10.8: Regroup

On the rooftop, Anne was very worried about Owen.

While they waited for rescue, they traded stories about what had happened to them while they were held prisoner, and Anne had been horrified about what had happened to Owen while under Thailog's control. Repeated electrical shocks, and allowed no food, water or sleep… "Well, I'm sorry I didn't bring any of our food or water out of our cell, but at least you can sleep now," Anne had told him. "I'll keep watch; you can just relax with your head in my lap if you like. Don't worry, considering the circumstances no one's going to care about propriety…"

But Owen had shaken his head. "I must stay awake until rescue comes. Because if Thailog comes for us first…"

"If he comes for us first, we're both unarmed and helpless," Anne had said bluntly. "There's nothing we could do against him, so you might as well get some sleep before he starts torturing you again!"

"Unarmed, yes. But not helpless," Owen had countered, showing his teeth; it was more of a snarl than a smile, an expression that gave Anne shivers. "I have determined that Thailog's plan interferes with Puck's duty to teach and protect Alexander. Therefore, if Thailog comes and attempts to take me captive again, Oberon's geas will allow me to use magic against him."

"And I'm all for you turning him into a grease spot on the floor, but you've still got those shackles on!" as Anne pointed to the cold steel still encircling Owen's wrists and ankles. "Earlier you could barely use your powers to check on Alexander, because using magic with all that iron against your skin hurt so much!"

Owen nodded shortly. "Yes, it will be painful to become the Puck while shackled; to be more specific, it will be agonizing in the extreme. But if I can withstand the pain for just one moment… if Thailog comes for us, I'll only need one moment…!"

So they waited, huddled together against the freezing winds. Despite Owen's objections, Anne took her shoes off just long enough to remove her socks, and tugged her socks over Owen's bare feet. The socks were too small but they gave Owen's feet at least a little protection against the cold, even if her own ankles were now covered with goose bumps.

But Owen needed more than socks for keeping warm; Thailog had also taken his overcoat, and the suit he wore had only a lightweight jacket. Owen was continually shivering… or at least, Anne hoped they were shivers from the cold, and not uncontrollable twitches from all those electrical shocks.

They waited… and waited… and finally, peering up into the sky, Anne glimpsed shapes gliding towards them, obscuring patches of the starry sky. The shapes came closer, closer… but they didn't land. "It's the clan, I know it's the clan! But why aren't they coming down to help us?!"

00oo00oo00oo00oo00oo00

On their way to the warehouse that Elisa had given them for an address, Brooklyn used his radio to caution everyone, "Expect traps, and nasty surprises; Thailog is a master at those. Don't take anything you see at face value! Look it over from a distance at least twice before you get too close."

Then, while still transmitting to the group, he switched to Gaelic. When the clan had woken up in this new world, they'd found themselves speaking the language of its people as easily as their native tongue. More easily, in fact; whatever language spell had been cast on them had been so effective, they even thought in Modern American English instead of the Gaelic spoken in 10th Century Scotland. But they could still speak their native tongue, if they made an effort, and they could certainly understand it.

And since almost nobody else in the modern era could understand it, it made for an effective secret code when they needed to convey sensitive information. Brooklyn said in Gaelic, "Rookery brothers, we must keep an eye on those gargoyles who came from underground. Remember that the one we hunt now was once their leader, and old loyalties can be strong. The one who glides beside me has said he no longer follows his old leader, but… we must be cautious."

Lexington spoke on the broadcast frequency, also in Gaelic and with a grim tone. "Aye, brothers. It is easy to say brave things when far from your foe, but when you get within talons' reach of him, and he within talon's reach of you…"

"I understand," was all Broadway said in response. Broadway hadn't sounded happy either, but that meant the point had gotten across; Brooklyn nodded to himself as he put his radio away again.

Gliding alongside him, Isabel gave Brooklyn a suspicious look. "What was all that about?"

"Just some old clan wisdom. Can we talk about it later?" Brooklyn didn't want to lie to his mate, but he couldn't explain himself either; not with Hollywood only a wingspan away and also listening in. "Later, I promise."

Coming from north-northeast, Brooklyn's team arrived at the block the warehouse was on roughly thirty seconds behind Broadway's team, coming from northwest. And from due north came Lexington's team, gliding fast; so fast that Brooklyn thought they might reach the warehouse a few seconds before him. Craning his neck over his shoulder and squinting, he thought he could see Adam's team and Claw's team approaching, both just over a mile away.

Broadway said into his radio, "We're here; I see Anne and Owen on the roof, but no sign of—no, Malibu, wait! We don't go down to rescue Anne until after we've made Thailog hasn't put a trap for us down there!"

"Circle the building, high and low," Brooklyn directed. "No one lands until at least three teams are present! Then we send down two people, just two at first, to see what happens at close range."

So Broadway's team circled the building and looked for traps until Lexington and Brooklyn's teams showed up. Then Lexington and Rebecca went down; two with lightning-quick reflexes, who would be best at dodging a trap that sprang up around them or weapons fired at them. They landed, looked around, then gave a thumbs-up towards the people waiting in the sky before hurrying over to the people that had been stranded on the roof.

