The Alphas Game - Complete Set (16 page)

BOOK: The Alphas Game - Complete Set
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Chapter10

 

It’s not a great big town, but it is right on the swamp, just the kind of place where this investigation should start. It’s been made really clear that whoever had been using the secret room had swamp mud on their boots. We’re close enough to the everglades for the technician to realize immediately where it came from. After that confirmation didn’t take long at all, whoever was handling the lab that day had known exactly which tests to run, and it made their job a lot faster.

“You can’t give us rooms together?” Rosie asked the clerk. She couldn’t believe that this place would be that busy. It was a small town on the edge of a swamp, there wasn’t really anything here that would bring in a lot of customers or tourists.

“No, I’m sorry. I just don’t have three rooms together anywhere in the hotel. I can give you two of the rooms next to each other and another one on the same floor.” She smiled, but it was obvious that the lady in charge of registration was expecting a fight. She looked at the screen in front of her once again, squinting and trying to make three adjoining hotel rooms appear. “We’re having a festival this weekend so a lot of people are coming into town.”

“I just can’t believe this.” Rosie pushed her body back away from the counter in frustration. “Nothing seems to be going right.”

“I’m sorry about this ma’am. There’s nothing I can do about it. You made your reservation separately from them. If they had all been made together we would have planned for that.” The woman looked like she was on the tail end of an impossibly long shift and the exhaustion was starting to peek through her professionalism.

“It’s OK” Rosie ran her hand through her dark hair, then crossed her arms over her chest as she agreed to the woman’s terms. It felt like a surrender and she didn’t like it at all. “Just get the three rooms as close as possible and we’ll sort it out.”

“OK, no problem. I’m going to give you all upgrades so that we can get you guys a little closer together and to apologize for the inconvenience.” She smiled nervously. “I hope that works for you guys.”

“It’ll work.” Rosie sighed. “I should have called and let you guys know.”

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience.” The clerk apologized once again before handing them their keys and telling them where the rooms were going to be located. She handed them a flyer that informed them of when and where the free breakfast was going to be held, and they took the information and the packed bags to their rooms. They were located on the top floor of the three story building and two of them had lovely views of the parking lot and the third room had the most amazing view of all. The swamp stretched out behind the building and it was strewn with discarded trash.

Looking down Kevin wrinkled his nose. “I’m pretty sure that’s a dead dog back there.” He pointed to the edge of the light where something covered in fur seemed to be slipping off the flesh.

“Ugh, how can you tell from here?” The detective asked.

“Excellent eyesight comes with what we are.” Grey moved in to take a look. “It’s a dog.” He confirmed the lion’s suspicions. “Poor thing.”

“It can’t be easy to see one of your own kind like that.” Kevin nodded to his partner, acknowledging the kind of pain that can cause.

“Where do we want to start?” Grey asked, ignoring the feelings that were welling up inside him.

“I don’t know for sure, but I was thinking that we’d start at some local hang outs.” Rosie suggested opening up her suitcase.

“Is that why you told us to bring a range of clothes?” Grey looked at his suitcase, hoping that what he had brought was the right thing.

“Yep, no sense in you guys looking like G-men, there’s nothing that will make people shut up faster.”

“We’re used to dealing with people who don’t want to talk to us.” Kevin volunteered.

“Just change into a decent shirt and some jeans.” Rosie rolled her eyes and kicked them out of the room. She had decided to take the individual room so that the men didn’t argue about who would be in the room right next to her. She had three bags, where Kevin and Grey only had two each, but she hoped that they had listened to her and brought street clothes that would be appropriate in various situations.

She dressed carefully, with a tight white blouse that showed a lot of her natural assets in the dipped collar. She adjusted her cleavage and reached for the low heeled boots to put on. They fit beautifully under the flared legs of her jeans and she examined herself in the mirror. “I look pretty darn good. Now for the finishing touches.” Removing her make-up case she sighed. It almost seemed like it was too much work most of the time, but she thought that it would be better to have her make up done. Men would often find their lips a little looser when talking to a beautiful woman. There was a knock on her door as she put down the tube of mocha colored lipstick.

