*Maddox*
The water treatment facility looms in the distance, and nothing seems to be stirring within the giant chain-link fence that guards the perimeter. As I slowly drive around, looking for any indication that this place has been tampered with, my eyes are met with not a single sign of distress
I pull my car to a stop in front of the guard’s building and get out. “Facility is closed!” he barks at me, clearly not recognizing me in the dark. I have made sure that the proper authorities that are in charge of this facility know the threat, but that must not mean that the guards at the gate are aware that I might be coming by.
“I’m aware of that,” I tell him. “I just wanted to make sure that you haven’t seen anything suspicious. No strange vehicles. No wolves carrying bags that could potentially contain chemicals?”
He studies me for a moment before he says, “Nope, nothing of the kind. Everything is fine here, mister. So you can head back to the palace, and let the king know. Ol’ Virgil and the others is takin’ care of this place.”
From his tone, I get the impression he must be Ol’ Virgil. Another guard saunters up behind him, an odd expression on his face. I smile at him, and he immediately goes into a submissive, respective stance with his right fist over his heart.
Ol’ Virgil is confused. “What you doin’ Jimmy?”
“Th-th-the king!” Jimmy manages to get out.
“This here ain’t the king!” Ol’ Virgil insists. “The king wouldn’t be out in the middle of the night checkin’ on the water treatment facility!”
“He would be if he thought there was a possibility that the entire pack could be poisoned,” I tell him.
Ol’ Virgil finds this humorous and begins to chuckle. “Well, like I said, everything’s just fine out here. So you can go tell the king, we’s got it under control.”
I decide I’d rather talk to Jimmy. “At ease, there, Jimmy,” I say to him. “You haven’t seen anything suspicious?”
“N-n-no, sir,” he stammers. “Mr. Folk sent us out on patrol, though, just to make sure. We got a keen eye on everything. I don’t believe anyone will be able to break into the facility, sir.”
“Good,” I tell him with a nod. “That’s what I wanted to hear. All right then. Thank you for your time.” I give Jimmy a nod of appreciation and try not to roll my eyes at Ol’ Virgil.
As I turn to walk away, I hear the older guard say, “Why you got your panties in a wad? That weren’t the damn king!”
Jimmy only says, “Ol’ Virgil, you’re lucky his reputation isn’t true or else he might’ve ended you.”
I can’t help but chuckle despite myself as I get into the car and turn around. “Where the hell did you go, Zabrina?” I ask myself.
Of course, that gets me nowhere, so I use the mind-link to check with everyone I can think of who is also out looking for her. I am going through the list of commanders, checking in with them, and no one has seen anything when I hear a frantic voice in my head.
“Alpha King Maddox, this is Captain Thomas. I’m stationed out by the edge of Crescent City, and it looks like something funny is going on out here in the industrial region of the town. One of my privates just saw a car go flying by really quickly down one of the side streets. He tried to follow it, but he couldn’t keep up.”
“Crescent City?” I repeat aloud, not using the mind-link. “All right, Captain Thomas,” I say. “What facilities are you closest to, how many wolves do you have with you, and what’s their fighting capability?”
I head in that direction. Crescent City is about an hour’s drive from the castle, and I’ve gone the right direction to reach it, so I’m only about twenty minutes from there now, but I have to turn the car around and head back in the other direction. It’s to the southwest of the water treatment facility, which sits along the same river that runs through Crescent City, Great Wolf River.
“I have thirty soldiers with me, sir, and we are spread out all over the town on various roads, watching for the car. I believe that my private saw that car, and it's headed toward the edge of town where several factories are stationed.”
“Which factories?” I feel like I have already asked him this question. He’s nervous and doesn’t want to fuck up.
“Uh… there’s a packaging factory there that makes plastic and paper bags and bins. A bakery that makes bread and other grain products, a glue factory….”
I think through those choices. None of them make sense. She could try to poison the food supply, but it wouldn’t work too well. If the chemicals were baked into bread or another food product, they would lose their effectiveness.
No, if Zabrina really wants to kill a bunch of people, she’ll need to get that chemical into the water supply.
But she’s not at the water treatment facility.
Where is she going?
My mind catches up to her at about the same time that Captain Thomas adds, “Oh, and Wolf Springs.”
“Wolf Springs!” I shout at him. “Of course! The water bottling company—she knows that we’ll all assume she’s poisoning the water in the treatment facility, so she’s going to the place we’ll all turn to, assuming it’s safe! Captain, get your asses to the water bottling facility as quickly as possible, got it?”
