WARNING: This story may contain content of an adult nature. If you are easily offended or are under the legal age to view adult content in your area, please exit now. This text is intended for adults only and may include scenes of sexual content or graphic violence. Reader discretion is advised.
Zavarka
by IndigoNeko, Cormenthor, and TaintedThylacine
Chapter 12
Tuesday, January 5th, 2016
Brock pulled the handle on the side of his Saiga-12, checking it was cycling properly, then removed the magazine and repeated the motion to eject the shell. There was nothing better for close-quarters combat than a compact semi-automatic shotgun. Now all he had to do was file the serial numbers off it and the MP-446s that Stephen had given them. The gorilla had thrown in the pistols free of charge, chuckling at the irony of using Russian weapons to take down the Russian mafia.
He and Yahaya had also picked up black tactical gear, including vests and helmets, after they’d bought the arms from Stephen. Best of all, they’d struck pay-dirt at the second Russian restaurant they’d checked... not that there were very many; Only a couple in Philadelphia and a few more east of Meadowbrook. The place was going to be closed tonight, serving dinner to a private party.
Nobody reserved an entire restaurant for a private meal, not for borscht and stroganoff. That was comfort food, not fine dining. No... this was definitely their target: a Russian mafia boss taking his kidnapped granddaughter out to dinner. The waiter had confirmed that a pair of tigers with servants or bodyguards frequented the place. All they had to do was set up a perimeter, wait until after dinner, then rescue the kid when they exited the building.
Brock picked up his burner phone, hitting redial. The black bear waited for a second, then sighed and shook his head at the tell-tale triple-click that the older line taps made when the call connected. He made a mental note to destroy the burner phone and get a new one.
Back in Colorado, Raenne also sighed, waiting for the F.B.I. agent sitting across from her to give the thumbs up. After he did, she picked up the black handset from their call monitoring system, saying “Hello?”
“Hey Raenne. I just wanted to check in with you and see if you had any news about Alexandrea,” Brock said.
“No, nothing yet,” the tigress replied.
The bear waited a moment, quiet, then sighed. “I’m so sorry. I’m sure she’ll turn up soon though. Oh, and your idea was great; Sophia loved it. We’re on for dinner tonight,” Brock said, hoping Raenne would get the implication that they’d potentially located her daughter and were going to attempt an extraction.
“Have fun,” Raenne replied, smiling in relief.
“I will. Gotta go!” The bear tapped the end call button then quickly ejected the SIM card from the phone, crushing it between his claws.
As the call ended, Raenne looked across the table at the raccoon, who was staring at her with a raised eyebrow. She frowned and shrugged, playing innocent, then set the handset down.
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Harold held out a silver-colored flip-phone as Mrs. Oliviera went to the front desk. “Please try to keep it brief, miss. We’re already running late. Your grandparents wanted to show you a few sites around the city before flying you home tomorrow.”
The tiger cub stared at the flip phone for a few moments, struggling to remember hir mom’s phone number. After typing in a few digits, muscle memory took over and shi finished with 7809. It looked right. Shi hit the green button and held the phone up.
Raenne sat down at the table across from the raccoon, waiting until he held his thumb up, then picked up the bulky black receiver. “Hello?”
“Hi, mom,” Alex said, looking around at the tall columns that lined the massive lobby.
“Oh my God. Alex? Where are you? Are you safe?” Raenne asked, relief flooding through her after over a day of rising tension.
“Yes, I’m safe. I’m in a really big hotel in Philadelphia. I just had lunch with Viktor and Dina... Дедушка и бабушка,” the tiger cub replied, using the names they had suggested. “They seem nice.”
“Alex, please don’t leave that hotel. Stay where you are, okay?” the tigress begged. “And whatever you do, don’t trust my father. He was a very bad man... the head of the Russian mafia. He sold drugs, murdered people, and worse.”
