Howling Dead

by M. H. Bonham

  She could feel Spaz’s lungs fill with air as he breathed in deeply through his nose. She caught a whiff of the cotton bandana they used to gag him, and there was something else. Oily. Like machines. Or diesel. There was a strong acrid scent of steel.

  You’re by a bunch of machines, she said.

  I could’ve told you that, Spaz said.

  But you didn’t. She paused as she caught another scent. Tar? Or was it creosote? What the hell? she muttered. At that, she heard—or rather felt—a rumbling beneath him. Does this happen often?

  Spaz gave the mental equivalent of a nod.

  You’re by train tracks, she told him as she left his mind. Maybe the stockyards or Union Station.

  You know where that is? he asked.

  Yeah, she said. Look, Spaz, I’ll be there to get you. Hang on.

  No cops.

  Yeah, sure, Kira said. Can you hang online while I call in some backup?

  Backup? I thought you said no cops, Spaz objected.

  Werewolves kidnapped you, she said. I’m not stupid enough to take them on by myself. She paused. By the way, who kidnapped you?

  Cathal Murphy.

  Cathal is dead, she said. Who is in charge now?

  Some guy by the name of Bob Marks.

  CHAPTER 61

  Bob Marks? Kira’s head spun. Are you sure?

  Yeah, you know him? he asked.

  Dark hair, brown eyes, UNIX admin? Smug as hell.

  That’d describe any UNIX admin.

  Ha ha, Kira replied. Try again.

  Yeah, that’s him—the Intermountain werewolf. But he has gold eyes.

  Kira sat back and thought in silence for a while. Shit, Spaz, she said. This is big—really big.

  Spaz looked at her. Can you help me? He paused and his eyes went glassy. When they snapped back into focus, he looked scared. Shit, they’re coming. Got to go…

  With that, he unplugged.

  Kira unplugged, too. She stared out the window of Uncommon Grounds toward Union Station. It was already noon by the clock at the café. She brought up Jim’s number and dialed his cell phone. It went right into voicemail.

  “Jim, this is Kira,” she said. “Long story, but I got in touch with Spaz. The nearest I can figure is he’s in one of the warehouses outside the old stockyards, or not far from Union Station. I’m going in. The werewolf’s name is Bob Marks—I think he’s the same asshole who killed Susan and bit me. Call me on my cell.”

  She set her phone to vibrate, then hesitated as she thought about contacting Alaric. She considered contacting him for help, but now his bizarre notion of making her his wife had made her reluctant. He would no doubt babble about her being his partner for eternity. He might even use his leverage to get her to promise to marry him if he rescued Spaz. Spaz was worth a lot, but not an eternal marriage to a werewolf.

  Kira got up and tossed the cup in the garbage before heading out the door. But where to? What she was planning to do was stupidly dangerous, and she would need backup.

  She walked over to the apartment building and reentered. Instead of going to her apartment, she went over to Trevor’s and banged on the door. There was no answer. Kira pounded on the door again, this time more urgently.

  “Go away!” she heard Trevor’s voice from somewhere inside.

  “Open this door now!” she shouted. “Or I’ll break it down.” She slammed her hand against the door and felt it shudder.

  “Hang on!” she heard Trevor inside. He opened the door and peered out. “So, now you’re the big bad wolf?”

  Kira pushed her way into the apartment. Trevor was in pajamas. “Do you ever stay awake?”

  “Look, I need my rest after the long nights.”

  “Right. You know where Alaric is?”

  “You tell me, girlfriend. He’s hot on you.”

  Kira felt her face flush. “Yeah, well, tell Alaric that Bob Marks is the wolf he’s looking for.”

  “Why don’t you?”

  “Because I have more important things to do,” she growled. Trevor averted his eyes from her stare. “Listen, Marks has got a friend of mine hostage. Now, I know you don’t give a shit about me, but Alaric does. And if he finds out that you didn’t tell him...”

  “All right! All right!” Trevor’s brow was furrowed but his skin looked pale. Angry but intimidated. “I’m getting tired of this, you know.”

