Operation (28 page)

“Reese?”

Reese looked toward the direction of the voice.

“Are you all right?” Morris asked.

“Yes,” Reese answered, as he shook the memories from his thoughts. “I was just thinking.”

“Let’s proceed inside,” Morris said, as he stepped toward the door.

Reese took one last look around and then turned his attention to the entry procedures. He thought he remembered them, but it wouldn’t hurt to actually watch them now and refresh his memory.

As Morris stepped to within range of the door security devices, Reese heard the motorized hum of the surveillance camera swing in his way. The control center would be watching to ensure that only one person would gain access. Morris swiped his ID card through the electronic reader. The light changed from red to flashing yellow. Next, he placed his right thumb on the small plate next to the card reader. The flashing yellow light changed to green and the lock on the door clicked open. Morris stepped through the door. Reese stepped up and repeated the procedure. A few seconds later, Reese joined Morris inside where they were met by one of the guards on duty. Reese immediately noticed the change to the gear that the SEALs wore. He held back his immediate question for the general.

“Is the investigating team assembled?” Morris asked the guard.

“Yes, sir. They’re all in the conference room.”

“Let’s go, then.”

The group walked down the passageway.

“General?” Reese asked quietly.

“Yes.”

“When did they add the Kevlar hoods to the uniforms?”

“Just in the past month or so. The men felt more comfortable with having their entire body protected. Why?”

“It’ll make visual identification impossible.”

“Yes, I suppose it will,” the general agreed, in a tone that signaled his own frustration.

 *****

The investigation team consisted of three lieutenants and a commander. Their mission was to gather the facts associated with the escape and analyze them, with the ultimate goal of determining how the escape happened. When Reese entered the room, he saw it was filled with several television sets, recording devices and stacks of videocassette tapes. Reese also noticed a dank odor, as if it had been continuously occupied for several hours with men that had been sweating. The men all rose as the general entered.

“Are you ready to summarize?” Morris asked.

“Yes, sir,” the commander answered.

“Let’s do it then.”

The SEAL commander’s eyes settled upon Reese.

“It’s okay, Commander Pattoon. This is Commander John Reese,” the general said.

Commander Pattoon’s eyes narrowed with recognition. He spoke with a voice somewhere between contempt and admiration. “Team of Darkness op.” 

“That’s correct,” Morris said. “He is my special assistant in this matter. He is to receive full cooperation and access. You will find him to be of assistance in this matter.”

“Yes, sir,” Commander Pattoon said warily.

 Morris said, “Begin the briefing from the beginning.”

“At 0330, a little over three days ago, three men made their way into this secure area during the normal rotational shift. They gained access following the normal entry procedures.”

“Then we have traitors?” Morris asserted.

“No, sir. We have learned that the three intruders assumed the identity of three men normally assigned to the facility.”

“But the safeguards—how did they get in?”

“They fit the rough physical descriptions of the assigned men in height and body weight. They were in uniform with all the appropriate gear. We have ascertained they used wax imprints of the thumbprints as well as stolen identity cards.”

“Wait a minute,” Morris said, raising his hand. “Why didn’t the guard monitoring the surveillance camera catch the fake imprint? They had to have seen something!”

“That was my question as well, sir. The answer is that these men were extremely quick in their movements. It was not detected until we watched the tapes in slow motion.”

“I don’t understand,” Reese said.

“Watch,” Pattoon said. “Lieutenant, run the tape.”

The television screen flickered into life. The images showed the camera view of three men entering into range of the entryway that Reese and Morris had come through only minutes before. Fully dressed in their uniforms, there were no distinguishable features for the camera to see. They repeated the same procedure that Reese and Morris had and disappeared one by one inside the door. The tape ended.

“Looks normal, doesn’t it?” Pattoon asked. “That is what the guard on duty monitoring their entry also assumed. Now watch this. I am going to slow the speed of the tape down to frame by frame.”

The tape began again, but this time the frames clicked by in slowed segments. Reese saw what the commander had caught. He watched as the first man placed something over his thumb prior to placing it on the scanner.

“It’s a wax imprint. We found traces on the scanner,” Pattoon added.

“How can they do that so quickly?” Morris asked.

“I don’t know, sir. All I can guess at this point is that they are professionals in what they do—and they’re very good at it. It’s uncanny the speed in which they were able to perform this maneuver. Also, they obviously knew the guard would be watching and that the camera would be recording these images.”

Reese felt as if the temperature in the room had suddenly dropped several degrees. He felt a cold sweat ooze from his pores uncontrollably as the images on the screen showed the same adept process by all of three men. The thought forced its way into his mind:
Was it three men or was it three vampires? They knew the procedures…had Dimitri been aware of the entry procedures?
He couldn’t remember.

“What about the three men they impersonated?” Morris asked.

“We found them in a hospital. All three were found unconscious in an alley behind a  local bar only a few minutes from here.”

“What happened?”

“They were playing pool in the bar when one of the bartenders handed them a note. The note indicated that this person had some information they might be interested in and to meet him out back. They went out back and then everything else is blank.”

“They don’t remember?” Morris asked.

“No, sir. They clearly remember leaving the bar and going into the alley and then…that’s it. They don’t know what happened.”

“Were they harmed in any other way?”

“Bruised and a few broken bones, nothing serious, but it is evident they didn’t go down without a fight.”

“The reputation of these men?” Morris asked.

“Three of our best.”

Morris sighed. “What about the transport team?”

“Pretty much the same. They remember leaving the compound and proceeding normally. Then it all goes blank and they can’t remember a thing. When they woke up, they drove back here.”

“So you’re telling me that these three men subdued the entire party of guards and the escorts? Knew the entire procedure for transport?”

“Yes, sir.”

“What the hell is going on here?” Morris said as he rose from his chair. “These intruders had to have inside information. What else do we have?”