“Okay,” Alex said quietly, making a note to ask Grandfather about it. He’d already admitted to having done ‘bad things’, and he’d been open and honest so far. Speaking of... “Mom? Дедушка told me what he did to you, treating you as a toy and giving you to other people. I assume he meant for... sex,” Alex swallowed, hoping shi wasn’t being too blunt. “He wants to apologize for it, but he said you would never forgive him. He was crying over it, like really badly. I... I think you should talk to him.”
Raenne’s mouth hung slack, unable to think of a reply. She would have thought there was a better chance of squeezing water from a stone than seeing her father cry.
Alex saw Harold tap the watch on his wrist and hold his hand out. “I’ve gotta go. Бабушка said we’re going out for dinner tonight, then they’re flying me home tomorrow morning so I don’t miss too much school. I love you, and I’ll see you soon,” shi said, flipping the tiny silver phone closed and handing it over.
Raenne held onto the handset, staring slack-jawed at the raccoon sitting across from her, mind whirling. The tigress quickly reached over to her cell phone that was connected to a small web of cables and opened the recent call list, tapping the one at the top. The handset rang twice, then switched to an automated recording. “The person you have dialed is not able to receive calls at this time.”
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Slipping on hir sunglasses, Alex stepped out of the dark theater, following hir grandparents. It had been trippy watching a video filmed from the perspective of a fighter pilot. “Have you flown one of those?” shi asked, turning to the lynx walking behind them.
“Me?” Jordan asked, eyebrows raised. “Oh, no. Those were the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels, flying F/A-18 Super Hornets. I was in the British R.A.F.,” he explained with his now-familiar cockney accent. “I flew a Typhoon F2 in training, but I was out of the service before they started using them in combat.”
“Was it fun?” Alex asked, twirling around as they made their way down the hallways towards the next part of the exhibit.
“Oh, very,” Jordan confirmed. “The F2 is only a wee bit slower than those ya saw in the theater. It’ll definitely throw ya back in yer seat.”
“Glamour boy,” Douglas muttered, smirking.
“Shut yer trap, pongo,” Jordan countered. “The girl asked, so I answered.”
“What’s a pongo?” Alex asked, having never heard the term before.
“It’s slang for ‘soldier’,” Douglas explained in his posh British accent. “Harold and I were part of the British Army, many years ago. Now, we are your grandfather’s bodyguards.”
Alex nodded, then turned back around and took hold of hir grandmother’s paw as they continued through the Franklin Institute. The older tigress looked down at hir and smiled.
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Raenne came to a stop in the middle of the kitchen, realizing that she was pacing like a feral in a cage. She was desperate for a cigarette; anything to calm her nerves, really. The F.B.I. had finally obtained a warrant to get the G.P.S. coordinates of the phone Alex had called from. Not that it mattered; Whatever phones both Brock and Alex had called from were both out of service, having most likely been destroyed.
Samuelson had almost certainly identified where Alex, Viktor, and Dina were going to have dinner, and probably was going to attempt to recover her daughter. Only Alex didn’t know that, didn’t know Brock or Sophia, and apparently had developed some degree of rapport with hir grandparents and most likely would resist. That would be a disaster. The tigress stalked down the hallway to the nursery and sat down in the rocking chair they’d gotten.
Even if she could somehow reach Alex, she could tell hir to go along with anyone who was trying to rescue hir. Only she couldn’t explicitly mention Brock or Sophia... not without the F.B.I. figuring out that she was interfering in an official government investigation. They took that seriously, and time in federal prisons was something that she definitely wanted to avoid. If the shit hit the fan during the rescue op, they might realize it anyway if they managed to I.D. either Samuelson or Yahaya.
Raenne felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she realize just how badly she’d fucked up by not telling Alex to go along with any attempted rescue. Unless... it was a long shot, but maybe she could leave a message on her father’s answering machine, begging him to let Alex go without a fight. Maybe if she played the distraught mother well enough, he’d take pity on her and actually give Alex up. The tigress stood and stepped out of the nursery and back out into the great room where the F.B.I. had set up their monitoring post.
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Alex watched the feral tigers chase each other around their enclosure, then looked down at the informational plaque. It showed both evolved and unevolved tiger skeletons next to each other, with each major skeletal group color coded for comparison. It was wild to hir that relatively insignificant changes in the spine, rib cage, shoulders, and hips were what separated anthros from their feral counterparts. Well, that and the mental differences, of course.
