by Geonn Cannon
Ari said, “So you know how to find him?”
Gladys stared at her, twisting her lips as she considered the question. “What exactly do you think he’ll give you?”
“Val isn’t the only person who’s missing. My mother, and a canidae named Marin Cardoso have also been taken. I think tracking down Roemer will lead us to wherever they’re being held.”
“You think he’s trying to start the war again? Wolf manoth?”
“I think he has bigger plans this time. But if I can find him in time...”
Gladys exhaled sharply and drummed her fingers on the table. “I have a real problem sending a fellow wolf to that man, for any reason. Especially a wolf that I’m sorta fond of.”
“Aw, sweet talker.”
Gladys crossed her arms over her chest. “I would warn you to be careful, but I remember you picking a fight with Kunz specifically so she would break one of your bones. So I don’t think you and careful are ever in the same carpool. But I will say that I hope you have someone to watch your ass.”
“I do,” Ari said.
Gladys considered it another moment before she finally spoke. “We got all our information on Roemer from a wolf on the outside named Conrad Rigas. He’s also the one making sure none of us go wolf while inside. I’ll get in touch with him and let him decide if he wants to reach out to you.”
Ari wanted to argue. Time was of the essence, but she also understood caution. If she was Gladys’ contact, she wouldn’t want her number to be handed out to someone she’d never met. She nodded reluctantly and leaned back.
“Tell him we’re up against the clock here.”
“I will.” She watched Ari’s face. “Bigger than wolf manoth? You’re not just exaggerating?”
Ari shook her head. “I really wish I was, but it could be a lot worse than the wolfsbane incident from a few years ago.”
Gladys shuddered. “I’ll get some phone time and call him as soon as I can. He’ll be in touch, I’m sure. And be careful.”
“I thought you weren’t going to say that.”
“You might not listen, but I’m the one who has to look at myself in the mirror. So I’ve still got to say it. Get through this, Ariadne Willow. Come back and buy me more snacks and soda pop.”
Ari smiled. “Will do, Gladys. I promise. You stay safe in here, too.”
Gladys laughed and said, “Honey, from the look on your face, I’m a little worried we’re all better off than you are.”
***
Val’s cell door wasn’t locked or guarded, but she was as much a prisoner as Gwen or Marin. She’d spent the night lying on her cot and staring at the ceiling, fighting the urge to get up and rush the door. She would only have done it if she could have warned Gwen to use the distraction for her own escape. So instead she tossed and turned and eventually got out of bed when the window was brightened by the sun. She washed up using a large bowl and water from the bottle that was left outside her door every morning. She dressed in this week’s T-shirt and slacks. Her captors decided it would be easier to just give her a new outfit every Sunday rather than creating a laundry schedule, apparently.
It was shocking how quickly a person could get used to a wholly new set of circumstances, but here she was. She needed a haircut, but she just pulled it back and tied it as well as she could before she went out into the main room.
There were already a half dozen hunters present, the late crew at the end of their shift. A few looked up when Val came out of her cell but none of them gave her any real attention. They were exclusively male, mostly in their thirties. Most were seated around a card table with their phones out, but two of them were leaning near the main exit. The sentries looked bored and half-asleep, but she knew they’d snap to attention if she got anywhere close to them. They were all dressed identically in tactical clothes: black cargo pants with matching turtlenecks. She thought they looked like washed-up college athletes hoping for one more shot of glory.
“Is Miss Willow awake?”
“If you want to take her out for a walk, leash is by the door,” one of the hunters said.
Another chuckled and said, “Don’t forget the pooper scooper.”
Val rolled her eyes and walked past them. The other wolf... the girl... was being held on the second floor. Her cell had four guards standing outside, two of them armed with shock sticks. The other two had holstered pistols on their hips. They tensed when they saw her, but she refused to shrink away from their laser stares.
“I need to check on her.”
One of the guards seemed to have been elected as spokesperson. He shook his head, remained where he was, but swiveled his head to face her. “Boss said at the top of the hour.”
Val looked at her watch. “It’s close enough.”
The guard shrugged. “Take it up with him. No one’s getting in here until both hands are pointed straight up.”
“I’m amazed you can read a timepiece without Mickey Mouse on it.”
He didn’t react in the slightest, just kept staring at her.
“Is this how it will be?” Val asked. “There’s a real person in there. She’s been in there overnight. She needs to eat, she needs to go to the bathroom, she needs to sleep.”
The guard furrowed his brow and turned to one of the other men. “Did you see a person in that room? All I saw was a dog wearing a girl suit.”
Val bit down hard on her tongue. “If she dies, then all of this will be for nothing.”
“If she dies,” the guard said, his impatience starting to bleed into his words, “we have a spare downstairs. And you’ve been keeping that one nice and healthy, right? So no big deal.” He fixed a phony smile on her. “Now why don’t you get out of here, sweetheart?”