So Brooklyn and everyone else landed as well; Brooklyn holding his breath the whole time, but when no electrified nets or other traps sprang out at them after touching down, he relaxed slightly and set his mind on other matters. Lexington and Rebecca were huddled with their wings wrapped around Owen and Anne, trying to warm them; the poor humans looked half-frozen. "Feathered wings should be even more insulating. Isabel, Robert, you've got warming duties."

Without hesitation, Isabel and Robert crouched down next to Anne and Owen, wrapping their wings around them while Lexington and Rebecca backed off. "You may have heard of me already, but don't worry, this doesn't mean anything beyond getting you warm again," Robert said ruefully, his equine muzzle next to Owen's ear.

"Q-quite honestly, I w-wasn't thinking of it meaning anything else," Owen said through chattering teeth.

Brooklyn continued, "Broadway, you're the lookout; keep a sharp eye out until Claw's team gets here in another few minutes. When they do, send Martin to me, but Claw and Burbank will join you on lookout while Cecelia takes care of injuries. Everyone else, let's go hunting for Thailog! Teams of three again; Lexington and Rebecca, take Malibu. Etienne, you're with me and Hollywood. And remember, everyone, we're hunting a literal evil genius! Keep sharp, and expect the worst!"

00oo00oo00oo00oo00oo00

Fifteen minutes after leaving the precinct, Elisa and Heinrich arrived at the warehouse. They found five gargoyles and Claw the mutate standing guard over Anne and Owen, while several others were gliding about searching the streets and nearby buildings. "Looking for Thailog," Broadway explained to her while on his knees, where he was carefully prying apart and breaking the shackles that had been put on Owen's legs. "Ouch, those are some nasty burn marks on your ankles, Owen. Let me guess, iron poisoning?"

"And electrical burns. Detective, the gargoyles said the children are safe?" Owen asked her from where he was sitting, while wrapped in Robert's blue feathered wings.

"Matt has them with him at the 23rd Precinct; they're fine," Elisa said reassuringly.

"Oh, thank God," Anne sighed from where she was sitting while Isabel was keeping wings wrapped around her body, Cecelia was bandaging her leg, and Burbank was patting her hand in comfort and telling her that Cecelia would make it all better. "Heinrich, thank you so much for everything you've done!"

"You're Heinrich, eh? I'm Broadway; glad to meet you," Broadway said with a grin as he held his hand out in welcome. "Anne was just telling us about how you took Thailog out with just one punch; pretty impressive!"

Heinrich shrugged and looked mildly embarrassed. "Not a punch; I landed on him. A straight drop from twenty, maybe twenty-five meters up; I landed so hard that he went down like—how do you say it? A house of cards."

"Good strategy, when it comes to dealing with Thailog; he's not a guy we can afford to pull punches with. So where are you from?" Broadway asked.

And by the time Heinrich had properly introduced himself and explained why he'd come to Manhattan, most of the other gargoyles had finished their search and returned, shaking their heads. Brooklyn reported, "No sign of Thailog, except for the blood on the pavement. He's definitely wounded, so he shouldn't have gone that far, but the trail he left goes back into the warehouse and stops. Judging by the tire tracks we found and the traces of exhaust fumes, we think he had a truck of some kind inside the warehouse, and he got into it and drove off while Anne and Owen were alone up here."

"Well, damn," Elisa sighed. "But at least he doesn't have any hostages with him."

"Lexington, Rebecca and Malibu are still following an old trail we found; too old to lead where Thailog fled to, but it might lead us to where he came from, since it doesn't look like he was sleeping inside the warehouse. So who's our new friend? You're the one Anne told us about, the one who rescued her and the kids, right?" Brooklyn asked as he gave Heinrich a smile and a warrior's forearm clasp.

"Yes; I am Heinrich," the German gargoyle said with a grin.

And Talon, who had just landed on the roof with Lucretia and Cassius, gave a start. "Heinrich? You're Heinrich? Malibu's new friend?"

Brooklyn looked at Talon, then back at Heinrich. "You've met my clone, huh?"

"Your… clone?" Heinrich asked in puzzlement. "Six nights ago I met a gargoyle who looked much like you, but different colors; his name was Malibu."

"Ohhh, crap." Talon covered his face with a furred hand. "Heinrich, I am so sorry…"

Elisa was about to ask what her brother was so sorry about, but looked off to the north instead, towards the faint but growing sound of beating rotors; she peered into the night to see a helicopter approaching from the north, heading straight for them at a fast clip. "Oh, no… please, someone, tell me that's not the Quarrymen!" She'd been worried about them having another facility full of equipment and vehicles besides the warehouse that had been hit last night. If they attacked now, when the clan had wounded civilians on the roof…

Brooklyn grinned. "Nope, I can see the markings already; that's Xanatos. I called him right after I got all the teams moving in this direction, and he said he'd be on his way."

Moments later the gargoyles were clearing a landing zone, and the helicopter was coming in for a landing on the roof. Xanatos jumped out of the cockpit on the passenger side before the rotors stopped turning, and ran over to where Owen and Anne were sitting. He crouched down to their level and almost hugged Owen, but when the stiffly proper gentleman pulled back slightly he settled for just vigorously shaking his flesh hand and administering a brotherly slap on the back; the hug was given to Anne instead. "Thank God you're both okay, too!"

