by John Conroe
“Is that true, sir?” I asked Roma, who nodded unhappily.
“The squad is being shut down? By Commissioner Kane?” I asked.
I sensed the big guy behind me, moving up and a meaty hand landed on my shoulder and pulled. I didn't budge, not even a twitch. Comb-over frowned and the hand behind me pulled harder, but with no effect.
I snorted, “Let me guess...you two are the biggest clowns in IA? The Commissioner asked for you special, didn't he?”
“Yeah, but....Hey listen, fuckface! This can go hard or harder!” Comb-over was mad that he had slipped up.
Beefy-hand was still tugging and I was still rooted in place.
“Would you care to tell them just how it might really go? Sir?” I asked Roma.
He blanched white.
“Ahh..Detective Khol? I don't believe force will be productive in this case and I'm sure that Officer Gordon will leave without trouble. Right, Chris?”
I looked at him for a couple of seconds longer, disgusted that I had ever considered him worthy of respect. The hand flew off my shoulder when I spun on my heel. Meaty Hand was rubbing his suddenly sore hand and standing between me and the door. I headed out. He put his good hand up to slow me down, but instead bounced off and flew backwards to the floor. Comb-over...I mean Khol, jumped forward, grabbing my arm with the obvious intent of arm-barring me into submission. The fact is, however, that arm-bars only work if you can actually move the arm in question. My hands at my side, I continued forward, Khol dragging along like he had grabbed hold of a tractor. Meaty Hand was trying to get up, but I was already past him and opening the door, Khol getting brushed off on the door frame.
Sommers, Takata and Demarco were all clustered around Gina's office door and they all turned when Roma's door opened and Khol clattered to the ground.
I was mad and the black beast inside was rattling its door, but I had my temper well in hand as I stopped by the huddle. “Looks like we're being disbanded!” I managed to get out before Khol came charging out of the doorway, his partner stumbling behind him.
Sommers straightened up, staring hard at Khol.
“Well, well, if it isn't Submission Khol, king of the tap-out. What are you doing here?” he asked, his voice derisive.
Khol was flustered from my brush-off and now really unhappy to see Sommers.
“Submission?” I asked.
“Yeah, that's the title he's earned himself in the inter-deparmental mixed martial arts tournaments. Why's he chasing you, and what's this about getting shut down?” Sommers asked.
“Shut it, Sommers! Gordon here is officially suspended for two excessive force charges and now faces assault on Internal Affairs officer!” Khol said, voice hissing in anger.
Sommers, Takata and Aikens burst out laughing, Aikens having to lean against the wall to hold himself up.
“If he’d assaulted you there would be broken bones at the very least,” Sommers said between chuckles.
Gina had moved up to the door.
“Chris, what was that you said about us being shut down?” she asked.
“The Commissioner has ordered us shut down as of today, and he ordered these two to suspend me on charges from the guy on Eleventh Street and some trumped up assault charges from a group of Dominican gang members that attacked me the other night!”
She didn’t say anything to that, but I could see the curiosity in her eyes at my last piece of information.
“DDP? They still alive?” asked Chet, which wasn’t what I wanted Khol to hear.
“Of course! They were barely scratched!” I answered, but none of my own squad believed me.
“Enough! Gordon, you are leaving now!” Khol yelled, his hand moving to his holstered pistol. Instantly, all four of my fellow squad members put their own hands on pistol butts.
“Easy, guys! I was just leaving. No need for anything too crazy,” I said, my hands making placating motions at my friends, my heart in my throat. There had been no hesitation, zero. They had all moved as one to protect me.
Nobody moved for a moment, then I slowly headed for the door, not even reacting when Khol grabbed my arm. Meaty Hand was keeping his distance and still had his hand on his gun, his eyes slightly fearful.
We hadn’t gotten to the outer door when I sensed Takata and Sommers following along, their postures casual, their eyes sharp, ensuring my escort would be peaceful.