She resisted every initial impulse she had, turning her back on him and storming off instead. She went up, to the fourth floor. It was the top floor of the building, and it was a single room with boarded-up windows on all sides. The stairs ended next to the gaping maw of an elevator shaft, its door missing and the forty-foot drop blocked by a haphazard lattice of rotted wood. A desk had been placed on a rug in the center of the space, complete with walls formed by bookshelves and a trio of plush armchairs for guests. It could have been transplanted from any hundreds of downtown offices except for the tall floodlights arranged in a square so the “office” would still be lit up after dark.
The man Gwen and Milo had called Silver Skull was at the desk, leaning back in his chair and staring at his laptop. His chin was resting on one fist, and he looked almost bored. She knew what he was watching even without being able to see the screen.
“Why don’t you go downstairs, get a live show? I’m sure all your adoring internet trolls would love to see the man who made their snuff film possible.”
He sighed and turned his attention to her. “What do you want?”
“You abducted me, held me prisoner here, to be a doctor. I want to be allowed to serve that purpose. Your goons downstairs won’t let me in to see the wolf.”
“Of course they will.” He looked at his watch. “In seven minutes.”
She put her hands flat on his desk. “I need to examine her. I need to make sure your boys didn’t hurt her when they dragged her in.”
“She’s fine,” he said, turning back to the screen.
Val slapped the laptop shut. “I’m the doctor here. I’m the expert. You might know how to kill a wolf, but I know how to keep them alive. Right now, it’s in your best interest to keep that girl downstairs as healthy as she can be. Let me be a doctor. That means I make the schedule, I make the rules, and your goons answer to me. Otherwise...”
“Otherwise what? You’ll walk?”
“I can find all kinds of ways to make myself useless to you,” she said.
They stared at each other across the desk. Neither of them blinked. Finally, he screwed his lips into a wry smile and flipped his hands in surrender. He retrieved his phone and began tapping out a message.
“Fine. Sending the
boys their new mandate now. The audio will be cut while you’re in there, so don’t try anything cute like trying to send a message about where we are.” He looked up at her and smiled. “You get your pig-headedness from your mother.”
She turned her back on him, raising her middle finger to him over her shoulder as she left. “Shove it up your ass, Gabe.”
Chapter Seven
Val stared at her watch, waiting for the second it clicked over to nine. She was on the landing as far from the guards as possible while still being on the same landing, ignoring their stares and attempts at conversation. It was easy to tone them out, harder to keep her patience as the second hand swept around the dial at an excruciatingly slow pace. When it finally clicked over to nine, she walked forward, only to have her way blocked by the same guard who had stopped her before. He was almost a foot taller than her, but the doctor side of her brain had a wide catalogue of ways she could hurt him using minimal effort. She stared at him without blinking.
“Move,” she said.
He smiled down at her and held up a rubber mask. “Orders are orders. Don’t want her to be able to identify you, right?”
It wasn’t worth arguing with him so she grabbed the mask and pulled it on without bothering to see who it was. The guard moved out of her way, and another one unlocked the door to let her into the cell. Marin didn’t look up, didn’t even react to someone coming into the room with her. Val stood in front of her and bent her head down so she could see the girl’s eyes.
“Marin?” Her voice was muffled, made ridiculous by the mask. “My name is Valerie. I’m a doctor. I’m not with them, I’m here to help you.”
Marin raised her eyes without moving her head. “You’re not a wolf.”
“No. But I have a lot of experience with them.” She checked Marin’s pulse. “My only goal is to make sure you stay as healthy as possible.”
“Good hunter/bad hunter? Disappointingly cliché.”
“Give me a sniff,” she said. “It should be painfully obvious I haven’t had a real bath in a really long time. You think a hunter would do that just to trick you? Trust me. Let me keep you alive so we can both get out of this shit.”
Marin looked at her again, this time with a bit less certainty. “I have to go to the bathroom.”
Val turned to look at the camera, then at the door. “Yo, Nixon. Get in here and block the camera.”
“Boss says we record twenty-four sev--”
“You can move if she starts transforming, just get your fat ass in here and block the damn camera.”
After a moment, someone came in and stood behind her.
“And face the wall,” she said. “This isn’t a fucking peep show.”
The guard sighed and slowly turned his back on her. “You might want to watch your tone, Doc. Boss says we have to keep her in tip-top shape. Didn’t say anything about you.”
“Yeah?” Val said as she helped Marin. “How exactly do you plan to keep a canidae in ‘tip-top shape’ without a doctor?”
He didn’t answer that.
Marin made a quiet exhale that, under the circumstances, might have passed for a laugh. “Okay. You better not be lying, because I think I’m starting to like you.”
Val smiled sadly behind her mask. “Not lying. Just not the best ally in the world.”
“Right now I’ll take all the friends I can get.”
“You and me both, sister,” Val said.
***
Ari went from the jail directly to the office, where she found Dale wrapping up a phone call with Diana. “Hold on, Ariadne just came in.” She turned her head away from the phone. “Anything Diana needs to know?”
“Big bad hunter boss is named Gabriel Roemer. Other than that, nothing.” She raised her voice. “Good morning, Diana.”
Dale smiled. “Did you hear the first part? Yeah. Okay. Bye.” She disconnected the call and put the phone down on the desk. “The two men she arrested yesterday at the hospital have lawyered up.”
“Great,” Ari said, slumping into her office. “So much for getting information from them.”
