Two Bears are Better Than One(23)

King grunted in the way he acknowledged realities he didn’t like, but couldn’t ignore. “We need to get back to the cubs. We have to make sure that—“

In the night sky, something lit up. An enormous fireball shot toward the heavens, very much like a meteor that came from earth instead of space. It came from exactly the worst direction it could. At exactly the same time, both Rogue and King said: “the camp.”

They exchanged a quick glance, and both crouched to the ground, beginning their shift.

Only, King’s didn’t go as planned. Fur crept from his muscled arms and thick legs, but that was all. Before his limbs grew, or his body changed form, he seemed stuck in mid-shift, like he was in stasis. With lurching, stumbling steps, he fell, picked himself up slowly and fell again. “I... can’t,” he groaned. “I don’t know why, but...”

Rogue clenched the dart in his half-bear fist. “I think I have an idea. Can you walk?”

Once again, King pushed himself to his feet, groaning in pain as he did. He was just about to fall again when Rogue caught him under the arms. “That answers that.” He slid his brother’s heft onto his back. “Can you hold on at least?”

King nodded. “I think so. It’s just my legs, they’re numb.” As soon as there was enough hair-turned-fur for him to grip, he did.

“Damn!” Rogue shouted. “I didn’t expect you to hold on that hard. If you yank my fur out you’re gonna be screwed.”

Something like a twisted laugh came from his half-bear snout in the seconds before he was fully turned.

With King on his back, Rogue turned toward home, toward where the fireball had split the sky, streaming orange light in sharp streaks across the sky. “Whatever this is, it’s almost over,” he said. “Whatever is happening, I—“

“My mark,” King groaned. “It’s burning, she’s, Jill—”

“I feel it too,” Rogue said. “One thing at a time.”

*

Jill watched the firestorm explode, and then she watched the flames die down, leaving behind massive, curling trails of white smoke, stark against the pitch black night. The helicopters had vanished so quickly she wasn’t sure if they had been actual memories or simple figments.

The fire though, that was certainly not her imagination.

When it burst, it was so close that she felt an aftershock of force, and then a wave of heat. For some reason, she knew that whatever it was, and whatever that gunshot was, were part of why her chest was presently aching so badly she thought it might’ve been a heart attack. She checked her pistol one more time. She knew they were there, she knew it was loaded, but seeing the bullets gave her a little shot of security. Jill felt herself almost unconsciously pulled toward the pillar of smoke. Why, she couldn’t say – but something called her. Something tugged her in that direction. But just like Rogue and King, no matter how crazy she felt, no matter how strange or unbelievable the whole thing was?

Somehow, it felt right.

Maybe that fate stuff? Maybe there’s something to it after all.

*

“Report.”

Ice cold, stony hazel eyes focused on a slightly nervous man who was thirty years younger. The younger man was trying to hide his nervousness. “Uh, yes, General Draven.”

“Just Draven,” he said. “On this job, there aren’t any generals. We’re not supposed to be here. Hell, we’re not supposed to exist.”

“Right, sir, sorry. There was a slight... miscalculation.”

“With the wolves?” Draven asked. He narrowed his eyes. Just the glance was enough to make sweat bead up on the younger man’s smooth brow. He wiped it away.

“No, the wolves, that all went off as planned. The frequency we had is right – they went right into a whipped up, crazed frenzy, just like we hoped.”

Draven grunted under his breath, then unwound his arms from where they were crossed behind his slim frame and steepled his fingers under his chin. “So then, what? The bears?”

A moment’s hesitation told him everything he needed to know. “What about the girl? Is that obnoxious scientist still in the picture?”

“That’s the other thing, sir. We had a bead on her – or you did, I mean – but then she vanished. By the time we called in the air strike, our coordinates were no good.”

“Then what was that explosion?” Draven narrowed his lips to a thin, unbroken line that matched the pencil-shaped mustache immediately above it.

