“You’re going out to search?” Monty said. Shouldn’t the captain remain at the station to coordinate with other precincts, other captains? With the commissioner and the mayor?
“Oh, yes. I’m going out to search. I’ll keep my mobile phone turned on so you can reach me in the field.” Burke opened his office door and walked out.
Monty and the other men hurried to catch up to him.
* * *
Meg. The puppies.
Simon jerked awake and sprang to his feet.
Henry’s warning growl convinced him to stay put.
He studied the Grizzly, whose hands were furry and clawed. Henry could do a lot of damage with those claws.
Right now, he hated the human form. Right now, he thought his heart would tear if he had to wear that skin. But he didn’t think Henry would let him out of the Business Association’s room while he was in Wolf form, so he shifted. He pulled on the jeans, then pondered the rips in the knit shirt he’d been wearing. Had Grizzly claws or sharp Wolf nails done that?
“I didn’t bite any of them.” His voice sounded rough, as if his body was resisting the shift to human.
“You would have.”
Shame was an odd feeling. Despite their being human, he liked Ruthie and Merri Lee. More important, Meg liked them. He’d just been so angry at all of the monkeys for hurting girls like Meg. And he’d felt terrified that by wearing the human form as much as he did, by trying to understand them and have so much contact with them, he might absorb that terrible aspect of being human.
“Does Meg know about . . .” He swallowed. Couldn’t say the words.
“Not yet.” Henry shifted his hands back to human shape. “Meg is in no danger. We thought it was better to spread the word to the terra indigene who are searching for the girls so they know what to look for if they spot humans near water.”
“Has anyone contacted Jackson Wolfgard or Roy Panthergard?”
“You were asleep only for a few minutes—just long enough for Vlad to find out why you were so angry and tell us and a few others in the Courtyard before he started contacting the Sanguinati to give them this new information.”
“I’ll call Jackson and Roy.”
Henry dipped a hand in his pocket and held out a mobile phone. “Don’t know where your mobile phone is. Vlad’s using the phone in HGR’s office, so you can stay in here and use my phone. I’ll go down and use the phone in the store. Make some calls to the Beargard.”
Staying in this room would keep him out of sight—and keep him away from any humans.
Simon took the mobile phone. “I would never bite Meg.”
“I know that. But as long as you’re up here, you won’t have words with Tess. Right now, that’s better for all of us.”
He waited until Henry left the room. He didn’t call Jackson or Roy. The first call he made was to the Liaison’s Office to talk to Meg. But the line was busy, so he didn’t have the comfort of hearing her voice.
Sighing, he called Jackson to tell him what else humans did to each other.
* * *
Meg gripped the phone’s receiver so hard her hand hurt. “I don’t know what happened. Was this part of the visions I saw?” She’d made the cut that morning. It felt like days had passed since then.
“No,” Merri Lee said. “That’s why we don’t understand what happened. One minute Simon is telling the three of us to work together on the Guide, and the next minute he’s kicking all the humans except you out of the Courtyard. Ruth and I have gone over it again and again, but we can’t figure out what we did to upset him.”