Harrington tugged a card from his wallet. “Call those numbers. They’ll verify our identity. But I warn you now, the secretary of defense has a nasty temper when you wake her up in the middle of the night.”
Reese caught up to him and put his hand on Harrington’s arm, stopping him.
“What?”
“Please.” Reese begged the man with his eyes. “Please don’t do this. Don’t kill him. This isn’t his fault.”
A tick jumped in Harrington’s jaw. “Dr. Dante, your expertise is science, mine is dealing with threats. You need to step aside and let me do my job.” He turned away, and just like that, Reese was dismissed.
He went to stand by one of the barriers staying a discrete distance from the action. The mist stopped leaving behind damp crisp air.
Harrington entered the crime scene and waved his men over. They filed into a tight row in front of him; fatigues on one side, tactical gear on the other.
Even the dogs sat at attention.
Every man there carried high-powered automatic rifles, a close combat sidearm, and what looked like M67 grenades tucked into the pouches along their belts.
There were enough of them if they could, by some chance get the drop on Nash, very well kill him. But the Anubis, especially Nash, was fast enough it could eviscerate all these people before they had a chance to pull the trigger.
And Reese had no idea who he hoped would come out of this alive.
“You’re about to go into an exceedingly dangerous situation,” Harrington said. “Your main target is a male, Caucasian, six-four, two hundred fifty or so pounds. I want you in teams of four including one handler. If you engage with the target, you eliminate him. Aim for the head and once he’s down, sever anything left from the spine. This includes any large wolf-type animals you make contact with.” He nodded in the direction of an Anubis laying on the hill. Its head in the gully at the bottom. “Your targets can move faster than you can see, they will smell you so stay downwind if possible, they will hear you as well. No matter what you think, you do not have the upper hand. Remember that.”
A couple of the soldiers shifted their weight and flicked a look in Phillips’s direction.
“Your main target is most likely traveling with a young Hispanic man nineteen to twenty years of age, five foot seven, around a hundred-and-forty pounds. He may be injured. The hospital said they’d given him a tranquilizer, so he might also be disoriented. I would like to bring him in alive, so if he rebels do not respond with force. However, do not hesitate to shoot your target even if the civilian is in your line of fire. If you don’t, you won’t get a second chance.”
The colonel’s words left Reese lightheaded. He stepped back and leaned against one of the cruisers. His stomach flipped in a threat to rebel and cold leached into his veins.
“Dr. Dante.” The colonel approached.
He struggled to lift his head.
The colonel stopped in front of him. “Are you all right?”
Reese laughed and tears rolled down his cheeks on the back of a sob. “No.” He would never be okay. Not if they killed Nash, especially if they killed Luca.
Harrington dropped his shoulders. “If there were another way I would.”
“Would you?”
“Yes.”
And Reese believed him. “Then let me go with them. Let me try to give you another way.”
The handlers stepped off the road and descended the incline. Harrington watched them. “And you know I can’t do that.”
“Goddamn it, you can.”
Colonel Harrington forced Reese to turn. Floodlights set up on poles illuminated the remains of the sedan near the bottom of the gully. An arm and shoulder jutted from the shattered passenger window. Entrails glistened in long strings where they’d been dragged from the corpse. Blood trails leading back up to the road glittered with fragments of glass.
Another few yards away at least three bodies, in pieces, currently hidden under yellow tarps, and one Anubis with its head severed.
Reese was grateful for those tarps.
“You’re too valuable, Dr. Dante. You’re the only one who knows anything about how these things operate. And now we know we have far more than just Nash to deal with. We need you. A lot of lives are at stake not just Luca’s.”
Even if Reese tried to argue, he’d never win. “Fine.” He waved at the SUV. “Do you mind if I go sit down? I feel kind of sick.”