Chapter 10: Lions and Tigers and Bears
Brandon Dockyards April 8, 1929
Long after they began their search for their wayward friends, Boris and Stella failed to find neither hide nor hair of any of them. The sun had begun to set and so where Stella's sprits.
"Boris, we already searched here four times and we have been up here for almost an hour." She called out.
"Then take nap. I am not going to stop looking." Boris scanned up and down the shoreline and flew down to just a few feet above the waves. He saw something in an open pipe. He flew in for a closer look. Whatever it was, it was rather small. Boris landed on the pipe and poked it with his flipper. The small lump sprang up and revealed a bouncing pup.
"Uncle Boris! You found me!" Said the pup in a high pitched voice.
"Suki?" The pup in front of him hardly resembled Suki, her white, snow-like fur was covered in dirt and debris and she smelled like she hadn't had a bath in a decade. "Suki, where is Balto, or Steele."
"I don't know. I fell down here" An echo rang out through the tunnel.
"Suki. Suki can you hear me?"
"Papi? Papi!"
"Balto?" Boris's face lit up "Balto!"
"Boris? Is that you?" The echo of Steele's voice joined in as well. Boris leaned out and called to Stella as the others approached. Stella came in for a landing on the top of the pipe and peeked over the edge. Boris saw the face of his long time friend materialize out of the darkness and he ran up and gave Balto a hug that may have cut off his circulation.
"I thought you were dead. How did you boychiks make it out?"
"Well," Balto began." After we came here, it was obvious they did not have the five star accommodations we asked for so we decided to leave. One of them got me with some kind of device, gave me a nasty shock. After that we decided to come up with a plan."
2 hours earlier
"So Howler, how do think we are supposed to get out of this jam?" Steele asked Balto. He looked over his shoulder and saw the two pups sleeping against each other. The plan Balto had been tossing around in his head was risky and reckless. Par for the course and he was low on options.
"I have an idea. You see the cable attached to the side of the cage?" Steele examined the side of the cages gate and saw a box with a cable coming out of it and leading off.
"Ya I see it, huh, never saw it before."
"Probably because we were too busy with our hysterics to take in the scenery. Anyway, there are cables like this on all of the cages." Steele looked at each cage in view and saw an identical cable coming from each cage's gate. The cables converged and ran into and along the wall, and at the wall; they traveled into a large panel marked-
Emergency System
"Emergency? Well I guess this counts." Steele said.
"Right, but there is one small problem, if I can't squeeze through here, you surely can't." Balto responded.
"And you have a plan for that too right? Right?" Balto looked over his shoulder again and turned back to Steele.
"One, but I don't like it very much."
"We volunteer." Balto and Steele whirled their heads around when they heard Loki and Suki speak in one voice.
"You two were never asleep were you?" Steele asked.
"Why sleep, were already living in a nightmare." Loki snapped back. Steele's eyes widened when he heard his son. It was a stark and harsh truth, but the pup's tone hinted he was upset, not too surprising.
"We want to help." Suki said. "It is not the best, but I don't see any other way."
"This is all well and good." Steele said sarcastically. "But I won't let you be in that kind of danger Loki."
"Danger? It is a little late for that!" Loki was losing his temper. Balto stepped in before Steele said something to set off the pup.
"Enough! Steele, this is not ideal, but is the only way we get out of here in one piece and not on a boat. And Loki, your father only has your best interests at heart. Do you think he likes being here?" Loki drooped his ears. "I didn't think so."
"I'm sorry Papa, I just lost my head; it must be this place." Loki admitted.
"All the more reason to get out of here." Suki said as she tried to squeeze through the bars. With some difficulty and squirming, she made it through. Loki followed after her, as he made his way through the bars, his larger body got stuck in the space and Steele pushed him the rest of the way.
"Good luck." he said. The two pups snuck their way underneath cages and did their best not to be seen. After they were out earshot Balto turned to his friend.
"You haven't told him yet, have you?"
"Told him what?"
"Don't play dumb, you know what I mean."
"Oh, that. No we haven't told any of them yet."
"Steele, I'm telling you this as your friend, don't wait. I waited too long and nearly lost Aleu over it. And Loki and my daughter are practically the same."
"I know, I just need to figure out how to tell him." As Steele pondered Loki's reaction to this kind of news. The pups had made to the panel unseen. The panel was covered in switches, levers and a myriad of other controls for the whole warehouse.
"So now what do we do?" Suki asked.
"I donno, just start pulling levers and pushing buttons." Both pups began to do just that. Suki pulled a lever and all of the lights turned off.
"Oh no. I can't see!" Suki yelped. The lights came back to life and Suki opened her eyes, Loki had flipped the lever back up.
"Are you trying to tell me that you are scared of the dark?" Loki said with a smirk.
"No, I was just worried you might fall of, that's all." Suki attempted to lie; Loki just rolled his eyes in response.
