by Adam Browne
However, because there were so many Bloc packs, each ruled by their own relatively obscure Den Father, a compromise had been struck long ago whereby the Bloc would elect two Den Fathers from amongst their many to send to the Pack Summit. Those two would then vote on behalf of the whole Bloc. Otherwise, as previous generations had discovered the hard way, the dozens of Bloc Den Fathers, each with very little land, Howlers or citizens between them, would overwhelm the wishes of the four big packs by sheer force of voting numbers and thereby overturn the desires of most Lupans, seeding strife and wars aplenty.
Not everyone liked the current system, least of all the boxed-in Bloc itself, but under it Lupa had enjoyed a long period of peace – the last war aside, which had only erupted thanks to an imperium shortage.
An imperium shortage not unlike the current one, Linus couldn’t help but think.
How’re the girls getting on? Perhaps I’d better go check on them. No, I mustn’t be seen to care too much. That’d be suspicious.
Click!
Regretfully Linus hadn’t locked his cabin door, and nor did Vladimir knock; the Grand Howler just barrelled in and shut the door as quickly as he’d barged it aside.
“Looks like we’re taking the scenic route,” he chuckled loudly – Vladimir never chuckled, even less spoke loudly. He locked the door, “Going through the Bloc, Ulf help us. It must be to scare off any would-be assassins.”
By the time Linus had gathered wits enough to stand up and salute, Vladimir was already on him, pushing him via the chest so he fell back on the bed.
“Well?” the Grand Howler growled under his breath.
“Sir?” Linus yelped.
“Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or are you going to make me beat it out of you?”
Linus gulped, then said, “You can’t do that.”
“I can do whatever I want!” Vladimir claimed, wafting a sheet of paper, the one Livia had given him no doubt. “I could tell Amael these numbers are false, as I know they are, even without checking them. Amael might be soft around pretty girls, but I am not such a fool. I’ll insist those ‘Cubs’ are removed from the train and investigated, and you’ll soon follow, unless you tell me exactly what you’re up to.”
Linus remained tight-lipped.
Vladimir changed tack. “I can’t believe you’d do anything to wilfully endanger our lives, or Lupa,” he grumbled, letting the paper flop back down by his side. “It’s not in you. You’re an idealistic young fool, nothing more; that’s why I got you out of ALPHA’s clutches.”
Now Linus spoke, “What?”
“Humph! Didn’t Janoah tell you? I contacted her at great risk to myself and instructed her to get you off the hook. And this is how you repay me, with lies?”
“Not lies, sir-”
“Linus do not try my patience!” Vladimir barked, before calming himself. “If there’s no danger I’ll let this go, nobody need know, but I must be allowed in, otherwise I’ll bash the door down. I can have no secrets at this time. Do you understand me?”
At length Linus sat forward on the bed and dipped his chin, thumbs twiddling in his lap.
“Is that them?” he heard Vladimir growl. “The ones Josef Grau was after?”
Linus looked up at Vladimir, which rather gave the game away.
“I see,” the Grand Howler hummed. “Trying to protect them from ALPHA, is that it? How stupid. You finished top of your class; you’re supposed to be intelligent.”
Linus looked down at his armoured feet again, emitting a shaky, nervous breath as he did so.
“What are they, family?” Vladimir asked, waiting a moment before guessing further, “Lovers?”
“Sir!” Linus squeaked indignantly.
“Money then? They’re paying you to get out-”
“No! They’re just… friends.”
Vladimir faced the little window. “Then you really are a fool,” he said, watching the streets and buildings of the rough, downtrodden Bloc pass. “You’ve got your whole life and career ahead of you and you throw it away over nothing but some passing friendship. What am I to do with you?”
Linus averted his gaze. In twelve months Vladimir had administered nothing more than the occasional hot-tempered clout of correction and stern words, but then Linus had never gone so far wrong as now.
Except, it felt right. Does that make me a rebel? Am I a traitor to Lupa?
Oh dear.
