***
He was doing the right thing. Wasn’t he?
Ajax rubbed his eyes as he walked down the busy street. The harbor front was alive with activity. Everywhere vendors hawked their wares to the passersby, while down alleys trucks of fish and other seafood were offloaded into the basements of restaurants that had signs in the windows proclaiming how fresh and local their meals were.
Flags waved on every corner advertising dozens of different places around the earth. Beggars stood or sat, worn hats held out for anything they might get, before store owners hustled outside to shuffle them away. Cars beeped and honked at the traffic, trying to speed things up as a big transport truck briefly blocked the road while pulling out from a terminal, loaded with a big container full of goods, destined for some far-off warehouse.
In the distance ships sailed into the harbor, and every few minutes a deep mournful sigh carried across the distance as they sounded their horns upon arrival. Small fishing trawlers danced in and among the veritable behemoths, always careful of their much larger cousins, who were not nearly as nimble as they. Ajax spotted an old-fashioned clipper ship, sails billowing into the wind, catching the gusts for the first time that day. As he watched in fascination, the sails were pulled tight and the ship practically leapt forward, masts straining as it made for the open sea.
Near the mouth of the harbor he spotted a midsized military ship resting easily at anchor. He knew it looked unimposing, but the various bulges and boxes on deck spoke of weapons easily unveiled. Its position also ensured that anyone coming into the harbor would have to pass within its range, a potentially devastating move.
Yet with all that, he had been unable to find this Coleforn Shipyard. He didn’t dare use the web to look it up. Odds were if this place was the front for some sort of secretive agency, they would be tracking anyone who looked them up. Which meant he was on his own.
And without Arianna to guide him. He contemplated calling her, but he had decided not to. Leaving her behind was the right thing to do. If she were a shifter, he would still have tried to, but he wouldn’t have fought as hard. Ajax wanted to protect her, to keep her safe, and this was the best way he knew how.
After his second loop through the main harbor front district, Ajax decided to push on. The rest of the bay was occupied by coal and steel plants, as far as he knew.
“It has to be here somewhere,” he said, angry at himself for not getting a location before setting out.
Rookie mistake. Maybe if your head wasn’t focused elsewhere, you would have thought ahead.
He snarled angrily at himself, pushing that thought away. It didn’t leave though, the underlying premise tapping his brain incessantly as he pushed on past the bustle of the waterfront, and into the quieter zones of the rest of the harbor.
The pedestrian traffic dried up, both foot and vehicular. Commercial transports increased, however, with big dump trucks and cargo container-hauling big rigs going past at frequent intervals. There was still some traffic. There were even a few restaurants in the area that catered to the construction workers. Coffee and sandwich shops seemed to be the most prevalent among them, which was no surprise.
You feel something for her.
No. He didn’t. He couldn’t. That would be a bad idea, and Ajax knew he had to cut that thought off right away. Allowing himself to fall for Arianna would just result in them both getting hurt.
Your cock was hard from hugging her last night. You almost exploded when all she did was rub herself against it. Quit lying.
He wasn’t, he told himself. Wanting to have sex with someone was far, far different than an emotional attraction to them.
Even Ajax couldn’t prevent himself from rolling his eyes…at himself. That was the weakest excuse ever. While it was technically possible, all parts of him knew that wasn’t the truth in this instance. There was something about her. He had no idea what, but a part of him he had long since thought dead was showing signs of life. Like a volcano that had been extinct for thousands of years all of a sudden giving off smoke and ash. It wasn’t a full-on eruption, but it was enough to warn the locals that something had changed.
He was so caught up in his inner diatribe that Ajax almost didn’t notice the big, imposing metal gates in front of him that read CF in big bold blocky red lettering. He stopped, eyes focusing on the fine print underneath.
Coleforn Shipyard and Transportation Center.
Interesting. Most of the gates that he had walked past, and those he could see ahead of him, were chain link. Tall, sure, and topped with barbwire, yes. But they were just simple chain link in the end. This one was thick steel, solid, so that no one could see within. It was very square, blocky and utilitarian, in a military way.
Yet another sign that this might be a covert government operation. Or some sort of paramilitary outfit. Not good either way.
