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“The Guardian wants to talk to you, Cole,” Rory said, holding out the phone.

Cole put down his fork from his half-eaten breakfast and took the phone. He glanced around the diner where no one was paying attention to them, then said, “Yes, sir?”

“We have a firm line on Katelyn.”

Finally, some good news. Great way to end this week. “That’s great, sir.”

“Possibly. What I have is a phone number you have to answer this evening, no set time, then go immediately to meet her.”

“That’s not a problem, sir.”

“It wouldn’t be, but you’ll be given just enough time to reach her. If you miss that window, she won’t meet with anyone again. If anyone follows you or goes near the meeting, she’ll vanish.”

Cole pointed out, “That means I can’t take backup.”

“I understand.”  The Guardian added, “I don’t like sending you in alone, but as I was told when we got this lead, she won’t meet with anyone except you. She said Sammy only mentioned his best friend and never gave a name. We all know he meant you.”

Cole did not want to let Sammy down. “I’ll do my best to convince her to help us. To help Sammy.”

“This is a risky gamble, even for one of us. I’m going to guess that Sammy has been suffering the full force of the mating curse for close to three weeks. Once it starts, a Gallize has as short as three weeks and as long as five before the mind deteriorates to the point of ...”

“I understand.”  More than the Guardian could know, Cole was keenly aware of the early mating curse stages and where it was headed. Based on what the Guardian was saying, Cole had a feeling his curse was progressing quickly, the same as Sammy’s.

“That’s not the only reason I’m calling. We can’t allow SCIS to learn that Sammy is a Gallize. There are too many leaks coming out of that organization. I’m close to securing our position with my contact for national defense before we go public, but even when we do, it won’t be all at once and only for those who need to know. I’ve given this a lot of thought.”

The Guardian paused. Their boss always thought before he jumped.

Cole interjected, “I’ve been hesitating to say this, because it still doesn’t ring true in my mind, but I think Sammy might have gone to the Black River pack voluntarily.”

“You think he believed they could cure the curse?”

“Maybe.”

“If that was possible, I would have brought the cure here for all of you, even if it started a war among shifters.”

Cole believed him.

The Guardian continued. “I think there’s only one way someone would have convinced Sammy that they could cure him and that would have required a powerful magic user who could overpower Sammy’s ability to reason. It wouldn’t really cure anything, just fill him with the belief it would. The one major side effect is that every time Sammy hallucinates, the curse symptoms probably get worse.”

If Sammy was coerced by magic, it didn’t change anything in the end game, but Cole appreciated any reason to believe his friend hadn’t just walked into their camp.

The Guardian continued. “I was asked point blank by a congressman who sympathizes with shifters if any of our people were involved with the Black River pack.”

Cole said, “What’d you tell him?”

“That none of my team would willingly aid that pack and that we’re exhausting every resource to stop them.”

A fair statement. Cole would have said the same.

“This congressman is key to blocking the vote on branding shifters,” the Guardian continued.

“Branding is a dangerous idea,” Cole warned. He and his teammates had the Guardian’s mark, but that was a mark of honor and protection. It was also voluntary.

The Guardian went on to say, “Yes, but Senator Janver is on the committee trying for the second time to get a bill through as a means of containing the threat. We have to find a link to the Black River pack and at least take down this arm of it until we can locate the head. When that happens and I have the agreement I want, I’m going to present the League of Gallize Shifters in a closed-door congressional meeting as the strongest arm of shifter law enforcement. If I do that and they accept, I want full autonomy when it comes to shifter justice.”

Going public might put a target on the head of every man on Cole’s team, but the alternative was humans thinking there was no viable police unit for dangerous shifters. That would perpetuate a return to the world of eight years ago, with humans killing shifters on sight and shifters attacking at any provocation.

Having the Gallize go public might save a future shifter from enduring what Cole had at SCIS. Assuming shifters encountered agents who were honest and not like Brantley.

If humans knew there was a force capable of controlling criminal shifters and that the same Gallize shifters would also protect shifter communities, then both sides would have to think twice before crossing the Gallize.

Everyone had to work together to survive.

That was the best hope for stopping legislation to brand every man, woman and child shifter.

Cole shivered at the thought. “What else, sir?”

“You have autonomy to make whatever deal is necessary to convince Katelyn to help us. I want all of you to know that I will do anything within my power to help you avoid the mating curse. Keep me informed on how the meeting with Katelyn goes.”

“Yes, sir.”

With the call ended, Cole turned to Rory and Justin. Their exceptional hearing made it easy to catch phone conversations when they were close. He still asked, “You heard what I said about Sammy going to the pack voluntarily?”

Rory gave him a chin lift acknowledgement.

Justin said, “Yeah, we heard that and those Black River bastards probably used magic on Sammy. What kind of magic would they have that could manipulate our bear?”

“I’m not sure,” Cole admitted. “But I don’t think they could have gotten that close to him if not for Sammy already having problems due to the mating curse.”

Rory mused, “If they used magic to get him into the pack and to drink Jugo Loco ... then maybe that’s how they convinced him to kill humans.”

Cole had thought that, too, but hadn’t wanted to give voice to the sick thought. “Maybe, but we need to find him to get real answers and we’re running out of time.” He reviewed the rest of the call with his team and said, “Let’s put money on the street for a Jugo Loco buy.”

Rory scoffed, “No one’s going to do a deal with us.”

“They’ll do a deal with a local drug dealer. We just have to turn one we know into our puppet.”

“I might have just the guy.” Justin stood up with that determined look on his face. “How much are we buying?”

“Offer ten thousand dollars worth for a trial run with a guaranteed three hundred thousand if that buy goes well. Then say we’ll increase based on the quality and delivery.”

Rory cautioned, “We’re going to have to put word out on the street and let them send someone to us. That means risking exposure.”

“That’s why we get the big bucks,” Justin deadpanned.

“If SCIS hears, they’ll be sticking their nose into it,” Rory warned.

“I’ll worry about them.” Cole said. “You just get the deal struck.”  Confident words he had to back up.

“Ah, hell,” Justin muttered. “Look what’s out on an APB with orders to contact SCIS immediately.”

Cole and Rory looked at the phone Justin turned to them.  The display showed a sketched image of Cole.

Cole sighed. Thanks, Tess.