Smoke on the mountain

by Jeff Uribe and Sydnie MacElroy

[NRPG : Here's a little collaboration between Sydnie and I. A little more background info on the Guard.]

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[Office of Team Zulu]

"What does that look like to you?" Vanessa asked.

"A cabin in the woods on top of a mountain," Martin replied.

"It certainly does," Leo agreed. "It looks like there's some type of compound

out there, and I'll bet a week's pay that's where Christopher was."

"It looks like it's time for a road trip," Jordan said, "courtesy of Ann Cross."

Everyone nodded and started to head out the door. Just as they got to the hallway outside, Peter paused and said, "I'll meet the rest of you downstairs, I need to use the restroom."

Everyone else nodded and proceeded to the elevators. As soon as they were out of sight, Peter took out his cell phone and dialed.

[somewhere on I-81]

The team had split up into two cars and were headed for the mountain top cabin. In the back seat of the second car, Zenya kept her concerns to herself, at least for the moment. With all the various sides playing off against each other in this case, it seemed a little bit too convenient that the late Ann Cross had provided them with this information. Which side had she been on? It was a question they just didn't have an adequate answer for. A couple of times, Zenya noticed Leo glancing in the rearview mirror. The third time she noticed it, curiosity got the better of her. "Are we being followed?" she asked.

Martin, in the front passenger seat, pulled down the vanity mirror to check behind them before Leo could answer.

"No," Leo said. "Which is strange in itself."

Zenya nodded and turned to look out the back window. "You're sure?" There were quite a few cars on the road. It was possible that a tail had gone without notice.

"Pretty sure," Leo said. "I spotted one likely candidate, but they turned off at the last exit."

"It's sort of sad when you get nervous about not being followed," Martin commented, glancing over his shoulder to double check.

Zenya nodded and grinned, although she was feeling more anxious than ever. "I know. How many assorted parties that we know of have a vested interest in this case? Four or five by now?"

"I'd say more like three or four," Leo said, "unless there's some sort of interconnection we don't know about between two or more of them. Or divisions between them we don't know about. Or.."

"Enough," Zenya said. "We get the point."

Leo grinned. "You would think at least one of them would care enough to tail us."

Zenya sighed. Not if they've already figured out where we're going, she thought. She watched Leo check the mirror again, noting how his grin faded into a frown. He was thinking the same thing.

"So, Martin, what exactly did happen to Ann Cross?" Leo asked, casting a sidelong glance towards the passenger side.

"She was pushed in front of the incoming train by someone. We tried to catch the pusher, but we weren't able to catch whoever it was." Martin said, a hint of disgust creeping into his voice. "But, whoever it was left a calling card. He's part of a group called the Praetorian Guard."

Leo suddenly jammed on the brakes, leaving skid marks a couple of yards long as he turned to Martin and a shocked Zenya. "What group was that person a part of?", Leo hissed.

"The Praetorian Guard." Martin said, taken aback by Leo's sudden change in mood.

"Impossible." Leo said in a low voice, almost a whisper. "They couldn't be back."

"Leo?" Zenya leaned forward and said, "you know them?"

Martin turned and looked at Leo's pale face, "who are they?"

Leo looked from one face to the other and gave a deep sigh. "The Guard is... was the best of the Best. They were trained well and nearly flawless in their killing techniques. Back when I was in Ops, there was a period called The Cleansing. Apparently, some bigwigs thought that there were Way too many secret groups running around and so the order was given to destroy all other black Ops groups. You have to remember, every major group had several black ops teams, Dept of Defense, NSA, State Dept, you name it, they had it. Apparently, The Praetorian Guard was the Cream of the crop, and to this day we still don't know who backed them, although we believe it Was the CIA. Anyways, the Guard managed to wipe out 3 squads before they had their sights Set on our group. They tried to recruit a couple of our guys before they hit paydirt with Docker. He joined up and became their spy within our group. Little did they know, Docker was playing Double agent and was actually working for us. Anyways, we managed to break their squad and We thought we had eliminated every one of their members. It took us 2 years, but we thought We tracked every single one of them down. If they're back...."

"How good are they?" Martin asked.

"If you managed to get a look at whoever killed Ann Cross, you wouldn't be sitting there now."

Leo said grimly as he started on the highway again. "they're trained killers, better trained than We ever were."

They rode on for a few more miles in silence before Zenya looked out and saw something that Made her stomach sink. The mountain where the aerial photos were taken was in plain view, Complete with the dark smoke emanating from near the top of it.