“Where’s that door?” he asked Jason grimly.
Jason turned, leading him to the keeper’s entrance. There was no card reader in sight. Frustration burned hot in Uriel’s belly, and he was a breath away from declaring war on the facility, the Feds, and every human on the planet before Forest touched his arm.
“It’s under that rock,” he said, pointing. “The one with the plasticky sheen.”
Uriel spotted it immediately and felt like a complete idiot for not realizing it was there before. He flipped the false rock open and passed his card over the reader. The keeper door slid open, allowing them to pass through the plexiglass barrier and out into the common area of the zoo. It was a bit of a tight squeeze for some of the larger wolves, but they all made it to the other side.
“Alright, zoo keeper,” Uriel said to Forest. “Which way out?”
“If we want to avoid people? Follow me.”
He led them up the path, away from the main office. At the top of the hill, when the path began to curve back toward the zoo entrance, Forest ducked into a hidden alley between the tiger enclosure and the wild boar enclosure.
“They want to keep animals from the same continent together, sort of a world tour thing,” Forest explained. “Problem is, that means we have predators in the same area with their natural prey. So they installed these alleys between the enclosures a few years ago to keep the tigers from killing themselves trying to get at the boars.”
“Good for us,” Uriel commented. “Jason. Gomer. I want you two at the end, behind the wolves. We’ve got weapons, protect the ones who don’t.”
Jason and Gomer obeyed instantly. He felt the vibration of power rippling through his body; it had been far too long since he’d felt like the alpha he was born to be, and the actualization of his natural role was intoxicating. He found himself suddenly and inconveniently aroused, and chuckled at his own narcissism.
Forest pushed ahead, and brought them to an even narrower alley that ran between the enclosures and the back wall of the zoo. The wall was twelve feet tall; even in were-form, they would have trouble getting enough speed to get over it in such a confined space. Since they were stuck for the moment as humans and wolves, the idea was utterly impossible.
“What now?” Uriel asked.
“There’s a service entrance, um... this way,” Forest told him, turning right down the narrow path. Monkeys screeched and birds scolded at the line of wolves pressing against their cages.
“They’re going to blow our cover,” Uriel said grimly. “Better pick up the pace.”
Forest broke into a run, and the rest of the group kept up with him. It didn’t make the animals in the cages any happier. The screams got louder with every new enclosure they passed, and Uriel was certain that they would be ambushed by goons or Feds at any moment.
“The gate is just on the other side of those bushes,” Forest told him over his shoulder.
“Scout it,” Uriel ordered.
He gestured for the group to halt. Forest poked his head through the bushes and looked around. Heart pounding, he took a step through. He appeared to be alone. The gate rose up on his left, and he turned toward it just as it swung open. He jumped back as a line of black Hummers roared through, each displaying military markers. He froze, eyes wide as they passed him by. Six drove past him without paying him any mind, but the seventh stopped directly in front of him.
“What are you doing out here?” the soldier inside demanded.
“Routine security checks,” Forest answered.
“This facility is on lockdown. Get to the office. You need to be interviewed.” As he spoke, four soldiers jumped from the back of the vehicle and stationed themselves in a line across the gate. They carried powerful-looking weapons and didn’t look like they would hesitate to shoot on sight.
“To the office,” the soldier repeated.
“Yes, sir.”
The Hummer sped away, and Forest turned around casually and stepped back into the alley. The whole zoo was in a panic now, as the Hummers roared past enclosures, startling every bird and beast. Forest acknowledged that it gave them better cover, but he was furious that they would disregard the animals like that.
“What’s going on?” Uriel asked.
“Four soldiers at the gate,” Forest answered.
“Animus’?”
“No,” Forest said grimly, shaking his head. “Military.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah.”
Uriel pushed his hands through his short, black hair, thinking it over.
“We can’t attack as werewolves,” he decided. “And we might not win as humans.”
Bianca stepped forward, offering her services. Uriel stroked his chin, considering. Four humans and six wolves would be a lot for even the best soldiers to contend with, if they all attacked at once. The attack would blow back on Animus, but then what? Would Animus take responsibility for it in the name of science, or would he blow their cover. No, Uriel decided. He wouldn’t take responsibility. He would absolutely throw them under the bus to save his own skin.
“The soldiers coming in told me to go to the office,” Forest was saying. “He said that every member of the facility would be interviewed.”
“Maybe they already know,” Uriel mused. “I can’t imagine that Animus was able to hide all of the evidence.”
“So what do we do?”
Chapter Twelve
“I don’t like this,” Jason said, rubbing his palms together.
“It has to be done,” Uriel said firmly. “We need to know what they know, and they already saw his face. He’s smart, he can handle it.”
“But what if he can’t, huh? What happens when someone attacks him? You trust him enough to think he can suppress the reflex?”
“I do,” Uriel told him. “So shut up before you attract attention.”
Jason scowled and crossed his arms, slumping against the back wall of the zoo. The wolves were lined up like six furry little balls, sleeping in little spots of sunshine that managed to reach the trail. Jason, Gomer, and Uriel waited in human form for Forest to return.
