Sirocco

by T Hearts

  She had suspected the moment that IO showed herself that they would have set their sights on her. Capturing an ARCDA made Avio would have been a major bonus to their activities on the ranch, and she would have been an asset they could utilise given the proper treatment. She just didn’t think that they would be so fast and proactive in capturing her.

  Griffin shuddered at the thought of IO caged in a tight box, then froze to the spot as she heard a scratch of claws on the ground just around the corner.

  Tensed and ready, she slowly made her way towards the sound, one hand on her gun.

  The bird bawked at her and went fluttering out of the shower and into the open. Just a chicken. She sighed with relief, as it watched her then high stepped over to a crushed lavender bush.

  Her phone buzzed in her pocket, making her jump at the suddenness.

  No doubt they would have seen her on the GPS, fifty kilometres away from the target area, and after the last time…

  Swallowing, she answered the call.

  “Griffin, you’re supposed to-” Mykonos. She was grateful for that. Mykonos was at least capable of reason. The Major wasn’t.

  “I’m on a lead.” She said quickly in a hushed voice, continuing to examine the structure and the disarray of possessions.

  A broken walkie-talkie radio lay smashed to pieces on the ground along with the flat rectangular phone which must have belonged to IO. She cradled her phone between her ear and her shoulder so that she had one hand still on her gun, she carefully flipped the phone over so as not to disturb the scene. Activating it, she found its screen shattered and what must have been close to a thousand unread messages. It couldn’t have been more than twelve hours and she was already being missed.

  “Griffin.” The Canid growled, his patience a thread away from snapping. “Explain.”

  “I’m still gathering evidence, but something has taken me off track. Its connected to my assignment so don’t worry, I’m not running again.”

  Mykonos sighed deeply in frustration. “Griffin, you must explain right now before Thorne speaks for you.”

  “Thorne? But he’s not my handler why-”

  “Because the Major believes that I would be too lenient with you and sent him in to verify your reports. He was already on his way to the Major to have you brought in.”

  She choked at the thought of being dragged in again. There was no way she was letting that happen.

  With a deep breath she grounded herself and began to explain herself slowly and clearly so that there would be no way that Thorne could twist it and give the Major any reason to have her hunted down.

  “I found an Avio out here. ARCDA made. She interfered while I was tracking a Febris that these Hasekura ranchers had let loose.”

  Mykonos drew a breath, then paused as he processed what she had said.

  “An…Avio?”

  “Yes. In this old tower, and apparently she’s real chummy with the rangers here in the park.”

  “That’s…she’s not a Rioteer or a feral?”

  “No. Very sane, very calm and in ARCDA issued clothing. Ripped to hell and half a decade out of date. I did think feral at first too, but this tower has Delta tech in it.” She shone the torch on the walls. Her stomach knotted. “She’s part of a batch.”

  “How do you know?”

  “There’s photos here, and a map. I’m seeing other parks on it. Olympic, Smokey Mountains, Zion.”

  Ten other pins in the map, including the one in Big Bend, and each with a number. She was at number ten.

  At least it explained the outrageous number of messages left unread on her phone.

  “Where is she now, Griffin?”

  “Hasekura got her.” She said, hearing the nasally whining sigh of disappointment on Mykonos’ end. “She…interfered on that tail I was on. Kicked a guy clean off his horse – a few guys actually and made herself known to them.”

  “And you didn’t stop her? Or call us immediately to tell us what you saw?”

  “I was a mile off and a little busy. How could I stop her? - Wait.” She stopped.

  Wingbeats. Outside.

  She could recognise the sound from anywhere, but the pattern was unfamiliar. Several sharp faps then the whistle of gliding. And in the distance drawing closer, the heavy sound of a motorbike.

  She covered her mouth and whispered as quietly as she could manage. “Lieutenant, I will call you back. Someone is here.”

  “Of course.” He said softly, followed by. “No unnecessary risks.”

  “Understood.”

