Trouble in a Fur Coat (The Fur Coat Society Book 1) (15 page)

Jack parked his hovercar in the visitor parking of Silver’s condo building, and climbed out of the vehicle with a smile. He held the huge bouquet of roses carefully, trying to avoid crumpling any of the petals or sticking himself with a thorn. He hoped Silver was home. He’d tried texting her several times this morning, and then again this afternoon when she woke up. So far, she hadn’t responded. Jack had never been the type to demand that people answer texts and phone calls right away, so he let it go easily, figuring Silver was busy. He tried to remember if she’d said anything about having any dance rehearsals, but he couldn’t think of anything she’d said she had planned. He shrugged as he stepped into the elevator to ride it up to Silver’s condo. He would be disappointed if she wasn’t home, but she could always just leave the flowers in her condo as a surprise if she wasn’t there. Silver had programmed the computer for her condo to allow fingerprint access by any of the Fur Coats, so Jack could easily slip in and out.

Jack rang the electronic doorbell when he arrived, but Silver didn’t answer. He placed his hand on the security panel, and the computer’s British voice greeted him. “Welcome, Jack Tanner.”

Jack stepped inside, and, despite knowing already that Silver wasn’t there, he called out her name.

“Silver? Sil, are you home?”

There was no answer, so Jack walked toward the kitchen and dining room. He would leave the flowers on the table for her as a surprise. When he reached the dining room table, he found a dirty plate sitting on it, next to a cold cup of half-drunk coffee. From the crusty appearance of the plate, it looked like it had been there at least a day. Jack frowned slightly, surprised by the mess. Silver didn’t usually leave dirty dishes around, especially for more than a day. Even if she left in a hurry, she would have picked up the dishes right away when she got home. An uneasy feeling started creeping into Jack’s gut.

Jack set down the flowers on the table to look for a vase. The motion caused the table’s computer screen to roar to life, going from a wooden-look to the last screen Silver had been looking at—a detailed spreadsheet. Jack frowned when he saw that the spreadsheet document was a to-do list with yesterday’s date on it, and several boxes left unchecked. Silver was a fanatical list-maker, and took great pleasure in checking items off every day. If she didn’t finish a task she crossed it off and typed it into the next day’s list. But several of the boxes on this list were left unchecked, even though the list appeared to be a day old. One of the unchecked lines said. “Call Jack to ask about getting theater tickets for Friday night.”

Jack immediately knew something was wrong. He hadn’t heard from Silver, even though he had been on her to-do list. And her to-do list hadn’t been updated for a day. Jack frowned as he pulled out his phone and ordered it to call Silver. The call went to voicemail, so Jack then asked the phone to call Storm. Storm picked up on the second ring, sounding surprised to hear from him.

“Hey, Jack. I can’t remember the last time you actually called me. Having a girlfriend seems to be making you a lot more sociable.”

“Yeah, sorry. I’m not much of a phone person. But actually, my girlfriend is the reason I’m calling you. Have you heard from Silver today?”

“Um, no. I texted her to see if she wanted to grab dinner, but she hasn’t answered me. I figured she was busy hanging out with you. New love and all that.”

Jack’s frown deepened. “I actually haven’t heard from her either. I’m getting worried. I’m at her condo right now but she’s not here. And she left an unfinished to-do list from yesterday on the table screen.”

There was a long pause. When Storm finally spoke, she sounded worried, too. “Yeah, it’s a little unlike Silver to not text me for a whole day. And it’s definitely unlike her to leave around unfinished to-do lists from yesterday. Maybe we should see if anyone else has heard from her. I’ll call Grant and Juno. You get to deal with Bash.”

“Alright,” Jack said, even though he was groaning inwardly. Calling Bash to ask where his sister was would be an interesting conversation. Jack had a feeling that Bash would jump on the chance to blame him for anything that might have happened to his sister. But Jack’s worries about Silver were much stronger than his desire to avoid a confrontation with her brother, so Jack hung up the call with Storm and dialed Bash.

