CHAPTER 11
Chloé took charge of things. She made a call to a forger and gave him an appointment later in the day to craft fake ID's for Jamie. She was the one who killed Shafer, so she needed them. However, Chloé said that even if Niamh wrestled with the dirty agent, she wouldn't need some for herself. The metamorph pointed out that she had bled on the crime scene, putting herself in danger if the forensics was able to identify her DNA, but Chloé was confident, and Niamh decided to trust her. After all, she was their leader and knew how these agencies worked from the inside. In addition, she was still tired and not perfectly ready for an argument.
On the way to the warehouse the forger worked in, they stopped by a drugstore to purchase a sling for Niamh's injured shoulder. Putting in on was a torture, but she put on a brave face and endured the pain without so much as a wince. After that, the strain on her arm was already greatly lessened and she started to feel better. They bought painkillers as well and then headed to their appointment. Outside the building, they took care to double check that they weren't followed before entering.
The man welcomed them coldly, like he had better to do and immediately started to order them around. Niamh didn't like it, but she accepted to play nice for Jamie. She needed these papers, she couldn't just screw this up because she couldn't bear to obey commands just for a little while. So she nicely sat in a corner, not far away from Abraham. She was staring blankly at the bottle of pills she was holding, silently cursing her fast metabolism that treated the drugs quickly. Since they bought them, she had already used three times the dose a human could take, and the pain was still raging. She pocketed the bottle with an aggravated sigh, her classic bad mood worsened by the pain.
"Are you okay ?" Abe asked her while Jamie was trying to tell the forger that he needed her to actually be ready for the photos.
"It hurts. Sometimes, having an overactive metabolism isn't so great. Okay, I heal fast, but that means that I evacuate the painkillers faster too."
"Couldn't you take something stronger ?" he suggested with hesitation.
"I guess I could. But how do you explain to a pharmacist you want ketamin or morphin for medical issues and not recreational issues ?" she half-joked with a sarcastic smile.
Abe laughed at her attempt to lighten the atmosphere and looked at her with sympathy. She had dark bags under her eyes and seemed very tired, but she never complained. However, he remarked that she seemed more at peace than when she still had to deal with her arm without the sling.
"I have no idea, but if I find one, I'll tell you first."
"Thanks, big guy. Look, Jamie's done with the photos", she made note as she showed him the reporter approaching them while Chloé was talking with the other.
Jamie still looked a bit shaken, but seemed strong nonetheless. She stopped next to the tall guy and the metamorph, a weary gleam in her eyes.
"This is ridiculous. I should turn myself in", she said bluntly.
"I know. You said that. Just drink the iced tea, it will make you feel better", Abe replied, handing her the goblet.
"Look, seriously... I shot a man", she whispered with a hint of panic in her voice. "An FBI agent. I-I can't just walk away from that."
"No. I won't let you say this, Jamie. You shot a son of a bitch who tied you up in your room, threatened to kill you, actually killed a doctor to cover his tracks, stole the Mother Cell probably to bring it to Reiden, did shoot me and tried to strangle me. In my point of view, you're a god damn hero !" Niamh defended her with a mix of compassion and agressivity.
Jamie avoided her gaze, slightly blushing from the compliment, but she wouldn't let go of the argument.
"So let's do something about it. Let's prove that not-really-FBI-agent Ben Shafer was working for Reiden. Instead of..." she trailed off and gestured towards the counterfeiter.
"We will", Abe simply stated with so much tranquil assurance that Jamie's panic immediately was eased.
"We will ?" she wondered quietly, hope shining in her eyes.
"Yes, we will. All of us, we'll find something. But for now, you need these papers, to keep you safe", Niamh added with a soft voice, only disrupted by small alterations due to the pain.
"How ?" the other girl whispered.
"We don't know yet, but we won't let you down, Jamie. You're one of us", Abraham comforted her.
From further, Niamh heard that the conversation between Chloé and the forger was not going well, as the French analyst was raising her voice at him. And then there was money changing hands and suddenly he became more compliant.
"I need a name", he said to Jamie. "For the passport."
"Um... Armstrong. Nancy Armstrong", she eventually answered, her voice cracking a little as she spoke.
She shared a glance with Abe and Niamh, who just frowned, sensing something was off. But at least, they were protecting the reporter, so she pushed her concern aside and just smiled at her weakly.
From time to time, she tried to move her fingers. They were still a little numb, but sometimes she had tingles in her entire arm, making it almost impossible to stay still because it was so upsetting. Her shoulder however, was sore and she couldn't move it, even so slightly. Every attempt of movement sent waves of suffering throughout her whole body. The only moments when she didn't feel like crap was the first hour after taking her pills. Then she could think clearly whithout having these pangs of pain. But eventually the analgesic would wear off and there she was again, struggling against pain.