Answering it she found that both men were outside of her room. “Come on in.” She held the door open for them to enter the standard issue hotel room, the same kind that every chain seemed to like, impersonal, uncaring, inexpensive furnishings. It was just too cookie cutter for her tastes, but it was exactly the kind of cheap place that the FBI would spring for. “I’ll be ready in a minute. I just have to deal with my hair.”

The men didn’t answer, just watching her strut around the room in jeans that were just a touch too tight. She finished her hair up as quickly as possible, smoothing it down and pulling it into a low pony-tail. Turning to them. “How do I look?”

Kevin started to stammer, and Grey just opened his mouth. It took the men almost thirty seconds to get themselves together enough to speak and then the compliments came at the same time. “You look amazing.”

“Let’s go.” Rosie indicated the door.

“Where should we go?” Kevin averted his eyes so that he could think properly.

“Like I said, we’re going to a local bar. There’s one not far down this road. I saw it online and it seems like it’s a pretty quiet place, the kind of place that people go to when they don’t want to drink at home but want that kind of atmosphere.”

“That sounds like a good idea. Let’s go.” Grey opened the door and they made their way back down to the SUV. Rosie directed them to the small watering hole and Grey pulled into the tiny parking lot. There was no sign over the door, it was obvious that outsiders weren’t exactly encouraged to stop by. Rosie gritted her teeth, she knew that they weren’t exactly going to have a friendly reception in the place.

They weren’t destined to enter the doors right away however. Both of the shifters immediately smelled something strange. “Human flesh.” Grey was sniffing.

“Decaying.” Kevin agreed.

“What’s going on?” Rosie felt like she had showed up at the party late.

“There’s a dead body somewhere around here.” Kevin explained, but he was distracted, starting to move off to the side of the building, intent on going around it.

“We aren’t going to start asking some questions inside?”

“No, we have to find out who has died.” Grey had made his way further ahead and was starting to change into his full wolf form, with the gray fur starting to grow all over his body and falling down to all fours as his bone structure twisted and changed. His musculature was beginning to mold itself into a different form, but no strength was lost.

The shaggy wolf looked back at his group. “This is better. He’ll stand out a lot less than a lion in these parts.” Kevin nodded in Grey’s direction. “We should follow.”

Rosie sighed and looked down at her shoes. “I’m not dressed right for this.”

“Would you like me to carry you?” The lion offered.

“I can walk on my own.” The offer had injured her pride a little, but it was only a minor scratch. She brushed off the insult and moved back toward the wolf, who was waiting, impatiently twitching, trying to get them to move just a little bit faster. As the two approached he swung his head in the direction of the origin of the scent and moved into the darkening swamp. Kevin and Rosie fought their way through the brush, trying to keep up with the over-eager wolf that was practically running to follow the trail.

“It’s getting stronger now. We’re a lot closer.” Kevin swatted a branch out of his face.

“Please tell me we’re almost there.” Rosie slapped at a mosquito.

“I don’t know, but I know we’re getting closer.” Kevin assured her, but it didn’t make the smelly muck and uncontrollable plant and insect life any more tolerable. They continued on in silence for a minute before Grey came bounding back to them, his tail wagging and burrs in his fur. “I’m pretty sure we’re getting a lot closer.” Kevin smiled. “Lead the way.” He indicated for the wolf to continue ahead.

“These bugs are starting to get really bad.” Rosie complained as she slapped at a mass of flies and other flying insects that were buzzing near her head.

“That’s a good sign.”

“I know, I know, insect activity increases near the corpse.” Rosie sighed and then spat out the fly that had flew its way into her mouth.

“I think I see it.” Kevin looked ahead of them and pointed at a moving mass of insect activity.

The wolf was sitting next to it, wagging his tail and started to change back into his human form. The body was covered in bugs and wasn’t something that would be recognizable at all. “Who is it? He or she smells familiar, but I can’t place it.” Kevin politely looked away as Grey began to reclaim his shape.

“The decay has affected the scent. I can’t identify it yet.” Grey stepped up and spoke, adjusting his shirt as he looked down at the body.

“It smells awful.” Rosie held her nose and as a result her voice came out high pitched and nasally.