“Yes, sir,” he says, and I let the mind-link go as I mash the pedal to the floor. I know that Seth and most of my other higher-ups are nowhere near Crescent City at the moment. It’s not located close to Zabrina’s pack or her allied packs, so it wouldn’t make sense for her to go there—for any reason other than to tamper with water that’s already been packaged.
Nevertheless, I tell Seth what’s happening. “Close in the circle so that if she slips through my fingers, we can find her and cut her off!” I tell him.
“Yes sir, Alpha,” my Beta says, and I know that we are tightening the noose on her.
I only hope she doesn’t slip through our paws. Duster pack isn’t too far from Crescent City, if she can get over the river, and while I’ve already ordered all of the bridges to be shut down, she could find another way.
Going around isn’t likely—that would be a long shot. But swimming across in her wolf form might just work. I doubt that Alpha Jordan is in any shape to swim after his tumble down the stairs.
Zabrina will abandon her injured father and make a break for it. I just know it.
Crescent City is a large industrial town with lots of factories and apartment buildings where the factory workers live. I try to make sure that everyone within my kingdom is able to make a nice living, and while it’s not possible for me to micromanage all of the packs—like Willow pack—I do make sure that the workers within my own pack lands, the ones directly around the castle, are taken care of.
So even though it’s a big city, it is clean, with roads that are well taken care of, very little crime, and not a lot going on this late at night, especially since I asked the city manager to send out a mind-link bulletin to all of the citizens to stay at home, out of the way.
The last thing I need is for someone to get run over while we hunt Zabrina down in a high-speed chase.
Knowing that the roads are likely pretty clear, I do not slow down entering the city. I see very little traffic as I speed toward the factory in question, and as it looms in front of me, I have a feeling Zabrina is here.
“We don’t see anything at the facility, Alpha,” Captain Thomas says in my head.
“Keep a tight perimeter and keep looking,” I order. “She’s got to be there somewhere. No sign of the car?”
“No, sir,” Captain Thomas tells me.
“Where would she park if she was going to sneak into this facility?” I ask myself.
And then it occurs to me.
The water that they use for the bottled water comes through a large pipe from beneath the ground that taps directly into the spring that feeds the river. The water treatment facility also uses water from this river, but the bottled water is cleaned at this facility—it’s a privately owned business, after all. They don’t need to bottle and sell the public water, though it comes from a public source.
I try to remember where that pipe originates. I reach out to the company owner, Bill Bixby, but I can’t get him on mind-link. I ask Captain Thomas, “Where the hell is Bill Bixby?”
He hesitates. “I don’t know, sir.”
“Send someone over to his house and see if he’s asleep!” I insist. I may need Bixby’s help before this is all over with.
In the meantime, I don’t drive directly to the water bottling facility. I drive to the river, and as I make my way down the shoreline, I am looking for Alpha Jordan’s car.
As I near the older of the two bridges that cross the river, I slow down. A feeling deep inside of me tells me that Zabrina is nearby. It’s like I can smell her, though it’s not my nose that tells me she’s here.
“Sir, this is Bill Bixby. I’m sorry, I was asleep. What’s going on, King Maddox?” says the voice in my head.
“The pipe where you collect your water from the spring, is it by the old bridge?” I ask him, slowing down.
“Yes, sir,” he says. “About a quarter-mile south of there.”
“Thanks, Bill. Get to your factory. We may need you yet.”
I cut off the mind-link as I bring the car to a stop.
Tire tracks, to my right, near the river. But no car.
I get out and walk over, and I understand why the car isn’t there now.
She knew we’d see the car, but she had no idea I’d see the tracks—shooting through the grass, right up to the two-foot concrete rise that goes around the river’s edge here.
The driver would’ve had to have a running start to take the car up and over that barrier, but it’s clear to me by the chips in the top of the concrete that’s exactly what’s been done.
“So… Alpha Jordan’s car is at the bottom of the river,” I say, scratching my chin. “Where the hell is Alpha Jordan—and his daughter?”
I look around, following the tracks back across the open field. If I can find their origin, I might be able to pick up her scent. Because I know Zabrina well enough to know one thing—she didn’t just plummet to her death in that river.
No, just because the car is gone, that doesn’t mean my problems have gone away. In all likelihood, the trouble is just beginning.