Sheepdog

by Orlando A. Sanchez

Genres: Mystery; Thrillers

Synopsis

You can never outrun your past.

Gideon Shepherd, an asset for the shadow organization HALO, is haunted by the ghosts of his past. When his once friend, Victor Gregory—leader of the terrorist group, Black Wolf resurfaces and threatens New York City, Gideon knows what must be done.

Now, with countless lives at stake, Gideon and his team must prevent a catastrophic attack with a next generation weapon.

A weapon he helped perfect.

A weapon Victor is preparing to use.

Facing betrayal, a ruthless enemy, and organizations looking to wipe the slate clean, Gideon and his team will risk it all—to save a city from destruction.

Now, with bounties on their heads, and Conglom Industrial hunting them, Jack and his crew must pilot his sentient ship, the Warlock, through some of the most dangerous parts of space. Outgunned and outnumbered, Jack has one secret weapon his enemies didn’t count on-magic.

Jump onboard the Warlock and into a deep space adventure with the Blackjacks, as they face off against overwhelming odds and discover that when it looks too good to be true…it usually is!

Release date: October 2, 2019

Publisher: Bitten Peaches Publishing Inc.

Print pages: 143

Sample

CHAPTER ONE

“We have…a situation,” the suit said. “One that requires your particular…expertise.”

This was code for someone who went left when they should’ve gone right, and the fan was not only impacted, but covered in fecal matter. I figured the suit worked for one of the three letter agencies in Alphabet City. His clothes, attitude, and demeanor practically screamed ‘Washington’. After closer examination, it became clear: he was working with HALO. They called us when an op required D&D—discretion and deniability.

Heavy Asset Logistical Operations—HALO, was a group that handled the operations no one wanted to admit existed. My team had worked with HALO before, but after our last overseas op we had parted ways. Until today.

We sat in an abandoned building near the train yards in Long Island City. Those were rare in this day and age when developers were buying up every piece of vacant property and turning them into luxury apartments.

“Foreign or domestic?” I asked. “We’d like to avoid—”

“Domestic.”

I looked around at my team—we had barely made it out of Turkey intact. They were the worst of the best. Misfits, who belonged nowhere. Perfect for what we did. Perfect for the RHINOS.

“Who and where?” I asked. “HALO has other assets for domestic. Why us?”

“Don’t shoot the messenger,” the suit said, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m just your point man on this.”

“You may as well break it down for us, then.”

Domestic required more tact. We had to worry about optics, which meant more planning and extensive logistics. The suit looked around the table at my team and cleared his throat with a short cough.

“HALO hasn’t cleared them for this level of intel,” he started with the BS spiel. “They—”

“Are the ones saving your ass, Mr.—?”

“Bullock, Randall Bullock.”

“Bollocks?” Bella muttered from the other side of the table. “Randy Bollocks? You have to be shitting me—we’re on our own.”

The rest of the team broke out in small chuckles.

“Cleared or not, they need to know,” I said, maintaining my composure. “You can tell them now, or I’ll tell them later. Why don’t we save time—who and where?”

“Bollocks is so new, he probably still has a sticker on him somewhere,” Bella said. “You’re going to need to edumacate him, boss.”

“New York City.” Bullock replied, his voice grim. “Victor and Black Wolf.”

“Shit,” Anvil said next to me. The rest of the team remained silent, that one word encapsulating their feelings about this op.

“Are you certain?” I asked. “Black Wolf has been dormant for years, and New York is a hard target.”

Mr. Bullock reached into a case and slid over a folder.

“It’s all there. The sources are solid,” Bullock answered. “Victor ‘Vicious’ Gregory has been active in several key locations overseas. I understand you have some history with him?”

“History?” I asked. “Who told you that?”

“My apologies, I was under the impression you ran into him some years ago—Istanbul?”

Of course he knew we ran into him some years ago. The last time I dealt with Victor and Black Wolf, I nearly lost my team, and missed a chance to put Victor down—for good.

“We have unfinished business,” I said, thinking about the experimental weapon clusterfuck we barely escaped in Istanbul. “We’ve dealt with him in the past, but we don’t operate on domestic—too many limiting parameters. Why not use CITADEL? They’re designed for this sort of thing.”

“We prefer to keep this operation dark,” Bullock said. “CITADEL is too high-profile for this.”

Standard HALO move—operate in the shadows until it’s too bright to hide, then point at a scapegoat. Today, that was us.

“Meaning, they don’t want them to get their hands dirty if it all goes south,” Bella answered. “Us, on the other hand—they already think we’re as dirty as they come.”

Anvil took the folder. She thumbed through the first pages, closing it moments later with a short grunt.

“I’ll run this by our people just to make sure,” she said, holding up the folder. “Just to confirm.”

