There's the sudden sharp noise of breaking glass, and Maya has just sat up when the grenade goes off.
It's only a smoke grenade, fortunately, but Maya's lungs start to burn and she knows it's laced with wolfsbane. The rest of the pack is scrambling to their feet, half-asleep and disorganized as people come crashing in through the windows in their dark fatigues. "Scatter!" Maya manages to cough out, grabs Gabby by the wrist, and drags her out of the room. She doesn't see Ryan, and it's impossible to tell who's who through the smoke. All they can do is run.
They have a plan for what happens when there's a raid and it's too short notice to do more than scatter. They meet an hour later at Solomon's. Maya and Gabby spend the hour huddled up in the ruins of an old house, cringing every time they hear a noise. Maya has Gabby held against her shoulder and is trying desperately to maintain her connection to the rest of the pack. She doesn't practice enough, can't be sure she would know if someone had been killed.
When they get to Solomon's, Jared and Spencer are already there. Spencer is holding his arm gingerly against his chest and Jared's shirt is soaked with blood, but they're both upright. Dominic arrives a moment later, soaked to the skin and shivering. Gabby immediately goes over to him and pulls him into a tight hug, and they cling to each other in the rain. Kyra trots up a minute later in her raccoon form and paws at the door.
"Come inside, for goodness' sake," Solomon says as he opens it. He distributes hot tea. It washes some of the burning feeling out of Maya's lungs that has lingered after the wolfsbane. The minutes trickle by as it becomes clearer that Siobhan and Marcus aren't coming.
Ryan walks in a few minutes later. He's only damp, not soaked like the others, and he takes a cup of tea with a nod of thanks. Then he turns to the others and says pleasantly, "What happened?"
"What do you mean, what happened?" Spencer snaps at him.
"I mean, you were on watch, Spencer," Ryan says. "I'd think even you would have noticed half a dozen people with guns and wolfsbane approaching."
"Kyra was on watch too," Spencer says, and Kyra transforms in a burst of fur and snarls at him.
Jared pushes both hands through his hair. "Guys," he says quietly. Maya looks at him, looks at the others, and decides that it might be better to let Jared handle this. He has a better touch with the betas. "I know it was cold and raining. Just tell the truth, okay? Nobody's angry."
Ryan opens his mouth. Gabby steps on his foot.
"Look, this is not our fault," Spencer says. "We didn't know there was going to be a raid!"
"That's what makes it a raid, Spencer," Dominic says, with a touch of exasperation in his voice.
"Jackie is supposed to tip us off—"
"So you stopped taking watches seriously," Ryan says and shakes his head. "Too cold, too damp, so you decided you'd be more comfortable inside. Am I correct?"
"It wasn't just me," Spencer says, his tone belligerent. "Kyra, Siobhan, Marcus—none of us have bothered with the watches in weeks. And don't let Jared's act fool you, he was the one who told us not to tell you because you'd just get mad!"
"For fuck's sake," Maya says, raking one hand through her hair. She takes a deep breath and wrestles with her temper. "We'll talk about this later. I don't think Siobhan and Marcus have been killed. They must have been captured. We need to find a safe place we can go that we can figure out what to do."
Solomon nods. "I think I can help you there."
*~*~*
Jackie barely sleeps that night. She keeps thinking of the Callaghans, and whether or not there's going to be a raid. She's also somewhat preoccupied with the fact that Mitchell has clearly figured out that there's a mole. Of course, Jackie has always known that it would come to that. It was inevitable that Mitchell would notice that the success rate on the patrols was going down. All she could do was try to deflect suspicion from herself as much as possible.
That wasn't as hard as it could be. Her 'hatred for werewolves' is well known, and when she gives people the patrol schedule, she doesn't include her own patrols. That means that she's still just as likely to stumble over a supernatural creature as she was before. And they do get glimpses of them, although it's rare that they actually catch one.
At the same time, she doesn't want someone else to take the fall for the things she's doing. So as much as she might have wanted to warn the targets of the raids, there's no way she could do it.
