The Winter Tyrant-Chapter 73: Third Party

Dean and Brooke sat there awkwardly for a few moments, neither of them truly knew what to say to one another. If it were true, if they had really known one another before all of this through their professional careers.

Then, well, honestly, they didn’t know how to react. As if the universe were perfectly in sync with their predicament, a knock resounded on the door and a voice followed.

"You two better not be doing what I think you’re doing!"

The sudden arrival of company forced Dean and Brooke to shelve this conversation for another time, and was a welcomed distraction. Allowing Dean to open the door and find both Katherine and Yuki standing there in their swimwear.

Dean had fulfilled his promise to Katherine, making her a proper swimsuit, something that was tasteful and respectable as per her instructions. And she stood next to Yuki in stark contrast to the young woman’s particularly bold sense of attire.

Brooke looked over at the two women, who shamelessly interrupted their moment while wearing such provocative outfits, and huffed in silence.

All the while, Yuki grabbed Dean’s hand and led him away from Brooke.

"Come on... You two have been speaking enough! We’re dying for a soak! It’s been too long!"

Katherine nodded silently in agreement, but her eyes were not focused on Dean, rather Brooke behind him, watching her every move like a hawk.

Dean finally relented and sighed heavily.

"Fine... give me a minute to get dressed, and then I’ll join you two."

He allowed them to exit through his balcony doorway and enter the hot tub, while he looked back at Brooke after grabbing his own swim trunks, headed towards his master bathroom as he prepared to change. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"You planning to join us?"

Brooke didn’t look over at Dean, instead she stood up and headed to the doorway. Her voice was quieter and calmer than the usual storm she conjured in their disagreements.

"No... I think I’m going to get some rest."

Dean did not pursue, he nodded silently before exiting. Getting changed before joining Katherine and Yuki in the hot tub built into his balcony.

For once, she didn’t argue, didn’t push, and didn’t try to force her place where it didn’t belong.

---

Zach was deep in the snow, his figure concealed beneath the white powder and the speckled evergreens that spired proudly above the snow line.

Beneath both his camouflage layered clothing and body armor, as well as the 3D mesh covering that helped him blend in further, he was virtually invincible to the men who stood a mere 15 meters away from him.

He lay prone, his rifle aimed directly at the hostiles. Or men he and the other peltasts had initially presumed were hostile.

However, as the men got off their snowmobiles, they climbed over to the ridge where they gazed through binoculars and rifle optics toward the foundry below. Their voices were hushed, but carried enough on the frigid wind for Zach to overhear.

"Fucking pricks, they attacked while I was out scavenging. Took my wife, Carrie, and my daughter, Marie.... Who the fuck knows what horrors they have suffered! I’ll kill them all if it’s the last thing I do!"

The man was accompanied by several other, their age groups, and backgrounds seemed completely varied. But they each held rifles still in their gloved hands.

"Calm down, Timothy, we know you’re hurting, we all are. But if there is any chance of getting our girls back, we have to be patient. We can’t just go in there guns blazing, there are too many of them!"

Zach slowed his breathing instinctively, controlling it the way he’d been taught. No sudden movements. No wasted motion. He lay prone beneath the netting, the pine, and the snow.

Concealed almost flawlessly as he reached his hand up slowly. So slowly it was almost imperceptible even to the most movement focused vision.

He touched the camera mounted to the top of his helmet and activated it before lowering his hand back to his weapon.

He wasn’t alone out here in the treeline. His fireteam was each hidden beneath deep coverage nearby. They had been sitting there for hours, watching, observing, and recording their enemies and their movements.

And all of a sudden, another group had found them. Zach couldn’t speak. The slightest noise could be enough to alert this third party to their presence.

But the mere fact that they had run into another group of survivors who were at odds with the bandits was perhaps the most important intelligence he and his fellow Peltasts had acquired throughout the last month of their deep patrols.

Eventually, the man whom his comrades had identified as Timothy twitched in just the right way that Zach had seen it before he had even begun to move.

"Don’t!" Zach called out, his voice hushed but loud enough to be heard by the men just a few meters away from them.

Timothy instantly hunkered back down and looked around for the source of the noise. His friends did too. That is until Zach emerged from the coverage with his rifle raised at the third party, crouched low enough to not be seen by the men in the foundry below.

Zach didn’t hesitate to end this Mexican standoff before it could escalate into something greater.

"If any of us shoot right now, we will be swarmed by an army of those fuckers... So I suggest we keep this nice and cool.... Lest we all end up dead. So let’s just lower our weapons and talk this out, alright?"

The third party didn’t know it, but Zach’s men had their weapons trained on them. If they even made the slightest sign of aggression, they would be dead before their fingers could pull the trigger.

As for Zach, he slowly lowered his weapon and pulled down his balaclava just enough to reveal that he was still a man.

Timothy and his friends looked at him completely in shock.

"Fucking Christ... He’s just a kid...."

Zach let this comment about his age slide and spoke calmly and carefully.

"Yeah... and this kid is the only help you’re going to get if you want to free your girls. So... did you guys actually have a plan, or were you going to let your friend here sprint headfirst into their defenses and get you all killed, and my position compromised?"

The men looked over at Timothy with accusatory glares. And he simply lowered his head in shame. And this was all the leverage Zach needed to figure out more about this third party and what their capabilities were.

"I say we get clear of the enemy’s perimeter and talk about this somewhere safer for all of us, huh?"

Nobody said a word, they simply packed up their stuff and headed out. Zach’s peltasts followed him from a safe distance. The third party was never aware that he wasn’t operating alone.