Chapter 17: Shadows

Two more black vans belonging to The Brotherhood bounced over the speed bumps on the long drive up to a large house shaded by tall trees. On the outskirts of the city as the suburbs turns into countryside, another squad of soldiers had only one objective in their collective mind.

Find Doctor Forrest.

No one had seen or heard from Mantek’s head of research for a long time. Any time The Brotherhood had tried to dig deep into the life of Doctor Forrest, it appeared that he didn’t have one. No family. No friends. Just his work and nothing else, which is always encouraging when he was working for them, but when he goes missing it is very difficult to track someone down that no one knows.

Lieutenant Curtis sat in the passenger seat of the leading van, gripping his rifle tightly. He had his sights set on a captaincy and if this mission was a success, he had a good shot at getting a promotion. His radio fizzed and he heard the familiar voice of Captain Stein.

‘Curtis, are you there?’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Have you reached your destination?’

‘We’re just pulling up now, sir. Have you made contact?’

‘Negative. There’s no one at home. We turned the place upside down but found no leads. It’s only a matter of time before the police start looking for the doctor so we have to keep moving down the list. Let me know as soon as you have control of the situation.’

‘Yes sir.’

The vans stopped in front of the stone house and the soldiers jumped out onto the gravel drive. Lieutenant Curtis led the men up to the front door and noticed it was ajar. The feeling that something might be wrong started to grow in his stomach.

Did they get here first?

He pushed the door open and took a step inside, feeling the cool air bite his skin. The trees surrounding the house captured the sunlight and he heard a low hum in the background that he suspected was an air conditioning machine. The interior and furniture were black and dark brown. Blackout blinds covered all of the windows. Coupled with the temperature, the atmosphere was a stark contrast to the day the rest of the city was having.

Lieutenant Cutis waved his hand and the soldiers split up and slowly moved silently into the many rooms. As the last soldier made his way into the house, a shadow shot out of a dark corner and the front door slammed behind him, plunging the squad into near darkness.

A few shots were fired, but as quickly as they had entered the house, the squad looking for Doctor Forrest were dead.