Meanwhile, Forest was emphatically agreeing with Jason as he approached the main office. The military Hummers and heavily-tinted black Sedans filled the generous parking lot around the office, squeezed in between the low-profile hatchbacks and minivans owned by the facility staff. It leant a dark, ominous air to the otherwise cheerful appearance of the zoo.
Forest’s mouth went dry as he pushed through the door. All around him in the lobby were his familiar coworkers, his fellow keepers. June, the manager, waved him over frantically and he sat beside her. She was twitchy and agitated, and he wondered if she was coming down from something. The deep lines carved into her leathered skin showed him she was worried, though her pinprick irises clouded the reasons why.
“Where have you been?” she hissed. “I had to hire someone to fill your spot. The birds hate him! What are you doing in those ridiculous clothes?”
Forest allowed himself the briefest of grins. The expensive black goon clothes were quite the departure from his standard cargo pants and t-shirt. He ran his eyes over the faces in the room, and found the one he didn’t recognize. His low-sloping forehead gave him the look of permanent confused rage, and his ham-sized hands couldn’t possibly have been delicate enough to work in the aviary. Nevertheless, he wore the proper vest for the job.
“Of course they don’t like him. You hired Igor.”
“Oh, shut up, he’s not that bad. Besides, nobody else wanted the job. You really screwed me over, Forest. You gonna tell me where you been?”
“Falsely imprisoned,” he said vaguely.
“Man, I hear you. Damn cops think they can pick you up for any damn thing even if it ain’t hurting nobody. Don’t worry, baby doll, we’ll get you back on the roster. I never officially fired you.”
“Thanks, June,” Forest said with a grin.
He knew he wasn’t coming back, but it was nice to know he had b
een missed. A guttural scream from the back offices brought him to his feet, but the other keepers just winced and shifted their chairs a little farther from the hallway leading back.
“Sit down,” June told him. “Keeps happening. Don’t know why. Sure we’ll figure it out soon enough.”
“Why don’t you leave before it happens to you?” he asked.
“‘Cause there’s cowboys with guns out there. One of ‘em took a shot at me already. I dodged it like a damn ninja, it was great.”
Forest wasn’t sure how much he believed that last part, but it was certainly possible that “lockdown” meant “shoot first, ask questions later.” If that were the case, he was going to have a hell of a time getting out of here. He hoped that Uriel and the others would wait for him. It was a selfish desire, but a deep one; it was possibly the difference between life and death for him.
A scientist appeared from the back, sweating profusely and shaking from head to toe. He was escorted by two men in military uniforms. They led him outside, and the keepers all watched as the soldiers pushed him into the back of an armored vehicle. They returned a few moments later without him, and disappeared back down the hallway.
“Why are we here?” Forest asked.
“Don’t know. They said interviews. I think something must have happened in the research department. It’s not my department, I know that much. My animals are just fine, thank you very much. We haven’t broken no laws in the zoo. Has to be the other side. If those creepy ass scientists lose me my job, I’m gonna sue. I’m not takin’ no shit for somethin’ that isn’t my fault. If it was the animals, that would be my fault, but what goes on underground isn’t my place to know. I have nothing to do with it.”
“I know that, June.”
“I know you do, but what about them? I’m an important person around here. They’re gonna think I had something to do with this!” She was getting more agitated all the time, rocking back and forth in her chair, pulling at tufts of her greying red hair.
“It’s alright, June,” he said, patting her back uncomfortably.
“It’s a conspiracy,” she muttered. “They don’t want me to have a job. Nobody wants me to keep my life together; not the kids, not my useless husband, and now the government’s in on it? I can’t breathe.”
Forest stared. He’d seen her paranoid, he’d seen her utterly convinced that someone was deliberately under or over-ordering, that the monkeys hated her hair, that the hippopotamus’ singled her out for their crap-tail propeller treatment; but it had never been this bad before. He could see how the sudden disruption with the violent undertone could have sent her over the edge, but there was literally nothing he could say to make it better. He wasn’t faced with the impossible task for long. Moments after her meltdown began, a soldier returned and gestured to her.
“Ma’am, come with me please. We need to ask you a few questions.”
“You’ll never take me alive!” she screeched, lunging at him with her fingers outstretched like talons.
The soldier stopped her with the palm of his hand on her forehead, sighing heavily.
“Ma’am, just a few questions and then you’re free to go.”
“Bullshit! You’re talking bullshit!”
She flailed her arms, scratching furiously like a cat subjected to bath water. The soldier sighed, pulled out a gun, and fired into the floor. She froze.
“Now,” the soldier said patiently. “We need to ask you a few questions.”
Suddenly meek, June went along with him into the back. Forest blew out a relieved breath. He’d thought for sure the soldier was going to shoot her dead. The man on his right—tiger keeper, according to his vest—was looking at him strangely.
“What’s up?” Forest asked.
“No, no, nothing,” the man said.
