Chapter Text
(Continued from “Date Raked”)
Six months had passed with no apparent major outrage in the world. But there were plenty of minor skirmishes that they boys had to tackle. There were plenty of critters and monsters in the world to keep them occupied for some time. A particularly nasty battle with a vampire in New Orleans that was going by the nom de plume of Tepisch who delighted in taking his victims and spearing them through the midsection most of which died mercifully in moments but some it was found that he did ‘so artfully’ as they were told that he could keep a victim alive for hours. It was a grisly sight when they raided his cabin in the woods to find that several of the cypress and pine trees had been cut off about four feet above the ground and were gore spattered. For a brief moment Dean, Sam, Theo and Bobby were wondering if they actually were on the trail of the legendary Vlad Tepes, Vlad the Impaler, Dracula. But were satisfied at finding a third rate copy who was just sadistic.
Of actual demonic activity they had a few token possessions to sort out and some hauntings, but nothing like they’d had in the past. They’d amassed a considerable news database and were thankful that the assassination attempt of the governor of Arizona was successfully derailed by a new security detail that his office had just hired.
What concerned them slightly was that Crowley was keeping silent about all of this, he was getting his way to a degree and normally he would be crowing with delight over the turn of events but somehow he was being oddly reticent in making any noise at all.
It was their third day back from a Wendigo hunt in northern Florida that they got some little news which changed the entire picture for them. They were sitting around looking at their various monitors in the office and grousing.
“Bored, bored, boring, and not substantial enough.” Dean was griping, “Man the news is duller than dishwater right now.”
“Yeah not even a sign of anything unusual enough to be a worthwhile job.” Sam said his own level of frustration present.
Bobby entered the room then and looked around, “Well all I’ve found is a haunting over in Idaho. Beyond that the wire and newspapers are basically clean.”
“Which means that the other side is up to something.” Theo said voicing what they were thinking.
“I thought that dry spell we had a few years back was bad this is pitiful.”
Dean bitched. “Are you getting any updates from your angel kin?” Dean asked Theo.
“I told you no a dozen times, I’m sorry but there is no news coming down.” Theo said his ire rising.
“Well you don’t have to go all prissy on me about it.” Dean griped.
“Evidently I do because you’re not listening to what I’m saying.” Theo snapped.
“Now look you damn …”
“What Dean…you damn what?” Theo said standing and looking dangerous.
“You two cut it out right now. Jesus, can’t you see what this is doing to us!?” Sam said hotly.
Bobby in the meantime had backed up a pace or two when Theo stood, he didn’t know if Dean caught it but the boy’s hands were glowing with a holy light. Theo sat down looking away for a moment and then down. Dean looked back at his computer screen his face still livid.
“If we are just bitching like this at one another I wonder what’s happening in some of the really hot places on the map.” Dean wondered, then as an aside to Theo, “Sorry about that dude.”
“Me too.” Theo said turning back to his screen after several deep breaths.
So Theo started looking at some of the major hot spots and noticed a trend of growing violence in these areas but this was something best handled by the local authorities. They weren’t peace officers.
It was then that Sam looked at Bobby,”Exactly where in Idaho was that haunting located?”
“Mountain Home, it was a case of a military haunting from the accounts. There were some reports of machinery in a training section going suddenly haywire and hurting some people and then last week a sweep wing trainer chopped a guy in half. Kicker was the trainer was checked out before and after the incident and no quirks were noted.” Bobby said.
“Military huh, means getting special identifications worked up.” Dean said.
“Oh damn it boy. Here…” Bobby walked over to Theo’s computer punched up a search and pulled off the page for the base. He accessed the directory and flipped open his cell phone made a call.
“366th Training Division, Sergeant Myers speaking, be aware this is an unsecure line.”
“I thought you were still out there.” Bobby said with a smile into the phone.
“Uncle Bobby!” Came the reply.
“Hey boy, how’s the base treating you?”
“Pretty good, we’ve basically got my section shut down pending investigations.”
“Kyle, can y’all use my help?” Bobby asked.
Sgt. Kyle Myers laughed into the phone, “You still doing that?”
Bobby sniped back, “Boy I may be getting long in the tooth but I ain’t dead yet.”
“Didn’t mean that and you know it.” Kyle popped back. “I tell you what let me talk with my commander and I’ll give you a call back this afternoon, will that be okay?”
“Sure. You talk, I’ll pack.”
“You seem sure he’ll say yes,” Kyle said puzzled.
Bobby ran his fingers through his hair, “Boy when they run out of the logical to look at they’ll take the illogical in a heartbeat and something tells me that they are about at a breaking point.”
“So you’ve been reading the papers?” Kyle replied.
Bobby softened his tone a bit, “Yeah and it looks like your division is having too many problems. Tell him to give me a call. You got my number?”
“Sure you still at the same number aren’t ya?”
“Will be until I kick off.” Bobby said.
“Okay, I’ll give my boss a call when I hang up.”
“Good boy, I’ll talk with you later.”
“Ok Unc, good talking with you now.”
“Bye.” Bobby said concluding the call.
Dean looked at Bobby, “Well that was mighty convenient.”
“Wasn’t it just?” Sam said equally puzzled.
Bobby looked at them a moment, “My sister’s boy, I remembered he was in the Air Force and last Christmas in a letter she mentioned he’d been assigned to the Idaho base.”
They settled back and looked around for a moment then Dean stood, “It’s heating up for the day, I’m going to grab a cold one and go out on the porch for a short break.” Sam and Theo stood stretching out as well.
“Hold up we’ll join you.” Sam said but Theo held back a moment.
“If you want me to join you.” Theo said still grousing a bit over the near battle he and Dean got into.
