by Adam Browne
“Without Howler training?” a Prefect said doubtfully.
“It’s possible Tristan trained her; he has likely been aware of her for some time,” Josef theorised. “We’ll find out once Janoah takes him in-”
“Wait,” one Prefect said to the other, “I got a tingle, mate. Up ahead. You feel it?”
“Yeah, I do. Different though, ‘en it?”
“Yeah. It’s not her. Still powerful though.”
Doctor Josef looked back at his wolfen accomplices in a withering sort of way, as if his reliance on their imperious talents was a burden. “What’re you two drivelling about?” he sighed. “You saw Tristan; he didn’t get on!”
“Nah, it’s not him, sir. It’s someone else. Strong.”
Josef peered down the swaying carriage. “The sooner I perfect a reliable imperium detector, the better,” he complained. “Very well, you two take the lead, but don’t lose your heads. I don’t want a scene; the Alpha will not be pleased if you start a fight on public transport. Let me do the talking.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Understood, sir.”
The Prefects hurried along the carriage with Josef following at a leisurely pace. One of the Prefects stopped near the end to pull down a newspaper and ask the rabbit hiding behind it, “Citizen, did you see a bear and two wolfesses pass this way?”
“Y-y-yes, Howler,” the rabbit said. “They w-w-went into the next carriage just now.”
“Prefect, actually,” the wolf corrected, tapping his white ALPHA brooch. “Please don’t confuse us lads at ALPHA with those corrupt, decadent Howlers, citizen.”
“Pardon me, Prefect. M-mmm-my mistake.”
“Was anyone else with the group you saw?”
“N-nnn-no, Prefect.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, Prefect. It was just them, sir. Two wolfesses and a bear, I’d swear to it.”
“All right then. Good day citizen.”
Nodding at one another, the Prefects opened the carriage door and crossed the noisy, wind-whipped void between the carriages. Josef pulled his coat tightly around him as he braved the elements – he despised the wind. Slamming the door behind him with contempt, the cat almost bumped into the backs of his Prefects, who had stopped immediately inside the next carriage.
“Sir,” one said, pointing ahead.
“Looks like trouble, sir,” the other confirmed.
Peering between their cloaked shoulders, Josef saw Heath, Sara and most importantly Olivia, all nestled at the end of the carriage. However, standing between Josef and the object of his fascination was a familiar blond wolf in a red cloak and Bloodfang helmet; a short, stocky, well-built fellow.
Josef squeezed between the Prefects.
“Careful, sir,” one advised.
“It’s all right, he’s with us,” Josef purred at his wolves. “Howler Linus,” he said, walking over to the Bloodfang with a whisker-hiking smirk.
“Doctor Josef,” Linus replied simply.
Josef patted the Howler’s shoulder. “Well done, Mills. We can take things from here-”
As Josef tried to pass him, Linus clamped a paw on the head of the nearest seat, blocking the cat’s passage. “What’s going on here?” he asked.
A distinct, hairy pause. Josef looked down at Linus’s muscled arm and followed the offending limb up to the wolf’s helmet-clad face. “Didn’t Janoah send you?” he whispered.
Silence.
“But, I saw you at the fair,” Josef hissed. “I thought you were her wolf.”
Linus scoffed at the notion. “Her wolf? I’m nobody’s wolf, sir,” he growled, thinking back to that night he’d been mocked for being Rufus’s perceived beta. “I’m a Bloodfang, not one of your agents. I answer to Elder Amael Balbus.”
“Well… precisely.”
“Pardon me?”
“Nothing,” Josef mewed, glancing behind. “Listen, Howler Linus, let us not make a scene. I know you’re only doing your duty, but these citizens are criminals, and it’s therefore your duty to apprehend them.”
“Criminals? In what way?”
Josef looked beyond Linus, to Olivia. “She’s a dodger,” he pointed, “and they’ve been hiding her.”
“So?” Linus urged.
“So by ‘hiding’ I mean of course misappropriating imperium on her behalf-”
“That’s a lie!” Sara shouted, stepping forth, fists clenched. “He’s lying Linus!”
“I have proof!” Josef spat back. “My dear old colleague Heath there has been skimming venom off the Arkady University stores; imperium destined for experiments diverted to his own selfish needs as well as Olivia’s.”
