Smilodon, page 21
Karleen laughed her agreement. “I know… right?”
They fell into a companionable silence for a short distance until Karleen asked, “So, what are we going to do about Wyatt?”
Gabrielle sighed. “I don’t know. Our culture and society is what it is to me. I mean… it feels odd—cognitive dissonance kind of odd—that I pretty much had to tell him to kill that guy. It’s probably part of the transition from human to shifter, and I’m kinda glad he’s not someone who relishes killing his opponents. But still… he has to find some way to reconcile his human morals with his shifter identity. I suppose Wyatt could have just sent the guy out of the territory; it’s not like he could ever present a realistic threat to Wyatt.”
“Oh, sure… he might not have presented a threat to Wyatt, but suppose he gathered his own pack and returned for war? That’s not without precedent in our society.”
Gabrielle nodded, taking a deep breath and exhaling it as a puff between her lips. “Yeah, there is that to consider, too.”
Karleen shrugged. “I’m not sure we can do anything more than be the best friends we can be. I’d like to be more, but right now probably isn’t the best time to advance that goal.”
They fell into another silence as they stepped onto Main Street’s sidewalk and turned toward the mustering area. Ahead of them, Wyatt trudged his way toward the same destination. Even at a distance, his posture advertised his mood for any who cared to notice. Gabrielle ached to have some way of helping Wyatt through his troubles, but it wasn’t her place to determine the proper course for Wyatt. Only he—and he alone—could do that.
My mood had not improved by the time I arrived at the edge of the area where shifters and Magi alike gathered for the defense of the Millicent Guthrie Home. I knew I telegraphed my foul frame of mind with every movement and expression, but I simply could not find it within me to put on a happy face, as the song said. The more I learned of shifter society, the more I questioned my gratitude over surviving the cougar.
“Ah, there you are, Wyatt,” Alistair’s voice drew my attention, and I saw my grandpa’s old friend moving through the crowd toward me. “I explained the crisis to the county council in as much detail as I felt appropriate. We haven’t ruled out the presence of shifters in these abduction teams, so I felt the situation warranted a certain level of operational security.”
“Thank you, Alistair. I appreciate you handling that for me.”
“Forgive me, my boy, but your expression is a veritable storm cloud. May I ask what changed between when you left us and now?”
I blinked. “You don’t know? The young guy at the reception desk didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Well, damn. I guess I had to relive it sooner than I anticipated. “The council-member I evicted was waiting with a baseball bat when I left the administration building and clocked me pretty good across the back of my head. Karleen was all set to rip out his throat right there on the sidewalk, but I staved that off in favor of handling it at the arena. I didn’t want blood right there in plain view.”
“Good for you, lad,” Alistair said, clapping me on my shoulder. “I know joining our world has been a shock to your system, but I’m glad to see you’re coming around to doing things the shifter way.”
I didn’t know whether to shout at him or simply walk away.
“Yeah,” I replied, and my voice sounded flat and dead even on the inside. “I suppose you’re right.”
“Miss Vicki is looking for you and Gabrielle,” Alistair went on. “Something about intelligence reports from the initial survey of the orphanage, I think. I’ll head back to my office and mind the store here.”
I nodded my agreement. “Thank you, Alistair.”
Alistair clapped me on the shoulder once more before he ambled off toward the administration building. I watched for a heartbeat or two, then turned and began a search for my sister. I soon found her in what appeared to be a command pavilion situated between the shifters and the Magi. She stood at a table, switching between papers that covered her immediate vicinity of the tabletop. She looked up at my approach and smiled.
“Hiya, brother mine!” Then, she realized my mood through the subtle, immeasurable means of twins the world over, and she froze, her expression becoming one of concern. It was only a matter of time before she discarded the paper in her hand and rushed to swarm me in one of her deepest hugs, shrouding me in her unyielding and unequivocal love. She thought those were the best medicine for whatever ailed me, and by and large, she was right. Just not today.
