by Geonn Cannon
Benji said, "His guard will be down. By taking Westlake, he'll think he's avoiding the trap we've set for him on Seventh."
Gwyneth nodded at Dale. "Make the call."
#
Ari was incredibly anxious as she rejoined Lorne at McGraw Square. This time they met across the street in front of the drugstore, within view of the squad car that had been watching the building. Ari had gone to Dale's apartment for a placeholder apology, but the apartment was empty. She had tried to think of anywhere else she might have gone instead and came up empty. She called and didn't receive an answer, and panic started to set in as she composed her text.
"Be mad at me as long as you want, but please tell me where you are. I'm worried. Let me know you're okay." She sent it, then used Jacqueline's phone to send the progress report to whomever was on the receiving end. She waited five minutes for Dale's reply, then drove to meet with Lorne so she wouldn't be late. Her mother was counting on her to be there in case the wolfsbane was relocated to a second location.
The sky had grown pitch black since their last visit to the square, but the buildings made up for the lack of sunlight by glowing from seemingly every window. Ari looked into the lobby of the building that held the lab. If push came to shove, she could wait until the lab closed and break in. She'd done some shady things in the past, including stealing confidential records to verify a teacher's health insurance claim. Sometimes the law had to be bent for the greater good, and destroying an entire batch of wolfsbane, if not their means of producing it, had to fall in that category.
Lorne walked back from the squad car after being briefed by the officers. "No one unauthorized in or out of the lab all day. I think maybe we're in the clear on this one. Wolves may have been too busy sniffing each other's butts to pay attention."
"Is the product still being moved?"
"Yeah, we figure better safe than sorry. We..." His cell phone rang and he fished it out of his coat. "We have a fallback location all set up, the lab has been compromised however minimally, so we're going to protect our assets." He answered the call. "Kyle Lorne." He looked at Ariadne. "Yeah, I know who you are. Why are you calling me instead of her? Oh. Well, I'm standing right next to her." Ari looked at him with an eyebrow lifted. He moved the phone slightly away from his ear. "You don't answer the phone when your secretary calls?"
Ari had to fight her natural reaction and instead grabbed her phone to check for missed calls. There was nothing from Dale, but she acted as if there was. "Oh. I must have had it on silent." She took the phone from him. "Dale?" Ari tried to keep her voice steady and casual. "What's up? Are you okay?"
"Say you're going to put me on speaker so you won't have to repeat yourself."
"Dale, I'm going to put you on speaker so I don't have to repeat everything." She did so, and held the phone in front of her face. She glanced at Lorne as he leaned in, hoping Dale knew what she was doing. "Is everything okay?"
"Everything is fine. Listen, I don't know what's going on lately, but I know you and Detective Lorne have been working on something big. I just got a tip from one of our informants. Duncan. You remember Duncan, Ari?"
The only Duncan Ari knew was Milo, and she was in England. "Yeah. What did he say?"
"He didn't know much, but he said there's something big being planned on Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street tonight near Westlake Square. Does that mean anything to you?"
Lorne looked at Fifth Avenue, then turned to look north. "Yeah," he said. "It means someone's trying to make a move on this place. Looks like the dogs are smarter than I was giving them credit for."
"They may have just been waiting for night," Ari said.
"Sounds like a wolf to me," Lorne agreed. "Thanks for the information, Miss Frye. This informant of your give you anything else that might be useful?"
"No. I was lucky I got that from him."
"All right. Thank you."
"Happy to help. Ari...?"
Ari said, "Yeah, Dale."
"Be safe."
Ari bit down hard on the inside of her cheek and hoped Lorne wasn't paying attention to her expression. "Thanks. You too."
Lorne hung up and turned in a slow circle. "Fifth and Seventh. Why not Sixth?"
Ari was still trying to get over hearing Dale's voice. "I don't know. It's one-way?"
"So are..." He pointed. "Sixth is a one-way street that goes north. The other two are one-way going south. They're blocking the south routes trying to box us in."