“Come on prissy-britches, take a break.” Dean said good humouredly.
“I’ll prissy your britches.” Theo shot back.
“You kinky little bastard.” Dean returned.
Theo was close enough to grab a handful of Dean’s butt, “We’ll talk about kinky tonight.”
Bobby looked around. “Looks like the vote is unanimous, well hell I ain’t got nothing else planned for right now.”
Out on the back patio they sat around in the mid-day heat and drank on their beer and tried to ignore their boredom. Finally Dean stood, “Fuck this heat, I’m going to take a dip any takers?”
Pretty soon clothing was tossed indiscriminately as four men stripped down and got into the pool, Dean and Theo swam a few strokes, played around in the water a bit and nodded. “I may have to be bored but nothing says I have to be hot and bored.”
Sam, Dean, Theo and Bobby swam in different directions enjoying the cool of the water during the heat of the day. Bobby was sure that he was going to hear from the boy’s boss that he left his cell phone on the arm of the patio chair he was sitting in, so he wasn’t surprised when it went off.
“You gonna get that?” Dean asked.
Bobby shook his head, “Nope, they want me bad enough they’ll call back.” Bobby said splashing water at Dean who in turned splashed back which started a round of grab ass and other body parts in the pool.
They swam around for a while longer then got out and into the shade and dried off when Bobby’s phone started ringing.
“Hello?”
“Bobby Singer?”
“You got my name how about yours?” Bobby said puzzled.
“Colonel Graham Martin, your nephew tells me you might have some investigative experience we can use care to elaborate?”
“Not over the phone I prefer to conduct my business face to face. I can be out there in two days if you want to sit down over this.”
“Okay I’ll have my secretary slot you in for Friday at 3 will that give you enough time?”
“Yep” He clicked his phone shut and looked around at the others. “Get dressed and packed boys we got a job.”
“Finally!” Sam said gladly gathering up his clothing and starting for the house.
They met in the garage about an hour later, loaded up their gear and headed towards Idaho. Dean had taken the liberty to remove the more illicit weaponry and kept the shotgun with the rock salt rounds in along with some other items.
Bobby knew that they could make the drive in a day’s time but didn’t want to give the commander any lead time. They drove in shifts until coming up I-58 they saw the exit for Mountain Home, Idaho. Taking the exit the drove through picturesque subdivisions into the heart of the downtown area, after getting a few directions they grabbed rooms at the local Best Western and then Bobby made a call.
“Graham?”
“This is Colonel Martin.” The other voice said coolly.
“Bobby Singer here.”
“Mr. Singer good, how far out are you?”
“We’re at the Best Western in town you got time for us?”
“Us?” The commander asked.
“I work with a team, there are four of us and we’re family. We been training and doing investigations like this for over 40 years.”
“Come on up I’ll have my secretary slot you in.” He said with a touch of ire.
“Good.” Bobby said hanging up. “Good we got his back hair up, he’ll straight jaw us and not try to jerk us around.”
They piled into the car and drove the 12 miles out to the base, at the gate they were asked for ID, the car was searched for drugs, and luckily it was an inexpert search as they didn’t find the trap door in the trunk. The young Airman on the gate gave them general directions and they headed out on the main street into the base proper, turning right at the Wing Command building they drove by the BX and found a parking space. They piled out and entered the Training Command building.
It took them a few extra minutes to find the office but they did and were subsequently introduced to the commander. This Colonel Martin was a banty rooster in Bobby’s eyes, weighing in at about 150; he was 5’3” and tough as strung leather.
“You told me it would take you two days.” He griped.
“Colonel my boys were in town and I got them to help me drive it. Now let’s get down to business. You’ve had six unexplained deaths happen in this division over the last 3 months right?”
“Yes, we have but they’ve not been totally unexplained most are due to equipment malfunctions.”
“But Colonel what is causing the equipment to malfunction?” Sam asked. He looked at Sam whom he thought was as overgrown as Sam thought he was under grown.
“That has yet to be determined.”
“You’ve had the machinery gone over with a fine tooth comb.” Dean asked.
The commander nodded, “Yes, it all checks out mechanically sound, no tampering, and no failures in safeties.”
“But still you have the death, that’s what we can investigate, but you got to let me handle this my way.” Bobby said tightly.
“What way is that?” Graham said eyeing him distrustfully.
“Simple, I’ll investigate this thoroughly, I’ll check out possible causes that you’ve overlooked.”
“We overlooked nothing.” He said.
“Really have you tried looking beyond your solid logical answers to questions?” Sam said.
“Beyond logical…this is the kind of investigating you do.” Graham said, “You’ve wasted your trip and my time.” He said standing.
“Before or after these events you have periods of where some of your airmen are getting sick aren’t you?” Dean said looking squarely at the Colonel who now sat down.
“How’d you know about that?”
“Because what is causing this is doing something quite logical to it and illogical to you, and you want to throw away your only ticket in solving this problem, fine, we can drive back to South Dakota just as easy as we drove in.” Dean, Sam and Theo stood with Bobby staying seated for the moment, and then slowly he stood.
“Colonel.” Bobby said turning towards the door.
“Wait.” The colonel was leaning on his desk now, his face scarlet. “Ok, you haven’t bluffed in this card game so I’m calling, if you can do something do it.”
Dean nodded to the Colonel, “Fine, but we start tomorrow, we’ve been on the road all night and quite frankly boss, I whipped. So we rest, and tomorrow at 9am we start, just warn your crew and keep them out of our way.”
Bobby then looked at the Colonel, “And if you think of taking anything out of Kyle for calling me in you might want to think twice. You might want to think long and hard on the twice.”
“Is that a threat?” Graham said dangerously.
“It’s a warning.” Bobby answered coolly.