The Wolf Who Cried Girl

by Geonn Cannon

  “We weren’t looking far enough south,” Ari said. “I assumed since Milo said she heard demolition, it meant she was under the last pieces of the viaduct.”

  Gwen said, “Try being down there and hearing anything else. Trust me, I had very little to do other than listen and take note of the things I heard. Traffic, ferries, demolition. There was a football game, and a concert that I assume was held at the baseball field.”

  Milo said, “I remember some of that. I kept track of the ships coming in and out. And if the concert was taking place at the baseball field...” She closed her eyes and held one hand out in front of her. She slowly swept it to the left. “Then that would mean the demolition noises were coming from the north. Because obviously the ship traffic was...” She swept her arm again. “To the west.”

  Ari leaned forward. “Can you find the building again?”

  Milo’s eyes snapped open. She said, “Absolutely,” at the same time Gwen said, “Not now.”

  Everyone looked at Gwen. Ari was the one who finally asked. “Why not? Marin and Val shouldn’t be stuck in that godawful place any longer than necessary.”

  “Agreed,” Gwen said, then held out her hands. “So what’s your plan? There are at least a dozen hunters there right now. Are the four of us just going to knock down the door and demand they hand over their prisoners?”

  “We can call the police,” Dale said. “Regardless of their motives, they’re holding two women prisoner. It doesn’t matter what the story is, they can’t explain that away.”

  “And you can guarantee the police are trustworthy? Like your friend, Detective Lorne?”

  Ari tensed. “Diana is rock solid.”

  “One cop in a city full of them,” Gwen said. “I’m sorry, Ariadne, but this is how the hunters have operated for so long without causing any waves. They have friends in high places. If we call the police, the call will either be lost or we’ll walk right into a trap.”

  Dale got up and went into the kitchen. The other women watched her rummage through the groceries they’d gotten for Milo when they set her up in the house. When she came back, she had a box of cookies and drinks from the fridge for all of them. She set everything on the patio table and turned to face the group.

  “I don’t think any of us are planning to go back to sleep tonight. And like Ari said, time is of the essence. So we’re going to sit here and we’re not going to leave until we’ve figured out what we’re going to do to save Marin Cardoso and Val Byrne. Sound like a plan?”

  Milo exhaled sharply. She shook her head, and couldn’t stop a smile from spreading across her face as she turned to Ari. “You married up, girl.”

  Ari smiled up at Dale. “Don’t I know it.” She leaned forward and took a drink off the table. “You heard the woman. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The main room of the building was filled with hunters by the time Hayden returned. He paused on the threshold and every eye turned toward him, and he knew word had traveled about his jailbreak. He sighed and continued forward into the room, hands out to either side to show he was unarmed.

  “I assume Mr. Roemer is waiting for me up in his office.”

  One of the hunters, a squat and sturdy mustachioed man named Norman Izett, stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Along with a special visitor. And we’re gonna be waiting until they give the okay before we let you walk out that door again.” He looked at the ground, scanned back toward the door, and locked his steadily-widening eyes on Hayden. “Where the fuck is the dog?”

  Hayden stared at him and said nothing.

  Izett leaned closer. It couldn’t have been called a threat, but the intention was clear. “Where is our prisoner, Isaac?”

  “It’s none of your concern. I’ll discuss it with Roemer, but not one of his lackeys.”

  Another hunter joined Izett. “You’ve never been one of us, Hayden. You’re a tourist. This is our lives. Our legacy. If you do anything to screw this up...”

  “Oh, shut the fuck up about your legacy,” Hayden said. “Until a few years ago, none of you had even thought about being hunters. You went out to the woods with your dads and shared scary stories around the campfire. You pretended you were the big bad protectors of the world, but none of you believe a word of it until people like Keighley and Roemer came along. You want to talk about legacy? This has been the sole purpose of my entire adult life. So maybe you can accept I know what the hell I’m doing and get the hell out of my way.”

