Hunters moon

17: Staging a coup

"All who follow her, is my enemy" Naledi said lifting the pistol to Quintin's head, he held his arms up.

"But! I don't even know whats going on!! You're not telling me anything!?"

"As I said, you must find out for yourself, but I've changed my mind, if you're going to be one of her pawns! Rather die now!" Naledi yelled and squeezed the trigger, the weapon 'clicked' Quintin flinched.

"What!?" She thought maybe it wasn't loaded, Naledi hacked the rear sites against her waist and racked it down, now! It should be loaded! She lifted again and fired, but 'click'

The three soldiers who were quiet this whole time burst out with laughter.

"Oh the drama!" Frits said japping.

"You really think we'd give a drunk kid a loaded weapon?" Koos asked "I saw you aim that weapon at me this morning inside the Ratel, we took those bullets out when this Quintin started pretending to be a wild west gunman inside that Ratel last night already"

Naledi groaned loudly "You bastards! No wonder none of you cared if I carried this thing!"

"Of course sussa, were not fokkin stupid you know" 

She threw the weapon down "f**k!"

"Listen Naledi, I'm a reasonable person, I don't know what the history of that Kyle was, but I was a homeless bum sleeping on the streets until Cleopatra took me in, but besides that, I was homeless and parent less.

Aged fifteen my parents were killed by werewolves, and no one believed me when I told them that" Quintin said, but she just glared at him.

"Tell me the whole story, why you hate her so much, if you can give me a valid reason to dislike her, maybe we can stage a coup"

"A coup?"

"Maybe I can go through with that experiment, but instead aid you against Cleopatra?"

Naledi's rage faded from her face, it was a glimmer of hope, to Quintin's surprise a smile appeared.

"Since the dawn of Egypt, Cleopatra was up to no good, she grew her pack by biting humans, and used them to build the pyramids. Think to yourself, today people say they don't know how they did it in those days.

Scientists say hauling giant blocks like that must have cost a lot of man power, and technology that didn't exist in that time... But a massive work crew of werewolves could do it"

Quintin's eyes grew "But you said it's illegal to turn humans in the first place, how did she manage to have such a large pack of turned wolves and manage it?"

"She had help from her mate, his name is Akmah-ra, and he's the most powerful werewolf in existence"

"You say 'is' But Cleopatra said her mate died a long time ago"

"That's another lie kiddo, Akmah-ra is still alive, and he's sleeping inside the main pyramid, in an undiscovered chamber only she knows how to get to"

"Asleep?"

"They call it the Mummification hibernation, and every full moon he's asleep there, his power grows"

Quintin scratched his head "Why? Would he want to get stronger? And how?"

"You've seen how the pyramids are shaped right? It's infused with lunar limestone, a type of element only a very skilled Anubis like Ra and Cleopatra can make, this limestone draws energy from the moon, and channels it inward to the center of the pyramid, where Akmah-ra is absorbing it, one day when the time is right, he will awaken..."

"And then?"

"World war two saw Hitler attempt to conquer the world, Akmah-ra will start world war three, and Cleopatra meanwhile is building an army, so secretive, she fooled everyone she met so far, even you Quintin, it's like a game to her by now"

His heart skipped, he's been part of her foul plan all this time.

"Fokkit!" Koos said suddenly "Then I'm calling an airstrike on that pyramid first chance I get!"

"No! If you do that he'll awaken, and trust me, nothing, no weapons currently in existence, and no warrior currently living can stop him"

"But the longer we wait the stronger he gets right?"

"Yes, but technology advances every day, rapidly, in due time there will be a weapon, or even a warrior will surface to rival him. But for now we must focus on Cleopatra"

Koos grunted and folded his arms.

"The main goal they have is to rule the world, as they ruled Egypt, they got a taste of that royalty, and wanted more, but they are being held back by the werewolves and their laws.

This is why on the next moon, thanks to my pack now gone, nothing stops Cleopatra from killing the rest of the werewolves" Naledi laughed softly "It was all her doing, her game, she was the one who spread the word to all the packs about the Okavango Delta being the perfect habitat for werewolves, but the real reason she wanted them to come, was to ultimately have them all in one place so she could get rid of them easier, I knew this from the beginning, and vowed to stop her, but I have failed"

"How do you know so much about her plans? But it seems the other werewolves are oblivious to it?" Koos asked, Quintin was silent in thought.

"Because... The Anubis, the Dephiri, and the Nyathi packs were three of the four ruling packs of Africa, the two hyena clans ruled south of the equator, the two wolf packs north, but the peace between us was only upheld by trading valuable assets in the packs, and I was one of those assets. My mother being the Queen, gave me up as a gift, a hyena princess"

"So you were royalty?" Quintin asked.

