Sister trembled anxiously as the truck sped through the city. The safe had little for them to grip when they made a wild turn or sudden stop, and Fiorella clung to the drop cloth as she was sent sliding across the cold, metal floor. A small amount of light peeked through the slightly cracked door, and as they passed under streetlights, tiny beams shone through a series of holes that someone had drilled in the top.
"Must be for air," Sister thought to herself with disdain, as she imagined herself being shoved into a giant pickle jar like the frogs and fireflies the hatchlings sometimes caught in the park, "Well, at least we get to breathe!"
With a final wide turn, they felt the truck accelerating to a great speed and the noise of the freeway surrounded them. Sister wondered where they were being taken and prayed that if she and Fiorella were able to escape the Draconi's truck, they would be able to find Orion and the others quickly, before the gangsters got to them.
She still could not imagine why Orion was in the city at all though. Briefly, Sister considered the possibility that her beloved brother had tracked her to Chicago to search for her and try to bring her home. This was not too far fetched a theory. She knew Orion and she knew how he loved her. She was quite certain that even if the rest of the clan were to sentence her to banishment, her own brother would never disown her. But she still couldn't imagine him bringing their little sisters with him on such a rescue mission. At least, not willingly. What was the clue that Siren had given her?
"Occhi?" she asked, tentatively raising her voice over the sounds of the traffic, "Do you know what Ursa Major is?"
Fiorella furrowed her brow, then shook her head.
"What about a star with sixteen points on it?" she asked hopefully, "Did you ever see something like that around here?"
Fiorella shook her head again and Sister sighed. The best she could do was hope that the Draconis were smart enough to know where they were going, but dumb enough not to check inside the safe once they stopped!
It wasn't a long ride on the freeway before they felt the car tearing around the sharp turns of the side streets again. Finally, Sister noted the car slowing down to a crawl, and over the engine, she was certain she heard the sound of waves.
"Come on!" Sister beckoned and she and Fiorella pulled the thick, heavy drop cloth over their heads as the truck came to a stop and the occupants of the cab scrambled out. But the Draconis didn't even bother to open the safe at all. Angelo was so intent on barking anxious orders at the two bewildered boys that he hardly glanced in the safe's direction as he pulled a menacing weapon from a heavy box in the bed of the truck. Sister gritted her teeth at the sight of it, but drew a deep, determined breath.
As the men's voices began to fade, Sister tentatively crept out from under the drop cloth and peeked through the crack in the door. There was a weak light shining down on the truck that swayed with the intense wind, and Sister caught sight of a row of boats, all lined up in their winter cradles and covered with black tarps.
"We're at a marina," she told Fiorella as she looked cautiously around the area for any sign of strangers. But the only thing that seemed to be alive in the marina was the wind. Rows and rows of mostly empty boat slips extended from the pier out into the harbor. The wind drove heavy waves up over the docks with a violent force that would have threatened to drag even a grownup gargoyle out to sea. The whole structure of the pier seemed to creak and groan with the undulating, black water. Fiorella climbed out of the safe and, despite her heavy coat, immediately began to shiver with the bitter, wet air.
"You'd better stay here," Sister told the girl anxiously. She climbed down the side of the truck bed and gave the door a sharp tug, breaking the lock and smiling with relief that no alarm sounded.
"Come here, Occhi," she coaxed, lifting the girl down to the ground and watching her climb into the back of the cab. Sister frowned for a moment. Fiorella still looked pitifully cold. Sister grabbed the drop cloth from the truck bed and folded it over, tucking it around Fiorella to give her some extra warmth.
"I have to go find my brother and sisters," she told her, "You stay here out of the wind until…"
Sister hesitated. She assumed Fiorella's crazy father and brother would be returning to the truck at some point but she didn't know how long it would take. Any number of things could happen while the girl waited in the frigid truck.
"Until…it doesn't seem like a good idea anymore!" Sister finally concluded and Fiorella gave her a confident nod of agreement.
