Mark conceded and let Cat keep the gun but made her swear that she would not mention it to any of the other personnel in the building. Cat agreed. They now gathered in guest lounge which consisted of a small kitchen and several couches around a coffee table. The lounge walls and floors were all concrete so it wasn’t a particularly comfortable looking lounge but at least there was soft seating.
”So as you all know,” Mark started the briefing, “our facility has a creature of some sort on the loose. To date several lives have been lost, and all were found in similar states to that of the one you saw today. We’ve also had a few disappearances. We know very little about this creature. We know that it affects the lighting somehow. Flickering lights are an indication that it is nearby, or will be soon. So if you notice these then it is best to leave the area, unless of course you’re trying to entice it into a trap. Basically, we don’t know much more than you do.” He handed Amanda a manila folder. “This is a compilation of everything we have tried to date in as much detail as you should need. I’ll leave you to discuss your plans for the evening and we will reconvene tomorrow at 0700 hours.”
Indi screwed up her face in such a way that no one could have mistaken her for a lover of early mornings.
Amanda flipped briefly through the contents of the manila folder, frowning as she noted the distinct lack of information.
“Any questions?” Mark asked.
Kass raised a hand. “When’s dinner?”
Indi nodded enthusiastically.
“Ah, right, there’s food in the fridge. I’m afraid you’ll have to cook it yourselves but we’ve left plenty there.” Mark waited a few seconds in case there were any more questions, then nodded at them, got up, and left.
There was silence for a few moments before Zephyr said, “well I’m starved, let’s get some food.”
There was a murmur of agreement and an enthusiastic “Yes!” from Indi.
The group converged on the kitchen to see what was available, except for Amanda who perched herself on the arm of a nearby couch. Sirius also remained where he had been standing. He raised his eyebrows at her in question. She handed him the folder. He flipped through it, a similar frown appearing on his face.
“There’s not much there.”
“Mmm.” Sirius gave a nod of agreement.
“It concerns me that Coal thinks we’ll be done with this job and back by Tuesday.”
“Mmm, he hasn’t always been the best at time estimates.” Sirius handed the folder back to her.
Amanda took it and put it on the coffee table then shook her head. “This feels different. I mean a few days off on an estimate for a week long job, sure, but this seems like a much bigger job. It just feels like he’s hiding something.”
Cat, who had found the kitchen too crowded and had decided to eavesdrop on their conversation instead, now decided to throw herself right into it. “Coal’s always hiding something, but he also knows what he’s doing. He wouldn’t give us a job we couldn’t handle.”
“Well I’m glad you trust him.” Amanda replied unconvinced.
Cat shook her head. “I don’t trust anyone, least of all Coal, but he is smart, and we’re worth far more to him alive. He wouldn’t risk an asset like that, not for short term gain.”
“That assumes he doesn’t just have other assets waiting to replace us.”
Cat raised her chin as if she wanted to argue but her confidence in Coal wasn’t quite high enough to counter Amanda’s point. Yes, Coal had other contacts that did jobs for him, ones that she had never met. It was unlikely they rivaled the collective power of this group, or more specifically, Amanda, legendary firestarter, and Coal’s favorite chess piece, but Cat couldn’t be sure, and so some doubt remained. Cat wasn’t one to say nothing though and she had started this.
She shrugged. “So he says Tuesday, we’ll probably be back by Thursday. You should be in the habit of adding days to Coal’s estimates. All we need to do is trap and kill a creature. Theoretically he’s not wrong with the timing.”
Amanda gave a snort and a smile which didn’t quite reach her brown eyes. “Theoretically,” she repeated, her words laced with doubt.
Wolf, who had also decided that the kitchen had too many chefs, took a seat on the other couch. “Maybe we should get started then? While the others cook.” He reached for the folder on the table. “You mind?” he asked Amanda.
She shrugged. “It’s for all of us. It won’t help you much though.”
“You guys want something to eat?” Falco yelled from the kitchen.
“Are you offering to cook?” Amanda asked with a grin.
“Sure.” Falco shrugged.
“It’s probably easier if we just have a couple of people doing the cooking.” Kass agreed.
“Not it!” Indi exclaimed and dashed to one of the couches around the coffee table.
“I thought you liked cooking.” Falco challenged.
Indi shrugged and smiled but remained seated. “Sometimes.”
Falco started leafing through the contents of the fridge and freezer.
“I guess I’ll help,” Zephyr offered. He began hunting down utensils.
