Ajaxs and the Hunters

[Phoenix]

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Surveillance is a large part of my job. Probably the largest part of my job. I don’t often report on it like this because it’s not the most exciting thing I do by a large margin. The methods I use combine old fashioned HUMINT along with cutting edge technology and occasional psychic and magical support as required. Of course the psychic and magical support must come from other agents and usually happens early on in the mission. Once a mark is tagged, I can usually take it from there.

With Oracle’s help of course. This sort of work is not a solo operation. Oh, I know there are some very successful solo-hunters but hunting is only part of my job. Like I said, I do a lot of surveillance and the data I gather, despite how boring the collection is, is useful in many ways. So I do it knowing that it will help others or perhaps even me later on.

That having been said, even on a quiet surveillance operation, I come fully prepared. Well, as fully prepared as I can given the changing circumstances. When dealing with the supernatural the one constant is unpredictability.

The ground work for this mission started before the holidays and went right through until I got on the ground. This mark wouldn’t have normally come up on any radar as they lived a fairly nondescript life. There was no criminal record, no suspicious activity and they paid their taxes faithfully. What had given them away was facial recognition technology that had picked up their face in some old photographs. Photographs from the 1800’s.

So we were pretty sure that this thirty something appearing individual wasn’t from the regular genetic stock that makes up most of humanity. The sensitives who made casual contact were able to confirm his supernatural nature. But that wasn’t enough. So far as we could tell they weren’t an active threat to people but we also had to consider that either they were so subtle we were missing the signs or that they were in a state of dormancy.

The mark was a family man with a young wife and two adopted children all of whom were living very ordinary lives. Otherwise there were no known family connections.

His daily routine was pretty much the same as any other office drone. It was as boring as it possibly could be.

That is until the night everything changed.

A sedan pulled into his driveway. Two agents got out. I ran their faces through my facial recognition program. They came up with yellow labelled files. They weren’t considered enemy agents but potentially hostile. Extreme caution and avoidance was recommended. It didn’t appear as though they had made me so I felt it was safe to continue my observation. Besides, their appearance suggested a connection that had previously been suspected but was unconfirmed.

After about an hour the two agents and the mark left in the sedan. Probably something was going to go down that the mark’s family shouldn’t be party to. Things were starting to get interesting so I tracked them to a house outside of town. It had long been suspected of being a safe house for the group the two agents worked for so I had just scored some excellent new intel.

Shortly after they were arrived, I maneuvered listening devices outside the house. I won’t get to into it other than to say that robotics technology has come a long way in the last ten years.

It turned out that the agents were present to recruit the mark. While he wasn’t saying no, there was detectable hesitation in his responses. It seemed that he didn’t want to get involved in their world. Indeed, it appeared he had spent as much effort avoiding being detected by them as by anyone else. I can’t really blame him but I must also admit personal bias.

Taken on its own, this was some good intelligence being gathered and enough to be excited about. But something much more exciting was about to happen.

Someone else was interested in this meeting. They approached from downwind. There was a dozen of them and they were armed with assault weapons and wearing black body armor. What struck me was the preeminence of blade weapons present. If they knew what they were approaching, then there was a good chance those blades and the bullets in their firearms were silver.

“Oracle, this is Ajax. We have visitors. Probably hostile to both agents and mark. I count twelve, all armed for bear. Please advise.”

“This is supposed to be surveillance only.” Oracle replied. “Everyone’s still on holidays, so there’s no one around to bail you out if you get into trouble. Heck, even the bosses aren’t back yet.”

Oracle was right. I wasn’t authorized to take direct action and if I did, there would be no Calvary.

But dammit, this wasn’t a fair fight.

“Oracle, if they kill the mark, there won’t be a mission.”

There was hesitation on the other end. Oracle can be over protective of me at times. Which is only understandable of course. “I can’t authorize you to act.”

“You can’t stop me, either.” I responded as I began to move.

There was a sigh of response. “Let me see if I can get into their comms net.”

“Thanks Oracle.” I grinned and checked my fire arm. I would have to keep the silver rounds in my weapon since I didn’t know who or what I was facing.

“Yeah, yeah. My wife wouldn’t forgive me if I let you get killed before you can visit us this weekend.”

The potential hostiles were taking their time on their approach and they had spread out. I decided to make a move against one of the ones on the far edge of their flank. It might take them a few moments to realize that one of their own was down. Moments I could use to gain some valuable intel and insights into this situation.

