CHAPTER 10
Tasks and Timing
"Parker, what is taking so long?" Eliot grumbled, and scratched at the bandage that was covering the silver burn. When he had woken up just before dinner time yesterday the burn had looked much better but it was still a very long way from healed.
"Did you know they have baby cats in here?" Parker's whispered voice came across Eliot's earbud.
"Kittens, Parker, and leave them there." Eliot pinched the bridge of his nose. "Just get the stuff and get out here." The veterinary clinic was actually a very short walk from their hotel so there was no need to bring Lucille. Eliot was waiting for Parker near the back corner of the building in a blind spot that hid him from the security camera, next to the dumpster that hid him from the street.
Parker petted one of the kittens between the bars of the kennel before she moved on to the small locked cupboard that stored the prescription drugs. Picking the lock was child's play. "What was the point in even locking the door if they don't have a better lock?" Parker flung the door wide and scanned the shelves until she found the two vials she was looking for. She placed a hundred dollar bill on the shelf with a note that said 'Sorry'.
"Locks are for honest people and we aren't, so get out of there already." The itch of the healing burn was making Eliot even more short tempered than usual and he knew it but couldn't seem to get a grip on it while the itch was driving him crazy. Eliot checked the time. Three a.m. was probably as close to a 'perfect' time to pull off a simple heist, as they were going to get in this very quiet neighborhood.
"There hasn't been any chatter on the police bands and Parker hasn't set off the security system so you got time." Hardison was monitoring things from the comfort of the hotel room since they wouldn't need a get-away driver for this heist.
Parker slipped back out the window she had gone in through and placed the security sensors back where she had found them. "Okay Hardison, I'm clear. You can activate the sensors again." Parker looked down at Eliot, who was waiting just below her. "I don't need you to catch me. It's only a twelve foot drop." Parker still didn't understand what the big deal was when it came to little jumps like this. She'd been doing things like this since she was a kid.
Eliot's low growl was amplified on her earbud. "Fine." She rolled her eyes and let go of her fingertip hold on the window sill. Eliot caught her and steadied her on her feet before they both made their way back to the street.
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Parker stared up at the fat pink pig that made up the sign for the butcher's shop. "Are we getting pork?"
"Don't know, don't wanna know." Hardison glanced over the top of his tablet to observe Parker for a moment. Eliot had gone into the shop a few minutes earlier to pick up the meat that they would be using for bait. "I should have enough nano-bots for one more try at this but if we don't get him this time, we'll have to think of something else."
"Did you figure out how long they last?" Parker stretched and put her feet up on the dash.
"The last batch died before we made it to the hotel yesterday morning." Hardison could hardly believe that it had only been yesterday morning when it felt like a week ago.
Eliot came out with a large brown-paper bag and a half gallon bucket with a snap on lid. "Sorry. It took longer than I thought it would." Eliot settled his packages near the back door of Lucille. "You heard from Ewen or Abby?" Eliot relaxed into one of the fold down seats.
"I sent room service with breakfast to their room twenty minutes ago and it was accepted." Hardison checked his mirrors one last time before pulling into the very light traffic.
"Do we have everything we need to steal a werewolf?" Parker looked back at Eliot.
"I hope so." Eliot said with a sigh as he leaned his head back against the van.
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Hardison and Parker settled in to watch a little TV while Eliot took out the basic chemistry set that Hardison had packed in Lucille. Pulling on the latex gloves he reached for one of the vials that Parker had stolen that morning. A soft knock sounded at the door. "Who is it?"
"Like you don't know." Ewen's grumpy voice came from the other side of the door.
Eliot opened the door and let in Ewen and Abby.
"You'd think you'd been out running errands all morning, like these three, instead of having a nice breakfast and a lie-in." Abby swatted at Ewen's arm. "Don't mind his tone. You feeling better?" Abby kissed Eliot's cheek on the way past.
"I am." Eliot closed the door behind them.
