Mixed Messages
Chapter 14
Black and Blue
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Nick set the empty carafe under the second coffee maker and screwed the lid on his green thermos. He stood at a convenience store cash register, staring past beef jerky sticks, lottery tickets, and cigarettes, when his phone buzzed. He pulled it up, stared at the picture, then shrugged.
On the drive back, Nick's mind rolled through ten-thousand details and preparations for tomorrow's mission. He stared off into the Vancouver skyline and his mind wandered, I really need to bring Adalind here for a weekend away. He made mental notes about the various shops and restaurants. She loves city life, and this would be a great escape from the kids.
He parked behind a line of bright red Maple trees and wandered, through the brown grass, back to the guys. Wook and Monroe poured cups of coffee, raised their styrofoam cups, and made a fake clink sound.
Wook said, "Here's to Nick for getting fresh coffee! Cheers!"
Monroe laughed and said "Here, Here! To the man who brewed a fresh pot of coffee!"
Nick mischievously winked and said, "Yeah, yeah, I just rinsed the brown sticky goo in the bottom of the pots into the thermos. Brewing a fresh pot would have taken three minutes longer. Oh, hey , it's probably nothing, but was this the girl?"
He pulled up the BOLO bulletin on his "secret squirrel" phone.
Monroe stared at it. "Mmm, I can't really tell. Maybe, if she was dressed in a hoodie and had her hair pulled back into a pony tail."
Wook glanced at the picture, and said, "Nick! Let me see that." He stared. "Mandy? Here? In Vancouver? That can't be right! Monroe! Was that her?"
"Dude, I couldn't make out..." The crack of gunshots cut Monroe off. Two men on the roof convulsed and fell while three more instantly turned and ran back.
Wook said, "We're going in! Now! Tell them that she went in and there's shooting! Mandy? No! What the heck are you doing here?"
They piled out and started suiting up by the trunk. Nick threw on a bullet proof vest, stuffed guns and ammo magazines in his pockets, and grabbed his axe. Wook pulled his shirt and pants off and grabbed a giant wooden club. Nick looked at Monroe and then Wook, and said, "Come on, there's a lot of bad guys with guns in there! You need body armor!"
"Nope. You know that stuff is a train wreck when I go Wildermann."
"At least take a backup gun!"
Monroe said, "I'm good. You know I like to roll old school."
Wook chuckled, and said, "Mmmm! I've always wanted to try out your Grimm axe!"
Nick tossed the axe to Wook, and said, "It's all yours buddy, you know I always bring a spare."
Wook caressed the leather wrapped wooden handle, brushed fingers gently over the scarred blade, and finally held it out straight and sighted down it's length. A smile crept across his lips, and he said, "Mmmm baby! Daddy likey!"
"Hey! Where are we going in. There's a ton of guys in there."
Monroe said, "Well, you're the cop with the gun. Go around back and head off any vans that try to escape. Wook and I are going in the front to pick a fight."
Wook grinned, twisted his head, and grew eighteen inches taller. His shoulders widened, and a thick, shaggy coat of orange hair blanketed his mountainous, nearly eight-foot tall and four-hundred fifty pound body. He smiled, revealing giant square teeth. He hefted the old battle axe, now a child's toy in his hand, turned his head towards another salvo of gunfire, and said, "Amanda's in there. Let's go."
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Wildermann Wook kicked the chained door, sending it crashing into the building, followed instantly by the wail of a door alarm.
Monroe flashed inside, following on the heels of the clattering door, as it careened down the hallway, and finally smashed into a wall.
Wook's eyes quickly adjusted and he saw a red smear on the floor, and then ten bloody Hundjagers squinting and snarling. He gripped the axe. A silvery sunbeam glinted off the axe, into their eyes, and finally illuminated a small, sticky figure at the end of the smear. He yelled and heaved a cement block, which crushed into the first man, sweeping him across two others.
Monroe lept out in front, bounced across the walls, and tore straight into them while Wook ducked the doorway and waded in, swinging the axe down on them.
They huddled up around the girl, gritted their teeth, and snarled.
Three Hundjagers fell to the axe while the werewolf grabbed a second Hundjager and ripped his throat out. Wook swung again, hacking another two down as the Monroe continued his relentless assault from the other side, until they stood alone.
"Man, I like Nick's axe. This thing is awesome!"
Roarng gunfire echoing out from across the building. Wook said, "I think Nick found them. I don't see Amanda here, did you see which way they went?"
"No, but I can smell her. They took her through that door."
"It's probably a trap. Let's make a door!"
Monroe waved and said, "After you!"