“What do you guys want for dinner?” Falco called.
“Whatever’s there” Amanda replied.
“I can’t see any veges,” Kass complained as she looked past Falco at the contents of the fridge.
Indi leaned back in the couch and stretched her hands out above her. “I don’t think veges are a necessity.”
Cat rolled her eyes and got up to help Kass look.
“Found them.” Kass said, before Cat could get there, as she opened the cupboard next to the fridge.
Cat returned to her seat on the couch next to her brother.
“I found some sausages.” Falco held up a bag of the precooked type from out of the freezer.
Kass made a face.
“You’re not vegetarian right?” Falco asked.
“No but ...” Kass trailed off eyeing the precooked sausages warily.
“Don’t you like sausage Kass?” Cat teased in a tone that suggested she wasn’t talking about the food. Even though personally she agreed with Kass’s feelings about the quality of precooked sausages it would be a shame to waste this type of opportunity.
Her comment elicited nothing but eye rolls and groans, and she was otherwise largely ignored.
Amanda turned in her seat to look at the kitchen. “Maybe something with a little more sustenance.” she suggested.
“I found a box of potato mix” Zephyr said as he pulled a box out of another cupboard. “How about sausages, potato, and whatever veges you found?” he glanced at Kass.
“Sounds good,” Amanda agreed.
Kass gave a polite nod and an unconvincing smile.
“Now what?” Wolf asked.
“Maybe a bit of research, make a shortlist of what we think we could be dealing with, dinner, a couple rounds of cards, and then bed?” Amanda suggested to the group.
Wolf nodded. “I’ll grab my books.”
They came up with two lists. One for creatures they could rule out and another for the more likely possibilities, including the possibility that there was some deranged murderer at the facility. Probably unlikely but it wouldn’t be the first time that what they thought was a monster turned out to be psychopath instead.
Dinner didn’t take long to cook so Amanda suggested that they continue their research for a while after eating before taking a break.
“They really haven’t given us much information” Kass complained as she flicked through the manila folder. “What happens if we can’t get the job done before Tuesday?”
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“Technically we don’t have to stay past Monday night” Amanda replied “but that’s quite the pay cut. There’s the fee for the time and then there’s the fee for completion...” she trailed off. The others knew the details.
“We have done it before?” Kass asked, not quite sure.
Amanda nodded.
Cat gave a laugh remembering. “Coal was pissed off for weeks.”
“I don’t really care what Coal thinks,” Amanda replied.
“Sure you do,” Cat challenged.
Amanda didn’t reply. Sure, Coal hated incomplete jobs but that was understandable. He had a reputation to protect. She really didn’t have a problem calling a job off if safety was an issue. She could deal with him no worries. She doubted Cat had any issue with that either. Cat would be more concerned with her own reputation. The main issue was completing a job meant only taking money for the time spent on it, and that wage wasn’t much more than Amanda would make on a normal work day. As it was, her business didn’t make a huge surplus. Her income was high but so were her expenses to the point that there were years where she operated at a loss, made up for by good seasons. The money that Coal paid for completed jobs was by comparison very desirable. To call off a job early simply because it ran over time just wasn’t worth it.
Kass was probably in the same boat. Even though she was a lawyer the practice she worked for was small and basically run by a local charity. Small town lawyers just couldn’t charge as much as the big city ones. Little Rock, the town they were from, basically only existed because of its port. Lawyers weren’t often needed by the people who lived there, at least not people with money. Those with money who did require the services of a lawyer generally preferred to go a little further afar, most often south to the Emerald City.
Zephyr, on the other hand had actually managed to accrue some wealthy clients, some who were happy to travel in from out of town, such as the more affluent nearby town of Marblewood. Zephyr didn’t need the extra income that doing jobs for Coal provided. What Zephyr liked about this work, Amanda was pretty sure, was simply the company. That, and he liked being helpful. Sure being around Cat was probably a bonus for him but he seemed to enjoy the more general friendships that the group provided as well. Even if whatever ‘relationship’ Cat and he had went south it was likely he’d still stick around.
Indi set her own hours and had done well enough in her work that she probably could have retired and spent every day with a cocktail on the beach if she wanted to. Indi wasn’t one to sit still though. Coming from a comfortable life, what appealed to her most was adventure. As for Falco, he simply went wherever Indi went.
Cat and Wolf also chose their own hours and Cat made enough to be selective about jobs but she always finished what she started. Wolf, Amanda wasn’t so sure about financially but he was loyal and he would stay if they all did.