The plaque also listed other differences, like unevolved tigers having 38 chromosomes instead of the standard 46. Unlike birds and rodents, there were only a handful subspecies of unevolved tigers across the world, most of which had gone extinct. Those that remained were critically endangered. Alex frowned, wondering if hir own species would go extinct one day. Shi saw evolved rodents and birds all the time, but shi had only seen one family of tigers besides hir own in hir entire life.
A snarl drew hir attention, and shi looked up. One of the four-leggers had jumped up into a tree and was swatting at its pursuer. A minute or so later, the feral tigers got tired of playing out in the cold and retreated to their den. Alex turned around, spotting hir grandparents sitting at a bench. As shi walked over to them, they stood.
“You know, I’ve never been to the zoo here before,” Dina said, her Russian accent a bit less obvious than it had been earlier. “It’s actually quite nice, though I do wish that the Philadelphia Ballet was still playing. You would have adored The Nutcracker. It was so beautiful.”
“It was not nearly as beautiful as the Kirov Ballet. I still remember watching you perform in Swan Lake,” Viktor countered, smiling down at his granddaughter. “Did you know she was a ballerina? One of the very best. She performed at what is now called the Mariinsky Theater, in Saint-Petersburg, before we emigrated to the United States.”
“Oh stop,” Dina objected. “I was most certainly not one of the best, though I was very good.”
“I disagree. You will always be the best, most beautiful ballerina in my eyes,” Viktor said, holding Dina’s waist and pulling her close. The old tiger kissed the side of his wife’s muzzle and rubbed his head against hers, purring quietly.
Remembering that the plaque said feral tigers couldn’t purr for the same reason they could roar, Alex felt sad for the big cats in the enclosure. There was nothing better to express your love and contentment than purring and, even standing several feet away, Alex could clearly hear the rumble of the two old tigers as they held each other.
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“I’m telling you, it’s going to be upscale Eastern European! There can’t be that many Russian restaurants in Philadelphia... call and find out if they’re closed tonight or have a reservation. This isn’t rocket science!” Raenne yelled at the badger in a blue suit.
“Ma’am, please calm down. We’re doing everything we can, but our manpower is limited on such short notice. The Philadelphia field office is putting every available agent on it,” the badger insisted.
“Look at me,” the tigress said, walking up to the F.B.I. agent. “My father was the head of the Russian mafia in the most important cities of the eastern seaboard. You don’t get that position by being a nice guy and taking people out to dinner. You do it by murdering everyone who stands in your way.”
“Ma’am, I think you’re overreact-” the badger said, holding his paws out.
“What?” Raenne roared, loudly enough that even her husband David winced. “Overreacting? There’s already been at least one person murdered that we know of! Are you saying you actually fell for that contrived sob story? He spun that tale so you and my daughter would let their guard down, giving him time to set whatever plans he’s got in motion. For all I know, he’s planning on sending my daughter back to me one finger at a time to teach me a ‘lesson’ about defying his will.
“He had my high school gym teacher tortured to death, because the man expressed concern that I was being sexually abused. Oh, and I was being sexually abused, by my father’s men. Even my brother, on occasion. Did you know they were only able to identify Mr. Kelley through dental records? It was a closed casket funeral. That’s not the only person he tortured; He made me watch a few times. The man’s a monster, and the only clue we have to go on is that comment about eating out for dinner. Follow it!”
Ignoring the cowed badger, Raenne walked over to their dining room table, strewn with the F.B.I. agent’s electronic monitoring equipment that was hooked up to her cell. The tigress picked the phone up, hoping that somehow there was a missed message or voicemail. There were no new notifications, same as the last five times she’d checked.
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Alex watched a school of fish glide through the brightly lit water on the other side of the plexiglass wall, standing almost close enough to touch it. The viewing room was almost as dark as the aquarium was bright. Harold and Douglas were keeping watch at the two entrances while Dina and Viktor rested on a bench.
