Chapter Eleven
As the sun rose, Dahlia’s family and their guests came back to life, jumping out of beds, folding up blankets and sheets and running around to get breakfast ready and clothing on and messy hair combed. The family sat down to a quick breakfast and the couple joined them. Dahlia made Harper a special tea, “To keep the nausea down,” she assured her. Harper raised her cup in thanks and then sipped it slowly. The pungent, herbal concoction made the acid in her stomach take a break.
“You have everything you need?” Dahlia inquired as she watched Harper pack up her stuff.
“I think so; snacks, water, a change of clothes…”
Dahlia stood to pick something up off of the counter. “Here. Take this. It got me through four pregnancies.”
“More tea?”
“No,” she said. “It’s an herbal medicine that will keep your head clear while you’re with The Alliance. Pregnant ladies get fuzzy sometimes, especially when their middles get as big as yours.” She put a finger on Harper’s expanding stomach and raised her eyebrows. “It’s coming soon, you know.”
“I know.” She accepted the bag of herbs and tucked them into a little side pocket. “How can I ever repay you for everything you’ve done?”
“You’re bringing my son’s killer to justice,” Dahlia countered. “I can’t think of anything more to ask for. Well, maybe you could babysit sometime.”
“You got it,” Harper laughed. The two women threw their arms around one another in a big hug and swayed back and forth in their shared embrace. Harper let her go and turned to find Grey.
“Ready?” he asked as he walked up.
“All set.” Her lover pulled her in for a big hug and kissed the top of her head.
“Be back here in two days or we move ahead with the plan without you, okay?”
“I’ll be here.” The released each other and stared at one another’s faces. Grey’s was a little less goofy, more mature. She didn’t know it, but Harper’s was glowing with pregnancy and a sense of purpose. She looked less like a pretty girl and more like a mature, beautiful woman. They kissed and the kids all cried out at the sight of something so gross and terrible.
“Ew!”
“Stop it! That’s gross!”
“Their lips are touching!”
They laughed and hugged one more time, then Harper stepped back. “Okay. Get a team together. We’ll be right behind you.”
Grey gave her a little salute. “You got it, boss.”
“Oh, boss. I like that.” She waved a final goodbye to everyone and stepped out to begin the walk to the hangar.
She really should have sent word ahead, but she didn’t have a good way to send a message. Besides, the hangar was close enough that by the time a messenger arrived she would be right behind it, defeating the purpose. Still, she felt another surprise visit might send the wrong message.
As she walked, she got the impression she was being watched. Harper stopped and looked around, but all she saw were the usual humans and shifters going about their day. She shrugged, continuing down the path.
Soon she reached the edge of the forest and could see the clear, flat plain in front of her. Again, she felt a pair of eyes on her but still couldn’t make out who it might be. She looked around and called out a greeting, but there was no response.
“If you’re following me, you may as well show yourself,” she demanded. Her voice echoed into the empty expanse and she hesitated. Was she being tricked? There was no one she could see in any direction beyond the people who should have been there. She was close to the cloth workers stash where they liked to sit and gossip and wait for anyone to come by who might need a new piece of clothing or curtain. One of the women poked her head out and looked around to see what all the yelling was about, but lost interest when she failed to see anything of interest.
Convinced, Harper went on, crossing the field and doing her best to ignore the feeling in her gut that told her she needed to beware. “Must be that pregnancy brain problem Dahlia was talking about,” she said to herself and picked up the pace.
The walk to the hangar took about an hour for anyone else, but for a pregnant Harper it took about two. She had to stop to drink water, pee and have a snack several different times. It was maddening how bossy her body had gotten; she couldn’t even wait to relieve herself without feeling like a woman on the verge of wetting herself. Every demand had to be met immediately, no hesitation.
During a squat in the grass, she saw a flash of something. Harper’s entire body froze. Someone was following her, she was sure. After a long wait, she didn’t see any other movement but now she knew that feeling in her gut had been a warning, not a misunderstanding. She collected herself, arranged her clothes and stood with an odd pressure on her shoulders. It was almost as if strong, wise hands were holding her in place.
The hangar was in her sight. She could make a run for it. She wasn’t fast but she could still move. Her eyes looked all around for another glimpse of her pursuer, nothing. Her shoulders turned to the hangar, her breath shot down into her abdomen and her feet dug into the earth beneath her. After counting quickly to three, she commanded herself to run.
Her heavy frame went speeding across the ground, anxious for cover. She saw the guards and called out to them. “Help! Being followed! Let me in!”
The guards that day were two different young men than she had met before, but she could see one of them consulting with someone on the inside of the structure. She felt the presence of an animal close to her but didn’t turn around to see what it was, she just ran faster.