“Well if it isn’t Jack Tanner,” Bash said when he answered the phone. “I hope you’re not calling to tell me that you’ve already broken my sister’s heart.”

Bash chuckled, and seemed to be in a jovial mood. Jack wasn’t sure whether that would help or hurt him once he blurted out that Silver seemed to be missing.

“No, Bash, I haven’t broken Silver’s heart, and I don’t intend to. But she is the reason I’m calling. Have you heard from her today? No one seems to have heard from her since yesterday morning, and I’m starting to get worried.”

Bash stopped laughing. “No, I haven’t heard from her. Which I thought was a little strange because she usually texts me a few times a day. I figured she must have just been having a busy day. The last time I heard from her was yesterday afternoon. She sent me a picture of her bike with the lake in the background, telling me it was a beautiful day for a bike ride and that I should get off my ass and join her. I texted her back that I had to work, and I never heard from her after that.”

Alarm bells were really going off in Jack’s head now. “Something’s wrong, Bash. It’s not like Silver to not talk to anyone for this long. Storm is calling Grant and Juno right now, but I get the feeling that they won’t know where she is, either.”

“I’m calling my dad,” Bash said, his voice suddenly sounding tight and worried. “I swear to god if anyone did anything to Silver…”

Jack wanted to protest that alarming Silver’s parents so soon was a bad idea. But he knew it would be useless to try to dissuade Bash. Silver’s family was extremely tight-knit, even more so than most shifter families. If Bash had it in his head to call his dad, he was going to call his dad. Jack worried, though, that this was going to result in the clans back home discovering the eye scanner threat.

But as soon as Jack had that thought, he realized that maybe Silver going missing was actually related to the eye scanner situation. His heart started beating faster.

“Bash, where was Silver when she texted you that picture?”

“Just north of Foster Beach,” Bash said. “There’s a sort of secluded grassy area there where she likes to go lie in the grass on sunny days.”

Jack was already running toward the door, leaving the bouquet of roses forgotten on Silver’s kitchen table. “Bash, get ready to go. I’m coming to pick you up and we’re going to go look at that spot to see if there are any signs of an attack or struggle. You can call your dad on the way. Silver is still alive, I can feel it. But she’s in trouble. We have to find her.”

“I’ll be ready and waiting,” Bash said. Then he hung up the phone without another word.

Jack took the elevator back down to the parking lot, willing it to move even faster than it already did. He had been tempted to just take the stairs, but, even at his quick pace, eleven stories would take him much longer on foot than it would on the high speed elevator. Still, he hopped anxiously from one foot to another as the elevator descended. When it finally reached the garage, after a ten second trip that felt like ten hours, Jack ran to his hovercar and hopped in, quickly telling the computer to head to Bash’s condo at top speed.

As the hovercar started zooming away, the computer screen lit up, indicating Jack’s phone was ringing.

“Call from, Juno Harrington. Call from, Juno Harrington.”

“Answer call,” Jack yelled out, his heart pounding. Maybe Juno had heard from Silver, and everyone was getting all worked up for nothing.

“Jack?” Juno asked, her voice sounding frightened. Jack’s heart sank. Juno definitely wasn’t calling with good news.

“I’m here,” Jack said. “I’m guessing Storm got a hold of you? Have you heard from Silver?”

“No, I haven’t. But this morning the head scientist and one of his apprentices came in to the lab to check on the scanners again. They took one of the models we were working on, even though it definitely isn’t working properly. They said something about how Joe’s little slut is going to pay for embarrassing the family. I’m not sure what their plan is, but—”

“What the hell do they mean by Joe’s little slut?” Jack interrupted. He could feel his blood starting to boil.

“I think they mean Silver,” Juno said, as gently as she could. Jack still exploded in anger.