The tiger cub didn’t move, other than to turn an ear as shi heard hir grandfather approach. He had a very distinct walk, dragging one foot slightly thanks to an old injury that he refused to talk about. Figuring they were ‘alone’ enough, Alex decided to quietly broach the question that had been on hir mind all afternoon. “Дедушка? Mom said that you’re in the Russian mafia. That you’re... bad.”
Viktor sighed. “Yes. I was, but I am no longer. As I told you, I grew up in Russia,” he explained with an accent that only served to prove the claim. “I had no prospects as a young man: No money, no education. Just my strength and my wits. My only options were to either join the government or the army, which paid almost nothing, or to join the Brotherhood... the mafia, as you call it.
“The Brotherhood is cruel beyond belief. In my hubris, I thought that I could do what they did, and so I joined them, and I pretended to be as barbaric as the rest of them. I rose through their ranks by committing horrible acts. Eventually they gave me the option to come to the United States, to rob the stupid Americans blind. And so I did, hoping they would grant me some degree of freedom, to do as I wished.
The old tiger sighed again. “I was wrong. They watched me even closer. Threatened my precious Dina. And when we had children, they did the same... threatening our cubs to ensure that I did their bidding: smuggling, theft, murder... even torture. If I could have left them, I would have in a heartbeat, but one cannot leave the Brotherhood, except through death.
“When I made mistakes, when my men made mistakes, the Brotherhood punished me by tormenting my daughter. Even worse, they managed to train my son, Ivan, in their cruel ways, turning him selfish and vicious, despite my best efforts. The child that he once was is now dead to me,” the old tiger said, his voice finally breaking. He drew a harsh breath.
“So... Yes, I was a bad man. I committed horrible acts. I was so sick of it that many times I put a gun to my head hoping for the courage to end it. But I was too much of a coward to pull the trigger,” Viktor said, taking a rueful sigh.
Then he smiled. “I was so happy when Raenne managed to run away, to escape. At least then they could only threaten Dina, though they dared not torment her. And when Raenne returned... She was like a Goddess of Vengeance, one of the Furies, descended from Heaven. I was never more proud of her.
“She set us free that night, you know. Because your mother left no one else alive to tell the tale, Dina and I were able to vanish into the night. They all assumed we had burned to ashes, murdered by our own daughter,” the old tiger said, his smile vanishing as he turned serious once again. “I owe her my life, maybe even my soul... for saving me and my beloved Dina. I doubt I will earn a place in Heaven before my death, for I have too many sins to atone for. But at least I will die a free man.”
Alex had long since stopped paying any attention to the fish, having turned to watch her grandfather. His eyes glistened in the blue light that reflected through the water. Then he turned his head, meeting hir gaze.
“Will you tell your mother this? That I am thankful that she saved us?” he asked.
Alex nodded.
“Thank you,” he said, looking back up at the aquarium.
A few seconds later, Alex reached up, placing hir paw in his. He squeezed it, holding hir tight for a moment before relaxing his grip. Together they stood and watched a school of fish glide through the brightly lit water on the other side of the plexiglass wall.
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“Love, please for God’s sake sit down,” David begged. “Worrying isn’t going to get Alex back any faster.”
Raenne came to a halt, standing between the sofa and the kitchen island. “Sorry,” she apologized, then walked around the sofa and sat down next to her husband. “I just feel so useless. If I wasn’t pregnant, I would be on the ground in Philadelphia right now.”
“I know, love,” the white tiger said, draping his arm around his wife’s shoulders. “But they’ve already got agents on the ground there looking for hir. Ericsson said they’ve got four surveillance vans out looking for hir. They’ll find hir.”
The pregnant tigress leaned against her mate, praying that the F.B.I. managed to find her daughter in time. At least the feds had manpower on their side; hopefully enough to convince Viktor to give Alex up without a fight. If the F.B.I. didn’t find Alex in time, Samuelson and Yahaya would... and two people, no matter how well geared they were, wouldn’t scare her father enough to give Alex up.