But he got up and found a seat on the other side of the room. Forest frowned then shrugged. He had more pressing worries than a random person’s judgmental attitude. For instance, June’s potential impending doom. He waited for her guttural scream, but it never came. Instead, moments after she’d gone back, the soldier who had taken her returned with another soldier. They didn’t hesitate to scan the room; instead, they marched directly toward Forest.
“Come with us,” the first soldier ordered. “We need to ask you some questions.”
“Yes, sir,” Forest said nervously.
He got to his feet and was escorted into the back. They took him past the break room and human resources, into the beehive of offices he’d never had reason to visit. They walked him clear to the back, to an office door inscribed with CEO. He looked at the inscription curiously as they pushed him through. It had never occurred to him, as an employee, that the entire business was contained under a single roof. He couldn’t explain to himself why it mattered, and he couldn’t shake the feeling that it did.
A wide maple desk sat in the center of the room. A man—an officer of some kind, Forest thought—sat behind the desk, his wide red face frozen in a scowl. Four other soldiers sat in chairs against the walls, and the two who had escorted him in joined their fellows. He stood awkwardly, not sure what he should do with his hands or feet.
“Sit,” the officer ordered, indicating the chair sitting empty in front of the desk. Forest sat, painfully aware of how many eyes were on him.
“What’s your name?”
“Forest Gallagher.”
“What’s your position?”
“Zoo security,” he lied. Best to keep the story consistent from one soldier to another. A moment later he was glad he had; the soldier he’d run into at the service gate was sitting on his left, giving him a hard look.
“Forest Gallagher...I have you here as aviary keeper.”
“I was given a sudden promotion,” Forest explained.
“Any particular reason why?”
“Not that I know of. Animus took a special interest in me. He liked the way I could blend into the environment without stressing out the animals, and decided to use me for his new security program.” Close enough, he thought.
“New security program. And why do you think Animus was so keen on increasing security? Had there been break ins? Vandalism?”
“I assume so,” Forest shrugged. “He told me to make sure all the cages were secure at any given moment of the day.”
“Hm. Sounds like he was more concerned with animals getting out than about people getting in.”
“It’s a zoo,” Forest said. “Our entire job is keeping the animals in.”
“Right. Have you noticed anything strange going on recently, specifically in and around the wolf exhibit?”
Forest frowned thoughtfully, rolling through possibilities in his mind. He needed a story that would set focus squarely on Animus and not the animals in his possession.
“They move the animals in and out a lot,” he said finally. “Seems to stress them out. A few weeks ago, there were eight of them. Now there are six. There are a couple that seem to show up and disappear again every couple of days. One of them actually caused quite a panic a while back, it had some kind of mange or something messing up his fur, then he went nuts. I haven’t seen him since. So yeah, general weirdness.”
The officer wrote down what he said, though Forest noticed a recording device on the table. Redundancy? he wondered. Or is he writing down his impressions? He hoped his face was cooperating with his deceptions. Deception was the highest social skill, and he’d never been very good at white lies, let alone massive, hulking black ones.
“Do you have access to the research facility in your position?” the officer asked.
“No,” Forest said, relieved at the chance to tell the honest truth.
“Have you ever been inside the research facility?”
“I just told you I didn’t have access to it.”
“Mhm. Were you working exactly one month ago, on July fourteenth?”
Forest pretended to consult the calendar hanging on the wall.
“No,” he said final
ly. “I was out of town. Family emergency.”
“Are you aware of what happened that day?”
“No,” he said truthfully. He had no idea where he’d been a month ago, though he had a better idea now of how long he’d been at the facility.
“No one told you? There wasn’t any gossip at all?”
“Gossip about what?”
“The cave in. An entire wing of this facility collapsed, taking the side of the hill with it. Caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage. No one sent out a memo? Not a whisper? Not even a hint of this calamity reached your ears?”
Forest suppressed the urge to laugh. “Oh, that! Yeah, I heard a rumor, but it didn’t affect my job so I didn’t really pay attention to it.”
The officer squinted at him. Forest remained deliberately relaxed under the scrutiny. “Are you aware of the experiments the research facility has been conducting?”
“No,” Forest said innocently. “That information is way above my pay grade.”
“Are you aware of any problems the facility has had as a direct result of those experiments?”
“Problems like what?”
“Employees disappearing. Weapons discharged indoors. Customers fleeing at the sight of a monster that is neither man nor animal?”
Forest swallowed hard and instantly regretted it. “I think you’ve been watching too many horror movies, sir.”
The officer didn’t say anything. He met Forest’s eyes and stared into them, his beady blue eyes boring a hole in Forest’s very soul. Forest tried to stay still, but he couldn’t. He wriggled under the man’s gaze, but he kept his lips pressed firmly together. He’d said all he could say without putting his kind in danger.
“Right then,” the man said. “You’re free to go.”
Forest didn’t need to be told twice. He got to his feet and turned toward the door, to hell with civility.
“Oh, just one more thing,” the officer said, freezing him in his tracks.
“Yes, sir?”
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