Disclaimer: I'm having trouble think of witting things to say, so I'll just say it plain. I DON'T OWN NOTHIN'!!!! (Are you happy now? -huff)
Chapter 30
(Somewhere over Mexico)
Master Sergeant Eric Miller tried to stop glancing over at the passengers who were currently occupying the hull of his airplane. It wasn't really his airplane of course. Technically, it belonged to the U.S. Air Force, but Eric had been a sergeant in the Air Force for almost twenty years. He knew who really ran everything. That still didn't make him feel any better about the group lounging in the pull-out seats.
It was odd; Eric thought he'd seen just about everything while working under the Special Operations command. The MC-130P Combat Shadow was normally used to transport Specia Operations personnel to hard-to-reach places, under the radar. It was equipped with a fully integrated inertial navigation and global positioning system, night vision goggle, or N.V.G., compatible interior and exterior lighting. It also had forward looking infrared, radar and missile warning receivers, chaff and flare dispensers, N.V.G. compatible heads-up display, satellite and data-burst communications, as well as in-flight refueling capability as a receiver. This bird had seen everything from Seals to Rangers to Recon to even some CIA and FBI personnel. It'd never seen anything like this stroll up the deck.
All ten of them were sprawled out, taking up both sides of the hull. They had stowed secured their gear behind them. Securing it to the sides of the bird, they gave off a few glares if anyone, but their own, looked like they were going to touch their stuff. A few of them had fallen immediately asleep and some were talking to each other. But it was the two in the corner that drew his eye. One was flipping a yo-yo up and down in an intricate dance, sometimes making it spin and leap, and the other was sharpening the biggest ax he'd ever seen.
…………….
Faith caught the airman in the front of the cargo hold glancing at her again and finally decided she'd had enough. The guy was old enough to be her father, he should know better. Catching his gaze, she pursed her lips and kissed at him, giving him a sultry leer. Chuckling when he went almost completely red and spun away, she turned her attention back to the Scythe. It didn't need sharpening really, but the motion was soothing to her.
"You're such a trouble maker," Lucky commented from beside her. Her eyes never opened and her right hand flicking the yo-yo in a complicated pattern. When Faith just laughed, she brought her left hand up and a second yo-yo spun out to join the first.
"It's all part of the package, baby," Faith smirked and stretched upward.
"Hmmmm," Lucky's reply was noncommittal, but there was a small upward tilt of her lips.
"So, are we ready?" Faith turned her attention to less pleasant matters.
"Should be," the little wooden spheres never stopped as Lucky answered. While Faith was Head Slayer of the entire Council and was followed unquestionably in battle, Lucky was in charge of overall strategy and planning. Faith had no problem admitting that while her tactical skills were great, she wasn't that good at planning for the long-term. Lucky, however, was a genius. She seemed to revel in the minutia of intelligence and operational readiness reports.
"The covens surveyed the areas, and while they couldn't get a detailed report because of interference, confirmed the existence of facilities in all three locations. The governments don't know or aren't saying anything about them. Leaves us to assume our enemies are either powerful enough to do this without being caught or rich enough to have bought off the right people."
"Wolfram and Hart," Faith growled, her eyes narrowing. The slayer had a hard-on for the evil corporation ever since hearing about L.A. She was still pissed at Angel for that one and had insisted on being in the clean-up in hopes of finding him. She never had.
"It's a possibility," Lucky frowned, sending the yo-yo's up into the air in agitation. "I don't think so, however. This operation has none of the flair and braggadocio that we've come to associate with them. They also took a major hit after L.A. and we've been pushing at them ourselves. I think this is an unknown operator, which makes me worry. If this was Wolfram and Hart we'd know what to expect."
"Yeah." Faith sighed. "I gotta admit, I don't like that part. I don't like sending my girls in like this, Lucky."
Lucky smiled to herself at Faith's use of the proprietary my.
"I understand, love," she snapped one of the yo-yo's back to her right hand and placed it on Faith's arm, "but we don't have any choice."
"I know," Faith agreed. "This isn't just about the girls they took."
It was true. The easiest thing to do would be to send in a strike force for each location and extract the taken girls and then go, but they couldn't do that. This shadow organization had exposed a weakness in the Council. One the Council couldn't afford to have known. If word got out that they had gotten away with their operation without any kind of retaliation then the Council would be seen as weak. The bad guys would start kidnapping girls left and right and the situation would just snowball.