  Izett held his ground for a moment longer, then stepped aside. “Real big man,” he muttered as Hayden brushed past him, making a point to bump the smaller man’s shoulder.

  Upstairs, Roemer was standing behind his desk, hands on the blotter and head hung low. A woman Hayden had never seen before was sitting in one of the visitor chairs. When Hayden reached the top of the stairs, Roemer bared his teeth and straightened to aim a finger at him.

  “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing, Isaac?”

  “Strategy.” Hayden looked at the woman. She was older, and dressed like she had just stepped out of a dinner party despite the fact it was the middle of the night. He didn’t know anything about clothes, but he knew high-end when he saw it. He picked up a whiff of unusual floral perfume that he recognized as his grandmother’s favorite scent, Jean Naté. “Who is this?”

  She looked at him as if he was barely worth the energy of turning her head. “I’m none of your concern. Where did you take Gwyneth Willow?”

  “That’s none of your concern,” Hayden said back to her.

  Roemer came around his desk. “I am going to have Valerie examine her, and if there is anything amiss, if there’s even a scratch on her--”

  “She’s not here.”

  The woman finally seemed interested in him now. “What do you mean she’s not here?”

  Roemer’s eyes flashed. “What have you done?”

  “Like I told your minions downstairs, I let her go.”

  The woman shot to her feet. She was much shorter than either of the men, but her rage added two feet to her height. “You did what?”

  Hayden remained unshaken. He directed his response to Roemer, whose face had turned bright pink with rage.

  “Strategy. Gwyneth Willow was never going to cooperate with you, or any hunter. It was simply never going to happen, no matter what delusions you may have held about turning her. At best, it was a liability to keep her around. Eventually you would have had to put a bullet in her head, and that creates the hassle of disposing of a body. Why invite trouble like that when there’s a better solution that actually benefits us? I arranged Gwen’s freedom in exchange for enlisting the help of Dale Frye.”

  Roemer narrowed his eyes. “The daughter’s girlfriend?”

  “She’s been living with wolves for a decade. She’ll be an invaluable resource, and she’s agreed to help us because I freed her girlfriend’s mother as a show of goodwill.”

  The woman wrinkled her nose and turned away as if smelling a bad odor. “Wolf loving little ginger bitch...”

  “How do you know you can trust her?” Roemer said.

  “She almost came with me willingly the last time I was in Seattle. The detective convinced her to stay, but she wasn’t truly convinced. She’s been having doubts. Once she knew I was back in town, she jumped on the opportunity to escape.”

  Roemer and the women exchanged a look. She shook her head and walked away.

  Hayden hooked his thumb at her. “Seriously, who is this? Your mother?”

  “We now only have one wolf in custody,” Roemer said, ignoring the question. “And Ariadne Willow, who is a proven shit-stirrer, has yet another ally in her corner.”

  “And she’s going to lose her partner,” Hayden said. “How are you not seeing this as an absolute win? Willow is going to self-destruct when she realizes Dale has come over to our side.”

  “You are an imbecile,” the woman shouted. “You th
ink taking away the woman she loves will cripple her? Threatening that redheaded traitor only takes her off the leash. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”

  Hayden shook his head. “That may be true if we were holding her prisoner. She will be here willingly. She can’t be saved because she’s not in danger. Once she sees that--”

  “Gabriel, kill this useless piece of shit.”

  Hayden blinked at her. “What?”

  He was so startled by the order that he didn’t have time to defend himself from Roemer’s attack. One hand closed around his throat while the other grabbed his shirt, shoving him backward. Hayden tripped over his own feet and was half-dragged to the open elevator shaft at the far side of the room by the stairs. The wooden slats nailed over the opening were easily snapped when Roemer slammed him against him. Hayden’s heart pounded as Roemer bent him backward into the shaft. He could hear the planks clatter far below him.

  “Wait! Wait!” He clawed at Roemer’s hands, shoving down with both legs as hard as he could to keep himself on solid ground.

