The Vampire Diaries: Thunder & Lightning (Chapters 3 & 4)
By Vincent Chia
Chapter Three
It had been a little over a month since Damon's last covert mission with Enzo. Damon was starting to get a little bored, but he'd rather have too much downtime as opposed to not enough. His current boss once asked him whether he would be willing to go on assignments that came from private sector clients in addition to the ones tasked by the CIA. Damon declined. Enzo, on the other hand, was more open-minded. He was sometimes given assignments that he could handle by himself while Damon spent his time doing whatever he felt like at the moment.
Right this moment, Damon sat in his grandiose home reading one of the newest vampire-themed teen lit books. The series had proven to be popular with adults as well.
"How can people read this garbage?" thought Damon. He was a slightly bigger fan of the classic gothic novels, but even those were hard to read sometimes. Vampires. What nonsense.
His smartphone vibrated and he was thankful for the diversion. It was Stefan.
"Damon, I need your help with something. Come over quick," said Stefan. Damon could hear the urgency in Stefan's voice.
"Why? What happened?" asked Damon.
"I'll show you when you get here. Come quick."
Damon got into his convertible and sped to Stefan's house.
When Damon arrived at Stefan's house, he saw that Jeremy was also there. Stefan told Damon and Jeremy to take a seat on the living room couch as he connected his laptop computer to the widescreen tv. Stefan then played a video message he received a little over an hour ago. A view of Elena came into focus. She was gagged and restrained to a metal chair.
A voice from behind the camera spoke clearly.
"Dr. Stefan Salvatore of Mystic Landing: as you can see, I have your wife Elena here under guard. You have been the head physician at Ballard Maximum Security Facility for the past year. Fifteen days ago, a prisoner named Philip Augustine was transferred to your facility. I need your help to break him out. You will dose him with a drug that mimics death. You will declare him dead and he will be transferred to the morgue. All you have to do is order the transfer. A couple of my men are in position to free Mr. Augustine."
When Stefan first saw the video, he panicked a great deal. He panicked for Elena's safety, but was even more frightened by the fact that he didn't think he could pull off what was demanded of him. Stage a prisoner escape? There were multiple layers of safeguards against that kind of thing. After thinking about it, he came to the conclusion that he probably could pull it off, and that scared him a little bit too.
Damon looked at Stefan and it seemed Stefan wasn't exactly sure what to do.
"Stefan, you work with federal law enforcement agencies. Call them," said Damon.
"No, no," said Stefan. "I can't alert the authorities." Stefan played the rest of the video. The unidentified voice said that if Stefan involved the authorities, Elena would be killed. The voice also said that he had contacts inside the federal government and that he would know. Stefan had one week to fake Mr. Augustine's death.
Damon himself wasn't entirely sure what to do. On the one hand, carrying out the prison escape would be the straightforward and simplest thing to do. However, Damon was from the school of thought that bullies, kidnappers, blackmailers, and other assorted terrorists should be met with maximum force. Of course, maximum force meant death.
"I'm going to do it," said Stefan reluctantly.
"Call the FBI?" asked Jeremy.
"No. God no," said Stefan. "I'll get this Augustine guy out."
"How do you know they won't kill Elena anyway even after you've freed Augustine?" asked Damon. He was now leaning more towards getting the authorities involved.
"I don't," admitted Stefan. "But this is the safer course of action."
"You can't cave in to these people," insisted Damon.
"This is Elena we're talking about here," said Stefan. "It's not a hypothetical fact pattern on a philosophy exam. If anything ever happened to her…"
As Stefan trailed off, Damon was tempted for a second to make a rebuttal, but decided against it. Instead, he would try to figure this out on his own.
"I gotta run an errand," said Damon. "Be back in a bit."
"Don't do anything stupid," insisted Stefan. "Let me handle this."
"Why did you call me over anyway?" asked Damon, slightly annoyed. He knew that deep down, Stefan wanted his help.
"I just wanted…. I wanted you and Jeremy to know what happened in case this all goes south," said Stefan. "If I get caught, if I fail and me and Elena don't make it. I want you both to know."
Stefan tossed a small memory stick to Damon.
"If it hits the fan, give that to the feds," said Stefan.
Damon nodded and he headed out.
"Where are you going?" asked Stefan.
"Out," said Damon.
"Define 'out.'"
"Stop worrying, little bro," said Damon. He tried to be as reassuring as possible. "You don't want to go to the feds, I'll respect your decision. As stupid as it is."
Damon grabbed his black jacket, went to his car, and drove off.
"What is it you're looking for?" asked Sheriff Forbes.
"Just traffic cam footage," said Damon.
"That's easy. We only have two traffic cams in the whole damn town," said the sheriff.
Damon combed through the footage to see if he could stop any out-of-towners. Mystic Landing was a small enough place that Damon might be able to make out an unfamiliar vehicle. It wasn't as if Mystic Landing was a tourist attraction. There would be no reason for someone to randomly visit the town. Damon spent a few hours looking through black and white camera footage. Unfortunately, there was nothing he saw in the video feeds that caught his attention.
"What is this about?" asked the sheriff.
"Oh, nothing," said Damon. "A car sideswiped Elena's SUV earlier today. She said she thought it was someone from out of town. She didn't recognize the driver who had sped away."
"Is she okay?"
"Oh, she's fine. Just a little shaken up."
Damon returned to his car when his phone rang.
"What's up Little Gilbert?" asked Damon.
"He's gone," said Jeremy.
"What?" asked Damon.
"Stefan. He's gone. His motorcycle isn't around either."
"Okay, stay where you are. I'll come over to you."
"What happened?" asked Damon as he stepped inside Stefan's house.
"I don't know," said Jeremy. "I don't know."
