by Jen Haeger
She found Kim reading articles on the couch looking a little under the weather and David at the dining room table on his laptop. It appeared, from the lack of piled foodstuffs on the dining room table, that he was able to get through logging in Kim’s food into the spreadsheet. Kim looked up at Evelyn when she reached the bottom of the stairs. “Did you have a nice nap?”
“Yeah, sort of. Did you guys have a good time last night?”
Kim flicked her eyes to David who had turned his head towards the girls when they began talking. “Yeah, I had a really good time, but I won’t be drinking like that again for a long time.”
Evelyn didn’t want to beat around the bush with small talk, so she jumped right into the deep end without any water wings. “I think one of the vet students accidentally infected herself with Languorem luporem.”
“What?”
“How?”
“She mixed up one of David’s blood samples with one of her own samples and then broke a glass tube full of it and cut herself.”
David cursed violently to himself and Kim sat up straighter on the couch. “How could this happen? What did you tell her?”
Evelyn was tired of standing, so she plunked herself down into one of the armchairs before continuing. “Freak accident really, but it might be kind of a not so bad thing.”
David’s face was full of disbelief. “How could it not be a bad thing?”
“Well, we caught the infection within around twenty-four hours and I’ve started her on an antiviral regiment. With luck the virus hadn’t had time to integrate into her DNA and the antivirals will prevent it from doing so. And if we are super lucky, the antivirals will help her immune system to clear the virions from her body. If we aren’t lucky, the virus will already be a part of her DNA and we’ll have another new Wolfkin to worry about in a few days, but at least we’ll know that DNA mixing occurs in twenty-four hours or less.”
Kim nodded. “And if there isn’t viral integration already, then this will be a good test of the antivirals we plan to use against the virions in the bloodstream, right?”
“Right.”
David still looked dubious, but Kim went on. “Did you already test her blood for virions and her DNA for viral sequences?”
Evelyn wanted to ask Kim if it looked like she had spent twenty-four hours in the lab without any sleep, but restrained herself. “No, I haven’t had the chance yet.”
Kim got up off the couch and headed for the stairs. “We have a lot to do tonight.”
“Ya, but let me eat something first,” Evelyn said as Kim darted up the stairs.
“Let me know when you’re ready to go.”
Evelyn rose wearily and headed towards the kitchen, stopping at the dining room table. “Have you gotten lists from other strays yet? Are there any matches?”
“There may be a few possibilities, but two of the other strays’ homes were also ransacked, so that’s made things difficult. Some of the generic items that didn’t come in a box or bag like fruits and vegetables could have all come from the same source, but we’d have to check with grocery store suppliers to know anything for sure. I had Kim look over the other lists, but she didn’t see anything that rang any immediate bells. I’ll have her take a look at my possibilities in the morning.”
“Yeah, but we’re running out of time. Even if we source the food, I don’t think that we’ll have the time to track the Vulke through it and prevent further contamination before the fighting starts.”
“Probably not.”
“Then you should let this go and concentrate on strategies with Roberto. Isn’t the meeting today?”
David checked his watch. “Uh huh. He should be picking me up here pretty soon.”
“Well, let us know how it went, text us at the lab, or send an e-mail or something. Let me know what we can do to help prepare, how we’re planning on dealing with the strays, and…in fact, maybe I should just go too.”
“No, no, we have to figure out whether that girl is infected or not as soon as possible. You need to be in the lab.”
Evelyn sighed and nodded. “You’re right, but I gotta eat something before we head out.”
*
Evelyn and Kim left for the lab about twenty minutes later, and David was grateful that they left before Roberto arrived. Locking up the condo, David got into the back seat of the black sedan with Roberto. He looked immaculate, but dark circles and bloodshot eyes betrayed his serene exterior. As the car pulled away from the condo and sped towards the expressway David spoke. “Did you get my e-mail about setting a trap to draw off the strays?”