"Not in the way you think, hyenas don't have ranking systems like wolves, we have the leader called the matriarch, or the Queen, and only those born from her were to rule the clan"

"What about the other hyenas then?"

"All equal, lower only to the queen, and with your exceptional runt in the far back"

"So... What do you mean by 'gave you as a gift?' You mean like a slave?"

"No, only the 'royal' hyenas could sift into normal hyenas during daytime, I was told to do so, and be Cleopatra's f*****g guard dog, she forced me to kill so many innocent people I got sick of myself, I saw myself only as this thing, a f*****g animal, nothing more"

Silence fell around them, they all knew why she was as rough as sandpaper now, her past was no treat.

"Ok, I'll help you, but Naomi stays out of it"

"No! Naomi is her right hand! She must also die! Otherwise she'll just continue what Cleopatra started, if we somehow kill her"

"And if I can convince her to join us against Cleopatra?"

Naomi chuckled "Oh you fool, Naomi really did a number on you didn't she? She's been at Cleopatra's side longer than you're living so far, what makes you think she'll break her decades of loyalty after just a short time with you!? It was all a hoax Quintin! Wake up!"

Quintin didn't know if he should be angry or heartbroken, from the beginning he told himself; why trust werewolves? Now he realised he should have listened to himself, it worked for five years hasn't it? He kept himself alive, no one helped him.

"Very well, I'll do it, But I'm still not sure about Naomi, she has a good heart, if she doesn't want to join us, I'll take care of it myself"

Naledi grunted "Fine by me"

"Now, I need to get into contact with a guy named Doctor Ezbar, he's the one who will implement the last steps of the hunter project, and I bet you, if I tell him your story Naledi, he'll agree to it as well" Quintin said turning to Koos "Whats your opinion General?"

Koos shrugged "I guess we can help you as far as we can, tell me more about this Ezbar fellow?'

"He's a smart guy, he designed practically all of the weapons you and the police use"

"He designed them hey?"

"Yup"

"Interesting, I'd like to meet him, we'll come with you"

Quintin smiled and looked at Naledi, she also had a smile.

"Before we go, I'd like a talk with my men, if you don't mind?" Koos said and walked off with Piet and Frits.

A good distance away Koos turned to his men and lit a cigarette "You thinking what I'm thinking boys?"

"Monsters, helping monsters, to defeat monsters..." Frits said.

"What if it gets out of hand? It won't be hard to miss a battle like that" Piet said.

"Exactly, but my question is, what if the final standing monster isn't on our side? We have to do something" Frits said.

"How?" Piet asked.

"Easy" Koos said "Were going to go into a bit of weapons development ourselves, if we can get to Ezbar, and get the blueprints for the weapons we have here, we can maybe change them, make them better"

"Good idea, I've had a lot of ideas to upgrade your average Ratel with better targeting tech, but I need the blueprints to see how it works first before I can do that" Frits said.

"Perfect, and I'm thinking of adding some guns on it, you've seen how fast those hyenas where? And they say werewolves are faster. So we need something that fires faster as well... And, I'm thinking of a second turret at the back, to sort out that problem of freely firing backwards being hindered by the position of the front turret"

"It's going to be tricky" Frits said.

"As we agreed Frits if we can get the blueprints, it might be possible"

Frits nodded and looked at Piet, "Any ideas Piet?"

"Of course, if I can get my hands on those papers, I can upgrade it's armour, it's power, it's drive terrain, ride height, manoeuvrability! Fok! I can make that thing tough enough to stand up to a main battle tank!"

The two with him nodded "Then it's agreed" Koos said "We take matters into our own hands from here on, we help those two up until we get the papers, then we fuckoff. The weapon I'm thinking of building eventually should be powerful enough to rock this planet to the core"

Back at the Ratel Koos jumped onto the top hatch when Piet and Frits jumped inside.

"Ok ladies and gentleman, form here we go to 1SAI base, there we will refuel, reload, and restock. We can also get a satellite phone for you to use Quintin" Koos said.

"What about me?" Naledi asked.

"I think you can hide in the Ratel while we sort things out"

"I'm glad you can help Koos" Quintin said, thinking if they could put up such a fight, they'd be valuable allies to have.

"I have to check with my superiors first but I don't think they'll have a problem" Koos said looking at Frits, Frits nodded and looked at Piet, who also nodded. What they are planning might be a crime against the state, even AWOL, but if they don't, no one will.

The Ratel shook as it started then drove off, Frits rechecks the satellite computer "Keep heading south Piet"

"Copy"

Koos climbed out the hatch, they were about to cross a stream when he slapped the roof "Wait, stop here"

Piet brought the Ratel to a stop, Koos climbed down and looked at Frits, still red of blood, the inside of the Ratel also "I guess we should wash this thing hey?"

"f*****g please!" Quintin yelled making them laugh.

