Smilodon by Robert M. Kerns

Author:Robert M. Kerns [Kerns, Robert M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781636460123
Publisher: Knightsfall Press

14

Three hours after sunset, we set off. To say a Smilodon and dire wolf drew odd looks when running with wolves, foxes, and a few different big cat breeds while several breeds of predator birds flew overhead was—perhaps—an understatement. It seemed the Magi spent almost as much time staring at me and Karleen as they spent focused on their objectives. When we neared the fence, Vicki had to remind the Magi with the lead elements to check for wards not even ninety minutes after we’d finalized the plan. I was tempted to suggest to Karleen that the two of us should go back to the vehicles, change back to humans, and retrieve our clothes before re-joining the assault.

And that’s what it was. An assault. There was no way it could be anything else when over two hundred Magi combat veterans and a like number of equally skilled and experienced shifters descended on the defunct Industrial Steel & Fabrication complex in the dead of night.

After conferring with both my grandparents and Alistair, Vicki and Gabrielle settled on using the unit model developed during World War II: one to three Magi rounding out a squad of shifters in their animal forms and one to three shifters rounding out a squad of Magi. And despite Karleen’s preference, she and I were not in the same unit; Gabrielle and Vicki both agreed that would be an inefficient use of such powerful shifters. Karleen’s puppy dog eyes in her dire wolf form were brutal in their sad pleading, but my sister and Gabrielle stood firm. Just to twist the knife, she added a sad puppy whine as she trudged off to her assigned unit.

Vicki and Gabrielle also laid down simple rules of engagement: prisoners preferred, except in cases of direct threat to life. My unit tested those rules not even fifty yards inside the perimeter fence. We set off to the left once we passed through the main gate, circling west or downstream to be the point unit in securing that section of the complex. Given my sheer size, I served as a kind of stealth reinforcement, doing my best to stalk through the tall grass that ringed the facility. As we neared the first building we had to clear and secure, the wolf on point ran into a roving guard… quite literally. The guard—a short, stocky guy who looked like he spent too much time in the gym using steroids—stood at the corner and turned to walk toward us just as the point wolf trotted around the corner and ran his snout into the guard’s crotch. The wolf let out a startled yip as the guard doubled over and groaned. The closest Magi lifted her hands to put the guard to sleep, but she was too late. I was already on the move, charging out of the tall grass at a tangent to the building; I shoulder-checked the guard into the block wall.

I don’t care how fit you are or how protective your equipment is.

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