by Geonn Cannon
"She's not going to give it back. It's dangerous."
"Help me out, Ariadne."
Ari sighed and straightened, trying to think of the best non-answer she could give. "It's a method of waging biological warfare against a certain group of people. The drug is being manufactured in secret so no one knows they're working on a weapon."
Diana said, "What do you mean it targets a certain group of people? A certain race, or...?"
"It's something to do with their DNA. It responds to this drug and it makes them go berserk. It's a... it's a werewolf drug. It sends them into a rage where they think they're werewolves, and it makes them kill. That's what happened on the first of January, it's what's been happening more and more often throughout Seattle. People being torn apart by their friends and relatives, killings with their bare hands. This drug is causing that, and Kyle Lorne is a member of the group that's spreading it."
"And you know this how?"
"Because I'm a member of the group that's affected by the drug. I've been dosed twice. I'm still feeling the effects of the second exposure."
Diana looked at her for a moment and reached out, brushing the hair away from Ari's temple. "You were exposed to a chemical agent?"
"Yes."
"Against your will?"
Ari looked at her and frowned. "Of course against my will."
Diana said, "Ari, come on. We've known each other way too long to do this dance. I know you used to be an addict. If you've fallen off the wagon, you don't need to concoct this whole conspiracy just to explain it to be. I understand. I can help you get--"
"Whoa. I've never been addicted to anything stronger than caffeine. I've had a joint from time to time, but nothing harder. Where'd you get the..." She closed her eyes and chuffed softly. "Well, I guess it's not really surprising you'd think I'm a drug addict. Homeless when I was a teenager, then all those nights you found me wandering around in a daze. It's the logical conclusion. Diana, I swear, I'm not an addict. This is really happening."
"I wish I could believe that."
Ari stood up and walked a few steps away. She'd known Diana longer than she'd known Dale. She sighed and said, "Diana, I'm going to have to ask you not to freak out when you see what I'm about to do. But it's going to take less time to do this and then deal with your reaction than it'll take to convince you I'm not insane." She took a deep breath and remembered Milo's lesson about changing just one part of her body. "Remember when I said that the drug affects the DNA of certain people and makes them react like they're werewolves? That's because they are."
She held out her left hand curled into a fist. The bones elongated and compressed, her fingers retracting as dark brown fur spread out across her knuckles. By the time Diana dropped her coffee and backpedaled away, a wolf's paw extended out from Ari's shirt sleeve. She cursed quietly and the transformation reversed itself, her hand snapping back into place with enough pain that she had to flex her fingers to make sure they weren't broken.
"Son of a bitch."
"What the hell was that?"
"We're called canidae. All those times you caught me half-naked and out of my mind? It's because usually I'd been a wolf five minutes earlier. Lorne is a hunter. His people are trying to make wolves into killers so they'll be justified killing us. That's what happened with Logan Ahearn. He was exposed to a drug called wolfsbane, it made him kill his friend, and Lorne shot him right in front of me. The accident my mother was involved in, they were transporting the entire supply of wolfsbane to a secure location. But we got it, and it's not going to be used to kill anyone else."
Diana had gone pale. "This is nonsense, Ariadne. This... this is..."
Ari held up her right hand. "Want me to demonstrate again?"
"No. Please don't do that again." She put her hands over her stomach and leaned forward. "This can't be real."
"It's real," Ari said softly. "Lorne held me hostage for two days this weekend. When Dale and some friends of ours came to break me out on Sunday morning, he helped expose me to wolfsbane so I would attack them. This is what's happening in this town, it's why Lorne is suddenly treating me like a terrorist. In his mind, I am."
"He didn't know you... that you were..."
"No. Until this weekend he thought I was a hunter, like him."
Diana straightened and sat down on the block again. She took a deep breath and after Ari had mentally counted to five, let it out again. She closed her eyes and furrowed her brow. "What was that word you said? Not werewolf, you said you were something else."
