Smoking Power

Chapter 2

I get woken up by someone annoyingly shaking my arm. I groan and slap the hand away.

"Go away." I mumble as I roll over.

"As tempting as that is, I think I should probably wake you up." I can hear Declan next me. I don't have to turn to know that he's smirking.

I give off another groan, sit up and take my bearings in. The jet has landed on a dusty ridge just outside a small town.

I flick my attention back to my annoying partner, I give him my darkest glare while gracefully getting of the comfy sofa I was lying on. "AMBER!!" I shout at the top of my lungs.

"Sheesh, I'm not deaf ya know." Amber pops her head around the door of the mini kitchen and dining room.

"Well you never know." I grin at my best friend since I was eight. "So what's happening here?" I motion with my hands to the rows of tiny squished houses below the ridge.

"Half the town has mysteriously disappeared." Declan pipes in.

"Yeah according to the thermal readings, out of the 39 residents, only 16 are actually in the village."

I shrug, "maybe the rest are on a picnic?"

Declan looks at me weirdly.

Amber shoves the TS (thermal scanner) in my face. "Unless the other 23 decided to have their picnic underground,I'm pretty sure that something's going on." I look at the tablet sized TS, around sixteen people are scattered around the town, but around 45 people are on in a clump somewhere near the outskirts.

"Okay, I'll admit it, that is a little weird. Let's take a look." I hear the familiar hiss of the door open as I step out onto the hot wasteland.

"Micky," I turn around and look at Amber. "You forgot this." She chucks me my tiny, clear earpiece.

"Thanks." I give her a half smile.

Declan hops out after me and shuts the door again. "Uh, so much sand." He complains as we walk down the track to the village.

"Stop complaining," I sigh.

We drift off in a comfortable silence, each lost in our own thoughts. I've been to Iraq six times now. There's often something going on but nothing serious. I just hope today won't be any different.

The town looks practically deserted when we enter it. "Where is everyone?" Declan peers in a small hole in one of the small houses.

"They're around. One's a few metres to your left. They're probably hiding. Scared of you, maybe." Ambers voice crackles through the earpiece.

"What, scared of us? Ouch. That stings." Declan huffs. I roll my eyes at his childishness.

RRrriiinnngg

My phone goes off in my pocket. "Wow I'm surprised that we have reception from here." I pull out my blue and white phone and check the caller ID.

"Of course your phone goes off." Declan lazily leans against the wall of the house we're next to.

I focus my attention on my ringing phone. It's Paul. "Hello. Is there a reason that your phoning during an OP?"

"I know this is bad timing Micky but you need to wrap that up quickly cause there's a possibility that we've got a biggie at the homestead."

"What do you mean a biggie?" Declan who was listening through the earpiece snatches my phone out of my hand and shoved it against his ear in a panic.

"Look, I can't explain much now. Just hurry it up okay?" Even I can pick up the worry laced in Paul's voice.

I snatch my phone back, "roger that. We'll be done here soon."

I hang up and shoot Declan another death glare. He meets my glare with a worried look. Declan isn't known for keeping calm.

"Alright," I turn to my partner, "we're going to stay calm and check out whatever's happening here. Then we'll get back to the homestead and do some further checking-out."

"The homestead never has 'possible biggies' though." He uses his fingers to do the quotation marks.

I smile at him, grab his arm and drag him towards the spot the FS marked. The spot is empty except a ring of red stones. "Weird." I mutter to myself. "Amber, we're here. Where are they?"

"Uh Micky, their gone." Amber sounds as confused as I feel.

"What do you mean gone?"

"I mean their completely gone. No heat signatures, no movement. Nothing."

"How many people are in the town?" I begin to pace. How can forty five people simply disappear?

"Micky, there ain't no one in the town!!" Amber's freaking out. I want to as well but for the team, I can't.

"Okay okay, just, everyone stay calm. We're coming back to the plane. Check the FS maybe it's playing up?"

Declan looks at me weirdly while we walk through the deserted village. "What?" I stop and turn to him.

"You know the FS, let alone any of our tech, never plays up."

I sigh and continue walking again. "I know Dec, I know."

Amber once again shoves the FS in my face when I get back on board. "Micky I've checked it multiple times now and nothing, literally nothing is wrong with it."

I grab the FS and have a quick look at it. Ambers right, it's perfectly fine. I pass the FS to Declan's out stretched hands. "Okay guys, there's nothing we can do now, so let's just get back to the homestead and work it out then.

~~~~~~

I flop onto one of the couches in the lounge. Declan and Amber are in there too since the planes on auto pilot.

"Any word? No more unexpected calls from Paul or anyone?" Declan asks straight away.

I shake my head and smile as reassuringly as I can. " Nah, but I wasn't expecting them to. Are you two okay though? Calm as cucumbers?"

"Oh hahaha, like I wasn't always a calm cucumber." Ambers voice drips of dryness.

"I wasn't freaking out that much." Declan mutters.

"Oh so-" I get interrupted by all of our phones going off at the same time.

"What the-" Declan grabs his phone and looks at the caller ID, it's Paul. In seconds Amber and I have our phones out. Their all reading Paul as the caller.

"So who's gonna answer it?" Amber whispers.

I take a deep breath and put mine on speaker. "Paul?" I slowly ask.

The message comes loud and clear, very clear, "homestead is compromised, I repeat, homestead is compromised."

~~~~~~~~~

A/N:

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