"Whatever, let's just find the release and get out of here." Loki pressed a button marked Fire Suppression. Over head, sprinklers came to life, making the warehouse akin to a water park.
"Turn it off!" Suki yelled. Loki went to hit the switch again but accidentally hit the fire alarm. A Claxton vibrated the walls with an incessant noise. Now, the entire building knew something was afoot. Tony ran into the room and as he flopped in the water on the floor, he was dumbfounded.
"What in the world is going on here?"
"Come on Loki, find the release." Suki implored.
"I'm doing the best I can, we are dogs after all; I can't read English well." Loki pressed another button at random, by sheer happenstance, he pressed the master release. All of the cages popped open and animals filed out of them. The gate in front of Balto clicked and he pushed it open with a paw.
"After you." Steele said. Both of them sprinted to the control panel and snatched up the pups in their mouths. Out of the corner of his eye, Balto saw Rico, Andre and Rouliani join Tony in the center of the room. Rouliani looked as if he would pop a blood vessel; he also saw the man was brandishing a large gun.
"Somebody turn off that racket!" Rouliani bellowed. Rico ran over to the control panel, he quickly undid what the pups had done. The Claxton died down and the sprinklers ceased to spray their water.
Andre picked up three of the shock rods and handed one to Rico and Tony.
"Don't shoot unless you have to, they aren't worth jack to us dead."
"Right boss." Tony grabbed the rod and tried to coral a pair of ostriches. Rico began to square off against a coyote. From the other side of the warehouse, Balto took in the scene from behind a row of crates.
"It looks like the Serengeti out there. Suki stay close to me." she nodded.
"That goes double for you Loki." Steele said flatly.
"Yes Papa." the pup said in a small voice.
"We better get while the getting is good Howler." A pair of men opened a door and rushed to the assistance of the other gangsters. Balto could see daylight on the other side.
"Exit stage left. Stay low and don't move too fast, no use being spotted." Steele nodded in agreement and they crept slowly and silently, hugging the crates. Balto would occasionally whack a crate with his tail to tell everyone to stop so he could check the scene. Each time he did, the inside of the crates rattled around and the sounds of glass hitting glass would sometimes clink around. Off to the side, the shouting increased, Balto and Steele peeked over to see what was transpiring. Tony was still fumbling around with the ostriches and Andre was doing his best not to be stuck with a porcupine. Rouliani stood atop a pyramid of crates and barrels shouting orders to the men below him.
"Tony! Put those over-grown chickens back in their coupe and help out Andre!"
"Yes sir." Tony said back. Steele turned to Balto.
"Not exactly a well oiled machine, are they?"
"Let me put it this way, remembers what happened at the beginning of the sled race with the Spanish and Australian teams?"
"Ya, they collided and made a big mess, why?"
"They are less of a total cluster-"
"Whoa buddy, kids. I'm gonna tell Jenna to wash out that wolf-mouth." Balto quietly chuckled to himself and continued to lead them out. As they kept moving, Steele heard a low rumble behind them.
"Did you hear that?" He asked.
"Nope." Balto said, too busy watching the frenzy and tracking the people. Steele heard the rumble again and turned to see a set of large teeth and piercing green eyes staring back at him.
"B-Ba, t-t-t." Steele was frozen with fear.
"What is wrong with you? Cat got your tongue?" Balto turned and saw the thief of Steele's tongue. A giant Bengal Tiger, the same one that nearly turned Capone into mincemeat. "Uh, heh, nice kitty." Balto began to backpedal along with Steele and they both picked up the pups on the way. The tiger slowly stalked them, snarling all the way.
"You got a plan?" Steele asked out of the side of his mouth.
"Run!" Both of them sprinted away. The tiger roared and gave chase. Over the other side of the crates, Balto could hear a man shouting
"Hey Boss! There's the tiger!" Rouliani looked over the wall of crates and saw the beast. In response he cocked his weapon and began to yell out orders.
"Somebody get a net on her! Kill her only if you have to, she is worth a pretty penny." Tony and Andre grabbed a large metallic net and went after her. Meanwhile, Balto and Steele were doing their best not to be lunch. They leapt over the wall of crates with the pups in their mouths and the tiger did the same. Balto saw the net coming and made a quick left turn, Steele followed and the tiger shot past. She flew directly into the heavy metal net. Tony and Andre wrestled her to the ground. She fought back and quickly flung them off. Andre attempted to get a jab in with his rod, but the tiger deftly dodged it and bit the shaft, she twisted the rod out of Andre's hand and pinned him to the ground in one swift motion. The rod clanged onto the ground and sputtered out, the tiger readied herself to finish Andre off when the tearing sound of a machine gun reverberated the building and sparks flashed all around them. Rouliani was cutting loose with his weapon. The tiger broke away and ran from the flashing bullets. Balto and Steele had taken cover behind a stack of barrels. Whilst Balto watched the fury from over the barrels, Steele checked on the pups.