“Still, sneaking them through on the Elder Train is somewhat ingenious,” Vladimir hummed. “Brazen, but ingenious. Out of respect for Den Father Vito the train won’t be inspected as it passes though the Lupan Wall, so they shan’t be uncovered.”
“That’s the idea, sir. It wasn’t mine, though.”
“Whose was it then? Uther’s?”
“This has nothing to do with Uther, sir,” Linus insisted.
“But the girl said-”
“That’s just her cover story. It’s just the sort if thing Uther would do. I wasn’t sure you’d swallow it.”
A Vladimir-brand grunt ensued – he had swallowed it.
“The tall one is very strong,” the Grand Howler moved on, glancing to the nearest wall, as if he could feel Linus’ wards through the cabin partitions right now. “Livia is it?”
“Olivia,” Linus said, emphasising, “Oh-livia.”
“How singularly unimaginative,” Vladimir marvelled, turning to Linus again and adding, “Even for you.”
“She’s hiding in plain sight, sir. The more audacious the better, we thought.”
“Humph! I’m not getting anything from the little one.”
Linus explained, “You won’t, sir. Sara’s not afflicted. She’s perfectly healthy in fact.”
“Sara?”
“Yes.”
“Not Sara Hummel, surely.”
A nod.
Vladimir snorted, incredulous, “Good Ulf, I know she’s a little firebrand, but what’s she done to incur ALPHA’s wrath?”
“Nothing, sir.”
“She must’ve. She’s Cora Hummel’s daughter, you don’t arrest such a well-connected wolfess on a whim.”
Linus spread his paws, “ALPHA wanted to arrest her for hiding Olivia. They wanted to arrest Professor Heath too; for imperium abuse-”
“Yes yes yes, I quite remember that part of Josef’s ranting.”
“It’s utter nonsense!”
“Stretched truths, Linus, not utter nonsense,” Vladimir corrected sternly. “Josef’s many things, but he’s no fool; at least not when it comes to science. Olivia must have potential for him to be interested. I can feel her. So can you.”
Linus shared what he knew, “Well, Josef’s convinced she’s a pure-blood.”
“Pure-blood? You mean… she’s a full Rot phenotype, with all the genes expressed?”
“I-I-I don’t know, sir.”
“You don’t know?”
Linus shrugged a little.
“I thought you were into imperiology?” Vladimir huffed in disappointment.
Linus explained, “I know what you’re talking about, sir, I read all the latest imperiology and biology journals, but I have no idea if Olivia is anything unusual or not. It’s not as if I’ve tested her. I don’t even know what she knows.”
A nod. “I see. Well, suffice to say if Olivia is a pure-blood, to use the old term, then it’s no wonder Josef wants her. She’d be a solid Eisenwolf candidate.”
“Like Rafe,” Linus stated.
“Yes… just like ‘Rafe’, or whatever Janoah calls her toy soldier these days,” Vladimir agreed cryptically. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one directing Josef’s actions. With two Eisenwolves loyal to her she’d be invincible within ALPHA-”
“No, sir.”
“No?”
“Janoah told me she doesn’t want Olivia being taken in by ALPHA,” Linus insisted. “She said two Eisenwolves is one too many. They all want Rafe for themselves over there, but he belongs to her. He’s her strong arm, from what
I can tell.”
Vladimir gruffed, “She confides in you again, I see. Dear me, that one sting you donated to Rufus went a long way in securing Janoah’s love didn’t it?”
“I did it for him, not her.”
At length, Vladimir strode to the cabin door in all of two long steps and opened it a little. After peeking up and down the swaying carriage corridor, he shut the flimsy door again. Then, to Linus’s thought-derailing amazement, the Grand Howler sat on the bed beside him. Linus made to stand in respect, but Vladimir pulled him back down by the arm.
“Linus, fascinating as this is, we must put these concerns aside,” he said. “I’ll do your friends no harm, nobody need know, but in return for turning my cheek I need your silence and cooperation in the days to come. I need a wolf in which I can confide, utterly. Can you be that wolf?”
“Sir?”