Roberto didn’t turn his head from the window. “Mmmm.”
“Well, what do you think?”
“I think that this is something we need to discuss with everyone present.”
David was irritated, but didn’t press the issue. “So who’s going to be at this meeting?”
Roberto finally looked at him. “We have received word that there is a challenge location in Peru, and the Alonso will be defending their own territory there, so only members of the Wahya, Amaruq, and Inali will be at this meeting. I’m surprised that Evelyn chose not to come.”
“I assume that she told you about the possible infection in the lab. She’s dealing with that right now.”
“I see.”
“Where’s the meeting going to take place? The casino?”
“Yes. I believe that we are meeting in the concert hall. We have been able to muster most members of both packs, so around one-hundred Wolfkin should be there today.”
Roberto leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes, but David persisted. “Have we heard anything more from the Vulke, or been able to track down any information on where they’re keeping the strays?”
“We have some leads, but nothing solid. I promise that I will disclose all that I know at the meeting, and that you will have a chance to ask questions and speak your mind as well. For now, please just let me rest.”
David tried to curb his frustration because he knew that Roberto was not just responsible to Evelyn and him, or even to the North American packs, but was trying to help all the packs around the world in this war with the Vulke. They were lucky that Roberto was here in person to give them support, but at the same time Roberto’s presence raised the fur on his hackles. David questioned whether he would have more control of the situation in Roberto’s absence, but then considered his relationship with Zachary and Caroline. Strained as things were, David decided that he likely had more influence in events with Roberto there, unless of course Roberto was as much of a bureaucrat as Caroline.
21
The meeting was big, impressive, and frustrating. David was stunned by the diversity of Wolfkin in the room, ranging from those dressed like they were at a business seminar to those dressed like they were at a rock concert, but the ages of those present were all within the range of seventeen to fifty. There were very few familiar faces in the crowd: Bill, the Amaruq who had ferried them over to Canada the first time they had gone to see The Scribe, Madeline, the feisty Amaruq Beta, and of course Caroline and Zachary. Zachary stood on the wing of the stage gazing down upon the crowd like a king surveying his realm with Caroline down on the main floor just in front of him.
Not long after they entered the concert hall, Roberto excused himself from David and went to speak with Zachary and Caroline. David thought it inappropriate to follow, so he wandered over to a cluster of Wolfkin that included Bill and Madeline. Upon noticing him Madeline gave a tiny jerk of her head in recognition, but Bill greeted him warmly.
“Long time no see! David right?”
David shook the man’s hand. “That’s right, and you’re Bill?”
“Sure am. I wish I could say that it’s good to see you, but it always seems to be troubled times when I do.”
“We need to fix that.”
Bill’s smile melted away. “Aye.”
“So what do you make of all this?”
“Bad times, friend, bad tim
es. I don’t think that most of us have ever even been in a real fight in our furs. Not to mention the nice shield of strays they have themselves.”
David nodded grimly. “But you’re still willing to fight?”
“I’ll tell you something. My gran pare was the first Wolfkin in my family and he turned because there was a man who had murdered three children with a slippery lawyer who’d gotten him off on some technicality. He met a man who asked him if he had the resolve to see that justice was done. Now a lynch mob was forming, and my gran pare knew that those innocent, but enraged, people in that lynch mob would suffer horribly for the rest of their lives if he let them kill the murderer. So he told the man that he did have the resolve, and the man turned my gran pare Wolfkin to get the job done before the lynch mob got to the murderer. Now my pa never had to do anything like that in his lifetime, though he did scare more than one sinner into mending his or her ways, but he sat me down before I let him turn me and told me something important. He told me that there would come a time when I would have to use the beast inside to save lives, and that was the only reason that he would turn me. Well, by my reckoning that time has come.”