“Help! Help!” She pumped her arms and legs so hard they felt as if they might catch on fire. Blades of grass and tiny rocks flew out from underneath her feet in all directions, a couple of them catching her on the side of her head.
“Ow!”
Her foot had kicked whatever was following her. She knew that voice. She tried to turn as her feet continued running, but her legs got tangled up and sent her sprawling backwards onto the ground. “Uff!”
For a moment, everything was grass and dirt, then as Harper turned she saw the sky and the two guards above her.
“Hey! You alright? Did you hit your head?”
“Take it easy. Let’s get you inside.”
She let them help her to sit up and she looked around again. “What did I kick?”
They glanced around and one of them pointed behind her. “That little jaguar there. She was probably just trying to give you a scare. Do you know her?”
She turned and saw a young, gleaming back wildcat sitting in the grass. It was breathing heavily after its run and watching her with two big, shining eyes. The cat tilted her head in a familiar way and Harper realized she knew exactly who it was.
“Katy?”
At the sound of her name, Katy shifted back to a human form and walked up to the group with big, apologetic eyes. She stopped a few steps away, not quite sure if she was welcome. “Hi.”
“Honey,” Harper breathed, relieved to see that her spy was a sweet little girl and not a coldblooded murderer, “what are you doing? You should be with your mom.”
“But Ma told me to follow you,” she said, looking at the grass at her feet.
“Wait, what?”
“Please can I stay?” Katy asked, reaching for her hand. Harper looked at her little spy, trying to decipher why her mother had sent her on this odd task. Did Dahlia think that Harper was up to something or did she just want to give her a little help?
“It’s okay with The Alliance,” the guards offered. “Kids are always welcome here. She can go and play in the classroom.”
Harper put her hands on Katy’s arms. “Katy, why did your mom want you to follow me?”
The little girl shrugged and then consulted the men. “Where’s the classroom?”
One of them picked her up and led the way while the other attended to Harper. “You’re Alex’s friend, right? The president was your dad?”
“Yeah,” she said, still watching Katy, “that’s me.”
“Wow. Nice to meet you finally. I’m Yusef. I’m not normally on security so I guess it was just my good luck that you came by today. Alex will be thrilled. He told me all about the kidnapping plan…” Yusef went on for a while but Harper was done listening. The door to the hangar opened and Katy shot her a little smile as her guard dipped under it and brought her inside. He set her down and she promptly ran upstairs to join the class of little ones already playing in the learning room. Yusef was asking her something and she found herself nodding, though she had no idea what it was he could be asking.
“Really?” the young man confirmed. “You really think you might live here one day soon?”
“I don’t know,” Harper corrected herself. “I thought I preferred the forest, but now I’m starting to see the secrets it’s hiding. So,” she turned to Yusef, “I guess I can’t really say where home is. At least, not right now.”
The guy smiled at her and offered her a seat at the communal table. “What brings you here today?”
Before she answered, she glanced around. “Hey, where’s Alex today? I really should say hello to him.”
“Oh, he’s out. Scavenging trip. We need some new parts for garage. We’re building a plane,” Yusef explained. “Was there something you needed?”
“Actually,” she said, putting her palms on the table, “I need the help of your organization. I’m in a bind and I don’t have the know how to get myself out of it. I’m hoping since you’re a group of problem-solvers, maybe I can tap into your collective genius.”
“What sort of a bind?”
She spelled it out for him; a criminal had been identified and deemed dangerous, but there seemed to be no means of punishing or confining him. She couldn’t let him go free, either. He had already killed a young boy.
He nodded and sat with her. “Well, that sounds like a problem for the meeting tonight. Can you stay?”
“Oh, sure. I’m in no rush.”
“Great. Let me put up an announcement that we have an extra person here. All our crews need to know so you’re accounted for.”
He stepped away and she took in the hangar again. She noticed that some windows had been replaced with a lovely blue glass that glowed in the sunlight. The shafts of deeply colored light gave a watery effect to parts of the giant structure and made it look strange and ethereal. The sound of a loud laugh turned her attention to the learning space above her and she saw Katy playing with a couple of girls her age. They had a group of teddy bears between them and Katy making hers talk.
“You can’t take this from me! I’m the big, mean man. I say what you do.”
The girls laughed at her funny voice but Harper found herself chilled by the tone in Katy’s voice. The girl noticed her looking and quickly turned away so that Harper could no longer see the game. Harper’s gut spoke up again; something was wrong, very wrong. She just prayed The Alliance would keep her safe, even if the threat was a tiny, adorable girl.