Ari wanted to feign helpfulness, but she didn't want to compromise whatever Dale was planning. "Why just the south routes? Are they trying to force us north?"
"No. They expect us to go south for some reason. They're setting up roadblocks to catch us en route. We're heading north on Westlake so they'll be left scrambling. We'll have to watch our ass but we'll leave them in our dust soon enough."
A van rounded the corner and pulled up in front of the labs. Lorne motioned for Ari to follow him over as the driver climbed out.
"Everything ready?" the driver asked as he shook Lorne's hand. Ari kept her hands in her pockets and used her thumb to spell out a text message.
"They're packing up the stuff. They'll start bringing it down soon. This is Ariadne Willow. She'll be keeping an eye out for anyone trying to mess with the shipment. We just got word that the wolves are setting something up on Fifth and Seventh. Shouldn't affect us, but just in case."
The driver nodded a greeting at Ari as she sent her text. He turned to watch the traffic. It was fairly light for that time of day, and none of them seemed to be slowing suspiciously near the labs. "We kept our eyes peeled for anyone who was trying to follow us. Looks like all clear behind us."
Lorne clapped the man on the shoulder. "Then let's go see if they're ready to start loading us up."
#
Dale looked at her phone, surprised to see she had missed two texts from Ari. She looked at the most recent, the one that had drawn her attention to the phone, and read the message out loud. It just says "Birth if waste land."
Milo snorted. "Don't look at me. She's your girlfriend."
They were in the backseat of a rental van, with Gwyneth driving and Paige in the passenger seat. Hannah and Mia were in the middle row, while the boys were driving Gwen's car to cause the accident that would serve as the distraction. Dale had borrowed a heavy black jacket from Gwyneth so she would be less conspicuous if they were forced to get out of the vehicle.
Mia had taken her phone out and, after a few jabs at the screen, said, "Is there a street in that area called Westland?"
"Westlake," Gwen said.
Mia held up her phone. "She was typing a text without looking at the screen. Auto-correct turned it into ‘birth if waste land,' but she typed ‘north on Westlake.' That's the route the hunters will be taking."
Dale grinned. "Good girl, Ari." The seatbelt pulled tight across her chest as Gwen pulled out into traffic and headed toward the brightly lit towers of the Westin Hotel.
#
Ari stayed in the doorway of the lab, hands in her pockets, controlling her breathing as much as she could. Inside the room, Lorne and his courier goons were loading up the completed batches of wolfsbane into red coolers so they could be transported. If any spores, just the lightest dusting, got on her skin, she would lose control and go berserk. She would tear Lorne limb from limb, turn on his friends, and go looking for more victims before she regained her senses. She was fortunate in that her sole exposure had occurred when she was among friends, even if they were friends in the loosest sense of the word, and she didn't have a chance to truly harm anyone.
Lorne noticed her hanging back. "What happened to women's equality in the workplace? You too good to get your hands dirty?"
"Someone has to supervise," she said, "and I don't trust any of you guys not to get distracted by all the shiny surfaces in here."
"They are shiny," Lorne admitted. "All right, that'll do it. The chemists told us they would pack up all the chemicals and crap them
selves. Afraid we might actually mix the wrong things and blow ourselves up."
Ari said, "I've seen smarter guys do dumber things."
"Your girlfriend is a real laugh riot, Kyle."
"Well, it's not like I keep her around for her sparkling personality."
Ari started rethinking her aversion to ripping the men apart. Lorne picked up the last box and led the procession outside with Ari bringing up the rear. Once they were downstairs in the lobby, Lorne called the current uniformed babysitters across the street to see if anything had happened while they were inside. He got the all-clear and motioned for the troupe to walk out to load the truck. It didn't take long; the latest batch of wolfsbane for the entire Pacific Northwest only took up five coolers, which easily fit underneath the benches in the back of the van. Lorne secured them and motioned for the others to get in.
When he held the door for Ari, she smiled indulgently. "I'm supposed to keep my eyes peeled for wolves, right? Kind of hard to do that from a windowless backseat."
"True. All right, ride up front with Chase."