“I’m in.” Oracle announced as I approached my target. “Chatter is minimal and tactical. They don’t expect their targets to be listening on tech means. Nothing to give away who they are but they are using NATO radio procedures.”

“Oh great. I hope these guys aren’t government.” I whispered. I was nearly ready to strike now.

The target didn’t see me. Oracle jammed their communications so no one heard his grunt as I took him from behind. I lifted his mask and he was soon in a chemically induced sleep. It wouldn’t last long but it did give me time to disarm and secure him. Then I forced him back into consciousness.

What he saw when he woke was my mask. What he heard was my synthesized voice. While I chatted with him, Oracle used recordings of his previous reports to keep his colleagues thinking he was still in on the op. Between his gear, what I got him to say and what he refused to say, I got a pretty good idea what I was dealing with.

“Oracle, these guys are hunters but not government.”

“They’re probably moving to take out a perceived threat.” Oracle responded.

“Our mark hasn’t hurt anyone that we can tell. Hell, we don’t even know if these agents have done anything.”

“Ajax, don’t get involved.” Oracle insisted.

“Oracle, it’s not a fair fight!” I hissed into my mike. “We don’t know they did anything wrong!”

“And we don’t know they haven’t.” Oracle pointed out. “We don’t know where these hunters got their intel and we don’t know why they’ve decided to act. They might be justified.”

I paused. Oracle was right. So I turned back to my captive. “There’s three werebeasts in that house.” I stated, bluffing on how much I actually knew about the mark. “I’m a hunter like you guys. Why are you hitting this house?”

He gave me a look that suggested that the answer didn’t need to be said but he obliged me anyway. “Because there are three therians in that building. If you’re really a hunter, what more reason do you need?”

“One that lets me sleep at night.” I snarled before I violently reintroduced him to dreamland.

“Oracle, I’m moving in.”

“Roger, feeding your visor their locations.” Oracles voice was resigned. They knew how stubborn I could be, better than anyone else on the planet.

Quickly and quietly I took out two more before they were all into position. Unfortunately I made no impact on the entry teams. Three for the front door and three for the rear. Apparently everyone else was supposed to take up positions around the house to take shots through windows and at anyone attempting to flee.

However they had given away their presence to the occupants inside the house. Hard to say if it was a scent or a sound but their targets were assuming their natural forms. The agents were a bear and a tiger. The target turned out to be a wolf. Their hybrid forms were all quite impressive specimens. They didn’t wait for the breach teams to enter, they came out swinging.

“Good for them.” I thought as I quietly took out another hostile. Really, I was doing them a favor. The werebeasts were brutally efficient at killing their more mobile colleagues where as the ones I took out were merely unconscious. The werebeasts were fighting to escape, so they wouldn’t bother with incapacitated individuals.

Unfortunately, these guys knew what they were doing and had brought at least twice as many men as they needed to get the job done. They focused their fire on the bear first, bringing down the biggest, and probably most dangerous target. The Tiger, she was next. Though they didn’t kill her right away. They just put enough rounds into her to force her down.

By the time it was just the wolf left, there were only three hunters left. One was covering the Tiger, one the Wolf had gotten close to and was fighting tooth and claw to sword and knife. The third was lining up a shot. I was too far away from any of them to take them out the same way I had the others.

I used to be a soldier and I’ve killed people in combat before. Some of them in open combat and some of them in black ops. Nothing in my past really prepared me for this situation though. All I had to guide me was my sense of right and wrong, my sense of fair play. I lined up my sites and took my shot.

The person preparing to shoot my mark dropped as my round pierced his helmet. Before the others could react, I turned my point of aim and took out the guy covering the tiger. My mark managed to finish off his opponent but the way he was looking around, it was clear he knew he’d just been helped.

I slipped backwards in a hurry. I had no desire to be seen. Still, I kept eyes on. The wolf and the tiger were starting to heal already, and took their fallen comrade to the car so they could speed out of there. If they kept to procedure, there would be a clean up team here in under an hour.

With little time to spare I extracted the surveillance robots and left the area.

Once I was debriefed on this mission, the boss made me do this write up right away. The boss reckons the involved parties know who they are and who each other is, but wanted to make sure they knew our role in this situation as well.