Wook backed up and slammed into the wall, crushing a hole straight through it and blasting an avalanche of concrete block and dust onto the four men hiding behind it. Wook swung the axe down on them. Monroe followed, grabbing the first thing he could get his hands on, and ripped it's throat out. They ran towards a loading dock area and watched two vans screeching and swerving away. Three hundjagers hobbled and limped, dragging a body toward a third van.
Monroe yelled, "Nick! Little help over here!"
Nick wrenched his axe out of the chest of a dead Hundjager, stood straight up, and marched towards them. The hundjagers stood, staring at Nick, dumped the body into a pile, and snarled, "A Grimm!"
Wook grabbed the first one from behind and swung him like a rag doll, smashing him across the roof of a yellow forklift. He grabbed the second and flung him across the loading dock into the side of the parked van, crushing it's brown side like a soda can and rocking it up on two wheels. Monroe pounced on the third, and ripped his throat out, while the wrecked van crashed down onto four wheels and bounced.
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Nick knelt over a sticky heap, pressed fingers into its swollen neck, and said. "Hey, we've got a girl! She's alive!" He scooped up the tiny body, and carried her out of the warehouse building.
Bright white flashed onto the girl's face, her eyes fluttered, and popped open. She squinted at the flash, transformed, revealing a matted black mane and disheveled black body fur. She snarled, baring bloody teeth and missing fangs. Her claws extended towards Nick, but suddenly stopped and retracted. She stared into his face, and transformed back into a purple, battered girl, reaching a wobbly arm towards him, and excitedly mumbling.
He looked at her blood shot, bruised eyes, wiped blood off her mouth, untangled his hand from the sticky mat of hair, and said, "It's ok, you're safe now."
Wook rushed beside them, stared, and finally said "Amanda? Amanda! What are you doing here?"
She mumbled something, struggled, said, "Miriam," then fell limp.
Nick brushed her face and said, "Shhh. It's going to be ok. Wook, you know this girl?" He passed Amanda to Wook. Her eyes fluttered, she mumbled something, and dug her fingers into Nick's jacket. He looked into her eyes, brushed over her forehead, and said, "Shh, calm down, sweetie. We'll get you back to your parents here soon."
Nick looked at the girl, cradled like a toddler in Wook's giant arms, and said, "You run one heck of a gym there in Seattle. I don't know what you did to her, but I've never seen a Lowen kid that could cause that much carnage against that many people. She killed over a dozen of them."
Wook gently brushed a giant, square hand along her face, smiled, and said, "She's a Grimm."
Nick looked up at Wook and said, "She's a mixed Grimm and she can wogue? Huh. Where in the world did you come up with one of those?"
Wook smiled, cradling her like a baby, touched her face, and said, "I've known her parents since before she was born. They try to keep a low profile... Mandy, what in the world possessed you to try this all by yourself? Hang in there sweetie! Don't go dying on me now! We gotta get you to a hospital."
Nick looked back towards the building, and said, "Monroe, come on, let's circle back around with our RCMP contact to see how many of the girls we recovered, and if any of them are named Miriam." He turned, picked up his axe, and walked back in through the door.
She opened her eyes, reached out her hand towards Nick, mumbled something, then fell limp again.
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Lauren ran over to Wook while he was carrying Amanda back to the SUV, and said, "Please, tell me she's alive."
"Yeah, I don't know how. She took one hell of a beating and got cut up pretty good, but she's alive."
"Thank God! Wook, she promised me she wouldn't go in."
"She's a kid. They do stupid stuff."
"Look, Wook, you can't be tied to this. I gotta take her back."
"Sandra's going to be crazy."
"I know. I'll take all the blame. They're transferring me overseas today anyway, I was supposed to leave this morning."
"What are you going to tell her?"
"That we went out hunting a child molester and it went south."
"Sandra's going to freak out. Please, don't kill Amanda's mother."
Lauren sighed, then said, "Nobody can find out about this. Let her mom think it was my fault. I'm gone anyway." She glanced at her watch, and said, "I fly out at six."
"Where you off to this time?"
"Thailand."
Wook's phone buzzed. He looked at it, scowled, and said. "We only recovered six, and that Miriam girl wasn't one of them. Four months of work. We had the whole team, fourty of us, ready for tomorrow. Mandy!"
Lauren scowled, and said, "We lost eight girls including Mandy's friend Miriam? Mandy, what were you thinking? We would have gotten them all back tomorrow!"
They changed grayish Amanda out of her bloody clothes, dumped a couple packets of Quick Clot into the wounds on her arms and legs, and poured her into the passenger's seat.
Wook sighed a giant sigh, then wrapped Lauren in a giant hug. "You better come back and visit me and Amanda once this blows over. You know she's going to take this really hard."
"I will. Promise me you will watch out for her."
"I will."
Lauren was talking on the phone before her car got onto the highway.
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1.9k 12/23/20 r1