"Walk me through what happened after I left," said Damon.
About half an hour after Damon left for Sheriff Forbes' office, three individuals came knocking. They identified themselves as FBI agents from the Hostage Response Team. Stefan was surprised. He didn't call the FBI. He was also annoyed at Damon, thinking Damon was the one who contacted the FBI.
"There must be some mix-up," said Stefan. "I didn't call the FBI."
"We know," said the man who previously identified himself as Agent Parker. "I'm here on behalf of Philip Augustine."
Stefan's face turned white as a sheet.
"Don't worry," Parker said, trying to reassure him. "Nothing will happen to Elena Salvatore as long as the plan is carried out."
Stefan remained silent. Parker nodded an acknowledgement to Jeremy and then looked back at Stefan.
"You have a good day, Dr. Salvatore," said Parker as he slightly tipped his baseball cap at Stefan. Parker and his two other agents walked back to their back SUV and drove off.
"Did you get a license plate?" Damon asked Jeremy.
"No. Who thinks to do something like that?" he asked defensively.
"How did Stefan react?" asked Damon. "Was he falling apart?"
"You know Stefan, he is always the same. It's hard to read his emotions most of the time. He was little changed after the FBI agents left. He said he wanted some privacy to clear his mind. He went to his bedroom upstairs and I stayed down here. I didn't hear his motorcycle, but I guess he must've rode off."
Damon evaluated the situation for a few minutes. He then noticed that Stefan's notebook computer was still on the dining room table. He walked over to the computer and started typing.
"What are you doing?" asked a curious Jeremy.
"Trying to figure out who sent Stefan the kidnap video," said Damon.
"And then what?"
"I'll deal with it," said Damon. "First things first, I have to find the guy. I guess I shouldn't get in touch with the FBI folks to get this done."
Damon typed for 15 minutes and Jeremy could tell Damon was starting to get annoyed. It got to the point where Damon was within an inch of throwing the computer against the wall.
"I think Bonnie might be able to help," said Jeremy.
"Really?" asked a surprised Damon.
"She works for some cybersecurity company that often consults with the Department of Homeland Security. One of the things they do is trace hacker attacks."
"Well why didn't you say so earlier," said Damon in a half sarcastic tone.
Jeremy just gave him a silent look.
Damon's curiosity was piqued. He never thought of Bonnie as someone who would be involved with the national security apparatus. But then again, it was a brave new world where nothing was ever as it seemed. The warriors of the new millenium didn't always fight with their hands. Well, at least not in hand to hand combat. They used their hands to control joysticks or their fingers to type commands into computers.
Within the hour, Jeremy brought Bonnie to Stefan's house. Along the way, they also picked up Bonnie's colleague Liv. Liv was new to Wicked Cybersecurity, Inc. However, she was one of the most capable cyberanalysts when it came to locator programs.
Damon was a little uneasy about bringing in yet another person, but he wanted to give Bonnie and Liv the benefit of the doubt. Bonnie must've seen that he was a little bit wary.
"You can trust Liv like you trust me," said Bonnie. That didn't make Damon feel that much better.
"Besides," continued Bonnie. "My expertise is anchoring. I prevent sites from being hijacked. Backtrace isn't my field."
Liv's fingers flew over her keyboard as she tried to help Damon find out who had sent Stefan the ransom e-mail. The sender seemed to have covered his tracks pretty thoroughly.
"Looks like he bounced the signal hundreds of times all over the map."
After a few minutes of furious typing, an excited Liv yelled "Got him!"
Liv traced the e-mail message to a computer located in the Rocky Mountains. It was in a Department of Defense research facility. The computer was connected to a DoD network. Liv was able to determine that the computer account was assigned to a Dr. Max Westfield. She brought up Dr. Westfield's government profile and showed it to Damon.
Damon wasn't sure, but he thought he recognized Westfield. It was possible they crossed paths before, since Westfield was attached to the military.
"Nice work, Goldilocks," said Damon. Being a fan of nicknames, Damon had already used up "Blondie" for Elena's best friend Caroline.
Liv smiled, only because she was successful in backtracing Westfield. She was less enthused by Damon's nickname.
"Can you look up another name for me?" asked Damon.
"Sure," said Liv.
"Philip Augustine," said Damon. "Try both with one L or two."
Liv's fingers typed on the keyboard for two seconds and a long list came up.
"Cross reference with current prisoners in the federal system," said Damon.
Liv typed a quick command and the list narrowed to 2 names. Damon looked at them. The second name was the one he was looking for. He asked Liv to bring up the file.
"Former lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army. Stripped of his rank after court-martial," said Liv.
"Why isn't he held in a military prison?" wondered Damon out loud.
Liv read through the file and then pointed to a section.
"He was discharged from the military 5 years ago, after the court-martial. No prison sentence. He was re-arrested 2 years ago and is currently imprisoned on charges of treason and terrorism. Wait, that's a little strange…." said Liv.
Liv tried a few more commands to bring up the rest of Augustine's file, but she was blocked from access. Her hacking skills just reached a ceiling.
"What was Augustine's MOS?" asked Damon, referring to military occupational specialty.
"Psy Ops," said Liv.
"Great," said Damon sarcastically. "Just great." The guys is psychological warfare were often pretty crazy themselves.
Damon got Liv to e-mail him all the information she had on Augustine, Westfield, and the military base in the Rocky Moutains.
"What are you going to do?" asked Jeremy.
"I'm going into hero mode," said Damon.
"Be careful," said Jeremy. "Don't get killed."
"Don't worry. See ya later, Little Gilbert. Bon-Bon."
Bonnie didn't mind the nickname. Part of her thought Damon was a jerk while another part thought he was a charming rebel. She wondered which impression would win out in the end.
