Lion And The Falcon (Furry United Coalition) (6 page)

“Yessir, um, Dr. Manners.
”

“And exactly what are you supposed to accomplish? Or let me guess. For some reason they pulled you from you regular job working…”

“In the mail room.”

“To follow me around in order to what? Make yourself bait? Try my patience? Make the humans suspicious?”
With each rebuke, the young shifter slumped. Nolan sighed and let him go. “Boy, you are much too young and ill equipped for this type of work. Much as I appreciate the concern of my coworkers, if I spotted you so easily, then anyone shadowing me would as well. I’d hate to see you come to harm. Go home.”

“But—
”

“Go home. I’ll call the office and let them know. And next time they want you to play bodyguard or field agent, insist they pair you with a senior operative so you can at least learn the basics.”

The young pup, a water mammal judging by his scent, probably on loan for an internship, scampered off and Nolan shook his head. What a joke. Sure, he wasn’t the handiest of men when it came to battle, or so he let people assume, but still… A wet behind the ears teenager to guard him? Even his littlest sister could have kicked his ass. Hmm. Bad comparison. Even when kitten-sized, his youngest sister was a vicious, spitting thing.

Whipping out his cell phone
, Nolan dialed as he resumed walking toward the parking garage where he kept his car stashed, not trusting to leave it parked on the street, even though he had a designated spot.

Kloe answered on the second ring. “Nolan. I take it you’re calling me to inform me our latest patient expired?”

“No, although I expect it to happen before morning. I’m actually calling for another reason. I have a complaint about your choice of shadows. Is the boy even legal to drive?

“
Are you speaking of Ethan, the otter?”

“
An otter? Really? You do realize I am a lion, as in king of the jungle.”

“Not the concrete jungle.”

“Perhaps not, but still more capable than that teenager you sent.”

“I am going to assume you spotted him.
”

“
Spotted and sent him home before he missed his bedtime. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“I didn’t think so either, however,
several of our other agents were concerned about your well being given the threats made to you by some of the patients.”

“While I appreciate the concern, I think I’d rather take my chances on my own.
”

“I don’t know if that’s wise.”

“Are you aware of something I’m not?”

Kloe didn’t immediately reply.

“Don’t make me call my mother.”

He could almost see his boss shudder. The last time his mother thought her baby boy
was in danger, she raised holy hell at the highest level. Everyone at FUC heard the roar.

“Please don’t.”

“Then talk.” Not his proudest moment using the threat of his mama to get info, but hey, it worked.

“
There’s been another killing by what we suspect is an escaped patient.”

“
And?”

“And it was one of the nurses
. Agnes.”

Nolan stumbled to a stop
, his shock and grief at her passing instant and genuine. Poor aging Agnes. Set to retire just next year and gentle as a lamb. “Not Agnes. That’s horrible. But how did they find her?”

“We’re still trying to piece that together. We think it’s possible one of the
escaped experiments followed her from the safe house. I was going to wait until morning to tell you, but I guess there’s no point in delaying now. We’re shutting that location down. It’s too compromised.”

“So where are
we going to bring the patients when we recapture them?”

“
Nowhere. Capturing is off the menu.” Kloe went silent after her low pronouncement, and Nolan growled.

“Oh no, don’t tell me you’re listening to that bird
-brained female and Viktor. We can’t just execute them. It’s not their fault.”

“Nolan.
Agnes isn’t the only one. We’ve got one other shifter in severe condition after an attack by what they termed a monster, and several humans missing with witnesses claiming a giant blob took them. We can’t hide from the truth. The escapees are killing shifters and humans. They’re compromising us all. It’s out of my hands now. The orders have come down. We are to use deadly force. We’re no longer out to capture.”

“You’re going to execute them
in cold blood?”

“It’s for the best.”

“I see.” He didn’t. But then again, he thought of poor Agnes and the other victims, and could understand their reasoning. He just didn’t have to like it. Nolan scrubbed his face before asking, “So where will I be working?”

“For now, in the FUC offices. We need all the help we can get.”

I wanted to help, but not like this. Not because people are dying.
“I’m a doctor, not a detective.” Funny how he argued and yet, not even an hour ago, he wished he could do more.

“
A doctor who might see things we missed. We could use your help, Nolan.”

Help in killing patients he’d failed to heal
? He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “I want it noted that I disagree with the termination order.”

“Already done.”

“I need my own space.”

“We’ll manage something.”

“Then I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Um,
since I’ve got you on the line, I don’t suppose you could come out to the crime scene tonight, before we clean it up for the human authorities. While we didn’t make it to the human attack or injured shifter one, we’re currently in control of the crime scene for your former nurse. Can you come?”

Now, before h
e’d had his after dinner nap? Darn it. The things he did for work. “Very well. Give me the address.”

Kloe rattled it off and he punched it into his phone
’s Google Map. Location saved, he ended the call as he entered the dark parking garage. His footsteps echoed loudly in the cavernous space, the dim lights, spaced far apart, doing little to illuminate the darkness. At this hour, most of the spots were empty, but the lingering scent of car exhaust, oil, and gas still perfumed the air, masking other scents, the one drawback to the location. It occurred to him that anyone could hide amongst the fat pillars and shadows. He peered around him suspiciously, but his lion sense remained quiet. Danger didn’t lurk. Or so his inner feline assured.

