-----
Drew Martinson came into Robert Ulrey’s office and introduced himself. He’d made an appointment after his staff had fully vetted Robert. They chatted briefly for a few minutes and then he finally brought up the reason for this visit. “Robert, I’m here to ask if you’ll join my team. This shouldn’t interfere with your present duties here at the FBI but, from time to time, it will require your going on special assignment for us. Not really any conflict of interest but you do need to be sworn in. I can’t even discuss anything further until you can agree to that. Everything we talk about from now on must be kept secret.”
Robert was not prepared for this but was intrigued. He’d tried to look into who Drew Martinson was and what his mysterious “P” Branch was all about when he’d agreed to this meeting. He hadn’t been able to learn much other than how highly classified everything to do with this “P” Branch was. Apparently, it was highly regarded, very important and had almost unlimited resources but was also one of the U.S. Government’s agencies about which very little else was known.
“Okay, I think I can accept that,” said Robert. “I’ll probably agree to being sworn in but can you at least tell me why? Why me?”
“Well, I can tell you that, I suppose. But, you must keep this confidential. Even if you don’t get sworn in and join up with us, you have to keep this to yourself.” Drew studied Robert and then went on to say, “It’s because you have a special relationship with Missy McCrea. She seems to trust you and I’m pretty sure you care about her. You’re already acting as liaison with her for your Organized Crime Division, right?”
Robert was shocked and surprised. At first. Shocked this had anything to do with Missy and surprised Drew knew anything about her involvement with the Organized Crime Division and his being their contact person for her. But, as he thought about how this mysterious “P” Branch had unlimited resources, his surprise quickly faded. His shock, however, took a little longer to get over. “Why Missy?”
“Can you accept our terms? If so, let’s get you sworn in. Then I can explain everything.” Drew saw that Robert was in agreement and they went ahead with all the formalities. Then, he said, “Welcome to “P” Branch, Robert. Now that you’ve come on board, I can tell you about the pay increase you’re getting. Thirty percent on top of your present salary. There are other benefits but we’ll get to those later.”
Robert smiled and said, “First, just explain what the hell “P” Branch even stands for, Drew. What is your mysterious group and why are you interested in Missy?”
Drew said, “That’s two questions but I’ll see if I can answer them both. “P” Branch is the Paranormal Branch for the U.S. Government. We monitor -- and handle -- a lot of various matters. And certain individuals. Ones who, like Missy, have special abilities. You know about her rapid healing, right?”
Robert tried to process this. He still wasn’t sure he was getting it. “Well, she did make a rather miraculous recovery after that head injury. I assume you know about everything which happened when she showed up down there in Virginia?”
“Oh, we have all that, yes. It’s what first caught my attention. That rescue, which required superior strength. Superhuman strength. We’ve been following her ever since. That’s why we know all about her activities up here, including that little freebie she gave your guys in Organized Crime. Ten million dollars. My team really enjoyed that, Robert.” He smiled. “Did you know about her broken leg this past June?”
“Actually, no. Missy didn’t have a broken leg that I know of. She worked all summer as a lifeguard at Revere Beach. They commended her several times, in fact, for rescues she made. There are several young kids and even a couple of adults who owe their lives to her quick actions, apparently. I know those were dramatic, even heroic, but I didn’t think any of those involved anything superhuman.”
Drew nodded his head. “She actually holds back on the superhuman stuff, most of the time. Superstrength and superspeed aren’t always perceived as such, since people only notice what they believe is possible. But, she broke her leg that first week on the job. That boy she saved from the fire in Lynn?”
“I did read about that. But, she was at the beach the very next week. She even saved a kid. I remember hearing about the commendation and thinking back to how she’d saved that family in Virginia and how here she was now saving two kids in two weeks. Amazing and heroic, but still. She is a very gifted athlete and I wasn’t all that surprised.”
“Exactly my point, Robert. She does all these incredible things in plain sight and everyone just figures she’s normal. But, she broke her leg when she rescued that kid from the fire. She jumped out a second floor window with him in her arms. He didn’t get hurt -- thanks to her -- but she fractured her tibia and actually broke her fibula; the break in her fibula needed to be set. The doctors can’t explain how she healed up in four days. Completely healed. Can you?”