David didn’t know what to say. His own infection had been stupid and pointless, and he had never even considered how he could make things better as a Wolfkin and use the power to benefit others; he’d only ever thought about how to cure himself. He felt horrible and selfish next to Bill. Fortunately, Zachary then strutted up to the podium and called for the assembled Wolfkin to quiet and sit down so that the meeting could officially start. David nodded at Bill, and they sat next to each other, with Madeline on Bill’s other side.
“Welcome all. For those who may not know, I am Zachary Harchem, the recently appointed Wahya Alpha. It has been a long time since the Wahya have gathered together and I’m fairly certain that none of us alive today remember a time when the Wahya and the Amaruq shared a common room. It is only in this most dire time that we come together. The mutual threat posed by the Vulke has led us to this desperate measure and it is time to talk about cooperation, strategy, and sacrifice in order to preserve our collective beliefs. Please allow me to introduce Wolfkin Council member Roberto Antonio Rivest to discuss the plain facts of the daunting task before us, and then we shall open the floor to general questions, comments, and suggestions.”
Roberto walked purposefully over to the podium and wasted no time on eloquent acknowledgements. “The Vulke and the North American leadership have narrowed down the choices of fighting arenas to two locales: one in the northeastern part of the Lower Peninsula, and one in the Upper Peninsula. Both are heavily forested areas that should be relatively isolated from humans, particularly at night. They have requested a strictly Wolfkin challenge with no weapons of any kind, under threat that they will infect thousands of innocent people if we do not comply. I will tell you now that we have no way of knowing if they are able to follow through on this threat, but it is a risk that I have spoken to the leadership of most of the packs on and that has been universally considered unacceptable. Additional intelligence regarding the Vulke suggests that once more the Anubis pack and the Chon have sided with them in so much as they have refused communication with other packs since the meeting of the Betas that revealed the Vulke threat. Also, we have discovered that as many as four ships from Russia that made port in the United States, two in Michigan and two on the East Coast, were likely used to transport large numbers of Vulke, and that one of the ships was followed by a freighter carrying werewolf hunters who were tracking the Vulke. Efforts to track the Vulke members’ activities after they reached shore have been less successful, but we are doing our best. Unfortunately, we think that most of the dealings that the Vulke have done since entering the United States were illegal in nature, so we are in the process of exploring leads into the Russian and Serbian mafia. That is all we know, unless someone here has more information, which they should disclose at this time, please.”
Roberto took a step back and to the side of the podium and raised his hands to indicate that it was open for others to use. For a couple of seconds no one moved or spoke, then a voice from the audience rang out. “What do we know about the strays? Are they contagious? Are they dangerous? How many do the Vulke have?”
Roberto stepped back to the podium. “I believe that there is someone who can answer your questions better than I. David Jenner, would you mind?”
At the mention of David’s name, a murmur rumbled through the general audience. Bill gave him an encouraging wink as David tried to get to the stage as quickly as possible without running or stepping on people’s feet. When he got up onto the stage, Roberto inclined his head and stepped away from the podium again. Suddenly sweating, David reached the podium and cleared his throat.
“We know of eleven strays total, seven men and four women, not including strays that are under the Vulke’s control. We strongly suspect that the infection was oral in nature, and are currently trying to track a common food between the strays that might be the source of the infection. From there we hope to trace the product back to a manufacturer or specific factory, and from there to the Vulke. Evelyn…um…Dr. Eisenhart, can neither confirm nor discredit the Vulke’s claim to be able to infect another several thousand people all at once, but in that the infection is likely from eating contaminated food, the strays are not contagious in a different way than we are.”
David couldn’t think of anything more to say, so he stopped talking and thought about the other things that he wanted to say about strategy in fighting the Vulke. But before he could start a new topic, another query was put forth.
“How do we know that the strays aren’t Vulke plants?”
“There isn’t any evidence to support that. I am very close to one of the strays, and she would have actually died had Evelyn and I not stumbled upon her, so that, in my mind, makes it very unlikely that she’s a plant.”
Bill spoke up then. “How are we going to deal with unfriendly strays in battle?”