“She’s not a slut, and she doesn’t belong to Joe! I swear to god I am going to rip all of their heads off!” Jack could feel his bear within him, rearing up and ready to fight. The idea of anyone laying their hands on his woman, or referring to her as a slut, made him see red. Someone was going to pay for this.

“I know, Jack. We all know that. Try to keep reasonably calm. Flying off the handle right now isn’t going to help Silver. We have to think rationally about this so we can find her and help her. There will be time to go into a rage later.”

Jack forced himself to take a few deep breaths in and out. “Okay,” he said, his tone still seething. “Do you have any idea what their plan is?”

“Not really,” Juno admitted. “But I know they were looking for test subjects for the scanners earlier that day. I only caught bits and pieces of conversations, but it sounds like they want to demonstrate the scanners at some event the mayor is holding in a few days. I have a feeling they are going to use one of the scanners on Silver and out her as a shifter. Which, they are probably hoping will cause mass hysteria and make everyone instantly afraid of Silver. Unfortunately, that’s probably exactly what will happen.”

“Where do you think she is?” Jack asked. His hovercar was pulling up in front of Bash’s condo. Bash, who was already waiting in front of the building, quickly hopped in. The look on his face said that he was about as ready to tear someone to pieces as Jack was.

“I…I’m not sure. But I have a few ideas,” Juno said. “Most of which involve Joe’s family.”

“Alright, we all need to put our heads together,” Jack said. “Can you meet us at Foster Beach? And get Grant and Storm to come as well?”

“Yeah, I’ll call them and I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Juno said.

The call ended without another word. The hovercar was already zooming toward Foster Beach as Jack turned to look at Bash, who was frantically dialing on his phone.

“I can’t get a hold of my dad,” he said. “He’s probably up flying tourists around right now.”

“Let’s call Sawyer, then,” Jack said. Bash looked up at him in surprise.

“Really?” Bash asked. “I thought you were dead set against bringing the old folks into this fray. You know if Sawyer hears about this, that’s it. The clans back home will get involved.”

“I know,” Jack said. “But I think it’s time to admit I was wrong. If Silver’s life is at stake, it needs to be all hands on deck. This means war.”

Bash nodded. “You’re right. I don’t know why I didn’t think of calling Sawyer. I guess I was just so frustrated trying to get through to my dad that I couldn’t think straight. Let’s call him now.”

Jack nodded. “Computer, call Sawyer Williams.”

A few moments later, a deep voice came on the line. “Frost Peak Tours, this is Sawyer.”

“Sawyer, it’s Jack Tanner and Bash Rowe,” Jack said. “We have a problem.”

Less than ten minutes later, Jack’s hovercar landed and came to a stop in a parking lot not far from Foster Beach. As he and Bash climbed out of the vehicle, another hovercar pulled up and landed right next to them. It was Storm and Juno.

“Grant’s on his way,” Storm said as she jumped out of her hovercar, her feet hitting the ground with a loud thud. She was wearing gym clothes and a pair of workout shoes, and was sweaty like she’d just come from the gym. Juno still had on a white lab coat, so she must have been working her job as a research assistant right before arriving. Both girls had pale, drawn faces. Everyone was worried about Silver’s life, but no one wanted to actually voice the question of whether she was still alive. Saying it out loud would make it all seem too real.

“Let’s get going,” Bash said gruffly. “Grant can catch up with us when he gets here.”

The group followed Bash toward the lakefront path. North of Foster Beach, Bash stopped and veered off the path toward a grassy area with trees.

“Silver loves this spot,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the last text she sent me, with a picture of her bike in front of the lake, was sent from here.”

“Um, I’m pretty sure it was, too,” Storm said. “Look, guys.”

Jack, along with everyone else, turned his attention to where Storm was standing, next to the large trunk of one of the trees. She was holding up a small pink knapsack with white polka dots that Jack instantly recognized as Silver’s.

