G.H.O.S.T. Teams (Book 2) Shifters (26 page)

“Yeah, where else would you look at someone?”

“Right, it’s how we engage in conversation. But Gideon is a wolf, a very old and very powerful wolf. In the animal kingdom meeting an alpha’s eyes can been seen as a challenge.”

“So, you’re saying I was challenging him to a fight back there?”

“Not a fight really. You were just making it clear that you do not fall under his authority. It’s not a bad thing. But it could be taken as a sign of aggression. Your way of letting him know he was on your territory.”

“Well, he was in our offices.”

“Exactly. But that doesn’t mean everyone has the strength of will to meet his gaze for long. Especially when he started to shift,” he said.

“Yeah, that was a bit weird huh?”

“It would seem the rage in the air is affecting him as well. Luckily for us, Gideon’s control is more than enough to keep it in check. I don’t think he liked the idea of lycan skinwalkers.”

“Can you blame him? I don’t even know these kids, and I want to kill the people responsible.”

“Understandable,” Vector nodded.

“You know, I could have sworn that when Gideon left the room, I could feel it. Was that his anger sitting in the air?”

“Not exactly. The alphas, or any dominant for that matter, can make their presence known. Think of it as a force of will. It’s part of how they control their wolves. That’s how Erika thinks Joshua is forcing the young wolves to change so that they may perform the ritual.”

“Interesting. How come I didn’t notice it right away?”

Vector laughed, “I guess your strong personality got in the way.”

“Good. That will be a nice warm up for the interrogation. If our prisoner doesn’t talk fast, he might find out just how alpha I am.”

Vector nodded, and the elevator doors opened on sub-level three.

Just as it had looked before, the security office reception area sat empty, one guard behind the large sheet of bullet-proof glass. He was a young guy with dark hair and he buzzed us in. Just past evidence storage on our right there were a couple of interrogation rooms. Although, I guess technically they were called interview rooms. But why beat around the bush? A second door, past the interrogation room entrance, led to an observation room. Vector and I headed in there to look things over.

Our room was dark, and we could watch the interview through a one-way mirror. TanFour, in human form, sat facing us on the far side of a large metal table. His hands were cuffed to a ring in the table, and he looked just as weak as he had earlier. Talking to him were my two favorite GHOST officers, Mutt and Jeff. And just so you don’t think I’m being rude, I’m calling the girl Jeff.

They both wore dark suits and looked like generic FBI agents. She was in her early thirties, with sharp features, and her hair was cut short and efficient. Last time I dealt with them I learned that she was a shrink. According to her, a really good one. She stood up, arms crossed, her gaze fixed on our prisoner. Her partner was older, in his forties, with broad shoulders and a shaved head. He sat in the chair facing TanFour. One day I might care enough to learn their real names so I’d know what to yell when I’ve kicked them out of the room. But, this wasn’t some angry troll like last time. Our prisoner was weak, malnourished, and clearly spacey in the head. So, I gave the interrogators a second chance as Vector and I watched for a bit. It didn’t take long before we realized things weren’t going well.

The prisoner, whose name turned out to be Dougie, wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. He giggled a lot and constantly rubbed his face against his cuffed hands. Adding that to the shakes made it fairly obvious that he was a hardcore drug addict. Most of his answers reinforced that fact. He commented on the pretty walls and the shiny cuffs and how his chair was eating him. It was clear that he didn’t understand a whole lot about what was going on. I almost felt sorry for him. That is, before they asked about the kids.

“Tell us about the children,” Mutt said.

“The pretties. So small,” Dougie giggled.

“Where are the kids?” Mutt tried.

“In the cages. We can’t let ‘em out yet. Not yet,” Dougie said.

“Why not?” Jeff, the lady, jumped in.

“Because they’ve been bad. Very bad,” he smiled.

“How were they bad?” Jeff asked.

“They have a wolf inside of them.
Very bad. Have to get it out,” Dougie nodded.

“How do they get the wolves out, Dougie?” Mutt asked.

“They cut that nasty wolf out. Cut it right out. The kids yell and fight, but sometimes we help. We hold them down. We make sure the master can cut out the wolf,” he replied.