  There was a thunk from above and the wingbeats stopped.

  “IO!” A girl shouted from outside. “IO ARE YOU THERE?”

  This new Avio was loud, and angry.

  The motorbike drew up and halted outside, ticking over for a moment before shutting off. Definitely not more Hasekura mercenaries. It didn’t sound like there was anyone other than the Avio and the motorcyclist. Who were they? Her eyes flicked to the map on the wall. Another Avio from IO’s batch?

  Hiding would have looked suspicious. The last thing she wanted was to fight and make an enemy of someone who could help, and so instead she put her gun away and stood still with her hands raised.

  A large shadow crowded the doorway, with red eyes fixed that her to the spot. An Avio with the same features as IO except this one was blazing fury from every feather as she tensed to spring at her.

  There was no time to roll out the way or duck, the Avio launched herself upon Griffin, throwing her down in a feral blur of talons and feathers. Griffins’ head cracked hard against the ground as she was thrust onto her front with her face pressed hard against the dusty floor. She squirmed, trying to throw her off but thick talons drove into her shoulders, straight into the scars. Pain blacked out her vision and she could feel her throat burning with a scream that couldn’t escape as a taloned hand gripped her neck.

  Then a voice, firm and growling, stopped the Avio before she crushed her skull.

  “Sundowner, off.”

  “She-”

  “She can’t talk if she’s eating sand, San.”

  Immediately the Avio leapt off her, the talons almost ripping the shirt from her back.

  Coughing and shaking, Griffin pushed herself up to look at her saviour. An elderly man with a full beard, sunglasses, and decked out in old-school biker leathers. He frowned down at her, folding his arms across his chest.

  “Who ‘ere you are. You’ve got five seconds to start talking.”

  Chapter 12

  If the men yelling at one another didn’t wake her up, the awful smell of manure sure did.

  Being very cautious as she came too, she tested all her digits and primaries, then tensed and relaxed her muscles. Everything in working order and no other injuries other than the headache, grazes, and bruises from being pummelled into the ground.

  The yelling and arguing continued. The voices reverberated about what must have been an exceptionally large room. Footsteps echoed around her, as did the bickering voices and clangs of wood on metal. A very bizarre change of location.

  Stretching out a wing in an exploratory movement, eyes remaining shut, she felt the feathers brush against hay across the floor, hard reinforced walls around her but with a high ceiling. A stable? A stall? It wasn’t very large, but it absolutely stank of a putrid manure.

  Someone gasped nearby, having seen the movement of her wing hushed the men until they all fell silent. Opening her eyes, she glanced about in disgust at her surroundings.

  It was a box stall, messy and unclean with damp hay and the flaky remains of bright blue scales. There was no open ceiling as the bars covered up any chance that she might have had of climbing over the top. Through the narrow bars of the sliding door, a small crowd of ranch hands stared silently down at her with slack jaws and wide eyes.

  ‘Rude.’ She thought angrily at them, staring them down with unblinking red eyes until they backed away.

  “Sir. Sir its awake!” One half-yelled down,
what she presumed to be, the central alleyway of the stable. Snorting she pushed herself up and began brushing the hay off her wings and poncho which she drew tighter around herself.

  ‘Rude!’ Her feathers bristled all the more, fluffing across her body angrily. ‘Shoving me into a horse box while I’m still in my pyjamas!’

  The man in a hat she recognised as the Bossman who had been hunting the big draconic Febris. She couldn’t help but feel a little proud, seeing his mangled hand and the scabbed over grazes on his face. He deserved exactly what he got.

  “Careful sir- it bit his thumb off.” Said one mercenary in a nervous whisper to the bossman. “Like a Raptor.”

  “It’s not a Raptor though…is it?”

  “It looks like a kid.”

  “Don’t treat it like a person dumbass! Have you seen what these things can do?”

