Kassidy was still busy at work in the war room when the elevator door opened nearly an hour later to let the small group of invitees back into the command center, Anna's interrogation, for the moment, done.
"Spymaster Vulcrum," Hunter said as they stepped onto the bullpen floor. "The Lord Commander has uncovered some information that he needs you to immediately analyze."
Still in interrogation mode, the lean master spy looked up with a frown. Then back down at the tablet he was carrying, now rapidly filling with notes he had mentally made while questioning Anna.
"Beam the information to my hand held, Hunter," he directed. "And to Narcist's as well. She'll be assisting me with the analysis. Acknowledge."
"Acknowledged, Spymaster," the AI replied and the tablet immediately lit up with additional information.
Beside him, Narcist nodded as she scanned over the first bit of information.
"That makes sense," she said, looking over at Vulcrum. "Not Janner, but Kanter is the handler."
"An alias," Vulcrum said with a thoughtful frown. "For Ivor Makarov, former Qos Viran." He looked up at the ceiling. "How did the young master find this information, Hunter?"
"The Lord Commander ran a comparative analysis of the name against known aliases in the Qos Viran hard database. It yielded Makarov had previously used that alias in some of his undercover work," the AI reported.
Having caught up to them to overhear the base AI's report, Mara asked:
"So what does that mean?"
"It means we have two rogue former Qos Viran working directly with our enemy!" Lash declared as he and Fiadh stepped out of the apartment's entry and onto the bullpen floor. "Romanescu, the slaver, and Makarov, the world eater."
"World eater?" Mara repeated, unfamiliar with the term.
"His specialty was disrupting and bringing down governments," Vulcrum explained. He then was addressing the approaching Lash.
"I'm guessing you recognized the name as soon as she said it. Kanter."
Lash nodded in confirmation as he and Fiadh rejoined them. If any of them noticed the Irish lilith's hair was styled slightly different from what it was when they were down in the cell block, they didn't say. But it was hard to miss the fact she was holding his hand.
Ignoring the looks of curiosity, Lash continued holding onto it, her fingers firmly entwined with his.
"It triggered something in my mind almost immediately," he said. "So I accessed the Qos Viran command network and began running searches and analyses, stepping out to continue doing so without impacting the interrogation. By the way, were you able to elicit any additional information?"
Vulcrum shook his head.
"Nothing actionable, that is," he added. "Noise from around the edges. But if this Kanter Brel turns out to be good, hard intel, then it won't matter. She gave us what we needed."
Lash nodded in agreement.
"We just need to get to him before he realizes Anna is compromised and rabbits," the big vampire pointed out. "I had Hunter run a location trace for Qos Viran implants using the Lord Commander's network. We pinged an altered signal in Antwerp."
"I have assets in Antwerp," Vulcrum indicated. He sent the information Hunter had piped to his tablet to the side with a swipe before accessing the House Lash network via his spymaster interface.
A few command codes later and he was looking at a map of the Belgium city. Pulling in, the lean spymaster nodded in satisfaction as several blue dots appeared on that map, usually in clusters of three or four. Then he was making a pushing away gesture and the big screen in the bullpen lit up with the map.
Vulcrum then looked over at a thoughtful Lash.
"If I may, young master, I can have this Kanter Brel in custody in a matter of minutes."
Lash nodded.
"Make it happen, Vulcrum."
"Very good, my lord." His fingers danced over his tablet and, a moment later, his interrogation team was stepping out of the elevator and going down into the bullpen to take up positions at Comms, Satellite Imaging, Local Imaging, and Local Power Grid.
"Hunter, give me an overlay of the implant data with the map," Vulcrum directed and watched as a glowing orange dot appeared close to three of the teams. "That's close, but I doubt he's made my teams. We don't present like Qos Viran undercover, or VOC and VCG."
Vulcrum paused to look at the chrono that hung on the wall, time displayed in bright blue numbers. 21:04.
"We have nightfall in Antwerp. Team, this will be a suppression and extraction of a high value target. ROE: zero collateral, no footprint, all in-game enemy assets cold. Comms, link to Team Seven, Nine, and Twelve and send the applicable activation codes."
"Yes, sir," a vampiress in the middle row replied. "Seven, activation code: charybdis alpha alpha, execute. Twelve, activation code: tesla delta epsilon, execute. Nine, activation code: viper tau tau, execute."
Looking at the big screen, Lash watched as the lights marking the House Lash teams went from blue to green. They stayed in place only long enough to gather the equipment they needed to make a heavy extraction out of enemy-held territory then they were on the move.
"Flash them the map," Vulcrum directed. "Local, give them the GPS and best routes. Sat, how many thermals do we see in Kanter Brel's vicinity?"
A smaller screen to the side activated and a top-down view of the neighborhood Brel was located in, appeared before there was a quick zoom in. A shifting of the filters and a number of glowing thermal traces appeared, one slightly darker than the rest.
"He's got an escort," the vampire manning the Satellite Imaging station reported. "Reading at least ten human males."
"Those will be White Flame operators," Lash indicated. "Likely armed with sundog rounds and enhanced metallo-ceramic armor."
"Comms, have team leaders tag human operators as priority targets," Vulcrum commanded. "Penetrator rounds to the head to ensure termination."
"Yes, sir. Nine is going high to take up sniper positions," the vampiress at Comms reported. Illustrating the report, they watched one of the groups of green dots reach the targeted location before swinging around and carefully spreading out to have multiple sight lines into the target space.
