THE BEGINNING:CHAPTER XX:HIDEOUT

The black limo was securely parked by the driver in front of an old cathedral situated in the deep dark jungle under the waning crescent illuminating some part of crisp snowfield on the grass beside it which have been deserted for a very long time by the parishioners living near the area. The two hefty men alighted the vehicle from the back door on the dusty pavement that stretches forth to four concrete steps paving a middle passageway through the snowfield and held the black door for their leader to come outside together with Simon, his sidekick who followed behind his master heading towards the four slab stairs protected by gnarled phloxes on both flanks leading to the closed gates which was unlocked from the inside by another servant while the driver drove away with the black limousine back to his master's mansion in the city.
"Greetings milord, the other pack leaders have been waiting for you inside the inner chambers with their minions . Allow me to escort you inside to where they are all gathered awaiting your arrival", Small, the other servant, said to his master and opened the wooden doors wide enough for Sermond to enter into the dark hall where eroded pues array themselves on the right and left side of the hall allowing a straight path towards the old sanctuary with Simon as well as his hefty guards walking behind him to another door on the left angle beside the communion barricade leading them to secret passage behind the altar. Small accompanied the alpha dog descending down the old staircases along with the three entourage following behind them into a corridor, brightly lighted with flaming torches on either side of the wall which took them to a large sealed door after walking through several turns underneath the old church building. Small instantly pushed opened the door using his right fist giving the entourage behind him access to their main domain revealing other district leaders who stood up with respect as Sermond venture straight to his high seat with splendor exhibiting his natty black suit and his golden wristwatch that resplendently shone in the pale light amidst a large crowd headed by seven district leaders waiting for him to have his high seat above three stone slabs before resting their impatient butts on the soft chair while their minions remain standing behind their backs below the leader of the Sao clan. An insignia of five long werewolf talons under a red crescent boldly printed on a blue drapery, dangled loosely behind Sermond from above covering the eroded concrete wall that had survive for twelve centuries despite being erected underground with little sunlight touching its concrete skin.
"You can all have your seat. We have to listen to the message chief Sheridan sent to us before we can move onwards to begin our grand masterplan", Sermond said beckoning all of his subordinates to sit down with his right hand after taking his black seat slightly above the heads of his pack and they obeyed him and sat down facing each other in oppositie direction preparing their ears for the report that will be pass to the pack by Simon Cross.
"Come out and speak!". Sermond ordered Simon who stood beside him on the raised platform enabling him to see the hairy heads of his brothers.
"Thank you master. Chief Sheridan told me to deliver a message to us all from the mayor concerning the aftermath of the secret mission we ordered right here to deal with one of their congressman who was trying to expose our grand plan using one of our new biotech assassin to snuff his life out including his family. As you all know, the mission was a success as shown in the GBS daily news how the aircraft which our target boarded with his family from the city airport to Greaves crashlanded around the mountains area of the remote region of the flights destination and although there were some loopholes in our usual routine objectives to clean our tracks from being discovered by the investigation team, according to the mayor he has succeeded in removing every last trace of our involvement in the crime scene using Chief Sheridan and his men in the police force to take care of dead bodies especially our target and the dead bio assassin", Simon finished his speech and retired to his little seat beside his master.
"What were those loopholes boy?", one of the seven district leaders named Camonda questioned indignantly with a horrible gaze at Simon who got up from his seat in utter trepidation responding quickly to the question.
"There were some lapses initially caused by three security agents which have been taken care of by Chief Sheridan and his men. These agents almost figured out our involvement in the case but were caught redhanded in the morgue where the dead bodies were trying to examined the dead corpse of John Seagull", Simon replied trying to hold off the harsh stare of all the eyes present in the underground cell.
"And any idea of their identity or who they might be to have free access to the dead bodies in the morgue?", another district leader named Martins inquired,
"Yes, I know who they are. Steven Raymond and Jim Jonas, two renowned agents from a NAS district in Greaves while the other named Joe is from FABS whose identity was squeezed out of his mouth after undergoing torture and severe beating. Chief Sheridan almost jeopardize our efforts by contacting the NAS agency through the media but the mayor came to our rescue by enacting a restraining order that refrained the other agencies from partaking in the investigation", Simon explained again.