In the next room, some sort of office, Mitch and Jackson were talking about the Mother Cell, the zoologist filling the vet in on what they learnt with Butler. Abe and Jamie were idly chattering about everything and nothing, and she was trying to guess what would happen to them now. They had the Mother Cell, they knew Reiden was trying to find it too and that they sent Shafer after them. Or at least, the group strongly suspected it. So now that Shafer was dead, they had to hide Jamie, protect her, while trying to find more evidence of the implication of the Mother Cell in the animal rebellion. Her head was panging with pain, echoing her shoulder, but she kept thinking. They had to find more proof. Which meant they had to find more animals, with something in their organism that proved they were exposed to the Mother Cell, and that it was what made them mad.
She wiped her forehead tiredly and closed her eyes before sighing heavily. This was not an easy mission, for sure... She glanced at her phone for the thousandth time since they landed in Washington. She hesitated about telling Richard or not. She didn't know if their phones were listened or not, and now that Shafer was dead, she couldn't afford risking their safety by calling her best friend because she needed comfort. She put it back into her pocket and sighed again, looking around her. It was a big warehouse, full of foreign material she didn't know what was made for. She was about to get up from her chair to join Abe and Jamie when Chloé walked to them.
"We're going to Paris", she started, staring at each one of the three. "The trackers of four Eurasian bears went offline, and one of them was found in an apartment at the 16th arrondissement. It nearly killed the woman who lived there."
She stared at Niamh, who just stared back and prepared herself mentally to face bears. They had met wolves, and now it was the bears' turn.
"Fine. Just perfect", she sarcastically said.
"Why ? Are you not happy, even a little, to go back to France ?" Jamie piped in.
"Not really. Well, I'm glad to see my birth country again but..." she trailed of and sighed sadly, seeming much more tired than before. "It may be dangerous. I don't know if the pack from Île-de-France will let me roam free. They were not very close to my uncle's, but... You know, there was a 'no sheltering' order after all, and that was before the coup. Now I don't know if I'm even allowed to live", she added.
Jamie put a comforting hand on her valid shoulder with a friendly smile. Niamh let out a short laugh, almost like a bark.
"And frankly ? No offense, Chloé, but Brittany is so much better than Paris", she bantered with a mocking smile.
Their leader smiled back in amusement, aware of the everlasting more or less friendly quarrels between the capital and the provinces.
"I'll get to sleep in the plane, though. But I think I won't be totally healed when we land. I'll need at least a week to be sure my arm can move freely, and absolutely no transformation at all..." she explained more calmly.
"I have to tell it to Mitch and Jackson. Jamie, your passport will be ready in an hour, we'll go then."
The reporter nodded and turned to Abe and Niamh with an encouraging face. A few minutes after Chloé left, Mitch exited the warehouse, telling them that he was going to the drugstore for melatonin. They stayed here the next hour, waiting for Jamie's passport to be finished, and then they were off to the airport. They booked their tickets and got in the plane. Niamh swallowed three painkillers at a time, slightly worrying the person next to her as well as Abe, who was her neighbour too, and used the sensation of numbness she quickly felt to fall asleep. The flight lasted a bit more than eight hours and thanks to the large dose of drugs, she managed to stay asleep all along.
They immediately headed to the animal test lab when they landed, except for Chloé and Jackson who decided to meet with the crisis unit. They said they could help them look into the right direction and tell them what they knew about the odd behavior the bears could demonstrate.
Right now, the rest of the group, Abraham, Jamie, Mitch and Niamh, were in the lab, examining the sleeping bear. Niamh was sitting on a desk chair with wheels and entertained herself by spinning on herself slowly while listening to Mitch and the others.
"So how do we tell if he's been infected by the Mother Cell ?" Abraham said to the vet.
"Grab me that tray of test tubes over there, will you ?" Mitch asked to Jamie, who obeyed. "I'm gonna take a blood panel and hope that some foreign elements will show up. If they do, I'll compare their chemical structure with the Mother Cell. And if they match, we've got our answer", he explained.
"So basically, you're looking for a... fingerprint. Chemically speaking", Jamie suggested.
"Look at you. Getting all science-y", Mitch bantered, causing Jamie to roll her eyes in wry amusement. "Ten drops each in each of those test tubes. And as backup, we'll take a DNA sample. Takes a little longer, but might as well while we're here, right ?" he added as he was directing the group like a real leader. "Would you mind taking a swab from our friend's mouth, there ?"
He gave a Q-tip to Abraham, who looked rather unsure about the safety of this procedure, but agreed nonetheless. Niamh stopped playing with her chair and got up.
"While we're here, maybe you should run a DNA test on me too. Who knows, maybe we'll find something", she shrugged.
"We already discussed this, Niamh. Whatever affects you when you transform, it doesn't when you're human. So it's pointless", Mitch countered.
