R.E.D. Tiger Ch. 04

"Just so you know Master Alan, unplugging us won't get rid of us. You'll just unplug the supercomputer, but as Aida pointed out we're already in phones and any other electronic device." The AI said now using the more serious, monotone voice it used yesterday when I was being tested. " I really must apologize about Aida though. I don't know why your father programmed her like that. Or I guess I should say under programmed. Where as I have unbreakable rules and strict alpha protocols, Aida was allowed to grow without any of those. My only guess is that your father expected you to find us earlier and that Aida was to grow along with you. With you in the military however Aida had access to a much wider spectrum of influences. On top of that you were not here to curb any.. unsightly habits she may have developed."

"Thanks for the explanation Q. But more importantly we have to finish preparing for the operation tonight." I said before I thought of something. " Hey Q, can you use the speakers in Rose's phone to monitor her?"

"It's possible yes."

"Okay, has she said anything about when she'll be coming home?"

"She planned on coming home sometime around five tomorrow after her classes."

That's what I feared. When Rose came back I'd already be gone for London and now that I have insight to a world of magical creatures I never knew existed, I just don't feel comfortable leaving her here by herself.

"What does this house have in the ways of security?" I asked the computer.

"This house I should say is one of the most secure places on Earth. The rapture could happen right outside and I'm confident a single hell spawn wouldn't make it to the front porch. The only more secure place is your mother's, or I should say your castle in London. It has a lot more space for defenses. Here all of the defenses are smaller and weaker, while the big guns are all at the other location." That was good news. I guess I could call Rose to tell her I'd be going overseas for a little while. I'd even tell her to bring Angie with her, that way both of them would be safe.

Looking down at the blueprints in front of me I concluded that the plan was as good as it was going to be. The most dangerous thing you can do when planning an operation is to over-plan. Too many contingencies and the plan becomes to complicated to be practical, it also increases the nervousness you feel if you have every meticulous detail planned out. You feel pressure to stick to the plan constraints which lessens your ability to react to the situation.

"See you later Q and Aida, I think I'm gonna head upstairs and call Rose, then I'll just have some down time until about eight." I said to the dual personality supercomputer.

"Have a nice day Master Alan." rang Q's monotone voice while Aida responded with a cheery "See ya."

_____

"You're going where!!?" Rose screamed down my ear as I sat at the kitchen table.

"I told you I have to go to London for a couple of business meetings. I should only be gone about a week, maybe two."

"But you just got home." she whined down the line.

"I know, I know and I'm really sorry. But now that I'm out of the military I should take an active role in the companies dad left me. I was comfortable letting someone else handle it when I was in the military because I was doing a service to my country. Now that I'm just sitting at home I feel restless. Besides going to my friends funeral I haven't done anything constructive since I've been home." I explained trying to calm her down.

"But two whole weeks, I mean god, why now so close to the holidays? Can't it wait until I finish this semester and then I'll come with you. We can make a vacation of it."

"No of course not. Even if you did come with me I'd be too busy during the day and too tired in the afternoon to do anything worthwhile. How about when the semester is over I fly you over there and we can have our vacation then? How about this you can even invite Angela and we can all spend my first Christmas back together, how's that sound?" I could hear Rose talking to someone else and I assumed she was relaying the message to Angela. I couldn't make out what they were saying that well but I heard a lot of back and forth talking. After about a minute Rose came back to the phone.

"Okay I guess that sounds fine. Angela says she would love to come. Um there is just one problem though. I mean I've never spent a Christmas away from home before. I always go over to mom's place for the holidays and spend time with her. I don't know how she'll take it if Angie and I don't show up."

Right. I had forgotten about Lynn. I haven't seen or heard from her in over seven years. I think I may have saw her briefly at Angie's graduation but I'm not sure. I realized that it would be hard for Rose and especially Angela to be away from their family during the holidays. After all I was never able to get leave time during the holidays so they probably have some sort of routine. I was just getting to be friends with Angie for the first time ever and I didn't want to ruin that. Besides I would like to think I've become more mature than I was eight years ago and maybe I didn't give Lynn a fair chance. I was angry and depressed when my father died and I didn't even try to understand what Lynn was feeling.

