AN: Terebessy is a werewolf information broker that I introduced in 'Malediction du Loupgarou."

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CHAPTER 2

Just Three Birds

Eliot had collected the bags from the freezer, grabbed a couple of go bags and was waiting by the door. Parker had grabbed a couple of bags and joined Eliot a few minutes later. Hardison was running a copy of video files from the server to an external hard drive and working through a couple more systems that he wanted to tweak before they left. He was also working on diverting a particular stream of cyber traffic to his….

"Hardison? What's taking so long?" Eliot's voice over his ear bud caused Hardison to jump.

"Hold your damn horses!" Hardison growled back and delved into his system again.

"We shouldn't spend too much time here." Parker observed.

"Okay babe, just a sec." Hardison was almost done buttoning up his system.

"I get 'Hold your damn horses' and she gets 'Okay, babe'?" Eliot put on an effeminate tone to tease Hardison about his response to Parker.

"You want me to call you babe?" Hardison grabbed his bag of extra equipment and started to make his way to the front door.

"You do and I'll break every bit of technology you own." Eliot growled.

"Boys." Parker rolled her eyes and headed out the door for Lucille.

As soon as they were all in the van, Eliot started a very circuitous route to their Gresham safe house. A drive that would have normally taken thirty minutes would take closer to an hour this way, but was sure to reveal any tails and give Eliot the opportunity to lose them.

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Nate and Sophie arrived in Portland shortly after the team had. Nate didn't like the overall tone of the threat coming from the mystery werewolf. If it had been a corrupt CEO and his henchmen, or a cartel, or any number of other bad guys that they had faced before and taken down, he wouldn't have worried so much. But this was from the freaky side of life, as Parker called it, and that was something he just didn't have as clear a picture of. He and Eliot had had many conversations since Eliot had first told them all what he was. And Eliot had been very forth coming, much more so than he was about other areas in his past. But still, there seemed to be some large information gaps and Nate wasn't sure how to fix that.

Sophie had been worrying like a mother hen and would have preferred to be up front about their presence in Portland. Nate, however, was a schemer and while that was a quality she appreciated, sometimes it was damn annoying. She didn't see why they should wait to let the team know that they were there. What if the team needed them? What if it was a last second situation and it was too late to call or the team thought they were too far away to get help in time? She followed Nate to the cab and hoped that he knew what he was doing.

Before long they were settling into their hotel suite. Sophie smiled as she sat on the edge of the bed to remove her shoes. She couldn't help remembering the disconcerted look on Eliot's face when he'd told her she'd have to sleep on his pull-out bed. It wasn't often she ever saw that man disconcerted. Angry, almost always. Blank faced, quite often. Happy was starting to be a much more normal look on him. But disconcerted was a real rarity. "Any idea what they're up to?"

Nate had flopped down in a chair near the minibar but hadn't quite gotten around to fixing himself a drink. At Sophie's question he pulled out his phone and queued up the program that Hardison had installed that allowed him to track their earbuds. "Looks like they're in the neighborhood of the pub."

"So what now?" Sophie lay back on the bed.

"Now we find out what we can." Nate dialed a number on his cell. "Terebessy, how have you been?"

"Dammit, if I'd known what a pain in the ass you lot would be I'd've begged you to leave me to the Varnovian cartel."

"Really Jarod? We could return you if you like, although, there is still a price on your head." Nate couldn't help his smile.

"What on earth do you want now? Didn't Hardison already take everything and threaten me to boot?"

"You can tell me who's making a move in Portland."

"I don't know nothin'." Terebessy sounded petulant.

Tsk, tsk, tsk. "Isn't that your stated job? Aren't you an information broker?"

"Really! You think that's the kind of thing people call and tell me?"

"I think you've heard things, rumors, and whispers. I'm sure you've seen enough to have a good guess at the very least."

"And what do I get for this information? If you plan on having Hardison threaten me again fine then, but I'm not talking unless it's about receiving a payment."

Nate was fairly certain that threatening Terebessy would still work but someday he would actually call their bluff. "How about a favor? You give me some good information and we will repay you with a favor of similar value in the future."

"Fine."

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Eliot walked along the edge of the fenced yard in Gresham. He'd lost the only tail they'd had early on and the rest of the drive had been uneventful but he just couldn't settle until he was absolutely sure that his people were safe. As he came to a corner of the backyard he looked back at the yard and the house. The house was a ranch-style house. No basement, single story, blond brick with green faux shutters and trim. A few flowers getting ready to burst into their spring time glory were in beds near the back patio. The house was nothing fancy but it was neatly kept. A half a smile curled onto Eliot's face as he realized this place reminded him of Hardison's Nana's house. That was probably why Parker had decided to come here; to make Hardison feel at home. He knew Parker liked the safe house in Clackamas better since it was a warehouse much like her own previous domiciles. The screen door slammed and brought his attention back to the present moment.

"You plannin' on standing out here all night?" Hardison shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and shrugged his shoulders to protect his neck from the wind. It might be spring but the air this time of night had a definite nip to it.