I shook my head. “We can discuss it later, sis. Alistair said you were looking for me?”
Vicki searched my expression with her eyes, and I could tell she questioned whether to comply with my request. Even though she eventually nodded her agreement, I knew it was grudging at best.
“Have you seen Gabrielle?” she asked. “She needs to hear what I have, as the leader of the shifter war party, and you know how I hate to repeat myself.”
“She’s on the way,” I replied, just as Gabrielle and Karleen arrived on either side of me.
Gabrielle went straight to the table. “What do you have for us?”
“Preliminary intel reports on the Millicent Guthrie Home,” Vicki answered, gesturing across the papers before her like the hostess of a game show. “Our people on-site say the facility appears to be inhabited and operating normally. They spoke with staff there under the guise of writing a biography of Millicent Guthrie, focusing on her humanitarian work, and went on a tour of the facility.”
I blinked. Something seemed… off… about that somehow. “Wait. The staff just welcomed your people with open arms? Without any identification or credentials?”
“Oh, but you’re wrong, brother dear,” Vicki replied, throwing me her most earnest expression. “My investigators showed them identification and a very thorough backlist of critically acclaimed biographies.”
I gaped; I couldn’t help myself. “Your intel people are actual biographers?”
Vicki’s entire demeanor changed from ‘innocent, pure-souled prom queen’ to ‘unrepentantly mischievous imp’ in the blink of an eye. “Of course not, Wyatt. They’re Master-certified in Illusion.”
Well… now, I felt like an idiot. It made such perfect sense. Rather than dig my proverbial hole any deeper, I merely nodded my understanding.
Vicki winked, communicating she knew very well the thoughts crossing my mind, but we were like that. When we hit our stride, we could finish each other’s sentences without missing a beat.
“All this looks like it hangs together,” Gabrielle remarked as she returned the last report to the tabletop. “None of it gives me the feeling of being too perfect. Unless you or your people have any objections, I think we’re good to go.”
Travis and Shelly arrived at the table then, coming from a cluster of workspaces farther back in the pavilion. Shelly still looked a little wild around the eyes anytime she regarded me, but she made no mention of her earlier reaction.
Vicki turned to them, saying, “Are you both current on the intel reports?”
“We are,” Shelly answered.
“Thoughts?”
Travis answered, “We’ve discussed it and examined it from every angle we can come up with, and there’s no reason we shouldn’t move ahead with our plans.”
“Very well, then,” Vicki responded. She took a half-step to retrieve a rolled-up paper from a nearby table behind her and moved it to our table, unrolling it to reveal a map of the facility grounds. “Let’s get to planning.”
Hector Olmstadt stood and regarded the world beyond the window in his office. Two knocks on the door heralded the arrival of Tammy Beckett, the person in charge of their… hospitality.
“Well?” Hector grunted.
Tammy answered with an almost predatory grin as she slipped into one of the plush armchairs Hector kept for office guests. “I think they bought it. They certainly gave no indication they detected the charm I wore. Of course, I wear it inside my clothes, like we all do, and made every effort to act like I saw whatever illusions they tried to spin.”
“Okay, then. If they found the NAS at the steel mill, they should believe we will attempt a raid on this facility two days from now. Start sending the kids out through the tunnel to the truck stop and get them on their way. I’ll call in our reinforcements that are already waiting there and alert everyone that we need to shift operations to… oh… the Gamma-Eight sites. Were we able to get hold of any of that special ammunition we’ve heard rumors about?”
Tammy shook her head. “No. Everyone I’ve contacted just laughed at me for believing old tales.”
“So be it,” Hector remarked with a shrug. “If we can’t be surgical with quality, we’ll just overwhelm them with quantity.”
As she stood to leave, Tammy gave one last predatory smile. “Do you think those freaks have any idea what they’re walking into?”
“I sincerely hope not, or we’ll be on the receiving end of the ambush.”