"How would you know ? You didn't try, and I didn't object because at the moment we were talking about a bacteria and because we didn't have this lab", she retorted, gesturing around herself to show the place. "DNA doesn't change from human to animal form. It is what we are. If there's something to find, you'll find it in my DNA."
Mitch bit his lip in annoyance and reflexion while Abraham was approaching the sampling Q-tip from the unconscious bear. When he was close enough, the monitors started to freak out, saying clearly that the animal was waking up. Niamh took a combat stance, ready to defend her friends even if she was still injured.
"He's waking up", Abe worried.
"Oh that's okay", Mitch casually discarded their concern.
"Says you", Abe replied with slight worry on his face.
Jamie glanced at Niamh, and saw the girl was almost growling at the still sleeping bear.
"No, really, it's... Even in hibernation, a bear's heart rate increases when a... when a predator approaches. It's nature's little warning signal. Apparently, you're quite predatory", Mitch said wryly to a not so serene Abraham. "And to come back to our business, Niamh, you do realize that I can't run a DNA test alone. I'll have to let the lab do it, and they'll wonder what DNA it is. I can't say it's human and I can't say it's animal. Abe, put the sample in one of those little baggies over there."
Abraham nodded and went to do that while the vet kept doing two things in the same time.
"I don't know, just say... it's... a test. Something confidential about the bears and other animals that acted strangely", Niamh tried to defend her point.
"Yeah, and what happens when they realize there's animal and human DNA mixed up ? 'Cause I'm hundred percent sure you won't be hundred percent human or animal... You could even have none of these two types of DNA and be something completely different !" he snapped back as he leaned on the bear, not triggering his heart rate, before opening his eyelid. "Huh..."
"Huh, what ?" Jamie stepped in, rather tired of being left aside.
"His eye is normal... Come take a look. No defiant pupil", he said to Jamie as she came closer.
"But that doesn't make any sense. If he was exposed to the Mother Cell, his pupil should be..."
"All big and scary. Yeah, it should be", Mitch concluded, letting go of the bear's eyelid.
"That still doesn't settle things. I mean... I don't have a defiant pupil either. As least not all the time. And Hartley had one but we didn't know how that was possible. There's still a huge dark area about this thing we have left to explore. Look, take this", she said as she swiped a sampler in her mouth and put it in one of the bags next to the bear's sample. She wrote ' ' on the bag, to identify it as her sample, and gave it to the vet. "If we find nothing, well... fine. But if it helps, we have to try."
"And what about your species ?" Jamie soflty asked, genuinely concerned.
"Well... I don't want to sound too dramatic about it, but if we're all infected... With every day passing, the chances that we find one of them still lucid keep decreasing and there will be no point in hiding anymore 'cause we'll all be mindless beasts. I'm willing to take the risk", she said, before letting out a cynical and dry laugh. "For the greater good", she added with wry humor.
"You know... you don't have to..."
"I want to", Niamh interrupted Jamie a bit harshly. "First because it might help. Second because I'm curious. I don't know if my pack ever did DNA tests. We had our own scientists and doctors, and they were quite competent so I guess they had to research our DNA at some point. But I never studied it. I... left... before I could."
Her voice cracked a little on the last sentence, but she feigned not to notice. Mitch sighed again but eventually raised his hands in surrender.
"Fine. I'll do it."
She thanked him with a nod and sat back on her wheelchair, waiting for Chloé and Jackson to text them when they would be over with the crisis unit.
XXXXXXXXXX
Later in the evening, they all gathered in Chloé's apartment. It was rather big for an apartment in midtown, and all of them could fit in the different rooms. They went shopping before coming, and Jackson and Mitch were now in the kitchen, stowing the groceries while discussing the bear subject. Niamh lent them a hand, though she was slower beause she could only use one arm. She could hear Abe and Chloé talking in the corridor, something about the guest room, the sofa, and wine. She smiled lightly at Abe's concern for alcohol, and kept tidying their purchases.
"So I... No defiant pupil ? What does that mean ?" Jackson wondered.
"I don't know yet", Mitch answered. "But it doesn't necessarily mean that the bear wasn't affected by the Mother Cell. After all, you've seen by yourself that Niamh doesn't always have this particularity either. Blood tabs should be back in a couple of hours."
"Okay. But why else would a bear be hibernating in the middle of summer ?" the zoologist pointed out.
Mitch came back from the fridge, where he was storing fresh vegetables, and leaned against the table in the middle of the kitchen.
"There are two types of hibernation, okay ?" he began explaining, a pepper in his hand. "One is what we normally think of, Yogi Bear goes into a deep suspended animation to survive a winter of scarce resources. The other, is when an animal falls temporarily dormant, so the resources can be biologically redirected."
"What does that mean, 'redirected' ?" Jackson quiered from the other side of the kitchen, helping Niamh to store a pack of bottles of milk.