Kevin smirked. “I know it does, but we need to check this out.” He started to
shoo the insects away. “Whoever it is, they’re face down.”

“Probably a he, I don’t know many women who carry wallets in their back pockets.” Rosie pointed at the left part of the buttocks.

Grey reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of rubber gloves. It didn’t take long for him to reach into the pocket. “Does it have identification?” Kevin asked him as he opened it up.

“It does, obviously they didn’t worry about this person being identified.” Grey pulled out the dirty card and wiped it with his gloved palm. “It can’t be!”

“What’s going on?” Kevin moved over to get a better look.

“Who is it?” Rosie tried to look over his shoulder, but she couldn’t seem to get tall enough to identify who was on the card.

“I can’t believe this. This is Schmidt’s ID.”

“We just talked to him and this body’s been here for weeks.” Kevin’s incredulous reply held a hint of the dangerous implications the truth might hold.

He flipped open the wallet, a flap that both men had on their wallets. There was a badge there. “It’s him. This is his badge. I’m sure of it.”

“Do you have any idea what this means?” The detective felt a shudder start to form between her shoulder blades....

 

 

 

THE SAGA CONTINUES

 

THE ALPHAS GAME

EPISODE 5: THE FINALE

 

Kevin makes a startling discovery regarding the extent of the crimes that Alfi has committed. All along they have all been pawns in Alfi's sickening game.  People are dying and he needs to be stopped sooner rather then later. Kevin knows he needs Rosie to operate to the best of her abilities and so he forces her into making a decision.

 

It is time to choose.. 

 

 

Chapter1

No one can really express how long a trip like that can take, when you’re trying to keep a secret long enough to reveal a traitor and catch them in the act. Investigation isn’t always an easy process, but the local police that were trained to deal with problems like ours kept it under their hats. All we had to do was tell them what was going on, and they left it to our judgment. There was a little bit of frustration at the fact that no one could really talk about the situation, but it took less than a day to officially identify the body. It was Deputy Director Schmidt and he had been dead for at least a week. They would have been able to be a little more specific, but we had what we needed. We left the body and the scene in their capable hands, and raced up to the office. We needed to find out who had replaced Schmidt and take him into custody.

“This isn’t going to end well.” Rosie’s voice spelled doom. She felt like they were being forced to act before the proper time. She sighed and looked out the window. “Something could go wrong.”

They were driving all the way up from the everglades, heading back to Tampa. The truth was that they were going into one of the scariest confrontations they had ever been in. They were about to accuse the Deputy Director of the FBI Special Division of being an imposter, and there was a possibility that it could destroy everyone's career. It caused sweat to form under Rosie’s collar as they took a drive that seemed to be ten times longer than it actually was.

The Southern part of Florida was filled with dots of wilderness and countryside between large tracts of city. It wasn’t a long drive, but this one seemed to feel longer than any other drive that she had ever taken. The government issue SUV had a lot of power and was capable of moving a lot faster, but the last thing they needed to do was draw attention to their mission. That knowledge didn’t make her any happier about this, however.

“It won’t go wrong.” Grey promised. “They aren’t going to spill the beans early. We’ll confront him or her and take them in.” He didn’t sound very confident in his declaration.

“I’m not so sure about that.” Rosie was still being pessimistic. She ran her hands over her forehead then smoothed out her hair. “So many things could go wrong with this.”

“I know there are a lot of bad possibilities, but we have to do this now, before whoever this is gets a hold of something more.” Grey was trying to comfort Rosie.

“What more could they get? They already have information about every case that anyone in your office is working on.” Rosie pointed it out as if it was a new revelation, but the fact was that everyone in the vehicle had been thinking about that exact scenario.

Kevin stopped chewing his lip in order to answer. “We have to act quickly.”

“This is a pretty big risk.” Her voice echoed the threats that she had already mentioned. She felt the stinging weight of doom pressing down upon them.

“We could lose our jobs.” Kevin repeated the sentiment.

