How to Catch a Fish (ManxMan)

Original Chapter Thirty-One: A Fight to Remember - Part One

~Chapter Thirty-One: A Fight to Remember~

My fingers itch to grab the metal handle of the building's glass lobby door, but I refrain for now. Despite being able to see into the lobby, the lobby is very large and not everything is in view from where we are. It would also look extremely suspicious if someone saw me scanning the room through the doors. Which is why there is already a scout inside – a Were, since their noses are far better than any demon's or Mer's – to make sure there is not an ambush lying in wait. I gave him two minutes to get in and out, and those two minutes are almost up. If he is not out in the next ten seconds, our team will rush the lobby and secure the area with force, if necessary.

If necessary, ha! Of course it's going to be necessary.

This might be a witch-operated building, but a few humans were discovered on the business's registry. We want to avoid harming or revealing ourselves to those humans, if they are innocent of what goes on here. If they know about this whole operation, though, then we will be less inclined to go easy on them.

I am just about to open the door and motion my team – all of whom are waiting in a circular clump behind me and to my left, perfectly out of view of the doors – forward, when I spot our scout calmly walking into view. Since he is not running from anything, I take a step back from the door so it does not hit me when he opens it, waiting for him to come out to us. It takes a few seconds, but at least he appears no worse for wear when he exits the building.

Without prompting, he reports his findings as soon as he is out of sight of anyone that might look out the doors. "The lady at the front desk is human. The security guard in front of the elevators is not; he smelled like a bear, but either didn't notice me or didn't care, 'cause I was only talking to the lady. They're the only two in the lobby, but there were cameras and, even if they don't give us away, the bear can signal others with his radio before we can reach him."

While I was not foolish enough to believe they would not have cameras, it is still a problem. The whole point of an ambush is to have the element of surprise, and it is hard to keep that element if the enemy knows exactly how many attackers there are before we even get past the first defence. However, that is not going to stop us now.

"Once we're inside, the cameras are low priority. There might be a panic button under the front desk, which is why Delta will use his magic to knock the lady off her feet," I order, relying on our codenames, as Hellions are trained to do in the field. Names like Zagawainon and Fharkimar are too much of a mouthful and hard to remember when fighting to stay alive. The wolves may all have simpler names, but they are not exempt from this rule; they just get a different set of code names – Shepard, Dane, Timber, Red, etc.

Once I get a nod from Delta, the red-haired wind demon, I continue, "Kilo and November, you need to subdue the bear before he sounds the alarm. Anyone watching the cameras will see us coming, but I'm hoping that we'll already be on the stairs by the time they sound the alarm. Elevators are off-limits, in case someone shuts them down while we're inside."

The two brown-haired earth demons accept their roles with nods. I catch Nero's eye – he is near the back of our not-so-little group – and offer him a small smile before finishing up. "Stay in formation. No matter what happens, demons and Dolphin on the outside, wolves on the inside until it is safe for shifting," I remind them, resisting the urge to smirk at Nero's code name, which he is not so fond of. 'Dolphin' is a pretty good one, though, and he should be happy that he was not given the name that would fit well with my 'Romeo'. He should be glad, too, since my first code name was 'Chatter-box'.

Without further hesitation, I reach over and pull the door open, and with a flick of my wrist, I signal the team in. They rush around me to get into the door. As they go, I glance at the big but mostly unoccupied street that we are in clear view of. However, people still glance our way out of curiosity, though they do not look for more than a few seconds, knowing that something is up, but not wanting to be the one to call the police about it. And it's not like we're carrying guns, just a bunch of old-fashioned swords. If the movies are anything to go by, humans do not want to mess with ninjas, and we look very similar with all our dark clothing and not-modern gear. Due to our werewolf guests, my Hellion teammates were willing to forgo their usual white uniforms in favor of something made better for stealth, and I wasn't even given the option of having my uniform back, since I am technically working for Koa, not Sidr.