Agent Woods nodded slowly. "I just had a thought as well."
"What?"
"He may have been filming it, and selling it. I'll get a team in here tomorrow from DC, and I'll talk to the guys handling the pornography cases. If he was making snuff films here, he'll have leads for them on just who he was doing business with."
"Thanks, Chief," Mark said.
"For what?"
"For not ignoring something just because I scented it."
Agent Woods laughed, something Mark hadn't seen him do before, "Ignoring your sense of smell would be like ignoring a drug dog or a bomb dog when it alerted on something. I may be old, but I'm not stupid."
Mark smiled and went back to the SUV as the others put FBI seals on all the doors and packed up the SUV's. Woods was definitely a lot smarter and more open minded than Mark had thought. He was adapting rather quickly to the things Mark was telling him, and what he was dealing with. All in all, Mark was quickly becoming impressed with him.
Once they were all packed up they drove back to their command post in the hangar at the airport. When they got there, the 'deputies' had already left to go home, taking their new charges with them. Any interviews Mark might want to do would have to take place later, at their new homes.
"Okay everyone, gather round," Agent Woods said.
All of the team members came over and looked at Agent Woods.
"What's up boss?"
"I want you to see what it looks like for a lycan to shape change," Agent Woods said. "I should have thought about this before, it hadn't occurred to me that the sight might affect people's reactions."
Mark noticed that Walters and Timms both turned a very deep shade of red and were staring at their feet.
"Look, I'm taking the blame on this one," Agent Woods continued. "You see something that you grew up believing can't happen, well it's going to take you a minute to process it." He turned to Mark, "Could you strip and change for us?"
"Happy too, Chief," Mark said and stripped down to the buff.
"Watch carefully," Mark said, looking around, Agent Denise O'Brien looked a little embarrassed at seeing him naked, but otherwise no one seemed too bothered.
And then he shifted.
Several people gasped, and Denise took a step back. Mark sat and looked around at everyone.
"Mark?" Timms asked.
Mark nodded his head, and gave a small "mow", then stood on all fours and stretched. After that he padded around in front of them all for a moment, then stopped, looked at them all again, and shifted back.
"Any questions?" Mark asked catching his breath.
"Why are you panting?" Michael asked.
"Been a long day, so I'm pretty tired now. Shifting takes energy, and I already did it a couple of times today, plus I had to heal a bunch of broken bones and cuts."
"Okay, get dressed," Agent Woods said.
"Wait, one last thing," Mark held out his hand to Michael, "Loan me your pistol a moment."
Michael undid the snap on the holster and passed it over.
"I didn't want to get any blood on my clothing, plus when I'm tired this tends to hurt a little more," Mark said and stuck the muzzle into his side.
"What are you ..." Agent Woods started.
They all jumped when the gun went off, and Mark grunted.
"Damn that stings," He said and handed the pistol back to Michael who was just staring at him like he was crazy.
"Okay, look, gunshot wound, but notice it's barely bleeding. and here comes the bullet," Mark pointed as the bullet popped out and fell to the floor, leaving a small smear of blood on his side, along with a powder burn.
"Anyone got a rag?"
Denise pulled out a wad of tissue and handed it to him, her eyes wide in surprise.
"Thanks," He wiped off his side; there was no wound, just some powder residue in a circle.
He looked around at everybody, "Getting shot isn't that big of a deal, well not until you've been shot a few times, so if I'm telling you to shoot, shoot. You're not going to kill me, or even hurt me that much if you hit me once or twice by accident. For a pureblood, there would have been even less damage than this.
"Unless of course you dump about a hundred rounds into them. We're tough, you can overwhelm our healing, tire us out, wear us down, but it takes a lot of damage. Ideally you don't want to try and take a lycan down, even a turned one like me, without other lycans on your team."
"Thank you, Mark," Agent Woods said, and Mark could see that he actually meant it. He turned to the rest of the team as Mark got dressed, "This is why we need to do everything we can to maintain good relations with those wolf lycans we had down here today. Their leader told me that events like today's are rare; they police their own pretty hard and they want this Craig caught even more than we do. So they'll help us again with this guy if we need it.
"I'm going to talk to Henry about recruiting some for the team. So be on your best behavior, and if any of them express even the slightest interest, knock yourself out trying to recruit them."
"Does that mean hiring bonuses?" Mary asked with a grin.
"Yes, it does," Agent Woods said with a nod. "Now, everybody, we're at that hotel we passed on the way in here. Go back and get a room, I had to double us up, so sort yourselves out as you wish. It's almost five now, you'll be getting wake up calls at nine.
"Now, go."
Mark watched the others head out to the SUV's as he got dressed, Michael waiting for him by theirs.
"Nice to see you're onboard with the idea of hiring some of us, Chief," Mark said, heading after the rest.
"You know, that's twice now you've called me chief," Agent Woods said.
"Respect is earned, you know that," Mark smiled at him.
"And I'm earning yours, well, I can't complain about that. But, yes, it's only logical to start hiring lycans, especially in a unit like this. They're tougher, they'll get hurt less, and frankly, they need some representation on the force just like all the other minorities.
