Chapter 38 Wolves on Cleanup
The MCU swayed as Timber pulled out of the vehicle yard and onto the street.
Canyon found a loose coupling and tightened the connection, bracing himself in place with his feet.
Up front, Timber tried buttons as he drove.
Canyon first heard the horn, then a siren, then five more different sirens, an air horn, then Timber told someone “Looking good,” on the loudspeaker.
They reached the station—Canyon could tell by the sharp turn and slight incline the MCU took—and then they were parked.
Canyon replaced floorboards and tried the hologram table again.
This time, it glowed blue at once. Canyon took Predator off his belt and slipped it into a docking cradle.
The table beeped once, Predator beeped twice, then the table beeped once more and a glowing black wolf’s head with silver fire for eyes popped up above the table, slowly turning round and round, seeming to take in its surroundings.
The door opened and Timber came in. “Niiiiice,” he said when he saw the wolf. “That’s fire.”
Canyon found a microphone in his bag and plugged it in, then spoke quickly into it. “Prepare a map of Serenity proper. Open profile BIGDOG. Conform text to real-time inputs. Conform displays to three-dimensional.”
Two men were speaking outside, coming closer to the vehicle. Canyon recognized Trevor’s voice, and then Mac’s voice. Shit, he wasn’t going to have time to test anything. He changed the profile to TREVOR.
From outside, Mac was saying, “—the biggest taco truck I’ve ever seen.”
The door opened. Trevor came up the steps first. Canyon handed him the microphone. Trevor took it with his eyes glued to the rotating wolf over the top of the table. He nodded at Canyon and Timber, seeming pleased with them.
Approval from Trevor, Timber joked in ruhi, his mental voice amused. Feels good.
Canyon laughed. Soak it up till you fuck it up.
Mac was next. He barreled in, made a loop around the table, then opened every drawer and door he could reach.
“No tacos,” he muttered. He yanked more cabinets open.
Canyon let him go. Mac was always an asshole till he got it out of his system.
Mac found a stash of beef jerky, grabbed a handful, and sat down in a chair, legs spread wide.
He put a booted foot up on the hologram table.
Canyon kicked it off. Mac got up, about to light into him, but Trevor silenced him.
“That table cost over a million dollars. No one puts their feet on it, Mac, not even you.”
Behind Mac and Trevor, Harlan, Eventine, Wade, and some rank from neighboring counties filed in. The MCU was big, but nine wolven inside made it feel small.
They were all staring at the wolf floating above the hologram table. Trevor waggled the microphone and turned to talk to Canyon. “I want a map of Serenity,” he said.
Canyon motioned for him to turn back around.
Above the table, the wolf was replaced with a perfect map of Serenity—each street, house, business, tree, bush, street sign and light was shown.
Tiny cars were parked in tiny spaces along the roads.
The river ran along the north of town, spanned with trestles and bridges and spanned by four bluffs.
Train tracks ran north, south, and diagonally.
The wolf, bear, and catamount statue guarded the three major entrances to town, just like in real life.
The others were oohing, aahing, and pointing. Trevor was momentarily dumbstruck. Canyon smiled like a proud papa. He’d known exactly how it would look.
Talk into the microphone like normal briefing, he told Trevor. Predator knows what to do.
Trevor nodded and got to it.
“The first explosion blew at 0503 this morning downtown at 1204 N. Terrace St. It was a crude, homemade bomb packed with a substance we haven’t been able to identify. It smells like the Pravus.”
The building on the hologram table appeared to blow up in a puff of digital smoke, then only rubble remained in its place.
“What the hell does that mean?” Mac said. “They’re making bombs with Pravus mud?”
“We don’t know yet. Some of the explosions appear to have been blown with no substance at all—just Khain’s power, but not all of them, which makes us think he’s got help.”
“Foxen,” Wade said.
“Foxen,” Trevor said. “We don’t have any reports to back that up yet, but I’m sure Rex and Soren are around, probably others. The order is to arrest Rex or Soren on sight.”
Timber eyeballed Wade, then gave Canyon a significant look, probably thinking about Reynard. Canyon shook his head slightly. Not now. Not in front of these wolves we don’t know. Timber nodded.
Trevor listed several more addresses that had been attacked, and they all soundlessly exploded on the holograph table, then he motioned toward the forest to the west of town.
“At 0506 the first report of fire in Big Claw Woods came in, and then three more fires were reported within the next ten minutes. Graeme suppressed three of them, but since the sun came out, he’s had to be more covert, and one fire is still burning.
Wildfire management is out there right now dealing with it. ”
“Can’t we disguise him as a helicopter or something?” Mac said.
“Slap a rotor on his ass and call him Chinook,” Harlan retorted. “Graeme’ll go for that, no problem.”
“I’ll slap a rotor on your—.”
Trevor interrupted, first pointing at Mac, “Can it,” then pointing at Harlan, “Cool it.” He sent them both death glares, then went on.
“Graeme’s busy. He’s the only one of us who has a chance of getting ahead of Khain or at least meeting him where he is.
The rest of us are just the cleanup crew, unless Khain waits for us to show up.
” He looked around pointedly, then went on.
“We’re bringing in police and fire from all surrounding areas.
We’ve set up triage points at the bear statue and the wolf statue to deal with the injured.
