Chapter 44 Toolbox

Alpha Connor

Omega 41's camp was a couple of miles away from the border of our pack's territory. I've had my Gamma and his boys patrol this area, day in and day out, making sure there weren't more, just in case the rogue wasn't working alone.

My Gamma flags down my pickup as I approached the gate of our fence which exits to the area where the rogue's camp is located.  I stop in front of him and he opens the passenger door and climbs in, then motions to the men to open the gate so we can pass through. He yells at them to keep a lookout while we search the rogue's campsite.

"Alpha, we're monitoring a small group of unknowns about three clicks west from here." My Gamma points to the west.

"How many?" That was fast. Apparently One had a network of rogues. You kill one, more of them sprout out like a bunch of weeds.

"Five. There is a woman with them. It seems they're masking their scent. We can't smell if they're wolf or not." Damn the mage who makes that shit and damn the Council of Wolves for not apprehending him. It's been really hard to separate the rogues from the humans. We always had to be very careful. I didn't want to harm humans especially when they didn't do anything to hurt us.

"How long have they been camping out there?" I make a sideways glance at him.

"They just got there about an hour ago." Timeline fits. "But we think they've been staying within the vicinity for a while. They seem to be familiar with the area."

"Tell the boys to keep an eye on them. I spoke to their leader about an hour ago. He might've sent them after I killed Omega 41."

"Omega 41?! These assholes use numbers to name themselves?" I felt my Gamma's head turn as he glanced towards me. I nodded my answer.

"Their leader calls himself ONE. I spoke to him a while ago. Did you know they have phones as small as a credit card? We heard a phone ringing and fished out this really small phone off the rogue. As of the moment, the men are trying to get all the information they can from the phones we got off the three who were following Athena and Matt is working on the two phones of Omega 41." I glance at his direction and I see him nod his head. I didn't see anything else in his reaction which could cause me to suspect him of being the traitor. I actually didn't think he would be the traitor knowing his mate was killed by the asshole named One.

"Alpha, we can park under that tree. His camp is over there near the bushes." My Gamma points at an old oak tree.

I park beside the tree and my Gamma jumps out of the pickup and walks over to the bushes, crouching. I do the same and situate myself beside him and peer over the bushes. We had to see if the coast was clear. You could never be too sure when dealing with rogues.

"Alpha, I'll go first and check if it's clear for you to come out." He walks through the bushes, into the rogue's campsite and sticks his head inside the rogue's tent. He suddenly pops out his head, gagging. "Shit, this tent smells horrible!" He pulls out a knife from his pocket and cuts through the wall of the tent, making an opening so the tent could air out. "It smells like something died in here!" He backs away, fanning the stench away from his face.

I walk out into the open, sniffing the air to make sure no one was close by. Judging by my Gamma's reaction to the tent's smell, I cover my nose with my scarf, bend down to enter the tent and walk inside the small wall tent.

I crouch in the center of the tent and scan the interior. It was filthy and even if I had my scarf to cover my nose, I could still smell the putrid stench. I start taking some of his things outside, laying them in the snow, hoping the snow would at least help wash away the smell that was sticking onto his belongings. He had a lot of stuff for a rogue who was always on the run. I guess he felt comfortable here. We didn't touch him because he never went inside our territory until today.

At the back of his tent was a huge toolbox. This wasn't just any toolbox. It was big, the kind you can put some of your power tools if your power tools didn't have a case of their own.

"Poke a hole and cut through the tent right there and take out that toolbox," I ordered my Gamma. While he was busy doing that, I found a travelling bag near his makeshift bed and open it. I was surprised to see his clothes were washed and folded neatly. I look around the tent to see if he had any dirty laundry anywhere. He didn't. He must have been planning to move camp elsewhere.