"Lilly liver" Naledi said.

"Hey! At least it's not my blood this thing is covered in!"

For at least an hour the group set out to clean the Ratel, Piet parked it in the stream and they all took cloths washing it. Frits got out of the bloody uniform and after cleaning himself dressed in his backup.

Soon they were in their way back to the camp, approaching it Naledi looked through a peek hole, the entire camp brown as the ground it stood on, dust covered each tent and vehicle signifying the long years it stood there "So this is a SANDF camp?"

"Home sweet home" Frits said smiling.

"What do you mean? You do have a house in your country right?"

"Nope" Frits looked at Koos "You Koos?"

"Never thought of that, but no, both me and Frits were here since the beginning, twenty years now, you Piet?"

"Twenty years as well, but my dad has a farm in the Karoo, you guys can crash there after the s**t is over" Piet said.

"You guys can't be serious!?" Naledi asked "You haven't been to your country in twenty years!? What about your parents?"

"Passed away about eleven years ago" Koos said.

"My dad passed away when I was fifteen, my mother about two years ago" Frits said.

"And you didn't return to go bury them?"

"The army looked after that for us, we have a duty here on the border, and want to see this s**t through to the end" Koos said and slapped the Ratel again.

"Ok Frits, ratpacks and tech, I'll reload the weapons then go talk to the SM, Piet, you refuel the Ratel"

"Copy"

"Copy"

The three men jumped out, leaving Quintin alone with Naledi.

"Twenty years... What kind of person did you become? If you're so focused on a war, that you can't even go to your deceased parent's funeral?" Quintin gasped.

"I'm, not really sure, can you even still call them human?" Naledi answered.

"You think they can be normal if they go back to society?"

"I doubt"

"How long has your war been going on?"

Naledi sighed and sat back "About six years now"

"So we all had our struggle hey?" He said and she nodded.

It wasn't a long wait when Koos jumped in with an ammo crate, he set off to reload the twenty millimeter cannon, then disposed of the hundreds of discharged shells lying around his position in the Ratel, as he jumped out Frits jumped in and placed another crate in the back, then handed Quintin a satellite phone "Here Frikkie, you can call your doctor so long, remember to tell him everything" Quintin nodded and took it.

As he dug out the piece of paper containing Ezbar's number, they heard Koos climb up the back and restock the belt ammunition of the fifty caliber.

"Ezbar hello?"

"Doctor it's Quintin"

"Quintin!! Holy s**t boy you're still alive!"

"Give me that phone!" Quintin heard someone yell in the background, there was a struggle then Naomi came on "Quintin!!"

"Naomi, it's good to hear your voice"

"I can't believe you're ok, I was worried sick!" She yelled, he could hear she was crying. Quintin's heart sank, what was he supposed to do? Listen to her, she was really crying. Naledi came and held her ear close to the phone, she heard the sobs.

"How are you doing?" He asked, she struggled to swallow her tears.

"I'm doing fine, I wanted to tell you something"

"Yes?"

"I ranked up, I'm an Amarok now, you should see the things I can do"

Quintin looked at Naledi, her eyes wide, she stood back shocked.

"I'd like to see that, if you don't mind?"

"Of course not silly, I'll show you everything"

"That's great, let me talk to Ezbar quickly"

"Ok... I... I love you"

"Love you too"

Before Ezbar could answer he pressed the mute button on the phone "What do I say Naledi? Do I have the blood or not?"

"Tell him you have it!" She quickly said.

He unmuted the phone "Hello?"

"Oh, thought I lost you there son?"

"I have the blood doctor, I'll be heading back soon"

"Brilliant! How will you be coming?"

"I made some new friends, they said they'll give me a lift, but firstly doc I need to speak to you where no one can hear you talk?"

"That's fine, the whole group of girls rushed out here to go celebrate your safety, I'm alone now"

"Good"

Quintin proceeded to tell Ezbar everything Naledi has told him.

"I want to know if you will help me still become the new wolf, so I can try and stop Cleopatra, and please, for no reason must you tell Naomi"

Quintin could hear Ezbar get up and start scuffling with papers and computers.

"I knew something was off, I just knew it, I'm in, but I need to get out from under the noses of these wolves, I'll be heading to my other labs I was secretly building for in case something like this happened, I'll text the coordinates to this number you're phoning from now, see you soon Quintin"

"Thank you doctor, I was hoping you'd agree with me"

"Yes, above all else Quintin, we are still human"

"Good luck doctor, be careful"

The phone beeped and Quintin looked at Naledi's worried face.

"I take it this is bad"

"She's an Amarok now?"