After straightening up, Xanatos told Elisa, "A call was patched through to me while en route, an Officer Johansson from your precinct; he confirmed Brooklyn's report that the kids were safe at the 23rd. But he didn't tell me how they got there; your doing?"

"Nope, somebody else's, though you do need to give Johansson a couple thousand dollars; we had to bribe him to keep him from sounding the alarm on the real hero," Elisa said, reaching back to grab Heinrich by the wrist and pull him forward. "Meet Heinrich; he's from Germany, and came here a few weeks ago to look for more gargoyles. He came across Thailog stalking Anne and the kids after their escape, just about to kill them, and knocked the bastard out; then Anne had him take the kids to safety."

Xanatos shook Heinrich's hand and said fervently, "If there's anything I can ever do for you, just name it! I owe you big!"

"As do I," Owen said as he limped over, leaning on Lexington's shoulders. "For saving Bethany and Alexander, the Puck owes you a great boon. But this is neither the time nor place for discussing that. Mr. Xanatos, I suggest we depart for the 23rd Precinct; the hunt for Mrs. Xanatos in her current form can wait until the children and Anne are safely inside the castle."

"Hey, Lex, what'd you find?" Brooklyn asked, looking off to the right.

Elisa looked over just as Lexington came in for a landing with Rebecca and Malibu; Rebecca was holding what appeared at first glance to be a plastic box. "We found out where Thailog had been holed up!" Lexington said triumphantly. "We tracked his scent and talon-marks up to a room in that building," as he pointed to the north and west of the warehouse. "There was a computer setup in there, security monitors and controls for the cells inside the warehouse. We grabbed the computer to see if we can find more clues to Thailog's plans on its hard drive," Lexington explained as Rebecca flourished the CPU with a grin.

"Great idea! Xanatos, how about you take this with you to the castle? Right now we need to find Fox, before she does something we'll all regret," Elisa said firmly, gesturing for Rebecca to turn the computer over to the billionaire.

While Xanatos was accepting the computer from Rebecca, Malibu bounded over to the German gargoyle with his beak open in a wide grin. "Heinrich! Good to see you again!" After giving the German gargoyle an enthusiastic hug (which Heinrich uncomfortably accepted), Malibu turned to Talon and said eagerly,"Can I be friends with him now?"

Claw, standing nearby, gave a wry tigerish grin and signed something to Talon; Elisa didn't know enough sign language to make it out, but Talon rolled his eyes as he groaned, "I know, I know! Yes, Malibu, you and Heinrich can be friends…"

Xanatos helped get Anne, Owen and the CPU into the helicopter, and Cecelia declared she would go with them, to give Anne and Owen better medical care with the facilities available at the castle. She urged Cassius, who'd taken a bullet through his left wing, to come back to the castle as well for treatment, but the elder shook his head. "The bandaging Lucretia already did will hold me till sunrise. You just worry about those poor humans, Cecelia. Me, I'm gonna go hunting a loup-garou! Ain't never had a chance to do that before..."

To his credit, the pilot had never blinked an eye at the gargoyles surrounding the helicopter, or at the one that climbed inside with Anne and Owen. When Xanatos gave the order to go, the pilot gave them all a silent nod of acknowledgment as he started the rotors up again. Within moments, the helicopter was in the air and heading off.

Heading off, but instead of straight north as Elisa as expected, they headed north-northeast; not on a direct course for the castle. Elisa stared after the helicopter, then said slowly, "He's going to have the pilot land that thing right in front of the 23rd Precinct, isn't he?"

"Yeah, probably," Brooklyn said with a grin.

"The captain's going to pitch a fit," as she shook her head. "Well, at least my Fairlane should be out of the landing zone… All right, everybody, let's find ourselves a Were-Fox! And stop her without hurting her, if we can. Guys, what have you told everyone about her?" she asked Brooklyn, Broadway and Lexington; the only gargoyles present to have ever seen the Were-Fox.

"Only what little we know from that encounter two Halloweens ago," Brooklyn said. "When she's Were-Fox, she's got fangs and red fur, and stands as tall as Goliath… and nearly as strong and tough as him; able to go one-on-one with him and damn near come out even."

"She can go on two legs or four, and climb right up walls like we can," Broadway chimed in. Looking worried as he added, "She's constantly hungry, and apt to go for any source of meat… maybe even including us."

"And it doesn't do any good to hit her with tranquilizer darts; her metabolism's too hyped up for them to work," Lexington said. "A while back I found a computer file with the security footage of the last time she turned into the Were-Fox, and when Xanatos shot her with a tranq dart, all it did was make her angry."

"But she's not invulnerable; if you hit her hard enough, she's at least stunned for a few moments. She can also be stunned by a hefty jolt of electricity," Brooklyn finished.

Talon held up his hands, and they began crackling and faintly glowing. Claw did likewise, and Heinrich stared at them goggle-eyed as Talon said, "Got your electricity right here. The two of us together should be able to knock out a small herd of elephants."

