Chapter 7

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Next morning Alex was out in the command center at the break of dawn fixing up some equipment with a few of his folks. He was assembling wings on what looked like a mini glider. Mini would be a wrong word for it as it was rather large to be considered a miniature.

Five feet in length and about more with the wing span it was anything but a miniature, it was painted totally white and had an array of instruments under its belly, he was busy fixing its wings when a throat cleared behind him.

He smiled, no need to look back, the breeze carried her scent.

"Good morning! Evelyn, Had a good night?" He asked without turning, he was almost done fixing the wing on to the air-frame of the glider.

"Who says it's a good morning" she replied venomously.

His smile grew broader and he paused set the assembly down and turned with a grin on his face and met her scowling stare .

"Bad night?"

"You could say that."

"Could not sleep?"

She just stared.

"Why I wonder?" he asked.

"You can take the credit for that" She snapped.

"Why Evelyn?" Alex said coyly "Had naughty dreams about me?"

"Wha...Why...How" she sputtered, she took a deep breath, reigning in her anger.

"Don't toy with me Alexander!" She gritted her teeth.

"My..My...using my full name, I am in trouble now" he held up his hands in mock surrender.

She just folded her hands across her breasts "Tell Me!" she demanded.

"You are the prettiest thing I saw this morning."

"Wha...!!!" Her jaw dropped. That was not what she expected.

"I assumed that's what you wanted me to tell." Alex grinned, enjoying unnerving her.

He could see the fire in her eyes "Alex!" she hissed like a cobra about to strike.

Again he put his hands up in mock surrender "I will, but I will do it on a full stomach, so let's have some breakfast and without waiting for her response he stated towards the pack house. He could feel her trailing behind him with a thundercloud over her head. His grin grew wider.

It was a very good morning indeed.

***

The only sound was of Alex's cutlery the knife scraping the plate.

"Good bacon" he muttered his mouth full.

Evelyn just stared at him from opposite side of the table, if looks could kill....

"You should try it" He said pointing his fork to her untouched plate.

She just stared back at him.

"Evelyn, thank you for the lovely breakfast" he said, she looked at him confused.

"Why, thank you Alex that was the least I could do for you" Alex mimicked a conversation changing his tone as if Evelyn was talking to him, she just raised her eyebrow.

"Oh, Evelyn you didn't have to, but I know you could not resist my charms."

"Alex" He fake giggled continuing his monotone and imitating her and making her gag "how could I not, you are so charming."

She scoffed loudly breaking her silence, he gave her a sly smile "looks like you agree" he said glad that he could get a rise out of her.

She simply rolled her eyes.

He sighed "Look, I promise I will get some info, however I need to speak to a guy back home and because of the time zone we need to wait at least till afternoon."

"So in the afternoon then" She said, breaking the silence for the first time.

"Yes" he nodded, chewing his food.

"When?" she asked.

"When, what?"

"When in the afternoon will you call him?"

"I don't know" but before she could protest "I will definitely call him and you will get the answer" he said clearing everything on his plate "However..."

"However?" she asked.

"You were not a good company in breakfast, so I need you to make it up to me." he added.

"Make it up?" she parroted.

"Yep" he said.

She narrowed her eyes.

"Nothing kinky I assure you" her eyes literally turned in to slits.

"Dinner" he blurted out "You need to have dinner with me"

"Alex" she sighed.

"Look, it's just dinner, I am not even calling it a date, and you must admit you were not good company right now."

She sighed and he knew she gave in.

"So, dinner we will catch up here, you agree."

She gave him a nod.

"Good" he said getting up and said "Now, I will be busy most of the afternoon, so I would appreciate if you get me some lunch."

"What?" She all but screeched.

"It would help me get motivated you know, to call my contact back home, otherwise I might forget."

"You are nothing but an underhand, son of a..."

He just came over and dropped a kiss on her cheek and that promptly shut her up.

"I usually eat lunch around one. See you at lunch. Sweetheart" He said smiling and walking out of the dining hall.

