Chance Meeting Chapter 1 The group of six are around the large table, going over a pile of blueprints. Each is dressed in fatigues and body armor. The blueprints are of a riverfront home they are to hit. The owner is one of the most wanted crime lords on the east coast. From three different raids by various agencies such as ATF, US marshals, and FBI more than eight federal officers have lost their lives due to this man. He’s wanted for everything from drugs, weapons smuggling, prostitution rings and even charges of white slavery. Bradford H. James is completely the type of man that if you get in his way, you are dealt with permanently. Even if it’s one of his own men, he doesn’t care. The group going to make this hit is one of the most unorthodox teams you’ll find. Gunny Sgt ret. Billy J. Anderson is the coordinator for the group. Around the table are Frank L. Jones, the 25 year old with short, curly, red hair. He’s the team leader in the field. To his left is Jan H, Craft. She is the team medic and she pulls other duties as well as being Frank’s lady friend. Next to her is Frank’s older brother Eddies. Except for being a few years older, he and Frank are the spiting image of each other. Next is Edger A. West, a 30 year old with a slight temper a times but the best backup a person could ask for. And then there’s probably the most unique member of the unit, his younger brother Dave. At the age of 26 he is one of the most of the wall people you’ll ever meet. Once his brother described him as the kind of guy that will drink a bottle of nitro just so he could spit in your face. He may be easy going at times but he’s the last person any one would want to cross. That and the fact that he has no arms. Instead he has cybernetic arms and his spine and pelvic are the same way. Making him the most noticeable person when he’s not in his normal long sleeves and gloves. But make no mistake he’s not the only one to keep an eye on. Each member of this this unit has anthropomorphic traits in their DNA. Excluding Billy. Even though he’s referred to as the old pit bull Sgt. You got two coyotes, (Frank and Eddies). Two wolves (Dave and Edger), and literal fox (Jan). “Here’s the plan people.” said Billy. “After three tries by the feds to use the front door. We are going to do the obvious and use the back.” he stated. “If it’s so obvious why are we doing it? Won’t they be expecting it?” asked Frank “They’re bound to have some one looking for boats.” “You are coming in by the river but not by water” said Billy “Come again.” said Dave “You’re going to use the storm drain that leads from the flash flood channel to the river. It’s about a quarter mile long and the pipe is five feet in diameter so you can make it with your gear.” answered Billy. “From there it’s about two hundred yards to the back yard of the target house.” he finished. “Sounds doable.” said Eddies, scratching his chin. “How many guards are we expecting?” he asked. “Any amount from eight to a dozen. He has so many going in and out there’s no sure amount. But expect the worst.” said Billy. “Red.” he said looking at Jan. “I wont you to be here.” he said pointing at a spot on the other side of the river marked on a map. “It’s about three-fifty to four hundred yards. You take that sniper rifle you like so much and if any body so much as points a weapon in the wrong direction I want him on the ground.” he stated. “Not a problem.” said Jan. She’s able to reach out to eight hundred yards with room to spare so four hundred should be no problem. “A group of federal agents are going to cover the front of the house from their spot in an apartment across the street. And listen people. We’re going to be watched closely on this one so keep it in the flesh and not fur.” he said. “With all the feds that are going to be waiting around to mop up, they don’t need to see a group of gun carrying animals in fatigues.” he stated. “Oh man. I feel like I’m in restraints when we do this in human form.” said Dave. “Careful Dave, or you will be in restraints.” remarked Jan. They refer to her as Red for her long red hair. “Is that a threat or a promise?“ joked Dave. “Okay let’s save the jokes for later” said Frank “We stack up the usual way. Dave you got point. You’re the best we got when it comes to busting doors.” said Frank looking at Dave’s arms. “Okay guys, grab your toys. The van leaves for the insertion point in 15 minutes.” said Billy. “Red, a boat is waiting to take you to where you can head to your position.” The group went to the armory locker in the other end of the room. The room they are using is in the trailer of an eighteen wheeler. The weapons locker is located in the front end of the trailer. She is just getting in from having to complete a stack of paper work at the office. “You would think that computers would make paper work easier.” Gwen thought to herself. She’s been with the marshals for over two years now. She was just coming in from writing a war and peace book, of statements from the last bust she was on yesterday. Gwen was just inserting the key in her door when he came up behind her. “Excuse me Ms Press.” the man said. She turned to see a man behind her with a coat over his right arm. A second glance at the coat and she saw a suppressed barrel of a gun pointed at her. “If you would come with us please.” She saw another guy standing next to a dark car. He was dressed the same as this guy in a dress shirt and slacks. She thought of going for her gun under her leather jacket but she knew she would have no time to do any good. His was already pointed at her and he could easily kill her now and no one would here the shot. She could turn anthrop