  The bossman ignored the whispering and strutted up to her, with a sneer of smugness, anger, and absolute fear. Behind him were several mercenaries all in desert camouflage, their weapons holstered and looking on with wary awe.

  Holding her head high IO composed herself and stared the bossman down.

  “Do you speak English? Hablo español?” He spoke slow, with the clear and arrogant assumption that she was no better than an animal. Cocking her head to one side she folded her arms across her chest and sighed angrily at him.

  “Sí, hablo inglés y español,” she snapped, “viejo tonto feo.”

  A mercenary beside him, far younger with strange bronze eyes, honked with delighted laughter. He was the only one who did and he quickly clapped his hands tightly to his mouth as the bossman span round to glower at him.

  IO realised that it was the same man as before who had been in charge of the mercenaries who had captured her. Now he was in the light she could see his features more clearly; deeply tanned skin smattered by freckles, brown hair, and a scar through his right eyebrow and across his eye. He seemed ordinary enough, but there was something odd about this one that she couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was his eyes? They reminded her of a rattlesnakes with a diamond pupil, but whatever it was he wasn’t like the other mercenaries.

  Sneering, the bossman looked back at her.

  “Who are you working for?” He demanded.

  IO shook her head.

  “No one. I volunteer as a ranger at-”

  “Who are you working for?”

  “Look…There must be a missunder-”

  The bossman’s arm lashed out through the bars of the stall, wielding a cattle prod and striking her in the shoulder. IO shrieked so loud and suddenly, every man flinched, throwing their hands up to their ears.

  The deep rumble of creatures in the stalls either side of her sent a jolt of horror through her mind. They had other critters in here with her. Snake-eyes looked around at the noise and in a soft voice said something that IO didn’t quite catch, but each stirring critter fell gently silent again.

  “Who are you working for?” The bossman asked once more, a tremble in his voice as she bared her sharp little fangs at him.

  Part of her wanted to screech again at him and watch him shy away, but she was better than that. Rubbing the jolted area, she shook her hair back and stood tall.

  “Are you going to let me speak?” She asked calmly.

  He lunged again but this time she was ready for it. Too quick for him to even see, IO snatched the prod out of his hands and snapped it over her knee, tossing the broken stick behind her. The bossman reeled back with wide eyed panic and shoved the younger man beside him forward. Snake-Eyes looked impressed, though he was the only one who did so.

  Huffing loudly, she gave her wings a small beat and stirred up the hay in the stall.

  “I’m a park ranger for Big Bend national park. Thank you very much.” She stated with strained diplomacy. “And I don’t appreciate being kidnapped in the middle of the night by gun toting cowboys.”

  “Cowboys?” Snake-Eyes laughed. He was given a shove by the bossman, pushing him forward to speak in his stead. “Are you working for ARCDA?” He asked plainly.

  “No, I’m a park ranger, I just told you.”

  Her head buzzed with a horrible nauseating sensation, then there was a sudden dizziness and for a moment she found herself feeling as though she were staring out at her own body from different eyes like a strange mirror.

  She looked over to where she felt she had seen herself from, to find Snake-Eyes smirking at her.

  Of course! A Preternatural muser.

  ‘Well done. Took you long enough sweetie-pie.’

  She shuddered, her head itching wildly at the alien voice of a thought that wasn’t her own. Despite the situation, she was delighted. She hadn’t encountered a muser or a Preternatural in years!

  ‘Then you’ve had a long while out of Dodge.’ He mused with a sting of envy.

  ‘Nine years actually.’

  ‘Lucky you.’

  “She’s telling the truth. She’s had nothing to do with Arcadia for the last nine years.” The younger man with rattlesnake eyes said firmly, then with a dramatic sigh turned back to the bossman, “Why’d you set me and my men on a ranger, Darryl? You know how uptight they are about rules and shit.”

  “Because she shot me! Interfered with the Febris recapture!”

  “With what gun?” Said IO firmly. “As I recall, you were the one with a gun. Maybe you shot yourself.”

