"Oh, my God, you bastard." Jamie spit at Mitch as he sat on the edge of a fountain in the middle of a park as we surrounded him. I had my arms crossed over my chest with my left hand over my mouth as I listened to Mitch's story of how he went to Reiden Global and almost traded the Mother Cell for medicine that could cure his daughter, Clementine.

"It was for my daughter." Mitch tried to explain.

"Even so."

"You gonna tell me if you could've saved your mother, you wouldn't have done the same?" Jamie was silent at that comment.

"So, you didn't it?" Chloe inquired. "You traded the Mother Cell for the medicine." Mitch looked around the park for any bystanders before he reached into his bag and pulled out the Mother Cell for us to see before he put it back in his bag.

"No. I didn't."

"But you almost did." Jackson reminded him.

"Yeah, I almost did. For my daughter."

"We're here trying to do this, trying to come up with a solution for everything, and you would, you would just give that away?"

"Look. While I'm not trying to minimize any of it, you're all focusing on the wrong guy right now. Okay? Delavane? Not who we think he is."

"How can you be so sure?" Abraham asked him. "Maybe he had a good reason to be there."

"Oh, get serious. I saw his face. Trust me." Chloe let out a chuckle.

"You're asking us to trust you?" Chloe questioned him.

"I'm asking you to call my character into question at a later date. Delavane was not at Reiden because it was Bring Your Shadowy Interpol Agent to the Office Day. He-he was there because he works there."

"Did he see you?" Mitch stared at Chloe for a second before he dropped his head and looked at the ground, giving us an obvious answer and Chloe let out another chuckle. "This is bad."

"So you're saying. . . the company that put us together is the same company that we're trying to take down?"

"It appears that way." Mitch said, looking back up. "But why? Why would Delavane put us together?" Chloe's phone rang and she walked away to answer it.

"So, what else, Mitch?" Jackson asked him.

"What else what?"

"What else are you lying to us about?"

"That's enough." I snapped at Jackson, glaring at both him, Abraham and Jamie. My wolf was starting to get angry, pushing to get free to protect her mate. Jackson turned his attention to me, brown eyes blazing.

"You're not on his side, are you?"

"Yeah, he tried to trade in the Mother Cell," I turned to Mitch and glared at him to let him know that I may be defending him, I wasn't happy with him. "shame on you," I looked back at Jackson. "but he was doing it for his daughter. I can't hold something like that against a man. But he should have talked to us about it instead of hiding it and keeping it a secret. So, back to pressing matters, the Mother Cell- can we really use it to make a cure?"

"Yes. . . theoretically, it can be used to reverse the mutation." Mitch answered.

"Theoretically?" Jamie asked.

"I believe that if we introduce the Mother Cell into the DNA of a mutated animal, we could possibly synthesize a cure. But here's the problem. In order to do that, we need an animal who has mutated and has not been exposed to the Mother Cell."

"But does such an animal even exist?" Abraham inquired. "Every animal we've come into contact with has been mutated because of Reiden."

"Even if there is, how would we possibly find it?" Jackson questioned him. "There infected animals on every continent."

"I know." Mitch said. "It's like trying to find a needle in a stack of needles in every country on Earth. But without that needle, we don't have a cure." Chloe came walking back over to us.

"We have to go." She said.

"What happened?" Abraham asked.

"That was my colleague at the PGSE. The FBI has issued a warrant for my arrest. Jamie's, too."

"Ben Shafer." Jamie gasped as she gripped her head with both hands in both fear and shock. "Oh, my God, Chloe. I'm so sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize for. It's only a matter of time before they connect the rest of you. We have to go, guys."

"Hey, h-hold on." Jackson said. "Go where, huh? If-if the FBI is after us, if Delavane works for Reiden, where are we gonna go?"

"Yeah, I don't speak spy, but. . . pretty much feels like game over." Mitch said. I walked over to him and gingerly touched his arm.

"Don't say that." I pleaded as I looked up at him. He stared down at me and the longer he stared at me, the softer his sweet brown eyes got. "We'll figure something out." I looked to the rest of the group. "We will figure something out."