“Who’s the master, Dougie?” Jeff asked.

“She is the knife and we are her children,” Dougie laughed.

He broke into hysterics at that point, chuckling like a lunatic. It took Mutt and Jeff a bit of time before they could calm him down. Finally he relaxed enough for the questioning to continue.

“Where is the master, Dougie?” Jeff questioned.

“She’s waiting for us,” he replied.

“Where is she waiting?” Mutt said.

“With daddy wolf,” Dougie smiled.

“Where are the kids, Dougie? Where are they keeping them?” Jeff asked.

“They’re at home, with mommy knife. She cares for them. Keeps them in the cages until she can get all of the wolf out,” he said.

They went back and forth that way for a while. Every time it seemed like they might get more information, he would repeat the same thing a different way. It was clear that his mind had been fried from years of drug abuse. Watching how fragile he was, I didn’t know if I’d be a help or hindrance. Every time they pushed harder he clammed up. There had to be a better way. I looked over at Vector who was half watching and half searching his invisible web.

“Do you think we can give him something to clear his head?”

“Sadly, they already did. I can see in his file that they administered…” I cut him off.

“Then why isn’t he more lucid?”

“This might be as lucid as he gets,” Vector replied.

“There has to be a better way. Have you found anything?”

“Nothing yet. We don’t have much to go on. I’m cycling through more camera data, hoping for another vehicle hit. Also trying to back track the SUV from earlier and see if I can find it at another location. So far, nothing helpful.”

“No word from Freddy yet, huh?”

“Nope. Looks like he’s still on the phone” Vector said.

“You can see that?”

“I can see a lot when I’m in here.”

“Come on, bro, find me something to work with.”

“I’m trying. But unless we find more than a Brazilian and a witch, I think we’re going to have problems,” he said.

I thought for a moment. Vector was running all kinds of visual recognition software. So, if we could get him a description, maybe he could find a building. I doubted Dougie could give an accurate enough account of his home, even if we could get him to talk about it. But maybe there was another way.

“Hey, can you see Danny from in there?”

Vector nodded and moved his hands before answering, “Yeah, he’s sleeping but stable. Looks like they have him on quite a few meds. Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”

“If he can pull a picture from Dougie's mind, can you work with that?”

“Hypothetically, but Dougie's mind is a mess and Danny is far from in top shape. I’m not sure he’ll be able to get us what we need,” Vector said.

“Only one way to find out. Let ‘em know we’re on our way.”

Vector nodded and I headed into the interrogation room. Mutt and Jeff’s expressions made it very clear how happy they were that I busted in.

“It seems like you’ve hit a dead end?”

“Give us time, we’re getting there,” Mutt said.

“Time is in short supply right now. I want to take him upstairs. See if Danny can get anything out of him.”

“If you think you’re taking another interviewee away from us…”Jeff started.

“Look, this isn’t a ‘you versus me’. We’re on the same side. Besides, you’re welcome to join us. Use your psychobabble to get him focused on the right thing. You’re welcome to be part of this. If Danny weren’t injured he’d already be down here trying to help you. What do we have to lose?”

“Fine, but this is still our interview,” Mutt said.

“Ours,” Jeff confirmed.

“Whatever. Can we go now?”

They agreed, which saved them the headache of me overruling them. We un-cuffed Dougie from the table and made sure the chains on his hands and ankles were secure. He was weak and I didn’t think he would be much of a threat. But, in Sickbay, with several of my teammates lying helpless in bed, I didn’t want to take any chances. Vector joined us as we made our way up the elevator to sub-level two.

Kara was on one of the far beds
, sound asleep. I guess she wanted to keep away from the constant noise and check-ins from the doctors. Erika was awake and laid down her book the moment we walked in. It looked like another cheesy detective novel, the lady on the cover wearing a fedora and trench coat. She greeted us with a smile, but quickly hardened her face once she saw Dougie.

Danny was in the bed next to her, fast sleep. His machines were beeping and his heartbeat looked exactly as TV shows had led me to believe it should look. I waved one of the doctors over, the same Asian gentleman from before.