"Canidae."
"Lorne used that word the other day. Monday. He said that he'd connected the theft to the Canidae Coalition. This can't... mm." She stopped herself from denying it again and looked at Ari. She laughed incredulously and shook her head. "You're a werewolf. The strangest thing is that it explains so much about you."
Ari smiled. "Sorry to eradicate the mystery, but I really do need your help."
Diana put her hands on her hips. "If Lorne is really guilty of everything you've said, we need to get him off the streets. But we can't hold him accountable for a drug that for all intents and purposes can't exist. If we say he's trying to recover a werewolf-targeting drug, no one is going to take us seriously."
"That's why we can't do anything official."
"We damn well can. We can charge him for unlawful imprisonment. You said he held you hostage for two days. The crazy falls on him in that case, if he claims you're a werewolf that stole his werewolf-go-crazy pills..."
"It's actually a powder."
"That doesn't... I don't care about the logistics of it. The point is, the man was holding you against your will. He's the one who has to come up with a plausible reason for that, and if he can't, he's going to jail. At the very least he's going to lose his badge. All you have to do is press charges and he'll never work as a cop again. So? Is that what you want to do?"
Ari rubbed her hands together. "We'll see."
"Ari, the only other option is trying to sell your crazy version of events."
"No, there's another option. It just makes me feel a little sleazier than I'm used to feeling. Is Lorne on duty now?"
"He came in for a little while but the lieutenant sent him home. He looked rough."
"Yeah, he would. Okay. Thanks for the help, Diana. I'll be in touch."
Diana grabbed her arm. "Hey. No, you don't get to do that. You don't get to come here and drop something like this on me, then just walk away. We're going to discuss this."
"We are. But not right now. We're on a really strict time table, and my people are at risk every minute we sit around talking. I think I can force Lorne to help us, but I have to go now. We'll talk, we will definitely talk. Maybe at that dinner you mentioned, with you and your wife. I really want to meet her. And come on... is this really a conversation you want to have in Freeway Park?"
A host of different emotions passed across Diana's face before she finally released Ari. "I can't believe I was actually starting to miss you. I forgot what a menace you could be."
Ari held her hands out. "It's not my fault I'm an interesting person."
Diana rolled her eyes and walked away. Ari gave her a head start before following her into the park's maze.
#
Lorne sniffled as he let himself into his apartment. He felt weak all over, each part of his body having seceded from the whole in order to air their grievances separately. He'd exhausted every pain reliever in his apartment and finally found the strength to trudge down to the corner store to refresh his supplies. The trip had taken its toll on him and he was practically sleepwalking by the time he finally stepped into his living room and found Ariadne Willow lounging on his couch. His gun was on his hip but he lacked the strength to even reach for it.
"Ariadne Willow, I'm placing you under arrest--"
"Save it, Detective." She took her feet off his coffee table and leaned forward. "How are you feeling? Achy and tired all the time? Can't get comfortable?"
He gr
unted and, though he meant to deny her accusations, he was attacked by a sudden bout of lightheadedness and swooned. Ari stood up and caught him before he could correct himself. She guided him to the couch and, as he sank into the cushions, he realized she had taken his gun. He watched with detached interest as she put it on the dining room table and then sat on the coffee table in front of him.
"You don't have a month left, Kyle. The full moon is a week away. Most of the mythology is bullshit. I don't care about moon cycles, but for newborn wolves? People who have been bitten? They feel the urge stronger during the full moon. Even if they've been able to fight it up to that point, when the moon is full they just completely give in to the urge. After that, it's pretzel time. If you're lucky the physical trauma will kill you. If not... well. The deformities aren't pretty."
Lorne said, "If you came here to torture me..."
"I didn't. Despite what you did to me, I'm not here for payback. This is bigger than me."
He glared at her. "What do you want?"
"I want you to help me stop this war."
He laughed. "That's not going to happen. Not on my say-so or yours. I'm just a foot soldier."