Ari winked at him and walked around the van. She was about to get in when there was a sudden squeal of tires from nearby, but the acoustics of nearby buildings made it hard to tell the direction. Lorne jumped out of the truck again, gun drawn as the sound of crunching metal pinpointed the location of the accident. A white Fiat 500 had just attempted to turn onto Fifth Avenue and met a truck coming head on. Three men had climbed out of the car and were yelling at the other driver, who was pointing over his head at a sign indicating it was one-way.
"This is the wolves." Lorne said, "Get in the truth. Go. Go!"
Ari and Chase got into the cab of the truck, and the engine roared as he twisted the key in the ignition. Ari took the time to fasten her seatbelt, not bothering to warn Chase as he took the corner onto Westlake and surged north. The squad car that had been watching the Orarian Group rushed forward to deal with the accident. Ari twisted to look out the window before the disturbance was out of sight, trying to see if she recognized anyone in the scuffle.
"See anything, Willow?"
"Nothing," she said truthfully. "Could've just been a traffic accident."
Lorne shook his head. "No, your girl warned us about this. We should have a squad car over on Seventh, too. Just to be sure there aren't any innocent bystanders caught in the trap."
"Good pl--"
She was cut off by a sudden sideways shift of gravity, held in place by her seatbelt as the safety glass of the window shattered and cut her forehead and cheeks. The tires skidded as the van was pushed into the lane next to it, and Ari could hear squealing tires of the cars behind them slamming on their brakes. Lorne, who had been crouching between the front seats to talk to her, had taken the brunt of the collision and lay flat between her and Chase. Chase was still conscious and pulled his gun free, kicking open the twisted metal of his door and falling out onto the street.
Ari heard the bark and howl of wolves and got out to see what was happening. The van that hit them was parked blocking traffic, the side door thrown open. Three wolves were running across the pavement, which was crisscrossed by the headlights of stalled vehicles and glistened with broken safety glass. With the wolves were two women Ari had never seen before, both brunette and masked, and they were holding guns. Chase used the crushed back of the van for cover as he opened fire, and one of the wolves jumped into the air to tackle him. The wolf bit the arm holding his weapon and twisted, and the weapon clattered to the ground.
Ari was so stunned by the violence of it that she nearly missed the wolf leaping at her. She brought her arms up to protect her face as she was knocked onto her back. The wolf snarled and snapped at her face and then, much to her surprise, licked her from chin to forehead. She looked into the animal's eyes, ignored the predatory noises and gnashing teeth, and recognized the person behind the mask.
"Milo...?"
Milo scratched Ari's face, pushed off of her, and turned tail to run back to the van. One of the human-form wolves pulled open the back door of the van. She immediately ducked as a shot rang out, and its ricochet seemed to echo until it transformed into the wail of dozens of sirens. Milo and one of the women jumped into the back of the van. Ari got to her feet as she heard Lorne scream in pain, wobbling on her feet as she lurched forward.
In seconds the human women had all five coolers out of the van. They ran back to their getaway vehicle as Lorne fell out of the van cradling his bloody arm to his side. He brought his gun up and fired, and the legs went out from under one of the wolves. She yelped in pain, but neither of her human companions could abandon the coolers to help her. Ari felt a clutch of anguish that she couldn't help the poor bleeding canidae.
The clutching feeling intensified a moment later when Dale appeared in the doorway of the van and dropped to the pavement.
The breath left Ari in a rush as Dale ran to the fallen wolf. She gathered her comrade in her arms and began to backpedal as quickly as she could without toppling over. Lorne opened fire again and Ari couldn't stop herself from lunging at him.
"Don't!"