Alex -1, Evelyn - 0

***

Alex was back from breakfast to fix his glider when he spotted Jeff hovering around the command center, he sighed and went over.

"Good morning, Jeff."

"Morning" Jeff responded "What's happening?" he asked pointing to lot of equipment being set up.

"Wolf hunting!" Adrian exclaimed, he had come out of one of the houses and was smelling like a she-wolf.

"Had a good night?" Alex asked.

"Better than yours brother, much better" he said grinning and slapped Alex on the back.

"So when do we start?" Adrian asked impatiently.

"I will need at least need thirty minutes to set this up" Alex pointed to the half assembled glider "Then, let's see what it tell us."

"What is it?" Jeff interjected.

"It's a glider" Adrian added.

"We shot some of the Wolves with tracking devices, now we assume they are safely back in their hideouts, licking their wounds so we will try to track them down" Alex added.

Jeff still was confused.

Alex elaborated "The tracking devices are small as they are literally injected in to wolf bodies so the range is also small, you can pick it up usually in a two mile radius, however the forest is hundreds of miles across. So, this baby here" he said pointing to the unassembled glider "will fly and has a radius of around hundred and fifty miles and it's got equipment on it which can triangulate the location of the signals from the tracking devices, then we fly over the signal area and the IR camera will confirm the heat signature of our target" Jeff was still trying to wrap his head around the concept.

"So, this thing" he said pointing to the glider "Will tell us where the wolves are in the forest, where their hideout is?"

"Yep, you nailed it brother" Adrian added.

"Incredible!" Jeff muttered, still in awe.

"Tell me about it" Adrian deadpanned "Well see you in thirty, Alex, have this shit ready by them, I missed breakfast but hopefully I can raid the kitchen and grab a bite" and he walked off in the general direction of the pack house.

"Why is it so white" Jeff resumed his questioning again pointing to the glider which Alex started busily assembling.

"So that you can't see it in the sky" Alex added "That's why military uses white drones mostly, and it runs on battery which gets recharged using the solar panels on the wings, so it's very quiet and that makes it very difficult to hear it."

"You can't see it, you can't hear it but it sees and hears everything which makes it extremely advantageous don't you think?" Alex asked, he was done with the second wing now, time to check its batteries.

"Can I stay and watch?" Asked Jeff clearly fascinated.

"Be my guest" Alex added and Jeff settled down in one corer.

***

Forty five minutes later the command center was the hub of activity.

Alex had set up some equipment which would fly the glider remotely and was checking it. He had a laptop which was spitting out readings and next to it was a monitor which was split in to six sections and was showing images from the six different cameras on the glider. One was on the front one was on the back, two on the wings and two under the belly. The glider would be able to pick up the tracking signals from the tags they implanted on the rogues previous night in a radius of two miles.

Once the check was done Alex took the glider carefully and took it to the open space in front of the pack house. He had a remote controller slung on his shoulder, it has a strap like a bag, as he walked out to the open area he had curious onlookers trailing him. He set the glider down gently and then took the remote control he had hanging on his side over his shoulder and tweaked the controls.

The propeller on the glider started spinning so did the ones on the wings, slowly it gained momentum and it rolled past the open space and soon took off in to the sky. Alex waited until it gained altitude and looked over to a guy waiting near the command center who was busily typing on the laptop, he looked up to Alex and gave a thumbs up sign. The control of the glider was now transferred to the laptop.

All morning the glider had been circling the forest for hours increasing its radius by two miles for every circle it made, it was a very tedious and time consuming activity, so far they found nothing. Again the command center was crammed and people were getting antsy but Alex knew this would take time. He got up from behind the guy who was piloting the glider, he had been sitting there all morning and he got up stretched and got out of the crammed command center to get some fresh air. He stepped out and sat down on one of the chairs scattered outside enjoying the afternoon sun

Not even after five minutes after stepping out, he say Evelyn coming his way, he gave her a smile and she returned it and approached him, she was carrying something.

Once she came over she handed him over whatever that she was carrying and dryly said "Your lunch as ordered, my lord."

