by Geonn Cannon
“No, I wouldn’t have thought so. The speech really didn’t work, either, if you think about it. It didn’t even give us a decade of peace before they came back swinging. Whatever we do this time, it has to be more decisive. I don’t want to go through all this shit again in another five years.”
Diana seemed to resign herself to not going the official route. She was watching the far side of the yard again. “Okay, what do we know for certain? Is there anything we can use to our advantage?”
Ari said, “There’s a book. The Book of Simon.”
Gwen sat up straighter. “That would be a hell of a reach, Ariadne.”
“I’m not familiar,” Diana said.
Gwen sighed. “Simon Lehner was a wolf who wanted to kill as many humans as possible to create a canidae-only country. This was two hundred years ago. He had a whole manifesto that he spread around to recruit wolves to his cause.”
“So like the opposite of the Magnusson book,” Lucy said.
Gwen nodded, then shrugged. “It won’t turn anyone into a hunter the way the Magnusson book creates hunters, but basically. Wolves who read it get riled up. It’s pretty effective rhetoric. It would be useful if a war does break out and our ranks are starting to thin out, but I don’t think we can use it to start a war against them.”
“The war has already started,” Ari said. “Right now we’re just looking for a way to minimize casualties.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t be.” Milo’s jaw was tight, and there was a fire in her eyes. “The hell with playing nice with these bastards. They want to see us as monsters? They’re going to come at us anyway, kidnap us, torture us, maybe we shouldn’t worry about playing into their hands. There’s no moral high ground if they just slaughter us on sight. We go in, we take care of Roemer and whoever else he’s got in that building, and we let that stand as an example to any other hunters who decide to stir things up again. If we’re going to keep their damn book around, why not keep the counterpoint around as well?”
Gwen said, “It could be equally dangerous. Other wolves rose up to stop Simon because they understood how humans would react to a wolf like him. If one of us starts acting homicidal, they’ll use it as an excuse to slaughter all of us. Then what are we left with? A whole world at war until no one is left to actually live here.”
“Sorry,” Diana said, holding up her hand. She was sitting up straight, almost hovering above her seat. This time Ari turned as well to see what had drawn her attention. “Sorry,” Diana said again, “but is the traffic in this neighborhood usually safe?”
“Yes, why?” Gwen said. They were all following Diana’s gaze now. She was looking toward a section of fence that partially blocked the street from view.
“Because I’ve heard three cars drive by very slowly without their headlights on. I’m pretty sure one of them just parked at the curb.”
Ari, Milo, and Gwen all stood.
“How can you tell their headlights aren’t on?” Dale asked. “The road is blocked by the fence.”
“She still would have seen their headlights,” Ari said. “What are you thinking, Diana?”
“I think someone needs to get Lucy somewhere safe, now.”
Dale got to her feet and motioned for Lucy to come with her. She looked at Diana. “Where exactly is safe? If they’re on the street, we can’t get to the cars.”
“The house is probably out of the question, too,” Milo said. “Do you think they’re surrounding us? There’s a gap in the fence that Gwen and I use when we go running. They can get to the next street over through there.”
Diana said, “Probably the best bet. Another car just parked.” She reached under her hoodie and pulled a gun from the waistband of her pants. “Any weapons in the house?”
Gwen looked at Milo and Ari. “Just me and my girls.”
Diana shrugged. “Works for me.” To Dale, she said, “Get Lucy home safe. Lucy...”
“I love you, too. Be safe.”
Dale squeezed Lucy’s shoulder and guided her across the yard. Diana watched until they disappeared into the shadows before she faced the others.
“So... shirts and skins?”
Despite the circumstances, Ari laughed.
***
Dale held Lucy’s hand as they hurried through the fence gap, hunched over to avoid wayward branches. They emerged in a small runoff ditch between two properties. Dale turned to make sure Lucy had made it through unscathed and urged her ahead.
“Are you sure they’re going to be okay?”
“As okay as they ever are.”
She moved closer to the house where she hoped they would be concealed by shadows and scanned the street. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for beyond “something suspicious,” but the street was quiet and empty. The property they’d emerged onto had an overly landscaped lawn, full of thick clover and the type of greenery that a real-estate agent would call “topiaries” to make them sound fancier. She whispered for Lucy to follow her.
“It’s bad enough being married to a cop,” Lucy said, “add in werewolves and it’s a wonder I ever get a decent night’s sleep. We should start a support group.”
Dale chuckled. “I think you and I might be the only two members.”
“So we should just have lunch?”
Dale looked back at her. “I’d really like that. We’ll set something up. After...”
“Sure, yeah, of course after...” She gestured at the air to indicate everything. Dale led her to the sidewalk and then turned south. “Where are we going?”
“We’re going to circle around behind the hunters,” Dale said, “just to keep an eye on things. In case our girls need backup.”
Lucy hesitated. “Right. Makes sense.”
Dale looked back at her again. “Is something wrong? If you’d rather we just hightail it and call an Uber, we can do that. Diana would kill me if you got hurt...”
“No, it’s not that.” She cleared her throat. “Diana told me to keep an eye on you.”
