We're supposed to use lethal force to protect that shit."

Nancy rubbed the scar on the side of her face. "So we agree, these guys are after the secure data." We both nodded. "Then our duty is clear."

"It's clear," Bomber agreed.

"Enough words, lets go kill these assholes," Nancy growled.

Two gunshots echoed down the stairs and into the Ready Room, echoing in the Supply Room. All three of us came to our feet, holding the weapons. I snapped the charging handle back and tapped the forward assist with the heel of my hand. The noise was loud in the red tinged darkness of the Supply Room.

"Check CQ, if that's under control, we go after the two," I reminded them.

We jogged out, checking right and left as we came out of the Ready Room and into the hallway. I pulled open the door to the stairwell and we went in ready to go. Nancy looking up the gap through all the floors. Bomber taking underneath the stairs as I went two steps up. All us had the weapons socked against our shoulders, looking through the sights.

"Clear," both of them said softly but sharply.

We moved up the stairs, staying to the sides, Nancy pulling drag. Around the corner on the landing, then kept going up to the ground floor landing. We could hear raised voices coming from the CQ area. I knelt down, staring up the stairs. Bomber backed up, retreating down two of the steps and aimed his weapon at the doorway that led to Titty Territory. Nancy moved up and looked through the little window in the heavy steel door that led to the CQ Area.

"...turn over all access to the barracks area or it happens again, Lieutenant," someone was saying.

"I will not relinquish my codes, keys, or any other method of gaining access to secure items and areas under my command," LT James stated, his voice flat.

"Shit, we've gotta get in there," Nancy said. "I can see four of them, Major Mallory, but no Colonel."

"Who's down?" Bomber asked.

"Gunderson and Franklin. Headshots," Nancy said.

"Coming up. I need a look," I said. Nancy took my place and I looked through the window.

The LT was against the CQ desk, held by two men. I recognized both. Symens and Hollingsworth were being led into the center of the CQ Area by another one of the fake SEALs. Major Mallory was by the glass double doors holding an M-16, and slightly ahead and beyond that one was another fake SEAL covering the gathered up members of Rear-D with his rifle.

"Falling back. Bomber, take a look," I said, thinking hard.

The lizard threw up the blueprints of the CQ Area, marking down where everyone was, their fields of fire, where the people of Rear-D I could see were located, and the two dead men.

"Goddamn it, they're gonna kill Syms and Holly," Bomber said.

"All right, I go in first. I'll take Major..." I started.

"You go in there shooting that fucking rifle, you'll kill everyone but the SEALs," Nancy said.

"OK, Bomber, you go in first, take the Major and the guy with him. Nancy, you come in next, cover our left flank. I'll take the guy in the middle and move on the guy on the LT's left, our right. Nancy, if the flank is clear, take the guy on our left holding onto the LT," I said. They nodded as I moved over to the door to Titty Territory. "The glass to Titty Territory is painted over, they won't see us. Nancy and I will go in through there. Bomber, you go in from here. Anyone you can take alive, take them, otherwise extreme prejudice."

"Roger that," Bomber said, moving up to the door as Nancy opened the door to Titty Territory and dropped the chock to keep the door open. I slung my rifle and drew my knife from my boot.

It felt comfortable and the lizard hissed in approval. He was more comfortable with claw and fang, spear and sword. Firearms were recent to him. A knife, now that was comfortable.

"He's making Syms and Holly kneel," Bomber said urgently.

"Now! Go! Fuck the plan!" Nancy snapped, leaning back and kicking the door open. I went straight in, knowing she had my back.

Everything dropped into slow motion as I went through the door. Targeting changed as I realized what we couldn't see from inside the stairwell.

They'd put a Claymore in front of the door to the Game Room and another in front of the group of soldier's gathered up in front of the trophy case. The guy on my left of the LT had the clacker in his hand.

Taking him alive was no longer an option.

Before the guy aiming his weapon at the kneeling soldiers in front of him could even start to turn, I jammed the knife into his left side, into the rib cage, angled up. I let go of the knife as I kicked his feet out from under him. He'd gone stiff as the blade slid in and just dropped as I did a modified Ranger takedown on him.

