Free Operation by Tony Ruggiero Page B

Andre asked.
    “How foolish they are to think that they can announce it and say it is not.”
    “Should we still go?” Iliga questioned.
    “Yes,” Dimitri answered without hesitation. “We must know for sure.”
     
     

Chapter Five
    Later that night, Dimitri and his two trusted friends infiltrated the Naval Amphibious base with very little difficulty. They easily circumvented the main gates and went over the security fence. The gates and fences were wired with detection devices activated by body heat. For Dimitri and the others, being dead had its advantages—no body heat. There was no sense in developing a security device to protect people from the dead, because for the most part, they posed no active threat to the living.
    They moved with unwavering speed and direction. They knew exactly where they were going, to an area previously used for recreational purposes, but closed and refitted when Dimitri and his team required a living and training area, or as they called it, their prison.
    Seeing their prison again reminded Dimitri of the collars they had been forced to wear, controlling their behavior. His hand involuntarily moved to his neck and felt where it had been. The collar, with the poisonous elixir ready to be injected into their bloodstream, killing them.
    Control by fear of death, the oldest and yet most effective method. Commander John Reese knew that well and had used it effectively against us. It will never happen again.
    Never again. Dimitri hoped that the facility would be empty and abandoned, although that would leave the question of where the vampire blood came from unanswered.
    Why did this have to happen now? We were almost done with all of this—we were going to go home soon.
    But if the base was not abandoned, then who was in there? Where did they come from?
    Nothing but questions and the dreaded potential answers that brought only more problems. Problems that he didn’t want to address because they’d inevitably lead to what they could not afford: discovery.
    If there were something going on, the man likely involved with it would be the man that had assisted in their capture, as well as their escape. That man was Navy Commander John Reese. Dimitri thought that Reese had left the Navy, after he made his objection to the forced servitude of the vampires as military weapons—but if that was the case, and if the operation continued, was Reese involved?
    He was their so-called expert on vampires.
    Reese planned their capture and developed the collars that Dimitri despised. He had also laid the groundwork for this facility.
    Had Reese been lying? Did he change his mind and now thought otherwise?
    Dimitri wasn’t sure anymore—he thought he had known Reese, but now it appeared that all of that had to be reconsidered. To be safe, Dimitri thought it best to assume the worse and that if other vampires being held here, then Reese was involved. 
    Only one road that led to the compound but they stayed off it and traveled through the woods that surrounded the area, avoiding the surveillance cameras.
    What they saw when they arrived at the compound was not encouraging. The floodlights blazed, there were vehicles in the compound and the security areas were manned. By all these indications, there was obviously something inside that needing guarding. The only good sign in all of this was that there appeared to not have been any changes at all to the original configuration, which meant Dimitri knew as much as their captors did about the inside of the facility.
    “Dimitri?” Andre asked.
    “Yes,” Dimitri said.
    “Do you think there is another…one of us in there?”
    “I think…” he hesitated for a few seconds before continuing, “I’m not sure. We have been among each other so long and we have become accustomed to each others presence—I’m not sure if we could detect another of our kind.”
    “What do you think the chances are?” Andre asked.
    Dimitri thought for a second then spoke. “The