Chapter 16
Left with nowhere to go and nothing to do, I ended up at the Museum of Natural History. I wandered the exhibit halls, spending most of my time in the fossil exhibits and the animal dioramas. My favorite was obviously the Alaskan Brown bear exhibit. It’s the closest thing the museum had to my prehistoric friend, and sitting there looking at the incredible realism, I could picture his world as it had been when he was top of the food chain. I felt a gust of cool wind in the otherwise still museum and knew he was there, following me from exhibit to exhibit. I was looking at the picture of Pleistocene life, when an image flashed through my mind. It was as similar to the museum picture, as a High Def full sound video is to a cartoon.
The western plains swept away from me as far as I could see, mountains just visible in the distance. An ocean of tall grasses, dotted with individual windswept trees. A single ribbon of silver water wove through the gentle hills and swales. Horses galloped from left to right, in a thundering herd, while a large group of bison grazed the grasses a quarter mile away.
He was showing me his memory of the world as he had seen it. It was a fascinating look at the ancient ecosystem, one that any of the museums curators would have killed to recreate. Imagine an IMAX movie in the museums theatre, touring the Pleistocene from the eyes of a giant short-faced bear. That would sell admission tickets.
* * *
I took the subway back to Brooklyn, eating my way across the city. My tastes were running to Asian foods, mostly Thai and sushi. Without much surprise I found myself back in Owls Head Park, which seems to be my thinking place. My personal breeze, which had followed me across Manhattan and swirled around the inside of my subway car (bewildering my fellow riders), now slid away and spun up a small cyclone of leaves in a copse of maple and birch trees. My Sight showed the giant green, red and purple form of my bear, nestling into his favorite spot. But now, instead of herds of bison and horse, he watched groups of children and nannies, cavorting on the pressure-treated wood playground. It used to make me nervous, him watching the children, but he had no predatory interest in them. Okwari never ate food here in our world. What source of sustenance he consumed in his own dimension, I’ll probably never know. I was pretty sure he had to leave this world from time to time to replenish himself, but that was just a guess. So Okwari watched the children and I watched the sky, leaning back on the soft spring grass, the odor of damp earth, and new plants mixing with the human scents.
I had a lot to think about.
The first was that Duclair had just effectively cut me from the herd, separating me from the agency that sheltered and protected my freakish self. She had successfully refrained from a knee jerk reaction in Vermont, one that would have ended in bloody wreckage.
This approach was much more sophisticated and therefore, much more effective. No doubt, she had sent her minions scurrying, seeking out the young family on Eleventh Street and manipulating them into making a complaint. If the Dominican gang members had ended up at a local hospital, her spies both human and computer could have tipped her off. A quick interview might reveal that the source of their pain had been an average-sized white guy with freakish eyes and some kind of demonic pet monster. Who would that sound like? Hmmm.
Some more threats, promises and flexing of Big Brother muscle, and presto, she would have an instant complaint. As for disbanding the Special Situations squad, it would have taken very little to push Commission Kane over the edge. Hell, Duclair was probably the one to deliver his initial briefing in the first place, an easy time to instill doubt and uncertainty.
The other squad members wou
ld be assimilated back into the big NYPD machine. Takata and Sommers would be snatched up by special operations teams. Chet was a technical wizard, worth his weight in gold. Demarco could do wonders for a homicide investigation and Gina was probably the best profiler on the force. The vast administrative pool would pull in efficient Olivia, leaving just myself adrift.
A federal job offer baited with the promise of criminal assault charges being dropped, and I could be expected to fall on her plate. Failure to accede to her wishes would result in a rapid conviction, federal charges of threat to national security or some such crap, and she could have me hunted by the entire U.S. government law enforcement apparatus.
What were my options? I wasn't on the best of terms with Tanya at the moment, although I would find a way to change that. My finances were pretty solid, but could be frozen at the mere mention of Patriot Act. If forced to run, all I would accomplish would be the high probability of injuring or killing an appalling number of law enforcement personnel, almost none of whom would deserve it. On one hand, I had to admire the skill and bureaucratic savvy that had boxed me into this corner. On the other hand, the black berserker inside wanted me to storm the federal building and lay waste to everyone who dared attempt to control my fate.