David looked to Roberto, but he gave no indication of wanting to accept the podium from David, so he answered as best as he could with his own opinions. “I personally feel that we should try very hard to develop a strategy to draw off the strays or otherwise take them out of the fight without using lethal force. They were innocents before all this, and are probably just Vulke pawns now, and to slaughter them indiscriminately would make us just as bad as the Vulke.”
“I have to say I like your idea, son, but that might not be possible. What then?”
Roberto responded to this for David, stepping up quickly to the podium and nudging David aside. “We will do what we must in order to assure a victory, of course. Failure and a world where the Vulke are free to indulge in their cruelty, insanity, and delusions of world domination is not an option. Please let David explain his idea so that we all may contemplate its value, strengths, and weaknesses together to come up with the best possible strategy.”
Again, just as David had heard at the meeting of the Betas, there was an almost imperceptible quality to Roberto’s voice that made argument feel impossible. David continued with his idea in more detail. “I’m sure that most of you know that I once defeated the Vulke Alpha, Christoff, in a challenge to protect Dr. Eisenhart, but I’m not sure how many of you know the details of that challenge and my narrow victory. I’m not too proud to say that I used a trick in the form of a distraction to give myself an advantage. I managed to run from Christoff and kill a deer, then hide in ambush and attack him while he fed on its carcass. I propose that we do something similar to help draw the strays away from the fighting. If we could somehow put deer carcasses out close enough to the battlefield for the strays to smell, it might distract them from the battle like it did with Christoff.”
Again a murmur rose and echoed around the concert hall, then a single clear voice came out of the crowd. “Wouldn’t it be risky to put them out before the fight? What if the Vulke found them? They could burn them or claim we were using weapons.”
David had his reply ready. “That’s true, so we would have to somehow bring the deer in after the fight began. The problem is that I’ve been told that both areas are several miles from a road, so the carcasses would have to come in via ATV’s or something similar…or by helicopter? Which also means that we would be involving a non-Wolfkin. Does anyone have any suggestions or know anyone right off who would be willing to risk their lives?” David was amazed by the number of people who raised their hands. Apparently being a Wolfkin wasn’t quite as big a secret as he thought it was. “Wow, okay. Of those with friends or family willing to help, do any of them have access to an ATV or know how to pilot a helicopter?”
Five hands remained raised, including those of Bill and Madeline. Madeline’s eyes flashed to Bill then she stood proudly. The rest of the people lowered their hands. “My couzin iz a helicopter pilot. She drops supplies to zee rangers in remote stations in Canada. She could do eet.”
Having said her piece Madeline sat again. David scanned the faces of the audience members that he could see around the lights aimed at the stage; most looked interested, some hopeful, and a few doubtful. David felt he could live with that.
“Unless someone has an alternative idea, Roberto and I will coordinate with Madeline and the other Wahya and Amaruq leaders to put this plan into action, and with Roberto’s permission, I would like to make other packs aware of our plans and encourage them to do something similar.”
David turned to look at Roberto, who nodded. No one else had anything to add, so Roberto once again took control of the podium. “If David’s idea for drawing off the strays is successful, then we should have a much better chance to defeat the Vulke. It is likely that they will be counting on using the strays as a shield and attack us only after the strays have weakened us and thinned our numbers. With luck, they will be unprepared for the strays to be drawn off and some of their younger, less disciplined members may also be distracted. This could give us just the advantage that we need. Now I could give you a St. Crispin’s Day speech, band of brothers and all that, but all of us dying gloriously in battle will not stop the Vulke. Instead we will need to use all of our collective cunning to triumph over brawn and brutality. This will not be a bloodless fight, but every drop shed will be a worthy sacrifice to make the world safe from our enemies. We alone stand between the Vulke and humanity, and make no mistake, by uniting our packs and keeping the Vulke from controlling our actions through intimidation and fear, we will prevail!”