"Thanks, Olivia," said Damon before he left Stefan's house. He whipped out his smartphone and thought about who he should call, if anybody.
"If it isn't Agent Thunder," said the female pilot who Damon knew as "Rocky." Damon arrived at the private airfield just outside of DC. She seemed to think Damon's convertible was pretty cool. Before he left Stefan's, Damon swept his car for bugs or tracking devices. He also kept an eye out for tails while he was driving. He was fairly certain nobody had followed him.
"Thank you for meeting me," said Damon. He wasn't sure she would. He had barely identified himself over the phone, only saying he was Thunder from Wombat flight a short while back. She remembered him instantly.
"Where's your buddy? The guy with the accent," asked the pilot.
"He won't be joining us. He's on assignment in Southeast Asia somewhere."
"You're going alone?" wondered Rocky, in a tone which suggested she didn't think it was a good idea.
"I can handle it," said Damon defensively.
Damon thought about involving at least one other agent with him, but everyone he trusted was on assignment. There were a few he knew as acquaintances but he didn't want to risk them being connected somehow with Westfield or Augustine. Even if they weren't connected, there was the chance that they would report Damon to his superiors for an unauthorized infiltration of a military base.
Damon hadn't explained exactly why he needed a flight to Colorado. He told Rocky that he was on agency business. When she was about to contact her superiors about her tasking, Damon told her it would be off the books. He also paid her in cash. A stack of it.
The two of them walked over to a small Cessna. It was her personal plane that her dad bought her a few years ago. It was a tiny plane that only fit three people, but it was fast enough for Damon. He didn't want to fly commercial and risk being discovered.
"By the way, my name is Erica," said the pilot. "David, right?"
"Damon. Close though."
"So… You gonna tell me what we're doing?" asked Erica.
"Can't. Classified. It's for your own protection that you don't know," said Damon.
"Bullshit," said Erica. She tried not to be confrontational about it, but she knew Damon wasn't being truthful. "I'm not totally against helping you with something personal, but I can't involve myself with a rogue agent. If this were agency-sanctioned, I would be getting tasking from my superiors."
Damon looked at Erica for a few seconds and tried to evaluate whether he could trust her. He wasn't 100 percent sure, but he was fairly confident and decided to take the risk. He told her that one of his relatives had been kidnapped by someone with ties to the FBI. He couldn't report it to the authorities and he had to handle it himself.
Erica wasn't sure what she expected Damon to say, but it wasn't this. She was sympathetic to Damon's situation and a bit outraged that such a thing could happen. She still wasn't sure it was a good idea for Damon to go alone. In fact, she was positive it was a bad one. However, she had heard the rumors that Damon was one of the best, if not the best, the agency had. And his escapade in Eastern Europe when she first met him convinced her that he could operate quite capably without support. The only catch was, Damon's current destination was an army base, which should be much more of a challenge.
"Well… I guess it's time to saddle up and knock some heads," said Erica as she climbed into the tiny plane.
Damon felt a little squished in the cockpit. It was much smaller than the cockpit of the business jet that he flew in the first time he flew with Erica. However, that jet belonged to the Agency and he didn't want her to use that one. Damon watched as Erica ran through her pre-flight checklist. This time, he didn't have to double check anything for her.
The plane took off without incident. Once they were in the air, Damon went to studying his tablet while leaving Erica alone to do her thing. Damon looked through all the information Liv was able to send to him. He wished he had more information about the Schell Research Post. He considered using his CRO recon drone once they got close to the base, but thought the base would have appropriate countermeasures for such a device. Even worse, if such a device were detected, it could potentially warn Westfield of an imminent attack. Damon decided he would do some scouting personally.
As they flew over the mid-way point, Erica asked Damon whether there was anyone besides Enzo he would trust to help him on this rescue mission. Damon reiterated that he could handle it himself. When pressed further, he mentioned that on occasion, he and Enzo operated in a 4-man squad. The other two on his team were guys named Matt and Tyler. Neither of them were particularly good assassins, but they were strong role players, especially on defensive missions when the four of them were sent as the first response team before a larger force could arrive. While neither Matt nor Tyler were serum 12144 enhanced, Matt seemed to have an uncanny ability to sustain serious injuries and survive. Matt liked to joke that it was because of his lucky comic book superhero ring that he got from his dad he was a kid.
Erica tried one last time to convince Damon to wait for Enzo or Matt or Tyler to return stateside from their current assignments. Damon insisted that time was of the essence and they couldn't wait. Besides, Damon was plenty capable.
"What about your desk jockey buddies at the CIA? They probably wouldn't be on assignment overseas," said Erica.
"I don't really interact much with the desk jockeys."
"How 'bout this guy?" asked Erica as she handed over a business card.
Damon read the card. In blue font, the name said "Valentyn Xay" and his occupation was "coder extraordinaire" at Velociraptor Robotics Solutions, a CIA front entity. He was really more of a lab rat than a desk jockey.
"The geek from Berlin?" he asked.
"Is he from Berlin? I thought the dude was Asian," said Erica.
"Well, he's from New York somewhere. His father was a Chinese immigrant and his mother was Russian. Agency thought he could blend in reasonably well in either of those places. What makes you think he'd help us?"
"It just seemed like he had a bromance guy crush on you and Enzo back when we were waiting for you guys in that airfield in Europe. He raved about how much he wished he could be a field agent like you guys and crush the evildoers of the world. It was a little bit over the top, but his childlike wonderment was cute."
"Let's keep him out of this for now. Anyway, I've got two geeks back in Virginia in the event we need tech support."
"Okay. Fine," responded Erica in a tone which suggested she wasn't completely fine.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Damon. Erica had followed Damon to the car he had rented at the airport.
"Coming with you," said Erica.
"You probably shouldn't."