Sister didn't need more height than the back of the truck to propel herself into the wild wind's current, but she quickly found herself overwhelmed by it. She took to the air as best she could over a massive shed with a metal roof, making sure to keep herself above the sight of any of the cameras on the roof.
Once away from the waterfront, she found a large, romanesque building, surrounded by gardens and a huge open lawn. There she caught sight of the Draconis, making their way across the lawn and meeting two men. Not wishing to risk the exposure of such an open field, she decided to duck into a wooded area and work her way around its perimeter, and she was soon within earshot of the conversation.
"If the old man wants these creatures alive," said a tall thin man in a thick winter hat as he eyed Angelo's rifle, "What good is that thing gonna do you?"
"So? What have you got?" Angelo asked skeptically.
"Tell em," the tall man ordered his companion, who was a young-looking man with a mop of red hair and some sort of official uniform, whose constitution didn't really look up to dealing with known mafia members.
"Well, umm…" he stuttered.
"Talk, boy!" Angelo bellowed menacingly, "I'm a busy man tonight!"
"I-I work for the parks department," he explained awkwardly, pointing to the Jeep parked nearby as if that was his official verification.
"We're really happy for you, kid," Gianni grumbled snidely.
"I-I do security, on the lakefront…" he continued as he visibly squirmed under the gangsters' unimpressed gazes, "I mean, sometimes they have me collecting the trash and delivering stuff, but mostly I just watch for homeless people…"
"They don't care about that, dumbass!" the tall man scolded him, "Tell him what you got!"
"R-right," the young man stuttered and Sister actually felt a little sorry for the guy, who looked like he had about as much business working security in a Chicago harbor as the neurotic Piglet from Winnie-the-Pooh.
"B-before they m-moved me down here," he explained, "They h-had me working up at the zoo. J-just keeping people out at n-night and stuff…"
"Look. Kid," Angelo growled in a frustrated tone, "I'm sure you were King of the Jungle or whatever, up there in Lincoln Park, but I'm not accepting any resumes at this time…"
"I still have the codes!" the timid security guard interrupted, "To get into the office where they keep the tranquilizer guns! One of those darts can put an elephant out for two hours!"
Angelo's eyes widened, not particularly amiable at being interrupted by this pipsqueak, but his outrage soon melted into a wicked smile.
"Now, we're talking!" he declared to his comrades.
A moment later, Sister was following the jeep at a distance, trying her best to stay low to the top of the treeline so they wouldn't catch sight of her in the dark. The park employee had free use of the park roads and trails, and each of the city's parks seemed to melt into the next, like a long tablecloth of green spread between the harbor and the lights of the city's massive towers. For a few minutes, they sped along a trail that ran along the beach, before heading back into open green fields. Before long, she saw the tops of red, bricked buildings above the trees and a stone and iron wall indicated that they had found the zoo.
"Wonderful," she muttered bitterly to herself as she watched the jeep enter through a staff-only gate. She had hoped the gangsters would lead her straight to her siblings, but now they were off on this side mission and she had no idea what to do.
With the Draconis preoccupied, Sister gained altitude and scanned the area. The parks seemed to go on forever and she wondered if she should go north or south to look for Orion. She glanced down at the zoo directly below her to see if she could find their jeep, when she noticed something else which caught her by surprise.
In the shadow of several large trees was a playground. In it was a climbing tower where a small, dark shape was huddled. Sister looked closer in amazement.
"Bonnie?" she whispered excitedly. The small form moved again slightly and Sister saw a flash of red curls.
With a gasp of surprise, Sister dove for the tower and landed as stealthily as possible on the side, peeking over the plastic boards, made to look like wooden planks, which formed the wall.
"Is that you, Bonnie?" she whispered and the girl looked up in surprise.
"Oh, hello, Sister!" she greeted with a bright smile, then returned her attention to the gargoyle doll in her lap.
