Defender Raptor (Protection, Inc: Defenders, #2)

by Chant, Zoe

  “I’ll just nab a few at the office.”

  But it was not to be. When they parked at Defenders, Merlin discovered that Blue, with incredible stealth for a bugbear so big that he barely fit into the car, had managed to snake every single box into the back seat, slit them neatly open with a claw, scatter the cookies all over the floor, and eat most of the Lemonades, which were apparently his favorites.

  Dali stared at the mess. “I can’t believe he did all that without either of us seeing or hearing a thing!”

  Cloud buzzed down to the floor, sampled a Thin Mint, and spat in disgust.

  The Samoa on the seat still looks good, his raptor said hopefully.

  “So much for treating my teammates,” Merlin said. “At least he didn’t eat the report... No!”

  As Blue squirmed out of the back seat, printed pages fluttered down. Every one of them was chewed up and wet with bugbear spit.

  “Blue!” Merlin yelled.

  Blue rushed at Merlin, nearly bowling him over, and began rubbing himself against his legs, stump tail wagging madly in guilty apology.

  “How did he do that?” Dali said. “It was right there next to us!”

  “Same way he gets into locked houses, I guess,” Merlin said glumly, gathering up the damp pages. “Magic.”

  “I’ll vouch that none of this was your fault,” Dali assured him.

  “Don’t bother. I’m not a kid being hauled up before the principal. Roland can think whatever he likes.”

  Merlin knew exactly what Roland would think of his drooled-on pages. And what Pete and Carter and Ransom and even Tirzah would think. Every time he’d tried to do something nice for them that had gone wrong, every annoyed glance in his direction, every yell of “Merlin!” echoed in his mind.

  The only reason he could think of not to run away with the circus was that Dali might not want to go with him. He tried to think of a tactful way to ask if she could possibly see herself joining the circus, then gave up. He’d figure it out later.

  But if it turned out that she wanted to stay in Refuge City, he could always find some other job in the city. He didn’t have to stick with a team where he’d never fit in.

  At that instant, Merlin made his decision.

  “I’m done with Defenders,” he said.

  Dali stared at him. “Seriously?”

  “Seriously.” He turned away from her, stabbing moodily at the elevator buttons. “I mean, not this second. I still have to finish my job for you. But after that, I’m giving my notice. I’ve had a lot of jobs in my life, and I don’t have to stick with this one when there’s so many other possibilities out there.”

  The elevator dinged, and they stepped inside. Dali was bent over for some time, making sure Blue was all the way in, so he couldn’t see her face. He had the uneasy sense that something was wrong. But when she finally looked up, it was only to squeeze his hand and say, “You need to live the life that’s best for you.”

  The elevator doors opened to show Roland looming in front of them, his arms folded across his chest. He looked down at the tattered report in Merlin’s hand with a “Son, I am disappoint” expression. “Seriously, Merlin?”

  Carter looked up from the machine he had on the table, then moved to shield it with his body. “Keep that indigo menace away from my stuff!”

  Ransom glanced up from a file he was reading. “Put the Girl Scout cookies in a lock box next time.”

  Tirzah and Pete were there with Caro, his thirteen-year-old daughter. Tirzah and Caro both zeroed in on Merlin at the phrase “Girl Scout cookies.”

  “You brought Girl Scout cookies?” Tirzah asked.

  “Gimme!” demanded Caro, stretching out her hand. Moonbow, her pet miniature pegasus, let out a hopeful whinny.

  “Sorry, guys,” said Merlin. “Blue ate them while we were driving here.”

  “Why’d you put them in the back with him?” Pete asked.

  “He didn’t,” Dali began, but it was drowned out in a chorus of complaints from Caro and Tirzah about Merlin’s lack of cookies, from Pete about his lack of common sense, from Ransom about his lack of foresight, from Carter about his lack of control over Blue, and from Roland about his lack of an unchewed report.

  I am so done with these guys, thought Merlin.

  His phone rang. Stepping away from the commotion, he answered it. “Hello?”

  It was his mother, but he didn’t immediately recognize her voice. She was always so calm, but she sounded frantic. He had to hold the phone away from his ear, her voice was so loud. “We have an emergency! I need you at the circus!”

