Blood Apocalypse - 04 by Heath Stallcup Page B

this?”
    Evan nodded, “Quite easily, I believe.” He glanced at Thorn and gave a slight smile. “The technology isn’t that difficult really.”
    A slow rumbling chuckle began deep in his chest and Viktor found himself laughing. He looked up from the notebook and clapped both vampires so soundly on their backs that they feared he may have broken something had they been mere mortals. “Wait until Max gets a load of this!” he bellowed.
     
    *****
     
    “Dom is where ?” Jack asked the Duty Officer disbelievingly.
    “Italy, Chief. He’s at Aviano. I just got off the phone with him and he isn’t very happy. Apparently Team 2 left him at the hospital,” Lieutenant Gregory stated.
    “Son of a…” Jack caught himself. “Where is Colonel Mitchell?”
    “No idea, Chief. I’ve called his office, I’ve tried his radio, nothing,” Gregory explained.
    “And Laura? Tufo? Any of them?”
    “I can’t raise Ms. Youngblood either, and…Tufo? What the hell does he have to do with anything?” Gregory asked.
    Jack paused and then shook his head. “Never mind, LT. Okay you’re the Command Duty Officer, so make a command decision, call Aviano, talk to whoever you have to, but get his ass on the next flight stateside and then redirect his ass here . Pronto!” Jack said.
    Gregory smirked at him. “Already done, Chief. Dominic is already preparing for a flight that leaves in…” he glanced at his watch, “fifteen minutes.”
    Jack let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding and shook his head. “How the hell does a guy that damned big keep getting lost?” he muttered. “Or taken?” he corrected. “Or whatever the hell it is that keeps happening to him?”
    Gregory snorted a laugh. “Beats the heck out of me, Chief, but the way his luck has been going, he’ll be lucky if he doesn’t end up in Iceland…or hijacked on the way back.”
    “Don’t even joke about it, LT. You might speak it into existence.”
    “Roger that, Chief.”
    Jack turned to leave the new Command Center then turned back, “Hey, LT, if you happen to find the Colonel, can you please let me know? I really need to talk to him.”
    “Copy that, Chief,” Gregory told him. “Same goes for me. If you run into him, send his sorry butt over here for a while. We got a lot of stuff to fill him in on here too.”
    “Roger that.” Jack headed across the campus to the Headquarters building and saw Matt, Laura and Tufo being driven up to the building by the petite young Major that Matt was now using to run the base for him. Jack shook his head and double timed it to catch up with them. “Colonel! I really need to speak with you, sir.”
    “In my office,” Matt said. “We have some things we need to go over, Phoenix.”
    Jack tipped his hat to Laura and the major who half expected a salute. Tufo fell in behind him and followed to Matt’s office. “Colonel, on this training facility, do you want me to have the stuff from Tinker sent up here, or can I feel free to order what I feel is necessary to build a new one?” he asked as they worked their way up the front steps.
    Matt paused just outside the door and thought about it. “Tell ya what, Mark…why don’t you make a list of what you think we can repurpose from Tinker and if you think we can grab and go with a twenty-four hour turn-around, I’ll send you to supervise along with a crew and you can grab what we need,” he said. Matt was thinking of the silver cells in the lower levels of the hangar that he knew he would eventually need here. He could have Mark disassemble them and bring them back when he got the training equipment. “There’s some other things back there you could get as well. Anything else we can requisition, but an ything new may take time, so let’s try to keep it simple.”
    “Roger that, Colonel,” Tufo said as he turned and exited the building.
    “What was that about?” Jack asked.
    “Mark’s going to get the training facility up to snuff,”