  “Like I care?” Kira said. “Listen to me. I’m going to find Bob Marks—you know him?”

  Trevor nodded. “Big wolf. One of Cathal’s henchmen.”

  One of Cathal’s henchmen? Or was Cathal on Bob’s chain? Kira wondered. “Yeah, him. My friend is somewhere in an abandoned warehouse near the railroad tracks. I’m going to have to find him. Tell Alaric I’m out there.”

  “It’s going to be tough for even Alaric to find you.”

  “Yeah, well he can fucking try.”

  Trevor shot her a glance that would’ve fixed a lesser werewolf, but not Kira. She lifted her lip in a bare-teeth snarl and Trevor lowered his gaze. “All right,” he said. “I’ll tell him.”

  “Good. Now get going. I need to find my friend.” She turned and left him growling behind her.

  CHAPTER 62

  As she walked down the hall, she wondered if she should turn into the wolf. The wolf was strong and powerful—capable of handling herself in most situations. Kira stood for a moment in hesitation. She hated being what the wolf was; it seemed as though each time she changed, Kira became a little closer to the animal she didn’t want to be. It frightened her to lose her identity in that way. And yet, the pull of the moon was strong.

  You can’t resist me, the wolf said in her mind. You know you are more powerful with me.

  I don’t want to be you, Kira said to her. You will destroy what little humanity I have.

  You can’t save Spaz without me, the wolf countered. Without me, you will never rip Bob Marks’ throat out.

  I don’t want to kill him, Kira said. I just want to save Spaz.

  Like hell you don’t, the wolf hissed, her laughter menacing. You want Bob dead as much as I want to rip his throat out. You cannot deny what you are...

  I can, Kira replied. She envisioned a large cage and she deposited the wolf within it. Closing her mind, she ignored the enraged screams from the beast. It hated her as much as she hated it—maybe more so. After all, she was the control behind it.

  There were logical reasons for not becoming the wolf, especially now. As a wolf, she couldn’t communicate with humans and she would be at risk if seen in her wolf form. She would probably need her dexterity to open doors—something wolves weren’t good at. What’s more, she would be without clothing. While the wolf didn’t really care, Kira did. She’d have a hard time explaining this to Spaz, too, and while Spaz was only a friend, she knew that he could be a letch when he wanted. She could always change into a wolf later on if she needed to. She hoped she wouldn’t.

  She slipped outside and caught a whiff of another werewolf; she realized it was Trevor as he skittered away. She’d have to be careful, she decided, as she made her way deep into Lower Downtown, where the roads finally met the Platte River and where the railroad lines still ran. Even in the daylight, the area was dangerous.

  Kira walked slowly, trying to take in her surroundings. This would be slow going, even using her werewolf senses. She looked around at the buildings that sat at the corner. The smells from the railroad tracks were overwhelming to her werewolf senses, but she tried to match what she had picked up from Spaz.

  Hours passed as she walked, trying to pick up the remembered scent. It was all wrong, she decided, and her stomach growled reminding her that she’d had nothing but a lukewarm mocha latte. She walked along the warehouses beside the tracks, heading north and passing by homeless people, railroad workers, and truck depots. None of it made sense.

  She hesitated and then tried to feel Spaz’s presence. The wireless was weak here; virtually nonexistent, actually. Now Kira had a conundrum: how
did she connect with Spaz where there was no wireless available?

  The answer was simple: she couldn’t. Perhaps that was the trick to finding him—a wireless relay had to be close enough for him to access it and for her to find it. Without Internet access, there was no way Spaz or anyone could hook into the Enchanted Forest.

  “Wireless,” she muttered. “Wireless. I’m looking in the wrong part of town.” She pondered her predicament. Intermountain would set up their wireless around businesses. But here in the warehouse areas, there would be very little wireless. Where would there be both tracks and wireless?

  She wanted to access Intermountain’s link, but the signal strength registered as poor or nonexistent. She had to get back on Mini and find the maps of where the wireless was—and wasn’t. Problem was, there could be a private network Spaz had tapped into inadvertently that allowed him to route into the Enchanted Forest.