"Bonnie!" Sister exclaimed, "You're in your human form? At night?"
"Yes," she complained with an eye roll, "Ori told me to stay a girl until he came back, in case one of the humans saw me. But I don't want to because it's too cold! Even though he did give me his coat."
She tucked the oversized, black coat around herself even tighter and tugged the drawstring on the hood so hard that only her nose and mouth stuck out through the hole.
"Do you have anything to eat?" she asked curiously.
"Bonnie," Sister asked in frustration as she joined her sister in the shelter of the tower and pulled her under her wings to keep her warm, "What are you doing here? And where is Ori?"
"We're trying to find Adelpha," Bonnie explained, "But we keep getting chased and I gave our raviolis to a street man and now I'm hungry again, but Ori says we have to keep following the red light."
"Wait. What red light?"
Bonnie sighed.
"Lyra sees it. She has a relic."
"A relic?"
"Uh huh. And the bad guys chased us on the beach and Lyra said we should hide in the zoo until they leave because it's closed and no one will see us."
Bonnie paused with a scowl.
"They don't have any penguins in this zoo… or panda bears."
Sister rubbed the ridges on her brow in exasperation. Getting important information out of Bonnie was no easier or less confusing than talking to Siren!
"Where are Ori and Lyra now?" she demanded, "Why did they leave you alone?"
"They're watching out for the bad guys," she explained casually, "And Ori said he'd find me some snacks."
"Bonnie!" they heard a frantic voice calling from outside the tower.
"There they are," Bonnie said happily, "I hope they brought pretzels!"
"Bonnie, where are you?" Orion hissed as loudly as he dared, "We've got to get out of here! The Draconis are here and they…"
Orion stopped as he caught sight of Bonnie and Sister peeking over the edge of the tower wall.
"Sister!" he exclaimed jubilantly at the sight of her, completely forgetting the need to be quiet.
"Sister, you're here!" Lyra cried as Sister lifted Bonnie and lept to the ground. Bonnie squealed happily, regaining her natural form before her feet had hit the playground gravel. Orion and Lyra embraced her in relief, even as Bonnie grabbed the cold pretzel in a paper bag from Orion.
"What are you doing here?" Orion asked, clenching her at the shoulders as if afraid she would disappear.
"I came to find Uncle Alex," she replied sheepishly, "I needed his help."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Orion demanded, "I'm your brother! I was terrified! I thought you'd been kidnapped by an evil robot!"
"Well, I was…temporarily," she conceeded, "It was my fault Coldsteel got free. I couldn't go home until I made it right!"
"We're a clan!" Orion scolded her as he squeezed her tightly, "We fight together. We can't be right without you!" Sister returned his embrace, feeling quite relieved that at least he forgave her for releasing Coldsteeel, and they were quickly joined by Lyra and Bonnie.
"Umm…Ori?" Bonnie asked as she buried her face in his wing, "Did you bring any cheese dip for the pretzel?"
Their reunion was interrupted by the sound of the parks department's commandeered jeep driving approaching.
"Quick!" Orion hissed, and they ducked into the bushes, watching the mobsters pass.
"That Angelo Draconi," Orion explained to her with disdain, "He wants to capture us and ransom us back to Xanatos. We had an interesting run in with him earlier tonight. He's the one that's got every thug in the city on our tails."
"We'd better get out of here," Sister told him, "They just loaded up on tranq darts and they're going to be after us again soon."
Orion had a funny look on his face though.
"Maybe not…" he said as he unfolded a colorful pamphlet that he'd found near the concession stand. A map was printed on the opposite side.
"They wanna act like animals?" Orion asked, "Maybe the zoo is the perfect place for them?"
Sister glanced over his shoulder at the map and raised a brow at her brother, who looked back at her with a mischievous grin. Having the other half of his rookery-of-two restored to him seemed to have instantly boosted his ambition.
"What do you say, guys?" he asked them, "You wanna play cops and gangsters?"