Chapter 8

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American Avionics was a company headquarter in downtown Washington DC like many other companies whose primary client was the Pentagon. Set up about four years ago it quickly rose to fame and was renowned for developing guidance systems that helped deliver payload to a fraction of an inch.

In plain english, they developed navigation equipment for missiles, they also made and manufactured "Payload delivery vehicles" which again meant missiles but without the warhead. You see, you can customize your warhead and based on your need they would install the required warhead. But finally what only a handful of people knew that it was the wholly owned subsidiary for Roma, of course, carefully hidden by mirage of dummy corporations and owners.

Roma being a sovereign country in eastern Europe had its advantages, it was the only werewolf country in the world, not that the world knew it. It was the dream of founding fathers of Roma to have a werewolf state where any werewolf was safe and protected. It had successfully hidden this fact for centuries since its formation. For the world it was an insignificantly small but wealthy country in Europe known for its rich landscape, beautiful resorts and vibrant democracy, the world hardly knew about the Roma monarchy.

But the werewolf's of the world knew different, behind the thin vile of democracy stood the all-powerful monarchy which once ruled every single werewolf on this planet and while it was not all-powerful now, it was not toothless either, the wolves of the world still feared the Roma bite. The democracy in Roma was a charade, an elaborate show for the world to see. The strings were pulled from the famous but simply titled "Palace of Roma" the home of the reigning monarchy.

This illusion allowed them to do business with the world, acquire technology and hardware which was off limits to individuals or even corporations but as a nation they were business opportunity to the world. USA did quite some business with Roma, selling her hi-tech military hardware and training her soldiers in joint exercise in some of their best military schools, being a European country with relatively non-violent history had its benefits.

That is how the missiles were sold to them, ironically by one of their own subsidiaries which were to be fit on the helicopters they had purchased recently as well. Now they had to be replaced, which American Avionics would do with the right phone call and no paperwork.

As for the missiles themselves, once programmed and launched they were completely autonomous. Able to reach their programmed target without intervention, they did automatic course correction using a built in GPS chip which refreshed every five seconds.

Now as they streaked in to the sky at sub-sonic speeds their navigation path was laid out by the on-board computer chip, and as they reached the appropriate height, distance and velocity the rocket shut off.

For an outsider it would look as if the missile malfunctioned because of its abrupt shutdown. As the thrust was slowly lost, the direction of the missile facing the sky slowly turned and started facing towards the ground, the missile was front heavy and so the front tilted first facing the ground. With no opposing force the missile started to accelerate towards earth in a free fall. There was no need to waste fuel now because, gravity, would take care of the rest.

The missiles hit the first group of wolves and vaporized the entire lot, mercifully they died in their sleep and the wolves that were guarding them died even before they could comprehend what happened. For safety reasons when wolves slept in groups some of them stayed awake to act as guards to protect them against surprise attack. Not that it helped in this case, they never even thought of looking up.

The sudden loss of connection to their brothers woke the other two rogue groups of wolves hiding in the forest. But, before they could react the missiles took out the second group. Only four survived to make it out alive and flee for their lives.

The missiles which were heading for the third group were deliberately programmed wrong. One would fall half a mile away from them and explode the other would fall a few hundred meters away from them, they would have casualties but many would survive and survive they did.

This unprecedented attack on them left those alive with shock and without thinking they ran...ran to the safety of their base. This was exactly what Alex predicted and bet on. With them threatened they would fall back on their base for safety.

Over their head the stealth glider was tracking them. Back in the compound the pilot of the glider was able to follow them as some of them had the tags implanted in their body. Alex was peering over the pilot in to the monitor of his laptop.

"Looks like they are running back to their base" the pilot added.

Alex just kept looking, the wolves were running in an extremely zig zag fashion and even split up, so that they would lose anyone tailing them. Some of the wolves stopped and covered the retreat just to ensure no one was following and changed direction and ran in a different route. If you were perusing them as wolf it would have been impossible to keep track of them but with the glider in the air, it was easy to track them.

"Those bastard's are being extremely careful" Adrian piqued. Peering in to the visuals streamed by the glider on the monitor.

"That's why I feel they will lead us to the golden goose" Alex added convinced.

After a few minutes of silence and tracking the wolves, they changed direction again and this time they held the direction.

"They are going towards the town" The pilot added.

Adrian looked confused.

"Brilliant!" Alex added.

"Brilliant?!?" Adrian asked.

"Yes! Perfect hide out, in plain sight, in the town, would you ever have guessed? Whoever their Alpha is, he is a genius."

"Well, genius or not, that puts a spanner in our plan, we can't go in to the town guns blazing now can we?" Adrian added, now pissed. The rogue Alpha was smart, he would give that much. The human presence would act as a deterrent.

"We need to get creative" Alex said "But let's see where they head."

The wolves approached the outer section of the town.

"Call Jeff" Alex asked and Jeff was summoned a few moments later.

"Which part of the town is this?" Alex asked.

Jeff peered in to the screen and said "That's the industrial section, most of the factories their shut down, it should be pretty abandoned."

"Looks like they are entering a complex" the pilot added.

All of them looked in to the screen and they saw the wolves entering an industrial complex.

"Can you zoom in?" Alex asked.

Adrian gave out a whistle when the pilot zoomed in.

"Fences, floodlights, patrols. Looks like they have it well protected."

The wolves had disappeared in to the complex now.

"Can you switch to IR?" Alex asked the pilot.

The pilot pressed something on his laptop and the display changed.

"Holy....Fuck" Adrian whispered.

"Bingo!" Alex exclaimed at the same time.

The image changed to red blobs over the industrial area.

"What does it mean?" Jeff asked.

"Either they are smelting iron or they have a shitload of wolves out there."

"Do you think..." Adrian started asking Alex.

"I think so" Alex said even without letting Adrian finish what he was asking but exactly knowing what it was. Did they finally discover the rogue's base?

"We need to hit them fast, hard and immediately" Alex said and added "Don't give them time analyze what happened or form a contingency."

"Agreed" Adrian said "It's almost sundown, we attack at night, will let the teams know" he said and walked off to get everyone ready.

***

The compound was a hub of activity the Roma wolves were assembling men and weapons for the assault on the rogue's base. In all this Activity he saw Evelyn watching him from the sidelines and gave him a shy hand wave and a half smile, he walked over her.

"Sorry, I could not..." he began, She interrupted by furiously nodding here head.

"You have much important things to worry about, I understand."

"Once this is over, I promise.." he started again.

"It's ok Alex" She said and added "Are you going as well?"

"Yes" he said.

Her mouth drew in to a thin line and her eyes showed concern "Take care of yourself."

"Why, is someone going to miss me, if I end up dead?" He quipped with a smile.

She punched him on his shoulder "Jerk!" but has a tentative smile "I was hoping to poison you, you know. I will be disappointed if someone gets to you before me."

"I knew you were a blood thirsty wench!" Alex grinned back.

Her expression grew serious "But seriously, be safe!"

He nodded, he looked at her, her expressive eyes her soft features and he felt a tug in his chest. Was it love? Not really, but he did feel something.

"Well, you keep safe as well" he added "You still owe me a meal, poisoned or not" he smiled at her took a few steps back, drinking in her sight and turned around, locking her mental image away in the corner of his mind. He had rogues to kill and any distractions would get him killed.

He walked back towards the units getting ready to move out, the hummers were being piled up and one of the army truck was being filled with supplies.

In another thirty minutes they would be moving out.

This was going to be showdown.