Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“I agree.” I heard the sorrow in my voice. “They might not exactly approve of us, but at least they would rather have us than the terrorists. It’s a step in the right direction. And if we keep up the work that we have been doing, we might convince the rest that are on the fence to accept us as well.”
“Hey, I am just glad that the humans are seeing the truth. We’re not the monsters here, we never were.” Shane’s voice was serious again, just like it was yesterday.
“Agreed.” Several voices called out in response.
There was a lot that we needed to work on during this meeting. We needed to find out what city it was that Ramie had almost let slip yesterday. We needed to figure out who the Colonel was. We needed to figure out how to get a spy, or a mole, into the DOE so that they could send us back reports on what was happening in their ranks. And we needed to figure out what cataclysmic event the Colonel was planning. Or perhaps it was another person from another group that was planning the massive event that Odin had mentioned, and we were focusing all of our efforts on the wrong person. That wouldn’t be good, but we didn’t know what else to do for right now.
Jackson wasn’t here today, he were busy with the transfer of Ramie, as well as tracking down as much information as they could on the domestic terrorist and extremist groups that were active in this country. Rawlynne would be joining him after the meeting was over.
We had all agreed yesterday that it would be a lot of help if we could get help from the other agencies, but we couldn’t risk that just yet. We knew that the NSA was compromised, so they were out. Unless we could be certain that Dayton would be able to work without someone like Orson getting in his way.
I was willing to take the risk though. If Dayton sensed any danger at all, he could always come to us for help. I would open a door for him to get him to safety, and we would hide him here in the castle. He wouldn’t come to any harm.
For the time being though, Jackson and Rawlynne wanted to work within their own department. Although, they only had until the end of the day, otherwise I would contact Dayton for help. That was how pressed for time that we were. We couldn’t let anything happen in the interim that we would have prevented if we had more help.
When we all got to work in the office, we were focusing on the name of the city that Ramie had almost said. It had started with Benkel, and it was proving to be a quick search. There were a few cities in the country that had cities with names that started that way, but not all of them were that close to us.
As I was looking over the list and the data that was given to Joaquin and I, I kept coming back to the same one. There was a small town in the southeastern corner of Nebraska. It was called Benkelman and there were several reasons that it was perfect for the base of the DOE.
For one thing, the DOE, like most other extremist groups, was founded on a principle of white supremacy. It’s just that they wanted white human supremacy rather than just white. And it just so happens that the city of Benkelman, Nebraska was predominately white. In fact, according to census data, they were ninety-five point nine percent white. The other four point one percent were a mix of several races.
Benkelman was also a small town, yet it was the county seat. And that meant that, small or not, it had more resources than others. And even if the DOE were living on the outskirts, or in a damned field and not in the actual city, they would be close enough to use that place as the location of their headquarters.
“This has to be it.” I told Joaquin as I compared some of the other possible locations with similar names. “It fits all the requirements that we believe they are needing for their base of operations.”
“Yeah, I agree.” I felt him nod as he pressed himself against my back. “We need to check this place out, see if we can find them.”
“Covertly, of course.” I told him. “And we still need to figure out how to get someone on the inside of that group. That will be the next major thing that we need to do.”
“Well, if we find them, we can send someone in there that will be able to report back to us.”
“Joaquin.” I shook my head at his words, but I didn’t turn to look at him. “That would never work. First of all, the Colonel would want to know how they found the headquarters. He would know instantly that there was something wrong.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” He agreed without hesitation. “Ugh, we need to figure this out.”
As Joaquin and I sat there, quietly contemplating things that needed to be done, and how to accomplish them, there was a call that rang through the room. I hadn’t paid much attention to it at first, it wasn’t uncommon for someone to get a call after all. So, initially I ignored it and let someone else take care of it. It wasn’t my cell phone, so I didn’t need to do anything about it.
****
Riviana
****
The phone kept ringing again and again. No one was making a move to answer it at all. I thought about that for a moment, and finally looked up. It was at that moment that Vincent also looked at me with a curious expression on his face.
“Are you going to get that?” He asked as he referenced my office phone. I hadn’t been thinking about it being the landline. Most people didn’t call this number anymore. It was more of a requirement of old that I still had one in the office. It was a business number, and as long as Joaquin and I had a business, we needed this phone in the office.
“Who could be calling right now of all times?” I asked as I reached toward the phone and plucked it off of the cradle.
The moment that the phone was in my hand, I put it to my ear and spoke my greeting. For some reason though, the entire process had me feeling nervous and worried. I just knew that something was up, and that this wasn’t going to be a conversation that I had expected. Something was about to happen, something that was going to make or break the situation that we were in. I don’t know how I knew that, but I did.
“Hello?” The greeting was quick but polite. No need to make the people think that I wasn’t friendly.
“Mrs. Gray?” The man on the other end of the line spoke in a deep yet quiet voice.
…..
“Yes.”
“Mrs. Riviana Gray?” He asked for clarification. I knew that I had never heard this man’s voice before. He was someone that I wasn’t familiar with, but he knew who I was. That meant that he had an unfair advantage over me.
“That’s me. Might I ask who I have the pleasure of speaking with?” I needed to get some information from this man. I knew that he was being evasive though, and that he wouldn’t answer me. At least he wouldn’t answer me right away. He would wait until he was ready to disclose more to me.
“For now, you can call me Mr. Doe.”
“Doe?” I asked him, not at all missing the connection here. “As in the DOE?” I could hear a slight edge to my voice. I had not at all been prepared to talk to one of these men right now.
“Yes, Mrs. Gray. I am in fact a member, but I didn’t choose to be.” The man’s voice was a little shaky. “In fact, there is a man that I am sending to see you, he should be there soon. He is one of us as well, but he was never a part of it all. And we both have something to tell you.”
“You’re sending someone here?” I asked him. “To my home?” I paused for a moment, not sure if I should ask him this next question. I needed to know though, so I stopped hesitating. “You know where my home is?”
“A select few of us do, yes. And not just me and the man on his way to see you.”
“And who is this man that is coming to visit me?” At that exact moment, there was a knock on the door to my office. I could smell that it was Peter, the head butler. He had been with Joaquin and I since the beginning.