"Maybe. But I'm your only back-up out here," said Erica.
Damon thought about it for a second and decided to let her tag along. At least, this first phase of his plan shouldn't involve any danger. He was simply going to visit Schell Post and assess how heavily fortified the place was. He was going to use federal agent as a cover. It was his favorite alias. Since the feds often operated in twos, it could be useful to have Erica with him, if only for show. Damon told her what they would be doing and made up a last name for her. He also said to let him do all the talking.
"Don't you think they'll recognize you?" asked Erica.
"Probably not. The soldiers see a guy in a fancy suit and dark sunglasses flash a badge and they don't see anything but an anonymous fed."
Erica wasn't surprised by Damon's confidence in his plan. His confidence seemed to rub off on her. She would normally have badgered Damon to get the local authorities involved. The local sheriff or state troopers. But she went with Damon's plan.
After driving for 45 minutes, Damon and Erica finally reached the semi-remote Schell research facility.
Damon slowed down as he pulled the car up to the guard booth at the entry gate to the base.
"I'm Damon Lee and this is Erica Kingman. We're with the FBI biohazards inspection unit. We're here to do a routine inventory check on some of your volatile bio-medical samples."
Damon pulled out his often-used fake credentials from his pocket and flipped open his badge and ID to show to the guard.
The guard went back into his booth and punched in a few commands at his computer terminal while his partner kept an eye on Damon's car. When the first guard returned, he was apologetic.
"I'm sorry, sir. I don't have anything on the schedule about an FBI inspection. Nobody is allowed on base without prior authorization, including civilian law enforcement. I've got strict instructions."
"But, we're federal agents," insisted Erica.
"Yes ma'am. But as I just stated, this base is under top level restrictions. You aren't authorized. I'm sorry. Protocol, you understand?" said the corporal.
"Is Dr. Max Westfield the base commander?" asked Damon. "We need someone for our superiors to straighten out this situation with. It's just standard procedure."
"Dr. Westfield is the head researcher of Lab 9. The base commander is Major General Adam Whitmore."
"Thank you, corporal," said Damon. He put the car in reverse and then drove away once he got back to the main road.
After driving for ten minutes, Damon pulled over to the side of the road and started taking off his suit and tie. He took two pistols out of his backpack, loaded the bullet cartridges and then cocked the guns. He then strapped on two thigh holsters, one on each thigh, and secured the pistols.
"What are you doing!?" yelled Erica.
"Gonna sneak onto the base," whispered Damon as he took off his white undershirt and switched to a black one. He was now in all black, his favorite look.
"What!?" yelled Erica before she caught herself yelling. It wasn't as if there was anyone around for a mile, but she lowered her voice. "Are you insane?"
"I know what I'm doing. I do this kind of stuff all the time. It's what I'm trained for," said Damon.
"That base if full of soldiers," said a frantic Erica.
"Most of who aren't combat alert," said Damon. "It's a scientific research facility. From the looks of it, all of the buildings except the main building have been abandoned. The site was decommissioned three years ago. It should have been completely shut down, but it looks like a handful of people remained to finish up whatever experiments are taking place. There are forty guys in there, tops. And plus, the scientists aren't an issue. They'll all be in their labs distracted by whatever it is they do. It's only the guards I have to worry about. It'll be easy to avoid them. I did an assessment of their security perimeter and their video surveillance when we were there. I also peeked at the monitors at the guard post. There's a blind spot between the coverage of cameras 7 and 8 in the northwest quadrant. That's my entry point. It won't be a problem."
"You saw all of this while sitting in the car? For the 20 seconds we were parked in front of the guard booth before we had to turn away?"
"Yes."
Erica was stymied.
"And once you're in, how are you going to find Elena? And break her out?" asked Erica, not yelling anymore but still concerned.
"I'll figure it out. I'm good thinking on my feet."
Erica grabbed Damon's arm with her left hand.
"Seriously, don't do this," said Erica. "Call a few of your friends and wait for reinforcements."
"No time," said Damon. "I can't wait on this."
Damon could tell Erica was upset, but he was confident he could pull this off.
When Erica saw that Damon wouldn't yield, she strapped a pistol to her own belt.
"I'm coming with," she said.
"Oh no you're not."
"You let me come with you earlier."
"That was different. We were only taking a look at the base. I knew they wouldn't let us in. If you come in with me now, you'll only slow me down."
"What!?" said an insulted Erica.
In a blink of an eye, Erica watched Damon somehow get to 10 yards away from her. In another second, he was right in front of her again. Was it some sort of illusion?
"I'm much faster than you," said Damon. "I'll explain it some other time. Right now, I'm heading to Schell. You should return to the airport."
"I'm not abandoning you out here," said Erica.
"Then wait for me somewhere. Maybe a motel in town or something."
"How will I know when you've rescued Elena?"
"Here," said Damon. He handed her his small observer drone. "This will light up when I'm ready to go. Meet me at the airport."
Damon ran to Schell Research Post and arrived in a little over 17 minutes. He could have made it faster, but didn't want to waste too much of his endurance. His abilities were enhanced, but they weren't limitless.
He looked at his watch and estimated he would have about three more hours of darkness before the sun started to rise. He crouched just outside of the base's northwest corner and peered through his high-powered binoculars. As he expected, there were no guards anywhere in sight. The fence would be easy enough to scale.
As he approached the fence, he smelled something strange. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it was an unpleasant scent. Damon was thankful that his sense of smell hadn't been enhanced. His hearing and vision had been enhanced to a small degree. Both proved extremely useful.
Damon climbed over the fence with ease and darted over to the nearest building, making sure to zigzag his approach in order to avoid detection by cameras 7 or 8. He kept his back against the outside wall and listened intently for any movement by the soldiers standing guard near the main building. Suddenly, he felt a little queasy. Then, a lot queasy. He fell down to his knees and gasped for air. Then, he blacked out.