Pulling his fob from his pocket, he clicked it once an
d the lights on his car flashed just as he heard the scuff of feet behind him.

Not again.
Nolan whirled around to chastise the otter pup who’d obviously not given up when something dropped on him from above, bashing him in the skull and giving him the nap he’d so ardently desired.

Driving a motorcycle gave
Clarice a great feeling of exhilaration. It didn’t compare to flying, but when the wind streamed through her hair as she poured on the speed, it came close. However, driving a sports bike came with drawbacks. A prime example was exiting the restauran
t—
chosen because it looked like a greasy spoon that knew how to serve a proper home cooked fr
y—
to find it gone.

“Are you freaking kidding me?” She planted her hands on her hips and surveyed the parking lot. Full of motorcycles, hogs for the most part, her crotch rocket should have proven safe amongst the bigger bikes. Or stood out because of its differen
ce. Whatever the case, she currently found herself minus a means of transportation, which was of course when she got the call that they required her presence at a crime scene. To make her evening complete, she dug a hand in her pocket only to realize she didn’t have enough cash to taxi over.

“I hate the city!” She shook a fist at the blinking neon lights, but it didn’t bring back her precious.
Nor did she have time to hunt the perpetrator down. But she’d be back, and when she did…

Grumbling about the scum of humanity, s
he hiked the mile or so back to the brownstone only to discover the place practically deserted as a FUC cleaning crew cleared it out. Her fault because she’d argued with Kloe it was compromised. Apparently, she’d argued too late given one of the staff already ended up a victim.

Walking up to a woman with a clipboard, Clarice flashed her credentials. “
ASS Agent Tertius on loan to FUC. Have you evacuated all the daytime staff?”

“Yes, ma’am. And the nighttime staff were given the evening off with strict instructions to safeguard themselves and call if they spot anything suspicious.”

“You haven’t noticed any lurkers?”

“No. Nor is this van going anywhere where more shifters will be compromised. We’re just ensuring the records are cleared out, then boxing them into a storage unit until we deem it safe to move them to a
secured FUC location.”

“What about the moving staff
themselves?”

A smile with too many teeth met her inquiry. “We know how to lose a tail. Don’t worry about us.”

“I guess you’ve got things under control then.”

“Yup.”
The broad in charge didn’t even lift her head as she kept checking off her list. Snob. Clarice slinked off, not about to ask her for bus money because then she might have to admit she’d gotten her bike stolen. Spotting a bus stop with one of the nurses she’d interviewed earlier standing around waiting, she sauntered over.

“Shouldn’t you have gotten a ride with one of the agents?” she asked.

“I’m not going home. I’m taking this to the airport, then I’m going to visit my sister.”

Good plan since the patients wouldn’t have the ID required to make it past airport security.

“Do you know if this bus will take me into the east end of the city?”

“What happened to your motorcycle?
”

Refraining herself from scuffing her foot and ducking her head in shame, she instead replied
, “I’d rather not say.”

“
Let me guess, you stopped in at the Hungry Heifer.”

“Maybe.”

The nurse laughed, but not in derision. “Someone borrowed your bike, I take it?”

“Maybe.”
Clarice shifted from foot to foot.

“Happens all the time.
Those biker guys don’t like to share their space with crotch rockets.”

“So I’ve learned. I don’t suppose you have a spare bus token I can borrow.”

“I do, but why would you take transit when you can probably hop a ride with Dr. Manners? I just saw him a few minutes ago. If you hurry, you should still be able to catch him. He’s parked in the garage over there.”

Bum a ride from the spoiled cat?

“What’s he drive?”

“A
n Audi A4.”

Oh sweet heaven. Clarice might have wet her panties a little at the news.
Screw pride and screw public transit. She wasn’t about to miss a chance to ride in luxury.
I wonder if he’d let me drive?

Waving goodbye and wishing the nurse luck, Clarice jogged in the direction the
lady pointed. Her soft-soled leather boots didn’t make much sound on the pavement; as such, she managed to sneak up to within a few hundred feet of the oblivious doctor striding to his car when a shadow detached from the ceiling and dropped on him.

And she mean
t dropped. Down he went, like Michael Bisping when he got KO’d in the fight with Dan Henderson. Not even thinking, Clarice pulled her gun from the holster under her arm and took aim. Lucky for the idiot who attacked Sylvester, she didn’t immediately shoot, more because she didn’t want to deal with the paperwork if she inadvertently winged the FUC doctor, thus she heard the ensuing baffling conversation as a second shadow emerged from behind a cement pillar.

“
What the hell, Betty!”

“
Did I kill him?” Betty asked as she got up off the ground, brushing off her ample bottom. Poor Nolan lay prone on the ground. Given the weight that landed on him, he’d wake with a headache at the very least, if not a few broken ribs.

“Gosh, I hope not.
That would totally mess up the plan, not to mention his mother would murder us.”

“
Murder? You didn’t mention she had homicidal tendencies when you roped me in, Susan.”

“Well, it’s never been proven she killed anyone.” Betty sighed in relief, but her friend Susan wasn’t done. “But I have heard tales about
torture. I heard the last person to hurt one of her family suffered for days. They say she clawed them to ribbons.”

“Wish my mother was that tough,” grumbled
Betty.

“
Don’t we all.” Susan knelt by the doctor and peeled back an eyelid. “What did you hit him that hard for anyway?”

“I didn’t mean to. I meant to land on his back. I kind of missed.”