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"Maybe we should not be standing around in a clump like this." Jamie said as we stood outside of a drug store waiting for Abraham to come back out. Abraham came out and rejoined the group and we started walking down the block as Abraham pulled out disposable phones and handed one to each of us.

"Like the lady said, if they're going to treat us like criminals, we need to act like criminals." Abraham said. "Everybody gets one."

"Any calls you make, keep them short." Chloe instructed us. "From now on, we pay cash for everything. And no more contact with family and friends."

"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Mitch objected. "Not for me, anyway."

"Why not?"

"'Cause I got to get these meds to Clem." A police siren whooped in the background. "And FBI or not, I'm bringing 'em to her."

"All right, guys, stop, just stop." Jackson said and we stopped walking to turn and face him. "This, this isn't gonna work, okay? We can't just be reactive to this thing. We got to get out in front of it. Now, we've been together a couple months as a team, we're doing pretty good, so now. . . now we got to save our own asses, and we got to save the world."

"That's a bit dramatic, but well said."

"Agreed." Chloe agreed. "What's the plan?"

"All right, first off, it's time to go public with this thing." Jackson said. "Now, we need a more official outlet than your blog, Jamie, but we obviously can't risk just walking into a news station, so who do you know? Do you know someone that you can contact?"

"Yeah." Jamie answered after she thought about it for a moment.

"Okay. Abe, Callana, take Mitch in the car and go get those meds to Clementine."

"Okay." Abraham agreed and I gave a nod of understanding.

"What about us?" Chloe asked him.

"I've got an idea for us." Jackson said.

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I crouched down beside Abraham holding the screws for the license plates for him as he changed them on the car. Mitch was a couple yards away from us finishing up a phone call.

"Yeah, I'll meet you at the house." Mitch said. "Anything comes up, just call me on this number. . . Yeah, I had to change phones. It's a long story. . . Okay. Bye." He hung up. I took the old license plate from Abraham and handed him the new one.

"We're going to your ex's house?" Abraham asked him. "Maybe we should go somewhere that the police wouldn't think of, just in case."

"Yeah, it might be the worse idea I've ever had. But. . . thank you for coming with me. . . you, too, Calla." As much as the nickname soothed my agitated nerves, I glared at him. Abraham turned to face Mitch. I could feel waves of anger flowing off of him.

"I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing this for your daughter."

"Look, I know what I did was wrong. If it's gonna make you feel better, take a swing at me. Serious, go ahead." I didn't want to do that. Causing him any pain would make me feel worse, not better.

"Believe me, that's the last thing you want right now." A bird squawked behind Abraham and the sound ricocheted like a hundred bullets in my ears. I dropped the screws and covered my ears as my sensitive hearing picked the noise up over and over again. "Ta!" Abraham yelled at the bird and it flew away, but not far. It went to a group of other birds and still squawked. "That sound, it's not normal, is it?"

"I'd say that's pretty far from normal." Mitch crouched down next to me and took my hands away from my ears to let me know that it was okay. "Are you okay?" I stared at the birds as I slowly nodded.

"Couple of months ago in Cape Town, the crew of a fishing trawler reported how a flock of razorbills attacked their boat. People were convinced they were after their haul of squid. But the captain was convinced they were after the crew. He described the sound the razorbills made as they circled overhead like cicadas."

"Let's get out of here."

"You drive." Abraham tossed Mitch the keys and he helped me up from the ground and into the car.

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"Her car's not here." Mitch muttered as we got out of the car and walked up the walkway of the classic urban house.

"I don't think it's a good idea for us to linger." Abraham said as he looked around. Mitch walked up to the front door and tried the doorknob but the door was locked.

"Back when Audra and I were together, she had an amazing ability to lock herself out of the house. Twice in one day, if you can believe that." I groaned and doubled over as I covered my ears against the squawking again. My wolf growled in frustration against the noise.

"That's the same noise we heard the sparrows make."

"But these aren't sparrows."

