Four
1217 Words
BLADE
“Excuse me?”
Joseph nodded, head bowed in respect.
I rubbed my eyes in exasperation. “What do we know?”
“Sniper in the forest. We believe they had one person on the ground as backup. We're assuming they had outside support because they avoided all security systems too cleanly. We saw someone leaving the forest by bike, but couldn’t tell you whether or not it was our sniper.”
“You're telling me two individuals managed to take out the delta in the middle of the pack compound with no witnesses? A pack that we're protecting? Are they human?” I even had two members of my team out on patrol earlier tonight. Rumour was that our little delta had made some questionable decisions and a lot of enemies, so there was a target on his back.
He nodded. “We found Snake and Steel just outside the bar. Both had been knocked out. We couldn’t smell anything supernatural, so they must have been human.”
Two very experienced agents got taken out. Fortunately they were only unconscious, but that just says whoever orchestrated the hit didn't want to deal with unnecessary complications. They might have left a clue behind, but they were obviously professionals. It was unlikely either of my men had seen anything, even with enhanced wolf senses.
They wanted to just get in and out. Clinical. Professional.
I banged my head against the table. What the bloody hell was going on today?!
“We need to scope out the area,” I sighed, rubbing my hand over my face. My night suddenly took a turn for the worse. I stood, not even remembering that I was completely naked.
“You might want to get dressed first, bossman.” He had a god awful smirk on his face that made me want to punch him.
Daylight was only just starting to break when we reached the compound. Fortunately, that meant most of the wolves were still asleep. It meant it was incredibly unlikely that the scene would have been disturbed.
William, otherwise known as Snake, and Alexander, otherwise known as Steel, were standing outside the bar, stony expressions on their faces.
“Snake, Steel. What happened here?”
“We’re not sure, boss,” Snake replied, voice low. He was pissed. “They must have snuck up on us. I’m actually not sure how, one minute I’m walking around the bar with Steel, the next I’m waking up on the ground by that tree,” he pointed towards the tree line.
“Did you see anything, Steel?”
“I saw a black silhouette in the trees, but only for a second. I couldn’t tell you what happened, I just woke up next to Snake.”
“f**k!” I shouted, kicking the tree. “We need to find out what the f**k happened here. How did someone knock out two of my team, two people that have been in the business for 100 years, and get away with no witnesses?”
“We need to bring Sunshine in, boss.”
Frank, otherwise known as Sunshine, was my intel specialist. Give him a computer, and he’d be able to find things about you that even you don’t know.
I nodded at Snake. “Make the call.”
We combed through the bar for hours. No signs of anything suspicious, even the body and shell were missing. Whoever did this was a true professional.
Which meant not only did we lose someone we were being paid to protect, but we had competition. My team and I were used to being the big dogs around here, but that looked like it was going to change.
Or perhaps we’d always had competition, and this was just the first time we’d crossed paths? It was possible, after all.
The four of us headed back to mine, Sunshine meeting us there. Sunshine had thought ahead and turned up with the biggest bucket of chicken wings I’d ever seen, and a couple bottles of whiskey. I knew there was a reason I kept him around. Other than him being great with intel, that is.
We talked business for a while, but there wasn’t really much we could do until Sunshine had time to do his thing. Wings and whiskey were a better passtime for now.
“So, Blade, are you gonna tell us about your friend?” Bite smirked.
“Friend, Blade?” Snake looked shocked.
“I have friends, Snake.”
The four of them chuckled.
“From what I saw, Blade, a friend with benefits,” Bite still hadn’t wiped that smirk off his face. “So, who was she?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t really know. I met her at the bar.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Steel’s voice was suspicious.
“We both used codenames. She said hers was a road name, or something like that anyway.”
“What was hers?” Sunshine’s voice was concerned.
“Edge.”
“Blade and Edge. Great combo, that,” Snake chuckled. “As long as you’re not both in the industry, anyway.”
I paused. She did say she works in security, and that’s what we always say.
“What does she do, Blade…?” Sunshine was fishing for information. With more than a just name, he’d likely be able to find something.
I bit my lip, they probably weren’t going to like this next bit.
“Security.”
The silence in the room was deafening, and it was about to get worse.
“She was carrying a gun.”
“Blade, I hope you know what you’re doing, man.” Bite had been with me the longest, and was always trying to watch my back.
“I didn’t think at first there was any way she could be involved in anything sketchy. But how she was concealing that weapon…”
Bite’s face was questioning.
“She was wearing this dress. Open back, flared out around her hips. She had a handgun concealed at the small of her back.”
“How the hell did she pull that off? When did you notice?”
“I noticed when we got back to mine. She wasn’t using any kind of holster, it looked like she’d got some kind of holster sewn into the dress itself.”
Snake’s face was a picture, pausing before he continued. “So she must carry pretty darn often if a dress she wore on a night out is designed to conceal a gun.”
I nodded. “Sunshine, can you do some digging for me?”
“Of course, boss. What do we know?”
“Road name Edge. Works in security. Blonde, green eyes, approximately five foot eight or nine.”
“Approximate age?” Sunshine was making notes as he talked.
“About twenty, I think.”
“Human?”
“I believe so. Either that or she was using a very good scent blocker.” I stopped again. “There was something suspicious about her. She was strong, really strong, and fast.”
“Are you 100% sure she’s human, Blade?” Sunshine’s voice was uncertain.
I nodded.
“Okay boss. I’ll get whatever information I can find.”
- Writer
