Red Hood: The Hunt (2 page)

I tried to stop her again as I heard patrol cars coming to a quick stop at the alley entrance. “But your bounties!”

She shrugged. “They weren't the wolf I was looking for.  Keep the bounties for yourself, or if you insist, have them put on the Red Hood's account.” Then she leaped up over eight feet like a wolf, snagged a fire escape ladder ten feet up, and effortlessly pulled herself up.  She glided up the steps then disappeared over the roof.

What!?  No way, the Red Hood is just an urban myth, she wasn't real... was she?
 

I was just staring after her like a fool as some officers came running down the alley, and Victor came huffing and puffing in his riot gear behind them.  They all looked around at the bodies, as the stench of flesh burning filled the alley, and my partner just stared at me bug-eyed. “Jesus kid!”

The clean up crews arrived, and I was checked for bites and punctures and pricked in the finger with a silver needle just to make sure.  When my skin and blood didn't sizzle and foam on the silver, I was cleared.  Victor shook his head, ran his hand through his silver buzz cut, and said in resignation, “So much paperwork today because of this...  we won't get off duty until late morning, kid.”

I shook my head at the man as I watched a containment team enter the sewers to find where the breach occurred.  Then he got a disbelieving look on his face and asked for the tenth time, “The Red Hood?  No shit?”

I swapped my riot gear out for a new set the cleanup and containment crews handed me as they bagged my damaged gear to prevent saliva contamination.  I said, “For the tenth time O'Neil, yes,” He slapped the shoulder pads of the gear to check the clasps.

He looked at his watch and cursed then said in resignation, “Still an hour and a half until shift is over.”  I sighed as well, we didn't miss clearing detail.

As we trudged to the now open gates, Victor asked, his eyes sparkling with curiosity on his leathery face, “So... what was she like?  Is it true she is eight feet tall?”

I chuckled and shook my head. “No, she's just a little shorter than you Vic.  Don't buy into the stories.”  Then I paused. “Though she was as fast and strong as a wolf.  I almost couldn't follow her movements.  She caught a hundred and fifty pound wolf in mid-leap with one hand while another one dangled from her other arm.  It wasn't natural.”

Then I smiled wistfully as I remembered the crooked smile and her cocky wink.  Victor squinted at me then shook his head. “Oh good God, you got that look... so how pretty was she?”

I exhaled, he was kind of old school and couldn't wrap his head around the fact that I was equally attracted to men and women, but he tried.  The world was slowly changing and gay rights and acceptance were spreading.  Washington state was among the first to legalize gay marriage.

I shook my head. “It isn't like that you old fart.  She saved me from being eaten... or worse.”  I shuddered to think about if they mauled me but I survived, I'd be one of them. 
Fucking wolves.
  Then I grinned at him.

He chuckled and prodded, “That pretty huh?”

We reached the open gates as I nodded with a slight smile and said without looking at him, “Oh yeah.”  Then we looked out at the carnage outside the main gates, a scene that I knew was playing out at all the other gates of Seattle.

There were hundreds of naked burned and bloody human bodies being collected by the containment teams.  They would be processed, and if possible identified so their families on the outside could claim the bodies to give them proper burials.  The ones who could not be identified would be buried with dignity in the Lycan cemeteries outside the gates to prevent contamination.  Nobody ever chose to be a werewolf, and they were not responsible for their actions during a full moon.

We all grew up knowing the duality of a wolf.  They were humans like us until the change, then an animal replaced them.  The beasts were not human.  I couldn't bring myself to feel too sorry for most of the ones who died at the gates though.  They know what they are, yet part of me says logically that if they truly meant no harm then they would lock themselves away on full moons like the majority of the infected in the non-gated cities.

I was calloused, I know.  But I saw the human intelligence in the eyes of that one wolf, different than all the others.  He knew he was being cruel and it was funny to him to bite my sister before he fled.  He knew exactly what he was doing.  I was going to kill that wolf one day for turning my sister.  I always wondered if there were others out there like him, aware of their actions.

I sighed knowing I couldn't really fault any of them, they were only human.  I have no clue how I would handle it if I were ever made to make The Choice.  I'm so scared that I'd be one to choose the coward's way out and take the silver nitrate.