"Like a... caterpillar turning into a butterfly, or... when little kids sleep so deeply when they're growing', Mitch explained more clearly.
"So... you mean you think that the bear's changing ?"
"I think it's possible. The question is... into what ?" Mitch gazed at them with both a questionning look and scientific enthusiasm.
"Please, be a butter-bear", Niamh joke-prayed with a half-smile.
"A what now ?"
"A butter-bear. A butterfly-bear. I would give money to this bear if he could just change into a nice and beautiful butter-bear with shiny wings."
The two men stared at her like she had gone crazy.
"How many pills did you take recently ?" Jackson finally asked with concern.
"Oh come on ! Am I not allowed to joke ? We faced telepathic lions, bats able to fly so high they could attack planes, angry wolves, domestic dogs in wild packs, and God knows what still awaits us. If the bears could transform into something nice, I'd be much more than happy, wouldn't you be too ?"
Mitch snorted and shrugged, for once agreeing with her.
"She has a point", he said to Jackson, and resumed to his prior occupation, before freezing again and looking at the girl as if he was about to speak. "Do you think you could change into something else as well ?"
"That is actually a smart thought."
"I happen to have those sometimes, yes", he retorted snidely.
"I don't know", she answered, ignoring his attack. "I never stayed transformed long enough to begin to feel anything change apart from my lucidity. And I'm not exactly wolf or bear. It doesn't work like that. God, I don't even actually know how it works..." she realized, slightly bewildered and annoyed. "I don't know if regular werewolves have wolf DNA, or if they're human with a special gene, I don't know if the Berserker actually have a DNA that would look like a werewolf's. At the beginning, Berserkers were only humans, warriors who went through a shamanic ritual to become what they were, and then, through a trance, they could change. They could even have a regular human DNA as far as I know !" she almost complained, looking pained by her own ignorance about her kind.
She let herself down on the nearest chair and wiped her face with a loud, heavy and sad sigh. She had never thought of how her species worked, and felt guilty about that, about never trying to learn more. And now that they needed the knowledge more than anything else, she could only look at the others and say that she couldn't help them with the very thing she was supposed to manage. Jackson walked to her and put a comforting hand on her good shoulder with a reassuring smile.
"We'll figure it out, don't worry", he said softly. "Besides, imagine if you were to become a butter-bear if you slept long enough", he bantered to lighten her mood.
It worked, and they shared an amused glance. The simple thought of herself with butterfly wings succeeded to elicit a laugh from her.
"Come on. I'll help you do the bed in the guest room", he said, reaching out his hand for her to take as a help to stand up.
He left her in the guest room and went to Chloé's, whom he saw going into. They shared a few words that Niamh preferred not to listen in and a few seconds later, Jackson was back with a bunch of blankets and sheets.
"Delavane asked to meet Chloé. She'll come back later. I think he wants to know how much progress we made", he stated casually as he helped her to put on the sheets on the mattress.
"Do you think he knows ? About Shafer ?" she wondered in an undertone.
Jackson cast a glance at the door, checking that Jamie wasn't there. Niamh pricked up her ears and confirmed she was on the balcony with Abraham, allowing Jackson to talk freely.
"I don't know. If Shafer was really an FBI agent then maybe the FBI would send a warrant to every police, and Delavane would eventually know. Other possibility, Shafer lied about his job, but I don't buy it. He had too much knowledge about too many things."
"I believe that too, but then, why haven't we heard of it yet ?" she smoothed the sheets and winced when she accidentally moved her shoulder. "An FBI agent murdered in a hotel, Chloé would already have received news from her contacts."
"Maybe they haven't found him yet..." Jackson suggested with a hint of hope.
Niamh sighed as they finished to do the bed and massaged her sore shoulder carefully, wincing anyway at the sharp pain that irradiated from her wound. Jackson gestured towards her sling with a movement from his chin, hands on his hips.
"You should show this to Mitch. See if he can redo your bandage, check that nothing's wrong with it, that you're healing well."
She nodded and dropped her other arm along her body.
"You're right. Let's go bother Mitch, then", she jested with a smile.
As she walked past the zoologist, she realized that she really had warmed up to the others. In the beginning she was grumpy and sarcastic, always shooting snide comments at Mitch for the very same bad mood she displayed. She remembered when she used to think that these people wouldn't ever become close to her, that she was there only because of Alves, that they would never become pack to her. And there she stood anyway. Diving straight into danger to protect them from mad wolves or dirty agents. And now she even got injured for them.
She reached the kitchen, where Mitch was cooking alone, and sat on the same chair as before. What he was making smelled good, probably something to do with the fact that he was grilling meat and that she was starving.
"Oh, here you are", he said when he finally noticed her. "I thought you could use the protein. You know, to heal", he said clumsily, avoiding her gaze and focusing again on the pan.