“Maybe it’s time for a break.” Falco suggested.
Amanda nodded and pulled out a pack of cards out. She threw it casually onto the table. “Who’s for a game of cards?”
“Yay.” Indi clapped her hands.
“Sure,” Cat said as if she didn’t care either way.
“I’m in,” Falco said.
Sirius shrugged.
“I’ll play,” Zephyr said with a grin “as long as Amanda gets a handicap.”
“Won’t make a difference,” Amanda replied as she started shuffling the cards.
“You guys going to play?” she asked Kass and Wolf.
Wolf shrugged. “Why not?”
Kass nodded.
“Oi!” Indi cried as she caught Zephyr trying to sneak a glance at her cards.
They used ripped up pieces of paper for chips and it wasn’t long before Amanda had acquired most of them, despite agreeing to Zephyr’s suggested handicap.
Indi knew the odds of every hand by heart. Her photographic memory and quick computational ability meant she could clean out a blackjack table in a cinch. Unfortunately, unlike blackjack, poker was more of a social game and Indi just couldn’t hide her emotions. Nor was she particularly good at spotting a bluff.
Amanda had been playing poker since she was old enough to walk. She didn’t need to know the odds, she’d simply played enough games to have a feel for them, and control might as well have been her middle name. Not even Cat could read her face. Indeed Cat spent more time watching Indi to try to estimate what Amanda had. If Indi was happy enough to have an ace then it was less likely that Amanda had one. Cat was actually pretty decent at bluffing herself. She might have even been good at poker if only she had Amanda’s patience. Unfortunately Cat tended towards recklessness and never folded when she should have. Her table talk worked well at undermining and distracting some of the others but not Amanda, who simply found her routine predictable.
Amanda had been born the first of two girls on a horse farm North of Little Rock. She had been taught to ride, shoot, fight, and play poker by her father the moment she was able to. Her mother, who believed in slightly more traditional gender roles, had greatly disapproved of a lot of it.
Amanda’s Father had simply retorted that, “Everyone should know how to defend themselves.”
She had always been more her father’s kid, and Lizzy, her sister, had always been closer to their mother. Despite some of her mother’s more reasonable objections, her father had often snuck his eldest daughter into the back of the local bar with him to play cards. The first time Jake’s 6-year old won a game against grown men they had laughed and thought it was a trick. Eventually she became a source of entertainment as well as a money trap for naive travelers. The little redhead who could outplay people four times her size proved quite good for business. She drew paying patrons in and so the barman turned a blind eye to her age and offered her a deal. In return for attending a few regularly scheduled games she could drink whatever she wanted on the house.
“How about a game of strip poker” Zephyr suggested, nearly out of chips and bored of normal poker.
“Doesn’t seem particularly wise from where you’re sitting.” Cat observed with a raised eyebrow.
“Hmm.” Zephyr glanced down at his pile and seemed to be rethinking things. “Or, you know, we could play hearts or something.”
“Strip hearts?” Cat teased even though she had no idea how to play hearts.
“I’ll play if you play” Zephyr challenged with a grin.
“You know what might be a good idea?” Falco said. “Going to bed early so we can get up early tomorrow.”
“It’s only quarter to nine!” Indi exclaimed.
“And we’re supposed to be up and ready before 7am tomorrow,” Falco replied.
“Eugh,” Indi groaned “I’m not getting out of bed before 9am. You can’t make me” she threw her arms back in mock drama. “I can’t sleep now, I’m not even tired.”
“You can stay up late if you want but tomorrow I’m getting you up early even if I have to drag you out of bed.” Falco told her.
Indi gave him a dirty look and poked out her tongue.
“I’m glad this team shows so much maturity,” Cat quipped from the couch.
“Surely I can just get out of bed at 7?” Indi suggested to Falco, ignoring Cat.
“Not if you want breakfast.”
“Mmm.” Indi would hate to miss breakfast. It was her favourite meal of the day. Well actually that was brunch but same thing basically, just at more respectable time.
“Nothing like getting yer arse kicked by a girl aye Zeph,” Cat teased as they walked back to their rooms.
