Chapitre 106: 25. In The Army Now.
The man took me to another African man. This one was sitting in a leather chair. The leader of the pack, I noticed from the behavior of the others and here I felt the alpha status, but it differed greatly from Adam's. This was not a caregiver, this was just a leader. I had no idea what made him different from Adam, but it was so obvious.
The man was at least six feet tall. Very much lifted weights, every muscle showed. This man carried himself with a confidence that said anyone did not easily beat him. But isn't it a saying that the bigger they are, the harder they fall? He looked at me for a moment. His head was shaved and a thick scar ran from under his left eye diagonally towards his ear. Probably made of silver because werewolves don't scar easily.
The first man backed away slightly, apparently speaking through the bonds of the pack, and the leader lazily waved his hand. He looked at me; he was not stupid. There was quite a lot of intelligence in this one.
The man looked at me from head to toe and said amusedly in good English, "I usually only work with those with whom I have measured my strength. Who are strong enough, but fine? I'm bored. And you, you little flea, are going to demand an audience with me. Fine, we can talk things over. Right now, as long as we fight first. I promise to be gentle, sweetheart."
I kept my expression neutral and didn't take the bait. I didn't get angry or try to act bigger than I was. I kept my expression unsure, biting my lower lip. Fine, he just gave me a good role to go with.
A good nickname for me, though, was "Oh, or the flea. Well, this flea will teach you a lesson. A flea doesn't feel nice when it bites and bites hard and this man should learn a life lesson not to be judged on appearance."
I calmly replied, "That's fine, then don't complain."
I kept my voice suitably meek and weak, not letting my power out, not at all. This was going to be fun.
And everyone burst out laughing. I knew I would get the respect of the entire pack, or at least the attention, if I won their alpha. This wasn't an official alpha fight, so there was no way I could have gotten the pack for myself. It would be fun to see Adam's expression, though, if I would accidentally snatch the pack for myself.
I took off my black leather jacket. I had on a cotton-pink t-shirt, faded blue jeans, and ankle-length boots. This was going to be fun. I was a woman clearly.
The man stood up and said, "Few dare fight me, Brutus, and be so arrogant, you flea, are too full of yourself. Little Barbie, you should be under your husband's arm, not playing with fire."
He had noticed my ring. It was much more modest than the one Damon had gotten me originally. This was more of a show ring and I didn't want to lose those lovely rings, so Damon had gotten me a less showy one. He had made this one to himself, too. In fact, he didn't always even wear his ring on his finger and I didn't wonder.
The men made way, and I said, "I can fight you, but don't be surprised when you're down."
Everyone started laughing as if I had told the joke of the century. Brutus stood in front of me, ready to counter what I would do. He looked at my hands, waiting for me to strike, and well, I did.
But as I am vicious and unpredictable, and fight as dirty as I can. I kicked and hit Brutus right in the balls. One kick taught by Magnum and my strength. I was not sparing too much. Brutus groaned in agony. Pressed his hands to his crotch and looked at me murderously.
I smiled sweetly back at him. A good kick had been the one when it hit its target directly. I grabbed dirt and many crumbs from the floor as the man charged towards me and with a snappy motion; I threw it at the man's eyes.
Brutus cursed, rubbing his eyes, so I took my chance and kicked his left knee out of play. He collapsed on his knee. I took a couple of steps back and with a powerful jumping kick; I hit the man right in the chest. I was a hybrid, with vampire speed, combined with a werewolf's strength.
Brutus staggered backwards. I hit him hard with my right fist, right in the man's diaphragm, and he fell on his back on the ground.
I was small and fast and had dodged the man's blows with my vampire reflexes. My punches had been quick, merciless, and precise. It was a good thing I had received such power training from Magnum. Now I saw the benefit of not being sloppy.
I jumped on his chest, spread-eagled, grabbed his throat with my left hand, and held on tight. I'm left-handed and my legs have strength.
I squeezed the man's chest with my thighs and said, "Have you had enough fighting or do you still want to continue?"
He could not speak. I squeezed his throat strong enough to leave bruises.
I loosened my grip on the man's chest a little. He patted the floor in surrender and I stood up. I walked over to sit on the barstool, and Brutus stood up.
He came up to me, now smiling for real, shook my hand, and said, "Damn flea, I never would have believed it. Well, I got a lesson. Let me introduce myself. I'm Brutus, local and the only alpha this side of Portugal, and this is my pack."
I shook his hand and said, " Mimi Salvatore, hybrid. Unique case. I'm from America. My pack leader is Adam Hauptmann."
Brutus grunted and poured himself a drink. I took a Coke when he asked what I was drinking. I was in no mood for alcohol. I needed my caffeine.
We talked. I told him about myself and my experiences, then I showed him the pictures and the files.
I told them my preliminary plan. Brutus found some flaws in my plan and his protective side showed now that he was very involved. He was not willing to let me go in there all by myself willy-nilly.
More men kept coming in to examine the files, and here and there were angry mutterings.
Brutus said, "It's not good to be a werewolf around these facilities, almost all of us know someone who has disappeared and never been found, rumors have always circulated and now that we have proof, we want to act, Flea, we want revenge and we want to be part of this."