"And what's all this then?" Ewen waved a hand at the chemistry equipment spread out on the small table.
"Just sat down to mix the tranquillizer cocktail when y'all knocked." Eliot reclaimed his seat at the table. Ewen pulled out the chair next to Eliot's and reached for a spare set of gloves. Abby shook her head and turned to the open door between Eliot's room and Parker and Hardison's.
"So explain to me again, why this is going to work when the tranquillizer darts didn't do a blessed thing to slow you down?" Ewen watched Eliot set up the things he would need.
Eliot started measuring a clear liquid into a small beaker. "I don't know if it will work or not yet. We need to run a little experiment when I've got this stuff finished up." After adding most of the second vial to the same beaker Eliot slid the beaker over to Ewen along with a thin glass rod. "Stir this." Ewen's eyes flashed yellow for a moment. "Please." Ewen started stirring and Eliot went to the duffel bag that had the tranquillizer gun and it's paraphernalia in it. Eliot pulled out a medium sized brown glass bottle and came back to the table with it. "You might want to hold your nose." Eliot screwed off the lid.
"Oh mercy! I hate that stuff!" Ewen was holding his hand over his nose and mouth but it didn't seem to be helping.
"So what is in your special cocktail?" Hardison was leaning against the door jamb watching Eliot add hellebore to whatever was already in the beaker.
"Dimethyl sulfoxide, ketamine, and hellebore. Pretty simple." Eliot answered Hardison's question but his focus was centered on the hellebore that he was adding with an eye dropper.
"A solvent right? And two tranquillizers. What's the solvent for?" Hardison watched as Eliot loaded a dart with this new mixture.
"DMSO, dimethyl sulfoxide is a solvent but the trait we need here is that it passes through barriers. So the tranquilizers should pass through the tissues and through the blood stream before the wolf's metabolism can burn it off." Eliot loaded the dart into the dart gun.
"Lemme guess you want us to shoot you with it?" Hardison sounded annoyed and was about to head back to his room when he saw the sneaky smile on Eliot's face.
"No, the little bugger is plannin' to shoot me with it!" Ewen glared at Eliot.
"Language Ewen!" Abby yelled from the other room.
"Well if you don't want to help out it's fine really." Eliot's tone couldn't have sounded more innocent. He scratched at the bandage under his shirt and used his hair to help hide his smirk.
"Ah hell. Fine. Let's get this over with." Ewen reached for the hem of his shirt. "Need to be wolf right?" At Eliot's nod Ewen shook his head and stripped off.
"If the hellebore didn't work on you before what makes you think this is going to work?" Hardison concentrated on Eliot's face so that he wouldn't chance seeing Ewen mid shift.
"Parker said she got me with three darts. I checked the load on the last dart, which she didn't shoot at me, and I'm guessing that you loaded all of them the same way. So that tells me that the curse is upping the wolf's metabolism which would also explain the hunger, and to some extent the more aggressive behavior. So if we can bypass the metabolism a little bit and give the drugs a chance to work, we might see a difference." Eliot checked his watch.
"So how much of this are you shooting Ewen with?" Hardison swallowed hard at the sound of a meaty-pop and whine from Ewen. "Yall are just nasty." Hardison shot an accusing glare at Eliot.
"I've got this loaded for a half dose of both tranqs and a full dose of the DMSO." Eliot glanced at Ewen.
Ewen completed the change and shook out his grey fur before sitting and glaring at Eliot.
"Alright." Eliot looked at his watch as he squeezed the trigger on the dart gun. With a hissing pop the dart seemed to appear in Ewen's front left shoulder. Ewen bared his teeth at Eliot before sliding to the floor unconscious. Eliot sat down on the floor next to Ewen and slid his fingers between Ewen's left front leg and his ribs. Eliot watched the second hand on his watch as he kept track of Ewen's pulse.
"So now what?" Hardison sat down on Ewen's other side.