"Yes, that's my fault, I socialized with her a lot in that week, and we even slept with each other, Cleopatra said that was practically the last step she needed to rank up"

Naledi looked at him "Well, that means there is good news and bad news"

"f**k, bad news first please"

"It means Naomi will lead the pack on the next full moon, no Amaroks are allowed but she's newly ranked so she's allowed"

"But does that mean she's still weak?"

"Yes and no, weak against a well aged dire, strong in terms of the fact that she can now use the sand shadow element, it's damn dastardly to fight against it, and a shitty way to die"

Quintin swallowed hard "Sand... shadow?"

"It's a mix of the earth element, and the shadow element, the Anubis call it black sand"

"This is f****d up! If I go as that new wolf! I wasn't expecting to go up against an Amarok so soon!?"

"And that's where the good news come in" She sighed "Hopefully"

"Ok?"

"The only way she could have ranked up after being with you, is if she truly does love you, you can't fake loving someone, or nothing will happen"

Quintin felt his heart warm up "So there's a chance I can get her on our side?"

"I'm not sure Quintin, through the years the Anubis clan were very skillful at fooling people, to such an extent that they can even succeed at doing what Naomi did, and then afterwards wipe you off their list like it's nothing"

The three soldiers jumped back into the Ratel just as the text message came onto the phone, Quintin gave the coordinates to Frits and they drove off. Quintin hoped the part of Naomi not fooling him was true, he really loved that woman.

It took them two days to reach Ezbar's labs, the Ratel had a long range tank, but driving across the whole of Namibia was a stretch for it, they had to fill it up with the reserve fuel, then stop at a gas station that was slightly off radar before they approached the location. Quintin got the satellite phone out again and rang Ezbar up.

"Were approaching the coordinates doc"

"Good, I'm ready for you"

"Where's Cleopatra and the other girls?"

"They left about a day ago, they didn't tell me were they went, I used that opportunity to come to my new labs"

"Ok, I understand"

"I see you on the cameras, find a bush to hide the Ratel, then come to that thick bush in front of you now" Ezbar said. Quintin stood up and looked out Piet's window "There, that bush is the entrance, park it somewhere"

"Shap" Piet said veering out of it's way.

They approached the bush and found the hatch door underneath it, that led to an underground stairwell that went down about one story until they reached a steel door, Quintin wanted to knock but Ezbar opened it.

"You made it" He said shaking Quintin's hand, then scanned the group, his eyes fell on Naledi's face, making him blink.

"What!?" She asked loudly.

"Uh nothing! Please follow me!"

As they walked in, Ezbar cleared his throat "I'm doctor Ezbar everyone, mind introducing yourselves?"

"I'm Koos, this is Piet and Frits, the lady is Naledi"

Ezbar stopped in his lab "To what do I owe the honor of standing in front of aah... A General, a Captain, and a Lieutenant?" He asked recognising their insignia.

"They were the one's who helped me out doc, if it wasn't for them, I'd be dead now" Quintin said.

"Yes, and I was the one who almost killed him" Naledi said, making Ezbar frown.

"Uuh, you sure do know how to make friends son, mind explaining to me how your potential killer, and saviours are standing with you in the same room?"

Quintin smiled "Ezbar, this is Naledi Diphiri, the leader of her clan"

"What!?"

"I used to be, until I had a run in with these men"

"Used to be?"

"They killed my entire clan, and as you can see, almost killed me" Naledi said pointing at her face.

"They did that to you!?" He yelled looking at the men, who just smirked.

"And you're friends now?"

"A mutual agreement" Koos said.

"But... But... How?"

"I got shot point blank with a Ratel's twenty cannon, it hurt like f**k!" Naledi said.

"And your clan!?"

"The first three quarters of my clan were shot up with artillery, the last few got killed by them using the Ratel standing outside"

Ezbars face went from confused to stunned.

"It's! It's not possible! Ratels are agile yes, but to be able to achieve such a feat! That's unheard of!"

"Well you heard it from the horse's mouth doc" Koos said "We were running our asses off, nearly s**t in our pants a few times, but managed to survive her onslaught"

Ezbar looked at Naledi "And how can you even be in their company after that?"

"They saved me from dying, and now they owe me"

"Owe you?" Koos asked.

"Yes! I told you you i***t!"

"Yes... I remember, but we haven't agreed upon anything just yet"

"Pff" Naledi hissed.

"This is fascinating, it seems that its true what they say, if you give a weapon to the right person, you really can achieve amazing things" Ezbar said.

"On the topic of weapons doc, you say you designed them right?" Koos asked.

"Yes, yes I do, so you can understand how proud I am to know you three used it so well"

"Thanks doc, so tell me, you have the blueprints for all the weapons you design right?"

"Yes of course, the companies who do the actual manufacturing of the weapons only has copies, but I have the originals safely with me"

Koos smiled "That's good... Piet! Frits!" Koos yelled and the three men lifted their weapons.