Hector started working on the tasks to finalize their ambush as Tammy left his office. No… he most certainly did not want their guests to have sniffed out the ruse. No matter where you looked across all recorded history of ambushes, it rarely went well for the attacker when the supposed victim chose to spring the trap. Tammy was the last person to report an evaluation of their act, earlier that day, and everyone believed the freaks posing as biographers swallowed the spiel like the main course at a five-star restaurant.
Sending out the notifications took only a matter of minutes, and once that was finished, Hector leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. Then, he began the arduous process of mentally gaming out every scenario he could think of. This part of the op was as reflexive as breathing to him, and it was the only way he’d ever found to reduce any complications delivered by the ages-old foe of preparation: the dreaded Murphy.
22
Vicki and Gabrielle gestured to the map unrolled on the table as they briefed the team leads.
“We will arrive about a mile out from the facility,” Vicki said, “and move out as units. The goal is to make contact with the facility’s staff and inform them they are the target of an impending raid for their children. Our hope is that they welcome us into the facility so we can fortify it and prepare a defense, but if they refuse, we’ll set up in the forest just beyond their property line.”
“What about whoever owns the property bordering the facility?” a cougar shifter team leader asked. “We’ll be trespassing.”
Gabrielle gave him a flat look. “We’re shifters, and most of us are hunters on top of that. If you get caught in the woods, I’ll send you back to school with the young.”
“Yeah, I get that,” the cougar persisted, “but I’ll have two Magi with my team. What if they’re not up on their woodcraft?”
Gabrielle turned to Vicki and raised an eyebrow in silent question.
Vicki shrugged. “Pass the word to bring any Magi who embarrass you to me, as long as you understand that we’ll bring any shifters who embarrass us to Gabrielle… or Wyatt.”
More than one shifter sent a cautious glance toward the new Alpha. His own thoughts consumed him, however, to the point that he didn’t notice.
Gabrielle and Vicki resumed the briefing, discussing their defense plan if they succeeded in gaining permission to set up inside the facility, as well as their readiness plan if they had to withdraw to the property line. The entire process took upwards of two hours, and the entire time, Wyatt stood off to one side, his mind clearly not on the briefing. Once they’d worked through the plans and the questions afterward, Gabrielle and Vicki sent the shifters and Magi on their way to form up for departure. Gabrielle and Vicki had one last necessary conversation.
“Wyatt?” Gabrielle’s voice jerked me out of my thoughts.
I knew I didn’t hide my surprise that only Gabrielle, my sister, and I now stood in the command pavilion. “So… I missed the briefing?”
“You did,” Gabrielle agreed.
Vicki chimed in, “All two hours of it.”
Well, shit. That wasn’t good. I needed to get my head right if I was going on this op. I couldn’t afford to be oblivious like that on what would essentially be a battlefield.
“Sorry. I suppose everyone else noticed?”
“There wasn’t really any hiding it,” Vicki replied. “Well, I suppose we could’ve thrown a couch cover over you, but then everyone would’ve wondered why you wore a bad ghost costume.”
Gabrielle stepped closer, and her hand twitched like she wanted to reach out to me. “Do you want to talk about whatever it is?”
Seriously? She didn’t know what was on my mind?
“We don’t have time for any of that,” I countered.
“We’ll make time for it,” Gabrielle rebutted. “You need to be able to focus on what we’re doing.”
I nodded my agreement. “I know, and I can. Which team am I in?”
Vicki looked like she wanted to say more, but I didn’t miss Gabrielle touching her arm. “You’re with the same team you were for the steel mill. It’s just expanded.”
“Okay. I’ll go find them.”
I turned and left the pavilion before they could press me further, especially my sister.
Gabrielle held up her hand to stay Vicki’s question after Wyatt left the pavilion. She stepped to the door and watched him leave, trying to gauge the distance until they’d be able to converse without him hearing. When she felt safe to speak, she returned to Vicki and drew Wyatt’s sister further into the pavilion.