The knife at my side slid into my hand as I continued the motion from the stab and release, the blade was pointed down in my fist as I kept coming. The guy who was holding the Claymore clacker was opening his mouth, whether to scream, deny that I was coming at him, or try to get me to stop, I didn't know or care.

There were options, I guess, but the lizard pointed out one that worked as I heard a gunshot go off from behind me and to my right. In my peripheral vision I saw the fake SEAL at the airlock doors go down, chunks of brain and blood spattering the three inch thick glass as Bomber's shot went through his face. The bullet starred the first quarter-inch pane of glass, but didn't shatter it.

I deliberately stepped on the wire to the clacker, saw it come loose from the clacker, but I was mainly focused on what I was doing.

My left hand slapped on the guy's forehead, pushing his head back. He knew what was coming, but couldn't do anything about it as I brought the upraised knife down and into the hollow of his throat, went to pull it out and found it was hung up, and let it go.

Bomber shot Major Mallory once in the stomach and moved up close as the Major screamed and grabbed his stomach.

The LT hadn't stayed still, grabbing the barrel of the rifle shoved against his side with his left hand and pushing it behind him as he twisted and brought the heel of his hand up to hit the fake SEAL's chin, sending the man staggering back.

Nancy fired twice into the chest of the guy I'd kicked the feet out from under, rotated smoothly, shot the guy Bomber had headshot twice in the chest, and shot the guy staggering back from the LT twice in the chest. All six shots happening so fast that it was one long rolling thunderous gunshot.

The one Nancy had shot in the chest had managed to grab the counter and hadn't gone down, even though he'd dropped his weapon. His eyes were wide and he was shaking his head as the knife behind my back came out. I moved past the LT, grabbed the front of the guy's uniform, and pulled him up and into the knife.

Three stabs, then the blade got caught on his ribs and I threw him to the side, turning and facing the room. I was breathing heavy, panting, and staring at the room.

The one I'd stabbed in the throat had sunk to his knees, holding his throat. The one on his back was still, blood spreading out from under him. The headshot one was sitting in front of the glass, one foot twitching even though the lines were down. The Major was staring in shock, putting his hands behind his head at Bomber's barked command.

I moved forward, putting one hand on the shoulder of the guy on his knees, grabbing my knife with the other. His eyes rolled up as he stared at me, his mouth opening and closing. I grabbed the knife, twisted it till it loosened, and pulled it free. Blood gushed out, running down his chest and spraying me. I just threw him to the side before turning around with the knife in my hand.

People were talking, shouting, yelling, but I didn't care, moving in on the Major, who was staring at the muzzle of Bomber's M-16. I stepped between Bomber and the Major, putting one hand on his forehead and pushing his head against the thick glass.

"Surprised to see me, pumpkin?" I asked, holding up my knife.

"Ant, no," Nancy said, grabbing my arm. I shook her off.

"Things are about to get ugly, Major," I warned him, setting the edge of the blade against his cheek, the point touching his lower eyelid.

"Corporal Stillwater, stand down!" LT James snapped.

Growling, I moved back and to the side, staring at the Major.

"What's going on?" SGT Butcher said. "Who the hell are those guys?"

"What the fuck took you so long, Bomber?" Corporal Lancer asked. "I was starting to worry you might have gone for pizza." His grin made everything all right. The asshole.

"Who the fuck gave you permission to come in shooting, Specialist Nagle?" Sergeant White asked. "You could have gotten us all..."

I turned around, growling, and moved toward him. He saw me coming, knife in my hand, and backed up.

"Corporal Stillwater, you better not..." he started as I tensed.

"Corporal Stillwater, stand down. Sheath your weapon," the LT snapped. I jerked to attention, wiping off the knife blade on my leg and slamming it into my hip sheath. I turned to face him and he was staring at me, standing at parade rest and smiling slightly.

"Retrieve your weapons, Corporal," he told me. I nodded.

