TROUBLE

Tom looks at his troops. He never thought he’d be commanding a cadre of troops. Six men who depended upon him. Chameleons worked alone not in cooperation with a group. But he was the only one who could get them in and out alive. He also was the only one who would unhesitatingly send them to their deaths. They knew he could do both. They knew he would. They were human. He wasn’t.

He counts them and goes over their strengths and weakness in his mind. Damian ‘Demon’ Wilson, the closest thing he’d ever seen in a human to being a dominant. Cold precise and deadly. Tom had never seen him kill, but he’d seen him fight. If he was able to see the results of his actions he would he his second, but he wasn’t. Jonathan ‘Jack’ Martin, he looked as unassuming as his name, until you put a rifle in his hands. He was their sharpshooter, give him a target and he could hit it. Bryse Cuvier, southern boy that had become great friends with JC, he was the knife man. He could throw it or fight with it. He said that before he could walk his Momma gave him a knife down in the bayou. Curcio Vargas, a street kid from LA, he could make almost anything with anything. A useful skill to have. Tom remembers a few months ago he almost killed the boy. After a hard day training, trying to make the team come together he had walked off cursing in Spanish. Normally, Tom would shrug it off but that day something clicked and he understood. He picked the lad up by his neck and proceeded to give him a tongue-lashing he wouldn’t forget. As far as Tom knew he never called Sloan a whore again, he doesn’t think Vargas even thinks the word. Theodore ‘Teddy’ Seely claims he’s an immortal Elf, Tom learned that it was a play on his name. Their explosive man but had a bad tendency to like fire. Blonde and fair, Tom thought he could have been Lewis’ son if the Dominant genes didn’t breed true.

He checks his second and sees she is checking the perimeter. Petite, blond and deadly, Anne ‘Annie’ Jensen was wasted as just a security guard. Tom picked her for his cadre when he saw how she kept her head in a fight. Martial artist and never rattled as far as he could see. She could follow orders, and make decisions based on the knowledge she had. When Wilson had objected to her being his second, he let her handle it. She kicked his ass and nothing else was said. The last member was JC Adamsen. Tom had wanted him for his second but he was still too unstable, maybe one day.

He knew them better than they knew themselves. That had been his job. He’d read their covers, got into their heads and molded them into troops that were little more than extensions of his hands. He figured that at least one of them wouldn’t make it back after tonight. He closed that part of him off. If he cared too much he wouldn’t be able to let them die and almost surely one or more would.

He remembered when the group got together to give themselves a name. It was right after he had broken them up in a bar fight in the local town. A fight among themselves. The others said they were only troublemakers. So they became ‘Tom’s Troublemakers’. To everyone else they were ‘Tom’s Trouble’. Something he could not deny. They were trouble to everyone, but that made them the best.

The military had tried to convince Tom that his people could not call him by his name. He replied that Tom was his name. He’d adopted the name Daniels because of Sloan, but if he let his troops call him that it could cause a momentary hesitation that could get them killed and he would not use a rank. Rank to him was meaningless, ability counted.

Now they waited in the semi darkness until the moon in it’s first sliver slipped beyond the horizon. The faint illumination of the pale starlight was enough for him but his troops were almost blind. They had trained for working in darkness but this was the first time in actual combat going in blind. He didn’t want them using electronics, what happened if they were broken or lost? Do what you can with what you have. He could hear Cuvier starting to fidget. He tapped JC’s shoulder and motioned him to attend his friend. Cuvier’s nervous energy could affect all his people, he needed them calm if they were to succeed tonight.

He’d learned long ago that the most valuable asset in any situation was knowledge, and that’s what they were after tonight. The wheat field they were coming through would, in only a short time, be ablaze when the military starts lobbing in firebombs to destroy the crop. It was an experimental crop that had been infected by a fungus, one that made the wheat unusable and was resistant to fungicides. A starvation plot, it could affect almost the whole world.

They had to be out of the wheat field and close to the buildings before the bombs started falling. Martin and Seely had to take out the communication tower. An electronic detonator could be detected. They couldn’t chance it. A simple light on the detonation pack made a target and Martin could hit it. Tom would be with the rest of his people working on getting inside; or else he’d be taking the shot.

The only problem with coming in through the fields was they had to pass a patch of bare ground between the field and the buildings. They had to go through one or two at a time between rotations of the guards’ shifts. Martin and Seely go first. They had to bring down the tower and isolate the facility.

They slip around the buildings. The bombs should start falling in minutes. Seely sidles up to the comm tower and crawls close. The det pack is attached about 3 feet above the ground. He gets away as quickly as possible. Martin waits for the first rounds to fall before taking his shot at the light. When the wheat fields explode in fire he shoots and is rewarded with a rumble and creak of bending and twisting metal.

Seely turns to watch the fire and stands mesmerized in place. Martin grabs his collar and pulls at him. "Teddy, move your ass! I’m not getting killed because You want to watch something pretty." They follow the rest of the cadre to the building that has been identified as the research lab.

