“Bart wants you all in the weapons lab. Do you know how to get there?”
“I think Mariella does,” Hail said. “If not, I’ll come ask you.”
“Sounds good,” Phil said. “Enjoy your clothes.”
“I will,” Hail grinned. I’ll enjoy the look on Logan’s face, he thought. He stepped out of the room and was greeted by Mariella, Robert, and Logan, all dressed in their street clothes. Mariella wore grey skinny leggings which looked like denim, a loose white t-shirt, and a dark blue denim vest with faux fur on the breast pockets. A black baseball cap bedazzled with the words “Baddest Bitch” and a pair of black ankle boots completed the look. She grinned when she saw him and winked, silently congratulating him on besting Logan. Robert wore a plain orange t-shirt and jeans with holes in the knees. His dirty-blonde hair and thin, wispy facial hair made him look like a sitcom burn out. Logan made the most striking impression, with his extra-wide black jeans covered in pockets and buckles, a t-shirt decorated with the ghostly faces of insane-looking band members, and heavy combat boots.
“Lookin’ good, Hail,” Mariella said appreciatively. “Wasn’t digging the emo look, huh?”
“Is that what that was?” Hail asked, wrinkling his nose. “Yeah, no, I’m good.”
Everybody laughed (even Logan, which surprised him), and they began to make their way through the building.
“Oh! Phil said we need to go to the weapons lab. Anybody know where that is?” he asked.
“Yeah, we were there the other day. It’s this way.” Mariella took the lead, and everyone naturally fell in step behind her. Robert hovered half a step to her left, which amused Hail; the poor kid was so obviously in love with her, and she didn’t seem to have a clue. Logan trailed behind, and Hail filled the gap in the middle as if he’d been there all his life. He was surprised at how comfortable he was in this group of strangers. Mariella was fun, Robert was…well, Robert had yet to leave a lasting impression, but he seemed benign enough. Even with whatever it was between him and Logan, Hail imagined that he would be comfortable with these people for a long time.
The weapons lab looked like something straight out of the old spy movies that Hail used to watch when he was a kid. Sleek, steel countertops were covered with an array of high-tech weaponry, and Bart stood in the middle of it all looking pleased with himself.
“Good morning!” he said. “Come here, let me show you what you’ve got to work with. These,” he gestured to twelve baseball-sized spheres, “are your riot bombs. These will let you paralyze a group of people in a twenty-foot radius for fifteen to thirty minutes, depending on their metabolism. First thing they’re going to want to do when their bodies start working again is sleep, though. These tend to put people into a mild shock, it’s stressful on the system. Only use them when you have to, because in some cases…children, elderly, sick people…they can be lethal. And never use them without wearing these,” he gestured to four gas masks. “unless you feel like being paralyzed yourselves.”
“How do you use them?” Mariella asked, picking one up.
“Lift that flap there, push the button, and throw it as hard as you can. Less than a second to deploy, will fill the twenty-foot area in thirty seconds, paralysis is instantaneous as soon as they breathe it in.”
Mariella put the sphere down quickly, afraid of accidentally setting it off.
“Next, we have the tasers. You’ll each have one. Close combat only, so keep them in these holsters. They’ll fit under your clothes. Just pull them out, press them to the target…bare skin works best, but it’ll work through some materials…and flip the switch. It’ll disable a human for several minutes or longer if they pass out, these have a heavier charge than the average human taser, and a shifter for an average of two minutes in human form, and forty-five seconds in beast form. Obviously, you don’t want to rely on these, but they’ll give you an edge in an emergency.”
Logan picked one of the tasers up and flipped it around in his hand. He hit the switch and grinned as blue lighting shot between the tines.