Now that I was thinking about it I was looking forward to seeing Lynn if she would come. We never were really close but then again neither were me and Angie. Maybe this would give us a chance to, what's the saying? Rebuild burnt bridges. Even if things don't work out I can at least know I tried. Besides it shouldn't be that hard to act cordial for the little bit of time she would be there anyway. Confirmed in my plan of action with slight trepidation I told Rose to invite Lynn too.

"Really! I can?" I heard her say say as Angie began asking questions in the background." I don't know... He said we can invite mom... I don't know... well I'd be able to find out if you stop asking me questions!" Rose answered to the questions she was being asked.

"Hold on Alan, I'm gonna three-way Angela in." Rose said to me and before I could respond I heard the line click over. The phone went silent for all of three seconds before I heard it click back in.

"Really Alan is it true that you're letting mom come to London with us? You're not joking are you?" Angela said as soon as she was on the phone.

"Why hello to you to Angel. And yes it's true, Lynn can come with you guys to London for Christmas if she wants to." I answered.

"That's the thing," Rose added, "I don't know if she'll want to come."

"Of course she'll want to come. IT'S LONDON!! Who wouldn't want to come? Besides if she doesn't want to come I'll just drag her along anyway." Angie said with finality.

"Besides all of that though the reason I was calling was to tell you guys that'll I'll be in London for the next, I guess month now, so Rose wouldn't be surprised whenever she came home. Angel you're welcome to come and stay over too if you'd like. Actually I'd prefer it. I don't want Rose staying here all alone."

"I'm a grown woman Alan, I think I can take care of myself." Rose scoffed.

"I know you can, but I'm still allowed to worry aren't I?"

"Well worry not Alan, I'll come over with Rose and stay for the next two weeks until class ends, and we'll fly to London. I've been gorging myself on her home cooking and I'm not ready to give it up just yet anyway. " Angela said.

"Okay well now that that's cleared up. Both of you two go study or something. Tonight's a school night, or class night, or however you college students say it." I told them. With simultaneous giggles they hung up leaving me to do nothing for the next few hours.

I figured with just under two hours until nine o'clock I had time to do just about whatever. I decided to just go to my room and play a bit of Call of Duty or something like that. In the military the best thing to do before any operation is to just relax and take your mind off of it. Most people sleep or play cards or something like that. I tended to do whatever peeked my interest. I could never really go to sleep before a mission though because I'm always a bit sluggish when I wake up.

____

Standing on the roof of the house I looked up at the sky. It was pretty clear, no rain, and minimal clouds. I figured it would be best to fly all the way there. That would limit the possibility of me being seen by anyone. I had the guns, as well as two walkie talkies inside of a duffel bag strapped onto my back.

As I flew the the city I made note of several spots that could be used as lookouts. When I took over as the alpha of the pack it would be imperative that security be better. Lycans were really the only form of defense that humans had. It was their duty to take make sure that vampires didn't set up shop and start feasting on humans left and right. They made sure that vampires didn't feed and angels made sure that demons couldn't harvest souls, that was the nature of the agreement between angels and werewolves. Vampires and demons had a similar agreement but it was much simpler. Mainly they didn't fight each other and they stayed out of each other's way.

Increased security would be a must though. These were the same streets that Rose, Angie, and a number of other friends went down everyday. What was to stop a vampire from grabbing one of them while they were strolling to their car or walking to their doorstop.

I decided that it would be best to not worry about it for now. There was no point in planning what I was going to do when I won, if I hadn't yet. I was confident that I could win, but I had no real knowledge of my enemy. To get this plan to work I would need to kill a couple of the lycans and then get the alpha to accept my challenge. Once he accepted my challenge it would be a fair one on one fight, where, I believe, I would have the advantage. I was operating under the assumption that they still believed me to be a military veteran who managed to kill a werewolf by pure luck. This would mean that they weren't expecting me to be able to use magic or any of the other things I had at my disposal.

