Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

I took a circuitous route to avoid being seen. I was aware of Samuel trailing me, though I never saw him. Quite impressive considering his coloring—white is good for a Montana winter, but winter in eastern Washington is usually gray and brown.
    One corner of the aluminum side of the warehouse was bent up, just a little, right where Christiansen had told me it would be. I had to work at it, but I got inside at the cost of a little fur. My nose told me that another coyote and several smaller critters had used the same route within the past few months. If Gerry or one of his wolves caught my scent, hopefully they’d just think another coyote had gotten in.
    The interior of the warehouse was cavernous and no warmer than it had been outside. Somehow, though Christiansen had said I wouldn’t have any problem finding a place to hide, I’d expected it to be empty. Instead it was filled with hundreds, maybe thousands of crates, pallet-sized with three-foot-tall plywood sides, warped by moisture and wear. The crates were stacked three high on racks that reached to the ceiling, maybe thirty feet over my head.
    The air smelled musty. As I looked around, I saw there was a sprinkler system set up and drains in the floor. It made sense, I suppose. When the warehouse was full of trees, they would have had to keep the plants moist somehow until they shipped them.
    I found a stack whose bottom crate bore a sheet of paper that said “Hamamelis Virginiana—Witch Hazel 3'–4'.” Itwas empty, but the astringent smell of the shrub still clung to the gray wood. I could have hidden inside the top crate, but I’d be easy to see while I was jumping in or out. Instead, I curled up on the cement between the bottom crate and the metal exterior wall, as safe as I could be under the circumstances.
    The plan was for me to wait for one of David’s sons to come and get me. They were going to “do the extraction” (David’s words) at night, which was still a few hours away.
    Gerry had been having problems with Adam. Even with the tranquilizer, they’d found that having guards in the room they were keeping him in made him too agitated. They remembered the way he’d broken through their restraints at his house, so they did their best to keep him calm: that meant most of the time he and Jesse were alone with a guard outside the room. Gerry’s scent bothered Adam enough that he’d had to stay out of the warehouse entirely.
    Although we weren’t getting Jesse and Adam out for a few hours, I could go in with them and do my best to get Adam ready to be rescued.
    We’d argued about that. David had wanted me to wait until his man was on guard duty near dusk, but I didn’t want to leave Adam and Jesse alone any longer than they had to be. David thought the risk of discovery was too high.
    Samuel settled the argument. “Let her go. She’s going to do it anyway, and this way we can reduce the risks.”
    David hadn’t been happy, but he’d bowed to higher authority—and better judgment. Samuel was right. I wasn’t about to let Adam and Jesse wait around without protection when I could be there with them. Gerry was the only wolf who would know my scent, and he was staying away from the warehouse. All the other wolves would just assume I was a coyote, and there were lots of coyotes around.
    I still had to wait for escort, though, which might be a long time coming, but it was safer than having me wanderaround looking for where they were hiding Adam and Jesse.
    It is impossible to stay in the state of readiness while waiting motionless. Eventually I fell into a light doze that lasted for maybe an hour before the newly familiar smell of John-Julian woke me.
    I crept out cautiously, but he was alone, with my pack over one shoulder. He didn’t talk to me, just turned and threaded his way through the crates to a section of the warehouse that looked as though it had been offices. Like the crates, they were stacked one atop the other, three high.
    He climbed the stairs to the middle tier, where the far door had a bright and shiny dead-bolt lock that made it stand out from the others. When he turned the bolt and opened the door, I darted inside and stopped.
    No wonder Gerry left them with only one guard at a time. There was no chance either Jesse or Adam would escape on their own.
    Jesse was lying on a bare mattress. Someone had wrapped duct tape around the lower