"Are you two alright?" he asked.
"Yep, pop, perfectly fine." Loki responded. Another burst came out of the gun. "Yipe!" Loki jumped into the air and hid behind the barrels, Suki stepped in something warm and wet.
"Well, at least one of us is fine." Suki said snarkily. The shooting continued and a few bullets hit the barrels. Some kind of liquid spilled out and Steele thought of passing out, coughing at the smell.
"Eah, what are these things filled with, rotten eggs?" he took a closer look at the barrels and saw they had a small red fire symbol on them. Next to the symbol were letters
G-A-S-O-L-I-N-E
"Hey, uh Balto, we may want to go someplace else."
"Why?"Balto responded, turning around.
"Take a look." Balto read the same label Steele did. After reading it, he nearly jumped out of his skin.
"Okay, let's go!" He and Steele quickly extricated themselves from behind the barrels of gas with the pups following close behind them. The tiger was still running about and causing chaos, and Rouliani was still blazing away with his weapon. In the hysteria, most of the mobsters had taken cover behind something solid. One of them turned and pointed at the four and shouted as they slinked out of the open door.
"Hey! Their getting' away!" It was Rico, he and Tony sprang up and ran out after them. Back inside, Rouliani lined up a burst on the tiger and fired, she quickly dodged the rounds, they flew past her and sparked on the concrete, one of the sparks found its way to the pool of gasoline on the ground, igniting it. The burning fuel slowly slithered back to the barrels, in turn catching them on fire.
"Everybody out! This place is gonna blow!" Andre ran to the emergency panel and threw a series of switches that reactivated the fire system and opened all the doors. He also hit the master release again and set the animals they had managed to coral back out. They all charged out the open doors and into the mid-day air. Balto looked on at the frenzy of animals and people pouring out of the building as the fires crept over the windows and smoke billowed out. Two of the people were running strait at him!
"Come on! Don't stop!" He yelled to the others.
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Loki answered. Balto saw a culvert of to the side of the lot they were in. Any port in a storm.
"Follow me." Balto leading them towards the culvert and as they went in, Steele felt himself snag on something. He turned his head around and saw his collar was caught on the side of the culvert.
"Hey, a little help! I'm stuck!" He said, struggling to free himself. Balto ran over and attempted to help. He simply undid the small latch on the collar and Steele slipped out. Fifty feet away, Tony and Rico were catching up but knew their quarry would escape. Rico reached into his jacket and produced a large revolver.
"Better to be wounded than gone." He took aim at the back leg of Steele when the gun was suddenly jerked up, it fired harmlessly into the air. Tony had just saved Steele.
"Not that way! The boss will kill us if we cost him his dogs!" Rico was about to say something when he heard a car horn behind him. It was Andre and Rouliani inside and they could hear sirens in the distance.
"Let's get the bloody hell out of here!" Rouliani shouted from the passenger side window. Rico and Tony sprinted to the car and entered. It screeched its tires and drove off. Back inside the culvert, Balto heard them run off and thought the coast was clear.
"Alright I think they are gone. Let me take a look." Balto began to slowly walk out the culvert and as he did Suki tried to follow, except she stepped into another pipe and was whisked away.
"Papi! She yelled as she slid down the pipe.
"Suki!" Balto jumped into the pipe and followed her down. Steele and Loki went in after them. The pipe forked left and right, offshoots in many directions appeared in front of them and they slid to a stop. Suki was not there and they had three tunnels in front of them.
"Everybody split up and pick a tunnel, we have to find her!" All three separated and choose a tunnel, Balto choose the center and followed its length, further down the pipe he heard the echoes of voices.
"Suki. Suki can you hear me?" he yelled down the tunnel.
"Papi!" Balto sprinted down the pipe and heard another familiar and friendly voice.
"Balto!"
"I got it" Boris interrupted. "Balto, we need to get back up there to warehouse! Jake and Duke are here and can get us back!"
"Duke and Jake are here?" Steele asked with hope.
"Da, they flew here."
"With us as stowaways." Stella added.
"That is terrific, but we can't make it back up the pipe we slid down, it's too steep." Balto said flatly.
"I hate it when you are right." Steele said, shaking his head. "We were so close, damn it!"
"What about the water?" Boris suggested
"Slight problem there." Steele said. "For one thing, we are thirty feet up; and for another, the pups can't swim."
"Well," Balto concluded. "That just means that we are gonna have to go back to the pipes and find another way out."
"That could take hours!" Loki lamented loudly.
"I know, but I don't see an alternative. So I guess we are left with stumbling around in the dark for a little while." The group of dogs and geese trudged back into the tunnel and got ready to put up with being lost for a little while longer.