Bash grabbed the knapsack from Storm and started rifling through it. “Her phone’s in here, and her wallet,” he said. “So she wasn’t robbed. It’s odd that her purse is here but her bike is not. She isn’t the type to just leave and forget her stuff. Do you think she maybe took off on her bike quickly to try to run away from someone or something?”

“Maybe,” Storm said, but she sounded doubtful. “But Silver also generally isn’t the type to run away.”

Grant showed up just then, and Bash started debriefing him on what they had learned so far, which wasn’t much. Jack walked around the tree, trying to find any other clues as to why Silver’s bag was here, but she and her bike were not. Moments later, he spotted a small, white cloth on the ground by the tree. He almost bypassed it, thinking it was trash, but decided to pick it up and inspect it just to be sure. Something about its location struck him as odd.

The cloth was slightly stiff and a little discolored in spots. Jack held it up to his nose and sniffed it, frowning when he detected a faint pungent odor with a hint of chlorine.

“Juno,” he said, turning to hand the cloth to her. “I know you’re a biologist, not a chemist, but tell me what you think when you sniff this cloth.”

Juno sniffed it, then frowned as well. “You’re the anesthesiologist, Jack. But I’d be willing to bet that cloth had been soaked in isoflurane.”

Jack nodded. “I think you’re right. Definitely isoflurane.”

“Iso-what?” Bash asked, reaching for the cloth and sniffing it, but seeming unimpressed. “I don’t smell anything.”

“Isoflurane,” Jack said. “It’s not used much anymore these days, but it used to be a really popular inhalational anesthetic.”

“Huh?” Storm said. “I’m still not understanding.

“Someone soaked this cloth in isoflurane, which knocks you out quickly if you breathe it in,” Juno explained. “What Jack is getting at is that it looks like someone knocked Silver unconscious using chemicals.”

“But who? And why?” Storm asked. “And why isn’t her bike here anymore?”

“Long story short,” Jack said, “We think that Joe’s family kidnapped her and is planning to publicly use the eye scanner on her next week. They’ll accomplish a lot by doing that—they’ll freak out the general public about shifters, and they’ll ruin Silver’s chances of ever being able to show her face in Chicago again. I’m sure his family will take great pleasure in ruining her ballet career.”

“Oh my god,” Storm said. “The safety summit!”

“Safety summit?” Bash asked.

“Yeah, the mayor is holding a safety summit in a few days. He’s supposedly going to talk about threats to Chicago and how to make the city a safer place and all that blah-blah. Supposedly he thinks the event is going to help him gain support for the election. I didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. The event itself doesn’t seem all that impressive to me. But if they’re going to roll out the eye scanners, and use them live to show that shifters exist, well, that will get a lot of attention.”

“But how do they know that Silver is a shifter?” Grant said. “I was under the impression that Joe’s family was completely oblivious to that fact.”

“And I thought the scanners weren’t working properly yet,” Bash said.

“They’re not working properly,” Juno said. “But if they set them to be super sensitive or something, they can ensure that Silver will be scanned as a shifter. I have no idea how they know she’s a shifter, though.”

“Maybe they don’t,” Jack said. “They hate her for breaking up with Joe, right? So maybe they think that pretending she’s a shifter, making everyone afraid of her, and ruining her career is a good way to get back at her.”

“I think you’re right, actually,” Grant said. “They probably don’t actually know that she’s a shifter. How ironic.”

“Ironic indeed. But will scanning her really prove anything?” Bash asked. “If they make the gun supersensitive like you’re saying, Juno, then it would flag everyone as a shifter. Won’t they have to ‘scan’ some people and have them not show up as shifters to prove to everyone that the gun works? Just using it on one person isn’t going to convince anyone.”

“I don’t know,” Juno said. “They must have some plan up their sleeves. I know the mayor has been putting a lot of pressure on everyone in the last twenty-four hours to get the scanner running properly. There’s no way it’s going to be working correctly by the end of the week, though.”

