Chapter 12
Joline led Jennifer to the professors’ offices.
She hoped to find Agent Quakenbush there.
Though, with it being Saturday, the agent may not have been on campus.
From what Joline heard about Quakenbush, she was originally a member of the Q-T Team, working as a strategist. While now, the platypus shifter mainly taught at FUCN’A, Joline figured she’d be a valuable asset to their plan.
Quackenbush would be of more use than just sniffing out potential spies in the airducts.
“So. You and Ariel have a thing going?” Jennifer asked, giving her a side eye glance. Joline didn’t like her tone. It was flat and clipped, as if she were trying to start an argument.
“Not that it’s your business, but yes. We’ve been hanging out.” While it was more than that, Joline wasn’t about to get into the details of their romantic evening watching the sunset.
Jennifer barked a sharp laugh that showed anything but amusement. “I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into. That woman is more guarded than Fort Knox.”
While Joline knew Ariel had been tight-lipped about what brought her to WANC in the beginning, she felt Ariel had been opening up more about her past. And it wasn’t like she was keeping secrets out of malice.
It was because Ariel felt shame over her role with Grimm.
Joline could tell she was healing. While her motive for revenge wasn’t the best one in Joline’s opinion, Ariel was giving the others in her support group a cause.
And they were safe on campus. Joline doubted anything would come of their plan.
Grimm was setting a trap on Pine Ave. They would all be safe at WANC, focusing on a plan that would never come to fruition.
But it gave them something to bond over.
Ariel needed that more than anything in Joline’s opinion.
“I know she wasn’t very forthcoming in the past.” While Ariel could be prickly at times, Joline knew she had a soft underbelly.
“Forthcoming?” Jennifer snorted. “She thought we were all idiots who couldn’t see the genius of her precious evil scientist. Instead of listening to what we were saying, she put her own spin on it to keep Grimm in a good light. She can’t be trusted.” The words stung.
“You don’t think she’s turned over a new leaf?” Joline felt that while Ariel had been secretive, she never gave Joline a reason not to trust her.
Jennifer shook her head. “It looks like she trying, but I don’t know. I can’t believe it.” She chuckled darkly. “Although, I was traumatized by said evil scientist, so maybe I have trust issues, too. Perhaps she is different, and I can’t see it.” She combed her fingers through her dark hair.
“She is trying.” Joline felt obligated to defend Ariel.
“It she was manipulating us, I don’t think she’d be open about wanting revenge.
” Joline was shocked when Ariel had blurted it out.
She was under the impression this was a support group to work through problems, not start a plot against one of FUC’s most wanted.
“Maybe she thinks that’s what we want to hear,” Jennifer mused aloud before chewing on a fingernail.
“It’s not what I want to hear. I want to do things by the book.”
“And here we are tracking down agents to do just that.” Jennifer gave a knowing smile as if to say there was more going on.
Joline found herself shaking the mental image of Ariel still being a bad guy from her mind. “No. This is about being smart and using all the assets we have.”
“Do you really think Ariel told the agents she thinks this is a trap to get them off campus so Grimm can strike here?”
Joline nodded. “I do. I trust her. She has no reason to lie.” Not about that anyway, but Joline decided to keep that to herself.
She knew Jennifer had a point about Ariel keeping secrets, but they were about her past and not the present—Joline hoped, anyway.
She hated to admit it, but Jennifer had planted a small seed of doubt in her.
“Let’s find this agent and then go get the party supplies so we can regroup.”
Joline nodded. The faster they did their part, she could get back to Ariel to keep an eye on her.
Controlling her hormones was a little different than shifting into her animal.
Ariel stood in front of the mirror in the bathroom of her assigned dorm, staring at her reflection.
She figured looking just older than middle-aged would make her look different enough.
After wandering around as a shrew, Ariel had found an ID badge left on a desk that should work.
The task was much harder with three legs, but she made it work.
Ariel studied the picture in her hand. While the doctor on the badge had golden brown hair, there were enough streaks of grey through it where Ariel figured her auburn hair wouldn’t be so noticeable. She’d hoped, anyway.
After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she found the imaginary door in her brain that led to the controls of her hormone levels.
Ariel found it easier to use a visual meditation practice to hone the art of changing her age.
She imagined turning the dial to sixty years old.
Her skin prickled as it aged, its elasticity diminishing.
The worst part was her hair thinning out.
She picked up a brush, running it along her tresses, pulling out the loose strands.