Ari said, "Keighley isn't. Huxley from the cab company seemed to be a pretty big player, too. If they give the order to stand down, I bet the hunters will listen."
"We've waited years for wolves to be open season again. Now that they are, we're not giving it up lightly."
"Yeah. That's big with you guys... waiting years for the chance to kill all us dirty wolves. But you're not taking advantage of it. You're making us kill ourselves. You manufacture that wolfsbane shit so we'll turn into slobbering self-destructive maniacs. How many wolves have you personally killed this week? How many wolves has Keighley straight-up murdered? I think you guys are too civilized. Just like we are. Wolves have become productive members of society. Those who prefer the wild are out there, living in the woods, minding their own business. You hunters are the same way. Some of you armed up on the first day of January looking for wolves to murder. But the rest of you? The rest of you took the time to design a drug to make us dangerous. People like Jacqueline Ramsey put themselves in the line of fire rather than just killing in cold blood. Wolfsbane was an excuse you hunters needed, and that's all gone now."
"We'll just make more."
Ari smiled. "Yeah. How long do you figure that will take? You can make a little bit, spread it around, but you'll never get your whole supply back. You guys have been wasting the shit left and right. Spreading it all over the Bull and Terrier, infecting salad bars with it... I'm willing to bet the supply you have on-hand is slim to none. This war is a non-starter."
Lorne shifted on the couch and looked away, stifling a cough with a trembling fist. Ari leaned closer and took some of the edge out of her voice.
"You're going to die, Kyle. It's not going to be a good death, but you can make your last days count. You chose to become a cop. You chose to make a difference. Do you really want to spend what little time you have left trying to kill my people, or do you want to help me find a way out of this mess?"
He leaned forward and met her gaze. Ari saw that his eyes were bloodshot, his face under siege by a series of micro-tremors. "Let's say you're right and the majority of hunters don't want this to happen. They don't care about wolf manoth because the tradition fell apart or they weren't trained by their father. That doesn't change the fact that there are other hunters like Keighley and Huxley who have been waiting for this since they were children. They were raised in a cult mentality and taught that wolves are lesser creatures. Midnight of New Years was like a starter pistol to them. They aren't just going to lay down their weapons."
"That's why I need your help. I need you to help me convince them that this is pointless."
Lorne shook his head. "They won't go for it."
Ari said, "Then we'll take them out. We won't fight an all-out war, but we'll go after the people who are threatening our lives. Do you know how I'm living these days, Lorne? I'm buying my food from another state. I can't eat anything from delis or restaurants because I can't trust anything I didn't make myself. Last night, I had my girlfriend tie me to the bed with a gag in my mouth so I couldn't attack her if the wolfsbane you dosed me with took over in the night."
He took a deep breath and, as he released it, his entire body trembled. When he had control again he stared at her for a moment before speaking. "And why would I agree to help you?"
"Because you've been keeping secrets. Hunters and wolves are verboten, so you can't just flat out use wolf manoth as an excuse for your actions this past week without looking insane. All I have to do is tell them what happened this weekend. You kidnapped me, put me in a cage..."
"You're a wanted criminal."
"A criminal who wasn't officially wanted until after I escaped Keighley's garage. That's going to make your whole spiel look a little odd, won't it? Kind of like a personal vendetta rather than the result of any actual police work. You had me in a cage, I got away, and out of nowhere I'm your prime suspect in an ongoing case?" She pursed her lips and shook her head. "Hard to slide out of that one. Especially if I give them word that a few days earlier I'd rebuffed your romantic advances. You're going to look like a stalker, Kyle."
She could tell from his expression that she'd hit a nerve. "You wouldn't do that."
"Hell yes, I would. Even wild wolves don't attack humans on a whim. But we'll fight if we're forced, and we will attack if we get cornered. You're cornering us. We're giving you one last chance to back off before we turn on you. If you're smart, you'll heed the warning."