The gate itself was big enough to fit a transport truck, with a few feet on either side, but that was about it. Sandwiched between two four-story brick buildings, he almost hadn’t noticed it. There was a walkway between the two buildings the same color as the gate. In fact, as he looked at it more, Ajax realized it was designed to blend in so most people would think it was just one solid building. Clever.
Much to his delight, there was a coffee shop on the far side of the street and about two hundred feet down the road. Ajax slipped inside, ordering a drink and some food while he watched the place, searching for cameras and guards.
It took him all of ten minutes and a stale bologna and cheese sandwich to realize that if there were any of either, they were so well hidden he would never spot them. Alarm bells were ringing in his head, telling him to go back, to go home. To get some reinforcements before he did anything. Whatever it was he had gotten himself into, it was bigger than just him.
Wolfing down the last bite of his food and tossing some crumpled bills on the counter, he washed the tasteless bread down with some coffee that was surprisingly good, and then jogged slowly across the street.
“You’re an idiot,” he muttered to himself. “This is suicide.”
Perhaps it was, but whatever this organization was, he had yet to encounter them. They didn’t know him, or who he was, or what he did. So he could at least go and see if anyone was home. To his eye, the place looked deserted.
As he got closer, Ajax noted that the walkway had steel-reinforced flooring, and a steel covering that rose about three feet up as well. The rest was covered, with openings every five feet like clockwork across it.
That’s a bloody firing platform if I ever saw one, he realized with a start. Men could position themselves up there and fire down at anyone who was trying to storm the place, protected by what was likely military-grade steel below and three feet up, providing perfect cover for them. He counted eight spots all told, before spotting two larger openings in each building that had the same look.
“It’s a fortress.” He looked around, but there was still no one. Who were they expecting to fight off?
He didn’t like it at all, but the one thing he lacked was information. Coming to the front of the gate, he saw a man-sized door on the far building. There was a red buzzer in front of it. Ajax lifted a finger to press it before something caught his eye.
“What the—” he muttered, leaning closer to the door. Everything so far had been perfect, in a square and blocky way. All the corners were squared off, everything perfectly level. There was no half-assed workmanship at all.
And yet, for all that, the door was clearly at an angle to the rest of the building. Frowning, Ajax reached forward with his fingertips and gently pushed on it.
To his surprise, it swung open easily.
“Interesting,” he muttered, glancing around the street to ensure no one was watching him before he slipped inside.
The inside of the building was almost exactly like the outside. Drab, simple, and utterly utilitarian. Gray paint covered every surface that wasn’t already gray concrete. White lights, a stark contrast from the yellowish sunlight, brightly lit the hallway in front of him.
Ahead and to his left was what looked like a welcome booth. There was no one at it. All of Ajax’s senses were screaming at him that it was a trap. That somehow, they knew he was coming, and had prepared all this for him to lure him inside.
Fighting back the urge to run, he moved forward down the hallway. Windows lined the right-hand side, looking across the open road to the building on the other side. Again, he saw steel in the wall and open windows every five feet. Looking across the packed gravel, he saw the same.
It was a modern-day medieval castle murder hole taken to another level. The entire place was designed to withstand a brutal assault, inflicting mass casualties on anyone that tried to storm it.
Ajax couldn’t help but wonder just what sort of enemies the organization had.
Or is making.
He crept farther along, still seeing no signs of life, or even cameras. The hallway ended in a staircase. He made his way up, pausing at a window that overlooked the rest of the facility.
Once one got past the entryway, it looked like any normal shipyard. There were two slips for big cargo boats, along with sliding cranes that could take cargo from the ships and put it on the trucks. There was even a big rig parked near a crane now, though it was empty of both a container on its trailer and a driver.
A noise sounded from somewhere down the hallway on the second level that led closer to the crane and waterfront. Ajax crouched and moved softly along the steel floor, doing his best not to make any noise.
He heard the scrape of footsteps against the floor, and prepared himself. Calling his bear to him, he used its senses to test the air and see what he was up against.
The instant the pheromones hit his nose, Ajax jerked upright in surprise.
No. It couldn’t be!