  Snake-Eyes snickered again as the bossman’s face turned a darker shade of scarlet.

  “How dare-”

  “Darryl, settle down.” A man further away commanded him.

  The alleyway was so crowded with men that she didn’t see who had spoken until some of the mercenaries and ranch hands backed up to allow another man through. He was far cleaner than any other man there, a businessman. Looking her over he looked impressed, though there was a greedy glint in his eye that IO did not like.

  She thought about what the Amethyst had said of Hasekura, of how they had stolen and would abuse the critters in their care to get the results they wanted. Her tailfeathers tremored at the thought of what they might want with her.

  “There’s no need to lose your temper.”

  “I am not going to lose my temper!”

  The businessman nodded patronisingly. “Of course not. That’s why you were going to make a foolish error.”

  “I am very sorry for your treatment young lady. Be rest assured that this was not how we intended to meet you.”

  The bossman scowled and drew a deep breath to holler at him for treating her as a person but stopped as IO beat her wings and spoke loudly before any bickering could occur.

  “Save your apologies. Seen as though I have done nothing beyond what is in my jurisdiction, as a ranger, and since you and your people have committed a crime, you had better correct your mistake and let me out of here.”

  Bossman gritted his teeth. His hand was twitching and flexing, reaching for a gun that wasn’t at his belt.

  “Or else what?” He seethed.

  Her wings arched above her, the colours catching in the light and illuminating the faces of the men before her in a red glow. “That is not something you want to find out.” Then with a quick flick, made a cracking sound with her feathers that sent a wave of retreat across all gathered before her.

  Many of the men backed up further, intimidated by the size and a power they had not expected. The businessman’s’ eyes glittered as he stared at her, he wasn’t afraid.

  “Darryl don’t be hasty.” He chided the bossman. “This could be a wonderful opportunity.”

  “Opportunity?”

  Giving the bossman a stern look then looking at Snake-Eyes with surprise, IO assumed that the muser must have said something to him. A smile spread across his face as he turned back to IO.

  “Young lady, I’m sure that living out here must be hard work. Having to hide away from humans and not be treated appropriately for a person of your nature. What say you to a deal?”

  IO scowled
, drawing her wings up tight against her body.

  “Deal?”

  “We can give you accommodation and protection in exchange for working for us. I’m sure that you have no love for ARCDA, and must know that if they ever found out that you were out here, they would capture and likely break you down so that they can indoctrinate you into their system.”

  “And you won’t?”

  “Of course not. It would be employment, not imprisonment.”

  Was that why the Preternatural was there? Had they employed him? It didn’t seem right.

  The Amethyst, though she was part of ARCDA, had made no attempt to capture her or harm her, unlike these men. Though she wanted no part in this fight between ARCDA and Hasekura, she knew who she trusted more.

  “I’m not interested.”

  “Oh. That’s a shame.” He shrugged and waved his hand, allowing the bossman to come forth once again. The bossman stared her down with a sneer. IO shuddered.

  “Xavier.” He turned to the Preternatural. “How long can a bird go without food and water?”

  “Avio, sir.” He rolled his eyes.

  “I don’t care what it’s called. Just answer the damn question.”

  “Four days for both as far as I know. Then they start to get a bit bitey.” He said with a pointed grin at the man that IO had already bitten. “Mind your fingers.”

  “Then leave her here for a few days. We’ll see if she’s so damn proud then.”

  Chapter 13

  The Avio San, or Sundowner, whichever it might have been, glared at Griffin with a look that forewarned that she was only half a second away from launching herself upon her again and ripping her arms off, before Griffin found her voice.

  She seemed less an Avio and more of a Raptor with the poise she held and the fixed glare in her eye.

  Whereas IO was cherry pinks and brilliant blues, sweet and cool, San was coloured in vermillion and champagne, with brilliant reds and golden yellow markings decorated the black base of her feathers and hair, and baring her sharp little fangs at her with the fury of a wildcat.