"We've gotta take'em out hard," Faith growled.
"We will," Lucky rubbed her hand up and down Faith's arm, reassuring her as she thought back on the plan.
They were going for overkill here, wanting to make an example of the enemy. It was the biggest operation that the Council had ever undertaken. Five squads of ten slayers had been assigned to each location. Four squads would surround them and the magick workers assigned to them would set up a shield around the area. The fifth would come in from the air. Nothing would be allowed to enter or leave after the shield was set up. It was the slayers job to free the girls if possible, but overall to make sure that nothing survived within the facility. After gathering intelligence they were to eliminate all members of the organization and destroy the buildings. Complete annihilation was the objective.
"It's a good plan." Faith set the Scythe down and turned to her second, trying to reassure her.
"I know." Lucky stopped the second yo-yo and looked down at the deck of the vibrating plane. "But so many things can go wrong. We don't have a complete intelligence report on the facilities. We have no idea where the girls are in there. It could be a complete maze. Not to mention we haven't a clue what ritual their planning on using the girls in. Not much can stand up against fifty slayers but…"
"We just gotta do what we can do, girl." Lucky looked over as Faith smiled and snuggled back into her seat. Then Faith tilted her head and caught Lucky's eyes before continuing. "Could this be a trap? Sure, no doubt about it. These guys don't strike me as stupid. But it don't change what we gotta do. That's what being a slayer is all about, chargin' in when other people would just head for the hills. I mean, look around. All these girls know the risks and you don't see them runnin', do you?"
Lucky glanced around at her squad. Some were laying down, some talking, one was even jamming out to her iPod, but none looked scared. To them, this was just another jaunt in the park. A sudden grin split Lucky's face. Faith was right. The reality was that they could die at any time in their job, this was just another mission.
"You're right." she nudged Faith and turned to the girl with the iPod, yelling at her, "Hey Denise, what've you got on there?"
"Aretha," the girl pulled an ear bud out and raised a slim black brow at Lucky. "Why, you wanna hear?"
"Yeah, plug it in. I'm getting tired of listening to the hum of this bucket of bolts."
"Right on," Denise nodded and unplugged her headphones. As she switched over to the small but powerful speakers attached to her pack, the hull of the C-130 was filled with the soulful wail of Aretha Franklin as she sang about a "Chain of Fools".
Sergeant Eric Miller and the rest of the crew watched as the oddest guests the Special Ops command had ever transported got up off of their chairs and began dancing around the plane as if they hadn't a care in the world.
………………(Unkown Location, Unknown Time)
Missy Harrison tried not to be scared as the vampires lifted her into place. The other five girls were already secured, watching her with sympathetic eyes. The metal plates they were sealed into were bulky and the vampires were not concerned with being gentle as they maneuvered them. When Missy was finally in place, the vampires nodded and went back out the door, their job done. Missy took the chance to look around.
She and the other girls formed the top of a huge stone funnel. The ground sloped sharply down under her and she had to struggle to keep her head up. At the bottom of the funnel was a circular area with elaborate scroll work carved into it. There were grooves in the funnel, running down to the floor. Even Missy, a baby slayer, could figure out what this was for. The slayers were going to be used in some type of ritual and though Missy didn't know what for, she was smart enough to figure out how.
"Blood," she remembered Miss Willow frowning at them in magick class, trying to get her point across. "Blood is the base ingredient for almost all spells, especially dark spells. Blood is powerful because it contains the basis for life. Unfortunately for slayers that is doubly true. Your blood is particularly powerful and so you must be wary of ever allowing it to be used in magick."
"Blood is the basis for all things," Missy whispered, repeating the line in horror as she stared down at the spell on the floor.
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Author's Note:
So, ya'll gettin' excited yet?! Yeehaw! (Okay, I just got off of a really, really cool reining horse. I'm feeling very western right now;)
Hope you guys like it so far. We're getting into the nitty-gritty now and we'll all just have to wait and see what happens next. I'm looking forward to it, how 'bout you?
I'd like to thank all the people who are reviewing. I know I can't get back to you all personally but I want you to know that I do appreciate them. I'm just happy that people are reading it, much less commenting on it=)