  That was it. The IP address of the access point might tell her where he actually was. She felt stupid for not thinking of it sooner. She had Mini as her point of contact, which meant packets had to run through a solid network link, which would have to be off the Intermountain backbone.

  She walked back down the street. One mile. Two miles. Suddenly she had signal strength again. Kira hopped on board and was in the Enchanted Forest in no time. She logged into Mini and sent a daemon to grep for the network maps, redirecting the find command to the grep search feature.

  She then considered the situation. Spaz could be anywhere along the miles of railroad tracks that ran north to south along the Platte Valley.

  Kira? Spaz’s voice came through to her.

  You okay? Kira asked. She checked the IP. It came from the last gateway he had been on. Good. She did a traceroute on Spaz’s address and came up with an IP address that made no sense to her. It was a network, not a subnet that had a computer on it. It was one of Intermountain’s main wireless routers.

  Yeah, they’re gone. They told me I don’t have much time.

  I wish I had a better clue where you are.

  In the warehouses off of Sixth and I-25. You know where that is?

  How did you find out?

  I overheard them talking. Kira, you’ve got to help me...

  I’m there, Kira said.

  CHAPTER 63

  She’s where?” Alaric said. “Did she say where exactly she was going?”

  The Grey Wolf had suddenly become quiet. Felan polished the ebony bar and looked over at Alaric with mild interest. The other werewolves had figuratively pricked their ears and some cocked their heads in his direction. Alaric towered over Trevor by several inches, making the other werewolf shrink backwards toward the bar.

  Trevor shook his head. “Just to find her friend, Spaz, and to confront Bob.”

  “Bob Marks,” Alaric began to pace but stopped himself. “All this time, I thought the power lie in Cathal. But it was Bob all along.”

  “He’s dangerous,” Trevor said. “Can I go now?”

  “No,” Alaric fixed Trevor with a stare.

  “Damn,” Trevor muttered under his breath.

  Alaric turned to the other werewolves. “I want you and all available werewolves looking for Bob Marks and Kira Walker. Now.” He turned to Felan. “The bar is officially closed.”

  Felan nodded. “You want me to lock up?”

  “No, I want you to stay here and direct any lycanthropes who might come by to search for Kira. Tell them she’s in danger and they need to get word to me ASAP when they find her. If Bob is the rogue leader, he’ll kill her.” He paused and turned to the wolves. “Now, who is with me?”

  K

  It took a while for Kira to find a main road. She called a cab from her cell phone. It was getting dark and Kira’s stomach was more than rumbling, but she knew she was running out of time. Kira took the cab to the warehouses along I-25 where the rail line ran beside the highway. It was dark here and the warehouses loomed all around her in foreboding silence.

  The cabbie had looked concerned when she’d made him stop at the corner. “You sure you want to be here, ma’am?”

  “Yeah,” Kira said. “How much do I owe you?”

  “Ten-fifty.”

  Kira handed him twelve dollars. It cleaned out her pockets. “Keep the change.”

  “You want me to wait?”

  “No, I’ll be fine,” she said. She stepped out and breathed in deeply as the taxicab drove away. Deep within her werewolf senses, she caught a whiff of what she had smelled through Spaz. What was it? Oil, machinery, and creosote. She kept walking for a bit, following the scent.

  On one of the street corners, she realized that Jim wouldn’t know where she had gone. She pulled out her phone and dialed. It was a good idea to keep him in the loop.

  “Transferring you to Intermountain Telecom, please hold....”

  “What the fuck?” Kira said.

  “Hello?” came a voice on the other end that clearly was not Jim. Nasal, and definitely female.

  “Hello?” Kira said dumbfounded. “Who is this?”

  “This is Margie with Intermountain Telecom. Our records show that the credit card you have on file with us has declined authorization...”

  “Christ almighty!” Kira looked around the darkened streets. “It worked earlier.”

  “We just ran billing. Your credit card was declined.”

  “Look, lady, I have to get hold of Detective Walking Bear right now...”

  “You must supply a new credit card or account number.”

  “Shit, doesn’t that one work?”