Heath raised his hefty brown chin.
Josef pressed his attack, “How are you coping? Still smouldering like a trooper, no doubt. Doesn’t do the lungs any good, you know. But of course, you do rather more than smoulder these days-”
“That’s enough, Josef!” Heath snorted. “There’s no need to drag that up.”
“Oh, but it’s so relevant.”
“It has no bearing on anything!”
Sara looked back at Heath, “Professor?”
“Sara, Olivia… I….”
“He’s a gazer, my dear wolves,” Josef revealed, tutting like a disappointed relative as he attempted to murder Heath’s reputation. “Or will be, soon enough. Your omniscient Professor’s been a sad imperium junkie for years.”
Heath dipped his chin.
“Keeping Olivia for yourself, were we?” Josef went on. “Waiting for her to blossom so you could experiment on a pure-blood? Shame on you.”
“That’s outrageous!” Heath bellowed, wagging a finger. “You’re the one who was cast out of the Ark for your deviant experimentations!”
“By an unimaginative faculty of dolts, like yourself? Of course!” Josef piped. “Oh it was hard going for a while, wandering from employer to employer, zipping up cadavers for a living, but I’ve found my feet now. We cats always do.”
The red and white banners of the Bloodfang Territory fluttered by the windows – the train was neared its destination, spurring Josef on.
“Fascinating as this is, we’ll conduct the rest of the interrogation at HQ,” he said, adding harshly, “You’re all under arrest!”
“Now wait just a minute,” Linus protested. “Let’s talk-”
“Help me apprehend the dissidents, Howler, or join them, I don’t care which,” Josef interrupted, retreating backwards behind his black-cloaked toughs. Safely out of reach he threatened in a purring, delighted tone, “Don’t think I can’t take you to task, little wolf. Howler Tristan is being dealt with as we speak for his role in this charade and he’s leagues above you in rank and talent, not to mention powerful friends. Not even Den Father Thorvald can save him now, not for his crimes.”
“Crimes?” Sara woofed in disbelief. “What crimes?”
“Sheltering dodgers, imperium smuggling, turning a blind eye to dissident citizens spreading hyena propaganda and, most heinous of all, aiding and abetting THORN terrorists.”
Linus could scarce believe it, “What?”
Josef cackled, “Oh, Tristan’s quite the rogue Howler. Helping these criminals is just his latest misdemeanour. I suggest you don’t join him in his fate.”
“Och! That’s ridiculous!” Sara dismissed. “Don’t listen tae him, Linus! Tristan’s nae a traitor!”
“We shall see!” Josef said pompously. “ALPHA will tease the truth from him, from you all. Perhaps if you cooperate now I’ll arrange for a moderate sentence. I have influence with the Alpha himself, you know.”
Sara couldn’t find words to speak.
“Well, Howler, what’s it to be?” Josef urged Linus.
Linus looked back at Sara and Olivia. They stared at him in silence. Their lips betrayed nothing, but their eyes revealed the fear, the despair, the outrage. Linus could hear Vladimir now, hear his sound advice. ALPHA’s just another pack in all but name, out to gain power. Don’t give them a
n excuse to take you to task because they will. Lay low, Linus, play ignorant, wait.
Impossible.
The train slowed, Riddle Station and crowds of passengers rolled into view.
“Get them!” Josef hissed.
The ALPHA Prefects closed the distance on Linus in a heartbeat, rapiers drawing on the way. Linus whipped his own sword out and slapped the first rapier aside, then slammed a fist into the Prefect.
Pffzaack!
With a hearty plasmatic blast, the first wolf was sent bowling into the second. The second quickly recovered, but the first was left wheezing and smouldering from Linus’s mighty punch
The second Prefect drew his pistol. Thinking fast, Linus turned his back.
Crack! Poing!
The pellet deflected off his shield and pinged around the carriage!
Sara screamed.
Furious, Linus whirled round, pistol drawn. He pointed it firmly at Josef and the Prefect, advancing on them as they retreated, helpless in the face of a loaded weapon.
“Linus, no!” Heath warned. “Don’t lower yourself, Howler.”