“Tell me why you’re here, Mr. Bullock,” I said, turning to him. “We went dark with HALO after Turkey, just like they wanted, and now you’re here dangling Black Wolf in front of us. Why?”

“What do you mean?”

It was this question that let me know how quickly we would be cast to the wind. I had no illusions about our role in the greater scheme of things. Neither did my team. I just wished, for once, they would be honest and come out and say it: ‘We intend to fuck you over at our earliest opportunity—hope you don’t mind.’

“Let’s not play games. If you’re here, meeting us, the ‘situation’ is barely salvageable,” I said. “HALO doesn’t reach out to us when things are easy. We are the ‘Dante’s Inferno’ type of solution. You only call us when all hope is lost.”

“We both know the path to paradise begins in hell,” Bullock answered, surprising me with the reference. “We looked at other…options before deciding on your”—he looked around—“before choosing your team.”

“I’m sure you did,” Bella said with a smile. “They always do.”

“Does this sound about right?” I asked. “Everyone else told you it wasn’t viable. Cut your losses and spin the rest, Gregory is too dangerous to engage.”

His expression let me know I was right.

He nodded. “Yes. No one wants to touch this…too high risk for little reward…too dangerous. It’s toxic.”

Typical HALO response. “Except, if Black Wolf is involved, people are going to die,” I said. “Black Wolf doesn’t bluff. If Victor is making threats, he intends to deliver on them.” 

“Yes,” Bullock answered after a few seconds, “thousands, maybe more if they aren’t stopped. Our response time is too slow.”

“It’s never been fast,” I said. “No offense. By the time your task force gets moving, you’d have checked ten times to make sure you had permission to ask for clearance to have the permission to ask for the authorization to do what you’re supposed to do.”

“Typical bureaucrats,” Bella said, glaring. “It’s a wonder you find your own asses without clearance. All talk—no action.”

“Bella, I’m sure Mr. Bullock—” I started.

“When they finally do get their asses moving, it’s too little too late.”

“That’s why we exist,” I said. “We take action when they can’t or won’t.”

“You can get boots on the ground and intervene in a fraction of the time we can,” Bullock said. “I’m not denying that.”

“It also helps that we don’t exist,” I said. “We’re ghosts.”

“There…is that,” Bullock admitted, reluctantly. “Losses on your team don’t bring us unnecessary attention.”

“Meaning, we’re expendable.”

“In a word: yes.” Bullock said, with a sigh. “You provide us with the plausible deniability. CITADEL does not.”

At least he was being honest. There was a first time for everything.

“I have a few words for you, fucker,” Bella said with a growl, drawing a blade. “I’m going to show you what’s expendable—with my knife.”

“Bella,” Anvil said in her crisp voice. “Ice that noise. We know the job. We know what needs to be done and we do it.”

“And then some,” Bella answered, her voice thick with anger as she sheathed her blade. “But none of us are expendable. No matter what this asshole says.”

“Noted and filed for future reference,” Anvil answered. “Now, calm down.”

Bella sat back and crossed her massive arms. Considering she was probably strong enough to grab me by the ankles and hammer throw me across the East River, I let Anvil deal with her outbursts. The last time I intervened, things got ugly and, I almost shot her—just to get her to calm down.

“You need to check your team, Shepherd,” Bullock said, looking to shorten his life expectancy. “We didn’t ask them to join this group you call a team—they volunteered.”

“I’m volunteering my team off this op,” I said. “Tell Adams we’ll stay retired from HALO.”

“He said you’d say that,” Bullock answered. “He also asked that I remind you that HALO saved you and your team in Istanbul. He’s calling in the favor.”

“Fuck,” I said. Adams was solid, but it didn’t mean I trusted HALO. “Calling in a favor? It was HALO that nearly got us mangled out there. We were testing their tech. Answer is still no.”

Bella bristled as she glared at him. Her hand drifted back to her sheath.

“He said you’d say that too,” Bullock replied. “He asked that I remind you about Greenland.”

“Oh, low blow,” Bella said under her breath. “He’s playing dirty.”

“Adams said Greenland?” I asked, feeling the anger rising at being manipulated. “Those were his exact words?”

“His exact words were: Tell him to remember the jewels of Nuuk. Remind Shepherd about Greenland if he proves difficult and resists. I don’t know what it means, but I’m sure you do.”

“I do,” I answered, semi-stunned. “Anvil?”

“Adams must want Victor badly if he said this,” Anvil said. “I will confirm.”

I nodded in silence and let out a long breath.

“I’m guessing you did your homework,” I said. “So, you know who we are, right?”

“RHINOS,” Bullock answered, and shook his head slowly. “I’m afraid most of the information on your team and past ops are above my pay grade, sorry.”