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Alex waited as the wingsuit instructor checked the strap on hir helmet and the zipper on hir wingsuit, then followed him into the wind tunnel. The colugo helped the tiger cub inside the deafeningly loud wind tunnel, using a set of hand gestures to tell hir to relax and straighten hir legs as he held hir waist, tilting hir forward.
As the flaps that ran from wrist to ankle flared out, caught by the powerful torrent of air, the tiger cub rose into the air, anchored by the colugo holding onto hir waist. Gradually Alex began to get the hang of how even subtle movements cause the wind to push hir in various directions. Spreading hir arms and legs to maximize the ‘wing’ area cause hir to move upwards, or slow hir descent. The reverse caused hir to move down, or fall faster. It took a few minutes to learn enough control that the instructor let hir go. It was surprisingly challenging to learn what ‘poses’ to use in order to finely control hir movement.
By the end of the half hour session, Alex managed to learn how to do cartwheels, circling the perimeter of the wind tunnel. Shi had also managed mid-air somersaults by spreading hir arms while face-down to get the upward momentum before tucking and rolling, spreading hir arms again when face-up before hitting the ‘floor’.
When the instructor finally tapped his wrist and pointed at the archway, Alex obediently folded hir arms and dropped to the ground. The wind and noise gradually faded as the operator outside cut the power.
“Dang, kid! You’re a natural,” the colugo exclaimed as they both removed their helmets once outside the tunnel. “You took to that like you’re part bat or something,” he said as he led hir over to the waiting area where hir grandparents were sitting.
“Thanks,” Alex replied, panting slightly. Wingsuiting was more work than shi had expected it to be, despite the fact that shi wasn’t fighting against gravity. Shi waved at the colugo as he left, then turned to face hir grandparents. “That was awesome!” shi exclaimed, standing still as the adrenaline high began to fade. Shi suddenly realized that shi was ravenously hungry. “After I get changed, can we have dinner? I’m starving.”
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It was well past six o’clock eastern time, and nobody had called or left a message of any kind on Raenne’s phone. As she’d expected, neither Brock or Alex’s phones were responding to calls, giving the same automated message as before.
Raenne walked back down the hallway to the bathroom. She felt like puking yet again, but there was nothing in her stomach to come up anymore. The tigress pulled open the mirrored front of the medicine cabinet and pulled out the pack of antacid tablets and popped yet another one, washing it down with a pawful of water from the sink.
The tigress closed the medicine cabinet and stared at her reflection. Her eyes were visibly bloodshot where the dark sclera faded to white, and she looked like she hadn’t slept in days. That was almost true; she had barely slept last night. Neither had David. A growl of frustration rose from deep in her throat. If only there was something that she could do.
Her reflection suddenly splintered into a thousand tiny shards, followed by the tinkling of glass in the sink underneath, jerking her back to reality. The tigress looked down at her fist. At least one large splinter had managed to penetrate her fur and blood was starting to flow steadily down her paw, dripping from her claws. As footsteps thundered down the hallway towards the bathroom, Raenne sighed.
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Alex took Harold’s hand and stepped down out of the SUV. “Thanks, Harold.”
“My pleasure, miss,” the large pig said, tipping his derby hat and closing the door.
Alex followed Viktor and Dina across the darkened street, heading towards the patch of sidewalk that was illuminated by a tall lamppost. The building beyond looked closed, with only the dimmest of lights illuminating the inside. As they got closer, Alex realized it was closed... or at least the sign in the door said it was. The door opened from within as they approached, held by a reindeer in black slacks and a matching vest over a white shirt. The tiger cub nodded to the reindeer as shi followed hir grandparents inside, getting a nod and a smile in return.
While the outside had looked run-down, the inside of the restaurant looked like a Victorian era palace, with deep red carpet and wallpaper and half-paneled walls with dark wood molding that matched the chairs and tables. Antique brass lamps and chandeliers hung from the walls and ceilings, though only a few were lit.
The reindeer in the vest led them into the empty restaurant, eventually coming to a stop next to a table that was already plated with seating for three. After helping them take their seats, the reindeer opened the shade of the lamp on their table and lit the candle within, using a long-tipped lighter.
