Time/Date Error (Damned of the 2/19th-Book Six) - Done

Blood for Lugus

"I imagine that you thought your prize was unguarded, didn't you?" I said, pulling the cold weather mask down so he could see me. "There, now you can see who I am."

His eyes widened.

"Yeah, you're Vympel. Again. Jesus, you guys just don't learn, do you?" I smiled at him.

"What will happen now?" He asked.

I shrugged. "Depends on you. If you read my file, you know I've got my crew with me," He nodded slowly at that. "You also know I have no qualms about killing you," Again, he nodded. "So if you were thinking you could take me out and have a clear shot at your objective..." I let it trail off.

"Are we your prisoners?" He asked. He had a Nebraskan accent, "If so, I demand my men be treated according to the Geneva Convention as enemy combatants."

I shrugged again. "That depends on you. Have a seat."

He sat.

"You know what's sitting there, right?" I asked him.

"American nuclear tank rounds. Built for your Abrams tank to fight our tanks," He said. "We were to take one, bring it back."

I nodded slowly. "Worth the risk. High tech rounds, latest stuff. Lowered radiation, quasi-directional burst, enhanced thermal bloom." His eyes widened. "Yeah, latest hot shit DARPA anti-tank rounds," I was lying, but he wouldn't know that. "Goddamn scientists figured out how to make a shape charge with a nuke instead of it being omnidirectional. But you knew that, didn't you?"

He nodded again, and I could tell he had swallowed the bait, hook, line, and sinker.

"Got a canteen cup?" I asked him, lifting mine up. He nodded. "Move slowly, no misunderstandings, my sniper is a bit twitchy."

He handed me his cup and I took it from him, pouring some from my second canteen into his cup, then mine.

"Jack Daniels, from Tennessee," I told him.

"My thanks," He said, sipping it. He made a face.

"Yeah, instant coffee and water mixed in with it too. Sorry," I told him. He nodded and took another drink.

"What are you planning?" He asked me. "Are we prisoners?"

I shook my head. "You don't want that. To keep you prisoner on this mountaintop would be a war crime. I'm a monster, but I'm very well aware that shooting you all in the face would be merciful to spending the rest of this winter on this mountaintop with me."

I could tell by his expression that he didn't understand, not really. He was just thinking of the weather he and his men had climbed that cliff face through.

The only climbable cliff face.

"This is your one warning this winter," I told him, smiling at him. I reached up, pushing my parka hood back, then pulling off my cold weather cap. He stared, watching me closely as I pulled the bandage off my head and let him see my ruined eye.

The lizard's boards lit up. All of them.

"If you come back, I will take your men, I will capture those I do not kill, and I will sacrifice them to my Celtic gods," I told him.

The lizard took the shiny new red button and carefully pressed it into place. It locked with a click that charged my system full of chemicals.

Pain vanished, doubt vanished, fear vanished. Cool fire slid down my spine and the shaking in my limbs smoothed out. My thigh, knee, and shoulder went from burning fiery pain to the dull throbbing of rubbing ice-chips.