on them but they would shoot her and then the body of a freak would be found at her steps. She had no choice but to do as instructed. She followed the man to the car as the other took her weapon and cuffs. “Our boss asked to speak with you.” he said as he opened the door for her. The car pulled away with out anyone around seeing a thing. It’s around 3:00 in the evening now and two FBI agents accompanied by a US marshal are with Billy in the large trailer. He is busy at the various monitors and computer keyboards in front of him. After the results from the last three attempts to get this guy, the three men standing behind Billy are a little concerned as how this will end up. The main thing that concerns agent Roberts, one of the FBI agents in the room, is that they know less than nothing on the team going in. Their records are so locked up and red flagged that the higher ups in the FBI can’t even get any information on them. “Just who are these people?” he keeps asking himself. “Your people ready to go?” asked Roberts. “From the looks of it.” said Billy. On his monitors the people in the room can see real time images as it happens. “HQ this is Leader.” came Frank’s voice over the radio. “We’re at the river bank now. Making our way to target. Radio silence on our end from here out.” he said. “Roger that, Leader.” said Billy. “Three,( Jan) and I will keep you up to date.” The four made their way down the wet sand to the house. Each one instinctively stepped only in the tracks mad by the one in front of him. They moved with ghostly silence. Their entire bodies in tune with the environment around them. With his AR-15 pointing the way, Dave guided his friends to the target. Each one is dressed in camouflage fatigues and black body armor. Each is using a suppressed AR-15 rifle. They are carrying an assortment of flash bang and smoke grenades as well. They each have a 45 automatic on a thigh harness strapped to their leg. Four hundred yards away on a hill across the river, Jan is hidden in the thick bushes with her Winchester rifle. Through her optic scope, she watches her friends as they ghost their way up the river bank. She agrees with Frank about Dave being the best choice as a point man. Not only does his cybernetics make him strong as a bull dozer, he as an uncanny ability to read the world around. His brother swears the Dave is able to speak to the earth and it speak back. At times the others think he may be right. He may be a little out there at times, but time and time they have come to value his sixth sense as a point man. With his weapon pointing the way he leads the group down the wet, sandy river bed. His every sense is tuned to the world around him. He can smell every thing from the dirty water in the pipe they just left, to the crayfish he just stepped over. Every muscle is ready for action. Dave isn’t one that enjoys the adrenalin rush of a gun fight but knowing of people like the one they are after are able to walk the streets, burns at every fiber of his soil. He and the rest of his group don’t enjoy the work they have to do at times but know to get people like this off the streets, you have to get dirty. They are half way to their entry point of the rear yard of the house. A boat ramp is to serve as the spot to gain entry to the yard. A five foot high wall serves as their cover as the make their way down the river bed. Each person is wearing an ear peace that serves as a two way receiver to keep in touch with each other and HQ. Jan keeps an eye on the rear yard of the house as the team makes their way. So far the only people in the rear of the house are a couple of guards. The house is a one floor structure with a car port at the west end. The river is to the south of the house. A small camera next to her allows the group back in the trailer to observe the events in real time. Other cameras are place in various place to provide a full 360 view of the house. Back at the trailer the two feds and marshal watch the team creep their way. “So far they seem to be working as a tight group.” stated Smith, the US marshal in the group. “Hell, they even manage to get passed that dog in the yard next to the drain pipe. I though for sure that was going to give the up.” he finished. “Trust me. When it comes to their work, these guys are the tightest team you’ll find.” said Billy, not taking his eyes off the monitors. A car pulls up to the front of the house as Billy watches on the screen. Two men get out and escort a dark haired female inside. From the way one is holding her by the arm, it’s apparent she’s not their by choice. “What the…?” says Smith “That’s one of our agents.” he says as he watches on. Billy keys up the radio on his head set. “Be advised.” Billy’s voice comes over the radio. “We have two more hostiles escorting one female plain clothes agent in jeans and leather jacket. She has dark hair and is not here by choice. I repeat. Two hostiles and one female friendly.” Just as they made their way to the boat ramp the group received the message. Frank gave a series of clicks over the radio to acknowledge the message. Bradford is in his office as the two men escort the woman in. Don Anderson , his best security guard, is sitting in the sofa across from him as they enter. “So nice to meet you Ms Press.” said Bradford. “Or should I say agent Press. I have to say it’s nice to see the marshals have such good taste in agents.” he said as he looked her over. She is quite attractive, even in her jeans and leather jacket. Her long dark hair reaching halfway down her back. It’s not to hard to see her native american traits. “One way or the other” replied Gwen “you are going to fall.” she