A second team reached the building shortly after before holding position..
"Seven is reporting human troops on the ground," Comms indicated. "A half dozen in full armor. Radiological alarm made on their munitions."
"Confirm sundogs are in play," Vulcrum said, looking down at his tablet as data on the radiological alert began streaming over the screen. "Local Imaging, give me a picture."
A second smaller screen on the opposite side of the satellite image appeared, and quickly filled with traffic camera video. It didn't take them long to see the White Flame troopers appear at the base of a building that was the focus of all the cameras, the armed and armored humans walking a perimeter patrol.
"Options?" Vulcrum asked.
"Cut the power and take the humans out with a quick volley of penetrators," the vampiress manning the Local Power Grid station suggested. "Then move in to take the asset."
"I like the power cut, but not the volley," Vulcrum indicated. "There are more bodies than bullets. We would need to drop them all at the same time."
"Focus volley on the bodyguard," the vampire manning the Local Imaging suggested. "That's twelve to ten. And have the asset tranked. But keep the lights on so the humans on the ground don't suspect they've been compromised."
"Better. Extraction options? Are we carrying Brel out of there on a shoulder?"
"I can take care of that," Lash said as he pulled his smartphone back out. "I'll have a stealthed Nighthawk on site in five minutes. You can extract from the roof."
"Works for me," Vulcrum indicated with a nod. "Thank you, young master." He looked back over the bullpen. "Comms, direct Twelve to high sniper, and Seven to the roof to rappel to the floor and penetrate through the walls. Seven will also extract. Local, do you have a plan for the building?"
"Yes, sir. Highlighted the route to the roof and piping it to Team Seven's leader now," Local Imaging reported.
"Good. Comms, move the teams."
"Yes, sir. Moving the teams now."
The bullpen fell silent as they watched one cluster of green dots move into a position across the street from the target building. At the same time, the cluster that had stopped close to the building's base, swung back to go into the building beside it and ascend to the roof. Once they reached the roof, there was another pause to make sure the humans hadn't put guards on the roof as well.
As soon as the roof was cleared, the third team moved forward and, after setting themselves at the outside edges of the building, rappelled down the sides to take positions to fire penetrator rounds through the brick and concrete making up the walls. A small screen split off and dropped into the corner of the satellite image. Then, in a flurry of motion, each target was tagged with a number and matched up with a Lash asset.
"Targets are acquired," Comms indicated. A heartbeat later Lash's smartphone quietly beeped.
"Nighthawk is in position," he said, looking over at Vulcrum. "It will descend on command to extract when you're ready."
"Seven will extract to the Nighthawk with the asset. Nine and Twelve will fall back to position Omega and disperse," Vulcrum said, eyes narrowed as he studied the satellite image. "Move the satellite image to the main screen please, Hunter." And he nodded in satisfaction when the two images switched position.
"Are we seeing any communication between the White Flames? Check-ins or patrol results?"
"Top floor is checking in with the ground units," Comms indicated as she watched several back and forths between the two human units on a side screen. "Two minute check-in schedule. Next cycle will be ground checking with top floor. Two minutes on my mark." She paused slightly as she continued watching her display. Then:
"Mark."
"All teams, execute," Vulcrum immediately commanded. And they watched as, almost as one, all the numbers attached to the humans in the room with Brel winked out. At the same time Brel sprawled onto the deck, knocked out.
"Seven, move in. My lord, your Nighthawk to the roof, if you would, please."
With every eye now focused on the satellite image, they watched as several more dark shapes came from the room's perimeter, pausing by the downed humans to make sure they were dead. Even Kassidy paused in her planning to watch as the dark shapes scooped up the marked figure of Brel and made their way out of the room.
"They're in the stairwell," Comms reported. "Two minutes to the roof."
"Local?"
"No movement by the ground troops," Local Imaging reported.
"One minute, twenty seconds to next comms check," Comms then indicated.
"LPG, as soon as comms check is on, cut the power to the building and surrounding streets," Vulcrum said.
"Yes, sir," the vampire at the Local Power station said. "Power being cut in one minute, five seconds."
"Nine and Twelve have begun drawing back to the fall back. They've indicated they will stand by there in case they need to take out the ground troops," Comms reported. A heart beat later:
"Ground position has initiated the comms check."
"Cutting power now!" Power Grid indicated.
And they watched the Local Imaging screen darken as both the lights in the street, and those illuminating the building, went dead. The satellite image then drew back to show the waiting Nighthawk, the team with Brel just about to the roof. And the White Flames charging into the building.
"Humans have penetrated the building," the Satellite Imaging vampire indicated. "Five minutes to ascend to the roof on my mark. Mark."
"I'm getting additional comms traffic coming from several nearby locations," Comms reported. "The humans have called in reinforcements. Approximately five minutes to be onsite."
"Tell Nine and Twelve to finish their drawbacks and immediately disperse so they don't get caught in a sweep by those additional troops," Vulcrum said. "Status on Seven?"
"They're aboard with the asset," Comms reported. "The AI is already pulling away under full stealth and is setting a course for Hunters' Fjord. Flight time: one hour, forty two minutes."
Vulcrum nodded in satisfaction.
"Well done, everyone," he said. "Stay focused, though. Let's get Nine and Twelve out of harm's way."