Page 43 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part Two

“Hey, whoa! You need to contain yourself, or I will do it for you!”

Considering I had learned the majority of my French from PG-rated television, I didn’t really know any swear words, but that didn’t stop me from acting like I did. I verbally dressed the man down, my volume rising with every syllable.

Sure enough, two more cars arrived, and more guards piled out of them. We were all doing our best to be the most distracting, loud, obnoxious, and banal interruption the staff had ever had to deal with. After all, if we presented ourselves as a large group of relatively harmless people who were lost, they were much more likely to redirect us rather than kill us. However, if they caught even a hint of subterfuge, everything would be over before we could get to part two of our plan.

A crackle from the megaphone was our cue, and suddenly Alicia was talking again in her tour guide voice.

“All right, everyone! Clearly, we are not wanted here. Let’s get back on our bus and go to our next stop. Hopefully, they will respect the importance of historical literacy.”

Finally, our cacophony died down, and I estimated that we’d wasted at least fifteen minutes of their time. Feeling satisfied with that, and a bit relieved I was going to be out of their direct line of sight, I hurried back to my seat on the bus.

However, I couldn’t relax fully, because I knew it would only be temporary.Verytemporary.

Still, I did my best to breathe in and out, centering myself for the next phase. I didn’t have to wait long because as soon as we reached the main gate leading to the outer courtyard, there was a resounding bang, and our bus suddenly lurched to the side before coming to a screeching halt.

Oh, no, it seemed one of our tires had blown. Truly, no one could have expected that.

So, once again, we all poured out, chattering in our different languages in alarm, while Alicia continued to speak into her megaphone unnecessarily. I hadn’t been able to tell before, but the woman definitely had a flair for drama, and I was loving it.

“Don’t worry, everyone. This is a temporary setback. We’ll be back on the road in no time at all.”

Naturally, the security team walked over to us, all of them looking pained.

“What’s going on now?” the man in charge said.

I probably shouldn’t have taken so much joy in how exasperated he sounded, but it was pretty great. I knew the situation was incredibly serious, but it was nice to have a little bit of levity every once in a while.

“Ah, there you are, young man,” Alicia said, still talking through the megaphone at point blank range in the man’s face. “The spare is in the back, so would you be a gentleman and have your little team change it? Then we’ll be back on the road and out of your hair.”

His expression shifted from exasperated to incredulous. “You’re expecting us to change your tire?”

“Well, you certainly wouldn’t expect a lady like me to do it, would you? And how else are we going to get out of here? I mean, I suppose we could wait until AAA can come rescue us, but you know how long those wait times can get. We’d be stuck here forhours, and I don’t know what your bathroom situation is here, but our bus does not have with a lavatory.”

A myriad of expressions crossed the man’s face before he finally closed his eyes and heaved the heaviest sigh I’d ever heard.

Oh, yeah, we were doing our job, all right.

“Gibson, who on your team knows how to change a tire?”

“Are you serious, sir?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

I watched, thoroughly amused as the security detail suddenly found themselves playing mechanic. I did my best to sink to the back to our little fake tourist crowd, just in case one of them somehow got suspicious of my relatively simple disguise.

Hopefully, our other two teams were benefitting from this distraction.

11

LEO

My lungs were burning, but I forced myself to go a little bit farther, my arms cutting through the water until finally, I saw the shimmering light above my head I’d been waiting for. Angling myself upward, I kicked hard until my head crested the surface. I glanced around. I’d made it to my target. The fish hatchery.

I drew in a deep breath, fighting the urge to cough. I didn’t want to draw any unnecessary attention to us. Hopefully, the majority of the staff would be too distracted with Alicia and Ven’s group to hear us. I’d been skeptical of the plan when it was first proposed, but the two mercenaries in our group assured us we needed a multi-prong attack. We’d completely lucked out with Chadwicke, which was perhaps a bit ironic, and if it hadn’t been for Ven’s spontaneous manifestation of plant powers, we wouldn’t have survived the auction. Given those facts, I wasn’t exactly keen on arguing with the experts.

At least I could take solace in the fact that my mate was safely on the bus, about as far from danger as she could be while still being involved with the plan. Honestly, I would have loved it if she’d stayed home, reading and taking care of her cats,but I’d long since learned that wasn’t an option. Ven wouldn’t stand by while others put themselves in danger. Considering how powerful she could be if she could access plants again, it would’ve been selfish of me to ask her to stay behind.

I sensed someone rapidly ascending beside me before I saw them, but a bit later, America burst through the surface of the water. Almost instantly, she started coughing, and I clapped my hand over her mouth quickly. It had been no small feat to swim that long to get through to the hatchery, but we had to do our best to be as stealthy as possible.

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