"Thanks", she replied soflty, not sure why they weren't their usual selves, arguing and pestering each other. "Do you think you could... take a look at the bandage ? See if everything's fine."
"Yeah, sure..." he answered uneasily.
He too seemed to have noticed the awkwardness. He lowered the power of the heat under the pan, checked that his vegetables weren't burning either, and neared the injured metamorph. Carefully, his hands a bit shaking, he helped her remove the sling and push the clothe from her shoulder so he could see clearly. He collected his medical kit and dragged a chair to face her. He sat on it and began taking off the bandage. Usually, you would change it every two days, but since she healed faster than a human, they needed to monitor her state every day to be able to react quickly if something was wrong.
The edges of the wound were still red and swollen, but the bleeding had stopped. The stitches held firm even though she had unintentionally used her muscle. He picked a compress from his medical bag, applied disinfectant on it and softly wiped the wound, making her wince when the product went into contact with her injury. He then patched again her shoulder, putting gauze on the stitched area, and bandaged her upper arm again to make sure it held.
"There. It should suffice for now. That vet did a good job", he mumbled as he packed up his things while she put the sling back on.
"Thank you. Do you want help with the dinner ?"
"No, I'm good. Go sit with the others. Order of the doctor", he joked hesitantly.
"Are we finally getting along with each other ?" Niamh snorted sarcastically.
"Keep dreaming", he retorted with his usual bite, badly hiding a smile.
They later gathered around the table in the living room, waiting for Chloé to return, and began talking with each other, until Abraham asked for their attention. Jamie was looking uneasy beside him and avoided to make eye contact with anyone. Niamh found this odd, but didn't remark it as the tall husky guy opened his mouth.
"We need to do something for Jamie. She can't stay the person of interest for all her life, we need to prove that Shafer was corrupted", he stated, immediately bringing up the subject he wanted to talk.
"So... no beating around the bush, huh..." Mitch said, sipping his whisky.
"No. We need a plan. There are Reiden offices here in Paris..." Abe continued, and eyed Jamie.
"...and from what we know, all their systems are connected. If we managed to get inside, we could track their finances", she finished his sentence, showing that she really wanted to be a part of this, and not let the others deal with her problem without her.
They discussed the subject during the next hour, still waiting for Chloé's return. Niamh was a bit apprehensive about it, fearing that she wouldn't allow the operation and commanded them to focus on the animal rebellion and the bears.
"Okay, but how do we get past the facial recognition ?" Jamie pointed out after a moment.
"No problem. All we need is an employee with top-level access", Jackson explained calmly.
"Right, because why would that be a problem ?" Mitch scoffed from the other side of the table.
"He has a point. How do you intend to convince them to let us use their face to get past the security ? We're not from Reiden, it would be strange. Plus, if they tell someone after that, we're screwed", Niamh added distractedly, staring at the piece of meat in her plate.
Chloé then entered the room, closing the door behind her, and neared them, putting her bag aside on the nearest table.
"Hey. How is it going ?" the analyst said eagerly. "Oh, before any of you answer, Niamh, I have news. I asked Delavane if he could destroy the blackmailing documents. He already ordered Alves to do it, but he looked like he wasn't sure he was obeyed."
Niamh nodded, avoiding her gaze. She was forced to join the team in the first place, and even though now she truly wanted to do something, there still was this sword of Damocles hanging above her head.
"So, what were you talking about ?"
"Abe had an idea, a good one", Jackson announced proudly, placing a hand on the tall guy's shoulder.
"About the bears ?"
"No, about Jamie. She can't spend the rest of her life running", the giant responded.
"I agree. Trust me, I've been running from a vengeful pack for the past three years, and it's not funny", Niamh muttered, hiding behind her glass of water.
"We have to get her out of it by proving that Ben Shafer was on Reiden's payroll", Abe continued as if he wasn't interrupted.
Jamie glanced at Chloé, looking for her approbation. It was a dangerous plan, and it was all for cleaning her name from the accusations against her. The french agent gazed back at her and the others in an expectative stance, waiting to listen to their plan.
"Reiden has an office here in Paris", Jackson began. "We're breaking in."
She just stared at him, looking both amused and disbelieving. One could almost hear her mind screaming 'are you fucking kidding me ?!', while she sported a minuscule smile at the corner of her lips. Jamie was eyeing her in complete desperation, fearing that she would not accept the plan and condemn her to live with the accusations. But Chloé was their leader, she protected them no matter what, and as a leader, she paid attention to what they were proposing.
XXXXXXXXXX
"So the Paris Reiden office only handles European contracts, but their computer network is linked to the central system back in Boston, which means, if we hack into their system, we can prove that Ben Shafer was on their payroll", Jackson exposed while helping cleaning the table after eating.