“They’ll need to be fully recharged every three uses,” Bart said, snatching the taser out of Logan’s hand. “So stay on top of that. Now these…” He moved down the table to a display of guns. Hail counted eight hand guns and four sniper rifles. “…are your guns, obviously. These four…” He gestured to the hand guns which had red bands around the barrel. “…are your tranquilizer guns. The other four hold plain, ordinary bullets. We’ll give you silver ammunition as well as the usual, but obviously we would prefer that you don’t kill any shifters. Anyone at all, but specifically shifters. You want to distract if you can, disable if you need to, and kill only when absolutely necessary.”
Hail realized that Bart was looking hard at Logan when he said this last part, which made Hail wonder if Bart knew something he didn’t. Logan only smirked, as he had a habit of doing, which didn’t tell Hail anything one way or another. Bart worked down the line, explaining that two of the sniper rifles shot tranquilizer darts and the other two shot bullets. Then he explained the difference between the human tranquilizers and the shifter tranquilizers, and the difference between the different types of bullets.
“Now for the more subtle defenses,” Bart continued. “Each of these pendants contains a camera, a microphone, and a communicator. You can put them on a key chain, necklace, keep it in your pocket, whatever you want. Push the button on the back and the other four will vibrate. Anyone who is able can respond by pressing their button, which will open the channel between the devices. Anyone who has not pressed their button will not hear the conversation, so they will be able to maintain their cover if they are in a vulnerable situation. We are also providing each of you with a new cell phone. Each cell phone is connected to social media under your aliases. Do not log in to your own social media. This is a protective measure.”
“Wait, wait, hold on,” Mariella said. “You mean we gotta build up a following from scratch? You expect us to be able to find shifters with a brand-new account? Dude, that’s like… Hunter Avoidance101.”
Bart stood thoughtfully for a moment.
“Disconnect your GPS prior to logging in,” he said. “Build up your alias’ social medias and use them as much as possible. Don’t post your location or anything about your mission, including your gadgets, clothes, or who hired you. Incognito. Got it?”
“Yes sir,” she said, pleased that he’d taken her seriously.
“Speaking of your identities,” Bart continued. “You have a few. Let’s see… social worker, cop, FBI, as well as three alternate civilian identities. We’ve already loaded the uniforms into the truck. Each identity kit comes with contacts and stick-on fingerprints. Do not get them mixed up. We’ve already scanned them into every database in the country, so these identities are set in stone. Learn these identities as well as you know your own. Come on out back, and I’ll show you what we’ve done to the vans.”
They followed him outside. Hail was almost disappointed when he saw the vans. They were simple, full-sized vans in a gold color, with double doors which opened on either side of the back body. But when Bart pulled the doors open, everyone gasped. The doors themselves were refrigerators, fully stocked with food. Inside, there was a bank of computers, four fold-out cots, a television, a table, and a sectioned-off area which turned out to be an extremely basic bathroom. Just a toilet and hand sanitizer.
“This computer is your server. It downloads all of the information from your cameras and compiles it. It also connects to the internet, of course. The TV will get you any channel in the world, which should help you locate shifters if you know what news stories to look for. Your weapons, identities, and clothes are all in those four lockers there. Each locker is labeled with your first initial only. Nothing in here will identify you as yourselves, and if you have any personal identifiers, you will need to ditch them before you leave. I’m talking IDs, pictures, phones, necklaces with your nickname on them, anything that would reveal your actual identity.�
�
“Why is that important?” Logan asked. “Nobody knows who we are anyway. We’ve got three vagrants and a kid from a commune.”
“You’re all still in the human system,” Bart said. “Even if nobody knows your face, somebody somewhere has your name. This is how you stay under the radar.”
Logan raised his eyebrows, but his expression returned to neutral so fast that Hail wondered if he’d misread the offense.
“Now,” Bart said. “Any questions?”
“Yeah,” Mariella said with a grin. “When do we leave?”
Chapter Ten
They left that evening. They’d decided in a final meeting with Broderick that a two-van convoy would be suspicious, and chose instead to have the truck fitted for a camper shell and the bed fitted with low, soft mattresses and various restraints.
