Extinction Agenda

Chapter Nine

Cole sat in the car down the street, but still within sight of the Vigilant base. After being cut off so quickly by Rico, he perched on the edge of his seat waiting for him to storm out of the building. Paige had left a few moments ago, but the remains of the Chinese food she’d picked up for lunch was still scattered on the floor and backseat. Even after hell had spilled all over the world, General Tso Chicken still came in those little white boxes. On a very genuine level, that brought Cole some comfort.

Rico walked outside using a stride that seemed powerful enough to smash through any wall unfortunate enough to have been built in his path. After spotting the borrowed car, he motioned for Cole to follow him to the corner. He was headed for the Spring Street Bar and Grill, which had its windows boarded up like every other business in the area. Unlike the miniature fortress created by the Vigilant, the bar showed signs of life. Light filtered through the reinforced shutters, and voices made it outside past doors that were tightly closed in the event any four-legged visitors showed up. As Rico passed the bar, he nodded up toward the spots where Cole already knew the Vigilant cameras were posted.

A pair of figures huddled in the shadows across the street, where a house sat on a corner lot. Its yard was surrounded by a broken chain-link fence, and the grass had been torn up by so many claw marks that it looked as if it had been run over by a piece of farming equipment. A tall tree leaned toward the tiny house as if to offer the shelter that a pointed awning over the front door couldn’t provide. Judging by the broken windows and scratch marks along the walls, whoever owned that house needed a lot more than shade to protect them.

Slowing as he passed in front of a row of little, single-story houses, Rico stepped onto a lawn that was smaller than the house’s driveway to examine a satellite dish sporting a large ugly bite mark that had claimed almost a quarter of its radius. “You got that rock?”

“Not on me,” Cole replied as he closed in on him.

“Then where is it? I’m puttin’ my ass on the line here. Jessup ain’t a bad guy, but he’s not real big in the trust department.”

“So are you with him or us?” Cole asked. “After the hell we went through in New Mexico, the least that guy could do is stick with us.”

“He is,” Rico said. “Jessup’s sticking with all Skinners by ditching his own stomping ground and coming to work for the only core group that has been seriously organized. If you or Paige don’t like it, maybe you should have done some organizing yourselves before throwing in with the IRD.”

“We all jumped to the sides we thought would do the most damage to the Full Bloods. This fight’s just started, though, and we’re not far from losing it.”

Rico nodded. “You got that right. All we need to do is pull together when it counts. These Vigilant dudes may be drifting toward the whacko end of the spectrum, but they got heart and they got some heavy duty firepower from Jonah Lancroft’s personal collection. Somehow, they also got to the best stuff from Philadelphia. And since there ain’t hardly any other Skinners answering their phone anymore, the Vigilant are about all there is unless you wanna join the Army.”

“You can’t find any other Skinners?”

“We been in contact with the ones that survived the raids from the cops, but as of a few days ago, it’s been real quiet.” Rico drew a measured breath and stared at Cole intently when he asked, “Did you or Paige turn over a list of names to the military?”

At that moment Cole was certain of three things. If he’d betrayed any Skinners who were scooped up by the government, he was in for some serious bodily harm. If he tried to lie about doing such a thing, he would be found out and then subjected to even more serious harm. And finally, there was no doubt which side of the battle Rico was on. Philosophical differences aside, Rico was the same man he’d been the first time they met. “After all the shit we’ve been through, you can still ask me a question like that?”

Rico eased back just enough to let Cole know the storm had temporarily passed. “I’ve been level with you the whole time,” he rasped. “The problem with you and Paige is that you’re still thinkin’ in terms of us and them. The only ‘us’ here is humanity, and ‘them’ is them furry sons of bitches running wild through our cities. Now, I’m not sayin’ everyone under that roof back there shares my views on the matter, but that’s where I stand. When I was pissed with you guys in New Mexico, I told you so. Trust me, I’ve been telling Jessup the same things. All it boils down to is that these guys speak my language and Lancroft knew how to whip monster ass. Right now, though, I need to show you something and I need that rock to do it.”

The window of the house swung open to reveal an old man wrapped in a thick burgundy robe. His eyes may have been covered by thick lenses housed in cheap plastic frames, but he didn’t have any trouble finding a target for the pump-action shotgun in his hands. “Move it along, you two!”