“What’s the deal with Wyatt?” Vicki asked, complying with Gabrielle’s gestures to speak softly.
“He killed someone today for something that doesn’t warrant death in human society but does in shifter society. I don’t think he’s handling it well.”
Vicki looked over her shoulder toward the direction Wyatt took upon leaving the pavilion. When she turned back to Gabrielle, she asked, “Seriously? If he’s that deep in his own head, he has no business being on this op. He could get someone killed or get killed himself.”
“I know, but do you want to have that conversation with him?”
“I’m not afraid of my brother, Gabrielle,” Vicki shot back. “I remember when we both went through potty training.”
Gabrielle fought back a snort of laughter. It was rather difficult to put someone on a pedestal when you went through potty training with them. Wait… she frowned her confusion as she asked, “You actually remember that stage of your life? I didn’t think people remembered that.”
“Maybe most people don’t, but my earliest memories are from a time before I could walk. I don’t know if all Magi are like me, but yeah. Believe me… I would very much appreciate not remembering what it felt like to need my diaper changed, but such is my life, I guess. Do you want me to talk to him?”
Gabrielle took a deep breath and exhaled it as a slow, heavy sigh. “I don’t know. I’m not sure what he’d say about me telling you. And on top of that, suppose we talked him out of going and something bad happened he could’ve stopped by being there?”
“We can’t play that game,” Vicki countered. “As the top-level commanders of this mission, we have to evaluate the situation with objectivity. Do we have any evidence that he’s a critical mission asset to this op? Do we have proof that we will fail to protect the orphanage if he isn’t there?”
“No.”
Vicki gestured her agreement with the answer. “If something bad happens that Wyatt could’ve stopped and he takes an attitude about being benched, we just have to tell him he should’ve had his head right if he wanted to go on the op.”
“Okay. Let’s not put it off.” Gabrielle said. “He’s going to hate being left behind.”
Gabrielle turned and led Vicki out of the command pavilion, heading off in search of Wyatt.
* * *
The search proved to be… interesting. Everyone admitted seeing him within the last few minutes, but no one seemed to know where he was.
Gabrielle and Vicki stood in the middle of a milling mass of shifters and Magi. A few of the shifters were already in their animal forms. Both ladies stood with their fists resting on their hips, feeling very put upon over not finding Wyatt, when a hush washed over the group like a tidal wave coming into shore. Those standing between the ladies and the town parted at a stately pace like the Red Sea before Moses, revealing the source of the hush. The world’s only known living Smilodon trotted up to the group and headed straight for Gabrielle and his Magi sister. When Wyatt reached them, he meowed a greeting and sat on his haunches.
Vicki’s resolve melted first. She took the few steps necessary to bring her to her brother’s side and said, “I’m sorry, Wyatt, but I would love to pet you.”
Wyatt leaned toward her slightly and lifted his head. When he stood on his four paws, his front shoulders were somewhere between his sister’s waist and the bottom of her ribcage, so even with Wyatt sitting, it wasn’t like she had to bend down.
Gabrielle watched her co-leader sliding her hand along Wyatt’s neck, shoulders, and spine, and for a moment, she allowed herself to feel a bit betrayed. Vicki was supposed to be telling Wyatt that he couldn’t go on the op, but here she was, petting him like a proud pet owner. Part of Gabrielle wanted to say Vicki’s conduct was undignified, but she also felt a little envious. She liked the feel of his fur, too.
“Are you ready for this?” Gabrielle asked.
The massive cat bobbed his head in a clear, affirmative nod.
“You have your head right?”
Another nod.
Gabrielle fought the urge to sigh. Fine… so be it. She’d have a quiet word with Wyatt’s team leader, but apparently, neither she nor his sister wanted to stand up to him while he was being adorable.
“Okay. I’ll trust you this time. As soon as Agents Hauser and Burke arrive, we’ll head out.”