Everything was ready for them by the time they’d finished dinner, and they were ready to roll. Mariella decided that she and Robert would lead in the truck, and Logan and Hail would follow in the van. Logan resisted, but she was insistent. The gleam in her eye told Logan that she was up to something, and he had a suspicion that he knew what it was. She wanted him and Hail in a pressure cooker so they would sort out any issues they had before they encountered any stray shifters.
Hail didn’t seem too upset about the arrangement. He slid into the passenger seat, bouncing with excitement.
“Where are we going first?” he asked breathlessly.
“Don’t know,” Logan said. “Following Mariella.”
“I know, but where do you think she’ll go? You know her pretty well. Is there anywhere around here that she’d think to look for shifters?”
Logan shrugged. “She’ll probably get on her phone and see if there’s any action nearby. If not, she’ll find water.”
“Water?”
“Need water to live,” Logan pointed out. “Homeless shifters gravitate to water. Filters are cheap. Don’t need them in beast form. You want to find a homeless shifter, you look for water.”
“That makes sense,” Hail said. “Oh my God, the gates are opening.”
Logan shot him a curious look. Of course the gates are opening, how else would they get out? Then he realized. Hail probably hadn’t seen them open in years, unless he had been there to meet them when they came in. Logan felt an uncomfortable twitch of some warm emotion in his gut, and squashed it before it could take hold. The last thing he wanted was to be taken in by Hail’s wide, eager eyes and glowing, innocent face. The second he caught feelings was the second he lost the game. Hail grinned happily at him as they reached the gate, and Logan kept his expression deliberately neutral. They crossed the threshold into the outside world, and Hail gasped.
“What?” Logan asked, looking around for danger.
“I’m outside,” Hail said in a sort of vacant tone. “Holy hell. I’m outside.”
“Yeah. That’s what happens when you go out a gate,” Logan said. He fought a grin and lost. Hail’s joy was infectious, and he was powerless against it. Hail gazed out the window in the dimming light, commenting on things until he couldn’t see them anymore. Rabbits, trees, bushes, streams, even the ghost towns enraptured him. By the time the sun went down and there was nothing more to see, Hail was positively glowing with delight. He settled back into his seat and sighed happily.
“Man, thank you,” he said earnestly. “I’ve been aching to get out of there for years.”
“Why didn’t you?” Logan asked.
Hail shrugged. “Dangerous,” he said. “We’re all taught that the humans will leave us alone as long as we stay in the city. I remember when this all started, it was really bad. Everybody who left got attacked. That was back when there were still people living around here. Shifter, human, man, woman, scientist, civilian, it didn’t matter. Anyone who stepped out of these walls was a target. It was only when we became self-sufficient and stopped leaving that people started to let us be. Then they pretty much forgot about us. At least that’s what it seemed like. If there are human shifter hunters, then they obviously didn’t forget entirely.” Hail’s mood sobered slightly, and he gazed pensively into the darkness.
“You just remembered why you’re on this mission, didn’t you?” Logan asked harshly. “Is utopia looking a little brighter now?”
“Oh, it’s bright enough,” Hail said. “But there’s only so much I can do there. I’d rather be out here, where I can actually do some good. Medicine is my thing, helping people, making people better, you know. But unless someone’s pregnant or in their second change or having a baby, there’s not much to do. Once in a while people will have accidents or get in to fights, sometimes shifters will lose control and go full beast mode on someone else, but those instances are few and far between. Most of the shifters who live in Regis Thyme just want to be left alone to do their thing, whatever that thing is.”
“You want more,” Logan said. “You want to be the white knight who sweeps to the rescue. There’s no glory in what we’re about to do. You won’t get any awards, nobody’s going to thank you. People are going to hate you. People are going to want you dead. Even if you save their life, you will be there at the moment that everything went to hell, and the only one they’ll have to blame is you.”
“That’s okay,” Hail said. “Sometimes people need a villain. As long as they’re getting what they need, I don’t mind playing that role.”