Damon awoke lying face up on the ground. Three rifles were pointed at him while a fourth soldier helped him up to his feet. Damon felt groggy and weak.
"I think it's that FBI guy from earlier," said one of the soldiers.
"Report it to Lieutenant Pierce," said the sergeant. "Let's get him out of here."
The sergeant was about to release Damon after giving him a stern warning to stay away. Next time, Damon would be shot on sight, regardless of whether he was a fed. However, Westfield radioed the guards.
"Bring him in under guard. Now," said Westfield.
"Yes, sir," said the sergeant in his walkie. He was a little reluctant to detain a federal agent, but he had his orders. A guard detail consisting of four soldiers armed with rifles escorted Damon to the main building and then brought him to Max Westfield's office.
"You're dismissed," said Westfield. The escorts walked out of the room, leaving Damon with Westfield and two personal bodyguards in civilian clothing.
Westfield looked younger than Damon had imagined. Westfield hadn't aged at all from his old file photo.
"Damon Salvatore," said Westfield. "So you've come to rescue your sister-in-law?"
"I'm sorry," said Damon. "You must have me confused with someone else. My name is Damon Lee, I'm with the FBI. I'm here to investigate an issue with the inventory of R6O9 experimental vaccines."
"Don't play this game, Damon," said Westfield. "I know exactly who you are."
"So… what happens next?" asked Damon.
"I wait to see what your brother does."
Damon took a few glances at his surroundings and designed a plan of attack. Even in a weakened state, he should easily be able to overtake Westfield and his two bodyguards. The guard to his left seemed to be the more capable soldier. He would have to go down first.
Damon made his move, but was surprised when the bodyguard deflected the blow and then knocked Damon to the ground.
"Feeling a little weak, are we?" asked a smiling Westfield.
Damon shook off the blow and tried to pounce on Westfield, but Damon was easily restrained by Westfield's two bodyguards. Damon couldn't understand what was happening to him. The bodyguards cuffed Damon's hands behind his back.
"You must have known that I have friends in the FBI, including in their biochemical weapons division. Suffice it to say, I keep well informed of any possibility that the FBI would poke around my facility. I suspect that what you didn't know, is that I could somehow manage to find out about your experimental enhancements and have been prepared for them with a unique countermeasure called Verbena. We pumped it into the air surrounding the base a little after your stunt at the guard post raised a red flag. I'll admit that it took a lot of digging to get information on you."
"Experimental enhancements?" asked Damon.
"Like I said, I know exactly who you are," said Westfield. "You aren't exactly in a weakened state. Just what us mere mortals would call normal. Your four-four enhancements have been nullified."
"Isn't that just wonderful," said Damon.
"You can't imagine my surprise when I learned you were a four-four soldier. I thought none of the candidates survived. Turns out there were three of you guys. Fate has a pretty funny way of bringing people together. I was a contributor to the serum 12144 program. The researchers were prevented from knowing any of your names. The higher-ups thought it might create attachment issues if we did. I may have dosed you once. Of course, before we actually dosed any of the candidates, we pre-planned a way to control you. You know, just in case you decided to go rogue. Various psychological agents were considered, but when those were rejected, we switched gears to find a way to simply contain you. It must be a strange feeling to be a regular ol' human being once again."
Damon continued to struggle against his cuffs and chains, but to no avail.
"Take him down to E wing," said Westfield.
Three armed guards in uniform walked Damon out of Westfield's office.
Damon was escorted to a holding area where animal test subjects were sometimes held. There were no animals there at present and it seemed like the entire wing of the building was abandoned. Damon was taken to a large room with cages sized to accommodate gorillas, or perhaps bears, if anyone ever tested on bears. Luckily, the entire facility had either never been used or thoroughly cleaned out. Unluckily, the cages were strong enough to hold gorillas or bears. With Damon's strength sapped, escaping would be impossible.
Damon was placed in a cell next to Elena. Although she was currently asleep, Damon could see that she had been crying. While Elena feared for her life, a large part of her worried that if things went bad and Westfield killed her, Stefan would blame himself for that and would harm himself.
When Elena awoke, Damon tried to comfort her. Although Elena wasn't outright panicking, Damon could see she was still shaking a little bit and sniffling.
"Elena, come here," said Damon softly.
Their two adjacent cells were only separated by metal bars, and Damon could reach through the gaps to get a hold of Elena's hands. After a minute, Damon lightly bounced her hands on his fingers. It made her smile for a second but she was still crying a little bit. He brought his right hand up to her face to wipe the tears away.
"We'll get out of this," whispered Damon confidently. He held her face for several more seconds and it seemed to calm her. They closed their eyes and pressed their foreheads together through the prison bars, staying silent for the next several minutes.
The next morning, one of Westfield's lieutenants entered the animal holding section. Damon was shocked how similar to Elena the woman appeared. She walked up to Damon's cell and looked him up and down.
"So you're Westfield's precious alpha," she said.
"Alpha?" asked Damon.
"Well, that's what he calls you now. Years ago, Westfield and his fellow researchers had been told that serum 12144 failed horribly. He thought all one thousand candidates died."
"Technically, that was true. I was clinically dead for about two hours," said Damon.
"Well, look at you now. It must've been magic. In any case, you're the past. I'm the future."
Damon didn't seem to understand what she was saying, so she explained further.
"For the past few years, Westfield has been toying on and off with the idea of reattempting a serum similar to 12144. He didn't understand why the original serum didn't work. But since he learned yesterday about you and the two others, he has been reinvigorated. I'm going to be one of his new candidates. We'll be stronger and better than you ever were," said the elated soldier.
