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“It’s perfect,” declared Agent Nari Lee from the Avian Soaring Society—ASS, for short.
“Except for the fact that you don’t work for the Furry United Coalition,” Clarice Tertius—hawk shifter and former ASS agent, now, after many years, FUC—replied dryly.
“In fact, if I recall correctly, you showed up here at the Academy uninvited, trying to recruit for the ASS training facility in Australia.” She stared Nari down with her piercing aqua eyes.
That gaze said she was anything but amused.
It was true. Nari had ventured to the Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy—FUCN’A—on ASS business, but in all fairness, where there were bird shifters, ASS would be involved.
And FUCN’A had been racking up quite a population of bird shifters recently.
They were all fair game for ASS recruitment as far as Nari was concerned.
“I have to admit there is a certain something to Agent Nari’s plan.
” Academy Director Alyce Cooper tapped her chin thoughtfully.
Prior to speaking, she appeared carved from onyx, sitting quietly and taking the plan in.
“The shrew has been reluctant to talk, and I can’t delay his imminent incarceration any longer. ”
“I think there’s a good chance that Grimm entrenched a great distrust of FUC in Anson,” Nari replied excitedly.
Normally, Nari would have been cautious in front of the tall and imposing Alyce, but luckily for her, the director understood the direness of the situation.
“By all accounts, Grimm prefers avian shifters, and may be one himself, so Anson might be more primed to trust a bird.” Nari wanted to add that she was just the bird for the job, but didn’t want to be too bold. Not yet anyway.
“Then send me in to do it,” Clarice snapped. Her words were nearly as clipped and sharp as the angles of her face.
That made Nari laugh. “Even if the shrew is completely ignorant of the inner workings of FUC, do you really think you’d get far in an undercover operation?”
“With all due respect, Agent Tertius, you’re a legend.
” Agent Cassandra Sparks quickly spoke up before Nari put her foot in her mouth even further.
“It’s one thing to get Anson to believe that an ASS agent wants to help him escape FUC custody but a whole other to make Dr. Grimm believe it, too.
And certainly the evil doctor would know who you are. ”
The words flowed flawlessly from the showbird.
Nari smiled gratefully at her friend and mentor.
She was pleased to see Cass in such a good place—something that Nari had, until recently, been unsure of.
Nari’s worry about Cass had prompted this scheme to get her an ASS-covered trip from Australia to Canada.
As far as her bosses knew, Nari was attempting to recruit every bird shifter who lived at the Academy under FUC care—there was a surprising number of them, thanks to the rampant experiments being run by evil scientists hidden in the Rocky Mountains.
Nari’s superiors wanted the rescued bird shifters to join the flock, as it were, and stop associating with the “Furry Unworthy Cretins.” Besides, who better to help recuperating birds than their fellow feathered cousins?
What could the furbrains at FUC know about avian shifters?
At least that was what she’d thought back in Australia.
She’d given up her efforts pretty quickly after it became clear that not only was FUC taking great care of all of their rescued patients, but also that no one wanted to be ripped away from the only friends some of them had in the whole world.
Nari could understand that. She knew exactly how hard it was to be away from someone you’d bonded with.
Which was why she’d let her bosses go on thinking she was still in recruitment mode, while she’d actually been catching up with Cass and helping her on the Grimm case.
It was a bonus that Cass’s boyfriend, FUCN’A professor and agent, Grayson Stone, was also working on the case, because it let Nari have a chance to check him out and get to know that FUC really wasn’t as bad as the old guard at ASS would have the world think.
In fact, Grayson Stone seemed like a pretty nice guy, one who made Cass happier than Nari had ever seen her.
Cass had a permanent glow around her, which just heightened Cass’ already spectacular features.
Nari wished she had even an ounce of style and class that the peahen had.
Cass always looked fashionable at the office, no matter the time of day.
Nari was envious of the beautiful agent in some ways.
Nari hated attention and standing out. She’d rather blend into the background.
Maybe it was her eagle sensibility, believing it was easier to surprise prey if you didn’t stand out.
“Being an outsider would allow Agent Lee to leverage the tension over FUCN’A’s new aviary and ASS’s mistaken belief that we’re trying to expand into their territory,” Director Cooper mused as she steepled her fingers.
She pursed her lips briefly before continuing.
“It would more than account for why an ASS agent would actively try to sabotage a FUC investigation.”
Nari opened her mouth to object at the ASS slander, but Cass placed a hand over hers in a silent gesture to keep her mouth shut while she was ahead.
Nari clamped her teeth together for fear that unwanted words would pop out despite Cass’s silent advice.
She’d spent too much time on the other side of the ocean, not interacting with FUC, to be used to the politics of these delicate situations.
Cass had far more experience, being as ASS agent on loan to FUC for many years now.
Alyce peered closely at Nari. Nari tried not to squirm while under the intense gaze of the llama shifter. “You really believe the shrew’s story?”
“Don’t you?” Nari asked. Anson had been apprehended after helping Dr. Grimm recapture Gabrielle Crowe, a shifter staying at WANC that FUC was helping to rehabilitate after Grimm experimented on her.
Nari had been part of the team who’d captured him, and she’d also been sitting in on his interrogations.
“It’s clear as daylight that the only thing he can think about is saving his sister.
When he’s confronted with the atrocities he committed at Grimm’s behest, he shows true guilt and remorse.
” With her eagle eyes, she excelled at picking up even the slightest nonverbal communication.
She could spot a liar a mile away. Anson spoke the truth—when he did speak.
“He’s not given us anything to help us find his sister. He didn’t come to us when she was taken. Instead, he aligned himself with Grimm,” Alyce countered as she leaned back in her chair, looking every bit as imposing as her nearly six-foot frame.
“I won’t deny that, at times, he seems protective of Grimm, but I believe it’s because he’s being protective of his sister.
As long as Grimm has Ariel, Anson looks at them as a package deal.
” And if they didn’t get him to crack soon, FUC would be giving up on trying to work with him.
If that happened, that would significantly reduce the odds of finding Anson’s sister and whoever else Grimm was currently experimenting on.
The thought formed a knot of disgust in Nari’s stomach.
In observing the interrogations, Nari had seen there was more to Anson than met the eye, and when this undercover mission had come to her mind, she knew it was the right decision. Anson deserved a chance to make the right choices. Even if he needed a little theatrical push to do so.
It seemed Alyce agreed, too, as she gave the operation the green light, and soon Nari was heading out of FUCN’A on her first solo undercover mission. In one hand, she carried the device that would disable Anson’s ankle monitor. In the other, the keys to Cass’ sporty red car.
“Are you sure you want me to borrow your car?” Nari asked as Cass directed her through the parking lot. Cass took great care of her vehicle, and Nari was afraid of bringing it back with even a scratch on it.
“Sure.” Cass shrugged unconvincingly, and her short, red curly hair bounced with the motion. “Anything to help the mission. I want to nab this guy so badly.”
“We’re going to get him,” Nari vowed. “I know Anson wants to help, and I know I’ll be able to get him to open up, and then we’re going to stop Grimm from ever hurting anyone again.
” Nari was determined to put Dr. Grimm out of business permanently and rescue all his captives.
She was sick of the broken people he was leaving in his wake.