Linus ceased his advance. “We’re done here, I think,” he sniffed officiously.
The train creaked to a painful halt and the train hogs on the platform opened the doors. Passengers piled aboard, avoiding the Howler and two Prefects like the rot whilst moving to their seats. Some citizens, sensing that something was about to go down in this carriage, performed an about face in the door and picked the next one along instead.
“Come on,” Sara whispered, shepherding Sara and Heath to the exit. “Let’s go everyone.”
Linus stayed put, glaring at Josef.
“Come on, Howler,” Sara said, grabbing his arm and pulling him down the aisle, “Escort us tae Riddle Den.”
Eventually, Linus let himself be taken.
“You’ll pay for this!” Josef hissed, squeezing between the Prefects and chasing Linus and Sara to the door. He leant out of the train and shouted after them, “This isn’t over!”
*
The Warden’s office door opened and a big hyena was pushed in and forced to sit in the chair opposite the desk. His paws were wired before him, just in case.
“Leave us,” the Warden said to his heavies.
The two Howlers vacated the room, leaving their boss with the hyena.
“You look well, Noss,” the Warden said at length.
“What’ve you done with Red-mist?” Noss demanded. “Is he to be executed?”
The Warden huffed, “In a manner of speaking.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s nothing you need concern yourself with; your only concern is surviving. You’re only alive at all because I will it-”
“I’m only ‘alive’ so that you can use me against Amael or Nurka, depending on who comes out on top!” Noss growled toothily. “You’re as bad as Vladimir. I should kill myself and stop everyone playing games with my worthless hide!”
“And doom your wife and cubs when I tell Vladimir you killed yourself?”
Noss looked down, then up again, “You’ll kill me anyway when Amael takes charge.”
The Warden moved on regardless. “There’s a cub in Rufus’s gang by the name of Tomek,” he said. “I’m releasing him from the pit early. Take him into your gang.”
“The Mosquitoes are full,” Noss grunted.
“Then lose someone. I want the cub protected.”
“Why?”
“Because Rufus asked me to… and shouldn’t a dying wolf’s wishes be honoured?” the Warden chuckled. “He’s a handsome boy that Tomek, I must admit. I might take him for myself when everything’s over.”
Noss’s nostrils flared in obvious disgust.
“You disapprove?” the Warden huffed. “How rich coming from a hyena; I can’t even tell you from your wife! Besides, you admire Rufus and he’s the worst offender.”
“Rufus doesn’t take,” Noss explained, “he asks.”
The Warden stared a while. Unable to mount a riposte to Noss’s wit, he picked up his phone and called his toughs back in. “I’m done with him!” As the Howlers returned to drag Noss away, the Warden stipulated, “Give him a good beating before you turn him loose again.”
“Big wolf aren’t you?” Noss cackled, eyes alight. “Your time will come, coward! It will come!”
*
Linus strode briskly along the pavement with Sara and company in tow. The Howler had no idea where he was leading them, just away from the station. He kept glancing nervously over his cloaked shoulder, searching the bobbing sea of passing pedestrians, expecting members of ALPHA to emerge from the masses and drag him into the back of a car.
“Stop!” Sara puffed, grabbing Linus’s paw in a deserted side-alley, “Just… stop a minute, will ye.”
Linus was grateful for her intervention. “Sorry,” he said, “I-I-I don’t know what I’m doing.”
“Ye don’t?” Sara laughed. “Looked pretty good from where Ah was standing.”
Linus could but laugh too – my this is exhilarating.
Sara shook her head in wonder, “Ah had no idea you were working with Tristan all along.”
Linus’s elation faded to bafflement, “What?”
“When ye stepped out of nowhere on the train,” Sara continued. “Och! Ah could nae believe it. Ah thought you and Tristan hated each other. You’re such good actors, the both of ye. Is that tae throw ALPHA off the scent? ‘Tis very clever.”
With a tiny exhale of exasperation, Linus came clean. “I’m n-nnn-not working with anyone, Sara.”
Silence.
“What?” she squeaked, eyes searching Linus’s masked face for answers.
