Page 12 of Tooth and Nail

Wordy simply waved them toward their ride.

“Let’s go. We’re already running behind.” He didn’t wait for a response, instead heading over to Rick Tooley who had one of the Chargers waiting for him, keys in hand. “Thanks, buddy.”

“We don’t need guns? I mean, real guns?” Ari asked as they climbed into the car.

“No point. Conventional weapons won’t work on Derwin.” Eoghan turned on the car and revved the engine. The cockpit immediately lit up with a multitude of LED lights in various colors.

“I’m confused. How do we get this car out of here?” Ari asked, looking around the garage as he put his seatbelt on. “We’re way underground.”

Eoghan smiled. He loved this part. “Like this…oh, and you’d better hang on.” He pressed a button on the dash andwatched as the wall in front of them split right down the middle. Two doors appeared in the bare wall. They began a smooth slide open and in seconds, a wide tunnel revealed itself. Bright lights in the tunnel ceiling blinked on as Eoghan stepped on the pedal. Instantly, the car shot silently forward, leaving the garage far behind them. Seconds later they were traveling through the tunnel going over eighty.

Eoghan navigated seamlessly, traveling at a slight incline as Ari sat quietly beside him, holding onto his seatbelt with one hand and the grab bar with the other. In a minute or so, they’d emerged into the sunshine which poured into the car. It was only eleven in the morning and for that, Eoghan was grateful. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have any traffic to the Broad.

“Whoo hoo!This thing can really fly!” Ari said, laughing as they hit the open road, leaving the tunnel behind them.

Eoghan sat back in the bucket seat, ready to answer any questions Ari had for him. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Ari look back.

“The tunnel is camouflaged,” Eoghan said, answering the unasked question. “There’s a hidden door on the side of the mountain which shut the moment we exited.” The siren blared and cars made a wide path as he floored it, flying through the streets. The dashboard screen displayed traffic patterns, helping him avoid accidents as well as displaying their ETA. Rather than the normal twenty to twenty-five minutes in this traffic, the app predicted their arrival at the museum in less than half that.

“I have a lot of questions,” Ari said, still gripping the grab bar as Eoghan wove through traffic, going as fast as it was safe to do so.

“You probably want to know about Derwin,” Eoghan said.

“That was my first question,” Ari replied, nodding as he took a sip from his coffee cup.

“Derwin is a honeybee shifter,” Eoghan said, barely able to contain his grin.

Ari instantly choked, spraying his coffee all over the dash before going into a coughing fit.

Eoghan chuckled as he glanced over to see him glaring at him, holding his coffee cup with brown liquid dripping from his nose and chin. The front of his nice dress shirt was soaked as well. “Oh, shoot. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.” He pointed to the glove compartment. “I think there’s some napkins in there.” He kept his eyes on the road but out of the periphery he could see Ari doing his best to wipe coffee off his face, clothes, and the dashboard as he finally stopped coughing.

“A honey…bee,” Ari barely choked out, his voice rough. “Are you shitting me?”

Eoghan shook his head, feeling Ari’s eyes on him although he was doing his best to keep his own focused on the road straight-ahead, so he didn’t hit anyone.

“I’m utterly serious and he’s the most endearing shifter I’ve ever met.”

“So, what’s his deal? You said he’s in WITSEC? How do you put a fucking bumblebee in WITSEC?”

“He’s ahoneybee, not a bumblebee. Confuse the two at your own peril. I’ve never seen Derwin mad but if there was ever a time for him to get mad, it would be confusing him with his older, much uglier and more aggressive cousins. Honeybees are gentle creatures. Bumblebees, though similar, are the bullies of the Anthophilia.”

“Come on, seriously? This is a joke, right?”

Eoghan darted his eyes to Ari for a split second before looking back at the road. He frowned as he slowly shook hishead. “Partner, you’re gonna have to learn how to trust me in these things or you’ll never make it in the I.S.R. units. Derwin is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to who and what you’re gonna see while doing this job.”

“Okay…let’s say I buy all this honeybee shifter stuff…what’s Derwin’s story? Is he running…er…buzzing away from one of these big bumblebee bullies?”

Eoghan chuckled. “No. Let me start from the beginning.”

“I think that’d be best.”

“The short backstory of how Derwin entered WITSEC isn’t typical. He’s got a condition called tryphophobia. He left his honeybee colony because he couldn’t deal with the honeycomb. It was slowly killing him. Derwin is a drone—a male bee—whose sole mission in life was to mate with the queen. His condition started causing him to have panic attacks every time he reported to work. Even though drones don’t live inside the colony per se, he still had to be in its proximity to mate with his queen. He eventually left the colony to live among humans. His queen released him voluntarily. She was being magnanimous and did it with the proviso that he was to live under the radar. She didn’t have to.”

“Maybe she was suffering from postpartum depression,” Ari said.

Eoghan snorted. “You’re not helping.”

“Sorry. Think about it…egg laying…all the time. Just saying.”

---