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Revealed: Chapter 10

"So you want us." I gestured to Crane, Krauss and me. "To lead an assault on the Jostens' Jovian facilities?" Mr. Hawthorne had been very straight forward with his proposition. After the assault on the space station with the mutated soldiers, he was determined to stop his co-owners from continuing their experiments.

"Yes." He confirmed. "I can provide soldiers, weapons, anything you need to perform this task." He sat behind the modest desk that occupied the room with his elbows resting on its top. He was getting older, I believe he was 64 if I remembered right, from the few articles that I had read about him. He had a full head of silvery, but wispy hair and liver spots dotted his hands. He didn't seem to care about makeup, I guess with his wealth, looking good in public wasn't a priority. His priority was Jostens.

"What if we were to run into any Jostens? If they don't shoot back, I'm not going to kill them." I was speaking for the group on this one. Spec Enforcers were soldiers, not assassins.

"Don't worry. I have this set up so it will appear to be a US operation with support from me. They will detain anyone who surrenders." He handed me a list of six individuals. "These are the prominent members of the Jostens family, they can't escape."

I took the list and looked at it. Crane and Krauss leaned over to take look as well. There was the man Mr. Hawthorne had been speaking to, Louis Jostens, the head of the family. He was younger, but had signs of mild balding in his brown hair and some weight issues. There was his wife, Katlyn. She was marked down as the financial advisor. She had the perfect features of a woman who could afford the most expensive plastic surgery. Then there was Natalie, who looked a whole lot like her mother except with even fairer skin and was marked as head of public relations. Next was what must have been Louis' brother, Antony, a stereotypical nerd, glasses and a lab coat. He along with the other two were in research and development. The other two were Louis Jr. and Karen, Natalie's younger twin siblings.

"There are more Jostens of course, but these are the only ones I can get evidence on at the moment." Mr. Hawthorne had a list of his own out. "Plus, removing these six will cripple their side of the company and will force them to sell their shares and pull out."

"What will happen to the facilities and the research?" I asked, wondering if this kind of research would continue, simply under new leadership.

"This kind of research isn't beneficial in any way. I don't know what Louis is thinking. I want it all gone. You've seen what they're doing." He was looking at me, but Krauss was the one who spoke up.

"What did they do? Are you talking about the guy who shot himself?" He must not have noticed what was wrong with the Jostens soldiers.

Mr. Hawthorne pressed a button on the desk and spoke into a small mic that sat on the top of it. "Bring one in." He sat back and the door opened behind us. Two of Hawthorne's men dragged in the still armored body of one of the Jostens soldiers. They brought the limp form in between us and the desk and set it down lightly on the floor.

Teresa walked over to it and kneeled by the helmet. She had gotten out of her own armor and was in grey sweats that sported the J&H logo on the back. She looked up to her father who nodded and flipped the switch on the side of the helmet.

"What the fuck." Krauss leaned forward in his chair to get a better look. Crane and I cringed away, Francis looked especially uncomfortable as he stared off at the top corner of the room.

Krauss studied the partially transformed man. This one had changed less than the one Crane and I had seen. He still had very human ears and a mostly flat face, but that layer of fine black fur still covered him.

"So, this is what Jostens is up to?" Krauss asked. He looked more intrigued than disgusted. "It's perverted. It's like they pulled the plug on whatever happened to us halfway."

"It's creepy and disgusting is what it is." Crane spat out. He was nervously rubbing the fur on his hand in circles.

"Does this mean, you'll help me put a stop to my associate's madness?" Mr. Hawthorne asked all of us.

"No one should go through this. You can count me in." Crane immediately answered. "Cap, you in?" He turned to me. His large eyes pleaded for me to back him up.

It was really a no brainer. "Wouldn't have come all of the way out here and get shot at if I wasn't going to do something."

We all looked at Krauss. He was still studying the dead soldier. "These people put one of my boys in surgery, doc said he might not make it. Hell will freeze over if I don't take some course of action. I'll join your crusade."

Mr. Hawthorne clapped his hands together and gave us a wide grin. "Good, good." He slowly lifted himself out of his seat with some effort. Francis got up and took his father's arm who shook it off. He walked in front of his desk and made sure not to step on the dead soldier on the ground. "There is much to do." If you will follow my daughter, she will take you to the armory so you can go over the equipment while I make some important calls."

He continued to walk past us and left the room just like that, dismissing us. We each got up, and left the room after Teresa leaving the body behind. I looked back at it and shivered right before leaving.

"Who's your father calling?" I asked Teresa. She tilted her head to show that she was listening.

"Probably people in government. A lot of powerful people owe him favors. He's going to get everything he can for this." She kept walking as she talked and I moved up so I was next to her. Without her armor, I could tell she worked out. She could probably give Crane a run for his money if they ever brawled.