"Aw, gawddammit!" I hear my Gamma say a bit too loudly and I glance over him. He had already gotten the toolbox out of the tent and had opened it. I could see from where I was crouching through the opening my Gamma had cut open that a bunch of insects were flying near the toolbox. I didn't have to figure out where the foul smell was coming from inside the tent anymore. The odor coming from the contents of the toolbox told me we had found the source. "This rogue is one sick bastard! Oh gross! There are maggots crawling inside this one finger." My Gamma runs behind a tree and throws up. My Gamma usually has the stomach for really disgusting stuff so this must be worse than the usual disgusting. I gut up and prepare myself for something really horrid to look at.

I walk over to the toolbox and look down to find fingers and thumbs of all shapes, color and sizes, neatly arranged from the one that was decomposed the most to the most recent. There were maggots crawling all around and the stench was horrible. I counted about fifty fingers and thumbs and found many valuables at the bottom of the toolbox as well. Most of them were phones, tablets and some were jewelry. I even found an expensive watch. All of the things inside the toolbox were anything of value that could be pawned.

"Must be from the folks who go camping at that campsite about several clicks from here." My Gamma wipes the sweat from his face and wipes his mouth. He still looked a bit green and didn't come near the toolbox. "Unfortunately, my men and I can't patrol further from them rocks over yonder, Alpha." My Gamma was right. The thumbs and fingers were from people who visited the campsite in the park several miles away from our border. I didn't have jurisdiction over the area, but I knew who did. It's strange though. I have never heard of people go missing from that park.

"Well, the sheriff has jurisdiction in those parts including the forest ranger and his deputies. I better notify the sheriff. If there have been cases of people who have gone missing well then, their families can now have some closure. It's strange though. Wouldn't have anyone heard if people, I mean fifty people, had gone missing? How long has this rogue been in this area?" My Gamma puts his hands on his hips, looks up in the sky and squints, trying to remember when he was first spotted.

"Alpha, he's been seen around this area for three years give or take. There was one rogue before him who stayed around that length of time too, but disappeared a month before this one showed up at our doorstep."

"Fifty people in three years? That would make it roughly around 16 people a year. And I'm guessing he took off their thumbs to hack into their phones. What if one or two thumbs represented mom and dad? This means there might be children involved in the massacre.  I would say he probably killed roughly around twenty to thirty people a year. That's too many people going missing without a warning from the sheriff or the forest ranger. Something here doesn't add up." I walk over to his travelling bag and dump the clothes on the ground. Omega 41 wouldn't be needing them anyway. Then I put the phones, gadgets, jewelry and watches inside the bag. These could be used to identify some of the victims and could be returned to their families after.

"Grab a garbage bag from the pickup, will you? I need to secure this toolbox with the thumbs and fingers inside it so we can identify these victims and maybe find their bodies. I'm hoping we can provide some closure to their families." Damn. Apparently, this rogue and maybe some of his buddies did a lot of killing without even causing alarm. I really need to get to the bottom of this. I'll call the Sheriff later after I get all these into the territory.

My Gamma and I had already wrapped the toolbox in a garbage bag, ready to bring with us on the pickup, when my phone starts ringing. I take it out of my pocket to see who it was. It was my Beta. He probably had some news on the traitor. I answer it.

"Alpha, I have a lead on our traitor. Good thing I found it right away, but you aren't going to like hearing who it might be." I hear him sigh. It meant someone we trusted.

"Surprise me."

"Seems the Sheriff's number is in Omega 41's contact log. The Sheriff called Omega 41 around the time Athena was on her way to the territory."

"Damn. I asked the Sheriff to come to the bar after Athena called me wanting to meet. Just for added security. He grabbed a coffee from the bar and seated himself at the table a few feet away from us." Dammit! He was listening in on our conversation. However, I'm guessing he wasn't able to hear where Lucas was located. If he did, One wouldn't need to call Omega 41 for more information. I shake my head in disbelief. Why would the Sheriff be in league with these rogues?!

Made perfect sense though. No one has heard about killings around this area, not even me. Usually when people end up missing or dead, I usually get a report from the Sheriff. I have heard nothing for the past 3 years. And the rogues seem to be confident enough to enter my territory. Well, it's time I haul his ass in.

"What do you want me to do, Alpha?"

"Find out where he is. We're going to pay him a visit."