He opened the foil paper to discover a sub and it looked very inviting. He started wolfing it down realizing how hungry he had been.

"Thank you" he muttered with his mouth full.

"You are welcome" She said sitting down on a vacant chair next to him.

"Ummm, th..s is del..i..us" he said chewing the words and the food.

"It's my special, reserved only for people who deserve it" She responded.

He smiled, clearly liking that he was in the deserving list.

"What's in it? It's the best I ever had."

"The usual" she responded and paused and added "and arsenic."

He sputtered and choked on the bite he was having until he saw the glint of mischief in her eyes.

He was coughing when she magically pulled out a bottle of water she was hiding somewhere on her and gulped the water down.

He had put the sub down and was eyeing it suspiciously not entirely convened if she was kidding or not.

"Relax" she said reading his expression "I have not poisoned it....this time, however there is always next time or dinner" she deadpanned stressing on dinner, with serious expression and got up.

He looked at her wide eyed "You really are devious Evelyn!" he muttered with grudging admiration.

She smiled at him "Well, as they say necessity is the mother of invention...so don't make me wait too long Alex, the funny tasting dinner might me the last one you ever eat. Enjoy your sub!" she said and sauntered off.

He eyed the sub suspiciously picked it up and smelled it. Wasn't arsenic supposed to be odorless ?

Alex – 1 Evelyn – 1, the stakes just got even.

***

It was almost evening when the first breakthrough came.

"We got something" the pilot of the glider shouted when his laptop screen started beeping.

Alex peered over his back in to the laptop screen and said "Put in on the monitor."

The huge 40 inch monitor which was next to the pilot came to life with an image.

"Off west" the pilot pointed.

Alex nodded "Lets track."

The pilot changed the course of the glider.

"Bingo" he said a min later "Switching to IR."

"Hello there!" Alex whispered to the screen.

What he saw was a group of red blobs in a circle most of them were not moving but some of them were in positions around the red blob, potentially watch outs.

The red blob meant that the wolves were sleeping in a circle in the forest, possibly to heal, a werewolf heals fast when it sleeps.

"How many do you think?" Alex asked.

"Difficult to tell, they are too close" The pilot responded "I would estimate around thirty."

"Ok, note down the location co-ordinates."

The pilot clicked a key on the keyboard and the location was captured.

"Keep looking" Alex said.

In the next two hours they found two similar groups of wolves one was resting while the other was active with wolves roaming about, they had found a total of three groups and close to seventy wolves.

They had scanned almost hundred miles of the forest and while the group was good it was no way their home base, they needed to find the home base of the wolves to put an end to their threat.

The glider was back on land and the wolves were all assembled in the command center to decide the next course of action.

"Let's try widening our net of search tomorrow" one guy volunteered.

Alex was deep in thought while people were discussing around him until he was rudely shaken by Adrian.

"Alex, where are you?

"Huh? Nowhere, just thinking" Alex muttered.

Everyone waited for him to continue.

"I was thinking" he started "That these rogues are too clever, they form independent groups and rest in the woods, why not go back to their base? What's stopping them? Why sleep out in the woods?" he asked looking around.

The room went in to silence as wheels were spinning in everyone's head.

"Why do they not go back to their home base?"

"Or what are they trying to protect?" Adrian said.

"Exactly!" Alex banged his fist on the table.

"I think they are very careful to ensure that they don't accidentally expose their home base, which means there is something important there that they don't want to be found."

"And that's exactly we need to find out" Adrian added.

"But how?" One of the guys asked.

Alex was again zoned off, clearly thinking when he abruptly jumped up and walked out of the command center, he walked in to the compound.

"Mark!" He shouted.

"My lord?" Mark added sarcastically appearing in front of him.

Alex ignored his sarcasm "Do you by any chance have those AGM's that were supposed to be fit on those halos?"

"Yeah, in the truck, we should have them fit on those Apaches once we are back..."

Alex cut him off.

"How many?"

"Around ten, why?"

"Do they have guidance built in?"