"All right, then. We lure or corner her somewhere away from civilians, stun her unconscious, then get the Eye of Odin off her again… what'd she do, summon it from Avalon somehow?" Elisa asked.

"No magical amulet this time," Lexington said with a shake of his head. "While everyone else was searching for Thailog, Anne told me; Fox did this to herself, with the magic she inherited from her mother. It was the only way they could come up with to break out of their cell."

Elisa sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Wonderful. Well, I can't blame her for doing it, given the situation they were in, but that makes our job even harder."

"Er… maybe not harder," Heinrich said, looking apologetic for the interruption. "When I first saw her, the bad gargoyle had beaten her hard with a light pole from street, and she was… ah, not awake… un-conscience?"

"Unconscious," Lexington corrected him.

"Ja, unconscious… and human. She was human, and did not become werewolf—ah, Were-Fox again until she awoke."

"So if we stun her unconscious, she'll revert to human? Then we just have to keep her unconscious, until Puck can wiggle his nose or whatever and make her permanently human again," Elisa said with relief. "Derek, can we borrow the Labyrinth sentries' tranquilizer guns? We knock or stun her unconscious, shoot her with a standard tranq dart as soon as she turns human, then deliver her to the castle; they have the facilities there to keep her under for days if they have to!"

"I'll go get a couple of tranq guns, and call you once we're back up to street level and these will work again," Talon said, gesturing with the radio that had just been handed to him by Adam.

Brooklyn said with a grim look, "So now we just have to find her… before she finds prey."

00oo00oo00oo00oo00oo00

Back at the 23rd Precinct, Matt and the rookies had decided the prudent thing to do was to stay up in the former library with the kids until after Johansson came back with the baby stuff. That gave them more time to figure out what the heck they were going to say to their fellow cops; how they were going to explain going up there with Elisa and coming back down with two children in their arms.

"Maybe we could just tell them the truth? That a good-guy gargoyle saved them and brought them to us? Frankly, the gargoyles could use some good PR," James Carter pointed out, while resting Alexander against his shoulder and soothingly rubbing the infant's back.

"That a gargoyle saved them, yeah; I'm all for that," Matt agreed, while gently stroking the hair of a tuckered-out and sleeping Bethany in his lap. "And I have no problem with taking the heat for letting Heinrich go after bringing the kids in; we'll say that as head of the GTF, I ordered you and Elisa to let him go. And the captain won't give me more than a reprimand if I can convince her that this was strictly a one-time deal, due to the gargoyle having saved the kids. She's got to know that the P.I.T. and the press would give the NYPD all kinds of grief, if they found out we'd locked up a gargoyle after he'd saved the lives of two children! But there's a big hole in that story…"

John Davis cocked his head, considering, then shrugged. "What hole, sir?"

"An explanation as for why Heinrich brought them here, to this particular precinct, after rescuing them," Matt said. "Elisa and I have been hiding our connection to the gargoyles for years now, and if Internal Affairs found out that two—no, all four—members of the Gargoyles Task Force had been consorting with the very creatures we're supposed to be investigating, they'd be on us like fleas on a dog. Some folks might even lose their badges; Elisa is barely hanging onto hers as it is, after disappearing for most of a year."

"Say, did the gargoyles have something to do with that?" Davis asked curiously.

"Yes, they did, and no, I'm not going to go into that right now; it's a helluva long story. Right now, we need to find some way to explain what happened tonight. Any ideas?"

"How about… we say Heinrich is psychic?" Davis suggested. "Everyone knows that you already know Bethany, here, from when she and her mother visited the precinct on Thanksgiving with the turkey and pies for everyone; she even called you Daddy once, didn't she? So we'll say that when Heinrich rescued her, Bethany started crying for Daddy; the gargoyle picked up an image of you in her mind, remembered you from back when he lived above the precinct—he saw cops coming and going all the time, and we just never looked up at the right time to see him—so he brought her to you, or as close as he could get without being shot at."

"Oh, come on. Mind-reading gargoyles?" Matt rolled his eyes. "Somebody around here has been reading too many superhero comics."

"No, this could work! People would buy it!" Davis insisted. "People don't really know much of anything about gargoyles, and what little they do know is pretty fantastic; I mean, what other creatures turn to stone during the day? Compared to that, mind-reading sounds almost normal."

"Good point," Matt admitted. "But we still have to come up with something more plausible, because if word gets out that a gargoyle saved the day, the P.I.T. will be all over it. And if we say the gargoyles are mind-readers, then they'll be asking the local clan members who come to the meetings to start doing mind-reading and other psychic tricks for them."

"So, we think of something else. We say that Bethany had something on her that gave Heinrich the idea of bringing her here to you… something with your name and the precinct address," Carter suggested. "Got anything like that on your key ring, maybe?"

Careful not to disturb the sleeping child on his lap, Matt fished out his key ring and looked it over. It had been so long since he'd put it on there that he hadn't thought about it in years, but in between the keys to his apartment and his car keys was an old cloisonné smiley-face key fob; a girlfriend of his in college had given it to him for a keepsake during his sophomore year. And the back of the key fob was engraved with his name, Matthew J Bluestone.