“Oh,” Dale said. “That’s fair. I am pretending to be a double agent turned triple agent. I’m not even sure how many people I’m supposedly betraying right now. I’ll go ahead and swear to you that I’m on Ariadne’s side, now and forever, but I’ll also give you permission to hit me on the head with a flower pot if I start acting squirrely. No hard feelings.”
Lucy smiled. “I appreciate that.”
They reached Gwen and Milo’s street and discovered the Diana’s fears were well-founded. Three SUVs which hadn’t been there when she arrived were parked in front of the house. She had a momentary twinge of panic when she realized there was a chance they’d followed her from the park where she picked up Gwen, but she’d been too careful for that. She was absolutely positive that no one had followed her.
Unless the essays really had messed with her head, and she was acting as a double agent without realizing it. Blackouts, lost time, false memories, she could be doing things she didn’t even realize.
No. She dismissed that thought and refused to throw away any more time second guessing herself. She had Lucy to watch her back, literally and figuratively, and that was enough insurance for her, for now.
She crouched down and watched a group of men congregate near the front vehicle. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she counted at least four of them. Possible movement in the backseat of one truck made her think there was a fifth. The Willow house was dark and completely still, the front yard overgrown and poorly-tended in the absence of its owners. The front windows were blocked by bushes which hadn’t been trimmed down since before Gwen and Milo left for Europe.
The hunter who’d been sitting in the truck finally got out to join the others. Dale watched him tuck something, presumably a weapon, into his belt, and then shut the door quietly behind him. She noticed he’d tried so hard not to make any noise that the door was probably still open even if they’d locked it. At some unknown signal, they moved across the street toward the house. When they spread out, Dale fin
ally got a headcount of five men. Her fingers itched for a way to warn them danger was coming.
As it turned out, a warning was unnecessary. As soon as the fifth man was on the grass, a wolf that had been hiding at the edge of the property broke cover. Dale couldn’t identify who it was in the dark. Whoever it was, she crossed the lawn at a fast crawl, a pool of oil sliding across the grass, matching the speed of the hunters until she was right on top of them. She pounced at the same moment the porch light came on, blinding the lead man as the wolf tackled the hunter bringing up the rear.
“Stay here,” Dale said, already running down the sidewalk.
“Wait!”
Dale didn’t wait. She ran up the sidewalk to the SUV she’d seen the hunter exit and pulled open the door she’d seen him halfway close. It was, as she’d guessed, unlatched. She climbed in and crawled into the backseat, then continued on into the cargo area. She saw gun cases, boxes of ammunition, and several things she couldn’t identify. She also saw a bulletproof vest, which she slipped over her head because anything would be better than her pajamas, and started rooting around for anything that might help.
“Dale!”
She jumped, even though she recognized Lucy’s voice through the glass. She was on the sidewalk-side of the car, out of sight of the house.
“I told you to wait!”
“You must be out of your damn mind. Grab me one of those vests.”
Dale did, and also picked up a few of the weapons just to have them. She tried the back hatch, discovered it was unlocked, and opened it just wide enough to tumble out onto the pavement. Lucy closed the hatch behind her before any of the hunters noticed, but a quick glance over her shoulder revealed they were much too distracted to pay attention to their cars. She handed Lucy a vest, then carried the rest of their loot back to safety.
She looked back toward the house. The porch light was bright enough for Dale to identify the wolves now, and she saw that it had been Milo who tackled the hunter.
The hunters had come well-prepared, dressed in thick jackets with gloves tucked into the sleeves, their throats and faces similarly covered. They wore masks with holes cut out for dark goggles. Every inch of skin was covered, which they thought meant protection. They were discovering that the opposite was true. As soon as Ari, Milo, and Gwen discovered there was no chance of infecting the hunters through a bite, they stopped pulling their punches.
Milo was standing on her fallen victim, his dominant arm trapped in her jaws. His free arm swung to punch her in the ribs, but she jumped and twisted enough to evade most of the blows.
Ari and Gwen had come around the side of the house when the lights came on, and they each had taken a hunter. Ari was on one man’s back, and Gwen had bowled over another and dropped him hard on the grass. The front door was standing open and Diana had come outside wearing Milo’s motorcycle helmet and leather jacket like it was a suit of armor. She had a tire iron hanging from one hand, and she swung it like she was Lou Gehrig. The first hunter she hit was by accident, a direct blow to the side of his head. He was wearing a helmet but it still knocked him to the ground. Diana angled her arm to use the rebound of the blow to strike the hip of the hunter next to him, and he collapsed with a shout of pain that even Dale could hear from down the street.
“Flashbangs,” Lucy said.
“What?”
“You got flashbangs.”
Dale raised an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”
“Research. I put them in my comic book. You draw something a couple dozen times, you learn to recognize it on sight.” She looked toward the house. “The only downside is that there’s no way to use them without also hurting the girls.”
“We’ll hold those back as a last resort if things start looking bad.”
Two of the hunters were trying to fall back. Milo was still gnawing on one’s arm, and the other was trying to pull her off. He had an arm around her neck and was leaning back with all his weight trying to pry her away. Judging by the screams of the man on the ground, it was only making her dig her teeth in harder. She’d stopped twisting and jerking, however, so some of the blows with his free hand were actually landing hard.