"Yep, we can program the guidance, no biggie, we got the box" The "box" as it was referred to was a specially designed computer console which helped program the target into the AGM's.

Alex smiled "Excellent!" he said rubbing his hands in satisfaction and then frowned.

"If we were to launch them from here, could we do it?"

Mark looked around clearly lost what Alex wanted "Yeah, sure. Maybe, but why?"

"Can we?"

Mark look around again and his eyes fell on one of the Hummers.

"I can rig a hummer's topside to launch them."

"Good"

"But the roof will be toast" he warned.

"That's ok, how soon?"

"You serious?" Mark asked looking at Alex like he had three heads.

"Yes, need them launch worthy in thirty, with guidance and all"

Mark sighed, did he even want to know and Alex was clearly in one of his crazy moods.

"Make that an hour" Mark said and walked away "Loony bin!" he muttered under his breath. Someone said there was a thin line between genius and crazy, somehow Alex never came with that alleged line, sometime he was a genius and sometimes he was simply bat shit crazy!

But hey, he was the boss, gotta make the boss happy Mark thought and started barking orders at his men, he had shit to do.

***

"I have an Idea" Alex said as he walked back in to the room of the command center.

"We figured" Adrian deadpanned, clearly his behavior was nothing new. Sometimes Alex lived in his brain and his body was just a medium of transport.

"So, how do we find the rogues base, is the question of the hour" Alex mentioned the obvious.

"And how we do that, is by disrupting their plan" no one interrupted, he was on a roll.

"What we do, is we take out the quaint little groups, simultaneously. However, deliberately, we cause minimal damage to one of the groups, especially the ones we have the maximum amount of wolves tagged and that I am sure will be a nice little surprise."

"We would spread ourselves thin Alex, if we were to attack them simultaneously" Adrian warned.

"Nope" He grinned "You would not have to set one foot out of this room."

"How?" someone asked.

"Now why would I spoil the surprise?" Alex grinned and promptly walked out, again.

***

About an hour later there were two Hummvees parked in the clearing in from of the command center, Mark and their men were working on them. The roof of the hummers were mounted by some tubes, green in color, one hummer had four on them and the other two.

Once Alex had disappeared the meeting was clearly over everyone came out to only find Alex deep in discussion with Mark and over the last one hour they have been observing the activity with Alex in the thick of it.

Alex was currently with the pilot of the glider and it looked like they were going to launch it back in the air, he was giving the pilot clear instruction while he was furiously nodding and gave Alex a thumbs up sign.

The pilot was readying the glider to launch it back when Alex walked over to Mark and started discussing again.

They were attracting quite a crowd, both the Roma wolves and Nick's pack was clearly curious what was with all the activity.

Jeff approached Adrian to ask what all the fuss was about but Adrian pointed to Alex and simply shrugged his shoulders indicating beats me!

A box was being attached to the tubes with a lengthy cable, when Adrian got the first hint.

Wait! Wasn't that....why that son of a bitch!

An involuntary grin appeared on Adrian's mouth and he started walking to Alex where they were inspecting a box that was attached to the tubes with a long cable.

"AGM's? Alex? Really?" Alex just looked at his brother and grinned.

"You are a real sly son of a bitch!" Adrian said with clear admiration in his voice.

"Would you like to do the honors?" Alex asked, holding out the box.

"Fucking A!" Adrian exclaimed and grabbed the box.

"Wait! Hold on to your pants, we need to input the guidance, will let you know"

Adrian nodded excitedly and backed up slowly with the box, there was enough cable lying around that connected the tubes and the box, once he walked a good fifteen feet away he waited, now that he was in, he was clearly excited.

"The bird's in the air, ETA is 5 min" the pilot of the glider shouted to Alex.

Alex put his thumbs up indicating he heard him but was working on some equipment with Mark.

The crowd of onlookers only grew as it was growing dark in the evening.

"All set" Alex said walking over to Adrian.

Everyone cleared the space around the Hummers and the onlookers, taking the hint maintained a healthy distance.

"You ready" Alex asked Adrian.

"You bet your skinny ass" Adrian grinned.