“Hey, doc, is it okay if we wake Danny?”

“As I told your friend,” he said, pointing at Vector, “Mr. Frost needs his rest. I would prefer you did not disturb him right now.”

“It’s important, doc, or we wouldn’t ask.”

“He is on heavy pain medication. It’s unlikely that he will be of much use,” he said.

“Only one way to know for sure.”

With that I walked over and squeezed Danny’s good shoulder, trying to stir him awake. After the fourth time I said his name, he finally started to come to. His eyes fluttered open and shut a few times as he tried to focus on the scene in front of him. Once he was awake, I locked onto his eyes.

“Danny, we need your help.”

“BD. Of course, of course,” he said, patting my arm, “I’m always here to help.”

The doc was right; Danny was very drugged. But, he knew who I was, and hopefully had enough of a clue to help us out. His eyes darted around the room at all the faces in front of him. I leaned in so that I was the only one he was focused on.

“Danny, I need you to read this man’s mind,” I said, pointing at Dougie, “We’re going to ask him some questions. Can you do that?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course. It’s what I do.”

“Okay, and then I need you to show Vector what you see. We’re looking for the place where the kids are being kept. Okay?”

“Got it BD. I got it,” Danny smiled.

His eyes closed, but his head nodded a confirmation. We brought Dougie closer, hoping to make it easier for Danny to focus. Then, Mutt and Jeff started their questioning. They had to work slowly and methodically, and that took time. It turned out that Dougie, like
the rest of the skinwalkers, rode in the back of large tractor-trailers when they were transported back to their “home”. Obviously the lack of windows in those trailers made finding the path home problematic. The views Danny was getting of the inside of the warehouse where the kids were being held were also fairly useless. He saw the kids in cages, but nothing on the inside of the warehouse gave any clue as to its location. Except for the kids and a lot of skinwalkers, it was empty. Danny also let us know that Dougie’s memories were mostly from times when he was wearing the wolf pelt, and that did weird things to his vision and the colors he could see. Nothing is ever easy.

After a lot of arguing, we convinced the doc to give Danny something to make him sharper. I don’t know exactly what they gave him, but I think it was a shot of adrenaline. All I know is that right after they injected him, he just about jumped out of bed. Again Mutt and Jeff questioned, and again Danny probed. Again time passed. The process of making sense of Dougie’s mind was slow and tedious. Even in a focused state, Danny let us know it that it would take a lot of time to piece things together.

Meanwhile, Vector added tractor-trailers to his list of vehicles to look for. Unfortunately, there are a lot of trucks on the road and he was going to need more to work with. Plus, it seemed our kidnappers used the woods behind the warehouse to move their captives through the park. Dougie’s mind was so scattered, there was no telling where they met up with those tractor-trailers.

We all jumped to our feet with hope when Danny finally found out what the truck looked like. Sadly, it was a generic vehicle from one of the largest trucking companies in the country. Vector immediately gave them a call and got what information he could. He also checked on any stolen trucks, but our villains didn’t even need to go that far. It turns out that most truckers are independent contractors. This means a lot of them come and go and choose routes as they please, and so they are hard to track down. We all settled in as Danny and Vector kept searching.

I can’t begin to explain to you how hard it was to wait there, knowing the answers were so close, but not having any way to get at them. Kara woke up and joined us at one point. She tried to help focus Dougie’s mind, but didn’t have much luck. That guy had fried more brain cells than he’d kept. Freddy was back with us by then, after learning that the Brazil team had nothing helpful. They promised to keep looking and get back to us if they found anything. Sitting there was driving me nuts. I needed to do something. So, I headed down to the armory. Once they found this place, I wanted to be armed for bear.

I returned, my arsenal fully stocked, ready to go. Nothing had changed in the room. Danny and Kara were still working together on Dougie, desperately probing him for information. Mutt and Jeff were asking questions and working with them as best as they could. Vector’s hands were moving with speed and purpose. He was clearly pushing things as fast as he could. Erika was next to him, sharing anything she could think of which might provide a clue. Then, when we were about to give up hope, we got something.