Closing the lamp and straightening his back, the reindeer smiled, saying “Thank you all for joining us. My name is Mikhail, and I will be your server tonight. Our chef has prepared for you an appetizer of Mushroom Julienne with Borodinsky bread, followed by a meal consisting of Solyanka, Pelmeni, Beef Stroganoff, and Chicken Kiev. For dessert, we have Zefir and Medovik. Now, what can I get you to drink?”
While Dina and Viktor spoke with the waiter about their wine selection, Alex looked around the restaurant. Harold, Douglas, and Jordan were easy to spot, two of them standing near the entrance while the last of the three stood near the kitchen door. If not for the flicker of candlelight from a booth to the side, Alex wouldn’t have noticed Mrs. Oliviera sitting and reading a small book by lamplight.
Having tried Russian food before and found it bland but filling, Alex wasn’t expecting much, and was shocked when shi took a bite of the dark brown bread that came with the appetizer. The burst of flavor from the caraway and coriander was definitely not what shi had expected. The rest of the meal was just as surprising. The soup was hearty but with a strong citrus tang, each dumpling had a different flavor, and the stroganoff was redolent with mushrooms and mustard and hints of rosemary and dill.
Alex stayed mostly silent through dinner, listening as hir grandparents debated whether the traditional recipes for the dishes they were eating were better or worse than the modern versions. Eventually their conversation turned to reminiscing about their early years living in Russia. Hir ears turned forward as shi realized they were talking to hir.
“-like movies, Alex?” Dina asked.
The tiger cub nodded. “Yes. My favorites are Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones, Star Wars-”
“Star Wars?” Viktor exclaimed, excitedly. “See! I told you Alex would like it,” he gloated, reaching into his pocket and pulling out several slips of paper as a smile spread across his muzzle. “Would you care to go see ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ after we finish dinner?” he asked, holding one of the tickets out.
Alex’s eyes went wide. In the excitement of going to see hir friend Elizabeth over Christmas vacation, shi had totally forgotten that the latest Star Wars movie had come out. “Oh my God. Yes! I’ve been wanting to see it for weeks!” shi exclaimed, reaching out and taking the ticket.
“Excellent. Once we finish dessert, we’ll head over to the theater,” Viktor said, leaning back as the server approached the table with yet another cart laden with dishes.
“Oh, Alex... you absolutely must try the Medovik. I had it as a child; It’s a wonderful treat,” Dina said, smiling as the reindeer began passing out small dishes with slices of cake.
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Raenne stared at the digital clock on the oven range. It was half past five. 7:30 PM eastern time, to be precise. Well into dinner time, maybe past it. There had been no word from the Philadelphia F.B.I field office. No calls to her cell phone. No messages. Nothing.
The stress, the anxiety, from the waiting was gnawing at her stomach. She knew she should eat something, for the babies she was carrying if nothing else. Except the thought of eating anything made her nauseous.
Deciding she should probably force herself to get something down, the tigress pulled a jug of milk from the fridge and poured a glass of it. Lifting the glass to her muzzle, she caught a whiff of soured milk. It felt like her stomach flipped upside down and she clamped her jaws tight as the bile rose in her throat.
Rushing to the sink, the tigress promptly spit up a few tablespoons of sulfurous goo, chest and stomach muscles aching from how many times she’d already done the same thing today. She clenched her paws on the edge of the sink, the bandages on her right hand pulling on her fur.
“Love, are you okay?” David asked, walking into the kitchen and resting his hand on his wife’s back.
“No. I don’t think I can handle this...” Raenne said, pausing and looking down at her pants as she felt the combination of warmth and wet spilling down her legs. “Oh, no. No, no, no...”
“What...?” David asked, stepping back to see what it was. The dark stain running down her pants kept growing. “Is that...?”
“Yes,” she whispered with growing panic. “My water broke.”
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Douglas held the restaurant door open as Harold, Viktor, and Dina stepped out onto the sidewalk, followed by Alex and Jordan. Viktor held up an umbrella, quickly unfurling it to shield his wife and granddaughter. The orange glow cast by the lamppost made the rain appear to flicker and dance as it fell around them. Together, the three tigers and their bodyguards stepped out onto the street, walking towards the black Cadillac SUV on the other side.
