The tigress stared at Wayne, tail swishing. Suddenly he realised that this was a test, one that he needed to pass. As he had done before with the tiger in the cage, Wayne squatted down and held the gaze of gorgeous green-gold eyes, holding his hand out as he might to a domesticated cat in the street.

The tigress – Kayo, he had to remind himself – chuffled gently over the hand before chuffing at him and butting his shoulder hard enough for him to fall backwards onto his backside. She grinned at him before disappearing.

Wayne watched her go until he found he was staring at John. The man was almost laughing at him. He gestured for Wayne to follow him and the two made their way up to the cockpit. Kayo joined them a few minutes later as he was engaging John in conversation.

'So…you can all do this?'

'Yes.'

'And Scott?'

'Was caught in a trap in his animal form – an eagle.'

'I see. And Colonel Casey knows about…'

'Yes, and only she does outside of family.'

Realising the trust that was being placed in him, knowing that either Casey or Kayo – or both of them – had vouched for him, Wayne stepped forward and offered a hand to John. The understanding was there in the grasping of the hand and the firm but brief shake given.

'Virgil has the demolition charges ready. Kayo and Virgil have the advantage over you and I in their animal forms so they will go ahead of us and lay the charges while we drive over and park up on the other side of the wood. Then they'll head straight for Scott with you while Gordon and I have our own tasks.'

'Understood.'

He had noticed Virgil and Kayo disappear, and tried to school his surprise when the tigress reappeared with the biggest, blackest wolf Wayne had ever seen. Around the wolf's shoulders was a harness in the darkest shade of green. Honey-brown eyes stared at him before the tigress nudged the wolf and the two left at quite a loping run. John was right – there was no way that they would be able to keep up and Wayne was glad for the non-descript car they'd borrowed.

By the time they reached the outer wall of the complex the Duchess called home Virgil and Kayo were sitting there waiting with the charges already laid and counting down. They'd picked a part of the wall that backed onto the wood and EOS had already swept the area for cameras.

Not knowing the level of security they were going into had made them all wary, but EOS had managed to identify two systems, completely independent from each other. The one she could access seemed the standard security system a person of wealth would usually have. The other they concluded had cameras on where Scott was being held. EOS worked her magic on the primary system and with a quiet vibrate for confirmation, they pressed on.

There was no way to muffle the explosion fully. Virgil had done his best and Wayne knew that the GDF didn't have anything even approaching that level of quiet. They rushed through the wall and into a large garden. They ran through the grounds and to the house, where Gordon placed two more explosives from Virgil's harness against the thick wall that EOS and John had identified would be the best place to reach both the house and the secret room.

This time the boom was louder. Virgil, Kayo and Wayne ran left, down some steps and to a large metal door that looked very secure. John and Gordon ran right, into the house, looking for any computers and electronic systems they could find.

Gordon and John had run into no resistance at all. The hallway opened into a white hallway and Gordon snorted to himself. A typical showhouse – white walls, white, thick carpet and minimal everything. This Duchess character had no soul whatsoever. But it helped them, silencing their progress as they swept through the rooms immediately in front of them.

They didn't have to look for long, the third room contained exactly what John was looking for. It was obviously a security hub-come-home office. John's eyes lit up and he settled at the laptop on the desk, placing EOS' remote unit beside him and settling down to work his magic.

Smiling grimly at the familiar scene, Gordon left his brother to it to sweep the house. Every room was the same and he was sure this was only for show. Most of the rooms didn't look like they'd ever seen a person in them. There was no one else around, but it wasn't until he saw the picture in the bedroom that the penny dropped – almost literally.

The image that Virgil had sketched had showed a woman with long blonde hair held back by a thick fabric headband. The picture before him showed the same woman with short brown hair.

It was a woman he knew. She moved in the same circles as Penny did, and he'd seen her only a couple of weeks ago. And she was definitely no Duchess – she was punching well above her weight. Gordon slipped the picture from the frame and pocketed it and returned to John. The whole procedure had taken eight minutes.

Hopefully John would have her – Scott's – location by now.

