CHAPTER 18

He followed me for a while, but I was faster, and him being without a scent trail to track I eventually lost him in the south end. My guards, too, had spotted us, I'd heard them yelling as soon as I started running. I wasn't sure where they ended up.

I thought about heading back to my apartment. Picking on Bobby and finding Skillet had required one type of set up, trying to break into a private shipping company would probably be a lot harder.

The problem was that Darius had the address too, and, assuming he was on the same warpath I was, if I waited until tomorrow night there was a very good chance he'd get there first and tip them off.

I didn't want that so I found myself walking until I came across a twenty-four hour cafe. I slipped inside and used the wifi to trace the address. Then I tried again, because the first time I typed it in the gps showed me a spot in the middle of nowhere south and west of the city. I got the same result the second try.

Huh.

I went to the washroom and wiped off my makeup, then bought a pastry and a cup of coffee and headed out. The taxi guy wouldn't drive me the entire way, so I convinced him to drop me on the edge of the city about three miles out. I'd make the rest of the trek on foot. Better to come in without scent or sound anyway.

It took a good hour, mostly because the address was up a steep rocky incline and I wasn't stupid enough to waltz up the road to the front gate. It was an unexpectedly small building, about the size of a tool shed, surrounded by several massive breaker boxes, and ten foot fence topped with razor wire. Two humans were just inside the door, I could scent them, but there were no vehicles to give them away. If I'd come across this place on my own I would have thought it was some electricity maintenance building for the nearby suburbs or something.

I'd done plenty of stake out type jobs for Rob, and I'd learned the value of patience so I waited, hidden in a little hollow where no one could see me peeking at the yard and watching the shed door. The sun was beginning to lighten the eastern horizon when a white truck rolled up the gravel road. It was marked with the city's electricity provider on the side and the two men inside were well trained fighters. One of them got out and unlocked the gate and they drove inside.

Still I didn't move, just watched. When they reached the building the passenger and driver both got out, leaving the truck running. The passenger pulled something from his vest, I grabbed the binoculars I had laid out beside me and focused in on it.

My heart thudded in my ears. It was the symbol, the very one weighing down my pocket right now. He swiped it, like a key card over a small scanning square. The door audibly unlatched from the inside and they swung it open, then disappeared inside. A moment later two different men appeared, got into the truck and left the way the first two had come, locking the gate behind them.

Okay then.

I gave it fifteen minutes for everything to settle before scurrying from my hiding place and into the surrounding trees. There was one particular oak at the back who's branches looked about right. I secured my backpack and climbed the trunk and then out onto one of the thick extending branches. All the trees around the yard had been trimmed back, likely to keep this very thing from happening, but they hadn't trimmed them far enough for me. I managed a sort of running start and grabbed a nearly vertical section of branch and propelled myself up and over the fence.
It was a long hard drop and I ended up having to roll to avoid twisting my ankle again. It made a little more noise than I wanted so I slunk out of sight for a few moments to make sure I wasn't heard. When no one came out to shoot me I approached the door.

It was a plain metal door that you would find on any city building. It had a doorknob and a built in code lock with four unmarked buttons, all for show. I pulled out the pendant and ran it along what looked like a small solar panel on the side of the door.

For a second nothing happened and I was worried my plan had just gone to shit, but then a soft beep of acknowledgement sounded and I could hear the door unlock.

I'd already pulled out my P365 and I held it loosely as I walked inside as if I belonged. One of the greatest tricks I'd learned actually, when you acted like you belonged people thought first and shot later. Gave you an advantage.

Only my feigned confidence wasn't necessary because there was no one in the shed.

What the hell?

I sniffed the air. The men had definitely been in here. Many different scents, but four clearly identifiable as recent. Yet nothing more.

The interior was almost barren, with a few stacks of wire and a terminal with a few switches. I walked over to it. There was nothing special about it, looked almost like breakers or circuit controls.

*They went somewhere, why cant we smell them?* I asked my wolf, who was stretching her senses as far as our limits would allow. We could tell there was an owl sitting in a tree two hundred yards from the gate, but we couldn't scent the men.

*They were human, they cannot hide their stench. Wherever they went is sealed from here.*

*Okay,* I agreed. *Any idea where?*

She was silent and I let her think, running my hand along the walls.

*There.* She announced when my fingers touched a lip in the metal.* There's small amounts of air coming in all the other seams, but not this one.*

Alright, a secret door, but how to open it?

I tried curling my fingers along the seam, I tried pushing against it, I tried flipping the switches on the terminal. Nothing happened and I was a little worried I might have cause random outages somewhere in the Boston suburbs.

What about your metal thing? My wolf asked, sending me a picture of the pendant.

I looked at it. Obviously it wasn't just a chunk of metal. It worked like a pass key outside so there must be some circuitry or computer component inside.

That was probably how the sniper had tracked us, I realized. Rob had been wearing it when he'd been shot. Most likely to keep me from sneaking into his study and taking it on a solo mission. I closed my eyes against the wave of guilt.

Then I pushed the feelings away and waved the pendant in front of the seam. Another bleep and a clunking of interior locks and the wall separated slightly. I pulled it carefully open and found myself facing a well lit set of metal stairs leading downward. The scent of the men reached me first, followed by many, many more humans, a few wolves and something else I couldn't quite identify.

I hesitated, looking downward. I should stop now. Turn around and run, because there was some conspiracy that was well beyond me down there. But there were also answers, and it was the only place in five years that offered them.

So I gripped my gun, straightened my spine and walked downward to my doom.