  “Drop him,” the woman said.

  “We can... use her both ways,” Hayden grunted. “She’s with... Willow right now. She can report back. Tell us what they’re planning.”

  “The Willow girl is a detective. She’ll know something is wrong.”

  “Then we threaten to kill Frye if she makes a move against us. She’s an asset, and she’s a bargaining chip. She’s much more valuable than Gwyneth Willow or Milo Duncan combined. We can use her to control Ariadne.”

  Roemer looked back at the woman, who considered the new tactic. Finally she rolled her eyes and made a sideways gesture with her hand. Roemer grunted and pulled Hayden back into the room.

  The woman folded her hands in front of her and walked back to the desk. “There’s another way to keep Willow out of our hair. We can just kill the bitch.”

  “Killing the wolves is a pipe dream,” Hayden sighed. “We have no idea the size or spread of their population...”

  “Not every wolf,” the woman said. “Just one. Well, and her friends. If we’re so concerned about Ariadne Willow and her family, then we should just kill them. We have a roomful of men and women downstairs who have been itching for a hunt since this whole mess began. Mr. Roemer, you were adamant that Gwyneth and Millicent remain unharmed for the duration of your experimenting. I agreed, for the time being, but circumstances have changed. We have the Cardoso girl. The Willows are free and probably plotting to cause trouble as we speak. We know where they are, and we know they have a mole with them.”

  Roemer raised an eyebrow. He looked at Hayden. “I suppose you have a choice, Isaac. We can either kill you or get the Willow wolves out of our hair for good.”

  Hayden rubbed his throat. He had no idea who this woman was, but she was clearly the one in charge. And she was clearly on the same page with Roemer about exterminating as many wolves as possible. If he had any hope of an actual victory, he would have to play along until an opportunity presented itself. For now, that meant agreeing to whatever they wanted. Ariadne Willow’s life was a small price to pay for ultimate success.

  “Fine. Frye is the important one anyway. To hell with the rest of them.”

  The woman grinned.

  “Mobilize the hunters. With any luck, they’ll have some new trophies by dawn.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  It was Milo’s suggestion that they needed more people to brainstorm an actual plan of action. Ari made the call and, twenty minutes later, Diana Macallan came around the side of the house looking like she’d dressed in the dark. She wore a button-down pajama top, jeans, and a hoodie. Her wife, Lucy, was a few steps behind her in a similarly mismatched outfit and a pair of chunky eyeglasses. Ari stood up and went to escort them the rest of the way to the porch.

  “Sorry for dragging you out here in the middle of the night,” Ari said.

  Diana shook her head. “I’m a cop. I’m always on-call, especially with a case like this. Lucy’s the one you should apologize to. I’m not sure why you insisted she come along.” She looked at her wife. “Not that I’m complaining about having you along, babe.”

  Lucy smiled tiredly. “Happy to lend a hand, if possible.”

  Gwen stood up to welcome them. “We decided that if we were going to make a plan of action against hunters, we should have a quorum. Three wolves to one human was a bit lopsided. You help round out the numbers a little bit. We all have a stake in what happens here. Wolves, humans, and the police will all be involved if the video proves canidae exist and the hunters are mobilized to war.”

  “No pressure,” Lucy said as she took the seat Ari offered her. “Just a comic book creator helping decide how to fight a war.”

  Diana hugged Gwen and Milo, then took a seat. “Okay. Where are we at the moment?”

  “Okay,” Gwen said. “Obviously Milo and I have gotten away from the hunters who were holding us prisoner. They currently have two women held captive: Marin Cardoso and Valerie Byrne. Marin is canidae, Val is human. We know where they’re being held. We have--”

  “Wait, we know where they’re being held?” Diana was out of her chair again, pulling out her phone. “Give me an address and--”

  Gwen held up a hand. “And you’ll send a strike team to surround the building, leading Roemer to kill the prisoners. He would have no reason to keep them alive at that point. The police have to be a last resort. As long as we keep this small, there’s a chance of doing it with a minimal loss of life.”