“Answer me. Yes, or no.”
“Yes, Grand Howler. Of course.”
Taking a deep breath Vladimir nodded, fidgeted, pulled out his golden pen and twiddled it between his fingers as he did when thinking. Was he nervous? Why?
“Linus… our leader is a traitor,” he dared. “Amael has allied himself with THORN and is planning a coup to take over Lupa in the next few days.”
With a loud, almost hog-like snort of, “What?” Linus physically recoiled from Vladimir’s accusation.
The Grand Howler calmly set out his stall, “So far as we can ascertain, it’ll begin with an attack on the Pack Summit by THORN in which the Den Fathers will be eliminated. During the subsequent confusion the wolfen arm of the conspiracy will move swiftly to control the city. In preparation, Amael’s been embezzling white-imperium shipments, stockpiling his own illegal supply, possibly with the Gelb Warden’s help, though where it is nobody knows.”
With his brain stumbling to catch up, Linus emitted an incredulous breath.
Vladimir grunted, “Do you know why?”
With much nodding, Linus replied, “He who controls the stings controls the Howlers, sir. It’s obvious.”
“Yes, I thought you’d understand,” Vladimir praised. “All Amael has to do is turn off the tap until his enemies submit… or die.”
“It’s monstrous.”
“It gets worse,” Vladimir claimed. “We haven’t pinned down exactly how THORN is going to go about their task-”
“They’ll plant a black-imperium bomb, naturally,” Linus interrupted, echoing Uther’s and many other wolfen opinions of THORN’s ultimate goal.
Vladimir wasn’t so sure. “That’s the obvious conclusion, except the security around the Summit will be exceptionally tight. Every inch will be searched and searched again for anything untoward by countless loyal eyes. It’ll be difficult to hide such a device. Besides, a bomb may not be that effective.”
“Then what?”
“All I know is those hyenas fear nothing; they’ll happily kill themselves in some suicidal gamble.”
“Yes,” Linus seethed, recalling the refinery and hyena who’d taken his own life.
There was a quiet moment, but for the trembling carriage.
“You believe me then?” Vladimir said, adding hastily, “I have evidence.”
Linus looked to him, “I believe you, sir.”
It was Vladimir’s turn to breathe out in relief. “You’re part of a select group, now,” he said. “Very few know the full extent of the danger.”
“Who else does?”
“Amongst others, Janoah and I… and the Alpha,” Vladimir begrudgingly confessed.
“The Alpha?”
“Regrettably his ‘organisation’ is the only group I could turn to. I couldn’t go to the other packs because even if I could get the evidence high enough to start an investigation they would’ve immediately made a move and ruined everything, and I’d be a dead wolf when Amael found out. ALPHA has no vested interest in protecting names and reputations, if anything they thrive on tearing them down. With Janoah’s help, and mine, they’ve amassed enough evidence to build a case against Amael.”
Linus digested that and said boldly, “Then why doesn’t ALPHA arrest him now?”
“It’s not enough, Linus.”
“Not enough? They arrest other wolves at the drop of a hat!”
“Impressionable, nobody Howlers like you, maybe; not seasoned well-liked Elders,” Vladimir pointed out. “ALPHA can’t break ranks, not yet. To move now would be to capture only Amael, leaving his allies to go to ground. No, the Alpha understands, as I do, that we must wait and hope the plotters show their guilt and yet give us time to stop them.” He looked to the window, “We’ve agents placed within THORN and with luck they’ll be able to get word to us regards the manner and timing of the attack. Until then we’re flailing in the dark. All we can be is vigilant.”
“I-I-I will be, sir.”
Vladimir turned to Linus again, then dipped his eyes a little, “There’s more.”
“More?”
“I’m… sorry to say that Uther and Ivan may be involved in Amael’s conspiracy.”
Linus’s blood turned to rot. “What?”
“As you know, Amael supposedly sent them on an errand to sabotage THORN activities. I believe they are in fact on a mission to murder our Den Father.”