"This could work; it's got my name, anyway," Matt said. "And so long as we don't let anyone get too close a look at it, we can tell them it also says 'if found, return to NYPD, 23rd Precinct.' But how and why would Bethany be wearing something from a key ring?"

But Carter was already reaching up with his free hand to dig under the collar of his shirt, and fishing inside to pull out a necklace of tiny steel balls interlocking, with a pair of dog tags dangling from the chain. "Here, take the tags off and put that key-dealie on, and now it's a pendant," he said as he pulled the chain up and over his head, and handed it to Matt. "We tell them that Bethany was playing with your keys once, because kids do that sort of thing, and she liked the smiley-face so much that you gave it to her as a pendant. Just in fun, but it turned out to be a life-saver, because when Heinrich read it he knew just where to go… But I want the chain back when this is all over; these were my father's tags."

Matt held the neck chain almost reverently. "You'll get it back, I promise."

And barely ten seconds after Matt had taken the dog tags off the chain, put his key fob on and gently slipped the necklace over Bethany's head, Johansson popped the trap door open and came up with a bag containing the baby stuff they'd sent him for. "And I called Xanatos Enterprises with the news, and talked to the big man himself," Johansson told them with a smug smile. "He said he'll be right over to pick up his boy, and the nanny's girl too."

"Great; now let's get this kid fed, changed and happy before he gets here. And since you're the only guy here with any experience in fatherhood, guess who just got elected daddy pro tem?" Matt told Johansson cheerfully.

Johansson took it like a good sport, and while Alex was lying back on a jacket, hungrily sucking on the baby bottle and letting Johansson change his diaper, the cop looked around and asked, "Where'd Detective Maza go?"

"You must have just missed her as you were coming back; right after the gargoyle left, she left to go get dinner," Matt improvised. "Actually, I think she just wanted to be away from the precinct when Mr. Xanatos comes for his kid. She's been suspicious of him ever since her brother disappeared while in his employ, and she probably wasn't looking forward to seeing him so happy to get his son back, when she still doesn't have her brother back."

"Yeah, you're probably right. Maza sure can hold a grudge, huh? Oooch, this poor kid's got one helluva case of diaper rash. Good thing I got that rash cream too… Funny thing, though; why did the gargoyle bring the kids here?" Johansson asked while carefully wiping dried crap off the baby's tender heinie. "I mean, if I was a gargoyle looking for a friendly cop to help get some kids home to their parents, I'd go find a cruiser on patrol or on their coffee break, not go flying right into the headquarters of the Gargoyles Task Force."

Knowing that Johansson was one of the four biggest gossips in the precinct, Matt told him the story he and the others had just concocted, and even held up the necklace little Bethany was now wearing, for a split-second too brief for close inspection. "Honestly, I hardly thought about that silly smiley-face after I gave it to her, but now that it's brought her here safe and sound…"

"It's enough to make a man believe in the Almighty again," Johansson said as he finished diapering Alexander, then cocked his head and listened. "Do you guys hear a helicopter?"

"Sure do… and it's getting pretty loud," Matt frowned. "Like it's going to—aw, no! Did you say that Xanatos said he'd beright over?"

Grabbing the children, they rushed down the ladder and into the main precinct just in time to see the helicopter landing right in the middle of the street outside, despite all the cars screeching to a halt and all the shouting cops spilling out of the stationhouse and surrounding it, some with their weapons drawn.

And that smug, too-cool bastard Xanatos just opened the helicopter door, waved jauntily to all the cops surrounding him and asked if his son was ready for pickup, like he did this every day for child care. Matt wanted to slug him, even while admiring the man's sheer nerve.

And then a feminine, familiar face appeared in the doorway after Xanatos stepped out, and Matt forgot all about the billionaire. "Anne!" He ran up to the helicopter with Bethany in his arms, and pulled her out with one arm to hug her and Bethany together. "Thank God you're safe; I've been half out of my mind ever since I heard…"

Sobbing too hard for words, Anne hugged him and her little girl back just as hard, until Bethany started squirming and complaining that she couldn't breathe.

Matt eased up on the hug, but held onto them both until he felt a tap on his shoulder. Xanatos stood there with his son held tightly to his own chest, and there were what looked like traces of tears on his cheeks. The billionaire said with a lightness he obviously didn't feel, "Sorry to break up a touching moment, but this night isn't over yet. And the children really should be in their own beds, back in the castle." Leaning closer, he hissed to Matt, "And I need you up there with them, guarding them. Please; I've still got to find Fox, Owen can barely stand right now, you know firearms, and you can be trusted with access to the armory. And after what's happened in the last two days, I don't know who else I can trust."

Matt nodded curtly before turning and looking for Captain Chavez, standing on the curb. He shouted over the noise of the still-spinning rotors, "Captain, I'm taking personal time! Right Now!"

"I clocked you off two minutes ago," she shouted back. "And tomorrow night, I expect a full report!"