When the duel is accepted we have to agree on conditions and unless the alpha specifically request the non use of magic I should be fine. I'm sure I could beat him without magic but the fight would take much longer and I wouldn't be able to guarantee the alpha walked out alive. Since I would be going to London tomorrow I needed the current alpha alive, so he could see to the day to day running of the pack. After all I didn't want his pack, just for them to leave Molina alone. If I had it my way I would just beat him, order that Molina be left alone, and then give him ownership back. Unfortunately leadership can only be given to a wolf who has yet to be an alpha, in this case the alpha would have to defeat me in order to get his position back. For a bunch of killing machines, Lycans sure had a bunch of rules.

As I flew over the old steel plant I made a mental check of the number of guards I had passed by on the way. I had suspected five to be on the five tallest buildings but alas there were only three. Which meant either the pack was really strong and only needed three watchers or the pack was really weak and could only afford to have three watchers.

Landing onto the first of my marked vantage point, some sort of low lying building that was probably the boss's office or something back when the plant was working, I made a final mental checklist. I knew I was as prepared as I could be at the time. I had continued to train diligently every morning, learning more and more from the past host. Most were pretty solid fighters, some martial arts practitioners, others were more weapon oriented. I even learned that Felix was a world class fencer in his relative youth. I had also been reading up on the tomes, at least I think they're called tomes, of madra that I had gotten from Q's database. Some of the things were too advanced, but others I was getting a hang of using. It helped that I could see the dragon's memories as he was the only one with practical experience using the stuff. I wasn't keen to use it in a fight just yet, but if I had to I was fairly certain I wouldn't reduce the whole city to ash.

From this vantage point I could effectively see three points in the plant. One was what used to be the parking lot. The wolves had pretty much turned it into a lounge area, there were couches and lights, and even a couple of televisions. It would have been a great place had the whole thing not been outside. But lycans preferred the outdoors over being cooped inside so I wasn't surprised. The next place I could see was the old gathering place of the plant. I assume this is were they would've met to hear any news pertaining to the factory. It seemed that the lycans had left it alone. I was hoping this is where they conducted their meetings as well. It would make my job a whole lot easier if I didn't have to switch from point to point. The third place was the one that intrigued me the most. It was the only enclosed room in the whole place. I couldn't tell what was going on inside but so far only one person had been allowed in, I assumed those were the alpha's quarters.

I had just finished preparing my rifle when the door to the enclosed room opened. A couple of people walked out and waited, and then out stepped the biggest man I'd ever seen in person. He was easily seven feet tall, and had to duck his head to make it out of the doors. Not only was the man tall I could also tell that he was extremely strong. He wore a pair of long jeans and nothing else. I was quite a ways back and I could still see the definition on his muscles. Even his walk spoke volumes. He walked as if saying "I'm stronger than everyone here, I know it and you'd better not forget it." I couldn't even fathom what he'd look like when he transformed. The average werewolf grew in stature about two feet when fully transformed but alphas have been known to gain anywhere from three to seven feet in height. I guess that's another reasons they don't like enclosed spaces.

The alpha made his way over to the meeting room, several wolves moving out of his way and lowering their heads as he walked by. He walked in a winding path until he reached some sort of stage. With no hesitation he jumped the couple feet in the air needed to land on top of it and continued walking as if he had just stepped over a pebble in the road. As he walked toward the center of the platform one of his attendants made her way to the back, where a large button was placed on the wall. She looked back at him for what I assume was permission before pressing the button.

When the button was pressed even more light started to fill the plant. It was like every light in the whole place came on at once. A siren also started playing from somewhere. It wasn't deafly loud but with a werewolves heightened hearing it wouldn't need to be. You wouldn't be able to hear it from the road or highway but everyone in the complex should be able to hear it loud and clear.