The firewalls for the Auctioneer had been truly a challenge. The Duchess' security measures were a joke in comparison. It still took John and EOS four minutes to break through to the second security system. It was a closed loop, one that could only be accessed from inside the building, and John's heart leapt as screens flared into life showing the basement area.

They both ignored Gordon as he entered the room and took up a position to watch the room from. But then Wayne called them.

'John, we've come to a large metal door. There doesn't seem a way to open it.'

'FAB. We're in a control room of sorts. You'll know when to move.'

'EOS, we need to find the controls for that door.'

'FAB, John.'

The huge cage, the villa at the back – they had John's anger rising. But the sight of the Duchess and his brother…he swore in Dutch. And then Farsi. And finally in Brazilian Portuguese when the others didn't satisfy.

Wayne, Kayo and Virgil had followed the long corridor, down some steps and into a large room. There were shelves with boxes covering one wall and while the two predators padded around the room Wayne took a moment to look and see what they were. Most of them contained animal feed of some description or other. Most were bags of animal feed of various descriptions with bales of straw on the bottom shelves.

The room held nothing of interest and they moved on. There was a little more hallway and then a large metal door.

Virgil and Kayo pawed at the door and paced the floor, the wolf letting out a really low growl – one that Wayne could feel in his bones – and the tigress click-growling in response. Despite knowing who they really were, the sounds made the hair on the back of Wayne's neck stand up and he had to fight his body's flight response from kicking in hard. There was nothing on the wall that could be used to open the door.

'John, we've come to a large metal door. There doesn't seem a way to open it.'

'FAB. We're in a control room of sorts. You'll know when to move.'

Wayne crouched down against the wall where he hoped he'd be hidden from the door should John get it open. Virgil and Kayo immediately settled either side of him and they waited for whatever John and EOS were going to do.

They didn't have long to wait.

With a shout over comms that was part triumph, part swearing, the door didn't swing in or out but split in two and disappeared into the walls. Virgil and Kayo bounded through the gap as soon as they could fit, with Wayne chasing their tails. Literally.

The absolute silence of Virgil and Kayo unnerved Wayne. Not a sound came from them as they ran the length of the cage until they came to the open door. As fast as he could run, the wolf and the tigress were faster.

The Duchess threw back her head and laughed. She laughed until tears rolled down her cheeks and she was forced to use the napkin to wipe them away.

'Oh, Scott. I needed…'

She tailed off as a muffled boom sounded somewhere, and she stood suddenly as an alarm sounded. Scott watched, heart in his mouth in both hope and fear.

Virgil was here. And if Virgil was here so would John and Gordon be. And of course Kayo.

The Duchess had pulled a tablet from a bag she'd had leaning against the wire wall just outside the door. Scott watched her, looking for an opportunity to get passed her, but he was still weak from lack of food and whatever it was she had given him. He shivered and watched.

Her eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared, a look of pure hatred. The quiet alarm had stopped almost as soon as it had started, and that brand of hatred aimed at a computer was surely the work of John and EOS. The hope flared stronger and Scott made to move.

'No you don't.'

She didn't even look at him but suddenly he found a small pistol in her hand pointing directly at him. Scott looked around him. His brothers were here now and there was no way he was going to stand by and do nothing. He couldn't get out as he was, as a human, but he didn't need to hide from her – she already knew his secret.

Scott dodged left and leapt, transforming and flying to the back of the cage before flying as fast as he could at the open door.

It was 50-50 as to whether he would make it or not. The Duchess, having dropped the pad and turned to shoot him, stood her ground dropping her arm to her side and watching him intently. With a sudden realisation that the doorway wasn't tall enough for him to fly over her, Scott knew he had one chance.

He flew straight at her, talons extended as if he was going in for a kill.

But she was ready for him.

When he was almost upon her the Duchess suddenly aimed and fired, taking out his right wing and causing him to swerve aside and hit the floor hard. And then she was on him, grasping him tightly, one hand deliberately squeezing his damaged humerus. He squawked and struggled but to no avail. The Duchess had him.

But then she turned, still holding him tightly, to see a large black wolf and a tigress running straight at her.