Her voice was an unrecognizable shriek, her mind filled with the moment two years earlier when another bastard with a gun had shot Dale in the head. Ari slammed into Lorne hard enough to knock him off-balance, and she flailed her limbs to make it look as if she had simply stumbled and lost her balance in the confusion. She looked over her shoulder, dreading the sight of her girlfriend lying sprawled on the pavement. Instead she saw Dale crouched in the doorway of the van. The sirens of responding police cars were so close the sound echoed off the surrounding buildings. Ari could see the squad cars speeding down the street as her eyes locked with Dale's. Time seemed to stop, a kaleidoscope of red and blue reflected off shattered glass, and then Dale pulled the van door shut. The van was thrown into reverse, turning so sharply that for a moment it looked as if it might topple over.
"Willow! Get behind the wheel. Get after them!"
Ari barely heard Lorne's shouts over the cacophony of sirens, but she knew she had to comply. She ran to the front of the van and climbed into the vacant driver's seat, glancing into the back to see Lorne and Chase were secured before she did anything. Both men looked horrible, covered with blood that Ari could only assume had come from bites.
"Don't let those fucking dogs get away!"
Ari faced forward and dropped her hand to the gear shift. She left it there without moving it before she stepped on the gas and sent them careening forward instead of back. The van jumped the curb and drove across the sidewalk until it impacted a concrete planter. She was thrown against the steering wheel before collapsing back into her seat. Squad cars filled the road behind them, inadvertently cutting them off from pursuing the getaway van, and Lorne shouted in frustration.
"Sorry," she managed, "sorry... I didn't... I wasn't thinking..."
Lorne seemed not to hear her, but he growled, "Someone is going to pay for this clusterfuck."
Ari didn't care if he blamed her, didn't care if she took the brunt of his frustration for driving forward instead of pursuing. All that mattered was Dale, and the fact she had been conscious and unhurt when the van door shut between them. Everything else was incidental.
Chapter Seven
Dale had never experienced chaos like the kind that unfolded inside the van. She tried to keep tabs on everything that was happening while also giving directions to Dr. Frost's office. Hannah transformed immediately after the door was closed, blood pouring from her in such amounts that her whole hip was slick with red. Mia had pulled her up into the bench seat in the center of the van, one hand tightly pressed to the wound as she demanded Hannah stay with her and stay awake. Milo and Paige were in the backseat holding onto the coolers of wolfsbane so they wouldn't tip over and spill due to Gwen's panicked driving. Sirens echoed through the streets, some responding to the chaos they'd left in their wake while other cars were dedicated to their pursuit.
Gwyneth had taken the time to squ
irm into a shirt, but she was still naked from the waist down following her transformation. Milo and Hannah were both naked as well, but Paige and Mia were still fully-clothed as they remained human to provide cover fire during the assault. Dale glanced down at her clothes and saw Hannah's blood covered her shirt, and she felt a twist of nausea before she focused on the task at hand. They had to get Hannah to a doctor, and Ari's canidae physician was the only one she knew who might be able to save her.
"Turn right at the next corner," Dale said, and Gwyneth cut through traffic so she would be in the proper lane, ignoring the screech of brakes and howling horns she left in her wake. Dale held tightly to the arm rest until the van settled again. "I didn't mean immediately."
"For the next few minutes, let's pretend ‘immediately' is implied," Gwyneth said with unnatural calmness. Mia was sobbing behind her, and Dale turned to see Paige and Milo were struggling with their own emotions.
"Yeah. Okay, immediately is good. We're almost there."
They reached the end of the business district and soon found themselves speeding through a residential area. Dale wanted to warn Gwyneth to slow down and be careful, but she doubted that suggestion would go over very well in the van's current environment. She focused her thoughts and tried to remember where the doctor lived. He had a veterinary practice in town but he also treated canidae as an alternate source of income. He was one himself, thought Dale didn't know if he was a wolf or some other subset species.
She had her phone open as she pointed Gwyneth in the right direction, guiding her around the corner as she called Dr. Frost to warn him about an incoming patient. When they pulled into his side driveway it felt as if hours had passed, but the dashboard clock insisted it had only been three minutes since she pulled Hannah off the pavement. Dr. Frost's porch light was on and he came out to meet them on the driveway in his bare feet. His shirt was unbuttoned at the collar and there was a sauce stain on his upper lip as he opened the driver's door and leaned inside.