The voices of my aunt, my mother, Aine, the Matrons, all were howling in my head, telling me if I'd moved faster two of Rear-D wouldn't be dead, that I'd failed them, but one word kept being repeated in their chorus.

killer

The one I'd stabbed in the chest required me to wrench at the blade and twist it before it would come loose. I rolled over the first one I'd taken and he was relaxed in death so the blade slid out easily.

The LT was behind me, calming those of Rear-D who were gathered up. He was telling them that he'd instructed Bomber, Nagle and I to ensure that if anyone moved against Rear-D or there was an emergency we'd be acting as QRF.

That calmed a lot of people. Still, Butcher and White seemed pissed off that we'd come in shooting. Claiming that they might have gotten killed in the crossfire, that the LT hadn't listed us as the QRF, and that we'd committed fratricide. Corporal Lancer kept harping on the fact that we were all lucky Bomber hadn't gone to main post for pizza after each of White and Butcher's complaints, jumping up and down and waving his arms for the LT's attention now and then.

When I stood up, the LT motioned for me to move over to where Nagle and Bomber were standing beside him, holding onto the Major's arms and keeping his hands behind his back and forcing him to lean forward slightly.

"Privates Shouford, Temmerson, Vaundoc and Bartleson, move the bodies into the Game Room. Everyone below the rank of Corporal move to the Rec-Room. The rest of you, gather around. Corporal Stillwater, Specialists Bomber and Nagle, stand fast," the LT said.

The others weren't happy about it, but I didn't give a shit. It wasn't my problem. We had a solid chain of command, had only lost two people so far, and the enemy was down to a third of their forces.

"Nagle and Bomber, secure the prisoner to one of the chairs behind the CQ desk. There's zip-ties in the middle drawer under the phones," the LT said. Bomber and Nancy moved to follow his instructions when he turned to me.

"Corporal Stillwater, there's three more men not including their leader," the LT started with. I nodded. "That means four unfriendlies in this barracks. They have Specialist Lanks and Private Meeks in their possession." I kept nodding. "Do you have a plan of operation?"

I thought for a second. "Bomber, Nagle and I were going to do a sweep of the barracks, take those out first, then move in on the CQ Area. We were going to start at the first floor, make our way up, then come back down." I looked at the bloodsmears on the tile floor. "Things changed when we saw what they were doing in here."

"I'm grateful for that." The LT nodded. He looked at the gathered NCO's and moved in close. "Pick more members for the QRF team, sweep and clear the barracks, eliminate any opposition with extreme prejudice."

I nodded again, turning away when he snapped out "Carry out your orders, Corporal." Stokes was standing in the open doorway to the Rec-Room, with PFC King beside her.

King was a big dude, over six foot, with a combat jump tab from Grenada on his uniform, black hair in a high and tight, and large scarred fists. He'd almost beaten a guy to death in his last unit over a woman so they'd busted him from E-5 to E-3 and sent him here. He'd been busted twice for fighting since he'd been assigned to the unit. He was an experienced rigger, combat engineer who'd pushed that back to his secondary MOS to take NBC Warfare, and was pretty solid according to his squad leader.

"King, get Levins, Needlemeyer, and Johnson. Stokes, get a head count," I said. I pulled the M-16 over my head and tossed it at King, who caught it. "You take that." I turned around to see Nagle and Bomber coming back from around the CQ desk, Major Mallory tied up in the chair with wadded up paper jammed in his mouth.

"Sir, I must protest. Giving Corporal Stillwater the keys to the armory strikes me as a bad idea," SGT White was saying.

"And just how do you expect him to arm the QRF and take back the barracks, Sergeant? Should he just instruct the unarmed members of the QRF and the rest of Rear Detachment to use harsh language and shame to subdue the men who are out to capture and execute the member of Rear Detachment?" the LT asked, his voice mild. "Perhaps I should instruct him to break apart the furniture to use as clubs?" He shook his head as I moved over next to him, standing next to Bomber and Nancy. "No, Sergeant, I've reviewed their records and Corporal Stillwater's squad has repelled multiple incursions against their site, suffering only one killed in action."

"Pfft, the Ranger's handled that," SGT White said.