“Oh, ye of little faith.” She repositioned her chair so she could type on the laptop. “They lawyered up, which means Diana can’t talk to them. But it also means that two people associated with Isaac Hayden hired a lawyer, so by the transitive property, we have the name of a lawyer connected to the hunters.”
Ari came back to watch over Dale’s shoulder. “Dale, you genius. I ought to marry you.”
“Leave your name and number, and I’ll give you a call when I’m single again.” She nodded at the screen. “Here’s our hunter lawyer. Donald Keech.”
“Ugh, Donald.”
“Yeah, that name is going to be ruined for a couple of generations, isn’t it? But it looks like he’s a legitimate attorney. What about you? Who is Gabriel Roemer?”
“Val’s father. Apparently he’s the guy using Hayden and the book to get the hunters all riled up. He’s probably the one who came up with the video torture.”
“Oh, about that.” Dale opened a new window and waved Ari over. “I checked out the footage after you left to talk with Gladys. First, they apparently set it up so that the video archives itself every twelve hours. The live feed continues uninterrupted, but you can look back at what streamed before. I’ve been looking at the usual suspects - Facebook, Twitter - but it doesn’t seem to be picking up much traction.”
“How is that possible? It’s a video of a woman literally being held prisoner.”
“Some people think it’s a YouTube prank, most people are saying it’s a hoax. The ones that really disappoint me are the people who are positive that it’s viral marketing for a horror movie. They say it looks like the movie will have terrible special effects.”
“I don’t know whether to be relieved or horrified.”
“That’s pretty much where I fell, too.”
Ari looked at the screen, where Marin was still hanging from her restraints, head bowed, face shadowed. She wanted to reach through the screen and break the iron bar with her bare hands. Instead, she asked, “See anything interesting?”
“Just after nine o’clock, this happened.” Dale clicked on an archived video and scrolled along the bar to the right time. “Watch.”
Marin’s head twitched as the light in the room changed slightly. The glow of an exterior hallway fell on her before it was blocked by someone coming into the room. The new arrival was a woman in a dirty T-shirt and slacks. She was wearing a rubber mask of John F Kennedy that concealed her entire head, but Ari recognized her immediately.
“Val.”
Dale nodded. “I was pretty sure, but I wanted a second opinion.”
“Audio?”
“It cut out right before she went in and stayed off. I assume they don’t want to give any hints about where they might be. Airplanes going overhead, trains going by...”
“Right,” Ari said. “Damn.”
Val stood in front of Marin and gently raised her head, apparently examining her eyes as her hand moved to Marin’s throat.
“At least the bastards are letting her get some kind of medical attention.”
“They don’t want the star of their twisted little show to die before the big reveal,” Dale said.
On the video, Val turned and motioned for someone to come closer. A body appeared at the edge of the frame before stepping to the side and blocking the screen entirely.
“What’s happening?” Ari said.
“I assume they’re giving her privacy to use the bathroom.”
Ari said, “Geez, what swell captors she has.”
“Aren’t they just?” Dale said. “Did you see Val’s clothes...?”
“Yeah,” Ari said.
Dale shook her head. “We’re not going to leave them there a whole month, are we, puppy? Please tell me we’re going to get them out long before that.”
“Oh, hell yeah.” She kissed the top of Dale’s head and started into her office. “We’re goi
ng to get our girls back. I have a plan and everything.”
“A plan?” Dale turned her chair around and leaned forward. “Oh, what a relief. Tell me this great plan.”
Ari glared at her from the office doorway. “When you say it like that, it sounds like you’re mocking me.”
Dale batted her eyelashes. “Wow me, Willow.”
“Gladys told me about a canidae named Conrad Rigas who provides them with information. He’s the one who set up the supply line to make sure they kept getting their drug when Val disappeared. If he decides to get in contact, I’m going to convince him to give me everything he has on Roemer. Then I go undercover.”
All the humor evaporated from Dale’s face. “The hell you do.”
“It’s our best option.”
Dale stood up. “The hell it is! Ari, this is a guy who arranged to kidnap four women without breaking a sweat. He got the drop on Mom and Milo. No offense, but if he can take them out, you’re not going to stand a chance. I’m not going to risk losing you, too.”
“Someone has to get close enough to gain his trust. It’s the quickest way to finding Mom, and Val, and Marin.”
“You’re probably right. And someone probably should go undercover.”
“Well, who do you sugg--” She stopped herself, eyes widening as she realized. “Oh, fuck no.”
Dale said, “I’m the best--”
“Fuck. No,” Ari said again. “There is absolutely no way I’m letting you--”
“Oh, ‘letting’ me?”
Ari shook her head. “Don’t turn this into that. I’m the private investigator here, Dale. I’m the canidae.”
“We’re partners, Ariadne,” Dale said. “This isn’t a case. It’s not private investigator business, so it doesn’t matter if I have a license or not. I’ve bled for wolves in the past. I’m part of your pack now. And the simple truth is that the second you walk into a hunter’s lair, you’re going to have a target on your back. What if they have a way to identify you? What if they know you’re a wolf as soon as you’re in the door? What if they know you personally?”