We stopped at the gates as we watched the road get cleared first and blood washed away with fire hoses.  Men and women were sifting the soil beside the road for silver buckshot.  With the worldwide shortage of silver, we had to recycle every gram of it.

Volunteers from the city in plastic suits poured out of the gates with water and clothes for the wounded humans.  Their wolf aspects would heal them within hours if they didn't have silver poisoning.  Priests and councilors spoke with the ones who didn't know how they got at the gates.

When the roads were clear, travelers started arriving.  We sighed and took out our silver needles as each vehicle drove into the checkpoint. We would search the vehicles for anyone hiding in them and prick the finger of all who entered to verify none was infected.  Nobody infected was allowed inside the city gates.

This was so boring and tedious.  My mind kept drifting to the woman who had saved me.  What kind of Hunter was she?  She hadn't wanted the bounties.  I couldn't shake the feeling that she was looking for something in particular.  The way she stared down that wolf before dispatching it, I shuddered.

I glanced around and noticed a small girl, no more than eight or nine right outside the gate, naked and dirty, asking for water from a volunteer.  A hot tear burned down my cheek. The fucking wolves didn't care who they infected.  That poor little girl will never grow up now.  If she survives, she'll always be locked into that form.

I caught myself thinking of my older sister, she had been just seventeen when she was bitten. The orphanage in Issaquah, who had sponsored her when she chose banishment, says she never made it to their facility.  They never found out what happened to her and the social worker she was with.  I had hoped she made it to one of the outside cities to live, but I never received a phone call, email, or letter from her.

I was snapped back to the present when the volunteer pushed the little girl to the ground then kicked her soundly in the chest when she scrambled back with tears in her eyes. The woman hissed at her, “Get back you little wolf bitch!”

I was instantly in motion as were Victor and a couple other officers.  I stepped out the gate and grabbed the woman's arms, yanking them behind her as I slapped cuffs on her roughly while Victor helped the little girl to her feet.  He grabbed a blanket and a bottle of water for her from the volunteers pack on the ground.  He wrapped the girl and gave her water and motioned to another volunteer, who came rushing over to see to the girl.

I hissed in the woman's ears, “You're under arrest for assault on a minor, you piece of shit.”  I yanked her toward the gates. With the other officers walking behind me as Victor was getting the little girl's information.  “You have the right to remain silent... she was just a frightened little girl!”  I remembered my terror as a child, watching my parents being torn apart in front of me.

I put my hand out as I passed into the city and an officer pricked my finger to test for contagion.  He wasn't as gentle with the woman and simply stabbed her finger roughly.  I hissed, “Anything you say, can and will be used against you in a court of law... why even volunteer if you're a wolf hater?”

The woman almost growled as she said,  “The fucking judge is makin' me do community service.  The wolves have no business around us Clean Bloods.”

I pulled her roughly to our cruiser.  “You have the right to an attorney...” Victor had caught up with me.  I grinned at the band-aid on his finger.  For a tough and grizzled cop who could look at blood and gore every full moon night, he was so squeamish about seeing his own blood.  I finished reading the woman her rights as Victor took her from me and had her sit in the back seat.

I took one last look at the main gates before getting into the cruiser.  The missionaries from Issaquah and Leavenworth were starting to arrive.  To offer any of the people, who found themselves at the gates in the morning, a place to stay in their cities.  I paused a moment.  This was why I had that odd conflict in my mind as I took note that most of them refused.  Again making the conscious choice to remain uncaged during the three nights of a full moon and be a possible threat to Clean Bloods.

I closed the door and Victor guided our unmarked vehicle onto the street, and we headed for intake at headquarters.  I sighed and mumbled, “Great, more paperwork.  I'm fucking exhausted.”  My partner chuckled, though he sounded just as tired as me.  I rubbed a sore spot on my shoulder blades, I was going to be bruised and aching the next day or two, just great.

I turned the laptop on its swivel attached to the dashboard toward me, took a deep breath, and pulled up the photos of all of the dead around the city gates.  I steeled myself for the carnage and started paging through the photos of all of the dead or injured females.

Victor grunted and did one of his aggravating evaluations of my face as he drove. “I still don't know why you do this to yourself McQueen.  She won't be there.  It's been seventeen years.”