Her walkie beeped and Damon heard static for a second before a voice came through.
"Pierce, Westfield wants to see you in his lab."
"Copy," she said as she walked out of the animal holding section.
A few hours later, Westfield dropped by with his two bodyguards. Damon saw that Westfield was as excited as a kid in a candy store. Westfield stared at Damon as if he were a painting in an art museum.
"We're so close," said Westfield. One of his bodyguards then sprayed mace into Damon's cell.
"Years ago, when we first developed the counter-agent, we theorized it would remain effective for 72 hours. We'll spray you every 12 hours just in case."
Westfield's walkie beeped.
"Sir, we have a vid-call coming in for you."
"Sergeant, I told you I wasn't to be disturbed."
"Sir, it's coming from the Pentagon. It's General Whitmore."
Westfield sighed.
"Patch it through to the computer terminal in Simian holding."
Damon could see the computer monitor come to life. A middle-aged man in a green uniform came onto the screen. He looked a little irate.
"Westfield! Tell me Stefan Salvatore's wife is not a high level operative with the freakin' CIA. Didn't you check this kind of crap before you put the plan in motion!?"
Westfield was surprisingly calm.
"Not the wife. The brother," said Westfield.
"I'm at the Pentagon for a few days of briefings and everything goes to hell? I thought you covered all the bases. I've got the deputy director of CIA operations demanding the release of his agent. Just kill both the wife and the brother. I'll find some way to clean this up and we'll figure out another way to get Augustine."
"Adam," said Westfield. "We have an opportunity here. But I need Salvatore's brother alive."
"Who is this guy?" asked Whitmore. "And why didn't we know he was CIA?"
"The spooks are better at their covers than we thought," said Westfield. "I had to cash in chips with three separate generals and an NSA official to get information on him. Damon Salvatore was a candidate in the 12144 serum experiments. He was a survivor."
"Nobody survived those experiments. I read the reports."
"Yea, well somebody seriously screwed up. Damon Salvatore not only survived, but came out enhanced. He and one other. A third candidate survived, but with debilitating side effects."
"So a 0.3% survival rate," said Whitmore, contemplating what Westfield just said.
"We can do better. I can figure this out," said Westfield.
Whitmore thought about it for a few seconds.
"I can stall the CIA for 24 hours. After that, get rid of them both and make the bodies disappear. I want deniability here," said Whitmore.
"I need more time than that," said Westfield. "We can move them to a more secure location in Alaska before the CIA comes knocking."
"What makes you think they won't find you in Alaska?"
"It will buy us a little bit more time."
"Fine, do it," said Whitmore. "If you screw this up, I will personally beat your face in."
The screen blinked off and a furious Westfield stomped out of E wing.
Nighttime arrived and Damon was starving. He couldn't remember ever being this hungry. The funny thing was: he just ate two full meals. He even ate part of Elena's dessert.
Lieutenant Pierce walked into the room, smirking at Elena.
"It looks like Stefan hasn't made his move to free Augustine yet," said Pierce. "I guess he needs to be properly motivated."
Pierce unsheathed a shiny knife and twirled it in her fingers.
"Maybe we should send him an ear or something," said Pierce while chuckling maniacally.
"Leave her alone," said Damon with gritted teeth.
Pierce smiled and playfully took one giant step over to be in front of Damon's cell.
"What are you going to do about it, alpha boy?"
With surprising speed, Damon reached through the bars of his cell, grabbed Pierce's uniform and yanked her towards him, slamming her face into the metal bars. She was able to free herself from Damon's grasp and she touched her nose, which was trickling a little blood. She smiled.
"Let's have a little fun," said Pierce. "Open his cage."
"Ma'am?" asked her aide Nadia.
"Do it."
Her aide unlocked Damon's cell. Pierce handed Nadia her gun and took Nadia's baton. She went into Damon's cell and started a fierce attack.
"Westfield wants you alive, but he didn't say I couldn't beat the bejeezus out of you."
With Damon on the ground, she repeatedly swung the baton at his torso. She then stood up and looked down at her defeated opponent.
Damon swung his leg across the floor and Pierce came crashing down. He then grabbed Pierce's baton and started choking her against the ground.
"I don't need enhanced strength to deal with you, psycho," whispered Damon.
Nadia took out a taser and zapped Damon for a second. With Damon immobilized, Pierce started punching him in the gut as Westfield walked in on the scene.
"What the hell is going on?" yelled Westfield.
Westfield's bodyguard pulled Pierce and Damon off of each other. Pierce started straightening her uniform and just walked away.
Damon layed on the ground wondering what had happened. He had been savagely beaten, but he wasn't bleeding. He felt almost no pain. Maybe he was just numb. He was still sooo hungry.
Elena reached out through the bars and clutched Damon's shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she asked with tears in her eyes.
"I'll be okay," said Damon. He forced a smile.
Damon and Elena spent half the night awake mostly in silence just holding each other through the metal bars. Damon was still confident that things would be okay. His confidence made Elena feel a little bit better. Damon didn't tell Elena, but he could feel a little bit of his enhanced strength coming back. Westfield would soon rue the day he decided to mess with the Salvatores. Damon and Elena drifted off to sleep with the sides of their heads leaning on each other.
Damon awoke sometime before noon.
Damon struggled against his cuffs, but he could sense that it would only be a matter of minutes before he could break them. He was regaining his strength. Damon's body was developing a tolerance for Westfield's counter-agent. With every passing minute, a tiny bit of Damon's strength was returning. The question now was whether he would wait until he returned to full strength before he made a move. Timing was important; he wanted to be as strong as possible, but he didn't know when Westfield or his men would return to E wing.
Several minutes later, one of the soldiers brought food for Damon and Elena.
