man who could not be killed part 6

I followed Dante down stairs, much slower than I would have liked. Damn, I must be getting too old for this after all. Maybe Chalice is right…



CHALICE: As always, you see the simple truth.



GABRIEL: The truth is always simple.



BETH: Not to him.



CHALICE: At least there is symmetry.



RONIN: Stay out of my thoughts boss, at least give me SOME privacy!



Dante snorted. Ronin looked at his brother, calm, cool, professional. He felt the pangs of love and respect. Emma and the deaths of those he considered parents.



DANTE: Yeah, like THAT’S ever going to happen.



He led me into the living room, where Seamus had co-opted the entire room to layout all the gear for the hunt. But by the Gods, this didn’t look to be a hunt as much as an invasion by all accounts! Calico reclined as she was want to do.

Her gear simple missiles and knives, another one of Beth's, “If you are small use it”. Ernesto was in his rare form after an act of contrition, aware of the irony. My Berettas were surgically clean. The satellite recon of the complex was spread out on the table.





SEAMUS: Right then my pretties, let’s get to it. What I’ve got here is pretty standard stuff really.



I picked up a massive clip that looked to be loaded with 50cal rounds.



RONIN: THIS is standard? For what, shooting a hole in God?



Calico chuckled. Ernesto crossed himself then slapped me in the back of the

head. Even Dante shared a all too brief smile then snatched the clip from my hands.



DANTE: No, those are standard incendiary armor piercing rounds for Bessie, now pay attention!



Dante set the clip down next to the biggest damn rifle I’d ever seen. A Barrett M82A1, the one riflein the world he would deem fit to use. I had to say it,cleaners definitely don’t arm light. Ernesto looked at it with the quiet appreciation of amateur artist staring at a Jackson Pollack and feeling dirty for coveting the talent. But he and his own rifle had a torrid history all of their own.



SEAMUS: Bessie and I will provide cover for the entire action. Her scope’s been specially made by me, infrared tagged at the much colder range the leeches and their pets live in. You lot will show up as blues while they are nice and red.Now then, you each get your standard kit, shotguns with wooden flechette rounds,flash bangs, silver nitrate spray, and each of ye will be carrying a few o’these beauties.



Seamus held up a coffee can with an odd little box on top.



RONIN: Coffee?



DANTE: Sterno, packed over a core of Tannerite explosive. The timer is the

really fun part. Seamus rigged up of all things the timer from the old game

Perfection to set off a .22 slug that blows the Tannerite, which in turns makes the sterno go all ‘asplodey on the leeches.



RONIN: Why Sterno?



SEAMUS: Because precious, the military version is called napalm. They have a still.



RONIN: Essentially, a bomb.



SEAMUS: Give the man a ceegar!



Dante reached into his com vest pocket and took a few Cubans. He threw one to each of us. Beth always taught us the importance of ritual.



The things these two knew, it was enough to give you nightmares. Or give

nightmares to nightmares.





DANTE: Allright, Seamus on overwatch, and the rest of use in two teams. Primary is containment of the next and it’s destruction, secondary is the girl along with anyone else they’ve got still alive and untainted.



Dante held a finger up at me, knowing I was rising to my feet.



DANTE: Stow it hunter- this is now a cleaner operation, and my call. IF we find the girl and can get to her without losing a leech or his stenches, then fine,but don’t think for a second I won’t blow the whole place with you in it if I have to in order to cleanse this mess.



CHALICE: Spare him a little child, he has his faults, true. But he means well.



Dante looked right through me, the death stare all too apparent.



DANTE: You made the rules boss, now I get to enforce them.



Dante went over the details of the approaches, possible exits from the nest,likely trap zones. He was in his element, as if time had not passed as it had and he was still in his old Ranger unit. His was a life of never ending conflict, and he LIKED it that way. Once he finished up, everyone got to gathering their gear. Seamus hefted Bessie, along with his Weatherby revolver. I swear he kissed the receiver on Bessie like she was his best girl- which knowing him she probably was. Calico gathered her blades, and tucked a compact Walther into her right boot top. Ernesto took an immaculate looking M1 Garand from a kitbag he’d brought into the room, going over it with practiced hands- like I said, he and his rifle had a history all their own. I took up my Berettas,noticing small boxes under the barrels.



DANTE: We took the liberty of adding UV targeting lasers to your guns there Ro.Given how lousy you shoot, they will at least help you hit closer to the middle of that broadside you always seem to miss.



Seamus chuckled and I flipped them both off. Dante loaded up a few drums for his AA12, then slung up his Gladius style blade over his right shoulder and strapped a strange looking device on his left forearm. It looked like a small drum of metal, with a slender stack of fan shaped blades running up his forearm.



RONIN: What is that thing?



Dante looked up at me, then clenched his left fist. The fans snapped around in a blurring arc, locking together into a perfect buckler style shield. I was duly impressed.



DANTE: You never know…



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