“How many does that make?” Tom asked, and I still couldn’t stop staring at him. He looked my age now, not just how shiny his fur was, he had way more energy than before, more than I felt I had after waking up twice from the dreams. He indicated the cup in my hand. “How many, Brislow.” “I don’t know. I didn’t sleep well last night.” “You guys have a script to function without sleep. Why aren’t you using it?” I finished my coffee. “Because I need to conserve my energy, today might be when he need to go in.” Tom and I, as well as six other men were crammed in the largest van I had. In theory, we were watching the screens, surveying the house for movements, but we were just trying to keep the boredom at bay. Okhmhaka had told me two days ago the mold in the house had reached a level where the people inside would notice it, so any day now they would either call in experts, or move location. We were ready for both, with cars ready to intercept them, and us to play the experts. “So you can do with recharging?” the badger asked with a grin. “What I can do with is a full night of sleep,” I grumbled. “No time for that right now.” The badger dragged me out of my chair, “Tom, we don’t have the time. They could call any moment.” “And it’ll take time for the mold guys to arrive.” He pushed me down on the bedroll we had under the racks of uniforms. He was out of his pants before I pushed myself on my elbows. “Tom,” I tried to sound reasonable, “It isn’t because I fuck you that I’ll be able to use the phrase, it’s a constant drain. I can afford the—” “Loss of energy.” He reached under my hips and undid the tail strap. “I’ve been around you enough to know how that works, even if you being a walking library of powers is more recent. Maybe I should try to give you my sense of self-preservation.” He pulled my pants down to my knees. “You’d have to fuck me for that.” The badger knelt over my crotch and took my hard-on in hand. “You’re going to have to settle for keeping me around to make sure you survive then.” I rolled my eyes. “You do know I have a telekinetic’s powers right now, right? Powerful enough to shred this van into paper-thin strips.” “Dent,” the capybara at the closest screen said in exasperation, “just fuck him. The badger was a pushy slut when he was in his fifties, being thirty has not made him less so.” “You are so next, Chimbo,” Tom said. “Can someone shove a cock in his mouth?” someone else said, “I’m trying to listen to the news.” Rom grinned at me, “and that’s number three. I’m going to have a fun afternoon.” I grabbed his hips and thrust in hard. There was more that one way to shut up the badger. * * * * * “Are they ever going to do something?” I whined. Two more days spent waiting with nothing happening we were close to the two-week mark since Okhmhaka had infected the house with mold. We were all naked, there was no point in dressing with Tom around. The guy was a nympho. How had I not realize that when I first knew him? Easy, I didn’t have the responsibilities I have now, so I loved keeping up with him. “Boss,” the palomino two-seat away said, “you should see this.” I took Chimbo’s seat, since he was busy making Tom moan at the moment. He resumed the news clip. “Just now,” the prim doe behind the desk said, “Reporter Angel Gamora is accompanied New Jersey police as they raid the house belonging to Bishop Ruslan Khugaev. Bishop Khugaev is in charge of the diocese of Camden, and an outspoken anti-gay activist. The police is acting on information this channel uncovered about the bishop’s other activities. A word of warning. What will follow is not appropriate for children. Please pause this and remove them from the room before continuing. Channel 23 isn’t responsible for the trauma the following footage might cause.” It switched to the back of officers as the ran for a well-appointed house in a suburb. They didn’t pause, a muscular rhino put her shoulder on the door as she ran at it and it shattered. Inside I saw flashes of a living room, a kitchen, then the camera was heading downstairs to a basement. I noticed the blood before the man. It was on the floor and the walls, in patterns that looked intentional. Bishop Khugaev was a panda, heavyset and wearing only sweatpants that were covered in blood, along with most of his fur. His marks almost vanished among all or it. I saw no bodies as the camera panned around, but an officer stepped to a basin, dipped a swab in and put it in a test tube. He shook it and the liquid in it turned purple. Chaos erupted as the officers rushed the panda and he fought them off with a strength that look too much to me. The prim doe was back. With the chaos in a small window above her shoulder. “The swab test you saw the officer do was to confirm the blood was from a sentient person and not a quad animal. If you want more information on how tests can determine the difference, tap the link at the bottom of the screen. WNJS uncovered that Bishop Khugaev is part of an unknown sect within the catholic church that engages in the sacrifice of people. As soon as the channel realized what was happening, we handed all the information to the police, and further information will come through them, although WNJS has been permitted to say that this sect seems to be nationwide, possibly worldwide, and that the local authorities will be contacting the FBI as well as Interpol and other nation’s law enforcement agencies to put a stop to such horrible action. This reporter, for herself, wonders how it is that the pope has not—” “Boss!” the ermine in the passenger seat yelled, and the palomino paused the clip. When he saw he had my attention, he continued. “They just called a removal company, Mold Express. The ETA it twenty-three minutes. We have a team on the way to intercept their van.” “Good. Chimbo, either finish up now or pull out, we need to get to work.” I tapped the palomino’s shoulder. “Get me their work uniform.” A few taps and I had pictures, gray slacks with marine blue shirts. We spent the first week getting the uniform looks of every mold removal company in the city. We couldn’t create exact copies of each one, but with a few add-on patches and close colors, I figured we could fool the