said with a look of little emotion if any. “Really? You sound so sure of yourself for someone in no position to make threats.” said the 50 year old man from behind his desk. “It’s no threat.” said Gwen “That’s a promise.” her eyes were those of no clue of emotion. “Put her cuffs on her and set her on the floor over there.” Bradford said pointing to the far corner. “I’ll deal with you in do time.” he said as his men did as ordered. They are at the point of no return. Dave reached back and tapped Frank on the knee and Frank passed the tap down the line. And it was passed back up to the front. It was one of the signals they use to keep each one alert of the one in front. They worked together so much they already knew each other’s reaction to situations and what to expect from each other, but it was drilled into habit to follow what they each learned in countless hours of training. Once he receive the tap returned from the rear, Dave was ready. With his AR-15 leading the way he made his way up the boat ramp and onto the rear yard. He was greeted with a pair of guards in the middle of a conversation. One reacts first and brings up his MP-5 sub gun but Dave beats him to the punch. He drills a three round burst of suppressed auto fire up his chest. His dead body hit’s the ground with out firing a shot. The second guard sprayed by his partners blood brings up his weapon but is greeted with the same treatment by Dave. In a matter of seconds both guards are no more. The team quickly clears the rear yard and move to the door leading in from the car port. As usual Dave takes the lead at the door. Placing a shoulder to the door, it shatters under the impact of Dave’s large, robotic limb. In the same motion he brings his weapon to arms as he makes his entry. He cuts to the left of the door way as Frank heads straight along the wall in front of the door. Eddies, third in line follows Dave and Edger, last in line follows Frank. They find three more guards in the living room watching TV. The one farthest from the door reaches for his 9 mm on the lamp table as Dave stitches a burst of suppressed fire through his sternum, drilling him to the lazy boy chair he was in. The one across from him tries the same and Frank drills him with a burst of suppressed auto fire. Eddies deals with the third one closest to the door as he springs from the sofa with sub machine gun from the table. “What the hell is that!?” said Bradford as he herd the loud crash and the series of high pitched taps in the other end of the house. The crash sounded like the side door and he know the taps were from silenced weapons. “You two. Deal with it.” he said to the two men that brought in the woman. They unholstered their weapons and opened the door. No sooner had the first one stepped through the door, a read mist filled the door way as he was knocked back in the room. The second one closed the door and stood clear with his pistol at the ready. “Shit!” said Don as his eyes saw all this in slow motion. Gwen just knelt on the floor in shock at the sight. The corner she was placed in is straight across from the door and some of the blood spray hit her. Bradford removed a 357 revolver from his desk drawer. He grabbed the woman’s 45 that was left on the desk and pitched it to Don. “Who ever they are, they won’t leave her alive.” said Don as he checked the 45. As soon as they entered the living room and cleared it of the three guards Edgar saw the door at the far end of the joining hall open and a man step out with weapon raised. Instinct took over and Edgar fired a controlled burst of suppressed auto fire, knocking him back in the room. He maintained watch as the rest cleared the room and lined up to make their way down the hall. In the hall they first came to the door on the left to the kitchen. It was empty. Next was a bedroom on the right. It was empty as well. They advanced a little further down and came to another door on the left. Dave entered and was hit in the vest by a man behind the bed. He was quickly drilled with a burst up his chest by Frank. He and Dave cleared the room and Dave gave a thumbs up to signal he was okay. Gwen was coming to the realization that she would not make it out of here alive. Her anger was starting to show as the gun fight went on around her. “I won’t live through this so why not?” she thought. She always tried to hide her anthrop traits from the public but this was different. It was the only thing she could think of to try and get an advantage. As she knelt there with her hands cuffed behind her. She let the inner energy take over. Don was the first to see the transformation take place. Her eyes began to glow a bright green and her skin started to change. Golden brown hair began to cover her exposed flesh and her face began to change shape. Her ears grew in length and her face grew longer into a K-9 like shape. “What on earth are you!?” Don asked as the saw this woman change form human to something like a ware wolf. He stepped back against the wall away from her. “You’re one of those anthrop freaks in the news.” he said as he inched closer to the window. Bradford was speechless at the sight. The other guard was over next to Don. Both had their pistols trained on the woman. A shot rang out and the window shattered and the guard’s head exploded into a red cloud next to Don. A split second later the door shattered into the office. They entered the room just as they heard the report of Jan’s rifle. Dave saw Bradford behind his desk in shock. He slowly came to grips and was bringing his weapon to bare. They had orders to bring him in alive if possible. All in a blink of an eye Dave spun on his left