Angela

She couldn’t see it, but somewhere less than a foot in front of her was the line that marked the difference between the sidewalk and the grass that was the edge of Cloud Park. The snow continued to come down in thick white sheets, a winter storm the likes of which they saw once or twice a year at most. It was up over a foot now that had fallen, and the reports said another foot or more was to be expected.

There was no path through the park. At three thirty in the morning nobody was out just yet. Not even the hardcore runners or walkers had ventured forth. That left it up to Angela to forge a trail. Her boots weren’t designed for that sort of expedition, but she didn’t care. The first boot crunched through several layers of snow and the left one followed shortly thereafter. Cooper was in trouble. She would stop at nothing to get him back.

Tucked under one arm was the key to doing just that. A file folder thick with pages of information—all that they could come up with on short notice—was held there, encased in a little zippered notebook holder to protect it from the elements. Angela fervently hoped that it would be enough to convince Chase to give her back her son.

The visibility around her was down to fifteen, twenty feet at best. Anything beyond that was lost in the white. She tilted her head upward, trying to see the clouds, but that was even more hopeless. The lights of the park shone intermittently here and there, but all they did was give her enough light to walk by, and little more.

She eventually made her way to the little gazebo and paved area that marked the center of the park, moving underneath it for cover. It was empty, though she wasn’t surprised. Chase hadn’t specified where in the park to meet, but they’d all figured the center gazebo was the best bet. He would find her.

The snowbanks were huge there, drifting up nearly ten feet against the railing on the far side of the gazebo. Angela took the encased folder and held it tightly to her chest while she paced back and forth, waiting for him to arrive.

“Where are you!” she shouted impatiently after ten minutes had passed, kicking the railing hard.

As she did one of the snow drifts shivered, was the only way she could describe it. Then it moved. Snow cascaded down around her as the mound revealed itself to be a bear of purest white. A polar bear.

The thing was huge. Angela had seen bears in the wild before, but this put even the largest of those to shame. It had to be over fifteen feet long, and seven feet tall at the shoulders. She couldn’t guess its mass, but expected that it exceeded two and a half tons. Over twenty-five hundred pounds of bear turned to face her, its eyes fixated on her diminutive form. Teeth longer than her fingers flashed as it growled.

But all that was eclipsed by the sound from beneath it. A noise she would recognize anywhere.

“Cooper?” she called frantically, running to the edge and looking over, ignoring the mini dishwasher-sized head hanging above her.

Sitting in an area mostly free of snow was her son, thanks to the bulk of the massive polar bear.

“I have done my part,” a human voice said.

She looked up to see Chase, now having resumed his human form.

“Have you done yours?” he inquired casually, grabbing her son’s carseat and bringing it with him as he came into the gazebo itself.

Angela stepped forward to take Cooper, but Chase deftly swung the carseat behind his back, wagging a finger at her. “Information first,” he said coldly.

“Here,” she snapped, thrusting the file folder at him. “Knock yourself out. Now give me my child.”

Chase put the carseat down behind him and with deliberate slowness unzipped the cover and withdrew the information from within, scanning it over. She shook with barely restrained anger, wanting nothing more than to attack him and take her child. But that was a futile plan, something that would never work. Chase could use one hand to restrain her with ease. So she kept still and stuck to the plan.

“Oh, this is bad,” Chase muttered. “Much worse than I expected. So many of them.” He looked up at her, disappointment in his eyes. “I don’t know why you would help them. They’re breaking the law.”

She rolled her eyes. “They aren’t breaking any of our laws. In fact, they’ve been a boon to the community. Not that you would see that of course. You’re too blinded by the rule of law to understand the spirit of it. ‘Nobody must break the rules. They all must be punished!’ People like you will never understand,” she said with a sigh. “It’s fundamentally against what you are. No amount of trying will change that, until it comes to affect you in a personal way, if it ever does.”

Chase stared at her for a moment. “Eloquently put, though perhaps a tad heavy on the sarcasm. But, no matter. The information is good. Here, have your offspring back.” He used one foot to slide Cooper’s carseat across the floor of the gazebo to her.

After a quick check to ensure he was okay, she picked him up and then carefully walked around Chase, who was still looking over the details.

“You’re just going to stand there?” she asked, genuinely confused. “Isn’t this the part where you run?”

He looked up at her. “Run?”

“Yeah. I have my child back. There’s nothing stopping Noah from attacking you now.”

Chase pulled out an electronic device from his pocket and tapped it a few times. “Well, nothing other than the fact that he’s still back at the embassy.”

She froze. “You have a tracker on him. But I didn’t think shifters used technology?”

“Some of us are a little more progressive than others,” he said with a smile. “But you’re right. Why risk anything?” He closed up the file folder and started walking toward her.

“What are you doing?” she asked, backpedaling down the stairs and out into the snowstorm, flicking the cover down over the carseat with her free hand, then reaching into her pocket.

Chase watched the movement. “What are you going to do, pull out a gun and shoot me? It won’t stop me. All it will do is make me angry, and ensure that you’re forced to watch as I kill your son.”

Angela shook her head and removed her hand. It was holding a flashlight. “I’m not that dumb,” she said, thumbing it on. “I just need to see.” She started backing away.

The Cadian Intelligence agent just laughed. “Oh, right. I forgot your human vision is quite pathetic. But, a word of advice?” he said, still chuckling as he descended the stairs out of the gazebo.

“What?”

“You might try pointing it at the ground, instead of up into the sky.”

“Oh, you think so?” she asked, rotating the flashlight a few times so it made circles in the sky.

“I’m quite positive,” he sneered. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got what I need, and must be going.”

“No,” she said in a whisper. “You’ve just gotten what you wanted. Now you’re about to get what you deserve.”

She lowered the flashlight until it pinned him in its light.

“What are you doing?” he asked, coming to a halt. The flashlight was extremely powerful, and it cut through the snow with ease, casting a huge shadow behind Chase.

“Just following the advice you gave me,” she said with a sweet smile and started backing away.

Chase turned to face her fully, anger on his face. “You’re up to something, aren’t you?” he snarled, and took a step in Angela’s direction.

Something very loud, and very large-sounding shrieked overhead, a noise that could be mistaken as nothing else besides what it was: the hunting call of a bird of prey.

“Well,” she said, still backing away. “What a great choice of words. You’re right,” she said, hatred pouring into her voice, mixing with grim satisfaction. “I was up to something. But as I’m sure you know, what goes up, must come down.”

The ground beneath them rose up and sent her stumbling as a mammoth figure slammed into it between the two of them, obscuring her view of Chase.

Angela didn’t stick around to watch as two growls filled the air. Holding Cooper tight to her, she turned and ran from the park as fast as she could in the snow.