"Eat up," he said. "We head out in half an hour."
"Head out?" asked Damon.
"Yea. I think Westfield is moving you guys. I don't think he's going to execute you both, but Westfield has been growing more and more unpredictable lately. I'm sorry about you guys."
Damon sensed the young soldier was capable of being turned. Maybe he would help.
"Corporal," said Damon. "Do you know what Westfield is doing here?"
"Not exactly, but I can tell it's bs that you both are threats to national security. At least her. I've got my orders though."
"I'm actually a federal agent. Westfield is committing treason. You have to help Elena get free," said Damon.
"Unfortunately for you," said the young corporal. "Whitmore bought me off. Everyone has a price."
Damon could tell there was some regret in the young soldier's voice.
"You won't kill us. I can tell," said Damon.
"Maybe not," said the corporal. "But I ain't gonna stop it either."
The corporal walked away after leaving the food trays with Damon and Elena.
Damon finished his meal but he was still quite hungry. He concluded that the best time to attempt a jailbreak would be when he and Elena were being transported off the base, most likely to a waiting airplane to take them to Alaska. He told Elena to be prepared.
Before any of the soldiers returned, Damon heard two gunshots ring off in the distance. Then, there was complete silence for half a minute.
Suddenly, all hell seemed to have broken loose. The noise of automatic rifle fire seemingly came from multiple locations. Damon estimated that at least seven people were firing non-stop. The lights blinked a couple of times, and then went dark for good. All of the electronic devices around the room were also shut down. Some force just shut down all the power in the base, mostly likely including all of the defensive systems.
Deciding that now was the time to escape, he broke his handcuffs and then tried his best to either bend the bars or break the lock outright. He wasn't having much luck in the beginning, but sensed it would only be a matter of time.
Westfield entered with his two bodyguards.
"You," said Westfield. "You did this." Westfield was furious. He wanted to shoot Damon in the head right then and there, but he couldn't destroy his own creation. Damon was his alpha prototype.
"You were going to have me killed, Westfield," said Damon.
"No!" insisted Westfield. "Don't you see? I would never have allowed that. Whitmore's a fool. Both him and Augustine. They wanted to build cyborgs. Part man, part machine. I always knew that my enhanced rippers were the way to go. The rippers are the next generation of 12144. Think of all the soldiers' lives we'll save if they had enhanced abilities on the battlefields."
"And how many of the candidates will die in your experiments?" asked Damon.
"That's the price of science! The march toward progress requires sacrifices."
"You're insane, Westfield."
"Says the person who benefited the most from the trials. I helped make you!"
"Sir!" said Westfield's right hand man. "We've got to go. They're closing in from at least three directions."
Two armed men dressed in all black entered the room as Westfield and his men left through the side exit into an auxiliary hallway.
"Enzo, what are you doing here?" wondered Damon.
"The flying squirrel and the gadget geek got in touch with the deputy director. What were you thinking coming here alone? And getting caught to boot!"
"I thought I could handle it. How was I supposed to know Westfield practically invented us?"
"What?"
"Oh yea, he was one of the creators of the serum."
Enzo freed Damon from the cage and handed him a pistol.
"Stay here," said Damon. "I'm going to get that son-of-a-bitch Westfield."
Damon ran through half of E wing before he finally caught up with Westfield. He fired three quick shots, hitting one of Westfield's bodyguards in the arm and leg.
To Damon's surprise, Enzo and Matt soon ran up right next to him and joined the fray.
"I told you to stay with Elena!" said Damon.
"She'll be fine. Nobody is back that way. All the action is here."
Damon was glad for the backup, but worried something horribly wrong might happen with Elena.
Westfield and his remaining bodyguard pointed their pistols at Damon and his two friends. Each side held their fire for the time being. Damon slowly walked toward Westfield.
"You know doc, only one of us is going to make it out of this alive. Spoiler alert: it's going to be me," said Damon.
As if through telepathic communication, Damon and Enzo simultaneously fired a shot each at Westfield and the remaining bodyguard, hitting each in the hand that was holding their weapon. Westfield struggled with the pain of being shot.
Before Damon could move in for the kill, a dozen armed soldiers came running down the other side of the hallway and started firing at Damon and his friends. Damon returned fire at the incoming soldiers, and took one last shot at Westfield before retreating with Enzo and Matt. Westfield seemed to be bleeding from a head wound, but was still alive as four soldiers formed a diamond around him.
In the hallway, three of the soldiers knelt down on one knee while keeping their rifles pointed down the hallway at Damon's general direction. Another six soldiers kept their rifles aimed forward while standing. The odds weren't great, but Damon, Matt, and Enzo had been victorious in tougher situations. Damon's crew had taken cover in the nearest lab.
"Shoot them," said Westfield.
Damon's crew returned fire immediately. Although they should have been outgunned, Damon soon saw that Westfield's soldiers were firing to cover their retreat.
"They're not going to get very far," said a confident Enzo. He didn't even bother to fire his pistol anymore. Damon went to the nearest window to see what was happening. Westfield and his soldiers had planned to get into their vehicles and drive off, but were now surrounded by other soldiers ordering Westfield's men to lay down their weapons.
Army Rangers and Navy SEALs had arrived on scene soon after Enzo and Matt started they assault. Enzo and Matt had only been a distraction to flush Westfield out into the parking lot. One of Damon's former colleagues was now the second-in-command of an army Nightstalkers battalion. Once the Pentagon got wind of Westfield's plans to break out Augustine and continue various psy ops programs which were previously terminated by the Senate, the Army chief of staff decided to send in special ops and take care of the situation in-house. No need to get the FBI or CIA involved.
Damon got back to the Simian holding cells to find Elena with a gun pointed at Pierce. Erica and Xay were trying to calm Elena down.