  Alarmed, Merlin said, “I’ll be right there. What’s going on?”

  “We’ve been set up! Someone’s trying to ruin us... and they just might do it.”

  “Mom, tell me what’s happening.”

  His mother took a deep breath, then another. “We’re getting two surprise inspections. From two different agencies.”

  “What? Which ones?”

  “One is from the USDA, on suspicion of violating the Animal Welfare Act. They’ll be checking our animals to make sure we’re treating them right. The other one is the FBI, on suspicion of not being a real circus, but just a front for criminal activity. And they’re coordinating, so one inspector will be backstage to watch the animals, and the other one will be in the audience to see if we’re capable of putting on a real show.”

  “Oh, fuck,” Merlin blurted out.

  It was a sign of how upset she was that his mother not only didn’t reprove him for swearing, but didn’t even seem to notice. “And they’re doing the joint inspection at our show tonight. In three hours.”

  Words did not cover the horror of this. He could do nothing but groan.

  Kalpana’s voice cut in; apparently Mom was on speakerphone. “Actually, it’s now two hours and forty-five minutes.”

  “If we don’t pass the inspections, the circus will be shut down,” Mom said. “Permanently. And we could go to jail.”

  The note of suppressed panic in Mom’s voice made Merlin realize that he had to step up to the plate. “Mom. Nobody’s going to jail. And you’re not going to lose the circus. All we need to do is prove that our animals are fine and we’re a real circus.”

  “Yes, exactly,” Mom said. “By doing a complete show with only half our regular company because we can’t shift with inspectors backstage. And we were already shorthanded with Natalie gone.”

  Kalpana added, “We’re not just proving that we’re a real show, we’re proving that we can bring in the amount of money we’ve been claiming on taxes. So it doesn’t just have to be a real show, it has to be a good show. And we can’t do anything drastically different from what our reviews have talked about, or it’ll be obvious there’s something up.”

  “So we can’t only do the animal acts and cut the human ones,” Merlin said with another groan. “Got it. Well—I can be an acrobat and a trapeze artist and a clown and whatever else you need.”

  “Thank you,” said his mother. “I knew you’d come through. The problem is, we don’t need one more stand-in. We need ten more. At least. Some of us are going to be stuck pretending to be animal trainers who unlock the cages and lead the animals in and out. Everyone’s calling their shifter friends, but most of them don’t live in Refuge City and can’t get here in time.”

  Dali’s hand came down over Merlin’s shoulder and hit the speakerphone button.

  “It’s Dali,” she said. “I’m not a shifter and I can’t do acrobatics. But if you could use someone to climb out of a clown car in a red nose, you’ve got two more stand-ins, not one.”

  Merlin kissed her, not caring what his teammates—his soon-to-be-former teammates—might think. “You’re the best. I’m sure we can find something for you to do.”

  The familiar sound of wheels over wood came to Merlin’s ears as Tirzah came forward. “Hi, this is Tirzah, one of Merlin’s teammates. I don’t know how useful I’d be since I’m not a shifter either. Also, I use a wheelchair
, so I can’t do the clown car. But if there’s any acts that you can do sitting down, you’ve got three more helpers.”

  Merlin was startled and touched. He and Tirzah had always been friends, but he’d never expected anything like this. It could almost make him reconsider...

  Pete made a noise like a hibernating bear reluctantly roused from his den, then said, “Four more. I’m Pete, another one of Merlin’s teammates. I’m a bear shifter, if that’s useful. A cave bear, but I doubt that anyone in the audience would recognize one.”

  Merlin’s jaw dropped. It wasn’t only Pete’s unexpected offer of help, but that he was willing to transform in public. As far as Merlin knew, Pete had never done that voluntarily.

  “Dad!” Caro tugged at Pete’s arm. “Please, please, please, can I volunteer? You know Merlin’s been teaching me to do acrobatics!”

  Pete gave her a quelling look. “You’re not getting on a trapeze. I don’t care if it has a net.”

  Mom spoke up. “Pete, is she your daughter? If you’re willing, I could show you what the circus children normally do in our acts. I promise you, we never allow them to do anything that could put them in danger.”