“We ain’t messin’ up yer lawn, old man!” Rico barked.

The shotgun was raised to his shoulder and the home owner stared the Skinners down as if they were two Half Breeds pissing on his rosebushes. “I said move it along.”

Rico spun around and threw an angry wave at the old man. “We killed a pack of Half Breeds before they could climb through his windows and this is the thanks we get.”

“Times are hard,” Cole said.

“I got sick of hearin’ that shit a long time ago.”

“Yeah. Me too.”

“What about your Army buddies?” Rico asked. “Can’t they check around to see who’s left besides us and the Vigilant?”

“They barely know which end is up,” Cole said. “The IRD is doing their best to stomp out the fires, but they can’t wrap their brains around what’s starting them. Soon as we realized they don’t have much more than big guns in their pockets, Paige and I got away to find some answers on our own.”

“What about that little toy you brought in the basement? Pretty high-tech stuff. Or is that something you whipped up?”

“It’s some good tech. We might’ve been able to put something like it together, though. Still, it’s . . .” Cole felt his stomach clench. The tendrils hurt like hell, but that was nothing new. He’d reached an understanding with them. Somehow, he just knew they weren’t about to kill him. Even if they weren’t connected to a spore, they still had a purpose, and choking out their only food source didn’t serve it. No, this clench came from realizing he might just be even dumber than he’d thought. “Shit, I can’t believe this.”

“Believe what?”

“Paige and I ditched the car the IRD gave us, checked everything we were carrying, just about tore apart the clothes we were issued, and even picked through our boots to make sure we weren’t being tracked or bugged by those guys. They gave us that device to field test and we kept it because it could be useful, even as a bargaining chip.” Cole shook his head, suddenly feeling every bit of the weight that the last few months had dumped onto his shoulders. “I bet that device has got something else in it. Maybe that was the whole reason Adderson gave it to us.”

Clapping him on the shoulder, Rico said, “Could be. I was the one watching the screens when you carried that thing past the sci-fi setup in the front of that house. Our expensive computer shit picked up on a signal right away. Since it was you, I squelched it without raising the alarms.”

“Funny. I guess from being out there stabbing werewolves, getting bitten by vampires, and dodging gargoyles, the more modern ways of being hunted don’t register as much. Should’ve seen that one coming.”

“Maybe, maybe not. I would’ve thought to look for some electronic shit inside the little electronic box, but that’s me. I’ve spent a few more years hanging around with criminals or other sorts who think about wiretaps and that kind of crap.”

“Jessup put you in charge of watching the computers?” Cole asked. “You really have them snowed.”

“Nah. Just told ’em I learned a few things from hanging out with you.”

Those words, coupled with the approving nod from Rico, told him that the big guy actually thought of him as something other than cannon fodder.

“Don’t be so surprised,” Rico said. “Word spreads. That’s how it’s always been with us. With you and Paige stepping up the way you have, the rest of us are bound to know who you are.”

“You were there for a lot of it too.”

“And don’t think I don’t remind them of that whenever they try to pressure me into signing on all the way with these Vigilant creeps.”

“So you don’t trust them?” Cole asked.

Rico glanced down the street toward the Vigilant’s building and then turned away as if he was certain they were looking straight back at him. “Since you told me about that bug, I know I can trust you. Speaking of trust, where’s that rock?”

Cole looked across the street, couldn’t find the figures that had been stalking him previously, then shifted his eyes toward another lot. Soon, the figures stepped out from around another house and stayed there to make sure they were seen. Cole waved at them, which was enough for the two figures to part ways. One came straight at Cole and Rico, while the other doubled back down the street. As soon as the second figure stepped out of the shadows, Paige waved at Cole and continued down the street toward the car.

Rico kept his hand on the butt of his holstered Sig Sauer while watching the first figure approach him. “That’s one of the new guys. Waggoner. He one of yours?”

“One of Paige’s, is more like it. She met him in Atoka.”

Waggoner was a tall man sporting a full beard. He hobbled across the street wearing several layers of jackets, thermal undershirts, and flannel to fight a winter chill that struck Cole as mildly bracing at the worst. Judging by the weight of his clothes, Waggoner seemed to be more concerned, anyway, about having the maximum amount of pockets rather than being warm.