She stood up and looked down at Lorne. He looked as if he was going to stand up as well, but his arms wouldn't produce the strength to push him up off the cushions.
"That's going to get worse. You're going to start to feel like the only relief is to just give in to what your body is trying to do. At that point you might as well just surrender to the inevitable. I'm telling you right now there's no coming back from that decision. Make a decision you can live with before it happens."
"Live with," Lorne said.
"So to speak."
He nodded slowly and looked away from her. "Get the hell out of my apartment, Willow."
She picked up his gun off the table and brought it back to him. "Don't shoot me in the back as I'm leaving."
"Don't tempt me." She handed the gun back and he slipped it back into the holster. She started for the door, but he stopped her by saying her name again. "If you weren't gay... and, you know. A wolf. You think I would've had a chance?"
Ari said, "I don't know, Kyle. You try so hard to be a good guy. I like to think that would have counted for something."
He nodded and leaned back, closing his eyes as his body shook with another round of small seizures. Ari left the apartment without looking back, tempering her pity for him with the memory of Logan Ahearn's body after Lorne shot him. She stuck her hands in her pockets and jogged across the street, walking to the corner where she'd parked her car. Dale was in the passenger seat fussing with the small GPS tracker they had bought but hadn't yet used. She got behind the wheel and looked at the screen. The tracker she'd placed on his gun would most likely be discovered the next time he cleaned it, but she was confident it would be live long enough for what they needed.
"Anything?"
"Well, we're getting a signal, but he's not moving much."
Ari said, "He's in bad shape. I haven't seen many bite victims, but he's the worst by far. I honestly don't know if he'll make it to the full moon next week. Even if he doesn't agree to help us end the war early, hopefully he'll still lead us to wherever Keighley is hiding before he surrenders to the inevitable."
Dale nodded. She wore a scarf pulled up over her chin and kept the brim of her cap pulled low over her eyes, ready to cover her face if Lorne happened to leave the apartment again. She was hunched down in her seat knees up in front of the steering wheel. Ari kept watch on the front of Kyle's building but her
mind kept wandering.
"I've been thinking about our arrangement. I think you should take the PI test so you can become a full partner in the agency."
"What?" Dale looked up from the screen. "That's not... I mean, thank you. I'm not really angling to be a private investigator, though. I've been thinking about it since you brought it up as a joke. I know I have the hours to qualify, and all I'd have to do is pass the test--"
"Which you'd ace, by the way."
"Thank you, puppy. But every time I think about it, I think it would be a bad idea. We work well like this. If I took a step up, it would be six weeks, two months at the most, before I got bored and begged you to demote me. Or an alternative... if it works, we'd have to hire someone else to answer the phones. And you have a habit of falling in love with your assistants."
"Just the smartass redhead ones who are named after singing cowgirls."
Dale chuckled. "Seriously, I'm honored you think I'm worthy of being a Bitches Investigations detective. But I'm happy to do the paperwork, the nerd stuff as you once so lovingly called it." Ari chuckled. "This, hanging around in cars and waiting for something to happen, or taking pictures of people cheating? I don't need that. What I need is to be safe and sound by a phone in case you need me to swoop in and save you."
"I like that, too."
"What brought this up again? Is it about that phone call?"
"I called you a secretary, Dale. You have to know I see you as more than that."
Dale rolled her eyes. "God, Ari, of course I know that." She reached over and took Ari's hand. "Tensions were really high that morning. We were both trying to look out for each other, and we lost our heads. If you're really feeling anxious about what we said, we can keep that contraption on the bed and I can give you a proper spanking when this is all over."
Ari smiled. "Okay. I'll let it drop. But I want you to be a partner in the agency regardless of your status as a private investigator. The agency would be impossible without you at the wheel and I want that reflected in the arcane, strange web of ownership. I don't want the agency to be mine anymore. It's ours. It always has been."