“That’s not important,” Jack said, crossing his arms and deciding it was time to take control of the situation. “The most important thing right now is rescuing Silver. Our goal shouldn’t be to try to figure out the scanners, it should be to try to get Silver away from these bastards.”

“He’s right,” Bash said, kicking the tree trunk next to him in anger. “We have to get her back. But how? We don’t even know where she is?”

“Oh, come on, Bash. It’s not that hard to figure out,” Grant said. “Joe’s family kidnapped her. That means she’s probably at Joe’s parents’ house.”

“No way,” Bash said. “They wouldn’t keep her there. That’s way too obvious!”

Grant shrugged. “It’s obvious, sure. But they don’t care. They have the latest and greatest in security systems. That place is a fortress. I’m sure there are all kinds of secret rooms, and extra security traps throughout the entire house. Remember the one time we all went there for Joe’s birthday party? Getting in required like a three-level authentication. For a freaking birthday party. The only way to bypass all the levels of the security system was the eye scanners. And we know those eye scanners work properly. If we tried to get in using eye scans, we’d probably set off multiple alarms.”

“Grant’s right,” Jack said, his heart starting to pound in his chest with a mixture of anger and trepidation. “I bet you anything that Silver is in there somewhere.”

“So how are we going to get to her?” Storm asked. “It sounds like breaking through the security systems is going to be difficult, if not impossible. And we don’t have a lot of time to figure it out.”

Jack furrowed his brow, then snapped his fingers. “I have an idea,” he said. The roof! It’s always the most vulnerable part of a building these days. In order to have enough solar power to run everything inside, there needs to be lots of open space covered in solar panels. We could land on the roof and bust through those delicate solar panels no problem. Then we’d be inside in no time and could find and rescue Silver.”

“The roof?” Juno asked, looking at Jack like he’d lost his mind. “How are you going to get to the roof? I guarantee you it has an electromagnetic no-fly field set up so that no hovercars can land there. You’d have to manually pilot in, and even that would be tricky. Have you ever seen the top of the line no-fly security systems in action? I saw a documentary on it. They shoot off electromagnetic charges at random, quickly and in multiple frequencies, to mess with even the manual flying systems of hovercars. It’s virtually impossible to land anything when you’re dealing with that. Any attempt to fly onto their roof is guaranteed to end in a horrific crash.”

“Not true,” Jack said. “Any attempt to fly an
electric
vehicle up there is guaranteed to end in a crash. But a gas helicopter could land.”

Juno rolled her eyes. “Ok, well, assuming you could even find a gas helicopter, which I doubt, it’s still going to be a suicide mission to fly up there. Those security systems have a backup security method that starts shooting out lasers if it detects a foreign object. You’d need an extremely skilled pilot. Not only that, but once you land, you’re guaranteed to have set off a bazillion alarms. Your arrival will not be a secret.”

“We can deal with whoever we meet inside, so the alarms don’t bother me,” Jack said. “The getting in is the hard part, and the solar panels, which are delicate and can’t be protected by internal security systems, are the best way to do that. I know that actually flying up there and landing is going to require a good manual pilot, who can dodge some lasers. Luckily, we know three of the best manual pilots out there.”

Juno’s eyes widened. “Are you calling in our parents?”

“We already have,” Bash said, looking hopeful for the first time in the last hour. “My dad and Sawyer are already on their way out here.”

Juno was starting to look a little less doubtful. “Okay, but that still doesn’t solve the problem of how to get a gas plane or helicopter.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Grant said, a big grin spreading across his face. “Sawyer has always been good at getting his hands on whatever equipment he needs. Come on, let’s all head back to my place. We should plan out a rescue mission so that everything but the plane is ready to go when Sawyer gets here.”

Storm smiled. “Okay. Let’s do this,” she said. Then she reached out and squeezed Jack’s arm. “Don’t worry, Jack. We’ll get your girl back.”

“Yes we will,” Jack said, letting out a low growl. “We’ll get her back, or we’ll die trying.”