“Freeze,” a deep voice said from up the street. A moment later a harsh mechanical sound came from the opposite direction. The three bodyguards slowly raised their empty hands, hoping to head off any violence from what was clearly an ambush.
A large figure wearing black tactical gear and carrying some kind of assault weapon stood up from behind a car up the street, followed by a lioness with the same equipment stepping out from around the corner of the restaurant behind them, flanking the tigers and their bodyguards.
As everyone went still, the large figure said “Hand over the child and nobody gets hu-”
Alex jerked, then slapped hir paws over hir ears as painfully loud gunfire erupted from behind hir, followed by glass hitting the ground. Shi jerked around, spotting Mrs. Oliviera through the shattered glass panes of the restaurant doors. The parrot held a pair of handguns that were spitting fire towards the lioness. Suddenly a thunderous blast rocked the night. As shi watched, Mrs. Oliviera’s blouse rippled and a baseball sized hole appeared in it. The wall behind her was sprayed with blood, followed by an eruption of green feathers that danced through the air.
When the parrot had opened fire, each of the three bodyguards pulled pistols from their shoulder-holsters, knowing that this was only going to end in death. Mrs. Oliviera continued to fire her pistols at least three more times until a second thunderous blast rocked the night, and a portion of the woman’s head simply disappeared with a second spray of blood across the wall behind her. The corpse slowly collapsed, falling against the wall inside the restaurant.
Alex spun in place as more gunfire filled the night, paws clamped against hir ears. It was nothing like the movies; the sound was shockingly, painfully loud and buffeted hir like gusts of wind. With nothing to hide behind and nowhere to run, shi dropped to hir knees and tucked hir head, waiting for it to stop.
Jordan, closest to the lioness, spun to face her as she fired her shotgun at the parrot in the restaurant. The lynx raised his pistol and quickly aimed at the feline, shooting her twice in the chest as she fired a second shotgun blast at the parrot. His third shot, aimed at her head, was a tad low and caught the lioness in the throat. Blood spurted from the hole in her neck, clearly having nicked an artery, but it wasn’t enough to kill. The lioness spun, aiming at the lynx and pulled her trigger a third time.
The shotgun jerked in the lioness’s hands, spitting buckshot and fire at the lynx, catching him square in the chest. He jerked as it hit his armored vest, throwing off his aim. His fourth shot went wide, flying into the darkness, but his fifth hit the lioness just below the rim of her helmet, just above the eye just as she fired again, hitting the lynx in the neck and practically decapitating him. Both the lynx and lioness collapsed at nearly the same time.
Meanwhile, the large figure ducked back behind the old Buick he’d chosen as cover, swearing. This was not the way Brock had envisioned this going. As pistol fire echoed and bullets zipped past him, he realized there was no way he could surrender at this point; the mafia didn’t take prisoners. Sighing, he rolled to one side, peering under the car. Both Sophia and one of the bodyguards collapsed onto the ground, and so had the kid, Alexandrea. One of the men in black still shooting at him was standing off to one side, and he quickly took aim with the Saiga, hitting the guy in the leg.
Douglas continued to fire for a moment before his leg suddenly gave out and he hit the ground, not even realizing what had happened. He didn’t have time to react before another shotgun blast from under the Buick splattered his brains across the pavement.
Harold knew instantly what the bear had planned when the bear ducked behind the car and charged, moving faster than anyone his size should have been able to; he was built like a linebacker and trained like one too. He turned the corner around the car, already aiming with his pistol and walking his pistol shots up the bear’s unarmored legs, figuring there was no way his 9mm would get through the chestplate or helmet the bear was wearing.
As the pig rounded the corner of the car, Brock rolled onto his back and aimed up at the boar, putting one shell into the pig’s chest and a second into his head. The derby hat the pig was wearing flew into the air while the rest of him collapsed, landing with a meaty thump next to Brock.
