"This is Ranger One. Alpha target has left home and in route. Ranger Six confirm pick-up of target. Over."
"Roger, Ranger One. Ranger Six confirming target pick-up. Target in transit. Ranger Eight confirm placement at 9 to 5. Over"
"Roger, Ranger Six. Ranger Eight at 9 to 5 station. Ready for target transfer and observation. Over."
Dan Ramer, known to his subordinates as Ranger One, breathed a sigh of relief as the morning checks on Lisa Deeter finished. He pinched his nose in a futile attempt to dispel the headache he had nursed all night. He had almost quit over the duty the Bureau had assigned him before he knew the situation his Ranger team faced. He understood now, but a large part of him now still wished he thought he had received some sort of back-room politics demotion.
"Werewolves," he said to no one as he took off his headset, sitting alone in the back of the FBI van. The van had received an electric company makeover for the night watch. The team would soon run out of ways to disguise the surveillance van without raising the suspiscion of someone in the neighborhood.
Agent Ramer tilted his head back and replayed the events before that morning. The original, and vague, assignment to the 10 member team instructed them to conduct a full surveillance op on one Lisa Deeter of 293 Prim-fucking-rose Lane. Dan thought about how furious he was over the insult such an inane operation was to him and his team. The Assistant Director had barely calmed him down by disclosing the power behind the op order. Dan still thought he had been singled out for a babysitting assignment for the unpopularity of his unorthodox methods in the field. His real anger came from believing that his team was being punished for his problems.
The Rangers had watched Ms. Deeter on full rotation for two weeks, three for Ranger Ten, Wendy, who had been inserted into the target's workplace. The placement of one of the two female team members into Lisa Deeter's workplace had been the only clear instruction Dan had received about the assignment. The whole team had almost agreed to commit group suicide until Ranger Three, Bill, had witnessed that night in Robert's Forest.
"God damn werewolves," Dan again muttered to himself as he climbed into the van's driver seat. None of the suddenly expanded targets ever realized that Bill had seen their ritual that night, thanks to his experience and willpower. Of course, when he reported back in, his trained nerves almost completely abandoned him. It took thirty minutes for Bill to make the verbal report coherent for Dan. It took Dan thirty seconds to make a wake-up call to A.D. Blackhorn demanding to know why he had an eight year covert veteran telling him that Lisa Deeter was a werewolf.
Director Blackhorn mostly responded by ordering Dan to bring the team into the FBI office in Atlanta for a full briefing. Dan and the team heard and saw a presentation that caused him to go slack jawed for the first time since he first saw a center-fold. Werewolves existed, they live among humans, and the team had been sent to track one down and to possibly control the creation of a new pack of werewolves. Most of the team reacted with silent disbelief, and Wendy seemed downright freaked out.
The unnamed presenter had insinuated that the government knew about many packs of werewolves and had an unspoken agreement to leave most of them alone. Apparently, Lisa Deeter had left one of those packs some time ago, but some suit in the know about lycanthropes had received information recently that caused concern.
The Director listened to Bill's report without much reaction. He gave no new instructions to Dan, with the exception of tacking on the Hunter team to his command. Dan used the five person Hunter team for rotating surveillance of all women involved in the forest ritual, and their kids. For now,he and the 14 agents under him only had the power to watch, 24/7, watch for werewolves.
Dan keyed his hotel room door. The off-duty drive had passed quickly. He could feel the need for the 24 hour break he now had in the rotation. If everything went according to routine, Brit, Ranger Six, would drive past Lisa arriving at the fitness center she owned. Brit would drop her car off at the hotel, and take the van to get a new look. As Dan kicked his shoes off and laid on the stiff mattress, all he could hope was not to dream about being chased by monsters.