"Damn that policeman, what the hell was he thinking when he tried to lend a helping hand to the NAS agency who would have figured out strange occurrence that led to crash thereby, thwarting our efforts to make the incident look like the pilot's fault the airplane crashlanded", a queer fellow sitting beside Camonda as one of the district head name Mario spoke out,
"Apparently, the police had recovered the lifeless body of a NAS agent from the wreckage along with other dead corpse which must have prompted him to inform the agency about it to cover his tracks as well. He probably knew the mayor will issue a restraining order to prevent the NAS agency in Greaves to join the police in order to perform a joint investigation", Simon explained further looking quite confidence of his calibre to inform his brothers of every recent news spreading around the surface.
"But there must have been some casualties during the flight, how the Sheridan clean the claw marks on the bodies of the dead passengers?", Camonda asked feeling curious to know what had happened.
"He told me that he had them cremated including our biotech assassin to erase evidence of our existence after he caught the agents trying to examine the corpses along with the Doctor in charge of the postmortem operations", Simon said peering at them.
"And did he also told you what he did to the two NAS agents and the undercover agent from FABS afterwards?", Sermond asked glaring hard at Simon indignantly having nursed his rage the entire time he was conveyed to their meeting spot.
"Well....he didn't tell me about it even when I asked him what happened",Simon replied feeling evermore dreadful of the bloodshot eyes of his master peering hard at his face.
"You will deliver a message to Sheridan personally from me in order for him to complete his task of ripping out potential dangers to our cause or else he will face the consequences of his actions of having his head removed, do you hear me?", Sermond thundered angrily.
"Yes.....m..aster, I'll... do what you ask", Simon answered looking at him and sat down quietly in order to rest his trembling feet.
"Now that we are done with our target that obscured our path to more success, we should move forward with next plan with the mayor to ship in our new toys from Greaves which will benefit us immensely. Camonda, how many bio-wolfs can be shipped into the city for the next couple of years?", Sermond inquired from his subordinate head of his pack in Greaves.
"Master, we could cover a span of twenty years with an annual shipments of fifty bio-wolfs to the city to uplift the clan using the mayor's cargo ship as camouflage", Camonda replied looking at them.
"But master, will he be pleased if he finds out we are smuggling his precious new weapon from his hidden scientific facility under the ocean into the city for our benefit rather than championing his cause to upsurp the government completely with help of his bioweapon?", Martins asked feeling worried about the secret operations that might hinder their partnership with the government.
"Meshach, leave that greedy bastard for me to handle. He thinks he must have hit the jackpot using our wolf brothers for his selfish gains even when the Lyoana clan turned down his parasitic offer, he is still full of himself showcasing his magnanimous attitude in front of our transformed brothers like originally owns them. Alright, we just have to tread carefully from now on so that our plan won't get exposed to the public like our dead target tried to achieve before he met his untimely demise", Sermond said feeling relieved from his worries which started to engulf him once after he landed in the city few hours ago from Vinewood with his family.
"Master, should we still keep an eye on the Lyoana clan who seem too quiet in their operations just in case our next shipments arrive in the next couple of days?", Benson question trying find out if he should cease spying on their archrivals by fate.
"Yes of course, they shouldn't be under estimated even though they aren't really a threat to our dealings right now. And more importantly, two of our new toys were slain by an elite advocate here in Summervile who I believe must have been spying on our operations, so keep a close watch on them when the shipments arrives", Sermond said getting up from his seat and was about to adjourned the gathering before departing to his mansion when Camonda spoke out.
"Master, I heard that you now have an heir that will lead the pack one day after we have all achieve our goal", Camonda said with an awkward smile across his face while standing up in preparation to end the meeting.
"Yes I almost forgot to mention about it to you all, his name is Leonardo and he was born in Vinewood four weeks before we flew back to Summervile ", Sermond said feeling quite happy of the good news.
"Congrats master. We hope there will be celebrations for us at your mansion for us to celebrate a new heir to our pack that have last for centuries", all his followers chorused loudly including the minons behind their backs.
"Yes, there will be a grand celebration this week in my estate and invitations will be given to our clients including the mayor. I hereby close this meeting and every one of you should return back to his quarters for us to begin our next objectives. Simon, call the driver to pick me up with my red Hyundai", Sermond said and stepping down from the platform while Simon followed him through the crowd whom waited for them to pass through before leaving the room empty.