  Pete clearly recognized a genuine Mom voice when he heard one. “Well... Okay. I’ll bring her with me, and we’ll see.”

  “Five more!” Caro said jubilantly.

  “Six more.” Roland gave Merlin a startlingly mischievous smile. “I’m Roland, their boss. I wouldn’t be able to show my shift form and I don’t think I could fit in a clown car, but if you just need a warm body, you could put me to use.”

  “Seven,” said Ransom. He sounded more resigned than enthusiastic, but he added, “I can juggle.”

  Carter glared at Merlin. He glared at the phone. He glared at his team. He glared at Blue, who had flopped down and was drooling on his expensive shoes. He muttered “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” Merlin was about to tell him he didn’t have to do anything he didn’t want to do, when he heaved a gigantic, put-upon sigh, and said, “Eight.”

  Over the speakerphone, his mother’s voice rang out clearly. “Thank you all, so much. You’re our saviors. It does my heart good to know my son has such loyal friends.”

  “Come straight over,” Kalpana said. “We’re holding an emergency planning session. Don’t worry about costumes or makeup. We have plenty. And thank you!”

  The line went dead. In the silence that fell, Merlin looked around the room. There wasn’t a single person in it who hadn’t stood up to help him and his family.

  “I...” Merlin stammered, at a complete loss for words. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Save it,” Carter advised. “If the future of your crime circus depends on getting people to pay to watch Ransom juggle, you may end up sorry we volunteered.”

  “No, really,” Merlin said, and then ran down again. Finally, he said, “Thank you. Thank you all.”

  It didn’t seem remotely adequate. How could he have ever thought his team didn’t like him? They’d instantly stepped up to help him out, and in a way that would genuinely cost them. Tirzah was introverted and disliked interacting with strangers. Ransom went way out of his way to avoid notice. Roland was the least show-offy person Merlin had ever met. Carter was supremely protective of his own dignity. Pete didn’t even like talking about his cave bear, let alone displaying it to a giant audience. And yet they’d all volunteered to do things that would make them deeply uncomfortable, without him even asking.

  And it wasn’t just his team. Dali would normally never help criminals foil the FBI. But she hadn’t hesitated.

  There was one person for whom it wouldn’t be a sacrifice. Caro looked positively gleeful.

  “Could we disguise the pets and use them in our acts?” she asked hopefully.

  “NO!” The reply rang out from everyone’s throats, Merlin’s included.

  “Too much potential for things going wrong,” Pete said. “The pets stay here.”

  “Alone?” Carter exclaimed in horror. “They’ll trash the place!”

  “We could lock them all in Merlin’s office,” Roland suggested.

  In fact, that was more-or-less what they did. Blue and Cloud were locked in Merlin’s office, and Spike, Batcat, and Caro’s miniature pegasus Moonbow were locked in Pete’s office.

  Though they had food, water, toys, and company, Merlin had some distinct misgivings about the whole thing. As he gave Blue a farewell pat, he murmured, “Please don’t get bored.”

  As Merlin ran out with Dali, followed by the rest of the team plus Caro, he reconsidered his earlier resolution to leave Defenders. The last fifteen minutes had completely changed his perception of his team. Sure, they were a bunch of misfits. But so was he. Most importantly, they were a bunch of misfits who liked him and would do anything for him—or even for someone they’d never met, but whom he cared about.

  Merlin really hoped that would be enough. It would break his mother’s heart if the circus was destroyed. And it would break his too.

  Could a bunch of totally untrained misfits step into the shoes of highly trained professionals and do their jobs well enough to fool the FBI?

  CHAPTER 18

  Dali walked into a scene of chaos and panic. The entire company had gathered inside the big top. People were madly rushing around with armloads of costumes and equipment, kittens and baby sea lions were bouncing and flopping underfoot, and a man was struggling into a much-too-small spangled leotard and swearing. The only people who seemed calm were Janet and Kalpana, who were in a huddle over a clipboard.

  A little boy gleefully said, “Mom, I’m ready to poop in the tiger cage!” A moment later, a woman strode out with a tiger cub at her heels.