"I could tell those werewolves don't trust us much, I can tell you're a bit hesitant about some things as well. Only way to change that is to bring more of you onboard. Hell, if they ever tell HR about you guys, we'll be forced to do it under threat of equal rights lawsuits," Agent Woods added with a smirk.
Mark shook his head and chuckled at that, then went and got in the car with Michael and headed off to the hotel to get some sleep.
11: Streets of Blacksburg
Craig looked behind him as he ran down the street, that damn cougar had fallen behind, and he needed to put more space between the two of them while it continued to heal. He could feel the gashes on his back healing; it had really laid into him with its claws. When he saw the car coming, he knew his only chance was to run in front of it, and it had worked, the impact had separated the two of them and he'd been able to escape.
What he couldn't understand was where the hell it had come from! Yes werewolves, everyone knew about werewolves! There were werecougars too?
It was bad enough his house had been raided by the FBI, and being shot so many times had stunned him, but when they'd started to run, he still had most of his extra magical power. He still had no idea how it had caught him! Wolves where supposed to be faster than cats, and with all those twists and turns, he should have lost it!
He shook his head so hard his whole body shook as he ran. It didn't matter, not now, none of that mattered. What mattered is he needed clothes so he could get out of this dirty animal form.
And power! He needed more power! The cat had done a lot of damage to him, and he'd used up almost all of his extra powers, the stuff he'd worked so hard to earn with his bribes and gifts to the old sage who lived up in the hills. Now he was just another werewolf, the extra abilities would barely work, so he needed to get dressed, get a car, get a suitable sacrifice, and go see the sage again. Once he got his power back, his abilities, then he could decide on how to deal with this new problem.
He looked up
at a street sign, it was still dark, and while his wolven eyes could see in the dark, making out the sign took a few minutes. Another problem with this lesser form, he grumbled.
Once he knew where he was, he set off to Ursula's house. She'd have clothes he could wear, as well as a car he could borrow. With any luck she could identify someone he could snatch tomorrow, someone he could use to appease the old man, and get his powers restored in the process.
"Craig! What are you doing here this late! And why are you naked?" Ursula said to him, blinking her eyes.
Craig pushed by her and into the house, closing the door behind him.
"My home was raided, I had to shift in order to escape," Craig growled.
"What! Raided? How? Why?"
"One of the people I sell my movies to must have been compromised," Craig shrugged, "It's of little matter." He said and turned towards her, "Right now, I just need some clothes and a place to sleep for the night."
"But, but what if they come here?" Ursula asked, worried. She didn't mind helping him; in fact she had enjoyed it immensely. However, she wasn't about to risk her own life or wellbeing for his.
"Don't worry," Craig said using up what was left of his powers to spin a small glamour on her, "your name is not written down anywhere, or even in my files. Plus everything is encrypted; they will have no leads, no trail to track me here."
"I shouldn't have doubted you, Craig," Ursula said and leaned against him, the danger of their relationship warming her loins once more. She knew he was a werewolf, he'd even shown her once. He'd also promised to change her one day, when she no longer needed her job at the college to help him find the young girls he needed.
Craig smiled, and led her to the bedroom. He should bite her soon; tie her more closely to him. If she freaked out, her rampage through town would more than help to distract the government agents from him as he escaped. But not yet, he still needed her help.
12: Blacksburg
Mark pulled out his phone while he waited for Michael to finish in the shower and called Helena.
"Yes?"
"Hi, Hon. I'm not sure when we'll be back we're stuck here for another day at the very least," he sighed.
"You don't sound happy," Helena said
"He got away," Mark grumbled, "a couple of the team members got distracted when they saw him shift. I might have had him, but I got hit by a car while I was trying to bring him down."
He heard Helena sigh "So now what?"
"We need to canvass the town, look for leads, witnesses, and see if we can find anyone who might have been helping him."
"Helping?"
"He's kidnapped over a dozen women, at least we're pretty sure he has, but nobody seems to have noticed. Or if they did, someone was covering for him."
"That doesn't sound good."
"No, it doesn't. There's a few other things about him that don't seem right either."
"Such as?"
"I don't think he ever shifted in his home, not even in his bedroom. I didn't see any fur around, anywhere."
Helena hmm'ed, "Yeah, that would be pretty strange."
"Also, he seemed to heal a lot faster than normal, and I was having a hard time tiring him out, it didn't seem right."
"He is a pure, Hon."
"And I haven't really tangled with many of them, I know. Still, it didn't seem right."
"Well, tomorrow is another day, and it's not just you anymore, they have the entire FBI to help them find this guy."
"There is that," Mark agreed, "What we really need is a few more lycans on the team, this guy isn't going to go down easily."
"Well, invite your cute partner out to visit and I'm sure one of the girls will take care of that for you," Helena giggled over the phone.
Mark smiled and shook his head, "He was bugging me for pictures on the ride to the hotel. After seeing you, he figures our daughters have to be 'pretty hot.'"
"I'll have to get his email," Helena said thoughtfully, "then I can sic them on him."
Mark laughed, "Well, I've warned him, so it's on his head now."
"Oh? What did you tell him?"