“It’s worth it. We have to follow the leads where they are.” Grey was certain that he was taking the right action. At least he sounded like he was certain. Internally, he was shaking with terror. This wasn’t something that he had ever thought that he would do. They didn’t have a lot of corruption in their department, so this wasn’t something that they ever thought that they would have to do, not in the slightest.

“That’s our exit.” The lion pointed and shifted lanes, eager to get off the freeway and out of the pessimistic overtones that had filled the car with their stench. “Let’s get this over with,” Kevin breathed, as he expertly negotiated the turns to take them to the government complex.

The large block of buildings held several offices for all sorts of federal services and other necessities to maintain a free and open society. Kevin pulled into the parking lot with great anticipation playing in his head. None of them could really predict how this was going to turn out and that was making them sweat. The conversation had stalled out as the vehicle followed a practiced path through the mangled mess of parking lot and building placement. Nothing in this little block made any sense whatsoever, it was almost as if some giant artist, specializing in the abstract, had haphazardly thrown the necessary buildings and their complimentary accessories in a random pattern. It was pleasing to the eye in some aspects, but a pain to navigate. Kevin had practiced the navigation many times by this point, so he was able to quickly and efficiently find his way.

Grey had already opened the car door and placed one foot outside of the vehicle by the time Kevin had pulled into the parking spot. The moment the vehicle came to a complete stop Grey jumped out of it and raced to the door. Rosie and Kevin weren’t very far behind him, they were ready for this. The drive had gone by in silence, everyone seemed to be rehearsing the coming confrontation in their heads.

The three of them rushed into the office that the imposter had taken over. Schmidt, or the person who was posing as him, looked up, surprised that they had come back the next day. “May I help you guys?” He placed his pen back on the desk and shuffled the papers into a single pile before giving the group his full attention.

“Yeah, something like that.” Rosie felt her rage rising up in her throat. Schmidt’s eyes widened, but he didn’t respond, instead waiting for her to continue. “You might start with telling us who you really are.” Her voice grew louder and with the door open it was starting to draw in curious stares.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The momentary confusion left his face and he regained an eerie calm. “You know exactly who I am.” The imposter stood his ground, knowing that the second he gave anything away he was going to lose this fight, and this was a battle he couldn’t afford to lose.

Grey stepped forward, muscles rippling under his suit. “I’m pretty sure what your secret is. I’m just mad that I didn’t see it before, that I didn’t notice how strange you’ve been acting. How long have you been posing as him, Ysella?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He continued to deny the accusations. “It’s pretty dangerous to come in here and make accusations like that to your boss.”

“We’re not just making this up.” Kevin retorted, stepping in front of Rosie. “We know the truth. We know that’s why you haven’t been rushing the evidence analysis. We know everything.”

“I think that this case has gotten to you guys. Why don’t you take a few days off and I’ll get someone else to work it. This is just a little too personal to you guys.” The suggestion was reasonable, but that didn’t matter to them. They had seen the body, verified the evidence and figured everything out. It had to be Ysella. Of course there was always the possibility that her brother had switched with her, taking on the role of the Deputy Director of FBI Special Division, the group that took control of all cases that had a supernatural element. These were the cases that normal humans didn’t want to know about. They couldn’t live their life in fear of creatures that could kill them with a single strike, most ‘normal’ people couldn’t go about their lives that way. This was why organizations like this needed to exist. They knew it, it was vital to the safety of the world that there were police forces and private organizations that existed solely to keep humanity safe from trouble-making  supernatural creatures, such as fairies, were-creatures, vampires, and witches.

“How long have you been posing as the boss? Is this how you’ve been avoiding us?” Kevin’s voice held a low threatening growl. “I know why you didn’t want us to go into that basement, and trust me you could have been a lot more subtle about it.”

“Look, I’ve tried to be reasonable. Don’t make me have you three dragged out of here.”

“Drag us out of here. It isn’t going to make a difference. We have the body.” Rosie’s accusation caught him off guard. His eyes started to widen.

Another agent stuck his head into the office. “Is everything ok in here?”

Deputy Directory Schmidt sighed. “No, I think this case is getting to these guys a little too much.” He rubbed his bald head longingly. “I’ve got this handled.”

“Are you sure?” The junior agent asked, eager to please.

