“Well, Mr. Sarcastic I was hoping that my friend from South Africa could maybe come up with a diversion,” William chided with a smile.

  “What is it about you that makes me want to punch you in the face sometimes, my friend,” Charles said with a smile. “Come on, we have to think. We’re not invincible and a diversion would only have all six of those guys with guns looking for us.”

  William smiled, “Maybe that’s exactly what we need.”

  *   *   *   *   *

  William pushed his head out from around the containers. He had placed his weapon back behind him so the guards wouldn’t know he was armed. He leaned out a bit comically and waved, “Oh, hi there!” William called to the guards who looked up at him with alarm and aimed their weapons at him. He ducked back around the container quickly. Grabbing his weapon his quickly slid back among the containers, and hoped that this wasn’t a huge mistake.

  He put his ear to the ground and heard two sets of feet stomping on the deck plates as two armed men were probably running after him. Only two? Well, that’s a bit of an insult. Still, if this was going to work, he’d like to try it on two rather than all six. William slid silently back among the containers, holding up two fingers as he went playing his very dangerous game of cat and mouse.

  Without warning his knees went weak and his legs turned to jelly underneath him. Oh, god, please not now! William leaned heavily against a container as he stumbled backwards just trying to stay upright. He tried pushing more adrenaline into his blood stream to wake himself up again. He didn’t regain his strength however, if anything it only caused him to get weaker. He slid slowly to his knees as he tried to force himself back among the containers.

  He struggled for a few moments before the back of his head found a container to rest on. As soon as he stopped moving, his eyelids slid closed. He remained aware of what was going on for a few seconds but he was exhausted past his endurance and he finally did succumb to the soft, gentle allure of blissful sleep.

  “What the hell is going on around here?” the team leader muttered in his native tongue under his breath as he led his subordinate into the container maze. “Bad enough these idiots picked up these shipwrecked refugees in the first place. Now they’re running around down here.” He had advised the captain to not pick up any more ‘cargo’ but the greedy bastard didn’t listen. Now the entire haul was in jeopardy. He guessed that by having at least one joker down here, it meant that the majority of the crew had failed to stop them or capture them.

  His subordinate didn’t bother to respond to the question which was good. If the kid had said anything it might have earned him a rifle butt to the face. They moved through the maze cautiously. They were in a standard military cover two formation. They rounded a corner and saw the captain, roughly tied with what looked like strips of cloth, and from the way the captain was topless it wasn’t hard to guess that whoever did this had used the man’s own shirt.

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  He motioned for his subordinate to keep watch as he knelt down and inspected the unconscious captain. He slid his knife out of his holster along his leg when he heard a crunch and a thud behind him. Without a second’s hesitation, he dove forward into a shoulder roll and popped up on his knee with weapon pointed out and behind where he had been a second ago.

  His subordinate was lying face up on the ground. His face had been shredded and his throat was slashed, but the cuts weren’t clean. In fact, if he didn’t know any better, he would have said they were animal marks. But he knew there weren’t any animals onboard.

  He slowly stood up. His eyes tried to look everywhere at once. He jutted his weapon out into a side walkway made by the various containers, then slid himself out. He walked sideways, looking both in front of and behind him. Reaching up to key his radio mike he said, “Chang is down. Fire team two; remain in covering position, fire team three; rally on my loca…”

  He was knocked back from behind, when he turned around hot blades ripped through his face and throat. He felt his warm blood begin to pour down his chest onto his plate carrier as he slumped to the floor. The last thing he saw was something that broke his hold of reality. So, this is what death is, nightmares coming to life. His lips cracked in an insane smile before the life faded from his eyes and his heart stopped.

  Charles cleaned his claws as best he could on the soldiers’ clothes. He slid deeper into the maze of containers. He wasn’t sure what the commander had said into the radio but he could hear at least two sets of foot prints running along the deck plates. They sure aren’t trying to be quiet. He smiled; it just made them easier to hunt. He checked to make sure the captain was still tied up tightly then he turned to move back to William.

  William was passed out leaning up against a container. He shook his werewolf head, gently rustling his black fur. He had warned William about over exerting himself. Then again did he really have a choice? Charles picked up his friend and moved him farther back among the containers. The last thing he wanted was a one in a million chance that a ricochet bullet would hit him by accident.

  He heard yelling as he could only suppose that the two other armed military types had found their dead comrades. Good, now he knew exactly where they were. He looked up and quickly dismissed the idea. If he jumped up on the containers he would be immediately spotted and gunned down by the machine gunners from their position on the catwalk overhead. He decided that a bit of theatrics were necessary.

  He sprinted forward and jumped off of the containers as he went making as much noise as he could. He snarled and growled to mix with his claws scraping and scratching the containers as he ran and jumped from container to container as he went. The cries of the two soldiers silenced and he could hear their soft worried voices. One thing that held true for most Asians and their culture was that they were a superstitious people and the Chinese especially. He wouldn’t be surprised if they thought they were being attacked by an ancient demon of some kind.