I waved him off with my middle finger as I paged through the photos quickly, trying to ignore the blood and gore.  There were a few I'd have to ask the coroner's about as their faces were too damaged by either silver shot or fire damage from the flame throwers.  I caught myself praying that I wouldn't find Prue among the dead just as much as I was praying that, if she were, it had been a quick and painless death.

I wondered again what had happened to her and the social worker from Issaquah.  They found the social worker's car abandoned at the base of the mountains, but no sign of either of them.  It was handled as a missing person case by the Issaquah Police Department but with no leads it was shuffled to the cold case files nine days later.

A couple hours later, Victor and I leaned back in our chairs and exhaled simultaneously, the after action report for the breach and the paperwork on the incident at the gates completed and filed.  I grabbed my coat and bag off the back of my chair as he stood.

He asked, “Crawley's?”

I snorted as I started toward the stairs.  “It is nine in the morning.  Isn't that a little early to be drinking?  Besides I'm beat, I need some sleep, but first I have to visit the coroner.”  He gave me a sad nod and turned toward the exit when the Chief stuck his head out of his office.  “McQueen!  O'Neil!”

We uttered a simultaneous curse under our breath and did an about face and trudged into his office. The damn blinds were shut, what the hell had we done this time?  I couldn't stop a huge yawn as we stepped into his office. The fifty-something brute in a suit, which looked almost comical on the man, looked like a retired wrestler.  He motioned to the chairs in front of his desk as he shut the door behind us.

Mendez may look like he didn't belong behind that desk, but his appearance hid a shrewd intelligence that had gotten him through the chain of command quickly in his skyrocketing career. It put him in the chair of the Chief of Police of Seattle.

He walked around and sat on his desk, rubbing his face with both hands before he ran them through his silvering black hair.  “I know you just came off of Howler Duty so I'll make this short.  I have an assignment coming up for you two.”

I sat up straighter. 
A murder?
  Victor and I were homicide detectives on our normal shift.  All available officers had to work Howler Duty.  That was the term we used for the full moon gate patrol.  Not politically correct, but what ya gonna do?

Victor grumbled angrily, “I hate the opportunistic punks who take advantage of all the police being at the gates protecting their damn asses, to commit crimes.”

Mendez shook his head and shoved a file across his desk which Victor took and opened as the Chief said, “You'll wish that's what it was.  This is babysitting duty.”

Both of our eyes snapped to him.  I asked quickly, “What?”

He opened his huge hands palm up on his desk in a shrug like motion.  “Mayor Fleming is heading out to negotiate increased silver supply from Alister Slater in a couple weeks.  Our city stores are alarmingly low and Slater has decreased production of ore.”

His brow creased and his mouth became a strained line.  “You are on Flemming's protection detail along with a hired a security contractor while she is negotiating.”

“The hell?!” I blurted at the same moment Victor snapped, “What the fuck Chief?  We're homicide detectives, not glorified babysitters!  Put some uniforms on it.”

He was nodding with a patient look on his face as he held up a hand to stop our outbursts while he looked at Victor and said, “I know, I know.  I said the same.  But her security consultant insisted that McQueen be on the detail.  I'm under orders from the Mayor to comply, so you two damn sure will too.”

I almost growled, “Who the hell is this security prick?  And why me?  Did I kick his puppy or something?”

There was a soft knock on the glass door, and the Chief sat up straighter with a weary look on his face.  He said, “That would be her now.  Ask her yourself.”  Then he raised his voice and called out, “Enter.”

I was going to lay into this asshole, no bitch, he had said 'her' hadn't he?  I started to stand then froze when a woman in a billowing red cloak stepped into the office.  My mouth dangled half open in my aborted attempt to start yelling. Instead I caught myself smiling back at the crooked half smile the Red Hood was giving me as she walked in.  God damn if it wasn't getting hot in that office suddenly.

The Chief stood and cocked an eyebrow at me when I didn't explode as he expected, then he said, “Detective O'Neil, Detective McQueen, this is Maireni Damaschin.  She just hired on as the mayor's security consultant, and I expect you to coordinate with her until the negotiations are complete.”