Damon immediately rushed over to Elena. She was trembling a little bit, but did not allow Damon to get too close.
"She's the one who kidnapped me from Mystic Landing," said Elena. "And she beat you senseless in the cage. She should die."
"Yea, she should," said Damon softly. "But don't do this. You're better than her. If you kill her, you'll have nightmares about it for the rest of your life."
Elena turned to Damon and cried into his shoulder. Damon gently grabbed the pistol from her hands and then handed it to Erica.
"Shhhhh," said Damon as he brushed her hair with his hand and held her. "Everything's going to be okay."
Damon met up with everyone just outside the main building.
"Most of Westfield's men survived our incursion," said Major Saltz, Damon's friend from the Nightstalkers unit. Saltz had ordered his men to use less-than-lethal force when dealing with Westfield's soldiers.
"Rick, thanks for your help," said Damon.
"Come on," said Rick. "We were best friends when you served. You should've called me when you first heard Elena was kidnapped. I have your back. Always."
Rick put his arm around Damon and smiled.
"I guess I thought I could handle this alone," said Damon. That was the truth. However, a small part of Damon's hesitance to contact Rick in the first place was that he thought Rick might have some loyalty to his fellow Army officers. After all, the fact that Rick ordered his men not to use lethal force against Westfield confirmed to Damon that Rick would not have gone all out against Westfield. Not as much as say, Enzo. Damon also had a new piece of information to give to Rick.
"Hey Rick, do you know a general named Whitmore?" asked Damon.
"I know his son, Aaron," said Rick. "He's a good soldier. A fine officer. Why?"
"Papa Whitmore was behind this thing. He wanted Augustine for some reason."
Rick was shocked, but he promised Damon he would report it to his superiors.
Chapter 4
Major Saltz and his men remained at Schell Post to secure Westfield's research. It appeared that Whitmore and Westfield had planned experiments to create an army of cyborgs. The experiments hadn't started yet, since Augustine had some of the necessary knowledge base.
The CIA sent a private jet to take Damon, Elena, Enzo, Matt and Xay back home. Damon felt a little bad leaving Erica to fly her tiny plane back all by herself.
"No worries," said Erica. "You should fly back with Elena. Make sure she's okay."
"Thanks," said Damon as he started walking to the bigger jet. He watched Valentyn Xay run towards Erica and wave to get her attention.
"Hey," said Xay. "I'll fly with you."
"Don't you wanna hang with the action heroes?" asked Erica.
"Nah. I've had enough action to last me a good couple of years," he said cheerily.
"You feeling better?" asked Damon. The jet had just taken off. Damon and Elena were in the front of the luxurious passenger cabin while Enzo and Matt stayed toward the rear.
"A little bit," said Elena. She was still processing everything that happened in the past few days.
"Here, these will make you feel better. Stronger," said Damon. He brought out two syringes from his small backpack. Damon told her they were typical fluids that hospitals might give to patients who suffered from exhaustion.
"Damon…." said Elena. "I love you."
Damon smiled.
"I love you too," he said. "You're an awesome sister-in-law."
"No," said Elena weakly as she brushed him off. "I mean…."
She told him how she developed feelings for him while they were imprisoned by Westfield and his men. Damon told her it was just the confusion and stress of the ordeal.
Damon proceeded to inject Elena with the first syringe. It was a concoction the agency called "forget." It would erase Elena's memory for the past few hours, or up to a week depending on the dosage. The original purpose of injecting her with the drug was to make her forget about whatever she overheard about Damon being a CIA superhuman experiment. Now, there was an added benefit of making her forget her time in the cages, when she may have developed feelings for Damon.
After a minute, Damon injected Elena with the second syringe, a concoction the agency called "compel." They were very straightforward with their names. The second drug kept the patient in a highly suggestible state, similar to hypnosis. Damon told Elena to continue to live her happy life with Stefan. He also suggested that although she cared for Damon as a brother, his "too cool to care" attitude towards the world often irked her and she could barely tolerate it.
After Elena fell asleep in the big comfy leather chair, Enzo came up to talk to Damon.
"Everything okay?" asked Enzo.
"As okay as can be," said Damon. Enzo could tell by the way Damon looked at Elena that he cared for her romantically.
"So…. sorry for this distraction, mate," said Enzo. "But if you're up for some more action packed excitement, the station chief in Germany might have something for us."
Part of Damon wanted to get some rest, but the other part knew that keeping busy would distract him from the past week's events.
"What is it?" asked Damon.
"This guy," said Enzo as he showed Damon an image on his tablet. "His name is Wolfgang Klaus. He's apparently the leader of a group called the Wolfpack. Your typical dangerous individual. Murder, mayhem, that sort of thing."
"You mean, like us?" commented Damon.
"Well….. you know what they say: sometimes, we're sent into the storm. Other times, we are the storm."
"Tell the chief I'm good to go," said Damon. He sounded a little tired, but Enzo knew he would be 100% in no time. Enzo made his way back to his seat.
"Hey Matt, you up for some more adventure?" Damon heard Enzo excitedly say.
Damon thought about his life. He enjoyed it a lot, but what made him different from the people he was sent to contain. Markos, Westfield, Klaus. Was he just the same as them?
A groggy Elena reached out and held onto his hand. She remained asleep, but held on tightly.
Damon returned to his normal life with a bit of a shudder. He was sitting on a plushy couch. Markos sat in a chair across from Damon.
"How long was I out?" asked Damon.
"About half an hour," said Markos. "As you can see, I am a man of my word. I didn't kill you."
Damon nodded. He wasn't sure exactly why the Travelers needed Stefan and Elena, but he didn't completely trust them. For now, he'd be keeping an eye out for trouble.
THE END?