“He’s been with us for a few months,” Rico said as his eyes narrowed suspiciously. “He’s been a spy that whole time?”

“Nope. He just got a little freaked out by some of the stuff he heard in that big clubhouse of yours. When he called Paige a few weeks ago, I was just as surprised as you are.”

By now Waggoner had made it across the street. After throwing a quick nod at Rico, he hobbled over to stand out of the big man’s reach. “Hey, Cole. Good to see you. I would’ve said hello earlier, but . . . you know.”

“Yeah,” Rico said while eyeing the little box in the other man’s hands. “I know. You’ve been busy stealing from us.”

“You don’t even know me, mister. I’ve seen you around plenty of times, but you ain’t even seen fit to shake my hand.”

“You’re still wet behind the ears, boy,” the big man replied. “Just carved your own weapon, right?”

The man nodded meekly at first, but quickly straightened up and lifted his chin.

“I don’t care what anyone else said about him,” Cole said evenly, “I can tell you he’s a stand-up guy. Even after he got injured in Atoka, he still wanted to ride with Paige to face off against those Full Bloods.”

Rico grunted. “Bein’ stupid should never be mixed up with bein’ brave. I already heard about you saving a bunch of people stuck in a panic room during the Breaking Moon, so I guess you do have some redeeming qualities.” Looking down from Waggoner’s eyes, he said, “Tell me how you got that.”

Waggoner shifted his weight off his left side while pressing a hand against one leg. “Half Breed tore into me in Atoka. Nearly crippled me, but some friends patched me up before steering me toward this place.”

“Not that, numb nuts! The fucking box in your hands!”

Waggoner tightened his grip on the metal container. “I was coming down to see if anyone needed help when that Full Blood in the basement broke loose. As soon as I got to the bottom of the stairs, Jessup handed it to me and told me to put it away.”

“So instead you sneak out with it? Didn’t anyone stop you?”

“They were all too busy trying to get a look at the Full Blood or get to a weapon in case it tried to get upstairs.”

Before Rico could get close enough to grab hold of the other man, Cole stepped between them and said, “I told him to try and get ahold of the Jekhibar when we called to let him know we were headed out here. We need that thing.”

“And I agree with him,” Waggoner said. “I’m a grown man. I don’t take orders from much of anyone and I don’t need someone else to fight my battles.” Looking Rico dead in the eyes, he added, “I’ve heard plenty of things about you. Why the hell would you pick sides with these crazies?”

“Because there’s a fight that needs to be won. We can worry about settling up with each other after that’s finished.” Rico’s gaze didn’t lose any of its fire when he shifted it toward Cole. “Why didn’t you just come to me with this?”

“Why didn’t you answer any of the calls we made when we needed help clearing out St. Louis and Topeka?”

“I left you all the Snappers I had.”

“And they work great. We need more than bullets, though. That’s why—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rico sighed. “That’s why you broke off from the IRD. You gonna give me that box or are you gonna make me take it from you?”

Waggoner didn’t look like he was cowed in the slightest by Rico, and he didn’t look to Cole for affirmation before handing over the metal box. Rico took it, opened it, and snatched the bent metal wedge from it. Tucking the box under an arm, he reached into one of the pockets of his heavy leather biker jacket. When Cole first met the big man, that jacket had patches of canvas to fill in the spaces that still needed to be covered with tanned Half Breed hide. Now the entire jacket was solid leather, stitched together from several pieces that fit like a puzzle wrapped around his entire upper body. From his pocket, Rico took a small plastic bottle of eye drops. Recognizing the color and oily texture of the fluid inside the bottle, Cole knew it did a lot more than moisturize and rejuvenate.

“Put these in,” Rico said. “Both of you.”

“What is it?” Waggoner asked.

Taking the bottle and sniffing the top, Cole tipped his head back so he could put a couple drops in each eye. “It lets you see scents,” he said. “You can also see certain kinds of energy patterns like whatever flows through the Skinner runes.” Handing the bottle over to Waggoner, he asked, “What does flow through those runes, Rico?”

The big man shrugged. “Long as they work, I don’t give a crap.”