She's out of bed the minute the sun rises, takes a two minute shower and leaves the bathroom with her hair still dripping. She throws on some clothes, grabs a granola bar and a thermos full of coffee, and runs out the door. Helen is up, but doesn't say a word to her. If Nick is up, he's already left the house. It's raining and cold, so Jackie pulls up her hood as she jogs.
Jackie knows that she can't just demand to know what had happened the previous night, since she probably wasn't supposed to know about the raids at all, especially not that there was going to be more than one. The reports won't be filed yet, though, so she can't look at those either. So she just heads to the mess hall, because she knows that the guys who live in the barracks all talk to each other, and anyone who was out on a raid will definitely be bragging about it.
She's barely been there thirty seconds before hearing the name Callaghan, and scoots closer to the table discussing it. "– in the infirmary with a broken arm, but she was the only casualty. Not bad for a night we nabbed two monsters."
Jackie swears underneath her breath.
"How 'bout the alpha?"
"Nah, she took off. What a fucking coward. But we'll get her location out of the other two."
"She'll just move."
"Yeah, but they'll know what sort of places she might move to. The city's only so big. They'll track her down."
Jackie curses again. She finishes her coffee and jogs out of the cafeteria. She has work to do.
*~*~*
Luckily, it's not a patrol day. She can sneak away from exercises easily enough and head down to Solomon's. Solomon is there, taking a little girl's temperature. He doesn't look up when Jackie comes in. "In my office," he says, so Jackie heads in. The map is already out and surprisingly points her to a residential district.
She jogs across town and heads to the house that the map has indicated. She's about ten feet away from the door when she hears someone snap, "Don't move!" and stops in her tracks. It's Spencer, and he sounds considerably less good-natured than usual. A moment later, he jumps down off to the roof.
"Hey, are you—" Jackie starts.
"Come with me," Spencer says, taking her by the elbow none-too-gently. Jackie protests more out of surprise than anything else. Spencer drags her into the house and tosses her into the living room. She stumbles and practically falls. The house seems empty and abandoned.
"You!" Kyra shoves her way forward. "Where the hell were you last night?"
"Look, I know that—"
"No, you don't know!" Kyra shouts. "Look the fuck around, jackass, do you notice anyone missing?"
"I couldn't—"
"I don't want to hear about what you could and couldn't do," Spencer snaps. "Siobhan and Marcus could be dead right now because you didn't warn us that a raid was coming!"
"It wasn't—"
"Stop it!" Maya snarls. "Leave her alone. It wasn't her fault."
"We trusted her," Kyra says. "We trusted her and look what happened!"
"What happened," Ryan interjects acerbically, "is exactly what I had predicted would happen if you relied on Jackie. I told you all repeatedly not to. But you eased up. You let down your guard."
"I'm sorry," Jackie says.
"I'm not blaming you," Ryan says. "Quite the opposite. I told them over and over again that we wouldn't be able to count on you—through no fault of your own, but through simple physics. You can't be everywhere at once, which meant it was inevitable that eventually there would be a raid we weren't warned about. What happened last night was entirely their fault, and they're ashamed of themselves, so they're taking
it out on you. Spencer and Kyra were on watch, but they fell asleep. It turns out that the betas have often been sleeping through the watches because on cold nights, they'd rather be tucked away somewhere snug. And not only have they deliberately been hiding that from Maya, they were doing so on our precious Jared's recommendation, thus proving that we should have thrown him out of the pack when I said."
"Hey, you know what, asshole," Jared says, "I agreed that I was wrong, I fucked up, so can you just fucking drop it—"
"No, I really don't think I will," Ryan says. "Mostly because I know that the real reason you did it was because you were still pissed about losing the water treatment plant, and you're trying to persuade the betas that you're the better choice as alpha. You have no loyalty, Jared, and this has nothing to do with your faith in Jackie. You're trying to steal my sister's betas and form your own pack, and although you might pretend to be the soft-hearted one, you're every bit as mercenary as I am. And as much as I might respect that in you, I also won't pardon it when it's getting our pack in trouble."