“Yeah, if they get out of hand I’ll have them dragged down to holding until they calm down, but I hope it doesn’t come to that.” Schmidt smiled at the three investigators. “Why don’t you sit down and we can discuss this like civilized folks. I don’t want to have to lock you guys up.”

“You aren’t going to lock me up.” Rosie stuck her chest out and balled up her fists. Her dark eyes were like steel and her face echoed the seriousness of her words.

“I will if I have to, but no one really wants that to happen.” The man obviously felt like he had the upper hand once again. No matter what surprises they seemed to throw the imposter’s way, he or she seemed to recover quickly and respond with grace and poise.

She wasn’t the type of person to give up easily. As a detective it had become clear early on how important it is to have perseverance. “You aren’t going to do anything like that.” Rosie calmed down, realizing that her previous tactic wasn’t going to work. She turned to the men with her. “Aren’t you going to arrest her?”

Grey and Kevin looked at each other. They knew exactly how bad it was going to look. When they didn’t answer right away, the shape-shifted fairy looked at the detective. “They aren’t going to risk their careers. They don’t want to risk making a mistake.” There was laughter in the voice of the person posing as the Deputy Director of the FBI Special Division. 

Rosie didn’t wait for back up. She wasn’t afraid. Whatever risk she was taking didn’t matter, she was there to save lives. She didn’t hesitate, didn’t give in, didn’t quit. Instead her voice became harshly confident. “I’m placing you under citizen’s arrest.”

The fairy’s eyes widened at the sound. “You wouldn’t dare.” He looked at her, trying to judge the sincerity of her actions. When the imposter decided that the detective was completely serious about the issue, he started to rise. Grey moved forward and the fairy sat back down in the seat, unwilling to anger the shifter. He was much stronger than she would ever be and it wasn’t a safe thing to try to get into any sort of physical confrontation with someone like that.

“I do dare, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” She placed her hands on her hips, not noticing that Grey had pulled out his phone and shot off a quick text.

“Try it, just try it.” The person posing as Schmidt lost the surprise and his or her eyes narrowed, examining the psychic to determine if she really had the gall to try this on her. It was obvious that Ysella or Schmidt, whoever this was, wasn’t sure if the woman would actually follow through, but when Rosie started to walk up to the desk, her arms tense, causing her shoulders to look larger than they were.

A phone rang outside the office and one of the other agents answered it. “What?” The question echoed through the room. “Are you serious?” The man finally accepted the answer and walked over to his partner, gathering up a few people to head to the Deputy Director’s office.

They were all nervous when they knocked on the door, interrupting the tense situation as they let themselves in. “We just got a call.” The FBI agent was examining the face of his boss carefully.

“Is this important?” The man looked over at the newcomer with irritation.

“I think it is. They just called us to offer their condolences.” The man stared at the imposter and tried to identify what the reactions were going to be. He didn’t want to rile the boss any more than anyone else on the floor, but he had drawn the short straw, that meant that it was his job to tell who he thought was Schmidt the bad news.

“Condolences, about what?” Schmidt looked over at the man, but he already knew what the answer was going to be and he was getting ready to run.

Four more agents poured into the room, surrounding the Deputy Director, or at least the person posing as the Deputy Director. There really wasn’t anywhere for the person to go. “They found your body. They were calling to tell us how sorry they are.”

“What is the meaning of this?” The boss rose from his seat, ready to fight off the people who were coming after him.

“We’re going to have to check you out. We’ve gotten it ok’d already.” It was a matter-of-fact statement, but one that no one ever really wanted to make to their boss. Schmidt tried to run, leaping over his desk and heading for the door. It was pretty clear that his primary escape route had been blocked off, and he didn’t know what other direction to go.

Grey tackled the man, taking him down to the ground, knowing that they had to stop this. Schmidt fought back, punching the werewolf in the chest. Grey shifted his body. The strike hadn’t hurt much, but it was in the perfect location to knock the air out of him. The grunt signaled others into action and the shape shifter was dragged to his feet and dragged into a specially protected interrogation room.

 

BOOK: The Alphas Game - Complete Set
12Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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