  Diana didn’t look happy, but she sat down again.

  “We have a deadline,” Gwen continued. “But it’s still very early considering the fact Marin was in wolf form when she was captured. There’s practically zero chance she’ll transform in the next week or so unless she does it deliberately, and she has no reason to do that. So I think we’re safe on that account.”

  Dale said, “The SPD press conference seems to have helped quash the video a little bit. It’s not being shared as frequently on social media, and most people are already moving on. But it wouldn’t take much for the fire to reignite.”

  “Like, say, if the livestream started showing a police raid,” Ari said.

  “Or if a bunch of actual wolves showed up and started attacking everyone in military formation,” Diana said. “So what are our options? Negotiate?”

  Milo said, “Like we have anything to offer them.”

  “We do, actually,” Dale said. Everyone looked at her, and she shrugged. “The cure.”

  “What cure?” Lucy asked.

  Dale looked at Ari, who understood what she meant. “When I was in prison, Val gave me medication that would stop my transformations for six months. The other canidae in there had been on it for years.” She laughed incredulously. “Dale, we can’t give that to the hunters.”

  “Seems like a really dangerous idea,” Lucy agreed. Her voice was meek, as if she wasn’t sure whether she could or should interject.

  “No, listen,” Dale said. “One of the main themes in the Magnusson book is that hunters are terrified of being bitten. What to do if you think you’ve been ‘infected,’ how fast it can spread, how to amputate if you’re bitten on the arm or leg. There’s an entire essay dedicated to wolf tooth removal so they physically can’t bite you. They’re scared because a bite is a death sentence. If they don’t transform within four weeks, their bodies will change against their will, and it’s a horrible, painful, gruesome death. If we give them a way to prevent that from happening, we could save lives.”

  Gwen said, “Dale, I appreciate where you’re coming from, but we absolutely cannot hand this medicine over to them. They can’t even be allowed to know it exists.”

  “Mom’s right,” Ari said. “These people manufactured wolfsbane and put it in the food supply. What do you think they’d do if they had a medication that could stop us from transforming? How long do you think it would be before they found a way to put it in the food, or the water? It would still be a genocide, j
ust a much slower version of one.”

  Gwen said, “Negotiation is a good idea. None of you saw how many hunters they had in the building tonight. Who knows how many are elsewhere in the city waiting to be called up.”

  “Nowhere near as many wolves,” Milo said.

  “We can’t guarantee that,” Ari said. “And even if we did outnumber them, are we really going to start an all-out war against the hunters in the middle of Seattle? We might as well just let them announce that canidae are real and call it a day.”

  Diana said, “Well, if we can’t use the police, we can’t fight, and we can’t negotiate, what the hell does that leave us? We have two women in danger, and sitting here debating isn’t doing them any good. If all our options are bad, then we should go with the one that gives us the most boots on the ground. I can have the building surrounded by SWAT in twenty minutes.”

  Ari grimaced and leaned forward. “I don’t see a way that ends with Marin and Val still alive. Even if Roemer doesn’t give the order, at least one of those hunters is going to see the end is near and take the opportunity to kill a wolf while he still can.”

  The women all fell silent.

  “What about the thing Ari did last time?” Dale said. “She walked in, talked some sense into them. They might be hunters, but they’re still regular people. They may not have any interest in going to war. She got that-that... what were they called again?”

  “Venatorial Club,” Ari said.

  Diana leaned to her left, craning her neck to look at the far side of the yard. Ari caught the move and frowned at her, but Diana waved her off and focused on the conversation again.

  “Right,” Dale said, unaware of the silent exchange. “They decided to just walk away and then we only had to deal with Keighley.”

  Milo and Gwen were already shaking their heads. Gwen said, “Last time we were dealing with weekend warriors. People who saw hunting as a hobby. The people who held us hostage, who tortured us, they’re the true believers. You’re not going to change their minds no matter how good your speech is.”