Waggoner sighed in a way that reflected his uncertainty at putting his eyesight in the hands of men who barely seemed able to keep themselves from getting killed. Cole knew as much because he’d let out the same sigh plenty of times. Already in too deep as it was, Waggoner put the drops in his eyes and immediately dropped the bottle. “It burns. Shit, it burns. Wash it out!”

“Keep yer voice down,” Rico snarled.

Cole was a little more supportive. “It’s supposed to burn. Just let it soak in.” Grabbing Waggoner’s sleeve, he pulled him away from the street even though there hadn’t been a hint of a car since they stepped out of the Vigilant’s building. “And do it over here so the cameras don’t see.”

“You’re worried about the goddamn cameras?” Waggoner asked. “I could be going blind and you . . . oh wait. It’s feeling a little better.”

“When it gets cold, open your eyes.”

After a few more seconds Waggoner opened his eyes.

Rico was in the process of blinking in the drops he’d just applied as he pocketed the bottle. “All right,” he said. “We need to walk back into that bar and order a drink.”

“Doesn’t Jessup have that place wired?” Cole asked.

“Yeah, and I’m supposed to be on patrol right now. Most of the times, patrol winds up at that bar. Come on.” As they walked back to the Spring Street Bar and Grill, Rico wiped at his eye and told Waggoner, “If anyone realizes that rock is missing, I’m blaming it on you.”

“Go right ahead. You think I didn’t work out a few stories to tell if I was caught with it?”

Rico’s eyebrows waggled upward and he nudged Cole. “This one might work out after all.” He knocked on the bar door and said, “Step inside and try not to make a big deal about all the pretty colors you’ll see.”

When the door to the bar was opened, they were greeted with plenty of colors. First, there was the matted black of the shotgun leveled at them by the doorman. Since they weren’t Half Breeds or showing any Nymar markings when they were forced to uncover their necks and wrists, they were allowed inside. On the walls, there were bright red and blue beer signs, pink neon advertising a brand of rum, flashing spectrums thrown from video games and a pinball machine, and of course the sparkling yellow and greens of an old jukebox. More than that, Cole saw something he’d never seen before.

When he used the eye drops on previous occasions, he’d seen green wisps coming from Dryad symbols, dark smoky reds from Nymar, and even a disturbing black from Skinners themselves. What he hadn’t seen was the light blue curls of vaguely glowing smoke seeping from the people gathered there. The color streamed off everyone in the bar, swirling about them as they moved and entwining when one person’s path crossed another.

“Holy crap,” Waggoner said. “This stuff is really messing with me.”

“Me too,” Cole said. “What’s with the blue?”

“That,” Rico told him, “comes off of everyone who’s not tainted by anything.” With a grin, he added, “At least nothing that isn’t for sale in a place like this. From what I’ve seen, it comes off of yer run-of-the-mill human.”

“When did this start?” Cole asked.

“Can’t say for certain since I don’t put this shit in my eyes all the time, but I’d say right about the time of the Breaking Moon.”

As he spoke, Cole noticed all of the blue wisps in the room were working their way in one direction. His direction. They converged on him like ghostly fingers that just realized there was some sort of treat in his pocket.

“You think that’s weird,” Rico said. “Get a load of this.” He removed the Jekhibar from his pocket, held it in his hand and let it rest on his palm.

There wasn’t much of a change at first, but the blue wisps subtly shifted their direction until they were drifting toward Rico. Upon reaching his outstretched hand, they circled it and brushed against the Jekhibar before pressing into the rough, silvery surface.

“Just wait,” Rico said before Cole could ask the question that had popped into his mind.

In a matter of seconds the ghostly smoke emanating from the bodies in that room poured out of them even faster and blended to form a singular current that swept through the room. Although it was still disrupted by the constant motion of the bar’s patrons, the glowing haze took on a brighter hue as it flowed into the stone sitting on Rico’s palm.

“It’s coming from the ground,” Waggoner said.

Cole tore his eyes from the sight of the shimmering fog and looked down. Although he couldn’t see a definite source, the flow of the ghostly substance moved in such a way that a pattern emerged. It was indeed emanating from the people, but also rushed up from the floor, passing through boards and tile as if they were nothing but a screen. It all went directly to the Jekhibar.

“What is that thing?” Waggoner asked while looking to the lump of silver in Rico’s hand.