The soldier shook his head. “I told them not to do it. I told them the coordinates were bad, but they,” he trailed off, eyes turning to the floor.

Draven was nodding – he had expected this double cross. His only anger was at himself for not acting sooner. “I had a feeling this was the plan all along, but of course thinking isn’t in my job description. If that’s what the corporation wanted, then that’s what they get.”

“It was the den.” The soldier’s voice hitched slightly in his throat. “They firebombed the shit out of it. It’s like they wanted to wipe it out, make sure there was no trace left behind. I thought they just wanted to catch a couple of them, a couple of wolves, and do some experiments, or—“

Draven grabbed the younger man’s shoulder. “The first thing you learn in this line of work is that you’re getting paid to follow orders. The sooner you stop thinking, the sooner you stop feeling, the easier it’ll be.”

He laughed bitterly. “That’s a lesson I should have learned a long time ago. The other one is that you can’t fight an army by yourself. I never learned that one either. But the girl’s still alive?”

“Must be. And I think they might have missed with the firebombs. None of the cubs were down there. I checked the heat signatures. Maybe it was just supposed to be a warning?”

“You can’t warn someone who doesn’t know you exist. What would the point be? If you ask me, they’re trying to get all three of them back there so they can catch them all at once. At least, that’s the only thing that comes to mind.”

Draven pulled an unfiltered Camel out of the packet that he kept in the breast pocket of his unmarked uniform. With a smooth, practiced motion, he flipped it into his mouth and struck his ancient Zippo, then shut it with a clink as he exhaled the first puff. “I think you had the right of it. They want to experiment, but they don’t want to bother experimenting on the young ones. Why bother? If you want to dick around with nature, why not take the biggest and the strongest?”

“Yeah, I mean yes, sir,” the soldier said. Draven smiled. He hated the formality he was supposed to keep. He’d been a brilliant tactician, an incredible leader, but an absolutely horrible general. This life suited him much better, he thought.

“But what I can’t figure out, why did they want the girl?”

Draven shook his head. “If I could answer that, I would. Hell, I can’t even really tell you who is writing our paychecks. But then, that’s probably how they want it. There’s something strange about her, though. When I was watching her earlier, she didn’t show one shred of fear. She just stared straight back at me, like there was a purpose to what she was doing. And she kept touching her chest. Maybe a habit, maybe a tic, or—“

“It ain’t a tic, Draven,” a big, muscled-up bald man, heavily tattooed on the neck and shoulders, entered the makeshift office and closed the door behind him.

The grizzled old man took a long drag, held it for a second, and then blew out a huge plume of smoke as he turned to the door. “Rogue and King,” the new man said. “They don’t know what they’ve got themselves into.”

“Good to see you, Madix. I was afraid you’d decided to take your freedom and run with it.”

The cryptic comment made no sense to the young man, but he stood still all the same, his expression never changing. If there was one thing he’d learned about being a mercenary, it’s that you don’t show any emotions until you know someone’s entire game.

“No, sir,” the massive brute said. “Wouldn’t know where to go. And besides, I owe you one. Like I was saying, Rogue and King have no idea what they’re up against. They think the wolves are just frenzied because it’s that time of year, or month, or whatever. Also, I missed him on purpose.”

“Missed him? What are you talking about?”

Madix huffed a laugh. “Those black suits, they wanted me to tranquilize one bear so the other would be easier to catch. The point was – you had it right, junior – that the fire was supposed to lure them home. And to lure that girl in as well. She feels them, you know. She’s one of them.”

“I suspected,” Draven said. “But kept my mouth shut. So she’s marked, then?”

The big man nodded. “Marked just like my mother, just like the two alphas. My memories aren’t all that clear, and God knows what GlasCorp did to me when I was in their cages, but I remember enough to know that she’s special. Marks aren’t random, they don’t just happen. They always have a purpose.”

“Regardless,” Draven said. “Business is business. Not a word, to anyone. Understand, Madix? You’re not going to do anything to spoil the mission.”