"Why don't you just—"
"So, no, Jared, I will not 'fucking drop it,' until you've admitted that you were wrong and Maya was right, and that your wrongful estimation of the situation has quite probably gotten two of our pack members killed."
"I just said that I agreed I was wrong—"
"But not for the right reasons. You think you were wrong because you misjudged one situation, one night, one shelter. You haven't yet realized that what you have actually misjudged is the world, Jared, and until you tell the betas that, I won't be satisfied that you're 'sorry.'"
"That's enough," Maya says, fangs bared. "No more talking about blame. I'm the alpha. I take responsibility. And what we need to do now is figure out what to do going forward."
Jackie lets out a breath. "Siobhan and Marcus are being held at the militia HQ. Mitchell's probably already questioning them. Hopefully they can hold out."
"Okay." Maya lets out a breath. "What's our way in?"
"Are you serious?" Ryan asks, then rolls his eyes. "Of course you're serious. You actually intend to try to rescue them."
"Ryan, I don't want to have this conversation again," Maya says. "They're part of this pack, and the pack is all we have."
"Besides," Gabby chips in, "I hate to be the one to say it, but there's a pretty high chance that they'll give away our location. It's not like we're conditioned to withstand torture. And we can move, but Siobhan and Marcus know all about us."
"We have to go get them," Maya agrees. She looks at Jackie and says, "How do we do this?"
Jackie rubs both hands over her hair. "It's going to be virtually impossible. I mean…I could sabotage the generator. That would take care of the electronic locks. But someone would need to actually get them out of the building afterwards, and I don't know how in the hell we can do that."
"They won't just be able to run?" Gabby asks.
"Not after an entire day of my grandfather's tender treatment," Jackie says. "I don't think they'll need to be carried, but they won't necessarily even realize 'hey, it's time to escape.'"
"So how do we get in?" Jared asks.
"You can't," Jackie says.
"There has to be a way," Maya says.
"No, there really doesn't," Jackie says. "Two fences, all of which have a rotating guard. Spotlights at night."
"They'll go off if you cut the generator," Dominic says.
"No, the fence lights have their own generator," Jackie says. "They use too much power to share. Trust me, guys, do you think other people haven't tried? To get supplies, to kill Mitchell, to rescue someone who's been captured—every single one has failed. There is no way for a supernatural creature to get past those gates if they aren't being dragged in chains."
"Then capture one of us," Spencer says. "Bring one of us through."
Jackie blinks. "Jesus, the timing would have to be perfect if we were going to pull that off, but—it could work. I mean, the generator would have to blow literally the minute I had you back in the holding cells, but that's not impossible if I could get the supplies I need to set it on a timer."
"Can you?" Maya asks.
"Yeah. I think so."
"Then the question is, who are you going to 'capture?'" Dominic asks.
"Me," Maya says.
Jackie is already shaking her head. "It can't be you, Maya. You're the alpha. There are only two alphas in town left—you and Gisela Cervantes. And all the troops have orders to kill you on sight, not even attempt to capture you. I can't bring you in through those gates. Even if they actually believed I hadn't recognized you or had forgotten, they would kill you the moment you walked into the complex."
"I'll do it," Jared says. When Maya looks at him, he says, "This is on me. I put everyone in danger. I should be the one to take the risk."
"Okay." Jackie lets out a breath. "Let's figure it out."
Chapter Ten
They have to wait an extra day, and this doesn't make anybody happy. Jackie is adamant, though. She doesn't have patrol until the next day, and if she specifically requests being put on patrol, then apprehends a werewolf, and then disaster strikes, everyone will know that she was responsible. They have to wait until she has a patrol. On the upside, this gives her an additional day to work out the kinks in the plan to sabotage the generator. She and Dominic put their heads together over some electronics she cobbles together until they agree that it should work. They can't get the equipment for a timer, so they'll have to settle for a manual detonator.