He spared just a moment to hope fervently that Davis and Carter would not only keep their stories straight to back up the report he'd write later, but clue in Elisa on the tale that had been concocted if they saw her before he did. Then he focused on helping Anne—her leg had been bandaged and she was limping; had she been shot?!—and Bethany into the helicopter and climbed in after them; moments later they were rising into the air.

The helicopter had only four seats, all of them occupied by the pilot, Xanatos, Anne and Owen Burnett. (Owen looked like he'd been dragged through hell by his heels; what had Thailog done to them?!?) Anne held Bethany tightly on her lap while Matt ran the seatbelt over them both, and Xanatos did the same with his son. Matt squeezed between the back seats to the small cargo space behind them, figuring he could just sit on whatever was piled up underneath the brown blanket he saw… until the brown blanket moved and became a gargoyle's unfurled wings, swiftly refurling as a brown female gargoyle sat up and looked at him. "How are the children; any visible injuries? Normal temperatures and color in their cheeks?" she asked, craning her neck to look past him while he tried to remember who she was.

"Bethany seems okay, but Alexander's got to be starving and probably dehydrated by now, and I don't even want to think about his diaper rash," Anne said worriedly.

He's got a bottle's worth of baby formula inside him now, and his poor heinie was treated with ointment by a police officer at the precinct," Matt informed them both. "He should be fine after a good night's sleep… Celia, right?" as he squeezed in to crouch down beside the gargoyle.

"Cecelia; medic for the New Orleans Clan," she corrected him with a forgiving smile. "It's all right, I understand you've had a lot on your mind lately."

Matt nodded ruefully at her, then faced forward in time to see Owen reach slowly over to Anne's seat, and rest his hand on Bethany's hair for a few moments. Then Owen leaned forward, reaching his hand out towards Alexander in Xanatos' seat… but slumped forward unconscious before reaching them, his hand dangling down to the floor.

"Owen!" Anne exclaimed worriedly, and Matt started to get up, but Cecelia was already shouldering past him to quickly set Owen back in his seat and grasp him by the wrist, being careful not to pierce his flesh with her talons. She put the back of her other hand against his forehead, closed her eyes while apparently counting his pulse for a few moments, then reported, "Pulse seems steady right now, and he's not running a temperature. Probably just unconscious due to sheer exhaustion. But I'll want to hook him up to an EKG as soon as possible, and keep him monitored for the rest of the night. All those electrical shocks he was given could have aftereffects on his cardiac rhythm."

"Electrical shocks? …Was he tortured?!?" Xanatos twisted in his seat to stare back at his aide.

"Yes, sir; he told me about it while we were on the rooftop. But maybe we can talk about that later?" Anne said with a worried glance… at the pilot, Matt noticed. A pilot who evidently could be trusted about the gargoyles, or he wouldn't be calmly flying back to the castle with one in the cargo space. What secret had Owen been tortured to get information about, that the pilot couldn't be trusted with? Matt wondered… and then he remembered the Xanatos family's other secret, and his gut went ice-cold.

A cold grim feeling that settled even further in his guts, as Anne told him and Xanatos just how they'd been kidnapped right out of their limousine. There was no way Thailog could have accomplished that particular stunt without help from someone inside Xanatos Enterprises...

Matt's gun and shoulder holster were still hanging off the back of his desk chair in the precinct, so he scrounged around in the helicopter's emergency kit until he found the signal flare gun and armed it. When they landed on the helipad of the Aerie Building, he insisted on being the first out the door, with flare gun held ready; anyone who might think it a silly weapon had never thought about how much force it took to fire a flare high into the air, burning brightly all the way. If Thailog had escaped the other gargoyles and beaten them to the castle, Matt was going to turn that bastard into perforated gargoyle flambé.

But there was no sign of Thailog on the helipad; the only gargoyle waiting to meet them was Martha, the gray-skinned female that Matt had also met briefly before dawn. She helped Cecelia get Owen and Anne up to the castle, while Matt carried Bethany and Xanatos carried Alexander.

Anne and Owen were immediately taken to the infirmary, and Matt asked Martha to mind the children in the infirmary's waiting room for a few minutes. Cecelia worked on her patients, and Martha minded the children as they slept on a pile of infirmary blankets that had been tossed onto the floor and hastily arranged into a nest of sorts. Meanwhile, Matt and Xanatos raided the nearest armory to outfit the policeman with both a laser pistol and a Glock 9mm, and a couple of stun grenades.

When Matt and Xanatos returned to the infirmary, Martha carefully picked up the still-sleeping children to take them to the nursery. But Matt told her, "Not yet; we keep them in the infirmary too until the adults are ready to leave. Xanatos, do you have any cots or rollaway beds that can be brought into the nursery later? We need to keep everyone together for security."

As he took his son from Martha's arms, Xanatos ruefully admitted that the castle had no cots or rollaway beds. But Martha said with a slight smile, "Not a problem; I noticed some guest bedrooms earlier with beds in them. Give me a few minutes, and I can carry the beds into the nursery and rearrange the furniture so they'll all fit."