"That if he showed up, he'd get bit," Mark chuckled.
"And what did he say to that?"
"That I seemed pretty happy with it, so I left it at that."
"Oh really now?" Helena almost purred over the phone. Mark could almost hear the gears turning in her head, Michael's single days may very well be numbered. "So when do you think you'll be back?"
"I'm not sure, I'm thinking of driving up to Marlington when we're done here, I think I may interview one or two of the girls they pulled out of there, see what else I can learn."
"Hmm, so longer than I'd like," Helena grumbled.
"Sorry, Hon."
"Oh, don't worry, I'll figure something out."
"And that's what worries me," Mark chuckled.
"So where are you staying? They put you in a hotel at least?"
"Oh, they stashed us in a nice little place with a bar and a great Mexican restaurant right next door," Mark laughed and chatted another few minutes with Helena about the hotel and the town until he heard the water turn off in the shower.
"Anyway, Michael's almost done in the shower and we need to head over to the command post. I'll call later when I find out what's going on. Bye, Hon."
"Bye!"
Mark sipped his coffee and looked around the room at the others, everyone was assembled in the makeshift command post in the hangar, looking a little tired, but ready to go. He was wearing an FBI windbreaker like the rest of them today, and Agent Woods was telling them what the current status of the investigation was.
"So, we haven't seen any hits on his credit cards, or bank account. The police officers watching his business haven't seen any sign of him, and the researchers are still pulling up everything they can find on one Craig Pope."
"You know, Craig Pope doesn't sound like a very Russian name," Agent Haines pointed out.
Agent Woods nodded, "The boys in research are pretty sure it's an alias, they haven't been able to find anything about him, prior to his setting up shop here and buying that building."
"So, are we sure he's Russian then?" Agent Patrick Waters asked.
"Zeke said he was pretty sure he was a Russian wolf," Mark said.
"And several of the items we found in his home seemed to indicate that as well," Agent Woods responded. "So we're proceeding on that hypothesis.
"Also, based on observations made by Agent Levin here, I've called in the private-sector group to go through all of Pope's computers and records at his house, his bank, and his credit cards. We have reasons to believe he was involved in the snuff films industry. So don't be surprised to find their agents going through his house later on today."
"Is that wise?" Agent Denise O'Brien spoke up from the back of the room where she was sitting.
"Actually yes, it is. It gives cover to our actions. We can now put out the story that we were saving these women from a pornographer and violent serial killer, and we'll have some evidence to back that up in the public eye. It will also give us an alibi if we have to explain the changes in these women's behavior, and why they've become withdrawn."
Agent Woods picked up a stack of folders and started passing them out to everyone.
"Okay, I'm sending six of you; Mark, Michael, Steve, Mary, Denise and Patrick over to the college to canvas the students and the administration, Steve you're in charge. The names of the girls we rescued last night, along with copies of their driver's licenses are in there, along with what we have on Pope.
"See if you can find out who else might have taken a job from Pope. Call me if you need any warrants, we've got the department lawyers appearing before a local judge later today.
"Jeff and Rich, I want you to check with all of the local banks and see which ones he was doing business with. Bill, Joseph, I want you to check in with the local police, talk to whoever handles prostitution and investigates the sex shops, tell them Pope was making po
rno's and snuff films, and see if they know who might be distributing them in the area. Chase down any leads you find, keep me in the loop, and call for backup if you decide to raid anyone."
Agent Woods looked around the room, "Any questions?"
Mark raised his hand, "I'd like to go up to Marlington and interview the girls we rescued last night, Chief. I have some questions I want to ask them."
Agent Woods nodded, "Let's see what we turn up today first. Those girls aren't going anywhere, but our perp is probably still in town and I'd like to see if we can't take him down before he runs on us. Remember everyone, flash Pope's picture around, pass out the flyers in the folders. Headquarters has authorized a ten thousand dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of our Mr. Pope. So let's see if we can't flush him out."
He looked around the room again, "Last of all, do not take him on alone! Remember, he's one tough son-of-a-bitch. Call for backup first.
"Dismissed!"
"So, what's the plan?" Mark asked Steve Hughes as they all walked out to their cars.
"Mary and I will head to the President's office, to make sure they know what's going on and that they cooperate. You and Michael head over to dean of students, see what you can learn there. After that I want you to head to Eggleston Main, its one of the dorms where two of the girls came from and is by the dean's office.
"Denise, you and Patrick head over to Ambler Johnston East, that's where the rest came from."
Mark and the others nodded and they got into their cars and drove off.
"Wow, look at all those cute co-eds," Michael commented as they drove across campus.
"I thought you were interested in my daughters?" Mark smiled, shaking his head.
"Never hurts to look," Michael grinned. "Besides, most college girls really aren't interested in us feds, to a lot of these kids, we're the bad guys."
Mark nodded, "Yeah, everyone is always nervous when the police are around these days. Kinda sad."
"Eh, you get used to it," Michael said and shrugged.
Mark laughed, "You maybe, people rarely take Interpol or the Vatican all that seriously these days. They figure I'm just after art thieves."
Wolf Killer (The Hammer Commission) Page 10