“Above your pay grade?” Bella scoffed. “Why would HALO send this rookie? Who did you piss off?”

I doubted the information was above Bullock’s pay grade. In fact, I was pretty sure he knew as much as anyone could possibly know about every member on the team, including our past operations. Feigning ignorance was an excellent move. It made people underestimate you.

If Adams gave him the Greenland message, Bullock was more than he appeared, and Adams was letting me know. The Greenland message meant I had no choice. I had to do this op, and my team would never let me go alone. Adams counted on this. I hated being predictable.

As the HALO Division Head of Covert Operations, Adams had considerable influence within the organization. He wasn’t the Director, but when it came to black ops, no one, not even the Director of HALO, told him how to run his division. This meant he had an unprecedented amounts of latitude, privilege, and enemies. Inside and outside of the organization.

“That should tell you something,” I said, keeping my voice even and an eye on any sudden movement from Bella. “Every person here was briefed on the kind of team they were joining, and still wanted to be part of the Recon Heavy Intervention & Neutralization Operations Squad”—I gave him a hard look—“maybe they aren’t the ones that need checking? I already know they’re insane.”

“Do we have a timetable?” Anvil asked, defusing the tension somewhat. “How imminent is this threat?”

“A week…two on the outside.”

“Is there a target?” I asked. “Two weeks gives us a small window.”

“More like an impossible window,” Bella grumbled. “In a place like New York? Two weeks gives us enough time to be there for the fallout. No wonder no one wants to touch this op…it’s poison.”

“I don’t like it, Shep,” Anvil said. “Too many variables we can’t control. If we miscalculate, we get burned, blamed or worse.”

Bullock cleared his throat with a short cough again. I was about half a second away from pounding a lozenge down his throat to help him with that cough.

“We think we have a target and a more specific timeframe—if that will help.”

“What is it?” I asked. Piecemeal feeding of information was typical with these agencies. Everything was need to know. The problem was they never let you know the information you needed. “Sharing that would assist us.”

“We have solid intel that the target will be Bryant Park. The summer festival.”

“That narrows it down,” I said, nodding as I stood. “Give me a day. Let me discuss it with my team. Tell Adams I said ‘fuck you’ for using Greenland.”

“He said you’d say that too,” Bullock said, nodding as he stood. “Guess he knows you pretty well.”

“This would be a good time to leave—before you get shot,” Bella said, escorting Bullock to the door. “Now.”

“I’ll be in touch.” Bullock called over his shoulder when he reached the door. “We don’t have much time.”

He headed out of the space. I looked at TwoCans. “Make sure he wasn’t followed and doesn’t backtrack. The rest of you—I have a feeling Mr. Bullock isn’t done. Get ready for the audition.”

“I’m on it,” TwoCans said. “Meet you at Bravo?”

“Copy,” I said, looking at the rest of the team. “How soon can we prep?”

“Two days, max, to get everything in place,” Anvil said. “Bryant Park is large, but it’s not Central. We can manage it if we use Monk and the Street Team.”

“Do it. Get them in place today.”

Monk nodded. “They will be ready,” Monk said. “The usual?”

I nodded. “Have an extra contingent prepped. Something tells me HALO is looking for someone to burn. Especially after Istanbul.”

“Istanbul was all them,” Bella replied. “They jumped the gun and nearly got us erased. This op smells just as bad.”

“We may want to consider walking away from this one,” Anvil said, shaking her head. “I don’t like it. I say we go after Victor on our own terms. Even if Adams is using Greenland as a bargaining chip.”

“We have no choice on this one,” I answered. “If he’s pulling the Greenland card, this is serious and HALO may be compromised.”

“It doesn’t mean we can’t be prepared.”

“True,” I said. “Make sure Plan B is in place. We need to cover ourselves.”

“Can we burn Victor this time?” Bella asked, making a fist. “Before the collateral damage?”

“You know how he operates,” I said. “He won’t show his hand until it’s too late to stop him.”

“We knew,” Anvil said. “He may have changed. We haven’t faced Black Wolf in some time.”

“You’re right. Psych eval on Black Wolf?” I asked.  “Do we have anything current on them?”

“Nothing recent,” Anvil answered. “I’ll get Cans on it. He can get us current intel.”

“Good,” I said. “Let me reach out to Alphabet City and find out why this is so toxic. If we’re heading into seppuku, we walk away. Greenland or not.”

“You really think Bullock is going to try an audition?” Anvil asked. “He seemed fine with your answer.”

“Won’t stop him from testing us,” I said. “He’s new and won’t believe the reports. That type needs to be certain. They need to see, not just be told.”

“Of course,” Anvil said. “Get ready.”