"Good idea," Xanatos said distractedly as he cuddled Alexander, stroking the baby's fine ginger hair over and over; the man just could not get enough physical contact with his son. (Which Matt understood quite well, as he fought the urge to set aside all his weapons and pick up Bethany again.) "Do you need any help with lifting…" then he looked up, and Matt decided that Xanatos had just remembered who he was talking to and what species she belonged to. The billionaire half-smiled as he said, "Ah, right; never mind."

Martha carefully set Bethany back down on the blankets, then hurried away to rearrange furniture, her toe-talons clicking on the aged stone floor tiles as she strode down the hallway. Xanatos gave his son one last gentle kiss on his baby-fine hair, murmuring something to the sleeping child; Matt thought it sounded like "…get her back, I promise." Then he reluctantly set Alexander down next to Bethany. And as he straightened up, they heard footsteps drawing near; footsteps that weren't being made by gargoyle talons, and were coming down another hallway.

Xanatos turned to stare in the direction the footsteps were coming from, then reached a hand out towards Matt without looking at him. "Gun," he snapped. With his left hand, Matt slapped the laser pistol into the billionaire's grip; he preferred the more conventional Glock, which he already had out and ready in his right. Then he filled his left hand again, with a stun grenade.

Then the intruders came into view, and Matt lowered his gun and breathed a sigh of relief. They were Agents Hovander and Jasper, of the FBI team that had been brought in to help find the kidnap victims.

Jasper said as soon as he saw them, "Mr. Xanatos, we may have a possible lead, but we need to—what's going on here?" as he stopped short at the sight of their guns, his hand lifting up and across towards his shoulder holster, and Hovander silently doing the same. Then he looked past the two men, at the nest of blankets on the floor and the two children curled up atop the nest. "Are… are those the two--"

"The two children, yes," Matt told them with satisfaction, and a certain vindictive glee at their astounded faces. "And Anne Marsden and Owen Burnett have been found and brought back as well. And before you ask how, my partner and I just did like you suggested… we stuck with the gargoyles."

"Well, that's good news! We'll need to interview the adults and the little girl, to learn more about their kidnappers, get possible leads on the whereabouts of Mrs. Xanatos and…" as Jasper started forward, then stopped. And said softly but firmly, "Mr. Xanatos, you can put that gun down now. Really."

"I could, but I'm not going to," Xanatos said flatly, as Matt looked over at him, startled to realize his gun was still drawn and ready to fire. "Instead, I suggest you gentlemen leave immediately. And immediately means right now; you can come back for your equipment later."

Hovander and Jasper frowned, and neither of them moved towards the elevator. Jasper said, "Mr. Xanatos, may I remind you that we're here to help you? Not to mention federal agents?"

"Right this minute, you could be the President and the Queen of England, and I'd still be asking you to leave," Xanatos said coldly. "We've learned just enough about the kidnapping to know it was done with inside help. The kidnapper got to someone I thought I could trust, so until I know more, I suspect everybody. That includes you and your superiors; no one is getting anywhere near my son, my aide, or our nanny and her daughter. Or my wife, after we find her."

"Mr. Xanatos, are these gentlemen bothering you?" Martha said ominously, as she came back down the hall and into the FBI agents' view.

Both agents gave a start when they saw Martha, their hands twitching even closer to their guns. Matt realized then that he'd been around gargoyles too long. He'd taken in the modified housedress Martha was wearing, the kindly expression she usually had on her face and her anxious-to-help manner, and in his head categorized her as nice lady. He'd never once thought that anyone would look at Martha and see monster.

"Yes, Martha, these gentlemen are bothering me," Xanatos informed her.

Well, then; there's really only one other question that needs answering," Martha said as she took another step closer… her wings flaring, her talons flexing, and her fangs showing as she finished, "Are they leaving immediately… or are they staying for dinner?!"

Nice lady with fangs, Matt mentally amended.

Being seasoned FBI agents, the two men did not run, and they did not start firing in a panic. But after a quick glance at each other, assessing their chances and options, they did announce that they would be leaving soon, and tell their agents in the field to simply report back to the local headquarters.

"Then allow me to escort you to the elevator," Martha said sweetly, with a smile that still showed her fangs.

"We know the way, thanks," Jasper said hurriedly. And they left at a quick walk, with Martha shadowing them from a few paces behind.

She came back shortly to report, "They're gone now. And good riddance to them, too; those crude, boorish, bigoted…"

"I take it you overheard something unpleasant while monitoring their conversations?" Xanatos asked her as he handed the laser pistol back to Matt.

"You could say that, yes," Martha said with a look of disgusted anger. "What they speculated about you and your family, and what they think about gargoyles… It's a good thing for them that they didn't stay for dinner; I'd have either burned, served cold or added super-hot sauce to everything on their plates."

Xanatos chuckled. "Never get a cook angry at you."

Which reminded Matt of something he'd already heard about Martha, but had put out of his mind with everything else that had happened recently. "That's right, you're Martha Dubois, writer of the Gumshoe Gumbo mystery series! Broadway called and told me a few weeks ago. I've really enjoyed your books!"