Tom breaks the code on the electronic lock and Cuvier was the first in. The lab should be empty. The guards would more be more likely to detect them outside. A scientist was not so likely to be alert. But Cuvier could kill in silence if he came across anyone. As they go quietly down darkened hallways, Tom puts his hand up and they stop in their tracks. He waves them into a side passage and motions for silence. Tom taps Cuvier and draws a thumb across his throat then points down the hallway. Cuvier nods and takes a throwing knife out of a sheath on his belt. Tom nods. Tom walks down the hallway becoming a decoy, when he drops, the knife flashes and is buried in the man’s neck. Tom catches him as he falls and drags him back.

"We may get one more but then they’re gonna know we’re here"

Martin and Seely follow the string of bodies that mark the passing of Trouble and make it to the lab where Vargas was rapidly downloading as much information as possible while the others fended off the attackers. Martin joins him in his task, while Seely makes sure their avenue of escape is kept clear.

Tom pulls Seely off of watching for their retreat and replaces him with JC. Seely has to start putting the explosives around the lab. Seely and Wilson move out. When it blows, there will be nothing left to salvage. Damn, Jensen caught one. Not serious but it makes a gap in their line. Tom takes her place and Jensen starts gathering up the discs. The bandage she puts on stops the bleeding. That was all that was necessary now.

Vargas hollers above the chattering of gunfire and shattering glass. "Got it. Done." He drops the last disc he obtained in his pocket. Jensen was packed up and ready. Now all they had to do was to get out alive.

"Wilson, you’re on point. Vargas, Martin, next. Jensen, Cuvier, Seely. Adamsen and I will take the rear. Now, Move!"

Wilson clears a path and JC and Tom keep them from being followed. They have to make it to the pickup point. Right now it doesn’t look good. Once they get out of the building they, are at their most vulnerable point. As they pull away from the building Tom nods to Seely and the building blows. Tom and JC are knocked down but the rest pull out. Tom will follow.

They pull away and head into the darkness. Soon they have Tom and JC pulling up behind them. Tom thinks they have pulled away clean when Cuvier stumbles and falls. Tom jerks him up and holds him in a fireman’s carry. He feels the blood hot and wet on his shoulder. He will leave no man behind. Not even a dead one.

Tom takes point when the darkness covers them. Tom pushes Seely to the front with him. He’d be fascinated by the fire and stay behind if Tom didn’t keep an eye on him. He forges ahead. The dominant troops behind them are more concerned with the fires and the explosions that are still going off.

Martin flashes the signal to the chopper. They pile in the chopper. Tom puts Cuvier into the chopper. He didn’t think Cuvier would make it back.

Then he realizes what’s missing. Seely’s disappeared. He whistles for JC. "Find Seely. He’s gone." JC nods. Tom’ll be busy getting every one else in the chopper. JC knew which way he would have gone. Right to the fire.

When he catches up to him, he’s walking straight towards it. "Com’on, Teddy, no more pretties." He grabs Seely’s arm and pulls him back. Seely’s going to get someone killed some day. They’re almost there when JC hears a crack and Seely falls. He pulls Seely up and tosses him over his shoulder, staggering under the weight. They’ll make it if they don’t get shot. Two down and one more wounded. The casualties were heavy. Tom helps them both into the chopper. He helps Vargas in when his body jerks. A fraction of a second later he hears the shot. He’s the last man. Tom literally tosses him into the chopper. "Go, Go, Go" Tom swings himself into the chopper as it lifts off.

"Martin, your rifle." Martin swiftly passes his precious sniper rifle to Tom. Tom takes it as he downshifts his eyesight. He hated doing it so fast from UV down through normal human vision into the IR zone. He was going to have a terrible headache tomorrow. He drops and looks for the shooter who got Vargas.

He looks out among the trees that surrounded the experimental farm. One glowing figure standing, and two more coming. They’re Dominants. They’re too hot to be human. He sights as carefully as he can in the moving chopper and takes his shot. The standing figure crumples. "Move it. We’ve got two shooters coming."

He feels the chopper bank and the contents are shifted about. Cuvier doesn’t move, doesn’t make a sound. Tom can see the life draining out of him. He lets his vision shift to human normal. He shakes JC’s shoulder and tells him to go tend to his friend. He thinks JC’s going to be alone again.

The chopper ride to safety seems to last forever. Vargas is not critical, serious but not critical. Ed is working with the medical triage team and is one of the first people he sees when they touch down. Tom directs him to Cuvier and Seely. Ed preps them for evac but gives Tom a small headshake. Ed doesn’t think they’ll make it. "Tom, Sloan’s waiting for you at HQ. She’ll see you after you debrief."

Tom holds on to JC. JC’s seen men die before. He doesn’t think Cuvier will make it either. Jensen won’t go to the hospital, but gets some first aid. Tom lets her, but tells her that after she debriefs she goes to the hospital. They’ll be waiting for her.

Tom’s amazed at the bureaucracy of the military. The debriefing takes almost longer than the mission itself. He sends his boys off to bed and will go and see Vargas and Cuvier later when they’re awake. JC’s heading for the hospital. He’ll sit and wait. Cuvier‘s not out of danger yet. The word came down a couple of hours ago. Seely didn’t make it. He died in the OR.