Chloé was sitting at the table, trying to follow the explanations and to assess the risks of this plan. There were a lot, and she couldn't list them all, Niamh could read it in her concerned expression. Even the part where they entered Reiden's office hall was dangerous. If someone had already found Shafer's body and they didn't know about it, they could be wanted. Security agents could recognize them and arrest them. Leaning against the back of her chair, Niamh pulled her legs close to herself, taking great care not to move her left arm, and put her chin on her knees.
"How are we gonna do that ?" Chloé wondered.
"What, the hacking into the system part, or the proving part ?" Mitch scoffed, uncorking a bottle of wine.
"Both", the blonde said, looking uncertain.
"Here", the vet handed her a glass of red wine. "Makes more sense if you drink this."
"Can I have one too ?" Niamh spoke up.
"Uh... yeah, sure. As long as you don't take pills in addition", Mitch warned.
"Mitch, stop that, or someone's gonna start to think you actually care", Jamie snickered, causing Mitch to slightly redden in annoyance and embarrassment.
"Okay, so... Second part first", Jackson tried again.
"Uh, I've done investigations like this for stories I've written. Corporations keep track of every penny of their finances, so if there's a payoff to Ben Shafer, it'll be in their accounting records. We just access the finances and follow the paper trail", Jamie explained.
Niamh reminded herself that the reporter was exactly that : a reporter, an investigator, and not just the woman Mitch insisted on taking with him when he was recruited by Alves. She also remembered the day when Shafer found them in their hotel room, when Jamie had located Butler. She had some experience with following electronic trails, and she wouldn't let go of the bone she found.
"Presuming that he used his real name", Chloé said, tempering Jamie's eagerness with her own practical mind of terrorist hunter.
"Uh, agreed. It's not necessarily going to be easy, but there's aways something. Uh, money that moves from one account to another. Numbers that don't add up..." the reporter defended herself, quite accurately, as she brought back plates to the kitchen.
"That's your specialty, right ? Recognizing patterns", Abe spoke up to Chloé.
"Okay, you say once we access their finances", the DGSE agent repeated slowly. "How are we gonna do that ?"
Jackson stood from the table and started speaking with his hands, being very expressive.
"That's the cool part. See, as far as we can tell, all top-level Reiden executives have access to their entire computer network. But the system doesn't use passwords. It uses facial recognition. So we just need to locate an executive with access and then trick their system into thinking they're signing into their account", he explained clearly.
"And that's where you come in", Abraham continued, drawing attention on him. "This is going to be a team effort. Even Mitch."
Said man turned to the group, distracting himself from the plate he was washing, and frowned like he wouldn't want to join this operation for a million dollars.
"We're presuming there are thousands of documents to comb through, so we're going to copy the records onto a computer with enough storage space. The one in the animal lab."
"And what's my role ?" Chloé wondered. For now, they only talked about Mitch and Jamie hacking into the system.
"You get to have some fun", Abe smiled at her. "You will trick the guy into letting you show his face to the camera."
Niamh set her empty glass on the table and stretched longly, popping her joints all along her spine in the process. She winced when she accidentally strained her shoulder and got up from her chair to help cleaning the table.
"So we're doing it ?" she said. "We're breaking into Reiden's system ? Not that I'm opposed to it, I'm actually pretty thrilled by the idea, it's just that... There's a lot of risks. If we're found... Well I don't need to tell you what they could do to us..."
"We can't leave Jamie in this situation, you know it", Abe argued. "If you had killed him during your fight, we would have done the same thing for you."
"I know you would."
She sighed deeply, unconsciously moving her hand to touch her injured shoulder thoughtfully.
"Look, I'm just scared. You're going to take great risks, and I don't want you to be in danger. I can protect you against a pack of wolves or even a dirty FBI agent during an actual fight, but I can't protect you if the entire police looks after you because you did something illegal."
Her voice almost broke at the end of the sentence, and her concern could be seen in her ice blue eyes. She was clenching and unclenching her right fist in stress, and despite the pain, she was trying to do the same with her left.
"Hey", Jackson uttered soflty. "Remember what we said about dealing with stress ? -she nodded- Everything's gonna be alright. It's just another impossible mission that we're going to rock like heroes."
She had a short laugh, hesitant, her anxiety still remaining despite of his attempt to lighten her mood. The reason why she was so stressed wasn't only about the risks there was to hack into Reiden and potentially being spotted by their security. As she had realized a few days ago, after her transformation in the woods next to Biloxi Penitentiary, she had started to feel protective over the other members of the team. Overly protective even. She managed to hide it rather well, most of the time, putting on a mask of sarcasm and indifference, but since the Butler-Hartley incident, she couldn't hide it anymore.