As the last of Viktor’s bodyguards fell, the old tiger realized this was probably going to be his end. He pulled a chrome-plated Desert Eagle from his shoulder holster... an ostentatious and gaudy piece that he’d picked up years ago, more for intimidation than actual use.
As silence fell in the street, he glanced around, taking in the carnage. His wife stood pressed against his back, covering her ears, and his granddaughter was slumped on the ground a few feet from the sidewalk, still as a corpse and spattered with blood. Victor felt his jaw tense with barely constrained fury and sorrow. The old tiger turned towards where the bear had taken cover behind an old sedan and raised his gun, waiting for the bear to show himself.
Brock’s legs stung from multiple gunshots. He had no idea how many. The bear rolled back onto his stomach and pushed himself to his knees, wondering if they would hold his weight. Brock swore as he felt his left knee crunch, the patella probably shattered. He needed to get a tourniquet, and fast. The bear put one hand on the car’s bumper and tried to push himself upright.
As the assailant behind the car finally revealed himself, Viktor took aim at the bear’s head, figuring that even a helmet wouldn’t stop a fifty caliber round. He carefully squeezed the trigger. The explosion from the tiger’s handgun rocked the night, audible for miles in every direction. The bear’s head snapped backwards and he fell to the ground.
Brock’s vision went fuzzy and he hit the ground hard, barely able to make out the tiger in the gray suit... but the glint of metal in the tiger’s hands told him all he needed to know. He swung his shotgun up and pulled the trigger, hoping that he would hit his target.
Viktor’s shoulder jerked as the shotgun blast hit the left of his chest. He aimed at the bear’s face and pulled the trigger again, again, and again. When the gun finally stopped firing, magazine empty, he let it fall to his side. His chest was burning like it was on fire and his lungs felt strange. He coughed, spraying blood. Turning in place, his gaze met his wife’s. She glanced down at his chest, just as he spotted the blooming patch of red on hers. It was spreading too fast to be anything other than a heart shot.
“No, no... Dina,” Viktor said, whispering in an attempt to keep from coughing, stepping towards his wife and taking her shoulders. “A hospital... we need...”
Dina glanced up at her husband, then quickly fumbled at the purse at her side, pulling out a flip phone and spilling her granddaughter's sunglasses onto the street. She quickly dialed 911, feeling cold and weak as blood soaked through her dress.
Suddenly Viktor coughed, spewing drops of crimson across the street. The weakness in his legs became too much and he slowly collapsed to the ground. “Dina... I... I am sorry,” he said, looking up at his wife.
Watching her husband fall to his knees, Dina tried to hold the phone up to her head, her paws shaking. As he fell over on his side, she knelt next to him, dropping the phone. It didn’t matter; her beloved husband was dying... would be dead in moments, as would she. “Don’t be, my love. You had no choice. Perhaps God will have mercy and grant us a chance to make amends... in another life...” As the night seemed to grow colder, the old tigress slumped forward over her husband’s body, knowing death would take her soon, as it had already taken her husband.
As the harsh buzzing in Alex’s ears quieted, leaving a persistent ringing, shi realized the gunfire had stopped and cautiously lifted hir head to look around. The restaurant they’d just left looked abandoned, with all the lights off and broken glass strewn about. Mrs. Oliviera was just inside, slumped against a wall, her one remaining eye staring unblinking at the floor. The lioness in black combat armor was also dead, face-down in the street only a dozen feet away. Alex cautiously stood up, turning in place. Douglas and Jordan’s mangled bodies were strewn across the street, even closer than the lioness. Дедушка was curled on his side, with Бабушка laying atop him, their matching gray outfits stained with blood. Harold and the other person in combat armor were flat on their backs, just beyond an old car down the street.
Alex took a deep breath, nearly choking on the thick smell of gunpowder. The young tiger stood there in shock, one eye dilated and dark as the night beyond the lamplight, unable to hear the police sirens in the distance over the ringing in hir ears. The falling rain glistened as it fell around hir, gradually washing away the blood.",
"pools_count": 1,
"title": "Zavarka - Chapter 12",
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