Genoskwa 5 blood mountai.., p.1
Genoskwa 5 : Blood Mountain, page 1
BLOOD MOUNTAIN
GENOSKWA
BOOK FIVE
HEATH STALLCUP
Copyright © 2025 by Heath Stallcup
All rights reserved.
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Printed in the U.S.A
Editing: Sheila Shed
Cover Art: Jeffrey Kosh Graphics
CONTENTS
AUTHOR’S Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
From the desk of Heath Stallcup
About the Author
Also by Heath Stallcup
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AUTHOR’S NOTE
In my wildest dreams I never would have imagined how well Genoskwa has been received by the public. The feedback I’ve received helps fuel the fire that keeps me pushing on when I don’t really want to.
Thank you!
A special thank you goes out to my faithful readers who have helped to spread the word of these tales. You’ve introduced my works to a plethora of new readers whom otherwise, I would have never met. It’s exciting to see old titles receiving new reviews from those who enjoyed Genoskwa. Your sharing the word about these stories has done more than any advertising could have.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you all!
1
FOB Dog Town
“Fall back!” Archer grabbed the nearest SWAT officer and yelled into the radio. “All units, fall back to the camp! Use the APCs as a shield!”
The creatures surrounding the humans were still reacting to their alpha’s mournful wail, giving their much weaker foes little time to react. Men scrambled to rush behind the armored transport, some dragging wounded across the frozen ground.
Al Briese stood next to Archer on the exposed side of the APC, constantly scanning the wailing sasquatch as men closed on the campground. “This isn’t good,” he commented.
“No shit, Captain Obvious,” Archer shot back, his sleep deprived eyes darting from creature to creature. “Any sign of Lynch?”
Al shook his head, his carbine swinging side to side as he covered the men slipping away from the monsters. “Not yet, but I hope he fared better than Roman.” He shot Archer a concerned look. “If he’s injured and those things get their hands on him…” he shook his head, unable to complete the thought.
“Understood.” Archer heard banging in the APC behind him and craned his neck to peer at the roof.
“M249 manned and standing by!”
Archer stepped away from the side of the APC and saw Mac’s blood covered face manning the machine gun. Their eyes locked momentarily, and Mac offered a knowing nod. “You’re covered, Director.”
Archer grabbed Al’s arm and dragged him behind the APC. “Keep an eye out for wounded trying to make it back to camp.”
“ARCHER!”
He spun and had to do a double take as Commander Gustavsen limped toward him. “Gus,” he stepped forward, hand extended. “You have no idea how happy I am to see you still—”
“Save it for your hearing!” Gustavsen barked. He limped toward Dale and stood before him. “You are hereby relieved by order of the regional director.”
Archer stared in disbelief, his eyes blinking rapidly in the smoke-filled air. “I don’t…how could you have contacted the—”
“The regional director gave me a standing order. When, not ‘if,’ you screw the pooch, I am to take command and relieve you.” His jaw clenched as he spoke.
“I don’t understand,” Dale’s voice almost cracked with the words.
Gustavsen glared at him and gave a slight shake of his head. “Latham knew you’d fuck up in your new position. You should have been fired as soon as you went against orders.” Gustavsen scoffed before spitting to the ground. “Instead, they decided to let you fail upward. They promoted your dumb ass to keep you under their thumb and remove you from the field.”
Archer’s head spun as sporadic bursts of gunfire echoed through the night air. “I don’t follow.”
“Well, you should.” Gustavsen leaned closer and growled as he spoke. “I was given explicit orders. Give you just enough rope to hang yourself, and that’s exactly what I did. You have no idea how hard it was not to jerk that rug out from under you the moment you got the first of my men killed.” He ground his teeth so hard that they nearly cracked. “By order of Regional Director Harold Latham, you are officially relieved of duty.” Gustavsen seemed to grow taller as he squared his shoulders. “For now, consider yourself a member of whatever is left of Bravo squad. Report to McKenzie for your orders.”
Archer shook his head in confusion. “No, that can’t be—”
“You will follow your orders, or I’ll damned well shoot you myself!” Gustavsen’s face reddened as he yelled at him. “You are dismissed, agent Archer.”
Gus spun on his heel and limped toward the center of camp, leaving Dale to ponder his quandary. “What the actual fuck just happened?” Al asked quietly.
Dale swallowed hard and let out his breath. “I think I just sank my career.”
“We got movement!” Mac yelled from atop the APC. “Air contact! North by northwest!”
Dale scrambled to the rear of the APC and stepped onto the steel steps that led to the rear of the transport. “I see lights.”
Al squinted in the dark and studied the incoming crafts. “My guess is helos.”
“Mac, what are the Genoskwa doing?” Archer yelled from below.