Before leaving again to rearrange the nursery and fit two adult beds inside, Martha smiled and gave a small chuckle. "Meeting my fans at last…"

00oo00oo00oo00oo00

Xanatos left Matt to guard the children and the adults still in the infirmary, while he went to get his power armor. On the way, he pulled out his cell phone and punched in a series of numbers. For a phone number that he'd never called in his life before yesterday, but had now learned by heart. David Xanatos and his father-in-law might disagree on a lot of things, but they both loved Alexander and Fox.

The phone answered on the second ring, and Preston Vogel answered. "Vogel, wake up your boss; I've got good news and bad news, and we still need his help," David told him.

Halcyon Renard was on the line seconds later, demanding, "What's happened? Have they been found?"

"All but one. Alexander's back safe at home and so are Owen, Anne and little Bethany, but Fox is still missing. She's free of her kidnapper, but still in danger and we've got to find her fast. You'll need to recalibrate your cybots' programs for new recognition parameters; can you do that remotely, without recalling them?"

"I can; Vogel, bring me that laptop," David heard Renard say. A few seconds later his father-in-law asked, "What's changed about Janine's appearance? Did the kidnappers cut and dye her hair, or cover her tattoo?"

"No, the tattoo's still visible… but the face around it has changed drastically. Did Fox ever tell you about the time she became a were-fox?"

"A what?!"

David sighed; he'd been expecting that reaction. Fox didn't talk about that time if she could help it, even to him. "It'd take too long to explain, Halcyon. Just have your cybots start looking for a creature that looks like a werewolf, but with fox-red fur and Fox's blue tattoo over her right eye. And give them a new search pattern; she was held captive in a warehouse on the southeastern docks, so she's probably heading north from there, and looking for meat. I'm going out in my power armor to help the gargoyles look for her and bring her in. If your cybots find her first, call me on this frequency…"

00oo00oo00oo00oo00

Matt kept turning to check every minute or so, but Bethany and Alexander stayed sound asleep, so Matt was able to keep most of his attention on the hallways, alert for intruders. But as guard duty is inherently boring when there are no signs of intruders, his mind began wandering, to the subject of the Were-Fox.

He remembered the month that the Were-Fox had been active, though no one had called him –her, in retrospect, but since no breasts had been showing everyone had assumed it was male—a were-fox at the time. Instead, the newspapers and the police had called him the Were-Thief. They'd been sure at first that it was just someone committing B&E's and robberies while wearing a werewolf costume, bought at one of the costume stores that always appeared in shopping malls in the month before Halloween.

But after no less than three eye-witnesses to one grocery store robbery had sworn they'd seen the creature run away on all fours, the police had started to wonder. And when Detective Elisa Maza had come face-to-face with the creature in a convenience store, and stated in her report that not even the best professional in Hollywood could make the head she'd seen, with the slavering jaws that opened to reveal a long red tongue and sharp teeth that were all too real… the police had started to worry. And while all the robberies had all been of food from grocery and convenience stores, all committed without any people being hurt, when someone from Animal Control had pointed out that there'd also been a sharp increase in the number of cats and dogs that had been reported missing, the police had become very worried. In the wild, creatures that attacked small prey like cats and dogs sometimes also went after small children…

But after Halloween and one last report of the Were-Thief breaking up a block party, there had been no more sightings. After another couple of months of no activity or new clues, the robbery cases were set aside while the police moved on to more recent and urgent matters. Later, even after he'd learned of the gargoyles and Elisa had promised to keep no more secrets from him, Elisa hadn't told Matt about the true identity of the Were-Thief… but that was probably because he just hadn't thought to ask if she knew.

Now the Were-Thief—the Were-Fox, that is—was back, and roaming the streets. But that was all he knew; nothing about how or why Fox had transformed, or whether she was responsible for all the missing pets as well as the grocery robberies. When all this was over, he had a lot of questions in need of answers…

Martha returned to Matt's post at the infirmary before Xanatos did, with baby blankets from the nursery and a pair of stuffed animals. After giving each plush animal a quick sniff, probably matching scents with owners, she put the batwinged teddy bear down next to Alexander and the Piglet doll next to Bethany. Then she covered them with the blankets, murmuring, "The poor dears… Mr. Bluestone, can I get you anything?" as she straightened up.

"Call me Matt, please. And I could use some coffee; I didn't get much sleep today," Matt admitted.

"It's not hard to understand why, but everything's going to turn out all right now," Martha said comfortingly, though she cast a worried glance at the infirmary door as she said it. "Cream and sugar, or straight black?"

Just then Xanatos came back, wearing his winged power armor, the Goliath-resembling helmet tucked under his arm. He handed Matt a remote control and a radio headset, saying, "After I leave, the castle's defenses will be on full auto; anything that approaches within 200 yards will be given one warning shot, then shot down if they get any closer. Push the green button on the remote to disable the defenses, but only after either I or Brooklyn calls in to give the all-clear signal; it's going to be 'Alexander loves applesauce.' Got it?"

"Got it," Matt said as he donned the headset and accepted the remote control. "Good luck finding your wife and bringing her back."

"Finding her shouldn't be hard, with all the gargoyles and Renard's cybots looking too," Xanatos said grimly as he donned his helmet. But he made no such assurances about bringing her back home.

00oo00oo00oo00oo00

To be continued in Part 9: Fox Hunting