My pocket vibrated. The cell display showed Gina's face.
“Hi,” I answered.
“How ya doing?” she asked in a careful manner.
“Well, I've been thinking.”
“Not your strong suit. You might hurt something,” she joked softly.
“Yeah, well I haven't gotten any job offers from Mensa today, so you might be right,” I said.
“Although I'm expecting a job offer of another sort.”
“Oh? Of what sort?” she asked.
“The federal sort...you know...the kind that comes with the wave of a magic wand to make all your troubles disappear.”
“It appears I was a little hasty. Maybe thinking isn't so bad for you. How might you respond to such an offer?” she asked.
“Well, my gut tells me to utilize high explosives and incendiaries. But my brain is suggesting trying to find a less....pyrotechnic approach,” I said.
“Really? I thought all you special ops guys favored using explosives to solve virtually every problem, from domestic issues to acne?”
“You have me confused with the SWAT guys. I am special, but it's more of a short bus /Rainman kind of special. And this whole thinking thing is really frustrating – nowhere near as satisfying as blowing stuff up!”
“So what have you come up with?” she asked, the humor in her voice sliding away.
“Still working through options. I feel like Harry Potter facing the dragon test in Goblet of Fire,” I said.
“Well as I recall, Mad Eye Moody told him to play to his strengths!”
“Okay, first of all, it wasn't really Mad Eye Moody, and secondly, I can't ride a broom for shit!”
She laughed out loud. “Right! But you have a whole arsenal of clever tricks that Auntie B doesn't know about. Maybe you should let her know just how big a pain in the ass you would be to have around,” she suggested. “But not go overboard and hurt anyone.”
“You really think I could convince anyone that I could actually be a pain in the ass?”
“Please! You’re such a PITA that it takes a vampire administrator, an Alpha werewolf and a Detective Sergeant to get you squared away, not to mention a vampire princess to keep you in line!” she said.
I was surprised she would mention words like vampire and werewolf on a cell line that was almost certain to be monitored by Duclair's people. But then again, she might just be sending a message to Duclair about the resources I did have. Or used to have. Whatever, as long as Duclair believed the Pack and the Coven might be in my corner, it could be leverage of a sort.
“Hmm, you know, you’re pretty good at this thinking stuff. You're giving me all kinds of ideas,” I said, my brain rolling through possibilities.
“Of course! That's why you need to let us four ladies do the thinking for you!”
“Changing the subject, what's the story with the Squad?” I asked.
“As you said. We've all been reassigned, pretty much along the lines you would imagine.”
“I never thought Roma would cave like that!” I said, disgusted.
“Listen, he did what he could, but he was completely stripped of power and just so you know....he resigned his position with the department effective immediately!” she said sharply.
“Oh, well...I just thought he should be able to do more,” I replied.
“See, there ya go with that thinking stuff again. When you going to learn to leave it to us?”
“Yeah, I guess I should at that,” I answered.
“Chris, the squad isn't going to just fade away. We're all going to keep in touch and meet out of school. Keep an eye on things. So don't go thinking you're all alone, okay?”
I allowed that I wouldn't, although I already had. She told me that she had been reassigned to an old boss of hers and that he would give her a lot of leeway and understanding. We said goodbye and I lay back down to consider her suggestions, a plan forming itself almost immediately.
* * *
I was well along in my diabolical scheme, or at least I had the framework of a scheme, when I heard some odd voices. Really, it was the accent that caught my attention. Male and female voices speaking with an Irish brogue.
Sitting up, the oddest sight greeted my eyes. A man and woman were swinging on the swing sets. Virtually all the kids and nannies were gone, the gloom of evening indicating that the hours had swept by while I was plotting.
The pair would have gotten my attention if they had just been standing there, but the swinging really did it. Something about it was kind of creepy, maybe the serial killer smiles the two were wearing as they stared in my direction. The man was tall, with curly red hair and freckles that stood out from a mile. He was wearing leather pants, a long leather duster and an honest to God plaid tam hat. The woman was more noteworthy, tall, with wavy brown hair and dark brown eyes. She was also dressed in leather; pants and a bustier, and she was wearing the hell out of them. The terms ‘built’ and ‘stacked’ popped into my head. Definitely a head turner.