The LT shook his head. "No, Sergeant, as a matter of fact, Ranger Team Saber Niner was replaced due to lack of performance after twice refusing to mobilize," the LT corrected. He turned to look at me, I just stared back. After a moment he handed me his keyring. "When your Quick Reaction Force has gathered up, I want you to go downstairs. Use my keys to open the armory. Retrieve your team's weapons so that you are using weapons that are zeroed correctly. Load up with a full basic load or whatever you deem necessary for QRF to accomplish its job. Take your team and clear the barracks," he told me, holding out his keyring.

I nodded, taking the keys then tossing them to Bomber. Stokes moved up next to me. "Everyone's accounted for except for the three missing from earlier: Lanks, Meeks, and Aine."

King walked up behind Stokes, smiling grimly.

"Sir, I don't..." Sergeant Butcher was saying.

"Sergeant Butcher," the LT snapped. Sergeant Butcher snapped to attention. "Is your problem with Corporal Stillwater or my decisions?"

Sergeant Butcher looked trapped. I knew he didn't like me, and frankly, since he was in a different platoon I couldn't give a shit less about his opinion. There wasn't really any reason for our dislike of one another, we just didn't like each other.

Or that's what I thought.

"Corporal Stillwater is disrespectful, violent, frequently insubordinate, and runs his site like his own little kingdom," Sergeant Butcher said, glaring at me. "He's too young, too inexperienced, and frankly I have serious doubts about his leadership ability." He pointed at my knife. "You know he was thrown in jail for assaulting a police officer."

I felt the rage coming back as my mother laughed at me in my head.

The LT nodded at each point. "Sergeant Butcher, are you aware of the circumstances of his assault upon a law enforcement officer?" SGT Butcher shook his head. "That law enforcement officer was caught by Corporal's Anthony Stillwater and William Stillwater sexually assaulting Cadet Ineda Stillwater, Corporal Anthony Stillwater's twin sister." Sergeant Butcher looked shocked. "To be perfectly honest, in his position, I would have been charged with the murder of a law enforcement officer. As to your other accusations, Corporal Stillwater runs the largest site that the Group controls, and do not believe for one minute that the officers in charge of the warfare platoons are not aware of the habit of the other NCO's of giving Corporal Stillwater the discipline problems." The LT smiled faintly. "You make a point of his violent tendencies, but I believe that in this situation violence is exactly what is called for."

He gave me a faint smile. "Corporal Stillwater, if QRF is assembled, follow my instructions." He turned and gave the assembled NCO's making their complaints a level stare. "I will handle any dissension."

"Give the LT your weapons in case those assholes come back," I instructed. Bomber opened his mouth, then shut it before handing the LT his weapon. The LT kept the one King handed him and put the other two on the CQ desk behind him.

"Nancy, King, you two are pulling drag. I'll pull point. Bomber, after me." I threw over my shoulder, heading for the stairwell door. "Knives out." I could hear Nancy's knife being drawn from its self-sharpening sheathe and the whisper of steel on leather from Bomber's.

My muscles were thrumming with anticipation when we moved into the stairs, but there wasn't anyone waiting for us. Moving down the stairs we headed into the Ready Room where we could access the Arms Room.

I moved up to the steel cage door, jingling the LT's keys. "I'll crack the Arms Room, then, King, I want you to pull everyone's NVG's and make sure they're loaded with new batteries and everyone has spares."

I slid the keys into the first of the three locks on the cage door and twisted the key.

"Stillwater! Freeze!" King barked. I froze. "The door's wired."

I glanced down, seeing greyish clay-like substance at the lock, not NATO standard. My brain dredged up exactly what it was and where it came from. PVV-5A Plastic Explosive, standard issue for the Soviet Union. The coloration and surface consistency was different than C-4. I glanced at the edges of the cage, seeing three more charges in my vision range. One at each hinge I could see, one at the upper lock. There were blasting caps and wire running from each of the charges and down out of my vision, the charges wired sequentially. My vision of the bottom hinge and the bottom lock were blocked by my arms. I couldn't see them without moving, and if I moved, if they were set for pressure or proximity, I was so much hamburger.

"Fuck," Bomber said.

The lizard hissed.