Page 85 of Bonded

She shakes her head and scowls. “Zak, what did I tell you?”

“Hey… will you two quit fuckin’ yappin’ back there!” Digby snaps down the line to the pair. “What?” he sighs, glaring at Darius as he turns staring at him. “Zak hasn’t stopped fuckin’ moanin’ since we left the plane and he’s gettin’ on my damn nerves now.”

“You seem a little tetchy today. So what gives?” Darius raises an eyebrow, questioning the mood of his number two. Digby’s been distracted and his temper on edge ever since they left the base, and Darius now notices it more in his snappy replies. “Are you on your fuckin’ heat or something?”

“Ha-ha… Oh, you’re so fuckin’ funny, you know that!” he sneers. “We nearly there yet?”

“Yeah. We should be coming up on point any minute now. Over that ridge, and the village should come into view.”

“Good, I’ll be glad when we get outta here.”

The heat’s making them all snarly. This mission is in no way classed fun, and an uneasy quiet descends over the team for the last part of the trek.

While the trees and plants are alive with wildlife, there’s also a stench of death. The piles of fallen leaves and rotting vegetation make their path slippy and difficult, and walking has become a painful trudge. With the density of the branches and overgrown greenery, they have to use large machetes to chop back a path—it’s slow going chopping their way through the tangled jungle just to go forward a few feet.

HAHO-ing from thirty thousand feet into a suffocating toxic swamp, infested with every living nightmare, then hauling ass through heavy tropical rain for hours—feels like a journey through hell and thought the lush greenery above their heads may be beautiful and awe-inspiring, by no stretch of the imagination is any of them enjoying it.

Neither are their feet—squelching wrinkled skin, in water-soaked boots—the continual rain drenching them and their kit. The air’s heavy, almost like it’s trying to suffocate them, and the oxygen-sapping humidity makes it feel like they’re drowning in their own sweat. Each breath hurts as the warm heavy air forces into their lungs; the hot moisture like walking with a blow-drier in the face.

“You know someone up there sure fuckin’ hates us.” Bud sighs, wiping large drips from his brow. Despite the rain, his face is bright red, hot with sweat.” Does this fuckin’ rain ever stop?”

It’s coming down heavier—if that’s possible. It soaks them through to the skin and Zak can feel his undershorts; wet around his groin. He’s chaffed in an intimate place and it’s not pleasant and when they do eventually rest, he’s going to have to sort it because he can now feel how sore it’s becoming.

The pungent pollen is making Digby’s nose itch and he constantly sneezes. It’s giving him a headache and he groans loudly. Taking a sip of water they begin the long steady climb up the ridge and as they reach the top, the team space themselves in a line—in their camouflage uniform they’re hidden amongst the overgrown greenery. Below them, the ridge drops away, and the ground evens out into a large clearing. At the center of the jungle looks like a small island oasis. Their target point—the remote village.

“Okay, hold up!” Darius sighs holding his hand up signaling to stop. " So… intel says the locals left a couple of months ago when Alvarez’s cartel moved in. Anyone who stayed after… either wanted to be there and joined him or was killed. So anyone we encounter now… is going to be loyal to Alvarez. So keep that in your fuckin’ dumbass heads. Now focus up.”

“Shit… what an asshole. Oh, not you, Alvarez. Do you really believe he’s in deep to some Russian Cartel? I mean, that really don’t sound like him. Why the hell would he get involved in somethin’ he’s not in control of? I know he’s only a damn shifter—night-shifter, and one that spends most of his time jacked on Ruby, but… still he’s too damn wily not to be in control of his shit. How many shifters do you know that get to where he is? He’s always known what he’s doin’. This just sounds so off. I just can’t see him lettin’ some other shifter clan or even a fuckin’ wolf pack take over his business.” Digby wrinkles his nose and sneezes again. “Fuck this pollen! It’s messin’ with my fuckin’ sense of smell. Arrghh… fuck, I hate this place!”

“All right, all right, calm the hell down. We’re gonna get him. We go in fast and we get out fast. Diggs this time we’re prepared. We grab him before sundown and then we go home. We just need to keep our heads. But you’re right… I’ve got a bad feeling in my gut about this place.” Crouching on the ground, Darius takes a breath while he thinks through his plans. “Okay, so listen up. We’ll take that pathway down the ridge, the one there to the left and then…” he gestures his hand in the direction he wants them to go. “Bud… you stick with QT—find someplace to set up over-watch. We’ll infill from the south-side over there. Zak…” he turns and clicks his fingers. “Hey… Hey Zak… Kat! Are you two paying a-fuckin-attention, or are you just gonna dick around all day?”

He glares angrily, watching as the pair can’t stop laughing; Kat’s covering Zak in insect repellent, applying the cream to his cheeks as if it were a face pack while he sneers and whines like a child about the smell.

“Hey, Zak! Focus the fuck up!” Digby screams.

“Zak…” Darius sighs and shakes his head. “Zak, take Kat and stay on the perimeter. Any rats come your way… send them back in our direction. We’ll work a pattern, zigzag across the town ‘til we find the big shifter rat. We bag him, I mean we’ll literally bag him before sundown. We clear?” Darius looks around as they each nod. “Okay then, let’s move out.”

Chapter 25

Bud climbs the side of the building and once he’s at the top, he leans over the edge and offering his hand pulls QT and their kit up. Keeping low, the pair silently criss-cross the rooftops before another upward climb to the top of the tallest of the buildings. The high vantage point gives them the best view of the streets below.

QT swiftly and expertly sets his rifle up while Bud checks in on the radio. “Alpha 1, this is Alpha 5… We’re in position, copy?”

“Copy that.” Darius turns and nodding, he silently signals his hand for the rest of the team to move. “Oz… stick with me and Diggs. We’ll take point. Zak… Stay alert, you see anything, anything at all, you check in. We don’t let Alvarez getaway.”

“Roger that.”

“Zak, watch your six. I don’t need to remind you just how dangerous this son-of-a-bitch is. I’m not gonna be losing any of my team to someone like him. You don’t like anything… you let me know—Alpha 5, this is Alpha 1, we’re moving into position now. Copy?”

“Copy that. We see you.” Bud nods, looking at QT; he settles himself laid flat on the rooftop, and looking through his long sniper rifle, he follows the team.

Darius hisses with anticipation and scours left and right of the empty street. Then as they stalk in silence along the edge of the sandstone building, he stops, and turning behind him he can see Digby sniffing the air. “Something wrong?”

“You get a bad feelin’ about this? Like somethin’s off?”

“I don’t know… Maybe? Kinda. Why… What’s got you thinking like that?”

“I don’t know but somethin’… Alvarez. Him bein’ here… It’s just been niggling at me. I mean, his ratty little shifter ass, it’s not been on the radar in a long time and then suddenly we get intel to say he’s livin’ it up here… A place like this?” He cocks his head and raises an eyebrow. “It just feels so wrong. Alvarez, likes money, cars… and to party. No, no this… this is way off his comfort zone. For him to actually be here? Hell, I’m not buyin’ it.”

---