But the creepiest thing was the dogs – if in fact they were dogs and not horses. Huge, at least two hundred pounds each, and black as coal. The five of them were lounging around the couple in a semi-circle, all their attention on their masters. One dog turned its head to look at me and its eyes were gleaming red, like lava. Uh oh! I quickly scanned with my Sight. The dog forms shone with red, purple and black stripes; the couple – blue mixed with streamers of greasy black.
I was on my feet in an instant, as was Okwari. The man swung back high, let go and jumped to the ground, laughing as he did so. The woman slid gracefully to her feet and all seven were suddenly headed our way.
I got the oddest feeling from Okwari, one I had never detected before – fear.
“Well, and just what do we have here now, Mary?” the Irish gent said, strolling casually.
“Sure and it’s the very lost soul what we’ve been seeking, Colin. Although I am a might perplexed at his human companion there,” the woman answered, swaying alongside him.
The hell dogs or whatever they were fanned out and charged up the hill, the two on the outside circling around us. Okwari roared out a challenge, but it seemed unsure to me.
The woman, Mary, pulled a black crystal necklace from the depths of her cleavage, holding it in both hands and beginning to chant in a disturbing, guttural language. The hairs on the back of my neck went up at the sound of it.
Okwari did the strangest thing. He shuffled his weight on both front paws side to side and let out a tiny whimper. My three thousand-pound invisible killer spirit bear was terrified of that black jewel.
I had no idea what she was doing but it couldn’t be good.
“Listen, lady, I don’t know who you are or what you want, but you be
tter be staying away from the bear!” I said, moving toward her.
Suddenly, I was frozen where I stood, unable to move a muscle.
The man, Colin, moved in front of me, his strangely disturbing grin still in place.
“Now then, that bear over there is very valuable. Seems he slipped his leash and his owners want him back, ya see. So me and me wife Mary here are just going to be taking him back where he belongs. And you’re just going to be sitting this out, ya hear?” he said, pleasantly, his hands weaving in a strange pattern. Spellwork?
I opened my Sight, spotted the black bands that held me in place. I sent a bubble of will out from my core, like an expanding sphere of violet light. The black bands were blown away like smoke, freeing my limbs. Instantly I lashed a backhand at Colin, sending him flying back ten feet and spiked a burst of aura at Mary’s jewel. The blast rocked her on her feet, but didn’t knock her down, which surprised me as a similar one had thrown a vampire waiter about seven feet into a wall. But her chant was broken and she turned to me with a hiss that only increased when she noticed her husband lying on the ground, shaking his head. She shoved the jewel in my direction and a black beam of light struck me in the chest, igniting a fire in every part of my body. It was the most excruciating pain I had ever felt. Every cell felt like a black spike was being shoved through it. I was remotely aware of Okwari fighting the hellhounds, and, I could hear a screaming voice. Oh…wait, that was me.
“Ya know Mary, I’m thinking that this here fella might be the one our employers spoke of. Ya know, the fella that broke free the damned great beasty in the first place?”
“If ya don’t mind me saying Colin, you’re bloody daft! Of course he’s the one! Now we can take both back and get all the reward!”
Okwari roared in rage, there was a meaty thunking sound and a heavy, dense body slammed into me, knocking me out of the beam’s path. Instantly, the pain abated to merely horrendous, a huge relief from the completely disabling agony of a moment before. I didn’t waste the moment, moving as fast as I could, which was a damned sight slower than normal, but still fast enough to slam the gem from Mary’s hand, her arm and hand breaking in at least three places. They were still moving molasses slow as I spun and slammed my palm into Colin’s chest, cracking his sternum and flinging him into the children’s playground. I scooped the gem from the ground by its heavy gold chain and turned to the helldog that had hit me. It moved faster than its handlers, heavy jaws dripping with ectoplasmic saliva, leaping at me. I dropped below it as an image flashed through my head – my right hand with a gleaming bright line like the inside edge of Okwari’s claws.