I nodded and said, " Good job. We need some more information and then we'll figure out what, where, and when. We have to have a way to save everyone, transport everyone out, and I do not know how many fucking victims there might be. I have no idea how awful shape they are and it might be hard to transport them all out."
Brutus nodded and said, "We'll handle it. We've got cars and manpower. We will rescue everyone. I can have more men and quickly, too."
We planned for a while, and then they wanted to see my wolf form. Again, I said nothing about how big Mimosa is.
By the time I was changing into wolf form, the men were sold. Mimosa makes an impression, now that I'm in better shape, Mimosa doesn't really resemble a greyhound, but is a very impressive sight. They were flabbergasted at how magnificent she really was.
We went scouting with five men and made a plan. I didn't know everyone's name, and Brutus talked quite a lot through the pack bonds. We looked at and toured the entire facility. Two men were wolves, sniffing and investigating that way, while Brutus watched the entrance and all the security work that had been put into the facility.
One of Brutus's men was quite good with computers and he had investigated that this was, in fact, an illegal facility. This is not licensed to operate, but apparently, some officials have been bribed to overlook things. This was supposed to be an abandoned building, and no inspection was coming in this part of town.
They knew the authorities were honest, and they wanted to bring this to light, but only after everyone had been saved. I told them about the financiers and together we came up with a plan to destroy the facility and trap the financiers. It would do no good if our little thing would not send a message.
We would leave some very damning evidence that Brutus had found. One chemical that he had seen being transported in containers was actually under very strict regulations. What I knew about this was only hazy recollections from Sark's facility, and they used some kind of combination of this chemical and a few others to preserve tissue samples and enzymes.
The plan was to leave a few of the chemical containers intact with identification tags so that the authorities would investigate who had gotten the chemicals and obviously stored them improperly and had gotten them without a license. This might go all the way up to the manufacturer and maybe there was a bribe there, too. That should cause quite a problem.
We would attack at night, and there would be quite a few of us. Brutus and his men were good with guns and I then went to a warehouse in Reddington to get a truck full of explosives, guns, and bullet-proof vests. I was gearing up for my very first mission and it would not be the last.
The name of the game was to kill as many as you could and save all the victims. I felt myself getting tuned up in a whole new way for the job ahead, and this got my heart beating wildly. I calmed myself down and Mimosa was really excited, too. Mimosa hated these guys as well, too.
It was dark when we started moving. We got to our positions and first, the wolves, seven of them, went running and killed the guards outside. It didn't take long. We ran fast and went through the door after I had blasted it open with a small charge.
A few cars from the Brutus pack drove closer as the werewolves invaded the facility. They set out to find the victims and rescue them. Some men were in support, killing the enemies, and I went off to find all the drugs, data, and anything else I didn't want to leave available. It would be time to get over all of this data and see what they were doing, find always some other angle to stop them.
I had two men and they could understand English, but we spoke little as I always gave them full bags, which they sent forward. I heard the sounds of gunfire, some shouting, and running footsteps, but I was concentrating on my part in this and not distracted.
We had a schedule, and I had cleared all the rooms when Brutus was helping the very man I had seen being taken. The man was in terrible shape. He was breathing poorly; he was almost limp and weak.
I went to Brutus and said, " Let me give him some of my blood. It is very healing."
The man was almost unconscious, but I bit my wrist, put it in the man's mouth, and let my blood drain into his mouth. He recovered and bit my wrist himself, drinking my blood and healing some.
Brutus raised his eyebrows and said, "Damn girl, you surprise then and always. "
I laughed and left the facility. I put a few more bombs in. I saw a few oxygen tanks and left a few presents in there.
Brutus's men had arranged the rides and also staged the whole thing. They clearly left the chemical tanks out.
We got in the car, and I pressed the button. There was a series of explosions, flames appeared, and then there were a couple of bigger bangs as the oxygen tanks exploded.
We drove down our road and from somewhere in the distance; we heard the screeching sounds of emergency vehicles. We rescued twenty victims. I got a hell of a lot of drugs and kept them in a safe place in the car. I didn't even know who I was going to give them to yet.
We went to a Brutus place and had a good meat meal. They were werewolves and there was a game. I then retired to a hotel for the night. I had those drugs in my car still and all the data too.
It was the first blasting gig of my life, and it wouldn't be the last. Among those rescued were wolves from other packs and humans. I visited Brutus's place a couple more times before I had to leave for Spain. He was now my friend and a very dear one. Also, almost a mentor, as he taught me quite many things when he had planned the gig.
He was busy spreading the word about what we had seen and experienced. He wanted to continue in the same way. We worked together and my desire to save others so they wouldn't have to experience my fate spread. My cause spread.
When I told him about Bran, Brutus spat on the floor and said that they only worked through me. He said that Bran is a politician and they don't want to obey the Marrok law, which he said is written in a book and they have their own laws, their own ways of doing things.
They were fleas. And I was The Flea. They saw me as their leader and I tried to keep it again, even though it was more of a collaboration. We exchanged phone numbers. But I only kept Brutus's number on my secret work phone.
He promised to keep checking out the facilities and let me know if there was a need for a mission. They could, of course, do gigs without me. All the better.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone