Chapter 20

While Kirei Snowolf had never been arrested before, this wasn't the first time she found herself behind bars. Most of her early life had been spent in cages of one sort or par another. While she had never liked it, the familiarity allowed her to quickly understand the facts of her predicament.

Although she still didn't know why she'd been jailed (the officers had simply burst in with guns drawn and yelled "Freeze!"), she realized it must have had something to do with her being a lycanthrope. Everyone else in this particular row of cells was a shapeshifter, for one thing. The fact that the bars were silverplated and electrified was another.

Snowy wondered again if this might have been Sweet William's handiwork. He had never accepted her refusal to submit to him, and it would be so typical of him to try and ruin her somehow with accusations of one sort or another. She also wondered if there might have been a connection between the blackhaired woman who'd entered her shop so early and the cops storming her place almost immediately after she'd left. Why had that woman been so nervous?

What disturbed her the most, though, was that it was Dorothy's friend who cuffed her. He hadn't acknowleged meeting her previously, though she knew he must have remembered her. She had recognized him immediately, but when their eyes met he had flushed and quickly looked away, barking orders to his partner to secure the studio while he "subdued" her.

That had been a joke, albeit an unfunny one. Kirei could have easily taken both men down, armed or not, had she wished to. Instead, she'd obeyed their commands without protest or question, not wanting to provoke them to violence over what was most likely an error. Whether she chose to kill or merely maim, by escaping she would have only convinced the authorities that she had something to hide. Again, one of her cubhood lessons came back to her: sometimes the best response was no response.

The little shapeshifter curled up in her bunk, pretending to drowse so the others would ignore her, though every sense was on high alert. She would wait and see what was going on before attempting anything. Maybe Roger would come to her rescue. Maybe (if he was indeed trying to get rid of her--the possible connection between Kennedy and Dorothy and ultimately Roger leered at her for one sickening moment) he wouldn't. She deeply hoped he would.

Inside the booking section of MPHQ, Roger Smith was getting increasingly frustrated. He hadtried calling Whitewolf as soon as Dan had left, hoping to warn Snowy to get out, but it had been too late. He'd promptly grabbed Dorothy, the two of them rushing to his old stomping grounds as fast as possible (for once, Dorothy had cheered his aggressive driving instead of chiding him for it.)

The first problem to crop up was the fact he'd gotten there before Kirei had. After cooling his heels for an hour, he again asked the duty officer for information about her, only to be told once more no one of that name had been brought in. Upon hearing this, he asked Dorothy to wait by the desk in case anything popped up, and he angrily made his way to Dastun's office.

He stormed into the cubicle, startling the older man. "Damnit, Dastun!" he growled. "What the HELL is going on? Where's Snowy? What did you do with her?" Smith was flushed, his clenched fists trembling at his sides as he struggled to control his anger. "You tell me this morning she's been arrested, but nobody here knows where she is; there's no record of her anywhere." He lunged forward, slamming his fist onto the Major's desk. "WHERE'S MY GIRL?"

Curiosity had always been one of Ada's stronger traits. As soon as she got back to her apartment, she couldn't resist hacking back into the Military Police computer network to see what was going on with Leon's prisoner. Once again, she found herself virtually reading over Kennedy's shoulder as he typed. As she read, she was surprised to learn of the existance of an original arrest warrant; better still, he added it to his report.

As she scanned the text, Wong realized she had made a serious error, though it might have ultimately saved her life. Even if she had managed to knock out the shapeshifter with her taser, the silver cuffs wouldn't have held her. Kirei Snowolf was everything the rumors said, maybe even more. She was indeed her target, one easily worth millions of dollars. She would have to grab her before anyone else realized what a valuble commodity was sitting in the holding cells of Paradigm's Military Police, but how?

Ada continued reading, trying to see if anything might spark an idea. She discovered that shapeshifters were kept in a separate section, that they were booked separately as well...and then she noticed something rather odd. Snowolf wasn't being treated like the other lycanthropes. She was being treated like a nuisance animal, under the old long-unused laws of animal control.

This was rather ironic. Since animals were such a rarity now, very few ever became troublesome. ALL animals were considered endangered species, even creatures like rats. Hence, most were closely monitored, with tracking devices inserted beneath their skin to keep tabs on them. The only exceptions were the few that still survived in the wilderness surrounding Paradigm. The irony here was that Snowolf was the rarest of the rare; if any kind of creature was endangered, it was her. She might well be one of a kind.

At any rate, under those same laws, anyone who could prove ownership could take possession of the animal in question, as long as they provided a high enough bond and kept it enclosed, away from the public.

This was exactly what Ada needed. Forging the proper documents was ridiculously easy. The police files had DNA documentation from the original animal attack, and their lab had already found a match between that and Snowolf. Such things took little time, a few minutes at best nowadays. By simply pasting the lab results into her phony ownership papers, she could say the lycanthrope was hers. The bond money was no problem either. Her employers had provided her with ample funds; what was needed was a pittance in comparison. par par Ada quickly put together everything she needed. It was time to go pay her old beau a visit.