We have reason to believe Khain is planning another poisoning.
Everyone’s drinking bottled water, and we’ve doubled up the guards on the water towers.
Serenity’s water supply is segmented now, and each segment has a fail safe.
Trent and Troy are up at the Harlem Reservoir on an unrelated investigation since yesterday.
They’ll keep it under control up there. No matter what, it won’t be like last time. ”
“So, this is all about another poisoning?” Mac said.
“Again, we don’t know yet. Jaggar thinks it’s about Khain triggering a whole slew of the 777 signs at once, and one of them does seem to reference a second poisoning.
There’s no sign of Rex and Soren yet, and no signs of any other foxen, but we’re certain Khain is not acting alone, so keep your eyes open.
The official word is that it’s a terrorist attack.
We’ve cancelled all Serenity schools and closed all businesses within five blocks of town, and we’ve set up an emergency shelter at the high school. ”
Trevor checked his notes, then looked at each of them in turn.
“Conri Bloom, Serenity’s acting Fire Chief is missing.
He was last seen yesterday morning at my house.
No one saw him leave but his truck was gone.
He’s not at his place. He hasn’t answered his phone or checked in with the department.
His brother Beirne has stepped in to run the fire department, and he’s also called Bruin home. ”
“Fucking finally,” Mac said, prompting a ‘what-the-hell’ look from Trevor. “I mean… shit. I hope Conri—I’m sure Conri’s fine. But Bruin’s been gone for years.”
“Three months,” Trevor corrected.
“Feels like years,” Mac grumbled, then he shoved a piece of beef jerky in his mouth.
“If anyone finds Conri or hears from him, I want to know immediately.”
Mac stood up, something smartass ready to fall from his lips, but everyone’s phone started ringing at the same time.
Trevor answered his call from dispatch on speaker. “Lieutenant, we’re getting multiple reports of a, uh-a giant bigfoot and uh-exploding trees near Camp Huntley.”
Trevor looked up at everyone. “Let’s go,” he said. He pointed at Canyon and Timber. “You two are in charge of this vehicle. Take a squad from Chicago out to Camp Huntley and see what’s up out there, then check in with me.”
“Got it, LT.”
Everyone else filed out of the MCU while Canyon and Timber played rock, paper, scissors to figure out who got to drive. Canyon won. He climbed into the driver’s seat, poised to mow down a certain ‘bigfoot’ with his giant truck.
***
Twelve hours later, Canyon hadn’t run any demons over, but he was cut, bruised, burnt, and filthy.
They’d spent the day running from emergency to emergency, and now were back in town.
He was on foot, behind a row of burning houses, clearing people out of the area.
Khain had come and gone and was now fucking shit up somewhere else.
From his left he heard yelling. Canyon swung that way, trying to see in the semi-darkness. The sun had been down for hours, but fires lit the night. He saw a knot of people in a yard and sprinted over.
The sight of his uniform caused them all to start talking at once, but he was able to piece together that they were worried about a bedridden neighbor in a nearby house.
He promised he would take care of the neighbor and sent them to the van that would take them to the emergency shelter, then called his brother in ruhi.
You available? he asked running up to the house.
I’m saving a cat and three ferrets.
Fuckin’ hero.
Not like Reynard though.
Never like Reynard… I’m going inside a burning house after someone. Head this way when you can.
Got it.
The back door was unlocked and not burning.
Canyon pushed it open. Thick black smoke escaped out the doorway.
Canyon got low and crept inside, breathing shallowly, shining a flashlight all around, heading straight up the stairs.
He did a circle through the house and determined it was empty.
He rushed back down the stairs and outside, taking in great lungfuls of fresh air.
I’m out. House is clear.
Canyon ducked behind a hedge and shifted in his clothes, man to wolf, wolf to man, healing his burns and cuts.
He was still filthy though. He took his radio off his belt to call dispatch, but the battery was dead.
He pulled his phone out of a cargo pocket, but its battery was dead, too.
Predator was in the MCU which was parked two streets over.
Timber showed up. “I think this neighborhood is clear. I checked every house this way.”
Good, Canyon said. Too bad it’s going to burn to the ground.
“We need Graeme.”
Or at least some bears.
Something the size of a dragonfly buzzed in close to Canyon’s head. He jerked back and brought a hand up to swat it, but then realized it was Graeme, shrunk down to tiny size, but still a red and yellow dragon with strong leathery wings, which landed on his shoulder.
Looking fer me?
Hell yeah, Timber said. We cleared all the humans out of here. Do your thing.
The tiny dragon flew off to the center of the row of houses while Canyon and Timber booked it in the opposite direction.
When they were a safe distance, they turned around to watch.
Too quick for the eye to follow, Graeme exploded into a dragon big enough to touch several houses at once, and then he imploded back to tiny size, and all the smoke and fire went with him with a whoosh followed by a wave of heat.
In a moment, it was over. The air was clean and the night clear. Sirens wailed in the distance.
I’m oot, Graeme said. They’re calling fer me at the reservoir.
He flew away.
What’s next? Canyon said.
“I don’t know. My radio battery is dead.”
Mine, too. Let’s head to the station for equipment.
“And new uniforms.”
And a shower.
“Maybe a roast beef sandwich.”
Good plan.