heel extending his right over the desk and planting it solid to the head of Bradford, knocking him unconscious and against the wall. As this was going on, Eddies, who came in behind Dave, saw the last blood sprayed guard bringing up his weapon. Eddies took aim and squeezed off a burst of fire up the guards chest. Just who are these guys? She was thinking to herself. They stormed in the room and in the matter of a heartbeat they took care of all the armed men. One without even firing a shot. The one who delivered the round house kick to Bradford turned to Gwen and her eyes met his. His eyes were almost radiating a bright blue light behind them. His face, as the rest of the groups, was covered under a black ninja style mask. All she could see are those eyes under his clear goggles. “Are you okay miss?” he said. “Miss, are you okay?” his voice brought her out of the clouds. “What? Oh…..Yea I’m okay.” she answered. He reached behind her and removed her restraints. “You may want to change back before we move out.” he said as he unlocked her cuffs. That’s when she remembered that she was in anthrop form as a wolf. But way was he so calm after seeing her in this form, even after being in a fire fight. “Ah….right. Sure.” she answered as she rubbed her wrist to get the circulation going again. She closed her eyes and concentrated. Her face changed back to human form and the golden fur was gone. He held out his left hand to help her up. She took it and was pull to her feet with surprising ease. “Time to move.” said one of the other men. “HQ, this is Leader. House is clear. Coming out, four strike members, one hostile and one friendly.” He said into an ear peace he must be wearing under his mask. He must be the one in charge of the group. There was something about these people. The way they moved and handled their selves with animal like grace. And the eyes of the one who spoke to her. “No way.” she thought “Could they be?” There have been reports of anthropomorphic cases all over the news but a team of what appears to be special agents made up of anthrop people? They made their way out of the house in the same fashion the made their way in. Dave was on point, Eddies second., the woman next, then Frank, Bradford who was in plastic flex-cuffs, and Edgar covering the rear. They came up to the front door and the van to pick up Bradford pulled up and two agents got out to take him off their hands. They exited the house in line, put him in the van and it drove off. A SUV pulled up next. “That looks like our ride.” said Eddies. Billy was driving it. “Care for a ride miss.” said Billy as he put it in park. “Thanks. Right now I want to get as far away from this house a possible” she said as she got in the front passenger seat. The rest got in the two sets of bench seats in the rear. “What about Red?” asked Frank. “On the way back to the trailer.” answered Billy. They entered the mobile HQ in the trailer and for the first time Gwen got to see the faces of the people who pulled her out of the house. The one who referred to himself as Leader, was around the same age as her, with a slight build and short red hair. The one next to him was a little older with dark hair and the same build. The third one was the same age as the second one but was the perfect image of the red haired guy. “They must be brothers.” she thought. The last one, the one with the bright blue eyes was of the same age as her also and with a wide build across the shoulders. He had short blond hair with a slight scar on his left upper lip. He and the dark hair guy favored each other as well. “Agent Press.” said the man who drove the SUV “meet the KNIGHTS.” he said. “Knight?” Gwen asked. “It does sound like a corn ball name but it kind of stuck with us.” said the first red haired guy. “I’m Billy.” said the driver. He was around 40 with a athletic build and dark hair in a GI cut. He went down the line introducing the members. This is Frank, Edgar, Eddies, and the psycho of the group Dave.” the door opened and a woman stepped in wearing a the same camouflage uniform and touting a rifle with an optic scope fitted on it. “Ah…..and this is Jan.” said Billy. “You were the one who shot through the window.” said Gwen remembering the one shot that got one of the guards as he was standing next to the window. “I don’t mean to insult you because you did save my life and all but why are you showing me all this? I mean your faces and names are best to be kept secret aren’t they?” said Gwen. “True” said Billy “But what I’m told, you and they share a secret already.” he said. “And just what is that?” asked Gwen. She was thinking that they thought she had some information they could use or something of that nature. But what she saw took her breath away. Before her eyes each member of the group began to change. She was speech less as she witnessed this take place. In a mater of seconds the four men became two wolves and two coyotes. Even the woman with the sniper rifle changed. She became a fox with bright red fur as bright has her long pony tails was before. She didn’t know what to say but tears began to flow from her eyes. This is the first time she met people the same as her and not ashamed to let it be know what they are. “You see” said Billy “Each member of this group, excluding me, is of the same nature as you.” he said. “And to be blunt about it. We are offering an invitation.” She jerked her head up at the statement. This is the last thing she was expecting. She looked at the group again and her eyes stopped on Dave with the same golden brown fur and blond hair. She didn’t realize it yet but she was about to step through a door to a whole new life.