“No!” Linus yelped, leaping up to his feet, as if to distance himself from Vladimir’s vile accusation lest the Grand Howler’s lack of faith in his fellow wolf was contagious. “I don’t believe it!”
“Humph! You believed the rest.”
“But, sir-”
“Uther and Ivan are to clear the way to the Den Father’s chair so Amael can sit in it before the coup. That’ll give him the authority to control the Bloodfangs legitimately whilst he sets about suppressing the other packs illegitimately.”
“This is impossible.”
“Not at all,” Vladimir woofed. “Amael’s secured all the votes necessary. What Elders he hasn’t cajoled he’s bullied. By Ulf, our Den Father is a liability, overcome by rot and vice; his death can’t come soon enough for our Elders. They’ll throw the Den Father’s mantle at Amael.”
Linus gnarled his fingers, “No I mean… Uther would never… He’s not a m-mmm-murderer, Grand Howler. He’d never agree to something like that!”
“You don’t know him as I do, Trooper. He has a past.”
“He’s my partner. My best friend!”
“Which clouds your judgement!” Vladimir barked back, standing up also, towering over the stocky Linus. He checked the door and his tone, trusting in the rumbling train to muffle all speech. “Still… if what I’m told is correct, Uther’s doing it for love, not hate – him and Ivan both. Take consolation in that, though the law won’t make such nice distinctions.”
“Love?” Linus said, latching onto that soft, hopeful word amongst Vladimir’s bleak vocabulary as he searched his hard face. “What do you mean? Love for what?”
“For whom,” Vladimir corrected, sighing contemptuously, “for him, of course, who else?”
Linus frowned, “Amael?”
“Noooo, you daft pup-”
The unlocked door burst open and, of all the wolves that could’ve, Elder Amael entered, cloaked and helmeted and magnificent as always.
“Linus have you seen-” he began, stopping upon sighting Vladimir and scoffing in surprise, “There you are, Grand Howler.”
The Howlers, Grand and not, stood to attention.
“I was just advising Linus on how to conduct himself during the trip, Elder,” Vladimir explained deftly. “This is his first time away from Lupa, let alone attending a Summit.”
Amael barely listened anyway. “I need you to stand with me, both of you,” he said. “I’ve just heard a disturbing rumour.”
“Rumour, sir?”
“Word is ALPHA’s going to inspect the train as we pass through the Bloc arm of the Lupan Wall.”
“Inspect the train?” Linus barked. “They c-c-can’t do that; this is the Elder Train! We’re on Bloc Territory anyway, wh
at right does ALPHA have to inspect us here?”
Amael appreciated Linus’s gall. “That’s exactly what I said, Trooper!” he growled, making a fist, unaware Linus’s exclaim stemmed from a very different source than an affront to his honour – he was thinking of his stowaways. “The worst part is Den Father Vito agreed to it, apparently!” Amael woofed. “Well, they can search the other carriages, but they’re not stepping foot in mine! If the so-called Alpha thinks he can get away with bullying me he’s another thing coming! Gather everyone together, we’ll show them!”
Once Amael had stormed down the corridor, Vladimir turned to Linus and grumbled, “If he wasn’t trying to bring down Lupa and set it up anew in his image I could learn to admire that wolf. He’s exactly the sort to keep ALPHA in check.” He looked to the dreary heavens and sighed, “Ulf, you mock me.”
“What do we do, now?” Linus whispered.
“Do?” Vladimir replied. “Stand with our Elder against ALPHA’s harassment. What else?”
“But Den Father Vito’s in danger-”
“We can give nothing away. Nothing! We cannot even warn Vito without exposing ourselves to Amael; any one of Vito’s entourage may be a conspirator. We will just have to hope the attempt on Vito’s life fails, even if it is Blade-dancer and Wild-heart who’re going about it.” Adjusting his mantle, Vladimir added rationally, “Besides, you need Amael to keep ALPHA from discovering your friends. That makes him your greatest ally for the next ten minutes.”
Linus could but breathe, “By Ulf’s fangs, what a mess.”