She cared for these people. She cared for them like she cared for Richard. And the mere idea of them being injured or in danger was almost physically painful to her. She knew it was a typical wolf behavior, and especially an alpha behavior : caring for their pack, wanting to protect it at all costs. She never really tried to lead anyone, but she felt like it was her duty to be the shield facing any danger to keep the others safe. Now, with her arm in a sling, unable to change into her animal counterpart, and incapacitated by the pain that surged throughout her whole body everytime she made a wrong move, she felt completely useless. And this feeling was slowly turning into a more animal feeling of panic and unpredictability.
"Just... don't do anything too reckless tomorrow, okay ?" she almost pleaded.
"Don't worry, we'll handle this", Chloé reassured her.
"You know, keep saying things like that, and people are going to start thinking you actually care, and that you're not just a bitchy teenager", Mitch added snidely, quoting Jamie's earlier words.
She glared at him but didn't retaliate. She did care after all.
"I think we should go to sleep. Tomorrow's a big day", Jamie said after a moment.
They all agreed and dispatched in the different rooms. Chloé sharing hers with Niamh, whom she didn't want to sleep on the couch like the girl proposed to do, Abe and Jackson in the guest room and Jamie and Mitch on the sofa. They were all a little piled up on each other, but they didn't have much of a choice. Still recovering, Niamh slept deeply and almost immediately, after meaningless conversation with the analyst.
In the morning, though she was well rested, she felt anxiety crawl back into her heart, sinking in its teeth like a leech. She could barely eat her breakfast, her insides twisting like snakes. When they were all ready to go, she gathered all the calm she could muster and followed the others to the cars. She didn't even look through the window, though the others did. After all, they were Paris, the famous City of Lights, the most beautiful city in the world. Even though they were here for work, they could enjoy the view.
It took them half an hour to reach Reiden offices. They climbed out of the car, staring up at the huge building with a hint of stress on their faces. Niamh began to follow them when a sudden feeling of being watched made her stop dead in her tracks. The others kept walking without noticing her stop and entered the hall of Reiden offices. She, however, was searching for the reason why she felt observed. She looked around her, smelling the odours and listening to anything strange. There was so many people... walking by, talking, laughing... She winced when her enhanced senses suddenly became her worst ennemies, almost incapacitating her. So much, even, that she didn't notice the man approaching her until the last second.
She growled and pushed him back when he grabbed her arm. He scowled too and almost bared his teeth, even though they were in public. Their eyes were turning to gold in anger as they were ready to fight in the middle of the street. Knowing she couldn't transform, Niamh did her best to contain her wolf counterpart while still looking like she could snap at any moment and attack the other metamorph.
She didn't know his smell, but she didn't know every single metamorph in the world, so it was normal. However, she recognized a certain hint in his odour she identified as the mark of the pack of Paris. She had met their alpha, once, back in the days. Her uncle and parents had brought her to a diplomatic trip to the capital, and she had met the man. He was a rather young wolf, only fifty years old, and followed suit to his father. She remembered him as a pleasant man, but didn't like him all the same.
"Qu'est-ce que tu veux ?" (What do you want ?) she growled at the wolf with a slight accent. After so long speaking English only, her French was a bit rusty.
"Tu ne devrais pas être là. Tu as été bannie" (You shouldn't be here. You were banned), he grunted back, not bothered by the strange looks they were getting.
"Ouais, et qu'est-ce que tu vas faire, hein ?" (Yeah, and what are you gonna do about that ?) she challenged him, perfectly knowing that she shouldn't. "Il y a des humains partout, et on sait tous les deux que je te mettrais la misère. Tu fais pas le poids face à un alpha" (There are humans everywhere, and we both know that I would crush you. You are no match for an alpha), she hissed lowly, her whole attitude dominant and menacing.
The wolf flinched at her intonation but growled louder. Secretly, she envied him. She could see he was fuming, but he controlled his transformation, unlike the Berserkers and herself. Anger didn't trigger the change. She had to be extremely careful when she angered herself.
"Tu es blessée, je te tuerais et tu le sais. Tu ne fais que parader et te vanter, mais dans un vrai combat, tu..." (You are injured, I would end you and you know it. You're all about bragging and promising, but in a real fight you would...)
She cut him off, by landing a powerful punch in his face, before moving aside as he recovered quickly and tried to punch her too. Gasps were heard all around them, forcing him to stop his attempt. Jaws clenched tightly, he just stared at her, trying to bore holes in her head only by the force of his hatred.
"Tu as de la chance que tous ces humains nous observent, sale monstre, parce que autrement, tu serais déjà morte" (You are lucky these humans are watching, bastard monster, otherwise you would already be dead), he scowled lowly, almost inaudible even for Niamh.
"Tu ne fais que parader et te vanter, petit chiot, mais on sait tous les deux que dans un vrai combat, tu ne saurais même que tu es déjà mort" (You're all about bragging and promising, little puppy, but we both know that in a real fight, you wouldn't even know you were already dead), she bit back, quoting him.