"So when I get you back into the holding cells, you're going to have about thirty seconds before backup power comes on," Jackie says to Jared. She's standing over a map of the building she's drawn in the dirt. "That gives you thirty seconds to disable me, get to Marcus and Siobhan, get them free, and get them out the door. Now, it's longer than it sounds like, but I want to make sure you know exactly where you're going."
They run it a few times. Jared will be in restraints, so Jackie has to teach him how to maneuver in them, since he won't be able to get out of them. She's given Maya a key, so Maya can lurk outside the fence and toss it over to Jared. He won't be able to climb the fence without it. Jackie thinks that blowing the generator will create enough chaos that they'll be able to sneak out. The guards on the fence are far more concerned with people trying to get in than people trying to get out.
Jared memorizes the layout of the building and after repeated trials he can do the entire thing in twenty seconds. But he's worried that other people will get in his way. "Why don't you come with me?" he asks. "We could get Siobhan and Marcus together and you can smuggle us out the back, then I could hit you."
"And then what do I say when Mitchell asks why I was by the back door, not in the holding cell where I was supposed to be taking you?" Jackie asks. "You can't carry me back there; you won't have time. You'll have to do it on your own." She sees Jared nod and then says, "And you're not going to 'hit' me. You have to disable me. You're going to have to hurt me, Jared."
Jared glances at Maya, whose jaw tightens. "I can't just—"
"Here's what you do," Jackie says, with ruthless resolve. "I'm going to be right here, right? With my hand on your restraints. You need to throw us both backwards, into the wall. Do it like you mean it, Jared. It'll knock the wind out of me and I won't be able to pursue. Take the detonator with you, and nobody will know that I triggered the explosion."
"If he uses his werewolf strength, you could be seriously hurt," Dominic says.
"Yeah," Jackie says, "but if all I get is a love tap, then Mitchell will ask too many questions. It has to be this way. Either you hurt me, or everyone knows I'm the mole, and I wind up hanged in the square." She gives a wan little smile. "I'll be fine. I can handle it."
Nobody likes it, and Maya gives a low growl that surprises everyone, but nobody argues, either. Jackie heads home, picks at her dinner, and turns in early.
She manages to act normal during field exercises the next day. Perime
ter patrol is in the early afternoon, and she heads out with one of the older men, Frank Wallace, for the twilight patrol. As usual, Wallace is all business and no chatter. That works out fine for Jackie. She's told Jared where to be.
Unlike Mark Dalton, Wallace is a consummate professional. Apprehending Jared would be easy even if he hadn't been willing to go. As soon as they see him lurking, Wallace's gun is up and he's hobbled him. He walks over and jabs the stun gun into his back from three feet away. Jared's body twitches and convulses while Wallace pulls his arms around his back and gets the manacles around his wrists.
"Nice," Jackie says.
"Yep," is all Wallace says in reply.
They head back to base. Jackie takes a woozy Jared by the arm as they get to HQ and says, "I'll run him over to holding if you get the paperwork done."
"Sure you can handle him?" Wallace asks.
Jackie shoves her stun gun into Jared's side and gives him a low voltage zap. He gives a shudder. "Think I got him," Jackie says, and Wallace nods. Jackie heads over to the building with the holding cells and walks a little slower. It gives Jared some time to recover. They don't talk as they head inside. Jackie feels her heart beating hard in her chest, and her stomach twists. There's a good chance that someone is going to end up getting killed, and she just hopes that it isn't her.
She says hello to the man on duty, who shoves a key at her and tells her to put Jared in the seventh cell. "You need help with him?"
"Nah, I got it," Jackie says. She walks down the hallway, shoving Jared in front of her. They open the door to the cell and she stands there for a minute, just trying to breathe. What if nothing happens when she hits the button? What if she made the explosives wrong, or the blast is too big and they get caught in it? What if she has to just put Jared in here and walk away, leaving Siobhan and Marcus in their cell down the hall?
But she won't know just from standing there, and the longer she hesitates, the more someone will wonder she what she's doing, so she hits the switch. There's a thunderous noise and the lights go out.
The More Things Change Page 15
