More Than Human

Chapter 81: A Crash

It had been about a week since König and Price had fetched Horangi, and they had all fallen into a routine. Soap had just come off his full moon period so he and Simon were quite tired. Or, at least, they were spending a lot of time in their bedroom.

Gaz had been having flight lessons with Roach, Alex, and Horangi, despite his many protests. Price told him that he couldn't just ignore the wings, he needed to learn how to utilize that part of himself. That was the whole point of a monster taskforce in the first place. And while the experience was mildly terrifying, they all did their best to make him feel as safe and comfortable as possible. All three of them remembered how daunting it had been learning to fly themselves. Even Horangi was quite supportive. It was clear he was becoming quite comfortable in the pack.

He and König had been spending quite a lot of time together. The whole team noticed and tried to tease König about it, but the jokes always seemed to go over his head. But they were glad they had each other. A griffin and a kraken were certainly an odd pair, but not any stranger than the chupacabra and siren.

Farah and Alex were gearing up to head back to Urzikstan soon, but before them left, they wanted a go at Makarov themselves for his involvement in so many issues as well as what he had done to their family. The team had another one of their weekly trips coming up, so the pair was invited.

It was the night before when something was amiss.

Price always called ahead to let the people in charge of the base know they were coming. They had made it clear that it would be a requirement if he was going to be dragging monsters on and off base. This was precisely the reason he usually kept their identities and species secret, but the nature of their recent assignment and prisoner had prevented that from being a possibility.

Either way, he called the night before, and received no answer.

Not too concerning, as they all led busy and chaotic lives in the military. Something had probably kept the person manning the phones momentarily preoccupied. He gave it an extra fifteen minutes before trying again. Still nothing. A strange feeling of concern prodded at the back of his mind but he told himself he was just being paranoid.

After the third call with no reply, he phoned Laswell.

"John?"

"Kate."

"Talk to me. What do you need?"

"I'll get right at it. Been calling the base. Rang them three times with no reply. Could be poor managerial skills, or-."

"Something could be wrong." She finished for him.

"Exactly." He confirmed, "Normally I'd go out right away and check it out myself but..."

She snorted, amused, "I understand, John. You're in the business of protecting and keeping those kids safe these days."

He was glad she couldn't see the blush on his face, "Don't want to be sloppy about this. Makarov's on that base and if something compromised that..." He paused, "In my eyes, this team comes before the world. I need all the information I can get before I'm willing to send them in somewhere."

She smiled on her end of the line, "Understood. Loud and clear, John. I'll check it out. Expect a call before the night is over."

The line clicked off and he huffed. Nothing he could do but wait. He hated that aspect of his job, the waiting. He plopped down in a leather arm chair in his study and ran a hand over his face. The urge to light up a cigar ate at him and he fidgeted a bit. Before he cold get too uncomfortable Precious darted out from somewhere and jumped up on his lap with a little chirpy meow.