Robert was surprised at this news. Missy had never mentioned any injury and the newspaper story hadn’t really said anything about that. Only that she’d gone to the hospital in the ambulance. “They actually had to set her bone? And, are you maybe saying her head injury down In Virginia was as serious as that first MRI showed? That wasn’t just some glitch like everyone figured?”
Drew said, “Take a look at these two CT scans. The first one shows not a single broken bone or fracture. That was the one that hospital in Virginia took. Now, look at this one taken two years later. Not only can you see the damage to her left leg, but look at all the other fractures. Notice anything unusual about them?”
Robert wasn’t a doctor and asked Drew to explain it to him. After hearing the lengthy explanation of how bones normally heal and how Missy’s bones were all healed up with added strength, due to her continued use of them while ignoring pain, he asked, “She ignores pain? You’re not saying she doesn’t feel pain, you’re saying she feels it but then ignores it?”
“Robert, this girl feels everything with much greater intensity. Enhanced senses for sight, sound, smell and taste as well. Superhuman. That’s why we’re monitoring her. And, why we want you to handle her for us.”
“Well, she has very definite plans for herself. I’m not sure what you mean by my handling her. She also keeps a lot of secrets but I’m seeing you already know that about her.”
“Oh, yes. We do know all about her plans and we’re very pleased. She’s been training herself and educating herself even better than anything we could ever have done for her. Team sports, individual trophies in karate and martial arts, accelerated learning while home schooled, combined SAT scores of 1280, and she wants to get all the military training any female can possibly get? West Point? Infantry branch, with Special Forces and Ranger qualifications? Read your own reports, Robert. We did.” Drew laughed.
“Okay, I guess she is pretty special. And, when you combine the rapid healing with all the other stuff, maybe she is some sort of supergirl. But, why me? Can’t you recruit her, if that’s what you want?” Robert was staring at Drew, trying to understand the big picture which he still couldn’t see.
“Oh, we’re not trying to recruit her. Let her finish high school. Let her go to West Point. We’re excited about that. But, if we approach her, there’s apt to be trust issues. You already have a relationship with her and she trusts you. I explained that. We accessed your file on her, Robert. The one on your computer? Not the file you’ve uploaded for the FBI but that private file. Where you describe the way she acknowledged her responsibility for those two deaths in Boxford? Obviously, she trusts you. And, it’s those deaths which are forcing us to get a bit more involved. We believe your assessment is probably correct and that her actions were justified. We’re hoping you can help her stay on the right side and not get too carried away. Being a vigilante is not what we want for this girl.”
Robert was very surprised to learn they had accessed his private file. He didn’t really want to think about that. He was still trying to catch up on what Drew was expl
aining about Missy. “You know those guys were supposedly killed by a mountain lion or some sort of large cat, right? The autopsy evidence is very clear and there were those footprints. I’m only guessing she somehow was responsible but only because of that look she gave me.”
Nodding his head, Drew said, “Yes, we know. And, she actually did that to those guys herself. There are others like her, you know. We’re monitoring all of them. But, your Missy is very special. She’s also the only female in recent times. And, by that, I mean going back for at least two hundred years. We don’t really know that much about these cases before that.”
Robert asked, “When you say she did that … and, there are others like her … what exactly are you saying, Drew?”
“I’m saying she did that to those guys in her other form, Robert. Those were Missy’s tracks and Missy’s bite marks on their necks. She’s a wild predator in her other form. When Missy came down from those mountains after disappearing for two years? She finally had figured it out. How to Change back. Missy is a werecat.”
Epilogue
Dec 2017
“Hey, Patrick? Promise not to tell?” Missy laughed. It was fun to tease her brother and she was in a great mood. Christmas vacation and everyone was home. Heather and John. Alice and Mark. Mike. She felt a delicious thrill go zinging through her body as she thought of Mike. And, she’d just returned from New York. Alice and Heather had gone with her which had made the trip lots of fun. The cat burglar jokes were getting so lame and outrageous! She loved the fact they could all talk freely about this now. It made the whole experience much less nerve wracking. Missy didn’t really like taking risks if she could avoid them.