"It's like they're talking to each other. I know that birds have a universal warning call."

"But nothing resembling a common language." Dogs howled and barked in the distance and a pack of dogs raced down the street past us.

"Is it just me, or. . .?" Mitch's phone rang and he pulled it out and answered it.

"Audra. Where are you?. . . I-I can barely hear you. . . You're. . . You're at the park? Audra? Audra! Audra, tell me what's going on. Audra? Audra!" He hung up, hands shaking. "Damn it."

"What happened?" I asked, straightening back up and dropping my hands, trying my best to ignore the sounds.

"Let's go. She said they're at the park. The birds are attacking."

"Do you know which park?"

"Yes."

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The engine revved as Mitch passed yet another car as he sped towards the park.

"What if we use sound to repel the birds?" Abraham suggested.

"What?" Mitch asked him.

"Like the oscillator you built in Rio."

"Yeah, maybe that would work, but we don't have an oscillator. And even if we did, we don't have time for a maybe."

"So, what are we going to do?" A siren wailed nearby and a firetruck horn blared.

"I got something."

"What is it?"

"I was here last year. In Boston for-for a conference."

"Yes?"

"And there was a Dalmatian outside our hotel."

"Mitch, I don't. . ."

"I was there! I saved the dog's life. Its name was, uh, uh. . . Rufus!"

"Rufus?"

"Rufus was the dog's name. His owners were very grateful."

"Mitch, you've lost me."

"Dalmatian, firehouse dog!"

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We arrived at the park with the firetruck behind us. I got out of the car and looked around as a flock of crows swarmed the park. I looked through the black swarm to the source of screaming on the other side of the park. I saw a little blonde hair girl doubled over holding a baby tightly to her chest as a group of crows tried to get at her. She was getting dangerously close to the edge of the park's pool. I didn't even think twice. I lunged forward and everything else followed in suit. I phased and raced across the park while Abraham set up the fire hose. I barked and snapped at the crows around me trying to scare them off as I pushed myself faster and faster, welcoming the burning sensation in my legs. I watched as the girl's foot slipped and she started falling into the pool, letting go of the baby. I leapt forward snatching the baby gingerly by the blanket that it was wrapped in and carefully set it under a park bench in the grass where the crows couldn't get to it.

"She can't swim!" A woman's voice screamed from the playground. I turned on my paws and rushed back to the pool to see the girl sinking to the bottom. I jumped in and as soon as the water touched my fur, I become a two ton weight. It was the first time swimming in this form so I had to get used to how to keep my head above the water. I kicked out with my rear right then pawed with front left. I did the same thing vice versa. I doggy paddled over to the girl and pushed her arms up around my neck. She clung to my fur and gasped for air as I broke the surface of the water. I swam to the edge to where the woman was waiting for her daughter and she helped her out. Mitch was there too, clinging to her too. I shifted back and hauled myself out of the water. I walked past Clementine, Audra and Mitch to the baby under the bench and picked it up to give to the fire marshals.

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"More bad news." Jamie said as we sat around Audra's house. Well, I should say everyone but me sat around. I stood in the middle of the doorway, shivering in my wet clothes while Audra tried to find me some dry clothes. "Wilson's out. His executive editor called Reiden to follow up."

"And let me guess-five minutes later, their lawyers were slapped with a cease and desist by the Reiden legal team. They are good at what they do."

"Maybe we should just turn ourselves in." Abraham said.

"What good would we be in custody?" I chattered, running my hands up and down my arms, trying to warm myself up. Mitch walked down a hallway and stopped in front of a cabinet and pulled out a towel. He came back to me and wrapped my towel around me and pulled me close to his chest. I sighed and closed my eyes as I leaned my head into him.

"At least we could tell our story."

"What—To a roomful of cops who want to try us for murdering a federal agent?" Jamie asked him.

"We can't just give up." Jackson said.

"So, what are we gonna do?" Chloe inquired. "We cannot go to the press. We cannot go to the authorities."

"You're right. The only people that can help us now are in this room."

"Hey, guys." Abraham breathed as he turned up the TV. We turned to see a reporter on the news.