“They’re hightailing it to the edge of the woods, sir.” Mac loosened his grip on the machine gun and sat upright. “I think they’re retreating.”
“What about the wounded?” Archer yelled.
Mac shrugged and shook his head. “Too dark to make out anybody, sir.” He bellycrawled to the rear of the APC and peered over the edge. “Unless we have a shit load of torches, we’ll have to wait until daylight to see if…” he trailed off as the choppers zipped by the camp at high speed. “Holy shit.”
Al and Archer both spun to make out the crafts as they banked and began firing along the edges of the clearing. “Apaches,” Al stated quietly.
“Those are military aircraft,” Archer replied as the choppers hit the trees with everything they had. Thirty-millimeter chain guns mowed down trees as hellfire missiles turned the trunks into toothpicks. The camp was instantly alight in the orange glow of fire.
Mac handed down the M249 and then slid from the roof of the APC. “I never thought I’d be happy to see the military interrupt one of our operations, but damn. Talk about perfect timing, eh sir?”
Archer cleared his throat nervously. “Yeah, about that.” He clenched his jaw tightly then took a deep breath. “It would appear I work for you now.”
Mac’s brows knit together in confusion. “Sir?”
“Yeah, not so much.” He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. “According to Gus, I’m relieved of duty per Regional Director Latham’s order.” He sighed as he offered a slight shrug. “Gus says I work for you now.”
“At least until this is over, I would assume,” Al added. “Something tells me they have other plans for you, my friend.”
“That can’t be right,” Mac offered a crooked grin. “Stanton pulled all kinds of strings to get you this job. There’s no way—”
“I have no reason to doubt your boss, do you?” Archer asked. “Gus has always been a by-the-book kind of guy. If he tells me that this was a setup by Latham, I have to believe him.”
Mac’s face fell and he looked away. “That’s still not right. You have the most experience with these things. We need your—”
“McKenzie!” Gustavsen barked as he limped toward the trio. “I trust that Agent Archer has reported to you.”
Mac stiffened and offered a curt nod. “He has, Commander. I was just telling him that with his background and experience, I was putting him in charge of Bravo, and I would be transitioning to an administrative position within the team.”
Gus froze and glared at him. “You what?” he asked quietly, his jaw flexing.
Mac squared his shoulders and nodded. “Need I repeat myself, Commander? With his experience and leade rship—”
“Leadership?!” Gus exploded. “It was his goddamned leadership that got our men killed out here!”
Mac refused to waver. “And I can only imagine how many more we might have lost had he not been here, sir.” He reached out and squeezed Archer’s shoulder. “I’m proud to work beside him, Commander.”
Gustavsen’s jaw quivered and he glared at his second in command. He opened his mouth to reply then quickly turned on his heel and limped away. The three men watched him fade into the shadows then Archer turned to him. “You didn’t have to do that.”
Mac scoffed. “Of course I did.”
The three men ducked closer to the APC as one of the Apaches settled nearby. A CH-47 Chinook landed near it and soldiers disembarked. Archer squinted in the debris-filled air as the men approached. “Oh look. Here come our saviors.”
“Now, Archer, don’t be that way,” Al grinned at him. “They did pull our fat from the fire.”
Mac clapped Archer’s shoulder again. “Let’s go say hi.”
“I don’t understand,” Al held a finger up as he spoke. “How did Captain Horner reach you? From where he reported his hard landing, his radio couldn’t have worked.”
Lieutenant Colonel Mayfield offered a droll stare. “He used this new device called a cell phone.” Al opened his mouth with a quick-witted retort then decided it best to keep his trap shut.
“Regardless of who called you in, I’m damned glad you showed when you did,” Gustavsen stated loudly. “We’ve lost entirely too many people on this clusterfuck of an operation.”
Archer lowered his eyes and had to bite his tongue. He nearly choked when Mac asked the obvious question: “Does this mean that this is now a military operation, or do we still have operational command?”
Mayfield stiffened and seemed to give Major O’Dell a sideways glance. The major stepped closer and crossed his arms. “Technically, this is still a Bureau operation.” He glanced at his watch. “However, in about four hours, the governor will be briefed on the happenings of this morning and then the situation may well change.”
Gustavsen nodded. “Understood.”
Mac spun and gave Gus a stoic look. “Since you’re still technically in charge, your orders, sir?”
Gustavsen didn’t miss a beat. “Transport the wounded out immediately.” He paused and turned to Mayfield. “With your permission, Colonel.”
“Of course. O’Dell, make it happen.”
“Yes, sir.” The major stepped away and spoke quietly into his coms.
“We would be happy to assist in clearing the trail so that your ground transports can make exfil,” Mayfield added.
“I’ll gladly take you up on that, Colonel,” Gus replied. “Were you able to ascertain how many of the creatures you killed when you arrived?”