“I just followed you when you left the fair,” Linus explained, blonde paws spread. “The way you were acting, I knew something was wrong. I had to follow you and make sure you’d be all right. I had no idea what was going on, but I’ve a fairly good inkling now.”
Linus looked meaningfully at Olivia and Professor Heath.
“Then… then you’re nae our contact in Riddle?” Sara said, drawing the Howler’s blue-eyed gaze back to her.
“No.”
“Then… are ye going turn us in tae the Bloodfangs?”
“Of course not!” Linus scoffed.
Sara dipped her chin and gasped gratefully. Kneading her paws she said, “Ah’m sorry Ah was so mean tae you back at the fair. Tristan didnae want ye involved that’s all, he wanted tae protect you. He… he told me tae get rid of ye.”
“Luckily I’m not so easy to put off.”
“Aye!” Sara laughed. “You’re a good ‘un Linus.”
“If by ‘good ‘un’ you mean guilty of ‘dereliction of duty’, then I suppose I qualify-”
“You’re nae guilty of anything! What’s criminal in Lupa is that the Howlers control white-imperium leaving anyone outside the packs tae die.”
“I agree,” Linus said, “but… change comes slowly, with debate and reason, not violence. I tell you now, if Tristan’s working with THORN I can’t condone his actions and I w-www-will n-nnn-not protect him-”
Sara grabbed Linus’s paw, “He’s nae working with THORN! Josef’s a filthy liar.”
Linus nodded and dipped his chin – Josef hadn’t been lying about Olivia, so why would he lie about Tristan? Still, he let Sara down gently.
“I believe you,” he said, somehow without a stammer.
Sara nodded gratefully and patted Linus’s paw.
In the following silence, Olivia looked between everyone, Sara, Heath, Linus, but settled on the Howler, for he was the only one wearing the cloak of authority. “What’s going to happen to me?” she demanded of him.
Linus took a sharp breath, “What do you want to do?”
“Me?” Olivia replied. “Do I even have a choice?”
“Of course.”
“But… I don’t know. I don’t know what to do.”
“What Tristan said tae do,” Sara insisted. “Ye don’t want tae be
a Howler, Olivia. You’re too clever tae waste ye life plodding the streets and beating up little beasts!”
Linus averted his eyes a little.
“Not that they’re all like that,” Sara excused.
“Well I wouldn’t be, would I?” Olivia maintained, hiking her chin, “I’d be a good Howler too.”
“Olivia-”
“I don’t want you to get arrested because of me!”
“It’s too late now, Ah’m up tae me eyeballs!” Sara laughed, pinching Olivia’s nose. “And Ah wouldn’t want it any other way. You’d do the same for me.”
Linus waited a moment, before pitching in, “I wasn’t lying back there. If it’s what you want, I’m sure we’d take you on at Bloodfang.” He looked Olivia up and down, “It’s so obvious now. I must be an idiot not to have felt you sooner.”
“No, I can control it,” Olivia claimed. “My corona, I mean.”
Heath interjected in a curious tone, “Really?”
Olivia nodded eagerly, “Yes. I’ve been doing it for years. When Howlers look at me, I… I… shrink down and repress myself, somehow. It’s so hard to explain-”
“I know exactly what you mean,” Linus reassured her.
Olivia beamed happily at him, “You do?”
“Absolutely, coronal suppression is part of our training,” he insisted. “Why does Josef want you specifically?”
“Puh!” Heath woofed, adjusting his spectacles.
Sara looked up at her teacher, questions dancing on the tip of her tongue. In the end all she needed to say was, “Professor?”
Heath volunteered what he knew. “I’m afraid Doctor Josef is obsessed with finding beasts of exceptional imperium tolerance, by which I mean able to accept high levels in their blood.” Met with silence he continued, “Well, he was kicked out of the Ark when it came to light he had experimented on prisoners during the war. He’d been injecting beasts with imperium cocktails and blood taken from beasts with the rot, trying to turn healthy citizens into the afflicted or some such nonsense. It’s an open secret he continues to experiment on beasts under the guise of ALPHA. I’ve no doubt he believes Olivia to be just another worthy subject. We can’t let him take her, Linus; it’d be a death sentence.”
Linus nodded. He looked Heath up and down, “Are you an addict, sir, like Josef claims?”