  “As I said,” Margie droned on with complete indifference, “the credit card you have on file has declined authorization...”

  “You need a new credit card? Lady, I’m in the middle of a warehouse district trying to find a kidnapped friend. The last thing I want to do is start pulling out my maxed-out credit cards to try to find one that might work...”

  “We’ll accept a checking account number.”

  “That’s not the point!” Kira said. “This is important.”

  “You can always dial 9-1-1 without charge...”

  Suddenly Kira felt something like a hot iron press against her throat. She yelped and dropped the phone as a hand grabbed her and pulled her close. She felt crushed against the body behind her. Her neck burned and kept burning and she wanted to scream, but a gloved hand clasped over her mouth. She wanted to bite down but the pain was intense.

  “Ma’am? Ma’am?” The phone echoed through the empty streets.

  “Kick the phone away,” a voice behind her said.

  It hurts... she whined.

  It’ll hurt worse if you don’t do as I say. She heard the lycanthrope in her head.

  Kira kicked the phone away. She could still hear the woman at the other end say, “Ma’am, are you all right? Ma’am?”

  Good. I wouldn’t move or scream, the lycanthrope said.

  The voice in her head was familiar. Bob? she asked. The pain in her neck was intense, but she knew if she could get to the Enchanted Forest from here, she could alert Alaric or any of his lycanthropes. She started to make the link through the wireless...

  Pain shot through her neck and she nearly collapsed. “Don’t do it,” Bob’s voice came out in a hoarse whisper. “Now walk.”

  The burning pressure increased on her neck, forcing her upwards. What is this? she asked.

  “Silver,” Bob said. “If you resist, I’ll slice right through your carotid.”

  Can you take your hand off my mouth so I can breathe? I won’t scream.

  “It won’t do you any good anyway if you did. Nobody hangs around here besides the bums and the rogue wolves.” He pushed her roughly forward. “Walk.”

  “Okay,” Kira said. Her legs felt all wobbly but she forced them forward through sheer will. To do otherwise would mean more excruciating pain, and perhaps death. “Where are we going?”

  “Well, you seem to be so interested in finding your little friend; I thought I’d reunite yo
u.”

  “That’s helpful,” she said. “Saves me time looking for him.”

  “Yeah, I didn’t expect him to be clever enough to link with the Forest,” Bob said. “I thought only werewolves could, but I guess there’s something even in monkey brains that can pick up the signals, if they’re retrained.” He laughed at his own joke. “Of course, it took you long enough to figure out what was going on.”

  “Your eye color had me fooled.”

  “It’s a wonder what contact lenses will do,” Bob said. He was leading her toward a dingy gray warehouse. In the dark, Kira could just make out the Intermountain logo on it. “It’s our network room for the south side,” he said.

  “You held Spaz here?” she said. “Wouldn’t someone find out?”

  “Like who? All the network admins are lycanthrope—and rogues, at that. Cathal made sure of that.”

  “Shit,” Kira said. She stopped at the door and a large man with dark hair and glasses glared at her. He looked vaguely familiar. Kira tried to place him but couldn’t. Most likely he had been with Cathal in The Grey Wolf.

  “So, this is the bitch?” he said. “The one who got Cathal killed.”

  “Cathal got himself killed,” Kira said. “Alaric...”

  “Alaric, Alaric...” Bob sneered. “Monkey lover.” He pushed Kira into the big man’s arms. “Take her in with the Lizard.”

  The lycanthrope half picked her up and shoved her through the door. For a moment, Kira was tempted to turn into a wolf, but then she felt the silver burn against her neck. “Don’t try it. You’ll be dead.”

  “Hi, Kira,” came a familiar voice.

  CHAPTER 64

  Kira halted. The man had been sitting at a console, but now he wheeled around and grinned at her. He was pale with blond hair. His once-blue eyes were now gold. “Randy? Randy Green?”

  “Yeah. Lizard,” he said.

  Randy Green from MIT. One of the guys from Spaz’s inner circle. She remembered him, Tom, Danni, and Spaz all sitting together laughing and talking about their pet projects. “Christ, what did they do to you?” she said.