"Can we expect the United States to get involved after this attack on their station?" As long as she kept answering my questions, I was going to keep asking. We started moving towards the center of the station again, passing workers as they did their best to clean the damage up.

"Oh yeah." She chuckled. "If there's something my father can do other than make money, it's getting people riled up. He's going to make heads roll over this incident. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets the Inner Systems fleet involved."

"Inner Systems Fleet." I said surprised. "I thought that those ships never left Earth, to protect the United States in case another country attacks."

She shrugged. "Maybe not all of it, but I'd definitely expect more than a few ships." We took a left down a hall that was barely holding together. We ducked under some wires that, thank god, had been turned off. A man was putting up a support beam and a soldier was helping him lift it into place. He nodded at Teresa when we went by and she nodded back.

"Do you run some sort of private army for your father?" I joked. She had come in with heavily armed men at her back and entirely decimated the enemy.

"Sort of." She said nonchalantly. "I'm head of security. I go where my father goes and where I go, the best security force in the solar system follows. Most of my father's personal security are military. I used to be in the French Foreign Legion. He takes security very seriously, nothing gets close to him if he doesn't trust him and I make sure of that." She pointed to herself proudly.

We passed the entertainment area again, most of Teresa's men were there with their helmets completely off and were trying to get the shot up jukebox working again. One man had his head and hands buried in it. He pulled out a bullet form the machine's depths and miraculously the machine came to life and started to play a song I didn't recognize, something about Werewolves of London.

"You don't expect us to go on some kind of raid without some armor do you?" Krauss pushed me aside to ask the question. I drifted back next to Crane who was mainly quiet, listening to the music.

"Of course no, though we don't have anything on hand that will fit you. Something will be made up." She assured Krauss. "It will probably be a lot like the armor I was wearing. The only thing that really needs to be changed is the helmet so you muzzles will fit inside and we can modify the Jostens' armor for the legging."

I was going to ask for more specifics but we arrived at the armory, the music still echoing down the corridors of the station. It was a standard security armory. Some light body armor hung on the walls with rows of small arms to go along with it.

"Why did you bring us here?" I asked.

She walked down the armory looking at the weapons. "We don't know if more will be coming, It's better to have you all somewhere safe. Speaking of all of you, Krauss where the ones that were following you around." She looked around him as if they were hiding in his large shadow.

"Oh, they're down in the medical war..." He turned around and walked out.

"Wait." Teresa ran after him. "Where are you going?"

"I need to see if Alex is doing alright." He continued to storm off with Teresa hot on his heels.

Then there was only Crane and me.

"Alex?" Crane asked. "I never knew their names now that I think of it."

"Me neither." I admitted. They were always with Krauss. They were with him on the Eurasia and now on the station, I always talked to Krauss and they just followed him. They must have been close, if he called Jeremy by his first name.

"Think we should go too?" Crane walked to the exit and looked out. "I can still here Teresa yelling."

It was either that or just waiting and I didn't like waiting. "Sure, let's go."

We went out and went started heading towards where we though the medical ward would be. By luck we got there without getting lost. There were glass doors signifying the entrance and the shades were pulled over them so we could only hear what was going on. We heard crying.

I looked at Crane unsure of what to do. He opened the door and there was Krauss kneeling over the body of Jeremy. There was no using is checking if he was alive, none of the monitoring systems were hooked up to him and everyone but Teresa and the other two wolves were avoiding him. The room was filled with other wounded people who were being attended by nurses and doctor who curried about, giving the wolves a wide berth as they did so.

Crane and I walked up next to Teresa who stood silently, biting her thumb nail. We let the big man cry, I was mainly afraid of what he would do if anyone tried to touch him. He sobbed and just knelt by the bed holding the dead wolf's hand.

We stood there for what seemed to be hours until he finally started to settle. I finally built up the courage to say something.

"Hey, you all right?" I asked him quietly, almost whispering.

He shuddered a bit and slowly lifted himself up to his feet keeping his back to us. "No." He murmured. "Nothing is all right. Not now, not ever."

"Come on big guy." Crane spoke.

"They are going to pay." Krauss growled.

"What?" I think it was Crane who said it, but I wasn't sure. Something was off about Krauss. He was holding himself differently than normal, his shoulders were hunched and his arms hung loose to his sides.

"I know that you don't know my squad very well." He spoke, still growling at nothing in particular. It made me nervous. It made everyone nervous. "Alex, Paul, Felix, we've been together for a long time, and for good reason. They're my brothers."

I stood shocked with my mouth gaped open.

"They're going to pay." It came out quietly, like a prayer.

"You need to calm down a bit." I spoke shakily.

Krauss turned around and faced me. "I'm going to kill them." I looked into his eyes. I saw something else, something inhuman in them. It was the same look I knew I had when I killed Dr. Ruse.