"There was also a separate bird attack at Bowler Park in Brighton." The reporter reported. "Three adults were killed, sixteen others were injured, including four children. City and state officials are currently investigating whether the three attacks are related. Residents are being asked to use caution when outdoors." Abraham turned off the TV.

"It's getting bigger." Jamie said. "The animals are getting more aggressive."

"If it keeps progressing like this, it won't matter what we decide to do, because by then, it will be too late." Jackson said. "We have to do something now."

"Fine." Abraham agreed. "I agree. But what?"

"I'll be back, Calla." Mitch whispered as he pulled the towel tighter around me and went upstairs.

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A few minutes later, Mitch came running back down the steps calling out for Jackson.

"Jackson, do you remember when you showed me all those pictures of the walls in your dad's compound?" Mitch asked him.

"Yeah, of course." Jackson answered.

"There was one picture in particular that had a list of traits—uh, Felidae, Carnivora, all the big cat taxonomies. Specifically, leopards."

"I remember." Abraham said.

"There has to be a reason for that. What if your dad was searching for a cure, too? What if that's our needle?"

"Leopards?" Chloe inquired as Jamie walked over to the laptop.

"Have we ruled it out yet?"

"Okay, leopards are found in India, the Arabian Peninsula, the Himalayan foothills, Leopard sub-Saharan Africa. . ."

"But we've ruled out most of those areas already." I reminded her.

"Yeah, but there are some areas in Africa where there's no reported Reiden activity." Jackson said as he laid a map across the table.

"Okay. . . last year, six people killed in a small village near the Zambezi river." Jamie researched. "Zambia, Africa, thirteen injured."

"Zambia." Jackson looked across the map. "Nothing."

"Double-check the ledger, make sure you didn't miss anything." Mitch ordered.

"Double-checking." Chloe confirmed.

"Okay, six months ago, six separate leopard attacks in villages along a twenty-mile stretch of the Luangwa Valley. And. . . Zambia's largest agricultural company is owned by one of Reiden's biggest critics."

"That might explain why Reiden products aren't being used there." Abraham said.

"And. . .?" Jackson asked Chloe as she checked the ledger.

"There's nothing." She said. "No mention of Zambia anywhere."

"I think we just found our needle." Mitch smiled.

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I laid in the very back of the car, legs curled up to my chest as I was pressed tight into Mitch's side. My shivering had ceased but I still felt very cold and being close to Mitch was beginning to warm me up.

"I don't want to be a buzzkill, but it's about seven thousand miles to Zambia." Mitch said. "It's gonna take more than a police scanner and some dirt roads to get us there."

"You're right—don't be a buzzkill." Abraham said. "One thing at a time." The birds squawked outside and it got louder as Jamie rolled down the window.

"Hey. Listen. Do you guys hear that?" Jamie asked.

"Yup." Mitch acknowledged her. "We've been hearing it all day. Different species of birds, all making the exact same noise." The noise faded a little bit as Jamie rolled the window back up.

"Mitch thinks the birds are developing a common tongue." Abraham informed the group.

"You think the eagles can talk to the finches." Chloe said.

"Can talk to the skua, can talk to the black-headed grosbeak. . . There are maybe three hundred billion birds in the world. Imagine if they could all talk to each other." Mitch said.

"If that's true, they could send a message around the world and back." Jamie said.

"Let's just figure out a way to get to Zambia." I was falling asleep in Mitch's arms when he placed his mouth against my ear. "I never thanked you for what you did for my daughter." His hot breath against my earlobe sent a chill down my spine as I inhaled sharply and closed my eyes.

"I was just doing what was right." I muttered, tilting my head up to look at him.

"After what I tried to do with the Mother Cell, I didn't think you would ever do anything for me again. I didn't think you would want to still be with me."

"Yes, I'm angry, I'm furious at what you did, Mitch, but you were trying to help Clementine and like I said, I can't hold something like that against a man." His brown eyes gleamed and he leaned down and pressed his lips against my forehead and I smiled involuntarily.