Zephyr tried to ignore her. It was only because when they’d first met Zephyr had told Cat that he considered himself quite the poker player. Indeed, in a one versus one he could usually outplay Cat, but Amanda beat everyone. Zephyr had made the mistake of saying that no woman could beat him though. He had just been teasing but Cat had not let that one go. Sometimes he hated her almost as much as he liked her. If he liked her. Did he? Sometimes, when she was nice. When she dropped her guard, when she wasn’t trying to act as if she didn’t care, when she took off her mask, he liked her then. Ever since that night when they’d met.
His thoughts shifted to the memory of her bright green eyes staring into his and her naked skin in the moonlight. That had lasted a month or so, and then she had become distant, as if she had lost interest. It had been at least a month now and Zephyr doubted he could get it back.
Maybe he should chase Kass instead? They had gone on a date once, before he’d met Cat. They’d never slept together though. They’d gone to lunch after a court case where Zephyr had been called as an expert witness. Then Kass had introduced him to the others and Cat had pounced on him before either had gotten around to suggesting a second date, that is if Kass had ever seen it as a date. He was certain she had, even though when he’d asked he’d simply suggested ‘lunch’ rather than name it as a date.
Kass was younger and smaller than Cat, less of a tomboy apart from the hair. Some would say prettier too, pretty in a more classical way. Cat was attractive but no one would call her pretty. It was the wrong word. She was more of a rough beauty, like a rugged landscape, scars and everything. Kass was softer, in her looks and her mannerisms. The only exception was her eyes. He’d seen glimpses of warmth and vulnerability in Cat’s green eyes, as well as anger and mistrust and all of the different emotions one could feel. But Kass’s eyes were so often an unreadable cold pale blue. She was as conservative as Cat was reckless and open.
Cat could put on a mask and hide her feelings but it was thin and temporary, like a veil, whereas Kass had somehow become her mask. Perhaps there was something there and he just didn’t know Kass well enough yet. Cat was exciting and interesting but he knew she had other men. She’d been upfront about that from the start. At the time he hadn’t cared. To be fair he’d been a little distracted. It wasn’t that he’d liked Kass less. She was an interesting mystery in her own right. It was simply that Cat had been more forward.
Much like Zephyr himself, Cat and Kass had both had rough childhoods, just all in markedly different ways. Cat had always been quite open about her shitty father, unlike her brother who preferred not to talk about it much. In fact making light of the situation seemed to be how Cat coped. Cat, at least had escaped tragedy as she’d escaped childhood. Kass, on the other hand seemed to be chased by it wherever she went. Zephyr was familiar with some of Kass’s history but knowing someone’s history didn’t equate to knowing the person, and there was a lot he was sure she still kept secret.
Kass had been born into privilege, the middle child to two very famous, successful, but extremely busy singers. She’d been given everything and she had wanted for nothing, except the affections of those who had brought her into this world, and some distance from the strangers that watched her family’s every move with frenzy. Of the family’s three children, Kass alone survived childhood, only to later lose both a husband and two of her own children.
A few years back Kass had fled to Little Rock with her one remaining son, looking for a new start. She’d been on the brink of throwing it all away when a chance encounter had resulted in Kass saving Indi’s life, and once Indi decided you were her friend there really wasn’t any other say in the matter.
Kass had told Zephyr some of this. Cat had told him other bits, not with the intent to undermine Kass, but more to explain things Zephyr hadn’t understood. Things he’d been wondering about. Cat wasn’t one to gossip, but she did consider it better when things were out in the open. Secrets were for squirrels, not people. Zephyr didn’t quite agree, but he did believe she meant well. Despite Cat’s often outward antagonism toward Kass, the two did seem to have developed a sort of mutual respect for each other.
Zephyr got into his bed and glanced over at where Cat lay in hers. He thought back over the last week. Had she been more antagonistic than usual lately?
He plugged in his portable night light and switched it on before turning off the main light. Cat wouldn’t mind, she could sleep anywhere, and she’d long since stopped teasing him about it. No one else knew. It was part of the reason he’d suggested bunking with Cat, so the others wouldn’t question him about it.
As he tried to fall asleep beneath the soft blue glow he pondered on his companions and the events of the day. Cat could be difficult to read if she wanted to, but Sirius was so much more so. The man was like a rock and getting any unwanted information out of him was akin to trying to squeeze water from a stone. He confided in Amanda though, Zephyr knew that, but lately Sirius had been seen talking to Kass more than was usual, perhaps because they were so much alike. It was something which understandably made Amanda a little wary. Zephyr wondered if trouble was brewing. Amanda and Sirius had had their fair share of issues in the past but they’d always come through stronger for it. This would be no different, Zephyr was certain.