Back at Dahlia’s, Grey was canvassing his part of the forest for help. Soon he had a team consisting of Emily boar, Larissa the fossa, several fliers he only knew casually and Dahlia herself. “I’m not sitting this one out,” she told him, much to his amusement.
“Far be it from me to deny a lady the battlefield,” he said with a little bow, eyebrows waggling in his sarcastic manner. She gave him a little smack on the shoulder.
“Shut your mouth.”
They all gathered in Dahlia’s living room to make a plan of attack. Grey caught them all up on the story - the booze, the money, the still hiding at the back of the swamp. Everyone listened attentively to the whole thing.
“Wait,” Emily interrupted, “what’s wrong with people getting drunk? It’s their business.”
“You don’t understand,” Larissa cut in. “It’s not innocent partying. It’s part of a bigger plan to turn some of the population into addicts. Once the money’s gone and they can’t get their booze anymore -”
“They’ll lose it,” Emily finished, her face pale with the thought. “Oh, God. I’ve met addicts before. They’re unpredictable, violent, they lie about everything and they’ll steal from anyone. That’s what these guys want?”
“Yes,” Grey assured her. “If they have a troupe of addicts on their hands with no cash, they’ll be ripe for manipulation. I don’t know what the end goal of all of this is, but I know it isn’t good. One boy has already lost his life.”
Everyone turned to Dahlia who gave a somber nod. “My little Marcus was unlucky enough to figure out the formula. Somehow, they caught him and did away with my little man.” She paused as a tear slid down her cheek. “I don’t want to know what these maniacs might do next.”
The group focused on their approach. Grey would go first and then come back to Larissa with everyone’s position, information on weaponry, etcetera. “After that,” he continued, “we can let her lead us into their headquarters. Remember, we’re there to trap these guys, not kill them. Emily, I’m counting on you to help me with that part.”
She sat up and smiled a little. “You got it.”
He smiled back and felt a leap of joy in his chest. Emily hadn’t looked this excited about anything in a long time.
“Alright. Everyone get some sleep. We’ll meet back here at dawn.”
The group dispersed, but Emily hung around. After the others had wandered away, she bumped her shoulder into Grey’s side and motioned for him to follow her outside.
Together, they stepped outside and watched the people below them walk along the forest floor, laugh together and barter for different things they needed. Emily seemed to be waiting for something. After a moment, she spoke without looking at Grey.
“Something isn’t right,” she said, keeping her voice low. “There’s one detail about all of this that’s bothering me.”
Grey took a cue from his friend and spoke in a soft voice as well. “What is it?”
Emily scratched her head and tipped her chin to her chest. She was hiding her face. “How did anyone know what Marcus was up to? I mean, he’s just a kid playing the forest. What, did these guys go around interviewing everyone they met, asking if by chance they had a formula for moonshine? I mean, what tipped them off?”
Grey felt a little trickle of cold go down his back. “I don’t know. I assumed it was coincidence. Like, they heard something out in the swamp and when they went to check it out, found a little boy making the same thing they were and panicked.”
Emily thought about that, nodding slowly. “A coincidence isn’t out of the question. It just seems to me that if I had a secret project and some little kid just happened to figure out my idea, it wouldn’t occur to me to kill him. I mean, he’s just a kid. No one’s going to take him all that seriously. I would talk to his parents and see if we could work something out or maybe I would tell the kid to back off, but not kill him.”
Leaned down so that he could whisper into her ear. “So, you think there’s more to the story.”
“I’m sure.” She looked over her shoulder and got a glimpse of Dahlia. “How well do you know his mom?”
“Dahlia? I just met her yesterday, but she’s an incredible woman. I trust her.”
“Okay,” Emily said as she straightened up. “If you do, then I do, too. I’m just warning you, I don’t think you have all the details.”
She gave him a hug and headed over to the lift. She waved as she went down and out of sight. In her absence, the late afternoon felt very quiet and oddly dark.
Back at the hangar, the daily meeting was coming to a close.
“So,” Yusef said to the group at large, “we’re all agreed? This is the punishment we will administer to the murderer?”
The group nodded and murmured amongst itself. Harper took a breath. She disagreed with the approach they had decided on, but she had no alternative. Her only experience with punishment was punitive - jail time, beatings, assassination. The Alliance had gone a whole different direction but they seemed certain it would work.
“Any concerns or dissension? No? Very well then As head of security, I will supervise the punishment and assign random people as helpers to keep the criminal in line and be sure he’s doing his duty. I would ask the rest of you to just let me know if you see anything out of the ordinary or hear of any attempts to escape.”
They nodded and the group moved on to the next topic. Harper bit her lip. She just prayed she was doing the right thing.