“Whatever the power was that the Full Bloods were after when they took Atoka,” he explained, “it’s drawn to this rock. It’s also drawn to the Full Bloods. What we didn’t know before was that it’s also drawn to us. I’ve done a bit of snooping around and I can tell you it ain’t drawn to Nymar. And ever since the Breaking Moon, it’s been flowing like a damn river.”

Their conversation was interrupted as the stringy woman behind the bar leaned over and asked, “You guys drinkin’ or what?”

“One for the road,” Rico said. “For each of us.”

The bartender reached under the bar and came back up with three matching bottles of cheap domestic, which she opened. “That’ll be nine seventy-five.”

“Pay her, new guy,” Rico grunted as he took a beer for himself.

Since it wasn’t light beer, Cole took one and told Waggoner, “I used to be the new guy, so now it’s your turn.”

“Last time I do a favor for you assholes,” Waggoner muttered as he fished out a ten and handed it over. The other two were already headed out the door, so he didn’t get a chance to hear the skinny woman unenthusiastically thank him for the pathetic tip before he was outside with them.

“Here’s the good part,” Rico said as he led the way down the street in the direction of the house marked by the bitten satellite dish. He turned and faced the bar again, having already put the Jekhibar back into its box. “As near as we can figure, that blue energy is the Torva’ox or whatever Paige was talking about back in Oklahoma. It’s been surging ever since the Breaking Moon.”

“Kind of like when you siphon gas from a truck?” Waggoner asked.

“Yeah. Something like that.” Shifting his focus back to Cole, Rico said, “Jessup may look like the leader of the pack around here, but that’s just because he’s got seniority. He ain’t the one calling all the shots and he ain’t the asshole you think he is.”

“I never said that.”

“Didn’t have to. You were looking at him like you wanted to plaster him against a wall. Same way you were lookin’ at me.”

Since Cole knew he couldn’t make a convincing argument against that, he let it pass. “Then who is calling the shots?”

“We’re workin’ on that.”

Waggoner shook his head and rubbed his temples. “I don’t know if it’s everything that’s been going on or if it’s because of these drops, but I feel a dizzy spell coming on.”

“Get used to it,” Cole said. “I’ve been feeling like that ever since I saw my first werewolf. Okay, Rico. So the Torva’ox flows into humans. Can we use it?”

“I don’t know and I ain’t even sure we’ll get a chance to find out. That shit that’s flowing through them Full Bloods makes them stronger, and this stone just seems to give the Torva’ox some extra spark so we can see it, or maybe adds more of a kick. I don’t know. We didn’t even make the damn thing. All I can tell you is that your average human being is sucking away the power that those Full Bloods want. Now if you were one of those big hairy sons of bitches, and you went through all that trouble to get the juices flowing, what would you think about so many little monkeys leeching off of the source?”

“I’d want to get rid of them,” Cole said.

Waggoner wanted to rub his eyes, but stopped himself. “Is that why they’ve come after us so hard?”

Now, Rico slapped Waggoner on the shoulder. “That’s the shitty thing about being able to see things from another perspective. Doesn’t always paint a pretty picture. Take the Jekhibar,” he said to Cole.

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah. It’ll be a good long while before anyone figures out a way to get that hatch open anyway, after what I did to mess with those runes. When someone finds out about that, I’ll steer the explanation toward interference caused by too many new recruits scuffing up the symbols. Should keep ’em busy for a few weeks. Think you can get it back to me by then?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Paige replied as she strode toward them. Her Beretta was in hand and ready to provide assistance if Rico stepped out of line, but she’d apparently decided that wasn’t necessary. “What will you do if things get too hot for you with the Vigilant?”

Rico showed her a crooked smile and plenty of blocky teeth. “I’ll leave. I been hidin’ from guys a lot more dangerous than them for a long time. Now that I know they were lyin’ to me about not knowin’ anything about Cole being locked up, I don’t feel too bad about jerkin’ them around. Until then, I’ll stay in town and see what more I can find about them. Somethin’ tells me we’ll have enough work to do for me to remain a valuable asset.”

Paige holstered her pistol and rubbed his arm. “Take care of yourself, okay?”

“You too, Bloodhound. You owe me for this and I’ll collect.”