Logan raised an eyebrow and shook his head. “We’ll see if you’re still singing the same tune after you get your skin ripped off by a shifter who should be thanking you. You don’t have the stomach for that kind of betrayal.”
Hail looked at him in confusion. “Betrayal? If I’m helping someone, I’m not doing it because they owe me anything, or they’ve sworn their loyalty. I’m a big boy, Logan. I know that people aren’t always going to want me in their lives, whether I’m helping or not.”
It was Logan’s turn to feel confused. That was a very rational way of looking at things, but it didn’t jive at all with how Hail had behaved the morning after they’d slept together. Logan decided that Hail was lying to himself. He shrugged and leaned back, draping his fingers casually over the steering wheel.
“Guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.
They rode on in silence for a long time, then their pendants vibrated. They both hit the button.
“What’s up?” Logan asked.
“There’s a lake up here about two miles,” Mariella said. “I wanna park the cars in the trees about half a mile back and walk the rest of the way. Have Hail get the backpacks ready.”
“Yes ma’am,” Hail said.
“Oh hell no,” she snapped. “It’s Mariella, Hail. You ma’am me one more time I’m gonna have to give you a demonstration of how I got to be alpha, you hear me?”
“Yes, ma…riella,” Hail answered with a grin.
“Damn straight,” she said. “Ten minutes, get the bags ready. I want food, one outfit, and one tranq gun. Think you can handle that?”
“I’m pretty sure I can,” Hail said.
“Alpha out.”
Hail chuckled as he released his button, and Logan shot him an amused look. “She’s gonna kill you one of these days,” he said.
Hail shook his head. “Nah, she likes me. I can tell.”
“So you’re good at reading people, huh?” Logan asked with a little smile.
“Yeah,” Hail said. “Most of the time. Occasionally I’ll meet someone who has thirty thousand walls up and refuses to engage on any kind of emotional level, though. They’re always a bit of a challenge.”
Logan glanced at him sharply, but Hail’s pleasant, neutral expression told him nothing.
“What do you do when you meet someone like that?” Logan asked.
“Wait,” Hail said with a shrug. “See if they feel like coming around. If they do, they’re usually the best, most loyal friends you could ever wish to have. If they don’t, it’s no big thing. They probably have more pressing things to deal w
ith than building relationships. Those messy, vulnerable emotions that go into the whole romance and friendship things are scary. Some people just aren’t brave enough to face them, and that’s okay.”
A flash of anger burned like a firecracker in Logan’s gut.
“Brave enough,” he laughed. “Nah, man, you got that backwards. It’s the people who bleed their feelings all over everyone else begging for validation who aren’t brave enough. Don’t have the balls to quit people who are bad for them. Don’t have the balls to ride through life solo. Always consumed with what other people think, ‘cause how will they live through the day if they didn’t get enough likes on their selfie? Those people are weak.”
“Maybe,” Hail shrugged. “I think it’s a spectrum. On the one end, you have people who are piss-their-pants terrified of making a real, honest connection. On the other side, you have people who are utterly terrified to be alone. Right in the middle is where bravery lies.”
“What the hell is in the middle?” Logan asked.
“Mariella’s stopping,” Hail said, nodding out the windshield. “I better get those bags put together.”
“But what’s in the middle?” Logan shouted as Hail stepped over the center console and climbed into the back.
“What do you think?” Hail answered. “Should I pack her pink shirt, or the leopard print?”
Logan blew out a frustrated sigh. “Leopard print,” he snapped.
In the rear view mirror, he watched as Hail rolled up the pink shirt and shoved it into her bag. Amusement mingled with frustration, and he chuckled. Hail was on to him. He pulled the van off the road and parked it behind the truck, then slid out. The grass came up to his knees, and the little burred heads of the stalks instantly twisted into his jeans. He was glad for his tall boots. Mariella waded up to him through the grass, hugging herself against the cool breeze.
Dying to Live: The Shifter City Complete Series Page 7