"Just checking things out." Eliot was enjoying the cool evening air as he leaned back against the fence post and waited for Hardison. "You and Parker settled in?"

"Yah I guess." Hardison paused by a bird house and moved it just a little to the left.

"Camera?" Eliot asked.

Hardison nodded and leaned against a tree facing Eliot. The silence stretched for a moment or two. Hardison noticed Eliot's relaxed demeanor and truthfully it annoyed him a little. "So you're not worried about whatever this is that's going on?"

Eliot scoffed. "You think I'm an idiot? Of course I'm concerned." Eliot shook his head to toss his hair away from his face. "I hate that this werewolf crap is messing with you guys. You two aughta be at home above the pub watching whatever geeky movie you picked out, not hiding out in a safe house waiting to see what screwed up thing happens next." Eliot took a deep breath and Hardison waited to hear what he'd say next but Eliot just looked away.

"Well alright. So what do we do next?" Hardison tried to suppress a shiver but it was definitely getting colder.

"I check out those bags and see what I can learn and you start reviewing security footage. Now that we're home…kinda, will you be able to go frame by frame on those video clips of the animals?" Eliot started walking back to the house and Hardison followed.

"Yah. That's what I was working on before we left the pub; getting the master files I mean." Hardison stepped past Eliot through the back door but Eliot didn't follow him in. "You commin'?"

"Nah. I gotta check out those bags." Eliot tilted his head back to the corner of the yard they had just come from. Hardison looked past Eliot and noticed the small white lump on the ground near where Eliot had been standing.

"Ick. Glad it's you and not me."

Eliot went back across the yard and knelt down near the plastic trash bags. The chemical scent from the bags smelled faintly like burned motor-oil to him but Hardison and Parker had insisted that they couldn't smell anything at all from the bags when they'd bought them originally. After a moment when he was accustomed to the plastic scent and could ignore it he opened the top of the first bag and was overwhelmed by the scent of blood. Underneath the blood he could smell fur, the internal organs, and very faintly pain. So at least some of this damage happened before the rabbit died.

After finding the aconite powder a block from the pub he wasn't expecting to pick up any scents of the people who left the poor dead thing at his door, but he didn't want to presume. Opening the bag wider Eliot took a closer look at the contents. The rabbit had been left in three piles but there was no way to tell what had been separated before. Sorting through the offal he found the largest scrap of fur he could and pulled it free of the mess. The largest piece was the head and neck and confirmed that this had been a white rabbit. On closer inspection Eliot noticed the puncture marks on the back of the neck. Measuring the width between punctures against his finger he was certain the rabbit had been caught and killed by a werewolf in its wolf shape. He stretched the skin out and held the fur up to his nose trying to pick up any scents that didn't belong to the rabbit. Finally on one small spot he smelled wolf. He didn't know this wolf, but he would recognize him by scent when he met him.

"How can you stand to do that? Yuck." Parker's voice coming from the tree above and behind him startled him, and he turned and growled before he'd really processed that there wasn't a threat.

"Dammit Parker! There's something wrong with you." Eliot sat back down but turned to see her up in the tree.

"Can you really tell anything besides that it was left in gross bloody bits?" Parker remained perched like a bird in the Y of the tree.

"Yah. Actually I got the scent of the wolf that killed it. Don't know who it is but I'll know him if I meet him."

"So now what?" Parker tilted her head a little to the side as she assessed him.

"Now I look at the next bag and see what I can learn." Eliot watched her for a moment. "You might want to go back in the house. This is going to be pretty gross."

"You shouldn't have to do all the gross stuff by yourself." She pulled off the long strap of the cloth bag she'd slung over her shoulder and tossed the bag down in front of Eliot. A tube of wet wipes and a roll of paper towels rolled out.

Eliot cleaned his hands with the wipes and towels and picked up the next bag. He took a moment again to get used to the smell of the plastic bag and the cleaner on his hands. He opened the bag and was again hit with the smell of blood and death. He started to pull the pieces out of the bag, he'd been told 'at least three birds' but he needed to know exactly how many. Laying out wings, bodies and heads he moved the pieces around like a macabre puzzle. Finally he had three birds laid out and very identifiable as a sparrow, a robin, and a blackbird. The birds had been killed with a pellet gun and mostly had no scent at all. Eliot was sure the lack of scent was due to the aconite powder that had transferred from the wolf to the birds.

"Why different birds?" Parker climbed down from the tree and sat next to Eliot staring at the little broken bodies.

"Birds are messengers. Every culture attaches different meanings to different birds but always, birds are messengers." Eliot took a deep breath as he looked over the remains.

"So what do these ones mean?" Parker leaned against him with no concern over his bloody hands.

Eliot pulled her close to shelter her from the cold night making sure not to get blood on her while he did. "Sparrows are friends of the common people and represent resourcefulness and innocence. Robins represent relationships, joy, and hope. And blackbirds represent provision, protection, and safe passage."

"That's a lot to say with just three birds." Parker shivered and Eliot wasn't sure if it was because of the wind or the birds.