Dog Days of Summer (Damned of the 2/19th Book Four) - Finished

An Eagle of Antiquity

Logging Roads

Thurston County, Washington

United States of America

10 Aug, 1986

0105

        Bomber killed the headlights at the base of the next rise and threw the truck in neutral, putting on the parking break with a hard yank. We sat there for a long moment, Nancy cracking open three beers and handing them out. We sat silently for a long time in the humid August night, silent, our shoulders barely touching, just absorbing being together again. The engine pinged as it cooled off, but the crickets and other insects didn't care.

        There was thumping from the tailgate. Papa Doutree trying to get loose and/or get our attention.

        "Just a sec." John said, getting out of the truck. I felt the truck shift as he got into the back of the truck. The window in the back window was open, so I heard him clearly. Flesh hitting flesh and John saying: "I. Told. You. To. Shut. Up." Punctuating every word with a punch. "Next time I take the boots to you, you big Frankenstein fuck."

        He'd had to do that twice so far.

        The truck bounced as John got back in. "Goddamn, I'm starting to hate him." He shook his head. "All right, Ant, what are we getting into?"

        I sighed, rubbing my face with my hands, my fingertips sliding under my glasses. "It's a power play with my family and the McCullen family." I started.

        I told it all to them, holding nothing back. Not even what I had been brewing up at the farm.

        "Jesus, Ant, you're brewing up thickened Tabun? Seriously?" John shook his head. "You can't do that, brother. This isn't Angola or goddamn Rwanda, someone's gonna notice if you fucking VX a couple hundred people."

        "We can use the C-4, napalm, and other stuff." Nancy said softly. She rubbed two fingers along her scar. "Ant and Fruit-Bat's families are full of vets, a lot of them hard core mother-fuckers."

        "Navy SEALS, Marine Recon, Air Force Commando and Pararescue, Army Ranger and Special Forces, Delta Force, and shit like that." John commented, shaking his head.

        Nancy smiled in the darkness. "Yeah, but all boys." She rubbed her hands on the legs of her jeans, dropped the beer can out the window, and cracked open the beer open to take a long drink. "The women are all officers, and we know that officers don't understand shit about field work."

        "Tell us about Aine's mother." Nancy said. She leaned over and kissed my cheek. "Not jealous, Ant, just want to know just how deep into Fruit-Bat Country we're moving."

        "I unbound her in some ways, bound her to a forest glade in others." I admitted. I shuddered. "Hell, I didn't really believe all the old stories were true until I saw Fruit-Bat climbing on the ceiling at Group." The other's shuddered at that memory, at how the whimsical Aine McCullen had turned into a full blown other-worldly creature during that struggle in the dark and cold.

        "She's pregnant. You're doing?" Nancy asked me. I nodded and she cursed, rubbing her upper arms before taking another drink off her beer. "How long till Aine has another sister to contend with?"

        "I don't know. Yesterday she looked about three months pregnant, and it had only been about a day." I said honestly.

        "How human is she?" John asked quietly.