"Now we see how long it takes for him to come out of it and then you do the math to figure out how much of this stuff we're going to need for each dart." Eliot kept his attention focused on Ewen but sent a half smile in Hardison's direction. Eliot scratched at his bandage again and checked his watch.
"Sorry about that." Hardison nodded at Eliot's bandage.
"Don't apologize for doing the right thing." Eliot reached toward the bandage again but stopped himself.
They sat in silence for a moment. Eliot was comfortable with silence and didn't feel the need to fill it with chatter. Hardison was not so comfortable. "We got you something. Me and Parker. I meant to tell you about it earlier but things got busy and then they got…" Hardison shrugged.
"Freaky?" Eliot smirked and took another reading of Ewen's pulse.
"Right. Well anyway, we thought you should have it before we head out tonight." Hardison looked up and past Eliot.
Parker came over with a slim cardboard box. She knelt on the floor near Ewen's head and slid the box to Eliot.
Eliot raised an eyebrow and fished a knife out of his pocket. Flicking the knife open, he slit the tape and slid out a light brown Kevlar vest. Holding it up he could see the configuration was wrong for a person. "You got a tactical vest for my wolf?" Eliot let the smile slide across his face.
"We had to buy it." Parker pouted.
"A company out of Canada makes them. This one is custom fit to you. The Kevlar is rated to for up to a nine millimeter point blank round, and good against pretty much any kind of bladed weapon."
"Wow. That's really great. Thanks guys!" Eliot and Hardison went through their hand slapping fist bumping routine. Parker stood up and Eliot caught her fingers giving them a gentle squeeze. Hardison and Parker headed back to their room as Abby came in and sat down where Hardison had been.
Eliot set the vest to the side and checked Ewen's vitals again. "Sorry for using your husband for the science experiment."
"He wouldn't have gone along with it if he didn't want to." She smiled and stroked her fingers across the wolf's pelt. "How long do you think he'll be down for?"
"Maybe three hours, not more than five." Eliot checked Ewen's pulse again. "Don't worry I'll keep close tabs on 'im."
"I know it." She petted Ewen gently. "You think this stuff will work? On the rogue I mean."
"It's our best hope. There is no one left for the rogue that could call him out like Parker did for me. Keme is the only one that remembers his brother and he can't approach him in man shape or he risks being cursed too. That is if I understood what you and Nati figured out." His last sentence held just a hint of question.
"I called Nati this mornin' and told her about what happened with you and Parker. She says in all her days she never thought that old story would cause such trouble. She sends her apologies and told Ewen to offer whatever reparations you felt were needed for the damage done to your pack." A half smile quirked the corner of Abby's mouth as she recalled the conversation. "I hope you know she didn't mean to stir trouble with that story." Abby looked up at him.
"When Ewen wakes up later I tell him this makes things even between our packs." Eliot huffed a silent chuckle and was grateful yet again that he wasn't trapped in a traditional pack. All the little rules and honor codes that required such formal handling of any situation would have suffocated him long ago. "There isn't anyone on this planet that could have guessed what Parker would do. That spark of unpredictability has saved us more than once but it's nearly gotten us killed too." Eliot heard the lightest shuffling sound near the doorway.
"I still think you're twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag." Eliot called over his shoulder without really looking.
"She just stuck her tongue out at you." Abby observed with a chuckle.
Eliot rolled his eyes and while he checked his watch again he absentmindedly scratched at the bandage on his shoulder.
"If you keep scratching at it, it's going to sc…" Abby's eyes went wide for a moment when Eliot hushed her before she could finish her sentence.
"Hush. I don't want Hardison feeling guilty over this." Eliot glanced in the other room but didn't see anything to worry about. "Besides after a while it'll fade. I don't care so much either way but Hardison will." Eliot almost started scratching again but stopped himself.
"Go over the plan for tonight again." Abby closed her eyes and ran her fingers through Ewen's fur while Eliot went through the plan again.