target. I threw a clean up rag in the capybara and badger’s direction and handed pants to the others. They were a darker, and the shirt was lighter, but with patches with the company name added, and a name on the other shoulder, I was a John for this, I looked official enough. “You shouldn’t be on the front line,” Tom said, cleaning up. “I need to be there to break the magic.” I pulled a cap and applied the company patch to it. “You should wait until we’ve secured him.” “If you can secure him. We don’t know what he’s capable of. He’s high enough in the organization to run things in Denver for Damian.” “Then just let me snipe him.” “No killing if it can be avoided, you know that Tom.” The badger signed. “This is a warm Brislow, you can’t win those by keeping everyone alive.” “I know that, and the other problem is we don’t know what happens to the people he controls if he dies. Does it transfer to someone else? Will they die with him?” The badger grinned, buttoning his shirt. “Fine, we do this the fun way.” “How are we for time?” I called out. Everyone was dressed. “Traffic’s good for the mile to the house, if we leave withing five minutes will be there around what they expect.” “Start us moving. We’ll say the traffic was light if they ask.” I tapped a key on the board. “Jeroen, has anyone in the office found a way to look through that ward? Knowing what we’re walking into before Stephan calls to tell me I’m about to die would be nice.” “Sorry Dent, the ward stops everything. Leroy even borrowed an NSA satellite to get infrared on it, and nothing showed up.” “Okay, let the cars know to be ready for this to screw up somehow.” I disconnected. Tom was looking at me. “What? When as anything gone according to plan for me?” He opened his mouth, closed it, and shrugged. “House is in view,” the driver said. “Okay, it’s me, Tom and Chimbo going in. Officially, we’re just looking around to assess the damage. If someone asks you, you’re here to help with the work once we know what needs to be done. Keep your earpiece on. When things go wrong, run in. Subdue anyone in your way, as usual, avoid killing if you can, but remember, we have no idea who is and isn’t marked in there. Do not take risks.” The van stopped, and we exited from the back. The sides of the van had the name of the company in a digital replica of their other vans. “Stephan?” “Here,” the response came. “I see you walking in, no problem, but someone has anti precog wards up. The deeper you do in the house, the fuzzier things get.” “Told you things would go wrong.” I told Tom. “Thanks Stephan, can Okhmhaka get anything through the mold?” “Not how it works,” the wolf answered. “Mold doesn’t think, see or hear. It just exist, they tried to scrape it off, but that’s all I can tell you.” “Thanks.” The door opened, and a rottweiler greeted us. He introduced himself as the owner, our target, but he wasn’t him. He led us through the house, the living room having a dozen people there, the kitchen half that, none of them the target, but I could hear people on the second floor. “That’s a lot of people,” Tom remarked. “They really should be out of the house. If this is black mold, they could get sick.” “No one but me s’been in the basement,” the rottweiler said. “We’re having an important meeting, we can’t afford to interrupt it if this isn’t as bad has it looks.” “Mold is always worse than it looks,” Tom said as we went down the stairs. I froze at the bottom at the sight. “Fuck,” I let out. The back wall was covered in mold so thick it looked fuzzy, it stretched to the sides and ceiling. “It’s perfectly safe,” Okhmhaka said in my ear. “It only looks like black mold, and the spores have settled back down. Avoid disturbing them, but if you do, you shouldn’t get anything bad.” Shouldn’t wasn’t a comforting word right now. “Okay,” Tom said, “I can’t believe you waited this long to call us. We really should get everyone outside, if this stuff got in the air, you guys are looking at lung infection in a major way.” “I’m afraid that isn’t possible, as I said, we have a very important meeting going on, can’t you spray something and kill it?” “Not how it works,” Tom said. “I should go back up and see if it the spores have spread.” I took out a sensor from the bag. “No need,” Tom said, “with something like this we know there're spores everywhere.” “We still need to confirm where it’s accumulating.” “John,” Tom warned. “This is the job, Mark.” Tom signed. “Fine, I’ll go with you.” “Excuse me, but I can’t let you simply wander in the house.” “If you’re not going to leave,” Tom said, “we need to know what rooms are and aren’t safe.” “That isn’t a concern, I simply need you to stop—” Tom sighed. “You understand that with this much mold I should be calling the EPA to condemn this house, right? I’m trying to keep your important meeting going, but it’s going to be my head if it gets back to my boss we didn’t do everything to ensure you’re safe. So what will it be? The EPA, or checking each room?” The rottweiler sighed, “I suppose letting you inspect the rooms is the more reasonable thing, but I must warn you not to disturb the people here.” “Wouldn’t dream of it. Chuck.” Tom whistled to get Chimbo’s attention. “Chuck, do the tests here, be careful, if we need your help with something we’ll howler.” “I’d rather you didn’t—” the rottweiler said “Figure of speech. We have phones.” I quickly pulled out of my body in the hope of getting a sense of where the more powerful person in the house was, but the wards put static in my sight even here. I followed Tom up the stairs and we walked through each room with the sensor out. We were glared are by the silent occupants, but the rottweiler spoke to them quietly, and they let us do our work. Up the stairs the doors were closed, and the rottweiler opened each one to let us walk in, two bedrooms and a bathroom. The next door he knocked, poked his head in and spoke too softly for me to hear. “Please work quickly,” he told us before allowing us in. I kept my eyes on the readout, looking out the corner of my eyes at the man in the priest cassock. There you are, I thought, just as Tom let out a curse. I looked up at what had caused it and stared into Alice’s face.