He growled and tried to lunge at her again, but was held back by a policeman, called by the crowd around them. He shrugged the man's hand off his shoulder but didn't try to attack her anymore. She deciced to pick on him a bit more before joining the others inside.
"Tu devais être reconnaissant. J'essaie de sauver ta misérable vie, tu sais ? Tu n'as rien remarqué ? Ce changement dans ton esprit ?" (You should be grateful. I'm trying to save your worthless life, here, you know ? Didn't you notice it ? The change in your mind ?) she whispered, half threatening and half worried.
It was so strange that the wolf stopped struggling. He just stared at her, frowning in incomprehension. When he was finally about to say something, his anger almost completely gone, Chloé and the others came back from Reiden.
"Niamh, we have to go. Something happened", the analyst declared, but then paused. She saw the man facing their youngest recruit, his facing already bruising, and looked like she was trying to figure out what happened. "Are you alright ?" she asked to the girl.
"I'm fine. Let's go", she replied, turning her back to the other metamorph, ignoring him.
"Hé, attends ! Comment tu sais ? Comment t'es au courant ?" (Hey, wait ! How do you know ?) the man asked, following her.
The policeman looked like he was a bit lost, not understanding what was happening there, the crowd was staring at them, and Niamh only wanted to get in the car and drive away. The metamorph grabbed her arm again, but not with hostility this time. He looked worried.
"Comment tu sais ?" (How do you know ?) he asked again, more softly. "Tu le ressens aussi ?" (You felt it too ?)
She nodded gently, her anger and aggressivity gone as well.
"Fais passer le mot à ta meute. Il est dangereux de se transformer. Quelque chose affecte les animaux, et corrompt nos esprits aussi. Rester sous forme humaine est la seule solution pour préserver notre espèce" (Tell your pack about this. It's dangerous to shift. Something affects the animals and corrupts our minds too. Staying human is the only way to protect our species), she murmured to him. "Même si j'imagine que ton alpha refusera d'écouter ma suggestion..." (Even if I think your alpha would never follow my advice), she added with mixed bitterness and sarcasm.
"Nous avons déjà perdu cinq des nôtres. Deux ont perdu l'esprit et attaqué leurs familles... Nous suivrons ton conseil" (We already lost five people. Two lost their minds and attacked their families... We will do as you say), the man responded quietly.
When winter comes, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives, huh ? Even if the different packs wanted her dead because of her being a hybrid, when they all faced the same danger, they faced it together. They had a common ennemy, they couldn't fight inside battles. The wolf slightly lowered his head, still staring into Niamh's eyes. She did so as well, and connected their foreheads, a hand on each other's shoulder, in their ritual acknowledgement of one another's respect. Eventually, she disengaged herself and nodded at the other wolf, bidding him goodbye. He turned on his heels and resumed to his own business.
The crowd was still watching her weirdly, as well as her friends and the policeman were. They didn't understand a word of what she told the man, except Chloé for obvious reasons of language, and only got that she punched him, and then hugged him. She gestured them towards the car and refused to answer until they were inside.
"Who was it ?" Jackson blurted out the second they were locked in the car.
"It was another wolf, right ?" Chloé guessed.
"Yes."
"What ?!" Jamie squealed, causing Niamh to hiss in pain for her hyper sensitive ears. "Like you ? A... a werewolf ?"
"A purebred werewolf, yeah. He recognized me in the crowd and he came to confront me. I feared that I would catch the eye of this pack if I went outside. Well... I did", she stated matter-of-factly.
"What did he want with you ?" the reported worried. "I saw the bruise on his face, did he try to hurt you ?"
"He only threatened me, so I punched him. Then he wanted to retaliate, but I was faster than him, and there was two many people around. He couldn't risk to reveal the Secret."
"How did you convince him to calm down ? We saw the end of the confrontation from the entrance of Reiden's. He seemed ready to gut you alive, and then he just... calmed down", Jackson asked her.
"She told him about our research. Or at least, she told him about this... drive... she has when she turns. He understood they weren't alone, that it wasn't an isolated event", Chloé explained slowly, also replacing the chronology in her mind.
"Yeah. Well, enough talking about me. When you showed up you told me that something had happened. What was it ?"
Chloé blanched and started the engine, suddenly remembering why they needed to move quickly. She started to drive as fast as she could, considering the speed limits and the people crowding the capital.
AN : Ok, so I managed to write chapters 11 and 12 this week, so I'll release the next one soon. Currently writing chapter 13, but don't get your hopes high (if you still have)
Anyway, I'll never thank enough the people who read this first attempt of a fanfiction in a foreign language (I almost hit a thousand views omg o.o). Feel free to leave reviews to help me improve myself :)