  A sense of utter calm come over Dali. This was a situation she felt entirely capable of handling. In the Navy, she’d often had to deal with complex tasks involving many people with different jobs, some of whom were substituting for others, with objectives that had arisen at a moment’s notice.

  Merlin put his hand between her shoulderblades. “Remind you of anything?”

  She nodded, warmed by his understanding.

  “You got this,” he said.

  “Yes, I do,” she replied. For the first time since the bombing, she felt completely at home in a job.

  Like a fish back in water, she thought. Or a sailor returning to sea.

  Together they joined Janet and Kalpana. Merlin and his mother hugged, and then he indicated Dali. “This is exactly her kind of problem. She can help.”

  Dali, Kalpana, Janet, and Merlin sat down together, examining a neatly organized breakdown of the acts, who was in them, and in what form. As Dali helped them sort out substitutions, the rest of the Defenders began to arrive. Merlin waved them over to introduce them and get them assigned to roles.

  “Can you ride a unicycle?” Janet asked Pete. “I mean as a bear.”

  As Caro burst into giggles, Pete looked horrified. “I can’t even ride one as a human!”

  “Mia!” Kalpana shouted.

  A slim woman in a leotard ran over. “Yes?”

  “Pete here is going to be the bear tonight, so we can keep you on trapeze with Pia. Can you teach him to ride the unicycle?”

  “In two hours?” Mia asked dubiously.

  Janet fixed her with what Dali suspected was an alpha stare. “If you want this circus to still exist tomorrow... yes, in two hours.”

  Mia laid her tiny hand on Pete’s muscular forearm and led him away. Over his shoulder, he called, “Tirzah, don’t let Caro do anything dangerous!”

  “I won’t!” Tirzah called back.

  Janet smiled at Caro. “You must be Caro. Thank you for volunteering. If Merlin trained you, you must be good.”

  Caro waved her hand as if to brush off the compliment, but she looked delighted. “Not like you guys. I don’t know trapeze. But I can do floor exercises. And I can ride horses.”

  “Excellent.” Janet examined her. “How would you like to ride an elephant? I think you could fit
into Shondra’s costume, and we need her to be a sea lion.”

  Caro looked like she would explode with joy. She clutched at Tirzah’s arm. “That’s not dangerous!”

  Tirzah grinned. “Since I assume the elephant is a shifter, I don’t see how it could be. Fine by me.”

  “Renu! Shondra!” shouted Kalpana. Renu and a young woman of about Caro’s height and build ran up. “Caro here will be subbing for you as the elephant rider, Shondra.” To Tirzah, she said, “Renu’s the elephant.”

  They went off together, Caro saying delightedly, “I’m inviting ALL my friends!”

  “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do,” Tirzah said. Indicating her wheelchair, she said in a perfect deadpan, “I can’t shift.”

  Dali snickered, but Janet said, “I have the perfect job for you. I play the talking parrot and Madame Fortuna, the psychic. I have a system for how I ‘read the audience’s minds,’ but I’d need to teach you sleight of hand. There’s no time for that. But maybe if you keep your phone in your lap, we could email you information about them in real time...?”

  “I can do one better than that,” Tirzah said. “I can photograph them from under the table, then do reverse image searches on them to get information. It’ll blow their minds.”

  “Excellent,” said Janet. “You have the instincts of a true con artist.”

  Dali was indignant on Tirzah’s behalf, but Tirzah grinned. “Don’t tell, but have you ever heard of a hacker called Override? Takes down dirty politicians and evil corporations, exposes corrupt—”

  Janet looked blank, but Kalpana exclaimed, “You’re Override? You’re my hero! We have to talk after the show.”

  Dali cleared her throat, steering everyone back on track. “Moving on. How about the juggling act?”

  “That act needs four people,” Kalpana said. “My mom absolutely can’t do it because she’s the only elephant. Ransom... er...”

  “How good of a juggler are you, really?” Janet asked bluntly.

  Ransom shrugged. “You’d have to judge that, not me.”

  “Anyone got any balls?” Dali called.

  She was answered with a burst of laughter and scattered replies of “Me! I do! Big ones!” Larry Duffy cupped his hands at his crotch, suggesting that he had either a pair of watermelons hidden in his pants or a serious medical condition.