Mayfield’s brows knit and he shook his head. “It was puzzling, actually. We had numerous heat signatures that just seemed to disappear before we struck.”
Archer nodded knowingly. “We’ve seen that before. We believe that they—”
“You’ll have to excuse Agent Archer, Colonel,” Gus interrupted. “He was director for a day and now he forgets his place.” Gus reached out and directed the colonel away. “We’ve got some lukewarm instant coffee in the old mess tent, if you’d like to recharge your batteries.”
Al and Archer watched as Gustavsen directed the colonel away, and Al scoffed. “Damn. That guy takes being an ass to a whole new level.”
Archer glanced to the east and saw the first licks of sunrise along the horizon. “At this point, Al, I don’t care. I’m ready to go home, take a hot shower and sleep for a week.”
Al turned and peered toward the edge of camp. “I have to prepare a search. If Lynch is still alive, I need to find him.”
Archer took a deep breath then patted his shoulder. “I’ll give you a hand.”
“You need to rest. Actually, you should probably be on the first transport back to the world.”
Archer shook his head. “Like Hector, I want to be the last one…” he trailed off as he realized. “Wait, where’s Hector?”
“She fought like a demon,” Hector sniffed back tears, “a beautiful warrior demon.” He nodded toward the collapsed tent. “That’s the bastard there.”
“Wait,” Al held a finger up. “They…killed each other?”
Hector continued to stroke Betty’s face and nodded. “I guess she got enough blows in to do some serious internal damage. Then he…” his words choked in his throat. “He broke her neck and staggered off to die.”
“That’s unreal,” Archer replied, standing over the broken body of the male. “His sternum is crushed inward. She probably stopped his heart, and it just took the rest of him a moment to realize he was dead.”
Hector looked up at him with red eyes. “Do you think they’ll let me bury her?”
Archer opened his mouth to reply then gently shut it. He shrugged and offered him a tight-lipped smile. “That’s all out of my hands, amigo.”
“What do you mean?” Hector froze, his fears beginning to show.
“It means, they fired him from his job,” Al added. “He just found out through Gustavsen.”
Hector felt a lump form in his throat and his jaw quivered. “I mean…okay, maybe I can’t bury her in a cemetery, but at least let me bury her out here. They’d do that, wouldn’t they?”
Al hunkered next to them and reached out to stroke the hair on Betty’s arm. “Commander Gustavsen has ordered all wounded to be transported out immediately.” He looked up and saw the fear in Hector’s eyes. “You know he’ll push for you to be on that flight.”
Hector began to shake his head. “No. No, they can’t make me.” He shimmied out from under Betty’s head and gently laid it on the ground. “No, you gotta help me get her out of this place. I need to…I need to, to…bury her. Here is good. Somewhere here on her mountain.”
“Hector,” Al tried to soothe him. “You know we’ll do what we can, but the ground is frozen.”
“Wait.” Archer approached the pair, and a gentle smile crossed his features. “Your transport chopper is fixable, isn’t it?”
Al shrugged. “I mean, yeah. Any craft is fixable, I just don’t know when I’ll be able to get the parts—”
“Al can transport her out of here.”
“What?” Al stood and stared at him. “No, I can’t. Even my attack chopper is out of commission. There’s no way I can get it out of here, much less carry a load.”
“You’ll have to come back with a truck to haul them off, won’t you?”
Al started to argue then stopped himself. “I mean, sure. Once the Bureau opens the area up so we can get in.”
“So we stash her.” Archer smiled. “It’s cold enough that she’ll probably freeze, so there won’t be any decay.”
“No!” Hector scrambled to his feet. “I’m not leaving her behind, wrapped up in a tarp or an old tent or…no.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “There’s heavy equipment down the mountain. Where the wrecked cars and stuff are. Why can’t we use a bulldozer or something and just dig her a grave?”
Archer’s face fell and he looked away. “Because I don’t have a say in the matter anymore.”
“Then who does?”
Al cleared his throat nervously. “That would be Commander Gustavsen.”
Hector nodded as he brushed his hands off. “Then I’ll just have to make him see how important this is.” He turned and began to walk away.
Al looked at Archer. “This isn’t going to go over well, is it?”
Archer shrugged. “Gus can sometimes be an understanding guy.”
Al’s eyes narrowed. “Can he though?”
Archer shook his head. “We better follow him and make sure he doesn’t take a swing at the commander.”
2
FOB Dog Town
“No,” Commander Gustavsen replied as he rifled through the list of wounded.
Hector felt his breath catch in his throat as he tried to speak. “But, Commander, this—”
“Is this the same animal that you were holding hands with the last time I was in this god forsaken park?”
Hector turned to Mayfield and nodded. “Yes, Colonel. It is.”
