Read Backlash: Prequel to The Wildblood Series for Free Online

smiled and she let go of some of the tension that had been building for hours.
     “Get in the car.”
     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
    “Security has permission to do whatever they have to do to find out where the Nomads are based and clear them out,” Duncan told the group of officers gathered at Station Two.  “We got the order a few days ago, but with the events of last night, we're pushing things ahead.  Station One, Capt. Wade, has picked teams to join them at Depot South and start runs tomorrow to determine the number of intruders we're up against.  Station Two is covering the inner perimeter; Station Three is running backup for anyone that needs it.”
    “How is this different than what we do every day?”  Ballentyne asked.
    “We aren't inclined to be taking refugees or prisoners from this event.  It's clearly organized and aimed at us.  By 'we', I mean Command.  Team Three will be leaving immediately, followed up by other teams as assigned.”
    “Why Team Three?” Lambert whispered to Taylor.
    “Why do you think?” he said.  “Shannon believes it's a secret, Mac too.  Wade won't talk about it, but it doesn't take something special to understand what he's not saying.  Command knows.”  Taylor wouldn't say 'Gen En' outside the confines of a specific group.  Lambert didn't need a translator.
    “We need to get this under control before we start counting civilian causalities,” Duncan continued.  “None of you are being ordered to Dillon.  It's a strictly volunteer assignment.”
    “How long does Command plan on keeping these orders in effect?” Ballentyne asked.
    “If we have to continue the search patterns on snowmobiles, we will.”
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
    Sept 25, Dillon
     
    The wind started up from the south and Wade stopped, listening.
    Force-of-habit, Shan stopped with him, dropping her left hand to her side and unsnapping the leather safety strap from her Sig.  She'd been his bodyguard before he recruited Taylor.  “What is it?” 
    “If I knew for certain, it wouldn't bother me so much.”
    She rephrased the question.  “Is it something I might have to kill?”
    “Is that what you're worried about?”  Wade shifted his attention to her, scrutinizing carefully, intensely, in a glance.
    “I am.  I don't think . . .  I won't flinch, I won't freeze, but later.  What happens later?”
    “You'll deal with it.  What did Mac tell you?”
    They stood at the edge of the depot property, following a stone wall that ran the length of a long driveway.  It had been part of a resort, once upon a time.  Rebuilt and reinforced, it was Security's southernmost base.
    Shan grimaced, wrinkling her nose and shrugging it off.   “He said I'd deal with it.”
    “We all will.  If and when.”
    “You and I both know it'll be 'when'.”
    “How long have you known that?”
    “Since the first time you had to.”
    Fresh out of training four years ago at a place they called The Junction, barely twenty miles from The Vista.  An active gateway city, Security had problems there yearly.  Wade nodded.  “Sometimes it's absolutely unavoidable.”
    Their radios beeped in tandem.  “Oh, hell, here we go again,” she said, heading back to the depot, glad for a few words with him.
    Wade agreed.  “It's a code call.”  They trudged back up the hill, mud  and cold slowing them down, the urgency of intruders making their adrenalin run.
    “Team Sixteen just got ambushed at Divide,” Lambert caught them in the foyer before they could shed their parkas.  “Mac's already en route, he's got Jasso with him.”
    “Get a car, and go,” Wade told Shan.  “Lambert, you're with her.  We're going to go have a look.  See what we can see.”
    “By 'see', he means ghosts?” Lambert wanted to verify, thirty miles later.
    She nodded.  “That's exactly what he meant.  In the middle of a Code Call.”
    “Is that a good idea?”
    “It's Wade's idea.  Good or bad, we're doing it.”
    ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
    Bracing her head on her