As far as her actually breaking in, however, everything had gone just great. The replacement batteries would last for months and Billy and Donny still had no clue she was monitoring their places and was able to hear every word. Her early warning system should continue working just fine.
Patrick looked at her with a very pained expression on his face. His sister was always baiting him like this. “Only if I like what you tell me. If I don’t like it, then nothing doing. I’ll rat you out.”
Missy laughed and picked up on his choice of words. “Rat me out? But, that’s not much of a threat, once you hear my secret. You see … cats kill rats. You know that, right?”
“So?” Patrick looked around and the fact that his entire family was sitting there, already smiling at what Missy had just said, made him very suspicious. Obviously, they knew something and he was the only one in the dark about her secret.
“So, I’m a cat.” Missy laughed. “That’s my secret.”
“Very funny, very funny!” Patrick looked at the others and wondered why they were now laughing at him so hard. Missy could be such a pain sometimes.
“Sorry, but I’m not joking. Mom and Dad said it’s okay for me to tell you now. They think you’re old enough. Not to tell anyone on me. You won’t, right?”
“Riiiight, you can be quite sure I’m not going to go around telling anyone that my crazy sister is a cat.” Patrick looked at her like she had two heads. “You don’t think I want everyone thinking that I’m crazy, do you?”
Missy said, “I knew that I’d have to show you. But, everyone agrees I can do that right here. I don’t need to bring you out to the State Forest like I did for them. You don’t mind if I spend the next few hours lying around in here, watching TV and stuff with you guys, while I’m being a cat do you?”
Patrick was getting a little concerned, mainly because no one else was acting like she was crazy. Why not humor her, since that’s what everyone else was doing. “Sure, sure. No problem. Be a cat if you want. I won’t mind.”
“Actually, I have to warn you. Prepare you. So, you won’t get nervous. You know those pictures in my bedroom? The mountain lion pictures? That’s me. Mom took those. I’m a werecat.”
Patrick suddenly realized she was being serious and that everyone else was going right along with this. Seriously!
Missy stood up and so did his mother and Heather, who suddenly were holding up a blanket. Missy said, “I have to get naked now, so I can Change. You understand. Okay?” She walked over and stood behind the blanket.
Patrick could see she was taking off her clothes but only her head was showing above the blanket. He looked at his Dad and John but they were just calmly sitting there like this was no big deal. “Isn’t anyone else going to say anything?”
John said, “Missy’s a werecat, Patrick. It’s in our genes, so you really need to know this. That’s why she disappeared for those two years. She stayed in the mountains until she figured out how to Change back. She’s been Shifting back and forth ever since, but we haven’t been letting her out of her room when she does that at home. Until now.” Looking at Missy and laughing, he said, “Okay, Missy. You can stay out here tonight. No more hiding out in your room as long as you promise to be good.”
His Dad got up and said, with a big sigh, “I better go get those raw steaks out for her. You know how hungry she gets whenever she does this.” Chuckling, he walked into the kitchen.
Patrick looked over at Missy who seemed to have finished undressing. She smiled at him and said, “I’ll be back in a flash!” Then, she ducked down and for a few seconds, nothing happened. Suddenly, there actually was a flash, a great shimmer of light behind the blanket and he could feel a mysterious burst of energy in the room. Heather pulled the blanket away and there stood his sister. Missy the werecat.
From the Author
Thank you for reading Missy the Werecat, my first book about Missy. I hope you enjoy reading about Missy and her friends as much as I enjoy writing about her. I’ve always loved stories about female characters with special powers along with stories about witches and werewolves. Future books in this series are planned, so keep checking on Amazon.
I hope you will consider leaving a review for Missy the Werecat on Amazon, letting others know what you think about this book and this series. Word-of-mouth is crucial for any author to succeed. Your kind words, even if only a line or two, will help others decide to read about Missy and inspire me to keep this series going for many more books. That would make all the difference and be hugely appreciated. Thanks in advance!
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Epilogue
From the Author
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