When she went back to her normal age, all the lost hair would have to grow back at its natural rate.
The woman in the reflection brushed her greying hair.
The silver did tone down the red, making it appear less brassy, giving it a more neutral ash hue.
Ariel pulled the makeup bag closer. The woman on the ID badge had a few small moles on her face and no freckles.
After hiding her spatter of freckles with foundation, she used an eyeliner pencil to add the moles.
She hated to admit she missed the thrill of this.
There was something exciting about donning a disguise and seeing if it tricked anyone.
Next, she applied some darker contours to change her face shape slightly.
The doctor on the badge had a more rounded face than Ariel.
When she was satisfied with the reflection, she threw on the white lab coat, pinning the ID badge to the left breast pocket.
Too bad she didn’t find a set of keys when she swiped the badge.
Hopefully, it wasn’t reported missing, or this would all be for nothing.
Ariel paused with her hand hovering above the knob of her dorm room.
Could she continue to walk the straight and narrow if things like disguising herself to trick others excited her?
Could she be the person Joline needed her to be?
The better version even she herself needed to see?
But wasn’t she doing just that? Instead of using her tricks to kidnap people, she was helping to protect her friends and finally take down the man who hurt them. The man who hurt her.
She left her room, making her way to the hospital wing of WANC.
Relief flooded her, realizing she could be herself and also be the woman Joline deserved.
Ariel was determined to prove just how useful she could be to FUC.
But that wouldn’t pan out if she got caught sneaking around to get supplies.
Luckily, fewer staff walked the halls on the weekend.
Ariel just hoped she wouldn’t seem too out of place.
The supply closet Jennifer mentioned was just passed the nurses’ station.
From the time she spent in the hospital wing after they released her from her cell, Ariel knew exactly where Jennifer was talking about.
Ariel walked to the door. She checked all her pockets as if just realizing she didn’t have her set of keys. Hopefully the nurse would buy the act.
She smiled at the nurse as she approached. “Would you mind opening the door to the supply closet for me so I don’t have to go back to the lab? I’m running behind schedule today.”
The female nurse smiled, pulling up the corners of her thin lips. “Dr. Burns, did you forget your keys again?”
Ariel nodded, doing her best to appear slightly embarrassed. “I’m afraid I did.”
“You sound like you have a cold, too. Maybe you shouldn’t have picked up the extra shift today.” The nurse’s dark eyebrows drew up in the center in concern.
While Ariel could disguise her face and change her age, she wasn’t able to manipulate her voice.
Especially not when it was a person she had never met.
Naturally, Ariel had a gravelly voice. It seemed the doctor didn’t, but she could play it off as a cold.
The nurse came up with the perfect excuse for her.
She nodded, playing along. “I only have a few things I need to get done, then will head home to rest.”
The nurse got up, grabbed the keys attached to her ID badge and led Ariel to the nearby supply closet.
“You’d better,” the nurse chided as she unlocked the door to the supply closet.
“And make sure you do leave early. I know you put a lot of time into reversing those terrible experiments, but today you need to prioritize yourself.” She meant the rescued shifters who were mutated by people like Grimm.
“Thank you. I plan to.” She added a fake set of coughs for good measure.
Before Ariel had to decide if she should attempt more small talk or make up an excuse for the nurse to leave before she realized Ariel was not who she said she was, a patient walked up to the nurse’s station.
The nurse gave Ariel a parting smile before heading back to help the patient.
Ariel let the door close behind her as she entered the tiny supply closet.
Bottles of various chemicals, empty syringes, bandages, IV lines, and objects Ariel couldn’t identify were stacked neatly around her.
She eyed up the chemicals before she found the bottle of chloroform.
After grabbing two bottles, she looked around in case they could use any of the other supplies.
A bundle of rags and a coil of IV line looked promising.
She filled up her arms as if shopping without a cart.
Maybe bringing a bag would have been smarter, but it was too late for that.
After poking her head out the door and seeing the nurse had disappeared with the patient, Ariel left the hospital wing to make her way back to the empty classroom where they’d agreed to meet.
Hopefully no one would find her out of place, or this would be all for nothing.
And this could help prove whose side she was on to the other group members.
It would especially show Joline that she was making an effort to do better and not fall into her old habits.
She remembered how shocked Joline looked when Ariel announced her plan to get revenge.
It broke her heart to see Joline react that way.
She needed Joline to understand. Ariel would protect those she used to kidnap.
No more would she be a lackey for Grimm.
She’d put the man down if it was the last thing she did.