Ari had been thrown from her hunter. Dale watched her get back to her feet and launch herself between his legs to avoid the aim of his pistol. He fired and a clump of dirt flew up where Ari had just been standing. He twisted and took aim again but Ari was already blocked by one of the other hunters so he couldn’t take the shot. Diana saw the gun and cracked the shooter’s wrist with her tire iron. He howled, dropped his arm, and turned to face her fully. Diana headbutted him, the smooth front of the helmet cracking against the smooth material of his mask. He went down hard, and he didn’t try to get back up.
Sirens were echoing through the neighborhood now. In this area, the houses were widely-spaced and surrounded by enough foliage that she doubted anyone had a clear view of what was happening in the Willow front yard, but the noise had definitely carried. The hunters were beating a hasty retreat back to their vehicles.
Dale looked down at the canister Lucy had identified as a flashbang. “What’s the delay on these things?”
“Uh, not long. I would be dropping it as I pulled the trigger.” She pointed and mimed the motion needed. “But if you throw it, you’d just be blinding our girls at the same time.”
“No, I’m thinking of something much dumber than that.”
The hunters got to their cars and got inside. Diana and the wolves gave chase, but remained wary of the weapons the men carried.
“Oh, I’m dumb, I’m dumb,” Dale chanted.
“It’s not too late to not be dumb,” Lucy said behind her.
“Nope...”
Dale straightened and ran for the corner at the same time the lead car lurched forward. She was barefoot, she remembered, and she was in her damn pajamas. The bulletproof vest slapped against her chest and shoulders as she ran. It was heavy and seemed like more of a hindrance than any kind of real protection. She pumped her fists and picked up her knees, watching the cars, gauging their progress. They had no idea she was there. They assumed all their enemies were behind them. The lead car would have to slow down to take the corner. If she wasn’t there in time, there was no point in even trying her stupid, stupid plan.
She reached the corner just before the truck did. She barely slowed down, grabbed the passenger door and yanked it open. Time slowed down so that each second seemed to drag by for a full minute.
The driver and passenger had taken off their goggles and turned wide, terrified eyes on her.
The men were too startled to raise their weapons. The driver hadn’t even stopped moving.
The car kept rolling forward as Dale let go of the door with one hand, triggered the flashbang with the other, and lobbed it into the car.
The forward momentum of the vehicle caused the door to swing shut. Dale kept running, unable to stop her own tumbling run, throwing her weight to the left as she tripped over her feet so that she would land and roll in the grass. She saw the windows of the lead car light up with an impossibly bright flash, and then the windows were completely fogged. The driver finally stepped on the brakes, which caused the following car to slam into it from behind. Dale pushed herself up onto her knees and looked back toward the house. The third SUV had gone the opposite direction and missed the accident entirely.
The driver and passenger from the lead car fell out and collapsed on the pavement at the same time a Seattle Police cruiser came around the corner with all lights flashing. The driver saw the men in the street and skidded to a stop, both officers leaping out with their guns drawn.
Diana ran down the middle of the road, badge held high like she was an Olympic torch runner. She’d lost the motorcycle helmet and looked only a little manic as she approached the other officers.
“Detective Diana Macallan, SPD!” she shouted. “These men are connected to the kidnapping of Marin Cardoso!”
Dale looked back at the house. All three
wolves had vanished, presumably back into the house. She got back to her feet and brushed herself off, glancing up when she saw Lucy coming up beside her. One of the officers went to the men lying on the ground and knelt to check on them. A second cruiser had come up from behind, and those two officers were taking care of the hunters in the second car. People were starting to risk coming out on their lawns now to see what all the commotion was about.
One of the officers spotted Dale and Lucy. “Ladies, stay where you are.”
“They’re not related to this,” Diana said.
“They’re wearing bulletproof vests,” the officer pointed out.
“They...” Diana looked at them, pure confusion crossing her face. “They, uh, they are. That’s... the vests are mine. I’m... they... they’re staying at the house these men just attacked, and I decided to let them wear the vests just as a precaution.”
The officer didn’t look convinced, but didn’t pursue the questions any further. “Is anyone else in the house?”
“Three other women,” Diana said. “They’re instrumental to the case as well. We were combining what we knew in the hopes we could make a move. I guess these guys got wind of how close we were and decided to try tripping us up.”
“Doesn’t look like they were very successful.”
Diana said, “There was a third truck that got away. I can give you a description for the APB.”
“I can’t wait to eavesdrop on this,” the officer said. He lifted a hand, waved for Dale and Lucy to come with them. “Might as well keep everyone in one place until we get this all figured out.”
Dale put an arm around Lucy and escorted her off the sidewalk. They joined Diana, who led the march back to the house with the other officers remaining at the wreck to sort out all their prisoners.
“Where the hell did you get bulletproof vests?” Diana asked. “And what exploded in the car back there?”
“Dale robbed a car, honey,” Lucy said. “Arrest her. Arrest her right now.”