“Faked orders.” Pattoon answered. “To move the two subjects. They’re good quality right down to names and language.”

“Jesus Christ!” Morris screamed. “Is there any good news?”

“We have an image of one of them.”

“But I thought they kept their faces covered?” Reese asked.

“Two of them did; the ones that escorted the subjects to the transport area. But the—”

“Must we call them subjects?” Reese asked. For some reason the term subjects bothered him. “These are two female children.”

“Never mind that, Commander,” Morris interjected abruptly, giving Reese a stern look. “Proceed, Pattoon.”

“The one that impersonated a lieutenant didn’t wear the Kevlar hood like the rest of them did. But it’s as if…

“What?” Morris barked.

“Well, sir, it’s as if he knew that the cameras were there, so he was very careful not to expose his face completely. We were able to get a few shots of him before they left the facility.”

 “Let’s see it.”

The screen of the television set flickered as the tape began to play. The image was of the large bay at the end of the building, where vehicles could enter and depart. The scene consisted of three vans and people in the process of loading into them. When the last door had closed, the image zoomed in on the back of the one man who remained outside of the van. He was a tall man with broad shoulders. He stood still for several seconds, then for no apparent reason, he slightly turned his head to one side revealing a glimpse of his profile. The frame froze.

“It’s not much but it’s all we have right now,” Pattoon said. “Initial analysis of skin, hair and eyes suggests European origin. We have begun reconstruction process to attempt a full-face profile so we can run it through our systems to see if we can identify. If we can get a decent picture, we can distribute to local law enforcement and increase the possibility of locating them.”

“That will be under the cognizance of the search and destroy teams,” Morris said plainly. “Coordinate with them on that.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is there anything else?”

“That’s it for the moment.”

“Well, keep me informed. Reese, any questions?”

Reese’s eyes remained fixed on the screen. He had seen that face many times and immediately recognized it. What bothered him was why? Why had Dimitri chosen to show his face when he had the opportunity to conceal it? He must have known that someone might identify it. No, not might. He knew someone would
identify it: him. Dimitri knew they would call him in to assist in the capture. So why?

“Reese!” Morris said loudly.

Reese looked up from the screen. The general and Pattoon were staring at him.

“Sir?” Reese asked.

“I asked if you have any questions? What is so interesting in that image on the screen? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

Reese tried to think of something to say to cover up his obvious attention to the image. “Oh…sorry. It’s just that the features are interesting. In my studies, it is an important characteristic. I agree with Commander Pattoon’s initial assessment of European origin and I would add that it’s probably Slavic.”

“Slavic? Hmmm, good point. That could help in narrowing down search criteria if and when we get to that,” Pattoon said. “Is there anything else?”

“I do have one question. What about the collars? Were they activated?” asked Reese.

“Damn, I forgot about that,” Morris added before Pattoon could answer.

“According to the logs, they were activated approximately thirty minutes later, but not by the command center. We suspect that they attempted to remove them.”

“So there is a good possibility they are dead,” stated Reese.

“It is a strong possibility,” Pattoon agreed.

“It’s possible, but I don’t buy it,” Morris added. “If they knew enough about the security to get in and out of the compound, they had to know about the collars as well. What would be the point in destroying what they went through so much trouble to capture?”

“Unless that was their mission,” Reese said. “To ensure that they were destroyed.”

“Possible. But what if they found someway to counteract the poison in the collars?” Pattoon asked.

“That’s a long shot,” Reese asserted, although he wasn’t really sure. Could Dimitri have found an antidote? He could be very determined, Reese thought.

“We will proceed with the search and destroy aspect of the mission,” Morris said. “I have orders to be absolutely certain of the disposition of the two subjects. You are the expert on where they might go, what they might need. I want you to come up with a list of search parameters for Commander Pattoon to work on. Tomorrow morning, I want you to brief the search teams on what they need to be prepared for. “

“General, I hope you understand that the chances of—”

“Commander Reese, all I understand at this moment is that we must do everything within our power to either recapture or destroy the two subjects. That is my concern, which makes it your primary concern. Do you have any other questions?” Morris said.

“No, sir,” Reese said.

“Then get to work. I want that briefing at 0600.”

Chapter Seven

 Morris left the room. Reese exhaled deeply and rubbed his face with his hands in frustration. Less then a full day back in the Navy and he was already feeling overwhelmed. If only General Stone had not brought the two girls back, none of this would be happening.
The stupid son of a bitch couldn’t leave well enough alone.
If he had known what Stone had done, he could have handled this back then somehow. Instead, he was left holding a vicious bag of snakes: Samantha, Morris, the NAVY and the missing vampires.

“Any ideas?” Pattoon asked, interrupting his thoughts. “We can start working on this tonight and maybe have some leads to follow by the morning.”

Reese forced his mind to come up with something. “Well…if the girls are alive, they would need access to food: blood, whether animal or human. Can you scan law enforcement records for anything: unusual deaths, strange attacks on people or any forms of livestock: horses, cattle, even pets; anything that looks unusual.”

“Sure, we can do that.”

“I don’t think you will find anything, though,” Reese added.

“Why?”

“Well, think about it. If you had done this job, would you advertise where you were by doing something like that? Killing or mutilating attracts attention and that is not what they want. I would have prepared some other way to feed them. Either bought livestock or made arrangements with a farmer or something. See my point?”

“Yeah, makes sense. Can you think of anything else?”

“The general mentioned that they are searching all cargo coming and going, is that correct?”

“Yes. They’ve pulled some strings with the Homeland Security folks and they have are searching everything.”

“So if they are still here, they may have to stay for an unspecified amount of time. They’ll need somewhere safe to spend their days, a house or something. We can search on the assumption that they have bought or rented a house in the last few months.”