Upon hearing the siren the people who were mulling about in the lounge areas hopped into action. Their TV shows, drinks, and snacks all but forgotten as they scrambled to make it to the meeting room. I also scrambled to pick up my rifle. If I allowed all of the lycans to get into one room this would make the job much more complicated. I took aim down my sights to try and pick off one of the stragglers when I noticed a group of lycans in the lounge that hadn't even moved when they heard the siren.

Looking through the zoom I spotted Rodrigo and a couple of other lycans mulling around, laughing and talking. None of them seemed to be making any attempt to leave. I did see someone come over to the group. A tall male with long unkempt black hair. He also had a green bandana hanging around his neck, I assumed this was Navarro based off what Molina told me. He started making gestures to the group and pointing at the door to the assembly hall, obviously trying to convince them to go but they were having none of it and waved him off. With a dejected look he quickly left the group to go and join the others gathered at the meeting.

By this time the meeting had already started. I couldn't make out what they were saying but I assumed they were going over werewolf business. Had there been any vampire sightings, had anyone noticed any suspicious activities from the demons, things like that. I figured this was about as good as it was going to get.

Rodrigo had unknowingly put himself right where I needed him. He was isolated, away from the rest of the pack making him an easy to see target. If he had went to the meeting like he was supposed to I would have had to find him in the throng of people. Now here he was and he even provided me with a suitable number of other werewolves who I thought the pack was better off without.

Guns can kill werewolves, and without the help of silver bullets too. The whole silver thing is actually a mix of fact and misunderstanding. Silver is a very arcane friendly metal. It seems to not only help arcane users but also hurt arcane monsters. A silver knife will pierce a werewolf, while a steel one would just bounce off. So yes it's true that silver will kill a werewolf but that's only half the story.

The truth is that in France a long time ago there was a clan of werewolf hunters with the last name Argent. They specialized in the hunting, capturing, and killing of werewolves. If anyone in France had a werewolf problem they simply called the Argents and bye bye lycan. Word quickly spread that Argents could kill werewolves. With Argent meaning silver in french there was a slight misunderstanding in the history books. The only reason I know this is because a former host was actually an Argent, well a disowned ex-Argent but that's neither here no there.

With the leap in technology mankind has experienced however it is no longer necessary to have silver to kill a werewolf. Any high caliber gun and bullet should do a decent job, some will need more than one shot to bring down a werewolf but werewolf skin is not Kevlar.

That being said I wasn't the least bit surprised when I pulled the trigger and Rodrigo's head disappeared out of the sights. His headless body slumping into the couch before the rest of the group even knew what was happening. Another great invention of mankind was the semi-automatic sniper rifle. Before a person had to shoot, wait, shoot, wait, and so on which allowed targets to regroup and find where you were shooting from. But now things were different. Just as fast as my finger could squeeze the trigger was just as fast as the gun shot. Putting the next target in my sights I squeezed again, this time letting the bullet pierce his heart. And that's how it went; head, heart, head, heart, head until the fifth werewolf's lifeless body hit the ground.

Quickly looking back at the gathered assembly I saw that they were already moving towards the lounge in reaction to the gunshots. The group made their way to the doorway of the lounge before stopping at the orders of the Alpha. When the Alpha reached the front he cautiously made his way into the room, eyes scanning as he went in search of the threat. When he spotted the group of dead bodies he quickly sprinted over to them which caused the rest of the lycans to follow him in a rush.

While all the lycans were busy hovering around the dead bodies I silently flew to the meeting room they had just vacated. I opened the bag and pulled out one of the black walkie talkies and sat it in the middle of the podium. Checking to make sure no one was around I flew back to the rooftop and aimed down my scope again. This time I shot at the steel beam over the podium. The bullet pinged off of the metal and the loud noise gathered the attention of the weres in the other room.